Notre Dame Football Practice Report: Practice No. 6 - Defense
Notre Dame held its sixth practice of the 2021 football season. Here is Irish Breakdown's news, notes and analysis from the practice. Here is the defensive report.
OVERVIEW
Defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman runs his practices much different than past coordinators. There is a lot of individual periods and teaching going on during the practice. When we saw any group periods there was a lot of substituting and rotating in and out.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Defensive tackle Jayson Ademilola was by far the most dominant defender during practice. He was very quick and explosive in drills and when we got into team periods he simply could not be blocked. The Irish offensive had no chance at keeping him out of the backfield during today's practice. What we saw him do in the spring we saw him do rep after rep during practice.
With Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa being home with his family after the death of his father, and with Justin Ademilola being out with an injury, we saw NaNa Osafo-Mensah and Alexander Ehrensberger get a lot of reps today. Osafo-Mensah had a solid practice and Ehrensberger's combination of size and quickness is impressive. He's still learning technique but he's an impressive athlete.
We saw sophomore Rylie Mills playing inside at three technique and playing some big end during today's practice. Mills had a productive day, showing quickness off the ball. That was evident on one team rep where he shot past the line and blew up the run play.
Junior end Isaiah Foskey had a solid day. He didn't make any big plays and he didn't get beat much. He has to keep working on block destruction, and that caused him to have a hard time getting off blocks by Joshua Lugg.
Sophomore end Jordan Botelho was working mostly with the second and third groups today, and we continue to see his high motor and quickness off the ball.
LINEBACKER
Junior linebacker Marist Liufau took the vast majority of the first-team reps at the Will position and he had a very impressive day. He flew around to the ball all day and was a lot more assignment sound. That resulted in him making a lot of plays. On one snap he blitzed off the edge, read the quarterback's attempt to get out a quick throw, so Liufau jumped up, batted the ball, picked it off and then headed to the end zone.
Classmate JD Bertrand got most of the second team reps and he had an impressive practice. Bertrand has been getting a lot of second team reps in practices and today wasn't the only day he's working in behind Bertrand. He was around the football all day long and he was very steady.
Senior Shayne Simon was working mostly as the third team linebacker and he didn't impress today. He wasn't around the ball much and just didn't flash much.
Senior Bo Bauer made a lot of plays and had a solid day, as did veteran Drew White. The one difference between the two is that White is the more consistent and steady player. Bauer is also getting a lot of action in nickel packages, something he did a lot last season.
An interesting nugget we saw was Liufau, White and Bertrand all on the field in a nickel package, and Liufau was playing a bit of the rover role during that look.
He's still learning the defense, but the speed with which freshman Prince Kollie runs to the ball and moves around the field is hard to ignore.
DEFENSIVE BACK
Junior Cam Hart had very, very good coverage for much of the day but in match ups against Kevin Austin he just wasn't able to finish the throws well enough. Austin out-played Hart for the ball more often than not and that kept Hart from making more plays. Going against Austin is going to be great for Hart, who is showing the athleticism and technique to thrive, he just has to finish better.
Sophomore Clarence Lewis and senior TaRiq Bracy both had good days. Neither made huge plays but they weren't getting beat with any kind of consistency either. Bracy played both outside/field cornerback and the nickel position.
Freshman Ryan Barnes is really, really long and smooth. He's an athletic player and he was tight in coverage for much of the day. He's still got a lot of technique he'll need to learn but he's going to be good. Freshman Chance Tucker and JoJo Johnson showed impressive athleticism as well but both have a lot to learn technique wise.
Freshman Philip Riley got some legit action with the second group. At times he looked unsure of what he was doing from an assignment and technique standpoint, but when he knew what he was doing he was effective.
Junior Kyle Hamilton had some issues during the one-on-one period, including getting destroyed by Lawrence Keys III for what would have been a long touchdown on a vertical route. Even the great ones have off days, and Hamilton wasn't getting a normal workload, which isn't surprising since he is still getting back in ideal shape.
Senior Houston Griffith had a very good practice. He was strong in coverage during one-on-one and 7-on-7 periods and during team periods he was around the ball a lot. Griffith looks to be in great shape and he was the most impressive safety today.
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