Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 JUNE/JULY 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED P utting too much evaluation stock into Notre Dame's annual Blue- Gold Game will forever be a reck- less endeavor. Anonymous players in the glorified scrimmage routinely emerge as stars, while the season's expected stars often slip into anonymity. Putting overreaction aside, this year's Blue-Gold Game April 20 at Notre Dame Stadium provided more promise all over the field than any in at least the last decade. Notre Dame returns essentially its entire defense, a unit that finished fifth in the country in fewest yards allowed last season and first in pass efficiency defense. It's a group that is dotted with potential All-Americans and future NFL Draft picks, including graduate student linemen Rylie Mills and How- ard Cross III, graduate student safety Xavier Watts and junior cornerback Benjamin Morrison. Offensively, the Irish quarterback roster is as deep and its rhythm as bal- anced as maybe it has ever been with senior transfer Riley Leonard, talented junior Steve Angeli, athletic sopho- more Kenny Minchey and early enrolled freshman CJ Carr. All of whom — based on previous experience and what we saw during the spring — look equipped to successfully lead the Irish offense if called upon. The collection of Notre Dame wide receivers and tight ends is markedly better and deeper than the group that struggled last season and didn't feature a single pass catcher who recorded 30 receptions or 500 yards. Running backs are also in great shape with explosive sophomore Jeremiyah Love leading the way, and talented ju- niors Jadarian Price and Gi'Bran Payne serving as terrific backups. The Notre Dame offensive line re- mains a work in progress, but there are plenty of talented options to sort through at these positions. Simply put, with the 12-team playoff set to launch this postseason, anything short of a place in it for Notre Dame should be considered a disappointing season. "I believe this is one of the most tal- ented rosters we've had since I've been here," Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said after the Blue-Gold Game. "Now, it's our job to build that talent, mold that talent, and make sure we teach that talent to get where we want to go." And to Freeman's point, Notre Dame will not only feature probably its best and definitely the deepest roster it has had in at least the last decade, but also expect the Irish coaching staff to be among the best in the country. Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden is back for a third season with a reported four-year contract extension worth $9 million in hand that makes him one of the highest paid defensive coordinators in the country. And in a move that is often being cel- ebrated as the best offseason coaching hire in the country, Notre Dame made Mike Denbrock among the highest paid offensive coordinators in the country last December with a four-year deal worth $9 million. Again, putting too much value into any spring season is a dangerous exer- cise. But given what we saw over these six weeks in March and April, it's hard not to believe that Notre Dame isn't equipped to make a strong playoff push, and maybe even more. "I don't want to start back over," Freeman said. "I want to use what we've developed over these 15 practices and continue to build it." BUT THAT'S NOT ALL As promising as the spring game and season ended up being, the biggest news of the Blue-Gold weekend came with the ceremonial groundbreaking of the Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall, a 150,000-square-foot, state-of-the- art facility upgrade that is overdue and expected to be completed in the fall of 2026. The facility will sit adjacent to and provide nearly a 50-percent increase in space of the aging Guglielmino Ath- letics Complex — the current home of Notre Dame football that opened in 2005. The new complex will feature top-notch sports medicine care, a new player nutrition area, meeting rooms and an all-team auditorium, just to highlight a few of its benefits. Antiquated facilities was the primary reason former Irish head coach Brian Kelly cited when asked why he bolted for LSU in November 2021. However, Freeman, who never once complained about his existing facilities, said, "If you've ever lost a recruit be- cause of a facility, then it probably isn't a loss. … Our facility has never been a recruiting disadvantage for us." But the third-year Irish head coach couldn't resist celebrating the upgrades that Shields Hall will bring. "It's about giving the current players and the future players every possibility to develop and reach their full poten- tial," he said. "That's the vision behind it." ✦ Sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love is just one of the many reasons to feel optimistic about the Fighting Irish after what we saw this spring. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Notre Dame's Spring Provides Plenty Of Promise UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com