Notre Dame football returned from its Easter Break for spring practice No. 7 on Wednesday morning. Reporters were allowed to watch the first five periods of practice, but we’ve been asked to hold any content until after media availability following every practice moving forward.
So here are my notes that I wrote while waiting to talk to wide receivers coach Mike Brown, defensive backs coach Mike Mickens and a few players at their positions.
I loved the first drill of the day from period one. Skill players on offense were asked to pick a football up off the top of a garbage can, pick left or right and run through a collision with a defender who started three yards away. It provided a lot of good pad popping, though the defense wasn’t allowed to take players to the ground.
There was no shiftiness involved in this for the offense. Just a quick burst of speed. Two of the best hits I saw came from nickelback Jordan Clark on wide receiver Jayden Harrison and safety Devyn Ford on wide receiver Jaden Greathouse. The Clark-Harrison collision had plenty of juice on both ends of it. Two reps that clearly went in favor of the offense came from wide receiver Deion Colzie against cornerback Chance Tucker and wide receiver KK Smith against cornerback Micah Bell. Colzie won with power. Smith won with speed.
Period two focused on punt coverage. Andrew Kros took the first-team long snaps and delivered them to Bryce McFerson. Some guys on that first-team coverage unit included Jaylen Sneed, Drayk Bowen, Jack Kiser and Adon Shuler on the front line and Davis Sherwood and Jason Onye as the protectors. The gunners on the outside were given a head start down the field and asked to track down the returners.
The returners were Jaden Greathouse, KK Smith, Jaden Mickey, Jadarian Price and Gi’Bran Payne. Greathouse had one nice return in which he made a few guys miss with a cut across the field. Jordan Faison, who’s still in the middle of lacrosse season, watched the punt returners closely while not participating in practice.
During the first two periods, injured quarterback Riley Leonard threw the ball around with the other quarterbacks. Steve Angeli returned from his illness last week. Leonard even walked through the handoff drill in the third period with the rest of the QBs. He wasn’t wearing shoulder pads, and he had a brace of some sort on his recovering right foot.
On the defensive side of the field, the linebackers and defensive backs worked on shedding blockers and wrapping up tackles in the third period.
As the wide receivers went through individual drills, Jayden Thomas was a limited participant. When they caught passes from QBs in the fifth period, this was the order/alignment: Kris Mitchell, KK Smith and Cam Williams at field WR, Jaden Greathouse, Jayden Harrison and Jack Polian at slot WR and Deion Colzie, Micah Gilbert and Alex Whitman at boundary WR.
The linebackers and safeties worked a bit on some install packages. The base unit used mike LB Drayk Bowen, will LB Jack Kiser, rover LB Jaylen Sneed and safeties Xavier Watts and Adon Shuler. Jordan Clark joined the mix when the first unit shifted into nickel. ND used a couple of LB combos in nickel: mack LB Kiser with money LB Sneed and mack LB Bowen with money LB Kiser.
My viewing of Notre Dame’s lines on both sides was limited. Defensive tackles Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills missed another Wednesday practice. I confirmed that has been due to a class conflict. Donovan Hinish and Jason Onye slid into their spots as usual. I saw freshman Cole Mullins taking work as a three-technique defensive tackle. And freshman defensive end Bryce Young certainly looks the part as he takes third-team reps.
The starting offensive line working together continued to be the same: LT Charles Jagusah, LG Pat Coogan, C Ashton Craig, RG Billy Schrauth and RT Tosh Baker. The second unit looked a little different with LT Sullivan Absher, LG Ty Chan, C Sam Pendleton, RG Rocco Spindler and RT Aamil Wagner.
Beyond those previously mentioned, the same injured players remained sidelined: Benjamin Morrison, Mitchell Evans, Kevin Bauman, Aiden Gobaira, Armel Mukam and Loghan Thomas.
Gabriel Rubio and Beaux Collins were observers at practice again.
2026 QB target Brady Hart was taking in practice alongside Chad Bowden. 2026 S target DJ Williams, 2026 LB target Tristan Phillips and 2025 LB target Noah Mikhail were taking in practice alongside Dre Brown.
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