JotCast | Notre Dame Football Live Chat March 6, 2024

Notre Dame Football Live Chat March 6, 2024

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Eric Hansen

1:02

All the newness on the offensive line. There could be five starters who have never started a complete season.

Curt Warsaw In

1:01

This team looks to have a lot of talent on it. The QB room has depth. What would you say is your biggest concern with this team?

Eric Hansen

1:01

Hey J. If you go to our DEPTH CHART PROECTIONS — and those will be updated after practice on Thursday — it will help you get a visual of depth at the D-line positions, who's playing where and where's the beef. The question that will be answered the spring for Brenan Vernon, what's the best path forward -- outside at field end or inside at defensive tackle? He's very highly thought of. My sense is that he'll be an inside guy moving forward.

J Buckley, San Diego

12:58

Spring Ball, lets Go :), Thanks as always for taking the time to answer our questions, what happened to B Vernon, looked to be a beast coming out of HS? Also, can you give us an update on the D-line, we need that beef in the middle and some freak athletes on the ends, how's that working out? THANKS

Eric Hansen

12:54

Hi Joe. Yes, even though there are a lot of returning/established players on defense, there are a lot of players worth tracking. The three positions I'm most interested in seeing how they play out from top to bottom are: the safety position next to Xavier Watts, the CB position opposite Ben Morrison, middle linebacker ands the field end vacated by Javontae Jean-Baptiste. But there are individual players at other positions I am very curious about, like Boubacar Traore, Kahanu Kia, Tyson Ford, Brennan Vernon and Jaylen Sneed.

Guest

12:51

Joe H from Williams Bay Wi Hi Eric So excited for spring practice to begin Thursday I know everyone has a lot of questions about position battles especially on offense but I was wondering what you’re most interested in seeing from players on the defensive side and what you’re hoping to see from certain players that have a chance to be major contributors this year that haven’t played or shown much in the past

Eric Hansen

12:51

Hi Ced. I don't see safety as a weakness, not with a unanimous All-American anchoring the position. I also feel good about grad transfer Rod Heard II, who is in South Bend this semester finishing his degree work at Northwestern remotely. He won't be able to participate in spring practice, but he can watch and learn. He'll enroll in June. I like the potential of several of ND's young safeties, and because Heard is not in spring ball, we'll get to see most of them get significant reps. My football hunch/crush is on Luke Talich.

cederickwalker

12:48

ced Walker saginaw Michigan saginaw pride with spring practice starting Thursday do u really think depth at safeties will be our weakness going in spring practice here come the irish trust the process the golden standard rally we are nd god country go irish love thee notre dame our mother pray for us

Eric Hansen

12:48

Hi Jules. The Blue-Gold weekend (April 20) will likely be a significant recruiting weekend, but there will be lots of unofficial visitors from both the 2025 and 2026 classes coming to campus throughout March and April, and beginning with a rather sizeable contingent this weekend. AFTER the Blue-Gold Game, which was your question, Notre Dame will start hosting OFFICIAL visits for the 2025 class beginning with the first weekend in June.

Jules, Joliet, Ill

12:43

Thanks for all of your (and Tyler’s) excellent chats, podcasts and videos. The next big recruiting event, I believe, is the Blue/Gold game. What events are scheduled after that?

Eric Hansen

12:42

So the first day of practice, NOT IN PADS, we won't get a good look at line play or tackling for example. Based on what we do see, I'm eager to see where certain players line up ... such as Brenan Vernon for example. I'll be looking at the speed of the skill position players. That's something you can get a feel for on day 1. I'll also be looking at the quarterbacks, how they throw, whether/how they lead.

12:40

Mike Denbrock's presence on the staff and a long runway to spring practice. Hiring him in December, and not February, is a huge advantage. His past association with WRs coach Mike Brown and QBs coach Gino Guidugli also potentially improves that process ... big time. I think Notre Dame has talent and numbers at those positions a... but not a lot of starting experience at ND. ... The you factor is what kind of leadership there might be on the offensive side of the ball ... and how will a QB competition affect the development of the other positions if at all. Having said all of that, I'd go with a 6 out of 10. I think any more optimistic than that, based on the number of unknowns, would be dabbling in opening up a psychic hotline. (more)

12:35

Hi Marie. It's always a great week when there's football contained in it ... and where we are! Thanks for the questions. ... What I can give you a 10 out of 10 on is my ability to have a better answer at the end of spring practice about the trajectory of those position groups than I do now, because there will be infinitely more data to make those kinds of projections. So let me start with my process of how to affix a number to that now. Here are some things that make me push that number higher on the scale (more):

Marie from Atlanta

12:27

Hi Eric, I hope you’re having a great week. I think everyone is fairly concerned about the offensive line and wide receiver play for next season. Heading into the spring with no look at the team yet , on a scale of one to 10 how confident are you that each of these position groups can develop enough by the fall to have Notre Dame be a contender to at least win a playoff game? Also, what three things will you be looking at the most the first day of practice? As always, thanks for hosting the chat, and all the great insights.

Eric Hansen

12:26

Hi Tom. I'll make sure Mitchell gets asked about tomorrow ... as well as the other guys on the mend. But the original timeline has him on track to be ready to go in August. Obviously, timelines can be sped up or slowed down, based on what's happening in the rehab.

Tom from Golden Beach, Florida

12:24

What are the chances that Mitchell Evans will be healthy enough to play by August?

Eric Hansen

12:24

Hi Lorne. I'll let you rant stand (not that I'm co-signing on everything, but you made some clear points) and get to your question. No, I don't think this is headed to a March Madness style bracket. The 14 vs. 12 doesn't add another round of games. Why the expansion, because the league with the power want protection of/for their participation, and they need to give the Group of 5 access to avoid a lawsuit they may lose.

Lorne

12:19

Lorne from Reno. I hope you'll excuse a mini-rant. I am one of those weirdos who was fine with the single championship game (which this year would have pitted Michigan against Washington) and likes the 4-team BCS. Does the 12th- or 14th-best team really deserve to be in the playoffs? I understand that this is about money -- 11 playoff games generates a lot more than 3, and we can keep the league championships! -- but this cheapens regular season games and makes non-playoff bowls even more irrelevant. Without discussion of cutting the number of games or eliminating league championship games, this is also a dangerous escalation of the risk of injury for the young students who may now play 17 games in a season. Other than the flippant "they play more in the NFL," has there been any real consideration of the health factor or can we expect an eventual March-Madness type playoff with every bowl game being a part of a BCS "tournament"?

Eric Hansen

12:19

Hi Skip, I don't expect to get clarity there until after spring semester at the earliest.

skip/Houston

12:19

Anything new on Gabe Rubio's return? Thanks.

Eric Hansen

12:18

I think that's where the debate is for Notre Dame. Having said that, I think they're in a better place in all of those areas -- evals, recruiting, development model than they've been for some time. ... as in before the Brian Kelly Era.

12:17

Chris, for a first-time question, you hit it out of the park. I think if you're boiling down that concept of what it takes to win a national title to its simplest elements, that's a pretty good depiction. But let me answer it this way, the truth for teams like Notre Dame is in between those two concepts. You need talent at other positions. You need DEPTH at other positions. And you still need to be good at the five metrics that have stood the test of time consistently since the start of the BCS/Playoff Eras (1998-present): Pass-efficiency/Rush offense/Rush defense/Total defense/Turnover margin. But in pinpointing ND's distance from winning a title or every winning a playoff game, having that elite QB has been a missing element. The question is why? Is it misevaluations? Not aiming high enough in recruiting? A broken or inconsistent player development model? (more)

Chris. Altoona PA

12:10

I love the chats every week and I've finally decided to get involved today. I love Notre Dame so much but have only been there once for a game I hope I can get back this year. My question is to be a serious national title contender you either have to be Alabama and Georgia who have talent everywhere or have an elite first round quarterback like Burrow Lawrence McCarthy Watson. Do you agree and do you think Riley Leonard or CJ Carr can be that guy. Thanks for your great coverage.

Eric Hansen

And off we go ...

Here are the rules.

12:08

PLEASE include your name and hometown along with your question(s). If you want to include whether it feels like spring where you are, that is optional.

12:07

As far as this week's chat ...

12:06

And of course we'll have scads of coverage Thursday from the first day of spring practice, including video content. So please check that out at insideNDsports.com. (I know I just said finally in the last post, sorry,)

► Finally, we’re in the midst of a busy run-up to Notre Dame spring football at WSBT radio season, and Darin Pritchett and I are together this week Wednesday and Friday on Weekday SportsBeat (960 AM, live streaming at wsbtradio.com). The weekday shows run from 5-6 p.m. ET. You can download episodes as podcasts.

12:05

► Tyler James and I will be back with a new podcast on Friday. On our most recent Inside ND Sports Podcast, Dennis Dodd, national college football writer for CBS Sports joined Tyler and me. Dodd discussed the push for more automatic qualifiers for conferences in the College Football Playoff, if Notre Dame should be worried about that model, if the CFP can compete with the NFL for ratings, why conference teams would still be interested in scheduling Notre Dame, what the NIL injunction will eventually lead to, who will decide the future for college athletics and more. The podcast can be listened to via SoundCloud or on your preferred podcast platform including: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podbean and Pocket Casts.

► If you missed the last episode of our aspiring-to-be-viral Notre Dame Football YouTube show, Football Never Sleeps, it keeps its shelf life long after the live presentation. We’re back in our normal Monday at 7 ET time slot. Remember, if you miss the live show, you can catch up anytime on YouTube.

12:04

We're going to continue the chats through spring football on a weekly basis, but we're going to have to shift those away from the normal Wednesday time slot on some weeks. I'll post and tweet more details next week.

12:03

Some quick programming notes:

12:02

Welcome to Notre Dame Football Live Chat on the day before Spring Football at ND begins.

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