B&G Observations (Defense)
DL
1. It wasn’t that long ago that Brandon Tiassum, Micah Dew-Treadway, and Jacob Matuska were in the 2-deep at DL. With all due respect to Micah and Jacob, the talent upgrade on our second and third lines is remarkable. We’re going to be able to roll out hockey lines of fresh, competent D-Linemen against our opponents late in games this year.
2. We need to line up Kurt “the Koolaid Man” Hinish at nose tackle a few times at the start of each game and just let him whale on the opposing center.
3. I don’t know who Jordan Botelho reminds me of more: Bobby Boucher or Jon Favreau’s character in the Replacements. Either way, I think there’s a non-zero percent chance his season ends with a flying kick to Sam Howell’s solar plexus a full 8 seconds after the whistle.
4. What if I told you the D lineman with the highest ceiling on the team didn’t even play Saturday? That might be hyperbole, but it also might not be. Jacob Lacey is going to be a stud in his own right if he can get healthy.
5. Someone needs to spray some Sark repellant around the Gug because Texas is going to come sniffing around Nana if we’re not careful. He’s got physical traits you can’t teach, we just need to keep him in the fold long enough for some PT to open up.
LBs
1. I was skeptical of BK’s decision to name Shayne Simon a captain for the spring game. I thought it was just a clever way to keep him from transferring before fall. Color me skeptical no more. He looks rocked up and played with a ton of confidence.
2. Marist Liafau reminds me of the “Me Want Honeycomb” guy. As soon as the ball is snapped, all you can see is a ball of hair smashing into the offensive line. He’s about as twitchy as it gets and will be fun to watch this year.
3. Jack Kiser is opening up a new delivery service. For every textbook open field tackle that he makes, he’ll send a hot pot of crow to Notre Dame fans that thought he wasn’t a “take.” I got mine in the mail last night. Tastes good.
CBs
1. ND fans need to collectively wipe our memories MIB style of Tariq Bracy’s last 6 games. He caught covid. It hurt his performance. End of story. The spring game showed he’s still capable of being a quality CB.
2. Cam Hart and Ramon Henderson look long, strong, and fast. I haven’t been this excited about a CB duo since Shane Walton and Vontez Duff were dragging a tennis coach to a 10 win season.
3. At the beginning of spring, I thought our opening day starters were going to be Clarence Lewis and a true freshman like Chance Tucker or Philip Riley. Now it looks like Lewis might be our 4th best corner and our young CBs will have time to develop. That’s an incredible turnaround from where things stood a few weeks ago.
Safeties
1. DJ Brown provides nice depth, but he’s not a starting safety on a championship contender. We need someone else to step up (looking at you HG) to take the back end of our defense to the next level.
2. I don’t want to presume to know more than the coaches, but it seems like if you put KJ Wallace in the game, he’s going to make plays. I hope he gets more opportunities this year.
3. Justin Walters keeps making plays. I don’t know if his size will prevent him from becoming a big time contributor down the line, but it doesn’t seem to have limited him thus far.
