Blake Fisher will skip Sun Bowl with Notre Dame football to pursue NFL
Blake Fisher is ready to learn what the NFL thinks of his game.
The former five-star recruit and three-year Notre Dame offensive tackle announced Friday he will enter the 2024 NFL Draft pool and forfeit his final two seasons of college eligibility. Fisher has also chosen to skip No. 16 Notre Dame’s Sun Bowl matchup with No. 19 Oregon State on Dec. 29.
Teammate Marist Liufau has also announced he will not play in the Sun Bowl as he gets a jump on his NFL preparation.
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The 6-foot-6, 312-pound Fisher came to Notre Dame heralded as the next big thing for an Irish offensive line that has been churning out NFL prospects. And the Avon (Ind.) High product immediately met, or even surpassed, reasonable expectations by earning the starting left tackle job for the 2021 season opener as a freshman.
Unfortunately for Fisher, he was knocked out of his college debut with a knee injury that kept him sidelined for the rest of the regular season. He returned to action for the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the season. By that time fellow freshman Joe Alt solidified himself as the starting left tackle, which pushed Fisher over to right tackle.
The two remained in those spots for the last two seasons. Alt rose to stardom as an All-American in 2022 and a Lombardi Award and Outland Trophy finalist as one of the best linemen in college football in 2023. Fisher played more unevenly on the other side of the line.
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Both were key parts of Notre Dame’s 2023 Joe Moore Award semifinalists as one of the 12 best offensive lines in the country. Following conference championship weekend, the Irish rank No. 11 in the FBS in rushing yards per carry (5.33), sit in a four-way tie for No. 14 in sacks allowed per game (1.17) and slate No. 32 in rushing yards per game (181.5).
Pro Football Focus assigned Fisher a 72.1 offensive grade, a 70.5 run blocking grade and a 72.5 pass blocking grade for his 2023 regular season. Among the 255 FBS offensive tackles who played at least 467 snaps, Fisher was ranked in those respective categories tied for No. 47, tied for No. 40 and tied for No. 94.
Rivals ranked Fisher as the No. 6 offensive tackle and No. 26 overall in the 2021 recruiting class.
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