Observations from Wednesday’s Notre Dame practice: Defense
Notre Dame opened fall camp Wednesday morning, and members of the media observed the entire first practice. The practice involved only helmets, no shoulder pads, but there was still plenty to note on the defensive side of the ball.
From two interceptions by a young cornerback to the performance of a former five-star linebacker, here is what Blue & Gold observed from Notre Dame’s defense.
Defensive line
Nana Osafo-Mensah was the first strong-side defensive end on the field in every drill, plus the team period. Javontae Jean-Baptiste rotated in with the first team late.Jean-Baptiste wore a full ski mask on a 90-degree day. It cooled off late in practice because of some incoming storm clouds, but I thought that was interesting.Rylie Mills looks bigger. He gained 10 pounds since the spring, up to 306, and he looks the part.Mills’ punch off the line of scrimmage stood out to me when the linemen did sled drills. It was louder than the rest of Notre Dame’s defensive linemen.It’s difficult to reach any conclusions about pass rushing — or linemen in general — in a pads-free practice, but Jordan Botelho looked very quick off the ball. He beat Blake Fisher in a one-on-one rep.Tyson Ford took a couple reps at strong-side defensive end. The sophomore is listed as a defensive tackle, and he mostly lined up there during the spring.Gabriel Rubio and Jason Onye combined for a tackle for loss late in practice.Rubio took some snaps at nose tackle with the first team.Joshua Burnham looked quick off the ball, beating a running back for a pressure in team drills. I thought he stood out more than Junior Tuihalamaka, but Tuihalamaka took most of the reps with the second team and rotated in with the ones.
Linebackers
Overall, this group left a little to be desired in coverage. There were several tight ends and running backs open in the red zone.In particular, the third-team linebackers really couldn’t cover running back Jeremiyah Love and tight end Holden Staes was open a lot against the ones and twos.The first-team group definitely looked the best, though. JD Bertrand, Marist Liufau and Jack Kiser did a nice job plugging holes against the offense’s outside run game.I noticed Bertrand twice. Once on a tunnel screen in which Deion Colzie probably blocked him out of the lane, and one on an inside run that he stuffed for no gain.Kiser’s pursuit speed stood out on a play in which Sam Hartman was forced outside the pocket.Jaylen Sneed’s length obviously stands out, but he has work to do in terms of awareness on the field. In particular, he got beat to the edge by Steve Angeli after biting on a zone-read fake. He was also caught or forced outside his gap on a couple run plays.Sneed was also beaten by Staes in a man coverage.When Notre Dame went to its base package (three linebackers) with its second-team defense, Jaiden Ausberry joined Sneed and Nolan Zeigler. Rover, Will, Mike, respectively.
Cornerbacks
BlueandGold.com will have a story this afternoon chronicling every time Benjamin Morrison was involved in a play. In summary, he is quite good at footballing.Nickel cornerback appears to be an open competition between Thomas Harper and Clarence Lewis.Of the two, I thought Lewis looked better Wednesday. I didn’t see him allow many, if any, catches and he had an interception against Kenny Minchey while guarding Matt Salerno.He also flashed good coverage against Tobias Merriweather.Harper got beat on a couple horizontal routes. The one I remember more clearly was against Chris Tyree.In Notre Dame’s base package, Morrison lined up in the slot against certain offensive sets (two receivers on one side, two tight ends on the other).Cam Hart’s strength and length is in the upper-echelon of college football cornerbacks. He knocked down Rico Flores Jr. before he could even get into his route.However, Hart was a step behind Merriweather a couple times on goal-line fade routes.Even in special teams drills, Jaden Mickey looks very fast and exceptionally smooth. Just something about the way he moves stands out.He had two interceptions in practice. One was a weird one, where it looked like Flores beat him with a slant but then he cut back outside. Mickey seemed to know what the route would be and he sat on it.The other was a throw into double-coverage to the back-right corner of the end zone, and Mickey pulled in an incredible one-handed catch.Mickey is definitely a talker. After the one-handed pick, he ran down the sideline yelling, “Oh my god.” Sounded genuinely stunned with himself. He was also chirping at the receivers from time to time.
Safeties
It was tough to evaluate Notre Dame’s safety play Wednesday, because every team rep was in a red zone situation.That being said, tight ends and running backs means that they could have been better in coverage, too.DJ Brown took every rep with the ones at free safety, while Ramon Henderson took every rep with the twos. Brown definitely looked better than Henderson. I don’t think he made many plays on the ball, but he also didn’t give anything up.Xavier Watts came down with an interception on the first rep of one-on-ones. Hartman looked for Tyree on an out route, and Watts jumped in front of him and made the play.The only time I noticed Antonio Carter II was when he broke up a pass in the seven-on-seven drill.
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