Opponent Notes: Spring Ball, Transfers, and New Coaches

Normally having a new coordinator join your staff that coached against a team on your schedule the next season is an advantage. Personnel may change from year to year, but scheme typically doesn't if the same staff sticks around.

Unfortunately for Mike Elko and Clark Lea, the time they spent game planning and coaching against Temple in Wake Forest's bowl game now won't help them very much. Not only does Temple, Notre Dame's first opponent in 2017, have a new coach in Geoff Collins, but they also have a new completely different scheme on offense to deal with.

Collins hired Dave Patenaude away from Coast Carolina to lead the Owls offense this season. Patenaude is installing more of a spread scheme and plans to run more up-tempo, which is a stark contrast from what Temple did last season. Previously they tried to possess the ball for as long as possible and limit the other's team time on offense. Patenaude's philosophy sounds like it will be closer to what Chip Long is installing at Notre Dame, which isn't a bad thing when you consider Elko will be working against that all spring and in fall camp.

Last year Coastal Carolina had a back who finished as a second team FCS All-American, so don't expect it to be an offense that slings it all over the field. Temple is also trying to find a new quarterback this spring and have four guys vying for the job.

It doesn't sound like they are narrowing things down and may not do so soon, but the one to watch is former Elite 11 quarterback redshirt freshman Anthony Russo. He flipped to Temple late after being committed to Rutgers previously.

On the defensive side of the ball, defensive coordinator Phil Snow is also gone. He followed Matt Rhule to Baylor. Replacing him this spring is former Purdue defensive backs coach Taver Johnson. He told Philly.com's Marc Narducci that they are putting in a lot of scheme early, which is the opposite of what Elko and the coaches have done at Notre Dame in a new defense.

It's being reported that they are going to play a lot more man to man this season than they did in the past. We'll see if that's a good thing or not when they have to go up against Equanimeous St. Brown and the rest of the Notre Dame receivers in September.

Sparty is a mystery

We really don't know much about Michigan State's spring ball because the media has had no access to it. That's not how it normally goes with them, but they have shielded away the coaches and players because of the ongoing investigation into three football players and a staff member because of their alleged involvement with a sexual assault. Dantonio met with the media yesterday for the first time in a long time and was unable to provide any answers.

Now they are going to play the spring game this Saturday and have fans and media speculate as to who is not there and what their absence might mean regarding their status with this case or in the program. It's a giant mess for them from a public relations perspective and even more concerning when you consider the severity of the alleged crime.

Taking that out of the equation for the moment, there really isn't much known about their team this spring. This spring game will be the only chance for anyone to even get a glimpse of them. I'll be watching closely on the Big Ten Network on Saturday at 3pm EST to try and get some idea of how they are progressing on the field with a new quarterback and several new faces on defense. Even after that, there is still going to be a lot of mystery surrounding them heading into the summer.

The Irish play at Michigan State for their fourth game of the upcoming season on September 23rd.

Young wide receiver turning heads at USC

Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports wrote about USC quarterback Sam Darnold and his preparation this off season. He won't be the last national writer to do so as Darnold should be a Heisman contender and is seen as the potential number one pick in next year's NFL Draft.

Most of the story is about the hype surrounding him, but there were a couple of interesting team notes to take out of it. The first was Darnold throwing a number of interceptions in practices so far. I wouldn't count on it carrying over, but it is something to make note of with the Trojans losing some talent like Juju Smith-Schuster at receiver.

Unsurprisingly, they have young studs that should eventually be great and the one name that stood out from the bunch was former Notre Dame recruiting target, Velus Jones. The staff there says he has Adoree Jackson speed, which is scary to think about.

I loved Jones' film when he was in high school and felt his film didn't represent someone who had a 3 star ranking. It sounds like he will be someone to watch out for when the Irish match up with them in the fall.

New quarterback at UNC, but not Zaire

I'm not sure there was a better fit in terms of scheme and opportunity for Malik Zaire than North Carolina after Mitch Trubisky declared for the NFL Draft. He seemed to have the right kind of skill set to succeed in Larry Fedora's offense.

We now know that a Zaire-UNC marriage isn't going to happen as they picked up another transfer at quarterback. Former LSU quarterback Brandon Harris is heading to Chapel Hill and he is the guy who is most likely going to be starting for them in the fall.

Harris always seemed like a bad fit in Les Miles' offense and lost his job before Ed Orgeron took over during the season. He's a very good athlete and Fedora had success with a similar athlete in Marquis Williams in 2015.

Harris can't report until the summer after he graduates in June. The Tar Heels play the Irish on October 7th this season.