Weekend notes: Shembo, Hiestand, Heuerman, and more

By Keith ArnoldMar 30, 2012, 8:21 PM EDT

Brian Kelly met with the media after practice today, with the biggest piece of news being an injury to linebacker Prince Shembo. Spotted wearing a boot on his left foot, Kelly didn’t seem overly concerned about a slight case of turf toe, which will keep him off the field for a handful of days.

An injury to any of the outside linebackers on the roster would put the Irish in a precarious situation, but right now it lets Ishaq Williams get a taste of the starting job. Williams has been an interesting test case this spring, with both Kelly and defensive coordinator Bob Diaco mentioning the changes in Williams’ energy level during practice.

“He’s getting there. He’s getting there. The light is starting to go on,” Kelly said. “There were a couple of instances today where there were some one-on-one match-ups between Troy Niklas and Ishaq Williams… Pretty exciting stuff. He’s getting there. He’s got to do it consistently, but we know what he’s capable of when it all starts to come together.”

You can see the exchange in UND.com’s video (embedded right below here), and the smile that comes to Kelly’s face shows you just how impressive both Williams and Niklas are as athletes.

There’s no reason to think Shembo’s injury is a serious one, but it sounds like Justin Utupo would be a guy that could potentially flex out to the ‘cat’ linebacker position, as it wouldn’t make any sense to shift Niklas back to defense after spending the spring and offseason transitioning.

Here’s the Kelly’s entire exchange with the press from earlier.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKLaBjb0_rc&w=640&h=360%5D

***

The early returns on new offensive line coach Harry Hiestand are excellent. While the early returns on every new assistant coach are usually good, Hiestand has immediately shown himself an impressive recruiter and someone the players have latched onto from the get-go.

As someone that was extremely excited about the Ed Warinner hire when it happened, I expected the loss of Warinner to Ohio State be something that hurt the Irish offense. But from snooping around people close to the program, and just listening to some of the players and their reactions to Hiestand, it’s clear that the fit is a good one and the transition has been ultimately positive — almost addition by subtraction according to some.

Pete Sampson at IrishIllustrated.com has a great article showing just how much allegiance Hiestand’s players show him, with former All-Pro center Olin Kreutz visiting South Bend this week to spend time on the field with the Irish offensive line.

Chris Watt walked into the film room and stumbled across a legend.

Deep inside the Gug watching videos of Notre Dame’s offensive line was former Chicago Bear Olin Kreutz, a six-time Pro Bowl center. For a Chicagoland senior who grew up driving to Bears training camps, the introduction offered a shot of star power and insight into Harry Hiestand.

“I was definitely surprised,” Watt said. “How much he really wants to come back and help (Hiestand) and cares about him says a lot.”

Kreutz attended Notre Dame’s practice Wednesday morning and stayed after to work with the line on technique. In the afternoon the 13-year NFL star planned to watch tape with Hiestand, breaking down a group Notre Dame’s new line coach has drilled for just five practices.

Kreutz and Hiestand spent five years together with the Bears, which included a Super Bowl run in 2006. He attended a spring practice at Tennessee last year when Hiestand worked in Knoxville, driving more than eight hours to get there.

We’ll ultimately know how well Hiestand does with this line after watching it work next fall, but if Kreutz is any indication, Hiestand’s players stay tremendously loyal to him.

***

After a week where the Irish recruiting class made staggering in-roads, Notre Dame is entertaining one of the nation’s top tight ends, with Naples, Florida’s Mike Heuerman on campus this weekend. The line for Heuerman’s signature is pretty distinguished, and if the Irish are going to win out, they’ll need to beat schools like LSU, Miami, Florida State, and Ohio State, where Heuerman’s brother Jeff plays tight end for for Urban Meyer.

That said, the Irish sales pitch is pretty impressive, with Jake Brown getting a great quote from Heuerman on new offensive coordinator Chuck Martin‘s sales pitch.

“I was on the phone with Coach Martin,” Heuerman told Brown. “He was telling me, ‘When you’re here to watch practice this is our every day practice. When you see what we’re doing with the tight ends you’ll definitely be stunned and almost blown away and you’ve got to understand we’re not doing this Thursday and Friday because Mike Heuerman will be in town. This is what we do every single practice and this is what we plan on doing in the games.’”

If you listened to Kelly’s presser from above, it’s pretty clear the Irish are going to be playing two tight ends a lot of the time, with Eifert likely detached from the line and a physical mismatch with a cornerback. While Eifert is listed as a TE, he might as well be a jumbo-WR, and the battle to play the traditional tight end position is a three-man race between Ben Koyack, Troy Niklas, and Alex Welch, with Jake Golic also in the mix.

The switch of Niklas to the offensive side of the ball was a head-scratcher for some — especially when they turned down an elite TE recruit in Taylor McNamara. But when you consider they needed someone physically ready to be an in-line blocker first and a pass catcher second, it explains why you go to someone as physically impressive as Niklas, who is essentially an slightly undersized, more athletic left tackle.

***

Finally, Notre Dame welcomed five walk-ons to the football program this spring. I’ve already spotted a few of these guys in the UND videos, but here are the official roster listings:

No. 67: Kevin Carr, DE | 6-7, 325 | junior (Nashville, Tenn./Montgomery Bell Academy)
No. 17: Charlie Fiessinger, QB | 6-1, 185 | sophomore (Mason, Ohio/Moeller)
No. 63: Grant Patton, DE | 6-6, 256 | senior (Louisville, Ky./Saint Xavier)
No. 94: Dominic Romeo, DE | 6-6, 245 | junior (Turlock, Calif./Pitman)
No. 84: Andre Smith, WR | 6-2, 190 | sophomore (Davie, Fla./North Broward Prep)

One walk-on that’s also making some noise in camp is Minnesotan Connor Little, who is in the rotation at the ‘dog’ linebacker with Ben Councell and Danny Spond. Little, a six-foot-three, 225-pound freshman was a recruited walk-on from Hill-Murray High School in St. Paul, and had some opportunities to play Ivy League football before choosing Notre Dame.

Georgia OL prospect the first commit for new Notre Dame OL coach Joe Rudolph

By Douglas FarmerMar 29, 2023, 4:49 PM EDT

@AnthonieKnapp55

New Notre Dame offensive line coach Joe Rudolph pulled in his first recruit by continuing to chase a prospect he initially wanted at his last job. Three-star offensive lineman Anthonie Knapp (Roswell High School; Ga.) committed to the Irish on Wednesday afternoon, picking Notre Dame over Rudolph’s former employer, Virginia Tech, as well as Georgia Tech and North Carolina.

In total, more than half the ACC offered Knapp a scholarship. The Irish offer came only this past weekend with Knapp in South Bend catching up with Rudolph, who was the first Power Five coach to offer a scholarship to Knapp back at Virginia Tech.

“The hospitality and the heritage it kept made the school stand out,” Knapp said to Inside ND Sports in a text message.

At 6-foot-5 and less than 270 pounds, Knapp will need to put on weight at the next level, though that can be said of most high school juniors. He played left tackle last season, but unless the weight piles on quickly and consistently, Knapp will most likely play guard at the next level.

His footwork already looks more fundamentally sound than most high schoolers display, all the more impressive because Knapp could simply rely on overpowering his opponents as most offensive line prospects understandably tend to do. Knapp is content to use his length and footwork to let a pass rusher charge upfield, well past the quarterback.

Strength and mass will come with age and entering a collegiate conditioning program, and Knapp needs both of those, but length is uncoachable and footwork fundamentals hold up early careers as often as lack of strength does.

He is the second offensive lineman in the class, joining four-star offensive guard Peter Jones, also a preps tackle that is expected to move inside in college.

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Leftovers & Links: Notre Dame’s biggest offensive progressions this spring will be smallest to spot from afar

By Douglas FarmerMar 28, 2023, 6:00 AM EDT

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When Marcus Freeman was first hired as Notre Dame’s head coach in December of 2021, it was widely expected he would retain three-fifths of his offensive coaching staff. Instead, promotions elsewhere awaited two of those coaches, leaving only Tommy Rees as a constant.

Then Rees and one-year returnee Harry Hiestand departed this offseason, meaning Freeman’s entire offensive coaching staff turned over — and the offensive line coach twice — within 15 months of that supposedly being a piece of stability he could lean on as a young first-time head coach. Yet, one thing has not changed about Freeman’s relationship with the offensive coaches: He is trying to stay out of their way.

“Most of the [newcomers] are on the offensive side of the ball, so really I just try to stay out of the way and let those guys meet,” Freeman said last week at the start of the Irish spring practices. “Give them time to be together. They’ve been together a lot and met a lot and really, you have to meet to get everybody on the same page. A lot of that is cohesion, that ability to view these guys as teammates.

“… I’ve been in there a bit, and then we have our staff meetings to make sure everybody understands our culture, understands our expectations. It’s not where it’s a finished product, but it’s definitely progressing to where we want to see it.”

A year ago, the cohesion Freeman was most worried about on the offensive side of the ball was between Rees and a pair of inexperienced quarterbacks. Now, it’s the collaboration between an offensive coordinator, a quarterbacks coach and an offensive line coach who had never worked together before a month or two ago. Freeman, of course, knew offensive coordinator Gerad Parker for more than a decade, quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli for seven years and offensive line coach Joe Rudolph since Freeman’s playing days at Ohio State beginning in 2004.

That has been a common theme in Freeman’s hires, tying to former Notre Dame special teams coach Brian Mason, current cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens and defensive line coach Al Washington.

“There’s nothing more important than experience with somebody,” Freeman said. “I don’t have to wonder what this person is like when I’m not around. … When I can find a quality coach that I know can be the best at his profession, but also I have personal experience with them — I’m not saying we’re friends, but we’ve worked together. Coach Rudolph was at Ohio State when I was a player, but I knew what type of person he was.”

That is the commonality between those three new offensive hires, though a few pieces of similar backgrounds can be found between Parker and Guidugli. At 42 and 40, respectively, they both grew up in the Ohio River Valley and played college football along the same Kentucky-Ohio Interstate corridor. Parker then went straight into coaching while Guidugli knocked around the Canadian Football League and various iterations of short-lived secondary leagues in the United States until he went into coaching in 2010.

At the least, though, their formative years should have shared enough to lay a foundation now, the foundation upon which Freeman is counting on them to build an offense. That progression may be as important as any other made on the offensive side of the ball this spring.

After just one practice, Freeman saw value in a quarterbacks coach who can somewhat ignore the rest of the offense. Rees’s focus was assuredly on the quarterbacks, but Sam Hartman, Tyler Buchner & Co. are quite literally all Guidugli needs to concern himself with each day.

“When you take some of that responsibility off their plate, and it’s just coach the quarterbacks and see if they made the right decision because there’s so much that falls on [the quarterback’s] plate that isn’t really his fault,” Freeman said. “I know he gets the praise and he gets the criticism, but my biggest thing, did you make the right decision? That’s so important at the quarterback position.”

Parker thinks there may be more to the gig than the right decision. Wake Forest graduate transfer Sam Hartman should have little trouble with any intangibles of acclimating to a new campus and a new roster, even if he did not have to run many huddles with the Demon Deacons, but there will be one tangible shift to his quarterback play that Hartman might need to work on.

“Just in its simplest form, just taking snaps under center,” Parker said this weekend. “As simple as that. Just being able to secure a football under center.”

Parker wants to emphasize that because even as Notre Dame presumably opens up its offense a bit more with a deeper receivers room chasing passes from a stronger-armed quarterback, the Irish offense will still hinge on its veteran offensive line and trio of proven running backs.

Finding that balance can come in August. For now, finding that snap will be Hartman’s focus while Parker, Guidugli, Rudolph and a litany of offensive analysts strive to learn the same shorthand.

Shrewsberry: "I don't watch the NFL at all. I love college football. But I grew up a Notre Dame football fan. You don't know how many games Saturday afternoon I sat on the couch and turned it to NBC to watch it." https://t.co/Gj1o64K17n

— Tyler James (@TJamesND) March 25, 2023

INSIDE THE IRISH
— Sam Hartman’s practice debut features Notre Dame veteran Chris Tyree move to receiver, at least for now
— Thomas’ leadership, freshmen arrivals already improve Notre Dame’s receivers room
— Dynamic incoming freshman safety Brandyn Hillman exits Notre Dame before enrolling

A few facts for y'all:
1) Notre Dame's Blue-Gold Game is in less than one calendar month.
2) It is available exclusively via Peacock.
3) John Wick I, II and III are all on Peacock.
4) John Wick IV comes out today.

— Douglas Farmer (@D_Farmer) March 24, 2023

OUTSIDE READING
— Here’s the actually interesting thing about that Notre Dame NYT op-ed
— Notre Dame AD says NCAA could break apart without stronger NIL guidelines
— Ryan Bischel, Trevor Janicke will return next season for Notre Dame hockey
— 2023 NFL draft Big Board: PFF’s Top 150 prospects
— Bears tight end Cole Kmet fulfills promise, returns to Notre Dame for degree
— Increase in countable coaches rule reportedly unlikely to pass
— Timing rules changes proposed in football
— Men outnumber women at Notre Dame for the past 20 years, University denies gender quota
— 1 in 4 prospective students ruled out colleges due to their states’ political climates

This is one of the cooler things I've seen on campus in a long time. Good by whoever had the initial thought. https://t.co/kJBPQpup9Z

— Douglas Farmer (@D_Farmer) March 25, 2023

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Thomas’ leadership, freshmen arrivals already improve Notre Dame’s receivers room

By Douglas FarmerMar 24, 2023, 6:30 AM EDT

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As much criticism as Drew Pyne and Tommy Rees received for Notre Dame’s ground-bound offense last season, much of that approach was due to a reality beyond their control. The former Irish quarterback and offensive coordinator could not run the routes or catch the passes.

Notre Dame had few who could run the routes and among them, it seemed even fewer who could catch Pyne’s passes. Thus, the Irish threw for fewer than 200 yards in six games, not even reaching triple digits in the 35-14 upset of Clemson to start November. They threw 21 or fewer passes four times; raise that to 26 pass attempts and three more games qualify.

Of Notre Dame’s 192 completed passes in the regular season, 35 percent of them landed in the hands of tight end Michael Mayer. Another 22 percent found running backs. Six Irish receivers combined to catch 94 passes for 1,306 yards total last year. Seven receivers across the country caught 94 or more passes on their own in 2022, and three topped that yardage tally.

There simply were not ample options among the receivers for Rees to draw up plays with Pyne targeting them, particularly not after Avery Davis and Joe Wilkins were injured in the preseason, Deion Colzie was hampered in the preseason and Tobias Merriweather’s season would be cut short by a concussion.

The Irish moving running back Chris Tyree to at least a part-time role at receiver this spring will help solve that dearth but not nearly as much as the arrivals of Virginia Tech transfer Kaleb Smith and a trio of early-enrolled freshmen will. With them, Notre Dame has nine receivers on hand this spring, though who exactly leads them is a vague wonder.

Smith has the most collegiate experience with 74 career catches, and his size should place him into the starting lineup, but he is just as new in South Bend as early enrollees Rico Flores, Jaden Greathouse and Braylon James all are. Of the three rising juniors on the roster, each had a moment or two of note last season, but Jayden Thomas’s may have been the most consistent, finishing with 25 catches for 362 yards and three touchdowns.

“That’s the challenge I’ve had for that entire room,” Freeman said of finding a leader in the position group. “Guys that have been here. … I hope Jayden Thomas continues to excel on the field and then in his leadership roles.

“What he’s done in the weight room, I think he’s matured and said, okay, I can play at a higher level when I take care of my body or I’m at a weight I feel really comfortable at.”

Those were mostly generic platitudes, but Thomas’s 2022 stats alone are impressive enough to garner a leading role when dug into a bit. Of his 25 catches, 18 of them gained a first down. Of those 18, eight of them came on third down and another two were on second-and-long. If Notre Dame needed a chunk gain and Mayer was covered, Thomas was the most likely outlet.

That should give him pole position to be the boundary starter heading into 2023, with Colzie and/or Merriweather pressing him forward. Smith’s experience and size should pencil him in as the field starter, leaving the slot the question on the first unit for the next 14 spring practices.

Tyree could emerge there, but he is more likely to be a utility knife type of option, concealing any offensive alignment until the snap. Instead, rising junior Lorenzo Styles may get a chance at the slot. He has the tools if he has the focus.

Styles dropped six passes last season, more than anyone else on the roster and a bothersome number regardless of his final stats, but one that stands out in particular when realizing he caught only 30 passes for 340 yards and a score.

“It became I think mental last year,” Freeman said Wednesday. “Lorenzo Styles is a talented, talented football player, really talented. With him last year, it almost became a mental struggle, even just the basics of catching the ball.”

Last year, those mental struggles were enough to somewhat undo Notre Dame’s offense, because the Irish had no choice but to play Styles through his missteps. Now, whether it be injury or some headspace frustrations that Chuck Knoblauch could relate to, the Irish have some depth at receiver if needed. As the season progresses, that depth will become only stronger with the freshmen rounding into form.

“The young wideouts caught a couple balls, and it’s going to be good to see the progression of all those freshmen,” Freeman said. “They’re all going to be in different places on the road. That’s what I spend a lot of time talking to our team about, we’re all freshmen, you can’t compare your journey to this guy’s journey.”

Wherever those journeys are, they are welcome additions to Notre Dame’s offense. As much as newly-promoted offensive coordinator Gerad Parker will relish the luxury that is veteran quarterback Sam Hartman, simply having options on the perimeter for Hartman to look for should be an Irish improvement.

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Sam Hartman’s practice debut features Notre Dame veteran Chris Tyree move to receiver, at least for now

By Douglas FarmerMar 22, 2023, 12:48 PM EDT

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Marcus Freeman’s second spring as Notre Dame’s head coach has begun. As he pointed out Wednesday, it is quarterback transfer Sam Hartman’s sixth spring practice. Both are still looking around a bit for their proper cues, though Hartman’s hesitance now should be short-lived.

“He’s like a freshman, it’s new,” Freeman said. “I was joking with him, this is his sixth spring ball, but you’re at a new place, a new system, still figuring out where to go, what a drill is called, so you can see him at times just trying to say, ‘Okay, where are we going, what’s the drill, what are we doing, how many plays?’

“But he’s got some natural ability when he throws the ball and when he plays the game of football. You’ll see the leadership traits that he possesses grow because I know he has them. He’s a leader the first time you meet him. You can tell that he really commands respect.”

Freeman mentioned a “quarterback competition” between Hartman and rising junior Tyler Buchner only once, something that will reoccur throughout the next month, though more in name than in reality. Whoever takes the lead at quarterback, and it will be Hartman, will have a new target to get comfortable with in rising senior Chris Tyree.

Tyree spent the first spring practice working at receiver after lining up at running back the vast majority of the last three years. Freeman would not commit to that being a full-time shift for Tyree, but given the Irish depth at running back — led by rising juniors Audric Estimé and Logan Diggs, with rising sophomore Gi’Bran Payne the next in line for the spring while classmate Jadarian Price continues to “progress” from a torn Achilles last summer — Tyree working at receiver for the long-term should make some sense.

“He’s a guy that has multiple skill sets, and we know Chris Tyree is a guy we have to have on the football field,” Freeman said. “The ability to put him at wideout, we know what he can do as a running back, to really be a guy that can do multiple different things.”

Tyree took 100 rushes for 444 yards and three touchdowns and caught 24 passes for 138 yards and two more scores last year. The ball-carrying was a step forward compared to his previous seasons, but he caught 24 passes for 258 yards in 2021. In three games in 2022, Tyree gained more than 20 yards through the air. He was one of the more reliable pass-catchers on Notre Dame’s roster last season, finishing tied for fourth in receptions, one behind Jayden Thomas’s 25 catches and just six behind Lorenzo Styles, the leading returning receiver.

“You’re seeing more of that in college football and in the NFL,” Freeman said. “Guys that can play multiple different skill positions on offense, so do you treat him as a running back, do you treat him as a wideout? That’s what we have to do, and gain confidence in the quarterbacks in him as a wide receiver.”

Tyree’s shift was the most notable on the field on the first day of spring practices, but a handful of absences also stood out.

Junior linebacker Will Schweitzer, junior safety Justin Walters and junior quarterback Ron Powlus III have taken medical retirements, while junior cornerback Philip Riley, junior offensive lineman Caleb Johnson and junior kicker Josh Bryan are all no longer with the program, presumably each pursuing a transfer following this semester.

With those departures, Notre Dame’s roster now has 87 players on scholarship, two more than the NCAA maximum allowed when the season starts.

ON SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR Marty Biagi
In hiring Marty Biagi from Mississippi, Freeman strayed from his usual habit of hiring coaches he has previous experience with. He did, however, have some mutual connections to reach out to about Biagi.

“I remember when we were playing Purdue when I was defensive coordinator (at Notre Dame in 2021), I was sitting in a special teams meeting, and they did some unique things on special teams.

“I still know some people back in West Lafayette from my time there, and he does, too. Somehow his name got brought up, so I was interested in interviewing him last year before I hired [former Irish special teams coordinator Brian Mason]. I didn’t know [Biagi] personally, but I had talked to him before, I knew enough about him. It’s important because you need to know when you’re not around, you can trust those guys that you’re working with.”

INJURY UPDATES
Defensive backs Cam Hart and Thomas Harper will both be held out of contact for at least the near future as they recover from winter shoulder surgeries, while early-enrolled defensive lineman Devan Houstan Will Likely miss all springtime work due to his own recent shoulder surgery.

Tight ends Eli Raridon and Kevin Bauman will not take part this spring due to ACL injuries in the fall.

Freeman expressed some optimism about Price’s timeline, but even that was measured.

“I don’t know if he will be full go, but he has done a lot of running and I see him progressing to more and more actual football practice.”

Given Price is still less than a calendar year from a ruptured Achilles, it is most likely he is limited well into the summer.

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