What do Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman have in common? They both had huge hands in Notre Dame finishing with yet another double-digit-win season, and they both said in the tumultuous-turned-euphoric first week of December that the players were the No. 1 catalyst for the 11 wins the Irish racked up in the 2021 regular season — not any one coach or anyone else.

The 2021 BlueandGold.com awards article will focus on the players, then. If the former head coach of 12 years who won more games at Notre Dame than anyone else who came before him and the newly named head coach who has seemingly ignited an energy within the program that hasn’t been matched since the Irish last won a national championship say so, then it shall be so.

And oh, what a group of players it was.

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From true freshmen to fifth-year seniors, Notre Dame received contributions from all sorts of players up and down the roster. Who had three different quarterbacks playing meaningful snaps with games on the line in a span of two weeks? Who had four different players rotating like they were playing musical chairs in the first month of the season?

The other side of the ball was a little more predictable, but who really envisioned All-American safety Kyle Hamilton missing the last five games of the year? And who saw a sophomore cornerback turned safety being the player to shine in the biggest moments in Hamilton’s absence?

Freeman didn’t hold three straight opponents (Navy, Virginia and Georgia Tech) out of the end zone. His players did. Kelly didn’t tie and break Knute Rockne’s all-time wins record on his own. His players helped him get there.

No, it didn’t materialize in Notre Dame’s third trip to the College Football Playoff in the last four seasons. And it obviously wasn’t enough to get Kelly to stick around a little longer (but that said more about Kelly than it did the players and the year they had). But the 2021 regular season was one of the best Notre Dame has ever had.

Notre Dame has won 11 or more games in a single season nine times. The Fighting Irish have been suiting up and taking the field for 115 years. This wasn’t the most dominant Irish team ever. The season won’t end at the top of the college football mountain. But it could end in just the fifth-ever 12-win season in program history.

Here are the players who helped get Notre Dame there the most, split into three stories from Dec. 26-28. Part 1 covers the most valuable and most improved.

The junior running back eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in rushing for the second straight season during a year in which it looked like he’d struggle to reach half his total of 1,002.

He began the year with six-straight games with less than 100 rushing yards. The kicker? He scored rushing touchdowns in four of those and added receiving touchdowns in three of them.

Williams was a scoring machine this year. He reached the end zone at least once in the final eight games and scored 10 times in the final six to finish with 17 touchdowns (14 rushing and three receiving). Games aren’t won and lost with yards. If they were, Notre Dame would have had a 5-7 record. Games are won and lost by getting into the end zone, and nobody on the Notre Dame roster was better at that than Williams.

Williams’ resurgence coincided with that of Coan, so it was hard to land on one of them as MVP. Coan certainly has a case, too. He ultimately did exactly what he was brought to Notre Dame to do.

Throw some touchdown passes but not a number that would make him one of the most prolific passers in the country? Check. 20. Throw far fewer interceptions and not be a burden to the offense by turning the ball over too many times? Check. Five.

Coan finished the regular season with 2,641 passing yards. Despite some turbulence in the first half of the season, he started all 12 games at the most important position on the field. His playing style was a stark contrast from that of the signal-caller who held his position at Notre Dame the previous three seasons, but the results were almost identical: a lot of winning.

Let’s first get this out of the way; no defensive players on the MVP list is not a knock on Notre Dame’s defense. Rather, it just shows how well-rounded and put together that side of the ball was. The Irish didn’t need a superstar on defense to have a successful season. When was the last time a defensive player won NFL MVP, for instance? Lawrence Taylor in 1986.

Mayer, meanwhile, is a superstar in every sense of the word. He led the team in receptions (64) and receiving yards (768) while scoring five touchdowns. Those numbers might have been a bit lower than many expected going into the year, but the offensive woes Notre Dame suffered through early on were a major factor in that.

Mayer was Notre Dame’s most reliable receiving threat all year. Take him out of the picture, and the Irish passing attack would have been in a world of hurt. That’s the essence of value.

The physical tools were never in doubt. Foskey is a 6-5, 260-pound smokestack and one of the team’s most impressive athletes.

Technical refinement and consistency as a pass rusher, though, were requirements for him to take the leap from flashy reserve to impact starter. Vacillations in those areas were one reason why he posted just four pressures in the second half of 2020 after 14 in the first half.

Mission accomplished. Foskey posted 10.0 sacks, which tied for 16th nationally, and had 28 quarterback pressures. His five forced fumbles are tied for second in the nation. He ends his junior year as a clear NFL Draft prospect. He has not announced his plans for 2022 yet.

Finally healthy after an injury-plagued 2020 and two years removed from a 2019 suspension, Austin flashed big-play ability in fall camp and right away in the regular season. He caught four deep balls in the Irish’s first four games, including two touchdowns.

At the same time, those plays were, well, flashes. He went without a catch on eight targets Sept. 18 against Purdue and was a complete non-factor Oct. 2 versus Cincinnati, with one reception on four targets.

What followed was a clear case of in-season improvement. Austin has caught at least 75 percent of his targets in all but one game since that humbling day against the Bearcats and their bookend All-American cornerbacks. He has eclipsed 100 yards twice since Nov. 6. He ended the regular season with 42 catches for 783 yards and a team-high six touchdown receptions.

The idea of Austin heading to the NFL felt like the expectation in the preseason, but his bumpy first five games made that idea seem more like a gamble. It's less so now after his strong final seven games.

There isn’t much of a control group to which Bertrand’s 2021 season can be measured. The junior linebacker played just 38 snaps from 2019-20, after all. Most of his contributions were on special teams.

But behind closed doors, the year-over-year improvement was clear and led to the coaching staff's increased trust in him. Bertrand stepped into the starting lineup after Marist Liufau suffered a season-ending leg injury late in fall camp. He had already made a move up the depth chart to second-team Will linebacker, surpassing senior Shayne Simon.

All Bertrand did was lead the team in tackles, with 92. He posted 5.0 tackles for loss, 1.5 sack and a forced fumble. He softened the blow of losing Liufau, who appeared primed for a breakout and a spot on this list before his injury.

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