The NFL could learn a little bit from Notre Dame regarding its draft process when it comes to speed.
The Irish, in turn, could take a page from the NFL when it comes to clarity.
Notre Dame compressed its player draft for the Blue-Gold Game AND a couple of videos, enumerating the injured players, entertaining and explaining three rejected trades, providing explanations of the rules of the draft and the rules of Saturday’s Blue-Gold Game all in roughly 26 minutes on Thursday morning.
Kickoff on Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium is 2 p.m. Peacock will stream the game live, with a replay available after the game at Fighting Irish TV. Radio info is as follows: SiriusXM Channel 380, SXM Internet Channel 970, locally at Sports Radio 960, and a live stream at wsbtradio.com and the free WSBT Radio app.
The Peacock broadcast team will include a couple of former Notre Dame standouts — former tight end Kyle Rudolph serving as an analyst and former safety Kyle Hamilton as one of the sideline reporters. Tony Simeone will handle play-by-play duties, while Caroline Pineda will team up with Hamilton on the sideline coverage.
The complete Blue-Gold rosters became available about four hours after the draft ended Thursday, which should clear up virtually all of the confusion. They are posted at the end of this story. Most veteran players, including quarterbacks Sam Hartman and Tyler Buchner, were already preselected to one team or another.
During the actual draft Thursday, held at the Isban Auditorium at the Guglielmino Athletics Complex at Notre Dame, teams would open up a position group and then draft that entire position. Then they’d move on to another. Running backs were the first position group open, with sophomore Gi’Bran Payne technically the first pick of the draft and going to the Gold team, ahead of 2022 leading rusher Audric Estimé.
The last position group opened and drafted was the specialists group. Teams had 24 seconds to make each pick.
Doing the drafting were defensive line coach Al Washington and a group of preselected Gold team players, and running backs coach Deland McCullough and a group of preselected Blue team players. Washington is the head coach of the Gold, and McCullough head coach of the Blue.
As far as the game itself, it will use a standard scoring system. Some key rules and adaptations:
• There will be 15-minute quarters, with a running clock at coach's discretion. Peacock has a hard out at 4 p.m., so it’ll be up to their discretion as well.
• The defense is allowed up to one pressure per four downs in quarters 1-3. Anything goes in the fourth quarter.
• There are no kickoffs. The ball will be placed on the 35-yard line to start a possession.
• Punts and punt returns will be live.
Here is the list of players not participating due to injury:
WR Jack Polian
RB Logan Diggs
RB Chase Ketterer
RB Jadarian Price
RB Skip Velotta
TE Kevin Bauman
TE Mitchell Evans
TE Justin Fisher
TE Barret Liebentritt
TE Eli Raridon
TE Charlie Selna
OT Ty Chan
NG Devan Houstan
LB Jack Kiser
LB Prince Kollie
CB Christian Gray
CB Cam Hart
S Thomas Harper
S Ben Minich
S Adon Shuler
S Eddie Scheidler
Here is how the draft broke down, position by position:
Running backs: 1. Gi’Bran Payne (G), 2. Audric Estimé (B).
Wide receivers: 1. Tobias Merriweather (B), 2. Jayden Thomas (G), 3. Deion Colzie (B), 4. Jaden Greathouse (G), 5. Rico Flores Jr. (B), 6. Leo Scheidler (G), 7. Braylon James (B), 8. Alex Whitman (G).
Safeties: 1. Xavier Watts (G), 2. Marty Auer (B).
Cornerbacks: 1. Ben Morrison (B), 2. Jaden Mickey (G), 3. Ryan Barnes (B), 4. Chance Tucker (G), 5. Isaiah Dunn (B).
Offensive tackles: 1. Joe Alt (G), 2. Blake Fisher (B), 3. Aamil Wagner (G), 4. Tosh Baker (B), 5. Michael Carmody (G).
Interior offensive linemen: 1. Ashton Craig/C (B), 2. Billy Schrauth/OG (G), 3. Pat Coogan C/OG (B), 4. Rocco Spindler/G (G), 5. Sam Pendleton/G (B).
Tight ends: 1. Holden Staes (B), 2. Davis Sherwood (G), 3. Andrew Yanoshak (B). (Yanoshak likely will play for both teams because there are so many injuries in the position group. Some O-Linemen also may play for both teams.)
Two-way athletes: 1. Lorenzo Styles (G).
Linebackers: 1. Nolan Ziegler (B), 2. Jaylen Sneed (G), 3. Drayk Bowen (B), 4. Jaiden Ausberry (G), 5. Preston Zinter (B), 6. Tre Reader (G), 7. Jerry Rullo (B).
Quarterbacks: 1. Steve Angeli (G), 2. Kenny Minchey (B), 3. Dylan Devezin (G). (Devezin may play for both teams.)
Nose guards: 1. Jason Onye (B), 2. Aidan Keanaaina (G).
Vyper ends: 1. Joshua Burnham (G), 2. Junior Tuihalamaka (B), 3. Aiden Gobaira (G).
Defensive tackles: 1. Gabe Rubio (B), 2. Donovan Hinish (G).
Field ends: 1. Alexander Ehrensberger (G), 2. Kobi Onyiuke (B), 3. Tyson Ford (G).
Specialists: 1. Zac Yoakam (G), 2. Bryce McFerson (B), 3. Chris Salerno (G), 4. Rino Monteforte (B).
Here are the rejected trades:
Punter Bryce McFerson offered by Blue for running back Gi'Bran Payne.
Linebackers Jaiden Ausberry and Tre Reader offered by Gold for linebacker Drayk Bowen.
Wide receiver Leo Scheidler offered by Gold for cornerback Isaiah Dunn.
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