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Notre Dame practiced indoors Tuesday as it was overcast in South Bend with intermediate bouts of rain.
The practice felt subdued. There seemed to be more instruction giving then usual at practice and a little less action then previous practices.
Maybe it just felt quieter because the practice was indoors and everyone had to concentrate more to hear the coaches' instructions because they were packed in together more than when the team is outside.
But the energy level did feel down more than usual for a practice, and the two-game losing streak could easily play into that.
Now on to practice:
The order for running backs and tight ends running over cushions to start practice was: Armando Allen, Robert Hughes, Theo Riddick, James Aldridge, Mike Ragone, Bobby Burger, Jake Golic, Mike Narvaez, Steve Paskorz, Jonas Gray and Cierre Wood.
When the tight ends split off from the running backs, it was time to go through the gauntlet.
Running backs coach Tony Alford stressed accelerating on contact.
The running order for the gauntlet was: Aldridge, Paskorz, Narvaez, Riddick, Allen, Gray, Hughes and Wood.
The second time through, Gray said it hurt, and Alford sarcastically remarked that if it hurt they would stop. The backs then kept going through the gauntlet.
On the third time through, the backs went through it once and cut back to go through the gauntlet again with Alford waiting to swipe at the ball.
When Allen went through, Alford hurt his hand taking a swing at the ball. Allen commented on Alford's hurt hand as the coach shook it to get feeling back.
"I'm tougher than you Armando, I'll be back," Alford said. "You get hurt; you're out for three weeks."
The linemen ran a drill in which one lineman had to make five to six blocks in succession as the other linemen ran towards him.
When right tackle Sam Young went, Chris Watt messed up the sequence near the end of the drill and coach Frank Verducci sent the freshman running a lap.
The most interesting thing about this drill is how Young only went about five yards deep when he was blocking people.
The other linemen each backed up about six or seven yards deep to get all their blocks in.
Evan Sharpley was the first quarterback to throw to wide receivers when they started working on catching the ball off the line. Jimmy Clausen and Brian Castello were working on handoffs with the running backs at the time.
The receivers began by working out of the slot.
The order for the right side was: Michael Floyd (who had to go twice to start because he got off the line on the wrong foot running a quick curl route), John Goodman and Shaquelle Evan
On the left side, this was the order out of the slot: Duval Kamara, Robby Paris and Roby Toma
On the left side working from the edge was: Golden Tate and Deion Walker.
Line coach Randy Hart worked with the interior linemen on breaking through up the middle.
The first pair he worked with was Ethan Johnson and Ian Williams.
Hart stressed getting through the offensive line, which was made up of Brandon Newman, Tyler Stockton and Sean Cwynar, in a straight line. On the last time through, Hart talked to Johnson about staying low to break through the offensive line.
The second pair Hart worked with was Cwynar and Paddy Mullen, who was the ball carrier when Johnson and Williams went.
Hart seemed pleased with Cwynar's and Mullen's efforts.
The last part was Mullen and Kapron Lewis-Moore, who came over after working with the ends.
On the first time through, Hart got on Lewis-Moore for stopping and going when he was trying to work through the line. Telling him to run through the offensive line.
On the second time through, Hart told Lewis-Moore not to reach behind him to keep on offensive lineman off him because all that was doing was slowing him down.
Ben Turk, who didn't make the trip to Pittsburgh because he had the flu, was at practice
Nick Tausch, who didn't play against Pittsburgh after pulling up lame after warmups, was at practice
A scout from the Colts was at practice
