News, notes on the Notre Dame offense from fall camp practice No. 9

The media has been allowed to view six Notre Dame football practices so far in fall camp. Saturday’s session was by far the most fired up the Fighting Irish have looked in any of them.

There were no mid-camp blues for head coach Marcus Freeman‘s players. Freeman wouldn’t let that be the case. He set the tone with a pre-practice speech full of expletives, and the Irish were off and running in inspired fashion from there.

There was still plenty to take away from the Notre Dame offense outside of how emotional of a day it appeared to be for all involved overall. Here are news, notes and observations on the Irish offense.

• The Notre Dame coaching staff had a critique for every little thing during a routes on air period. It looked like the receivers and tight ends were running perfectly good routes, and they were catching pretty much everything, but wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey and offensive coordinator Gerad Parker were looking for as close to perfection as possible. Stuckey corrected a route from freshman wide receiver Jaden Greathouse at one point, telling him, “See the timing of that? You don’t have to look and wait for the ball when you do it the right way.” Timing. Details. Saturday’s practice wasn’t all meathead energy. There was some important fundamental work involved, too.

• Long before Freeman shouted some choice words and any one-on-ones took place, the quarterbacks did something a little different than they normally do. Instead of going through static stretches with the rest of the team, they made their way to one of the end zones to work on under-center snap reception and footwork. Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli was very meticulous in teaching every single one of the QBs how to take a snap under center and take the first step to execute a handoff or a play-action fake, from graduate student Sam Hartman to walk-on Dylan Devezin.

• The Notre Dame QBs also got some reps working specifically on shovel passes, which was the first time the media has seen them do that in fall camp this year. Most of the time spent under center was focused on goal-line rollouts, though, so look for Notre Dame to incorporate a bunch of those looks into the offense this fall. There has been heavy emphasis on getting things going toward the corner of end zones.

• Junior Pat Coogan was getting reps with the starters at left guard. Junior Rocco Spindler was the starter at right guard. They spent the entire periods of practice open to the media as the starters. Juniors Joe Alt and Blake Fisher were the starting tackles, and graduate student Zeke Correll was the starting center. Notre Dame offensive line coach Joe Rudolph wasn’t lying when he said he was going to give the guards fair shakes at winning the starting jobs. Spindler especially has been given an extended audition at right guard. He has worked as the starter there all week.

• The second team offensive line was graduate student Tosh Baker at left tackle, sophomore Billy Schrauth at left guard, sophomore Ashton Craig at center, graduate student Andrew Kristofic at right guard and sophomore Aamil Wagner at right tackle.

• There was a period of 7 on 7 available to the media. The first two connections from Hartman and sophomore Steve Angeli went to tight ends. Hartman found junior Mitchell Evans. Angeli hooked up with sophomore Holden Staes. It appeared to be a third and short install. The tight ends, as banged up and questionable as they may be without Michael Mayer in the fold, were still very much focal points. Evans and Staes are separating themselves as Notre Dame’s No. 1 and No. 2 TEs.

• Even though it was a third and short install, Notre Dame sophomore running back Jadarian Price absolutely toasted graduate student safety DJ Brown on a wheel route. He took it for a touchdown. The Notre Dame running backs spent a considerable amount of time as pass-catchers Saturday. Price might be the most impressive of the bunch when taking the entire process of receiving into account. His route-running his crisp, especially keying in on footwork. He makes himself accessible to the quarterback, too, and his hands are clean.

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