Rest easy, Irish fans. Aaron Lynch practiced with the Irish today. If everything we could possibly talk about wasn’t discussed here or here, well — feel free to fill the comments here or take to the message-boards with your thoughts.
We’re moving on to other interesting topics.
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George Atkinson spent Easter weekend in Palo Alto, close to his Northern California home and also competing in the Stanford Invitational track meet. Atkinson won his heat in the 100m dash, qualifying for the finals with a 10.61 sprint. He finished sixth in the final heat, clocking a 10.69. Atkinson also participated in the 200m dash, clocking a 21.53 run, eight in a field of almost 50 sprinters.
Of course, none of the other sprinters in Palo Alto are 6-1, 210 pound running backs in the middle of spring football practice. Atkinson’s elite speed, not to mention his impressive size and ability to play in space, will be a very intriguing piece of the Irish offense next fall, especially with the depth at the tailback position allowing him to play from the slot and move around the field.
Head coach Brian Kelly has made it known that he sees Atkinson as a running back first, and while he doesn’t have an elite set of hands, there will be plenty of opportunities to get the ball out in space and make plays, not to mention create some favorable match-ups when the Irish can potentially put Cierre Wood, Theo Riddick, Amir Carlisle and Atkinson on the field at once.
Sure, it’d be great if there weren’t a ton of unanswered questions at the outside receiving positions. But Atkinson — who has the size to line up outside — might be too good of an athlete to keep off the field, playing out of position or not.
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Just when John Goodman was working his way back into the good graces of ND Nation, he spoke with Blue & Gold’s Wes Morgan about the quarterbacking battle. Even though no Irish fan wants to hear it, Goodman said Tommy Rees was leading the way in a four-man race.
“Coach is still working really hard with each one of them,” Goodman told Morgan. “One day one guy will start and another day another guy will start… Each one of them are doing really well. I think that Tommy is doing the best out of all of them, but that’s just my opinion. In the end it’s going to be the guy that runs the offense the best and also has the best timing with receivers and running backs.”
Any analytical approach to defending Rees falls on deaf ears. But while it pains a ton of Irish fans to hear it, it’s no surprise that a quarterback that’s started 16 games over the past two seasons would be having the best spring camp among a redshirt freshman, an early enrollee, and a guy that got his first sniff of playing in the offensive system in the regular season finale. Dialing things back to the basics with new offensive coordinator Chuck Martin will only accentuate the advantage Rees has, as his core competency was never the issue. (Rees did walk in as a freshman in garbage time against Navy and march the Irish down the field after Dayne Crist struggled to do anything against the Midshipmen.)
Two years ago, when Rees was a rising sophomore battling incumbent (but injured) starter, the battle went well into the summer and fall camp before Kelly named Crist the starter. If any of the other quarterbacks are going to make a move, it’ll likely be during summer work, when there isn’t a clock governing study hours, and the team does its voluntary work together.
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Much has been made about a reported fight between Aaron Lynch and right tackle Tate Nichols that occurred during practice before Easter break. Nichols and Lynch have seen a lot of each other this spring, going one-on-one countless times in drills and positional work, not to mention during scrimmages and team time. At 6-foot-8, 320 pounds, Nichols is a massive guy, a road-grader type that’s impressed coaches with his power and feet. Working under Harry Hiestand, who has lit a collective fire under his offensive line, it’s no surprise that Lynch, who practices like he plays, would mix like oil and water with the guy assigned to blocking him, who is also battling for a starting job.
While nobody wants it to happen, fights occur during practice. They’re also forgotten, as players and coaches move on. It’s certainly news-worthy information that an incident occurred. But it’s a pretty big stretch to think an in-practice fight would be enough to get someone to walk away from the football program. Again, nobody wants to see things come to blows, but when a near decade-long search for “nasty” football players has been at the top of Irish fans wish-lists, these kind of things happen.
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A minor knee injury to linebacker Dan Fox will give linebackers Kendall Moore and Jarrett Grace a chance to see more of the field, as they’ll likely work in with Carlo Calabrese at the position opposite Manti Te’o. Grace was the first player to be dubbed a “werewolf” by defensive coordinator Bob Diaco (so that has to be a good thing), and has been really impressive this spring after almost working his way onto the field last season through a packed depth chart.
While Moore might have been the biggest loser when it came to Te’o returning for his senior season, he’s too good of an athlete and playmaker to keep off the field, and Fox’s injury should give Moore a chance to end spring with some momentum. The Irish will focus on recruiting insider linebackers, but there’s some intriguing depth that will give the Irish a chance to find a Corey Mays type player, someone who spent most of his career on special teams before earning his shot to start, before heading to the NFL.
