Notre Dame has been moving quickly through spring practice. The much anticipated Jersey Scrimmage™ takes place this Saturday and with the media in attendance it’s basically overtaken the Blue-Gold Game for depth and insight into the football program. The spring game is coming next weekend so we’re under 2 weeks remaining until these set of practices come to and end.

A brief set of updates to follow:

#1

As of last Wednesday during a brief media viewing of non-team work, wide receiver Jaden Greathouse was back on the field but still moving slowly while nursing a reportedly new-ish hamstring injury that popped up before spring practice began. Not much surprise here, right? It wouldn’t be fair to say that patience is running out with Greathouse during the off-season, although an extended stretch of health would be nice to see. As it stands, they really can’t do much today except ease him back gingerly.

#2

True freshman Kaydon Finley has been discussed as a Jaden Greathouse clone, and he’s also been working in the slot lately. The irony is that Finley is now getting more work during his first spring practice with Greathouse not fully 100% healthy.

However, a breakout camp doesn’t look to be likely for the freshman from Texas as he’s still behind fellow first-year man Bubba Frazier in the slot. Either Frazier or Finley will be good shouts to make some noise in the jersey scrimmage + spring game, from the freshmen on offense. Frazier especially seems like one of the first-year players who is going to be known to fans a lot more after the next couple weeks.

#3

Barring injuries, we’re unlikely to see any changes up front with the first team offensive line. The group still consists of Will Black (LT), Anthonie Knapp (LG), Joe Otting (C), Sullivan Absher (RG), and Guerby Lambert (RT). A recent Marcus Freeman presser made it clear they’re keeping this group together and that they like the progress of Black–by far the most inexperienced member up front and now tasked with one of the most important jobs on the team. There’s a delicate balance going on right now with Black being not-so-quietly thought off as the next bright star from Notre Dame’s offensive line while also needing him to get up to speed and play at a high level right away in 2026.

If Ashton Craig slots in to the starting center role upon return from his knee injury we still have a lot of questions regarding the backups and their development. I am betting this will be a big topic of discussion once we see more this weekend and next.

#4

Jason Onye had wrist surgery and isn’t practicing right now. It’s a bit of a bummer for a player who had to deal with eligibility issues for 2026, was able to come back, and now likely sits out the back half of spring. The defensive line is very deep though, so this should offer some opportunity on the interior for another player or two.

#5

When we last checked in during the beginning of spring, linebacker Drayk Bowen was taking some mental reps in street clothes as he recovers from off-season hip surgery. Last week, he’s made the leap into dressing in full uniform, albeit with a red jersey. I had a feeling they weren’t going to keep him off the field for very long, especially since he played so much of last season with that injury.

#6

While the media hasn’t seen much this spring there have been enough whispers regarding Ko’o Kia that I’m waiting to see more of him soon. With all the injuries at linebacker, Kia has been getting some 2nd-team reps and seems to be zooming up the depth chart in a way that won’t mean he’s completely out of the picture once everyone gets healthy.

I thought there was big potential for Kia but looking back at his recruiting profile there were concerns about his size early on in his career. Yet, he’s up to 225 pounds already and profiles pretty well with Jaiden Ausberry–the player he drew a lot of comparisons to coming out of high school in terms of speed and playmaking ability.

#7

Rising sophomore Dallas Golden was banged up and doing some work on the sidelines at the last week’s practice available to the media. It probably isn’t something very serious, let’s hope. Golden played a lot as a true freshman and is one of the depth pieces that needs to develop for this secondary to be among the best in the country.

Golden was on the sidelines doing individual work recently. 

#8

Golden missing some time is made worse by true freshman Cam Reddish having shoulder surgery, as announced by Marcus Freeman at his last press conference. Reddish was one of the early freshmen surprises for spring camp and could be a sneaky big loss at corner. Especially with all the question marks surrounding building depth at nickel where Reddish and Golden had been competing in recent weeks.

#9

If there was a game tomorrow it looks like they’d be starting Leonard Moore and Mark Zackery at the corner spots with Christian Gray at nickel. They’re getting Michigan transfer Jayden Sanders work at nickel too, so I would expect Gray to replace Zackery in a rotation on the outside. Either way, it’s going to be wild to see how they manage the corners this season. This is traditionally a place where it’s been tough to rotate 4 players (including nickelback) and if everyone is healthy as many as 7 guys (Moore, Gray, Golden, Zackery, Sanders, Colorado transfer DJ McKinney, and Reddish) are in the mix for minutes.

Also, Christian Gray at nickel gives me deep anxiety already and we’re several months away from the season.

#10

Notre Dame football made some national news recently due to…a few fights in practice. Tussles! Scraps! Oh my, dear heavens! Freeman addressed things during a recent press conference, with a wry smile on his face. I’m sure he’s not upset about it, in fact, he seems pretty happy about that level of emotion in this #LeaveNoDoubt campaign heading into 2026. I know it gets me excited.