Notre Dame was back on campus for the 6th practice of fall camp Thursday morning after spending 5 days at Culver Academies an hour south of South Bend. The media was allowed to view the entire workout today and will also be present for Saturday’s morning practice. Let’s get to the good stuff.
QUARTERBACK
We’re coming up on a week’s worth of practices and is there any separation between the quarterbacks? “No,” says Brian Kelly. Well, then.
For now, things are still looking gravy. Following an underwhelming opening practice on Saturday the quarterbacks were noted as much more productive back on campus. In keeping with the rotation, Zaire took the first reps with the starters today.
RUNNING BACK
A handful of injuries, mostly of the nagging variety, have infiltrated fall camp. Josh Adams was limited during the workout with a hamstring and spent time working with the training staff.
Brian Kelly praised Tarean Folston afterward telling the world he is not concerned about his knee anymore. Further, the coach continues to pile a lot of praise on Dexter Williams citing a lot of growth on the football field since he’s turned the corner and become more confident handling his academic work load.
With Adams on the sidelines, freshman Tony Jones continues to get increased reps and impress with his all-around game. Of note, injured running back Justin Brent (foot) was not in attendance as he was witnessing the birth of his son born today on his birthday. Congrats to him!
WIDE RECEIVER
The theme for the wideouts this camp continues to revolve around consistency–lots of drops, lots of mental errors and mistakes mixed in with flashes of brilliance. Miles Boykin was singled out by Kelly as someone starting to develop. The media reported that St. Brown has been able to get open but is struggling catching with a strained thumb. In other injury news, Hunter was limited due to a hamstring issue.
Kelly did say that the freshmen expect to play, which he likes. Judging from the comments from camp it seems a matter of when and not if this will happen. We haven’t seen any major shake up in the rotation among the viewing periods–Hunter (X), Sanders (Z), and St. Brown (W) are the 1st-teamers. There was a change up with the backups as Stepherson (X) and Holmes (Z) switched spots while playing with Boykin (W).
Walk-on Chris Finke was brought up again in the press conference with Kelly calling him (with a tinge of comedy in his voice) a Robby Toma “with more speed.” The redshirt freshman from Ohio received some 2nd-team reps in the slot on Thursday.
TIGHT END
If you take a poll among the media right now Nic Weishar might be the top player through 4 hours of practice time. Kelly mentioned that his conditioning and work volume have increased greatly which has contributed to his improved production in practice. There are still some good things being said about Durham Smythe but if this keeps up we might see Weishar playing the most among tight ends and certainly catching the most passes during the season.
OFFENSIVE LINE
The battle for the right guard spot is heating up heading into the home stretch of fall camp practices before the team transitions to preparations for Texas. On Thursday, redshirt freshman Tristen Hoge got the first call with the starters.
McGlinchey—Nelson—Mustipher—Hoge—Bars
Bivin—Ruhland—Harrell—Kraemer—McGovern
Eichenberg—Boudreaux—Bush—Byrne—Montelus
For the 6th practice the Irish rotated each of Hoge/Bivin/McGovern at the first-team right guard spot. When Bivin wasn’t with the starters he moved over to backup left tackle which pushed freshman Liam Eichenberg down to third-team. When Hoge works at the top this bumps Harrell up to 2nd-team center. As much as the team is still trying to settle on the right person at right guard it appears they are also being very liberal making sure the likes of Bivin and Hoge can play multiple positions as the so-called “favored” backups right now.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Word began spreading yesterday and the news came on Thursday that tackle Micah Dew-Treadway is out 8 weeks with a broken foot. He had been working as the 3rd-string tackle from the 3-tech position. Starting nose guard Daniel Cage was also limited by a hamstring issue which allowed the media to get a good look at Peter Mokwuah–he did okay! Clearly limited in terms of explosiveness and disruption but improving in his ability to stand his ground.
During the last viewing period the praise for the D-line was fairly minimal but it picked up on Thursday. Rochell continues to anchor the line looking bigger and better than ever. Despite concerns coming into camp, Tillery looks physically ready to play a ton. After the practice Kelly mentioned that the staff is really loving the power they can display on the edges with Rochell and Hayes. Even Trumbetti was doing some good things while splitting co-starter reps on the first team.
An interesting lineup to note is that in some nickel looks the line consisted of Trumbetti (DE), Rochell (DT), Bonner (DT), and Daelin Hayes (DE).
LINEBACKER
Asmar Bilal worked with the starters at weak-side linebacker again, receiving mostly positive reviews from practice. After practice, Kelly was asked if Bilal was beginning to solidify this position and the coach was pretty firm in saying that wasn’t the case. In fact, he said Bilal still had some room to catch Coney and Martini–who are receiving reps at the weak-side too but not during the media portions, presumably.
Athletically, the duo of Morgan and Bilal in the middle continues to impress. Both with lots of speed and range from sideline to sideline. Morgan’s development at Mike seems to be going about as well as expected, too. In control of the defense, making the right checks, and cleaning up things really well between the tackles. Bilal apparently is still having some issues dealing with the power aspects of linebacker but has amazing range. Conversely, Coney is much stronger and instinctive in the dirty areas but offers less impact elsewhere.
CORNER
We now have a little more insight into the recovery of Nick Watkins who underwent a bone growth procedure and will be re-evaluated in 4 weeks. That officially opens up a starting spot (technically not his to begin with but he was favored to win it) that has been a dog fight between Crawford, Coleman, and White.
Ashton White looks to be one of the early camp revelations, someone not really thought to be a big part of the secondary but quickly moving up into the top portion of the depth chart. All signs point to Cole Luke being a leader and senior star on the defense. So that’s good.
In addition to commenting on the freshmen wideouts, Brian Kelly told the media that the freshmen corners also expect to play. The depth chart remained largely the same on Thursday with Crawford/Luke on the outside and Coleman coming in when Crawford shifts to nickel. True freshman Julian Love remains the backup nickel corner.
SAFETY
This position was without freshman Devin Studstill who was nursing a hamstring tweak and worked out leisurely off to the side. In his absence, fellow freshman Jalen Elliott got a lot of reps at free safety. Also working with the backups was a combination of Spencer Perry and D.J. Morgan on the strong-side as Avery Sebastian missed time with an injury.
Kelly was not mincing his words after practice telling the world that Max Redfield was playing at an elite level during camp. The continued hopeful breakout remains ever-present in the defense. The senior continues to match up with Drue Tranquill with the starters.
See you Saturday with more updates!
Not sure where to put this but what does this mean for Texas’s QB for the opening game?
Phil Steele@philsteele042
Texas S Kevin Vaccaro confirms QB Jerrod Heard’s (PS#5, 10 starts, 1770 yards in 2015) move to WR burntorangenation.com/2016/8/10/1243… via @BON_SBNation
Heard was 3rd on the depth chart as Buechele and Swoopes are sharing first team reps.
Losing Watkins is a little concerning considering we’re starting off with Texas and their wide-open new offense. All of a sudden seems we’re a little thin at corner, no?
Inexperienced, Yes. Thin, no. With Luke holding down one side, having three guys that could play in Coleman, Crawford, and White doesn’t seem thin. And if Love is the backup Nickel. Assuming Crawford starts – with Coleman getting a lot of time in the Nickel (when Crawford slides inside) seems fine. Not sure we lost much experience with Watkins either (though certainly another talented kid). For once we aren’t that thin – like we have been in the past – even if we are inexperienced. And that still leaves Pride, and Vaughn on the bench as freshmen that can’t get on the field (assuming they don’t play there way into the rotation).
On the plus side, the defense will be facing a true freshman quarterback taking his first college snaps in an offense just installed this offseason. And playing in prime time against a ranked opponent. That’s not a great situation to be in for Texas.
This is why all coaches get ulcers. From Alabama to Florida A&M, there’s always something to keep you up at night.
I assume this involves giving Watkins a bottle of Skele-Gro? Can we get youngcurmudgeon to confirm?
I wasnt aware YC was the resident Harry Potter expert.
Just our medical expert
I hope we start hearing more positive info about the WRs . We heard good things about Corey Holmes all off season. Now, not so much. It won’t matter who’s throwing the ball if the wide outs can’t get on the same page as the QB and hold onto the ball.
I think the offense needs to carry the team this year . We need all the offensive position groups to meet expectations.
They’ve actually looked pretty good overall, but they had a bad day yesterday. As Eric noted, St. Brown has had a couple of drops that may be attributable to his thumb issues. McKinley made a nice move on a short route to burn Cole Luke, but then Luke caught him from behind and punched the ball out. Holmes had a couple of drops. It could well have been just a sloppy camp day that they need to put behind them.
Claypool has really impressed thus far, even as raw as he is. Jamie U guested on the Rakes of Mallow podcast the other day and said he thinks Claypool could match Corey Robinson’s sophomore production this year. Seriously… Stepherson also has been extremely consistent, as has Finke. I’m confident we’ll find enough quality pieces in the mix to have a very good receiving corps.
I’m getting a little frustrated with Longo.
Before I go further, I’ll say that very few people appreciate the importance of strength and conditioning more than I do. I was a competitive athlete in high school, did body building in college and grad school, and do crossfit now.
I’ll also say that Longo has been a big improvement over what was before, and we’ve got a better infrastructure (training table) than we did before he started.
Now the complaints. Why all the broken feet? And the hamstring injuries? The latter I find particularly unforgivable. Some are always going to happen, but for the most part, with proper warming up *and appropriately limiting volume* it’s entirely preventable.
When he visited, Pete Sampson was asked what he thought about Longo. He said that there had been enough non-contact knee injuries to be suspicious of Longo’s methods. You might also recall a high incidence of hamstring injuries in Longo’s first year.
I just don’t know why we don’t find out more from Stanford. They’ve had an extremely low prevalence of injuries in back to back years. There are other programs with low injury prevalence (Chip Kelly’s programs, for example).
Thinking of the worst case here, we shouldn’t be prepared to brush off a third straight year of high injuries as bad luck. That just defies belief.