Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1468566
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM JUNE/JULY 2022 19 unspecified reasons. He started as an extra linebacker against Wisconsin in Week 4, playing a season-high 29 snaps. The follow-up? Nine total snaps over his next three games. Botelho eventually moved from vyper to rover during the season, barely on the radar at that point. He played one snap in the Fiesta Bowl. A successful spring for him would be to find a home that felt per- manent. The rover position's added pass rush responsibility in Al Golden's defense catered to his explosiveness off the edge. He stayed at rover all spring and stated his case to be in the game plan each week. "He's physical," head coach Marcus Freeman said. "He makes plays. He's a guy who is going to be a huge asset for this team." As Lewis, Botelho and Tyree hit reset, Mills continued his ascent in loud fash- ion. Notre Dame gave him the first shot at replacing Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa at field end — the only option to give him a starter's workload when three-technique tackle Jayson Ademilola returned for a bonus year. Mills was Ademilola's backup in 2021, but made an emergency start for Tagovailoa-Amosa in a win at Virginia. Mills had two sacks while filling in as an edge player. He followed it with a dominant spring, capped with 3 tack- les for loss in the Blue-Gold Game. He was as gifted an interior rusher as Notre Dame had last season. He now looks like the Irish's best pass rusher at any posi- tion after senior Isaiah Foskey. Notre Dame gave another then-soph- omore his first career start in that defeat of Virginia. Ramon Henderson, fresh off a switch from cornerback five days earlier, started at safety and snagged his first career interception. He kept the job the rest of the year. Henderson is competing with grad- uate students DJ Brown and Houston Griffith to start this season opposite Northwestern transfer Brandon Joseph. He showed last fall he has the physical tools to handle safety. Learning the ins and outs of it takes more time, though. DEPTH PIECES Offensive tackles Michael Carmody and Tosh Baker had their shot to claim the left tackle job last fall. Injury issues and inconsistency in their two starts kept either from grasping it. They now find themselves behind a pair of rising sophomores in Joe Alt and Blake Fisher. It's not the outcome either former four-star prospect wanted. But it's what they must make the best of now. They're still an injury away from handling a pre- mium position. Carmody's spring move to center was done out of need when offseason injuries ravaged the position. It's not clear where he ends up. Baker is the swing tackle who would likely be first up if Fisher or Alt were hurt. Pyne hasn't ceded the quarterback job to sophomore Tyler Buchner yet, but he didn't help his case with a rocky spring game performance. Buchner jumped him on the depth chart in 2021, even though Pyne's outings against Cincinnati and Wisconsin contained more good moments than bad. Where would Buchner winning the job leave Pyne's chances of starting at Notre Dame? Low, if Buchner is the dynamic player Notre Dame thinks he can be. Like Baker and Carmody, Pyne would be behind a younger player. But Buchner hasn't reached that point yet. Even with his spring progress, he's still a relative unknown. As long as that's the case, there's a small window for Pyne. At worst, Pyne showed last fall the of- fense can function with him running it. Defensive end Alexander Ehrens- berger and tight end Kevin Bauman spent their first two years behind the curtain for opposite reasons. Bauman drew the staff's praise in his first fall camp, but Mayer's presence and the depth chart ahead of him gave him no feasible path to playing time. A bro- ken leg in the 2021 opener sandbagged his chances of earning the No. 3 tight end role. Ehrensberger, meanwhile, was a developmental project and needed a year or two of refinement. Both have a shot at earning No. 2 jobs this season backing up a fellow junior — Ehrensberger behind Mills and Bauman behind Mayer. Not often do scholarship long snap- pers wait three years before assuming the primary job, but former walk-on Michael Vinson's return for a graduate season pushed Alex Peitsch's window back to 2023. Vinson beat him out in 2020 and hasn't let go of the job. Likewise, a crowd of seniors and gradu- ate students might make Watts wait until his senior year to be a rotation player or starter at safety, and that's OK with him as he learns the nuances of the position. The converted wide receiver feels he has found his best fit, though, and turned down a chance to move back to offense at a posi- tion that could use a few more bodies. ✦ Clarence Lewis won a starting cornerback job as a freshman but had a bumpy sophomore season. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER