Notre Dame opens up fall camp on Friday, August 5th as the 1st full season of the Marcus Freeman begins in earnest. It’ll be a challenging August where most of the roster questions reside on this side of the ball with Freeman entrusting Tommy Rees to come up with answers after ultimately staying on campus and hitching his stock to the first-year head coach.

Coordinator: Tommy Rees, 3rd Season

Rees just turned 30 this spring and enters his 3rd season as offensive coordinator after previously being the quarterbacks coach in South Bend. If you’re keeping score at home Rees has been at Notre Dame in 10 out of the last 13 seasons either as a player or coach.

His stock is pretty high outside of Notre Dame, either because many national writers are lazy and repeat the same stories, or maybe because Rees has genuinely impressed a lot of folks across the country with his acumen at a young age and flexibility to adapt to his personnel.

Inside Notre Dame, Rees’ stock is a bit more complicated. With the hype comes great expectations, and perhaps even greater expectations as Rees steps up to become one of the most important voices in the new Marcus Freeman era tasked with developing his 3rd starting quarterback in 3 seasons.

Scheme: Zone-Blocking, Multiple Spread

Last year, we had 12 personnel included in this title and for 2022 we are removing it. Not necessarily because of a shift in emphasis but due to the injuries at tight end. Of course, we’re going to see a lot of Michael Mayer. And we will see plenty of other tight ends, too. How much of that will be the traditional 2 tight ends attached to the line remains to be seen. We should see a lot of detached Mayer and others, too.

With the return of Harry Heistand the blocking shouldn’t be changing too much after the transition from Chip Long’s preferences to Tommy Rees’ in recent years.

Returning Starters: 8 of 11

It doesn’t really feel like Notre Dame is bringing back this many starters which tends to happen when the quarterback departs along with the top running back and wide receiver. It has set up a weird situation where we might expect a new look or a bunch of new faces on offense, although that looks to be far from the case.

Officially, these are the spots for new starters:

Quarterback – Barring something miraculous from Drew Pyne this should be an easy decision to name Buchner the starter relatively early in fall camp.

Running Back – Ostensibly, this is Chris Tyree’s starting job and there probably won’t be much competition with a couple of significant injuries from other challengers.

“W” Wide Receiver – This will be the talk of fall camp as Notre Dame has enough experience at the other receiver positions but in some ways looks to be starting from scratch at this ‘big’ receiver spot.

Injuries

RB Logan Diggs – Shoulder
RB Jadarian Price – Achilles
WR Avery Davis – Knee
WR Joe Wilkins – Foot
OL Jarrett Patterson – Knee
OL Pat Coogan – Meniscus
OL Billy Schrauth – Foot
OL Joey Tanona – Concussion
TE Mitchell Evans – Foot
TE Cane Berrong – Knee
TE Eli Raridon – Knee

This is a lot of names! But, we should have Patterson and Raridon 100% fully cleared and Davis pretty much ready to go, too. The likes of Diggs, Price, Tanona, and Evans are longer term injuries and won’t be available any time soon.

It was reported that Wilkins isn’t likely back until October at the earliest. Coogan was injured in the spring and may be close to coming back to some work. The same goes for freshman Billy Schrauth. The health of Berrong will be one to watch as he’s 10 months out from his ACL injury suffered in the middle of last season.

Camp Questions

Will the offensive line become a team strength immediately?

Let’s not repeat the beginning of the 2021 season for the offensive line, you guys. Things fell apart almost immediately from Zeke Correll not working well at guard, to transfer Cain Madden being average at best, to the injury to Blake Fisher and the ensuing turnstile situation at tackle which developed.

The line should be so much better this year and really has no excuses at 3 out of the 5 positions. We still have to see how things will play out at guard versus center and what the gameplan will be moving forward.

Can the passing game show sufficient consistency to give the running game some breathing room?

Even with the injuries at running back there should be a nice uptick in the success of the running game with Tyler Buchner’s wheels behind center. Over his final 2 seasons, Ian Book averaged right around 235 passing yards and 42 rushing yards per game. Buchner is probably an easy bet to surpass that rushing average in his first year of starting.

Whether there are enough weapons through the air to keep the rushing attack fresh remains to be seen. Buchner’s arm talent is miles ahead of Book’s but we don’t know if that will translate to a good passing game right away, or maybe at all.

Are there enough bodies at wide receiver and running back?

With all the expected injuries we are looking at a fall camp roster of 3 running backs and 6 wide receivers, the latter including Avery Davis. At minimum, that’s about 3 to 4 players short of where a roster should be heading into fall camp.

The offense eventually will have to go hard in preparation for Ohio State in the opener but literally cannot afford anyone at these skill positions to miss time.

Can Buchner lift the offense on his own?

I mean, this is the question for 2022. Here’s a snippet from THIS piece back in December:

To me, it’s just been odd seeing the reaction to Buchner in 2021…Buchner seems like he’s ticking off the boxes of meeting expectations early as a top 100 player and the future at Notre Dame. His ceiling does seem high!

Yes, it feels like Buchner is being slept on as a playmaker. Nevertheless, he will feel the pressure of carrying the offense from time to time as a sophomore for a fan base that is growing bored of 10 and 11-win seasons.

New Faces to Watch

A very brief primer on the top freshmen to watch for fall camp…

WR Tobias Merriweather

Arguably the country’s top 2022 freshmen big receiver is exactly what Notre Dame needs on offense right now. There have been whispers and some comments from the Notre Dame beat media that Merriweather has been really impressing during workouts. Are we about to see a true freshman breakout at wide receiver?

Although the offense on paper is seeking a bigger wideout, Merriweather will likely have to fight through the trio of Braden Lenzy, Avery Davis (if he’s full-go), and Lorenzo Styles seeking a major sophomore breakthrough.

TE Eli Raridon

As little as a couple months ago most didn’t expect Raridon to be ready to play in the early part of this season, if at all. Following a grueling recovery process it appears he’s ready to make an impact from the beginning of fall camp. The usual caveats apply that a true freshman probably won’t be relied upon in the more often used blocking role. However, Raridon’s nearly 6’7″ frame and enticing pass-catching ability could turn into the best option at tight end when Mayer needs a rest.

RB Gi’Bran Payne

Payne was an early signing period commit for Indiana but backed out of his Letter of Intent in early March to sign with Notre Dame about 5 weeks later. It was a curious move (Notre Dame had been looking for a second tailback in the 2022 class but seemingly stopped after January rolled around) but ends up being an important one. The Irish start fall camp with just 282 rushing yards returning from 2021 with Payne 1 of just 3 running backs healthy as practices begin next week.

Key Positional Battles

A list of battles to watch…

“W” Wide Receiver

As stated, Notre Dame likely sticks to its “small” receiver lineup of Lenzy–Davis–Styles for a while. Someone to watch out for is Jayden Thomas who brings the physicality (215 pounds at just a little under 6’2″) to play this position and had been progressing nicely in the spring last seen catching 4 passes and including a 22-yard run in the Blue-Gold Game.

Otherwise, fans should focus on the sky rocketing stock of Merriweather and if sophomore Deion Colzie can make a move after a pretty quiet freshman season.

Backup Running Back

This was supposed to be a Chris Tyree vs. Logan Diggs battle for starting reps but with the latter recovering from shoulder surgery we have to assume Tyree is a clear no. 1 back heading into fall camp. The late arriving Payne and the muscular Audric Estime need to get up to speed very quickly and provide quality depth at a position lacking bodies.

Backup Tight End

Notre Dame has 6 tight ends on the roster which felt like a lot of bodies with the All-American Michael Mayer sitting at the top. Now, with injuries to Mitchell Evans (the presumed backup) and a maybe-not-healthy Berrong our attention turns to redshirt sophomore Kevin Bauman and a pair of freshmen.

Bauman (1 catch in each of the last 2 years) could offer some veteran stability, particularly as a blocker. We already mentioned Raridon who could shoot up the depth chart. We’ll also see fellow classmate Holden Staes begin his career after being a good blocker and pass catcher in high school.

Right Guard

Tackles Joe Alt and Blake Fisher plus center Jarrett Patterson are assured starting spots this year. After spring practice it appeared the line was ready to stick with Andrew Kristofic at left guard and Josh Lugg at right guard. There has been talk that Patterson would move to left guard thus opening the door to Zeke Correll at center and pushing Kristofic to the bench. If they make this move the staff must feel good about Correll coming back strong at center. Then we will see if Lugg would remain the preferred starter at right guard instead of Kristofic.

Starting Quarterback

This is pretty much in name only as Drew Pyne didn’t make a move during spring and concluded things with a rough outing in the Blue-Gold Game.

Freshmen Numbers

#9 TE Eli Raridon
#13 RB Gi’Bran Payne
#15 WR Tobias Merriweather
#18 QB Steve Angeli
#20 RB Jadarian Price
#56 OL Joey Tanona
#58 OL Ashton Craig
#59 OL Aamil Wagner
#74 OL Billy Schrauth
#77 OL Ty Chan
#85 TE Holden Staes