The vastly superior color came away with the win on Saturday afternoon as the Blue squad defeated the Gold squad 17-3 in front of a few thousand students and family members during Notre Dame’s 2021 spring game. Here are my thoughts from all of the action inside Notre Dame Stadium:

I thought former receiver Corey Robinson did a very good job as the color commentator. Perhaps the bar is so low since he’s incredibly young but if this is something he wants to pursue he could have a great future. Also, rising 2022 senior Carolyn Pineda did a tremendous job with the sideline coverage, too.

NBC and Peacock not putting the down and distance on the screen, nor the first down line, was embarrassing. It was really difficult to get a feel for the game without those visuals. This led to a lot of confusion on a two-man touch whistle and suddenly the offense is punting.

Upon first watch, I thought Coan played better than Pyne but that it was somewhat close overall. After a re-watch, I gave a more sizable edge to Coan. Of the top 10 throws on the day, Coan had at least 5 or 6 of the best, flashed some nice arm strength, and gave us the greatest repertoire of throws to different parts of the field.

Coan looked to me like a smaller version of Dayne Crist, with a slightly weaker arm. That seems like a knock but to me it’s not, Crist had major physical gifts. But, I see a lot of similarities of staying in the pocket, making some impressive throws, and running in the open field when there’s space. His delivery is a little long and slow at times which hurts when protection isn’t great and he’s not firing with complete certainty. But, he steps up in the pocket really well and stands tall which is a huge bonus for the offense.

I really like Pyne’s demeanor, there seems to be something there that can’t be explained. It must be something about his leadership which always gets commented on during broadcasts. Yet, after a re-watch I was a little more critical of his performance. Until his move up the pocket and beautiful seam throw to Lawrence Keys early in the 2nd half there hadn’t been a completion for Pyne that was worth writing home about. However, his arm appears much more lively than Book’s and to date he’s not afraid to air it out deep. His delivery is just so nice and compact, a necessity due to his size.

I didn’t think the set up of the offensive lines gave Pyne much of a chance, to be honest. Here’s how things looked:

BLUE (Pyne)

LT Tosh Baker
LG Rocco Spindler
C Dillan Gibbons
RG John Dirksen
RT Michael Carmody

GOLD (Coan)

LT Blake Fisher
LG Quinn Carroll
C Zeke Correll
RG Andrew Kristofic
RT Josh Lugg

For the most part, the offensive lines did not look very good. The blue squad struggled immensely at times, seemed to settle down for a bit, and then continued to struggle. Gibbons (is he being groomed as the backup center for good now?) got pushed around, had a false start, and a bad snap. Spindler was okay for his age but got out-muscled big time giving up a couple sacks. Dirksen just does not look at the same level of physicality as his teammates. I didn’t see too many errors from Carmody (except a false start) but Baker was downright abused at times, including being beat a lot by speed rushes to his outside.

The gold squad looked far more cohesive and physical. The exception being Quinn Carroll who looks a bit too lumbering and struggles with moving his feet. He was beat on a spin move early in the game that gave up a sack and then got beat again for another sack later. To me, Fisher went nearly the entire game without making a mistake until Foskey got him with a nice inside move to pick up a tackle for loss in the 2nd half.

I’d open fall camp like this:

LT Fisher — LG Patterson — C Correll — RG TBD — RT Lugg

I think Fisher is ready for this immense challenge and he’ll excel with Patterson next to him. I guess you could put Patterson at tackle and flip Fisher to right tackle but this opens up way more questions at guard. From what I saw today, I’m not sure Tosh Baker is ready to start yet.

Where is the hype meter for Buchner after this performance? I’m mostly of the mind that we shouldn’t take for granted that how he performed, and how he looked doing it, is super rare in college football. Remember, he also played behind the worse offensive line, too. His seam throw to Keys on the first touchdown drive of the game was an absolute highlight. It was interesting to hear Robinson’s comments on Buchner’s throwing motion too, I think it’s kind of beautiful as well. He definitely has a weird action on short passes but on most other throws his release is outrageously quick with the ball coming out swiftly. With no visible accuracy concerns this is a huge win for Buchner this spring–he looks immensely talented.

If we are assuming the offensive line is going to have some poor moments, this seems bad for Pyne. He had a throw in the second half on a comeback route to Keys that fell at the receiver’s feet. Pyne had a ton of pressure in his face (this is the header photo in the article) and just doesn’t have the physical gifts to muscle the ball across the field. Like I said, there’s something about Pyne that makes me think he’s going to start a bunch of games at Notre Dame but I can’t lie and say that Buchner isn’t way more enticing, even for 2021.

The offense gave up 9 sacks which actually seems average for most spring games. Still, so many of them came on 3rd down and stalled drives so it felt even worse in real time. I think it’s fine to be pleased with the performance of Coan and Pyne but neither led a touchdown drive!

During the game, the offense went 5 for 21 on 3rd down AND 1 for 5 on 4th down. That’s a big yikes for me. A lack of a legit No. 1 receiver on the outside, plus missing Book’s legs, could really cripple this offense on 3rd down unless there’s a surprising amount of explosiveness to cover that up. I think there’s a belief that Coan’s arm is going to open up the offense with throws down field but the situation at receiver could really neuter this attempt. You can only throw so much to Michael Mayer on third down.

The quarterbacks threw 67 passes so even though some of the receiver stats look good it was a high volume day that sort of skews the data. For the record, Coan and Pyne combined to go 29 of 55 (52.7%) for 343 yards (6.2 YPA) with 2 interceptions. Buchner was 6 of 9 (66.6%) for 140 yards (15.5 YPA) with a rushing touchdown. Coan just over-throwing Davis in the end zone really prevented him from truly coming away from the spring game with more headlines.

Davis (5 receptions for 84 yards) is a known commodity and looked good in executing his specialty intermediate routes. Lenzy (5 for 88) was also flashing at times. I was less impressed with Keys and Wilkins. The former had 115 yards on 5 catches but it took 14(!) targets while Wilkins only caught 2 passes for 35 yards on 7 targets. They would’ve combined for a far more pedestrian 3 or 4 catches during a normal game and 30 overall pass attempts.

Jordan Johnson had a couple nice blocks and wasn’t able to bring in an inaccurate fade towards the front of the end zone so he was held without a catch. It doesn’t seem like a JJ breakout is happening any time soon. Same for freshman Lorenzo Styles (2 catches for 9 yards on 5 targets).

Michael Mayer didn’t even play but are we witnessing freshman Mitchell Evans break out before our eyes? In our game preview I wondered if we’d see anyone who looked like the future and Evans did just that hauling in 3 catches for 59 yards on just those 3 targets. So far, he looks a little less lumbering than the other tight end options.

The sacks ruined the rushing stats, just 64 yards overall for the day. However, Williams and Tyree combined for a respectable 59 yards on 13 carries with a handful of decent runs.

I thought it was weird that in a game where they weren’t running the ball very much they did so on a 3rd & 2 in the red zone that got wrapped up quickly by a flying Ramon Henderson tackle. Earlier in the game, Henderson had great coverage on Lenzy but a late tug on the receiver drew a flag.

I didn’t pay attention as much to the defense in this game. In terms of scheme I didn’t see a whole lot but I did find some things worth pointing out:

*I’m not sure I saw many–or even any–true 3-man fronts. I made a business decision not to watch the game a third time and rewind while counting all the positional players.

*They seemed to alternate between covering the center (usually a sign of a 3-man front but not always), shading more towards the guard, or keeping the nose guard and/or defensive tackle far away from the ball. At times, there were a lot of 6-man front looks before the snap with the 4 defensive linemen pulled out wide and the middle linebackers hovering near the ball. Usually, the linebackers pulled back in coverage but a few times they blitzed. This should be a staple of Freeman’s defense.

*Did you notice the Vyper pass-rusher almost always was standing up? This was a feature I noticed Freeman utilizing at Cincinnati with his 4-man fronts and as far as I could tell it was just about every snap on Saturday during the spring game. Sometimes, you’ll see this position lining up way, way out wide.

Shayne Simon had a super interception that looked almost too easy for him, so casual! He was actually in coverage on a split out Kyren Williams which is a huge mismatch for the offense. The defense actually stayed in a 4-3 against a 5-wide receiver look which isn’t ideal, but it was just a tremendous play from Simon. I think Coan is susceptible to these types of throws without a super quick release. And yet, Simon finishes the game with just 1 tackle. He’s just not around the ball it’s extremely weird.

Simon’s INT formation: Uncovered center, Foskey standing out wide, Simon on Kyren! 

Kiser seems way out ahead in the battle to play Rover. Using this game as our guide–and knowing Drew White is starting–it seems like the top linebackers will be White, Liufau, Kiser, and Bauer with maybe some Simon sprinkled in there occasionally.

Cam Hart has the physique of a basketball player. He looks hilariously long but not really heavy or slow the way I compared his specs to Donte Vaughn. I’m intrigued, for sure.

KJ Wallace had a really impressive break on the ball for a PBU, although he got there a bit early.

Backup safety Litchfield Ajavon sure seemed hyped up in a way that bordered on weird for a spring game. He laid a big hit on the sidelines, broke up a pass in the end zone that surely would’ve been called targeting in a real game, and finished things off with another PBU to get a stop in the red zone.

Caleb Offord made a beautiful diving PBU but also seemed to get lost while giving up a 3rd & 18 reception to Lenzy. I saw Offord backpedal as if in zone coverage and pass off Lenzy to a safety who wasn’t there.

Freshman safety Justin Walters made the play of the day with a diving interception off Pyne. The ball was slightly behind the receiver but Walters showed off impressive burst to close and create the turnover.

***

We basically just went a whole spring and saw 1 full practice in a game setting. The usual caveats about taking too much away from the Blue-Gold Game applies.

I think we have a good handle on this defense. If they don’t suffer a couple bad injuries in the secondary it looks like there is admirable player development going on there to make us feel better about the future in 2021 and beyond. On Saturday, the likes of MTA, Hinish, Foskey, Botelho, and Jayson Ademilola blatantly showed they are among the best players on the team and can wreak havoc when needed. This is going to be a problem for most of the offenses Notre Dame faces.

I’m still lukewarm on the offense. They really need a Michael Floyd-type to raise all boats at receiver and throughout the whole offense with that hope being Kevin Austin ascendance or bust now it seems. Without that type of difference maker I think the ceiling just isn’t very high with a projected okay offensive line and the dual-threat quarterback ability pretty much gone from the offense. I can see why there are reports the program is exploring options in the receiver transfer market, although you have to wonder how much of an impact player would come this summer. Either way, a major breakout at quarterback or receiver needs to happen to change the calculus. I’m not sure Coan with what we know about these receivers right now strikes much fear into the top third of Notre Dame’s schedule.