[MUSIC PLAYING] You want to talk about some defense, Brian? I'd love to talk about defense. Speaking of Al Golden and No Chill, let's talk about these. Yes, well, I thought it was a pretty good day defensively. I felt like they were challenged. I like what we were talking about with the wide receivers. Overall, what did you think of the group that Al Dembrock or not Al Golden put on the field? Well, Al Dembrock's going to be a term we come up with when we talk to the coordinators or my golden. Well, let me ask you this question, Sean. I felt like I heard the assistant coaches on defense more this year than I did last night. I don't remember hearing a lot from Al Washington in the past. And I heard him a lot more today. Good point. I've heard Mike Mickens a lot more today, because you can tell, with corners, you're usually he would always be deep, and he would be down there watching. Today, he was on the sideline, and he was a lot more chirpy with the safeties today, I thought. So I think he was projecting his voice a lot more because he's now coaching the whole group. I thought that was an interesting observation to see that. But the thing I like just noticing about the group is you can see where the confidence comes from on defense, because I think the coaches carry themselves with a lot of confidence. Not cockiness, but just confidence. It's like, hey, we're getting out here. This is what I expect from you. When Al Washington's talk was delined. There's not a lot of getting in their face screaming at him. It's just kind of like, hey, I expect this of you do it. And a lot of it is teaching. It's not like when I hear Mike Mickens yelling across the field at a safety, I can hear what I know what he did wrong. I know exactly what the kid did wrong and what he's trying to correct because I'm hearing even teaching, right? It's not just yelling at a guy to yelling at a guy. Not that Chris O'Leary was doing that. It's just an observation of what I saw today. Chris O'Leary was a heck of a safeties coach. But I also saw Al Golden during individual working a lot with the safeties today. That may just be today, but he spent a lot of time during the individual period on the far field working with the safeties. And they work with a lot of, there's a lot of urgency in what they do on defense. Just going between drills, going between reps, just the next guy getting up, like one of the things that Don Schuller got all over, I think it was Carson Hobbes today because he just didn't jump out in the drill fast enough during a late one on one. So you're just like, hey, man, this is what we do. And Don was pretty intense with it. And so there's a sense of urgency with how they move. There's a tempo with how they go about practice that you're like, you need to have if you're going to play the way they play. And a lot of times coaches don't-- they don't realize, hey, if you want them to play an aggressive downhill style, you've kind of just got to be that way all the time. And even more so than last year, I think we saw that from this defense. It's just, hey, guys, we are going. And then there's stop, get your water, get your rest. And then when we're done doing that, we're going. And that was the thing I saw. But the big thing take away from me, Sean. I thought this is a much longer defense overall than what we've seen in all three levels. Like, obviously, in the secondary last year, corner, they were pretty long because they'd cam hard. And they're not longer now in the secondary, but like linebackers just noticeably bigger last year. It's like we talked about the quarterbacks. It was JD Bertrand, Maris Lea Fowl, Jack Keiser, guys like that, Drew White, just a lot of those type of guys in recent years. And now you're like, Drake Bowen's almost 6'3", Kingston 6'3. Yeah. Yes, like 6'1" and 1/2", 6'2". And Jade Nalsbury's about 6'2", and now Jack Keiser looks shorter. Where last year, Jack Keiser, I mean, when him and JD Bertrand are on the field, they go, "Jack was the tall guy, but they can run." I mean, this line back in court can flat out run. I mean, even a couple of the walk-ons, you're like, that dude can move, man, you know? I mean, so that was good to see today. It's like, you expected it because of who they recruited, but it's still nice to see it. And some of the young athletes on the D-line really impressed me today. You just see it, like you see Buba Carr and Burnham and Logan Thomas, and you're like, "Man, "I don't know if those guys are ready to be the guys yet, "but they're athletic." It's a very athletic defense, Sean. Very long defense. You can see the fruits of the recruiting exactly. Marcus Freeman once, you're starting to see that as more of the freshmen and sophomores are now becoming parts of the ones and twos, you're really starting to see that. And yeah, and there wasn't a big drop-off when they went from the number ones to the number two, specifically like Riley Leonard and Howard Cross, there was a lot of, they were doing well inside, but there wasn't like Donovan Heinesch, not Donovan. Yeah, Heinesch, we saw him make some plays out there today. - He's actually at length rule, right? But he's like, he said, he's out there making plays today. - Yep, exactly, and KVA, we saw him out there. We saw Jaden Osbury out there, and it does. It's like, you see these guys moving side to side specifically a lot differently than we've seen over the last several years, I think. - Mm-hmm, yeah. - Like we've talked a little bit about the defensive line as we've talked about the offensive line overall, like were you, did you come away with a good vibe from that unit? - Honestly, outside of athletically, I don't pay a ton of attention to the defensive line on a day like today where there's no pads. But the thing that you noticed is, when you look at the edge, I thought that they, I'm trying to think how to say this. We just, they didn't show a whole lot, it was just kind of pure speed to power moves. - Right. - And so they were setting up, you could tell that whatever they were working on today, it looked like the edge players were trying to set up other guys to kind of come through. Like, so it was kind of hard to really tell what they were doing, but I thought inside, I thought that they really came off the ball well. We saw Armel Mukam getting some reps today with the second defense, which I was good to see. You know, we saw Gabriel Rubio out there. We saw Donald Heinesch had some wins in one-on-one, also performed well in the team period. He is noticeably thicker, I thought this fall camp than last year. - Oh, that's true. - Like he definitely does, and it's not bad weight. It's not like he's, well, he, you know, 800 cheeseburgers this summer to put some weight on. Like he's, he's filling out. - Well, he's, I mean, that's obviously where he needed to. - Right. It's here and it's in his, you know, his middle, his like, his behind in his thighs and stuff. And he was holding up better at the point of attack. Again, let's see how he does when the pads are on, but I thought today, I thought Donovan had a really good day. You know, it was good to see him. I think Armo Mukam is a really raw player. You could see that today, but he's got some athleticism to him, which was good to see. And so I just think overall it was a very active day for the defensive line and very aggressive, but it's, it's, that's a group I wanna see what they do with their pads. And the only reason I paid as much of the off attention, the offensive line as I did is just because it's such a big question mark. But I gotta tell you, I thought Riley Mills, when he was out there was incredibly disruptive. I mean, him and Howard Cross, I didn't notice getting a ton of reps during team, but when he was out there, Riley was really good. And I thought it was interesting too. I thought Howard Cross looked like he was working on his power moves a lot today. Like he wasn't trying to win in the gap a lot today, which, you know, would make sense, you know, with kind of what they were doing, 'cause they were working on a lot of their inside pressures. They were clearly working on, and I don't wanna get into specifics of what they were doing, but it was clear they were working on their inside pressure today, we're bringing a lot of linebacker heat today. A lot of linebacker heat today. Right. And like you said, that's like, they were bringing linebacker heat, which meant that a lot of times the defensive line was setting stuff up so those linebackers could kind of, you know, find their fits and those kind of things. Was the biggest, probably the biggest take, you know, but again, like, late in practice when Riley Mills and Howard Cross were kind of getting a little bit of a breather over there on the sideline, 'cause they were just drenched in sweat. That next unit was still out there, giving them everything though. I thought that that was a really good sign as well. You know, like there's gonna be a lot of, like we expect, there's gonna be a lot of depth on that defensive line. 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What did you see from start with Drake Bowen? What did you see from him? Very communicative today, which was really what I was looking for from Drake, is how confident is he looking and what he's communicating to the rest of the defence. He looked very confident when he'd see motion, he's looking at the guy, get in here, you go here, a lot of good communication. I think Drake needs to be a little bit more aggressive finishing off his pressures compared to what we saw today. There's time he'd kind of come down Hillman, kind of slow up, like he's not sure if he's got to get around here or there. I want to see a little bit more of that. It was actually interesting, Sean, when you look at the lineups defensively, use the first time they actually lined up in a team period, it was Jack Kaiser and Jayden Snead. Jaylin Snead that were out there together 'cause they were in their nickel package. Right. And so, but when they went to their base nickel, like they were in a type of nickel package, when they went to their base nickel, it was Kaiser and Bowen. And when they went to their base three line back a room, it was Bowen, Kaiser, and then they had Jaylin Snead at Rover. We also saw Jayden Osbury inside in that base and that extra nickel package, where he came in with the second group, it was him and Kingston. - Him and Kingston, yeah. And it was also appeared where it was Bowen and Osbury also. So they were really working a lot of guys in and out. Drake just has to finish a little bit better than what we saw today. But the big thing for me is I liked how much he was communicating, getting people lined up. Today, they were just turning Kingston loose. He wasn't doing a whole lot of get everybody said, it was just turning loose, which is what we call in the coaching industry, smart coaching, you know, you take Kingston to say, go get the ball. You know, he's a freshman, he's learning. He'll get that stuff. And so that was good to see. But a guy that I thought at linebacker that impressed me, Sean, was Jaylin Snead had a really good day today. - I thought so too. - And not just as a pass rusher. I mean, he's been doing that for two years, but just reading things, getting downhill, getting out to the flats. I thought Drake did a really nice job today in coverage. I thought he had some really nice plays where he kind of got underneath the tight end and underneath end cuts and force in completions. That's an area where I want to see Drake continue to improve his game. So that was good to see as well, but the pressure is where he's got to get better. I thought Jack looked comfortable inside. Kingston's a really dynamic player as well. It's got a lot to learn, but his ability to win as a pass rusher, not just in one-on-ones, but in team. - Yeah. - Jaylin Snead had one or two. After that, the best blitzer today was Kingston. I mean, he knows how to win as a blitzer. Like, and there was one time, did you see that one where he kind of came around and the guard was there and in Kingston like dipped and like got underneath the guy and then came back up the other side? And I was like, that's a freshman? Like, are you kidding me? So it was impressive to see that. Like, there are guys that just have a feel for that. - Oh yeah. - And he obviously has that. And then, like you said, turn him loose, let him go get the ball. Let's not overthink it as coaches. This guy knows how to make plays. And that's definitely where he's doing it. - The ball. - Yup, attack the ball. And as a freshman, you limit the thinking that way as well. So you don't have to worry about that really as much. But you know, and I agree, like with Jaylin Snead, specifically where we've seen in the past, it's like you've seen sort of the fatal error where, you know, what should be maybe a short completion or, you know, like a past defendant or whatever turns into a bigger play. Like he was covering ground well out there and like he knew where he was supposed to be. He looked like a locked in guy and that's really good because this is obviously a guy that a lot of people have been waiting on for a couple of years. - Absolutely, it's a talented group of linebackers, Sean. They're so deep there. I didn't get a chance to see any of the other freshmen today. Just can't watch everybody. So I didn't get a chance to see any of Teddy Rezak or Bodhi Kehoon today. - Yeah. - Having the report on them. But it's a really rangy athletic group. I thought Jaylin Snead looked as confident, like genuine confidence as he's ever. But he's always been kind of a chirpy guy and, you know, likes to talk. But I'm not even talking about that. I'm not talking about verbally. I just mean looking like he knew where he was going and then getting there. You know, Jaylin would kind of talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And then it's like he's not where he needs to be or he's not getting where he needs to be as confident with any confidence. You know, he's like, okay, I think I'm supposed to go here. When he knew what he was doing, he looked great. He looked like the five star recruit that he was. - Right. - I saw a lot more of that guy today. - Absolutely. - He knew where he was going and he went there. It was good to see that. He's cause he's a bit of a wild card for Notre Dame to me. He's a bit of that, well, he was a great recruit. He's really athletic, but he's never shown to be a super instinctive football player. Today he looked a lot more confident and comfortable with what he was supposed to do from just in this. I mean, not from a, can he run fast standpoint, but like a, does he know where he's supposed to be? Can he be in the right place? Can he make good reads? Can he get where he needs to get to? - Can he be a three down guy and not a specialist? - Yeah, exactly. - He looked a lot more like a three down guy today. Yep, I agree with that. - Anything else on the linebackers? - No, I mean, just like, those are guys also that, hey, great scholarship, highly ranked recruits at Notre Dame at linebacker are really athletic. - I mean, good starters. - Yeah, good starters. - But like, that's why we talk, that's why we emphasize that because there's other times you're just like, you think about in 2021, I think you're starting linebacker core, I believe, was Drew White and JD Bertrand. I believe so. Let me pull it up. I think Drew was here in 2021. - Yeah, because that would have been Maris was injured. - Yeah, they were the top two linebackers 'cause JD wasn't supposed to start. He had beaten out Shane Simon for number two, but Maris was supposed to be the starter. So yes, you've got a six foot 220 pound linebacker, Mike in a six, maybe six one. I mean, they listed JD at six one. You and I stood next to JD Bertrand. I don't know these definitely six one, you know. But he was the big guy of the group. You know what I mean? And now you're talking about like Drake Bowen and Kingston and Jalen Sneed and Jalen Sneed's one of the small guys now at six one and a half, six two. - Yeah. - And he's put on some good weight too this off season, Sean. - JD was more of the sawed off kind of classic line. You know, the guy had more speed than I think that a lot of people gave him credit for. But you're right. - Those two guys were athletic, right? - Yeah. - And even Drew ran a four six something in his pro day. Like those guys could run, but they were little. - But the length, the length and athleticism that this group has is just a lot different now. Come a long way in what three years now at this point. So no doubt, another good sign. I tell you, I was more than encouraged to see Benjamin Morrison out there running some actual first team reps today. And I didn't see him initially 'cause he was on the far side of the field and I was writing down all the other numbers of the guys who are out there. And then the next thing I know, I saw Benjamin Morrison holding his helmet, like, you know, taking a couple, you know, reps off, standing on the sideline. And I was like, is Morrison been out there playing? And you're like, yeah, he was with the first team. And then, you know, when he shuffled back in, that was really good to see that he was out there getting some real reps on day one at camp. I'd be shocked if when they put the pads on if he's out there in team periods, shocked. That's just my opinion. But a day like today, you're not tackling. Like that's where you're just out there doing your thing and he was out there and, you know, looked a little rusty to me, to be honest with you. Didn't play the ball well in the air a couple of times and got beat on a couple of deep balls. But you don't worry about that from him 'cause he's, you know, he's shown it for two years. He just looked like a guy that has, you know, missed spring and missed a lot of the summer from reps. So you're just a little rusty, you got out, played for the ball a couple of times. But looked athletic. I mean, he looked in good shape. That part was there, but it was good to see him. But the big thing is, with Benjamin Morrison, I just wanna know he's gonna be there. 'Cause he's gonna be there. I know what he's gonna do. I mean, you know, he's gonna play. I just wanna see him that he's beat. He'll be there. Yeah, but, and that was, that was good to see. - Christian Gray, I mean, not that it should be a surprise, but we saw him step up and make some plays out there as well. - There's one play, Sean, where I thought it was Benjamin. And he made a break up on the ball and I was like, - It was great. Yeah. - And Sean Davis, let me go. 'Cause that was Christian. And I was like, what? And I looked, no, you said that. You're like, that was Christian. And I looked over and I was like, was it really? 'Cause then, and I'm like, shoot, that was Christian Gray. I keep the, sometimes I can't tell those two guys apart. - Not just 'cause I had my glasses off for a second, 'cause I was going back and forth with the binoculars on the other field. And I'm like, did I see it wrong? And, but no, it was 29 and not 20. - Yeah, and you saw, you know, it could have been like where they, you know, 20 was on the play, but now Christian's in the game. But then you, when you saw Benjamin, it was very clear that Benjamin didn't just take a rep and go off the field. Like he was already off the fields again. It's Christian. So it's good to see there, but it's not just that they look similar and their numbers are similar, but just Christians are really loose athletic guy. Today was a great day for Christian Gray because he got beat a few times and he got beat by veterans that are savvy route runners. When just the athletic guys are going against him and you're just trying to beat him with athleticism, it's not gonna happen. You're not, it was Bo Collins got him a couple times 'cause Bo is savvy. He knows how to manipulate his speeds and Christian's not quite there yet with that, from an experiential standpoint. And so I thought it was good to see that today, to see him look good and make a lot of plays, but then also get beat a few times by a veteran that knows how to run a route. 'Cause that's the thing that Christian has to learn, right? You know what I mean? He's long, he's athletic, he's confident, he's smart. He knows how to play. I mean, Christian Gray might have the best ball skills of all the corners. And that's saying something when you consider how good Benjamin Morrison is, is that? But he just, he knows how to get on the football and knows how to break on the football and knows how to find the football. And so to have him get tested by some of that route type of stuff, he needs that. He needs to be able to go against the bokeh. If I'm Mike Mickens, I'm gonna try to get Christian Gray lined up against Bo Collins in one-on-ones as often as I can. - Yeah, because again, this is something that the receiving core couldn't give these guys last year. They couldn't give the guys the kind of challenges that they're gonna see this ball camp because they just didn't have that same kind of experience. I think you said it earlier. Jaden Thomas was really the most veteran savvy guy, but that was still only one year. Now, you know, like you flip in these guys with Bo Collins, Jaden Harrison, Chris Mitchell, all these guys with three, four, you know, like in Mitchell's case, he's an old gray beard out there. You know, like these guys have been around the block and they can challenge these guys quite a bit. And ultimately it's gonna be nothing but good for this secondary 'cause they didn't just go out there and win every rep all the time. - Yeah, no, they didn't and they have to work. And I think that's good. That's very good for this secondary. I thought Jaden Mickey is another guy that I thought Jaden had a pretty good day. He got beaten a couple of one-on-ones, but it wasn't that he didn't get beat by a lot, but he also made some really good plays. And he had one, I'm trying to say, who was that one-on-one rep against? He had a really nice win in the one-on-ones. He got beat on a dig route by Chris Mitchell. And then he, KK Smith tried to beat him on a post-route. This is the one that I thought was one of the more encouraging reps of the day. Chris, KK Smith is fast. And if there's one concern about Jaden Mickey, it's what? Can he handle playing the vertical game? You know, can he run with the fast receivers? 'Cause I still remember watching Brayden Lindsey give him a really hard time every day in practice a couple of years ago because he just couldn't handle Brayden's speed. And KK has really good speed. And there's a play where KK ran a post on him, didn't run a really good sharp top end, which is something I wrote about in my practice where he's gonna get better at. But Jaden kind of ran with him and forced him in completion. He just, he never let KK accelerate away from him. And that was very good to see. But when you, I just don't know why quarterbacks would throw a quick game in front of Jaden Steenly's playing off coverage. It's just, it's very dangerous for the health of your wide receiver. And if they had pads on today, he would have lit a couple of guys up. - That's true. - Well, if they had pads on and he wasn't one of their, 'cause you're not supposed to tackle, 'cause there's that one time KK got tackled on the screen. And I won't describe what happened, but it was very encouraged by it. And we were like, when's the last time you saw him learn to do something like that? I don't wanna get in trouble by describing the actual play. But it was nice to see that, but like he got tackled and Freeman went off. You know, 'cause that's just, you don't tackle him, you don't have pads on it. You just don't do that. And you've been told not to do that. But here's a couple of times, man. Jaylin's, Jayden Snead came running down, or Jayden Micky came running downhill. Like if they had pads on and this guy had a different helmet on or different colors on, he's gonna be like, you know, 'cause he was, he makes such, he is at his, like he is the old school cover two corner. He's just, if he can keep stuff in front of him, he's so smart and instinctive, but he also, he's faster downhill than he is like opening up and running along. - Right. - He's got that really good short area quickness. And when you combine that with his strength and his intelligence, he makes a lot of plays in the football and he did that again today. And like there was, I think he had one, there was a completion against him and team where he was playing off coverage and they hit a little quick route. But as soon as the guy turns around, Jayden Micky's helmet's like right up in the guy's chest, like yeah, you're getting stoned at a five yards. It's just what's happening. So I thought he had a, he had a good day as well. I thought all the corn, I mean, chance to talk around a really rough day, but, you know, and there's one time coach Freeman got on him for not hustling after a play and, and, you know, but he, he, there was in his head a little bit, started grabbing, but I did think Chance had a better final team period. So I liked the fact that he didn't kind of just go in the tank 'cause he was getting beat, but he was, he was frustrated. And he got absolutely torched by, I think it was, I think it was Bo Collins on a post route. Let me go find it. I got my, my one-on-one chart here. I, I thought it was, yeah, it's Bo Collins just killed him on a post route. And Kenny mentioned he's doing a gorgeous post ball. - Yeah. - And it was in his head. And then, and then Mike Gilbert gave him a tough time, but then like after getting beat by Mike a couple times, he grabbed him a couple times. But then KK, or I thought Chance settled in and made a couple good plays in the ball. I had a couple of breakups late in the practice too, which I, I liked that because, you know, that today began like a day where when you're a corner, it gets in your head. And for a minute there did, he started grabbing guys and, but to see him kind of bounce back in the final team period and you could tell that he, you know, he got, you know, coached up a little bit and to see him finish well, I thought Chance finished well. That was a good time to see. - How about the two new guys they brought in from the transfer portal? Jordan Clark, we saw as, oh, go ahead. - There's one freshman I wanted to talk about. Leonard Moore is really talented. - Yes. - He, and he looks, he's not as thick as Cam was, but lengthwise he's got every bit is, he's actually probably got longer arms than Cam had. At least that's what it looked like today. But he, his ability to find the ball really impressed me today. And one on one's and then there's a couple reps down on the other team. Like I mainly watched the first team, but when they were kind of in the huddle, the other team was taking a rep, I'd watch it. He is really, really talented. Like, I don't know if he's ready to play right now, but he's long and he's a lot faster than maybe I thought he would be right away. But I thought Leonard Moore was a freshman that really impressed me. 'Cause that's why I thought you were going when you said newcomers and I was like, oh yeah, I'm going to talk about Leonard Moore. - I forgot about it, but you're right. - You're so many guys. 'Cause you're so many guys. - Yeah, he's someone that, just kind of based on, like when you look at Benjamin Morris and two years ago, Christian Gray last year, just as, as true freshman in each of those years, he's kind of the guy that I'm looking to see. Like, does he, is he able to make some kind of mark? - Yeah, I mean, can he push Cam Chance Tucker for that number two boundary spot? - Right. - You know, that's going to be a question that we'll see. And, you know, like, based on, I mean, that was good. He didn't get beat as much as Cam did today because he was down on the second group, not going against-- - Exactly. - Oh, Collins, and Michael Gilbert's on his defense. - Easier for him. - It's a little bit, you know, but I thought Leonard's, I mean, he's got the talent to do. So somebody asked, you know, can he be as thick as Cam was by the time he graduates? I just don't think he has the same kind of frame as Cam. You know, Cam was legit, 205, 210-pound guy. I mean, Cam was a big kid. I don't think Leonard has got that kind of broad shoulder, you know, frame that Cam had, but he'll be plenty thick enough. I'm not worried about that. Cam was abnormally big for a corner. Like, not just tall, but like, big for a corner. You don't have guys like that are rare, just because they normally don't move well. They don't usually can't flip their hips well enough to play corner, Cam could. But Leonard's more of the traditional like tall, skinny corner. You know, like really narrow hips, narrow shoulders, just the traditional tall, skinny corner. But he's a pretty tough kid and he can move, I thought he had a really good day today. Okay, so now the two transfer portal guys, Jordan Clark and Rod Hurd. Jordan Clark, you can see the football IQ in Jordan Clark. Like he's a smart guy. The problems he had today, Sean is, and one of the things I was told in the Intel piece was he's really smart and he knows the game a little better in Thomas Harper, but he's not as fast as Thomas Harper. And you can see that today. - Yeah. - Like when he got matched up in some of the over routes and crossing routes against Jaden Harrison, it's like, okay, he just, he thought he had an angle on the ball and then realized like, I just can't run with this guy. You know, so he's gonna have to kind of learn to play that a little bit. But you know, again, that's a guy that I've been told by people runs a four, three. They're not gonna face a lot of guys like that this year, but he's really smart, a good downhill guy, very good in zone coverage. You know, I thought it was in position a lot. Like he was better and this doesn't surprise me. He was a lot better in team than he was in one-on-ones. And I think that's gonna be true for Jordan Clark a lot. Like he's never gonna look like a million bucks in one-on-ones, but when you get him into team periods, he's gonna look really good 'cause he's a six-year senior, smart, high football IQ. Quality athlete, he's gonna have a bad athlete. He's just not an elite athlete. If he was an elite athlete, he probably wouldn't be a six-year senior at Notre Dame. He'd probably be in the National Football League, but he's really smart. And you could see that like I was like, when you saw him during this one-on-ones, you're like, (laughing) - Yeah, I know. - But during team, I thought he looked like a completely different guy. Looked way more comfortable in team. - He did love mixing, really. - When you're mixing up zones and sometimes you're in zone. 'Cause like one-on-one, sometimes when you're just way faster than a guy, you know it's not zone. You don't have to, I'm just gotta outrun you. And then in team, when you're playing zone, you're mixing it up, sometimes you're in man, sometimes you're in zone. You're gonna play with different angles. You know, in team, you're just one-on-one, you're just lining up mono and mono. And team, okay, I'm gonna play outside leverage this time 'cause I'm trying to take this way or inside leverage this time. It's just a little bit of a different deal. But I thought he looked a lot better in team than he did in the other one. - I didn't see Rod hurt a ton, Sean, like during team. Like, it seemed to go out there and I don't remember him getting beat at all. I thought he, I thought athletically he looked good. Like, I'll say this, this is one thing I can guarantee about the secondary. There are gonna be a lot more athletic at that second safety spot than they were a year ago. - For sure. - Like, when you watch Rod hurt and how he looks athletically and he's another smart guy that you could just, you could see it being the right positions. And then you add Jordan Clark to the mix, you add a Don Schuler. I thought a Don of the safety is Don. A Don probably had the most active practice. Like they got on 'em a couple times for being out of position, but he flies downhill. - Right. - I mean, there was a couple of times, Sean, he caught, he hit a receiver or sort of tied in on a slide route. Where I'm like, that had to be a linebacker. Like, how did a safety get from there to there, that quickly? - Yeah. - He's a really smart kid. And I was surprised, he was the most verbal of all the safety today. I didn't hear another safety talk all day. And now they were, I could see them talking, but I couldn't hear them. You can hear Don talk. And I'm not talking like, you know, Jay and Mickey talking like, I mean, just telling other people what to do. You know, like not even that, but like sometimes you're not telling somebody else to do, but you have a check to make. So when I see this, I yell, you know, this, this, this, this term, this term, this term. And now somebody else has to know that and then they may make a check. But you've got to alert them to that. And we saw that a lot from a Don today. - Yeah. - He's very communicative. And that's obviously very important, especially at that position. But there's so many guys with all the athleticism and speed in the world. But if there's that hesitation and he doesn't know where he's supposed to be, that's, that's very crucial. And I was, I was very encouraged seeing him out there right away cause he came out. He, you know, he took the reps with Zaver Watts right away when they split into the, to the team stuff. And he played the part. He played the part. - He looks like the most veteran guy on the roster. - Yeah. - Like just physically, he looks, I've said this before and you saw today, he looks like a four year NFL vet physically. Meaning just like muscular and in the face, he just, he looks like a 27 year old, not a 19 year old, which is when he is, you know? He's a strong kid. And he's, he's playing with a lot of confidence. And you know who had the best practice I've ever seen him have? Luke Talich was really good today. - Yeah, he did. - Like Luke's problem, Sean. Luke's always been athletic and rangey and all that. But Luke's problem is he just didn't play a lot of confidence. He wasn't certain of what he was doing. He wasn't sure where to be. I mean, during the spring, Al Gold was constantly getting on him about just go. Just stop thinking, just go. Today we saw that there's a couple of times where he almost picked a couple balls off on throws to the tight ends cause you're like, hey, I can complete this ball. He's still five yards away. And by the time the ball gets there, Luke's arrived and broke up a couple passes, almost had a pick on a pick six on one of them. This was the most confident he's looked on the field. And when I talk, I'm not talking like, oh, I like myself. I mean, confidence and knowing what to do, you can't be confident when you don't know where you're going. I've used this analogy before, Sean. It's like when we were kids and we'd go drive to a friend's house, you grew up in Kansas. I grew up in Northwest Ohio. We've driven in the country before. And you're going out to a friend's house and you've never been out there before. Or it's a night and it's not a lot of lights. And you're not just, right? You're like, you're driving slower, you turn your brakes on, you're not sort of go. By the 10th time you've gone out to your buddy's house, you're cruising 'cause you know where you're going. I know that there's this 'cause you don't wanna go fast 'cause then all of a sudden you hit that like 90 degree turn. And if you go straight, you're in the corn field and it's like, this was a short turn. But when you're going there the 10th time, you're just, you know, you're going there. The same way it is a football. You're not confident in where you're going 'cause you don't know what to do. You're not gonna play a hundred miles an hour. You want guys to do that, but just human nature as you don't. And so today was the most confident I've seen Luke look. And so once he's confident, then that allows the athleticism to take over. And what you realize is this is not a walk on who earned a scholarship. This is a scholarship kid who had to accept a walk on for a year in order to be at Notre Dame. This is a division one, power four, power five football player. And you can see why Washington State and Utah offered a scholarship at a high school. Athleticly, you know, he's got all the tools. It's just, you know, up here he had, and then here he had to believe in himself and have constant what he was doing to go play. And to at least for today, we saw Luke look, do that. And it's like, you know, this is what I was told by a source this summer. If he can do that consistently, he's gonna play. Like they want a fourth safety in the rotation this year. And I believe that they want Luke to be that guy. He's just got to go out and earn it. And at least for today, he looked like that kind of guy. - I agree, I agree. So I'm out there making plays a couple of different times. And you're right. Like he, the instinct is coming. It's starting to click that light bulb is starting to come on for it. - So long. - Yeah, he's so crazy long. Like, like we know Jaydon Blair's gonna look like at when he shows up, but like Luke Talich is just when, I can't wait till him and Jaydon Blair teammates. I hope sometime next year in fall camp, there's a drill where Luke Talich is at one safety spot and Jaydon Blair's at the eye. 'Cause you're gonna have like two, six, four plus dudes playing together, man. - That's true. - He is really long, like really long athlete, but he looked pretty good. I didn't get a chance to watch any of the freshmen really today, Sean, to be honest with you. I didn't see Bronte Tae Johnson or Taperon Benny Powell or I saw like one, one on one rep where Kennedy Erlacher got beat. I didn't pay a lot of attention to those guys today. So I don't have a lot to add about them. - Yeah, again, it was just to the fact, you know, again, it's a, I like the fact that they were giving those third and fourth string guys opportunities to do some live stuff of their own, you know, at the same time, the first and second team, but the fact that they were on a farther field just made it way too hard to, you know, to be able to really see everybody in detail on that far field. - How about Thor? You want to talk about Thor at all? Some of those hang times that James Rendell was throwing up there? - We're kind of, you know, pouring one out for our homey events who's not here today, so we're gonna talk about those special teams. - Yeah. - We'll talk about him and then we'll talk about the kickers. - Okay. - And how I jinxed him today. - And that's right. - So the legend of James Rendell, AKA Thor's Legitron, he, I mean, I normally don't pay attention to our special teams. - I will say I thought he was gonna look bigger than what he, what he looked. - He's skinny. - Not that he looked strong, but like, with the nickname like Thor and being 219 pounds, I thought he's gonna look the opposite. - Let's be honest, the nickname Thor came from the fact that he's from Australia, you know what I mean? - Exactly. - So now everyone with an Australian accent's gonna be, you know, Thor, 'cause, and I'm like, guys, you do know Thor's like, you know, Norwegian, right? Like, I know that it's Chris Hemsworth and the movies, but like Thor's Norwegian, he's a Viking, you know, but whatever. But I'd usually just let Sean, or let Vince pay attention to special teams, 'cause he's always loved, even before his son became, you know, recruited kicker and punter, he saw his special teams, right? And, and, but today I was like, you know, I was kind of paying attention. I was like, oh, I wanna see James Rendell punter. And I'm like, oh my goodness. After the third one, you saw me. I got out the stopwatch and I started, I started timing his hang time. And he was consistently like four, four, five, or six. There was one pun he had that I hit it and it didn't start. And then I had to hit it again. And he still had a four, two hang time. And they were like, he was booming it. And you made a good observation, or was it you? I thought it was you. And I might've been Sean Davis. They were having trouble catching his punts. Did you notice that? - Davis said that, but yeah, you're right. - Yeah. - There's something funky about the way he kicks where they, and these are guys that we've seen return punts before that don't miss the ball. Jaden Kraidhouse, Jordan Faison, Zadarion Price, like they were all having trouble finding the, like when he was kicking it was so high. - Right. - Maybe it's got like a weird thing, but they were having trouble finding him. - They go up so far in that, you know, the point of that, that ball is up and there's a little bit of, you know, like a tilt to it. And then it just, the way it tumbles as it comes back down after being up that high, you're right. Like, 'cause there were a couple guys, you know, 'cause I was like, you know, there was, there was one, you know, where like the very first one was a drop by, by the return man. And there was a drop. - And there was like, like, yeah, yeah, Jaden Kraidhouse dropped it and then Faison kind of like the ball, like he let it like come down too far as he was trying. - 'Cause I think he thought it was gonna be somewhere else than he quickly recovered and had to catch it in his, yeah, yeah, I agree. - Yeah, exactly. - It was impressive. I mean, and I don't know that there was ever any room to run. I think 'cause he had a three, six one time that he just kind of line-drived, but he was, I mean, it was, I mean, just like just visually, forget the hang times, it looked so much different when he kicked it compared to the other guys. I mean, way different. - Yeah, and he was consistently, 'cause they were punting most of the time from their own 40 and he was consistently dropping that ball inside the 10 yard line, you know, pretty much with the exception of like the line drive you talked about and it looked like one time somebody kind of got a hand on some pressure off the edge, you know, they kind of squibbed one a little bit, but otherwise he was just like, he was money. - It was impressive. - And that's what I wanted to see was the consistency. Like how consistent is this guy going to be for a guy who's never kicked for a college football team before? - What I, what I, boom, boom, boom. - Yeah, what I did not evaluate today and some I have to keep an eye on is I didn't put a lot of thought or time into what was his approach like, you know, is he getting the ball off as quickly as you need him to or is he, you know, I didn't pay attention to that. And I'll have to do that next time that we get to see him punt, but that would be the only concern I would have is if he was getting it off slow then it's more susceptible to getting blocked. But man, he's got a strong leg. He was kicking the heck out of the football today. It was fun to watch. I don't enjoy watching kickers much. Like you know me, Sean. I'm like, whatever, just do the job. Like it was like, wow, it was impressive watching him kick today. - Yeah. - It'd be impressive. - And the hang times, that's something from last year that needed to be improved upon. And that coverage, 'cause the gunners were downfield on top of the, the, the returnman. - Every time. - Waiting on the ball to land. - Yes. - Like, I mean, Sean, there was literally two or three punts that I remember seeing where the, the gunners were waiting on him to, to, now be careful. I need to be careful of that because they weren't starting from the normal punt thing. They were starting from like 15 yards downfield, but the coach was like holding them and waiting on them. - Right. - And when the other punters were kicking, they were not, they were not getting down there as quickly, but there were several times where they're just sitting or waiting on the guy to catch the football. 'Cause the ball was up there so long. Like I was like, that's pretty, that's pretty awesome. - So we should probably talk about the field goal kicking now because I think we were, I think we were both pretty surprised, at least pleasantly surprised, I guess, based on what we saw in the spring, especially what we saw from Mr. Jeter today. - Well, there, there were two things I was surprised by, Sean. Number one was the accuracy that Eric Goins and Marcelo Diemade, I think it's his high say's name. I hope I'm not getting Marcelo's name wrong. They just were not accurate at all in the spring. - Yeah. - They were both very accurate. Neither of them missed a kick. They nailed every kick. And Marcelo hit one from 46, that was an easy make. So that was very impressive to see. I thought Eric Goins looked good. He's been, he was a, obviously a place kicker in college at the Citadel, he was their place kicker for a year. He was good, but what I was surprised by Sean is the leg strength that Mitch Jeter has. We knew he was consistent, he's over 90% the last two years. - Yeah. - And I think both of his misses were from plus 50, I believe, or the one year he had two misses, I think they were both from plus 50, misses were, I believe. But he, I was surprised how strong his leg was. He, like the miss he had, he missed one kick late. He was wide right and he just didn't get, you could see it come up foot, he just didn't get it. Like you just, it looked weird, it sounded weird and he missed right. And then they had him do it again and he nailed it right down the middle the next time and he did it. But that was, I think that one was in the 30s. Wasn't it, wasn't his miss from like less than 40? - It was the 24 yard line. So it would have been a 31 yard kick. - But he hit three or four, just 46 yarders, 41 to 46 yards that were just easy. Just like, I mean, crossing still kind of going, the one he kicked was kind of still climbing a little bit as it got into the end zone. Like it would have been good from easily over 50. Not the leg strength that Spencer Schrader, even that Blake Groopy had, but stronger than what I thought he was gonna have is spent South Carolina just never really, rarely let him kick long field goals. I was impressed with how, so like I expected him to have the accuracy the other guys had and so it was good to see everybody do that. But man, just the easy and it wasn't, he wasn't trying to muscle it up. He just was out there clean and crisp and just like, he's got really easy leg speed and showed me good, good power today. - Was Buckner the holder? - Number 26, 26 was the holder, 'cause I just realized that that was Tyler Buckner, 'cause he had such an odd number because I wrote down 26 as the holder. So I mean, that makes sense. You've got a former quarterback, who you expect to have good hands, Tyler Buckner, was the holder out there. - Yeah, and I'll tell you something right now, if Tyler Buckner is the starting holder, when we get into the season, if Notre Dame does not run some sort of fake with Tyler Buckner as the holder, I'm going to be very upset, very upset. Like, how do you not have Tyler Buckner hold, like run a fake if he's your holder? He's one of your best athletes. So I'm just telling you Coach Piagie, guys look good today, it's great to see that, but I'm just telling you right now, if we don't see a fake from Tyler Buckner this year, I don't care if it's against Northern Illinois or Navy or somebody that we don't think is that good of a team, I better see at least one fake from Tyler Buckner this year. - I mean, I think you're preaching to the choir at this point, because all anyone wants to see is some kind of fake, some kind of wrinkle with Tyler Buckner on the field. - Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So, and Tyler's done that before, I believe he's done it in the past, maybe I'm just thinking of high school, maybe he did it, but I thought he's done that before, I'd have to go back and look. I don't think he's done it in a game, like I'm not saying in a game, but I thought he has held before at Notre Dame, like in practices and stuff. So, yeah, we'll have to go see. - I think we got one more super chat, that's been sitting in here. - Oh, no, that was the first one. - Did we get that one earlier? - Yeah. - Okay, that was the first one. - All right, yeah. So I think we got all those. - Yeah. - And by the way, I'm just kidding, if they don't want to run, it's not Barty Village's decision to run a fake, even though I'm just being funny, but it is kind of interesting that the guy that two years ago was your dynamic, hopefully starting quarterback, is now buried on the depth chart wide receiver and doesn't really stand out athletically the way he did a couple years ago. - No, he doesn't, does he? - He's as athletic as he was two years ago, like it's not that. - But he doesn't stand out in the same way. - Yeah. - But this is overall, it's just so much better that like, look, two years ago, you had Tyler Buckner, you had, Audrick SMA and Logan Diggs are running back. Now, both very running backs, but they were not guys who you would say are elite athletes, good athletes for their size, but they weren't elite athletes. Now you look at this receiving core and you're just like, you know, like Braden Lindsey stood out two years ago, 'cause he was unique, you didn't have speed like that. Now it's like you've got four or five guys like that at receiver, it's just, it's a much different looking group, much different looking group. - The roster is in a very good place and continues to get into an even better place. - Yeah, absolutely. - Is that it? - I'm good. - We're good. - Did you miss anything? - I don't think so. I think we, I think we hit everything. - Yeah, we talked about it all, went off on somebody, you know? - It was bound to happen, right? - I wanted to just do it right away, 'cause I don't wanna do, just we're not gonna put up with that all year, you know what I mean? Like, look, if you, if you have a disagree with me, let's have it. There's people who disagree with me in the channel at the time, and I enjoy that, and sometimes you get fired up, like let's respond to it, but I enjoy it. And that's something, like Andrew Gilmore, I go, I go back in Andrew Gilmore all the time, but I do it 'cause like, he's coming from a place of, he has a viewpoint that's different than mine, but he's always respectful with it. He says, I think you're wrong, and here's why. And so I'll be like, dude, I think you're wrong. And sometimes he can get to me, but it's all like respectful, I love it. I'm glad he's a part of our site, because he always is, and he's willing to express a viewpoint that's different from mine, and I like that. What I can't stand is people who just do lazy things, you know, oh, you're biased, it's okay. You know, like how do you have a conversation with somebody about that, right? Like it's just, come on, let's be grownups and have a grownup conversation, 'cause it's not a bias, it's an evaluation. And if my evaluation is wrong, great. I'll say it, it won't be the first time. So there we go. - Day one is in the books. We've got a lot of fun to look forward to, and I think it's gonna be an exciting season based on, you know. - I hope so. And if you're not fired up about the team on Practice One, they're not gonna be very good. Like, if you don't think you're scholarship players, you know, look good without pads on a thing one, it's gonna be a long year. It's gonna be a very long year. So it's good to see that. And you know, it'd be good to see them again tomorrow in the next day and just kind of see how they look. Tomorrow we won't do a combo show. We'll just do normal shows because it's just five periods. And so we'll do our normal shows rest of the week. But yeah, it was good to be out there, Sean. Good to be out there watching some football. For sure, you know, football that matters 'cause you're actually working towards something, you know, we're a month away, right? First game's in a month. So yeah, I'm excited. Got my tickets bought for a college station and got my hotel booked. And it's that time of year, man. - We're ready to go. - We're ready to go one month from today. - As a matter of fact, the kickoff at Texas. - We'll be by an hour away from kickoff, right? In a month, you know, 6.30 right now. Kick off wheel off for 7.30, ABC. Game day's gonna be there. I'm excited, very excited. - Ready to go. Well, don't forget, subscribe to the Champions Lounge. There's a ton of great intel up there. Right now that you can find stuff, practice reports from today. Brian's intel from, you know, all kinds of different things earlier this week's pre-camp intel is still up there. If you haven't seen some of that, and of course we'll be there. Every time there's an availability for us to be at practice, we will be there during training camp and post-practice as well with the interviews. I think we will be able to talk to Mike Dembrock a little bit tomorrow. So looking forward to that. And like Brian said, he'll have his show tomorrow afternoon. We'll have ours at five o'clock tomorrow night. Ibodation Sports Talk. We'll have, well, we'll get into some of Brian, or Brian Marcus Freeman's comments from day one. And maybe some of Mike Dembrock's stuff tomorrow as well. Hit that like button, subscribe, and find us on all your different podcast platforms. Brian, good to be with you. It's been a while since you and I. We haven't done a show yet, it's been a long time. It makes us last fall camp maybe. Probably so, and we doubt it, how did you mention it? Probably the last time we did it. Yes. All right, sounds good. We will talk to you tomorrow. Thanks for being here tonight. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
