Notre Dame Football Practice Report - No. 1 - Offense Edition

Observations from the first Notre Dame football practice, with a focus on the offense

Here are my observations from the first practice of Notre Dame's fall camp:

QUARTERBACK

*** Veteran quarterback Sam Hartman showed himself to be the clear leader of the offense, and he was sharp in the first practice. He had a miss on a fade route to Tobias Merriweather, but other than that he was pretty sharp today. Even when he threw incompletions they were placed well, and his timing was good for the first day. That was a noticeable jump from where he was in spring practices.

I would argue his best ball of the day came during 1-on-1s on an over route to Chris Tyree. The speedy Irish receiver got a step on Thomas Harper on an over route that was going away from Hartman, so Hartman threw the ball over top and dropped it right in on Tyree, and there was nothing Harper could do about it. Hartman and Tyree had a lot of connections today, and either Notre Dame is trying to force the ball to Tyree early, or Hartman really likes throwing to him. They not only connected a few times in 7on7, but also in team. Hartman threw a low and hard corner route in the red zone. The ball was lower than it should have been, but Tyree went down and made a strong grab for the touchdown.

His mistake of the day was throwing a pick during 7-on-7. He tried to hit a Pivot route to Rico Flores Jr., but Benjamin Morrison jumped the route and picked it off. Hartman thought he read it right but Morrison did a great job baiting him a bit on the play.

*** Sophomore Steve Angeli had a good first day as well. The 1on1 period was a bit rough, but that's a period where the QB should throw it no matter what. That was more about how good the coverage was during that period than anything else. During 7on7 and team he was better. Angeli still needs to improve his timing, but his ball placement was good today. He threw an excellent fade ball to Tobias Merriweather, who beat Cam Hart for a touchdown on the play.

Angeli also had a really nice ball to Matt Salerno on a corner route for a touchdown, beating Harper on the play. It was really good ball placement and probably the best timing he had all day. He also hit Holden Staes for a back line touchdown during 7on7. Angeli did have one really bad ball in the end zone that Jaden Mickey picked off during team.

*** Freshman Kenny Minchey definitely threw with more zip and timing today than we saw in the spring. He was letting it loose all day, and his release was really, really quick. Although it was better, Minchey still needs to time things up a bit better. He was often just a second late letting it loose, which is to be expected for a freshman.

RUNNING BACK

I didn't focus much on Audric Estime today, so I don't have much to say about him.

*** I reported this summer that sophomore Jadarian Price is said to have his burst back, and at least today that looked to be true. His timing is a bit off, so he's clearly shaking off the rust a bit, but he looked really quick and strong. He fought a slide route and dropped it, but other than that he caught the ball clean. There was a TD run he had during a red zone team period where he saw the hole and hit it really, really fast and got into the end zone. That was exciting to see.

*** Sophomore Gi'Bran Payne picked up where he left off in the spring and had a really good first day. He was decisive in the run game and he looked even more explosive getting vertically than he did in the spring. He split blockers on a counter run for a really good gain, and he made a great read and cut to score a touchdown on a screen pass where he was lined up outside. Good first day for Payne.

*** Freshman Jeremiyah Love is incredibly explosive, and that showed today. His downhill burst is special. Of course, he wasn't always fast because he is still learning. The athleticism really shined during drills, but there was one downhill run in the red zone where he got the ball and was through the line faster than I've seen a Notre Dame back in some time. He dropped a pass early during routes on air, but after that he settled in and caught the ball very well. He has very natural catching the ball.

*** I didn't catch much of Devyn Ford. He was out there, but I didn't focus on him in those reps. I'll watch him more in future practices, but he did look to be moving quickly and crisp during drills and when I did watch him.

The running backs were used a lot in the pass game today. Of course there were check down throws, but just overall they ran a lot of routes in 7on7 and team.

WIDE RECEIVER

The wide receivers and defensive backs have some really good battles today. The defensive backs won more than the wideouts, but that's to be expected. What I liked is as a whole, the receivers have clearly worked a lot on their releases. At times they weren't correct, and Chansi Stuckey got on them, but it's clearly been a point of emphasis. An example is on one play, a receiver tried to use a delay/stutter against a corner who was off, and that allowed the corner to easily play it. Coach Stuckey explained why that release doesn't work there. That's typical day one stuff, and it can be corrected, but I liked they were focusing on that as much. Even when the corners had good coverage, the releases were usually good enough (especially with returners) to allow them to at least have enough room to get a great ball in there.

*** Senior Chris Tyree was probably the most impressive receiver today. He caught a lot of balls on quick stuff, but they were working him downfield as well. The first ball to him got picked during 1on1, but he was really good the rest of the day. Notre Dame used Tyree on a lot of movement routes, meaning he was running full speed and not stopping (like curls, options, etc). Tyree caught the ball very clean today. The over route TD he caught from Hartman that I described above was great placement, but right over the top, making it a harder throw to track, but he did it easy.

*** I enjoyed the battles between Tobias Merriweather and both Cam Hart and Benjamin Morrison. Going against them is going to make him a lot better. Merriweather beat Hart for a touchdown on a fade route, and also got free on the backline a couple of times. Hartman threw a great high ball in the end zone that Merriweather showed great extension and body control to grab, which I liked. The bad part, coming down Morrison knocked it out. That is a teachable moment for Merriweather, who will need to learn to keep the ball high in that situation and not bring it down to Morrison. But what I liked was how he got a step on Morrison in the first place, and the extension he showed getting to the ball. Merriweather also needs to work a bit more on accelerating out of breaks. He was a bit inconsistent on that today.

*** Junior Jayden Thomas started things off well, beating Morrison on a slant route for a catch to open 1on1s, but he was a bit inconsistent today. He didn't get a ton of separation and fought the ball a couple of times, but he also had some good routes in the end zone and got himself open, even when the ball didn't come his way. Solid first day. Thomas also played mostly outside today in the boundary.

*** Junior Deion Colzie had some very impressive reps today. He beat Chance Tucker at the snap on a fade route, which allowed him to run past the corner and get free for a touchdown. The issue was he was a bit inconsistent with his top ends, and telegraphed a couple, which allowed him to get covered. I also had him down for two drops, and one of them late in the team period he definitely should have caught.

*** Freshman Jaden Greathouse had the best route of the day. He had a great release off the line and a great top end to torch Ramon Henderson for a touchdown in a red zone 1on1. Greathouse really knows how to get open, although a couple of times he got caught in between a couple of different moves on top ends, and that allowed him to get jammed up. But he's a savvy player for a freshman.

*** Freshman Braylon James is definitely a work in progress technically, and Stuckey was on him a lot about that. But James also had a couple of reps where he showed his big time talent. He beat Mickey on a go route and made a great contested catch for a touchdown that got his teammates fired up. He also made a good diving catch in traffic to get the ball near the goal line.

*** I only keyed on Matt Salerno once today, and on that rep he ran an good corner route that allowed him to beat Harper for a touchdown, which I discussed above.

TIGHT END

Notre Dame used three different tight ends with the first team today during 7on7s and team: Holden Staes, Mitchell Evans and Kevin Bauman. Eli Raridon took a lot of reps during individual, but I didn't see him during the team or 7on7 period, so they are clearly still bringing him along a bit slow.

*** The most impressive tight end today was sophomore Holden Staes, who I mistook for a receiver a couple of times. He looks to be in great shape and has really filled out his upper body, but he also looks more explosive than he did as a rookie. His burst off the line is really impressive and he was beating corners and safeties today. He was one of the most impressive athletes I saw today on either side of the ball. He not only looks good, he was athletic, he was confident and he made good plays.

*** I didn't see much more from the other tight ends.

OFFENSIVE LINE

When Notre Dame lined up today the line looked like this:

LT - Joe Alt
LG - Billy Schrauth
C - Zeke Correll
RG - Andrew Kristofic
RT - Blake Fisher

LT - Tosh Baker
LG - Pat Coogan
C - Ashton Craig
RG - Rocco Spindler
RT - Aamil Wagner

LT - Charles Jagusah
LG - Ty Chan
C - Joe Otting
RG - Sam Pendleton
RT - Sullivan Absher

I didn't focus too much on the linemen today since they didn't have pads on, but I did have a few observations.

*** Notre Dame is using their offensive linemen in space a lot more today. I won't get into specific schemes, but they were on the perimeter a lot today, but I was also very impressed with how well they worked to the second level in the run game.

*** Junior Rocco Spindler looks a lot different and his weight loss is real. He's still really big, but he looks to have a much cleaner frame and doesn't have as much of the bad weight as he had in the past. The end result is what I had hoped, and that is Spindler moving his feet a lot better today. He was even getting up to the second level, keeping his base and getting a body on backers. In pass pro he kept his base, showed good side to side movement skills and had good wins. Good first today for Spindler.

*** Sophomore Billy Schrauth had some really impressive reps today. He had a great downfield block on a linebacker where he was coming from the backside. It was a really athletic play, and he worked well to the second level. He had a great 1on1 win against Rylie Mills in pass pro. Rylie had a good get off, but Schrauth did as well, and he anchored well and held Mills back.

*** Sophomore Ashton Craig is a really athletic player, and I was happy to see him moving so well considering he's now over 300 pounds. I was a bit worried about Blake Fisher still being on 310 pounds. I had hoped he would have added 5-10 pounds back on. The good news is he moved very well today and led the charge on some perimeter plays. Now we need to see if he still has his power with the weight off.

*** I was impressed with how well Sam Pendleton moved his feet today, especially with 14 more pounds on from the spring. I didn't see Charles Jagusah moved around much today, but he is MASSIVE, and it's not really a lot of bad weight either. He's just huge. Ty Chan was bigger but he had a bit more "extra" weight in the midsection that will need to get worked out a bit.

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