Notre Dame wrapped up another edition of the Blue-Gold Game on Saturday inside a sunny but brisk Rock’s House. The Blue team would go on to defeat the Gold side 28-21 with a late touchdown pass from Steve Angeli to Kris Mitchell being the game-winner.
Here are notes on the spring game as we soon turn our attention to the long slog through summer:
1) We’ll start with the offensive line where the blocking held up well in the beginning, had some rough patches in the middle of the game, and stabilized for the later stages. There were some real bad plays from Jagusah, Otting, and Chan among the mix that led to some of the game’s 7 sacks. We also saw a couple of heinously bad snaps from backup center Sam Pendleton, too. Overall, for a spring game the line was okay and put together a decent performance.
2) Angeli suffered both of those 2 bad snaps ultimately crushing his rushing stats (-17 yards) and looked to play a bit conservatively early on with a lot of checkdown throws. It wasn’t bad by any means, just not real inspiring and Angeli was a little off on a couple throws in the 1st half. He did throw a nice touchdown down the seam to Raridon early and later connected for the game’s longest play of 62 yards to win it while putting together a good performance overall.
3) This was our first real long look at Kenny Minchey at quarterback and he passes the eye test in most respects. He has a short and very compact throwing motion that gets the ball out quickly with good velocity. At times, it makes his delivery look a bit lazy but you can see the natural arm talent. With an 8-yard sack removed he also ran for 48 yards on 5 carries and looks to have plus-athleticism at minimum. He did have a really ugly interception and some of his off-platform throws left something to be desired. But he also threw a couple passes that were gorgeous in the 2nd half, especially the 26-yard touchdown to Gilbert. To me, Minchey reminds me of a West Coast gunslinger from the Big 12–his ceiling is pretty high but I wonder if consistency and too many turnovers will be the difference if he doesn’t succeed at Notre Dame.
4) For his age, CJ Carr looked fantastic. Nothing about the game looked too big for him and he has a sense of calm and command of the offense already that is really impressive. Just based on this game, Carr looks to have the highest ceiling. He has a very smooth and effortless delivery and was extremely accurate. He even took some chances downfield and except for one pass (more on this below) ran the offense like a multi-year veteran. I know there will be a lot of pushback but Carr looks so advanced at this stage that I don’t think it would be absurd for him to have a decent amount of success in 2024 if he were to start games for the Irish.
5) The running back room looked okay, we saw a few flashy runs from each of Payne, Love, and true freshman Williams. The latter, certainly moves and has a lot of wiggle like former Irish tailback Kyren Williams. If this were a real game there would be some frustration at the lack of explosiveness. For example, Love had a long run of 18 yards but only 17 yards on his other 6 carries. He did look electric on a 32-yard reception while cutting through traffic, though.
6) At first, this didn’t look like it was going to be an impressive day for anyone at receiver. The first half comprised mostly of short routes and a bunch of crossing patterns that didn’t go for many yards. It got better as things opened up a little later.
7) True freshman Micah Gilbert had a bad drop early and was targeted a game-high 9 times on the Gold team. He would finish with a game-high 79 yards and 2 beautiful touchdowns while showing why many believe he’ll contribute right away in College Station.
8) I thought we’d see a little more from Kris Mitchell, although he caught the only 2 passes thrown his way. When one of them is the biggest play of the game I guess that’s a win?
9) They were trying to get KK Smith going (7 targets) and he managed a really nice 38-yard catch from the bunch.
10) A symbol of the tons of underneath throws: Colzie, Greathouse plus all of the tight ends totaled 19 receptions for 212 yards on a hefty 32 targets. It was solid and steady work.
11) Raridon is so tall and smooth as a pass catcher, let’s hope he can stay healthy. To me, it looks like Flanagan runs weird in the open field like he’s not quite as comfortable with the ball in his hands. True freshman Jack Larsen scooted for a nice 19-yard gain but is noticeably smaller than the other tight ends. He looks like more of a H-back type out there.
12) The unexpected MVP on defense…maybe Kahanu Kia? He was extremely active on the field and looks ready to be a nice depth piece somewhere on the defense in 2024.
13) It didn’t appear either Cross or Mills played much.
14) True freshman defensive lineman Sean Sevillano absolutely smoked backup center Joe Otting for an easy sack. However, the Floridian looks comically overweight and should need to work on his conditioning this season.
15) It seemed like RJ Oben had a quiet spring so far. However, he had a beautiful sack in this game and came flying off the edge with some really impressive athleticism. I think this was against Jagusah so it was starter vs. starter, too.
16) I kept noticing redshirt freshman Devan Houstan a lot. Not that it says much but he looks like he might be a little more consistent version of Sevillano–a larger gap eater who can get after it on occasion.
17) There are times when the edge players look like linebackers rushing the quarterback because that’s what Botelho, Tuihalamaka, and Burnham used to be. It’s not that way with Traore who looked fearsome on his sack.
18) Bryce Young caused a fumble on Payne that definitely looked like it was down by contact. A couple plays earlier, there was a fumble that was called down but it definitely looked like it came out well before walk-on Justin Fisher hit the ground.
19) Carr got away with a risky throw that was almost picked off by Christian Gray. There was an earlier throw over the middle that was honestly maybe the best of the day that was somehow broken up by fellow freshman KVA. For an inside linebacker, he is ridiculously fluid out there.
20) Jaiden Ausberry had a nice PBU on a pass that was a little underthrown by Angeli. Still, you love to see linebackers being able to make a play that far outside the hash marks with so much ground to cover.
21) I’m giving credit to the white arm sleeves (they always make you look rangy) but safety Adon Shuler looks crazy long at the back end. It looks like someone stuck Jason Pierre Paul’s arms on a defensive back.
22) New placekicker Mitch Jeter attempted one field goal from 50 yards. It was accurate but came up a bit short. I do not approve of a kicker wearing no. 98 I believe that’s bad vibes.
23) A few players (I presume the ones playing for both teams) were wearing green jerseys, like CJ Carr. With the gold pants it looks so damn good.
24) The official attendance for the game was 37,138 which is a solid showing for the program. That’s almost 6,000 more people than fit inside the Wake Forest football stadium.
25) I may have mentioned this last year. The lack of replays during the Blue-Gold Game makes it such an odd broadcast. There’s already a penchant to fill so much air time with fluff about the players or coaching staff (“I talked to this player and he told me x, y, z!”) it’s so weird to show so much of players running on and off the field, or just standing around, instead of showing a replay. Then again, that might be asking too much from Jason Garrett to keep diagnosing football plays on air.
The Shield Cometh
Notre Dame announced and broke ground on a new football facility the Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall prior to the spring game on Saturday. The new building, referred to as an “operations center”, will open in the fall of 2026 and at 150,000 square feet will be nearly twice the size of the current Guglielmino Athletic Complex “Gug” nearby.
Shields Hall will be built along the northern side of Courtney Lane across the street from the new indoor Irish Athletic Center and outdoor football practice fields. Currently, tennis facilities cover most of this space so presumably those will be re-located in the future over the next 18 months.
The project will also include a renovation of the Gug for other varsity teams on campus. The new Shields Hall will include “an advanced training room; a stand-alone sports medicine facility; an equipment facility with body scanning and fabrication technology; a new and expanded locker room; meeting rooms, including a two-level, all-team auditorium and an augmented reality walkthrough room; media innovation spaces, including recording studios and photo studios; academic support spaces; and a new player nutrition area designed to foster community between teams and model healthy eating.”
It’s been mentioned elsewhere but there’s nothing more 4 for 40 than a bunch of former ND players being the principal donors for a big football facility upgrade. Seems like the easiest sell in the world for Freeman.
That is really cool indeed.
Of very minor note: reading recent recruiting-related articles seems to reveal that ND’s message/selling point might now be “4 for forever”. I assume to differentiate from schools like Ohio State that have borrowed the “4 for 40” messaging.
I did enjoy the game besides it being sneaky cold. Best seats I’ve had since ’02. All your points above work for me, I would just double down on how comfortable Carr looked in person. That is truly a heck of a nice ball he throws. And the pocket presence is as impressive. Agreeance that he could contribute this year — but then it’s the spring game so I should go back in my hole.
I’ll add that Payne showed some surprising speed in his early carries.
Also I had a chance to spend some time with Jack Swarbrick in his office in the morning, talking Paris Olympics — interesting take to my query about ND’s ability to maintain our student-athlete model. More maybe later.
I’d like to hear what Jack S. had to say on that Noise.
On the way back to Paris.
I will work on rephrasing this or the attribution, as upon reflection it’s a tiny bit alarming, even –and I am not an alarmist.
Maybe such a big topic deserves our focus, as we have some very keen and astute folks on this blog. Anyway, more to follow, promise.
Love your contributions to the comments here — would love to hear about what you learned
I feel like you’re always running into the most famous people all the time!
A few players were wearing green jerseys over gold pants. Honestly, it didn’t look as good as I had hoped it would. Maybe green shoes would help?
Accessories are important. The guys who didn’t wear blue looked great. But you look at what Carr did (blue undershirt, blue wrist bands, blue tights, blue fanny pack) and it can ruin everything.
I’ve been inclined to pump the brakes on CJ Carr hype (mostly because he was a Tommy Rees recruit and Tom Loy was so gushing, and historically the QBs Tommy Rees recruits and that Tom Loy falls in love with end up being not-good)… but he sure looks good to me!
Wonder if Minchey will transfer. He looked fine but Leonard is the starter, Angeli said he looks forward to being here in the fall and is a very very solid backup QB, and Carr’s strikes me as clearly more talented if not straightforwardly better than Minchey today… so kind of leaves Minchey as the odd man out.
Maybe Minchey will be the punter..
Yeah, I don’t see Minchey’s path either with Duece Knight (currently a .9666 4*) coming in next year.
I could see Angeli doing a grad transfer after this year, and if Minchey and Angeli leave we will be back looking for depth in 2025.
But the portal giveth, and the portal taketh away.
Jason Garrett was in mid-season form.
He says things that are so wildly wrong, it’s baffling. It is amazing he was an NFL HC, even if he was an awful one. He clearly doesn’t pay much attention, since he seldom seems to know what down it is, or how many TOs are left, and I think he might have gotten the quarter wrong at one point?
He almost makes me miss Flutie and Hammond.
If NBC could get the homer-ist of homer announcers, who would you pick?
Maybe some names to throw out there:
– Brady Quinn
– Mike Goolsby
– ryan harris
– jack Nolan?
The hyper sensitivity to non-favoritism from NBC is maddening, maybe I’m biased, but I cannot stand these color commentators giving any due credit to the opposing team, especially a plucky backup QB who comes in a completes a pass.
Do people actually want homer announcers? I find the radio broadcasts basically unlistenable because Harris is just cheering for the team in the booth. I don’t want the color guy bending over backwards to give the other team credit like sometimes happens on NBC, but I don’t really want a cheerleader calling the game either.
IMO the best color guy in recent memory was Mayock.
I am inclined to agree with you. Garrett is so awful, I feel dumber for having watched the game. If his diction wasn’t always good, I would be convinced he was drinking during the game. I put the over/under at 4.5 of the number of times per game he mentions Riley Leonard’s mom and the you suck bracelet and phone call. I also put the over/under at 2 per game that he mentions it was Leonard getting hurt during the ND game that led him into the portal and away from the draft and thus to ND.
I have always had the impression most announcers are momentum driven, in that they seem to be rooting for the team that is on a roll. Musberger in particular. Flutie always struck me as someone with little insight and actively rooting against ND. Pat Haden had insight, and i didn’t feel he was rooting against ND (although I am sure he was certainly pro-USC).
I actually feel smarter listening to Harris he has a lot of good insights, but I agree he is a bit of a homer, but then he is on ND radio and should be a homer. NBC is different.
The one guy I am glad we cleared out is Jac Collingsworth. He was terrible.
I would like to see Kathryn Tappan get a chance at the booth and not just sideline stuff. I think she knows more than we think.
When Tappen was hosting Bruin’s games for NESN, she was great. Never once did I think she was in over her head.
I definitely don’t want homer announcers, just give me quality. I’ll take Tirico and Mayock all day. Dungy started off kind of ‘meh’, but he was strong after a few games
Lets not forget Mike Golic.
Aaron Taylor is one of my favorite announcers out there. His voice is so awesome. Not sure I’ve ever heard BQ do a game, but would probably be good. I’d love to have either of them. I also imagine Golic would be quite good.
I’ve heard a couple podcasts/interviews with Goolsby, and while certainly an upgrade over Garrett, I think he would be a step below Taylor/Quinn/Golic.
I saw Darius Walker do a sideline gig like 10 years ago. Is he still in the biz?
As for whether a homer is good or not, it 100% depends on the announcer. I grew up listening to Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo for the red sox and they were incredible announcers who were homers. Then there was Tommy Heinsohn for the Celtics whose homerism was borderline schtick and while good for a couple chuckles each game, not something I’d want for ND.
I think baseball/basketball/hockey have announcers that only announce for those teams since there are 40-80 games per year and are mostly on local networks. Homerism is basically inescapable in that case and I think leads to better announcers for those teams. You get way more depth, knowledge, and accuracy. I think it’s especially noticeable when it’s a former player. I’d even rather watch a Yankees game on YES than ESPN.
Basically, the better the announcer the better the broadcast. But for guys on the same level, homer > neutral > hater. So give me Tirico/Olsen, but otherwise I’ll take Taylor/Quinn over someone like Mayock, who I liked.
Maybe with Bevaqua as AD, he can help get some more ND guys into NBC broadcasting.
Quinn is a very good color guy. Honestly he can do better than 7 ND games on NBC. Aaron Taylor is another good one. Whenever I stumble into one of his games it always seems like he’s really enjoying himself, which is an underrated quality.
Very much agree on Taylor. I’d almost call him jolly.
And therein lies the problem. Anyone halfway decent can do better than us. Sigh. Our best hope is someone like Colinsworth, but good. Someone young and new to the game with ties to ND who gives us 2 years before moving on to a better job.
Maybe we could pull someone like Goolsby or Golic Jr off a podcast if they wanted to get into corporate broadcasting.
What is Te’o doing these days? He seemed pretty comfortable in front of a camera on that netflix documentary. Okwara just retired, he might need a job. Can’t be any worse than what we’ve got.
Garrett is mid (or sub-mid/mediocre), but man we had Doug Flutie for years so to me everything feels like a massive upgrade compared to that.
It would be sweet if NBC hires Greg Olson – who is clearly the best color guy already – and puts him on the Tirico plan of calling ND games until Sunday Night Football comes available.
Micah Bell to the portal. Probably wouldn’t have seen the field much this year without some injuries, but there should be some openings at CB and nickel next year. Would have been nice to keep an athlete like him around, but oh well.
Hopefully it means Chance Tucker is putting it together and they are high on the freshmen incoming.
Yeah. Tucker seems to have firmly established himself as the #4 CB. Not surprising since he is 2 years older than Bell, who was very raw to begin with.
People were saying really good things about Moore after his freshman season, so hopefully he is good enough for at least the 2 deep as a SO. Would be really great to land Zackery and one of Haynes or McDonald who both visited this spring.