Only The Young | by Pat
I've been curious about writing this post for about a year now because I wanted to find out just how much experience and playing time we'd be losing when Brady Quinn's class finally left South Bend. No surprise, it's a lot. We're going to be young this coming season.
I changed things up a bit this year from the 2005 and 2006 versions. Rather than just show the total playing time of each player, I broke down the numbers into playing time on special teams (ST Minutes) and playing time at an actual position (PT Minutes). That way you can see which guys were out on the field gaining experience at their position and which were relegated mainly to special teams roles. All playing time numbers came from Lou Somogyi's recent list of 2006 playing times. To help illustrate the youth of the team next season, I added the class year (note: not eligibility year, but year at ND) to each player's name. As always with this post, these numbers are just rough guidelines and "for entertainment purposes only"...
The overall numbers wind up showing that 36% of the offense and 50% of the defense will be back to don the gold helmets. Needless to say, it's going to be an adventure next year with all the new faces out on the field for the Irish.
Quarterback - 6%
If you think only 6% of returning playing time is bad, consider that Evan Sharpley only attempted 2 of ND's 471 pass attempts last year. (For those keeping track, that's 0.4%.) Sharpley's been organizing the off-season 7-on-7 drills this winter and is working hard for the starting job, but the trio of underclassmen (Zach Frazer, Demetrius Jones, and Jimmy Clausen) are likely going to keep this the most intriguing question going into the season. Whoever wins out, he'll be ND's least-experienced opening-day quarterback since Ron Powlus thirtee
n years ago.| Quarterback | ST Minutes | PT Minutes |
| Sharpley (JR) | 0 | 21 |
| Total | 342 | |
| Returning | 21 | |
| Difference | (321) | |
| Return Pct. | 6% |
Running Back - 14%
Again, no surprise here as Darius Walker took the bulk of the playing time with him when he left for the NFL. One thing that isn't accounted for here is Travis Thomas. I listed him and his 300 minutes of playing time under linebacker since that was his primary position last season. But I expect him to move back to running back full-time next year so that will bump up the percentage of returning experience. Really, a better way to measure RB experience would be in carries. Last year ND running backs rushed the ball 327 times, and 69 of those carries return (21%). It should also be pointed out that Asaph Schwapp's numbers would have been much higher had he not been knocked out for the year. Next year ND will have a lot of talent on hand -- perhaps its deepest running back corp in years -- with Thomas, Schwapp, James Aldridge, Munir Prince, Junior Jabbie, Luke Schmidt, and freshmen Robert Hughes and Armando Allen -- but it's also very green.
| Running Back | ST Minutes | PT Minutes |
| Aldridge (SO) | 0 | 21 |
| Schwapp (JR) | 2 | 21 |
| Prince (SO) | 1 | 15 |
| Jabbie (SR) | 23 | 0 |
| Total | 396 | |
| Returning | 57 | |
| Difference | (339) | |
| Return Pct. | 14% |
Offensive Line - 42%
In terms of career starts, the 2005 and 2006 offensive lines were the two most experienced lines in Notre Dame history. Now the rebuilding process is underway and the lack of upperclassmen depth at OL really will test the Irish offense. Two starters return in center John Sullivan and right tackle Sam Young, and both are safe bets to start again. The other three starting spots are up for grabs. Paul Duncan swapped time with Young last year and would appear to be in line to take the tackle spot opposite Young. The two guard spots are going to be an open competition between a group of very talented, but very inexperienced sophomores and freshman. There are going to be some growing pains early in the year as the new starting five learn to play together, but with enough bodies to finally offer competition for playing time, it will be fun to watch the young players battle and scrap to keep those starting spots.
| Offensive Line | ST Minutes | PT Minutes |
| Sullivan (5th) | 1 | 323 |
| | | |
| Young (SO) | 3 | 289 |
| Duncan (JR) | 32 | 52 |
| Turkovich (JR) | 0 | 23 |
| Olsen (SO) | 0 | 21 |
| Carufel (SO) | 0 | 3 |
| Minutes | 1702 | |
| Returning | 711 | |
| Difference | (991) | |
| Return Pct. | 42% |
Wide Receiver - 29%
All ND has to do at receiver is replace the #1 and #2 career reception leaders in ND history. Samardzija and McKnight snagged 145 of ND's 176 wide receiver catches last season. The default go-to-guy right now is junior David Grimes who is responsible for 26 of those returning 31 receptions. Chase Anastasio was recently added to the list of potential returning 5th year players, but the veteran special teams ace had only two receptions last year. Among the freshman, George West and Robby Parris caught two and one passes respectively while Richard Jackson spent nearly all of his time on special teams and didn't see a pass thrown his way. As with the running backs and offensive line, there are a number of intriguing sophomores and freshman who have a shot to make an instant impact, but nearly all of them are extremely inexperienced.
| Receiver | ST Minutes | PT Minutes |
| Grimes (JR) | 25 | 160 |
| Anastasio (5th) | 25 | 58 |
| West (SO) | 37 | 19 |
| Parris (SO) | 1 | 12 |
| Jackson (SO) | 36 | 2 |
| Minutes | 870 | |
| Returning | 251 | |
| Difference | (619) | |
| Return Pct. | 29% |
Tight End - 71%
The return of John Carlson was great news for the Irish offense; he had more receptions than the rest of the returning receivers combined. Carlson will start the year as a pre-season All-American due to his spectacular production in the passing game, and another year in the weight room should improve his blocking. Replacing Marcus Freeman as the #2 will be either Konrad Reuland or Will Yeatman, two very talented and athletic sophomores. Yeatman was the better blocker of the two last season, and is a good bet to win that #2 slot. When you add in freshman speedster Mike Ragone, ND really will have the best collection of athletic tight ends in the country. How the younger guys develop as blockers will determine just how often ND runs multiple TE sets.
| Tight End | ST Minutes | PT Minutes |
| Carlson (5th) | 49 | 288 |
| Yeatman (SO) | 10 | 19 |
| Reuland (SO) | 1 | 17 |
| Minutes | 455 | |
| Returning | 324 | |
| Difference | (206) | |
| Return Pct. | 71% |
Defensive Line - 32%
Three of the four DL starters have moved on, with only Trevor Laws returning. With the likelihood that ND will be running a variety of the 3-4 defense, technically we'll only have to replace two starters on the DL instead of three. What it really means is that a lot of different players will be tried out at different spots, including possible position switches from offense. In other words, besides Trevor Laws lining up somewhere, we likely won't know how the starting DL will look until spring practice is well underway. While it's possible career backups Justin Brown and Dwight Stephenson, Jr. might find new life in the revamped defense, many Irish fans are already looking to sophomores John Ryan and Morrice Richardson. Incoming freshman Kerry Neal also has a great chance to see early playing time.
| Defensive Line | ST Minutes | PT Minutes |
| Laws (5th) | 30 | 283 |
| Kuntz (JR) | 36 | 46 |
| Ryan (SO) | 2 | 38 |
| Brown (SR) | 4 | 25 |
| Richardson (SO) | 9 | 12 |
| Stephenson (5th) | 0 | 9 |
| Minutes | 1297 | |
| Returning | 413 | |
| Difference | (841) | |
| Return Pct. | 32% |
Linebacker - 65%
The most veteran unit on the team, the linebacking corp will still undergo plenty of revision and alteration. First, as mentioned earlier, Travis Thomas played 300 minutes last season, most of it at linebacker. If you add his non-running back PT into the equation, the 81% bumps up to 86%. However, it's sounding more and more likely that TT will return to the offense full-time next year so I left him off this list. With the Irish moving to the 3-4, that means two additional starting linebacker spots open up and it will certainly be interesting to see how they are filled up. Players like Toryan Smith and Anthony Vernaglia have great opportunities to nail down a starting role, but it's also possible that some of the names in the defensive line group might find themselves sliding back to this list. Look for plenty of lineup experimentation this spring as Weis and Corwin Brown look for the right mixture of size, speed, and ability in the front seven.
| Linebacker | ST Minutes | PT Minutes |
| Crum (SR) | 48 | 308 |
| Brockington (5th) | 67 | 201 |
| T. Smith (SO) | 2 | 25 |
| Vernaglia (SR) | 4 | 22 |
| Quinn (JR) | 71 | 0 |
| Minutes | 856 | |
| Returning | 556 | |
| Difference | (300) | |
| Return Pct. | 65% |
Defensive Backs - 59%
Which Irish player, offense or defense, saw the most combined playing time last year? It's Terrail Lambert. Would you have guessed that? If I had to describe my feelings for next year's secondary I'd go with "cautious optimism" as ND trades experience at corner and safety for more athleticism and depth. The fight for the open free safety spot will be a popular spring battle and we might even see a position switch or two in order to find that ball-hawking speedster ND fans craze. Zibby's role as an off-and-on again pseudo-linebacker wasn't exactly successful last year so hopefully his role will be more clearly defined next season. At corner, Lambert and Wooden will get plenty of competition from the sudden influx of talented young corners like Darrin Walls, Raeshon McNeil, and Gary Gray.
| Defensive Back | ST Minutes | PT Minutes |
| Zbikowski (5th) | 78 | 286 |
| Lambert (SR) | 108 | 278 |
| Wooden (5th) | 11 | 100 |
| Herring (JR) | 89 | 50 |
| Walls (SO) | 12 | 49 |
| Bruton (JR) | 28 | 40 |
| Ferrine (SR) | 56 | 29 |
| McNeil (SO) | 22 | 14 |
| McCarthy (JR) | 83 | 5 |
| Brown (SO) | 48 | 1 |
| Gaines (SO) | 13 | 0 |
| Minutes | 1453 | |
| Returning | 852 | |
| Difference | (601) | |
| Return Pct. | 59% |
