It appears the drama surrounding Aaron Lynch‘s absence from practice before Easter Break has come to an end. Both Irish Illustrated and IrishSportsDaily.com are reporting that Lynch is back on campus. One source has confirmed the same for me as well. As noted by Brian Kelly when he spoke with the media last week, this has always been the plan.
That said, with a long holiday weekend and not much football to discuss, rumors and speculation were rampant, and Lynch’s return to the field Wednesday will likely be the only thing to end a mysterious absence that was simply explained as “personal reasons.” Whatever the reason for heading to his mother’s home in Ohio, the Irish defense is certainly fortified with Lynch in the lineup, and he’s expected to build off a freshman season that saw him lead the Irish in sacks.
We’ll hear more from head coach Brian Kelly on Wednesday, but for now any national crisis seems to be over.
***
While 2013 recruiting commitment James Onwualu isn’t the most decorated prospect on the Irish board, he has done more than his fair share to help build recruiting momentum for Notre Dame, working with quarterback Malik Zaire and offensive lineman Steve Elmer to help bring the once slow-blooming recruiting class into double digit commitments.
ESPN RecruitingNation’s Jared Shanker wrote an interesting article about the Cretin-Derham Hall running back/wide receiver, and the training regimen that’s helped turn him into one of the Midwest’s better prospects. Under the tutelage of Ted Johnson, another former Cretin running back and now a trainer in the Twin Cities that counts Michael Floyd among his clients, Onwualu has built power in a very untraditional way.
Johnson’s program is all movement and technique based. Instead a stack of 45-pound plates, the only weight working against Onwualu is his own frame. The emphasis is improving Onwualu’s posterior chain, an area Johnson said is where most athletes suffer injuries at in the collision sports.
At the Under Armour junior combine, Onwualu was one of the worst testers at the bench press, but he ran circles around his competition at the remaining drills.
Surprisingly still, strength is what separates Onwualu from his peers, his quarterback at Cretin-Derham Hall says.
“His strength allows him to break tackles anywhere on the field,” quarterback Conor Rhoda said. “He can turn a 10-yard hook into a 60-yard touchdown.”
The gripe with normal weight lifting programs, Johnson said, is they are set up to accommodate the lowest common denominator and not the elite athletes. A close friend of former Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, Johnson said that was the case with the strength and conditioning program there, and it is the same issue with the programs throughout the country.
“You walk into a facility and see what the philosophy is: They got five million pounds of weights and that’s all they do,” Johnson said, “and it doesn’t necessarily translate into performance. All we need is space.”
The strength and conditioning program during the Weis era has already been beaten and buried, so there’s no use rehashing that now. But it’s interesting that Johnson has stayed in touch with Weis, and it’s clearly a different training perspective that Johnson adhere’s to, and one that’ll likely be healthier for maturing athletes still in high school.
Onwualu will be an interesting prospect to watch develop. He’s a unique athlete — as this article attests to — and his testing results at various combines show some of the skills that he’s developed. While his forty time isn’t at an elite level yet, he’s shown explosiveness in shuttle and short burst exercises, which help explain why he’s impressed so many schools. Combine that with the off-the-field intangibles and leadership that he’ll be bringing to Notre Dame, which are on display just about daily with his work on other Irish recruits, and its easy to see why Onwualu has been one of the Irish’s most valuable recruits.
***
Over the weekend, veteran scribe Lou Somogyi had a great answer when asked if he could remember a more maligned returning QB than rising junior Tommy Rees. His response was one that should raise more than an eyebrow or two of Irish fans, and serves as a wonderful reminder that college careers aren’t defined after two seasons. If they were, most people would have long forgotten about national champion Tony Rice.
Rice was one of the most maligned, doubted QBs I ever saw after that first varsity season of his. Tons of people saw him strictly as a one-dimensional athlete who was “not the answer” to take Notre Dame to the Promised Land as a quarterback.
Put him at running back, move him to receiver, have him return punts or kickoffs … but please, do not use him at QB. You can absolutely not beat great teams, like Miami or Michigan or USC, with an option QB. Miami especially proved that by the way it would stop Oklahoma option QBs such as Jamelle Holieway or Charles Thompson. (Of course, these same people didn’t note how Miami crushed drop-back passers even more.)
Somogyi went on to talk about the perfect prototype for the 1988 Irish offense: six-foot-five quarterback Kent Graham, who wowed Irish fans and reporters with his prodigious arm and high school reputation. At the time, the prevailing wisdom was — as Somogyi put it — “YOU CANNOT WIN AGAINST TOP TEAMS LIKE MIAMI WITH A #%^&*$ OPTION QUARTERBACK! WHEN IS THAT IDIOT HOLTZ GOING TO RECOGNIZE RICE CAN’T GET IT DONE!!!”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told by readers or Irish fans that Notre Dame will never be able to win — especially against top competition — with a one-dimensional quarterback like Tommy Rees. Thanks to Lou for pointing out the wonderful parallels between that offseason and this one.
Now if only the similarities continue between the ensuing seasons…
