Three unanswered questions through two weeks of Notre Dame football fall camp
Notre Dame is two weeks into fall camp and two and a half weeks away from the season-opener against Texas A&M. These are three questions the Fighting Irish must still answer before then, in no particular order.
Who makes up the starting secondary?
Benjamin Morrison and Xavier Watts are entrenched incumbents at boundary corner and free safety, respectively. Jordan Clark got to South Bend in January and has been Notre Dame’s No. 1 nickel corner ever since, even with battling through a spring ball injury that limited his reps. Those reps have not been limited in fall camp, and Morrison has come back as quickly as anyone could have expected him to from his offseason shoulder surgery. Watts is Watts, the reigning Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner as the most outstanding defensive player in the country.
The Notre Dame secondary still has two unsettled position battles, though.
Will it be junior Jaden Mickey, who got to Notre Dame in the same class as Morrison two years ago, who starts with his classmate at corner or will it be sophomore Christian Gray, who since arriving a year ago has looked more like Morrison, with stick-to-you-like-glue coverage traits and eye-popping ball skills, than any other Notre Dame defensive back in the last 12 months?
Blue & Gold has been on Gray to win this job for a while now, but even if it does it does not mean Mickey won’t see the field. He will. How much? That’ll remain to be seen. Corners can play entire games minus a series here and a series there. That’s why both players are pushing hard in camp to be named No. 1 on the depth chart.
At strong safety, meanwhile, sophomore Adon Shuler is showing graduate student Rod Heard II how beneficial it was to be involved in spring ball. It was widely assumed Heard would come in from Northwestern this summer and snatch a starting spot out from under Shuler. It hasn’t been that easy despite his vast experience edge.
Like with the corners, Shuler and Heard will share some snaps. Scheme-influenced sub packages will dictate the distribution to a degree. But there is always something to be said for having a slight edge over a position mate, and Shuler is not out of the running to secure that.
Is Tosh Baker a season-long starter?
Blue & Gold finds it very difficult to fathom anyone other than Tosh Baker starting at left tackle for Notre Dame against Texas A&M on Aug. 31. Who’s starting there, say, four weeks later against Louisville, though?
That might not be Baker. We’ve seen this movie before.
Baker started at left tackle against Purdue and Wisconsin in 2021. He was a part of the game of musical chairs that ensued after Blake Fisher was lost to a meniscus injury in the season-opener. Notre Dame went from Michael Carmody to Baker twice in a row back to Carmody and finally to Joe Alt for the remainder of the season.
Could we see a similar unfolding of circumstances in 2024? Surely Notre Dame offensive line coach Joe Rudolph is going to go with his graduate student to kick things off. But if Baker just is not the answer as was the case three years ago? The Irish might ultimately land on another true freshman. Anthonie Knapp and Guerby Lambert are candidates.
Who is wide receiver No. 1?
The Notre Dame wide receivers certainly look like a more complete group this fall.
The No. 11 wide receiver recruit in the class of 2024, Cam Williams, is not on pace to see the field in any meaningful way from the onset of the season. That says more about the entire position group than it does about a highly ranked first-year player who everyone in the building firmly believes will figure it out at some point. Give him time.
Last year, Notre Dame sent out two true freshmen from the start in Rico Flores Jr. and Jaden Greathouse and had to rely on them all year long. This year, Kris Mitchell and Beaux Collins are experienced transfer additions the Irish didn’t have the luxury of leaning on in 2023. Even Jayden Harrison, an All-American kick return specialist out of Marshall, looks like he can be an offensive weapon.
Who among them is the guy, though? To be determined.
It could certainly be Mitchell. He was the guy at Florida International. Maybe all Collins needed was to get out of Clemson and the shaky offense Dabo Swinney has had there the last few seasons to have his first true breakout season in college. Greathouse’s newfound health could put him over the top, and the same could be said for Jayden Thomas. Jordan Faison is out to prove what he did in the second half of last season was not a fluke.
You can visualize big things for a handful of Notre Dame wide receivers, but they all also have a see-it-to-believe-it stigma attached to them for various (completely fair) reasons. We won’t know who Riley Leonard’s favorite Notre Dame wideout is until he’s actually throwing to one way more than he throws to the others, if that is to occur, on Saturdays.
The post Three unanswered questions through two weeks of Notre Dame football fall camp appeared first on On3.
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