We’re just about half way through spring practice for the football team, it’s been quiet, and it’s bound to stay quiet. Two long breaks from school and March Madness taking up the bulk of the attention will do that. However, we still have 2 more full open practices for the media to view plus the upcoming Blue Gold Game on April 22nd. Yes, it’s amazing that the spring game is still that far away.
Here are five hot topics rattling around in my brain lately…
Some of These Guys Aren’t Playing
Spring time is always for rebuilding optimism and this is particularly true this off-season for the offense. It’s not hard to get caught up in the talent the Irish have on that side of the ball. You really have to actively go out of your way to be a Debbie downer for the offense, especially at the individual level. I know I’m guilty of seeing all of the pieces and imagining things coming together for a terrific offense.
We’re at the stage now where the depth is beginning to come over us like a hazy fog. Multiple tight end sets, a trio of running backs, and receivers beginning to blossom are some of the major story lines lately.
We know some of these guys won’t play that much though, right?
The situation vis a vis new OC Chip Long and the tight ends is something I’m definitely eyeing skeptically. Do I think he’ll play a bunch of tight ends? Do I think we’ll see two tight end sets as the base offense, or rather, the most used formation? I think we’ll see an increase in tight ends used but right now I wouldn’t believe it’ll be by a huge amount and most of that increase will be due to one Mr. Alize Jones.
One thing I’m completely not ready to do is pencil in Durham Smythe as one of the team’s top playmakers, and thus, I’m not sure two tight end sets really need to be that huge of an emphasis. I’m sure he can improve and Long will make him better but I’m not really ready to hand Smythe all this playing time over someone like Chase Claypool or Dexter Williams.
Tempo!
The increased tempo and RPO stuff (this makes me feel old phrasing it this way!) is fun and interesting to read about this time of year. What else is there really to digest? Still, there are limits. The same goes for Long being the master of the offense. It’s intriguing to debate and wonder how things will be different but I try not to fall into the trap that the Irish will be opening a magic bottle in the fall.
Many of the same things could be said about the defense, of course. T’is the season for “everything is better” articles. T’is the season for weaknesses being identified and corrected into positives, across the board. We generally know there’s a good amount of off-season fluff involved here but with the defense there’s so much room for getting better that even mild improvement in a few areas could portend big things.
The offense? Well, I think we’ve been in too many battles with Brian Kelly to feel as if something like tempo will automatically make things better. I’d even give decent odds that tempo ends up being a much smaller story line in the middle of the season, which by the way, is a history we’ve already lived in the Kelly era.
Waiting on Those Freshmen
Switching to the defense the biggest concern remains the defensive line, particularly the interior. It doesn’t help that Elijah Taylor was lost for the long-term as he was one of the inexperienced guys who could’ve made a nice jump this spring and definitely added plus depth.
It’s feeling like we are what we are and there really isn’t much to do about it right now. What’s more, the spring really isn’t a time where we’re going to be convinced of much regarding the likes of Tillery and Cage. We don’t see or hear enough from practices and the chips aren’t laid down on the table in real game situations. They haven’t had to grind through multiple games yet.
Scott Pagano could come in as a grad transfer which would be cool. However, I’ve been hesitant to rate him as anything other than a decent starter for the Irish. We can definitely use the help but I doubt his ceiling is very high.
2015-16
Scott Pagano
651 snaps, 17 solo, 38 tackles, 6.5 TFL, 2 sacks, 1 QBHJerry Tillery
978, 28 solo, 49 tackles, 5 TFL, 1 sack, 5 QBH— Eric Murtaugh (@EMMurtaugh) March 28, 2017
With the injury to Taylor, I’m getting more and more convinced that Ewell, Tagovailoa-Amosa, and Hinish will all play a lot this year. And even before spring I was convinced these guys were going to come in and make an impact. This is probably the biggest thing I look forward to in fall camp.
Need to Talk About Coleman
Maybe it ultimately fails spectacularly but the story of Nick Coleman moving to safety is THE story of the spring. I love it. I can’t remember a time when we weren’t crying aloud about having someone move from corner to safety because of the poor depth at the back end. When they finally do it they pick the 187 pound kid whose confidence was nuked last year.
This could be an amazing story!
I love it for a few reasons. One, Coleman got roasted so badly last year in such a small sample size that going back to corner–where several younger players are blossoming–felt like a really bad idea. Even if he regained his August 2016 fall camp form when most reports had him clearly as the No. 2 true outside corner would he see the field that much in 2017? Maybe, but a fresh start elsewhere sounds far better.
Secondly, I’m 100% in favor of more speed over size at safety. In fact, size at safety is probably as overrated as any position on the field. The only problem with this is that Coleman’s tackling needs improvement (he struggled big time with this last year and Kelly pointed it out earlier in the spring) and admittedly being smaller with that problem isn’t super great. Still, in the brief windows the media has watched Coleman has looked pretty good.
Super Early New Coaching Judging
Mike Elko, DC/S
If the Freshmen 3 don’t pan out, and/or Pagano doesn’t transfer here, and the line disappoints (not that expectations are that high anyway) the heat is really going to turn up on Mike Elston. Beyond that, Elko has a pretty big job to re-train and improve the safeties. I’d like to give him a nice high five for agreeing to take on Nick Coleman but he still has his hands full here and with the defense overall.
Chip Long, OC/TE
Speaking of heat, no other coach has been given so much talent. With great power comes great responsibility. Things are progressing pretty smoothly for the offense which is a good sign. As noted above, I wouldn’t say I’m super high on the tight ends aside from Jones so I think Long could have more of a challenge there than most expect.
Brian Polian, ST
Who can really judge at this point? How much must it suck to be a special teams coach? You spend all off-season trying to teach your players without fans and media having any idea what’s going on. That’s actually not a terrible thing. But, we’ll get some glimpses this spring and usually it’s all negative based. Dexter wasn’t catching punts very well! Yoon didn’t look sharp on his 4 field goal attempts!
Then, you go into the season and your whole week can be destroyed by one bad snap. Life sucks as a special teams coach. Good luck to Polian.
Clark Lea, LB
Not that I know a ton about Lea but from what I’ve read and seen he’d be a good pick for the hottest new assistant among the new coaches by the time we get to November. He’s probably in the best spot–a small position group to focus on with the defense’s (likely) best player, and an overall quality selection of players to rotate.
Del Alexander, WR
My pick for the guy who leaves after one year and we forget he even coached at Notre Dame. Not that he’ll necessary struggle coaching his position. I’d imagine he’ll do pretty well with St. Brown leading the way.
Tom Rees, QB
Have we actually verified “Tom” is coaching and not taking reps behind Wimbush?
I try to be optimistic/bullish on tight ends with a new playcaller who’s had a lot of success with TE’s historically, but I agree probably not a big year for non-Jones players. And who knows if he would be back for 2018 but with Wright and Kmet, either way it seems like early projections should be TE U coming back hopefully in full effect for the following season.
The Pagano stats were pretty jarring, just from how people talk about him I would have thought he was much more impactful. Regardless with such little quality depth+experience at the position his addition would still be very welcome and practically tailor-made for this team in this season.
My other thing is that Long has a really short history as a play caller in general specifically with the tight ends. Which is fine, we should see a little boost from that position.
I’m not sure how or why Pagano became a stud grad transfer but I’ve seen that talk literally everywhere.
I agree Pagano wouldn’t come in and set the world on fire, but wouldn’t he increase the number of guaranteed “solid starters” on the interior to DL from 0 to 1? Even just as a steadying force I think his value over whoever else would be taking his snaps + keeping other guys like Cage/Tillery fresher than otherwise is pretty high.
Taking an ultra-early look ahead, we also should have some time to get it together on the DL. The early offenses we face aren’t exactly a murderer’s row, with some pretty weak rushing offenses until the second half of the season (last year’s Rushing S&P+ ranks below).
Temple (74th), UGA (82nd, figures to improve a lot, but OL still a major question mark), BC (124th), MSU (55th), Miami-OH (93rd), UNC (26th), USC (15th), NC State (66th), Wake (94th), Miami-FL (71), Navy (5), Stanford (22)
For sure, he’d be a big pick up for the reasons you stated. I don’t want to say that’s not very valuable for the defense this year.
I think it is hard to do a direct comparison of DL stats, but it is a little jarring. That said, if his stats were great, he would be in the draft not a grad transfer. The real benefit to Pagano would be the ability to lessen expectations for the incoming freshmen. I would rather have them earn their playing time rather than have it handed to them out of necessity.
That’s a great point. Pagano may be a “stud grad transfer” but if he was just a plain “stud”, he would have declared for the NFL draft.
Speaking of grad transfers, Zaire said he was going to announce in April, right? Last I heard it sounded like UNC or Wisconsin, any movement there?
Still waiting to see if the SEC changes its rules so he can go to Florida.
Late word today he may stay at Clemson. Huh? Not sure if he might be a plague in the clubhouse
I had that concern too. Then today, they got Xavier Thomas. I know that Thomas is a DE and not a DT but still that might give him pause. Clemson is killing it in DL recruiting.
What?? No mention of CBK throwing Kizer under the bus? Is this some sort of subtle Murtaugh reverse troll?
The full quote (and not just the partial spicy take) seemed to make more sense, but yeah….If I’m Kelly I wouldn’t be bringing up avenues for discussion about last year. Nothing Kelly said was even that outrageously false, Kizer would be served better by one more year of collegiate development, but getting that 1st round grade from the NFL advisory board is tough to turn down.
Not to mention after getting benched during the Stanford game and then put back in, I don’t really blame Kizer for wanting to get away from Kelly ASAP. Add in the general handling of the QBs last year and not just going with the obvious better candidate and, boy, if Kizer responds he could knock CBK down a rung or two fairly easily and rightfully, IMO if he returned fire but I’m guessing it’s better to take the high road.
Sheesh! 3 downvotes. It was a JOKE. Lighten up, you millennial snowflakes!
We’re too triggered to take jokes
And yet people STILL don’t think @ @ are necessary…
The first “snowflake” reference.
Sorry for the debbie downer post, but my expectations for improvements are fairly modest. For the new offense – slightly more tempo (but no where near Oregon pace) and similar formations. I think that the offense needs to do 3 things for success – simplify play calling (no more time outs before the first play), more of being able to run the ball when they want to do it (especially against teams like Navy or when there’s a hurricane), and more consistency. Overall, though, I think the O will be fine.
The defense, however, has me worried. Changing the scheme will not magically solve all of the problems. It might look good for the first game, but then teams will have tape of what Elko is implementing here (in addition to the old WF game tape from last year). The linebackers and corners seem to be decent (especially if Crawford is healthy), but the d-line and safety positions scare me a bit (Coleman is fast but cannot tackle, and Tranquil can tackle but is not fast enough to cover).
I think that’s quite a fair take.
I might add that it was maddening these past few years to hear of a fast tempo offense and almost every play was delayed by at least one audible instead of running the damn play.
I think there’s more than enough reason for your concerns about the defense. However, while a lot of articles have been written and time spent on Elko’s scheme, when the discussion turns to improvements, scheme is rarely the focus.
Rather, the focus becomes improved fundamentals and people simply playing their spots better within the scheme. It’s basic football math. College athletes are only allotted so much time on the practice field. The more complicated the scheme and assignments, the more time you have to spend on them. The more time focusing on assignments, the less time drilling fundamentals and physical preparation.
Elko’s scheme isn’t going to be some kind of magic bullet that fixes everything. But if it’s easy enough to learn and there is more focus on the basics, they can’t help but improve. There were games lost last year when the offense was so good that even mediocre defense would have won them. Or look back to Stanford 2015. Change just a couple missed tackles or bad pursuit angles in that game or put a couple guys in the spot where they should have been, and Notre Dame was potentially in the playoffs.
Elko’s not turning this team into the 1985 Bears in a single offseason. But it was enough that I believe some improvement can be expected. This is especially true if the hype about improved strength and conditioning is even partly accurate. Defensive line play, for example, relies heavily on strength and endurance.
All of the reports out of practice are that they are spending a huge amount of time on fundamentals. To the point it is really boring for the media to watch.
The ISD podcast mentioned that Lea spent an entire session just working on first steps for the linebackers.
To each his own. 🙂 I find watching the level of attention to detail to be fascinating. I guess as a musician I can identify with it, because I see parallels in what good musicians have to do to be good musicians.
To put it another way… From 2015-2016, we were 14-11, with eight (8!!!) of those losses coming by one score. Our defense was exactly 61st last year in points allowed at 27.8, and with a generational player at linebacker in 2015 was 39th at 24.1. If we could have improved four points per game in those two seasons – not a lot to ask, I think – figure we might’ve gone about 6-2 in those eight one-score losses.
And how different would we feel about the last two seasons had we just gone 20-5? Four points per game is a pretty decent jump, sure, but I think it’s within reason given that our talent level is appropriate for a top 20-30 defense. Which is about where a four-point improvement last year would land us.
Hope springs eternal!
Props for working in a Spider-Man quote. Where the hell is KG?
Spencer Perry is our first transfer. Anyone know why? Grades, homesick, depth chart, discipline?
I kind of assumed depth chart, but I have no real knowledge on it.
He’s adamant about playing safety but the staff doesn’t see him as a fit there. Not willing to be moved to Rover and doesn’t want to stay buried at safety, so he’s moving on. It all seems fairly amicable – it looks like they all get along fine, they just have incompatible visions and have come to a mutual decision.
http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2017/3/31/15086904/the-future-of-the-pro-style-spread-flex-tight-end-jordan-leggett-jake-butt-saban
I just read a great article on spread concepts. I was wondering if anyone wanted to try to explain where ND’s spread offense would fit into this.
I wrote Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune last month and asked him why the hype on Pagano, when his stats didn’t seem to be much better than Tillery’s or Cage’s. Eric quoted stats similar to yours but also said this:
“My projection of what Scott could be as a full-time starter is largely based on the folks who saw him play at Clemson, both inside the program and neutral observers… Here’s what someone from Clemson told me: ‘He is terrific player, great kid. Great work ethic. We just have a situation where we have the two best DTs in the country coming back because we are moving Wilkins from defensive end back tackle. And we have Dexter Lawrence who was a unanimous freshman All-American and is going to be better than Wilkins. Pagano can be a star himself if he is starter and plays 500 snaps.'”
He also mentioned that Pagano’s best bench rep count is 38, which beats anyone on our team right now as far as I know.