Notre Dame has wrapped up its first week of fall camp, and the media was granted access to half of the opening practices. There was a lot to watch and observe, and while its early, trends are starting to arise, answers are starting to be found and questions still remain.
With week two set to start tomorrow, let’s recap the Irish first week for the Irish offense.
QUARTERBACK
Top Performer: Phil Jurkovec
Top Freshman: Brendon Clark
Much of the focus in fall camp will be on the younger quarterbacks, because depth was the question at the quarterback coming into fall camp, not who the starter is going to be. At this point we know what the minimum we can expect from senior Ian Book, and through the first week he’s been his usual solid self.
Book spent the first two practices mostly attacking the short to intermediate routes, but in practice six we saw him push the ball downfield a bit more. Book wasn’t successful with most of those deep throws, but the fact he’s starting to take those chances early in fall camp is something I want to see.
The emergence of sophomore Phil Jurkovec early in fall camp has been important, and moving forward Jurkovec must continue building on that success. Book has been more consistent than Jurkovec and has completed passes at a higher rate, but Jurkovec gets the top performer nomination because he’s been the top playmaker.
