SOUTH BEND – The doors into Notre Dame’s offseason retooling operation would open just this once.
Between exiting the field after a College Football Playoff semifinal tap-out in January and starting fall camp in August, Saturday’s Blue-Gold Game offered the media and the public this sole chance to take a peek inside – a setup that more easily invites overreaction and rigid first impressions.
If head coach Brian Kelly wanted to limit the opportunities for those, he could’ve split up the teams for the spring scrimmage starters vs. reserves, let the first unit handle the second and leave little of consequence to be discussed.
Instead, though, they were carefully sorted with projected starters and backups on both. There were deliberate new groupings that hadn’t worked together much in the last month. There was limited involvement or a day of precautionary rest from some established starters. There was heavy usage of players who Kelly and his assistants have challenged to elevate their game and be reliable.
Perhaps, Kelly is OK with watchers who successfully navigated the depths of their smart TVs and found Peacock's game stream wanting more.
He wants more.
“The way I see it now is we’re a good team, and good teams aren’t good enough,” Kelly said. “We need to be a great team. Good teams don’t win a national championship. You need to be a great team. How do we get from good to great? That’s where we are in this process.”
These two hours on a windy Saturday weren’t a referendum on the Irish’s ability to get there. To conclude based on a spring exhibition this team’s ceiling is already set below Kelly’s standards would be a reach.
What’s clear, though, are the areas where Notre Dame has the most progress to make. Most of those reside on offense. This game and this spring were about identifying players who can help not only shore those up, but push this entire operation close to the sport’s seemingly always-ascending mountaintop.
It starts on the offensive line, where the quest to replace three draft picks and four starters will head into August, if not the season. The spring stages of it were done without lone holdover Jarrett Patterson, who didn’t practice due to injury.
Kelly split the offensive line up to mix in ones and twos for the Blue-Gold Game. Both team’s first lines contained probable backups next to potentials starters – and were comprised mostly of players who haven’t seen significant in-game action. Early enrollee freshmen and potential starters Blake Fisher and Rocco Spindler were on separate units. As expected for anyone in their spot, they had good moments and rookie moments.
“We’re focused squarely on getting the best five,” Kelly said. “The way to do that is put them in tough situations. Today was a tough situation. We could’ve made it a lot easier for Rocco, Blake or Dillan Gibbons snapping for the first time. But that wouldn’t have been the best thing for this football team moving forward.”
Elsewhere, a passing attack without its 2020 co-leading receiver (tight end Michael Mayer) and potential 2021 top wideout (Kevin Austin Jr.) funneled targets to players of out whom Kelly and the offensive staff have tried to wheedle another level. Senior receivers Joe Wilkins Jr., Braden Lenzy and Lawrence Keys III were targeted a combined 28 times – six fewer than their 2020 total.
They had highlights, like their final stat line: 12 catches, 238 yards and a 30-plus yard reception each. There were lowlights, like Wilkins’ drop on a hitch route and Keys’ incorrect read on an option route.
“That attention to detail is the next level with these guys we have to get,” Kelly said. “They want to do it. They’re capable of doing it. We’re going to stay the course and when they get there, they will ascend to the level we need them to play at.”
Quarterback? That’s not settled either. Kelly admitted Thursday he wasn’t likely to name a starter heading into summer workouts. Jack Coan acquitted himself better than challenger Drew Pyne, but ballyhooed freshman Tyler Buchner dazzled and Kelly didn’t close the door on him seeing the field this fall.
“We’re still trying to figure out our identity, honestly,” running back Chris Tyree said.
As a whole, Notre Dame is figuring itself out too. But its end goal is known.
Notre Dame will draw the curtains on the program again as it continues its pursuit. A week of voluntary lifting, a recess and a mid-June start of summer workout are next. They’ll emerge for media viewing – hopefully – in Culver, Ind. for training camp in August. If not, the first look for anyone won’t come until the Sept. 5 opener at Florida State.
There’s a lot to solve between now and then, or now and sometime this fall. Will the answers be enough to take Notre Dame where it wants to go?
“Nobody around here is interested in good,” Kelly said. “We want to be great. Getting that to go from good to great is the process we’re in. That’s what we’re seeking in this offseason.”
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