IRISH INTEL: Inside scoop on Notre Dame offense from first week of fall camp

The Notre Dame football team practices for the eighth time in fall camp Thursday. A Blue & Gold source said it’s a significant scrimmage, especially for players teetering on the edges of the depth chart either as fringe starters or backups trying to earn some playing time this season.

The same source gave Blue & Gold some inside information on how fall camp has gone for the Notre Dame offense beyond the portions of five practices the media has been allowed to view so far. Here is the scoop.

• Let’s start with quarterback Sam Hartman. Blue & Gold’s source called him an absolute “dude.” The source said if Hartman was on the Notre Dame roster in 2022, the Irish would have “easily” been a College Football Playoff team. That’s obviously easy for someone close to the program to say, but it’s not farfetched.

• Hartman likely would not have lost to Marshall and Stanford, and then he’d have just needed to beat Ohio State or USC. The Irish lost both of those games on the road by 11 points. The Irish led OSU late in the third quarter. An 11-1 Notre Dame team quarterbacked by Hartman would have had a strong case to be a playoff team.

• The source said Notre Dame freshman wide receiver Rico Flores Jr. is “looking good.” He’s “getting comfortable.” That’s assuring considering he looked very settled in as early as spring ball when he was just a few weeks removed from packing his things and moving to South Bend to from California as an early enrollee.

• Per Blue & Gold’s source, sophomore offensive lineman Aamil Wagner is “a beast.” He’s probably one year away from being a solid starter on the Notre Dame offensive line. That’s only because he weighs 288 pounds. If he was a little heavier, he might be starting in 2023.

• All Wagner might need is one year to become a serious NFL prospect according to Blue & Gold’s source. Like current juniors Joe Alt and Blake Fisher are likely to be, Wagner might be a draft pick after three years at Notre Dame. The source called him “freaky.” Wagner, a true tackle, has been cross-training at left guard this week.

• Speaking of guard play, Blue & Gold’s source said it has looked “solid.” The source went as far as to say it might be a better overall group of guards than the one Notre Dame worked with last year. That unit included two graduate student starters in Jarrett Patterson and Josh Lugg, too.

• The potential of Notre Dame’s guard play is raised by sophomore Billy Schrauth. If he is what the program believes he will be, then Notre Dame is indeed in good hands at the position. Thursday’s scrimmage is especially important for the right guard competition between graduate student Andrew Kristofic and junior Rocco Spindler, meanwhile.

• Blue & Gold’s source said junior tight end Mitchell Evans has looked better as an in-line blocker than he has split out wide. His blocking has improved tremendously. He’s a viable receiving threat as well.

• Sophomore Eli Raridon is coming along as a potential breakout pass-catcher, but he is still not 100 percent healthy from ACL surgery.

• The source was blunt in saying Notre Dame “has had better tight end groups.” What’s lacking in this one is experience. The source said as it stands, Evans is the No. 1 option. Sophomore Holden Staes is slotting in as TE2.

• Freshman tight end Cooper Flanagan “has been good,” but he still has a “bit of a ways to go.” He’s “figuring it out.” The source said he’s a physical player and runs well.

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