Notre Dame Practice Report - Offense

Notes and observations on the Notre Dame offense from the first day of fall camp

Notre Dame held its first practice of the 2022 season today, which kicks off the Irish season. Irish Breakdown was there and is ready to share notes and observations from the practice, beginning with the offense.

With the team not wearing pads we will focus most of our observations and analysis on the skill players. It was a really hot and humid day in South Bend.

QUARTERBACK

Sophomore Tyler Buchner was the first team quarterback for the Irish in all the periods we observed. Buchner was impressive throughout the day, and the biggest thing is the command he showed. Buchner looked comfortable handling the first team reps, his command of the offense was good and he was confident. It's day one, so timing will always need to be improved, but for the first day Buchner's feel was impressive.

Buchner's footwork in the pocket was impressive, and the most consistent of all the quarterbacks. He was efficient with his feet and the result was him being in good position to throw throughout the day. He had a few misses, including missing Michael Mayer down the field, but Buchner showed good feel and accuracy during practice.

Buchner looked quite comfortable attacking the middle of the field, which is a positive sign for the offense. He also showed the ability to change arm angles in the pocket and maintain accuracy. The sophomore has filled out a bit and he was hands down the most impressive quarterback for the Irish.

While Buchner was hands down the best quarterback, that doesn't mean junior Drew Pyne didn't impress, because he did. Pyne played confidently and had a good overall day, but consistency is still something he needs to improve upon. He forced a couple of throws, including one that was picked off, but he attacked down the field and showed good timing. Pyne also still needs to improve his ball placement. But the junior also made some really good throws on the day.

Freshman Steve Angeli had a decent first day. He'll need to clean up his release (it can get long) and improve his ball placement.

RUNNING BACK

Junior running back Chris Tyree looked explosive and healthy in practice, which is a very good sign after he was banged up during the spring. The connection between Tyree and Buchner in the run game was really impressive. Tyree had a couple of really impressive bounces outside where he was able to outrun the defense, but his vertical burst was also impressive.

Sophomore running back Logan Diggs was wearing a red jersey as he recovers from a shoulder injury but he looked really good in today's practice. His body has been reshaped a bit and his footwork was outstanding. Diggs was playing with some energy today and he carries himself with a lot of confidence. His overall disposition was so much better than it was last season, and he went through practice with a lot of energy.

Sophomore running back Audric Estime is built extremely well, and his footwork for such a big back is truly outstanding. His balance and agility really stands out, especially when you consider just how massive he is. He was very focused on efficiency with his feet today, and he was very good working vertically. Estime is a very vocal player on the practice field.

Freshman Gi'Bran Payne is healthy and looks athletic, he also has a well built lower body, but he'll need time to fill out his upper body.

From a coaching standpoint, Deland McCullough is really, really detailed with how he teaches. It was impressive.

WIDE RECEIVER

Sophomore wide receiver Jayden Thomas was the day one standout at wide receiver. Thomas carries himself with a lot of confidence, I mean a lot. Thomas is finally healthy and the result was him showing an impressive burst off the line, and he quickly ate up the cushion of receivers.

What also stood out was how good he was beating corners off the line and how good he was at quickly getting separation out of breaks. He's a very savvy player despite being just a sophomore, and the secondary had a really hard time covering him today for the most part.

Thomas got into the end zone a lot during the red zone period, where he used his route running and size/strength to get position for scores.

Fifth-year senior Braden Lenzy has really taken his overall technique to a much higher level, even from the spring. He's efficient with his footwork and he's getting in and out of cuts so much better than in the past. Lenzy made a really, really impressive diving catch in the end zone for a score. He also made a strong catch on a comeback, where he did a great job quickly getting out of his cut (beating Cam Hart) and then he went up to make a strong catch.

Freshman Tobias Merriweather is a very impressive first-year player. He's extremely long with a great catch radius. Merriweather is obviously still learning the offense, of course (it's day one), but when he knows what he's doing he's really athletic and impressive.

Veteran Avery Davis has really filled out and looked impressive physically. He's really filled out his upper body and today we saw him using that extra strength effectively as a route runner. Seeing Davis making quick cuts and exploding out of breaks was a good sign for a player who tore his ACL in October.

Sophomore Deion Colzie has to play with more assertiveness and energy than we saw from him today.

TIGHT END

We didn't see much from the tight ends today, but Holden Staes is a really athletic player. That was worth noting from today's practice. He's got very quick feet and showed good speed during drills.

OFFENSIVE LINE

The offensive line had an up and down day from an execution standpoint, but there were some noticeable things from practice. Number one, the line plays much harder and fires off the line with much, much better force than it did last season. Their pace and their effort was noticeably better than we've seen in past seasons.

Line coach Harry Hiestand got on the linemen several times for not properly picking up some of the defensive line stunts, so that will continue to be a point of emphasis. 

Left tackle Joe Alt and defensive end Isaiah Foskey had some epic battles in the first day of practice. Right tackle Blake Fisher had a good day until he went out later in the practice, but he was standing around and observing practice so it didn't appear to be anything serious.

Freshman Aamil Wagner is still very skinny, especially with his lower body, but his arms are incredibly long, he's very athletic and he's strong. He buried defensive end NaNa Osafo-Mensah during a run drill.

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