6 Thoughts on a Thursday
It’s something that happens every year. Players play through injuries during the season or get injured in offseason training, then they have to miss spring ball while recovering to get ready for the fall.
Unfortunately it doesn’t give those players reps to get better or give the coaches a full picture of the team as a whole. What it does do, though, is give others a chance to take advantage of the opportunity to work with the first team.
That’s what is happening right now with Howard Cross and Ryan Barnes. Notre Dame is missing two players who are amongst the most valuable players on defense in defensive tackle Jayson Ademilola and cornerback Cam Hart. Cross and Barnes are benefiting from it by getting to work with the first team this spring.
It’s hard to assess how good Barnes was in practice on Saturday (more on that later), but it was obvious that Cross was one of the most impactful players on the field. That might have been the case if Ademilola was healthy, but Cross was going against the first team offense on Saturday so rather than being disruptive against walk-on Quinn Murphy on the second team, he was going against Josh Lugg. And Lugg had his hands full against Cross on just about every rep I watched.
Lugg is no Quenton Nelson and he may be in a battle to start at right guard, but he’s started close to 20 games at Notre Dame. I’d wager that he’d start somewhere on the line for just about every Irish opponent this season outside of Ohio State. Even if it’s just one practice, it’s notable because it shows Cross is capable of having that kind of day in a best on best situation against a player who has proven he can be a starter.
This is exactly the kind of thing that a program wants to have happen when an injury gives another player an opportunity in the spring. No one wants, “Uh oh, we’re in trouble if Ademilola goes down” or “Sheesh, we might have to move Rylie Mills back inside on a permanent basis”. They want exactly what appears to be happening with Cross, who we had heard was having a good start to spring before that practice.
It’s a similar situation for Gabriel Rubio. Aidan Keanaaina goes down and they need Rubio to show he can provide depth at nose. He looked like he is capable of doing that if he continues to work like he did on Saturday.
I don’t know if Cross is going to continue to practice like this and eventually play his way into a role in Notre Dame’s sub-packages, but it wouldn’t be far-fetched for that to happen. He’s playing his best position now and Ademilola being out is allowing Cross a chance to show he is ready to make a bigger impact this fall.
2. What a line from Prince Kollie describing the freshman experience playing at Notre Dame. If anyone says they’re happy as a freshman, remember these wise words: “They’re lying or they’re Kyle Hamilton.”
It's an adjustment for everyone, especially for someone like Kollie who was one of the top linebacker recruits in the country. Players who are used to being stars get humbled pretty quickly and most of them have numerous “welcome to college football” moments. I saw a few of them with the early enrollees at practice.
However, I also saw every early enrollee on defense make at least one Havoc play. That’s the kind of thing you want to see in March because they can build off of that by getting plenty of reps along with time in the strength and conditioning program that can maybe put them into the mix in August and beyond.
Most of them are going to have to go through a typical freshman season where they aren’t Hamilton or Michael Mayer, but maybe a few of them might work their way into having the kind of year where they are important contributors to the team this fall.
3. It’s the details that often make the difference with the growth of the player and it’s nice to see those details paying off for Kollie. Where last year he looked like he was struggling to feel comfortable on the field even in garbage time, he now looks like he is in control out there.
That leads to playing faster and showing the ability that earned him his high ranking as a recruit. I loved hearing about how he talks to Isaiah Foskey and the Ademilola twins about pass-rushing tips as well.
Timing and scheming up a free rush is part of blitzing, but the other team has blockers on scholarships too. They are going to try and get the right protection to pick up blitzing linebackers like Kollie. The best blitzers are the ones who win not just by being explosive or having the perfect timing, they also know how to win when they are supposed to be blocked.
The details he gets from getting help from veteran defensive linemen can go a long way into helping him be better as a blitzer.
4. I know the one thing we mention frequently about the lack of healthy scholarship receivers this spring is how difficult it is to practice with low numbers. That usually refers to the offense. It can limit what Notre Dame can do with formations, and guys like Lorenzo Styles and Braden Lenzy can only handle so many reps in a practice without putting them at risk of injury.
The other big issue with the lack of receivers is it makes it way more difficult to evaluate the quarterbacks when they aren’t working with the first team as well as evaluating the defensive backs when they aren’t being tested by better receivers. And I don’t want to mention this as something that demeans the efforts of the walk-ons, but there’s obviously a difference in talent between the guys who are and aren’t on scholarship.
Notre Dame is trying to figure out what they have at cornerback right now with a lot of young players competing who didn’t play last season. It’s more difficult to do that without more receivers to test them. Barnes didn’t have to go up against Deion Colzie or Joe Wilkins on the boundary during 11 on 11 periods after Wilkins went out with an injury. It’s much harder to assess where Barnes is at with his development when he's not going against those players.
5. Bill Connelly wrote a “State of analytics in college football” piece for ESPN and it’s worth checking out. It goes into how things have changed with decision-making on 4th down and for 2-point conversions. This specific part of it discussing the differences between Lane Kiffin’s aggression and Jimbo Fisher’s conservative nature on 4th down is particularly interesting:
I know Brian Kelly leaned towards being more aggressive on 4th down in recent years and I don’t see that changing much under Freeman other than perhaps being more aggressive. I mentioned back in February in 6 Thoughts that the decision to hire Brian Mason indicated to me that’s the direction things are headed.
6. Someone asked about whether or not we saw players who would be better off making a switch to another position. There wasn’t anyone who jumped out at me in a square peg, round hole type of situation, but then again, it was only one practice.
We may see some players switch positions late in the spring, but my guess is that the switches are more likely going to happen between the end of spring and beginning of fall camp. There may be transfers that necessitate a move for a certain player. There may be a request from someone who doesn’t like where they fit on the depth chart at one position. There are a bunch of different scenarios that could come up and force a move.
There isn’t an Avery Davis to the slot or Drue Tranquill to linebacker that jumps out to me on the roster at the moment, but they’ve already done some shuffling moving Jason Onye to nose tackle, Tyson Ford to 3-tech, and Michael Carmody to center and they probably aren’t done moving around some pieces to help build better depth on the roster.
Notre Dame Vintage Mascot T-Shirt from Original Retro Brand
