Notre Dame Notebook: Michael Carmody, Joe Wilkins Jr., Defensive Thriving

News and notes about Notre Dame football from this weekend's press conferences.

Joe Wilkins Jr. Ready To Step Up

By his admission, Joe Wilkins Jr. has always been a background player. The junior wide receiver never wanted to upstage anyone. Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees helped shape Wilkins' view of the upcoming season.

Wilkins could be an integral part of the Irish wide receiver core, which appears to be an upgrade from 2020. Rees told him that in a heart-to-heart conversation in the offseason.

“It was big, It was huge for me,” Wilkins said of the pep talk from Rees. “I’ve kind of been the guy just to get by. I've been in the backseat and did what I had to do just to be a role player and be relevant, but I always had people in front of me. For him to sit me down and talk to me, it showed he had the confidence in me and that Coach (Brian) Kelly and my brothers and everybody had confidence in me. They know what I can do and they've seen me do it in practice, so now it's time for me to take it to the field now on game day."

Wilkins, who was recruited as a cornerback, caught seven passes last year.

Michael Carmody Provides Versatility Up Front

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly called offensive lineman Michael Carmody, a 6-foot-6, 290-pound sophomore, our “Swiss Army Knife.” Carmody worked with the second team on the offensive line in Thursday’s practice. He played in one game last year.

With a rebuild in order on the line after losing four starters, the Irish need all the help they can get.

“He's extremely athletic,” Kelly said. "He bends well and moves his feet well. He's blessed with really good athletic ability. He's strong. His work in the weight room shows itself in the numbers that we get from director of performance coach (Matt) Balis. The physicality piece I think probably stands out the most. He's blessed with length. He could probably play every position on the offensive line. He could play all those positions for us.”

Defense Leading The Way

The offensive line, the receivers and a new starting quarterback are areas that need some real game time experience before making judgments.

The defense, though, looked really strong in Thursday’s practice.

First-year defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman has brought new energy and he has some really good players, like safety Kyle Hamilton, an All-American and defensive lineman Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, a second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection last year, to build around.

Kelly is most upbeat about their potential heading into the final week of training camp.

“I put a lot into it,” Kelly said of their performance on Thursday. “It's not schematic. It's freedom of movement, energy and enthusiasm. So when you see a defense that has a lot of moving pieces, but there's not a lot of thinking out there and they're getting their cleats in the ground and they're playing fast, that generally leads to good success. So either I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, and that's probably a good bet most of the time, or they're gonna play really fast and play exciting defense."

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