The Fighting Irish returned to the indoor Loftus Center for the first practice of spring in the early morning hours of March 8th. The media was allowed a brief glimpse of the workout and won’t see anything else until well after the Easter break. These are the only bread crumbs we have for now.
Quarterback
There were some oddities with the offense for this first practice but that didn’t include anointed starter Brandon Wimbush who worked with the first unit. The exceedingly early takeaways? His size is a little bit alarming compared to Kizer (Wimbush is listed at 6-1) but his arm talent and precision are impressive right now.
Not that it matters, but Montgomery VanGorder worked with the second unit early in practice while Ian Book worked with the third unit. For what it’s worth the reports on Book in his first spring practice were modestly positive.
Running Back
No surprise as Josh Adams and Dexter Williams led the way with the first two units. The open practice viewings are typically worthless for running backs until there are scrimmages to witness. Otherwise, we’re left with “catches the ball well out of the backfield” as the most interesting commentary.
The youngsters certainly aren’t light as rising redshirt freshman Tony Jones comes into spring at a sturdy 224 pounds on his 5-10 1/2 frame. If my math is correct, Jones is the heaviest back at Notre Dame since Jonas Gray was a similar 5-10 and 230 pounds his senior year in 2011. Early enrolee C.J. Holmes is no pip squeak either measured at 6-0 and 206 pounds in his first spring.
Wide Receiver
Here’s where things got a little strange on Wednesday morning. Getting reps with the first unit was Equanimeous St. Brown and then both C.J. Sanders and Chris Finke. The speed lineup!
The second lineup featured two big receivers in Chase Claypool and Miles Boykin with walk-on Austin Webster. You may remember Webster was named one of the captains. The third unit saw Kevin Stepherson, Deon McIntosh, and Javon McKinley. As expected, McKinley is still working his way back from a broken leg although Stepherson dropping down to the third team–if only for one spring practice viewing period–is a little curious. There have been rumors for months that there was something going on with Stepherson and possible punishment of some sort coming. Perhaps he needs to work his way back to the starting unit?
Tight End
Durham Smythe–now up to a healthy 256 pounds–took his place with the first team with Nic Weishar trotted out with the second unit. Nothing too earth shattering there for the first day. Alize Jones (now sporting #86 as Finke remains in the #10 jersey) was back at practice following his suspension. On Tuesday’s press conference Brian Kelly said Jones was “on track” to be eligible which I guess is good news.
Practice Report: Day One https://t.co/h7pn21EHjt#NotreDame pic.twitter.com/sAkoZwDger
— Matt Freeman (@mattfreemanISD) March 8, 2017
Bringing up the rear was freshman Brock Wright and senior Tyler Luatua. If you recall, Luatua skipped (is this the correct term?) spring ball last year after seeking a transfer before returning to the team and no longer appears to be a serious player on the offense. Wright at his age is an outstanding 6-5 and 252 pounds!
Offensive Line
The Irish opened up the first practice with the following units from left to right:
McGlinchey–Nelson–Mustipher–Bars–Kraemer
Banks–Hainsey–Hoge–Ruhland–Eichenberg
Bivin–Plantz–Boudreaux–Byrne–Bush
If day one means anything the experiment of Alex Bars at guard was an off-season priority. As expected, center and the left side remain the same while redshirt freshman Tommy Kraemer got first crack at the open right tackle position.
In a bit of a twist, both early enrollees (Banks & Hainsey) debuted with the second-team while 5th-year senior Hunter Bivin was all the way down on the third team. Bivin may just be the guy filling holes this spring. I figured at some point Boudreaux would get a look at center and here he opens up the spring in the middle. That could be the long-term spot for him especially after being listed at 288 pounds on the updated roster.
Something I found worth discussing is that until last year there was very little movement along the offensive line during the spring and fall camps. Occasionally, one position would see a head-to-head battle. Last year, we saw 4 guys in serious contention for starting spots and lots of movement with seemingly every practice. Will we see that again this spring?
Defensive Line
We have some movement with the depth chart, at least on day one!
Coming out with the first team Andrew Trumbetti (previously at weak-side) was working on the strong side while Jonathan Bonner (previously a strong-side end) was working at defensive tackle. Bonner is more than big enough (6-3, 284) to play inside but Trumbetti at 252 is a sizable step down in size from any normal strong-side end. These two were joined by Tillery at the nose and Daelin Hayes at the drop end.
The second team featured Jay Hayes on the strong side, Julian Okwara at drop, with Taylor and Dew-Treadway on the inside. The Irish received some good news on Tuesday when Daniel Cage was cleared fully for practice after missing 4 games last year with concussion problems. However, the nose guard is listed at 329 on a 6-1 frame and it wouldn’t shock if he spent most of the off-season and into the fall getting back into shape, particularly if the staff won’t push him very hard with this past head history.
Linebackers
Nyles Morgan led the defense from his middle linebacker spot which was expected. Joining him on the first team was Greer Martini and Asmar Bilal at the Rover position. Following the practice, Kelly had some interesting comments about the Rover position in which he said it’d be a fluid position based on opponents. Since the team is opening up with more power run teams (hi, Georgia!) Bilal is getting first crack.
Kelly also said he likes Bilal’s physicality at the point of attack and ability to cover tight ends and running backs but they won’t ask him to cover vertical routes down the field. Presumably, we’re going to see Drue Tranquill as the other guy to rotate down to Rover against those teams. However, both players are basically the same size and I have a hard time visualizing Tranquill running with slot receivers down the field. Could it be someone else at Rover? Perhaps more of a nickel corner-type? Are we waiting for Shaun Crawford to get healthy, perhaps?
The Rover linebacker spot won’t reach a spring conclusion. But Wednesday, Asmar Bilal offered an introduction. https://t.co/a3TtJ9llF5 pic.twitter.com/b03xVDDo65
— Irish Illustrated (@PeteSampson_) March 9, 2017
Running with the second unit was Jon Jones at the Mike, Te’von Coney at the Buck, and surprisingly walk-on Robert Regan at Rover. I’d imagine a walk-on won’t be a backup at Rover for very long.
Secondary
The updated roster had both Nick Coleman and Ashton White moved to safety from corner and the former was with the first group along side Tranquill on Wednesday. The embattled Coleman–who fell apart last year–actually received some nice praise during the viewing period. He’s now listed at 187 pounds which is lighter than most of the corners on the roster. Can he hold up at safety?
The rising sophomores Devin Studstill and Jalen Elliott were the safeties for the second unit. Of note, there’s been talk that these two will be flip-flopping sides with Elliott to free safety even though he’s now 10 pounds heavier than Studstill.
With Coleman and White moved to safety there are only 4 healthy bodies at corner which really condenses this off-season fight but sounds like a recipe for disaster if there’s another injury. For the first practice, Julian Love and Nick Watkins were out with the first unit while Troy Pride and Donte Vaughn were with the backups. I would like to point out that Vaughn is becoming an enormous corner at 6-2, 209 if those numbers are close to accurate.
🏈 @NDFootball is BACK!
1st practice of the 2017 season is in the books. pic.twitter.com/YkeSGsfLAB
— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) March 9, 2017
I think this team is going to be a lot of fun to watch, but there may be a lot of “first to 45 wins”-type games.
So you’re telling me there’s a chance…
I love that Alize sacked up and got his grades in order. He is from out west and could have so easily bailed at the first sign of adversity. Very mature and responsible move.
True, although still a bit concerning that he’s not out of the water yet…so it seems. Could be just Kelly making sure he keeps the pressure on him. His comments seemed to suggest that.
Yeah. And there’s always the chance that he just isn’t naturally smart enough to deal with football and academic rigors at ND. Some normies can’t deal with just the academics. But it was a very mature decision to try to stick it out, rather than head to easier pastures. I will always be impressed by that.
I’m confused as to the position of the person who “thumbs downed” your comments. Is that you, Brock Wright, hoping to remove someone ahead of you on the depth chart?
For everyone terrified about the DL (for good reason), maybe this will help a bit. Here are the national recruiting ranking for SDE/DT/NG/WDE.
1st line – #143 (SR), #600 (SR), #145 (JR), #132 (SO)
2nd line – #237 (SR), #544 (JR), #318 (JR), #299 (SO)
Other 4 stars – Cage #300, Kareem #189, Ewell #149
When you just see the rankings and ages, this looks awesome! Obviously it isn’t actually awesome, but there is at least some natural talent and/or potential there.
On that note, drop end is scary thin. If D. Hayes and Okwara can’t play all of the snaps who else is there? Is there where Jamir Jones drops down to play too? The other three positions are a little more stable (with a healthy Cage and the moves of Trumbetti/J. Hayes/Bonner), but the hybrid style type end is thin and totally unproven.
My guess is Trumbetti was moved because he is not the hybrid type style that fits in this defense, but having two soph’s (wasn’t Okwara listed at 235 too????) fighting for playing time makes me nervous.
It’s a little early to write these positions in stone based on a few minutes of the first practice of spring. I’m sure others, including Trumbetti, will figure into and get some looks at WDE. Overall, DL doesn’t have the same learning curve between spots that other position groups have. Guys can move around to give different looks without too much classroom work needed.
Unless, of course, they’re running the super-secret BVG Cover DL scheme.
No doubt FTQ that things aren’t set in stone, but if the WDE is as Kelly said more of a “hybrid” player that just doesn’t seem like Trumbetti at all.
Yup, gotta think Jamir becomes a drop end pretty soon if not already.
He’s an inch and a half shorter than Okwara but 8 pounds heavier. He has to move, right?
I’m thinking Vaughn gets some snaps at drop end by the end of the season.
Bold but I like it.
Exactly. If Okwara can “hold up” there then Jamir should have the size to be there too.
Unlike some, Kelly’s off season epiphanies do not give me the warm and fuzzies for next season. It seems he had a large disconnect from what was actually unfolding in front of him last year. I’m just having trouble believing that it’s all OK now.
He didn’t realize his S&C coach was struggling and someone needed to step in? He couldn’t see that his DC was costing him games? It took sit downs with his players to show him the errors of his ways?
I have my doubts.
It would be very surprising if at least some of these “epiphanies” weren’t really strongly suggested (if not effectively forced upon him) by Jack Swarbrick.
There were also rumors that assistants were encouraging players to explicitly tell Kelly that Longo was bad at his job, so maybe they had to hit him over the head with it.
Me too, me too.
On the one hand, I am sympathetic to the duties a Notre Dame coach must deal with on a daily basis. This job will slowly seek out your weaknesses and eventually expose them. In some ways I can completely understand how Kelly could become too stand offish from his players and the program as a whole. I can even understand how the program can quickly dissolve before anyone can really get a grip on things.
Still, it’s difficult to be excited about the changes IF ONLY because they speak to some serious areas of neglect. I still struggle with some of those areas of neglect and how much they’re being sold (did McGlinchey flat out not lift weights because that’s what they’re making it sound like!??) down the river, though.
It’s probably somewhere in the middle isn’t it? The problems they are correcting really weren’t that bad and the new solutions probably aren’t going to solve everything.
I cannot comprehend how McGlinchey, supposedly a first round talent at Tackle, could only put up 14 reps of 225….
That should have been enough of a sign for Kelly that Longo has to go.
That is remarkably few. Only a small subset of fans would recognize it but it is eye-popping.
I mean obviously I cant do that much…but hes also literally almost 2x bigger than me.
And just briefly perusing the 2015 combine figures, only 3 OL were under 20. Really just inexcusable, even with those long arms.
I started out writing a novel trying to defend loyalty in response to this comment, but in the middle of my response, I decided you’re right. Loyalty is a great trait in a boss, but loyalty to the point of losing your job is just suicidal.
But, dude, YOGA! It’s all, like, right there in his mind, man, he just had to, you know, unlock his potential and align his chakras!
Kelly clarified Stepherson’s position at the after practice presser. He responded when asked that it had more to do with getting other guys learning the position and so getting more reps than it was anything wrong with Stepherson.
Of course he’d say that haha!
Ridiculously off-topic but I just read an article by Bernie Miklasz (columnist and radio host of 101 ESPN local show in St. Louis) making the case for Mizzou to go after Tom Crean when he’s fired by IU. In the article, he pointed out some interesting notions about Indiana basketball (and its vocal fanbase) that parallel ND football and the wonderful bastion of optimism that is NDN. He noted that “Indiana has impossibly high standards, and is hopelessly overloaded with glory-days sentiment and nostalgia” (check), that fans have an obsession with a championship-winning coach of old Bob Knight and that “If a coach isn’t Knight, then he’s unworthy of the Indiana gig” (check), and “Smothering expectations can take the air out of a coach’s lungs. Five NCAA Championship banners are on display at Assembly Hall, and unless you coached one of the teams responsible for the totems, then you haven’t done your job. You are a failure.” (check)
Just thought is was interesting. I apologize for the diversion from previously scheduled programing.
Crean is definitely better than his experience at Indiana. If he goes, Indiana’s in a similar boat to us if Kelly gets dropped…who would agree to go there that the fans would want? Regardless, I think Crean would be picked up quick.