Three questions Notre Dame has answered through two weeks of 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 have already answered in the lead up to Aug. 31, in no particular order.
Are Riley Leonard, Mitchell Evans and Benjamin Morrison ready to roll?
Yes. They’re not all at the same stage of recovery — Leonard has not missed a snap in fall camp while Evans has hardly gotten any live looks, for instance — but all three appear to be on track to play against the Aggies, and given the state of their bodies four months ago you couldn’t ask for anything more than that if you’re a Notre Dame fan.
Leonard had two ankle surgeries in his first few months in South Bend. Now he says he’s as healthy as he’s ever been. Evans didn’t do anything on the field in spring ball coming back from a torn ACL suffered in late October. Morrison had surgery in the middle of spring ball and was the ultimate question mark timeline-wise going into the summer in advance of camp. Question answered on day one. He went right at Notre Dame wide receivers in team periods, not shying away from any contact at all.
Evans is running routes on air — planting, cutting, jumping — without a knee brace. Leonard isn’t wearing a brace (not a noticeably bulky one, anyway) on his ankle. It really does seem to be all good on the injury front with this all-important trio.
Leonard, Morrison and Evans were rated as the No. 1, 2 and 5 players, respectively, in Blue & Gold’s top 25 most important Notre Dame players of 2024. Without them, the Irish’s floor drops to the basement and their ceiling comes down a few stories. With them, the structural integrity of the operation remains intact.
Is Aamil Wagner too small to be a starting tackle at Notre Dame?
No. Wagner wasn’t able to make himself a starter for Sun Bowl with Joe Alt and Blake Fisher skipping it to focus on their NFL futures, but he went into fall camp as a projected starter based on strengths, skill set and potential. He had the edge over graduate student Tosh Baker, who did earn a starting spot in the Sun Bowl, in their battle to start at right tackle. With Charles Jagusah, Notre Dame’s left tackle starter for the Sun Bowl, going down with a season-ending injury and Baker shuffling over to the left to replace him, Wagner might all of a sudden be Notre Dame’s most trusted tackle entering the 2024 season.
Oh, how things have changed.
He’s playing up at 300 pounds now after not being able to reach that mark in his first two seasons with the program. That number always seemed to be a base line goal for Wagner. If he could get there, he’d have a chance to play. He’s there now, and he’s got more than a chance. He’s got the green light to hold onto the spot he’s in for a season or two. If he loses it, it’d be because a true freshman in Anthonie Knapp or Guerby Lambert took it, and that’s not a situation Wagner wants to saddle himself with.
He’s finally arrived, and he plans on staying a while.
Can Notre Dame comfortably replace two NFL Draft caliber linebackers?
Yes. JD Bertrand and Marist Liufau are gone, but they’ve left the door open for the new age of Notre Dame linebackers to charge through. This is the era of Jaylen Sneed, Drayk Bowen and Kyngstonn Vilamu-Asa — a junior, sophomore and freshmen making up 60 percent of the Irish’s core five linebackers that position coach Max Bullough will play in a regular rotation.
Graduate student Jack Kiser makes up 20 percent of the five, and Bullough is fortunate that he does. Without him, Sneed would somehow be the group’s most experienced player. Kiser is a safety net of sorts, but that’s probably not doing him enough justice. He can get out on the edge and be a playmaker just like his younger, perhaps more athletic, comrades can.
Sophomore Jaiden Ausberry is a bit of a wild card accounting for the remaining 20 percent of the pie chart. We probably won’t see him as much as the other four. But he’s got a specialized skill set as a coverage ‘backer who can make opposing offenses think twice about where to throw the ball, especially with the back end of Notre Dame’s defense being as strong as it is.
Bullough will roll five linebackers not because he needs to but because he can, comfortably, with what he has personnel-wise, and that’s pretty impressive considering Bertrand and Liufau are both playing at the next level.
The post Three questions Notre Dame has answered through two weeks of fall camp appeared first on On3.
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