Notre Dame Has Already Established Its 2023 Identity
It's always interesting to listen to the storylines that emerge from Notre Dame fall camp. They change year to year, and it doesn't take long to find out what the focus will be on from a reporting standpoint, and what Irish faithful choose to grab onto.
When looking at the 2023 Notre Dame team the discussion has focused a lot on the play of the wide receivers, quarterback Sam Hartman, the Irish defense and recently the left guard battle. Those topics - especially the receiver topic - is taking up a lot of the oxygen about this team, and there is a growing sense of concern about the offense.
I believe it's too early to have that concern, but that's a different topic for a different day. When you consider what we've been able to see so far in camp, there are things we really can't see, and other aspects of this team we can learn a little bit about. Focusing on the aforementioned topics overshadows what should be the number one story about what we've seen so far from the 2023 Notre Dame Football team.
This is a very, very physical football team that has a lot of players that can flat out run.
"It's a physical bunch," Freeman said following Saturday's final scrimmage of fall camp. "It is a competitive, physical, passionate bunch that we are still pushing to reach its full potential."
This is my 12th season covering Notre Dame on a full-time basis. I've seen a couple of years where I was impressed with the physicality of the football team, with the 2017 and 2018 seasons promptly coming to mind. I've seen Notre Dame teams with speed, and the 2015 team is obviously the first one that comes to mind.
I'm not sure I've seen a Notre Dame football team with this combination of physicality, speed, and depth of talent as the 2023 football team has shown. The open scrimmage in the past week was one of the most intense Notre Dame practices I've ever seen, and it was encouraged by the staff. The defense especially played with a lot of fire, but the offense - which got out-played by the defense - didn't just take the beating, they battled.
There is still a lot this football team must work on, and there are plenty of kinks to still work out over the next two weeks before the Irish kick off the season against Navy. But that's more about getting the scheme down, improving the timing, still cleaning up some fundamental things and figuring out the final parts of the depth chart. What is no longer a question is that this team has certainly established its identity, and that identity is physicality and competitiveness.
When Notre Dame is at its best, the team's identity is exactly what we've seen so far. A team that is strong, physical, competes like crazy and plays with a lot of confidence. The confidence piece is still building on offense, at least from what we've seen, but even that side of the ball is competing hard in camp, they are fighting and they are physical.
That should be your takeaway about this Notre Dame football team as it concludes the camp part of the fall and starts preparation for Navy. We don't know how good this Irish football team will be in 2023, but the one thing I'm confident we will say about this team when it's all said and done is that this team is very, very physical.
Be sure to check out the Irish Breakdown message board, the Champions Lounge
Irish Breakdown Content
2023 Scholarship Chart
2023 Football Schedule
Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers
2024 Commit Rankings - Offense
2024 Commit Rankings - Defense
2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Offense
2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Defense
———————
Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more.
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachD178
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook
