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.