Notre Dame’s first fall practice is in the books which means it’s time for wild speculation based on the elastic depth chart without football pads! This is equally complete silly season and one of my favorite times of the year. Joking aside, I found a surprising number of roster moves to discuss following Friday’s workout.
OFFENSE
Virtually no surprises whatsoever among the starting unit, although Kelly did signal out Chris Finke in yesterday’s press conference and the former walk-on was running with the 1’s in the slot. This bumped Chase Claypool out to “X” receiver where he’s played off and on throughout his career.
The backups were a little more intriguing. On the offensive line, Aaron Banks opened camp switching from right tackle to left tackle, with Kelly mentioning him after practice too. This meant Josh Lugg had to move somewhere and he was at right guard, possibly a move to push Kraemer?
Only one true freshman lineman made it on the second squad in John Dirksen. He’s also the tallest of the bunch by an eighth of an inch over Cole Mabry while weighing 37 more pounds.
I can’t remember Javon McKinley ever not playing the outside “W” position so having him in the slot is a little weird, although the wideouts tend to move around a lot the lower down the depth chart you go. I don’t think anyone expects Micah Jones to be a top 6 receiver for this current team, as it’s clear the 3 non-early enrolled freshmen are working as a unit at least for a while.
Were you aware of Phil Jurkovec’s quick throwing motion?
This became a topic of discussion in our writer Slack chat as Larz was horrified by Jurkovec’s throwing motion. On the one hand it’s really, really of the shot put variety. In the GIF above I’ve slowed the first to 25% speed followed by normal speed. For most quarterback’s you would see the ball peek out the left side of coach Tommy Rees’ head in the back of the throwing motion. Certainly that’s not the case for Phil, although in the positive his release is super quick. Can he be accurate, though?
I haven’t been able to nail down exactly what Nic Weishar’s place is on the offense. He was simultaneously spoken about as getting plenty of reps but not formally listed anywhere by the media in attendance. He’s clearly in the mix (perhaps no worse than 3rd?) although it seems Cole Kmet is entrenching himself as the No. 2 guy.
We’ve got bodies at running back! One thing we know, Tony Jones was the clear No. 1 back then it was a major rotation among Dexter Williams, Jafar Armstrong, Avery Davis, and Jahmir Smith with the backups. Without being here for spring–and weighing a solid but still the lightest of the bunch 196 pounds–it’s likely a long shot for playing time with C’Bo Flemister.
DEFENSE
Similar to the offense we didn’t see any surprises among the defensive starters. We still have much to talk about, though.
Maybe the biggest news of the day was Bo Bauer, not only leaping into the backup Mike linebacker spot, but also getting a little bit of work with the starters to give Coney a break. Speaking after the practice it seems clear that Bauer and Genmark Heath are the preferred backups at the inside linebacker spots.
We have plenty of shuffling among the linebackers, too. Jack Lamb, coming off a spring with the program, had a knee brace, still doesn’t look physically ready, and moved from Mike to Buck. Additionally, Isaiah Robertson had moved from safety to Rover, and is now inside at Buck despite weighing 215 pounds!
D.J. Morgan has had quite the ride so far, I believe he’s played safety, then Rover, then Buck, and is now back at a packed Rover depth chart. For the first practice Ovie Oghoufo was also moved from Buck to Rover.
I don’t think I’ve ever read fewer words on a scholarship player at Notre Dame than Drew White. Once again, he wasn’t participating and was riding a bike on the sideline–not good.
The pecking order at safety appears to be Gilman and Elliott with Griffith mixing in at both positions. This is keeping Nick Coleman sort of in the two-deep but sometimes ceding playing time to the freshman Griffith.
I thought that Justin Ademilola–partially because his brother comes in at 284 pounds–would be large enough to be a strong-side end but he arrives at 246 pounds and is sticking to the weak-side. Jamir Jones, once a linebacker, weighs only 245 and is bumped over to the strong-side from the other edge.
We knew Jayson Ademilola would offer versatility and opened up camp working at both interior spots while receiving some reps with the second-team at nose guard. The same goes for Micah Dew-Treadway.
Football is back, ya’ll.
“Tony Jones was the clear No. 1 back”
:/
Also, isn’t Finke on scholarship now? Depth chart lists him as a walk-on (which, I suppose, he *was* previously).
He is now but I always leave that tag on him cause I’m mean and technically they could take him off scholarship.
If Jones is going to be the no. 1 back, then let’s all hope for a running back by committee approach with the others rotating in liberally! Then they can bring Jones back in when they need some dependable blitz pick-ups
Happy to see that the “# Suspended” is not next to Dexter! I’m holding you to that, Eric.
He should get his own shade of green (get it) for “Kevin Stephenson memorial double secret 4 game suspension” status.
Genius.
Where did Stepherson end up? I did a google search and the last things I can find in any media is his probation sentencing from March. I assume he’s going to score 10 TD’s for some FCS team or something this fall.
The last I saw was a report in March that he was sentenced to 180 days in jail in Indiana for probation violation but might have been out by end of April based on time served and good behavior. At that time his shoplifting case was not resolved either, so I’m guessing he’s way too toxic for a college football program to even think about bringing in right now, but I haven’t heard if he’s going to pop up somewhere or not. A total shame, hopefully he’s able to get it together.
My money is on Lane Kiffin, he loves toxic.
I’m not surprised he’s into Britney’s music. I bet he’s also into players of suspect character.
Interesting stuff.
Just a reminder if you’re still open to it E: in a previous post we’d kicked around the possibility of streamlining the depth chart color code, by having all players with the same eligibility remaining share a color shade.
I second this – fewer colors would be helpful and thinking about players in terms of number of years remaining is a simple way to do it
EDIT: But don’t think that I’m not appreciative for your work in compiling the depth chart – I love the work you put into updating it and including it in the occasional article
Jurkovec kind of looks like Philip Rivers there with his passing. Not the most asthetically pleasing but it seems he has no problem with velocity or distance so I don’t think it should be too much of an issue.
I’ll take a quick and ugly release over a long and ugly release.
Jurkovec seems to be doing it in his highlight reels as well (e.g. 29 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X98DbxKss_4)
Larz, is the concern about maximizing power or accuracy?
Upon further review of the depth chart, it seems like there are a number of clear playing-time related non-senior transfer candidates on defense, but there aren’t really many if any on offense (maybe McKinley; maybe Davis if he thinks he should get a shot at QB, though he seems to have taken the position transfer well). I suppose that’s the last gasps of the BVG era.
Have fun, Louisville!
It is mind boggling that a team hired him
And yet, it’s still the least questionable thing about Louisville’s athletic program in the last year!
Definietly more transfer candidates on defense, but I find it tough to believe all of Wimbush-Book-Jurkovec will all be back in 2019. Not sure on Book’s possible early graduation status but gotta think Phil’s going to pass him eventually and maybe Book goes to some low end PAC school or something. Something about him screams ASU or Oregon St grad transfer to me.
Same with Wimbush, if he gets benched again or struggles he surely would grad transfer, right? Would have to think that’s a real scenario.
And maybe Mack too as a grad transfer to get one last chance for 2019 to get on the NFL radar if he has a quiet 2018? Maybe it’s just folks are tired of talking about Mack, but it seems like the coaching and media have said almost nothing about him recently. Seems like he’s getting a lot of reps so maybe he breaks out here finally but, who knows..Could see if going meh again this season and him finally pulling the plug for a last chance somewhere else.
I guess I look at possible grad transfers differently – if guys have put in 4 years and get a degree, I kind of think of anything more as an added bonus. But the point is well-taken: I do not expect Mack back in 2019 in any case – either he’s an NFL player or he’s playing somewhere else.
Gotcha, yeah can’t knock that logic on that. I was just looking at the offensive depth chart and seeing some potential important players that might not be here next year, but to your initial point you did say “non sr transfer candidates”.
I’m going to guess that Book doesn’t harbor any illusions about an NFL future. I think he understood from the time he committed that he was likely to be a career backup, and I’d be pretty surprised if he transferred.
I don’t see Wimbush as a grad transfer candidate, but crazier things have happened I guess. He’s *way* too heavily invested in the non-football aspects of ND – I mean, he set up a summer dinner date with Tom Mendoza in 2017 to pick his brain on leadership. Plus his mother might shoot him if he leaves ND for anywhere other than Stanford or Duke.
I could see Mack; if he has an inconsistent 2018 he’ll almost certainly be passed by Kmet and Wright. Hell, they’re threatening to pass him as it is. Tremble and Takacs aren’t pushovers either.
Do you all still have the google sheet roster handy? I can’t find it in my google drive anymore.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IdHU3CYiFN-Rb8YRz0RL5ddDsdQPBe15AcqCf6QnRS0/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you!