Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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20 PRESEASON 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED better? That's what I want our team to be a reflection of. "Don't worry about who's out there. Just keep getting better. And when your time's called, you've got to perform like those guys in that room have done. I'm as pleased with Coach Rudolph and that O-line as any position on this team." 2. Find The Best Plan B At QB That doesn't mean Plan A, CJ Carr, doesn't have work to do and room for improvement. But the bigger, faster, stronger, smarter version of him also doesn't need to overdo training camp. The most impactful thing, in fact, he can do this month is help make the players around him better — through his leadership, through film studies with teammates, through working on timing and chemistry with his route runners. The spotlight in August will be on three signal-callers who have yet to take their first snap in a college game — redshirt freshman Blake Hebert and true freshmen Noah Grubbs and Teddy Jarrard. "No. 1, how do you make sure your starting quarterback's prepared?" Free- man said. "We can't cheat his reps to get prepared. But how do you give these three guys opportunities with the twos to perform? And with the threes to perform? And how do we move them around to make sure they're all getting [an] equal amount of opportunities? "Then, you have to make a deci- sion who's the backup for Week 1. That doesn't mean they're backup for the season. It's something we've never had to do, like, how do you then progress from that? "And who's going to [run the] scout team? Are we rotating guys on scout team? Those are all logistical things that myself and [quarterbacks] Coach [Gino] Guidugli and Coach Denbrock and I have to figure out." 3. Honing And Refining The Tight End Position The Irish may not have a clear No. 1, a la Eli Raridon last season … yet. And they don't necessarily need it. But what they do have is a trio of players, among the six scholarship tight ends on the roster, who can bring needed versatility and high octane to the Irish offense. Redshirt junior Cooper Flanagan, redshirt freshman James Flanigan and true freshman Ian Premer all are be- lieved to have both the ability to be physical in the running game and also be threats in the vertical passing game. And since the three combined for just 55 college game snaps last season — 51 coming from Flanigan — August becomes about repeating what they learned in the spring, refined during June OTAs and July player-run prac- tices, and getting the base down to a point where they understand how to make changes depending on the oppo- nent from week to week. The raw material is there and so are depth pieces like redshirt senior Ty Washington, redshirt sophomore Jack Larsen and true freshman Preston Fryzel. 4. Getting The Final Spots In The Wide Receiver Rotation Up To Speed Here's the math. Essentially wide re- ceivers coach Mike Brown has 10 schol- arship players plus lacrosse star Matt Jeffery competing for two spots. The top four in the rotation, provided Ohio State transfer Quincy Porter's recovery timeline from knee surgery continues to be on target, are Jordan Faison, Jaden Greathouse, Porter and fellow Ohio State transfer Mylan Graham. Redshirt sophomore Micah Gilbert would appear the most likely to lock down one of the final two spots. But don't rule out two of the true freshmen — Kaydon Finley and Devin Fitzgerald. The bar is much higher for them and everybody else in August, because it's "big boy time." So, what Brown and the other Irish coaches are looking for is: Are you a consistent route runner? Do you see how the secondary plays you? Can you handle press man coverage? How do you know when to stop and not go too far across the field? In other words, how good are you at finding the win- dows? And can you catch the ball every time it's thrown to you? You can't drop passes at Notre Dame. 5. Proving There Is Life After Love — And Price Redshirt sophomore Kedren Young is the wildest of wild cards in a five-man running back room, with the poten- tial to finish training camp anywhere from running back 1A to the fifth op- tion. Most likely the 5-11, 234-pounder will return from a year off due to ACL surgery to land at No. 3 in a three-man rotation. But the pecking order might not be as firm with these five backs from week to week and even within games as it was in the two-man 2025 rotation of Jer- emiyah Love and Jadarian Price. The biggest objective for running backs coach Ja'Juan Seider in August beyond at least loosely defining roles (is Young, for instance, the short-yardage option?) and confirming a three-deep game-day pattern is to be open to being surprised. That doesn't always happen to the extent that it shakes up the top of the depth chart, but, for example, Se- ider will get his first look in pads this month at freshman Javian Osborne, who missed spring practice due to wrist surgery. Seider also likes his running backs well-rounded and to see the game through the eyes of the quarterback. That will be an emphasis of his teaching that should show up in all five becom- ing better blockers and pass catchers as well. ✦ Kedren Young — a 5-11, 234-pound redshirt sopho- more who missed last season due to a knee injury — has the potential to finish training camp anywhere from running back 1A to the fifth option in the five-man group. PHOTO BY BILL STREICHER