6 Thoughts on a Thursday

When Isaiah Foskey and Jarrett Patterson announced they were going to return to Notre Dame for the 2022 season, it mattered a lot because those two had already established themselves as great players.

It gave Marcus Freeman’s first team some certainty. No matter what happened with everyone else, they had Foskey, Patterson, and Michael Mayer as players who were amongst the best at their position in all of college football.

It was the same thing when Ronnie Stanley and Sheldon Day decided to come back in 2015. They knew they had those two to add to Will Fuller, Jaylon Smith, KeiVarae Russell, and Nick Martin. It set a foundation for that team that was eventually bolstered by the rise of CJ Prosise, Quenton Nelson, Mike McGlinchey, and DeShone Kizer.

Every Notre Dame team starts the season with a group of established top tier players. Coaching matters, depth matters, and many other factors go into a team having a successful season, but a team can rise or fall based on the performance of their best players.

That’s what happened in 2018 as well, when Notre Dame went undefeated in the regular season on their way to a College Football Playoff appearance. They had a group of six players who came into the season as the consensus top group on the team. In no particular order, it was Te’von Coney, Jerry Tillery, Julian Love, Drue Tranquill, Sam Mustipher, and Alex Bars.

Even with Bars being lost for the season with a knee injury in the fourth game, the team was able to rise up because of those other five and also the addition of Khalid Kareem, Julian Okwara, Alohi Gilman, Troy Pride, Miles Boykin, and arguably Ian Book into that top group.

When there are that many who are at that high of a level, a team goes from good to great. Notre Dame starts fall camp with a group of five players who are in a separate class from the rest of the team. Again in no order, it’s Sam Hartman, Joe Alt, Blake Fisher, Audric Estime, and Benjamin Morrison. (It’s not a coincidence that this was the group Notre Dame took to New York for a media blitz)

I’d say fans should feel very confident that those players are going to be great this season. Who knows if they’ll be All-Americans or not, but they should be considered in the conversation with the other top players at their positions in college football.

It’s the next group of players that will decide how far the team can rise this season.

Notre Dame didn’t have enough players in the next group to make that leap last season and that’s a huge reason why they finished 9-4. Brandon Joseph was supposed to be a playmaker in the secondary and that didn’t happen. No other pass rusher stepped up to rival Foskey. Expectations were high for Marist Liufau after all of the hype he generated before being injured in 2021, but he didn’t become the Havoc producer the Irish needed at the second level.

Cam Hart had an injury-plagued season that was a step back from the player he was in 2021. Tyler Buchner’s injury ensured he wasn’t going to have a breakout season. Lorenzo Styles never became the WR1 many had projected him to be. Chris Tyree didn’t become the big play back that he flashed he could be in his first two seasons.

It was Morrison, Estime, Alt, and Fisher who leveled up last season for Notre Dame, which is why they are listed in the tier they are now. They didn’t get anything close to what they would have hoped for from the rest of the group.

There’s about a dozen players this year that I would put in the group after that top-five. Not all of them are going to make that jump as individuals, but Notre Dame needs more than a few to do so if they want to make that jump from 9-10 wins to being a CFP contender this fall.

As camp goes on over the next month, we might see another Chase Claypool in 2019 type of performance where it becomes evident that someone needs to be included with that top-five. It’s even more important that there is multiple players who force their way into the conversation in those first four games of the season before they play Ohio State. They’ll need as many elite players as possible to beat a team who comes into this season with more players already mentioned near the top of their positions in college football.

2. With fall camp officially getting started yesterday, I’m reminded of how often a strong first impression from a freshman does mean something.

Even without pads, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah stood out in his first August practice back in 2017. I remember seeing Jarrett Patterson for the first time at practice in 2018 and Joe Alt in 2021 and it was obvious that they were going to be players. It went beyond looking the part physically and the same could have been said about someone like Isaiah Foskey in 2019.

Kyle Hamilton is a different story because there hasn’t been anyone who arrived as a true freshman in the eight years I’ve covered fall camp for ISD who was anywhere close to as impactful as he was.

I’d be lying if I said I knew Benjamin Morrison was going to be this good this soon for Notre Dame when I first saw him in person last August, but he was so smart and instinctive that it was evident that he would make an eventual impact for the Irish.

I mentioned him several times in the practice report I wrote back then. Here’s one section from that:

Morrison really starred in both 7on and team today. It’s not just his ability to play man coverage. He was passing off routes in zone like a veteran and he made a few plays on the ball.

He had a pass break up against Joe Wilkins on an in route in 7on, he closed in a hurry on a short route to Logan Diggs (more on this later), and almost came up with a pick on a play where he broke off his coverage in team.

Morrison and Mickey both look like they are going to be very good for the Irish. They should help the defense out this season

My first look at Notre Dame this summer will be the end of next week. I don’t care if it’s in individual drills or team, but there’s always one or two freshmen where it’s obvious (at least to me) that they’re going to eventually make an impact.

I’m excited to give out my “First impression award” to another freshman this year.

3. There was a lot of buzz about Notre Dame’s cornerbacks after the first day of practice, which should have been surprising to no one. We’ve talked about it for months as the strongest position group on the defense and maybe even the whole team.

Morrison and Mickey, who had two interceptions, were praised by Mike Frank, Matt Freeman, and Andrew Mentock in their practice observations. Marcus Freeman wasn’t shy about how good he thinks the group can be overall as well with some specific praise for the jump Cam Hart has made.

Considering he ran the defense when Hart had a breakout 2021 season, it’s all very encouraging.

“It could be pretty good, really special. You look at Cam Hart, who's a veteran, he's made a huge jump in a year. I'm just saying a guy that has been a starter, he's made a huge jump this summer just in terms of his work ethic off the field. I think his film study, he's made a huge jump.

“Benjamin Morrison, who we know had a great year last year, has done some really good things. Clarence Lewis, his experience. Then (Jaden) Mickey's experience. And so, as I challenge coach (Mike) Mickens a little bit, Clarence Lewis will play some nickel for us. So who will be that next corner?

“We know Jaden Mickey will be there. Who's going to be that next corner to emerge? Is it a Christian Gray, a Micah Bell, and one of those young guys, Ryan Barnes, Chance Tucker? Somebody's got to emerge as that fourth corner when we're in nickel.”

I was messaging with Mentock after practice yesterday and he brought up a great point about the benefit this can have for the receivers as well.

A huge reason why Miles Boykin and Chase Claypool were able to advance their games rapidly in 2018 and 2019 was the competition they faced in practice against Troy Pride and Julian Love. Iron sharpens iron is one of those cheesy things someone tweets out in a summer workout video, but it’s a real thing that practicing against great players helps make the games easier.

Jayden Thomas is going to be a better receiver this year because of the corners he competes with in practice every day. Tobias Merriweather has a much greater chance to become a “dude” if he has to learn to win against coverage that will be tighter than most of what he’ll see this fall.

There’s that and the fact that every corner has to be at a certain level if they want to play this season. This is exactly why quality is important and quality depth can be just as beneficial.

4. The 2023 defensive line group reminds me a bit of the one Notre Dame had in 2017 with a lot of unproven talent who ended up being critical players for the Irish defense.

It’s not quite the same because the Irish have seven players who I think are pretty firmly set in the rotation and all of them are at least in their third year of college football. That ‘17 D-line had Julian Okwara, Daelin Hayes, Khalid Kareem, and Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, all in year one or two, that made up half of the rotation that season.

The way this reminds me of that group is that I think we could see some sophomores and maybe a freshman end up forcing their way into the rotation at some point this season. It might not happen all at once for Junior Tuihalamaka, Josh Burnham, Tyson Ford, Aiden Gobaira, and the four freshmen, but eventually they will be the new wave of talent ready to take over much like those four I mentioned in 2017 who had Ade Ogundeji, Jamir Jones, and Kurt Hinish join them as well.

It’s been rare for a true freshman to play significant snaps the last two seasons. I mentioned in a piece earlier this week that there hasn’t been a true freshman to average more than 10 snaps a game on the defensive line at Notre Dame since 2020. If one of them does, it’s likely an indication that that player has a chance to be pretty special because there’s going to be really strong competition for playing time this fall.

5. However any position group lines up on the first day of camp doesn’t matter much. We can point back to just last season with Morrison jumping the line ahead of Ryan Barnes and Chance Tucker a couple of weeks into camp (before eventually jumping the line in front of Lewis early in the season).

It would be a very good thing for Notre Dame to have the first team offensive line settled soon. They came out on day one with an expected left side of Alt and Billy Schrauth then Zeke Correll at center. It was Andrew Kristofic and Fisher on the right side. And that may well be the opening day starting group for the Irish against Navy.

Whether it’s that, someone like Rocco Spindler in at guard, or another combination, it’s critically important that Joe Rudolph finds his top group early and goes from it. Even if that means a top six instead of five with a rotation at one guard position, like they did in 2017 at right tackle with Tommy Kraemer and Robert Hainsey, that’s a workable scenario. They just don’t want to be in any kind of situation like they had the last two years.

The staff made the wrong choice in 2021 with the top group to begin the season. The issues were amplified by Fisher’s injury in week one, but they still didn’t have the right player at left guard and didn’t have a handle on the left side of the line until halfway through the season. That set the whole offense back.

Last year it was rotten luck to lose Patterson to a foot injury in camp and there was nothing much they could do about it, but it showed early on in the season that the group wasn’t completely comfortable working together with his lack of practice time at the position. All of this is being mentioned with the caveat that everyone goes through camp relatively healthy.

But even with a lighter schedule than usual this September, it’s important to figure out their best five (or six) and get that group working together for as long as possible. We’ve seen what that looks like the last two seasons when that doesn’t happen.

6. Most people reading this never saw Johnny Lujack play for Notre Dame. Maybe all the people reading this never saw him play. Heck, he finished playing college football before my Dad was even born.

When I first became a fan of Notre Dame football, I wanted to learn as much as I could about the history of the program. I bought the book “Talking Irish: The Oral History of Notre Dame Football” and devoured it over a couple of days.

Of course I loved reading about the Lou Holtz teams and the stories about the coach of the Irish at the time, but it was reading about Frank Leahy and Ara Parseghian and their teams that had me hooked on everything about the program. It’s probably why I managed to stay a fan even when the program was in a spiral of mediocrity for well over a decade.

Lujack felt more like a mythical character when reading about him than an actual person. When you heard people talk who had seen him play, there always seemed to be something magical about how great he was and how he’d be appreciated so much more if he had played in a later era.

He’s one of those people who felt like he might live forever, which is why it was almost surprising to see that he passed earlier this week at the age of 98.

I write about current players on the team, I write about future Notre Dame players as recruits. Usually when I reference a former Notre Dame player, it’s someone who played on the team in the last 10 years. Even writing about players as recently as 20 years ago is difficult to do without adding the context that the game has changed drastically since then and that I didn’t watch them the same way that I do with the current players.

Lujack might be the best player to ever play for Notre Dame. I couldn’t make an argument one way or the other other because I’d only be stating things that I read about him, but everything I read about him made me revere the player he was and what he meant to Notre Dame.

Heroes get remembered, legends never die. Even with someone like me who never had a chance to watch him, he’ll live on as a legend even though he has passed.

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