The Fighting Irish returned to the indoor Loftus Center for the first practice of spring in the early morning hours of March 8th. The media was allowed a brief glimpse of the workout and won’t see anything else until well after the Easter break. These are the only bread crumbs we have for now.

Quarterback

There were some oddities with the offense for this first practice but that didn’t include anointed starter Brandon Wimbush who worked with the first unit. The exceedingly early takeaways? His size is a little bit alarming compared to Kizer (Wimbush is listed at 6-1) but his arm talent and precision are impressive right now.

Not that it matters, but Montgomery VanGorder worked with the second unit early in practice while Ian Book worked with the third unit. For what it’s worth the reports on Book in his first spring practice were modestly positive.

Running Back

No surprise as Josh Adams and Dexter Williams led the way with the first two units. The open practice viewings are typically worthless for running backs until there are scrimmages to witness. Otherwise, we’re left with “catches the ball well out of the backfield” as the most interesting commentary.

The youngsters certainly aren’t light as rising redshirt freshman Tony Jones comes into spring at a sturdy 224 pounds on his 5-10 1/2 frame. If my math is correct, Jones is the heaviest back at Notre Dame since Jonas Gray was a similar 5-10 and 230 pounds his senior year in 2011. Early enrolee C.J. Holmes is no pip squeak either measured at 6-0 and 206 pounds in his first spring.

Wide Receiver

Here’s where things got a little strange on Wednesday morning. Getting reps with the first unit was Equanimeous St. Brown and then both C.J. Sanders and Chris Finke. The speed lineup!

The second lineup featured two big receivers in Chase Claypool and Miles Boykin with walk-on Austin Webster. You may remember Webster was named one of the captains. The third unit saw Kevin Stepherson, Deon McIntosh, and Javon McKinley. As expected, McKinley is still working his way back from a broken leg although Stepherson dropping down to the third team–if only for one spring practice viewing period–is a little curious. There have been rumors for months that there was something going on with Stepherson and possible punishment of some sort coming. Perhaps he needs to work his way back to the starting unit?

Tight End

Durham Smythe–now up to a healthy 256 pounds–took his place with the first team with Nic Weishar trotted out with the second unit. Nothing too earth shattering there for the first day. Alize Jones (now sporting #86 as Finke remains in the #10 jersey) was back at practice following his suspension. On Tuesday’s press conference Brian Kelly said Jones was “on track” to be eligible which I guess is good news.

Bringing up the rear was freshman Brock Wright and senior Tyler Luatua. If you recall, Luatua skipped (is this the correct term?) spring ball last year after seeking a transfer before returning to the team and no longer appears to be a serious player on the offense. Wright at his age is an outstanding 6-5 and 252 pounds!

Offensive Line

The Irish opened up the first practice with the following units from left to right:

McGlinchey–Nelson–Mustipher–Bars–Kraemer
Banks–Hainsey–Hoge–Ruhland–Eichenberg
Bivin–Plantz–Boudreaux–Byrne–Bush

If day one means anything the experiment of Alex Bars at guard was an off-season priority. As expected, center and the left side remain the same while redshirt freshman Tommy Kraemer got first crack at the open right tackle position.

In a bit of a twist, both early enrollees (Banks & Hainsey) debuted with the second-team while 5th-year senior Hunter Bivin was all the way down on the third team. Bivin may just be the guy filling holes this spring. I figured at some point Boudreaux would get a look at center and here he opens up the spring in the middle. That could be the long-term spot for him especially after being listed at 288 pounds on the updated roster.

Something I found worth discussing is that until last year there was very little movement along the offensive line during the spring and fall camps. Occasionally, one position would see a head-to-head battle. Last year, we saw 4 guys in serious contention for starting spots and lots of movement with seemingly every practice. Will we see that again this spring?

Defensive Line

We have some movement with the depth chart, at least on day one!

Coming out with the first team Andrew Trumbetti (previously at weak-side) was working on the strong side while Jonathan Bonner (previously a strong-side end) was working at defensive tackle. Bonner is more than big enough (6-3, 284) to play inside but Trumbetti at 252 is a sizable step down in size from any normal strong-side end. These two were joined by Tillery at the nose and Daelin Hayes at the drop end.

The second team featured Jay Hayes on the strong side, Julian Okwara at drop, with Taylor and Dew-Treadway on the inside. The Irish received some good news on Tuesday when Daniel Cage was cleared fully for practice after missing 4 games last year with concussion problems. However, the nose guard is listed at 329 on a 6-1 frame and it wouldn’t shock if he spent most of the off-season and into the fall getting back into shape, particularly if the staff won’t push him very hard with this past head history.

Linebackers

Nyles Morgan led the defense from his middle linebacker spot which was expected. Joining him on the first team was Greer Martini and Asmar Bilal at the Rover position. Following the practice, Kelly had some interesting comments about the Rover position in which he said it’d be a fluid position based on opponents. Since the team is opening up with more power run teams (hi, Georgia!) Bilal is getting first crack.

Kelly also said he likes Bilal’s physicality at the point of attack and ability to cover tight ends and running backs but they won’t ask him to cover vertical routes down the field. Presumably, we’re going to see Drue Tranquill as the other guy to rotate down to Rover against those teams. However, both players are basically the same size and I have a hard time visualizing Tranquill running with slot receivers down the field. Could it be someone else at Rover? Perhaps  more of a nickel corner-type? Are we waiting for Shaun Crawford to get healthy, perhaps?

Running with the second unit was Jon Jones at the Mike, Te’von Coney at the Buck, and surprisingly walk-on Robert Regan at Rover. I’d imagine a walk-on won’t be a backup at Rover for very long.

Secondary

The updated roster had both Nick Coleman and Ashton White moved to safety from corner and the former was with the first group along side Tranquill on Wednesday. The embattled Coleman–who fell apart last year–actually received some nice praise during the viewing period. He’s now listed at 187 pounds which is lighter than most of the corners on the roster. Can he hold up at safety?

The rising sophomores Devin Studstill and Jalen Elliott were the safeties for the second unit. Of note, there’s been talk that these two will be flip-flopping sides with Elliott to free safety even though he’s now 10 pounds heavier than Studstill.

With Coleman and White moved to safety there are only 4 healthy bodies at corner which really condenses this off-season fight but sounds like a recipe for disaster if there’s another injury. For the first practice, Julian Love and Nick Watkins were out with the first unit while Troy Pride and Donte Vaughn were with the backups. I would like to point out that Vaughn is becoming an enormous corner at 6-2, 209 if those numbers are close to accurate.