JotCast | Notre Dame Football Live Chat April 28, 2021

Notre Dame Football Live Chat April 28, 2021

Prev Page View Full Chat

cederick walker saginaw michigan

12:31

ced walker saginaw michigan do summer workout begin june 13 go irish

Eric Hansen

12:30

Javier, thanks so much. Jeff Quinn really keeps it this simple: the best players play. The five best. No matter what class. No matter what upside. Patterson, Correll and Lugg were locks to play somewhere. The question was and is who are 4-5-6-7? Right now I'd say that's Fisher, Spindler, Baker, Gibbons ... Bet it's very close between 6-10. Things could shift during the summer. If there's an older player who gets leaped, I suppose they could jump in the portal, but those older players are in competitive positions and an injury away perhaps from getting their opportunity. Look at Trevor Ruhland in 2019. He ended up starting the final six games that season.

Javier from Florida

12:23

Eric, you are the best at the ND beat! Thanks for keeping us all up to date. My question has to do with the O-line. Seems like the staff is doing lots of juggling to find the best 5 players. Vets like Lugg, Patterson and Correll are a lock, but not sure at which positions. The question is: Does the staff bet of the young players with the most long term potential (Fisher, Spindler, Baker, Carmody, Alt, etc.) or do they give a chance to the veteran back-ups (Dirksen, Carroll, Kristofic, Mabry, Olmstead, etc.)? If they go with the young potential, would some of the upper classmen enter the portal?

Eric Hansen

12:21

Jake, there is actually speed and talent in the upper classes too (Davis, Keys, Austin, Lenzy, etc.) What that group doesn't have (except for Davis) is a track record of health and consistency. Last year, there was a speed tradeoff at WR, but some of that was because Lenzy, Austin and Keys weren't available for most of the season. However, I do think the development of Jordan Johnson, Lorenzo Styles and Xavier Watts is important as well, possibly as rotation pieces. Joe Wilkins is going to be part of the mix too.

Jake from Saratoga Springs

12:11

Hi Eric, I’ve seen an article where Tommy Rees stated that a team doesn’t need to throw the ball over the top for big gains and that they can come from underneath throws in space. I agree they can but I don’t believe they can if there isn’t an over the top threat (both receiver and QB). So my question is that while BK continues to say he needs his upper class men to become elite so what is the trade off of the younger guys having more natural talent but not knowing the offense quite as well as the juniors and seniors? Hope this makes sense.

Eric Hansen

12:11

I know Brian Kelly is considering Patterson for a guard. I think he could really play anywhere. My opinion may change after seeing the Blue-Gold Game, but I'll go with LT: Patterson, LG; Spindler, C: Correll, RG: Lugg and RT: Fisher. Fisher and Lugg might switch places. I would think Jeff Quinn would want to break up the freshmen in the fall, even though they've worked in tandem this spring.

12:08

I would not be concerned. I've said from the start, spring was about finding the best five linemen overall, then retro-fitting them to positions. The goal was not to look as good as possible on the highlight/lowlight reels. Marcus Freeman's defensive scheme was a great wrinkle for these tests and trials because of the pre-snap movement ... that helped a lot in evaluations. They don't have Patterson yet, so that led to even more experimentation. I think it will be early in training camp before the lineup is set. Then chemistry will build ... a process that will spill into the regular season. (more)

Jeremy From Goshen, IN

Please give me your prediction for who will be the 5 starting offensive lineman and their positions on opening day at Florida State.

12:04

The small video snippets have shown them getting dominated by our front 7. The coaches are also moving lots of people around. Aaron Taylor says it's so important to have Five guys acting as one. This speaks to continuity. Should we be concerned? If not yet, when?

Eric Hansen

OK, off we go.

12:04

We'll do another one of these next Wednesday after the draft and the Blue-Gold Game to kind of wrap things up before moving out of weekly mode and into intermittent mode for the offseason.

12:03

Here are the rules.

PLEASE remember to include your name and hometown with your question.

12:02

Welcome to Notre Dame Football Live Chat -- the pre-NFL Draft/Blue-Gold Game Edition.

Connecting…

Message History

On Off

Your current subscriptions

None

E-mail Address	Chat Owner	Status	Remove

Enter your email address to be notified when Eric Hansen hosts a chat