Note: Because we actually had so much to watch, I’ll leave the notes on the folks who didn’t participate until the end.
Notre Dame started Saturday’s practice with only three periods before getting underway with its jersey scrimmage. Those periods were mostly focused on special teams. During field goal work, Mitch Jeter made five of his six attempts. He made kicks from 26, 35, 38, 22 and 29 but missed right on a 36-yarder. The Irish also worked on punt coverage.
The scrimmage started with the No. 1 offense going up against the No. 2 defense. Rather than a true scrimmage, the first few rotations through were filled by a set number of plays. So even if the offense went three-and-out to start the series, the chains were reset and the number of plays allotted were finished.
Here’s how the No. 1 offense lined up to start: quarterback Steve Angeli, running back Jeremiyah Love, boundary wide receiver Micah Gilbert, slot wide receiver Jaden Greathouse, field wide receiver Kris Mitchell, tight end Cooper Flanagan, left tackle Charles Jagusah, left guard Pat Coogan, center Ashton Craig, right guard Billy Schrauth and tight tackle Tosh Baker.
No. 2 defense: vyper end Junior Tuihalamaka, defensive tackle Jason Onye, nose tackle Donovan Hinish, field end Joshua Burnham, mike linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, will linebacker Jaylen Sneed, rover linebacker Jaiden Ausberry, cornerbacks Chance Tucker and Micah Bell and safeties Luke Talich and Kennedy Urlacher.
The Irish offense didn’t do much in their six plays, which included a false start. Angeli completed two passes to pick up a first down after being backed up to first-and-15. He hit Flanagan for 11 yards and Mitchell for six yards. The series ended with a incomplete pass deep down the field to Gilbert.
Then the No. 1 defense took the field against the No. 2 offense.
No. 1 defense: vyper Jordan Botelho, defensive tackle Rylie Mills, nose tackle Howard Cross III, field end RJ Oben, mike linebacker Drayk Bowen, will linebacker Jack Kiser, nickelback Jordan Clark, cornerbacks Christian Gray and Jaden Mickey and safeties Adon Shuler and Xavier Watts.
No. 2 offense: quarterback Kenny Minchey, running back Jadarian Price, boundary receiver Deion Colzie, slot receiver KK Smith, field receiver Cam Williams, tight end Eli Raridon, left tackle Sullivan Absher, left guard Rocco Spindler, center Sam Pendleton, right guard Ty Chan, right tackle Aamil Wagner.
The defense set the tone in this series with a Clark sack on second down and Sneed sack on third-and-long. Minchey completed a couple of passes to Williams for eight and six yards to end the series.
Last, the third units took the field.
No. 3 offense: quarterback CJ Carr, running back Aneyas Williams, boundary receiver Alex Whitman, slot receiver Jack Polian, field receiver Cam Williams, tight end Jack Larsen, left tackle Ty Chan, left guard Peter Jones, center Joe Otting, right guard Chris Terek and right tackle Anthonie Knapp.
No. 3 defense: vyper Boubacar Traore, nose tackle Sean Sevillano Jr., defensive tackle Cole Mullins, field end Bryce Young, mike linebacker Preston Zinter, will linebacker Kahanu Kia, rover linebacker Jaiden Ausberry, cornerbacks Mickey Brown and Marty Auer and safeties Devyn Ford and Kennedy Urlacher.
The only notable play from the first series with the 3s was a nice stuffed run by Young and Kia.
1 offense vs. 1 defense – Angeli at QB
Then came the first matchup of first-team offense and defense with the offense starting on its own three-yard line. A pair of Price runs set the offense up with a third-and-3, which Angeli converted with a six-yard pass to Flanagan.
Then Angeli seemed to find a groove with a 30-yard completion and 18-yard completion to Greathouse, who was the best receiver for the Irish all day. After a six-yard run by Price, Angeli made a mistake that Mickey took advantage of. He jumped an out route by Mitchell and returned the interception for touchdown of 70-plus yards. Angeli didn’t drive the ball to the outside on the wide side of the field and allowed Mickey to make the play.
2 offense vs. 2 defense – Minchey at QB
Love got a lot of action at running back without a lot of success. Burnham took him down for a tackle for loss on the first play. Love picked up four on the next play. On third-and-6, Tucker broke up a slant thrown to Colzie.
A four-yard gain by Love started the next set of downs, but it became a disaster from there. A low snap by Pendleton led to Love getting stuffed for no go gain. Then a delay of game and false start backed up the Irish even more. Minchey escaped the pocket to throw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-long, but he likely would have been sacked by unblocked pressure from Tuihalamaka.
1 offense vs. 1 defense – Minchey at QB
Clark made it impossible to complete a receiver screen to Greathouse to start the drive. Minchey scrambled for nine yards on second down, but he should have been called for a sack by Mills, who overpowered Baker on a stunt. Payne picked up the third-and-1 on the ground.
Minchey completed a three-yard pass to Flanagan of first down. A deep shot to Gilbert on second down was broken up by Gray. Botelho provided pressure on the play. A 10-yard pass to Smith converted the third down and put the offense at the 17-yard line.
Love ran over Shuler and jumped over him on the ground on his way to a 10-yard gain. That was easily the most impressive run of the day. Minchey ended the drive with a six-yard touchdown run on a RPO play that included a fake to a running back, a fake to a receiver in jet motion and had a tight end option for a pass. Minchey wisely ran it in for the touchdown.
2 offense vs. 2 defense – Carr at QB
Carr really started to impress this drive. He thew a short completion to Love for four yards. He tried to throw deep to Colzie on second down by Tucker was running right with him the whole time. Then on third down, Carr connected with Mitchell on a dig route for a 19-yard completion.
Bowen backed up the offense with a sack of Carr. He came unblocked off the left side of the offense. Then Carr found Cam Williams for a 17-yard touchdown on a post with Tucker trailing him. This might have been the best throw of the day.
(more)
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