Notre Dame Practice Report: Tuesday, September 1 (Part 1)

Game week!

After spending time away on my honeymoon, it’s great to be back around some football as the season opener approaches.

As many are aware by now, there’s a new format in place where the media has access for 45 minutes on Tuesday and both the Wednesday and Thursday practices are closed.

In an attempt to be as thorough as possible with our coverage, the practice reports will be split into two parts, Tuesday and Wednesday, and BlueandGold.com will be able to feature two separate three-minute videos. In the second report I’ll give my game prediction.

The team was out on the LaBar practice fields in full pads for Nevada prep. The temperatures were in the low 70s with clear skies. It’s expected to climb to the high 70s by Saturday and go from clear skies to party cloudy.

General Observations

CB Raeshon McNeil was absent from practice.

WR Duval Kamara was in full pads and moving as if he hadn’t missed a rep. He was wearing a sleeve on his right knee.

“It’s time, baby!” WR Golden Tate shouted as the team got into stretch. WR Michael Floyd followed with a little dance to get pumped up.

Tony Alford exited to his area of the field early. He normally makes his rounds to the backs to chat, but he looked focus and ready to get right into drills this time around.

Corwin Brown spent a couple minutes chatting with LB Manti Te’o.

“You ready for Saturday, huh,” Brown said to No. 5, who quickly gave an affirmative response.

Charlie Weis called over Brian Polian to chat and the two talked for the last few minutes of stretch.

Frank Verducci was walking through an offensive line drill and getting things together for his group.

Weis called up the team and broke the huddle with “Wolf Pack!”

Defensive Observations

The defense started with pursuit drills.

The first-team base defense was Kapron Lewis-Moore, Ethan Johnson, Ian Williams and Kerry Neal as the defensive linemen, Darius Fleming, Toryan Smith and Brian Smith as linebackers and Robert Blanton, Darrin Walls, Harrison Smith and Kyle McCarthy in the secondary.

As noted above, McNeil was missing during the media’s viewing time. He was listed as the No. 1 right cornerback ahead of Walls, but Weis mentioned that it could’ve just as easily been listed as an “or” situation. Weis expects McNeil to start for Nevada since Walls missed more reps in fall camp due to a tweaked hamstring, but I’m not sure of the reasoning behind his absence yet.

The second-team base defense was Morrice Richardson, Hafis Williams, Sean Cwynar and John Ryan on the defensive line, Steve Filer, Anthony McDonald and David Posluszny as the backers and Jamoris Slaughter, Gary Gray, Ray Herring and Sergio Brown as the defensive backs.

The first-team nickel defense was Fleming, I. Williams, Johnson and Neal as the defensive linemen, B. Smith and T. Smith as linebackers, Brown as the nickel back and Blanton, Walls, McCarthy and H. Smith in the secondary.

The second-team nickel defense was Filer, H. Williams, Cwynar and Ryan as the defensive line, McDonald and Posluszny as the backers, Leonard Gordon as the nickel back and Slaughter, G.Gray, Herring and Zeke Motta as the defensive backs.

Worth Noting:

• NFL scouts from the Denver Bronco and New England Patriots were in attendance. The two spent time talking to each other during warm ups and stretch.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of the report on the wide receivers.