Talked to my nephew last night about ND starting spring practice.
With the new rule making teams have only 105 players total, not 85 scholarship and unlimited walk-ons, he definitely will no longer be a player/manager, but just a manager moving forward. LOL
ND started on Wednesday, and obviously nothing can be taken from being in shorts & t-shirts.
He mentioned two things though that were of note that could actually mean something.
1) ND played their last regular season game in November, and the title game on January 20th. So they basically had 2 full months of practice in that time. He said that’s the length of two spring and one full fall camp. But it’s better because every practice was a game week, intense practice, unlike spring & part of fall camps.
Said that the ND players who were not starters basically got 2 months of taking real reps against the 1’s, which was invaluable. With all the injuries ND had, a lot of freshmen & sophomores last season were able to rep & play those 2 months against elite competition, who will be playing this season.
Advancing in the CFP gets you a lot of extra practice for real. So ND got to see a lot of the younger players in that environment, that usually you wouldn’t get to see.
2) The OL is huge & athletic now they are all back. ND lost 4 starters to injury last year, so basically played the CFP with their 2nd string OL. All five starters are back, plus two players who ended up having to start, so top 7 OL.
And the five they rolled out were three 5 Stars & two top 50. That doesn’t include the kid who filled in who was the Freshman All American or the top OT 5 Star in the last class.
The 5 that started off were:
6’7.25 320 (5 Star)
6’5.5 302 (Preseason All American)
6’8 318 (Backup, while starter recovers)
6’7.5 334 (5 Star)
6’6.25 300 (5 Star)
ND feels they are going to have the best OL in the country, and will have 8 guys battling for 5 spots, since so many starters are back from injury, battling the kids who filled in all CFP.
Nothing more to take away, because the first half of spring practice is worthless & nothing but unicorns & rainbows for 130 teams, when 120 of them actually aren’t that good, but somehow every player looks explosive, every coach in an upgrade, & everyone is going undefeated. LOL
. Swamp ***. You stop it. Some of you guys have selective memory.
