This week, spring practice begins for the Fighting Irish. This is traditionally a time for optimism–a time to let down your hair and run wild with hope and anticipation of a dominating season to come in the fall. Hey, Notre Dame even gets to break open a new quarterback, one that many in the country would describe as the most important transfer of the off-season.

Only 159 days until the season opens up against Navy in Ireland.

Schedule

*Media can only record stretching and first 5 periods. 

Oh yeah, that’s right we barely get any good looks at the football team during spring. It’s time for another rant from titled, “The College Football Off-Season Sucks.”

What are we doing? We moved up National Signing Day right during bowl season. I told everyone it wouldn’t be good and now people in the football world are realizing maybe it was a mistake. We haven’t even finished our recruiting class grades yet! It all gets squished into bowl season prep and falls to the wayside in this blogosphere.

Brian Kelly went through ups and downs with media access and in recent times it’s just been abhorrent. We run a football-focused website here and Notre Dame does its best to make covering and following the football team impossible for 8+ months out of the year.

Make Spring Football Interesting Again!

And I don’t care about player and assistant coaches interviews in place of watching and/or getting reports about actual football. Those interviews are just empty clicks and not interesting at all.

New Faces

Notre Dame has a nice group of early enrolled freshmen plus grad transfers on campus and ready to participate in spring practice. Earlier this month, the program released the official jersey numbers and specs for these players.

QB #10 Sam Hartman, 6-1 1/8, 208 lbs. (grad transfer)
QB #8 Kenny Minchey, 6-1 5/8, 215 lbs.

WR #14 Braylon James, 6-2 1/8, 180 lbs.
WR #17 Rico Flores, 6-0 1/8, 197 lbs.
WR #19 Jaden Greathouse, 6-1, 208 lbs.
WR #80 Kaleb Smith, 6-2, 222 lbs. (grad transfer)

Braylon James could be the next big downfield playmaker. 

OL #72 Sam Pendleton, 6-4 1/8, 300 lbs.

DL #1 Javontae Jean-Baptiste, 6-4 1/2, 246 lbs. (grad transfer)
DL #98 Devan Houstan, 6-4, 282 lbs.

LB #23 Jaiden Ausberry 6-0 1/8, 200 lbs.
LB #25 Preston Zinter, 6-2, 200 lbs.
LB #34 Drayk Bowen, 6-2, 225 lbs.

CB #29 Christian Gray, 5-11 3/4, 182 lbs.

S #13 Thomas Harper, 5-11, 180 lbs. (grad transfer)
S #21 Adon Shuler, 5-11 1/2, 190 lbs.
S #22 Ben Minich, 5-11 7/8, 180 lbs.

There’s been discussion this off-season about Braylon James really impressing with his speed, and that deep threat quickness really pops on his high school tape. However, that’s a really skinny frame if he’s only 180 pounds. Still, the other new receivers are really bringing some good size to this unit.

Pendleton is already up to snuff with his weight.

The Ohio State transfer JJB is half an inch shorter and a few pounds lighter than his official page with the Buckeyes. Houstan is on his way to being a hefty nose guard.

Our grades for Ausberry weren’t as high as the recruiting services and for me a lot of that came down to his physical traits. I thought his upper-body needed a lot of work and coming in at 200 pounds likely means he’s going to take quite some time to make gains in the weight room.

Jersey numbers 21 and 22 were worn last year by Jaden Mickey and Justin Walters, respectively. Mickey is surely switching numbers while Walters has been on transfer watch and we’ll see if he’s practicing this spring.

Scholarships on Campus

Notre Dame won’t lack for bodies this spring with 82 scholarships on campus right now. After suffering through a laughingly low amount of receivers last spring, the program will have a more manageable 9 wideouts on scholarship this spring. Only Kaleb Smith the Younger is missing and will arrive this summer.

As you’d expect without the rest of the true freshmen not being here yet, the Irish are still quite a ways over the scholarship limit and will have to get down to 85 in August. The number currently stands at 93 scholarships although there is some wiggle room with several former walk-ons receiving scholarships that are not guaranteed for 4 years. Either way, it’s expected several players will be transferring after this spring semester.

Injuries

Although we typically hear about a couple new injuries this week, nonetheless when spring practice begins the Irish head into this month fairly healthy. A quick update of the known injuries include:

RB Jadarian Price – Nearly 9 full months post an Achilles injury. Price is right at the point where top-flight football players could be making a comeback following this injury, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he’s not doing full football activities until August practice.

TE Kevin Bauman – He tore his ACL during practice back in late September and that was after rehabbing a broken leg during the 2021 season.

TE Eli Raridon – The redshirt freshman tore his right ACL for the second straight season back in late October.

DL Aidan Keanaaina – He tore his ACL during last spring practice and had been working his way back during the later stages of the 2022 season and should be healthy now.

LB Will Schweitzer – The redshirt sophomore underwent a medical procedure last season and needs to be physically cleared to play this spring.

CB Cam Hart – Shoulder injuries have hampered the Irish star corner throughout his career, including missing time last spring. Hart also re-injured his shoulder against Boston College this past fall and missed the last 2 games of the season against USC and South Carolina.

S Adon Shuler – The incoming freshman had shoulder surgery earlier this year and will be participating in non-contact drills only this spring. It’s expected Shuler will be fully healthy for fall practice.

True Freshmen to Watch

QB Kenny Minchey – Everyone wants to see the new quarterback, right? We won’t see much from a media perspective, though. I wonder how many reps he will get during the lone full media viewing period and what insight will be able to be gained, especially if he’s working with the youngest and walk-on offensive linemen.

WR Jaden Greathouse – I haven’t looked closely at all of the other top wideouts from the 2023 class but I have a very hard time thinking many more will be as productive, especially early on in their careers, as Greathouse. I know some of the beat media are anticipating him to be the one from this class to make some noise in 2023, as well.

LB Drayk Bowen – Notre Dame’s top linebacker commit is currently pulling double-duty with the baseball team. However, football comes first and we could see Bowen getting involved early in his career at one of the inside linebacker positions.

Bowen has been the unquestioned leader of the 2023 class. 

CB Christian Gray – There isn’t much room for young corners to breakthrough this season and you can imagine doing anything in the spring will be especially difficult. Gray looks much, much longer and rangier than his listed height would lead you to believe and I’ll be curious how he stacks up physically this early in his career.

5 Storylines

Hartman Raising the Offensive Ceiling

Notre Dame could be throwing the ball a ton this spring with the Hartman transfer changing the dynamic of the entire offense. Or, it’s possible they keep things pretty conservative and rely on the run game while easing in the former Wake Forest quarterback. We’ll also get to see the influence of new offensive coordinator Gerad Parker and how he’ll handle taking over things from Tommy Rees.

The Pecking Order at Wide Receiver

There should be plenty of life injected into the receivers this spring with more depth and a new ACC record breaking quarterback behind center. We’ll get to see veteran Virginia Tech transfer Kaleb Smith and if he immediately grabs a starting rotation spot this spring. The highly touted Tobias Merriweather is hoping to make a jump this spring after a concussion slowed his progress in 2022. Jayden Thomas is looking to build off a solid season and Deion Colzie started making noise late last fall, too. Plus, the freshmen on campus and a possible resurgence from Lorenzo Styles are all fun battles to watch.

Building Depth on the Defensive Line

Finding new consistent pass-rushers, incorporating more size, and building more depth on the interior are going to be major areas to work on this spring. As we covered in the off-season Reviewing the Redshirts series there could be several younger players who are ready to emerge in some capacity. This could include converted linebacker Josh Burnham and Junior Tuihalamaka (if the rumors about him moving to defensive line are true too).

Mills is coming off a disappointing 2022.

Notre Dame will also be looking for veteran leadership and playmaking straight away from Rylie Mills and Jordan Botelho. The former didn’t impress too much during his redshirt sophomore season while the latter has shown flashes in very small doses and could be counted on to the primary pass rusher replacing Isaiah Foskey.

The Young Linebackers Making Noise

This will be a very interesting spring where Notre Dame brings back its 3 starters at linebacker but also has an abundance (some would say an overabundance) of players at this position with young recruiting stars looking to crack the lineup. With as many as 11 linebackers on the roster for spring you can see why the staff may be secure letting Tuihalamaka play at Vyper for the 2023 season.

With a veteran lineup pretty secure, especially at Rover and Mike linebacker, this could be a spring where younger players are thrown into the fire a lot more to see how well they adapt. The Irish also would be well served figuring out what the future looks like for Marist Liufau and whether he’s still the answer at Will linebacker.

Someone Step Up at Safety

I think the lack of depth at safety is being a little exaggerated heading into 2023 (Brandon Jospeh was closer to a flop than a star given his hype coming from Northwestern and Houston Griffith merely existed on the depth chart for most of his Irish career) especially if Thomas Harper can give the team some snaps at the back end. But there’s no denying the team is missing a high-quality starter at safety and someone who will make the coaching staff feel comfortable to play the majority of the snaps this fall.

Xavier Watts could be tipped to have a really strong redshirt junior campaign, while Ramon Henderson has offered some exciting athleticism and length. If either of these players made a big jump it could really open up the defense’s abilities to keep the Irish in some of the bigger games against strong passing attacks.