On an overcast South Bend afternoon the Blue (offense) team defeated the Gold (defense) team 47-44 in another edition of the Notre Dame spring game. As per usual, they jammed in a whole slew of plays at a blistering pace (123 from scrimmage) even with running 12-minute quarters in the second half. Many plays, a lot to see, and since it’s the spring only a little bit to take away.

1) I feel as if both quarterbacks were about as expected, is that fair? They combined for 36 completions for 633 yards which is awfully healthy. One the negative side, Wimbush completed 57.5% of his passes while Book finished at 56.6% which isn’t great, although one could argue that’s balanced against 10.0 yards per attempt but then I swing back around and realize spring games are naturally prone to inflated yardage.

2) I thought Wimbush was quite accurate compared to the 2017 regular season Wimbush and made some tough throws–the throw to Michael Young after which he fumbled was my favorite of the day. His interception was ugly, he had another dropped interception, and he did miss somewhat badly on a cross-field short throw. Otherwise, when he threw the ball he was generally very sharp–has basically packed in two games worth of throws into one half of football so a few bad throws are expected from virtually anyone. To me, he looked around 15% better than the previous spring game.

3) The game featured 52.8% passing–which was probably closer to 60% passing in the first half when Wimbush and Book got all the reps–and overall it felt like 75% passing on all snaps. If you’re bothered remember last year’s spring game was very pass-heavy too then they ran the ball a ton in the fall so there’s some perspective. It is kind of funny that Kelly said they didn’t pass very well last year and that’s what they wanted to work on yet this causes aneurysms among some of the fans. Yet, if the reverse were true and they didn’t run the ball well and were working on that a lot during the game the worry wouldn’t be about running/passing splits but that the running sucked the prior year. Some people just want to be mad online.

4) The game was actually surprisingly enlightening for the running back position despite the lack of high quality reps. In our first look at EE freshman Jahmir Smith he was quietly productive (5 carries for 29 yards) and looked physically ready to compete. Redshirt freshman Jafar Armstrong was certainly a bright spot (6 touches for 69 yards) and looks like he has the size and athleticism to be the unquestioned 3rd string running back. That’s a possible huge development for the offense. Meanwhile, Dexter Williams would’ve had an okay day without his long run (10 carries for 45 yards) but it’s always nice to rip off 72-yard scampers.

5) Speaking of those scampers we know Dexter is quicker than fast, being chased down by track star Troy Pride before reaching the end zone on his long run. Remember, this offense was tied for first nationally in 30+ yard runs last year. Can this offense squeeze 20 of those runs out of Dexter and Wimbush and where do the other big chunk rushing plays come from in the fall?

6) Due to the reports over the last few practices I’m not surprised about Avery Davis as a running back, although I’m probably one of the few that will be pumping the brakes a bit going into the summer. He had a really nice 11-yard run and 19-yard reception, otherwise his 11 other touches went for 24 yards. To be fair, I didn’t think he’d even be this close to a factor in the offense. However, if he were just another recruited skilled position player instead of a converted quarterback I don’t think his stock is THAT high right now. A bright future perhaps, but for a smaller guy I still have a hard time seeing more than 1.5 non-garbage touches in the fall.

7) I remain a bit worried about Tony Jones Jr. who finished the game with 9 touches for 21 yards, which includes an 11-yard run, so his 8 other touches were for a whopping 10 yards. I just don’t see the speed and athleticism that would warrant co-starter touches but we already know the staff covets him for other non-running skills. I think we’re guaranteed not to see as much running as last year because A) Dexter will get dinged up or not trusted in big moments and B) Jones will struggle being productive enough to warrant a lot of carries.

8) If what we saw from Chase Claypool (6 catches for 151 yards) and Miles Boykin (3 catches for 132 yards) happens in the fall the top 2 receivers are here and present. The former in particular looks on another level as an athlete than all the others. Boykin too, although I’ve been skeptical, does look improved even though I’d like to see him become more proficient on shorter routes and YAC in tight spaces, plus he had a couple drops.

9) Alize Mack and Cole Kmet combined for 6 catches for 61 yards while being targeted early and often. Kmet has the look and feel of the next prototypical NFL tight end and it’ll be tough for the currently injured Nic Weishar to keep Kmet off the field.

10) I don’t have much on the offensive line except to point out that there were 6 false starts, including 3 from Robert Hainsey. The game was moving along so quickly that barely anyone noticed but that’s something that will be very noticeable in the fall. Hainsey continues to be such an enigma to me–he’s so under-sized at tackle, yet they love his pass-blocking abilities even though he may be more useful as an upperclassman playing on the interior (like center).

11) It’s so hard to evaluate the defensive line in a scrimmage where the quarterbacks aren’t live but man if Julian Okwara and Ade Ogundeji don’t look and play like very disruptive defensive ends. They combined for 3.5 sacks and were quite noticeable.

12) According to the stats, Ian Book was sacked 7 times in the game although as you can see below sometimes those sacks are extremely generous to the defense. Watching this “sack” from Darnell Ewell is pretty depressing. He’s lined up against 274-pound walk-on center Colin Grunhard whom he outweighs by 50 pounds and he can’t generate even the slightest push–just completely stonewalled. It’s bad enough that right guard Dillan Gibbons instinctively realized Grunhard is fine and peels off to help Aaron Banks at right tackle. The track record of players like this getting a lot better isn’t great.

Fake sack.

13) A criticism of Asmar Bilal last year was that he was “just a guy” on the field without making much of an impact. During the spring game he had 4 solo tackles, 1 tackle for loss, and a pass break-up. Progress?

14) One of the weird aspects to the game was tackling machine Te’von Coney basically doing nothing (1 assisted tackle) while Drue Tranquill was looking All-American-like with 7 solo tackles (led everyone), 1 sack, 1 break-up, and 1 quarterback hurry. He was really good at Rover last year but I think we’ll be surprised at how much more around the ball he’ll be in 2018, including in pass defense.

15) In our first fully public look at true freshman Houston Griffith he was pretty quiet at safety. In comparison, Elliott and Gilman were very visible early on, the former picking off a pass and the latter making some nice early tackles and ripping away a ball from Michael Young.

16) Brian Kelly said earlier in the off-season that they were interested in adding a 4th captain to the team and before the spring game it was announced that guard Alex Bars would be that man. Congrats to him!

17) On the UniWatch front unless there’s something under wraps (they wouldn’t debut anything during the spring game just saying I haven’t heard anything) it would appear there will be no changes to the Irish uniform from Under Armour for the 5th straight season. Once upon a time, Champion and Adidas used to make a small tweak at least once every 2 years, and I miss those days. At any rate, a few things jumped out to me. One, there were a surprising lack of tights on the field for a brisk spring afternoon–makes me wonder if this is a new S&C decision? Two, we saw the new Vicis concussion helmets in action (check out Brandon Wimbush for a clear look) which are a little different looking, plus the duller practice helmets were used by everyone. Three, I noticed at least two different pairs of all-black cleats on the field. According to my research, the Irish haven’t had a black cleat in their repertoire since the 2011 season.

Black cleats!??

18) The recruiting machine started up again in recent days as offensive lineman John Olmstead, safety Litchfield Ajavon, and defensive end Howard Cross joined the 2019 class. The class is now up to 6 blue-chip prospects.

19) In case you missed it, the latest edition of The Shirt was unveiled on Friday at the Bookstore. This one is in the top tier for me along with the 1991, 1993, 1999, 2008, 2010, and 2011 editions.

20) Courtesy of Irish Sports Daily writer Matt Freeman here are some mock-ups for the new indoor facility:

The lack of space on the current plot of land has me intrigued how they’ll be fitting in such a large building. The current most western practice field gates come right up to the corner of the road, yet these renderings are leaving 30-40 feet of grass!?? Also, I have to imagine this was designed by Bloomfield, Michigan company Jickling, Lyman & Powell Associates Inc. because it is eerily similar to Michigan’s indoor practice facility which opened in 2009.