Saturday morning the Fighting Irish finished their 9th practice of fall camp and will be back on the field in the evening for yet another two-a-day workout. This will be the last practice report for roughly a week but Media Day is coming up on Wednesday. Now, for the info from practice No. 9…
QUARTERBACK
Through the first week we have no separation and no hot takes on the quarterback situation. Kelly reiterated after the practice some cliches in that Kizer is great at making checks while Zaire is great at using his feet to make plays. Both are moving the ball, just not always in the same ways.
The offense worked on the red zone today and the results weren’t pretty. If this keeps up we’re going to hear a never-ending hardcore narrative heading into the season. Following practice, Kelly shrugged off the struggles saying they were focused on teaching through scripted plays without running the ball in 7-on-7 situations. It expects it to be difficult on the quarterbacks.
RUNNING BACK
For the second straight viewing period from the media Josh Adams was not fully participating as he deals with a hamstring issue. Also, Dexter Williams was being used very carefully and wore a no-contact jersey.
The lack of healthy depth has allowed Tony Jones Jr. to continue to grab a healthy amount of reps and impress those in attendance. Interestingly, Kelly said afterward that they’d prefer to redshirt Jones if possible but they are comfortable if he has to play. In particular, Kelly praised Jones’ physicality and pass blocking so you know he’s really high on the list!
A couple of days after missing practice due to the birth of his child, Justin Brent was back with the team but is still recovering from a foot injury.
WIDE RECEIVER
Consistency and numerous drops plagued Thursday’s practice but on Saturday those issues were cleaned up considerably. For as much inexperience and new faces in larger roles we’re seeing in August the depth chart has remained steady throughout the first week.
Hunter (X)—Sanders (Z)—St. Brown (W)
Stepherson—Holmes—Boykin
McIntosh—Finke—Claypool/McKinley
If there’s one player emerging as the No. 2 option behind Hunter it is C.J. Sanders. He’s had consistently positive reports in all of the open practices and is bringing a superb combination of getting open, catching the ball, and making plays after the catch.
Practice Report: Tony Jones Jr. impresses again, Zaire’s play of the day, right guard a two-man battle? https://t.co/Ax5VEAjRo2
— Irish Illustrated (@PeteSampson_) August 13, 2016
TIGHT END
Not much to report on Saturday. Both Weishar and Smythe continue to share reps with the first team and Luatua is working with the backups.
OFFENSIVE LINE
We may be seeing things beginning to come into focus at right guard. On Saturday morning Tristen Hoge received most of the first-team reps followed up Colin McGovern. After practice, Kelly mentioned that Hunter Bivin is getting more work at tackle.
McGlinchey—Nelson—Mustipher—Hoge—Bars
Bivin—Ruhland—Harrell—McGovern—Kraemer
Eichenberg—Boudreaux—Bush—Byrne—Montelus
Tommy Kraemer hasn’t been featured with the starting unit in the last two open periods to the media which suggests he’s unlikely to outright win a job with the first team against Texas. However, during his presser Kelly said Kraemer is the best freshman he’s ever had at Notre Dame and they are moving him between tackle and guard.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Nose guard Daniel Cage didn’t practice while dealing with a hamstring which pushed Peter Mokwuah further up the depth chart. Fall camp has been a massively important one for Mokwuah who we had dead last on the interior to begin practices. He’s used the playing time to develop and possibly turn into a small contributor during the season.
Kelly was pretty happy with Jarron Jones’ increased reps in practice–even citing the Rochester native fighting through a sprained foot and handling things well. It seems that the concern about him being unable (or not asked) to get a ton of reps in practice is starting to fade away.
Rochell—Jones—Tillery—J. Hayes
Bonner—Mokwuah—Taylor—Trumbetti
Kareem—Tiassum—Ogundeji—D. Hayes
The depth here has taken a bit of a hit without Dew-Treadway (foot), Blankenship (transfer), and Montelus (switched back to OL). The only non-true freshman who doesn’t appear to be making a move is Brandon Tiassum. Otherwise, both Daelin Hayes and Khalid Kareem are receiving many more reps than their listed third-string status. Note we’ve placed Ogundeji at defensive tackle just to show him somewhere on the list.
All indications are pointing to Daelin Hayes living up to the hype. Once again, Kelly was praising the true freshman and he received some first-team reps. If his shoulders are fine–and they appear to be–it’s clear Hayes is going to play a lot in 2016.
Kelly had some intriguing thoughts on Trumbetti today, basically saying the junior suffers from some confidence issues and is really hard on himself. Yet, he seemed pleased with Trumbetti’s ability to get after the quarterback and his improvement holding the edge against the run.
LINEBACKER
It was an uncharacteristically quiet morning practice for the linebackers. The top five appears pretty much locked in (Onwualu, Morgan, Martini, Bilal, Coney) it’s just a matter of who will play the most among those last three.
Onwualu (SAM)—Morgan (MIKE)—Bilal (WILL)
Martini—Barajas—Coney
Of note, freshman Jonathan Jones made a nice interception on Brandon Wimbush. The struggles of Josh Barajas were well covered early in camp but he appears to be settling in a little more now.
CORNER
We’re entering territory where it would take a big upset to change up the top three corners. Most notably, Nick Coleman continues to excel giving the opportunity to gain first-team reps.
Coleman having great camp- third corner
My practice report on #NotreDame‘s defense https://t.co/AvPeq2T2Gu Loved what I saw from CB Nick Coleman today ($) pic.twitter.com/wPfb3BNEPW
— Jamie Uyeyama (@jamieuyeyama) August 13, 2016
As of today, Luke, Crawford, and Coleman are the top three guys. Although others are playing well it’s unlikely the young guys are penetrating that trio.
Interestingly, Kelly did mention that both Vaughn and Love could potentially play as true freshmen against Texas. Perhaps even more interesting, Troy Pride was thought by some to be a threat to play out of the gate, and while reports are mostly positive, he’s not in the same position right now as someone like Vaughn. Count me as one of the folks who thinks Vaughn needs a good hard look at safety in the event that he’s impressing but can’t find snaps at corner in 2016.
SAFETY
For the second straight open practice freshman Devin Studstill was held out while nursing a hamstring.
Let’s hope this injury doesn’t linger. The depth back here still is not in a great spot with someone like Jalen Elliott forced into a much larger role while Studstill rests.
SPECIAL TEAMS
We haven’t tackled any special teams yet this August. Despite finishing last year on a tear sophomore kicker Justin Yoon has looked very shaky over the last two open practices. On the flip side, punter Tyler Newsome has looked outrageously good during camp.
I seem to remember a discussion concerning BK’s scheme not being red zone friendly. I think that discussion was in here, but I’m not sure. It seems philisophically, BK wants offenses that grab big chunk yardage first. It seems like the focus of the offense is chunk yards. I don’t know, maybe it’s a philosophical thing.
So, how about it all you smart guys. Are the red zone issues a philisophical thing, a scheme thing, or anything else?
I thought from a few articles this group did showed that schematically BK does some nice things in the redzone but that execution is key and at times we didn’t get it. Was the other thing that running the ball makes it easier and somehow our great OL wasn’t doing as well in the redzone, but I’d have to double-check that.
Little bit of everything, IMO. Turnovers, lack of QB continuity, and teaching. But mostly turnovers, which I guess can be trickled down to other problem areas.
I was going to try to blame Rees/Golson here for poor decision making, but it looks like the number has been hovering around 80% since 2012, not a lot of movement. Just slightly below average for FBS teams.
Now this site doesn’t break it down into FG vs TDs, it’s just a % of trips that came away with points.
https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/red-zone-scoring-pct
So without any facts to back me up, I will say the red zone offense will improve this year!
I fully expect C.J. Sanders bubble screens to be my favorite play this season.