Spring Position Battles

With just four practices left in Brian Kelly's first Notre Dame spring, some positions are set, but others are distinctly open.  Below is a position by position look at the Irish after 11 spring practice:

OFFENSE

Quarterback - No surprises here: Crist is king.  Montana is a distant second and Rees is probably still shaking off all the shrink-wrap.  Kelly said recently that Crist gets 60% of the snaps and Montana gets 40% with any scraps falling to the early enrollee from Lake Forest.  Rees or Hendrix will get a few more reps because Kelly likes to have a deep stable of passers, but clearly this is Crist's job.

Tailback - Loads or talent, but Allen has risen to the top.  Hughes is gonna be a role player, but he'll be a great short-yardage back and is fantastic on the screens.  Jonas Gray and Cierre Wood seem to be basically neck-and-neck for touches behind Allen, but you've gotta think that we'll see plenty of Cierre in the fall given that Kelly moved Riddick to receiver in order to get Wood more playing time.

Receivers - I'm lumping them all together (X, Y, Z, Slot or whatever you want to call them) because this position is a bit of mess right now.  Floyd is a mortal lock to start, but things get a bit hazy after that.  Reports have Duval Kamara looking thin and fit, but he's typically absent from Kelly's post-practice comments.  Beyond him it gets even fuzzier.  Early enrollee Tai-ler Jones, Riddick and Toma would seem to be fits for the slot, but they've been split wide in quite a few practice videos.  Goodman, Evans and Walker have all drawn praise this spring too.  If I had to guess, I'd say the starting 3 would be Floyd, Kamara and Jones, backed up by Goodman, Evans and Riddick respectively.  Regardless, we'd like to see a lot of more this:

Tight end, O-Line, defense, special teams and a recap after the jump...

Tight End - Kyle Rudolph appears to be recovering well from his shoulder and is solidly first-team as Allen, Crist and Floyd.  Ragone and Eifert are dueling it out for 2nd string, and Burger is most likely gonna be H-back only.  Jake Golic is hardly mentioned, but this position is so deep I'm even hopeful that the Irish can red-shirt Welch.

Center - Cave and Wenger are in a tight battle, but I'd expect Cave to win out.  He's got the drive and mean streak Wenger has hardly shown in his long Irish career.  Mike Golic's namesake is most likely a distant third.

Guard/Tackle - I put these two together because the staff is trying to decide between some pairing of Dever and Robinson at RG and RT.  My guess: Robinson at tackle and Dever at guard.  Bullard and Clelland are gearing up to be back-ups at RT with Chris Watt at RG.  Chris Stewart at LG is a stone-cold-lead-pipe lock.  Andrew Nuss will most likely back him up.  The LT position seems to be a close race between Matt Romine and Zack (yes, that's spelled correctly) Martin, but Martin's been getting the lion's share of first team reps recently.

Projected first team OL at the end of spring ball from left to right: Martin, Stewart, Cave, Dever, Robinson.  Second team: Romine, Nuss, Wenger, Watt, Bullard.

DEFENSE

Nose Tackle - Ian Williams is in the Crist/Floyd/Stewart/Rudolph pantheon of locked-in starters.  Sean Cwynar has been a bit of a surprise as second-string because he's undersized as a traditional 3-4 DT at 6'4" 290.  Tyler Stockton and incoming freshman Louis Nix are the future.

Defensive End - Hafis Williams and Emeka Nwankwo have impressed enough that Clelland was able to move back to offense, but these positions are Ethan Johnson's and Kapron Lewis-Moore's to lose.  Brandon Newman isn't a prototype 3-4 DE at only 6'1" so he may move back to DT once the freshman show up in the fall.

SAM - The Chicago boys Fleming and Filer own this position, and with each having 2 years of eligibility left, there's a lot for Irish fans to be excited about.

MIKE - Anthony McDonald has done a great job this spring as establishing himself as the guy to beat at this position.  The coaches appear to be, to quote Bob Diaco, well pleased with Steve Paskorz at this position.  Little Posluszny still has a long way to go to even approach big brother.

WILL - Manti.  'Nuff said.  (Carlo Calabrese backs him up.)

JACK - Brian Smith is home again.  The man isn't an inside linebacker, and finally he can just play.  Kerry Neal has great experience and is a lock to back up Smith.  Dan Fox has also gotten a few positive mentions, so with Smith and Neal both graduating, he's got a spot in the future.

Cornerback - Some combo of Walls, Gray and Blanton will get the majority of the reps this fall with E.J. Banks getting in sparingly.  Love the top three, and hopefully Gray comes back for another year after this one.

Safety - Much-maligned red-shirt junior Harrison Smith will begin his redemption tour at strong safety.  Zeke Motta has been backing him up and getting first-string time in the Nickel package.  Jamoris (Sgt.) Slaughter seems a solid pick for free safety, but Danny McCarthy is apparently recovered from his high-school back issues and will push him for playing time.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Kicker - Nick Tausch would appear to be the favorite, but Kelly's been pretty quiet on this front.  Tausch and Walker were fairly evenly matched in the only FG kicking contest the media saw, but after Tausch's freshman year and Walker's back problems, I gotta give the advantage to Tausch.

Punter - Ben Turk is all we have there right now, but recent 2011 commit Kyle Brindza might try and enroll in the fall and is fairly decent punter.  For now, the punting duties are all Turk.

Punt and Kick Returners - No one knows.  Reports from today's open practice have Goodman, Allen, Riddick and Jones fielding punts.  Complete guesses: Riddick and Allen returning kick-offs, Goodman or Jones returning punts.

RECAP (Bold names are locks)

OFFENSE

QB - Crist, Montana

RB - Allen, C. Wood/Gray

WR1 - Floyd, Goodman

WR2 - Kamara, Evans

WR3 - Jones, Riddick

TE - Rudolph, Ragone/Eifert

LT - Martin, Romine

LG - Stewart, Nuss

C - Cave, Wenger

RG - Dever, Watt

RT - Robinson, Bullard

DEFENSE

NT - I. Williams, Cwynar

RDE - Johnson, Nwankwo

LDE - Lewis-Moore, H. Williams

RCB - Walls, Banks

LCB - Gray, Blanton

SS - H.Smith, Motta

FS - Slaughter, McCarthy

JACK - B. Smith, Neal

WILL - Te'o, Calabrese

MIKE - McDonald, Paskorz

SAM - Fleming, Filer

SPECIAL TEAMS

K - Tausch, B. Walker

P - Turk