How Inside Zone Led to Confidence Boost for Notre Dame RB Jadarian Price
Inside zone.
It’s a 100-level football play as the scheme is simply designed to hit inside the tackles.
Notre Dame has run it hundreds of times, but for Jadarian Price, the first inside zone call for him during a live session meant so much more.
Price tore his Achilles last summer and missed his freshman year after a more than promising spring where he exploded for 116 total yards and a touchdown in the 2022 Blue-Gold Game.
Fast forward to August 2023. Price hadn’t had contact since that spring game and it didn’t take long for him to feel officially back.
“Just a regular inside zone,” stated Price. “Hitting the A-gap and maybe bouncing off a couple guys. The first time when we went live and I got tackled, I remember just being juiced up. It was like, ‘Man, I haven’t been tackled in a year.’
“It felt good. That was when I felt like this is it. It was our first live practice.”
Now, the Texas native had confidence he was healthy earlier in preseason camp as Price knew after practice one he was ready to go.
“I knew day one and I give props to the guys in my room,” Price said. “They were with me the whole way in the journey. They believed in me. Ultimately, Coach (Deland) McCullough believed in me. That’s really a part of me. Personally, I knew I could do it. Then just the guys had my back.”
There is no doubt an Achilles injury is serious, but Price took his time to make sure there would be no setbacks during fall camp. The patience paid off as the sophomore believes he’s 100 percent.
“My body’s doing great,” said Price. “I have no limitations physically. I feel very confident in my ability. Everyone on the team and all the coaches have as well. No limitations physically with my past injury.”
Price may have been patient with the process, but that doesn’t mean it was easy watching for over a year.
Yet, Price remained positive and made sure to do as much physically as he was allowed, but also banked important mental rep to build off his impressive spring as an early enrollee.
“All the tangibles, all the stuff you see on film, all the tendencies of linebackers, defensive ends, people we look at what they like to do,” Price said of what he learned over the last year. “The biggest thing was leadership as a running back room. Not necessarily age-wise or experience-wise, but I looked at Audric (Estime) doing this. Just the energy he had.
“Assignments are assignments. But the energy I saw from the sideline that our running back room brought, that was the biggest thing that I noticed. Just continuing to do those things, our assignments, but with energy. You need that in prime-time college football.”
Mental reps are one piece of the puzzle. Price used those mental reps to build on his experience on the field before his injury, which has allowed him to have a productive fall camp.
“Everyone gets the opportunity to show what they can do,” Price said of his spring practice. “That’s what happened. I got my opportunity to show what I could do. Spring time is a great time for that.
“What I learned, ultimately, was when you’re name’s called, can you show up and perform? I did that. That really gave me confidence pre-injury that I’ve done this before. Even though I haven’t played a down of college football under the lights on a Saturday night, I’ve still gotten the hang of it. I’ve gotten hit. I’ve scored a touchdown in the spring game. I’ve learned how to come together with my team and communicate. That’s what that spring taught me.
“At the end of the day, I’m glad I early enrolled and got the opportunity to do what I did in the spring.”
Fall camp has come and gone. The first hit has come and gone.
Price and the rest of the Notre Dame running backs will now compete in practice and on Saturdays for roles, which has everyone on notice as the season opener is less than two weeks away.
“We all have jobs,” Price explained. “When our name is called, we’re there and we make sure we’re available as a running back room. Coach has always said make sure you’re available. Make sure we lead the offense physically, mentally. Make sure we’re just available when our name’s called.
“It’s not about 2 or 3 or 1. It’s just about when your name’s called on a third down, a second down, are you available? That’s the biggest thing.”
The running back by committee message is often talked about, but under McCullough, the Notre Dame backs have completely embraced it as they see the rewards.
“It’s really good for our offense because any time we’re in, whoever’s in at back, they’re 100% all the way,” Price said. “They get all of their juice for that 3-4 plays that they’re in and when another guy comes in for their job.
“That process of what we do as a running back room, not only does it help us with our load, but it also helps us with experience. Getting a lot of guys experience and things like that. All five of us can play really well.”
And there is proof in the committee approach. Estimé ran for 935 yards. Logan Diggs ran for 841 yards before bolting to the Bayou and Chris Tyree added 459 yards.
Price hopes 2023 will be much of the same as he has a great deal of confidence in the room coming out of fall camp.
“I can see all of us getting a lot of success and feeding off of that success,” said Price. “The guy to my left or my right, he’s going and all of a sudden I break one. That really increases our chances of becoming a successful football team.”
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