Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Many will point to left tackle Jordan Black as the top prospect for
the Irish. A big, powerful lineman, Black removes opponents from the play with
brute force or easily handles defenders once engaged in a block. He works to
play with leverage and solid fundamentals, making good use of his blocking
angles but Black lacks any lateral agility, displaying extremely limited
blocking range. Black can be successful at the next level but it will be on the
right side, possibly even inside at guard. Former quarterback Arnaz Battle
seems to be taking to the receiver position well and looks rather natural
catching the ball down the field or over the middle, extending his hands then
snatching it away from his frame. Battle needs to refine the details of being a
wide out; improve his overall timing, anticipation, playing speed and route
running. Still; he looks to have a nice upside. Center Jeff Faine is
solid on the pivot combining both intelligence and explosion. Faine does a
terrific job picking up blocking assignments and working with line-mates but has
difficulty handling one-on-one situations on the middle as he is not big, bulky
nor does he display great playing strength. Presently we view Faine as a second
day choice. Finally, fullback Tom Lopienski is what you expect from a
lead fullback; nasty, tough as nails and hard working. Lopienski’s a decent
short yardage runner, receiver out of the backfield and displays good strength
at the point but instead of attacking his blocks has the bad habit of gathering
and decelerating into opponents, which diminishes his ability to finish
defenders off. Should he rectify this, Lopienski can play at the next level and
presently looks like a late round choice.
Notre Dame lost a lot of talent from the defensive front seven last but have
almost as much in the defensive secondary. Former safety Vontez Duff
moved to cornerback this season and the early results have been good. Duff shows
terrific awareness and wherewithal on the corner and rarely gets beat, always
positioning himself to make a play on the ball. Duff is neither fast nor
explosive enough to be an early selection but is making his way up draft boards
and could be headed for the first day. Another that uses great positioning and
headiness to get the job done is safety Gerome Sapp. Like Duff, Sapp
rarely makes mental mistakes and always keeps the play in front of him in deep
centerfield yet at the same fires up the field to support the run. We were very
impressed with the discipline Sapp shows and to the eye he seems like a lesser
version of Jon McGraw, formerly of Kansas State and presently playing for the
New York Jets. Cornerback Shane Walton makes big plays but also gets
burnt a little too often for our liking. He could sneak into the later rounds
while linebacker Courtney Watson flies around the ball and displays a
good head for the action.