Notre Dame held a practice this morning ahead of its Sun Bowl matchup against Oregon State. The stretch period and first three periods of the practice were open to the media.
Here are my thoughts and analysis from the practice:
*** We didn't see any team periods, only stretch and individual, so we didn't see any full groups line up.
*** At quarterback, this was my first chance to see freshman CJ Carr in person, and I was very impressed. I was told by someone that was at his first practice that the ball comes out different with Carr, and that is what I observed today. He has a very clean, compact release, he can change arm angles and the ball really jumps out of his hand. Even on normal throws, Carr gets the ball out noticeably quicker than the other quarterbacks. The ball comes out on a nice flat plane and the nose stays level.
*** The highlight throw of the day for Carr was a fade route for a touchdown to Chris Terek. Yes, that Chris Terek, the offensive lineman. They ended the first drill with some lineman vs. lineman drills, and Carr dropped a dime over the outside to Terek, who caught it for a touchdown.
*** Carr threw the deep ball well today, it gets up and down in a hurry. He didn't get many throws in the one-on-one period, but the few he did throw were very impressive.
*** Starter Steve Angeli was a bit more up-and-down. He was relatively sharp during routes on air periods, but his ball placement was a bit more erratic during one-on-ones. He did throw a solid fade ball to Jayden Thomas, and he made a great backline throw to Jeremiyah Love for a touchdown. Love looked very explosive and confident in today's practice. You can tell he sees the opportunity in front of him.
*** On the throw to Love, he ran an out-and-up and beat linebacker Jaylen Sneed very, very badly. Sneed bit on the out cut and Love cut vertically with exceptional suddenness before making a great catch on the backline.
*** Freshman QB Kenny Minchey was also a bit erratic. He was low on his red zone throws, and he missed badly on a fade throw to Jaden Greathouse that Jaden Mickey was able to pick off and he threw very low on an in cut. Minchey did throw a great deep ball that he dropped on the outside shoulder to KK Smith.
*** Freshman Jordan Faison torched Clarence Lewis on a pivot route. He came off the line right to left and looked like he was going to run a crossing route, which Lewis bit on. As he got over the ball he quickly stopped and worked back to the right and beat Lewis badly for a touchdown.
*** It was good to see Jaden Greathouse, Jayden Thomas and Deion Colzie out at practice today. All looked sharp and healthy going through drills and running routes. Thomas looked like the spring version of himself from a quickness standpoint, which is a positive sign.
*** Today was the first time we've seen KK Smith in a Notre Dame uniform, and there was a lot to like. Smith is a bit taller than I expected, which is a good thing. He is a really smooth and fluid athlete that makes easy cuts, shows a good burst off the line and he catches the football very clean.
*** I was also very impressed with what I saw from Eli Raridon today. It's the most explosive and fluid I've seen him in practice, which is a good sign as he gets further and further away from the knee injury that cost him most of the 2022 season. He was sharp with his routes today, and not just the top ends. He did a good job stemming guys up and using effective top ends to get open with good acceleration out of his breaks.
*** One of the more encouraging defensive reps today was a corner route by Raridon against Adon Shuler. It was a well run route, but Shuler played it perfectly, was tight in coverage and got his hands out in front of Raridon without getting grabby, forcing an incomplete pass by Angeli. Really savvy play by the freshman safety.
*** We only saw the offensive linemen going through drills, so not much to gather there. Freshman Charles Jagusah looks a bit more compact now than he did in fall camp and comes out of his stance very well in drills. Classmate Sullivan Absher also looked a bit leaner and quicker than what we saw in fall camp. Another freshman - Sam Pendleton - really impressed with his punch and quickness in drills today.
*** I spent a lot of time watching the receivers because it was my first chance to evaluate Mike Brown, the new receivers coach. I absolutely loved what I saw. All of the drills they did were practical, and they were emphasizing crispness with route runners, and proper angles out of breaks. He used bags effectively to get the receivers to work on tight downhill angles out of stop and curl routes. He had them working on speed outs, and they were pure top ends, with the emphasis being on leveling out/downhill and not drifting. All practical stuff, all applicable, and the receivers looked very crisp on routes today.
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