News and notes from Notre Dame’s first spring football practice

A couple of big things

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish kicked off the spring practice period on Wednesday, and there were a few notable news items from the day — but thankfully nothing jarring.

Roster trimming

The second biggest news item from day one was that six players are no longer on a football scholarship at Notre Dame. Marcus Freeman briefly spoke about four of them — which just seems strange that he didn’t mention the other two, but he was just asked about the four.

“Justin Walters medically retired. Philip Riley is no longer with the program. Josh Bryan is no longer with the program. Caleb Johnson is no longer with the program.”

Chris Tyree on the move

There was one major move that was made known, and that’s Chris Tyree is now at wide receiver. It’s definitely a scenario many of us in the fall thought would be a real possibility for 2023, and the Irish coaching staff sees it much the same way (at least for right now per spring tradition).

“It’s to be determined if permanent. He has multiple skill sets and Chris Tyree is someone we need on the football field. We can put him at wideout. We know what we he can do as a running back. He can do multiple things. You’re seeing that in college and in the NFL. You see guys who can play multiple spots on offense. Is he a wideout? Is he a running back? We have to do that to gain confidence in him with the quarterbacks. He has shown a skill-set to be a receiver at this level and we can use him at multiple different positions.”

To be honest, I had Tyree down as a strong maybe to transfer at the end of spring football, and this move definitely helps keep him at Notre Dame. It also helps improve his worth for the NFL in much better ways than any type of transfer season.

He looked even quicker in the snippets I saw — maybe it was the new number.

Video

Besides the roster moves, the little bit of video from the day is the best we have to begin to figure out the 2023 Irish football team. It was nice to see the boys out on the field again.