As spring practice opens back up again–the team was off for almost 2 weeks–I’m taking the opportunity to Review the Redshirts and lumping all of the offensive players together. We only have 5 players to profile today including one player who could be walking into the starting lineup very soon.
QB/WR Avery Davis
Composite Score: 0.907
18 Stripes Grade: 84.3
Davis is no longer flying under the radar. We’ve already discussed his role on the team heavily late this winter and his stock took an interesting turn just before spring practice opened when he became Brian Kelly’s first part-time quarterback at Notre Dame. Whether it works out or not his future just got a lot less boring.
2018 Buy or Sell Stock: Sell
Davis is virtually guaranteed to be no better than 3rd string at quarterback or wide receiver and at least for the foreseeable future won’t get full reps at either position. That’s an easy stock sell for me. You could make the case this is a great buy low situation, though. Davis could play 10 snaps in the fall and be a part of 3 trick plays worth a total of 80 yards and a touchdown. That’s potentially more valuable than your typical third-string player.
Roster 1 to 85 Placement: 58
I’d have to go back and do the math but Davis has to be one of the lowest graded recruits by our 18S staff who was a 4-star coming out of high school. The funny thing is through my usual tough grading I liked Davis the most of anyone! He’s a really good athlete and his intriguing dual role could open the door to something positive as a redshirt freshman. I think his lack of size (listed at 5-11, 203 but looks far skinnier) and inability to be a running back hurts his dual role.
WR/RB Jafar Armstrong
Composite Score: 0.870
18 Stripes Grade: 86.8
A second redshirt freshman moved into a dual role before spring! Armstrong is now listed both as a wide receiver and running back joining his classmate Davis as someone who will split reps at each position. As mentioned above, this at least gives Armstrong a jolt in the arm in the media and increases his profile this spring.
2018 Buy or Sell Stock: Hold
The history of receivers who take a redshirt isn’t great. Very few at Notre Dame turn out to be difference makers or among the starting lineup. I suspect with so many question marks at receiver going into the spring making Armstrong not devote all of his attention there also isn’t a great sign. However, he’s in a little bit of a different spot than Davis in that splitting time between running back and receiver won’t be a drastic change. There’s still hope that a playmaker emerges at some point soon.
Roster 1 to 85 Placement: 62
Even though I’m selling Davis stock and rating him a little higher on the roster that’s mainly due to the ability to play quarterback and be in a very important role with just one injury. Armstrong is in a tough spot as a receiver who took a redshirt and needs a strong spring before Kelly’s best wideout recruiting class shows up in full.
RG Dillan Gibbons
Composite Score: 0.884
18 Stripes Grade: 80.3
Raise your hand if you were surprised at how highly rated Gibbons was coming out high school. I was definitely taken aback a bit because I remembered him as more of a low 3-star type of prospect. He was a top 400 recruit, for crying out loud!
2018 Stock Buy or Sell: Sell
We know virtually nothing about Gibbons except it’s really difficult for a 3-star to break their way into the Irish lineup and by process of elimination he’s 9th out the 9 offensive linemen on scholarship for spring practice, perhaps a distant 9th. The good side to that is he’ll be receiving a lot of quality reps during these set of practices.
Roster 1 to 85 Placement: 64
Gibbons is now at the bottom of the 2017 recruiting class which was a spot projected by virtually everyone. As things stand today there are probably 2 or 3 others right at or below his level. In truth, it will take a couple more years for Gibbons to begin moving up this numbered list.
LT Aaron Banks
Composite Score: 0.930
18 Stripes Grade: 87.8
Banks was somewhat close to playing last year which is a good sign for his future. Ultimately, he was smartly given a redshirt and an off-season to recharge his batteries. As an early enrollee this will be his 2nd spring practice.
2018 Stock Buy or Sell: Buy
Banks opened up spring practice as the backup left tackle which portends big things for the future. Still, he’s a little ways away from being a starter–so it would seem early on this off-season. For one, Hainsey looks entrenched at left tackle for 3 years and on the other side the Kraemer/Eichenberg duo are preferred tackles, and this doesn’t even take into account the placement of Josh Lugg.
Roster 1 to 85 Placement: 49
Banks could develop into a valued backup so being a Top 50 player on the roster without having played in a game yet is a big deal. I think his big jump will happen this time next year when the Irish lose a couple more linemen and more playing time opens up. By his academic senior season Banks has the potential to be a Top 20 player on the roster.
LG/RT Josh Lugg
Composite Score: 0.944
18 Stripes Grade: 93.8
I know it’s shocking that the highest rated recruit among these redshirt freshmen is expected to do big things. Actually, Lugg did get a bit lost last year as Hainsey and Banks enrolled early and grabbed a bunch of headlines right away during the spring. When Lugg arrived in the summer there wasn’t much room for playing time available for the future Joe Moore Award unit.
2018 Stock Buy or Sell: Buy
Time and time again when a new position opens up on the offensive line the first guy to get a crack at the spot is either the grizzled veteran or the younger guy who the staff thinks has the highest ceiling. Lugg definitely falls into the latter category and opened up the first spring practice as the starter at left guard. He was definitely in the mix as one of the guys who could start in 2018, with his first crack already in the books his stock goes way, way up.
Roster 1 to 85 Placement: 24
Robert Hainsey isn’t quite 6’5″ and Tommy Kraemer is 6’5″ 1/2 which makes it weird that the nearly 6’7″ Lugg would be playing guard. Brian Kelly was adamant that they will be experimenting with offensive line combinations which basically means doing so at left guard and right tackle. Therefore, it seems pretty obvious Lugg has an equally good shot of winning either position. I’ll be interested to see how the rest of spring progresses and for now I think he’ll sneak inside the Top 25 players on the roster.
The o-line both fascinates and scares me at the same time. I remember the talent we had in 16 and I remember that line being pretty average. I do love all of the returning starters and hope that prevents the line from descending into mediocrity. We shall see, I guess. I thought Eichenberg would have been a bigger factor. I can’t see him doing much with his career if he doesn’t get a starting job this year.
Getting some Hunter Bivin vibes from Eichenberg, tbh.
First team OL at practice today:
Hainsey—Ruhland—Mustipher—Bars—Kraemer
Banks (LT), Lugg (LG), Gibbons (RG), Eichenberg (RT) with the 2nd team.
This was practice no. 3 so if there have been rotations I’m interested in how they’ve worked at LG.
Yeah, me too.
They’re pretty entrenched with Kraemer being a tackle this year no matter what, right?
Would seem like for a pure talent standpoint the best lineup might be kick Kraemer into guard and use one of Lugg or Eichenberg (or even Banks) as the starting RT with Ruhland as the utility guy.
It would seem Kraemer has been given a long rope at right tackle.
But, I also don’t think he’s necessarily going to be better at guard. It could be the contrarian in me but once Kelly said last year that he was a better run blocker in comparison to Hainsey everyone was just like, “Yup, future guard!”
He’s almost 6’6″ and weighs 315 with a pretty solid redshirt freshman season under his belt. I kinda feel like he could be a really good right tackle.
I do get that Banks and Eichenberg are a touch taller, and Lugg is an inch taller. The latter especially looks like a tackle. I just don’t know how much it all matters given Kraemer’s experience at tackle especially when the smallest dude (Hainsey) is at left freaking tackle right now.
Gotcha. Beyond size on Kraemer I was just thinking about the practice of kicking in tackles to guard who hadn’t worked out immediately (after all Lombard 6’5, 315 and Bars 6’6, 318 are similar in size to Kraemer). The “better run blocker” did hint that a guard move might work, maybe not as well as Nelson but that’s another example of success moving a tackle to guard.
To your point, I would be comfortable with Kraemer at RT and yeah maybe he could be a multi-year solid starter there. I was thinking more to move him in and continue to parade of tackle talent rather than a guy in Ruhland who hasn’t seen much of the field over a few years.
Though I could just be sleeping on Ruhland since I haven’t seen him play much, admittedly, but I think the talent could be more with Lugg/Eichenberg at tackle and Kraemer on the field over him.
I do have a hard time seeing Lugg anywhere but tackle. That’s the one thing that makes me think Kraemer moves. That’s just due to Lugg’s height and length and less Kraemer’s ability because he could be a better player than Lugg now and in 2 years.
Either way, it’s a weird situation where both tackles could be entrenched through 2020.
Definitely a weird situation, since like you said it’s tough to picture Banks or Lugg being typical guard types.
I feel like I should be excited about Hainsey since he had such a good season as a freshman but being the next in the Martin-Stanley-McGlinchey line seems pretty daunting and I don’t know if Hainsey is a 1st round caliber talent. I suppose we will see though.
Impressed by the second team, getting it done without a center.
Cheeky!
Do you have a rough list of player rankings actually in your head down to 85?
Don’t you?
You don’t know how much money I would’ve bet that this question would be asked.
I am curious who 86-89 are.
The tougher question would be the bottom of the non-freshmen list, or players here right now in spring.
Drew White – Not mentioned in yesterday’s practice reports and David Adams (someone in the running at the ‘bottom’) was working with the third-team.
Devin Studstill – Unless he’s banged up, they don’t seem to want him on the two-deep.
Kofi Wardlow – 4th team guy.
One more player is kind of tough. You could say Adams (mentioned above), Vaughn (doesn’t seem to be near playing time much anymore), Fertitta (basically a special teams guy), Gibbons (last of the non-freshmen OL), Canteen (doubt he’s a serious player again), and Ewell (ran with the 4th team yesterday).
The non-freshman would have to be 85-89. You can’t ‘cut’ a kid without letting him attend, you should have pulled/never given the offer.
The problem with White, GIbbons, Wardlow, Adams and Ewell is that they are RS freshman. They haven’t had a chance.
I don’t know what happened to Vaughn. He seemed to be most poised to get PT. I agree on Canteen, he makes no sense. Fertitta does see the field, but makes a lot of sense as an 86. He is certainly someone who would get 86 treatment at Alabama.
I am sure it will take care of itself. If Ewell can’t beat out MDT, he will self-select. Personally, if I were choosing, I think Ewell has more potential than MDT and would select the other way.
I thought there was some optimism on Wardlow?
This guy would seem to be a candidate, since he was apparently a major recruiting reach (seemed more like MAC caliber): Ade Ogundeji
Adams has been noted as a possible Med RS.
Agree on Canteen.
I wonder if they were down to 86 after the spring, if Fertitta would drop down to walk on status ala M Van Gorder, knowing there will almost certainly be attrition after summer practice.
I’m not that high on Wardlow, I think Ade is in a similar boat but with a higher ceiling thanks to his frame and length.
As far as I was aware, MVG kept his scholarship. There’s always 1-3 walk-ons with scholarships and I can’t remember any of those guys losing theirs.
Why assume it’s rough?