The last media viewing practice is in the books following Wednesday’s workout for Fighting Irish football. From here, we’ll get mostly silence as the team begins prep for the home opener against Michigan on September 1st. Until then, here’s our last depth chart update.
1) The team appears to be exceedingly healthy so far through camp (knock on wood) while linebacker Drew White remains sidelined and starting right tackle Robert Hainsey missed practice again with a calf strain. The results of Hainsey’s MRI were positive and they’re expecting him back on Tuesday, per Kelly. It’s also worth noting that Rover Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and defensive end Daelin Hayes have been limited for multiple practices now. Additionally, safety Houston Griffith, receiver Michael Young, and running back Jahmir Smith have been dealing with nagging injuries that have slowed them down and appear to be on the healthier side now.
2) With Hainsey missing practice again Tommy Kraemer moved over from right guard to right tackle. This time, Josh Lugg moved up with the starters at guard. Trevor Ruhland (usually the backup center) got to start at right guard on Saturday and was still at right guard with the backups on Wednesday. Aaron Banks, now mostly recovered from an elbow injury, is remaining as the backup right tackle.
3) Liam Eichenberg’s camp has been more than solid, there hasn’t been a whisper about him losing the left tackle job. With the Hainsey injury I’m sure the staff is elated to have Eichenberg-Bars-Mustipher anchoring the other side of the line.
4) If we’re judging the slot position based on smaller, quicker-than-fast athletes it doesn’t appear the offense really has a third option at receiver. Or put another way, Finke has been starting all camp while the second-team reps have largely been giving to running backs Avery Davis and Jafar Armstrong. For all intents and purposes, true freshman Lawrence Keys is on third-team during practices.
5) Wednesday’s workout appeared to be the first where Armstrong in particular got carries up the middle. Even though it’s clear Kelly seems to love him I still find it a bit worrisome that Armstrong (and Davis) are constantly seen catching passes and taking sweeps more than working as ‘traditional’ running backs. Or that most of their highlights are in receiving roles.
6) Roster move! It’s not particularly great news for Isaiah Robertson who makes his 4th position move in 18 months since enrolling early in 2017. He’s now at receiver, and while there will be plenty of talk about his size and athleticism, we know he’ll have a large climb to make an impact at wideout. On Wednesday, he was visibly confused at times during practice–since he played last year he might be a candidate to redshirt this year.
7) The consensus on Wimbush bouncing back from Saturday: pretty good. Consider that a win for the quarterback’s confidence, although there would still be plenty of skeptics even if he was great all throughout camp.
8) It would be a little premature to officially change the depth chart but it was interesting that with Daelin Hayes out the staff allowed Justin Ademilola backup reps at weak-side defensive end.
9) For the first time during camp Asmar Bilal really brought in some accolades. Depending upon your point of view he’s either the first, second, or third biggest weakness among the starters so this is good news.
10) I’ve long been pessimistic about Troy Pride emerging as a star, yet he continues to receive rave-reviews during camp. I don’t know how to deal with unbridled optimism!
11) It should be intriguing to see how many safeties will actually see time during games once Michigan arrives. Both Coleman and Gilman have locked down starting roles in recent practices in a way I didn’t think could be possible given some of the competition. Elliott and Studstill are still in backup roles but it appears they’re more and more distant than the first week of camp. The slowed down health of Griffith has also helped Coleman and Gilman solidify their roles. At this point, those two could see 90% of the snaps against the Wolverines.
12) Is there a freshman wall being hit by Bo Bauer? At once earlier in camp he was working some with the starters and now Jon Jones may have come back strong and secured a backup role that everyone thought he’d grab this year anyway.
I’ve been reading articles that make the statement ” one of the best cornerback combos in the country “. It’s been a good minute since I’ve heard anything like that with ND’s secondary.
Maybe Gary Gray and Darren Walls in like 2010?
I don’t think Keivarie Russell had anyone beside him that would have made a top combo (also he kind of peaked as a freshman).
Robertson’s lack of success has been pretty surprising to me. His first spring game he looked a little confused with where he needed to be at times, but otherwise he looked big and really athletic for his size; I figured he was a sure-thing future starter, if not as a true freshman. Guess not. I wonder if the coaches moved him to the other side of the ball in hopes of a transfer.
I was with you. After fall camp last year, I was basically expecting him to be the starter by the start of this season. But we now have … good safeties? Doesn’t seem possible.
If I learned anything from NCAA football video games. It is that they should have moved him to WDE. Most of my DEs were recruited as safeties, because for some reason the attributes they gave to safeties turned a 70 rated safety into an 85 rated 6’0 200 lb DE.
Ah I remember that, in NCAA Football 1940
Doubtful. He played both ways in high school and I believe ND was the only team recruiting him for defense. We needed safety help badly, we recruited him there, and then other guys worked out better. Simple as that. This staff has been extremely honest with guys about their future in the program – they wouldn’t bother moving him to try to make him transfer, they would just tell him he was never going to play and let him decide what he wanted to do.
Along these same lines, btw, there are reports that Darnell Ewell moved to OG.
Is Ewell any more likely to play on offense? At the start, at least, it seems like he’d be behind even Plantz. 4th string OL seems way less likely to play than 5th string NG
It seems like only yesterday that people were complaining that Kelly needs to stop hogging all the athletes on offense and let Claypool play on D. Now, he’s the only offensive skill player I have much confidence in to start this season. It’s going to be really interesting to see how the snaps shake out on offense, because at this point I really have no clue who is going to carry the load at WR, TE, and RB. I guess that could be a good thing if it means there’s great balance, but I’m much more concerned that it just means there aren’t any guys who are going to be able to win one-on-one matchups against decent defenses.
Two words: Kevin Austin.
In all seriousness, I think Boykin probably merits being on close to equal status with Claypool, and I think you assume a high level of play at TE. Is there going to be one dominant guy? Hard to say, but I think it only takes one of that group to make a leap for things to be fine, which seems doable.
Are you buying the Jafar Armstrong hype as much? I don’t expect 20+ touches a game but I’m excited to see him get a chance with the way he’s been talked up by the coaches and media.
Sampson also seemed really high on Michael Young as a guy who could surprise and do more than most have been thinking/expecting.
As you touch on, there won’t be a Floyd/Eifert/Fuller type of stud skill player but all-around the team will have a bit better weaponry than the fans are seeming to expect at this point.
Yeah, I’m buying Armstrong dark horse stock big time. Claypool can be in the Floyd/Eifert category if he stays 100% locked in all the time. Kmet could be there too with a little more development.
I agree that there’s no on-paper stud right now, but I don’t think WR/TE as a group has been this deep in a while.
I think whether Robertson redshirts will tell us a lot about whether the staff thinks he can actually be a contributor in the future or not. If he’s still playing special teams this fall, I wouldn’t expect much from him going forward.
We don’t have the starting talent of 2012, but our backups are way better. The only spots where I’m not fairly confident in the backup are Coney and Kareem. Hopefully the depth pays off over the course of the season, and guys can be relatively fresh for FSU and USC.
Well, I’d say running back is a problem at least until Williams comes back. Jones probably would be 3rd string in an ideal situation (heck, he’d be 4th string at best at Alabama this year), but he’s the #1. Even if Williams takes over, until Jones shows more than he has, he’s not even a particularly good backup.
It is pretty remarkable that we have WDE and safety depth, though.
Oh yeah, I was only thinking defense. But I guess on offense it’s probably true, too.
Here are the full position lists, but my comparisons will only be about backups. There’s a lot of hindsight here. Starter in () based on my memory.
QB: (Golson), TFR, Hendrix = (Wimbush), Book, Jurkovec. Wash, let the debate rage.
RB: (Riddick), Wood, Procise, GAIII >> 2018. Whoever you count as the backup (Wood/Riddick) was much better that what we’ve got today.
TE: (Eifert), Niklas, Koyack, Welch, Golic > 2018, damn, what stacked TE depth. However, since we are excluding Eifert, we definitely have guys with the potential to out perform Niklas and Koyack.
WR: Brown, Carlisle, (Daniels), FC Goodman, (TJ Jones), Neal, Toma < 2018. Daniels and Jones were light years ahead of Claypool and Boykin?, but after that, we didn't have much.
OL: (Cave), (Golic), Hanratty, Harrell, Hegarty, (Lombard), N Martin, (Z. Martin), Stanley, (Watt), Nichols < 2018. Some of our backups are probably better than Golic. Doubt we have anyone that matches Stanley, but one of those guys should eventually match N. Martin.
So I guess what this tells me is that our offense should be better in 2019 than it was in 2013? This wasn't a complete waste of time at all.
Can’t wait to see the newly released Stadium Series jersey feedback. I think it’s garbage, may be spoiled by some of the concepts here (many better than this).
I like the dull navy helmet color, design on it is meh though. The Notre Dame across the chest in a Yankee-like font is pretty cool, probably the best part. Shirt is dumb with a off-blue that doesn’t match the helmet, which I don’t like. Then white sleeves (and a faint Yankee inspired pinstripe) which I guess is OK. Pants all white, meh.
Looks like Navy/Air Force/New York Yankees all mashed together to me and this comes out. Not very Notre Dame-ish at all. I hope the youths like this but one of the worst Stadium Series jerseys IMO. Prob will be OK given the venue but overall I’m not thrilled. 4/10. Would not wear. They better make up this with a sweet, sweet green jersey on 9/1 (not happening but I can dream).
https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/1030122018585407488
It’s certainly busy enough.
It’s not hideous enough to be in the discussion for the worst of the alternate unis, but it certainly isn’t good.
They should have just quit after 2011 Michigan game because they’re never going to top that one.
The feedback so far that I’ve seen is overwhelming negative. Maybe not “worst ever” but certainly not well-received. The pinstripe arms (and pants too I believe) look a bit tackier in this view.
https://twitter.com/gabehurl/status/1030123855958945793
Agreed; after giving this 10 minutes thought and upon further review, it’s certainly eligible for “worst ever” discussion in my book.
10 minutes thought is about 9 minutes too much.
Those reactions were funny. I saw that even ND Nation chimed in:
😂😂😂
That little video was BS.
You could actually understand the subway announcement. In reality, you’d hear, “wqsjh skdjda uywe ashdas sdldds sajhdj slkdskd lkasdksda lkslkjsda.”
I would say worst ever. It goes far beyond aesthetics for me. What other team has incorporated design elements from a professional baseball team into their alternate uniforms? There aren’t even any school colors in this uniform. Absolute garbage.
I haven’t even looked at it yet. But it immediately worst ever the moment they announced it was Yankees inspired.
WOW. I looked. My eyes are on fire.
It’s even worse than I ever could have imagined. That is horrible. They should have at least made it look like the actual Yankees uniform. They could have gone full white, full pinstripe, ND logo in Yankees font on the breast. Maybe even really subtle images of buttons like a baseball uni.
This is so bad. Why don’t they release some concepts early and when they realize it is this bad, they have time to redo it all and be like gotcha!
It’s like Under Armour read every single one of Eric’s ND Uniform Concept articles…and then took whatever the major complaint was about each one, and combined them into this Megatron of awfulness.
i think you just named a future 18S annual award. Megatron of Awfulness: A series of plays or a possession that is so appalling and atrocious that the whole is worse than the sum of its parts.