Today's Irish Spring Game... - Notre Dame's OL is the biggest I've ever seen. Only one player is under 6'5" and he's 6'4". Multiple players were 6'7" and 6'6". There is experience and depth everywhere. The team has 10-12 real linemen with more on the way... - New freshman Jerry Tillery at 6'7" 300lbs, has been wowing his older teammates at practice. I'm really glad to have this one... - The Irish have two outstanding, experienced, QBs under center. No surprise there... - The ND stable of experienced WRs is as good as anybody's in the country. There are burners and tall guys and possession receivers etc. Most amazing of all are the TE's. Durham Smythe, Tyler Luatua and Nic Weishar would all be starters at most schools, yet there's a real possibility that none of them may be able to hold the starting position against incoming frosh Alize Jones. http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/player/_/id/177270/alize-jones - Lots of good looking TBs and CJ Prosise was a revelation. He's bigger, faster and more physical than the other running backs and there's more on the way there too. Folston is still the best TB though, with his quick moves and break-away speed... - The defense got pushed around by that huge OL, so it was difficult to analyze. Max Redfield looks fabulous at safety, but I'm worried about the lack of depth there. It's the one place that the team cannot afford to have any injuries... - Glad to have Jarrett Grace back on the field. He and his roommate Joe Schmidt have the possibility of taking this defense to a whole other level. They're both smart, fast and furious... - I think BVG has a lot to work with here and there's more on the way... - Overall this is a much better team than last year: more experienced, more athletic and more talented. If the coaches can't win with this group, then I don't know what else could be done...
8) BTW- My "What-in-the-World-Were-You-Thinking" award goes to sophomore DL Peter Mokwuah, who was called for roughing the quarterback...
I watched the highlights, could really tell much to tell you the truth. I thought it was interesting that after the game Kelly said that C. J. Prosisse was probably one of the top 11 players on offense, whether that will be at WR or RB is yet to be determined. But along with Jerry Tillery, C.J. is one of the biggest surprises of the Spring. Very good to see that Jarrett Grace seems to ready to go and go 100%, Joe Schmidt should be 100% by fall camp. Linebackers and DL should be a strength of the defense. The transfer from CAL will be a big help in the back, as will be the return of Kevarie Russell. This could well be Kelly's best team overall, maybe not as good as the 2012 defense, but definitely a better looking offense, experienced QB, solid OL, solid WR's, solid just about everywhere on the OL. But to go undefeated even a really great team has to have some luck, whether or not this 2015 team will get that goal line stand like they got in the Stanford game, or the missed kick in OT by Pitt, or another goal line stand vs USC...is yet to be determined. Texas, UVA, and Ga. Tech ...pretty salty start to the season. Speaking of Spring Games....you just have to hand it to Ohio State fans...99,000+ fans showed up for their Spring game...a NCAA record. Even Cornhusker fans don't show up in those numbers. I don't know how many fans were at the Texas game, but now where even close to that. Kudo's to you Buckeyes!
Terry, Our Spring game was very well attended and the weather was perfect, which really helped. Cardale Jones received most of the reps, a lot of young players got a taste of playing in the shoe. Gray team won 17-14, but most all of the stars from the championship team were missing yesterday for one reason or another. Looking forward to another great season!
Don, saying your game was well attended may be the understatement of the year. I read there were 90,000 fans at the game.