Quick-hitters: Notre Dame RB Coach Deland McCullough on Chris Tyree move, Jadarian Price, pass protection

Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough met with reporters Thursday morning for his lone press conference of spring practice. Here are some topics he discussed.

On Audric Estimé trimming his body fat

“He’s more twitchy, more explosive. It’s very evident. It gave him another step we really can see. I meet with him very often just about how he can improve his game and those things. Coming into January, that was something we talked with the nutritionist about, just trimming down a little bit.”

On Jadarian Price and his Achilles injury rehab

“I’m very optimistic. We [had] a front-row seat of what he did during the spring last year. It was really, really, really good. He’ll be starting to reintegrate into everything we have going on. I’m feeling confident by the time we get to June, he will be a full participant and we’ll go from there. But skill set, the guy is put together, smart, fast, explosive. He has all the competencies you want at that position. If you go off one year ago, he showed it on a really high level. He hasn’t physically been doing things, but he’s locked into what we’re doing mentally.”

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On Chris Tyree moving to wide receiver

“The discussion I had with Chris – this was in early January – really just sat down with him and talked to him about some of the advantages of that move. Things got clouded when we had an offensive coordinator change, because then I’d hate for him to plant his flag in one spot. If we had a brand new coordinator, he’d have to say, ‘What am I going to be?’ Because it’s going to be hard to cross-train at both and really be effective. It’s a blessing in disguise that Coach (Gerad) Parker ended up being the offensive coordinator, so there wasn’t going to be a system change.”

“Chris, when we had that conversation, he was all on it. I said, ‘Look at what you can do here and look at the NFL part of it.’ There are things you can do – I talked to a bunch of NFL guys – and those conversations are what they are. He has shown what he can do as an outside guy. Natural route runner, really good hands, explosive in space. Rather than as a running back trying to create those scenarios, why not just put him out there (at receiver). He’s already out there. You don’t have to come up with packages. Just run our offense and he’s a receiver.

“The options remain to just bring him in the backfield and go from there. I know he was excited about that. Coach (Chansi) Stuckey has done a good job with him. Chris has done a good job of showing he can be an effective guy at receiver, not just a gadget guy. I can go out here and play the receiver position. It’s going to make Notre Dame better and make him better.”

On how Price fits when he returns

“It’ll be interesting to see, because you had a bunch of guys who were vying for a certain spot last year after Kyren (Williams) left. Now you have a couple guys who jumped out because of production last year, but everybody in that room knows how I operate. None of that really matters, because you have to show it every day.

“JD knows he’s going to have an opportunity to show what he’s got. Gi’Bran (Payne) knows he’s going to have an opportunity to show what he’s got. Jeremiyah (Love), when he shows up, he knows I ain’t going to say, ‘Just sit on the shelf.’ I’m giving every guy an opportunity. It’s up to the dudes who are ready and prepared – which they all should be – to seize it and run with it. Then it’s up to us as coaches to figure out how to play them.”

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On his view of the Notre Dame running back room

“You have good issues right now with numbers and skill. Even same thing with Gi’Bran, I want to see this spring Gi’Bran show he can be a guy we can plug in there and not lose anything as far as effectiveness, attention to detail, discipline, dependability, all those things. During this live (practice) situation, he had two very long runs. Really good in pass protection. Really good route runner, sure hands.

Logan (Diggs) and Audric set the tone just because of their productivity. You have to look at that. But those guys know there’s other dudes who want to play. Nobody’s bowing down and saying, ‘OK, you guys are it.’ They know they have to continue to enhance their game. That’s the beauty of the situation. Everybody is trying to grow every day.”

On how he plans to improve the running backs’ pass protection

“That will perpetually be an issue, a positive thing you want to build on. You look at last year, when you put it all together, from the running back room, there were two sacks. The thing I look at with sacks is was it a recognition sack? If you just miss guys, we have problems – I went this way and some guy came and hit the quarterback. We have major problems. We didn’t have any of that.

“You have more technical, fundamental things. When you say of all the times we took on guys, how many guys got by, it’s very low. I’m saying that like 50 times we engaged a guy, two or three times somebody got by. OK. Well, it’s not OK, but I’m saying in the grand scheme of it that’s not terrible. You want to continue to put guys out there who can win at the point of attack.

“Audric was mainly our third-down guy. Logan has done it successfully. Gi’Bran will be able to do that well. JD, don’t know, we haven’t gotten to that point. Physically, he looks like he can. Get out there and do it.”