This will be our last practice report for the year as Wednesday was the final full practice viewing by the media before the season begins at Louisville. Accordingly, the Irish have transitioned from fall camp to preparations for the Cardinals which usually indicates the roster and depth chart are pretty solidified for the upcoming September games.
Here’s the latest scoop coming out of South Bend:
Most of the talk during camp has been focused on backup Phil Jurkovec developing nicely at quarterback. On Wednesday, starter Ian Book was in full on NBA Jam “On Fire” mode completing 37 of 41 passes, including several deep balls. Admittedly, it was against the scout team per reports but hey they are probably better than what the Louisville defense trotted out onto the field last year.
As expected, the tight end position is being de-emphasized in favor of more running backs on the field. On Wednesday, that even included 3 back sets with tailbacks working in both slots. At the very least, this seems extremely fun? It certainly doesn’t seem like fluff that freshman Kyren Williams is leading the pack as the No. 3 running back behind Armstrong and Jones. Nearly every report from the media includes Williams’ excellent hands and ability to make plays in the passing game.
In our last report we wondered what the plan would be at “X” receiver with the collarbone injury to Michael Young. For now, Lawrence Keys has remained in the slot and apparently looked very smooth gaining reps with Finke and Claypool. Of course, in this set up Finke is the outside “X” receiver. If there are a bunch of snaps coming up early in the season without a tight end there’s going to be a lot of short playmakers on the field.
An important note on the offensive line where Trevor Ruhland moved to backup center, something that was expected to start camp but was taken by walk-on Colin Grunhard through this week. For now, the backups include: Lugg (LT), Gibbons (LG), Ruhland (C), Dirksen (RG), and Kristofic (RT). I’ll have more on Kristofic briefly below. No surprises as the 6th and 7th linemen heading into the season appear to be Lugg and Ruhland, respectively.
Once again, Asmar Bilal (Buck) and Drew White (Mike) worked with the first-team defense at inside linebacker. In the backup positions were Genmark Heath and Simon, perhaps some good news for the former JGH who seemed to be slipping down the depth chart during camp. Based off the last several media available practices it seems like Jack Lamb is really being limited to nickel and dime sets only. Whether that means he plays more than Genmark Heath or Simon over the course of the season remains to be seen.
Brian Kelly’s recent statements on the status of Rover Paul Moala rang true as the sophomore returned to practice with a cast on his hand following recent thumb surgery.
As I write this it is August 21st and to date it appeared Shaun Crawford was destined to be either the nickel or a backup safety. If Wednesday’s practice is any indication, Crawford is squarely in the mix at corner as he worked opposite Troy Pride with the starters. At the very least, we now have a solid 5 corners vying for playing time in Pride, Crawford, Vaughn, Bracy, and Griffith. Who knows how playing time will be dished out beyond Pride especially with Vaughn and Crawford’s injury history’s. By the way, Vaughn looks to be coming along nicely following a thigh injury. The former quarterback-turned-receiver-turned-corner Avery Davis does not look to be a factor in the defensive backfield anymore.
The early reports from camp were that Jonathan Doerer had a serious fight on his hands from walk-on Harrison Leonard for the kicking duties. Since then, it’s largely been in Doerer’s favor and it hasn’t been that close. With preparations for Louisville this feels like a done deal in favor of the more experienced Doerer. Also, freshman punter Jay Bramblett again put together a very solid practice. He’s been remarkably consistent in recent media viewings which portends good things for his first season at Notre Dame.
Wednesday was the first glimpse at a “normal” practice featuring a scout team. It’s easier to name the players not on scout including safety Kyle Hamilton, defensive tackle Jacob Lacey, linebacker Jack Kiser, corner KJ Wallace, running back Kyren Williams, offensive tackle Andrew Kristofic and punter Jay Bramblett.
Kiser and Wallace look like guys who won’t play hardly at all on defense but are going to burn a redshirt on special teams, so it seems. I’m not sure if Kristofic stays on varsity for the whole year as Cole Mabry is older and in direct competition for the right tackle position. He’s just been dealing with an injury from early in camp and I wonder if he’ll bounce back soon.
Others destined to get a good look at the 4-game minimum (or more) and/or special teams should be defensive tackle Howard Cross, defensive end Isaiah Foskey, linebacker JD Bertrand, and receiver Kendall Abdur-Rahman. According to reports, KAR was not participating on Wednesday with an apparent shoulder injury that is worth monitoring ahead of the season.
Really excited about the non-fullback 2-RB sets. Wheel routes for days.
That CB rotation is going to be really interesting to watch. Crawford is still the guy I’m hoping ends up starting, but we’ve seen big receivers beat us up before. If he can be the starter, with Vaughn providing quality snaps against big receivers, that would be my ideal scenario. Georgia isn’t likely to run any huge WRs out there, so I think Crawford could be the guy to play a ton of snaps that game, if all goes well.
I keep expecting Griffith to move to safety. He needs to learn the position, I seriously doubt Crawford takes a 6th year.
From these reports, it looks like Austin is definitely not an option for at least a few weeks. Too bad, he was a likely starter when Young went down. Moving Finke out to field side is limiting. He is great in the slot, I don’t know if he has the hops to play outside. Keys is at least faster.
I saw some recent data on twitter (that of course I can’t find now) that stats guys had proven the inefficiency of RB pass targets. I believe it was NFL data though, not sure if that translates. Or even matters since surely the coaches here trust Jones/Armstrong to catch the ball and make plays more than any healthy non-Claypool/Finke WR/TEs, and possibly rightfully so given experience.
Just thought that was an interesting contrast that ND is excited for an exotic type of offense with multi-RB but I’m pretty sure the spreadsheets and data points to this as largely ineffective (or at least inefficient) type of looks. I suppose we’ll see how it works though.
This is surprising to me. I don’t actually doubt it, but I think of some of the best offenses in the NFL relying very heavily on pass catching RBs, specifically NE with James White, NO with Kamara, Rams with Gurley, and KC (although every pass of theirs is wildly efficient).
However, I could definitely see on a macro level, throwing to backs, who probably have a relatively low catch % and a very shallow depth of target, being less efficient.
There is this article, which I can’t read because I’m not a subscriber, but sure sounds like what you are saying.
https://theathletic.com/1143546/2019/08/21/throwing-to-running-backs-the-latest-nfl-craze-that-doesnt-make-any-sense/
I think that article is a twist on the data I was referring too. (The real win of this data is it was published and is open for others to find and use. The main excitement from the twitter interaction that I took is it was seen as a win to be repeatable and usable data, which is a new and exciting frontier for the future of how data can b used). But I do think it stems from where that source was.
BTW in that article the author states it is inefficient because on average RB’s don’t get downfield targets to the same extent of WR/TE and that they are generally less good at it even when they do get down field. I’d say you’re right there are skilled outliers who definitely break the mold.
For ND, I would think Jafar could be in that class since he is a former WR and very shifty. TJJ, ehhh, probably not so much on a consistent basis.
I think it makes perfect sense for ND’s offense given our current personnel constraints (Kmet and Young injured, Austin sidelined). If more of your best playmakers are backs than receivers, then finding a way to get them on the field in different sets makes perfect sense. Long said something the other day along the lines of “I don’t want them stuck next to me on the sidelines”. Once the other guys return, I would anticipate us leaning more toward receiver- or TE-heavy sets.
There’s been a ton of really interesting data that’s come out this offseason. I saw the RB targets thing, and that just helped reconfirm my belief that we don’t need Tony Jones on the field that often for his pass catching abilities.
Pro Football Focus also did a study that said that pass coverage is way more important than pass rushing for defensive quality, and that having great DBs is much much more important than great DEs.
If both of these studies are correct, and we’re going with 2 RBs this year and losing Love, we could be in deep trouble! Hopefully those studies rely on some faulty data!
Yikes. I guess all of that makes sense on some level. But, if that’s the case, the case for TJJ playing meaningful snaps where he isn’t just in as an additional blocker/safety valve on 3rd and 15+ is pretty limited.
Yeah and I think the point of the data was more “better odds to chuck one deep to a WR on 3rd and 15 than dump it off to a RB and basically just concede a 4th and 10.” Which makes sense on a level. The blocking aspect is a good one. Maybe Jones stays in to block, Armstrong can flare or wheel out vertically and I could buy that’s a better personnel set then going 3WR and having Keys+Finke both as the same sort of player doing the same thing.
Regarding Howard Cross, is he expected to contribute more in a special teams capacity, or would he actually get some reps along the DL? He strikes me as somewhat undersized to be part of the defensive plan in the short term.
Thanks for the camp updates, btw — great stuff!
Seems like the plan is to get him some games but not over the 4-game limit. I think they are okay, barring injuries, of only using 4 guys most of the time on the interior this year.
Along those lines, and random thought no jinx, but Kurt Hinish probably has to be the player they can least afford to lose to injury considering depth chart, right? Maybe Ian Book and Troy Pride in the convo, but NT if Hinish had to disappear for a while would not be a pretty picture.