I just wanted to write a few things regarding spring practice this year. I've watched several days of practice video. Much of it is just the first twenty minutes of practice consisting of stretching and drills. However, last Saturday the entire practice was open to the media. Much of what I write here will be based on what I saw in those bits of video in addition to what I've read on the Internet and Weis' comments from his press conferences.
Let me state up front that I by no means assume this to be an accurate account of the state of ND football. It is difficult to sufficiently glean nearly anything substantial from what is out there. Weis runs a pretty tight ship in terms of what he lets get to the media and I don't blame him. I'll discuss a bit about Weis (and Bill Lewis), the offense, and the defense. This will be mostly a stream of consciousness type of thing. Finally, let's remember that we are nearly five months away from our first game.
Weis
It seems that Weis is too comfortable. I previously wrote that I believed we were nasty and intelligent the first year of Weis' tenure but not as much last year. It seems like we don't have that any more. I'm all about having fun at practice (which is what seems to be going on), but where is the business-like attitude? We don't have the athletes (yet) to have much room for error and we certainly don't have the experience. I feel like Weis isn't imposing a sense of urgency like he should. On top of that, he has made comments about using different quarterbacks in different situations. To me, that is a terrible idea. I know, I know, look at how well it worked for Florida last year. But show me that one time it was successful and I'll show you a dozen when it wasn't. I like his general approach to the quarterback selection process: see who can run the offense, then make the reads, then get the accuracy of the throws, but I think not having one guy, one leader, is divisive for the team.
Bill Lewis
I have to give Bill Lewis a shout here because the guy never shuts up during practice. From the moment the players arrive until they leave he is constantly coaching. Even during stretching he is going to players to work with them on certain things. We are fortunate to have him.
Offense
Quarterbacks
If we had a game tomorrow I believe Sharpley would start. He knows the offense, has command of the huddle, and is proficient enough throwing the ball that we could be successful provided we had a decent running game to take pressure off the passing game, help keep the defense off the field, and slow the game down. The place where we would hurt would be in third and long situations. However, I have a feeling that is going to be problematic for us all year.
Clausen, I believe, is right behind him. His release is super quick, his accuracy (at least on the short and intermediate throws which is all I have see him make) is dead on, and his polish is superb. If he had more time in the offense I believe he would be the hands down winner. The problem is that he doesn't know the reads, the checks, etc. and doesn't have the trust of the other players (or Weis). Between now and next fall that may change.
Frazer looks the part but he seems to have problems with leading receivers on his throws. He has a cannon for an arm and has the strength to make all the throws but the physical tools seem to be where the positives stop. In another system where a coach paid more attention to a backup quarterback and their development he might have a shot at becoming a good quarterback but I don't see it happening here.
Jones, to me, looks the worst of all four quarterbacks. I was rooting for him as the starter because I like his ability to create with his athleticism. However, his throwing motion is terrible, he is frequently grossly inaccurate, and he doesn't seem to have particular control of the team. This doesn't seem to be the general indication of his performance from the media and Weis so it could be that I just caught some bad clips.
One final note about the quarterback situation. If one quarterback is able to separate themselves from the rest of the pack I would expect (at least) one of the others to transfer (or go to another sport in the case of Sharpley). Weis is a one quarterback type of guy and with the limited time and practice constraints he doesn't seem to be too keen on working much with the number two and three guys. If one of the younger guys gets the nod and plays well or even sufficient, I would expect him to be the starter for a while to come (barring injury of course).
Carlson
I didn't give any other individual their own category but Carlson deserves it. He looks to be 20-25 pounds bigger than last year and he hasn't lost a step. In fact, he may be slightly faster. He looks much stronger on his blocking and I think we will see him be a receiver like he was last year and a blocker like Fasano was the year before.
Offensive Line
I have to admit I haven't seen much to form an opinion on the offensive line. The word on the street is that they are playing well and that there is a lot to be happy about. I will say this, Sam Young isn't human. I've never seen someone so large have so much agility and quickness.
Running Backs
Travis Thomas and James Aldridge look very similar running the ball. Thomas seems to have a little better acceleration while Aldridge seems to have a little better "top speed." Both look very physical and you can tell the difference between Aldridge now and a year ago. He looks much stronger in the lower body and much less timid. I can't see Weis not playing them both a significant portion.
This just in, Armando Allen is fast, and quick, and fast. During the running back drills he makes the other backs look slow when they are cutting. And the great thing about him is that he doesn't seem to need to gain size or strength like most freshmen playing a skill position. Luke Schmidt had a nice off-season adding quite a bit of weight (~20-25 lbs) and improving his upper body strength. He doesn't seem to have slowed down much either. Schwaap is getting back into a rhythm coming back from his injury. The bottom line is that we look very deep at running back and we should be productive if for nothing else but having fresh legs throughout the game.
Recievers
Weis has said that Grimes is the clear number one while George West has established himself as the number two guy. I believe we need someone else to step up. It isn't that I don't like short receivers but having two guys that are less than 5"10' doesn't help the vertical passing game. Carlson will alleviate some of that but we need someone on the outside for the jump balls a la Samardzija and Stovall. Small receivers like Grimes and West also typically have problems with beating press coverage. Rhema and Samardzija had issues with this last year and the results were catastrophic for our offense. Their problems, however, were in gaining separation from the defensive backs after the initial push at the line of scrimmage. West and Grimes problem will likely be more related to the physical play at the line inherent when facing bump-and-run coverage.
Having a consistent running game will help take the pressure off the passing game and alleviate some of the need to go downfield as much but I still believe we need a third receiver with some size. That said, I'm not sure there are many defensive backs out there that can cover West one-on-one provided he can get off the line. He is lightning quick. The one disappointment thus far of the spring practice (as far as I am concerned) has been D. J. Hord. Hord has the tools to be a very good receiver but he seems to be quite slow coming back from the Achilles tendon injury of last year.
Defense
Defensive Line
Like the offensive line, I haven't been able to get much from what I've seen on the defensive line. It does, however, appear that Kuntz is the leading candidate for the nose tackle position. This could be problematic as he doesn't have superior size or quickness to be a dominant force in the inside. Playing on the inside of a 3-4 (which I think is really a 5-2 with stand-up ends) you want a nose tackle who is big and strong or small and quick. Either way they need to be able to play both A-gaps and stuff the inside run while simultaneously providing sufficient pass rush up the middle. One bright spot has been Kallen Wade. He has put on about 40 lbs since arriving on campus. He really looks completely transformed. Weis mentioned he will get even bigger and I think once he gets to the right size and gets some explosiveness and speed he could be a dandy.
Secondary
Ambrose Wooden simply amazes me. The guy has all of the natural athletic ability in the world. He just can't get the mental part of playing corner down. He has the quickness and the speed. He just doesn't play fundamentally sound enough to be a dominant defensive back. And it isn't because of a lack of effort either. Lambert looks like he may have gotten a little bigger but he hasn't lost any speed and he is just as physical. Bruton can cover a lot of ground and at 6"2' he has the size to be a good center fielder. All in all I would say the secondary look good in practice but I can't tell if they really look good or if our receivers look bad. With history as hindsight I'm leaning towards the latter.
Linebackers
Our linebacker play looks to have improved...some. Both Toryan Smith and Maurice Richardson look much better than last year. Richardson is un-blockable when he's coming off the edge. He has too much speed for a guy his size. Opposing quarterbacks better learn to step up into the pocket or they are in trouble because there aren't many offensive tackles that will be able to block him. Smith looks like he wants to kill someone every time he hits them. I said when we signed him that he hits like Zach Thomas and so far he hasn't disappointed. He plays with tremendous leverage. The one guy who has disappointed me somewhat is John Ryan. He doesn't play with much speed or intensity and often times looks out of position, lost, or not knowing what he is supposed to be doing.
