Spring football is here.
Notre Dame football will be making use of the Irish Athletics Center on Thursday morning the first of 15 spring practice sessions for the Irish. Notre Dame will go back on hiatus until after spring break, which begins Saturday, ends, but reporters will get their first look at head coach Marcus Freeman is building for the 2024 season.
Notre Dame will enter the first season with a 12-team College Football Playoff with high expectations. Anything short of a playoff appearance can fairly feel like a disappointment.
Before the Irish get to that point, there are plenty of questions left to be answered by this team. With a focus on those on campus this spring, here’s the biggest question facing each position group leading into the Blue-Gold Game on April 20.
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Quarterback: Can the Riley Leonard experience be better than the Sam Hartman experience?
With four scholarship quarterbacks on the roster this spring, it will be hard to avoid wondering if all four of them make it to the 2024 season wearing a Notre Dame uniform. And there may be talk about a quarterback competition between junior Steve Angeli and senior Riley Leonard, but we all know why Leonard was brought in from Duke as a rare undergraduate transfer. The Irish see him as a quarterback who can push them into the playoff in 2024.
That doesn’t guarantee success. Just look at how last season unfolded with Sam Hartman in his lone season as a graduate transfer from Wake Forest. Hartman didn’t elevate Notre Dame’s offense enough against the top defenses on the schedule. Can Leonard do that? He certainly did that for Duke in a 28-7 win over Clemson to start last season. Leonard accounted for 273 of Duke’s 374 offensive yards with 175 passing yards and 98 rushing yards. But Leonard’s season was derailed by Notre Dame’s stingy defense and a pair of lower body injuries that eventually kept him sidelined to end the year.
The 6-foot-4, 217-pound Leonard, who should be fully recovered from an ankle procedure in January, has the advantage of an experienced offensive coordinator, Mike Denbrock, working to build an offense around him. That work started as soon as Denbrock was hired from LSU in late December and will start to be put into motion over the next six weeks. Leonard needs to hit the ground running to be able to maximize his time in South Bend.
Running back: Who is best prepared to be Notre Dame’s lead running back?
The Sun Bowl offered a glimpse of what Notre Dame’s running game could look like with junior Jadarian Price and sophomore Jeremiyah Love as the top options. Love received more carries (15 for 39 yards) but Price had much more success (13 carries for 106 yards and one touchdown).
The Irish could go into the season with a heavy rotation and a plan to ride the hot hand. But there should be some sort of pecking order with the most trusted back at the top. Both have the ability to break long runs and can be passing game assets out of the backfield too.
The end result could be similar to Notre Dame 2022 season with Audric Estimé and Logan Diggs, but that would require both Price and Love to demonstrate an ability to be a dominant presence.
Wide receiver: Is this group good enough to provide consistent and meaningful plays in the passing game?
If last season proved anything, it’s that a quarterback can't solve an offense’s problems without reliable targets that can stretch the field. Notre Dame’s wide receiver position became an obvious weakness as Jayden Thomas and Jaden Greathouse dealt with hamstring injuries in the middle of the season, and the entire offense suffered for it.
Thomas, a senior, and Greathouse, a sophomore, are back and ready to take the next steps in their progressions. Sophomore Jordan Faison will look to continue his rise while starring for the Irish lacrosse team. Two of Notre Dame’s grad transfer portal answers at the position will start building chemistry with Leonard: FIU’s Kris Mitchell and Marshall’s Jayden Harrison. Mitchell’s résumé suggests he has a chance to become a real playmaker downfield for the Irish. And Harrison has speed that should be utilized, too.
Senior Deion Colzie may be facing his last opportunity to make a long-lasting impact as a Notre Dame wide receiver. Meanwhile, early enrolled freshmen Cam Williams and Micah Gilbert will be trying to make their mark this spring and show they can contribute right away.
More help is on the way this summer in the form of Clemson transfer Beaux Collins and freshman Logan Saldate, but the Irish need to leave this spring with clear top-end talent and depth at wide receiver.
Tight end: Is Eli Raridon on the verge of ascension?
Eli Raridon is in the middle of his first football offseason in three years in which he’s not actively recovering from a torn ACL in his right knee. Despite those injuries, Raridon has shown flashes of being capable of carrying on Notre Dame’s Tight End U tradition.
Mitchell Evans showed more than flashes last season as a junior, but his own torn ACL recovery will keep him out of spring practices. That means a second No. 1 tight end can emerge for the Irish this spring. Entering his junior season, Raridon seems to be the best bet with his combination of size, speed and balanced talents as a pass catcher and run blocker.
If Raridon — or maybe even someone else — emerges, Denbrock will have more options to be creative and unpredictable with multiple tight end sets.
Offensive line: Are Notre Dame’s offensive tackle answers on campus?
Notre Dame’s interest in transfer portal offensive tackles wasn’t a well-kept secret this offseason. But the Irish never found a match worthy of competing for the two open starting tackle positions abandoned by NFL-bound Joe Alt and Blake Fisher.
That means the spotlight remains on sophomore left tackle Charles Jagusah and graduate senior right tackle Tosh Baker, ND’s Sun Bowl starters, with junior Aamil Wagner pushing on either side. If offensive line coach Joe Rudolph doesn’t like the progress made on both sides this spring, the Irish can revisit the portal market later this spring.
The best case scenario for Notre Dame would be to stay in-house for the sake of continuity with plenty of competition happening on the interior of the line as well. That will require at least two of the following things to happen: Jagusah’s smarts and physicality start to translate into a more polished player, Baker’s size doesn’t limit his athleticism and he’s rejuvenated by the opportunity late in his career, or Wagner fills out his slender frame and shows the ability to set the tone.
Defensive line: Can the vyper position be more productive?
As Notre Dame’s defensive line thrived for much of last season, starting vyper Jordan Botelho didn’t produce the kind of numbers his predecessor, program sack king Isaiah Foskey, did at the position. Botelho doesn’t have to become a Foskey facsimile in his fifth season in the program, but he needs to be more disruptive than he was last year.
In the first 12 games of last season, Botelho totaled 27 tackles and his three sacks accounted for all of his tackles for loss. Something clicked for Botelho in the Sun Bowl with five tackles, one sack and another split tackle for loss. Maybe that performance can set the table for a big 2024 season.
If Botelho can’t bring the production, sophomore Boubacar Traore seems ready to make a splash when given chances. That’s as long as Junior Tuihalamaka doesn’t provide a surprise in his junior season.
Linebacker: Who’s ready to step up alongside Jack Kiser?
The long-awaited migration to inside linebacker should become more permanent for Jack Kiser in his sixth and final season of college football. Kiser produced at a high level last season despite being limited with opportunities as a rover linebacker and some work inside.
Given Kiser’s experience, linebackers coach Max Bullough may have the luxury to move Kiser around based on who steps up around him. If sophomore Drayk Bowen is ready to make the leap, he’s a more natural fit at mike linebacker. If junior Jaylen Sneed or sophomore Jaiden Ausberry are ready for expanded roles, they may be asked to play some will linebacker with rover snaps limited due to nickel personnel.
Don’t rule out sophomores Preston Zinter and Kahanu Kia or freshman Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa as worthy contenders for playing time. Whoever can complement Kiser best may put themselves in a position to stay on the field longer.
Cornerback: Will the transition to Jordan Clark at nickelback be seamless?
While sophomore Christian Gray and junior Jaden Mickey battle it out to play outside cornerback opposite of junior Benjamin Morrison, the most interesting spring test will come for Arizona State graduate transfer Jordan Clark at nickelback. It’s too easy to assume that Clark can match the level of play of TaRiq Bracy in 2022 and Thomas Harper in 2023.
The Irish have become dependent on playing nickel defense against teams who like to spread the field. That puts a lot of stress on the nickelback to provide reliable slot coverage but also a consistent presence in run defense. Clark’s eager to prove he's up to the task.
If Clark does so, that makes Notre Dame’s depth on the outside much more meaningful. And it doesn’t force defensive backs coach Mike Mickens to move Gray or Mickey inside or Northwestern grad transfer safety Rod Heard II, who joins the team in June, out of a projected safety role.
Safety: Who is capable of cracking the safety rotation?
Notre Dame recruited Heard out of the transfer portal to become a starting safety alongside unanimous All-America selection Xavier Watts. But because Heard isn’t enrolled and practicing with the team this spring, the door is open for others to prove they deserve playing time in the fall.
Sophomore Adon Shuler, who missed last spring with a shoulder injury, showed some promise with opportunities in the Sun Bowl. Fellow sophomore Ben Minich had a quiet freshman season. And sophomore walk-on Luke Talich comes with plenty of size (6-4, 210) and hype.
Talich, who played in eight games as a special teamer, actually saw as much game action as Shuler and Minich combined last season. His season was cut short by a broken collarbone, but he’ll have a chance to stick out this spring.
Special teams: How badly will the Irish miss Michael Vinson?
Notre Dame returns its starting punter, Bryce McFerson, and is counting on its graduate transfer place-kicker strategy to keep working with the addition of South Carolina’s Mitch Jeter. Both played well enough of last season to give special teams coordinator Marty Biagi confidence going into the fall.
But Notre Dame finally lost its “Milk.” Long snapper Michael Vinson ran out of college eligibility after serving as Notre Dame’s starter for the last four seasons. If it wasn’t for Vinson’s memorable dairy nickname, he might not have been a known commodity at all. But only because he was so consistently successful that he became an afterthought.
Junior walk-on Rino Monteforte, a former Polynesian Bowl participant, should get the first crack at replacing Vinson. But sophomore walk-on Andrew Kros and freshman walk-on Joseph Vinci were recruited out of high school to provide competition. Whoever wins the job could be in that spot for a few more seasons.
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