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Green Notre Dame Receiving Corps Trying To Reach Higher Levels

CJ Sanders, shown here with tight ends/special teams coach Scott Booker, is emerging for the young receiving corps. (Bill Panzica)

This is all that needs to be known about how inexperienced Notre Dame’s 2016 wide receiver corps is: The man with the most career starts there (four) there and second-most receptions (two) is senior James Onwualu — who has played Sam linebacker the past two seasons.

The starting trio from 2015 — All-American Will Fuller, Chris Brown and Amir Carlisle — are gone. Senior Corey Robinson ended his football playing days after incurring multiple concussions the past few years, but he is working as a student assistant/mentor with the current corps.

Robinson’s 65 career catches for 896 yards and seven touchdowns easily would have been the most among this year’s unit, but that distinction now belongs to classmate Torii Hunter Jr., with 35 catches, 428 yards and three scores through his first three seasons. No other wideout has more than one career catch.

Receivers coach/associate head coach Mike Denbrock, who has been with head coach Brian Kelly all seven years at Notre Dame, has established a quality track record in player development and will especially call upon it this year. The last time Notre Dame had fewer returning starts — zero — at the wide receiver spots was 1988 after Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown, Reggie Ward and Ray Dumas all graduated, while Pat Terrell was shifted to free safety. That turned out fine when the Irish went on to capture their most recent national title.

As it stood at the end of August camp this Friday, here were the lineups:

• On the outside (X) where Fuller starred last year, Hunter is the linchpin, although junior speedster Corey Holmes might factor in more now because of freshman Kevin Stepherson’s arrest on Friday night with other players during a traffic stop by police. Another freshman, Javon McKinley, began factoring in more as camp progressed.

• At the boundary (W), or shorter side of the field, height is the order of the day with two sophomores — 6-4 Equanimeous St. Brown and 6-3 5/8 Miles Boykin, plus physical 6-4, 220-pound freshman Chase Claypool.

Finally, in the slot (Z), where elusiveness and YAC (yards after catch) are at a premium, 5-8 sophomore CJ Sanders has gained separation (literally and on the field too), although Holmes and Stepherson also could help here, while shifty 5-9 ¼ sophomore walk-on Chris Finke is vying for snaps as well.

The wild card is that Hunter could line up at any of the three spots, depending on where he would be most needed. He mainly alternated with Carlisle at slot last year.

“It solely depends on how other receivers step up,” said Denbrock on where Hunter will most likely be aligned. “The more that those other guys who have less experience than Torri step into those roles, be prominent and be counted on, maybe the less likely that has to be an option. Until those guys produce at a championship level, we’re going to have to keep that as an option.”

Hunter right now is the lone 2016 figure who can be described to be at a championship level, while everyone else falls between the “winning” and “developmental” categories.


When asked who is the next closest to Hunter of at least playing at a winning level, Denbrock said it was Sanders, who has recovered well from a hip flexor this spring that required surgery. Sanders starred on special teams last season, becoming the first Irish player to score touchdowns on a kick return (Stanford) and punt return (UMass) in the same year since Vontez Duff in 2002. He has displayed fine hands, separation skills and elusiveness this August, and also will be used on jet sweeps or as a decoy in motion to aid the running game.

“He’s had a very consistent camp,” said Denbrock of Sanders. “He’s one guy that I have really been pleased with in his development as a wide receiver. I think he can do some pretty amazing things at the slot position.”

St. Brown also is right on the cusp of playing at least “winning” football, with perhaps his best practice of the year coming this Wednesday when the practice was open to the media.

“If Equanimeous continues to grow and progress, I can see him being a guy we can lean on very heavily,” Denbrock said. “We’re going to end up playing a number of different receivers in different situations to take advantage of what their talents are.”

This includes blocking — where the freshman Claypool has excelled. He could be the new version of Onwualu, who found his niche as a blocking receiver in 2013 while playing more than classmates Fuller and Robinson.

“From a blocking standpoint, he’s outstanding,” said Denbrock of Claypool. “He’s a very physical kid who loves that part of the game, a big-bodied kid who loves to throw his body around. The little things as far as route running and defining routes and how to make space for yourself when you’re getting a little pressure from a defensive back, those things will come in time.

“But there’s no reason he can’t get on the field and help us blocking, there’s no reason he can’t run vertical routes down the field. We’ll let him slowly learn the other intricate things as he contributes.”

Another big body, Boykin, gradually has been making strides.

“He’s figured out, ‘I can do this,’ ” Denbrock said. “He’s been taking footballs away from DBs, using his size, using his length — using his speed, quite frankly. He can get down the field a little bit. He’s learning how to use tools to his advantage.”

As for Onwualu, when asked who among the receivers could surprise, he gave his own surprise in Finke. The bottom line is Kelly for now views the current receiving crew, beyond Hunter, as “suspects,” especially because virtually all don’t know what it is to take 30, 40, 50 snaps in a game, or to play with an aching body as the season progresses.

“They all have to go out and prove themselves,” Kelly said. “Having said that, it does me no good to worry about it, but to coach it and develop it during practice and get them ready. They are all capable of doing it, but I'm concerned about all of them, because none of them have really had a full year of production yet.

“So it's just a matter of going out there every single day and building their confidence and building their mental toughness. The biggest thing with the young receivers is they are all sore right now. They are all tired. All their hamstrings hurt, and they are playing hurt for the first time. Every practice that they go out there, they are about 75 percent, and they want to be 100 percent.”

That aspect is unrealistic. Continued development is not.

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