There’s a ton of great information on the internet right now with Friday afternoon’s practice open to the media. You’d do yourself a favor to check out all the great stuff out there, but as always, here’s another way too close look at the UND.com Practice Report.
While it felt like they were editing a Jerry Bruckheimer movie with the quick cuts that makes it tough to decipher who is actually doing what, I took my best shot, and wore out the pause button, trying to make every little frame count.
The complete video is below, but here goes nothing.
0:55 — Bennett Jackson (2) walks in looking like the real deal. He was limited during practice today according to various reports, but Notre Dame might have their first All-American cornerback since what, Shane Walton?
1:01 — Fifth-year senior Tyler Stockton (92) broke down the team before getting to work. After a nice spring, Stockton has fallen in line behind Louis Nix, Kona Schwenke and some other players.
It’s interesting to note that Stockton’s “great” spring likely put a charge into Schwenke, who looks really fit during the snippets we’ve seen. That’s paying it forward for Schwenke, who was used as a similar prop when Louis Nix was on the outside of the starting lineup looking in a few springs ago.
(Motivation is a beautiful thing.)
1:05 — Don’t look now, but from this wide view, we can see that the Irish cornerbacks are running man-to-man with receivers. I think you can count on one hand how often that happened last year.
1:07 — We’re going into lightning cuts here (what is this, Transformers?), so it might be tough to stay up. We caught a flash of Prince Shembo before George Atkinson caught a kickoff. GA3 needs to get the spark back in his return game after a mediocre sophomore season.
1:09 — Corey Robinson (88) runs a pattern. We’ll see more from him in a few frames.
1:14 — Ugh. Here’s an educated guess on what we just saw. Cam McDaniel go through the gauntlet and run off tackle. Carlo Calabrese meets a back in the hole. Stephon Tuitt takes on Alex Welch. Center Nick Martin leads Will Mahone through a hole.
(Mahone put himself back on the map today, reminding people that he’s not just here to sit sixth on the depth chart.)
1:18 — Cam McDaniel cuts hard into a hole. Greg Bryant does the same, with Jaylon Smith crashing down hard to make a tackle, before Jarron Jones (94) helps clean up.
1:21 — Davaris Daniels (10) sits down in the zone and makes a strike from Tommy Rees (11).
1:26 — Heckuva play by Lo Wood (23), going up and taking a one-on-one ball away from Daniels on a deep throw by Rees.
1:28 — Greg Bryant hits the breaks before bursting through a hole. George Atkinson just gets into the second level of the defense before hitting the gas. Cam McDaniel reads his blocks for a big gainer.
1:33 — Steve Elmer is no match for Stephon Tuitt, who swallows Bryant whole in the backfield for an impressive stop.
1:37 — It looks like this coaching staff has uncovered a gem in Corey Robinson. Here the once unranked recruit, who received his first scholarship offer from Notre Dame, goes up and wins a 50-50 ball for a huge gain, making a nice catch on Lo Wood.
1:41 — Ishaq Williams drags down a ball carrier. Carlo Calabrese breaks up a pass heading Troy Niklas’ way. And Corey Robinson catches an end zone fade thrown by Tommy Rees for a touchdown.
(If Rees gets a little bit more accurate with the fade route in the end zone, that’s big trouble for opposing defenses.)
1:50 — You win the Practice Breakdown Power Ball if you had Will Mahone for play of the day. Here the sophomore back takes a quick throw from Tommy Rees and turns it into a big gainer.
2:00 — George Atkinson in the open field has to make opposing coaches sweat at night.
2:02 — Another nice Mahone run.
2:05 — A very nice block by Matt Hegarty who looks to have worked his way into the mix after a very scare medical scare last season.
2:08 — Is the future now? Jaylon Smith runs down the option, stretching the pitch play out and then tracking down the running back in the backfield. With Danny Spond out today with a minor nick, Smith took advantage of the additional time, shared with Ben Councell, who ran with the No. 1 defense.
That Smith sounds as good as advertised, certainly says something.
2:13 — Tommy Rees have a handoff in the backfield to McDaniel before delivering a strike to Davaris Daniels on a deep dig route. Daniels is met with a pretty large hit by Elijah Shumate, but not until a 20-yard pickup.
That gain was on the No. 1 defense, so an impressive play.
***
***
