Observations from Notre Dame football fall camp practice No. 9: Offense

Notre Dame was back on the grass field at the LaBar Practice Complex for its ninth fall camp practice. The media was allowed to view five five-minute periods, which mostly consisted of individual drills and a little bit of crossover with quarterbacks and pass-catchers on the offensive side of the ball.

Here’s what Blue & Gold saw from the Notre Dame offense.

• Just when we thought we had the Notre Dame offensive line figured out, we don’t. Offensive line coach Joe Rudolph threw everything for a loop Saturday by completely mixing and matching his personnel. So here’s goes it…

• Freshman Anthonie Knapp was getting first-team left tackle reps over graduate student Tosh Baker just as couple days after Rudolph declared the latter “the answer” as Charles Jagusah’s replacement. Sophomore Sam Pendleton got first-team left guard reps over senior Rocco Spindler. Wait, shouldn’t that say over senior Pat Coogan, who has had an upper-hand on Spindler in their competition to be the starting left guard? No, it says over Spindler because Coogan worked exclusively as the second-team center backing up starter Ashton Craig. Sophomore Joe Otting was repping as the third-team center as usual.

• On the right side, juniors Billy Schrauth and Aamil Wagner were the first-team guard and tackle, respectively. Nothing new there. Sophomores Sullivan Absher and Chris Terek were the reserve right guards. Junior Ty Chan and freshman Guerby Lambert were the reserve right tackles. That has come to be business as usual. The shakeups were mainly on the left side Saturday.

• What does it all mean? Inhale. Exhale. Breathe. There are still exactly three weeks until the season-opener. Three weeks to see exactly what Rudolph has in a potential starting five. It’ll likely still be Baker, Coogan, Craig, Schrauth and Wagner across the board. If it’s not, it’ll be because someone else earned it in a collection of camp practices. No different than when Coogan and Spindler sniped starting spots from Andrew Kristofic and Schrauth at this very time last year. Don’t freak out. Rather, let it all play out. It will. It always does.

• Also, the defensive linemen have talked during camp about getting reps across different teams. For example, Rylie Mills working with Donovon Hinish and Howard Cross repping with Jason Onye. This could have very well been the offensive line version of that. It’s different, of course, because the best practice for an offensive line is to have the same five guys going out there with each other for 12-plus games. But what if there is a situation where Craig has to line up next to Pendleton in an actual game? Now they can say it won’t be the first time.

• Sticking with the offensive line, Rudolph might be the most purposeful position coach of that unit I’ve seen on my four year on the Notre Dame beat. Every single second he’s teaching, there is intent in what he’s saying. Even when guys in his unit are lined up as quasi defensive players. He hollered at Lambert, playing the role of a defensive tackle, “Get in a three-point, Guerbs! You’re going to get run over.” That was during a duo blocking scheme drill, of which there were plenty of Saturday.

• I used the word “teaching” intentionally. Rudolph is half coach, half teacher. After one rep, he asked Absher, “We don’t ever want our shoulders to do what?” Absher correctly responded, “Turn.” Rudolph said, “That’s right, turn. Don’t let them turn.” Student-athletes, especially those of Notre Dame, remember moments like that. When Absher is trying to get up the field for a second-level block, you know he’s going to have it in the front, back and center of his mind not to turn.

• OK. Other things were happening for the Notre Dame defense outside of the offensive line. Let’s start with the presumptive starting quarterback, Riley Leonard. He looked really good throwing the football Saturday. One pass in particular was a far-pylon out route to sophomore receiver Jordan Faison. Leonard whipped it out there to the target’s outstretched arms with some pop. Zest. Zeal. It was an absolute dart. We haven’t seen very many instances in which quarterbacks have really cut it loose in front of the media this camp, but that one throw left this beat reporter and the one he was standing next to saying, “Wow, that throw got there in a hurry.”

• Leonard’s deep ball in fade routes on air was also noticeable the best — lofted high and always out in front of the receiver — of any Notre Dame quarterback. Junior Steve Angeli’s wasn’t far off. Those two threw the best deep balls of the five guys wearing red jerseys, and they’re the top two on the depth chart. Go figure.

• Graduate student wide receiver Beaux Collins runs smooth routes. He also has been adept at catching the ball away from his body. He struggled with his hands a bit at Clemson. He’s looked pretty darn good in his early days at Notre Dame. Freshman Micah Gilbert, meanwhile, had another tough day seeing the ball into his hands. He runs a pretty route as well, as we saw in spring ball, but he’s had some pass-catching issues in camp to say the least.

• Deion Colzie dropped a deep ball, and Notre Dame wide receiver’s coach Mike Brown noticed. He yelled, “C’mon!” loud enough for everyone on the field to hear. Jayden Thomas reeled in a couple nice deep passes.

• Tight end Mitchell Evans sat out most of everything the media saw. It certainly looked like a maintenance day, probably schedule, for Notre Dame’s top tight end. And even if it wasn’t pre-planned, he was suited in fully pads and did not wear a brace on his knee. Nothing looked too dire.

• There was one period of running backs/receivers going against defensive backs/linebackers in ball-carrying one-on-ones. The offensive player ran around a trash can and met the defensive player head-on. Low-man wins type of situation.Someone was going to have to push the other man back. Stalemates were treated as ties, and you know what they say about ties. Both sides got their licks in, none more profound than RB Jeremiyah Love absolutely running over LB Jaylen Sneed. Corner Jordan Clark also had a very impressive rep holding back wideout Jayden Harrison.

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