Scrimmage
- Thread starter edub72
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From the little I read, it sounds like both Jagusah and Baker struggled against our defensive ends. Jagusah is young and learning, while Baker has reached his ceiling, and it’s not good enough. Time between now and Fall works to Jagusah’s benefit, but can’t see where more time for a fifth year grad in Baker will miraculously improve his play. Wagner at rt is still a possibility, but he continues to not overtake a weak Baker. Wish like hell that Lambert was an early enrollee. Absher should be in the mix here, but haven’t read anything about him practicing at rt. Have no idea what kind of available talent will hit the portal this spring, but an experienced LT that allows Jagusah to move to RT and Lambert to develop as our LT of the future might be the best we could possibly hope for.
Not a bad as some on here make it out to be. They will be solid to good. The question is can they be even better than good
I hope so. Both starting tackles that will be NFL guys are gone, and the interior of the OL continues to be a concern.
We seen the 3 interior guys the last 3.5 games of the season and they were an upgrade over the starting 3 guys.
Schrauth and Craig are dudes. I expect by midseason they will be very good. When Rocco is full health he and Coogan will battle it out for the LG spot. And maybe a young guy pushes them in fall camp
We're only 11 practices into spring ball. They will improve and going against our defense and Golden will continue to help them
Rt is a problem. I'm confident with regards to the line as a whole but have a feeling we will have an attached tight end when we role into college station on a fair amount of plays. Lambert was is pegged as a potential LT, but he plays rt in high school and hopefully can challenge right away.
Baker played solid in the bowl game. I dont expect anything close to great out of him but him or Wagner can definitely be solid this year. Rt is definitely the biggest concern on the line
I'm sure if the tackles were dominating then the discussion here would be that there's a big problem at defensive end . It's spring practice. Everyone can't be dominant. It happens every spring, gross overreactions both good and bad. Wonder who will get the Junior Jabbie award this Saturday ?
Echo, I don’t think the fact our tackles are struggling against our defense is at all surprising. Jagusah has started one game and I think has all of two semesters of college life to his resume. He’s supposedly a real student of his craft and really works at it. He’s going to be damn good and probably another great ND tackle. I think he’ll continue to improve and as I said, he benefits from the time between now and our first game. It would be a surprise if he didn’t struggle against our guys this spring.
As for Baker, I think we know his ceiling, and so the fact he is struggling against our guys should be a concern, but also not surprising. The fact Wagner hasn’t “appeared” to be taking advantage of this is concerning, at least to me. Absher is training as Jagusah’s back up and I had hoped he would be given a look at RT by now, in hopes that either he or Wagner would have forced their way into RT conversation. Lambert might force his way into this conversation this summer, but that’s a bit of a Hail Mary ask for a freshman OL who didn’t enroll early. So, I don’t think concerns being expressed by myself and others regarding our offensive tackle play is a gross overreaction at all.
I haven't heard Baker is struggling bad. I've heard he's had good and bad moments. But he's been solid this camp from what I've listened to and read
He's playing the same as he always has and has likely hit his ceiling which is very disappointing. He's not horrible, but significantly below the bar for ND tackles.
Also the fact that Wagner has not made any significant strides in challenging him is also viewed as an issue.
Right now we have a glut of inside linemen and a glaring need at tackle depth. Really hoping that Lambert comes in with good weight at 300 lbs to at least get some rotation this year.
Frankly, there’s never a lot of meaningful observations coming out of ND practices because they limit media access so much. The 80 play scrimmage that was open to the media is the only glimpse we’ve really had. Personally, I usually find the blue gold “game” pretty boring and not that revealing, but at least we can see our OL performance for ourselves. I doubt it, but I’ll be happy if I share your opinion after that scrimmage.
Not the scrimmage alone. We hear good things about jagusah, schrauth, Craig... We hear coogan is battling and that there is competition at lg...
There is crickets about rt... not any word on development, any good reps, any positive technique improvements, any competition at all regarding rt.
Hence it's fair to say... It's a concern
That's not true. On the ISD podcast they have said Baker has played pretty well this spring according to their sources
But yes it is a concern. And will be till someone proves it during the games
Rt needs to be better than pretty well. Every pod has noted his struggles picking up speed rushes and also his slow feet. At this point he likely is who he is. He'd be a star at Vanderbilt.
I believe in the OC and do believe that he's not going to need a top line to produce points. It will be interesting to see if this leads to more attached te and dual rb sets to help with blocking.
Still two things can be true at once...we can be on and it be a problem.
I share the concerns about our OL, but on a more positive note here are some interesting observations about the scrimmage, as reported in The Athletic:
About our LB play:
"The position was a strength all scrimmage, especially against the second-team offensive line. Sneed had killer pressure on Kenny Minchey. Viliamu-Asa got after the quarterback in sub packages with the first-team defense. Ausberry offered a little bit of everything."
About CJ Carr's play:
"Let’s get this out of the way. The freshman quarterback was the best of his position on Saturday. Much of that had to do with playing exclusively with the second/third teams. But not all of it. Carr’s natural ability to scramble and keep his eyes down the field looks like a college junior’s. He’s got the arm and accuracy of a fringe five-star prospect. The game seems to come to Carr in a way it doesn’t for most quarterbacks."
About Boubacar Traore's play:
"Traore gets around the left edge again, forcing Angeli into a scramble. The rising sophomore was a terror all practice. Notre Dame hoped he would eventually be the next Isaiah Foskey type of pass rusher. He flashed a little last season. But Saturday was more than a flash. Spring ball is really about younger guys moving from potential player to production player. Traore, check."
While it would be a mistake to get too excited about a scrimmage, there are some positive developments to be happy with, especially with the developyment of Carr. And it sounds like our D could be great (again) this year.
About our LB play:
"The position was a strength all scrimmage, especially against the second-team offensive line. Sneed had killer pressure on Kenny Minchey. Viliamu-Asa got after the quarterback in sub packages with the first-team defense. Ausberry offered a little bit of everything."
About CJ Carr's play:
"Let’s get this out of the way. The freshman quarterback was the best of his position on Saturday. Much of that had to do with playing exclusively with the second/third teams. But not all of it. Carr’s natural ability to scramble and keep his eyes down the field looks like a college junior’s. He’s got the arm and accuracy of a fringe five-star prospect. The game seems to come to Carr in a way it doesn’t for most quarterbacks."
About Boubacar Traore's play:
"Traore gets around the left edge again, forcing Angeli into a scramble. The rising sophomore was a terror all practice. Notre Dame hoped he would eventually be the next Isaiah Foskey type of pass rusher. He flashed a little last season. But Saturday was more than a flash. Spring ball is really about younger guys moving from potential player to production player. Traore, check."
While it would be a mistake to get too excited about a scrimmage, there are some positive developments to be happy with, especially with the developyment of Carr. And it sounds like our D could be great (again) this year.
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If he plays pretty well, anyone would take that. Fisher played pretty well last year. But not anywhere near elite. If Baker plays pretty well the OL will have a very nice season this year
I thought Fisher was a disappointment last season, but that’s because I thought he had elite talent, and played inconsistently. He’ll get drafted and make an NFL roster, and hopefully have a solid career at guard in the next couple of years. If his play is your definition of pretty well, are you saying you expect Baker to play at the same level as Fisher?
No chance. Fisher was athletically gifted and did not reach his full potential. Hes a draft pick because someone will believe he will continue to work to reach that potential. The concern with tosh is that he has reached his peak...and he was a significant step down from Blake last year.
It's a long time until fall, and hopefully something changes. But that is the reality as it seems right now.
We will still be solid, but the better teams on our schedule will attack and challenge the rt. It's even more concerning if we have any tackle injuries.
It's a long time until fall, and hopefully something changes. But that is the reality as it seems right now.
We will still be solid, but the better teams on our schedule will attack and challenge the rt. It's even more concerning if we have any tackle injuries.
No. But Mirer said pretty well was a bad thing. If Baker plays pretty well this season, the OL should be really good. We dont need anything special out of him. If he is solid, Id take that in a second. Thats all we need from him
College Station, Texas. 110,000 people. Defensive minded Mike Elko. Game 1.
We will know then.
Getting off of RT for a change of discussion, what are you and others hearing about Coogan? I thought Rocco was average and Coogan below average last year. I expected Rocco to beat Coogan out for starting LG this year, but so far Coogan is playing with the first group. Is this a function of Coogan continuing to develop or Rocco losing time because of his surgery last year?
Rocco isn't healthy. He's at about 80 to 90 percent they said. The competition will be more real in fall camp
I think our only issue will be if we don’t replace baker with someone from portal …
Guards and center will be better than last year, it’s how far of a drop off we are at tackle
Baker has never played pretty well at nd and he’s gotten a number of opportunities… his play has been bad every time…. Possibly worst tackle performance I’ve ever seen vs Wisconsin
This… RT wasn’t as good as we needed last year an baker is obviously major step back
Denbrock can’t run his offense without good tackles because he doesn’t want to leave a te on the line to help a tackle
Coogan and spindles weren’t good enough last year and they just can’t move good enough, with that said they were significantly better than zeke. We saw Craig at center has a bit positive impact on our line. My take is line will be good due to upgrade with Billy and Craig but it could be really good if jagusah develops and we get a portal RT
He was young then. Poorly coached. And the the whole offensive line stunk then. I'm not going to act like hea the same player 3 years later. That would be a silly comment
He was solid in the bowl game. Use the most recent example as a reference. Not a game 3 years ago with a bad OL coach
Also, hes had like 3 opportunities so not many and not many recent ones
Denbrock can run his offense without good tackles. The LSU line was very average last year and they had the number 1 offense
Their Heisman winning QB had a lot to do with this. Nasty’s point is correct that Denbrock prefers To use the TE split out and not attached to the tackle, and this does put more emphasis on the tackle blocking One on one. We need solid play from our RT to optimize this use of the TE, and I don’t share your optimism that Baker will provide this. But as I’ve said, I will be happy for him to prove you right.
I dont have optimism for Baker. If he plays like he did in the bowl game, we will be fine. We don't need him to be great or anything close
He was solid on the bowl game and there's no reason to think he couldn't be solid 9 months later
And again, LSU has a very average OL and was the best offense in cfb
Every OC wants good OL play. It's not specific to Denbrock lol
When you have Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels and two prolific WR's, yes, that's possible.
When our OL is better than theirs, rbs are better, tes are better and you have a good qb and wrs like we do, you will be just fine.
So yes it will be possible for us too
Yeah OK Mel, ya think the offense was great maybe because of the QB Daniels or the WRs they had? Nah, it was the very average OL that catapulted them to be the best, SMH
Never said he could. Although I do think he is similar but I never said that
So that was weak. Do better than that
