Stories of camp so far
The interesting nuggets I've seen/heard:
Julian Love will play both corner and safety. Sounds like he will start at corner, but move to safety in nickel package. I assume Vaughn and Crawford are the 2 corners coming in as part of nickel. Seems like Coleman will be the free safety, and whoever wins the SS job (probably Studstill or Elliot) will come off the field in passing situations.
Jay Hayes is not being cross trained at DT. He will play SDE only, and Trumbetti and Kareem will back him up.
Starters at DT (Bonner and Tillery) are having a strong camp, but still undecided on backups. Sounds like Dew-Treadway and the freshmen will be the next guys in. None of which are nose tackles. Tillery might have to play every snap this year.
EQ St. Brown is officially staying at W position. I think this means that Cam Smith is likely the other starter at this point b/c I can't see Boykin playing the X. Stepherson is apparently still in doghouse. Claypool hasn't been consistent with his hands and is still probably a year away (sorry Greg).
Kraemer is the RT, Eichenberg has been moved to the left side where he will be groomed to replace McGlinchey.
Replies to: Stories of camp so far
Kelly needs to move an OL to DL
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He needs to get the walking Humvee Pete Mokwuah to give a shit.
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If he hasn't climbed up the depth chart by now, then I doubt he'll do anything significant
Given the dearth of depth at the DT position, one would think that any big bodied person with at least *some* defensive tackle ability would be given an opportunity to play.
I doubt that he'll be asked back for a 5th year.
Just to get another body. or is there one in particular who could immediately contribute?
It seems a little late in the game to make a change now unless they have been working someone in during closed practices.
That defensive tackle situation. Yuck.
Even if Tillery and Bonner are the best versions of what they can be, what's behind them? Tillery can't play every snap, it just isn't realistic. And Bonner hasn't done anything for three years and now he's a key player. He's starting by default. Ugh.
And it isn't just Claypool (who jesus christ, inconsistent hands? Get on the jugs and catch 1,000 passes a day). Sanders and Stepherson are getting no team reps. I never hear about McKinley. I barely hear about Boykin. I don't know what's going on with that group.
Should mention Hainsey seems like he'll be really good, which is nice because if he latches onto right tackle and does well there, I could see Kraemer moving to left guard to replace Nelson after this season. Everyone seems to agree his best position is somewhere inside.
Are you not mentioning Watkins because you assume he's the other starting corner or you don't think he's in the mix or you forgot? It looks like he'll be on the field all the time.
Correct on Watkins
Was entrenched as starter coming in and is still entrenched on the boundary side.
Agree that Hainsey is a pleasant surprise. I really liked him out of HS, but thought he was a few years away. At this point, he's likely too good to redshirt.
Yes, it is tough. The only possible way to preserve them is to have some three and outs or at
least/most "six and outs", then just maybe, they can get into Notre Dame... I mean play Tillery as much as possible.
Or at least trying to dominate the clock via the running game.
Hey, a man can still dream, can't he?
My biggest concern, by far.
I don't remember ND ever having a good team without a tough DL.
DL depth has been a weakness for some time and it's tough to see a reason to expect improvement this year.
Hope I'm wrong.
Not worried about the WRs
Seems like the staff is doing a much better job of keeping info out of practice reports this camp and that's a good thing. Remember when Fuller exploded in 2014? We had heard some good things on him that summer but not enough to expect the 1,000+ yard 15 TD season he had. Think it'll be similar this year.
I'm not worried either, but it would be better for the team...
if Claypool, Sanders and Stepherson were bigger factors as I think those are maybe the 3 most talented (as far as upside) outside of St. Brown. Instead it looks like ESB, Finke and Cam Smith will be the starters, and that Boykin will be the main backup on the outside.
If backup talent at DT does not develop after the first two games,
will Elko be forced to morph into a hybrid 3-4 similar to Alvarez at ND? This would be a short-term solution, as the young players are there to eventually develop on the interior in the 4-3.Would this change-up hurt more than help in the long run. For some reason I feel Elko is on top of this regardless of the pace of subs development, and he will not sacrifice the integrity of his scheme for immediate results.
I doubt it.
The staff wants to install this defense moving forward. If that means taking lumps this year, then so be it. Moving to a 3-4 could possibly put a bandaid on this year, but just hurts the development moving forward.
Elko's goal will be able to get some of the backups to play 3 or 4 hard three snap segments.
And for the love of god, I hope Kelly buries some of the lesser teams so the young guys can get more reps.
Hopefully Elko can work some magic at DT
Because it's depressing right now.
Hoping the offense can get us through the first part of the season and Elko can have more time to develop a few of the younger DT's.
But I'm afraid we will look back at either a really depressing season or a season that could have been and say, "if only we had some DT depth things would have been a lot different."