Notre Dame held spring practice no. 11 on Saturday in South Bend as we approach the Blue-Gold Game this upcoming Saturday, April 20th. What a treat, the media were in attendance for the entire Jersey Scrimmage™ to see who would win the right to wear blue jerseys during fall practice.
Spoiler alert, it would be the defense who would came away victorious 40-32 over the Irish offense. Here are 18 updates following the scrimmage held inside Notre Dame Stadium:
Steve Angeli ran with the 1st team and Kenny Minchey worked with the backup unit (except for 1 series with the starters) as grad transfer Riley Leonard remains out from live action due to his foot injury. Angeli got positive marks for his consistency but threw a 72-yard pick six and later another pick on 3rd down as the scrimmage concluded. That’ll hurt the ‘gamer’ Peanut Butter moniker. Minchey was a little bit more up and down, flashed some talent, and threw his own pick six, as well.
Nearly every outlet praised the play of CJ Carr who, it must be noted, did not take any reps with the 1st team offense. Sometimes that can be an advantage, but as we’ll see below with the offensive line, the blocking wasn’t always there and Carr was forced to make some plays on his own–and was helped by no-contact and/or a lack of quick whistles.
The offensive line remains the same with Jagusah (LT), Coogan (LG), Craig (C), Schrauth (RG), and Baker (RT) running with the 1st team. There’s been no indication this spring that anyone else has penetrated this starting 5 thus far.
Rocco Spindler (LG) and Ty Chan (RG) have flip-flopped positions recently which seems to suggest Spindler may now be pushing Coogan as the former works his way back from his late 2023 season injury.
The practice reports on the offensive line play in general from Saturday were not good. Especially at tackle, that’s where the biggest struggles were and likely that extends into the season as Notre Dame’s overall biggest team weakness. Pressure was allowed from all 3 levels of the defense. Sam Pendleton struggled with several snaps at center, too.
It was a workmanlike effort for the running backs on Saturday as not a lot of explosiveness and game-breaking was to be had. Jeremiyah Love continues to get a lot of work as a receiver.
Eli Raridon started out on the 2nd team but ended up working his way to the 1st team with Cooper Flanigan and Davis Sherwood. If you recall, they are limiting Raridon this spring, probably because he’ll be a major piece to the offense in College Station as starter Mitchell Evans remains out. You can count on Flanigan being the guy who plays a lot this year that many people aren’t talking about heading into the season.
Veteran wideout Jayden Thomas was out with a hamstring injury, not an encouraging sign for someone who was slowed so much last season with hamstring issues.
Transfer wide receiver Jayden Harrison is sidelined while dealing with planter fasciitis and won’t return this spring.
With the injuries, true freshman Micah Gilbert worked with the 1st team at the boundary which is notable because it wasn’t veteran Deion Colzie in that role. Gilbert wasn’t much of a factor, however.
Jaden Greathouse picked up some scrimmage MVP votes so to speak, and continues to look special in the slot.
The pass rushers on both edges had a very good day–how much of that is because of the offensive line and/or poor protections from the quarterbacks remains a question. The young Boubacar Traore still looks like the most special of the bunch and should be getting worked in slowly as a dependable player. Until then, Traore’s likely a 3rd down pass rusher specialist.
True freshman Cole Mullins (a hybrid linebacker in high school AND coming off injury last year) was playing at defensive tackle on the 3rd team despite weighing 244 pounds on the official roster. That is very weird.
Defensive tackle Tyson Ford has stepped away from the team due to personal reasons. Freeman said afterwards that he has remained with the program as he figures some things out. This is a rising 3rd year player and former blue-chip recruit who remains buried on the depth chart which smells like a transfer coming in the coming months.
There were very positive reports on the linebackers. I think there will be some growing pains here but the trend is definitely going up with this unit. If the scrimmage (plus the rest of spring practice) is any indication they have moved Jaylen Sneed inside (although he still gets plenty of reps outside) alongside a trio with veteran Jack Kiser and youngsters Drayk Bowen and KVA. It appears all 4 will see the field quite a bit this year.
Additionally, Jaiden Ausberry keeps getting solid reviews. How much will he play at Rover essentially behind the nickel corner?
Not a ton of talk about players in the secondary, although the pick sixes came from Xavier Watts and Jaden Mickey.
Marcus Freeman noted after the scrimmage that it’s expected the defense would win this type of matchup being in year 3 of the Al Golden offense. We can also factor in a few more injuries on the offensive side of the ball and the quarterbacks not being true run threats right now in the new Mike Denbrock offense.
Gosh, as a fan, these are always so tough for vibe check:
Yeah, defense did awesome another top 10/5 squad!
(Crap, the offense is garbage, we’ll never get a yard)
Oh rad, the offense was really putting up the points, nice!
(We’ll need to score every possession with a sieve defense like that)
Same for the OTs, is the sky falling? Or did they just have some young guns thrown at it against some experienced, talented rushers with a strong DC making good calls.
It’s like the schroedingers paradox of football scrimmages. I’m just going to assume we be good so I can sleep better.
The upshot to the worries about the offense is that we know the defense was outstanding last year and pretty much everyone that did leave is being replaced by guys who were considered more talented as recruits (obviously that doesn’t always translate). And the offense is being limited by the presumptive QB1’s being unavailable. So from that perspective, we have reason to believe it might be more the defense being awesome than the offense being bad.
I’m getting transitional year vibes this year, especially with the younger O-Line. I’ve now heard the Irish Illustrated and Irish Breakdown guys praise CJ Carr both in throwing motion and decision making. But he’s probably a year away, like the O-Line and maybe the receivers too.
While we’re at it, I think the running backs are a year away from elite as well. Hopeful they make the jump like Estime did in 2025, but not expecting much more than quality in 2024. Which would still be very nice quality.
It will be great to have the depth with Jordan Faison and Beaux Collins at receiver, and please please please be healthy Mitchell Evans. A stud TE can take a lot of pressure off everyone.
“Jeremiyah Love continues to get a lot of work as a receiver.” – is this not a little weird? Are we thinking it’s a result of spring WR injuries and just giving him experience catching the ball more/for versatility purposes? I’m hoping that’s it.
Also on the pre-scrimmage II podcast one of the Tims intimated that he thought a name player would likely be transferring out this spring, and he had someone specifically in mind rather than just playing the odds. Not sure that Ford counts based on the flow of the conversation (sounded like a guy who would expect more PT than that), but maybe it is him.
Regarding love, I’d say it’s Denbrock and co. trying things out to get their best players on the field.
RB is tough in usually you only have 1 on the field, which is brutal in that stacked room. With love getting reps out in the slot, that helps expands his skill set so he can be a viable threat in the passing game, and still have another to take carries out of the backfield. Plus, the RB skill set of setting up and reading blocks will benefit the jet sweep/pop pass game; usually receivers just try to run hard to the edge in spite of a block, whereas a RB has a higher inclination to cut up sooner.
Spring ball is also the perfect time for love to try the new position demands, low stakes, go ahead a get familiar with running option routes man!
That’s also the NFL RB get paid modality: you have to be a rusher and receiver like McCaffery to be a strong viable long term option for teams.
Didn’t they pitch Love hard on the Deebo Samuel role while recruiting him? As you mentioned, much better for his career to catch balls than to not catch balls, so wouldn’t surprise me if he was even the one pushing for it.
yea it seems like Love might just be the player with the most playmaking potential and they are looking for ways to get him the ball in space.
You think the player referenced is Bryce McPhereson?
Seems that way.