SOUTH BEND — Get ready.
Get ready for a college football regular season like no other, one that culminates with a 12-team playoff. With a nod to the Southeastern Conference, this season just means more. For everybody. Finally.
Get ready for Notre Dame football to report to camp Tuesday and officially do football stuff for the first time Wednesday.
Get ready for the best version of third-year head coach Marcus Freeman, who has the aura of someone comfortable and confident in his position. A massive contract extension — in years AND dollars — likely awaits if the 38-year-old Freeman takes this program where it believes it can go. Where it should go.
Who’s where?: What does the Notre Dame football depth chart look like ahead of fall camp?
Get ready for parallels penned between Freeman’s third year and the third year for Leahy and Parseghian and Devine and Holtz. Get lost.
Get ready for these Irish to finally carry through an entire season the swagger that Freeman showed when he burst through that side door inside the Notre Dame Stadium locker room that December day in 2021 after being named head coach.
Get ready to NOT listen to Freeman explain away how Marshall or Stanford or Louisville or Clemson could and did happen. This head coach, this football program, must be beyond that for this season to proceed as planned.
Get ready for this program to absorb one significant injury setback in fall camp. Hate to say it or even think it, but it seems to happen every year. That’s football.
Get ready for quarterback to be the most scrutinized position early in camp for the first time since, well, the first week of preseason camp last summer.
Get ready for Riley Leonard to be named the starter. Maybe it’s already happened behind the scenes, but this is Leonard’s show. With everything Leonard, it feels like “as long as he remains healthy” must always be included.
What;’s happening?: Here are 5 compelling storylines to follow for Notre Dame football this fall camp
Get ready for Leonard to handle his run as a one-year rental (those days soon will end in South Bend) better than Sam Hartman did with his.
Get ready for this year’s quarterback to show last year’s quarterback how to win a big game. Preferably on the road. Ideally, in the season’s first week.
Get ready for quarterback Steve Angeli to buck the transfer trend and wait for his turn.
Get ready for the Irish fan base to expect that new/old offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and his X’s and O’s and schemes will turn water into wine.
Get ready for defensive coordinator Al Golden to prove he’s worth every penny of his paycheck.
Get ready to miss Joe Alt and Blake Fisher. Certainly early. Maybe often.
Get ready to appreciate sophomore Ashton Craig, on track to becoming one of the game’s best centers.
Get ready to watch this collection of wide receivers earn/win meaningful reps.
Get ready to be surprised by the next wideout who becomes the next Jordan Faison. Maybe that’s Faison. Again.
Get ready to realize that the tailback tandem of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price can carry on without Audric Estime.
Get ready to watch this group of Irish tight ends become a cornerstone of this offense, as long as veteran Mitchell Evans returns healthy and now-upperclassman Eli Raridon stays healthy.
Get ready for Notre Dame to put on a happy face for a home schedule that stinks (yeah, we see you Florida State at night in November).
Get ready to understand why defensive tackles Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills returned for reasons other than just a nice NIL payday.
Get ready to learn how to pronounce sophomore defensive end Boubacar Traore.
Get ready to hear Notre Dame Stadium public address announcer Chris Ackels finish many a sentence this fall with “…tackle by Jack Kiser.”
Get ready to watch true freshman middle linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa make a serious push not only for immediate playing time, but as a starter.
Get ready for junior linebacker Jaylen Sneed to finally show up and show out.
Get ready for sophomore linebacker Jaiden Ausberry to find his way onto the field. Fast.
Get ready as safety Xavier Watts goes even deeper into his difference-making bag.
Get ready as Australian punter James Rendell to prove he’s more than just a pretty face.
Get ready to make plans to attend a college football playoff game at Notre Dame Stadium. In December, when the possibility of wind chill and lake-effect snow squalls never sounded so sweet.
Get ready for the media to grumble about lack of preseason practice access (it’s already happened), late games, traffic, travel issues and everything else Irish football for the next four months. Seriously, though, it’s still a wonderful way to make a living. We just don’t want everyone else to know.
Get ready for another home football Saturday that leaves you wondering exactly what the campus parking/traffic control people…
South Bend Tribune
