Day 2 AAB | West Practice | Notre Dame Highlights & Notes

SAN ANTONIO – After seeing Drayk Bowen‍ prove he deserves all the accolades that have come his way during the first day of All-American Bowl practice down here on Tuesday, I was eager to take a closer look at a pair of his fellow Notre Dame signees on Wednesday.

Irish cornerback signee Micah Bell‍ participated sparingly on Tuesday, but was much more involved today.

As we noted yesterday, the 5-foot-10 Bell is certainly short, but he’s not necessarily small.

He took part in far more drills than he did on Day 1 and looked smooth and comfortable, both in his movements and in catching the ball.

I was most impressed with him during competitive passing situations.

Bell played safety during the 7-on-7 session, matching him up against much larger tight ends, but Bell proved up to the task. He shifted back to corner for the team session and while he yielded a couple short completions, he looked sharp breaking on the ball.

I still have yet to see Bell flash that elite-level speed down here, but only because he hasn’t had to. It’s obvious that speed allows Bell to play more confident in coverage, unafraid to let a receiver get close to him without breaking out of his back pedal, knowing he possesses the makeup speed to recover if he needs to.

I did get to see plenty of Irish offensive line signee Sullivan Absher‍ on Day 1 and as I noted, it was an up-and-down day for the North Carolina native.

I was eager to see how he’d bounce back and he bounced back in a big way.

After struggling during one-on-ones on Tuesday, Absher looked much better on Wednesday. As we said and as Absher himself said yesterday, it often takes time to adjust to the level of competition and Absher is doing just that down here this week.

It’s also worth noting that on both Tuesday and Wednesday, Absher looked good in pass protection during the team sessions.

Once again, Absher was solid in run game opportunities, which is what he did primarily in high school.

As for Bowen, I didn’t focus on him as much today, but he once again looked the part.

He moves well in drills and in pass coverage and is as aggressive and physical as possible in the running game.

It’s at the point now where many people are taking notice of his play and physique.

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