2025 Spring Practice Thread

[Dale]

Some of what I'll talk about tomorrow when I get to work but I would give the nod to what I saw yesterday to minchey in all reality. I think his arm talent is just as good as any QB on the roster and it's been noted he's the best athlete of the bunch. He did a good job on a long 3rd down yesterday taking off when he had a wide open middle and getting a first down. I'll take the blame on his low point of the day. I just finished saying that I thought he had looked the best of all the QBs that day and right then he throws a bad INT on an rpo where he pulled it and threw a pick on a wide hitch to the numbers from the opposite hash. Obviously wasn't worth the risk considering the low reward.

Angeli was exactly what he's almost been.. Just fine nothing outstanding at all but nothing terrible. Low ceiling high floor exactly what he's always been.

Mercke is right 100%....CJ is very indecisive.. Holds on to the ball too long and just I'm unfortunately not sold as much as I wanted to be. Even the "TD" he threw to conclude the day was fake. Dude was sacked and the refs let the play continue when I'm real football or was a sack or best case a fade away pocket escape throw away..Last year he looked outstanding against the twos and yesterday IDK if it's more on his plate but he looks great warming up and the talent is there but I do worry about him not having the experience we need to win the early games.

I'll talk more tomorrow if we want and feel free to throw some questions out if there's anything. Not trying to be mercke 2.0 but I do like relaying what I saw to anybody curious.

Prister agrees with you with regards to Minchey

 

[stlnd01]

It's always been Kenny.

 

[rtrn2glory]

Prister agrees with you with regards to Minchey

Damn it.....Not a prister fan 🤦‍♂️

I'll be honest I haven't read any updates from the media clowns so if I share opinions or disagree it is what it is.

 

[Rizzophil]

Wagner has been pitch-counted the entire spring. His volume has increased, but he's still being held back fairly often. If he he does play, it won't be more than a handful of series.

The majority of playing time during the spring game, will go to younger players.

ND would like to add another tight end. They may look for one additional secondary player. There a chance, though entirely dependent on potential transfers leaving, that they may look for a depth piece at QB, or along the lines. However, most feel the spring portal will be light on difference makers, and ND is in a position to be selective. Some people continue to mention Corleone as a player to look at again, but ND remains skeptical of his overall health.

Talich should at minimum, play rotationally.

Bang !!!

 

[Irish8248]

All the talk of the QB competition between Carr & Angeli what is this board going to do if Minchey surprises and gets the starting job?

Whoever is named the starter will have enough skilled and experienced players around them.

If I had to guess, this option would be #2 in desirable outcomes..... we want Carr, we know Angeli, Minchey is a wild card. He's the only option that would hold back the Carr crowd temporarily and Angeli fans would prob be fine with it to because deep down he's the safe bet, not necessarily the best bet.

 

[SDIrishFan]

All the talk of the QB competition between Carr & Angeli what is this board going to do if Minchey surprises and gets the starting job?

Whoever is named the starter will have enough skilled and experienced players around them.

This is my question.

We know if Carr wins, Minchey is likely gone and Angeli is being paid to be one play away.

If Angeli wins, Minchey is likely gone and Carr continues to work to take over asap.

If Minchey wins, is Carr gone and Angeli backs up?

 

[Katzenboyer]

Angeli starting means the QB coaching staff has utterly failed. When you have a QB with Carrs talent that even hurt, has been learning in the program and you are expecting MAC lv talent to start, your QB coaches suck. Let us hope that isnt the case.

Holy overreaction, batman.

He's a second year player. Carr not playing next season, coming off a relatively serious injury, is not an indictment on the coaching staff.

 

[DillonHall]

SIAP, but it's interesting how different the opinions are regarding QBs. Here were Eric Hansen's and Tyler James' opinions:

Angeli - inconsistent, ran better than expected (quick, decisive when running).

Minchey - extended plays and made plays downfield, but also threw an interception on a bad RPO decision.

Carr - looked the most poised. Didn't force many plays. Made some 'wow' plays.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

To anyone who follows Driskell
Can someone please tell him it's Tae Johnson, not Brauntae? He's never gone by that. In fact he prefers tae tae. But that's not going to happen.

NDs official roster even has it as tae now too

 

[NDPhilly]

I think almost all of us would be totally fine with Minchey winning the job. He’s got all the tools and more mobility than CJ. We also know that Denbrock loves a mobile QB.

 

[DillonHall]

I think almost all of us would be totally fine with Minchey winning the job. He’s got all the tools and more mobility than CJ. We also know that Denbrock loves a mobile QB.

I think all three QBs are good, whoever wins the job will have earned it

 

[OKCDomer23]

I think almost all of us would be totally fine with Minchey winning the job. He’s got all the tools and more mobility than CJ. We also know that Denbrock loves a mobile QB.

I will admit I'm highly intrigued by Minchey starting. Love the quick release and the fact that he can extend plays. As a Commanders fan, Jayden Daniels has proven these are absolute strengths that can be unstoppable. He also attended Golden Tate's hs so that should count for something being Tate is my fav ND player this century other than Teo. Seriously though, eager to see how all 3 play in the spring game. Starting to think Minchey may really be in play to win the job and he brings a skillset Angeli and Carr don't have.

 

[ColinKSU]

I don’t care who gets the nod. The coaches know they can’t afford to screw this up and squander the program’s momentum from last season.

That doesn’t mean they won’t screw it up. But it will mean they picked the QB they genuinely think gives them the best chance to win. I don’t see these kids every day, so my opinion is irrelevant.

 

[Katzenboyer]

I don’t care who gets the nod. The coaches know they can’t afford to screw this up and squander the program’s momentum from last season.

That doesn’t mean they won’t screw it up. But it will mean they picked the QB they genuinely think gives them the best chance to win. I don’t see these kids every day, so my opinion is irrelevant.

I think the staff has earned our trust on picking the best guy after standing by Leonard last year, who clearly gave the team the best chance to win.

 

[NDohio]

Notre Dame spring football: A running diary of Irish’s open practice

As has been the custom with Notre Dame's open practices, we'll offer a running diary of the action and work through the noise.

www.nytimes.com

Nice session by session breakdown by Pete.

 

[SDIrishFan]

Notre Dame spring football: A running diary of Irish’s open practice

As has been the custom with Notre Dame's open practices, we'll offer a running diary of the action and work through the noise.

www.nytimes.com

Nice session by session breakdown by Pete.

Isn’t there a way to read these for us poors? A link?

 

[ColoradoIrish]

Isn’t there a way to read these for us poors? A link?

Archive.is will get you access to almost any paid article

 

[Irish#1]

I think the staff has earned our trust on picking the best guy after standing by Leonard last year, who clearly gave the team the best chance to win.

Agree. We've been so fixated on Carr, that it won't surprise me if Minchey gets the nod. The staff knows what Angeli can do, but he's not the answer. I don't think we'll know who will be the starter until fall practice.

 

[Dale]

I think there are way more politics involved in riding with Minchey. I’ve been a fan since the first day his name dropped after Food Thread guy though

 

[HouseofPain]

Holy overreaction, batman.

He's a second year player. Carr not playing next season, coming off a relatively serious injury, is not an indictment on the coaching staff.

Programs have high lv QB talent starting young all the time. I mean, how many 1st year QBs have ND made look like Heisman candidates over the years? Manning is in his 2nd year away from high school. Why it is too much to ask the same from NDs staff?

 

[rtrn2glory]

Offensive Practice Report:

I already gave my take on QB's yesterday. the only thing I'll add is that none of the QB's look comfortable taking an under center snap, which as an O-Line guy I think is totally ridiculous, but nonetheless.

RB - Price and Love obviously running with the 1's. Love tweaked his hammy during 7 on 7's and I'll admit I started sweating. Looked worse that what it appeared to be as he was walking around later and seemed to be fine, but I'd guess I witnessed his final rep of the spring. Overall, the depth is outstanding. They were working a lot of 20 personnel for that reason I'd have to think. I have zero clue how they keep all of Payne, Williams, and Young after the spring. Payne is going to be hard to keep off the field. I like how he runs the ball and he does have a year of experience. Williams and him are very similar so I can see one of them leaving because there's just not enough reps available. Price looked to do well pouring it up in there with a makeshift OL with a lot of 2's and 3's. I was actually surprised to see him and Love get so many carries considering it was mostly the 2's and 3's going against the starting Defense.

WR's - Status quo without Faison and Fields, who are likely to be 2/3 best WR's. The media seemed to be high on Burress, but dude had a case of the drops and right now struggled to win contested catches, which can be expected considering he's technically a high school kid. Of the starters I thought the best of the bunch was KK. He catches the ball extremely well and isn't flashy, but he was the most dependable there Saturday. Williams dropped a slant on an RPO during the team period, a little behind him, but I thought he has to make the catch and would've been every bit of 50-60 yard TD.

TE - Rairidon had a good day. Caught the ball well and even took a middle screen about 60 yards to the GL area. Gives me vibes of Rudolph wearing that #9. Depth is a huge concern here without Flanagan and knowing Rairidon's health history. I think the freshmen are going to have to be ready to play and agreed with Mercke saying we need a transfer depth piece. A side note, it appears the staff is trying to find a WR that can fill the role of Thomas last year that can motion in and block. The bodies on the roster don't appear to have any at this time.

OL - Tough day for the young guys, granted the "starting" OL was Prescod, Absher, Otting, Jagusah, and Augustine. These guys struggled in pass pro, but weren't terrible getting push at times. Augustine looked like a freshman and Jag's even got bullied a bit by the starting DT's. Herron for a freshman looked decent. He will be our starting center at some point. He looks like a brick shit house on the lower half. By far the most natural snapping the ball too. A lot of impressive looking bodies for the younger guys who with some good weight and nutrition will put us at our usual expectations for the present and future for the position group.

Please feel free to ask any questions for the Offense.

I'm trying to break up the report to limit the overkill of people like me who get bored reading long posts!

 

[Irish du Nord]

Programs have high lv QB talent starting young all the time. I mean, how many 1st year QBs have ND made look like Heisman candidates over the years? Manning is in his 2nd year away from high school. Why it is too much to ask the same from NDs staff?

Manning is in Minchey's class...

 

[GoIrish41]

Offensive Practice Report:

I already gave my take on QB's yesterday. the only thing I'll add is that none of the QB's look comfortable taking an under center snap, which as an O-Line guy I think is totally ridiculous, but nonetheless.

RB - Price and Love obviously running with the 1's. Love tweaked his hammy during 7 on 7's and I'll admit I started sweating. Looked worse that what it appeared to be as he was walking around later and seemed to be fine, but I'd guess I witnessed his final rep of the spring. Overall, the depth is outstanding. They were working a lot of 20 personnel for that reason I'd have to think. I have zero clue how they keep all of Payne, Williams, and Young after the spring. Payne is going to be hard to keep off the field. I like how he runs the ball and he does have a year of experience. Williams and him are very similar so I can see one of them leaving because there's just not enough reps available. Price looked to do well pouring it up in there with a makeshift OL with a lot of 2's and 3's. I was actually surprised to see him and Love get so many carries considering it was mostly the 2's and 3's going against the starting Defense.

WR's - Status quo without Faison and Fields, who are likely to be 2/3 best WR's. The media seemed to be high on Burress, but dude had a case of the drops and right now struggled to win contested catches, which can be expected considering he's technically a high school kid. Of the starters I thought the best of the bunch was KK. He catches the ball extremely well and isn't flashy, but he was the most dependable there Saturday. Williams dropped a slant on an RPO during the team period, a little behind him, but I thought he has to make the catch and would've been every bit of 50-60 yard TD.

TE - Rairidon had a good day. Caught the ball well and even took a middle screen about 60 yards to the GL area. Gives me vibes of Rudolph wearing that #9. Depth is a huge concern here without Flanagan and knowing Rairidon's health history. I think the freshmen are going to have to be ready to play and agreed with Mercke saying we need a transfer depth piece. A side note, it appears the staff is trying to find a WR that can fill the role of Thomas last year that can motion in and block. The bodies on the roster don't appear to have any at this time.

OL - Tough day for the young guys, granted the "starting" OL was Prescod, Absher, Otting, Jagusah, and Augustine. These guys struggled in pass pro, but weren't terrible getting push at times. Augustine looked like a freshman and Jag's even got bullied a bit by the starting DT's. Herron for a freshman looked decent. He will be our starting center at some point. He looks like a brick shit house on the lower half. By far the most natural snapping the ball too. A lot of impressive looking bodies for the younger guys who with some good weight and nutrition will put us at our usual expectations for the present and future for the position group.

Please feel free to ask any questions for the Offense.

I'm trying to break up the report to limit the overkill of people like me who get bored reading long posts!

How did Cam Williams look?

 

[rtrn2glory]

How did Cam Williams look?

Didn't stand out like I'd hope. Like I said he dropped an rpo that would've been a house call. Physically thought he looked the part though

 

[GoIrish41]

Didn't stand out like I'd hope. Like I said he dropped an rpo that would've been a house call. Physically thought he looked the part though

I heard some of the talking heads saying that the drop was a bad throw, behind him. Is that what you saw or was it on him?

 

[Bluto]

According to II Devan Houstan has moved to o line. Is that new?

 

[IA4irish]

According to II Devan Houstan has moved to o line. Is that new?

been known for a couple of weeks. There were comments on Irish Envy about it in the past. Sounds like they actually needed him for spring ball because of O-line depth. Most would be shocked if he actually sees playing time here.

 

[rtrn2glory]

Defense Practice Report:

Before the position breakdown I will say what I like about the defense compared to offense is the straight business approach. Pre-practice and during practice they are constantly at work and no reps are wasted. Just very fun to watch a machine at work. During the team periods, one thing that looked evident is that Ash doesn't look like he's going to bring as much heat as Golden. Perhaps they were told not to with the OL being a bit vanilla, but I saw more DL stunting and movement compared to the blitzes that Golden would bring. Maybe just a one time thing, but just my initial thoughts. I didn't like big plays given up. KK cooked Gray very early in practice for a explosive TD and I mentioned during the offense breakdown that Rairidon took a middle screen for a huge play. I will be very hard on this if it extends into the season as we didn't give up explosives last year, which no good defense should ever!

DL - Interior is going to be just fine. Rubio and Hinish started, but I'll be honest, Onye and Dawson looked like the two best interior guys on Saturday imo. Onye absolutely obliterated Jagusah on a team rep and got screwed by a shitty hands to the face call. I'd even be comfortable going all the way down to our 3-Deep with Hughes, who had a great bull rush during 1 on 1's. After them there is a huge drop off. Sevillano and Mukam were not very good I didn't think and if I remember maybe one of the media thought Mukam looked good. I did not. I can definitely see why neither were asked to give minutes in the playoffs last year.
Edge was ok not great. Bryce had moments where he made the young OL look silly. Cole Mullins I thought had a good day. His body reminds me of a taller Howard Cross. Not much to report here with a lot of the guys were expecting to contribute not healthy enough to. Wild card is definitely Mullins from Saturday's observations. Hate to do this, but I thought Onyiuke (#45) is a very dirty player and is in my dog house. 2 separate times he was dumb and did something that could've been flagged if it were a real game and what is more dumb is it was on a teammate. During a kickoff return scout team rep he buried Leonard Moore unnecessarily and he landed awkwardly on his shoulder and he got up favoring it. Then worse, he drilled Angeli in a team rep (reminder QB's where red jerseys) which forced players to start to should and I may be wrong, but I think he was kicked out of practice for this. Disgusting on both ends IMO from a dude that is a Sr. He can go if it were up to me.

LB's - Drayk is awesome. Love the guy. Getting better reading and reacting and I don't see how he won't be a problem for opposing defenses. Same can be said for Sneed. WOW talk about heat seaking missile. The play that stands out is him trusting his speed and undercutting a crack block and getting a TFL during team on Price, I believe. What I liked the most about the play is that he wasn't blitzing, he read the play quickly and used his speed to track it down. Just outstanding overall. Eye ball test winner is Faraimo. You would have to know that he's a high school senior to believe it. Not sure what his wing span is, but it looked like he should be playing Vyper rather than inside. Huge recruiting win here.

DB's - A little disappointed in Cree based on the press he's been getting. Got chewed out good once or twice. Again just one day. Gray man I mean, for a guy with as much experience I didn't expect to see him get cooked by any of our receivers, but I did. Overall nothing crazy bad, but expected better. I'll give Mickens credit man he has his dudes coached up and ready to play. Was actually most impressed with a walk-on (#32) Dunn. He got quite a few reps and was the one to pick off Minchey on the RPO.

Safeites - Our depth here is stupid good. A lot of long lean bodies outside of Shuler who is just thick and looks like he should be playing for the U in the 80's and early 90's. Sign me up for the offical Tae Johnson fan club. Without knowing much about Stroman, I'm convinced he better show up ready to work or Tae will be the starter. I was very impressed with seeing him fill in the run game, which I wasn't expecting to be a strength of his, but it was! All the safeties I feel like do well fitting. Jadon Blair wins the eyeball test for sure and honestly Ethan Long looks just as impressive physically. Hard to say for sure without a true passing game threat, but we looked great on the back end despite having little to no game experience. Talich and Shuler started, but Tae played a lot and Imo was the second best safety on the roster.

Again, any questions please feel free to throw them out.

 

[rtrn2glory]

I heard some of the talking heads saying that the drop was a bad throw, behind him. Is that what you saw or was it on him?

It was behind him yes. Better throw definitely could be argued but dudes a scholarship athlete and I thought if it hits the hands worst case scenario should've been a catch for 10 yd gain

 

[GoIrish41]

It was behind him yes. Better throw definitely could be argued but dudes a scholarship athlete and I thought if it hits the hands worst case scenario should've been a catch for 10 yd gain

Thanks for the info, bud.