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The Irish Huddle: Notre Dame football spring practice preview, Michael Floyd interview

On3 imageby: Patrick Engel03/14/22PatrickEngel_
michael floyd notre dame
Michael Floyd #3 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish runs in front of Chris Ferguson #23 of the Navy Midshipmen on a 56 yard touchdown catch at Notre Dame Stadium on October 29, 2011 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

BlueandGold.com is back with another edition of The Irish Huddle, a podcast covering all things Notre Dame football hosted by Blue & Gold beat writers Patrick Engel and Tyler Horka. Monday’s special guest is former Notre Dame wide receiver Michael Floyd.

The show starts with a Notre Dame football spring practice preview. The hosts go over what would signify a successful spring session, a breakout candidate and the position group with the most to prove for both sides of the ball. The offensive rundown gets going from the top of the podcast (1:00) while the defensive analysis picks up after the Floyd interview (34:00).

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The hosts came to a consensus as far as an offensive storyline is concerned; Notre Dame needs a refined, polished and proven passer as its starting quarterback. The idea is sophomore Tyler Buchner will try to become that player. Junior Drew Pyne is going to give it his best shot, but Buchner has the edge going into the spring given each of those signal callers’ roles in the 2021 offense. Buchner had a much more extensive one.

Listen to The Irish Huddle: A Blue & Gold Notre Dame football podcast

When picking breakout players on offense, the hosts both chose true sophomores. Listen to that segment to learn who and why. The hosts’ answers varied in choosing offensive position groups with the most to prove, though.

Defensively, the hosts came to starkly different conclusions in determining what would signify a successful spring. They chose entirely different breakout player candidates, too. But they agreed on which position group has the most to prove. Listen to find out more.

Like Rob Connolly, Nana Osafo-Mensah and Reggie Brooks before him, Floyd joined the show (19:10) to first touch on Meetlete, a proud sponsor of The Irish Huddle. Meetlete is an app created by Connolly that allows fans to connect via video chat with current and former athletes such as Osafo-Mensah, Brooks and Floyd.

Floyd also touches on what he’s been up to since retiring from the NFL, his relationships with Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly, his impressions from Kevin Austin Jr.‘s NFL Combine workouts, what he remembers from his own NFL Combine experience, what it was like to play with Tom Brady for a year and his favorite game he ever played in a blue and gold uniform.