Notre Dame's Blue-Gold Game Draft reveals some intriguing twists for game

That Steve Angeli turned out to be the first pick Thursday morning of the player draft for Saturday’s Blue-Gold Game intrasquad scrimmage was perhaps the least intriguing development of the day.

The fact that he will be the ONLY participating quarterback in the annual conclusion to spring football practice who won’t be allowed to be hit or tackled might have been the MOST compelling.

Angeli, a junior battling injured transfer Riley Leonard for the No. 1 QB job, will suit up in a red “don’t touch me” jersey for the Blue team on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Notre Dame Stadium Peacock streaming; WSBT Radio AM 960). Sophomore Kenny Minchey was drafted by the Gold team and will be live.

So, will freshman quarterback CJ Carr, who will take snaps for both teams.

Unlike the closed (except to the media) scrimmage staged in the stadium last Saturday, there will be no contrived modified scoring system used to determine the winner. It will be a traditional game with traditional scoring and 15-minute quarters with a few modifications.

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Among the notable ones:

• There will only be one kickoff, and it will start the game, with the Gold kicking off to the Blue team. The Gold gets the ball first in the second half.

• There will be no punts. If a team wants to give up the ball on a punt, the ball will be moved 40 yards downfield. If that would result in a possession that starts inside the 10-yard line, the ball will be moved to the 10 to start the possession.

• There will be a running clock in the second half. However, head coach Marcus Freeman can have the clock revert back to traditional stops/starts near the end of the game, at his discretion, if the game is close. Last year, it was not. The Gold dominated in a 24-0 victory.

Players will wear special purple T-shirts in pregame in honor of cornerback Jaden Mickey’s mom Nilka, who passed away in late December after a four-year battle with colon cancer. The shirts have Bible verse Romans 15:13 on the back of them.

“We’re going to wear it with honor and pride,” Freeman said.

For the third straight year, defensive line coach Al Washington and running backs coach Deland McCullough will serve as the Blue-Gold Game head coaches. Washington will coach the Blue team, McCullough the Gold.

“I just want to say I’m really excited about our team,” Washington said after the draft, streamed live Thursday morning on YouTube. “It’s great to do all this to compete together.

“Nothing’s more important than the team, but what we’ve got to do out there is represent what Blue’s all about, man. That’s toughness. That’s consistency. Whatever positives adjectives you want to put on it, that’s what we’re about. Understand?

McCullough had a short, but pungent counterpunch.

“We’re not going to be dealing in adjectives,” he said. “We’re going to be dealing in verbs — straight f—king action.”

Sophomore wide receiver and Sun Bowl MVP Jordan Faison, a starting midfielder for the No. 1 Irish men’s lacrosse team, has an 11:30 a.m. game against North Carolina on Saturday at Arlotta Stadium.

Injured players who won't be participating are: tight end Kevin Bauman, cornerback Charles Du, tight end Mitchell Evans, defensive end Aiden Gobaira, wide receiver Jayden Harrison, quarterback Riley Leonard, cornerback Ben Morrison, defensive tackle Armel Mukam, offensive tackle Styles Prescod, running back Jadarian Price, wide receiver Leo Scheidler, wide receiver Jayden Thomas, vyper Loghan Thomas, wide receiver Cam Williams and running back Kedren Young.

Thus, Angeli’s battle with Leonard for the starting gig, beginning Aug. 31 at Texas A&M, provided no one jumps in the transfer portal between now and April 30.

How the draft worked started with the players who weren’t to be drafted. Seniors were pre-assigned to teams. Once the draft started, the drafting coaches would open up one position at a time and draft the entire position before moving on to another position.

So, quarterbacks were first, followed by defensive tackles/nose guards, running backs, safeties, wide receivers, linebackers, vypers, defensive ends, tight ends, cornerbacks, offensive tackles, centers, offensive guards and specialists.

The first player selected at each position were: QBs, Angeli; DTs, Jason Onye; RBs, Jeremiyah Love; Safeties, Adon Shuler; WRs, Jaden Greathouse; LBs, Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa; Vypers, Boubacar Traore; DEs, Josh Burnham; TEs, Eli Raridon; CBs, Christian Gray; OTs, Aamil Wagner; Centers, Ashton Craig; OGs, Billy Schrauth; Specialists, Zac Yoakam.

After the draft, the Blue Team traded LB Jaiden Ausberry to the Gold Team for LB Jaylen Sneed. Complete Blue-Gold rosters, with seniors included, are listed at the bottom of this story.

QUARTERBACKS

1 Steve Angeli, Blue

2 Kenny Minchey, Gold

Assigned CJ Carr, Both

DEFENSIVE TACKLES

1 Jason Onye, Gold

2 Donovan Hinish, Blue

3 Cole Mullins, Gold

4 Sean Sevillano Jr., Blue

5 Devan Houstan, Gold

6 Brenan Vernon, Blue

RUNNING BACKS

1 Jeremiyah Love, Blue

2 Gi’Bran Payne, Gold

3 Aneyas Williams, Blue

4 Justin Fisher, Gold

5 Dylan Devezin, Blue

SAFETIES

1 Adon Shuler, Gold

2 Luke Talich, Blue

3. Kennedy Urlacher, Gold

4. Ben Minich, Blue

WIDE RECEIVERS

1 Jaden Greathouse, Blue

2 KK Smith, Gold

3 Deion Colzie, Blue

4 Micah Gilbert, Gold

5 Alex Whitman, Blue

LINEBACKERS

1 Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, Gold

2 Drayk Bowen, Blue

3 Jylen Sneed, Gold

4 Jaiden Ausberry, Blue

5 Kahanu Kia, Gold

6 Preston Zinter, Blue

7 Tre Reader, Gold

8 Jerry Rullo, Blue

VYPERS

1 Boubacar Traore, Blue

2 Junior Tuihalamaka, Gold

3 Kobi Onyiuke, Blue

4 Eric Lindstrom, Gold

DEFENSIVE ENDS

1 Josh Burnham, Gold

2 Bryce Young, Blue

TIGHT ENDS

1 Eli Raridon, Blue

2 Cooper Flanagan, Gold

3 Jack Larsen, Blue

4 Henry Garrity, Gold

CORNERBACKS

1 Christian Gray, Gold

2 Jaden Mickey, Blue

3 Chance Tucker, Gold

4 Micah Bell, Blue

5 Isaiah Dunn, Gold

6 Mickey Brown, Blue

OFFENSIVE TACKLES

1 Aamil Wagner, Blue

2 Charles Jagusah, Gold

3 Sullivan Absher, Blue

4. Anthonie Knapp, Gold

5 Ty Chan, Blue

CENTERS

1 Ashton Craig, Gold

2 Sam Pendleton, Blue

3 Joe Otting, Gold

OFFENSIVE GUARDS

1 Billy Schrauth, Blue

2 Rocco Spindler, Gold

3 Pat Coogan, Blue

4 Chris Terek, Gold

5 Peter Jones, Blue

SPECIALISTS

1 Zac Yoakam, Gold

2 Rino Monteforte, Blue

3 Andrew Kros, Gold

4 Joseph Vinci, Blue

5 Marcello Diomede, Gold

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