Rakes Report #211: To a prosperous year (To the new chandelier) (The 2023 Blue-Gold Game Review)
Sam Hartman's Notre Dame "debut" was a splendid party and ideally a prologue to a bright new season.
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~optional musical accompaniment~
1) Last year’s Blue-Gold game had nearly all of the drama and intrigue drained before kickoff when we found out Tyler Buchner would be unable to play. To make up for it, the latest edition allowed us to see not just Buchner coming off of his Gator Bowl MVP performance but also Sam Hartman, the potential cheat code that could allow Marcus Freeman to skip a few steps in his second year at the helm. If Hartman can translate his prodigious production from Winston-Salem to South Bend and get enough help from an improving receiver corps, he would give the Irish a thrower’s chance in every game and buy Freeman more time to continue to improve and reshape the roster to the standards everyone wants him to achieve. We shouldn’t read too much into a scrimmage, but if you wanted a hopeful boost as we head into the true teeth of the offseason, Hartman’s performance provided one and then some.
(Before we go further, in case you missed it here are the highlights and here’s a 25-minute version.)
2) Granted, there were limits on how much the defense could pressure and Al Golden wasn’t going to be breaking out anything exotic in late April but Hartman looked comfortable, working down the field like a guy who had thrown the most touchdown passes in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference. His chemistry with Jayden Thomas was immediate, and I know I’ve said this a bunch before but I don’t understand how everyone isn’t buzzing with anticipation for what Thomas could be this season. He’s such an imposing blocker that he’s regularly confused with a tight end during broadcasts and we’ve seen his big play potential already – he could easily be a more explosive Tommy Tremble in this offense if used correctly.
I am not going to overthink Buchner’s blah performance, as it seemed like in addition to a game with a red jersey not really allowing him to show off his athleticism, his protection also wasn’t doing him any favors, which probably felt familiar from his first two career starts. If Freeman can navigate this to keep Buchner locked in and end in a situation where Hartman is giving way to a season or two of Salty Veteran Buchner and then Top Prospect C.J. Carr that’s an absolute dream scenario at quarterback. I almost feel guilty writing it down but thankfully Kenny Minchey has earned positive reviews in camp, Steve Angeli looked solid and there’s always the transfer portal if this order of operations breaks down, but that’s the ideal landing spot to which we are aiming.
3) The other standout receiver was Jaden Greathouse*, an early enrollee freshman who had 11 catches on 13 targets for 118 yards. Again, just a spring game, but to have that preternatural feel for getting open and making contested catches even if you’re not so early in a career is really promising. Going to take some time to get adjusted to Deion Colzie and Chris Tyree with their new numbers, but after what was apparently a rough start in his transition to receiver Tyree seems to have found his footing. The Blue offense looked out of sync all afternoon so not going to hold that against Tobias Merriweather or Rico Flores, another early enrollee freshman who’d received quite a bit of praise during spring camp. I thought that maybe 3-5% of the Merriweather hype could be attributed to the fact he has a great dad who’s cool and chatty with the media, but then Chansi Stuckey compared him to Randy Moss with the ball in the air, with Stuckey being of the exact perfect age to know what a sacred invocation he was making. If Thomas continues from last season/Saturday’s effort on a normal progression curve and Merriweather is anywhere near his purported ceiling, that’s a real nice combo for a guy with a proclivity for the deep ball.
* Ja(y)den Thomas. Jaden Greathouse. Jaden Mickey. Ja(i)den Ausberry (we’ll talk about those final two in a bit). Also Ja(y)len Sneed, not to be confused with Jaylon Smith. I’m going to mess this up at some point in the fall so I want to establish I should know better now. Accountability in newslettering.
This is not really a game to analyze the rushing effort but Gi'Bran Payne certainly looked spry for a guy who will fall somewhere between third and fifth on the depth chart. Audric Estime saying he could be the best player in college football could pass Charlie Cale’s bullshit detector, why not? Tight end is a MASH Unit at the moment but Holden Staes certainly looked the part of a large gentleman who can move, and Davis Sherwood did nothing to undercut the idea established last year that he’s a reliable 11th man in any formation. Joe Rudolph needs to figure out two guards but it seems like between Andrew Kristofic, Billy Schrauth, Rocco Spindler and assorted veterans he should be able to patch something together. (Coaching all of the players and not just the starters? Interesting approach.) It certainly helps to have two NFL tackles and a veteran center to build around.
I don’t want to get hypothetically fatalistic in late April and I have no tangible evidence to believe this is a legit concern, but Gerad Parker not producing a top-notch offense this year would be so disappointing barring a rash of injuries. It is all sitting right there, let’s make the most of it.
4) Two names we did not mention in the receiver section are Kaleb Smith and Lorenzo Styles, a pair that were penned into the rotation at the start of the year. Smith, who was a quality contributor at Virginia Tech, has retired from football after transferring in and not sticking at the top of the depth chart. (Smith said his decision stemmed from a desire to focus on his mental and physical health, both of which could have certainly contributed to his struggles in camp.) Disappointing for Irish football purposes but wish him the best.
Styles – man, what a ride. In his final few practices in blue and gold, Styles played some corner, a spot many recruitniks said was his more natural position. There didn’t seem to be a path for him getting reps at defensive back for Notre Dame and sure enough he has entered the transfer portal. I am trying to think of an equivalent path like this that didn’t have a Stepherson-like level of off-field issues tied to it and failing: Breakout freshman season, disappointing sophomore campaign and then flirting with a position switch and transfer even before the spring ball of his junior year concluded.
Both of these are reminders that while some might try to reduce this game to simplistic variations on “If you just want to win enough, you will!!!!” it’s always more complicated than that. There is nothing in either Smith’s or Styles’ collegiate profiles that would lead you to believe we’d be getting a combined zero catches from them this fall, but it’s important to remember this is a very strange game and the best we can do is stay alert for all sorts of twisting paths.
5) Notre Dame is not going to have many defenders go in this weekend’s NFL draft, after only having one go in last year’s (to be fair, that was first-round pick Kyle Hamilton), and unless there are some pleasant surprises, I would suspect this trend will continue in the 2024 edition. This underlines an issue we’ve talked about for the last season and a half, which is the lack of capital-D Dudes on the defense, particularly in the back seven. Clark Lea is a wonderful defensive mind but it’s easy to look a lot smarter as a coordinator when you are simultaneously deploying Hamilton and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. (This was laid out concisely by Jamie Uyeyama in a recent Six Thoughts – point six but read them all to be smarter.)
In lieu of more out-of-nowhere Benjamin Morrison-style breakouts (which we will happily accept), the Irish can try to make up for the lack of star power by putting as many quality players on the field as possible, which not only keeps guys fresh but also allows you more options for pleasant surprises when the lights are brightest. One of the stars of spring practice was Jason Onye, a rising junior who was a three-star recruit out of Rhode Island, a classic Elston developmental project that seems to be on his way to hitting and looked the part on Saturday. Rising sophomore Tyson Ford has a much higher pedigree but looked equally productive, while Gabe Rubio looked like he was ready to improve on some of his quality short shifts last fall. If you start counting up guys who seem capable of contributing on the defensive line you quickly approach double digits, which is pretty heartening considering all the talent that’s recently departed.
Linebacker has equal if not better depth, with a wave of veterans who’ve already proven they’re quality college players at a minimum backed by a wave of interesting underclassmen. One of Saturday’s standouts was early enrollee Jaiden Ausberry, who flew all over the field. It seems like his performance is more likely to set up a quick ascension for next season because there simply won’t be enough linebacker reps there if the Irish are playing a lot of nickel and dime, but an easy way to get on the field as a linebacker in passing situations is to cover like a corner. If Ausberry can do that, things accelerate and escalate.
(I came across this JOK play looking for something else in the archives recently and wanted to include it as a throwback because it’s so silly and fun, and Ausberry provided a perfect segue opportunity, so thank you.)
6) The reason Notre Dame can potentially deploy so much nickel and dime is because they are in as enviable position at corner as we’ve seen in years. Morrison appears set to build off his stellar freshman campaign, we know Cam Hart’s capabilities if he’s healthy, Jaden Mickey had a pick Saturday and continues to show promise, Clarence Lewis is capable at very worst, Christian Gray is a top prospect who could slide in, transfer Thomas Harper has been a good nickel in his career – hey, did you notice I’m listing a lot of plausible contributors? This is a long way from the “Clark Lea please defend the Amon-Ra St. Brown/Michael Pittman Jr./Tyler Vaughns USC offense with roughly 3.5 functioning defensive backs and duct tape” challenge.
Morrison-Hart has the capability to reach a Julian Love-Troy Pride level as a pair, but even if they don’t the depth situation is so much stronger behind them. Cannot say enough about Mike Mickens’ work – I understand it’s likely he departs for a defensive coordinator role at some point but the longer Freeman can keep his buddy on his staff the easier the head coach’s life is going to be.
The area where it’s difficult to get to too many fingers counting off is safety, which is this year’s position group where perfect health and ideal development will be needed just to stay afloat. You have D.J. Brown (perhaps underrated as a steady innings eater) and then the combo of Xavier Watts and Ramon Henderson (two guys who you can see taking the leap but hasn’t happened yet). After that it’s freshmen (composite four-star prospects, but on the lower range), Harper (who has an injury history), anything they can wring out of the transfer portal and potential position switches. One way to protect your safeties is to have a good run defense that keeps the opposing offense in obvious passing situations and supplement that with quality corners comfortable on islands, but prayers up for Chris O’Leary trying to navigate this.
The path forward for the defense is pretty clear: Get bumps from the consistency of having Golden and his staff in place for a second year and what looks like substantial depth in a lot of areas, plus you clean up easy things like “Don’t literally have the worst redzone touchdown defense in the entire country” and “Don’t call safety blitzes when you haven’t properly communicated to your talented freshmen corners what they need to do in those situations.” Ideally, as a bonus, you will also be playing from a position of strength because your offense is putting up so many points the opponent has to be a little more desperate and pass-happy than they’d like.
7) Things feel like they’re in a good place as we move into the true offseason. I’m sure there will be some roster movement that surprises and other nonsense we can’t predict but as long as Hartman is able to walk onto the field at Aviva and beyond both the floor and ceiling for this season are high. The three games against teams at the top of the national title betting odds are going to remain tough to win, some of the ACC clashes are going to be really annoying and hey there’s always the possibility of another Marshall or Stanford but for now there don’t seem to be many blinking red lights on the control panel outside of safety.
Before we fully depart, just wanted to plug a couple of podcasts from last month that followed up on Father Jenkins’ and Jack Swarbrick’s NIL op-ed and surrounding media tour. Jess and I talked to Dan Wetzel (consummate NCAA critic and elite bullshitter who follows all of this as close as anybody) and Katherine Walden (Notre Dame professor who literally teaches a “Football in America” class that includes the history of how we got here) about the state of NIL and where things stand and I really enjoyed both conversations. What makes me think they are worth your time is multiple people have said versions of “Loved the NIL podcasts, but…” before launching into various points we discussed on which they disagree. You can listen to those on Apple or Spotify (five-star ratings and reviews always welcome) or wherever you get your pods.
One thing I came away from this thinking is if the NCAA or any other entity wanted to help the many, many athletes who aren’t going to be pulling in six or seven figures arranged by the top agencies they should set up some sort of pro bono advisory organization that provides guidance and contract templates for the most basic NIL deals. Seems like an easy non-profit for folks who claim to be concerned about athletes to put together while they wait (a very long time? forever?) for federal intervention.
8) We’re done with football talk so feel free to depart here, wanted to loosely talk offseason plans. I’ll be on Twitter until it shuts down, because despite Elon Musk’s* best efforts it seems like it’s going to keep powering on in a worse, tragicomic fashion. (Maybe the plug gets pulled, but we thought that in November and hey here we are.) I was going to play with Substack Notes because I thought that would be like a blog, but it just seems like Twitter, even down to the Nazis? Maybe what I’ll do is collect assorted thoughts in blog form over the offseason and then send them out in compendiums when the word count reaches a certain point. During the season, maybe I could even do a midweek notes and rambling edition (an in-season paid version bonus, perhaps? I’m thinking out loud here, the game reviews and podcasts and most everything else will always be free as long as we keep blowing away the Christmas Giving goals). I miss old-fashioned blogging, mainly, and want to try and do that in a way that isn’t annoying to your inbox. We’ll see.
* While I love Twitter and the folks I’ve met there, it has been nice for Musk to use it to volunteer himself as the perfect confirmation of the belief that billionaires generally are not special visionaries but simply unhappy accidents of history. Between him and the meltdown over Silicon Valley Bank when a bunch of Ayn Rand-quoting tech bros were pleading for government intervention into the bank run their group chat caused, it’s been a nice stretch for the thesis that our nation’s finest business thought leaders conveniently seem a lot smarter when the money is cheap.
I have a few podcast ideas for summer and we will obviously have the usual August traditions, although those will have to come earlier and potentially be pre-recorded due to the Irish starting a week early and playing in front of actual Irish. I would suspect there’s enough offseason content for at least one newsletter (there is usually one June/July edition), especially because we’ll have to take a look at the roster assembled by Micah Shrewsberry and any more additions Niele Ivey brings into the fold (really like the Anna DeWolfe acquisition - per Synergy, she’s good spotting up, cutting and in transition, three things she’ll be doing plenty of on her new team). Regardless, I’ll be around and you always know where to find me.
Okay, that’s it for real. Thanks for reading. Take care of yourself and each other. Go Irish.
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Love the writeup and cackled at the mention of Notes. I got excited at first, and then I realized it was basically an insular Twitter group of just writers, including the Nazis.