After four practices getting acclimated to helmets, the Irish were in full pads today, giving freshman their first real feel of college football. Thanks to the always excellent practice reports courtesy of UND.com, we’re able to get a sneak peak at the first day of work, which allows all of us to jump to some very early conclusions.

Here’s a look at today’s practice report, courtesy of our friends over at UND.com. Because it’s my job to have no life and break down the rodeo drill for everyone, here’s a play-by-play of what you’ll see, helping to isolate some of the match-ups and battles that fly by in just under four minutes.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1_qdGC-qQI&w=640&h=390%5D

The first one on one we see (around the :40 second mark) is sophomore tight end Alex Welch welcoming freshman linebacker Ben Councell to to college football, and two mammoth youngsters battling with 6-8, 320-pound Tate Nichols taking on 6-6, 295-pound freshman Stephon Tuitt.

After that, we watch Michael Floyd snatch balls from the jugs machine, Ishaq Williams sprint down in kickoff coverage, and Davaris Daniels work on his hands as well. In snaps from scrimmage, Tate Nichols works at left tackle, where he rides Kona Schwenke outside the pocket. The very next snap, Brad Carrico looks pretty solid battling against veteran Brandon Newman. And for those wondering how Louis Nix would look, that’s him putting Mike Golic on rollerskates. (Golic definitely shouldn’t feel embarrassed, Nix was absolutely dominant in the one-on-one matchups he had, which we’ll get to now.)

For those looking for some rough-and-tumble power football, Let’s go to a frame-by-frame breakdown of the rodeo drill (starting at 1:42), where we’ll reach grand conclusions after watching less than a minute of drills.

1. Braxston Cave vs. Louis Nix. Winner: Nix, who stood up Cave and stuffed freshman Cam McDaniel.

2. Trevor Robinson vs. Carlo Calabrese. Winner: Robinson, who controlled Carlo and pushed him inside while George Atkinson slid by.

3. Ben Koyack vs. Unknown (Zeke Motta?) Winner: Koyack, who planted a defender unknown (I’m guessing Motta after a Zapruder like breakdown), getting a big rise out of his coaches.

4. Brad Carrico vs. Anthony McDonald. Winner: Slight edge to Carrico, who looks pretty fluid at offensive line.

5. Jordan Prestwood vs. Tyler Stockton. Winner: Stockton, who does a nice job getting physical with the freshman.

6. Prestwood vs. Aaron Lynch. Winner: Lynch, who looks every bit the part of a freshman All-American.

7. Prestwood vs. Stephon Tuitt. Winner: Slight edge to Tuitt, as it’s tough to say Prestwood lost that collision.

8. Alex Welch vs. Unknown (Anthony Rabasa?) Winner: Draw. Nice work by both guys, whoever our secret defender is.

9. Welch vs. Steve Filer. Winner: Filer, who taunts Irish fans by reminding people just how physically gifted he is.

10. Nick Martin vs. Joe Schmidt. Winner: Schmidt, who does his best Mike Anello impression, ignoring his physical limitations by blowing up a block making a nice play on Martin.

11. Christian Lombard vs. Lynch. Winner: Lynch, who once again blows up an offensive tackle at the point of contact.

12. Lombard vs. Chase Hounshell. Winner: Lombard, but credit to Hounshell for holding his ground and battling.

13. Taylor Dever vs. Kapron Lewis-Moore. Winner: Dever, who did a nice job engaging KLM, in a rare battle of ones-versus-ones.

14. Mike Golic vs. Louis Nix. Winner: Nix. He’s going to be very tough to move.

15. N. Martin vs. Jarrett Grace. Winner: Draw. A nice collision between two talented freshmen.

While I’d appreciate everybody else sharing their gut reactions below, the two guys that really stood out were Louis Nix and Aaron Lynch. They looked dominating, regardless of who they were facing.