Until a football team gets into full pads, any coaching staff will be wary of making too many presumptions about their team.
Nevertheless, of particular interest in Notre Dame’s opening practice Monday afternoon at the Culver Academies was the personnel in the secondary and along the offensive line.
At the end of this spring, the standout and mainstay as a starter in the secondary was senior cornerback Nick Watkins, who missed last season with a fractured arm and has only one career start. The rest of the potential starting unit included sophomore cornerback Julian Love (eight starts in 2016), and junior Nick Coleman (two starts at corner before falling to third team) and sophomore Jalen Elliott (zero starts) at the safety positions, with sophomore Devin Studstill (nine starts) also in the mix.
In the opening practice, though, Coleman was sidelined from team drills while nursing an ankle injury. At the end of practice, Elliott also had to be assisted off the field because of cramps.
“Nick Coleman is obviously going to be a guy we count on,” Kelly said. “It’s still very competitive for the other position.”
At cornerback, Watkins continued to display the skills that earned him a starting role this spring, but at the opposite corner sophomore Donte Vaughn, who had four starts last season and tied the graduated Cole Luke for most passes defensed (6), grabbed the attention of head coach Brian Kelly.
In a 7-on-7 drill, Vaughn had perhaps the best back-to-back plays of the day, first timing a break on the ball perfectly while intercepting an Ian Book pass to freshman tight end Brock Wright, and then following by knocking away a pass intended for CJ Sanders on a dig, going over his back without interfering.
“Physically, he’s a different looking guy,” said Kelly of the 6-2 ¾, 206-pound Vaughn. “He was long and lanky last year. He now gets his hands on you. It’s hard to do the football you want to do today [without pads], but physically … imposing changes in the body kind of stood out to me. Vaughn is one of the guys that has changed immensely from last year where he was kind of a long, lanky kid, to now where he is an impressive looking kid out there.”
Also seriously knocking on the door for corner playing time will be junior Shaun Crawford, who was sidelined in 2015 because of preseason ACL tear and was shelved the final 11 games of 2016 because of a torn Achilles. He displayed no ill effects of those setbacks while moving around effectively in practice. Another corner, sophomore speedster Troy Pride Jr. (three starts), limped off the field on his power halfway through practice.
Thus, with some of the setbacks and inexperience at safety and the progress at corner, Kelly is leaving the door open to maybe audition Love at safety in an effort to get his best overall personnel on the field at the same time on the back end.
Love displayed an advanced football IQ last season while playing corner, nickel and even safety versus the triple-option.
“Yeah, we can afford to do that,” replied Kelly when asked if Love might be a future safety option. “Vaughn has to continue to come on, because you have Vaughn, Watkins and Crawford (at corner). If some form of scenario comes up with Vaughn and Watkins, we have two 6-1 corners — maybe Crawford can play nickel, maybe Julian Love can play some safety.
“If you want to look at who’s the important guy in this mix, it’s probably Vaughn to continue to press, to continue to move forward. He’s done that physically. Now, can he do that over the long haul and he can continue to do the things that we want him to do?”
Offensive Line Movement
Unlike the secondary, the offensive line is deemed potentially the strongest unit on the team because of its combination of star power — led by 2016 AP third-team All-Americans Mike McGlinchey and Quenton Nelson on the left side — and experience (76 career starts among four returning members).
However, Kelly and offensive line coach Harry Hiestand haven’t committed to naming a No. 1 right tackle yet. Sophomore Tommy Kraemer took the reps with the first unit as he did ostensibly most of this spring, but classmate Liam Eichenberg and freshman Robert Hainsey, an early entrant this spring, are not being counted out by the staff.
“Those three guys are going to be working, and it’s going to take some time," Kelly said. "We’re not going to get into physical kind of displays at that position until sometime next week. We won’t have a definitive answer on that position until sometime next week.”
Center is solidified with the return of senior Sam Mustipher, who started all 12 games last season. Backing him up is junior Trevor Ruhland, who had a good spring at guard but was shifted to center after the post-spring transfers of former centers Tristen Hoge (BYU) and Parker Boudreaux (Central Florida).
“Trevor will be the backup center,” Kelly affirmed. “We feel really confident he’s really got some really good instincts at the position. He snapped the ball pretty good — not great, but pretty good to start."
The next contingency option would be senior right guard Alex Bars, who started all 12 contests at right tackle last year but shifted inside this spring so the esteemed tandem of Kraemer and Eichenberg can vie to get on the field.
“We had [Bars] working all summer snapping the ball” Kelly said. “He did a pretty effective job.”
The fourth option would be preferred walk-on freshman Colin Grunhard, whose father Tim started at guard for the juggernaut 1988-89 units that won a national title and a school record 23 straight games before he started at center for nearly a decade with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.
In opening drills with only two units, the second offensive line was comprised of left tackle Hainsey, graduate student Hunter Bivin at left guard, center Ruhland, and then freshman Aaron Banks at right guard and Eichenberg at right tackle.
When Nelson was pulled from practice because of a tightening back/hamstring issue, per Kelly, senior Jimmy Byrne also was rotated in at guard.
Practice Notes
• Beyond junior Equanimeous St. Brown, the playing time at receiver is wide open. The first three to come out in opening drills were St. Brown, sophomore Chase Claypool and Arizona State graduate transfer Cameron Smith, whose speed and knowledge of new coordinator Chip Long’s scheme (Smith played for Long at ASU) has been a significant benefit.
“Cam is smart, knows the offense very well,” Kelly said.
The second wideout group to come out was comprised of juniors Miles Boykin and Chris Finke — with Michigan graduate transfer Freddy Canteen (who as an early graduate has two years of college eligibility left) the third figure.
“Freddy has got some skills that are going to have to be refined, but is certainly going to be a player for us,” Kelly said.
Later in team situations in practice, the Irish employed more '12' groupings (two tight ends, one running back) with graduate student Durham Smythe and junior Alize Mack as the tight ends and St. Brown and Smith the wideouts.
• The third transfer to Notre Dame this summer, sophomore safety Alohi Gilman from Navy, might not be eligible to play this season per NCAA rules but held his own in team drills.
“They are all Power 5 [conference] players, guys that look the part,” said Kelly of the three transfers. “Alohi is very smooth back there, has got good instincts on the football. All three are kind of what we thought they would be.”
• The three players in order who were fielding punts before practice and during special teams drills were Sanders, Finke and freshman receiver Michael Young. There were no muffed punts that we saw.
Fielding kickoffs and placekicks were not part of the practice.
• During special teams drills, a plethora of gunners or wings were getting evaluated. Among them were aforementioned corners Pride, Crawford, Love and sophomore walk-on Temitope Agoro, plus safeties Coleman and junior Nicco Fertitta. However, there also were a number of players on offense who auditioned, including Canteen, junior running back Dexter Williams, sophomores Claypool and running back Deon McIntosh, plus senior walk-on receiver Austin Webster, also a team captain.
• Kelly was pleased with starting junior quarterback Brandon Wimbush's first day from both a mental and physical standpoint.
“I thought there was some improvement in some of the zone reads… looked a lot more comfortable with it today," Kelly said. "His demeanor, his confidence level, there was clearly a presence there today.”
• This is the fourth consecutive year Notre Dame has traveled to Culver Academies for the first week of practice. The Irish will return to campus after next Tuesday's (Aug. 8) session.
“There are distractions at times back at Notre Dame,” Kelly said. “They’ve been there all year. This kind of acts as a break for them... just a different setting. From a mental standpoint, it really gets them locked in on just football that one week.
“Where they’re on campus they’re thinking about academics, they’re thinking about all those things. This acts as ‘I’m away, it’s football, I can really focus in on that.’ It’s just that break away from being campus.”
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