Defensive success in next week’s Notre Dame Blue-Gold Game would look like …

When Notre Dame finishes its spring practices in eight days with the annual Blue-Gold Game (April 22 at 2 ET, exclusively on Peacock), the second offseason, so to speak, will commence. That intrasquad scrimmage will inspire a summer’s worth of hype or worry from the public, but the 14 practices preceding it are what will have led to any surprising roster moves afterward. No one, coach or player, will make a long-term decision based solely on the Blue-Gold Game.

Therein lies the truth of the spring exhibition. It is but one practice out of 15, and it is an abridged one, at that, when factoring in the running-clock cameos from reserves in the nominal fourth quarter. It is the only spring practice when only 22 players are involved at a time throughout it.

Whether Wake Forest transfer quarterback and presumptive 2023 Irish starter Sam Hartman stars or not will mean less to Notre Dame’s coaches than how he has fared over the last month trying to learn a new playbook while building chemistry with inexperienced receivers. Those reported and understandable struggles may lead to an uneven showing next Saturday.

Then again, an uneven offensive showing could simply be a promising indicator for the Irish defense. There really is very little way to separate one thought from the other in an intrasquad scrimmage.

If Hartman is intercepted twice, that could easily be interpreted as continued development from senior safety Xavier Watts. Watts may be both the best story on Notre Dame’s roster in 2023 and the most pivotal piece of the defense. A former receiver, he made the choice last preseason to fully commit to a position change to safety rather than rejoin the depleted receivers corps. On the depth chart, catching passes was