Reviewing the Redshirts is an off-season series meant to resurrect discussion around the current Irish freshmen who did not play in 2016.
There were 11 players who retained a year of eligibility this past year and today we look at an utility skill position player trying to find a home on offense.
WR Deon McIntosh
Hometown: Pompano Beach, Florida
Height: 5-10 1/2
Weight: 190
247Sports Composite Ranking:
3-star, No. 47 RB, No. 113 FL, No. 783 USA, 0.8524 score
Need at Position: Low
Expected Spot on 2017 Depth Chart: 3rd/4th String
Notre Dame has been grabbing running backs and receivers out of Florida for years and years. When Deon McIntosh signed with the Irish he was another in a long line of Sunshine State playmakers flying up north to play football in South Bend. He also wasn’t expected to do much in his career as McIntosh was the third lowest rated recruit of the 2016 class, and the 2nd lowest non-special teams player.
I was one of those skeptical voices handing out a grade of 78 on National Signing Day. In a vacuum, McIntosh’s senior film was plenty fine. He was productive as a running back and caught the ball well out of the backfield. He had a versatility to his game which was partly why he was designated as a hybrid running back coming out of Cardinal Gibbons High School.
The other reason for the hybrid label was size. On average, Irish recruits at the running back position put on 20 to 30 pounds like it’s 8 pounds for the regular citizen. Almost always, by the time a tailback reaches their second year in the program they’re at the weight they will leave the program at as seniors. I thought McIntosh had an unusual body with long limbs, thick neck, and was pretty physically developed in high school. At his height I didn’t see a ton of room for added weight.
For his second weigh in (and first spring practice) McIntosh is up to 190 pounds which is solid. He was listed as low as 170 pounds as a high school senior so 20 pounds in less than a year is a good sign. Can he gain 10 more and get around 200 pounds, though?
So far this spring things have been pretty quiet for McIntosh. He’s spent the majority of his time running with the 3rd team at slot where there just isn’t much hope for playing time or a ton of practice reps. However, in one of the recent practice highlight videos he did do this:
Sure, it’s a walk-on but running over a walk-on is better than not running over a walk-on if you know what I mean.
McIntosh’s break–if we can call it that–may be the recent injury to early enrollee C.J. Holmes. The freshman injured his shoulder not too long ago and a recent MRI uncovered a torn labrum. That should keep Holmes out into the start of the 2017 season, and with his past shoulder surgery in high school, likely keeps him out for the whole year as the staff take extra care in recovery.
There has been a little bit of utility this spring and without Holmes it’s a good bet McIntosh fully moves to running back. In the long run, this could be the crack in the door that leads to a solid career.
As things have been shaping up the trio of Josh Adams, Dexter Williams, and Tony Jones are going to eat up nearly every carry this season. With most of Kelly’s teams if there aren’t any long-term injuries only 3 backs are going to get carries. Therefore, at best McIntosh probably has a ceiling of 30 snaps and 10 carries in 2017.
However, at receiver he was stuck behind Finke and Sanders in the slot with at minimum a decent increase in the number of double tight end sets coming this fall. McIntosh was probably looking at zero snaps as a receiver so a move to running back should it come to pass offers some hope.
At the very least, if he’s moved to running back it offers more visibility to fan and coach alike. I thought McIntosh was a strong transfer candidate this spring while he toiled away on the third-string but a move in the future could be exactly what’s needed to jump start his career.
That video just gave me flashbacks to our defense during the Weis years.
🙁🙁🙁
I thought you were going to finish that comment with “last year”
You have to be in position to attempt a tackle to get run over.
“…as the staff take extra care in recovery.”
This ain’t the EPL, pal.
Can’t wait to see if the physios can get him back out on the pitch
I think Deadspin is less fond of BK than even I am – http://deadspin.com/brian-kelly-thinks-deshone-kizer-needed-more-time-at-th-1793973779
They’re 80% less fond, to be exact
Deadspin is way over the top, but I get their point for the statement. Would Kinzer have advanced his skills in an environment like last years? That’s a fair question in my mind. All of the rest of it, taking all of the bad decisions Kelly has made, with none of the good, and making him look like a di€%head. I think that’s just cheap journalism. He really does make it easy though.
If you read his entire statement, he praises Kizer throughout. Kelly said that Kizer has all the tools, both physically and in terms of make-up, to be great. Kelly’s point was that Kizer will not be ready to start right away. If he is expected to start right away, he should not also be expected to also be a team leader. The best situation for Kizer is one where he can learn and grow without the pressure to start right away. If he gets that, Kelly said “you’re going to have a great young man and a great quarterback.”
Thanks for adding this to the discussion here. Kelly said about 20 different ways that Kizer was a great kid with all the tools to be a great pro – hell, he even said at the beginning of the segment that he thought Kizer had the best skillset of any of the guys coming out this year. Also that he understands Kizer made a business decision and fully supports him in that decision.
But of course what they took for the tweet was “he needs some time” and made it sound a lot worse than it was.
Here’s some actual quotes yesterday, courtesy of Doug Farmer at Inside the Irish:
“He’s got all those tools that you’re looking for at the quarterback position… I think he’s got the best skillset of the quarterbacks coming out.”
[when asked if Kizer has room to improve] “Well, he still should be in college, but the circumstances are such that you have to make business decisions, and he felt like it was in his best interest and I’m going to support him and his decision.”
“You don’t change character much, and he’s got great character so you’re not going to have an issue there with that young man.”
“Whoever takes DeShone, he’s not a finished product in those areas. But when he does get more time to work on those traits, you’re going to have a great young man and a great quarterback. Because the skills are out there, you can see them.”
[when asked about how he advised Kizer] “My recommendation to him was he needs more time. He needs to play more football, and I think the best place to play it is to continue his playing at Notre Dame. That doesn’t mean we can’t agree to disagree and then go and support him… Once a decision was made, it was all in and finding him the best path to get ready for the NFL.”
I mean, it comes off pretty dramatically different from how it was presented in Sirius XM’s tweet and all the #hottakes based off just that tweet.
I heard Sirius even deleted their tweet.
I hate twitter with the fury of a thousand suns. I think it may be the single worst thing to ever happen to this planet.
It’s weird.
No one has figured out how to properly monetize Twitter so that along with the enormous amount of trolls and fake accounts makes it unattractive to potential big companies to buy it and clean things up.
In our college football/sports realm all of the ND guys virtually make no money from tweeting or being the first to tweet some blurb from a presser. Yet, for stuff like this their tweets are more read than articles.
What I’m saying is there should at least be a self-imposed Twitter ban by the ND reporters. We’d all be better off. Wouldn’t have helped in this situation, but it would during the season.
I support a self imposed world wide twitter ban.
It is kind of hilarious though for Kelly to say that Kizer “should still be in college” since Kelly has a bit of a history of his ND QBs eventually performing worse over time.
Also, is he really better off developing under QB coach Tom Rees in his first full assistant gig or a freakin’ NFL QB coach along with likely another veteran QB teammate? The notion that someone would be better off in college with inferior coaching, limited practice/coaching time, more time devoted to other responsibilities, and worse competition in practice and games has always struck me as foolish.
For a high draft pick, yes. But most rookies are competing just to make a roster. An extra year in college, even with limited time and inferior coaching will help with that a lot more than what could end up being only 2-3 months on a team before the staff decides whether or not to cut you.
I have also always been under the impression that much more of the coaching in the NFL is about scheme, rather than fundamentals, and that it is much easier to get coaching on fundamentals in college. I believe once Weis went to Kansas he said he liked recruiting JUCO players because they were more developed and he wasn’t used to having to develop the talent in the NFL. BVG also reinforced that notion for me.