You can’t keep your boy down. After mulling over taking the week off to let the Fiesta Bowl loss simmer before coming back to writing I’m here to offer some brief thoughts on the 2022 depth chart. Typically, this would be one of if not the longest articles of the year. This time around, I’m going to get this quick preview out before embarking on individual posts for each position group over the next couple months. I personally love the massively long article but would agree doing them separately offers a little more detail for everyone to discuss.
***
As of this writing, the following players listed on the 2021 roster will not be playing next year for the Irish:
QB Jack Coan – out of eligibility
WR Kevin Austin – turning pro
RG Cain Madden – out of eligibility
NT Kurt Hinish – out of eligibility
DE Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa – turning pro
LB Drew White – turning pro
LB Paul Moala – transferring
LB Shayne Simon – transferring
S Litchfield Ajavon – transferring
S Khari Gee – transferring
PK Jonathan Doerer – out of eligibility
P Jay Bramblett – transferring
It’s been weirdly quiet about their future and intentions but MTA has accepted a bid to the East-West Shrine Game and isn’t coming back while Drew White has accepted an invite to the Hula Bowl and his career with the Irish is done.
So far, wide receiver Braden Lenzy and tight end George Takacs have announced their intentions to return as graduate students for 2022.
We now await graduate decisions from the following:
RB C’Bo Flemister
WR Avery Davis
WR Joe Wilkins
C Jarrett Patterson
OG John Dirksen
OT Josh Lugg
DE Justin Ademilola
DT Jayson Ademilola
LB Bo Bauer
LB Isaiah Pryor
CB Tariq Bracy
S D.J. Brown
S Houston Griffith
Reading the tea leaves, it certainly seems like Flemister, Dirksen, and Griffith won’t be coming back. The program needs both Davis and Wilkins to come back. It was thought Patterson was leaning towards staying but now it seems like it’s swung the other way and he’s more likely to leave. Lugg made it public a few weeks ago he’s thinking about coming back for a 6th season. I’ve been betting both Ademilola brothers come back, so we’ll see. Everyone wants Bauer to come back but I wouldn’t be shocked if both he and Pryor moved on. It’s been assumed both Bracy and Brown will return.
In the non-graduate category we now await the decision of rising redshirt junior Isaiah Foskey and his decision with the NFL coming off a season with 11 sacks, the 3rd most in a single-season at Notre Dame.
INJURIES
For the players able to come back and/or expected on the 2022 roster we only have 7 injuries heading into the off-season, which includes incoming freshman tight end Eli Raridon who unfortunately tore his ACL recently during a high school basketball game. He is not an early enrollee so he’ll rehab outside the Notre Dame medical team umbrella and it’s believed he’ll likely redshirt and be unable to play as a freshman.
The rest of the players are dealing with longer term injuries that will likely put their spring practice health in doubt. The only exception is linebacker Marist Liufau who did some work during bowl practices, dressed for the Fiesta Bowl, and should be 100% for spring ball.
MORE TRANSFERS?
There’s quite a bit of roster imbalance in scholarships so the program seems ripe to lose more players while picking up a handful more through the Transfer Portal.
Heavy Numbers:
OL (18)
TE (7)
DL (18)
CB (11)
I’m anticipating one more transfer from the offensive line which, if Patterson and Dirksen leave, drops those numbers down to something more manageable with a 5-person freshmen class arriving. Also, if Harry Hiestand returns I believe he had a desire to carry 14 scholarship linemen so that’s something to keep in consideration, as well.
Keeping 7 tight ends on the roster seems like an awful lot (especially with how much playing time Michael Mayer receives) but Notre Dame’s spurned Mackey Award star is gone after 2022 anyway. The abundance of numbers was one reason many expected Takacs to grad transfer but he’s thought otherwise. With knee injuries to a couple players the higher scholarships numbers are okay for now.
Seeing 18 players for the defensive line isn’t a ton and we still need to see what happens with Foskey, the Ademilola’s, and whether someone like Kia is actually a long-term pass rushing player or goes back to linebacker.
My prediction is that we’ll see at least 2 corners transfer out by the end of spring football. There’s just way too many players and some of them will be nowhere near playing time.
Light Numbers:
QB (4)
RB (5)
WR (7)
S (6)
I’ve included quarterback for those who don’t consider Ron Powlus III a true option. Adding a backup-type is probably a storyline on the message boards for a while but never actually happens.
If we see Flemister leave it’s not an emergency situation with the 4 tailbacks remaining but ideally another player would be nice to have for the immediate future.
Notre Dame should have at least 3 more receivers on the 2022 roster. Will they, though?
I get the feeling we’re going to see a shake up at safety. So, even though 6 players seems fine we still don’t know the future of Griffith and someone like Wallace has seemingly been passed up by a couple guys who converted from other positions. Is he going to stick around?
Portal Tracking:
I know with the concern for the performance at corner (specifically Clarence Lewis) that many fans are eyeing someone to come in as a transfer next fall. With the amount of bodies jammed into this position group–and honestly the staff feeling pretty good about Cam Hart and a veteran Tariq Bracy–it’ll have to be a no-brainer starting level guy otherwise they probably won’t bother searching.
On the other hand, safety seems like they are 100% looking for a veteran with starting experience to come in and lead this group. Without a doubt, it’s an off-season priority.
The situation at receiver is actually insane. I don’t think Davis and Wilkins will be healthy (if they come back!), Merriweather is not enrolling early, which means there are 4 receivers available for spring with a combined 80 career receptions. Bringing in someone capable of catching 40 passes and pushing someone like Lenzy for a starting role is very important. Beyond that, the program just needs bodies to fill out the depth chart for practice. I’m sure the staff feels great about the futures of Styles/Colzie/Merriweather and a healthy Davis is a no-brainer starter, too. I’m not sure how they’ll go about trying to add depth transfers in who might end up 5th or 6th in catches at best but I’m sure they’ll be searching down a certain aisle for those types of players (i.e. grad transfers with decent careers from academically-minded institutions).
Good vs. Bad
Our Fiesta Bowl reviews got a lot of people talking about the immediate future of the program under Marcus Freeman and if the ceiling can or will stay at 10+ win seasons.
So, how do we feel about this early look at the 2022 depth chart?
18 Stripes Scholarship Tracker CLICK HERE
-We’re sitting at 90 scholarships for 2022 as of January 3, 2022 at 1:30 PM ET.
I like the strengths at offensive line, tight end, and with a mobile quarterback we should be able to bully a lot of opponents with a bevy of power running packages. I’ve mentioned I’m expecting some struggles from the running backs in comparison to our dear Kyren’s abilities, but who knows, maybe Buchner’s legs opens up a lot more explosive plays and things are super fun for someone like the speedy Tyree.
If Foskey leaves (to say nothing of the Ademilola brothers) I think we’re in trouble along the defensive line. This has been a position group that has, if not outright carried the entire defense for the past 5 seasons, at least been a major team strength that entire time. Especially with the relative question marks at rushing the passer without Foskey, it leaves me deeply concerned.
It makes me wonder if Freeman is looking at the Portal for a new Vyper (you know I hate these terms) if Foskey leaves? I know some will say it’s Botelho’s time but he effectively wasn’t in the 2-deep at the position (following a late-season move to Rover) in 2021 and I’m not sure he’s ready for a starting role.
I like where things are at linebacker, especially if Bertrand moves to a more manageable Mike spot. We’ll have the more disruptive Liufau coming back from injury with hopefully a blossoming superstar Kollie behind him. Getting something more out of the Rover position feels important, but is maybe a year away if Sneed is the next star for the defense.
The @CamHart_ final numbers:
32/64, 50% completion percentage, 5.2 ypa, 10.5 ypc, 5 PBU, 2 ints, 2 TD allowed, 63.0 passer rating against
Julien Love/Troy Pride of 2018 caliber numbers. Great result. https://t.co/Gzyz1aZ5nD
— Greg Flammang (@greg2126) January 3, 2022
We’ll be okay at corner, I think. Hart has big potential and the only good thing about playing so long without Kyle Hamilton is that we got players like Brown, Watts, and Henderson more seasoning. I have a hard time seeing things getting any worse at safety so any slight improvement there should help the corners to get better, too.
Typically, we’re not too worked up over special teams but replacing both kicker and punter in Freeman’s first year could be a concern. With punters, it seems like at the Power 5 level (and certainly for Top 25 programs) everyone is pretty much okay to good right out of the box, so maybe not a ton of worry with McFerson’s true freshman season.
We know virtually nothing about Josh Bryan at kicker, though. Doerer struggled with a leg injury all season and Bryan wasn’t used once on kickoffs which seems sort of worrisome. If I remember correctly, from the minimal viewing of practices Bryan wasn’t exactly pulling away from preferred walk-on Harrison Leonard. Both players each took a PAT this year (both in the Georgia Tech game) while Leonard kicked off a couple times back in 2019. We may see a kicking battle this off-season!
Literally within seconds of publishing, damn it:
*S Houston Griffith coming back.
*OG Quinn Carroll transferring.
Griffith coming back is genuinely surprising, especially considering he almost left last year. To speculate: I wonder if the coaches aren’t happy with the transfer portal options and/or aren’t feeling good about Brandon Joseph.
Lugg is gonna join Griffith, isn’t he?
Immediate message board reaction on Griffith appears to range from “what a waste of a scholarship” to “this must mean we have a bunch of available scholarships”
i mean, maybe he’s the anti-Austin and just likes Freeman and being in college and he’s not going to a better program? also, not impossible he transfers later if he’s behind Henderson, Watts, Walters, Brown, etc
Yeah I have no problem with it generally but particularly if there are free scholarships and Freeman made no PT promises (which, why would he). More depth/upperclassmen is good! But hopefully it’s just depth and we are still going after/are in the mix for a starter-level guy in the portal.
Those guys are good enough to see the field though, right? Not terribly inspiring but at least there’s some experience.
Like, if Lugg leaves (and so does Patterson) next year’s offensive line is going to be very, very green all over again. Same I guess with actual secondary experience, you’ve got a CB turned S and a WR turned S and…DJ Brown and other young unknowns?
We’ll have room, so it’s fine. I don’t think either ends up playing much by the end of 2022 so whatever.
Didn’t Lugg train at center for a while ? Does he go to ctr. if Patterson leaves and fight for the RG position if he doesn’t?
That’s the part I’m a little confused with, because Lugg seemingly has not played well at center or guard in addition to having a CVS receipt-length history of injuries. Presumably, he’s not coming back to play tackle over Fisher or Alt?
It’s been said Lugg is open to a position change to the interior, for good enough reason since Fisher or Alt would beat Lugg for a spot anyways.
If Patterson decides to leave, ND taking Lugg back makes a ton of sense. If Patterson goes then you have: Kristofic, Correll, Lugg and I guess Spindler to compete for 3 starting spots in the middle.
If Patterson comes back, it muddies the water a bit more, and def blocks Correll from playing but boosts talent.
I feel like Lugg should be better than most the other guys so it’ll be a good take, but I guess we’ll see. He does always seem hurt.
IIRC wasn’t it a question of Correll or Lugg , when Patterson got hurt 2020 and Correll was the pick ? So yes, that’s confusing.
Header photo from L to R for those interested:
Tuihalamaka
Burnham
Price
Merriweather
Hinish
Chan
Bellamy
Staes
Morrison
Craig
Ford
Mickey
Tanona
Gobaira
Ziegler
Raridon
Angeli
Wagner
probably a dumb thing to say given what Oklahoma State did with meh QB + WR, but it could be a year that you can live with an ok but unspectacular secondary (which it feels like we have, in varying shades, since 2019?)
Ohio State will be a very big problem for us and everyone, but after that I’m not sure who scares you. UNC loses Howell and while Downs is great, Mack’s recruiting hasn’t fully stocked that cupboard with scary skill guys yet. Their bad OL loses a lot. Stanford’s offense is a mess. Clemson is about as down as you could hope for with a returning starter and their talent. USC’s passing attack is probably the worst it will be in many future years.
BYU might be sneaky dangerous? Phil J revenge game? For as tough as the schedule is, I think it might be the right types of teams at least minus the Buckeyes
It might depend on what Foskey does. If he leaves AND an unspectacular secondary that could be a recipe for disaster.
that’s true, but there’s still so many bodies in the front seven with pass-rush ability or potential returning to worry too much (Liufau, Ademilolas x 2 assuming they return, Mills and Cross, Botelho, NaNa, Ehrensberger, young guys)
That Phil J revenge game could be truly something.
You are right. Along the DL we are solid at DT, but the Edge is scary without Foskey. We might need freshmen to give us some serious snaps.
And can anyone rush the passer then?
Bothelo is going to have be close to a star (like Foskey) for the edge to be ok. Though NaNa was underrated I think this past year and could be a solid starter.
Depends how much the defense changes, but I would guess the LB/rover is where you will see more pressure in Freeman defenses. It seemed like that was his bread and butter was to bring that pressure up the middle from the second level. Obviously you always want that stud DE who is going to get 10+ sacks coming from the edge, and clearly Foskey coming back is a big, huge addition or creates a massive absence.
Good point. I think Liafau would have been a star if he hadn’t been injured. He should be able to provide plenty of pressure. I also think that Kollie and Sneed will get on the field some, as well.
At DE, I think we can get pressure from some combination of JusAde, Botelho and even Gobaira.
Agree on Liafau, I think he will be a star in this defense if healthy. I also think Botehlo isn’t going to be the pure Okwara/Foskey edge rusher, I think ideally they will have 3 down lineman and Botehlo is going to be a standup LB somewhere in the mix and just going to slam into people. That seems to fit his strengths and also aligns best with the Freeman defense…But I guess we’ll see if the new DC tweaks things more.
Glad you mentioned Gobaira, I think he’s gonna be awesome too and is/was under-rated coming out of school. Maybe one of the hidden gems of this class, though it’s also exciting since it seems like this class could have a lot of talent depending on who develops.
CB Caleb Offord is transferring, as well.
Reports that Cincinnati’s Brian Mason is coming to coach special teams for the Irish.
is that good, bad, or indifferent?
Blue and Gold called it a ‘massive win’ for Freeman. As I know nothing, I’ll defer to their opinion.
What are his thoughts on flying to Hawaii like 12 times a year?
If he’s not interested I’ll do it for cost.
Bummer about Ghee. Sounded like a lot of people were excited for him. Was he just passed by others?
Overall, not a super exciting depth chart outside of OL and TE (shocker). Front 7 has potential depending on some decisions and younger guys stepping up. But, when you consider that our 2019 class had 16/21 four stars and 2 of the three stars were Hart and Liufau, I would have hoped for a pretty stacked roster (well, maybe not at WR).
Jamie said Gee was really stiff and I think wasn’t likely to stay at safety. And I think he wants to play safety somewhere.
Aha. Yeah, all the excitement was about him as a potential rover/box player. I guess that makes sense.
Caleb Williams in the portal 👀 Is OU going to completely fall apart post-Riley?
Yikes. No way he’d head to USC would he? Ugh that would be awful.
Man who knows. His dad said something along the lines of – he’s going somewhere where he can develop into an NFL ready QB. Doesn’t seem like great odds of NOT ending up with Riley.
Ole Miss perhaps. For all his faults, Kiffin does well with QBs.
Good call.
I thought Jaxon Dart was the guy we had to worry about ?
Maybe he is. But Dart is what potentially could be. Williams is already elite.
I’d guess he either goes to SC to stick with Reilly or makes more money than his position coaches by switching to A&M.
Mr Mackey autorec, mmkay
Their recruiting class actually held up a lot better than I anticipated – currently #10 with 14 4-stars and 3 3-stars, which would be one of the better ND classes of the last decade. Andy Staples thinks the two most fail-proof jobs in college football are Ohio State and Oklahoma and made a fairly compelling case for that in a recent mailbag – Oklahoma has basically always been good other than most of the 90s.
I suspect Williams stays there. If he goes to USC, though, man that’s a bummer. If I were him I’d go to Georgia or, you know, one of those top midwestern schools with a QB opening…
Wow that is a pretty impressive class especially considering the Riley departure. Hopefully he doesn’t end up at USC. I like the idea of a nice Midwestern school…
Yea I wondered about Georgia too.
How can you compete with teams who can get these kind of recruits when it’s basically impossible for us to get them? This is like free agency – plug and play starters.
He went to Gonzaga high school in DC, which is a pretty good school. His 247 profile does not list an ND offer, though.
But, regardless of whether or not Williams himself could get in, the broader point that most guys who are transferring with their eyes toward the NFL aren’t going to ND is certainly true, though.
He’s also not a grad transfer, so much harder for us to get in.
That’s one of the things Freeman needs to lean on the admin about. I don’t think we need to take a TON of undergrad transfers, but it shouldn’t be impossible, and the whole attitude of “well clearly they weren’t doing enough in undergrad to make it HERE” is stupid. Double check that they were actually attending real classes, and that should be fine. I swear sometimes ND thinks it’s more Ivy than the Ivy I attend.
I wouldn’t underestimate how lax some college football players are when it comes to taking an, ahem, easy academic load. (See story about the Syrcause WR that is one of the top in the portal who wanted to transfer to Kentucky but couldn’t gain admission there….to Kentucky). A lot of D1 P5 football players aren’t going to college to “play school” as the old saying goes.
Which kinda speaks to what nd09 is saying, if you are Notre Dame and due to geography/interest/academics/fit you can only recruit 30-35 of the top 100 HS players, that’s probably even less narrow of a net you can cast for the top undergrad players in the portal (who probably are unhappy in their current status and not exactly the scholarly type, generally speaking).
It kinda seems like people/fans just think the portal is easy to grab players, but if most the elite HS kids aren’t going to be ND options or have ND in mind in HS, they probably aren’t going to a year or two later either.
I think if you’re Notre Dame you have to do the due diligence on a Caleb Williams when a kid like that is in a portal (he did go to a Catholic DC high school as nd09 also pointed out) but I’m pretty sure he’s a “football factory” type kid all the way. I believe his family is close or has connections to a lot of the staff at Maryland and around here there were certainly some rumor$ that William$ might end up with the Terrapin$ during his HS recruitment.
Oh, I’m not underestimating it.
Just saying a blanket policy is silly. You do your due diligence (this is why you exist, Admissions) and if they fit, you let them in.
I don’t believe there is any blanket policy in place. The football program’s at least previous comments from Kelly on the matter were more stating that it would be almost impossible for a football player to gain an undergrad transfer admission to Notre Dame. It can and has happened (Alohi Gilman) but would be pretty rare and a lot more of an exception than a rule compared to other top football schools.
Yep.
Jalen McMillan, on the other hand: pls enter the portal, we have a spot for you probably in the starting lineup tbh.
Oh man was this the same guy I mentioned before from Cuse? Harris???
DURR WHAT ABOUT THE LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT.
ND has already ended the gym class requirement and that was far more rewarding and helpful in life then trying to diagram sentences for three semesters.
I’m a historian who works with foreign language documents and spent a significant part of my life outside the US, much of it as working as a liaison, including time as an interpreter. I don’t mind a foreign language requirement, given that much of this country needs to recognize we’re not alone in the world. Also, 3 semesters of HS Spanish is easy. Most states require it anyway, as far as I know.
Much more important is that they removed the calc requirement at ND. Just wish they’d done it before my freshman year. My point being that the language requirement isn’t the big deal, it’s a lot of other things.
I’m just permanently salty about the language requirement because I was terrible at it.
As I was terrible with math.
Calc was my only C in my time at ND, and I’m still pissed about it.
RIP the swim test
Just had a mini text-debate with some friends: in real time, is Caleb Williams the best transfer candidate of all time? Obviously there are guys who turned out great (Aikman, Fields, Newton, Burrow, etc.), but is there anyone who is more of a sure thing than him – and with multiple years of eligibility too?
Relatedly: how many teams would not ditch their current QB situation for Williams? I think it’s only two for sure (Alabama and Ohio State). Clemson is borderline. Anybody else?
Perhaps it’s easy for me to say in retrospect, but I still think it’s Fields. Arguably a top 5 high school recruit ALL-TIME (247 has him at #8 All-Time). He looked electric when he was on the field as a freshman, and everybody other than Kirby Smart knew he should have been getting the majority of the snaps. (And he was doing it in a Kirby Smart system)
There has to be a small amount of concern that if Williams goes anywhere other than USC, there could be a dropoff without Lincoln Riley to run the show. I would obviously take him in a heartbeat at ND, and I would be more excited about him than any recruit in recent memory. But I think Fields was an even better bet to be a star than Williams.
I think you’re right that only Bama and OSU would for sure keep their starters. If Matt Corral comes back now because of the injury, Ole Miss would keep their starter. This is a fun question to think about; others who would probably have a QB competition:
Arkansas – KJ Jefferson
Coastal Carolina – Grayson McCall
Tennessee – Hendon Hooker
Virginia – Brennan Armstrong
Wake Forest – Sam Hartman
Maybe Gerry Bohanon at Baylor, Jurkovec at BC, Malik Cunningham at Louisville, Taulia Tagovailoa at Maryland, Cade McNamara at Michigan, Spencer Sanders at Ok St., and Cam Rising at Utah, just so the coaches don’t lose the locker rooms? I think Williams would beat out everyone in this group extremely quickly, and probably everybody but Armstrong in the first group.
I thought with Fields there was some question about how well he could throw it (otherwise he WOULD have been in the lineup already). So while he had shown a ton of potential, it wasn’t as clear as with Williams that he would actually be an elite player.
Very small sample size, but his freshman stats at UGA: 27/39 (69%), 328 yds, 8.4 y/a, 4 TD, 0 INT, 173 rating.
He threw at least 8 passes in 3 games. In those, his numbers were great. But, they were against Austin Peay, Mid Tenn St, and UMass.
Against Vandy he was 3/6 for 53 yds. Against GT he was 2/3 for -13 yds (he also had -10 receiving yards, so maybe a ball was batted back and he caught it for a loss of 10?).
So I’d say never really given a chance against real competition, but looked good against FCS teams. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I think it was much more of a Kirby’s a defensive coach who knew what he had with Fromm and went with dependable known over possibly spectacular unknown.
How could he not be the best transfer of all-time? He has already shown elite skills in many of his games. The games he played poorly was because of turnovers wasn’t it?
Because they’ve been playing college football for well over a century? That seems like a good reason not to assume “best of all-time” about a kid who’s started like 6 games total.
When was the last time any one can think of a current elite player transferring? (Not potentially elite, but an actual known commodity.)
George Connor 1946, babyyyy.
Which was a massive get!
Proud of you E !
Hell yeah, this is the good stuff
Exactly.
The other reason it’s slightly easier to say “of all time” is transfers used to have to sit out a year, which probably dissuaded many players on the Williams level from leaving. Williams might be the greatest of all time as of today and quite possibly might also not be the best in the next three years going forward.
As of today? Like, other than Joe Burrow and the best offense of all time? Pretty big bar for Williams to get to..
Joe Burrow wasn’t super sought after at the time of his transfer – I’m speaking specifically about at that point in time. Jalen Hurts, for example, would be higher up that list than Burrow.
Ah I gotcha, yeah for transfer candidate, Williams given his HS recruiting ranking and freshman success has to be up there before considering transfer results. I’m sure that’s just the start of the next wave with players now having a free transfer.
Along those lines, I saw Deshone Kizer had a tweet yesterday or so saying basically wondering now “why doesn’t any and every elite player go into the portal every year” especially if they lose see their coach leave for more money. If only to shop around, maybe you go back to your initial program but after seeing what the NLI or other opportunities are.
Kinda makes sense and probably will happen more in the future to basically make for almost full blown college free agency. Which is scary, but that’s probably the way it is headed as cases like Williams show.
I’m sure that will rub some fans the wrong way, but that’s one way for players to grab onto some power and at least survey their options.
Cause Bama can only take so many of them.
Only until they figure it how to maneuver NIL money to de facto covering a scholarship (greenshirting?)
If I’m Clemson, I take Williams for sure. DJU has been underwhelming outside of 2 games, and has never thrown for more than 2 TDs in a game.
Clemson’s problem is Dabo has been holier than thou (to this point at least) about not bringing anyone in from the portal because of chemistry and team-building. He might be slowly changing his ways, though.
Clemson just got a really high 5* anyways enrolling next week, Williams isn’t really a QB you would turn down, but they have enough material right now to not be as desperate or as interested as surely other places will be.
Yeah. Not saying they need him. But he seems like a pretty sure bet to be an upgrade over DJU. I would take him as Clemson, knowing nothing about the program itself.
Lugg returning for a 6th year.
Please tell me he graduated in three years and completed his masters because I want to be able to yell “PAGING DOCTOR LUGG” next season.
Where does he play? I assume we go Fisher, Kristofic, Patterson/Correll, Spindler, Alt next year. I suppose Spindler will just beat him out. He has always struck me as a great 6th man, but that if he was starting it meant you had a problem.
Probably a competition for a spot at guard. But with the way the outgoing portal is filling up, I don’t think guys like Lugg, Griffith, Lenzy, Takacs coming back hurts. It’s functional experienced players who can provide depth if you need it and younger players can’t beat them out. Probably a bad thing if any/all are huge key players next season but it’s not like they’re out of room by any means.
I think with Lugg we are right at 85. I imagine there will be another transfer or medical somewhere. The only real threat for coming in that I have heard is the safety from Northwestern.
Right now the handy 18S counter from this article is at 88 scholarships. And it should be 87 ‘cuz they have Bramblett still on there, though all of the recent outs like Caleb Offord+Quinn Carroll are accounted for.
And that 87 counts Patterson, Foskey and several other possible/probable candidates still to leave, all of whom will have degrees in hand and whose ND futures are at least officially unknown at the moment (Flemister, Ekwonu, Bauer, Bracy, Pryor, Brown, Wallace, Davis, Wilkins).
Most of the parentheticals I have will be back, but certainly not all, and there could be more surprise underclassmen buried and leaving like Offord and Carroll did.
85 is never a problem for ND and won’t be this year, there’s certainly room for the Takacs/Griffith/Lugg/Bauer/Bracy level players and some transfers in as well.
I was going off of the OFD counter.
It’s 87, I removed Bramblett from the numbers but forgot to erase his name down below.
Gotcha, thanks for the clarification. That would be way too much for me to track with all those moving parts, I appreciate that as a good resource!
This is the true silly season.
Seems like a lifetime ago that we would barely fill out 80 roster spots. I may have said the depth chart isn’t super exciting, but at least we are competing with a full roster these days (outside of WR anyway).
Gabriel from UCF going to Oklahoma now – with a former coach as OC there I think.
Wonder what that means about Williams. Gabriel could be taking a huge risk of Williams comes back.
(Williams ain’t goin back to OU)
Saw Pete Sampson was retweeting Dan Orlovsky tweets about ND being in the Caleb Williams race b/c Rees is a “Top 5” developer of QB talent for the NFL.
Um…really?
First, A. I’m pretty sure this is talking head nonsense. I’d be shocked if we got even a sniff from Caleb Williams. This is creating #content from Orlovsky.
B. I don’t know what I think of Rees. I think a lot of ND fans carry resentment from watching Tommy as ND’s QB (and he was fine, he took a lot of negativity just because he wasn’t the QB we wanted). And when BK made him the OC, they carried that over and assumed that Rees wasn’t any good, just that BK liked him.
On the other hand, every time I hear some national analyst or another coach talk about Rees, they RAVE about him. Even before he was OC I heard comparisons to Lincoln Riley. And the scheme-smart people I follow always seem to have an explanation for why it isn’t the playcalling that’s a problem, it’s the execution, or something, to defend when things don’t go well.
I’m generally in the “nothing is as bad or as good as it seems” mindset. I think Rees is probably a good young OC with potential, but he’s not a savant, and needs to keep growing. But neither is he an idiot or a horrible play caller. And being OC is more than calling plays on game day–we can blame players for not executing, but part of the job is putting players into position to execute. I’m interested to see how things go without Kelly over his shoulder, but I’d be lying if I said I thought he’d turn into the next offensive wizard. So I don’t know.
Orlovsky was just saying the top 5 teams he thinks should be on Williams’ radar. And he apparently thinks very highly of Rees. Book and Coan the last few years have done pretty well, I don’t think it’s wrong to suggest Notre Dame as a pretty good landing spot for Williams, but Orlovsky wasn’t making a prediction or tying the two as “going to happen” type of talk.
I agree, Rees has done a good job getting the most out of two limited but coachable QBs the past two years. But I don’t know that “Book went in the 4th round and Coan became serviceable” is the endorsement that will sway a guy like Williams.
But it’s coming from Orlovsky, who was nothing, if not a limited but coachable QB.
EXCELLENT point.
Orlovsky is Rees if Rees went into broadcasting.
Ademilola (Justin-type) back per his twitter feed as of 6:04 pm
Justin Ademilola staying.
Why didn’t Jayson announce that, too?