SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame wrapped up the training camp portion of its preseason with 100 scrimmages inside the stadium over the weekend. It was the final opportunity for coaches to evaluate their depth before taking on Texas A&M. It also marked the final chance for some players to move up or down the depth charts until at least Aug. 31 in College Station.
Marcus Freeman seemed pleased with what he saw, even if he didn't fully understand what the scrimmage meant.
“I told the coaching staff, 'This is the most prepared team I've ever been around, offensively and defensively,' and they really competed, really executed, didn't try to trick each other, just did what they always do,” Freeman said. “We had a great scrimmage and I'm very happy with it, and I'm looking forward to watching it again and finding out what we need to improve on.”
Strictly Business#Let's go to Ireland☘️ pic.twitter.com/YyVksnUPeN
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) August 17, 2024
Assuming this season goes according to Freeman's plan, there will be a lot of that going on for Notre Dame not just over the next two weeks but over the next four months as well. But the team has realized a few things about itself early in camp.
Here are some of the lessons learned from it:
1. The captain reflects the balance of the team
Notre Dame announced five captains on Sunday, four for defense and one for offense. Quarterback Riley Leonard was named a captain because he only started eight months ago and missed most of winter training and the spring game. But it also says something that Jack Kiser, Riley Mills, Benjamin Morrison and Xavier Watts were named captains on defense. The Irish have some of the best defensive veterans in the country. The offense? It still has room for improvement.
How much progress Notre Dame can make will depend on the quarterback.
“He has a general understanding of where we ultimately want to be offensively and has a clear vision for it and I think he's done a good job of executing on it,” offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said, “I think the respect he has within our locker room is growing and it's great to be a part of that.”
Howard Cross III and Mitchell Evans were also up for the captaincy, but Cross was the surprise choice. He's not a “hot-head” by his own admission, but few players command more respect than a defensive tackle. Either way, he'll be leading the Notre Dame defense.
“We're going to have some captains, but we have a lot more leaders than we have captains,” defensive coordinator Al Golden said. “Everybody has the potential to be a leader.”
For the first time since 2011, Notre Dame will not have an offensive lineman among its captains.
Benjamin Morrison is one of the best cornerbacks in the nation. (Michael Reeves/Getty Images)
2. Every group had a better camp than the secondary.
It all started when Morrison was inserted into the starting lineup on Opening Day after undergoing shoulder surgery four months ago. Earlier this summer, Freeman questioned whether Morrison would be fully ready for the start of camp, saying he would need to work slowly. That wasn't the case. The All-American candidate showed he had an edge on the game.
“The best thing for me is I'm healed,” Morrison said. “It's always a battle to get your confidence back, but I think I've got to trust in God and I think I'm going to be healthy for a while longer.”
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And things only got better from there.
Christian Grey won the starting spot opposite Morrison over Jayden Mickey, certainly a sign the staff is convinced the sophomore has star quality. Freshman Leonard Moore filled the fourth cornerback role the Irish needed after Clarence Lewis transferred to Syracuse. At safety, Adon Shuler pushed aside graduate transfer Rod Hurd II to start next to Watts, and both will play this fall. Golden said Jordan Clark will start at nickel, but that Hurd and Mickey could play.
A team that had concerns about its depth over the past two weeks has added depth. Building depth from within is a common coaching trope that makes it sound as though position groups can add depth simply by talking about it. But Notre Dame's staff worked on it all through camp, freely rotating players during practice. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. But it was all a positive for a secondary that may be Notre Dame's strongest position group.
“We know it's not going to be consistent in terms of who's going to play in games,” Golden said, “so I think building vertical and horizontal depth is really important.”
The starting secondary outplayed the first-team receivers multiple times during scrimmages last weekend, and it likely won't be the last time the Irish secondary holds them back.
3. No position has had a worse time in camp than the offensive line.
Notre Dame's ideal offensive line never reached full pads.
By the first weekend of camp, Charles Jagsa had already been sidelined for the year with shoulder and chest injuries that required surgery, and then-offensive line coach Joe Rudolph announced that the left tackle position was open to Tosh Baker, and the left guard position was open between Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler.
now?
The Irish finished camp with freshman Anthony Knapp at left tackle and freshman Sam Pendleton at top left guard, and if Notre Dame starts the pairing of center Ashton Craig, right guard Billy Shrout and right tackle Amir Wagner, each of the starting five will have six total starts.
“We have some guys that have experience, some that don't have as much experience or any experience at all, but they're really talented football players,” Freeman said. “What we decide is best in Week 1 doesn't mean it's going to be best in Week 5 or Week 6. It's something we've talked about as a coaching staff, but we have to figure out what's best in Week 1.”
That means Notre Dame likely won't be using a young player that quickly, especially considering Coogan made 13 starts last season.
Either way, the position that was a thorn in Notre Dame's side on Aug. 1 now appears to be a major concern for Texas A&M's defense, and while Freeman put on a brave face to end camp, Jagsa's departure and Baker's failure to gain ground at the position are cause for concern.
4. Riley Leonard became a Notre Dame believer.
It wasn't just Leonard being named captain, which felt planned from the moment he arrived.
Leonard has been working a ton at the plate as the coaches have tried to get him up to speed on the offense. Not only is Leonard fully recovered from an ankle injury that required two surgeries last season, but his escapes have certainly been a headache for Golden's defenses. And Golden's defenses aren't much of a headache.
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In a scrimmage last weekend, Denbrock directed a quarterback run designed for Leonard from an empty set with running back Jeremiah Love splitting (or in motion) wide. If Notre Dame can take advantage of Leonard's legs while simplifying the defense (empty sets force defenses into a light box), it could give the Irish a reliable personnel setup, something that didn't work under Sam Hartman last season or Jack Coan before that.
Leonard may still be a developing passer, but his feet should create that extra second for targets to get open, and if deployed correctly, Notre Dame's quarterback can become a walking play-action fake every snap.
Jeremiah Love was second on the team with 385 yards rushing. (D. Ross Cameron / USA Today)
5. There's no doubt about RB1.
Conventional wisdom had it that Jeremiah Love and J'Darian Price would split practice duties this fall. Freeman said afterward that it didn't take a “rocket scientist” to know Love needed more touchdowns. That wasn't the case with Price, despite a kickoff return touchdown against USC and a 100-yard game in the Sun Bowl. Price has the ability to be a lead back, but whenever the coaches talked about the run game, it was all Love's fault.
Love said he's gained 15 pounds since the end of last season and is now 210 pounds. It's hard to imagine Love carrying the ball as many times as Estime, who carried the ball 210 times in 12 games last season, but it's easy to see Love terrorizing defenses with his passing game while working with Leonard in a zone-read game. Love had just eight catches for 77 yards last season.
“I think it's just work ethic, just coming to work every day and just doing the job,” Love said. “I learned so much from (Estime) last year and just coming to work every day and doing the job.”
If there is a breakout player on the Irish offense, it's likely Love.
6. The Irish have emphasized linebacker depth. Will they take advantage of it?
Golden and linebackers coach Max Bruch have been touting the theory over the past two weeks that Notre Dame has five linebackers available to play this fall, and while that may be true, it's also possible that the Irish won't dig that deep given Jack Kiser's expertise and the inexperience of others.
Kizer is the unquestioned leader of the group and is expected to start at linebacker. That would mean Drake Bowen and Kinston Viriam-Asa would rotate at center, with the rover spot being manned by Jalen Snead or Jayden Ausberry, who are elusive because they rotate at nickel. The Irish mixed positions frequently during camp, stress-testing Snead on the interior and Bowen and Viriam-Asa together at center.
“We're just trying to find different roles for everybody,” Golden said. “That's one of the things we tell everybody: Audition every day for a role.”
Kizer will be the primary defender in the goalie's box communicating with Golden on a headset, and while he's not the only player equipped with a radio, it's hard to think of another linebacker who speaks Golden's language as fluently during a game as the sixth-year linebacker does.
“Jack's really smart, so that's probably a good thing,” Golden said. “If he had the same buttons as me, it would be a long day because we'd be going back and forth.”
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(Top photo of Riley Leonard: Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
