Notre Dame Football Spring Game 2019 Observations

A tradition unlike any other, the annual Notre Dame spring game is kicking off–without an actual kickoff–today and will culminate the 15 spring practices for 2019 Notre Dame football team.

People having differing views on how much to care about a game like this, and with The Masters Tournament also taking place this weekend, TV equity might be hard to come by on the home front. In other words, a lot of people who watch every regular season football game won’t be tuning into what amounts to a practice.

That being said, here is a little running commentary of the highlights, and lowlights, of the production.

Notes From The First Half

12:24 pm: Notre Dame announces linebacker Jack Lamb and running back Tony Jones won’t be participating due to injury. Neither is deemed to be serious, but it serves as a reminder that the only thing that matters is everyone gets out of this thing healthy. Personally, I’d like to see Julian Okwara and Khalid Kareem ruled out due to “too good to risk it.”

12:27 pm: Word is Doug Flutie is going to stand behind the quarterbacks to let us know how the game is going from their perspective, from his perspective. I predict we are going to be very angry at the end of the day.

12:29 pm: Before this gets started, some predictions: Jurkovec is going to make a ton of plays and people are going to overreact. Lawrence Keys is going to look awesome and I am going to overreact.

12:32 pm: Undefeated season montage. I miss Dexter.

12:36 pm: Spring Takeaways: NBC color commentator controversy? My cloumn:

12:38: Brian Kelly says Phil Jurkovec will get snaps with the first team. My prediction feels right.

12:40 pm: Fun camera view!

12:43 pm: The offense is cruising, but Julian Okwara just destroyed Eichenberg for a sack that would probably have been a strip as well. His season could be monstrous.

12:45 pm: Book hits Michael Young for a touchdown on the games opening possession, beating Houston Griffith. Book completed passes to Claypool, Young, and Jafar Armstrong on the drive. Lots of check downs, but they moved the ball down the field with ease. Book was obviously sharp.

12:48 pm: Here’s the thing with the camera angle. Some might like it, some not. In my opinion, if you keep the sideline cam and pull it back to show the all-22, it gets universal praise.

12:52: Justin Ademilola sack, Jamir Jones 3 yard loss, Jayson Ademilola sack. Kind of get why Kelly wants Jurkovec to play with the first team. Also, Notre Dame has a ton of defensive end talent.

12: 54: The comparisons to Theo Riddick seem to be apt for Jafar Armstrong. Catches it well, runs hard. Gotta keep him healthy and he’s in for a good season. Oh, Ian Book just led another touchdown drive. He runs it in this time after some Armstrong impressiveness.

12:58 pm: Jurkovec bounces back with a nice drive down the field, hitting passes to Lenzy, Austin, and Jahmir Smith. Smith also had a nice run where he bounced outside for a big gain after getting stuffed at the line. Kyren Williams runs it in from a yard out for the touchdown.

12:59 pm: Williams got a good bit of work on that drive. Had a nice run for 10 yards, caught a pass and lowered his shoulder and was tackled at the one. He looks like a player at running back.

1:01 pm: Dominance from Notre Dame’s defensive ends on Jurkovec’s first drive with the number one offense. Kareem gets two sacks, sandwiched in between a completion to Finke. Eichenberg having a tough day.

1:10 pm: Joe Wilkins makes a play on a quick in route and spins away from Avery Davis for a big gain. Notre Dame has a slew of receivers who can play and it’s showing so far. Jahmir Smith punches it in from one yard out. Jurkovec has now led two touchdown drives. He’s moved the ball well without looking all the way impressive. Not sure how I feel about that.

1:13 pm: It’s Daelin Hayes‘s turn to show his quality. He sacks Ian Book on second down, then executes a spin move away from Eichenberg to flush book into Khalid Kareems sack. My unofficial count has the defense at 7 sacks so far. Three from Kareem, one from Hayes, one from Okwara, one each from the Ademilola twins.

1:20 pm: Jurkovec is moving the ball it’s just not super clean. He’s converted two fourth downs on this drive, first on a run, then a pass to Jahmir Smith, which was behind him, but went for about 20 yards. It ends with a smooth looking 35 yard field goal from Jonathon Doerer.

1:21 pm: Really surprised we haven’t one deep ball from either quarterback, given how much it was said they focused on it in the spring, especially Jurkovec. But again, it isn’t totally pretty yet Jurkovec is 12-16 for 117 yards and now three scoring drives. Not bad.

1:28 pm: Jalen Elliott strips Armstrong from behind after a big catch and run, which is recovered by Troy Pride. The fumble aside, Armstrong is going to get so many touches for this team. He’s going to get about 15 in this game, maybe more. Very important he stays healthy.

1:30 pm: Justin Ademilola just wrecked the left tackle which caused Jurkovec to be sacked after tripping over the tackle who had fallen to the ground. Let’s make that sack number nine after Ovie Oghoufo was credited with one earlier.

1:33 pm: Book goes deep to Claypool on a perfect pass over the safety for about 50 yards. Jahmir Smith then paid it off from there from five yards out. Smith is having himself a really nice day. He’s got five carries for 45 yards and two scores, with a couple catches mixed in as well.

1:42: Claypool again with a crossing route and nice run. He’s going to have a huge season. Like, really big. That leads to an Armstrong two yard run and Notre Dame’s 45th offensive points in the first half.

That’s going to do it for the first half. Book looked sharp, perhaps checked down more than people wanted, but he was very accurate. Claypool and Armstrong were the other stars on offense, with Jahmir Smith also looking impressive. Jurkovec was a little all over the place, but he was effective in moving the ball. Notre Dame is loaded at defensive end and it looks like the pass rush is what will save the defense this season.

Notes From The Second Half

• Jurkovec appeared to lose some confidence as the game went on. He at least felt to be under constant duress and his body language showed that. He clearly wanted to push the ball down the field a bunch, and he just didn’t have the time to do it.
• Ovie Oghoufo and early enrollee Nana Osafo Mensah had a nice run of plays against the backups. Those two showed some nice explosiveness getting off the line and making plays. Notre Dame is glutteness with defensive ends, it’s incredible. In all, it was a 15 sack day. Yowza!
• I thought Shayne Simon flashed some nice explosiveness throughout the day and especially in the second half. Not sure about his assignments, but he was aggressive.
• In the end, no big injuries, which is all that matters. The starters on offense looked good, which is the strength, the defensive ends looked good, which is the defensive strength. Win-win all the way around.