Notre Dame opened up spring practice on Wednesday morning inside the indoor Irish Athletic Center to kickoff preparations for the 2023 season. It’s the first chance to see the Irish on the field under new offensive coordinator Gerad Parker with new assistant coaches Joe Rudolph (offensive line), Gino Guidugli (quarterbacks), and Marty Biagi (special teams) starting their careers in South Bend, as well. Here are all of the updates following the March 22nd action.
Cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens has been named the defensive pass game coordinator for this season.
Running backs coach Deland McCullough has been named the run game coordinator.
Former Irish wide receiver Amir Carlisle is the new director of player development, taking over for Hunter Bivin who has moved up to a new role as assistant athletic director for alumni engagement.
Marcus Freeman said the program is not looking for a GM position like other schools but is looking to hire a director of player personnel to replace Dave Peloquin who has moved up to a new role as assistant athletic director for strategic initiatives.
We have some jersey number changes! Receiver Deion Colzie has switched from 16 to 0. Fellow receiver Tobias Merriweather has switched from 15 to 5. Running back Chris Tyree is now 2 after wearing 25. Linebacker Jaylen Sneed is now wearing 3 after being 17 as a freshman. Corner Jaden Mickey has switched from 21 to 7 and safety Xavier Watts has switched from 26 to 0.
Linebacker Will Schweitzer has medically retired due to a congenital heart condition.
☘️❤️ pic.twitter.com/3L1i5QBf9m
— Will Schweitzer (@WillSchweitzer2) March 22, 2023
Safety Justin Walters and quarterback Ron Powlus III have both medically retired.
Offensive tackle Caleb Johnson, corner Philip Riley, and kicker Josh Bryan are no longer with the program, per Freeman.
After much consternation in certain corners of the internet this winter, nose guard Aiden Keanaaina is still on the roster.
On the injury front, corner Cam Hart and safety/nickel Thomas Harper are participating this spring but both non-contact from shoulder surgeries this off-season.
Officially out for spring with injuries include Adon Shuler (shoulder), Devan Houstan (shoulder), Eli Raridon (knee), and Kevin Bauman (knee).
Jadarian Price is limited for spring coming off an Achilles injury. According to Freeman, the talented redshirt freshman running back will be able to run around a little bit this spring but is still recovering from surgery.
Freeman stated former safety commit Brandyn Hillman had his own personal reasons for seeking a transfer and that the program will take a look at adding another grad transfer at this position. Hillman committed to Michigan recently.
All 10 assistant coaches from the 2022 season were approached by other programs and/or the NFL, according to Freeman.
Incoming kicker transfer Spencer Shrader is not enrolled yet but was present at Wednesday’s practice.
The moment you’ve all been waiting for: new quarterback Sam Hartman throwing a deep ball on a poorly shot iPhone for the first time in a Notre Dame uniform (errr red practice Jersey)! pic.twitter.com/e8t63pmVwQ
— Angelo Di Carlo (@angdicarlo) March 22, 2023
Heights and weights on the official roster have not been updated yet.
The offensive linemen didn’t work as a group during the media viewing period but going off the combinations during drills it’s believed Michael Carmody will get the first shot at left guard and Andrew Kristofic at right guard.
Pat Coogan looks to be the backup center.
Trying to deduce the placement of the receivers off drills Deion Colzie, Kaleb Smith, and Braylon James were the “W” receivers, Lorenzo Styles, Tobias Merriweather, and Rico Flores at the “X” position, with Jayden Thomas, Chris Tyree, Jaden Greathouse, and Matt Salerno in the slot.
Although Tyree worked exclusively with the wide receivers during the media portion on Wednesday, Freeman pushed back on the idea that this is a permanent change. He did say they need to find ways to keep Tyree on the field, though.
The first 2 units on the defensive line appeared to be Jordan Botelho (WDE), Howard Cross (NG), Rylie Mills (DT), and NaNa Osafo-Mensah (SDE) followed up Josh Burnham, Gabriel Rubio, Jason Onye, and Javonte Jean-Baptiste, respectively.
Asked about the Ohio State transfer JJB and his future, Freeman said after watching his tape with the Buckeyes he likes the graduate player on their strong-side but he has this spring to see if he can play at the weak-side, too.
Junior Tuihalamaka appears to have made the full switch from linebacker as he was working at WDE in Wednesday’s practice.
The players working on kick return include Chris Tyree, Gi’Bran Payne, Jaden Greathouse, and Logan Diggs.
Former players Josh Lugg, Kyle Hamilton, Isaiah Foskey, and Blake Grupe were in attendance at Wednesday morning’s practice.
Amir Car-LYLE
Good lord put an explicit content warning on that
Me, every year
Based on that clip, I predict that Hartman will double Vince Young’s stats in 2005, win two Heismans in one season, and also win Sexiest Man Alive. Eric, save this to the receipts file you’re keeping, please.
Tyree as a slot receiver/slot back is interesting. IIRC he played that role pretty well in the Gator Bowl.
I will settle for nothing less than tripling VY’s stats.
He’s more likely to win the Heisman twice than overtake this guy as sexiest Domer alive. Through the magical power of the internet I believe this also somehow cancels out that Tom Hammond shot above.
What date do we think is the appropriate o/u for when the coaches stop publicly pretending like Buchner has a chance to start over Hartman?
If it’s theatre for one that has any impact on keeping Buchner invested and not considering leaving then I don’t care if they get onto the plane to Ireland without formally announcing QB1 (even though I’m sure it’ll be over well before then).
I’d have rather had an elite athlete working in at safety, but if he was gone anyway giving us this implied shot at Michigan on the way out was nice of him.
With the context of the full quote, it’s actually kind of a shot at ND:
“Admissions denied me for Notre Dame,” Hillman said. “As you can see, I could have committed to any other school. Notre Dame had requirements I had to meet, and I didn’t meet it.”
Considering he got offered by Michigan and Vanderbilt, it’s probably ND’s foreign language requirement, which is a red line for ND and less of one elsewhere.
Yet just about every other kid on the team who wouldn’t get into school without athletics meet the admission requirements just fine. He probably wouldn’t have been making it for the long haul with that sort of attitude and not being committed, which, hey, everyone’s going down their own path I don’t knock him for it. Better to bail now before taking up more space and time.
I think that article is a net positive from the HS coach’s quotes about how hard Freeman and the staff worked and recruited him far better than everyone else. That type of effort will be rewarded one day.
Yeah it’s overwhelmingly Hillman’s fault for sure. He could have taken Spanish or whatever as a senior. Just pointing he was throwing shade at ND, not Michigan.
Gotcha, you aren’t wrong, though I took more as him stating the facts of the situation than any shots. Either way, glad he’s good enough athletically to have a soft landing at any number of backup colleges
He *thought* he was throwing shade at ND, but very few people will read a kid unable to get into ND while Michigan is jumping up and down waiving their arms in your patented pessimistic interpretation.
It’s not ideal that we have such admissions standards that prevent us from getting a great safety prospect, but in the world we currently live in take the chuckle on the way out.
“Notre Dame had requirements I had to meet, and I didn’t meet
it[them]. ”Maybe it was something to do with language requirements.
LMFTFY – “Notre Dame had AN requirements I had to meet, and I didn’t meet
it[them]. ”Twoshay
Et alors?