Notre Dame Football Practice Report - August 1

Notre Dame held its second practice of fall camp this morning on the LaBar Football Practice Fields. The media was able to see the first few practices and this is how the practice went down.

After going through a stretch period the team went through a special teams circuit drill. The quarterbacks went on another field to warm up, the offensive line and defensive line went with their position positions, but the remaining skill positions went through a special teams circuit. They would rotate to a different coach and work on a different part of special teams, whether that be coverage, block destruction and tackling.

The offensive line was working on three-man zone blocking, with a group of three consisting of a center, guard and tackle working to the left and a center, guard and tackle working to the right. The focus being on proper technique coming off the line, working on proper timing on combo blocks and getting to the second level. Line coach Joe Rudolph was certainly intense during the period and was hammering the linemen about the little details, which is exactly what you want to see from your OL coach this early in fall camp. The lineup was the same as yesterday for this period, with Anthonie Knapp (LT), Billy Schrauth (LG), Ashton Craig (C), Sullivan Abhser (RG) and Aamil Wagner (RT) working with the first group and Styles Prescod (LT), Peter Jones (LG), Joe Otting (C), Christopher Terek (RG) and Guerby Lambert (RT) with the first group. Talented freshman Will Black once again worked in at left guard during this period.

The defensive line under Al Washington went through a number of different drills focusing on their get off the line. The first drill was on bags and they were working two-man stunts between a defensive tackle and a defensive end. Following that drill they went to the shoot, which is a flat top canopy type structure that the linemen have to walk under. The purpose is to focus on staying low at the snap.

When they broke to individual periods it was your normal indy drills. The quarterback and running back did handoff action. The wide receivers worked on stance-starts and top ends. The defensive backs were working on footwork drills and staying in phase in coverage. The linebackers worked on a sled and also working on tackling drills with bags and a dummy. Max Bullough was focusing a lot on the details of proper tackling technique, including driving through contact and proper head placement.

There was a period of RVA (Routes vs. Air) in which the quarterbacks and wide receivers worked on two-man route combinations. It was a clean period for CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey, who were both sharp during this period. They were sharp with their ball placement and I didn't see any drops during the period. During receiver periods, Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison were constantly the first two receivers to get reps.

Since it was an individual period there isn't much to gather from a personnel standpoint. With drills this basic all the players look athletic and as expected, younger players made more mistakes with footwork and the correct technique of the drills, which brought on correction from the coaches. A couple of personnel observations is how impressive the agility and foot quickness are for young running backs Kedren Young and Nolan James Jr. Freshman wide receiver Scrap Richardson also looks a lot thicker than he did in the spring.

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