Observations from Notre Dame football fall camp practice No. 14: Offense

Notre Dame began practice Friday with another no-huddle session, with the first and second teams running a few plays each. Reporters also got to see the Irish kickoff return team in action for the first time in camp.

Here are Blue & Gold’s observations from Notre Dame’s offense.

• Notable personnel notes in the no-huddle session: The receivers remained the same. Junior Jayden Thomas, sophomore Tobias Merriweather and freshman Jaden Greathouse ran with the first team, while freshman Rico Flores Jr. graduate student Matt Salerno and freshman Jordan Faison ran with the second team. In individual drills, though, the groupings were more in line with what we expect to see this season: Thomas, Merriweather and senior Chris Tyree with the first team; Greathouse, Flores and junior Deion Colzie with the second team.

• Sophomore Gi’Bran Payne took the reps with the first team at running back. He is obviously not displacing junior Audric Estimé, but he appears to be healthy after appearing to tweak his ankle Tuesday night. Either Notre Dame likes him in that no-huddle, pass-heavy situation or they’re just trying him out in that role.

• Daily guard update: Juniors Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler still played with the first team. Sophomore Billy Schrauth played left guard again with the second team, but stepping in at right guard was freshman Charles Jagusah.

• Notre Dame’s first-team kickoff return during practice Friday was as follows:

Colzie — Salerno — Thomas — freshman linebacker Drayk Bowen — senior linebacker Jack Kiser was the front lineSophomore Vyper Joshua Burnham, junior tight end Davis Sherwood, freshman tight end Cooper Flanagan and sophomore Vyper Junior Tuihalamaka formed a diamond as the second line. Burnham and Flanagan were the sides, Sherwood was the front and Tuihalamaka was the back.Payne and graduate running back Devyn Ford were the returners. Tyree and Flores returned kicks with the second team.

• In 11-on-11, for the second time this week, Merriweather dropped an accurate pass from graduate quarterback Sam Hartman that hit his hands. The sophomore receiver leaped up to get it in traffic over sophomore cornerback Jaden Mickey, but he couldn’t haul it in. It would have been an impressive catch, but it’s one he needs to make if he’s going to reach his sky-high ceiling.

• With the second team, Faison stood out with two catches over the middle, about 15-25 yards downfield, from sophomore quarterback Steve Angeli. Credit to Blue & Gold’s Kyle Kelly, who has been driving the Faison train for a couple weeks now, but it really looks like Notre Dame found something with him.

• What really stands out with Faison, even in individual drills, is his acceleration. When Faison wants to turn on the jets, he can really turn on the jets.

Notre Dame’s post-practice media availability will start earlier than normal. Blue & Gold will have more in-depth analysis on the full-team action after that.

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