A full practice viewed by the media once again, can it be true? It’s been such a long time since the Fighting Irish opened their practice world like this and it feels a bit like Christmas morning. Bad news though, we’ll only have one more full media viewing for fall camp. Good news, the season opener kicks off in just 23 days and the real football shall begin.

Let’s check in with Notre Dame football biggest news and notes following Thursday’s workout:

A Door Open for Pyne?

Eh, probably not. But it is noticeable that Coan has been the presumptive favorite and a starter was supposed to be named shortly after this first scrimmage. Instead, Brian Kelly said they will name a starter sometime early next week. They’ll be naming captains today at 2 PM ET are they waiting to announce that before picking the quarterback?

Reaction to the QB play seemed mixed, lots of ups and downs, and nothing too crazy in either direction. Pyne worked with the 1st-team today while it was Coan’s turn to work the 2nd team. You have to think Pyne will have to really make the most of his opportunities to win the job, and after this Thursday workout that wasn’t exactly in the cards.

Clark didn’t receive any team reps while he comes back from a knee injury and most mentioned Buchner can certainly flash but isn’t consistent or accurate enough to be in the competition right now. After practice, Kelly didn’t exactly rule out using Buchner in some fashion down the road while also inferring the freshman and Clark would shuttle back and forth between the scout team this year.

I Can Diggs It

Maybe the one player who turned the most heads on the entire team on Thursday was freshman running back Logan Diggs. While his classmate Audric Estime has received rave reviews for his size (he looked solid today too, to be fair) everyone was really impressed with Diggs’ first action in front of the media.

It’s easy to forget that Diggs was a really important piece to the 2021 class and we had him rated higher than Estime in our National Signing Day grades, too. This is potentially a huge development for next season because Diggs could very well be carrying a heavy load as a sophomore and could sneak into a decent-size role as a freshman.

Fingers Crossed

If we’re going off who looked the best among the receivers it would seem like Kevin Austin has created a nice gap followed by Braden Lenzy. If we’re being honest this feels like the exact situation that needs to unfold for the receiving corps, especially with Kelly again mentioning Lenzy’s transformation to the press.

These practices always seem to be kind to the receivers as they get a ton of reps and always make plays eventually. Almost everyone noticed freshman Deon Colzie and his combination of size and speed. It stands out. His stock looks to be soaring quickly.

*Freshman wideout Jayden Thomas was sidelined with a soft tissue injury and was seen doing some work on the sidelines.

You’ll Never Believe This

Notre Dame with really good tight ends, no way!? Of course, Michael Mayer is Michael Mayer out there. Being able to build quality depth was a huge off-season goal and after this full practice they seem on their way. Will the backups be ready to roll against Florida State? Kevin Bauman’s name came up quite a bit after Thursday which is very good news. We expected George Takacs to be the top backup due to his veteran status but it looks like he’ll be challenged greatly by Bauman and Mitchell Evans.

Seeking Cohesion

Blake Fisher was out of practice on Thursday while in concussion protocol (Kelly said he’ll be back on Sunday) so we saw a shuffle up front. Interestingly, we saw redshirt freshman Michael Carmody moved up to the 1st-team tackle in a rotation with Tosh Baker. Is that truly just a rotational thing or something more important to discuss?

Thursday 8/12/21 OL Two-Deep

Carmody–Correll–Patterson–Madden–Lugg
Baker–Spindler–Kristofic–Dirksen–Alt

Marshall transfer Cain Madden was up with the starters and received positive reviews. It sure seems like, based on Kelly’s comments especially, we have Patterson and Lugg locked in, they will make Madden earn his way, and they’ll have to figure out the other 2 positions with Correll likely to hang on to the left guars spot. Let’s hope Fisher can get back into the mix quickly following his absence.

Let’s not forget that Kelly singled out freshman Joe Alt as one of the surprises for the staff. He’s already packed on 25 pounds and now stands nearly 6’8″ and 305 pounds. If he’s going to consistently get backup reps and not go down to scout team his timeline to become a starter could get moved up very quickly. I know Brendan is feeling good about that 88 grade he handed out to Alt earlier this year (me and Tyler gave him an 80).

Missing Pieces

Tragic news as the father of Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa suddenly passed away with the senior back in Hawaii now to be with his family. The Irish were also without Justin Ademilola who is dealing with a hamstring issue and was working out on the sidelines. The absence of MTA is really noticeable when you take him out of the jumbo end position.

Thursday 8/12/21 DL Two Deep

Foskey–Hinish–Jay Ademilola–Osafo-Mensah
Botelho–Cross–Mills–Ehrensberger

This was a position that had a ton of question marks (hence MTA moving positions) and hopefully MTA can find peace and make a return to campus ready for the season. Neither Foskey or Botelho have blown people away so pass-rush issues could be a developing storyline. However, it should be noted the line as a whole won a lot of battles with plenty of praise for the interior guys being disruptive.

Howard Cross (has he already passed Jacob Lacey?) keeps showing a burst that can be tough to handle.

Breakout Incoming

I get the sense that everyone around the program is expecting Marist Liufau to go off completely on a tear this season. If this practice was any indication he’s shaping up to be the Sniper-type role from Freeman’s Cincinnati days but packaged in a more traditional Will linebacker role. In other words, we should see him line up all over the place and be used very liberally as a blitzer.

Liufau (Will), Drew White (Mike), and Jack Kiser (Rover) were with the 1st-team again and at this point it may be surprising if this isn’t the main group playing together this season. I’m interested to see how they use Kiser if Liufau is lining up A) Much closer to the line of scrimmage and/or B) outside of the box.

JD Bertrand looks to be making a move lining up at Will behind Liufau in a rotation with Shayne Simon. A lot of the media thought Bertrand really stood out in his reps on the field and Kelly flat out said on Thursday they have to get him on the field outside of special teams this year.

No Drama

I think the starters in the defensive backfield are close to locked in (just my opinion) with Clarence Lewis and Cam Hart at corner with Kyle Hamilton and Houston Griffith at safety. Griffith especially has appeared to assume such a larger leadership role and got positive reviews during this practice which leads me to believe they know he’s the guy to play next to Hamilton.

Ramon Henderson is sniffing around at corner while it remains to be seen how the pecking order at the backup safety positions is going to work out. Interestingly, Kelly said Tariq Bracy came back much stronger but that he hasn’t won the starting nickel role AND they’d like to keep the nickel off the field (JOK made this easy!) as much as possible unless an opposing offense is removing a tight end and chucking it through the air with only skill players.

A major feature of the Freeman defense at Cincinnati was playing a lot of 5 defensive back sets with a linebacker off the field. Right now, it looks like the Irish will be focusing on keeping 3 linebackers on the field, especially with 4-man fronts.