Notre Dame opened up their 2026 spring practice workouts this past Friday on campus. Marcus Freeman has mentioned the delicate balance of preparing a team to play well straight out of the gate (especially coming off the beginning of 2025) but also not going too hard in the off-season. If there’s a side in which this team is going to fall it’ll definitely be on the more intense and dialed up workouts if the first spring practice is any indication.

With workout number one of course no tackling was allowed but the team raised an eyebrow moving quickly into a lot of team work which is unusual this time of year. I guess that’s the move for the 2026 squad and their #LeaveNoDoubt moniker following last year’s snub from the playoffs.

Here are some updates and notes surrounding Irish football opening up their spring campaign.

Quarterback

Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock was pretty clear in his meeting with the media that the return and experience of CJ Carr put this entire offense in a different state of preparation opening up the spring. The first workout in helmets and shorts left a lot in attendance with the feeling this Irish team is shaping up to be awfully good, but I think it’s important to remember Carr is an anchor of that belief. Not exactly breaking news, is it?

Interestingly, Denbrock brought up interceptions, Tae Johnson lurking in the secondary (more on him soon!), and Carr letting it fly during practices. Remember an apparent too many interceptions during fall camp was something holding Carr back. Or, so we were told in the chaotic media landscape without any concrete details.

A skinny Grubbs in his first career college practice.

More eyes were on the early enrolled Noah Grubbs’ first practice with the team. Was his head swimming? It seems so, but the media was pretty impressed with his arm strength and accuracy. The temperature from around the media seemed to be heavily skewed in favor of Grubbs’ first appearance against the redshirt freshman Blake Hebert. Probably not a great sign for Hebert but certainly nothing conclusive after a couple of hours in shorts.

Running Back

In my spring preview, I mentioned there weren’t many new injuries to discuss or maybe the program was keeping everything under wraps. Turns out, it was more the latter. I’ll have a full injury recap below but we’ll also discuss absences for some of these position recaps, too.

Kedren Young is still recovering from knee surgery, incoming freshman Javian Osborne had wrist surgery and is out, plus the initial report from last week made it seem that Aneyas Williams’ elbow injury would keep him out and/or severely limited this spring.

Turns out, Williams looks able to participate enough but will wear a red jersey and probably not take contact. Depth is an issue for the spring now (Notre Dame added a couple walk-ons and moved walk-on receiver Xavier Southall to the backfield) although it’s not quite as bad as it seemed initially.

It’s going to be a huge spring for redshirt freshman Nolan James, who was described by Denbrock more or less (I’m paraphrasing and adding my own color here), as a floating little refrigerator who is difficult to tackle.

Wide Receiver

Can you remember a time, particularly in shorts, when the media proclaimed, “wow these receivers don’t look very good!” No, these sort of practices are built for receivers to look good. The Irish rolled out with Jordan Faison (field) and Micah Gilbert (boundary) on the first team. No surprises there, I suppose. Denbrock really seems high on Gilbert based on his recent comments after practice and noted it’s largely a matter of staying healthy this year for the rising redshirt sophomore.

Ohio State transfer Mylan Graham was with the first team in the slot and probably caught the eye the most out of any receiver on the team. Again, quick guys in shorts are going to look good but right now his athleticism/twitch/explosiveness jumped out to onlookers.

When they are throwing the ball all over the place with a lot of team work many receivers’ names came up. Maybe a couple more who jumped out the most were Bubba Frazier and Cam Williams. The latter made a handful of really nice plays, and afterward Denbrock mentioned that type of playmaking has been there it’s just a matter of consistency. Frazier is another explosive smaller receiver who might carve out a small role as a freshman and right now could benefit from Jaden Greathouse being absent for the time being.

Tight End

The reports stated that the first team rotated at tight end from a group of Cooper Flanagan, James Flanigan, and Ty Washington. I’m curious to see how these reps continue to be split. You can’t help but be impressed by Flanigan (the name similarity with Cooper is never going to get easy) already being in the mix this early in his career. All signs point to him being the long-term answer but maybe not straight out of the gate this September.

Offensive Line

Well, they did it. Anthonie Knapp was moved to guard, left guard to be precise. However, listening to Denbrock’s comments this could be more of a situation where they are trying things out this spring because Knapp has already mastered enough of playing on the edge. I don’t really believe it, though. If you’re moving Knapp now they must be awfully sure Will Black is going to be ready come September and are willing to stick with him through some bumps this spring and summer. Now is not the time to be experimenting to a great degree with this offensive line, surely they are super high on Will Black.

The first two offensive line units were:

Black–Knapp–Otting–Absher–Lambert
Prescod–Houstan–Herron–Augustine–Strebig

Guerby Lambert moves from right guard out to right tackle (for now), as expected by nearly everyone. Can anyone battle Absher for a starting spot? Once Ashton Craig comes back from injury it might be Otting, although he’s not real big. I’m not sure that’s a great fit particularly as Knapp isn’t real big either. I’ll put the odds at 77.8% they open up at Lambeau with Black–Knapp–Craig–Absher–Lambert if they’re all healthy.

Defensive Line

If the season began today the defensive line would be at least 10 deep right now. With edge rushers Boubacar Traore, Bryce Young, and Keon Keeley, with a little help from Loghan Thomas. The interior is stacked with Elijah Hughes, Jason Onye, Armel Mukam, Tionne Gray, Francis Brewu, and the youngster Christopher Burgess in the mix.

Burgess is someone to pay attention to this spring. When he was originally recruited by Notre Dame he was around 240 pounds and targeted as a pass rusher off the edge. He put on weight as a freshman and this off-season put on even more tipping the scales at 300 pounds now. He’s quite large at 6’4″ with big tree trunk legs–if he’s able keep his suddenness Burgess is a big piece to the future. Based on practice one, they definitely expect him to play.

Early reports on Rodney Dunham seem very promising–in this type of practice he was very difficult to block. He has a fuller face that belies the rest of his leaner body and wasn’t ready physically in high school to play right away. However, he’s already packed on 20 pounds and is listed at a much more manageable 242 pounds. There’s an opening for someone to add reps on the edge, particularly as Thomas continues to struggle adding weight and isn’t an ideal matchup.

Linebacker

I have 5 players listed on our 18 Stripes middle linebacker depth chart and they all have the injury icon next to their name. Not great! Rising sophomore Madden Faraimo had wrist surgery, and like Aneyas Williams, was at least participating in non-contact work with a red jersey on. Freeman didn’t seem too concerned for the spring, still only 5 linebackers for 2 spots during practices isn’t ideal. I expect this now to be a position on the team where we don’t hear much going on this spring.

Secondary

After one practice, not only does Tae Johnson seem destined for All-American status maybe the Chuck Bednarik Award is in play, too! It may be a good thing that the media won’t be able to see much of the rest of spring practice because the praise would become obscene.

One thing that popped up across the board from the media is calling Ethan Long really, really solid at safety. I think he’ll be the the high floor secondary player this year that slowly grows into a trusted role within the defense.

Nickel was one of the big question marks coming into the spring and the first-team unit was a split of Christian Gray and Dallas Golden while true freshman Nick Reddish saw action here with the second unit.

One of the medical updates before practice was a tweaked ankle for All-American corner Leonard Moore so don’t expect him to be on the field any time soon. No need to hurry him back.

Gray worked with the corners too, alongside Mark Zackery and Michigan transfer Jayden Sanders. Without Moore obviously this unit looks a little different for the spring but remember Colorado transfer DJ McKinney bolsters this group in the summer, as well.

Freshman corner Khary Adams had shoulder surgery and is out, leaving the second team unit to fellow freshmen Chaz Smith and Ayden Pouncey. As mentioned in the spring preview, both are really lightweight even for corner standards and face an uphill battle breaking into the lineup–if the group stays healthy.

News & Notes

There were no shortage of bodies getting work in the kick/punt return game for the first practice including: Aneyas Williams, Nolan James, Jordan Faison, Mylan Graham, Bubba Frazier, Jonaz Walton, Dallas Golden and Ayden Pouncey.

Officially, the players trying out this spring for walk on positions include: RB Kurtis Smith, RB Matt Williams, TE Kaleb Johnson, S Patrick Downes, and S Chase Young.

The full list of injuries and/or guys banged up: RB Young (knee), RB Williams (elbow), RB Osborne (wrist), WR Porter (patella), WR Robinson (knee), WR Greathouse (hamstring), OL Jagusah (arm), OL Craig (knee), OL Merrill (shoulder), DL Hola (knee), DL Sulfsted, LB KVA (knee), LB Bowen (hip), Faraimo (wrist), LB Ka. Kia (knee), LB Clapper (shoulder), CD Adams (shoulder), CB Moore (ankle).

Team doctor Rob Hunt updated the media with injuries last week and mentioned Jagusah just had his 5th(!!!) surgery on his arm last Wednesday. Harsh as it may sound, we just hope he’s able to get this injury behind him eventually but I wouldn’t expect him to be ready to play in 2026. That would be two full missed seasons.

I noticed Peter Jones running with the third team offensive line. He’s dealt with a lot of injuries but that’s not a good sign for a redshirt sophomore who will have to battle more freshmen linemen coming in the summer.

Jaden Greathouse tweaked his hamstring recently, because of course he did. He participated in drills but sat out team work.

More than a few media members mentioned Jerome Bettis Jr. looking a little more svelte and leaner. He’s down to 199 pounds on the roster, which probably looks like a loss of 20 pounds on a 6’2″ frame when you think about fat loss and muscle gain.

Hope springs eternal during the spring, as is the tradition of college football. We know how the game is reported upon these days, especially when media availability is so limited at Notre Dame. You can’t really die on a hill of thinking a player is bad or regressing or not going to make an impact after one practice in shorts. Of course, it’s a lot more acceptable (and fun, frankly) to talk about the good stuff you see and there’s no harm in that leading to some more clicks on websites and videos. Still, I try to zoom out and take a breath. This team is going to have immense expectations in 2026 and there still needs to be a lot of work and development on offense.