CULVER, Ind. – We have already given our hot takes for the Notre Dame defense, which had a strong day to kick off the 2019 season. Now we move onto the offense, which had an up-and-down day.
PRACTICE STANDOUTS
MICHAEL YOUNG/BRADEN LENZY/LAWRENCE KEYS/CHRIS FINKE, WR – All three of the wide receivers mentioned had quality days for the Irish offense. Young was crisp as a route runner, got good releases during 1on1s and made a number of grabs. He’s the only receiver I saw that was able to beat corner Donte Vaughn. Young also beat TaRiq Bracy on a deep in route during 1on1s and was open on multiple occasions.
Finke wasn’t thrown to very often, but he was open a lot, the same with Keys. Finke took the first rep of 1on1s and beat Jalen Elliott on a corner route. He beat Elliott on a stop-and-go route later but the ball from QB Ian Book was overthrown.
Keys beat freshman safety Kyle Hamilton on an out cut on his first rep and he was active in the screen game. His route running was sharp, even though he wasn’t targeted very often during practice.
Lenzy showed off his speed on multiple occasions today. He hooked up with QB Phil Jurkovec for a 50+ yard touchdown on a post route, badly beating fifth-year senior Shaun Crawford on the play. Later he caught a quick in route against junior Avery Davis and then out-raced Davis across the field and then up the sideline for about a 50-60 yard touchdown.
