The Notre Dame football team took a break from spring drills for Easter, practicing on Wednesday before players took the long weekend to head home to their families or catch up on some rest in South Bend.
For Brian Kelly and his staff, the quarter-turn of their fifteen workouts gave an early assessment of the team, and helped give a glimpse into the fall, identifying some early contributors for the 2013 edition of the Irish.
One player Kelly genuinely doesn’t seem worried about is running back Amir Carlisle, who went down for four weeks with a broken collarbone, effectively ending his spring early. With Davonte Neal leaving the program and the slot receiver position wide open, Carlisle could be a key cog in the offense... if he can stay healthy.
While another injury has Irish fans wondering if Carlisle is sturdy enough to carry a significant load, Kelly spoke highly of the USC transfer, who sat out last season after nerve damage slowed down Carlisle’s recovery from a broken ankle.
“Amir has had a great spring,” Kelly said. “We’ve seen what we need to see out of him. He’ll be a very important player for us in the spring.”
On the defensive side of the ball, Kelly also took time to rave about linebacker Jarrett Grace, finally ready to step into the starting lineup with the departure of Manti Te’o. While both fifth year linebackers Dan Fox and Carlo Calabrese are back, it looks as if Grace will be the every down player while Fox and Calabrese continue their platoon.
“Jarrett Grace has obviously done an incredibly job,” Kelly said, while raving about the middle linebacker position. “He’s a really, really good football player. He’s going to be all over the field. Will he have seven interceptions? I’m not going in that direction. In terms of run fits, sideline to sideline, communication, he’s shown himself to be a really good player for us.”
If you’re wondering about the departure of Neal and Ferguson, it appears those concerns have been neutralized by the play of early enrollee freshmen James Onwualu and Corey Robinson. Kelly raved about the young receivers while singling both of them out for their work in practice thus far.
Onwualu likely worked his way into the slot receiver conversation and will probably see the field early.
“I think he’s got a chance. He’s certainly physical enough,” Kelly said of Onwualu. “He’s a smart kid. I’d say he’s a guy that’s probably going to be playing. If he’s a guy that plays a lot on offense, that will kind of take care of itself as we go through preseason camp. But he’s definitely a kid that’s going to be on the field in all of our special teams, he’s got that physical ability.”
While Robinson is certainly doing a lot of learning on the fly, Kelly said he’s been impressive in workouts, “catching everything in the area code.” Having a big-bodied receiver like Robinson will add an element to the offense we haven’t seen recently.
Let’s run through a few other weekend items as things slow down over this Easter weekend:
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Notre Dame lost a great man when Mike DeCicco passed away this week of congestive heart failure. He was 85. DeCicco was instrumental in the Irish athletics program, not just for his work with the fencing program, but for starting Notre Dame’s almost unparalleled Academic Services department for student athletes.
The South Bend Tribune caught up with former Irish basketball coach Digger Phelps, who praised DiCicco’s behind-the-scenes work on campus.
“When you talk about the mystique and tradition of Notre Dame, Mike is one of the pillars that made Notre Dame what it is with student-athletes,” Phelps told the Tribune. “He was a great and dear friend. He and (wife) Polly were sweet people, and it’s people like them behind the scenes who made Notre Dame work.”
DiCicco coached the school’s fencing program for 34 seasons, compiling a .938 winning percentage. His teams won five national championships.
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This isn’t a blog that spends much time talking about other Irish sports, but Notre Dame’s one-and-done in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament resurrected a lot of the grumbling that we’re used to hearing about Mike Brey and the Irish’s NCAA tournament struggles.
While the standard discussion about facilities, resources and recruiting is something I’m thankful I don’t have to tackle in a another sport, UND.com posted a quick sit-down with athletic director Jack Swarbrick, which acted as an attempt to quell any potential uprising.
But more than anything, Swarbrick talked not just about the building of the men’s basketball program, but the state of Irish athletics in general.
I found this to be a pretty impressive statement:
“In the focus on the individual sports, which we all should and do, it’s also important to step back and look at the aggregate,” Swarbrick said. “I believe there’s no school in the country that has posted a better combined won-loss record across football and both basketball teams than we did this year. I think this year we’re winning about 80 percent of the competitions we enter across all sports teams at Notre Dame. Baseball is having a great year. Men’s lacrosse is ranked number one, women’s lacrosse is ranked No. 7. Across the board performance, this is a pretty remarkable period. And as we go through each season and each sport, it’s important to take a moment and step back and say, ‘This is a special time in Notre Dame athletics.’”
Here’s the rest of Swarbrick’s interview with UND.com’s Jack Nolan.
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If you’re looking for some good reading this weekend, here are a few links that caught my eye.
* As usual, Blue and Gold’s Lou Somogyi does a great job making sense of the transfers at Notre Dame. The Irish’s “Next-Man-In” policy certainly isn’t anything new.
* At the time of this posting, the Fighting Irish hockey team (my winter squad of choice), is playing in the first round of the NCAA hockey tournament, after winning the final CCHA tournament. Here’s Irish Illustrated Jake Brown‘s look at winger Bryan Rust, who rebounded nicely this year after a underwhelming sophomore season. (Inspiration for Ishaq Williams?)
* The South Bend Tribune’s Tyler James does a good job digging deeper into Notre Dame’s newest recruiting commitment Andrew Trumbetti.
* The guys over at Her Loyal Sons are doing their own little version of March Madness, recapping the best tweets of the year with their #HLSRecap Madness. I’m not telling you to go stuff the ballot box and vote for me, I’m just highly encouraging it.
* This One Foot Down staple deserves a link if only for the hilarious photo it uses.