Notre Dame, Ind. — Alert! Alert! Live football alert!

Two of today’s five periods available to the media involved one-on-one action between Irish offensive and defensive players—the first included contact.

In a Contact/Leg Drive drill comprised of tight ends, running backs, linebackers, and safeties—and presided over/judged by Marcus Freeman—the following players stood out for their physicality:

— JD Bertand: A (football field) scuffle waiting to happen. Bertrand operates with his pads low, brings the power and continues to drive his legs. Every time. Rarely does a physical rep end without a frustrated teammate giving the weak side linebacker a shove—and this dates back to 2021 Training Camp, if you recall. That rep followed Quinn Carroll into the transfer portal…

— Bo Bauer: Perhaps (not really a guess, but not verified completely) the strongest player pound-for-pound on the roster, I noted Bauer for a pair of wins (actually, Freeman did) in a drill made for inside backers that thrive on contact.

— Chris Tyree: Welcome to low man wins, Mr. Griffith. Tyree has consistently impressed in our practice viewings and blows through the safety here…

— Audric Estime murdered Xavier Watts on one rep (the only player to go to the ground, I believe), though it should be noted that Watts also rivaled Bertrand for the best rep of the day, smashing into Gi’Bran Payne drawing a dog-pile by his defensive teammates. (Believe it was Payne, we were often obscured by a line of Irish receivers, corners, and QBs watching the drill.)

— Jaylen Sneed with big win, drawing a holler from his linebacker teammates. After noticing Sneed for the wrong reasons (or not at all) in the spring, the rookie has had a nice couple of days during our brief viewings. He’s high on my list for next Saturday’s (Aug. 19) full practice media opportunity.

— DJ Brown has had a strong camp, winning the last rep here and drawing praise from his defensive teammates.

Periods 2-3-4 offered far less relatable football action, but a few observations:

— Chris Tyree, Matt Salerno, Brandon Joseph, Gi’Bran Payne, and Jaden Mickey continued to return punts. No order can be gleaned as I saw this between drills and didn’t see the first catch.

— Did not see Prince Kollie (he was at practice yesterday, but observing) or freshmen Jayden Bellamy and Nolan Ziegler. Our Tim Prister made note of Bellamy’s absence yesterday and we’re told Ziegler was also missing from Thursday’s practice. We’ll have Marcus Freeman tomorrow to answer questions on the injured/absent players.

— He’s nowhere near as imposing as starting defensive end Rylie Mills, but NaNa Osafo-Mensah is a solidly built 6’4” 250. He recorded a Stuff in five of the last six games last season and I expect to see him heavily involved again this fall.

— Marist Liufau, Bo Bauer, and Niuafe Tuihalamaka worked a special teams circuit together (might’ve been with Tuihalamaka) as did Bertrand, Sneed, Foskey, and walk-on linebacker Tre Reader. Looked like Kiser was with Cam Hart, Clarence Lewis, Brandon Joseph, and Chance Tucker while Philip Riley, Jaden Mickey, Benjamin Morrison, TaRiq Bracy, and Will Schweitzer were matched for another.

— Lewis earned ‘colorful” praise from special teams coordinator Brian Mason during a particular leverage drill.

— The defensive line rotated heavily—reporting any inside tandems or first/second string would likely be in error today. (I didn’t even notice Jayson Ademilola until special teams work with the defensive line. We’ll speak with the twins today.) To drive the point home, one quartet was Mills, Tyson Ford, Chris Smith, and Justin Ademilola with Foskey, Alexander Ehrensberger, Jacob Lacey, and Gabriel Rubio another.

— I wonder if freshman Joshua Burnham will remain at Vyper (it makes sense for next season, obviously) or return to work at Will linebacker in the future. He moves like a linebacker and is built like one as well. I suppose Matt Balis and the off-season will help determine his slotting in ’23…

— Looked like Botelho, Osita Ekwonu, Burnham, Watts, Griffith, Joseph, and big Justin Ademilola worked an ST circuit together. Walk-on Andrew Yanoshak—he of Blue-Gold Game touchdown fame—joined them as well.

— Defensive players donning the Guardian Caps today included Liufau, Burnham, Foskey, Bertrand, Ehrensberger, Bauer, Sneed, Osafo-Mensah, Lewis, and Tuihalamaka.

Worth noting, reiterating, and considering: this drill HEAVILY favors the offense. Linebackers one-on-one with a two-way go to cover against running backs and tight ends.

The point—clearly, if you listened to Al Golden and James Laurinaitis during the reps—was to maintain leverage after reading the offensive player’s initial break off the snap. A few observations from both sides:

Good stuff for Period 5…let’s see this with wide receivers and corners next time.

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