Sophomore to be Steve Paskorz has been working at fullback after spending his freshman year at linebacker. From IE’s Weis Transcript:
“For example, (Steve) Paskorz we moved over to fullback this week. I don’t know if you guys noticed that or not, but he went from 50 to 30 and he wasn’t playing linebacker, he was playing fullback”
There has been a lot of speculation that Paskorz should be tried at fullback since he was recruited so this move doesn’t come as a surprise. Notre Dame has not gotten much, if any production, out of the fullback position since Raeshon Powers-Neal’s suspension during the 2005 season so it can’t hurt giving Paskorz reps there. With all of the talented LB’s coming in the fall, its very possible that Paskorz would have been lost in the mix at linebacker.
“We’re trying to juggle some things around, put together some different combinations and see if we can get the same play from different spots but also create some depth just in case of injury or maybe a young guy that you plan on doesn’t pan out as well or just trying to get different looks … ” Brown said. “You do that with a number of different combinations and hopefully you strike gold, you hit the jackpot and then you got something special.”
Brown also said he wanted to move Harrison Smith around because he has the ability to make big plays no matter where he is on the field. But Brown jokingly cautioned against giving him such glowing praise.
“If you see certain guys making plays, you kind of want to see how far you can take that, so you try to put them in different positions because you know what you have here … ” Brown said. “He’s a hard-working [player], he’s smart, he’s tough. I don’t want to say too many good things about him, though, because he’ll probably poop in my lunch bucket.”
Brown moved Zibby towards the line at times last year in obvious passing downs so this could be a sign that Brown is liking what he is seeing out of the sophomore safety. Smith has had a great spring so far and will be fighting for the starting strong safety spot through the rest of the spring and into fall camp.
Here’s some video of Emeka Nwankwo. Nwankwo has been getting some first team reps and really surprised me with his size when I saw the practice videos from Saturday.
The annual Blue-Gold game will be a little bit different this year. Here is a quick overview of how the game will be played.
Gameplay: There will be two 30 minute halves with a running clock. Only injuries or timeouts will stop the clock other than in the final two minutes of each half. In the final minute, normal clock rules apply.
Timeouts: Each team gets 3 timeouts per half.
Halftime: 20 minutes
Coin Toss: Jersey color, sidelines, and lock rooms will be determined by a coin toss on Wednesday, April 16. There will also be a ceremonial
Other Rules:
Everyone will be live for tackling except players in red (presumably only QBs) who will be ruled down after they are touched by a defender with two hands.
No kickoff or punt returns - each possession will start at the 35 yard line.
Clausen’s passes are looking SHARP. It’s pretty clear that a full off-season in the weight room without any limitations is paying off for him.
The running back competition is going to rage on into the fall. All three Irish backs had their moments yesterday, but in my opinion, Robert Hughes still looks the best out there. Aldridge had a couple nice runs between the tackles as well. Allen still looks like he’s getting tripped up by some tackles he needs to break, but it also appears as though he is getting closer to running through some of the weaker tackles.
Starting offensive line was Paul Duncan (LT), Eric Olsen (LG), Dan Wenger (C), Chris Stewart (RG), Sam Young (RT).
Olsen and Stewart were getting after it pretty hard and we should be able to run well behind either of them this year. Both still need work on their pass protection, but their run blocking is looking good.
Olsen was involved in the skirmish and while it might not seem like much, Olsen hustled down the field to tackle Brian Smith after he recovered a James Aldridge fumble. Some might say that Olsen has been playing, dare I say, “nasty.”
Grimes beat Darrin Walls a couple times for scores in the redzone drills and was the most impressive looking wide receiver for the Irish yesterday.
Armando Allen tried to run over Maurice Crum at one point - not a good idea.
Defense
Starting defense was: Ian Williams (NT), Emeka Nwankwo (DE), Morrice Richardson (DE), Kerry Neal (OLB), Brian Smith (OLB), Maurice Crum (ILB), Toryan Smith (ILB), Darrin Walls (CB), David Bruton (FS), Kyle McCarthy (SS), and Terrail Lambert (CB).
Nwankwo looks really well put together for a sophomore. I was surprised at how big he looked lining up next to the other defensive linemen. Trevor Laws told us a couple weeks ago that Nwankwo would step up along the defensive line this spring and it looks like he was dead on.
Neal was playing strong side OLB and was playing up close to the line in some 4-3 type looks.
Darrin Walls decleated James Aldridge on a short pass out of the backfield at one point. The ball popped loose from the hit. Very encouraging to see from Walls who has had problems being physical over the last two seasons.
Gary Gray has excellent coverage on a corner route to Grimes in the endzone.
Here are some observations on the WR vs. DB video posted on UND.com today.
Rundown – here is a play by play on all of the one on one drills between the WR and DB’s.
Grimes vs. Walls – Grimes makes the catch on a short out pattern.
West vs. Lambert – Great coverage by Lambert on a short in pattern.
Parris vs. Gray – Parris makes the catch on a comeback pattern.
Kamara vs. McNeil – Kamara makes the catch on a out pattern despite tight coverage by McNeil.
Gallup vs Eras Noel – Gallup makes the catch on a quick out pattern.
Hord vs. McCarthy – Hord makes the catch on an out pattern.
Jackson vs. Bruton – Great coverage by Bruton on a pass a little behind Jackson.
Grimes vs. Gaines (#29) – Gaines bit on a double move and Grimes makes the catch in stride for a score = looked like the same route Grimes “scored” that touchdown against Stanford on.
West vs. Gordon – West miss judged a fly pattern that was thrown pretty well.
Parris vs. Walls – Bad pass on an out pattern.
Kamara vs Lambert – Kamara fell down on the route.
Gallup vs. Gray – Ball was a bit behind Gallup but still went off his hands.
Hord vs. McCathry – Hord had trouble locating the ball and missed it.
West vs Herring – On a similar route to the one Grimes scored on, Herring stayed at home and had blanket coverage on West.
Grimes vs. Walls – Another catch on a short out pattern.
Kamara vs. McNeil – Looked like Kamara made a good move to get open, but couldn’t get to the ball.
Parris vs. Eras Noel – Nice catch on a slant by Parris.
Observations
No one except Grimes really stood out.
Grimes though looked smooth and caught everything shown on the video. He was matched up against Walls a number of times and made catches on 10 yard outs pretty much every time. His double move on Gaines was really nice as well.
Kamara didn’t seem to create much separation and fell down once.
West looked OK, but if he is asked to be much more than a 4th option at receiver, we might have some issues again this year.
Gray had some pretty good coverage.
Would have been great to see Tate run these routes to get a judgement on where he is in terms of route running, but he was with the baseball team. It would also have been interesting to see how the DB’s handled someone with Tate’s speed.
Charlie Weis was not just talking when he said practices were going to be more physical this year. Take a look at the video below from today’s practice and it is easy to see the difference from past years. The Irish are hitting HARD and tempers are flaring. There was a little scuffle that broke out and in the words of Bill Parcels from that Coors Light commercial - that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.
Note: To our friends from WeAreSC.com who are rather unimpressed with ND’s practice - you are seeing about 5 minutes of the whole practice and “#74″ returning punts was RT Sam Young. It was a joke, but I guess not as funny as telling your team that one of your players was getting arrested - that would just be hilarious.
(5 votes, average: 4.8 out of 5)
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