Notre Dame Is Poised For A Youth Movement In 2023

It's hard to win a championship in college football if you don't have a lot of talented and productive veteran players, and Notre Dame certainly has that heading into the 2023 season. But Notre Dame's chance to make a run this season will be greatly impacted by the development of the youth on the roster.

Notre Dame returns 14 starters from last year's team, and 18 starters from its Gator Bowl victory over South Carolina. That last number doesn't include starting cornerback Cam Hart, who missed that game with an injury. Notre Dame also welcomes four transfers that played a ton of football last season in Sam Hartman (Wake Forest), Kaleb Smith (Virginia Tech), Javontae Jean-Baptiste (Ohio State) and Thomas Harper (Oklahoma State).

But if you study the Notre Dame roster you'll realize that veteran talent and experience will only take this team so far. If Notre Dame truly going to take a big enough jump this season to be considered legitimate title contenders the Irish will need a youth movement.

Let's take a look at the young players making noise on offense.

Notre Dame won't have a lot of young players in the starting lineup, but two sophomores are expected to step into starting roles, and their play will be very, very important for the Irish.

According to sources, sophomore wide receiver Tobias Merriweather is having a huge spring for the Fighting Irish. Merriweather earned a Top 50 national recruit grade on the Irish Breakdown board, so the talent is certainly there. Now in his second season, Merriweather is using his improved strength and knowledge of the offense to make an impact this spring.

Merriweather has the kind of size (6-4) that Hartman loved at Wake Forest, but his all-around game is what makes him so dangerous. Merriweather has enough speed to combine with his length to make him a down the field weapon, which he showed against Stanford last season. The Washington native also has a good feel for the game, possessing veteran route running ability, which should benefit him a great deal now that he has a better grasp of the offense.

Merriweather has a chance to emerge as a very important piece to the wide receiver depth chart, and he could end up being the primary perimeter go to weapon at some point this season. The better he plays the more dangerous the Irish offense will be this season.

Classmate Billy Schrauth was one of the top ranked recruits in the 2022 class, but he didn't play as a freshman while he learned the offense and got healthy after suffering an injury that cost him the entire spring a year ago.

We started to hear about Schrauth emerging late in the 2022 season, and he's now in pole position to earn the starting left guard spot. Schrauth has good size (6-4, 304), he's a physical mauler type of player and he's a quality athlete. He'll have some bumps in the road because of his inexperience, but Schrauth has the talent to be an impact blocker when he's on his game.

Notre Dame needs Schrauth to grow up in a hurry. The Irish are expected to have one of the best lines in the country in 2023, but Schrauth stepping up will be key to making that happen.

While Merriweather and Schrauth are set to be starters, there is plenty of potential impact in the younger classes on offense.

It would also be unwise to not discuss sophomore tight end Holden Staes as a potential impact player, or even a starter, especially when the Fighting Irish go to their 12 personnel sets. He got some action as a rookie, but Staes should take a big jump as a player in year two. We've already seen him add a lot of good weight this spring, and Staes has the athletic tools to be a dangerous weapon in the pass game.

Sophomore running back Jadarian Price was the star of the spring a year ago, finishing off an impressive spring with a 51-yard catch and run touchdown in the Blue-Gold Game. An Achilles injury over the summer cost him the fall and still has him out this spring, but if Price returns to form in the fall he'll be impossible to keep off the field. His home run talent could help the Irish at running back, in the pass game and on special teams as a return man. Classmate Gi'Bran Payne has taken advantage of other backs being out and has put together a strong spring of his own.

A case could be made that from a pure God-given ability standpoint, incoming freshman running back Jeremiyah Love will be the most physically gifted running back, and he also brings potential as a pass catcher. Love could be hard to keep off the field, and he could make his presence felt out of the backfield or the return game. If we are talking just pure raw talent, the argument for the most talented is between Love and Price.

Notre Dame's freshman class is also loaded at the skill positions. Wide receivers Braylon James, Jaden Greathouse and Rico Flores Jr. have all had outstanding moments this spring. Beating out the older players won't be easy, but this trio is already making their presence felt, and all have shown the ability needed to play as rookies.

Having them on campus gives Notre Dame several advantages. For one, their presence forces the veteran players to practice hard, be focused and produced. The freshmen are just too good not to play if the older players ahead of them aren't performing. Unlike last season, Notre Dame has a lot of talented options to turn to if the rotation players aren't getting the job done.

The other advantage is that Notre Dame is far, far better poised to handle injuries this season, something they could not do a season ago.

If the offensive linemen currently on the roster don't perform well this spring they'll find themselves looking over their shoulder when five-star lineman Charles Jagusah arrives.

Notre Dame's younger players will be important for Notre Dame on offense this season. Whether it's as impact producers, starters or important role players, how well this group performs in the fall will have a major impact on just how good Notre Dame will be on offense in 2023.

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