(upbeat music) - Wide receivers. Starting with Mike Brown. We got to see a little bit of the position drills on the sideline. I didn't think there was anything necessarily that jumped out at me at that point. I don't know what did you think. - I did, I loved it. - It was everything like he is a receiver. He's a coaches coach for people who coach receivers. And as you know, Sean, that's kind of my baby. Obviously I played quarterback and a lot more than I played receiver, but most of my career respect coaching receivers. And one of my criticisms of Chancy Stucky and to a degree Dell Alexander was, like Chancy Stucky's first fall camp, I thought was good. I thought he focused on like real good receiver drills. But then in year two, he starts doing a lot of these, like jumping off a one foot and it's experimental. - Yeah, it's like you look at it and I'm thinking as a receivers coach, I'm like, I don't know how that applies to being a route runner. Like, you know, there's some things you're going to do that are funky, like there's some drills where like a linebacker coach will have the guy start on the ground and they got to jump up and chase. Like, well, how's that practical? Okay, you get cut, right? You get knocked down, you slip and fall. There's times you're on the ground as a defender. You got to get up and go chase the football, right? And so yeah, that's practical. And I like practical drills that accent the specifics of playing your position. It's like Harry East and every day would do this drive, double team drive blocked or they drive a guy for 20 yards. And you're like, but you're not going to drive a guy for 20 yards, but it's practically speaking, you're working on getting a vertical double team push. And then you kind of overdo it and you're practicing unique skill sets. And we saw that today with a lot of the top end drills and then catching the ball out of it. They're always catching balls. They're working on top ends. He emphasized the right thing, sink your hips, explode out of your breaks, things along those lines. And then you start seeing that stuff applied in practice and you see in the one on ones, you see them getting out of come backgrounds and stop routes and just getting that initial separation. You know, Sean, we saw them today doing things because they were taking two steps and really overemphasizing driving down and getting out of breaks. And then you saw them during one on ones. They were doing a really good job of getting that initial separation at times because they were doing that. They would run vertical looks and DB stink and vertical, vertical, vertical. And then boom, they quickly get out of that brick and the ball comes. And they, you know, they'd get tackled right away, but they were making those completions because they weren't telegraphed in their routes as much. And so that's what I like about what you saw from Mike Brown is he is focused on the nuance of the position, the details of the position. A lot of times, the receivers coach in modern day times can get so wrapped up in the scheme, the scheme, the scheme that they don't focus enough on. This is how you play the position. And, you know, in college that, especially Dr. Airaid guys, it's about the scheme and spacing and all that. And it's not as much about technique. That's why you see all these guys from like Baylor and TCU always the air raids go to the NFL. And some of them are not to just, they're not very good players. And they're not taught the technical parts of the game. And, you know, so not all air raids. I mean, Oklahoma's had guys that go pro and were successful, but there's a lot of them that those guys just tend not to perform. And so I love that he focuses on those aspects of it. And then I like to see them applied in the practice period and they were. And just overall, I thought the competition between the receivers and DBs today was very good. That did too. There were some periods where I thought the offense was slightly better, some more periods where I thought the defense was better today, but they are really competing. And I thought that the day got started off with a pretty good win. I mean, one-on-one was the first time we saw Overse D and Jaden Greathouse beats. Well, I would say he beat Benjamin Morrison. He got a, he had a good release against Benjamin. And Benjamin was right there with him on his hip and Riley Leonard throws a perfect back shoulder that Jaden Harrison, Jaden Thomas just makes a great, just comes back to it, makes a catch for a nice 20 yard gain. Like, we just didn't see that ball get thrown in the last few years. They just didn't throw a lot of back shoulder. So we saw that get hit twice today, or actually multiple times a day. And so that was a good way to start the day off. I thought there were some, you know, some good wins along the sideline. And that's something that I noticed a lot today, Sean, even in the team periods was they attacked the sidelines a lot more. - Yes. - Where last year, everything was so focused on the middle of the field, that was good to see that. And I expected that in Mike Dembrock's offense, but it was still good to see that the quarterbacks were more willing to get that ball out to the sideline during some of those team periods. - Well, there was that, there was a, it was third and 10 and Riley Leonard was the quarterback and Bo Collins was out there. And I just like seeing him, we didn't get to see him in the spring. Obviously you can go back and watch his film and stuff like that from when he was with Clemson. But he just like, he had the presence, he knew where the sticks were, got to the right spot. Riley Leonard, it hits him in a pretty good coverage by Christian Gray, all things considered. But again, it's a veteran quarterback and a veteran wide receiver working together and they needed 10, they got like 12 or 13 yards and a first down out of it on third down. And it was right by the sideline, just like you're talking about. - There were a couple times I felt like the receivers allowed the DB's to kind of ride them. There was a play where Christian Jaden caught a great ball, great catch against Christian Gray. But I thought he allowed Christian to kind of ride him a little too close to the sideline. And I don't know if he got a foot in, it was close, I would have loved seeing the replay. Another time they kind of got him out of bounds, but I thought there was a lot of competition. Like one of the things I wanted to see from this receiving course on coming into fall camp was, and I talked about this in my show yesterday, I think, I just wanna see the receivers compete for the ball more. And I thought today at least, I thought they competed for the ball a lot better. They're gonna win some, lose some. But like twice they outplayed Benjamin Morrison and Christian Gray, like once for Benjamin, once on Christian Gray, where they outplayed it for the ball. And that just rarely happened last year. - Was that Jaden Thomas who cut the first one? - Yeah, yeah. And then he beat Benjamin again on the play where they got him off sides and he kind of ran like a double move and Benjamin couldn't find the ball. And Jaden did. And Jaden stepped at the ball and made a catch. And that speaking of receivers, I mean, that was good to see because Jaden Thomas healthy was a good thing to see. 'Cause when he's healthy, he's the ultimate smooth player. I mean, he's just, he's not fast. He's not explosive. He's just a really smooth athlete that knows how to get open. And that's always been the thing we've said about Jaden Thomas. He's not a guy that's flashy. You look down at the stat sheet at the end of the game, you don't necessarily remember him making a ton of plays. You're like, "Oh, five catches for 65 yards." You know, he must have done something. And that's the kind of player Jaden Thomas is, but he's just struggled to see healthy. And he was really healthy all of last year. He wasn't healthy in the spring. So it was nice to see Jaden out there healthy. And, you know, just looking good. - No, I know. I mean, and we saw a lot of wide receiver. Like the first three, I think, were basically like, what was it? Jaden Thomas, Jaden Great House, Chris Mitchell, would be like the three at the top right now. And I heard you kind of saying that, you know, like, Great House, as we thought, was not necessarily playing in the slot exclusively. He wasn't playing in the slot exclusively. So I'm on the boundary some. I remember, did you see him on the field side at all? I think it was mostly on the boundary. - No, I saw him on the boundary once. He was mostly in the slot, but he didn't move around a little bit. I was actually surprised how much they used Jaden for Jordan Faison outside. - Yeah. - And Marcus Freeman talked about that in the press conference. But he, I don't remember seeing Jordan Faison in the slot at all. I just remember, like, it was Great House and Jaden Harrison were primarily. Now, I think that'll change as we get into fall camp. I think that they were just giving Jordan Faison that work to make sure that he gets those reps at it 'cause they know he can play slot. And that was the thing that we saw from that today. But yeah, Jaden Great House, they didn't target him a ton today. But again, 'cause a lot of it, they were focusing on the outside, but, you know, he looked good, he's filled out, he's, you know, quick. I mean, athletically, he looks like he didn't spring, which is what we wanted to see. - Sure. - But, I tell you guys, it really impressed me today, Sean, and I'm not sure what your thoughts were. I was really impressed with Bo Collins. Football season may be over, but the action on the floor is heating up. Whether it's tournament season or the fight for playoff home court, there's no shortage of high stakes basketball moments this time of year. Get down on the excitement with prize picks. America's number one fantasy sports app where you can turn your hoops knowledge into some serious cash. Prize picks is the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America. We are the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. It's just you against the numbers. Instead of battling thousands of other players, including pros and sharks, you pick more than or less than on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in. You can now win up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks. You heard it, four correct picks. You can turn $10 into $1,000 with NBA, NHL, and college basketball entries today on prize picks. America's number one fantasy sports app. It is so easy to use. All you have to do is download the app in the app store or Google Play Store, sign up, add some funds, and you're in. Then you just find your favorite player and decide more or less on the suggested stat. It really is that easy. The night I joined, I picked Hannah Hidalgo to have more than 14 points, Maddie Westbell to have less than 10 rebounds and Marcus Burton to have more than 18 points. And guess what, I hit on all three. Bing, bang, boom, baby, money in my pocket. It was just that easy. Download the app today and use code IRISH for a first deposit match up to a hundred dollars. Again, download the app today and use code IRISH for a first deposit match up to a hundred dollars. Prize picks, pick more, pick less, it's that easy. Like yes, he's not like, this is a noticeably faster receiving core. Like I had it in the Intel piece, but I'm like, okay, let's see it. And this is definitely a noticeably faster receiving core. I still don't see the four, three speed that some people say that that Chris Mitchell has, but you can tell he's fast. KK's fast, Jordan Harrison's probably the most like visually explosive looking receiver they have. He's just, you just noticeably explosive. Bo's not as fast, but Bo is like today, I should say at least today was easily the best route runner. He was the best at getting separation as a route runner. - That's kind of what I was talking about before. Yeah, like he's got the feel. He knows how to get open. And I think that that was what was the most obvious maybe of any of the receivers. But I think that's exactly it. I mean, you did see, you know, Chris Mitchell kind of run around out there a little bit. Some was asking who was the fastest. I mean, we didn't see him, you know, just run a bunch of all parts. And today I think probably Jordan, Jay and Harrison probably looked the fastest today. But like you said, I mean, they're fast, but it's sort of the DBs. But like the Bo Collins thing was great because there was that play where he beat Christian Gray on a comeback route and Christian was ticked after. He was mad at himself after the play. I'm like, dude, he did this to Benjamin last year against Clemson. I mean, this is why you want a guy like Bo Collins because you're going to have to like, there's different ways to win. And his fans a lot of times we can obsess on who's the fastest, who's the speed guy. But you go watch the NFL, Sean, and there's a lot of four six dudes that are dominating in the NFL because they know how to play, they know how to get open. And the receivers didn't see that a lot last year to be honest with you. They just didn't, there was, especially once Jay and Thomas got hurt because he was really the only one that had that repertoire last year. Bo brings that and he's even better at it. And it's going to make a young guy like Christian Gray better because like, dude, you can't just be athletic. You've got to be athletic and smart because Bo Collins is going to make you work. If you don't believe me, go ask Benjamin Morrison because he saw that firsthand last year, you know? And so that was good to see that Bo was, you know, what we thought he would be. He's not an explosive elite athlete. He's a good athlete, don't get me wrong. The dude knows how to play. You know, like that's the reality of it. So now last year you had one savvy receiver, one guy that just was a veteran that knew how to get open. And when he got hurt, you had, you just, you were completely off of that. Once Jay and Thomas got hurt. Now you've got Jay and Bo bringing that to table. Plus you've got now your two of Jay and Gray House. You have a lot more of that. Just kind of knows how to get open than you had last year. You really didn't have that last year. Now you've got multiple guys, which again, it just widens that mortgage for air. So we thought it was going to be that way coming into camp Sean. So to see it play out that way was good to see from those three guys. Cause I just think that's a something that was missing is, do you just, do not get open? You know, if it's third and 70 now to get open, do you know how to get to eight? Do you know how to get to nine? I mean, do you just do not, or do you know how to get to five with the separation that you can catch and run? Those are the things that you, you just didn't have a lot of last year. And that's why I said the other day, Sean. If Sam Hartman, I said this is Sean, I'm curious what you think about this. I'm happy Riley Leonard's decor. I think Riley Leonard's better fit for this offense than Sam Hartman. So I'm not, I'm not acting like, Oh, gee, I, but I'll say this, if Sam was on this team, Sam, I think would be a lot better. Not just because, because of the system, but also because there's just, there's a deeper crop of just guys that know how to play football at wide receiver and guys that have experience and the talent to play. Like last year we were crossing our fingers and hoping that Dion Colsey was going to figure it out. Today he was down there with the young guys on the second field and they're running seven guys out there and he ain't one of them, right? Cause it's just like you've got other guys that are just ahead of him right now. And so those are things that, that, that you kind of, you like to see, we had a super chat about this, Sean. I see you RN with Irish luck. Thank you for the super chat. Appreciate that very much. How does Collins of Speed compare to other players who will play the boundary mainly Thomas and Gilbert? I don't, I think Dion is probably faster. You're correct. Dion Colsey is the fastest boundary they have. I don't think, I mean Dion's pretty fast. I would say Bo's probably a touch faster than Jaden Thomas. He's faster than Jaden Thomas, but it's not by a ton. And Michael Gilbert's still just thinking a lot, but I thought Mikey was a little up and down. I thought Mikey was good in the team period. He wasn't great in a one on one, but I thought Mike was pretty good in the team period, but they're all kind of in a similar range speed wise. There's not anyone that's considerably faster, but I would say probably right now that Bo's probably a touch faster than those two guys right now. But again, if you're comparing Collins to Colsey, the biggest difference with whether Colsey is a little bit faster or not, is all the intangible stuff that you just talked about. He doesn't have that savvy. He doesn't have that, can I sit in the right spot and know how to shield off the defensive back and be able to convert this third down when we've got to convert a third down, just knowing exactly where he needs to be on the field. I think that that, if you look at day one, again, not being able to see him in the spring, that stood out quite a bit about Bo Collins. - Absolutely. He just knows how to play. He knows how to get open and you just need guys like that. And you need different types of players. Jane Harrison is just a lightning, just like there was a play where Jordan Clark, who's a six year savvy senior with like thousands, well over a thousand snaps under his belt. And he's running an over route and Jordan Clark thinks he's going to undercut Jane Harrison. You remember the plan talking about doing one on ones? He's in trail on an over route and he thinks he's going to undercut it. The quarterback knows two's got a step on one and two's a lot faster than one. He just throws it out there and Jordan Clark tries to undercut it, can't get to it. Jane Harrison accelerates to the ball, catches it and just turns up field for big play. - Right. - Like he's got that juice. Jordan Faison is a kind of, it's not a burner, but just as sudden of an athlete as you're going to see, just super quickness. And then you've got a guy like KK Smith who's just a skinny, vertical burner. They have such a unique skill sets this year, Sean, that they didn't have last year where there's just different types of players. - Right. - And they bring different skill sets to table. That's very obvious today. And I thought it was great to see that the receivers and the DBs battling. And one of the intel things that I dropped the other day was there's a lot of excitement on the defensive side of the ball that they're going to be pushed more. And you saw that today. You saw Benjamin Morrison get ticked off one time and he gave up a catch. So Christian Gray getting mad at himself one time he gave up a catch. Last year that wasn't happening because they were just, they were not giving up catches. You know, and when one of those guys got matched up against someone that wasn't part of the top three or four guys, it was usually a pretty easy win. And you know, that was so good to see. It's very good to see. There's a lot of depth of skill there. I thought Mike Gilbert, Sean's another one. We talked about the boundary guys. He had a really, I mean, it got to the point where Chris Chance Tucker just was in his, it was in Chance's head. So must he start grabbing jerseys. And that's when you know you're in a guy's head, you start grabbing your jersey every time you get a step on him. There was two times I thought Micah would have big plays if not for just them yanking on his jersey. And so, and then like there was a period where Angeli went one of four, I think on throws. He was like one of four. He missed all three throws. But then the one he threw was just that over the shoulder slot. I think it was a slot fade to make it Gilbert. Just dropped nine. Right. And one of his better throws of the day. One of his better throws of the day. Not just his, but one of the better throws of the day. But it's like, that's what this group brings to the table is, you know, you may miss two, three throws, but then the next place somebody's going to get open for a potential big play. And, and, you know, Micah went and made the catch and made the play. So even though he was at times a little up and down. So you saw different guys making plays at different timeshawn. And that's, that's good to see. But to see the corners getting sort of noticeably frustrated was a good sign. It's a very good sign because it just, it wasn't happening. I'm sure, who was at the beat? Was it KK Smith? No, I'm trying to see who it was. Somebody beat like Chris Mitchell beat Jaden Mickey on a dig route. Jaden thought he had an angle on it. But again, Mitchell accelerates. And now all of a sudden that angle doesn't mean anything because Jaden, Jaden Mickey was going to try to undercut the dig route. But Chris Mitchell just accelerated out of the break and just ran away from him and you complete the ball for a, for a big game from Riley Leonard. Those are the things you see that you didn't see last year. It's almost like the, the corners at times and toy with the receivers last year, Sean. Right, right. And you're never challenged. They were challenged. Oh, yeah. Probably more than we saw them in any practice in the last year. Which is good. That's a good thing. It's a fair thing. Exactly. It's, you know, it's, it's, it's ultimately going to light a different kind of fire under their rear ends. Yeah. Oh, is this, is this camp goes along? Yeah, a couple more super chats kind of related to this. Well, I see our end with Irish luck. Thank you again for this super chat. Thanks for the practice supports on the board between those and the Intel pieces. I be bored room is the only side I need to get all my information. Appreciate that very much. And they followed up with, I think it's interesting how Brown and Denmark developed Michael Young over his last two seasons compared to how Dell did his first three years. I think that's a great point. And that's why I wrote the article I wrote yesterday, Sean, because yes, people are frustrated with Mike Brown's recruiting. I get it. And I'm not telling anyone that, that they shouldn't be. Right? I'm just telling you that, that, you know, this is, this is just, this is where it's at, right? But the thing that I like is that, try and think how to say, this is what he was hired for, right? Like, yes, you want him to recruit better, but like, this is why he was hired, because he's an, he's an outstanding developer of players. He developed these guys on the field, exactly. And when you look at, and when you look at Michael Young, and you say, well, he went from Notre Dame to Cincinnati. So, you know, you expect him to kind of thrive in the AAC. And I'm like, yeah, that's a, that's a fair criticism. But here's the, here's the thing I'll say to you. Yes, Michael Young in his first year at Cincinnati was the number three leading receiver on that team. And his fourth year, he was the number four, or as fifth year, he was the number four leading receiver behind guys that were drafted in the second round, throw around a fourth round. But to think about Michael Young, as he was the leading receiver that they had against Alabama in the playoff game, and he was their leading receiver against Georgia the year before in the Peach Bowl. Right? So like, and this is a kid that like, what had seven catches? I'm gonna pull up his numbers his last year. He had six catches for 21 yards his last year at Notre Dame. You know, I mean, it's like, that kid should have played more. He had four for 18 his first year. He just, he had seven for 138 his second year because he had two long catches, and everything else was like, he had one catch for minus three, one catch for three. They didn't know how to use them. It goes to Cincinnati, and they use them very well. And, and that's, that's why Mike Brown was brought here. It's, it's to do this. And, but that's also why you went out and got a Chris Mitchell and a Bo Collins out of the portal, because you need those type of athletes, and then you get him a position coach. And notice that Bo Collins is going to be maximized under, as long as he's healthy under Mike Brown, he's going to know how to get the most out of Bo, where, you know, it's been a while. Well, actually the last time we saw that was when Mike Denbrock was the receiver's coach, and they had Ryan Mahafie as his GA, who was an excellent, you know, receiver's GA. And that's the last time you really felt like this staff was going to get the most out of their guys, that receiver. This is, you know, like, if you, why is this Christmas day? Because we actually have an on-field product to talk about, because we've spent the last two weeks talking about, you know, the recruiting and, you know, how things have gone wrong and all these different things. Now we actually have something on field that we can judge this guy by, because that's, that's how this, from now until December, that's how he's actually going to be judged on what this looks like on the field. And everyone's talked about, can these receivers, you know, can they, can they change the narrative for these recruits and what you can be as a receiver at Notre Dame? And all these things that we're talking about, starting with, with Mike Brown, and having this kind of experience that we haven't seen in, in, in a few years, quite honestly, this, this can be the start of the turn of that narrative, what we actually see on the field now. You hope so, right? Like, that's, that's the confidence. And at least for one thing-- Yeah, I mean, they've got to do it. And what I'm saying is, that's all it. Right, I'm agreeing with you, Sean. I'm just saying, like, it's one thing to have the intel. Like, this, I love putting those intel pieces out, you know, because you get perspective from multiples. I probably think talk to like, seven different people to get intel this year. And you love to hear that stuff. But at the end of the day, I could go back and get intel from previous years, and they're excited about this guy, and he doesn't really do anything when, when the season starts, right? So it's nice to see certain things. Like, one of the things that I got in intel is like, both cons are most polished receiver. Well, that's cool. You can see, you know, and then you go out there and you're like, "Yeah, okay, I, yep, sure." So he was today, you know, he, he certainly was today. And, and so those are good things to see because, like you said, it's like, "Okay, I think this receiving card's a chance to be pretty good." And we know they're going to get tested. So like, when these receivers play well in the practice, Sean against this group of corners, especially since Benjamin Morrison was out there, if you're getting open and making plays against this group, you know, you're pretty good. I mean, there's two all Americans out there in the Notre Dame secondary practice in the day. Another guy that's in the Notre Dame secondary who had 80 tackles in the big 10 next last year. Yeah. And another guy that's, you know, rising sophomore who, you know, when your all-American corner got hurt last year, he steps in the lineup and nobody noticed, you know what I mean? Talking about Christian Gray, and he goes out and makes one of the, you know, best interceptions in Notre Dame corners made in several years without, you know, that crazy one-handed grab you had against Pitt. So it's a great battle. They're going to push each other. And I just thought the receivers, just the big thing is, Sean, as we move on to the next position groups, I just thought they competed today. And that's been one of my biggest needs is like, are you, they're going to compete? And today they did. One-some, loss-some. That's what you want to see. You never want to see, well, let me, let me rephrase. If you're a head coach, you never want to see one side of the ball, just dominate the other all day, right? You do, if you're Mike Dembrock, you want to dominate all day. And if you're out with Mike Dembrock, and if you're out with Joe Rudolph, yeah, if you're Mike Brown, you want to see your receivers dominate. If you're Mike Mickey, do you want to see your guys dominate every rep? But when you're the head coach, you want to see a good back and forth, that push-pull thing type of deal. And we saw that. We saw that at every position today. There were times when the pressure got to the offense, there was times when the offense did a great job in Pass Pro, which we'll get to when we get to the offensive line. And I thought there was a healthy back and forth today between the receivers and the debies. Speaking of offensive line, the one, I guess the most noticeable, because it was the position we were going to be watching right away, and we saw it right away, the right tackle, of course. And you had that intel piece a couple of days ago, talking about coaches raving about the summer that Emil Wagner has had, and guess who was the number one right tackle today? Want Emil Wagner? What did you think of that? Well, I was actually surprised. I thought that they'd at least kind of first couple days, give the veteran the number one job, and see if the young guy can push him, but they just came out right away, and we're like, "59's your first team right tackle." And so I'd be honest, I was a little surprised by it. I was, I was a little surprised by it, but he performed well, I thought. There's a couple of times that he had a wide rush, didn't quite get out there on time, but he's so long trying like the first one-on-one rep that he had. It was him against RJ Oben. And I thought RJ Oben actually beat him off the ball. I thought RJ kind of had a wide rush, and I thought he got a step on Emil, but Emil stayed patient. He didn't overreact, because what sometimes will happen when you get beat, so I'm immediately trying to kind of run at the guy, and then you've lost. Emil stayed patient, and he just, I'm thinking, "Oh, I'm like RJ's about to beat him." You can see it in the panel, like, "Oh, RJ's about to beat him." But then Emil's extends his arms, and you're like, "Whoa!" Like, and he just wrote, I mean, so RJ did kind of beat him, but Emil recovered really well, got his arms up and wrote him out wide, to where if it was in a game, Riley would have just climbed the pocket and thrown the ball. And then we saw that. There was a, we saw that in the team period, where RJ tried to beat him with a wide speed rush. Emil was patient with it, got out to him, wrote him around, Riley steps up in the pocket, gets rid of the ball, and you're good to go. And so it was good to see. You know, I didn't see any reps, where he just came off and passed, bro, and they just bullied him into the quarterback, because that's what would happen to him in the past, because he's kind of light in the lower half, looked a little thicker, I thought today. Sean, he didn't look like a tight end, playing a bounce, right, which was where he was last fall. He's definitely more filled out, like I was saying earlier. He's not as filled out as Jagusa, but you're talking about a 30 pound difference there, you know? - Yes, at least for 30 pound difference. - Yeah, so I thought he performed well. I mean, look, he is clearly the more talented of the two players. And the big thing for Emil was, can he play like at the point of contact, and just his size is not because it doesn't give him a hindrance. Like, they list him, I don't know what his weight was, I don't think they've-- - Well, he's still listing 290. - They did not talk about that. - Yeah, they haven't updated anything. - They didn't update anything. I don't know if they've done so since I'll go look at me. Somebody told me that they had heard he was up to 310. I don't think he's up, he didn't look like he's up to 310. But I don't care if he's 290, 295, it doesn't matter. It's how does he handle playing at the point of attack? That's really what matters. And today he handled it well. Now again, no pads. So you always kind of take what happens in the trenches with a bit of a grain of salt on day one with no pads on, but the patience from a meal, the athleticism and the quickness, he did not lose a step as he's put weight on, and just the strength in his hands and the length he has. He performed well. And as a whole, I thought the O-line D-line battles were-- there was a good back and forth. I mean, actually tracked them all, Sean. So like, rep number one, it was a meal against RJ Oben, first two reps and they were wide rushes. And I thought a meal handed them well. First time RJ beat them initially, a meal recovered well. Second time, a meal was right there and just kind of stoned them. Rep three, it was Billy Shrouthe against Jason Onye. Billy stoned them. It was a very good one-on-one. Next rep, it was Ashton Craig against Howard Cross. And Howard Cross just got up. He-- it was one of those ones where you kind of expect Howard to come off quick. And Howard got up under his chest and just drove Ashton into where the quarterback would be with a win for the defense. Next play was Pat Coogan against Riley Mills. That was a very unfair advantage. Riley destroyed him. Yeah. I mean, just speed to the edge and then Pat tried to recover and Riley just knocked his hands off and just free run to the quarterback. Next play was Charles Jagasal against Jordan Patel. Easy win for Jagasal. Just handled the speed rush, stoned him at the point of attack. Next play was Tosh Baker against Junior Tila Maka. I thought Tosh did-- I mean, Junior did a really good job of getting Logan under his pads and he bent right around Tosh and got to the quarterback. Was a win for the defense. Next play, Ashton Craig got beat by-- it's a rough start for Ashton Craig-- got beat by Donovan Hynish. He over-set and lunged and Donovan hit him with a move and just ran by him. Got to the quarterback. Next rep was Rocco against Kingston VillamASa. We saw Kingston rushing the quarterback today. He was a linebacker, but he was in the passing downs. He was rushing the quarterback. Because there was one, I think, that they were-- I can't remember if they were in nickel, where he and-- Osbury came out together. And they both kind of-- Yes. --cough on a pass rush together. But in this one, he was actually lined up on the line and then he beat Rocco Spindler on a pass rush. Then you had-- yeah, Jagasal against Boobakar in a bull rush. I thought Jagasal handled it well. Then you had-- actually, no, it was-- yeah. And then you had a play where it was a meal against Josh Burnham. And Josh tried to beat him with a double move and a meal didn't over-set. So when Josh spun back inside, a meal was there to handle it. And then the last rep was Rocco Spindler against-- Gabor Rubio and Gabriel tried to speed rush him around the edge and Rocco just buried him. Just put him right down and buried him. And so that was the first team, starters, first team type of guys got those reps. So I thought the tackles handed themselves very well. I thought the interior was a bigger problem. But again, it's because it's like that's the-- that's the trio we expect the inside to be better right now. But today, they had a rougher day. And I thought the tackles looked good in Pass Pro. So it was kind of interesting to see that. Yeah, I mean, the thing that stood out to me about Wagner just real quick before we get to the interior guys, because I know some people are obviously wanting to know what's happening at that left guard. And we'll talk about that here in a second. I just felt like Wagner for a guy who has been as just as long and lean. And we know he's athletic and all those things, the things you talked about, the fact that he played with such good strength both in his upper body and showed balance. Like, I don't think that he looked like he was ever really horribly off balance out there today. You know, I thought that he handled himself really well. He just looked physical, strong, took care of business, you know, the way he was supposed to. He definitely looked apart. But again, there was some grain of salt that comes with it considering there were no pads and things like that. But he looked good for what he was asked to do. You're on mute. Before we move on to the interior guys, I did want to say one thing, Gerby Lambert had two different things today. I thought in drills, Gerby looked great. Athletic, big, long moves well. Then they got the one on ones and he really struggled because he just, they hit him with a double move every time. And he didn't know how to handle it. So there's a big learning curve for Gerby. But I did like the fact that he looks really talented. But he's got a ways to go from what we saw today. Because I had it down to see first time. It was Logan Thomas hit him with a heart outside. Gerby went out to him and then at Logan, immediately cut inside, beat him inside. Then he overset again. I didn't mark down who he did the next two times. I didn't mark down who beat him. But that's something he's going to have to, he's going to have to obviously learn a lot. But when you watch him in drills, it's an impressive looking thing, Sean. Now he's just got to learn how to apply some of that stuff. But I thought the top two tackles looked really good. I thought Anthony Knapp was the number two tackle today. I thought Anthony looked good. He had some good, he got beat by Brendan Vernon in the first rep. But after that, he settled in and was pretty good. Yep, I felt. Oh, that's so too. That's so too. Okay, so Wagner was our surprise at right tackle. Pat Coogan at left guard. Of course, he started every game at left guard last year. But now he is battling with at the very least Rocco Spindler, maybe Sullivan Abscher in the mix. I guess here's my question for you. Because this is a conversation that Vince and I have had. Vince has felt all along like Joe Rudolph is going to go with the quote unquote safe pick and stick with Coogan. Do you think though, the fact that Emil Wagner has moved to the top of that depth chart at right tackle? At least leaves the door open for some potential movement there at left guard. What do you think about how that's potentially going to shape up over the next few weeks? I hope so. I'm not optimistic about it. Because the difference is Tosh Baker started one game under to Rudolph. And that's because the starting right tackle declared for the NFL draft and opted out of the bowl game. True. That's a whole different deal than a guy that won the starting left guard job last summer in fall and played all 13 games. I mean, there was there's literally one offensive lineman last year that answered the bell all 13 games. One is Pat Coogan, right? Now, because obviously Joe Walton, Blake Fisher opted out for the bowl game and Zeke Carole got hurt and Rocco Spindler got hurt. What surprise I'm not surprised at all that Pat Coogan starting left left guard. I don't I'd be shocked if he wasn't the left guard in practice one. And but it's it, you know, but I was a little surprised that Rocco Spindler at right guard. Like, I know that's where he played last year, but he was at left guard in spring. Right. And I was just a little surprised by that, to be honest with you. I was a little surprised by that. So I thought at least they'd let those two guys chow us now. Again, Rocco can play left guard. If Rocco plays well at right guard, he can easily move him over to left guard. So it's not that big of a deal. But I was a little surprised by that. And then we saw them put let Sullivan Apscher was at left guard today. And in the Intel piece that I had the other day, I did mention that that Sullivan Apscher is a guy to keep an eye on at the in the left guard battle. I think he might still be a year away, but they're he's sort of the future at the position. And so they were trying him to tackle. But now it's like, Hey, this is where he's going to have the best chance to play. You know, the fastest. And so it was good to see him there tonight. Well, and I did when Marcus Freeman was asked after practice at his press conference about that left guard spot, you know, he mentioned, you know, we we still want to be a run first team. We, you know, we want to be physical at the line of scrimmage, you know, dominant, you know, those kinds of things. And it it just feels like if that if that's what you want, right? 50 might be the guy, right? 50 or 75. Yeah. Yeah. If that's what you want, you got the wrong guy in there. Cause why do you play Pat Coogan? Here's, here's two reasons why I played three reasons you play Pat Coogan. One, you know, every day, every rep, every game, whether he gets his butt kicked or he plays well, you're going to get everything you got from Pat Coogan. You're going to get his best effort wise, right? You know that. Like I have never once like even in games, I share where he was getting whipped. You never were like, dude, it's not even trying. He's not even, he's not competing. Like he always gave you his best as far as effort. It's just sometimes it's not good enough, but you never, ever have to wonder as he mentally locked in today. I don't know that Rocco was always as locked in and was giving you his best effort last year. That, that's one thing. The other one is you're going to get a kid that's going to fight, right? He's going to play, he's going to play hard, which is kind of like the other one. Then number three is when Pat gets beat, it's because he's just not good enough. It's not because he's supposed to block out, but he blocks down and you allow a free run. That happened a couple of times early, but he settled in and when he would, when he would get beat, it's just because he got beat. Now, I don't necessarily buy that because my thing is is whether you're getting beat because you're not very good or you're getting beat because you blow an assignment, you're still getting beat. You know, I mean, that's, that's the reality of it is a quarterback. I can kind of, if I see a free runner, I can kind of see that guy and, you know, up the middle and get the ball out, but, you know, like the people say, you know, well, Rocco wasn't that good last year, either. Neither of them were very good last year, but when Rocco, this is what I've said, when Rocco was at his best, he was significantly better than Pat Coogan. The problem that Rocco has is when Rocco is at his worst, he was worse than Pat Coogan. That, that, that's the problem. And if you're an offensive line coach in defense, in defense of Joe Rudolph and this he's got to make, okay, yes, I, do I go for the guy that I know when he's on his game is the best of the two? Or do I go with the guy that I know is never going to be here? Right. You know what I mean? Or someone who's going to be here or down here, or do you want someone who's always going to be kind of right in here? Right. And so that's what Rocco's going to have to prove. Like Rocco's going to have to prove that I can answer the bell every day, play smart football, play with good technique, and, and be that good version of myself. I mean, and you know, when, when you look at the performance last year, I mean, I'm sorry, just Rocco was when, when Rocco had the, if you rank like the 10 best games between those two players, the top two, three games are going to be all Rocco. I mean, that's just, that's just kind of where it's going to be. So, and as far as pass pro for people that want to know like PFF numbers, Rocco also had a slightly higher pass protection grade last year. Now, neither of them were great at it. Rocco was 96.9. Coogan was 96.5. You know, Rocco was better there. And so it just comes down to, you know, what are you looking for? So there's, there's always that, I know what I have in Pat Coogan. And then I know his limitations. And I know, and I can work with his limitations. If I know what I'm going to get from him, I can, and we know that they're playing a really good player there, we can scheme to try to help him. If I don't know what I'm going to get from you, one play the next, from an effort or an execution standpoint, that makes a little bit harder. So that's what Rocco is going to have to prove. And that's what, so I'm going to have to prove because based on the, the sources I've talked to, I do think that they're open to a different left guard. And, and the only thing that even at all makes me, hmm, is this, they're just going to roll him out there. The only one that I can see or that I, that I could take away from that is just the fact that they had Rocco at right guard. But I fully expected and honestly, Pat Coogan earned the right to go out there and be the number one left guard first day of fall camp. He earned that right with what he did last year and he's, and he's worked his butt off this off season. Now, whether or not he stays or the destroying him and Tosh has, Tosh started one game last year. He didn't earn that per se. It's like he was the best guy for the game by default. Right. But, you know, so, but with, with Pat, Pat won the job last summer, kept built on that lead in the fall and was the starting left guard for, he was the only, like I said, the only offensive lineman that answered the bell every single week. And ultimately, that's why you love Pat Coogan. Well, and again, like to me, I feel like, because like last fall, Pat Coogan was not number one at, well, at left guard going into fall camp. We didn't think he was going to be. Well, my, my point is, he won that job as, as camp a couple of weeks into camp, basically, he, he, he earned that job as, as camp went along. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I, I thought, I thought he was actually the first left guard of first I have to go back and look at it. But we thought that Shrath was going to be that guy because I know this is the one thing I know for sure. At the end of spring, Billy Shrath was the left guard. Right. And maybe that's because I can't. You could be right, Sean. I'm just, I'm trying to remember that because like, remember fall camp was a little, like a little crazy for me last year because Angela was sick and I was, you know what I mean? Like there's lots of what's going on. You could be right on that. But the point is whether it was summer or fall, Pat won the job. Right. He wasn't handed the job because he didn't end spring as the number one left guard. He, he proved to be the more dependable player. Now we can debate whether Billy should have played in a row. So it is what it is. Right. We don't need to rehash it. But the fact is, is Pat won that job and he deserves to be their day one. He just, he just does. Now it's up to somebody. Because like, here's the thing, as a coach, you've got to give me a reason not to start him. I mean, that, that's fair. That's, that's very fair to say about Joe Rudolph. Joe Rudolph shouldn't just hand someone the job just cuz they're more talented. No, it's, see, and they've got to go what I'm saying to job. Right. Exactly. And what I'm saying is, is, is if Joe Rudolph sees someone who he, who he thinks is, you know, has earned that earned the right to, to move ahead of Coogan because we have seen some movement between a Mil Wagner, you know, again, and, you know, you can say, okay, yet, Josh Baker, he, he does at least have more experience, but a Mil Wagner still earned his way to move past him. Mil Wagner wasn't number one in the spring. He moved past Taj Baker over the summer. And so I don't think that, I don't think that Joe Rudolph is just gonna rubber stamp somebody. No, I don't think so either. I think that if he's gonna go with the guy who, who, but you're gonna have to play him. Right. Right. That's, it can't be if everything is equal, if everything is equal, you're gonna play Pat Coogan because he's the starter. He's got the experience of everything is equal. You're gonna play Pat. Right. If you want to beat out Pat Coogan, you've got to show that you're better than Pat Coogan. Exactly. That's the reality of it. And that's what Billy Shrouthe did at Right Garth Rocco. In the spring, Billy said, I'm just better. I'm the best guy for this job. And, and so now it's, and that's what a meal did towards the, and for a meal, it started at the end of spring and then continued into the fall, because I thought a meal was great in a blue goal game. So I, that was a big thing for me was you've got to earn it. And as much as I want them to be, as long as the, here's the thing, Sean, as long as they're open, and it's a real competition, I don't care who starts, because one of two things is going to happen. One, you're going to get a better version of Pat Coogan this year because he's got experience. Now a better version of Pat Coogan's still not a great football player, but it's better than what you had last year at left guard, right, with him in his first year, or be someone beats him out. And then they're better than what he was last year. As long as it's a, it's a, and what I mean by that is if it, people can say, well, you know, this guy got a shot, not everything, Sean, let's be honest, not every competition everywhere is open, right? Like if, if the backup quarterbacks for the Chiefs outplays Pat Mahomes in fall camp, he's not going to be starting quarterback for the Chiefs. You know what I mean? So like, let's be honest, not every job is a real competition. That was like, he gets it on film, he'll go get a job. Exactly. Now you're right, he may go make some money somewhere else, right, and be somebody else's starter. So, so my point is, as long as it's a real competition, then, then let him win. Let, let, let somebody win. And if it's Pat Coogan, good on Pat, you know, props to him. That's all I really care about. And, and right tackle was a, was an open competition. Yeah. A meal by the end of spring was better and a meal had a better summer. And so you're saying, look, he's earned a shot. Now if a meal doesn't play well, the first two weeks of fall camp, guess what? Doc Baker's going to be in there, or somebody else is going to be in there. And that's really what it boils down to. Now, overall play the line, Sean, real quick, before we wrap up the offense, because I do want to get to the defense. Okay. I, I was actually encouraged by what I saw today from the old line in that, yes, they had some losses certainly. And when you play the, let's, let's remember folks, I want you all to remember something as you're reading my practice reports in fall camp or anyone else's practice reports in fall camp. When you talk about the old line and the quarterbacks and receivers, every day they're going against one of the five to seven best defenses in all of college football, and they're deep and they're talented and they have one of the best coordinators who never stops blitzing. Like there's no periods where Al Golan's like, we're going to take it easy on in this period. We're going to, we're not going to go after them this period. We're just going to sit back and work on our cover two. No, it's, we're coming at you. Here comes another blue. Yes. And hey, I'm sorry you're having a bad day, Mr. Right Guard, but we're going to keep coming. There were some obviously some wins up from the D line. They had some good run stuffs, but then there was another play and I, I didn't write down who was in there, but I think it was, I think it was the first team, uh, offensive line. No, it was the second team offensive line where they ran that inside zone. And I think it was Rocco and who was the right Tosh, I think, but they opened up a really nice hole and Darian price flew right through it. Yes. Yes. And, and hopped over a guy. You were going. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, you know, and then there's other next player. I think they ran inside zone and it got stuff. There was some good, but I thought overall, I thought the pressure, they handled the pressure relatively well for day one. You know, there was, you know, they didn't keep like a super clean pocket, but there was plenty of snap for, I thought the quarterback had time to get the ball out and, and I thought they battled. So at least for the first day, I thought the offensive line held up well without pads. It wasn't, I mean, the D lot, the defense was better than the O line today in team stuff, but I thought it was competitive. And that was a, I was worried that the D line was just going to come out there and then destroy the offensive line in the first week of practice. And they may once the pads come on, right? I mean, that may happen when they go full pads, but at least today, I thought the offensive line competed and, and, and battled and had some wins, had some good wins. I felt I thought it looked pretty solid all the way around, like, you know, especially your first big concern is this is for a lot of people. I've said all along, I feel like, you know, like there's, there's 2021 Notre Dame offensive line and, you know, like there's a big disparity between what we saw from that line and last year's line, you know, it's, I think it's going to be, you know, middle to above, you know, you know, I don't think it's going to be horrible. Like a lot of people think they just have to avoid the really big dip games like last year. That was a thing. I give you, you take the offensive line outside of three games, they were, they were solid. It was just their lows were really low. Right. But it's just like, but that's where I think this is what they're doing is good for them. Because I'm number, you have an offensive coordinator that's challenging you. You have, you know, they're very demanding. You've got some, you've got, and this thing you saw talent because sometimes Sean talented players can overcome mistakes. A meal wagner, first one on rep of practice, I thought he did not get out of his stance as good as you as well as you'd like against RJ open. But guess what? He still didn't lose the rep. Why talented. He's athletic movement. Yeah. And he's super long. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Super long. So that's kind of what you look for is like, that's what talent can do. Sometimes talent can overcome. Okay, you beat me initially, because I did this wrong, but I recovered because I'm really good. And that's what you want to see. But it, it's kind of like, what's the expression I hear young people use. Al Golden has no chill. Like there's just like, you know, like when you meet him and per he's a very, you know, he's a very matter of fact guy. He's not a real intense guy. I mean, it was, you know, we'll get to that. But like, he's just okay, whistle blue, we're coming, we're coming. And I actually think ultimately that's going to be a great thing for the offensive line, especially the offensive line. And it gets going to be a great thing for the quarterbacks as well. Yeah. You know, like the fact that whether it's Riley Leonard or Angeli or whoever it happens to be that they're seeing these kinds of pressures in practice. And they're coming from different places. You don't know where it's going to come from all the time. And they've got to think on their feet a little bit. I think it's going to help them out. Couple quick things running back wise, not a lot to see from today other than just the really athletic, Keeger and young look healthy. That was good to see he had a nice catch on the down the field catch from CJ Carr. Yeah, it was good to see a little fade. Yeah. And Neas looked good. I mean, just worth running backs. It's just with no pads. It's like, okay, they're really athletic. And then you move on, right? Like that, that's pretty much how it is. And tight and wise, we, we didn't see Mitchell Evans or anything other than individual. We didn't see Kevin Baume, anything outside of individual, we saw both Cooper Flanagan and Eli with the ones. They did not have a great day route running. You could see it. I mean, just you're watching it. And they're just not taking good angles. They're not sharp in their top ends. And Mike Dennenbrock was not happy about it. Like he was really getting them tied in today about their rep running and attacking the ball. So that's obviously something that they're going to have to they're going to have to pick up on. But you know, when you're missing your starter who's a second team all American, you're probably not going to want to, you know, judge them too harshly on on what they did. So yeah, but just just some quick notes of what we saw from them. Um, today. Yeah, I just felt like those two positions running back in tight end were the ones that stood out the least because as you said, like the running backs, you don't expect them to stand out in a day with where there's pads and you didn't see like, you know, they weren't throwing Jeremiah Love the football and those kind of things, even the Marcus Freeman, you know, talked afterwards about, hey, we've got if we've got to get Jeremiah Love touches. And that's going to be a good thing. He knows that's a priority going into day one. But, you know, again, like, because, because of the fact that the more veteran tight ends are banged up and coming back from injuries and, and they're not full go just yet. I think that, uh, that position group, you know, again, in terms of, of overall, they just, uh, didn't stand out today. Yeah. And honestly, with the running back station, I didn't pay a lot of attention to them outside of unless the ball came their way, just because I already know they're really athletic. I want to see what they do when they get pants on. That's, that's all, that's what matters. I only looked at, spent time in the offensive line because it's a, it's a bit of a, uh, question, concern question mark. Like, I know that they barely rushed for 600 yards last year, but I just run, I don't care about experience running back in care about talent. talent always carries a day running back and they've got like that. That's what, that's what we're supposed to do. [Music] [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
