SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The new helmet communications coming universally to college football this season isn’t simply a way to make stealing signals harder to do and reducing the potential payoff.

It’s improving the way teams can play chess at the line of scrimmage, at least as it pertains to the Notre Dame defense.

Enter Jack Kiser.

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The sixth-year linebacker figures to be the green-dot recipient most of the time when the Irish are on defense this season, a designation of the one player on each side of the ball who receives the in-helmet communications from the sideline.

But he’s not just a relay switch. He’s a processor as well — adding to his value on the field.

“We did it in the spring and now we’re doing it here in fall camp,” Kiser said after a recent Irish football practice. “It’s been great, because coach [defensive coordinator Al] Golden has empowered the guys who have the dots.

“Yes, we get the call, but he’s empowering us to make calls and checks. It’s also really cool, because you can hear what he’s thinking. You can hear this thought process. Not only am I getting the call, but I can hear why he’s calling something. He just talks on the radio as they break the formation.

“You just hear his thoughts out loud and what the down and distance is, what the formation is, what the personnel is, what’s the situation. And it really opens your mind. There’s a ‘why’ going behind this. And now I’m adding all that information and knowledge to my football intelligence. It’s been a huge benefit to me and it’s something I think is awesome for the game.”

Irish head coach Marcus Freeman, offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and Golden are scheduled to meet the media Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium after practice around noon EDT, with the Aug. 31 season opener for the seventh ranked Irish — at No. 20 Texas A&M — just two weeks away.

Offensive line intrigue figures to be a big storyline coming out of the latest post-practice discussions. Here are several threads, though, worth noting as ND winds its way to the end of training camp phase and morphs into opening-night specifics for the Aggies:

Inside the minds of Steve Angeli, Kenny Minchey

Though Freeman headed into Saturday’s press conference with the business of anointing a No. 1 quarterback officially still on the to-do list, the most likely response when he does — based on everything that’s happened through the first three weeks of training camp — figures to elicit something to the effect of: well, duh.

Not so obvious is how junior Steve Angeli and sophomore Kenny Minchey are processing and coping with their spots on the depth chart between apparent No. 1 Riley Leonard, a senior and Duke transfer, and surging freshman prodigy CJ Carr.

“I feel like I’ve been in a season of constant improvement,” offered Angeli, who got his first college start and extensive playing time of his career in ND’s 40-8 Sun Bowl waxing of Oregon State on Dec. 29. “Every day I’m looking to get better. Whatever the one or two things are that I’m writing down to get better on the day, I feel I’m hitting on those almost every day and really focused on them.”

Angeli has taken the No. 2 reps during training camp, with Minchey and Carr at times sharing the 3s.

Both Angeli and Minchey had a chance to hit the transfer portal after spring practice and both elected to stay put.

Why?

“My philosophy is I’m not a quitter,” Angeli said. “I like to do stuff the hard way. There are definitely easier routes, but being a guy that made a decision to come here in the first place, I’m going to give it all I’ve got to stay here and make it work.”

And Minchey?

“I love [QBs coach] Gino Guidugli,” he said. “I feel like he's a great coach, and I feel like he can make me better. And I would say Notre Dame itself. I mean, I want to be a quarterback for Notre Dame, so I feel like that'd be a super great title and just something I definitely want to accomplish.”

Not that there aren’t frustrating moments when he feels frozen on the depth chart.

“I mean, the obvious answer would be yes,” Minchey said, “but I feel like everything can't go exactly how I want it to go. Obviously, in life there's road bumps and things you have to go through, so I feel like it's just another step in life that I have to overcome and battle through.”

The allure of an NFL-style defense

Defensive coordinator Al Golden this offseason signed a three-year contract extension that will, at the very least, make it less palatable and more difficult to leave ND to go back to the NFL.

And while he’s with the Irish, he’s not only been able to adapt an NFL-style defense to the college game, he’s been able to sell it on the recruiting trail.

“When he recruited me, he told me about it,” said sophomore linebacker Jaiden Ausberry, who’s cracked the five-man linebacker rotation Golden and linebackers coach Max Bullough play to deploy this season.

“We would watch a lot of NFL film, and it would be the same defense we’re running now. So, I think that that’s a really good picture for recruits, because when you get to the NFL, you already know all the words, the diction, all that stuff.”

The Irish last season finished fifth nationally in total defense, the first time Notre Dame has cracked the top five in that statistical category since the 55-year-old Golden was a fifth-grader (1980).

With so many key returnees on the defense, a wave of young, athletic linebackers like Ausberry, and some evolutionary schematic tweaks, the ceiling may be higher this year.

“He [Golden] really does a good job of putting in everybody at different positions, whether that’s D-linemen, linebackers, safeties, corners,” Ausberry said. “We all rotate. We all play everything. It’s a real versatile defense for everybody where we can play at different levels and positions.

“He really does a good job of moving everybody around, disguising, checking out of stuff — all types of stuff like that.”

Getting to know Riley Leonard

The media windows of practice, the sixth and final one happening Thursday, have been far less revealing about who Duke transfer quarterback Riley Leonard is becoming at Notre Dame than the soundbites from his teammates and coaches. Here’s a sampling of the latter — first, from wide receiver Jayden Thomas:

“He’s such a humble guy, it’s kind of scary,” Thomas said. “You think everybody should be like him. He’s just a role model, model citizen and he does everything by the book. He gives glory straight to God. He shared the story of his grandpa and how he basically builds schools in Africa. He’s basically there for six months out of the year or something.

“It’s kind of cool to see his background and see where he comes from and to see it firsthand going home with him to Alabama [in May] to see where his family comes from. The way he’s driven by his faith and ultimately to be a good person. As a person, he is who I want my son to be one day, which is pretty cool.

“As a quarterback, you love someone who is like that and can walk through the building with a smile on his face. You’ll never know if he had a good day, great day, or a terrible day. Very impressed.”

And then to the physical attributes and what surprised Irish QBs coach Gino Guidugli the most.

“He’s got better arm strength than I had anticipated,” Guidugli said. “When you get him in live play, that ball really comes out of his hand. When you see him run and extend plays that aren’t quarterback runs or he’s just scrambling, like he doesn’t look fast, but he’s out there outrunning safeties and corners to the edge.

“So, you’re like, ‘Man, he’s faster than you think.’ It’s deceiving.”

Who’s Joey?

Intermittently in interviews during this preseason camp season, the Notre Dame football players have been asked directly about or sometimes mentioned in passing, “Joey.”

Joey is Dr. Joey Ramaeker, Notre Dame’s sports psychology director and the assistant director for ND’s University Counseling Center. And while he's been at ND since 2017, Ramaeker's work with the Irish football team this offseason is drawing praise from players in much the same way Dr. Amber Selking did in the latter years of the coach Brian Kelly Era at ND.

“He’s been great this offseason.” linebacker Jack Kiser said. “He’s helped a lot of guys, held sessions on all types of different categories: mental fortitude and how you can take the next step — not necessarily a physical step.

“He’s talked to the team, given presentations on the importance of breathing, how your thoughts can control your emotions. There’s a lot that goes behind the psychological part of the game. It’s always good to make sure you’re well-versed in everything.”

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