6 Thoughts on a Thursday

Out of the ashes of the forgettable 2016, a freshman class emerged that became the best one Notre Dame had signed in the last two decades.

Nine NFL Draft picks. Two more who have made NFL rosters. Two more multi-year starters and a player who led the Irish in receiving one season.

All of that for a class that was ranked 15th when they signed. They easily surpassed any expectations anyone had for them.

I’d be lying if I said I watched that freshman class in 2016 and would have predicted that much team and individual success. I was excited about the potential of many of them, but players who became great later on weren’t at a point where I was ready to predict early impact for many of them.

Khalid Kareem looked like he was swimming that first season. Julian Okwara was a skinny kid who needed to fill out. Liam Eichenberg had to physically mature before he could get into the mix. Chase Claypool was an exciting physical prospect, but raw as can be as a receiver. I never would have said Julian Love was on his way to being an All-American candidate as a sophomore after seeing him as a freshman.

That class had talent, but it was all about development. It will always be about development.

That’s the qualifier before I get into how talented I think the freshman and sophomore classes are for Notre Dame’s current football team because there are things I’ve seen from the underclassmen on campus right now that are different than I’ve seen from recent classes.

There are more freshmen in the 2023 class who look like they have already spent a year or two in the strength and conditioning program. Normally there might be two or three in a class. This year Brenan Vernon, Armel Mukam, Drayk Bowen, Adon Shuler, Jaden Greathouse, and Rico Flores, Cooper Flanagan, and Jeremiyah Love all look like they have played games at Notre Dame and not one of them has taken a snap yet.

Greathouse and Flores are going to contribute this season. Partially because of the depth chart, but partially because they are ready to play regardless of who is in front of them on the depth chart.

If Benjamin Morrison and Jaden Mickey weren’t already advanced as sophomore corners, Christian Gray might have been pushing to start this season. In a lot of other years he could have.

There’s twitchy edge rushers in both classes starting with Aiden Gobaira, Josh Burnham, Junior Tuihalamaka, Jaylen Sneed, and Boubacar Traore.

Flanagan is already built like a man and Holden Staes and Eli Raridon might be the most athletic duo that the Irish have signed together in one class. They’re the future and the future might be now.

Sneed isn’t a finished product by any means, but he is going to be a factor on 3rd down and Bowen and Jaiden Ausberry look like they might be too good to keep off the field in 2024 if they don’t get into the mix this season.

I could keep going, but the point is that the list of players who have shown the potential to develop into impact players is long and the list of players who have a long way to go before they have a chance to see the field is pretty short. That’s rare.

Marcus Freeman and his staff have targeted faster, longer, twitchier athletes in recruiting and they’ve looked for elite traits. A lot of those traits shined on the field with the young group of players who were with Notre Dame’s second and third team on Tuesday night.

There’s work to be done with many of them, but just seeing how much progress some of the sophomores have made from year one to year two shows that a lot of them are on their way.

It’s going to be a matter of time before many of them start making plays on Saturdays in the fall. Some of them are so talented that it may only take a couple of weeks.

2. In 2015 it was Josh Adams. In 2016 it was Kevin Stepherson. Over the next six years, excluding the 2020 season because we didn’t have access in camp, it was Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Kevin Austin, Kyle Hamilton, Blake Fisher, and Benjamin Morrison.

Congratulations to the next recipient of the “First Impression Award”...Boubacar Traore!

It’s the award I’m giving out to the freshman who makes the best first impression in fall camp to the point where if this player doesn’t make a significant impact at Notre Dame, it means something went wrong.

(Something went wrong with Stepherson and Austin)

It’s pretty clear that Traore has impressed everyone in camp so far and it’s honestly a bit surprising.

For one, he’s much smaller than anticipated. He was listed around 250 when he committed, which is a big reason why I like many others felt him and his 80 inch wingspan would end up getting big enough to play as a 3-technique defensive tackle. I did not envision him coming in as a 237 pound Vyper.

He looks perfectly suited for it. He has a lot of physical traits that are similar to Isaiah Foskey, but I think Traore is a more flexible athlete. He can turn the corner as an edge, which he showed he was capable of in high school as well.

Traore set the edge a couple of times in the run game beating a reach block up front and he uses his length in the run game better than Foskey did when he was a freshman.

He was getting reps with the threes on Tuesday night so it’s difficult to project that he’s going to be a factor this season because Notre Dame showed they are surprisingly deep in terms of players who can rush off the edge and there are others who are further ahead of him in certain areas. His talent is evident, though.

He has the potential to develop into an outstanding edge defender for the Irish and he has shown enough to earn more opportunities to compete to see the field this season.

3. One reason why Notre Dame’s defense wasn’t as good last season as it has been recently is that they weren’t nearly as good on 3rd down.

They ended up finishing 49th in opponent 3rd down conversion percentage. In the previous three seasons they were 19th, 11th, and 10th.

I’d expect them to finish a lot closer to the previous three years this fall. A big part of that is them being very good at the cornerback position. The other significant piece of it is them having a better pass rush.

I mentioned the depth they have at edge rusher, but it’s really about them utilizing pass rushers more effectively. The front four on 3rd downs looks like Javontate Jean-Baptiste, Jordan Botelho, Howard Cross, and linebacker Marist Liufau. Jaylen Sneed should also get some opportunities and they have others like Josh Burnham, Junior Tuihalamaka, Rylie Mills, and possibly Traore who can be thrown into the mix as well.

I think it’s the deepest they’ve been in terms of sub-package pass rushers since 2019 when they had Julian Okwara, Khalid Kareem, Daelin Hayes, Jamir Jones, Ade Ogundeji, Jayson Ademilola, and Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa. The addition of “Spear”, a three safety defense with one safety more or less like an extra linebacker, makes them a little more unpredictable with how they’ll bring pressure and using Liufau or Sneed off the edge is the best use of the skill sets of those two players on 3rd down.

I mentioned in my practice report the problems that Liufau and Botelho created working together on stunts and I think they are going to be difficult for teams to block in those situations.

Notre Dame finished 38th in PFF’s pass rush grade last season. They were 5th in 2019. I’m not predicting for them to have a top-five pass rush in 2023, but I could see it being a lot closer to top-15.

4. One other thing about “Spear” as a 3rd down defense that I think is worth mentioning is the “Aztec” position that DJ Brown is set to play. It most likely is named that because the defense is inspired by the 3-3-5 defense that Rocky Long originated and ran successfully at San Diego State.

“I would say it's a hybrid safety linebacker out for our third down defense,” Brown said when asked about his new sub-package position. “We have a lot in. It's a lot of installs that we have, but I think it'd be really beneficial for our third down defense.”

On what the Aztec position adds to the defense

“I would say it just gives the offense different looks. They don't know what the Aztec is doing. They don't know if he's a DB or linebacker, so it makes our third down defense not as predictable as it was in the past. So I'm excited.”

It’s interesting that Brown was tabbed at this spot because he was rarely blitzed last season (only four pass rush opportunities). He has produced 6 pressures on 11 rushes in his career.

I alway thought he was an effective blitzer when asked to do so and he’s an intelligent player. It will be interesting to see how it looks when they utilized it.

It’s also interesting because this is one thing that has been added to the menu rather than what was taken off by Al Golden. This is different than what Marcus Freeman did at Cincinnati with their “Dollar” scheme and if it’s more similar to what Long ran, I wonder if it’s something we’ll see in more than just 3rd down depending on the match up.

I’m thinking of USC and Lincoln Riley’s offense, which ran for big yards against Notre Dame last season. Long’s defense at SDSU finished as top-seven run defense in four of his last five seasons there.

I wouldn’t think it would be something that Notre Dame ran the entire game against USC, but it is another option to throw at an offense that the Irish struggled to stop last season, especially on 3rd down where USC converted eight of 12 opportunities against the Irish.

5. I don’t think we can assume anything is settled at the left guard position because at this point in camp they have had three different players line up with the first group there that we know of.

Billy Schrauth started out there at the beginning of camp. Aamil Wagner repped with the ones at left guard after that. It’s been Pat Coogan exclusively working with the first team since the first practice I saw last Saturday.

They weren’t working with anyone else with the ones during the scrimmage portion of practice on Tuesday night. We’ll see if Coogan lines up there with the first team today.

I’d be surprised if right guard wasn’t Rocco Spindler’s job the whole season, provided he stays healthy. I’m far less certain about left guard and I think there’s several scenarios that could be on the table.

It might be that Coogan ends up being the guy and it’s his job the whole year. It’s not crazy to think Andrew Krisotfic, who had eight career starts at left guard, ends up there or that Schrauth will eventually find the consistency they want from him and that will be his spot for as long as he’s at Notre Dame.

I don’t even think it’s ridiculous to suggest freshman Charles Jagusah, who moved to guard, to end up playing there before the season is over. He had a couple of Quenton Nelson type of trap blocks on Tuesday night.

When Alex Bars was injured in 2018, Trevor Ruhland was the next man up until Aaron Banks ended up taking over the starting left guard spot from the Navy game on. When so much was influx at the start of 2021, it wasn’t until the Virginia Tech game that Notre Dame went all in with Joe Alt and Kristofic on the left side of the line.

I’m pretty sure Kristofic had zero reps with the first team in fall camp that season. I don’t believe Alt even had reps with the twos in camp at offensive tackle.

Things can change pretty quickly from what we’re seeing now and I think things could end up being pretty fluid there through the first few games. The best-case scenario for Notre Dame is to not have a fluid situation at left guard heading into the season.

This next week is pretty much going to tell us whether or not it will or won’t be.

6. When we see a full practice, but the scrimmage doesn’t include three of Notre Dame’s top-five running backs, it’s difficult to get a read on the offense.

Not just of how good the offense can be when they don’t have Audric Estime, Gi’Bran Payne, or Jeremiyah Love, but more of what the offense will be.

Does the Notre Dame offense have an identity? What are they best at? That’s one thing I don’t know yet and we’re 16 days away from Notre Dame’s first game of the season.

Notre Dame fans know that Navy is a heavy blitz team who is going to attack frequently with extra rushers. NC State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson blitzes his linebackers as much as any Power 5 program in the country. Notre Dame’s schedule might not be as daunting to open the season as it normally is, but the offense is going to be tested.

It’s not that I don’t think Notre Dame will have the answers to pass those tests, especially because Sam Hartman has not only looked good handling the blitz in practice, but because he spent five years in a scheme where the answer to defend them was to blitz around 50% of the time.

He handled it pretty well. His PFF grades vs the blitz were 84.3 and 89.2 the last two seasons, which was better than Drake Maye, CJ Stroud, Caleb Williams, Michael Penix, and only slightly below Alabama’s Bryce Young (90.4).

I’m pretty confident Notre Dame will find answers when they are challenged by these defenses. I think they have some good weapons to throw to. I know that Estime is going to be a load in the running game. I’m not quite sure of what the offense will be yet.

I think it’s hard to reveal your identity with those backs out and with mostly twos and threes taking reps in a scrimmage where the twos and threes on defense are better than the ones on offense. Still, it would be nice to have an idea of where to set expectations for the offense heading into September and I’m not there yet.

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