Notre Dame Football Practice Report - March 22
Notre Dame held its first practice of the spring today. Here are my thoughts and observations from the practice.
To begin, we didn't get to see a ton. We only saw 5 periods, and the periods are 5 minutes each. The first few periods were special teams periods. I spent most of my time watching the offense.
Here goes:
*** Chris Tyree was wearing #2 and was playing slot receiver, not running back.
*** Overall, the quarterback room really stood out today. It's so much better than it was a year ago, just overall. Notre Dame has four guys out there that can really sling the ball in very impressive fashion. The quarterbacks began going through drop back drills, then stationary passing drills that had them throwing at different angles, which forces quarterbacks to use their lower body and hips to get the ball out. Next they worked on a drill where they would go through the handoff mesh and give the ball, then receive a ball from a coach and then quickly catch, set their feet and throw. It was a way to work on handoffs and RPO footwork at the same time. Next they worked on routes vs. air. They had 3 WR and a TE working a time and four quarterbacks throwing at the same time. Each QB would throw to a different route.
*** The ball rarely hit the ground during drills and routes on air, which wasn't often the case the last couple of years. It was impressive to watch this group through. This is without question the most talented quarterback room top to bottom from a throwing standpoint.
*** Sam Hartman didn't look like a guy going through his first practice, at least in the drill work we saw today. The ball jumps out of his hand impressively, his timing was really good during drill work and his timing on routes was what you'd expect to see from a veteran. It's not necessarily something you'd expect to see from a guy working with receivers for the first time. Hartman's ball placement was excellent during QB drills and during routes on air. He comes to Notre Dame with a reputation as a good deep ball thrower and that was evident throughout the early portion of practice. Seeing his deep ball in person was impressive. The ball gets up and down in a hurry, and he put his downfield shots right over the outside shoulder, leading the receiver. I liked what I saw from Hartman throwing out cuts today. The ball had a good trajectory without much air on it, and he led wideouts very well.
*** Tyler Buchner was sharp in the early portion of practice as well. His timing was good, his ball placement was good and he looked a lot more comfortable with his footwork this morning. Buchner's arm angle changes a lot, which we've seen before. Overall his ball placement was good. At times he would get off his back foot a bit too much and the ball would be high, but even then they were catchable throws. Buchner got a bit more zip on his outside throws than we saw a year ago.
*** Steve Angeli throws with very good velocity and he's clearly the biggest quarterback out there. Angeli throws a pretty spiral almost every time, but his timing wasn't as good as the other quarterbacks. It wasn't bad by any means, just not as crisp and sharp as the older quarterbacks. Angeli's ball placement was also spotty, and he tends to throw high on in breaking routes and a bit behind on out breaking routes. Kenny Minchey throws a really pretty ball. I didn't see him throw as much during routes on air, but during individual work the ball came out clean and he was accurate.
*** When Notre Dame went to routes on air the first three receivers on the field were Tobias Merriweather (now wearing #5), Deion Colzie (now wearing #0) and Jayden Thomas. The second group was Kaleb Smith (#80), Tyree and Lorenzo Styles. It appears as though Notre Dame was doing some version of left-right with their alignment and not field-boundary. That or they are just letting their outside receivers work at both. Merriweather, for example, was in the boundary his first two reps with Colzie to the field, and then it flipped a couple of reps later.
*** Tobias Merriweather looked sharp during drills and routes on air. A couple of times he was a bit choppy on stop routes, but overall his technique was crisp and he caught the ball clean. His catch radius is really impressive and he snatched the ball out of the air with ease. Deion Colzie looked solid during the day of practice. He has without question the best catch radius on the roster. He came off the line well and was clean getting in and out of his breaks. On all the balls I saw thrown his way he snatched the ball clean and showed good confidence. Chris Tyree was sharp running routes from the slot and he caught the ball clean. I have my doubts about whether or not he can be an every down player at wide receiver, but he looked more comfortable running routes than I thought he would.
*** Lorenzo Styles caught the ball well today, which was good to see. His drop issues started last spring, so it was good to see him catching the ball well. Transfer Kaleb Smith also caught the ball extremely well and looks good working vertically. His hips are just a tad tight, which you see when running routes, but he knows what he's doing. Jayden Thomas looked sharp and caught the ball well, and his body looked a bit streamlined today. He's still thick, but just a more lean version of himself.
*** Jaden Greathouse looked very comfortable for a first year player going through his first practice. He catches the ball extremely clean and he was sharp going through drills. His body control is really impressive and he's a well built young man already. Rico Flores Jr. looked very similar to Greathouse in how he plays. Crisp route runner, confident working through drills and he catches the ball away from his body and with a lot of confidence. Braylon James is really, really explosive as a runner, but he's not as good running routes right now as his teammates. He had a deep ball where he didn't track it well and didn't adjust well to the football, and it just missed him.
*** I was really, really impressed with how Holden Staes looked. He has really filled out, especially in the upper body. His route running was good and he catches the ball very well. I liked how explosive he was getting off the ball. Mitchell Evans is a large young man and he looked good going through drills today as well. I'll say about the tight ends what I said about the wideouts, they caught the ball really well. I was really impressed with how few footballs I saw hit the ground in the periods we could see.
*** We never saw the offensive line as a whole, but they did some half line drills. The first group to line up was - left to right - Joe Alt, Andrew Kristofic, Zeke Correll, Rocco Spindler and Blake Fisher. Don't read too much into that, but it was worth noting.
*** I'll watch more of the defense on Saturday's open practice, but I did notice a few things. One is that freshman linebacker Jaiden Ausberry is really, really fluid at linebacker, and classmate Drayk Bowen is bigger than I thought he would be. Josh Burnham is extremely impressive physically. Incredible length, he's filled out well and he's explosive off the ball. I didn't see much of Jordan Botelho, but in the few snaps I saw him during drills his first step was outstanding.
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