The return of Five Wide Fullbacks is looking forward to the summer. With spring football behind us we’re discussing some of the hotter topics on the Notre Dame football roster. Today we’ll wonder which position needs developmental depth now, a position not out of the weeds yet, talk of Patterson to guard again, where the team needs to get healthy, and turning one weakness into a strength for 2022.
1) For the second off-season in a row the Irish beat media are talking about potential or even likely plans of center Jarrett Patterson moving positions. Will they actually make the switch this season and is it a good idea?
Last season it seemed like a move that didn’t have an easy answer. Notre Dame was replacing both tackles and was bringing in “All-American” transfer Cain Madden so it made some sense to put Patterson at left tackle. This was before it was known that highly-touted freshman Blake Fisher would start off at tackle or that Joe Alt would later emerge as a freshman All-American in his own right after the injury to Fisher.
In hindsight, 2021 may have been the opportunity to move Patterson to guard and not tackle. They experimented with moving Zeke Correll to left guard and that did not work out well. With Patterson out for the spring due to his pectoral injury it seems like they’ve rehabilitated Correll’s confidence at center. The question then becomes can you live with the downgrade at center with Correll if Patterson makes you stronger at left guard over Andrew Kristofic.
I’m okay with the move because until further notice guard is a major weakness on the line. Kristofic may feel hard done by a switch after playing respectfully well in his first full year of action. On the other side, you have Josh Lugg and the possibility of another injury for a veteran with a history of missing time. Kristofic could end up switching to right guard and playing a lot if that happens anyway.
2) Looking ahead to 2023, what is the position on the team that needs to build depth or have a young player emerge as a potential future starter this fall?
Wide receiver immediately jumps to mind but I’ll choose the Vyper position.
I immediately started to worry last year when Jordan Botelho was moved to linebacker because of a log-jam at Vyper. However, there is no log-jam at Vyper. The Irish will go into 2022 with Isaiah Foskey surely playing his final season and Justin Ademilola out of eligibility after one more run. With those two things look great! After that, who knows!
A Vyper savior?
Right now, we’re looking at 4 future options:
Will Schweitzer – An unknown 3-star rising redshirt freshman coming off a knee injury. Technically, listed at linebacker on the latest roster so maybe not even an option.
Aiden Gobaira – A freshman who we liked a lot but wasn’t physically ready to make an impact, at least during the spring.
Josh Burnham – My grade for Burnham in the 2022 class wasn’t as high as others (91 against 93 for Tyler and 95 for Brendan) at linebacker but he’s a different story at defensive end. There’s lots of potential but just as much work to do as Gobaira.
Keon Keeley – Comfortably the top edge rusher in the 2023 recruiting class and a dynamite prospect.
It seems like a lock that Notre Dame is going into 2023 with an extreme amount of inexperience at Vyper. Would something like 50 snaps combined from the likes of Gobaira and Burnham be all they’ll get this fall?
3) Notre Dame looked to improve at a few positions during the spring. Which spot that took a step forward do you think has potential to be a concern?
There weren’t enough bodies available to say receiver improved during the spring, so they are out. We didn’t get to see Tyler Buchner in the Blue-Gold Game but if you trust the reports of how well he did throughout spring practice it’s another option to consider if you’re also worried about the backup situation. I’d pick safety as one position that really looked to take a big step forward but isn’t out of the woods yet.
He will be, uhh, missed.
I’ll give you Brandon Joseph as a quality starter, and maybe even much better. Finding a consistent second starter appears to be one of the missing pieces to the defense and the team as a whole.
I’d bet we’ll see a heavy rotation of veteran D.J. Brown mixed in with Ramon Henderson, at least early in 2022. Throughout spring it seemed as if Henderson was trending as the potential future at the position–we’ll see if that continues.
4) Which off-season injury is the most important for Notre Dame to see a full recovery?
We have several major contributors and/or starters to choose from who are currently on the DL:
WR Avery Davis (knee)
DT Jayson Ademilola (shoulder)
C/LG(?) Jarrett Patterson (pectoral)
CB Cam Hart (shoulder)
RB Logan Diggs (shoulder)
Due to the nature of the position I can’t pick Diggs. He’s not that proven and the depth in the backfield is looking a lot more steady with the spring’s emergence of freshman Jadarian Price. The easy answer probably would be Patterson, to be honest. But, that’s also rather boring.
I’d make the case for Avery Davis. He’s the only returning captain among the skill position players, including tight end and quarterback. There are probably other options the offense would be fine with in the slot yet Avery is by far the most experienced and comfortable in that role. While breaking in a new starter at quarterback I’d argue the presence of Davis will be massive, especially early in the season.
5) If you have the power to turn one weakness into a strength for 2022 between wide receiver or special teams, which do you choose?
Look at me, I’m pretty chill about special teams. Punt and kick return have never been more irrelevant in the sport and as weird as it was that Brian Kelly seemed ambivalent at best about special teams the Irish, despite occasional shaky coverage teams, usually had competent field goal kicking and punting for over a decade.
Most years, I’d pick wide receiver. If we’re going to embrace the power of literally changing anything into what I want it has to be wideout.
Special teams talk?
Trying to be more realistic, I would go with special teams for a couple reasons. One, the offense with Buchner is probably averaging something like 24 or 25 passes per game and that means receivers won’t be super important. Two, there’s the fear of the unknown working here. For example, Lorenzo Styles is on pace to make a nice little sophomore jump whereas 90% of the Notre Dame fan base doesn’t even know the names of the people competing to kick or punt this year.
Lastly, this is team lining up to be strong on defense and pretty good running the ball. It sounds like there will be some games where punting and kicking critical field goals will be important. Let’s hope Notre Dame fans learn Brian Mason’s name in a positive fashion this fall.
The OSU game is officially the national primetime ABC game and host to College Game Day. Not sure who this ratchets the pressure up on more, Marcus Freeman or the Columbus fire department.
It’s interesting to me that this really isn’t the first place that I’ve seen major concern about ND’s safeties this year. Joseph seems, at worst, like he’s going to be solid. And at best, he has all-American upside. DJ Brown appeared to be very solid in the playing time he got last year (other than the bowl game, which was a dumpster fire across the board for the defense). And Henderson sounds like he has the highest upside of the 3! I think it’s much more likely that this group ends up being EXCELLENT than being a weakness. I wouldn’t be shocked if we see Freeman getting 3 safeties on the field at the same time for some snaps this year, like he did at Cincy.
Aren’t we expecting Xavier Watts to make improvements at S too?
Yep, it seemed like he was getting just as much hype as Henderson last year. I really would be surprised if they can’t put something strong together at safety this year with all of those solid athletes.