We got a lot of work in today, a lot of situational items that we didn't get a chance to cover. Some short yardage, coming out from our goal line. It's hard to address some of those short-yardage and tough territory scenarios. We got close to 60 plays in the scrimmage format today. We got pretty much the first and second group a bulk of work. We wanted to get a lot of tackling in, balls on the perimeter. Didn't really push the ball down the field that much. Combinations of getting our offensive line working, getting the quarterbacks to run the ball a little bit, get them in some live situations. It went as scripted and we got through it without anyone injured, so that's always the biggest thing for me is getting what you want done relative to work and get out without injuries. Those things were accomplished.
Jarrett Grace
Boy, I could probably go a while with that answer. He's certainly off the field the kind of guy that we want representing our program. He's involved in the community, he's the kind of Notre Dame student-athlete you want put out in front that represents our program with the way he handles himself in our community and our campus as a student-athlete. He's got great relationships with everybody within the program. As a football player he's a great leader and a football player who's fought back from a terrible injury, so you always want your best players to be your best leaders. When it's a guy like Jarrett, he's so respected by everybody that as coaches we can go to him and ask him to do a lot of the work for us. He makes our job easy.
With QBs do you know what you get out of both or are there tests of what you don't know with them
I don't know that there's any mysteries. I think there are things we need to continue to develop with them. There are things like today with Malik, sometimes he will check into some things that we're not quite certain as to what he was thinking. Everett there's no doubt about where his mind is relative to what he's saying and what he's thinking. 'Why did you go to that Everett?' makes total sense. As it relates to Malik, we're still kind of in that process of, 'What were you thinking?' We had a quick tempo play and he changed out of the quick tempo play, changed the entire formation and you're kind of wondering, 'What's going on here?' There's still some of that processing going on, but as it relates to their skills, I think we've got a pretty good understanding of their skills. Now it's just making sure that we're well-rounded in everything. I thought Everett ran with his shoulder pads down today. That's what we've been asking him to do. What we didn't like today is we had two turnovers and neither one of them can be turning the football over. We had two turnovers in scoring position. They're building on the areas we've asked them to work on and then I don't think there's any areas where we don't know what Everett's thinking, but there are a couple areas where we've got to continue to develop Malik as to what he's thinking sometimes.
Is that a product of Malik not having a full game under his belt yet?
Obviously Everett's been in a lot more situations, he's seen a lot more and Malik's got a good grasp of it. Sometimes like today it's having that scenario where we're in a tempo play and it covers nine out of 10 scenarios, let's just go run with it. Sometimes it's just that simple that having that experience today checks another box in his development.
Have you decided who's going to call plays?
Mike Sanford is still learning the offense, still feeling comfortable with the things that I like and the things I like to call. I think Mike Denbrock is still tutoring him a little bit relative to the nuances within the offense. It's too early for us to kind of come up with a definitive conclusion. I think we feel very comfortable working together and where we're going and everybody's on the same page, but I stand in front of you today not ready to say who's calling plays and who's doing what. I think right now it's been really good in that the consensus in the room, it comes easy. That's been a really good thing.
Tarean Folston
I think he's had a good spring. I think it's like anything else. He needs to continue to work on consistency every single day. I thought he's worked hard on his blocking. I thought he's worked hard on his pass protection, catching the football. I think he's accomplished that. There's a couple things we want him to work on in terms of practice and getting after it with a little more tenacity, but overall it's been a good spring for him.
Want to see separation there?
No, I want guys competing and if you watched C.J. Prosise, if I were those two guys [Folston and Bryant], I'd feel like they better be careful because he's got elite speed in the second level. We had Max Redfield chasing him and he couldn't catch him today. I think C.J. puts some pressure on both of those guys and I want to create some more competition. We have some freshmen coming in in the fall. It's trying to create competitio nand I think that brings out the best in all those guys.
Max Redfield
I think the first thing is he's much more vocal back there. Last year you couldn't even hear him. They were having a hard time communicating. There's great communication, there's confidence and they know they can make plays. They know they're capable of playing at a high level. So a lot of that is confidence. You make plays when you have confidence and you go from there. I think they're feeling very confident about their ability to go back there and be playmakers and communicate effectively. They have a better grasp of the defense, there's no question about that. I think it's all coming together for them.
Playing outside
Being inside creates a false sense of security. When you get outside, the elements, you've got to be clear in your communication, spatial awareness, moving the ball. It changes everything. When you know the ball's coming back to the 30-yard line every time, you have a different sense on defense. You've got to tackle where the ball is going 40, 50, 60, 70 yards, it's a different feeling out there. Big difference when you get outside, absolutely.
Pass rush
There's not going to be one guy that we look at and say, 'He's going to have 15 sacks and lead the country.' We're going to have a number of guys we feel bring pressure and pressure the quarterback. Obviously the health of Sheldon Day inside, he brings some pressure on the outside. We feel we have some guys that can come off the edge individually. As you see, most of our guys, it's a combination of linebackers, nickels, drops, inside games with pressure. It's not going to be one guy, it's going to be five, six different players. There will be some overload situations where you can't protect and somebody's going to come free in those. If you remember a couple times early in the year where we ran some overload pressures and they couldn't block Elijah Shumate on a couple occasions. It will be an assortment of those kinds of things. I don't think we're looking or one guy that's an elite pass rusher that's going to be the guy. I don't think anybody's going to look at it that way, but we think guys have improved immensely in their individual technique. I think Isaac Rochell is a better pass rusher. I think you're going to see as we move forward that Trumbetti and Okwara are better on the edge than they were before. I think they'll all be improved from last year.
Nyles Morgan
I think he's a lot more confident in his ability. Certainly knows where to be. I think Jaylon is doing a lot of the communication out there at the linebacker position, which is great for us. I think he's been a bit overshadowed by the leadership and presence of Jarrett Grace and obviously Jaylon and then Joe Schmidt's going to be back on Monday during seven-on-sevens. We've got a lot of guys out there that are kind of overshadowing him a little bit, which is fine, but he's definitely put himself in a position now where he feels comfortable communicating.
What's Joe Schmidt able to do?
He's going to be in non-contact situations, so he's cleared to be involved in all movement drills, seven-on-seven, non-contact drills, moving pretty good. He'll get his opportunity Monday and Wednesday to be involved in all of those drills with non-contact.
He got cleared officially today.
Development of special teams
It's been a focus on working individual groups and competitively trying to get the best guys in a competitive situation. We're doing a lot of things with competitive drill work, where we're tracking and rewarding these guys in those groups, those running teams. We've made a point of it in the spring that as we do our drillwork, we have a competition going on all spring. We want to make it a competitive situation while we're really drilling fundamentals. Fundamentals in everything we do in those units is really the focal point for us. You know where we are. We've got a kicker coming in that we're handing in the field goal and extra point duties, our punter looks great, he's crushing the ball. He's kicking it into the wind today and I think we've got an outstanding punter and we're working Fuller and Bryant as our return guys right now. We haven't spent much time on kickoff returns just because of the situation of being indoors most of the time. We feel like we've addressed a lot of the situations, we've gotten a lot of work with our holder DeShone Kizer and Scott Daly and that timing element. I think the fundamentals of special teams, the technique, the things that sometimes when you put it all in in the preseason and want to go and rep, rep, rep, we've spent a lot of time on technique with those units.
Coach Lyght, I don't think I saw him today
His mom passed away back in February and today was the memorial service. The family was not able to get together when she passed, so he's at the memorial service in Atlanta.
Full roster- how much has it helped
It allows you to do so much more relative to the day-to-day practice schedule inside drill, nine-on-seven, scrimmaging, just the tempo of practice. We've banged a lot. This is the most we've hit, the most 11-on-11, ones vs. ones that we've done in the five years that I've been here. It just allows you to get the quality work and preparation work necessary to develop your football team to the level you want. You know exactly what you have and you know where your weaknesses are and you know what the strengths are of your football team. For me, it's really not about feeling good as much as you really know what you've got and where you need to get better and where you need to focus your attention when you hit camp, where your question marks are and where you need to work on in day one.
How has the team interacted with the 2 different QB styles
They know they're two different kids, but they're so focused on their assignments and taking care of their business that they're just looking for somebody that is committed and somebody that is going to help them be successful. That's all they want from the quarterbacks. The quarterback here at Notre Dame is somebody that has to be 100 percent committed to winning and both of those kids are and as long as they are, they're going to embrace whoever's out on the football field. If they're not committed, if they're not bought in or willing to do the things necessary to be successful, it doesn't matter what their skill level is, they'll respond differently to the quarterback.
Speculation in January that Everett might explore his options elsewhere. How confident are you that when June starts that he's going to be with you?
I couldn't tell you for certain, but he's had his best spring since he's been here, he's fully engaged in everything that he's doing. It's the best that I've seen him do the things we've asked him to do since he's been here. It's like anything else. If you're half in, you kind of see it. It would surprise me - I'm not surprised by anything that 18 and 21 year olds do, I've been in this business too long - but there's no indication that there's anything that he's done that would mean he's just doing this as a way to go somewhere else. If I sensed it at all, I would've pulled the plug on it myself because we're wasting our time. I think I've got a pretty good sense of people and situations. I'm not going to jeopardize our program, our staff, our livelihood, what we do if somebody's not bought in and 100 percent committed. That's the most honest answer I can give you from that standpoint.
He doesn't want to talk about it. I know he doesn't want to do media and stuff like that because he's focused on his academics and graduating and I'm okay with that. I'm fine with that. He's had his share of living in the bright lights. In the fall, he's going to have to do what everybody else does in the fall. When it's media time, he's going to have to sit in front of you guys and answer questions, but we'll give him his space. I expect him to be here and help us win games in the fall.
How much better of a RB is Folston than when he was a freshman
He's so much physically ahead of where he was as a freshman. He's a physically strong player. He's smart, he's a better pass blocker. He catches the football. I just wish once in a while, sometimes we've got to challenge him a little bit, but that's our job, not his job. Sometimes we've got to challenge him a little bit. When you've only got 2 1/2 running backs. We've got two and Josh Anderson does a great job, I don't want to sell him short but he's a walk-on. C.J.'s playing slot and running back. Those guys are dead tired. We're running 88s and inside drill, I'd like to see more energy, but we're doing so much with energy with him. That's why I can't wait for the fall when there's two more freshman running backs and Prosise and some competition in there and I think it will get even better. I like everything that he's doing. He's done everything we've asked him to do. I'd just love to have two or three more backs there competing so we'd have a little more competition.
Unique back with Theo Riddick. Can you get 10 or so plays out of Prosise like that?
We think so. He looked pretty good to me. Here's what I like about him: Early on, he had a sense of pressing the whole inside-out instead of immediately wanting to jump outside which, to me, for a running back, is pretty good. A wide receiver, if he's truly a guy that doesn't want to push it inside, he's going to bounce it outside every single time. He doesn't do that. He presses it inside out. That's hard to do for a kid that hasn't played running back. He's going to hit it north and south and that's a great thing to have without playing the position. We think he can continue to progress as a running back. I think we can do that with him. One of the great assets that Theo had was when it was tough running time, he stuck his nose in there. He was a tough, physical runner. For as much as he's made in his career catching out of the backfield, he won games for us because he was one of our toughest runners. I think C.J. can do that too. He's almost 220 pounds. When you put him up against those two other guys, he looks like he towers over them. I think there's something there where he could give us some of those tough carries but still be that kind of guy that can catch the football.
Nicky Baratti
Really good. He's doing really good. He's gone through some tackling drills too. Not player to player, but you've seen some of those black tackling dummies, he's been through those and he's doing pretty good. We get him through the spring and let's play him in the fall.
Jarrett Grace
Boy, I could probably go a while with that answer. He's certainly off the field the kind of guy that we want representing our program. He's involved in the community, he's the kind of Notre Dame student-athlete you want put out in front that represents our program with the way he handles himself in our community and our campus as a student-athlete. He's got great relationships with everybody within the program. As a football player he's a great leader and a football player who's fought back from a terrible injury, so you always want your best players to be your best leaders. When it's a guy like Jarrett, he's so respected by everybody that as coaches we can go to him and ask him to do a lot of the work for us. He makes our job easy.
With QBs do you know what you get out of both or are there tests of what you don't know with them
I don't know that there's any mysteries. I think there are things we need to continue to develop with them. There are things like today with Malik, sometimes he will check into some things that we're not quite certain as to what he was thinking. Everett there's no doubt about where his mind is relative to what he's saying and what he's thinking. 'Why did you go to that Everett?' makes total sense. As it relates to Malik, we're still kind of in that process of, 'What were you thinking?' We had a quick tempo play and he changed out of the quick tempo play, changed the entire formation and you're kind of wondering, 'What's going on here?' There's still some of that processing going on, but as it relates to their skills, I think we've got a pretty good understanding of their skills. Now it's just making sure that we're well-rounded in everything. I thought Everett ran with his shoulder pads down today. That's what we've been asking him to do. What we didn't like today is we had two turnovers and neither one of them can be turning the football over. We had two turnovers in scoring position. They're building on the areas we've asked them to work on and then I don't think there's any areas where we don't know what Everett's thinking, but there are a couple areas where we've got to continue to develop Malik as to what he's thinking sometimes.
Is that a product of Malik not having a full game under his belt yet?
Obviously Everett's been in a lot more situations, he's seen a lot more and Malik's got a good grasp of it. Sometimes like today it's having that scenario where we're in a tempo play and it covers nine out of 10 scenarios, let's just go run with it. Sometimes it's just that simple that having that experience today checks another box in his development.
Have you decided who's going to call plays?
Mike Sanford is still learning the offense, still feeling comfortable with the things that I like and the things I like to call. I think Mike Denbrock is still tutoring him a little bit relative to the nuances within the offense. It's too early for us to kind of come up with a definitive conclusion. I think we feel very comfortable working together and where we're going and everybody's on the same page, but I stand in front of you today not ready to say who's calling plays and who's doing what. I think right now it's been really good in that the consensus in the room, it comes easy. That's been a really good thing.
Tarean Folston
I think he's had a good spring. I think it's like anything else. He needs to continue to work on consistency every single day. I thought he's worked hard on his blocking. I thought he's worked hard on his pass protection, catching the football. I think he's accomplished that. There's a couple things we want him to work on in terms of practice and getting after it with a little more tenacity, but overall it's been a good spring for him.
Want to see separation there?
No, I want guys competing and if you watched C.J. Prosise, if I were those two guys [Folston and Bryant], I'd feel like they better be careful because he's got elite speed in the second level. We had Max Redfield chasing him and he couldn't catch him today. I think C.J. puts some pressure on both of those guys and I want to create some more competition. We have some freshmen coming in in the fall. It's trying to create competitio nand I think that brings out the best in all those guys.
Max Redfield
I think the first thing is he's much more vocal back there. Last year you couldn't even hear him. They were having a hard time communicating. There's great communication, there's confidence and they know they can make plays. They know they're capable of playing at a high level. So a lot of that is confidence. You make plays when you have confidence and you go from there. I think they're feeling very confident about their ability to go back there and be playmakers and communicate effectively. They have a better grasp of the defense, there's no question about that. I think it's all coming together for them.
Playing outside
Being inside creates a false sense of security. When you get outside, the elements, you've got to be clear in your communication, spatial awareness, moving the ball. It changes everything. When you know the ball's coming back to the 30-yard line every time, you have a different sense on defense. You've got to tackle where the ball is going 40, 50, 60, 70 yards, it's a different feeling out there. Big difference when you get outside, absolutely.
Pass rush
There's not going to be one guy that we look at and say, 'He's going to have 15 sacks and lead the country.' We're going to have a number of guys we feel bring pressure and pressure the quarterback. Obviously the health of Sheldon Day inside, he brings some pressure on the outside. We feel we have some guys that can come off the edge individually. As you see, most of our guys, it's a combination of linebackers, nickels, drops, inside games with pressure. It's not going to be one guy, it's going to be five, six different players. There will be some overload situations where you can't protect and somebody's going to come free in those. If you remember a couple times early in the year where we ran some overload pressures and they couldn't block Elijah Shumate on a couple occasions. It will be an assortment of those kinds of things. I don't think we're looking or one guy that's an elite pass rusher that's going to be the guy. I don't think anybody's going to look at it that way, but we think guys have improved immensely in their individual technique. I think Isaac Rochell is a better pass rusher. I think you're going to see as we move forward that Trumbetti and Okwara are better on the edge than they were before. I think they'll all be improved from last year.
Nyles Morgan
I think he's a lot more confident in his ability. Certainly knows where to be. I think Jaylon is doing a lot of the communication out there at the linebacker position, which is great for us. I think he's been a bit overshadowed by the leadership and presence of Jarrett Grace and obviously Jaylon and then Joe Schmidt's going to be back on Monday during seven-on-sevens. We've got a lot of guys out there that are kind of overshadowing him a little bit, which is fine, but he's definitely put himself in a position now where he feels comfortable communicating.
What's Joe Schmidt able to do?
He's going to be in non-contact situations, so he's cleared to be involved in all movement drills, seven-on-seven, non-contact drills, moving pretty good. He'll get his opportunity Monday and Wednesday to be involved in all of those drills with non-contact.
He got cleared officially today.
Development of special teams
It's been a focus on working individual groups and competitively trying to get the best guys in a competitive situation. We're doing a lot of things with competitive drill work, where we're tracking and rewarding these guys in those groups, those running teams. We've made a point of it in the spring that as we do our drillwork, we have a competition going on all spring. We want to make it a competitive situation while we're really drilling fundamentals. Fundamentals in everything we do in those units is really the focal point for us. You know where we are. We've got a kicker coming in that we're handing in the field goal and extra point duties, our punter looks great, he's crushing the ball. He's kicking it into the wind today and I think we've got an outstanding punter and we're working Fuller and Bryant as our return guys right now. We haven't spent much time on kickoff returns just because of the situation of being indoors most of the time. We feel like we've addressed a lot of the situations, we've gotten a lot of work with our holder DeShone Kizer and Scott Daly and that timing element. I think the fundamentals of special teams, the technique, the things that sometimes when you put it all in in the preseason and want to go and rep, rep, rep, we've spent a lot of time on technique with those units.
Coach Lyght, I don't think I saw him today
His mom passed away back in February and today was the memorial service. The family was not able to get together when she passed, so he's at the memorial service in Atlanta.
Full roster- how much has it helped
It allows you to do so much more relative to the day-to-day practice schedule inside drill, nine-on-seven, scrimmaging, just the tempo of practice. We've banged a lot. This is the most we've hit, the most 11-on-11, ones vs. ones that we've done in the five years that I've been here. It just allows you to get the quality work and preparation work necessary to develop your football team to the level you want. You know exactly what you have and you know where your weaknesses are and you know what the strengths are of your football team. For me, it's really not about feeling good as much as you really know what you've got and where you need to get better and where you need to focus your attention when you hit camp, where your question marks are and where you need to work on in day one.
How has the team interacted with the 2 different QB styles
They know they're two different kids, but they're so focused on their assignments and taking care of their business that they're just looking for somebody that is committed and somebody that is going to help them be successful. That's all they want from the quarterbacks. The quarterback here at Notre Dame is somebody that has to be 100 percent committed to winning and both of those kids are and as long as they are, they're going to embrace whoever's out on the football field. If they're not committed, if they're not bought in or willing to do the things necessary to be successful, it doesn't matter what their skill level is, they'll respond differently to the quarterback.
Speculation in January that Everett might explore his options elsewhere. How confident are you that when June starts that he's going to be with you?
I couldn't tell you for certain, but he's had his best spring since he's been here, he's fully engaged in everything that he's doing. It's the best that I've seen him do the things we've asked him to do since he's been here. It's like anything else. If you're half in, you kind of see it. It would surprise me - I'm not surprised by anything that 18 and 21 year olds do, I've been in this business too long - but there's no indication that there's anything that he's done that would mean he's just doing this as a way to go somewhere else. If I sensed it at all, I would've pulled the plug on it myself because we're wasting our time. I think I've got a pretty good sense of people and situations. I'm not going to jeopardize our program, our staff, our livelihood, what we do if somebody's not bought in and 100 percent committed. That's the most honest answer I can give you from that standpoint.
He doesn't want to talk about it. I know he doesn't want to do media and stuff like that because he's focused on his academics and graduating and I'm okay with that. I'm fine with that. He's had his share of living in the bright lights. In the fall, he's going to have to do what everybody else does in the fall. When it's media time, he's going to have to sit in front of you guys and answer questions, but we'll give him his space. I expect him to be here and help us win games in the fall.
How much better of a RB is Folston than when he was a freshman
He's so much physically ahead of where he was as a freshman. He's a physically strong player. He's smart, he's a better pass blocker. He catches the football. I just wish once in a while, sometimes we've got to challenge him a little bit, but that's our job, not his job. Sometimes we've got to challenge him a little bit. When you've only got 2 1/2 running backs. We've got two and Josh Anderson does a great job, I don't want to sell him short but he's a walk-on. C.J.'s playing slot and running back. Those guys are dead tired. We're running 88s and inside drill, I'd like to see more energy, but we're doing so much with energy with him. That's why I can't wait for the fall when there's two more freshman running backs and Prosise and some competition in there and I think it will get even better. I like everything that he's doing. He's done everything we've asked him to do. I'd just love to have two or three more backs there competing so we'd have a little more competition.
Unique back with Theo Riddick. Can you get 10 or so plays out of Prosise like that?
We think so. He looked pretty good to me. Here's what I like about him: Early on, he had a sense of pressing the whole inside-out instead of immediately wanting to jump outside which, to me, for a running back, is pretty good. A wide receiver, if he's truly a guy that doesn't want to push it inside, he's going to bounce it outside every single time. He doesn't do that. He presses it inside out. That's hard to do for a kid that hasn't played running back. He's going to hit it north and south and that's a great thing to have without playing the position. We think he can continue to progress as a running back. I think we can do that with him. One of the great assets that Theo had was when it was tough running time, he stuck his nose in there. He was a tough, physical runner. For as much as he's made in his career catching out of the backfield, he won games for us because he was one of our toughest runners. I think C.J. can do that too. He's almost 220 pounds. When you put him up against those two other guys, he looks like he towers over them. I think there's something there where he could give us some of those tough carries but still be that kind of guy that can catch the football.
Nicky Baratti
Really good. He's doing really good. He's gone through some tackling drills too. Not player to player, but you've seen some of those black tackling dummies, he's been through those and he's doing pretty good. We get him through the spring and let's play him in the fall.
