Notre Dame Assessing Changes Along Offensive Line, Secondary
The first notable position changes along Notre Dame’s offensive line were made during the seventh practice this spring (Thursday, March 29).
Starting right tackle Tommy Kraemer, who formed a tag-team co-starting duo with Robert Hainsey at the spot last season, has been shifted to left guard. It was his first day at the position after not practicing on Tuesday while attending to departmental exams.
Kraemer’s move also resulted in a domino reaction along the line, with Hainsey returning to right tackle after working at left tackle the first six spring practices.
Those two shifts came about mainly because of the progress of junior Liam Eichenberg, who has been inserted as the top left tackle. Last spring at this time it was Eichenberg and Kraemer who were vying for the starting right tackle spot — but by the fall it was the freshman Hainsey who supplanted Eichenberg in that role.
This spring, Eichenberg’s development in his third season has ascended with much more assertiveness and production.
“The guy that’s had a good spring so far is Liam Eichenberg,” confirmed Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly, although he added the line overall remains in a state of flux. “We’re going to have a better sense of that by the end of the spring.”
The 6-6, 303-pound Eichenberg provides a little more range and size than the 6-4, 291-pound Hainsey while protecting the quarterback’s back side. In the Kelly era, Notre Dame has had Zack Martin (2010-13), Ronnie Stanley (2014-15) and Mike McGlinchey (2016-17) line up at left tackle — two first-round picks and a probable third.
Meanwhile, Hainsey had plenty of experience last year at right tackle while playing next to incumbent right guard and fifth-year senior Alex Bars, a third-year starter.
“We need to see a bigger body guy out at that left tackle position, too, and Liam gives us that size and strength that maybe Robert doesn’t have,” Kelly said. “Robert’s got outstanding technique. We want to be able to see them both.”
Kraemer had worked at guard as a redshirted freshman in 2016, so the move inside to fill the enormous shoes of 2017 unanimous All-American Quenton Nelson is hardly a surprise given that the objective is to work the five best offensive linemen on to the field at once. Senior Trevor Ruhland, who backs up fifth-year senior Sam Mustipher at center, worked as the No. 1 left guard most of this spring.
“We’ve got a good sense with Ruhland at guard, we know what he can do,” Kelly said. “He needed to get some work at center.”
Other than the broad jump for the pro combine, Mustipher has had an outstanding winter in the “measureables,” ranking in the top three in every category tested by the football performance staff.
The No. 2 offensive line featured sophomore left tackle Aaron Banks, senior left guard Logan Plantz, center Ruhland, and sophomores Dylan Gibbons and Josh Lugg at right guard and right tackle, respectively.
(Defensive) Backfield In Motion
Meanwhile, the defensive backfield also has seen some movement this week prior to going on Easter break.
For starters, freshman Houston Griffith began the spring at cornerback and also received some nickel work, but on Thursday he was aligned at safety with new position coach Terry Joseph.
“We like his contact skills, his tackling, his ability to play the ball in the air,” Kelly said of Griffith, the top-rated freshman in this Notre Dame class. “We think we’re in a plus situation at the cornerback position right now where we can afford to do that.”
Part of that “plus” is that senior Shaun Crawford, the starting nickel in 2017, is a serious candidate to vie for a starting role opposite junior Julian Love — as are fifth-year senior Nick Watkins and juniors Troy Pride Jr. and Donte Vaughn.
With Crawford’s expanded reps at cornerback this spring, 2017 starting safety Nick Coleman is receiving a harder long at nickel, while Griffith is now taking some of the reps at safety in place of Coleman.
“I wanted to take a look at him inside,” Kelly said of Coleman’s audition at nickel. “He’s a really good athlete, he’s got really good strength. … We’d like a little more size at [nickel], but what Shaun doesn’t bring in size he brings in stripping the ball before somebody crosses the goal line. He’s just got savvy.
“You don’t want to say, ‘Well, they’ve got to fit this profile,’ because [Crawford’s] got traits that are a little bit different. But to have somebody like a Nick Coleman, who’s got some strength and some size at that position, it just made sense to let them both compete in there for that position.”
Two years ago, Coleman struggled at corner before showing a greater comfort at nickel later that season. Last season Coleman was inserted as the starting safety with now junior Jalen Elliott. However, because the competition at safety has been significantly upgraded with the eligibility of Navy transfer Alohi Gilman, the continuing progress of sophomore Jordan Genmark Heath and the promising emergence of Griffith, the staff has the luxury to assess if Coleman’s best work can be at nickel.
“I can see the safety position is going to be more productive for us,” Kelly said. “Even the kids that played last year are playing better at the position. I really feel more confident in the ability to do the things that we want to do [at safety]. We’re doing some things a little different, too.”
The outstanding 2012 defense that led Notre Dame into the BCS National Championship Game versus Alabama had a mostly untested secondary that included true freshman KeiVarae Russell and converted wideout Bennett Jackson as the starting cornerbacks, plus redshirt freshman Matthias Farley, who played receiver the year prior, at safety. The mandate was to protect that secondary with limited coverages while the dominant front seven took career of business on its end.
This year, the Irish has another veteran front seven under first-year defensive coordinator Clark Lea (whether it can be as productive as the 2012 outfit remains to be seen), but also a much more seasoned secondary in which more can be done.
“In 2012 we were heavy re-routers on No. 2 receivers — we didn’t put safeties in bad positions,” Kelly explained. “We weren’t much of a re-route with Mike [Elko], and I’ve asked Clark to be a good re-router. We’re doing a much better job of taking some of the stress off those safeties.”
Some specific tactical work also has been implemented for Love, whose 20 passes broken up last season were second most in the country, and a Notre Dame single-season record. That is part of the reason why Kelly said Love is working even with the second unit this spring.
“We’re running boundary and field corners to build their skill set on both field and boundary,” Kelly said. “So to give Julian enough boundary work, we have to put him in some of the second unit work — because we’re doing some specific work with Julian.
“I don’t want to give away too many of the trade secrets, but he needs that work for some of the coverages that we want to run with him.”
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD, @BGI_DMcKinney and @BGI_CoreyBodden.
• Like us on Facebook