Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM APRIL 2025 53 L ooking back, we should have seen it coming. The road to Notre Dame's shocking 16-14 loss to North- ern Illinois began on March 23 of last year, when head coach Mar- cus Freeman announced that Duke transfer quarterback Riley Leonard would undergo a second surgery on his right ankle and miss the major- ity of spring practice. The surgery was necessary to clean up a devel- oping stress fracture, but it came at a significant cost. Because he lost spring ball, Leon- ard did not have enough time or, more importantly, reps to develop chemistry with his wide receivers. He worked extremely hard to make up that time and those reps, bring- ing his wideouts to his hometown of Fairhope, Ala., for a throwing session/bonding trip among other efforts. But ultimately, there's no substitute for throwing and catch- ing against a real defense wearing helmets and shoulder pads. Notre Dame knew that its offense would struggle out of the gate as a result (alongside other factors like an inexperienced and banged-up offensive line). It did not know the extent to which that would happen. Leonard clearly did not trust his pass catchers against NIU, and they were no- where near on the same page enough to make contested catches. Many games would pass before Leonard's chemis- try with his wide receivers was where it needed to be. Of course, NIU is now a footnote in the story of the 2024 season. But the factors that caused it are still real. One of them might be brewing again in 2025. Don't worry, Notre Dame's quarter- backs are healthy. Barring something unforeseen, all four of them — includ- ing the two expected to compete for the starting job, Steve Angeli and CJ Carr — will be full participants in spring practice. However, each of the projected top four wide receivers will not. Malachi Fields, a transfer from Vir- ginia, is enrolling in June. Jordan Fai- son is playing lacrosse. Will Pauling, a transfer from Wisconsin, came to Notre Dame with a stress injury in his foot that required surgery and will be a partial participant in spring practice. "We value offseason conditioning, and he missed the majority of our off- season conditioning," head athletic trainer Rob Hunt said. "You can expect to see him doing some drill work early on and moving into some more football- related team activities as we get to the back end of spring." Finally, Jaden Greathouse is one of 10 Irish who played significant snaps in the College Football Playoff, and he will be limited in some capacity to keep him fresh. "If you observe practice, you may see some of these guys doing some things and not others," Hunt said. "It doesn't mean they're injured in any form — it's just a planned approach for them to have individualized de- velopment plans. They will get the work they need to prepare for the fall, but also not burn out all their tread on their tires." The eventual starting quarter- back, whether it's Angeli or Carr, will not take full practice reps with their primary receiving corps until fall camp. That is a problem. You can spin it into a positive. Notre Dame knows what it has in Fields, Pauling, Faison and Great- house, so the reps can go to un- proven but promising youngsters like KK Smith, Logan Saldate, Mi- cah Gilbert and Cam Williams. It will help the Irish build depth, for sure, and that's the case at every other position due to injuries and veteran rest. You can also say that these are the consequences of making a College Football Playoff run, and you'd be right. If Notre Dame wants a cleaner spring, it should simply avoid going to the national championship. However, at the wide receiver position, the Irish need those reps to build cohesion with whoever winds up starting at quarterback. We've seen the consequences when that does not happen. Leonard was late on throws early in the season because he didn't know where his receivers would be. He was hesitant. He threw the ball on the wrong shoulder. Contrast that to the CFP, when he was drilling back-shoulder fades to Greathouse on do-or-die third downs. This won't be a long-term issue. Just like last year, the quarterback- wide receiver chemistry will get bet- ter with time. But circumstances have once again set Notre Dame up for early troubles. ✦ Quarterback Riley Leonard's ankle surgery last spring hampered his ability to build chemistry with his wide receivers, a key factor in Notre Dame's early-season loss to Northern Illinois. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER History May Be Repeating Itself; Not The Good Kind Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE