13d ago football Edit

Separating mirage from momentousness in Notre Dame's Blue-Gold Game

QB Riley Leonard stands behind fellow QB Steve Angeli (18) shadowing plays as Angeli leads the Blue team to a 28-21 win in the Blue-Gold Game on Saturday. (Jeff Douglas, Inside ND Sports)

Eric Hansen • InsideNDSports

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The seemingly most Junior Jabbie-esque thing ever — short of the original coming out of oblivion and winning the Offensive MVP in the 2007 Blue-Gold Game then fading back off into oblivion and an eventual transfer to Delaware — unfolded Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium in the 93rd rendition.

Sixth-year former Penn State running back Devyn Ford, moved to safety/nickel this spring in part to enhance his special teams skill set, moved back to running back for the losing Gold team in the midst of a 28-21 Blue victory, when head coach Marcus Freeman started to run out of healthy options at the position.

The one rush for 13 yards and one catch for 13 from freshman CJ Carr after dropping the first ball thrown his way wasn’t the context worth carrying into summer and August training came from the annual exercise the end-of-spring-football intrasquad game forces its witness into.

That is separating the mirages from the momentousness.

Ford does fit into the latter from this standpoint. It’s a statement about the culture Freeman has crafted in his third year since succeeding Brian Kelly as head coach and a statement about Ford’s unselfishness and humility when there are more and more temptations around players not to be or have either.

“Those are the guys, to me, that you need in your program,” Freeman said after the game, watched in person by a crowd of 37,138 on a cool, breezy, sun-soaked afternoon. “Versatile guys that have so much value. … Devyn Ford is going to help this football team.”

What will help an Irish football team with playoff aspirations and seemingly at least the raw material to match is using Saturday as a stepping stone to significant work and progress this summer, something with which Freeman is absolutely in step.

“I don't want to start back over,” he said. “I want to use what we've developed over these 15 practices and continue to use it.”

So what might that look like?

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Let’s start with the quarterbacks.

Had fourth-stringer to start the spring Carr been able to complete a fourth-down pass to sophomore KK Smith — which did hit him in the hands, admittedly in traffic — and complete a late fourth-quarter rally, he had as good a case as anyone to walk away with game MVP honors.

Which no longer exist, at least officially.

The early enrollee played for both the Blue and Gold teams at different junctures and combined to go 15-of-23 for 165 yards with no interceptions and a 29-yard TD strike to fellow freshman ascending wide receiver Micah Gilbert.

This spring was never directly about 2024 for Carr. It was about positioning himself for a legitimate shot at being the starter in 2025, once Duke transfer Riley Leonard exhausts his eligibility.

Consider it mission accomplished and then some, though with more work ahead. He consistently extends plays with his legs and keeps his eyes downfield. He makes better decisions, including knowing when to take a loss instead of forcing a throw that becomes a turnover, than most QBs his age.

And he played with that kind of poise and maturity, not just against Saturday’s vanillaed-down version of coordinator Al Golden’s defense, but the fully deployed version in last weekend’s closed scrimmage.

Having said that, the top of the QB depth chart in 2024 still comes down to Riley Leonard vs. Steve Angeli, that is if April 30 passes and the transfer portal window closes for underclassmen without the junior Angeli having jumped into it.

Building on his strong showing in a Dec. 29 beatdown of Oregon State in the Sun Bowl, Angeli’s Saturday performance was representative of the growth he’s piled onto that breakthrough performance this spring. He went 17-of-25 for 220 yards and two TDs and zero picks after being intercepted twice in last Saturday’s closed scrimmage.

His 62-yard pass to a wide-open FIU transfer wide receiver Kris Mitchell with 4:25 left in the game proved to be the game-winner.

“Just finally getting an opportunity to get a lot of reps with the 1s,” Angeli began listing when asked what he thought he accomplished Saturday as well as the first 14 practices of the spring. “I think from a leadership standpoint, just kind of cementing myself and building that kind of rapport with the guys in the locker room. I think that’s [No.] 1.

“And then improving decision-making, learning a new offense, being able to play fast and work on those things I’ve been trying to work on for my whole time here.”

Leonard stood on the field during the game well behind the quarterbacks with a TayCo brace on the right ankle that was surgically repaired in late January and again on March 22.

He was engaged in the plays coming in, just as he was last Saturday, listening via the in-helmet communication form new offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock. His rough timeline to be 100 percent from the second procedure is expected to be well before the Irish return for summer school in June.

And then the competition resumes, assuming Angeli sticks around for it.

Sophomore Kenny Minchey, meanwhile, flashed Saturday samples of both the wow moments he’s had intermittently this spring and the growing pains he must eventually evolve past.

His bottom line was 12-for-19 passing for 123 yards and a TD to Gilbert and 40 yards rushing on six carries, including a five-yard TD runs. Since he and Carr were “live” and subject to being tackled (Angeli wore a red “hands off” jersey), the rushing yards were real.

But so were two turnovers — a pass picked off by sophomore safety Luck Talich and a fumble on a sack by Duke transfer defensive end RJ Oben.

Nothing changed in the spring to prompt Freeman Saturday to make a public declaration in the pecking order. And confirm who’s 1 through 4. Look for that to play out about midway through August training camp.

Whether or not the coaching staff believes Leonard inevitably will rise to the top when healthy, the players around that need to see that play out on the practice field.

Meanwhile, the offensive line, by the very structure of the game — chopping up the chemistry and continuity, wasn’t going to offer many clues about its spring progress or lack thereof. And even a diluted scheme rolled out by Golden produced seven sacks.

Unless Indianapolis Colts All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson snuck into the game after being introduced on the field with the other active Irish NFL players during a break in the action.

What we do know is there are two current second-teamers still very much in play to challenge for starting spots — junior Aamil Wagner trying to overtake grad senior Tosh Baker at right tackle, and senior guard Rocco Spindler trying to regain the starting status he enjoyed until a November knee injury.

Given the depth and progress at virtually every other position, offensive line is the one that is likely to most greatly affect Notre Dame’s 2024 ceiling.

The defense might have been the most illusionary, in a good way.

The nation’s No. 5 team in total defense and No. 1 in pass-efficiency defense showed way more holes and soft spots Saturday than it likely ever will during the 2024 season.

Heavy reps for players well down the depth chart, the absence of star cornerback Ben Morrison, schematic oversimplicity to protect trade secrets all factored in Saturday.

It also produced some monster numbers by players with producxtive springs who won’t be starters. Talich amassed seven tackles with an interception and a fumble recovery, for instance, while Kahanu Kia — back from a two-year Mormon Mission — accrued a game-high 12 tackles, including two for loss.

Special teams took a back seat by design. There was only one kickoff by rule, though field goals and extra points were in play and live.

Mitch Jeter’s 50-yard field goal attempt into a stiff wind was on target but fell a couple yards short of the crossbar. By rule there were no punts in the game, though 30-yard walk-on transfer kicker/punter Eric Goins was somehow credited with two and Jeter, who doesn't punt, with two as well.

Notre Dame’s incumbent starter at the position, Bryce McFerson, took the transfer portal plunger earlier in the week.

“We’re looking to, at some point, bring somebody to be a punter to add to that room,” Freeman confirmed of his post-McFerson plan.

As significant as anything that happened with the football program Saturday was a ceremonial groundbreaking that took place east of the stadium roughly two hours before kickoff.

Notre Dame announced the plans and a firm timeline for a new football facility, the James and Kathy Shields Family Hall, that will be erected adjacent to the 19-year-old Guglielmino Athletics Complex and across the street from the Irish Athletics Center.

The 150,000-square foot, state-of-the-art facility, is expected to be completed in the fall of 2026.

It should also finally bury the narrative that Freeman’s predecessor, Brian Kelly, peddled as his reason for bolting to LSU. That Notre Dame wasn’t willing to make those kind of commitments to win a national title.

Which spilled over into a perception that Freeman had to take on both on the recruiting trail and with the fandom in general.

“If you've ever lost a recruit because of a facility, then that probably isn't a loss,” Freeman said pointedly during his post-Blue-Gold Game press conference. “And so, I want to make sure that I answer that first, that our facility has never been a recruiting disadvantage for us.

“But what [the new one] does is it shows the recruits that you have and your current players the vision you have for the future. We've outgrown ours. That's the No. 1 reason we had to create and build a new building. Just the numbers in college football have just grown in terms of the staffs, the players — it's just grown.

“So, that was the biggest thing. We have to create a bigger building, and then with that, we're getting state-of-the-art everything. State of the art, just in terms of how can we truly provide our players with every possible opportunity for development?

“What ways can we help develop them? And that can be with nutrition. That can be in recovery and treatment. Your classroom, how we’re teaching in a classroom setting. And I think it's really important, as we build a new building, it's about giving the current players and the future players every possibility to really develop and reach their full potential. And that's the vision behind it.”

BLUE 28, GOLD 21: Box Score