6 Thoughts on a Thursday
Only 17 days until Notre Dame opens the season at Florida State and there’s still a lot to learn about this team. Hopefully there will be more answers provided later today in Notre Dame’s second and final full practice that is open to the media.
It’s fair to say we have a good idea about who’s starting at most positions. I don’t think we know how good some position groups are yet, though.
Some of that remains to be seen and I think this will end up being a team who gets better as the season progresses given the relative lack of experience at certain positions, but I feel confident in saying that this is going to be a very likeable team for Notre Dame fans.
Of course, every fan likes when they are rooting for a winner and they’ve been winners lately. I don’t think that will change this season, although a step back wouldn't be unexpected. Even if that’s the case, it’s hard to deny that there are a lot of stories on this team that are going to be easy to root for.
There are players we know will be great like Kyren Williams and Kyle Hamilton where you can’t help but respect their ability. There’s the receivers who all have a chip on their shoulder and something to prove this season. Any success from them will be worth celebrating.
There’s the quarterback who dreamed of playing for Notre Dame, but ended up somewhere else. He somehow found his to the place he dreamed of going. There’s “The Mayor” who may be the first true freshman to start at left tackle in the Brian Kelly era. There’s the underdogs like Kurt Hinish and Drew White who have managed to not just become multi-year starters, but team captains.
There’s a tight end that could be the best to ever play the position at Notre Dame, a host of players with star potential, and a former quarterback turned running back turned cornerback turned receiver who also earned the distinction of being a captain.
There are so many things that make this particular 2021 Notre Dame football team interesting and that’s before the season has even started. I’m personally excited to cover the team this season because there’s a lot of potential for this team to make a run and they can do it with a bunch of players that are going to be easy to root for.
2. Braden Lenzy spoke after practice on Wednesday and it was obvious that he’s a motivated player. He’s also a healthy player and that’s great news considering his last season never really got rolling after injuring a hamstring in camp.
He said the one thing he focused on heading into this camp was ball skills. Speed has always been his game and that will always be his best asset, but outside of getting stronger, his ball skills were something that probably needed the most work.
He doesn’t just want to be an option when he’s running away from people.
“That was something I really worked on to eliminate not just being a deep threat where it’s a wide open look, but if I’m deep and someone is next to me, that isn’t a look off from a quarterback.
“Even if someone is next to me they can still trust me that I can go and get the ball. That was my main focus going into this camp and that is one thing where it has been night and day where I don’t think I had any jump balls, ever, in my college practice or game situations ever. Now I’ve probably had 10 just in fall camp.”
Lenzy made a great point about Notre Dame not having the same kind of size at receiver this season. That doesn’t mean they can rely on always having separation on every route because that’s just not how it’s going to work. Jack Coan is going to have to trust his receivers to win in some contested situations.
Lenzy only has four career contested targets according to PFF. When a player wins in those situations in camp, he’s going to see the ball thrown his way more in games this fall.
3. For the crowd that somehow thinks that Tommy Rees is an old guy stuck in his ways when all he’s talked about is wanting to evolve and get better in only his second year as a coordinator, here’s what Lenzy had to say about changes to the offense this season:
“More quick game. Everyone is faster. More rotation as far as the receivers go. Rather than three dudes with the 1s, you’ll see five. And it’s basically been a group of three every year for a while and now it’s five.
“The collective offensive group realizes that we aren’t going to be as big, but we can be physical and we can be faster and when we get tired we have someone else who can do the job as well.”
“It will be 11 personnel (one back, one tight end) heavy.”
That means three receivers on the field on most plays, which is a change from the 12 being the most frequent personnel group in 2020.
4. Kurt Hinish on the defensive tackle depth they have this season:
“We always joke around about, say I get hurt at practice or somebody gets hurt at practice, you’re about to get Wally Pipp’d. We always joke around and say that because that’s how much depth we do have.”
This is essentially what has happened with Jacob Lacey. He spent his first two seasons playing as a backup nose guard to Hinish and did a solid job. Most of 2020 he played through a shoulder injury and that same injury forced him to miss the spring.
It gave Howard Cross a chance to rise up the depth chart at nose. Lacey is now at 3-tech and is competing with Rylie Mills there behind Jayson Ademilola. In other words, it doesn’t get any easier for him with a switch to the other tackle spot.
I really want to see Lacey in action today to see where he’s at. He still has a chance to be a rising star. The problem is that there’s a few rising stars for the Irish at defensive tackle.
5. Speaking of risers, JD Bertrand should have been stuck waiting his turn at inside linebacker, but he’s forcing the issue with his level of play right now.
Bo Bauer was effusive in his praise for Bertrand, a player who is competing with Bauer for reps this camp. This is what he said when asked about Bertrand earning reps with the ones.
“It’s hard to think about a harder worker than JD. So if anybody deserves that, it’s him. He’ll get his reps. Coach Free says that no matter where you’re getting your reps, he’s grading everything the same way. Wherever that may be, JD can get more reps so he can prove himself.”
I don’t want to say Bertrand was an afterthought when he signed with Notre Dame because he was a composite 4-star prospect. I gave him a grade of 91, but even when he signed, I mentioned that the biggest obstacle for him to play could be a crowded position room.
It wasn’t just guys like Bauer and Drew White, though. Osita Ekwonu was a bigger and freakier athlete. He switched positions and Bertrand stayed and continued to work. Now he might have just jumped the line in front of someone who has played a good amount of football.
A lot of times it’s hard to evaluate how someone will respond to having to climb a hill in order to get on the field, but Bertrand has appeared to meet that challenge and at this point it wouldn’t be surprising if he ended up as one of the top three inside linebackers on the team.
6. There’s not too many freshmen creating buzz during camp. One of those that has people talking is running back Logan Diggs. Rees mentioned that he has made plays for the offense during camp.
The current situation reminds me a bit of Josh Adams in 2015. He was making plays too, but the Irish were supposed to have a one-two punch with Tarean Folston and CJ Prosise. Adams breaking off some long runs was more of a nice story than anything else, at least at the time it was happening.
Fast forward to week one and Folston got hurt and Adams was suddenly elevated up the depth chart. We all know what happened after that with him that season.
The running back room is deeper this season, but Notre Dame played three backs last year. All three return, which means that Diggs is probably not going to be slotted in for a prominent role as a freshman.
He’s pretty much one injury away from gaining a bigger role. It will be interesting to see if he or other freshmen (aside from Blake Fisher, of course) see any reps with the starting group when we get to watch practice today.
At this point in camp, anyone who is getting action with the starters is someone with a real shot at playing against Florida State.