With Notre Dame football starting its spring practices on Wednesday, there are plenty of things to watch leading up to the Blue and Gold game on April 12th.
There will be some developments during this allotted team time, as more questions surrounding the team will pop up. Those will be broken down as they happen, but there are plenty of interesting story lines leading up to tomorrow.
Find out below my five biggest one’s to watch, as Notre Dame officially starts to prepare for the 2025-26 football season.
Defense positional battles
Some of the open positions will be filled by pretty obvious choices, like Bryce Young taking over for RJ Oben, and Donovan Hinish for Howard Cross III. There aren’t obvious ones for who fills the shoes of Xavier Watts, although there are some great choices. Luke Talich and Kennedy Urlacher are the front runners, but transfers Jalen Smith or Devonta Smith didn’t come to sit. The battle for Jack Kiser’s spot will be interesting as well, as Jaiden Ausberry and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa are the top candidates.
Offense positional battles
It starts with quarterback, and it will be quite the battle between CJ Carr and Steve Angeli. You can’t discount Kenny Minchey either, but the first two are seen as the most legitimate candidates to start. Wide receiver will be interesting as well, but transfers Malachi Fields should take one of those spots with the other going to Jaden Greathouse. The rotation could see plenty of others as well. Offensive line is another position that bears watching, with Billy Schrauth, Aamil Wagner and Anthonie Knapp all having locked up their spots.
Chris Ash’s defense
The Notre Dame defense will look a bit different than it did with Al Golden, but Chris Ash is still a great coach. You have to wonder how much of the scheme will change considering how well it worked last year. There will surely be some new concepts and potentially players moving around to fit the new leaders vision. I doubt the Irish will show their whole hand during the spring, but we can see a glimpse of what is to come.
True freshman
A total of thirteen of the twenty-four 2025 signees are already on campus, and this will be the first extended look that we get of many of them. We’ve seen a bit from the bowl practices, which turned out to be the maximum you could get. That will bode well for this group, and I’m especially excited to see what linebacker Madden Faraimo, offensive tackle Will Black, wide receiver Elijah Burress and safety JaDon Blair can do.
Seniors stepping up
This happens almost every year, a senior who hasn’t really seen the field during his career explodes and has a final season to remember. Who will it be this year? This past year saw defensive lineman Rylie Mills have a huge year, even though he did play for much of his career, he stepped up big time. This year could see tight end Kevin Bauman fit that mold, as well as defensive end Jason Onye.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: notre dame spring practice 2025 Carr Angeli Marcus freeman
