Goodman and Walker to Redshirt?

Yes, I know Notre Dame technically doens’t “redshirt”, but it sounds like that could be the plan with them right now according to what Weis said during his Sunday presser.  Weis said the two freshmen were the 7th and 8th wide receivers right now and would need to get into the top 6 to see the field this year.

Q. I know John Goodman hasn’t played. How has he progressed kind of running on the scout team, and what’s he kind of done over the past six or seven weeks?
COACH WEIS: Actually, he’s been one of the guys that’s I’ve been very pleased with on the scout team. Now both those two young receivers, both John and Deion have made significant progress from the beginning of the year to now.
This will be a very interesting week for them, because they’re going to get a whole bunch of reps with the big boys this week because those guys have earned the right to be into that mix. I’ve been very pleased with John’s progress.

Q. I’m guessing plan now is not necessarily to play with either one of those guys at this point this year, right?
COACH WEIS: At this point they’d be sitting at 7 and 8, you know, as far as the numbers go. So, you know, at this point they’d have to get into that top six before I’d be thinking in that direction.

My guess is that top 6 looks something like this right now – 1.) Golden Tate 2.) Michael Floyd 3.) David Grimes 4.) Duval Kamara 5.) Robby Parris 6.) George West.  Even if Walker or Goodman reaches that 6th spot I think it’s likely that we won’t see either.  Now, if either of them has that “light switch” moment in the next couple of weeks and reaches that 5th spot, I think we’ll see one of them.

Ideally, Walker and Goodman will challenge for the 3rd and 4th wide receiver spots next year so it would be nice if either of them could cut their teeth during the second half of the season against some of the weaker teams that will be coming up on the schedule.  Walker specifically has big play potential and if he is as good as advertised, I don’t think a possible 5th year of eligibility will mean much.  If he’s that good, he won’t be around for a fifth year even if he has it.

With Goodman it makes more sense to sit since the word on him out of camp was that he needed to add some weight before he was ready for playing time.