Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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16 APRIL 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI A fter reaching rock bottom in 2016 with a 4-8 outcome, the 2017 Fighting Irish had no place to go but up. That occurred with a 10-3 record, a Citrus Bowl victory versus LSU and a No. 11 finish in the final Associated Press poll. The topic now is whether Notre Dame and ninth-year head coach Brian Kelly can build upon that suc- cess or continue what has been a roller-coaster journey for the last 20- plus years in the overall operation. Spring practice began with two introductory sessions March 6 and March 8 before the school went on spring semester break from March 9-18. Practice was slated to resume March 20 before concluding with the annual Blue-Gold Game April 21. During that time, not all question marks will be answered. If anything, Kelly and his staff want to come out of spring drills knowing what issues remain so they can be better armed with knowledge once everyone re- convenes in August. "A lot of the things that we'll be working on in the spring will be not necessarily how we can win a partic- ular drill or look good in a particular red zone," Kelly said. "We want to see where our question marks are. "We're going to put our players in positions where they haven't suc- ceeded quite as well, or maybe as coaches we haven't been as good as we need to be." The spring roster is comprised of 90 players, including a school-record seven freshmen that enrolled early. The other 20 freshmen will join the roster when summer school opens in June. Among the 90 players this spring are 21 walk-ons, meaning that Notre Dame is slated to have 89 scholarship players by June, four over the NCAA limit of 85. The num- ber will need to be pared down to 85 by August. Overall, Notre Dame returns 10 of 11 starters on defense and cumula- tively five of 11 on offense. That group on offense that took "starter snaps" for the year consists of senior quarterback Brandon Wim- bush, junior wide receiver Chase Claypool, fifth-year senior center Sam Mustipher, fifth-year senior right guard Alex Bars, and the 2017 co-starting right tackle tandem of sophomore Robert Hainsey and ju- nior Tommy Kraemer — with Hain- sey shifting to left tackle in the open- ing spring session to fill the vacancy left by consensus All-American Mike McGlinchey's graduation. On defense the returning starters are fifth-year senior end Jay Hayes, junior end Daelin Hayes (no rela- tion), senior defensive tackle Jerry Tillery, fifth-year senior defensive tackle Jonathan Bonner, senior line- backer Te'von Coney, fifth-year se- nior linebacker Drue Tranquill, se- nior safety Nick Coleman, junior safety Jalen Elliott, junior cornerback Julian Love and either senior corner- back Nick Watkins or junior corner- back Troy Pride Jr. On special teams, senior kicker Justin Yoon and senior punter Tyler Newsome have started each of the past three seasons, while junior John Shannon begins the second of what is projected to be a four-year starting career. RITE OF SPRING: QB DEBATE Impending quarterback debates at Notre Dame under head coach Brian Kelly have been almost like clock- work the past eight years. Dayne Crist or Tommy Rees (2011)? Rees or Everett Golson … or An- drew Hendrix, or Gunner Kiel (2012)? Golson or Malik Zaire (2014-15)? Zaire or DeShone Kizer (2016)? And now in 2018, senior Brandon Wimbush or junior Ian Book? Wimbush is the incumbent after starting 12 games last season, but Book garnered popularity when he dramatically rallied the Irish to a 21-17 victory over LSU Jan. 1, completing 14 of 19 passes for 164 yards with two scores while adding 36 yards rushing with some nimble footwork. Wimbush is taking the first snaps, but Kelly stopped short this spring of anointing him as the definitive starter. "You've got to put somebody out there first, and by virtue of a lot of the really good things that Brandon did last year, he'll go out with the first group," Kelly said. "But we all know Ian was integral in our last win against LSU, and he deserves an op- portunity to compete as well … Bran- don knows that he's got to work on his skill set." From a personality standpoint, Kelly said Wimbush remained the same engaging, upbeat leader this winter despite the bowl benching. "What I think has changed a little bit are his priorities," Kelly offered. "I think football has become very, very important to him in terms of his progress. He's in there after weight training, working on his mechanics, throwing, watching film. "I've seen a guy that clearly under- stands that there's more to it than just Saturdays. It's been great to see that he's taken his development to the next level." The Irish head coach admitted he cannot at this point quantify how the reps will be divided between the two. It is not so much about 50-50 in practice situations, but he did main- tain that to be fair to Book, he would need his share of block time with the first unit. TRENDING UP Notre Dame attempts to build on its 2017 bounce-back season Junior cornerback Julian Love (center) is part of a veteran defense that returns more experience than any unit in the country, with 10 off 11 start- ers and nine of the top 11 reserves back. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA 2018 NOTRE DAME SCHEDULE Date Opponent (2017 Record) Sept. 1 Michigan (8-5) Sept. 8 Ball State (2-10) Sept. 15 Vanderbilt (5-7) Sept. 22 at Wake Forest (7-6) Sept. 29 Stanford (9-5) Oct. 6 at Virginia Tech (9-4) Oct. 13 Pittsburgh (5-7) Oct. 27 vs. Navy* (7-6) Nov. 3 at Northwestern (10-3) Nov. 10 Florida State (7-6) Nov. 17 vs. Syracuse^ (4-8) Nov. 24 at USC (11-3) *at San Diego ^ at Yankee Stadium in New York City