Ryan Roberts discusses which positions groups for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish answered big questions during spring practice!
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00:00Spring practice is about finding the answers to the biggest questions on your roster heading into the next season.
00:05The Notre Dame Fighting Irish found some much-needed answers.
00:08Let's talk about three position groups that I think Notre Dame looks a lot better at leaving the spring than I initially anticipated.
00:18Ryan Roberts from A to Z Sports bringing out everything Notre Dame football.
00:22Folks, spring practice is now officially behind us, and this time of year always seems to drag a little bit.
00:28Now we're going to be getting into the summer workout portion, into fall camp, but spring practice is the beginning to finding answers to some of the biggest questions on your roster.
00:37I think Notre Dame began to find those answers, and there's three position groups specifically that going into the spring, I was honestly, and both on this channel and at my work at A to Z Sports, we talked about, and I was a little bit worried about, to be honest, to say the absolute least.
00:56But now I feel a whole lot more confident, and let's talk about, of course, the biggest question, and the biggest position battle, and the most important position in all the sports, and that's quarterback.
01:11Now, this one's going to sound a little bit weird to some, so stick with me here for a second.
01:15Heading into the spring, I loved the talent in the room, that being CJ Carr, Steve Angeli, Kenny Minchie, Blake Hebert, so on and so forth.
01:26Very talented quarterback room.
01:27But, there was a little bit of, and I know what some people are thinking already, one, you're now going to have a quarterback that has not had a career start under their belt, starting against Miami in the opener.
01:41You also just lost Steve Angeli to the transfer portal.
01:44How possibly can you feel better about the room today than you did when you had another talented quarterback in the room?
01:50And here's why, and again, stick with me on this one.
01:54Going into the spring, I thought there were two likely outcomes.
01:56One, Steve Angeli wins the starting spot because he's the oldest, most experienced, and the most comfortable option on the board for Notre Dame.
02:04The other most likely option is CJ Carr.
02:07Obviously, the redshirt freshman, viewed as the golden boy, former borderline five-star recruit, a guy that Notre Dame fans have been very excited about.
02:15The fact that Steve Angeli was beat out, just flat-out beat out, not only by CJ Carr, but also by Kenny Minchie, who had a big spring.
02:24Redshirt sophomore Kenny Minchie, who was kind of viewed as the wild card going into the spring.
02:28Some people are fans, obviously, and I've been very forthcoming on this show, that I have hoped that Kenny Minchie gets a great shot at potentially starting to unseat a couple of those guys.
02:40But the fact that Steve Angeli has now left the program, that gives me so much hope and optimism for this quarterback position.
02:48Because that tells me that despite there being a quarterback that had more experience, that had more comfort, time in the system, time with head coach Marcus Freeman,
02:58he made a decision because the two younger guys were just flat-out better than him.
03:02And that gives me optimism, whether it ends up being Carr, whether it ends up being Minchie, that this quarterback position is in a great spot.
03:09So although you lost one talented quarterback, and it deplete, deplete is not even the right word, it took a little bit of talent out of the room,
03:17I am very optimistic that whoever it ends up being, that this position group is in a much better standing than it was going to the spring.
03:25I feel very similarly in my optimism about the safety position.
03:30Talked about this a ton recently on this show.
03:33But going into the spring, you knew you had Adon Shuler.
03:35Jalen Stroman is the veteran transfer from Virginia Tech who was not available in the spring.
03:41And you had a bunch of young guys.
03:42Jadon Blair, Bronte Johnson, Luke Talich, who's going into his third year.
03:47You had a talented but very young and inexperienced group.
03:50And I left the spring, I don't even care at this point, whether it is Blair, whether it is Johnson, whether it is Talich,
03:58whoever ends up starting, getting Jalen Stroman into this conversation,
04:02that room is not a two safety, starters, small amount of relief opportunities.
04:09That is a deep room, one of the deepest rooms, not only on this roster, but I think in any safety room in all of college football.
04:18I am so excited about the safety room because I knew it was talented, but would it be ready to play?
04:22I think several of these guys are ready to play today.
04:26The tight end room is the last one I want to hit on.
04:28And this one I don't feel as confident in because of the sheer numbers and injuries that have been associated with that room.
04:34Obviously, Cooper Flanagan dealing with the Achilles injury.
04:36Nobody knows his timeline exactly.
04:38Eli Raritan is your de facto tight end one in the room.
04:42And we all know that he has dealt with multiple knee injuries in his past as well.
04:46Kevin Bowman is in that room.
04:47He's been dealing with a lot of durability concerns during his time at South Bend.
04:51There's a lot of injury concerns in that room.
04:53But a couple of things that gave me optimism.
04:55One, Eli Raritan looked really good this spring.
04:59He looked like the guy that we potentially thought he was going to be coming out of high school.
05:04Looks really healthy.
05:05And I know that it's a hopeful vote.
05:10But if he's able to stay healthy, he has a chance to be a breakout player for Notre Dame's offense in 2025.
05:16And also the fact that Jack Larson, I thought, took a nice step forward here in the spring.
05:20I'm more comfortable with him potentially.
05:22You also have Ty Washington in the transfer of Arkansas coming in in the summer.
05:26You have James Flanagan coming in the summer.
05:28You still have Kevin Bowman in that room.
05:31It is dependent upon health.
05:33But if that unit stays healthy this fall, and I know that that is a big what if, but if that room is able to stay healthy, I'm telling you, that tight end room is going to surprise some folks this year.
05:45It's not going to be as much 12 personnel probably as it has been in the past, but it's going to be a much better unit than what I originally anticipated going into the spring.
05:53Folks, put in the chat right now.
05:55What positions are you excited for?
05:56Which positions do you feel better at right now after the spring than you did going in?
06:01Make sure you hit that like button and subscribe on the way out.
06:03And as always, go Irish.