In roughly a month Notre Dame is scheduled to face Duke University on a football field for a real super official totally going to happen collegiate game. In order to prepare for such an event the Irish have begun practicing with their own water bottles and managers constantly wiping down the balls with disinfectant.

The upcoming season is basically one large ‘if’ for everyone. If, they make it to the opener. If, they don’t have a COVID outbreak serious enough to shut the season down. If, several other ACC teams don’t have massive outbreaks of their own and shut down the whole league. With that massive caveat in mind, let’s take a look at several updates to the roster as we continue to prepare ourselves for a season.

1) 85 Scholarships

The program is at the NCAA-mandated 85-man scholarship limit with a month before kickoff. Well, sort of. Notre Dame granted a scholarship to walk-on offensive lineman Colin Grunhard and if he has kept that for 2020-21 then the Irish are currently at 86 for the season.

A trio of medical scholarships have been announced in recent days including offensive lineman Cole Mabry, receiver Isaiah Robertson, and running back Trevor Speights.

Let’s start with Speights whose transfer from Stanford lasted a whole 76 days before he was ruled medically unable to play. It was a curious decision to bring Speights in to begin with and perhaps the coaching staff knew he’d face an uphill battle and could maybe get lucky and/or have him provide leadership all the same.

Roberston for sure seemed like his days were over in the brief glimpse we received in the spring when he missed the only practice before the pandemic shut everything down. He was a rising redshirt junior and somewhat promising 4-star who started out at safety then moved to linebacker before settling in at receiver since the summer of 2018. He simply could not breakthrough the depth chart on offense.

Mabry was a rising redshirt sophomore who was in the mix as a backup tackle but apparently dealt with neck issues for some time. A former 3-star from Brentwood, Tennessee he seemed poised to make a nice impact but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. Without Mabry, this opens the door to one of the younger tackles on the roster.

One more roster note, former walk-on running back Mick Assaf has decided to leave the program and will not return for his 5th year of eligibility. Now, there are a much more manageable 5 running backs remaining on the roster to split practice reps.

2) Injuries Have Returned Again

Due to the pandemic we went the longest stretch of my memory without any known injuries on the roster. That is until this past week when it was announced redshirt sophomore Kevin Austin was out with a broken foot. This one hurts as Austin was one of the most hyped players on the entire roster coming off his 2019 suspension. It’s possible he comes back later in the season but you never know with these type of load-bearing injuries.

Additionally, redshirt freshman NaNa Osafo-Mensah is out for the regular season after having knee surgery on his meniscus from an injury suffered earlier this month. It’s a tiny blow to the depth on the line but probably not a huge deal for 2020. It’s more of a blow personally for NaNa who was one of the more promising recruits from the 2019 and could head into his third year with minimal experience.

3) Numbers Are Here

Big news out of South Bend as speedy wideout Braden Lenzy has decided to ditch #25 and be the first Irish player to wear #0 on the field. Normally, as protector of all things Rocket Ismail this would be sacrilegious although we can rest happy with how the freshmen chose their numbers:

QB Drew Pyne #10
RB Christ Tyree #25
WR Jordan Johnson #15
WR Jay Brunelle #81
WR Xavier Watts #82
TE Michael Mayer #87
TE Kevin Bauman #84
OL Tosh Baker #79
OL Michael Carmody #68
DL Alexander Ehrensberger #98
DL Jordan Botelho #17
DL Aidan Keanaaina #92
DL Rylie Mills #99
CB Clarence Lewis #26
CB Caleb Offord #21
CB Ramon Henderson #11
LS Alex Peitsch #44

Star freshman tailback Chris Tyree (who received positive reviews from Brian Kelly after practice one in camp) wearing #25 is awfully nice if it’s not going to be on Lenzy. I’m also rather excited about the prospect of Botelho absolutely destroying people while wearing #17 on the defense line. It just feels right.

Quick note, Hunter Spears briefly worked with the offensive line in the spring but is back with the defensive line and is wearing #70 now.

4) Bulk Up, Bro

I do wish Lenzy put on more weight, though. He’s only up 1 pound since last year at 181.

Daelin Hayes is up a few pounds to 270.

Ramon Henderson still remains at corner and is just 180 pounds. That’s so skinny for a 6’3″ defensive back.

Ian Book has dropped 6 pounds down to 206.

Lawrence Keys remains at 173 pounds.

Kyle Hamilton is up 6 pounds to 216.

Despite his lower-half strength being pointed out by Kelly, freshman Tyree only weighs 185.

Linebacker Jack Lamb has dropped 5 pounds down to 228.

Bo Bauer is down 5 pounds to 225.

Ja’Mion Franklin is up 5 pounds to 310.

The freshmen beef on the defensive line looks good with Keanaaina coming in at just under 6’3″ and 302 pounds while Ehrensberger is nearly 6’7″ and 247 pounds. I expected Mills to be heavier than his 259 pounds, though.

5) We Can Have More Linebackers?

The drought is officially over as Notre Dame recently accepted the commitment from Tennessee linebacker Prince Kollie. Now, Clark Lea gets back on the board with a recruit at his coaching position.

This adds some comfort to a situation that wasn’t dire but was approaching legitimate concern when there were no linebackers taken in 2020. Things appear stable for the time being even if Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah heads to the NFL where he’s a projected first round pick.

I still think we need one of the 2018 or 2019 linebackers to make a big move this year in order to feel good about the future and believe skipping this position in 2020 won’t bite the team down the road. Hopefully that’s Jack Lamb asserting himself without injuries, or Shayne Simon starting to blossom, or Bo Bauer becoming more than a special teams ace, or someone like Marist Liafau or Jack Kiser making a big jump that makes us believe they have the chance to start for 3 years.