Notre Dame Football Practice Report

Notre Dame held its 11th practice of the spring this morning. It was a light day of work from what we saw, so this will be a bit lighter of a report in advance of tomorrow night’s full practice. Here is what we saw during today’s action, which was focused on the offense.

*** I watched the quarterbacks for a little bit today and I continue to be impressed with freshman Kenny Minchey. From a pure tools standpoint, Minchey is the most gifted quarterback on the current roster. I wouldn’t call Minchey and overly sudden or explosive athlete, but he’s really smooth and fluid, which you’ll see in the clip below. Beyond that, the ball is really jumping out of his hand. Minchey gets more juice on throws than any other quarterback on the roster, and his release is lightning quick. We didn’t see much throwing to receivers, but his ball placement during drills was quite good.

*** Sophomore Steve Angeli had a bit of a rough drill session. They were working on a lot of different footwork drills during today’s session, and Angeli wasn’t overly crisp. He bumped into the bags more than others and his feet were a bit heavy today.

*** At running back, sophomore Gi’Bran Payne continues to impress with his foot quickness and grasp f what Deland McCullough is asking him to do in drills. He’s effortless as a runner and has arguably the best feet of any of the backs. Classmate Jadarian Price is still looking explosive going through drills, which is a good sign, as this is the part of camp where fatigue starts to set in. Freshman Jeremiyah Love is getting more and more comfortable in drills, which is resulting in him moving quicker and quicker.

*** At wide receiver, freshman Braylon James has been inconsistent catching the ball at times, but today was one of the good days for him. James looked confident working through drills, and he was snapping his body around with ease during bad-ball drills and hauling in catches.

*** During individual drills the receivers were doing a drill I have never seen. While working to the sideline they would reach back to catch the ball with the arm closest to the sideline. That’s not a natural thing for receivers, and I’m not sure why they would do it, but it was an interesting drill nonetheless. During that drill, junior Deion Colzie showed off his impressive length, as well as his big, strong hands. He made that drill look much easier than others. Every time I see Colzie do things like he did today, the thought of what he could be if he taps into his immense talent and potential becomes obvious and clear.

*** Sophomore Tobias Merriweather definitely needs to keep working on getting stronger. During a blocking/block destruction drill today he got pushed back by freshman cornerback Micah Bell. The rookie corner did a good job getting under Merriweather’s pads and using his leverage advantage (he’s 5-9 1/2 to Merriweather’s 6-4), and Merriweather didn’t recover well and got driven back a bit.

*** Freshman receiver Jordan Faison showed off really impressive body control and ball skills during drills today. His athleticism has always been obvious, but today he showed the ability to quickly turn his hips and snatch bad balls out of the air with relative ease. He’s an impressive looking athlete and only adds to what is a very talented rookie class of receivers.

*** Transfer kicker Spender Shrader showed off impressive leg strength again today. He missed a 52-yard barely to the left, and he didn’t get all of the kick, but it still had plenty of distance. He also drilled a pair of 40+ yard field goal attempts down the middle, including a kick of about 48 yards that he didn’t even get all of, but still nailed the kick. Shrader gets a lot of lift on the ball, which makes it very hard to block up the middle.

*** Freshman kicker Marcello Diomede got some work today with the second group, and I like how well he boots the ball. He obviously doesn’t have the leg strength that Shrader has, but he did show good pop. He hit a couple of 40+ yard field goals during the open period as well.

That’s it for today.

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