BlueandGold.com recruiting insider Mike Singer took in the first two practices for the Under Armour All-America Game Dec. 29 and Dec. 30. Below are the notes, quotes and observations from the first two days.
Irish quarterback signee Steve Angeli has looked impressive through two practices. (Rivals.com)
Advertisement
*** Notre Dame has three signees in the prestigious all-star game in Orlando: quarterback Steve Angeli, offensive lineman Ty Chan and linebacker Jaylen Sneed. All in all, they performed at levels that I expected. I’ve seen Angeli and Sneed about a half-dozen times at this point, and I’ve watched Chan twice now.
In my opinion, all three will be solid contributors for the Fighting Irish in the coming years.
*** Angeli continues to impress me. I’ve always liked his short-to-intermediate passing game, but after these two practices I learned more about him throwing downfield in the 35- to 45-yard range. He throws a very pretty football with excellent accuracy. I don’t think he has elite pure arm strength, but he makes up for that with superb ball placement and anticipation.
Look at the clip below — he is throwing that ball to a receiver he’s never thrown to before and has the ball coming out before the receiver has made his break. Again, Angeli’s accuracy is very impressive.
*** Angeli on the level of competition at the UA All-America roster: “The speed and the talent I’m throwing to is definitely a lot of fun. I’m able to put the ball in a spot and see the guys go after it and make plays. I felt like I threw pretty good these first two days — learning the receivers and the system.
“These are the greatest players in the country. Being able to compete against them and meet new people have been great. This is a glimpse of what college will be like.”
*** Angeli on rooming with future teammate Jaylen Sneed at UA All-America: “It’s awesome. Having him as my roommate is great. He’s an awesome dude and funny guy, but when he comes on the field, he’s a different animal.
“He flies and around and makes plays. They call him ‘Nuke’ and I asked him why, and he said, ‘Because I blow stuff up.’ That’s fine by me.”
*** There are a lot of rules in this all-star game (and practices) that are geared to player safety and limiting injuries. Defensive coverages are extremely vanilla and most of the passing concepts are thrown to the outsides to avoid collisions over the middle.
With this in mind, there’s not a lot of opportunities for Sneed to make plays at outside linebacker. However, Sneed is running around and making stops on outside run plays and looking like his usual freakish self. His burst is incredible.
*** Moving to Chan, it’s been an up-and-down couple days for him. Physically, he looks outstanding and is every bit of 6-5 and north of 300 pounds. He moves well for a big man; I love his athleticism. He’s playing left guard for his squad, a position he hasn’t played before, so he’s adjusting on the fly blocking bigger defensive tackles.
Five-star Texas A&M Walter Nolen gave Chan a tough time in a one-on-one rep in Thursday’s practice. This is a completely different level of competition than Chan is used to in Massachusetts. I believe Chan will be a multi-year starter at Notre Dame, but he has some developing to do.
