Notebook: Freeman will take a patient approach to latest WR attrition at ND

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman opted for patience over a quickly concocted Plan B Saturday, when the Notre Dame head football coach confirmed that wide receiver Joe Wilkins’ April Fools’ Day bombshell didn’t come with a “gotcha” punchline.

The practice injury that Freeman initially minimized after a media-open practice March 26 turned out to be wishful thinking. It turns out the grad senior wide receiver had suffered a Lisfranc fracture, then underwent surgery Friday.

He then posted a picture of his left foot in a hard cast on social media with an optimistic postscript of returning to run routes with the Irish in August, a timetable Freeman later endorsed.

Wilkins’ 2021 season was truncated by a torn MCL in his knee suffered Oct. 2 against Cincinnati. That after what then-head coach Brian Kelly characterized as a transformational offseason for the 6-foot-2, 195-pounder.

“It’s tough,” Freeman said. “You hear about the injuries he’s had, but what a tough kid. I met with him yesterday. He’s gotten through a lot in his life. He can overcome adversity. He’s in a good mindset.”

Freeman’s own mindset is to wait until after spring to take inventory of what he has in the wide receiver room instead of moving a player from another position to pad the numbers. The transfer portal remains a longer-term option, but perhaps now with more urgency and maybe also redefining what’s at the top of the shopping list.

There figures to be a new and sizable wave of inventory this month as spring practices across the country conclude and with the NCAA deadline to be in the portal for 2022 eligibility coming up on May 1.

Notre Dame has one public offer out, to prolific NCAA Division III receiver Harrison Wellmann of Johns Hopkins, a high school teammate in College Station, Texas, of Irish safety Brandon Joseph. The offer is to come as a walk-on with a chance to play himself into scholarship status.

“I think he’d be a great addition to this team,” Joseph said Thursday. “I was just on the phone with him the other day. I’m trying to get him up on a visit here, hopefully, for the spring game or something.

“I just want him to see — his biggest thing is he’s kind of worried about playing time here. You come here and prove yourself, you can do anything. And he is a dog. He played with me in high school, my junior year; he was a senior.

“We won state In Texas, and he’s just been playing way above his level the whole time. He's been at Johns Hopkins the whole time, making that thing look so easy.

“I’m working on him. I’m recruiting him the best I can, but it’s his last year. He doesn’t want to go somewhere where he doesn’t see the field.”

ND’s best-case scenario with no new injuries and without adding from the outside is eight healthy receivers in August — one coming off a torn ACL (grad senior Avery Davis), one coming off a Lisfranc fracture (Wilkins) and one with a long injury history but eight impressive spring practices so far (grad senior Braden Lenzy).

Add to that former walk-on Matt Salerno, sophomores Lorenzo Styles and Deion Colzie and June-arriving freshman Tobias Merriweather. The Irish also have four adept pass-catching running backs, two of whom could easily project as slot receivers when needed (Chris Tyrie and Jadarian Price).

“We’ll look after spring at our roster and see if we need to go into the portal and look for somebody,” Freeman said. “We’re always looking to enhance our roster. So if we don’t feel like we’re efficient at the wideout position in terms of depth, we’ll have to find ways to bring in guys that can help us.”

Grad senior safety Houston Griffith was held out of Saturday’s practice with a groin injury.

“We expect him back next week, probably later next week,” Freeman said. “They wanted to give him 10 days.”

• Freshman Joey Tanona was finally at a practice on Saturday, but as an observer only. The early enrolled freshman offensive lineman suffered a concussion last month and wasn’t even attending practices for a while.

“It was a pretty bad concussion,” Freeman said. “He was out of class for a couple of days. He's a young kid. He's supposed to be in high school. Let’s be cautious in terms of bringing him back. So he hasn’t done anything physical yet.”

Eight practices into the 15 allotted this spring, Freeman wasn’t ready to get too nuanced in sizing up the quarterback competition between sophomore Tyler Buchner and junior Drew Pyne. Instead he deferred to after practice No. 11 next Saturday, featuring an extensive scrimmage in Notre Dame Stadium.

“They've been progressing,” Freeman said, adding that the emphasis has been in decision-making, execution and staying away from turnovers. “I haven’t had much time to spend with (offensive coordinator) Tommy (Rees) and say, ‘Let’s really look at the first eight practices now. Who’s where and what?’

“But I’ve been really pleased with all of them. Obviously, the two guys who have both played, they’ve done a good job. They really have. We'll look at it today. It'll be interesting to see how Tommy graded it today.”

Of the four vaunted freshman linebackers, all of whom enrolled early, Junior Tuihalamaka, Freeman said, has had the smoothest transition to college football so far.

He’s also the only one — the head coach pointed out — who played primarily linebacker in high school, with Joshua Burnham doubling as his team’s starting quarterback, Nolan Ziegler playing wide receiver and safety, and Jaylen Sneed also playing some quarterback and moving all over the defensive formation.

“So they have to learn how to be linebackers, whereas Junior played linebacker,” Freeman said. “The other three guys are all really athletically gifted. I think they’re just continuing to learn.”

• Freshman cornerback Jaden Mickey continues to impress. Just ask him.

“He’s not quiet at all,” Freeman said. “He's got a loud confidence about him. I sent his dad a text, ‘You did a good job with this one.' His dad is a DB trainer and he’s really good. (Mickey) is going to, I believe, do some really good things for us this year. He’s really talented, but confident.

“I've been around a lot of early enrollees. And the ones that usually make the fastest transition are the ones that are not overwhelmed by the college game. They don’t come in saying, ‘Oh my God, these guys are bigger, faster and stronger.’

"They have a confidence about them. You can see the way he plays. He’s been making a lot of plays. It’s been good to see.”

The rover/sniper position that former Irish defensive coordinators Mike Elko and Clark Lea used so successfully in their schemes at ND continues to evolve toward a bigger player with a different skill set under new defensive coordinator Al Golden.

And that’s good news for junior Jordan Botelho, a former vyper end who was moved to rover late last season out of necessity and remained there this spring.

“We’re doing some different things with our rover in terms of: Is he in space? Is he on the ball? Is he doing some different things?,” Freeman said. “And so our rover and our vyper aren’t too different in what we’re having them do.”

The key to Botelho moving up the depth chart instead of just around it is channeling his aggression and playing with poise.

Two of the many visitors who took in Saturday’s practice were former Notre Dame defensive coordinator/defensive line coach Greg Mattison and former Irish All-American offensive guard Quenton Nelson.

The 72-year-old Mattison retired from coaching after the 2020 season and now lives in South Bend. He most recently served as Ohio State’s co-defensive coordinator in 2019-20.

“I’m trying to talk him out of retirement,” Freeman said. “I haven’t been able to convince him. He’s somebody I’ve known and respected for a long time. So I said, ‘Hey Matt’, any time you can come over here and be an eye for me, that’d be great.’

“He doesn’t want to do that. He just wants to enjoy practice.”

Nelson, a perennial Pro Bowler with the Indianapolis Colts, played a more active role Saturday as the latest extra set of eyes for Irish offensive line coach Harry Hiestand and grad assistant Chris Watt.

“The former players that he’s coached love him,” Freeman said of Hiestand, back at ND for a second tour of duty. “That’s why Quenton Nelson is at practice. That’s why Sam Mustipher, Zack Martin are at practice. That's why Olin Kreutz is at practice, because he coaches really hard, but his players love him and respect him.

“And so that’s why they come back. Same thing with these guys (current players). Yeah, he coaches hard, but they respect him and love him.

“And so I’ve got the utmost respect for a guy like that. (He) coaches guys hard, but they accept it, because they trust him. That’s a great thing to see nowadays.”

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