Notre Dame Football: Safety Alohi Gilman declares for the NFL Draft

Senior safety Alohi Gilman announced on Twitter that he will forego his final year of eligibility with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. This essentially means that he will enter the 2020 NFL Draft.

Gilman took a very different route to Notre Dame. In 2015, the Hawaii native went to Annapolis to play football for the Navy Midshipmen as a 2-Star recruit and spent that first year at the Naval Academy Prep School. As a freshman in 2016, he started for Navy and was a huge part of the Middies win over Notre Dame that year.

There was a change to the rule regarding military academy players and their availability for the NFL Draft, so before his second year, Alohi decided to transfer somewhere to keep his NFL dreams alive. He chose the Irish, and of course the NCAA refused to grant Gilman a waiver to play in 2017.

Gilman started every game in 2018 and 2019 for the Irish and amassed 169 tackles, 6 TFL, 6 forced fumbles, and 3 interceptions. He became a captain in 2019, and was one of the grittiest players for the Irish in recent history.

His departure will be be hurt quite a bit, but this is something most have expected since last year.

Good luck to Alohi in the pursuit of his dreams in the NFL!

Mike Miller/One Foot Down