Notre Dame Football Spring Practice Report - March 25

Analysis of the third Notre Dame spring practice for the 2023 season

Notre Dame held its third spring practice, and second that was open to the media this morning. Here are my thoughts from the practice, which we saw for the first five periods.

*** We didn't get to see a ton from the defense today, which was going to be the side of the ball I wanted to focus on. They did some basic drills, so I saw some things but not as much as I hoped, so I did both sides of the ball again today. The bad news is I didn't get to see a lot of the defense, which stinks for this report. The good news, however, is part of the reason is they spent so much time working on individual stuff, which is a plus.

*** On defense, I'll start with this, if there is a true linebacker competition I think Nolan Ziegler is going to win a starting job. He's huge and is extremely twitchy and explosive. I can't wait to see him going through team drills, because he's arguably the easiest mover at linebacker. I also love how smooth Jaiden Ausberry is going through drills, and Jaylen Sneed is moving around with a lot of confidence. When he's confident he shows off excellent explosiveness.

*** Up front, a guy that really stood out to me on defense is junior defensive tackle Jayson Onye. He is listed at 292 and that weight looks legit, but it's good weight. I was worried about him getting over 290 pounds and maintaining his athleticism. From what I could see from him today he is moving around very well. He shows a good burst off the line, he is using his hands more effectively and he shows better change of direction than what I saw from Ademilola last season.

*** A couple of cornerbacks stood out to me today. Of course the veterans and Benjamin Morrison look good moving around, so I focused on other players. Freshman Christian Gray is very skinny but he is a natural corner. His movements are fluid, his change of direction is quite good and when he would close downhill in drills he showed a lot of explosiveness. As he fills out I'm excited to see what he can become, but he moves like a guy who can play at this level right now. The other corner that impressed me was Chance Tucker. He's definitely filled out and he's showing more burst downhill. He is playing with confidence and his change of direction skills are really impressive in drills. His footwork has really been cleaned up and he opens and runs as well as any of the other corners, at least he did today.

*** Safety Xavier Watts is showing a ton of leadership in drills and he looks extremely athletic. I am looking forward to seeing how he does in 1on1s and team stuff, because he's moving around at a completely different speed than everyone else at safety.

*** On offense, the first guy I need to talk about is Tyler Buchner. The junior quarterback was outstanding during the periods we saw. He was throwing the ball with a great deal of confidence and the ball was exploding out of his hand like I've never seen it. On one particular wide fade, for example, Buchner threw an absolute rope about 35 yards down the field and hit Rico Flores Jr. perfectly in stride. He also threw about a ball from about the 40-45 that hit a receiver (I didn't see who it was) in stride in the middle of the end zone. He threw several corner routes with excellent timing, but the ball got outside in a hurry and it allowed the different receivers to catch the ball with enough room to the sideline to catch and then get upfield for extra yards. Other QBs were not getting it out fast enough or with enough velocity to do that, and the receivers were catching them right at the sidelines, or one step inside the lines. His ball placement on in throws was almost perfect. He had one throw that was at the right spot but it was a bit low, around the thigh area.

*** Sam Hartman was also sharp again today. Freshman Kenny Minchey had a couple of throws where he wasn't sure where to throw the ball, but when he did know where the ball was going he got good zip on the ball and was accurate.

*** The wideout that stood out to me the most today was Lorenzo Styles. He was fast, he was sharp with his routes and he made a number of excellent throws. He wasn't fighting the ball at all and he was attacking it with confidence. There was one particular throw that was about two inches off the ground when it got to him but he quickly shot his hands down and snatched the ball up before it hit the ground. He looked like the Lorenzo we thought we would see a year ago.

*** Sophomore Tobias Merriweather looked really sharp today in drills and he is catching the ball with a lot of confidence. I also continue to be impressed with freshman Rico Flores Jr. He's such a confident route runner and he catches the ball very, very well. He had a great leaping catch on an in cut today. You expect to see that from the bigger wideouts, but for a guy listed under 6-1 it was impressive to see. Freshman Braylon James caught the ball better today than he did on Wednesday. I'll repeat, he's really fast and explosive. He was a bit better with his top ends on routes today as well.

*** Senior Chris Tyree isn't incredibly comfortable catching the ball down the field, but he caught the ball very clean on short and intermediate throws. Tyree looks exceptionally fast going through drills, so he's clearly comfortable playing in the slot right now.

*** Sophomore guard Billy Schrauth and veteran Andrew Kristofic are the two most impressive guards so far. Schrauth moves really, really well for a guy his size and he's put together extremely well. 

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