On Thursday afternoon the Fighting Irish concluded their final fully open practice in front of the media. We’re 17 days away from Notre Dame opening the season at Florida State and will largely bide our time as the information from practices dries up as we inch closer to the 2021 football season.
We’ll wrap up the top news & notes from the latest workout as well as take a look at the perceived depth chart going into the season as we’re unlikely to hear about major shakeups without further extensive media access.
OFFENSE
*Starters*
QB Jack Coan
RB Kyren Williams
WR Kevin Austin
WR Avery Davis
WR Braden Lenzy
TE Michael Mayer
LT Blake Fisher
LG Zeke Correll
C Jarett Patterson
RG Cain Madden
RT Josh Lugg
Now that Fisher has returned from his concussion this starting lineup looks pretty locked in for Florida State. After an okay full practice debut for the media last week, reports are that Jack Coan looked much, much better on Thursday and was in command with his accuracy and decision making despite (as we’ll discuss below) plenty of pressure and stiff resistance from the defense.
Since our last update, Coan was officially named the starting quarterback and by all accounts everyone around the program is very comfortable with that decision. This felt like an important practice for Coan as you can imagine he’s gained confidence from the public announcement and flashed a higher level of playing for the Irish on Thursday than we’ve ever witnessed.
I think it’s fair to say that the media wasn’t wowed by the Irish interior play, specifically at guard. I doubt we’ll see things change prior to the season beginning but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on, particularly that left guard spot where many are questioning Correll’s long-term ability. I think it’s also important to remind ourselves that the guards are now much smaller (especially compared to the massive 2020 guards) and they are up against the biggest strength of the defense every single practice. This probably colors the perspective a little bit.
At receiver, the good vibes continue where we see Mr. Steady (Davis) being flanked by Lenzy starting to reach his ceiling and Austin healthy and looking to be forming into a dangerous No. 1 receiver. Overall, there’s a lot to like about the receivers–but notice how this doesn’t necessarily elicit panic about the pass defense the way the defense winning battles against the offensive line does. We don’t always think rationally about the offensive line!
*Key Backups*
QB Drew Pyne
RB Chris Tyree
RB Logan Diggs
WR Lorenzo Styles
TE Kevin Bauman
TE George Takacs
LT Michael Carmody
LG Rocco Spindler
C Andrew Kristofic
If this fall camp is an indication for the immediate future, Diggs could be pushing hard for 3rd team reps behind Williams and Tyree. He once again impressed the media and has an array of skills that the Irish offense could use in 2021.
For a while, it seemed like a jump from Styles just wasn’t going to happen. That notion appears to be blown to smithereens on Thursday where Styles looked outstanding and was getting a decent amount of work with the 1st team offense. More receiver good vibes!
There’s a hype train being created for Kevin Bauman who made several big plays on Thursday and is in contention to back up Mayer at tight end. Side note, the offense appears to be relying a lot more on 11 personnel packages (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) as expected with far less 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE, 2 WR) and when in the latter at least one tight end is flanked out and not inline or in the backfield as a blocker quite as much.
During the workout, starting right tackle Josh Lugg strained his neck (he appears fine) and was replaced by Michael Carmody. In speaking with the media, Brian Kelly lavished quite a bit of praise on Carmody who definitely is in the running for the biggest increased stock of fall camp. If you take Kelly’s comments at face value, Carmody could be the next-man-in at either tackle spot, plus at guard too.
I think many will expect Spindler to challenge Correll at left guard but it wouldn’t surprise me if Carmody ultimately got the call there if Correll struggles.
*To Be Determined*
RB C’Bo Flemister
WR Lawrence Keys
WR Joe Wilkins
TE Mitchell Evans
RG John Dirksen
RT Tosh Baker
Most of the time, these practice reports are flowing with positive information and that with so many players looking good it inevitably hurts other players, even if they aren’t playing bad per se. So it may be with Flemister who is going to be pushed continually by Diggs.
Keys missed practice recovering from a shin injury and while by all accounts Joe Wilkins looks solid I would argue these guys are in the stock down category as they’ve always been backups and aren’t pushing to move up the depth chart. It’s not possible for every single receiver to dominate, right?
Following the spring, Evans looked like an intriguing player for 2021 but if Bauman has hit another level (and Takacs’ experience gives him consistent reps) perhaps we aren’t going to see much of a breakout. The stock for Evans definitely feels promising long-term but maybe a hold for now.
Back in the spring it looked like Baker was entirely in the fight to start at tackle. Then, he had a really poor spring game and looks to be passed up by Carmody as the next man in at tackle. He’s still just a redshirt freshman which maybe we need to remind ourselves.
DEFENSE
*Starters*
DE Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa
DT Jayson Ademilola
NG Kurt Hinish
VYPER Isaiah Foskey
MIKE Drew White
WILL Marist Liufau
ROVER Jack Kiser
CB Clarence Lewis
CB Cam Hart
FS Kyle Hamilton
SS Houston Griffith
Let’s start with the good news. The defensive line as a unit is looking very good, the linebackers somehow look even better, and Houston Griffith appears to have locked down the starting safety spot while also continuing to develop into a playmaker.
The news on Griffith may be one of the greatest things from fall camp so far. Not only has he stepped up his game on the field he’s developing into a vocal leader which could pay huge dividends in 2022 when Kyle Hamilton is gone. By the way, Hamilton left practice late with a stiff back but it’s not considered to be serious at all.
The bad news, it really doesn’t seem like Foskey is prepared to have a big year based off what the media have seen over the last couple weeks. Is he coming on slowly from a summer pectoral injury? If you want to spin this into a positive light, the pass-rush outside of Foskey (particularly from the linebackers) has looked frightening at times so that’s good.
Liufau once again picked up rave reviews from the media in attendance. By most accounts, he’s on the shortlist to have a national star breakout type of season.
*Key Backups*
DT Rylie Mills
NG Howard Cross
VYPER Justin Ademilola
MIKE Bo Bauer
WILL JD Bertrand
ROVER Isaiah Pryor
CB Ramon Henderson
NICKEL Tariq Bracy
If you went off the Thursday practice reviews Rylie Mills basically turned into J.J. Watt. I was never as high on Mills as a recruit as many others and I’m poised to look extremely wrong. For the majority of the 11-on-11 work the pass rush was looking strong with Mills–and Cross adding even more disruption–being a huge reason why the offense was having issues. I think we’re going to see a ton of disruption through the A and B-gaps which has been a hallmark of Freeman’s defense.
More on this below as it appears Justin Ademilola is cross-training at both jumbo defensive end and the Vyper spot while quite possibly being the main backup at each spot. That’s quite a workload if true.
JD Bertrand turned a lot of heads last week and that momentum continued on Thursday. I believe Freeman has spoken about cross-training the linebackers, especially the Mike and Will spots, but I have found it interesting that Bertrand was always thought to be a Mike and has now developed into an impactful Will linebacker.
Last week, Kelly was adamant that Tariq Bracy had not won the starting nickel job, although looking at the sub-packages from the beat writers I think JoJo Johnson is in contention and I’m assuming Bracy will win this fairly easily when it’s all said and done.
*To Be Determined*
DE Alex Ehrensberger
DE Na-Na Osafo-Mensah
DT Jacob Lacey
VYPER Jordan Botelho
MIKE Shayne Simon
ROVER Paul Moala
SS D.J. Brown
SS Justin Walters
FS KJ Wallace
The options at the jumbo end don’t look great behind MTA which may explain why Ademilola has been getting time at both spots. He also continues to receive Vyper reps ahead of Botelho which is a bit strange.
I have a theory: Botelho is a bit of a tweener (he’s not particularly tall or rangy like an ideal body-type such as Foskey) who Freeman may not love as an every-down Vyper. Kelly was asked about Botelho after practice and praised his work ethic (and improvement in the classroom) so some sort of suspension really doesn’t seem to be coming. It makes me wonder if Botelho–who has built a bit of a reputation as being extremely passionate bordering on being a hot head–really struggled learning about a reduced Vyper role which possibly led to some discipline issues that they’ve ironed out internally? Just a thought.
Either way it seems like Botelho has moved on because he’s apparently not in the doghouse and he’d being used extensively in the sub-packages and pass-rushing situations. That includes being moved all over the field and lining up more at other spots more so than just Vyper.
Lacey appears to be doing some good things but is currently passed up by Cross. Quality depth, I suppose.
Shayne Simon has turned into a very curious case. He was praised for his off-season work and leadership and yet is now working at 3rd-team Mike (flip-flopping roles with Bertrand). This was a 2020 starter! The media were all in agreement that he didn’t look that effective on Thursday. Will he find a role in 2021?
I wish we knew more about the backup Rover spots. The media has said nice things about both Pryor and Moala although I’m not sure this pecking order is even close to settled at this point, especially with Moala getting back into the groove coming back from injury.
With Griffith excelling at safety we’ve also heard nice things about Brown and Wallace, too. After Hamilton missed time late in the Thursday practice, Brown filled in nicely. I just want to see all of these guys in game action and see how they handle things when the bullets start flying. Mostly, I think it’s exciting to see the progress from true freshman Justin Walters who Kelly mentioned to the media “will be a very good player for us.”
Notes
We haven’t talked about scholarships in a while but the Irish are sitting at 84 right now, absent handing out any new ones to walk-ons.
Redshirt freshman nose guard Aidan Keanaaina was working on the sideline while nursing an injury.
I was watching the latest edition of “Litch in the Field” where true freshman safety Khari Gee was featured in the very beginning. My first reaction was, “Whoa, Gee has a lot of work to do in the weight room.” This is followed up by friend of the blog Jamie Uyeyama’s practice report from ISD where he stated: “This was my first time seeing Khari Gee in person and to me he looked like he was a lot less fluid with his hips than the rest of the safeties other than Ajavon Litchfield. Gee competed pretty well in one on ones, but seeing him in individual drills convinced me even more that he’s probably going to be a Rover in the long term.”
Scheme Talk: While Freeman was at Cincinnati he ran a lot of 3-man fronts on 1st and 2nd down and utilized a lot of 4-man fronts on passing downs. I noticed in the sub-packages on Thursday they were using a lot of 3-man fronts. Perhaps we will see a lot of pass-rushing personnel like this:
DE Tagovailoa-Amosa
DT Mills
VYPER Foskey
MIKE White
WILL Liufau
ROVER Kiser
With this, you’ll either roll out 5 defensive backs or keep 4 defensive backs in favor of Botelho coming in and wreaking havoc from multiple spots. The latter could look like a 4-man front sometimes but it certainly seems like Botelho is ready to be deployed as much as a pass-rushing linebacker than a defensive end. It’s also possible they take Kiser off the field, too.
My biggest gut-wrencher after camp is the O-line report, and I’d like to pick the hive mind’s thoughts;
How good is our d line? Like top 5 nationally? Granted, theres no real way to tell at this point
Is our o line getting smacked weekly by them more of a blessing since its baptism by fire against such a tough unit?
My initial thoughts are top 5 and yes. The d line depth plus Freeman’s style seems like the ingredients to move that unit into a tops nationally one? Who else out there is as deep? Clemson, alabama, Ohio state?
I don’t know enough about other teams to offer much, but it feels weird that Notre Dame is so good up front when they don’t have any dominant pass rushers. I think it’s more that the front 7 is good (White has a ton of experience, Liufau plays like a crazy man, etc) more so than the line itself being elite. And Freeman will be more aggressive and less exotic than Lea was in a way. I was reading Botelho was lined up as a LB and even MLB in some pass rush sets, which is going to be super fun and is plenty exotic enough, I suppose.
But it does seem very good. I was never that high on Cross and always liked when Lacey got in, and I guess in part due to injury but now it looks like Cross above Lacey. And the depth of the line is really superb by ND standards too, that should be great to keep everyone fresh and hungry.
I’ve been thinking with the new transfer rule if it doesn’t offer some benefit to the school as there is no incentive for kids to transfer in fall camp if there is no clear path to playing time. They get a free transfer anyway so might as well play out the season, right?
If Coan and the wr’s are really going to play as well as it sounds like they might (or up to their potential) then it seems like we may be even better than last year. I think an increased explosive passing game will, at least, make up for lack of running from the QB and the weaker OL (which I’m still confident will be very good – even if it takes a few games). The increased explosive passing game could even make the offense better overall. And does anyone think there is really going to be any drop off on defense? Again maybe some improvement.
If so, 11-1/12-0 is certainly on the table. (I always think that you need a few bounces to go your way, so to speak, including with injuries, to get to 12-0.)
The concern has to be the pass blocking. Coan isn’t a stiff, but he likely won’t be able to create on the move as well as Book. Can we buy enough time on 3rd and 8 for the receivers to get open downfield? Because Book converted a ton of those with his feet, and I wouldn’t expect that from Coan. If the pass blocking is there, the ceiling for this offense is extremely high.
Great point.
Seems like Fisher and Patterson = no worries on pass blocking. But the other 3 will still have to prove it.
Even then, who has the talent up front to make it an issue from the top 4 teams on our schedule? Doesn’t USC have a stud DE/OLD type? UNC? Wisconsin usually has solid players but do they have a stud pass-rusher to exploit the potential weakness? Cincy has a guy on the edge (is it sanders?) who is a stud. They will obviously try to move him away from Fisher on obvious passing downs.
Williams may just need to stay in to pass block more to pick up any breakdowns.
I love that Jamie called him Ajavon Litchfield. The fact that his name is actually Litchfield Ajavon has to be one of the most confusing things that doesn’t actually matter in the history of anything and I will never blame anyone for mixing it up.
Is the August preseason positive vibes more than usual this year? It kind of feels like it. To harsh the vibe a bit: the o/u for regular season wins at FanDuel is 8.5 (though at -135 for the over) – https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/navigation/ncaaf?tab=total-wins.
yea that’s the way it seems to be. Much more positive. Usually you can point to some serious uncertainty/weakness to kind of even things out. But when the starting guards are the thing we are worried most about that seems to just be nitpicking with all the talent on the OL.
It seems to have to do not only with the typical starter positive vibe but also with some young talent showing itself – apparently quite obviously (like Styles or Bertrand) – who aren’t really being counted on. It almost seems like at more than one position there are too many talented bodies and we might end up actually not playing someone who could normally have started in other years.
Whether this is all true I don’t know but that’s why it seems different.
I suspect we may end up underrated because of so little returning production. But the top teams often have little returning production and are able to reload. Are we finally at that spot? If Coan plays as well during the season as his thursday practice report would indicate he could, it would seem so.
Yup, really positive. A few points…
1) I wonder if the media being away from the team for so long has had an effect? As in, things look a little more impressive and fresh and new? Maybe that tilts things more to the positive?
2) The media do tend to gloss over or ignore (to a degree) some of the weaknesses anyway, and maybe due to point 1 this is even more pronounced?
3) Some of the bright spots are more “fun” to read about. Receivers making plays, Coan looking good, pass rush causing problems. That’s a little more exciting than talking about offensive guards and corners, IMO.
4) Our schedule is pretty tough which a lot of people are sleeping on, hence the O/U for wins not being real high now.
ERIC’S SKEPTICAL SPOTS
OL – Just a lot of different red flags that would predict they won’t be that great. Although, they’ll probably turn out to be good eventually.
WR – I’m starting to really believe, but ND practices seem to always make the receivers look good. The practice : games relationship always seems out of whack. It’s a group trending up but I’d probably push back a little that Austin/Lenzy/Davis are about to combine for a big year.
QB – I haven’t seen this most places, but if anyone thinks Coan is going to have a huge year I’d be skeptical.
CB – Maybe the biggest issue on the team & it’s not getting a lot of press. This group doesn’t have the makings of being a strength.
SS – As mentioned, I have to see to believe with Griffith.
VYPER – The fact that the media has been pretty open about Foskey looking meh has me worried. Add in Botelho weirdness too.
SDE – I was high on MTA being moved here. So far, he seems just okay? The depth behind him leaves a lot to be desired.
CB is definitely my biggest concern. Freeman loved to move his safeties around and bring them up to the line of scrimmage at Cincy. I think Kyle Hamilton would be unbelievable in this role, but I think we’re going to need him sitting deep in coverage most of the time to help our CBs.
I think the positive vibe people are expecting Freeman/Mickens to work their magic with CB’s and do something like that they did at Cincy turning their low 3-star into a high NFL draft pick. Of course we don’t need them even to be high NFL draft picks – low NFL draft picks would be fine. 🙂
E, thanks for a healthy dose of reality — it is good to hear a balanced take. I think that your concerns are warranted and here are some additional thoughts:
OL — From what I have read, the guards are getting blown up by the pass rushers and BK admits that both are undersized. Why not try out some bigger guys at guard?
WR — Austin and Lenzy are injury prone, which means that we are just a couple of injuries away from Wilkins and a freshman (Styles) seeing big minutes.
QB — Coan is a slightly above average guy — let’s hope that the OL holds up, the receivers stay healthy, and the run game takes some pressure off of him
CB — This group seems very dependent on continued success of the front 7. If the front 7 keeps getting pressure, the CBs might be fine. However, if the pressure does not work, the corners might be in trouble.
CB may not be a strength this season BUT (1) our front seven should be good enough to cover for them in most instances and (2) which opponent will have the receivers to actually make us pay for that? Maybe SC? Who else? We made Howell look like dirt last year, and their skill group will be much less experienced this time around.
On the whole, I think that our weaknesses are manageable as long as we don’t stress those spots too much.