Notre Dame Football: 3 things to watch in the Blue-Gold Game

The Notre Dame Football team is wrapping up its spring practice session with the Blue-Gold game. Despite the game being a glorified practice there’s still plenty of reason to tune in to Peacock this afternoon. 

Right at the top of the list is that this isn’t going to be the more traditional ones vs. twos. The Blue Gold Draft means that the starters that are available to play will be spread around both squads. That’s one of the reasons why there might be even more reason to really watch and see what happens this afternoon than most other spring games.

Here are three things I’ll be looking out for when the Notre Dame Football team takes the field later today.

Quarterbacks doing battle for backup?

Steve Angeli is considered the odds-on favorite to be the backup for Riley Leonard. There are even some who think that he could win the starting job, especially if Leonard is still hobbled or gets hobbled again in the fall. 

But what if Kenny Minchey shows off his gunslinger abilities against his teammates? What if he shows something that Angeli hasn’t really shown all that much? The ability to make plays with his feet. 

With Mike Denbrock now running the offense, someone who reminds him of Jayden Daniels might have a leg up on Angeli. Of course, Angeli is going to have a leg up as he is wearing the no-contact jersey. So Minchey’s gonna have to really produce in order to make real headway.

Jaylen Sneed taking the next step for Notre Dame Football

There may not be a defender who came to South Bend with higher expectations in the Marcus Freeman era who hasn’t lived up to them the way that Jaylen Sneed did. However, all the talk this spring has been that Sneed is finally showing that he’s buying in and learning Al Golden’s offense.

He could be a big surprise factor for the defense this fall if that’s the case. Sneed being dialed in at all times could be a big indicator of the buy-in. That means during the Blue-Gold game as well.

There’s a chance that he could have a big day on Saturday.

Deion Colzie and the wide receiver corps

There was no unit that was more maligned for the Irish last year than the wide receiver room. Freeman and company worked hard to change that over the winter. 

However, it could be one veteran that leads the way to showing how much improvement can be made under new receivers’ coach Mike Brown and Denbrock. 

Like Sneed, Colzie has been a guy that has mostly underachieved so far during his time with the Notre Dame Football program. Maybe he shines on Saturday. Maybe a few other holdovers can shine as well, along with the newbies. That would breed a great deal of confidence heading into the fall.