Notre Dame Has Found Some Important Answers This Spring – Offense Edition – Sports Illustrated

© Angela Driskell, Irish Breakdown
Notre Dame still has plenty of room for growth, but several answers were found for the Irish
Notre Dame is just six days away from the conclusion of the spring period, which comes with the Blue-Gold Game. While there are still a few practices left, the Irish completed the very important Jersey Scrimmage and are three quarters through the other practices. There is no doubt that questions remain for the Irish, just like every other team in college football, but Notre Dame has also found some very important answers.
No team leaves the spring as a complete squad. Battles will still rage at various positions, development will still happen, injuries will have to be worked through and the overall shape of the team is still being molded. That’s true for Notre Dame, Georgia, Ohio State and everyone else in college football.
But when the spring comes to a close you need to have found a lot of answers as well, and Notre Dame has certainly done that through the 2024 spring. Let’s look at the answers we’ve seen for Notre Dame as they get close to the finish of the spring, beginning with the offense. I’ll follow up with answers on defense later in the week.
Notre Dame’s running backs have some giant shoes to fill after Audric Estime took his considerable talent to the NFL. Replacing his 1,341 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns won’t be easy, but Notre Dame has an absolutely loaded backfield. The unit has dealt with some bumps and bruises this spring, but the unit has shown it has the talent and depth to be special in 2024.
The one-two punch of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price have plenty to prove, but this spring has shown this duo has big time talent. Love has shown himself to be a playmaker at running back and he’s getting a lot of action in the pass game as well. There aren’t many backs with his potential to be a game-changer as a runner and pass catcher. Price looks to be back to his pre-Achilles injury form, showing excellent suddenness as an athlete, and the vision and feel for the game to be a workhorse.
Love and Price are going to explode onto the national scene early in 2024.
Recruiting success since Deland McCullough has arrived has also given Notre Dame running back depth it hasn’t seen in years. Talented freshman Kedren Young battled a hamstring injury most of the spring and it appears Gi’Bran Payne was limited at times as well. That allowed freshman Aneyas Williams to show off his ability as well. This group is absolutely loaded and will be a focal point of the offense in year one of Mike Denbrock‘s second stint as the team’s offensive coordinator.
Sophomore wide receiver Jaden Greathouse showed a lot of promise during his freshman season, hauling in 18 catches for 265 yards and a team-leading five touchdown catches despite battling a hamstring injury during the middle part of the season. There was always an expectation that Greathouse would be a key member of the offense in 2024, but the Texan has shown himself to be much more than that.
Greathouse has been hands down the team’s best pass catcher all spring, and he’s poised for a major breakout in the fall. He has always been a smart player with an advanced feel for the game and how to get open. Greathouse has shown this spring that he’s stronger, faster and showing the kind of burst needed to be a dominant one-on-one player. Notre Dame’s secondary had no answers for him during the Jersey Scrimmage, and sources indicate that what we saw on Saturday has been a constant throughout the spring.
Don’t be at all surprised if Greathouse is the team’s best pass catcher in the fall, but at the very least he’ll give the Irish a weapon that can be used inside and outside. Greathouse has the kind of reliability as a playmaker that Notre Dame lacked at wide receiver in recent seasons.
The offensive line is still a work in progress, and I’ll have a lot more to say about this group as we get closer to the spring. What we’ve seen this spring, and in the Jersey Scrimmage, is that the unit as a whole is still coming together and there is plenty of technical work needed and gelling that must occur.
What we’ve also seen this spring is that while the young offensive linemen still need plenty of work, the talent and dominance we hoped we would see from this group is there. Charles Jagusah had some up-and-down moments in the scrimmage, but he’s also shown all spring that he is a legit talent on the left side. If he continues showing this kind of growth he’ll have a chance to quickly emerge as the team’s best blocker.
Up the middle, right guard Billy Schrauth and center Ashton Craig have also established themselves. According to sources, Schrauth has had a monster spring, and he showed up well in the scrimmage. Last season’s starter at right tackle – Rocco Spindler – has moved to left guard to battle with Pat Coogan, which says a lot about the growth Schrauth has shown this spring.
Notre Dame has plenty of questions up front, but the presence of Jagusah, Schrauth and Craig gives the Irish an outstanding foundation to build around.
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