Notre Dame Players Notebook: Georgia Tech Week
Four Notre Dame players were made available to the media on Tuesday evening: fifth-year seniors Ian Book and Isaiah Pryor, junior linebacker Bo Bauer and sophomore safety Kyle Hamilton.
Pryor and Hamilton are both from or near the Atlanta area, where the Fighting Irish will face 2-4 Georgia Tech this Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET). Here were some of the top storylines from the conference:
Can Freshman Wideout Jordan Johnson Emerge?
The receiving corps incurred more setbacks last week when junior Kevin Austin was ruled out for the year after a re-break of his foot from the preseason. Meanwhile, classmate Braden Lenzy re-injured his hamstring late in the contest and likely will be shelved at least through this week.
Freshman five-star recruit Jordan Johnson did not even make last weekend’s trip to Pitt and has played only 14 snaps this season, all in the 52-0 rout of South Florida Sept. 19.
Per Book, though, who called last night’s practice the best Tuesday of the year, maybe — just maybe — Johnson might get into the mix this week.
“Jordan Johnson was doing an unbelievable job,” Book said. “He took pride in being up there and knowing the plays for this week, and he had some unbelievable catches. That’s what we need to see.”
Another freshman, tight end Michael Mayer, leads the team in receptions with 12 after snaring five for 73 yards and a score last weekend from Book in the 45-3 romp at Pitt.
“He’s fun to play with,” Book said. “I know when the ball’s in the air, he’s going to go make a play on it. He’s somebody that loves the game, somebody that wants to learn a lot and keep getting better. … He’s really, really good. He’s going to play football a long time.”
Hamilton Returning Home
Even though he earned Freshman All-America honors from multiple outlets last year, the Peach State native Hamilton said he was “wide-eyed” when he saw the atmosphere at the University of Georgia in the third game of his career, a 23-17 loss to the then No. 3-ranked Bulldogs.
He credits that experience for helping hasten his maturity physically and mentally. However, Hamilton has a tendency to be ahead of the curve in all phases of his life, including academically. He attended Atlanta’s prestigious The Marist School and scored a 30 on his ACT. The academic excellence of Notre Dame was part of his appeal to the school, and he has been undaunted by the requirements.
“A lot of people who leave there say that Marist is actually harder than college,” Hamilton said. "I’d probably say the same — no disrespect to Notre Dame. Marist has a large work load, and a lot of people doing extracurriculars as well. It’s a good foreshadowing for what’s going to come in college, and it prepares you very well.
“Here at Notre Dame … people come from all over the world. It’s just a bigger, better experience I get here as a person, not only football. I feel like I’ve grown more as a result from being here.”
What has helped advance him on the field is having seen his father, Derrek, drafted by the NBA, play professionally for 13 years in Europe, and train pro athletes in both the NFL and NBA, including Pro Bowl players such as lineman Bob Whitfield and running back Jamal Anderson, who both starred in Atlanta.
“It showed me how to work like a pro and how and why everybody is not a pro. It takes a lot of work,” Hamilton said. “Even if you have the most talent in the world, you still have to work harder than anybody else. … You have to work in order to get what you want.”
Pryor Adjusts To Rover
Similar to Hamilton, Ohio State graduate transfer Pryor chose Notre Dame last winter for reasons that went beyond football.
“It had a lot to do with the education,” the Lawrenceville, Ga., native said. “I am working on getting my master’s [in finance]. I’m a little halfway through with that. That was very important to me, making sure I was set up for life after football at a great institution.”
Not winning a starting position right away at safety this year didn’t affect his competitive drive, and his shift to rover this month has been embraced. He was a standout in the fourth quarter at Pitt, including a strip sack, and he could be in line to succeed potential first-round pick Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah next year.
“It was something I was comfortable doing, going in there playing more of a hybrid position, covering, blitzing, doing that type of thing and also helping out the team any way I can,” he said, adding that he had experience with the position in high school
While playing on all four special teams units, Pryor has become a mainstay in that area, which was important to him.
“I was always, growing up, understanding how important special teams is,” Pryor said. “It’s a very crucial part of the team. It’s something that shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially because most of the time it could be the difference between winning and losing the game.
“I take it very seriously, and I try to do my hardest to make sure that I get my job done, make sure everyone’s doing what their supposed to do and being a leader anywhere I can, even if it is special teams.”
Bauer Continues Ascent
Over the last three games, Bauer has basically split reps with starting senior Drew White at Mike linebacker, highlighted by his first career interception last week at Pitt.
Like Pryor, Bauer originally made his bones on special teams (earning Special Teams Player of the Year last season), but has learned to hone his intensity to become much more effective and stable on defense, crediting coordinator/linebackers coach Clark Lea and senior defensive analyst Nick Lezynski, especially in pass coverage.
“The first step was I sat down with Coach Lea and talked about intensity level,” Bauer said. “People perform at their maximum performance at different levels. I always tried to be 11 on a 10 scale, and I’ve since backed that down to three or four. That has really allowed me to breathe and focus on the things I need to and not be so all over the place all the time.
“At first I tried to fight Coach Lea on that. I always liked to be a high strung guy.”
Now, being more even-keeled feels much more natural.
“He wants us to play on instinct,” Bauer said of Lea paring back the defense some recently. “Instead of him always trying to get us in the perfect defense and perfect call every single snap, he just wants to get in the call that he knows we can have success in and just go play football.
“… It;s a big difference just allowing us to go play instead of having to think about everything all the time.”
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