Notre Dame Special Teams Are Taking Shape
With the season opener against Navy now on the near horizon, Notre Dame’s special teams personnel are coming into clearer focus. For starters, first-year Fighting Irish special teams coordinator Marty Biagi knows who his punter will be when the Irish take the field against the Midshipmen in Dublin on Aug. 26.
"Right now, Bryce (McFerson) is going to be our starting punter going in and he’s earned that in how he competed in camp,” Biagi said after Thursday’s 13th training camp practice. "He's done really well. This spring, I wanted him to prove that he can be more consistent. Even challenged him after the spring game, he had had a really good spring but then performed the spring game, not to the level that was the right standard. We used that as a learning experience. Hey, these are elements that you're going to have to deal with, with no excuses and practice those things. He's come out and done really well from a consistency standpoint.”
McFerson is a sophomore who saw no action as a freshman last season. He was working as the kickoff specialist during last year’s training camp but suffered a groin injury and never played in a game. He boomed a handful of punts in last Tuesday’s full practice that was open to the media.
“Everybody wants to see the high, long ball, but what we care about is our operation time and our hang time,” Biagi explained. “So, if you can consistently have a low ‘Op-time’ and then get that hang time to where we want, we feel like that unit can also be a aggressive unit, you know, and attacking, flip the field, type unit.”
McFerson is currently ahead of Penn graduate transfer Ben Krimm on the depth chart. Krimm was a first-team All-Ivy selection last season. He ranked 24th in the FCS with a 41.6 yards per punt average.
Meanwhile, Chris Tyree is set to return punts for the Irish.
"CT has done a really good job this camp,” Biagi commented of Tyree. "Really showing he can protect the ball. He wants to be the guy, which is exciting. He’s putting himself in situations when he’s out there, he’s not just catching gradually doing it. There’s an intent that you see. He caught a ton of balls this summer just to prove the point ‘I want the opportunity to do this’. He’s done well.”
Tyree emerged from a group of players who auditioned for the job. Biagi said Jaden Mickey, Matt Salerno, Jaden Greathouse, and freshman walk-on receiver Jordan Faison each did “well”, but Tyree met all of his criteria for the job.
"Protecting the ball is the No. 1 thing,” Biagi began. "At the end of the day if we can get the ball from the defense to the offense, that’s a win no matter what and then just being able to be electric. Being smart but being electric.”
Tyree is also in the running to be one of the kickoff returners. Penn State transfer Devyn Ford, Jadarian Price and freshman Jeremiyah Love are all still auditioning there.
Walk-on quarterback Dylan Devezin won the job as the holder on field goals and extra points almost as soon as he made the team in the spring. His preference for quarterbacks as holders goes back to when Biagi was a special teams analyst on Notre Dame’s 2016 staff.
“Ever since I was here at Notre Dame when we used DeShone Kizer in 2016, I’ve used quarterbacks,” Biagi explained. "If you think about it, they catch more snaps than anybody on a daily basis. They're used to operating under pressure. They're used to having to make any kind of checks. It's hard to get the first-string guy sometimes, especially with Sam, getting so much just thrown at him here. it just naturally took off, but I wanted to wait for Spencer (Shrader) to get here because I always do take the kickers opinions of it. But (Devezin) was so committed to it, it was settled pretty quickly.”
Shrader, who used his graduate transfer to come to Notre Dame from South Florida, will be the Irish kicker. He was the Bulls’ primary placekicker and kickoff specialist the last two years. Biagi is still determining who a majority of the players on most of the special teams units will be, saying he will use as many starters as he is given the go ahead to use.
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