6 Thoughts on a Thursday
Who’s starting at safety?
Who’s starting at linebacker?
Who’s going to play at linebacker and how much?
Is Chris Tyree RB1 for Notre Dame and does that even matter?
Who’s the starting boundary receiver?
How many corners are going to actually play for Notre Dame against Ohio State?
These were all questions we had before camp started and they are still questions we don’t know the answers to. We have a pretty good idea, but nothing confirmed for all of them.
It’s hard to know because we haven’t seen enough of the team to know. There’s also the possibility that Notre Dame doesn’t know the answers to all of these questions yet and are still working things out before week one of the college football season.
We know less about this Notre Dame team than we have in any recent years and that seems to be on purpose. They don’t want us, the media, to know and they don’t want Ohio State to know. And it’s not just about them only having two open practices where they weren’t wearing pads either.
Fighting Irish Media used to put out daily highlight videos during camp. They have only produced one of those this year. That seems to be intentional and I doubt they’d be doing that if Notre Dame was playing Marshall in week one.
We have questions about personnel usage and we have questions about schemes and identity heading into the season. Those are unknown. Ohio State has to be guessing right now too because they had glimpses of Tyler Buchner last year, but they know that Tommy Rees is someone who has proven to be diverse with what he runs on offense.
Sure, the Buckeyes know they have to pay extra attention to Michael Mayer in coverage and Isaiah Foskey in pass protection, but they have likely had to prepare for several different looks that the Irish defense may present under Al Golden and that makes things more difficult for OSU’s staff.
I don’t have questions about the talent of the team or the depth they’ve built even though we know less about Notre Dame heading into any season opener in recent memory. Ohio State knows less too.
We’ll see if that can give the Irish an edge in a game where they are headed in as underdogs.
2. Other than receiver, there isn’t a position on the team that will benefit from a pair of freshmen being ready to play than cornerback. That’s precisely why having Jaden Mickey and Benjamin Morrison running with the twos at corner in the open practice at the end of camp is a big deal even if it’s unclear how much both will play.
No one ever wants to be forced to play freshmen corners. Having KeiVarae Russell in 2012 work out as well as it did when he wasn’t even recruited to play that position was an anomaly. It just so happened that he was good enough to not only play in his first year, but play well.
He’s the bar for recent freshmen cornerbacks for the Irish. Mickey and Benjamin don’t have to be him right away because there are three corners (Cam Hart, Clarence Lewis, and TaRiq Bracy) who have plenty of experience in front of them. The two freshmen are ones to watch this season, though, and I think both will be involved.
By the end of the year it may be more than just a little.
3. One reason I enjoy seeing Notre Dame practice towards the end of camp is that it gives me a good idea of which freshmen have a shot at seeing the field this year outside of special teams. There’s number of them in addition to Mickey and Morrison.
Everyone is aware that running back Gi’Bran Payne and receiver Tobias Merriweather may have to play out of necessity because of the depth at those positions, but don’t discount that both are very talented. Merriweather in particular is the kind of player who has the potential to continue to rise as the season goes along much like we saw with Lorenzo Styles last year.
I record an annual podcast with my buddy Chris Wilson where we go through the freshmen and I give my thoughts on each guy and that leads into this part for me: there are a number of players who might not see much time this year, but I think they’re good enough to contribute in some way.
The linebacker position is stacked with experience and could have some budding stars ready to break out. JR Tuihalamaka and Jaylen Sneed might also be good enough to get into the mix, especially if there is an injury or two that opens up the depth chart.
Tyson Ford and Aiden Gobaira are players who would have had a shot at being in the rotation in previous years, but the Irish are so deep on the defensive line that they likely won’t see the field.
When you have Michael Mayer at tight end, there isn’t going to be a need for a young tight end to play a lot of snaps. Eli Raridon and Holden Staes might prove too talented to not play at least a little in 2022, though.
Bryce McFerson isn’t the starting punter yet, but according to Brian Mason, McFerson won the kickoff job in about five seconds. Mason said McFerson’s leg was “kissed by God”. (That sounds like a pretty good thing)
The roster as a whole is much deeper than it was even a few years ago. Most of the freshmen who play are only going to because they are too talented to keep off the field. That’s what it feels like with a lot of the freshmen I just mentioned and that’s a pretty healthy spot to be in as a program when that happens.
4. Speaking of Mason, the answer he gave last week about putting the best players possible on punt block made it easy to see why he’s been successful coordinating special teams at Cincinnati.
“We have a lot of really good defensive players. Punt block for us is like playing defense. We’re going to guard eligibles (receivers), play defense, run pressures, be aggressive and try to affect the punter. Once the punter is getting rid of the ball really fast and we’ve affected him, we’ll go into different looks and holdups like most people would do.”
“The No. 1 goal is to affect the punter. The faster we make him get rid of the ball, the higher probability he shanks it, the higher probability there’s less hang time and we can get more return yards. Punters don’t handle pressure that well because most teams don’t pressure.”
Cincinnati was sixth in the country in punt average against them last season so there’s been results with this strategy. Of course there is a risk with being aggressive, but the idea of playing safe allowing the punter to be comfortable didn’t work out well for Notre Dame under Brian Polian.
Notre Dame was 107th in punt average against them in 2021. In three of the other four years that Polian coordinated special teams in his return to Notre Dame, they finished 100th, 85th, and 95th in this same category. The one outlier was 2020 when they finished 34th.
I was never someone who agreed with Polian’s strategy of trying to pin a team on kickoff coverage either because it just gave that team one extra opportunity for a potential big play while also adding unnecessary work for a coverage team. That’s why what Mason said about McFerson and his ability to kick the ball out of the end zone was also refreshing.
Mason wants him to get touchbacks rather than make his players cover the kick. Notre Dame had to cover 46 kicks last year (tied for 120th). They were 113th, 93rd, 79th, and 122nd in number of kickoffs covered in Polian’s other seasons as coordinator.
Notre Dame had to cover 30 more kickoffs last season than Penn State has had to cover in the last three years!
I don’t think Polian did a bad job, but there was room to be better. If Mason gets his players to execute his strategies, then I see special teams being better for Notre Dame this year. We’ll see how much of an impact that can make.
5. Notre Dame used their traditional nickel package with Bracy in as a slot corner and they gave Mickey some looks there as well in last week’s open practice. Early on in the practice they were working with more of a big nickel look with Ramon Henderson as that extra defensive back.
I really like the possibilities there and can see Henderson being a good matchup defender against tight ends and big slots in man coverage. He played as the Dime for Notre Dame last year as well and that was a big part of what they did against Purdue.
There’s a lot of things that Al Golden can do with Henderson at that spot because of his athleticism. Here he is lining up looking like it’s going to man coverage and he ends up dropping into the deep middle.
We haven’t seen him blitz a lot, but he did flash in that area against Virginia last fall too.
This is one more tool in the toolbox for Notre Dame’s defense. I’m sure it will be matchup dependent, but I’m excited to see it.
6. I think this Ohio State offense is probably going to be in the conversation as the best offense Notre Dame has faced in the last 20 years along with USC in 2005 and Alabama in 2020. They are projected first in SP+ and FEI. They were first in OF+, EPA per play, yards per play, and points per drive last season and they might be even more talented in 2022.
I also think Notre Dame’s defense has the potential to be the one of the best they’ve had in recent memory. It’s a defense that could end up in the top-five in the country when all is said and done. And boy, are they ever going to get a stiff test to start the season with this loaded Ohio State offense.
Both teams aren’t going to be as good as they are likely to be later in the season so I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing for Notre Dame to play Ohio State in the opener as opposed to later in the year. Maybe this is the best scenario given how OSU is going to know less about Notre Dame than Notre Dame is going to know about OSU. EOSU’s new defensive coordinator’s scheme is the one the Irish prepared to play in the Fiesta Bowl, so it’s not entirely foreign to them.
It took Jim Knowles some time before his defense was humming at Oklahoma State like it was last year. Even though the talent he is inheriting is far greater than what he had at his previous job, Oklahoma State took a step back before they stepped forward. It could very well be the same for him at Ohio State.
I’m just ready to see them play and get some answers about this Notre Dame team. I don’t think this game will tell the whole story of what to expect this year given the opponent and it being week one, but it’s going to set the expectation for this Irish team one way or another.
Men’s Under Armour White Notre Dame Fighting Irish 2022 Shamrock Series All Day Pullover Hoodie
