Can Michael Mayer, Notre Dame Football Tight Ends Be Even Better in 2021?
The best blocker one of Notre Dame’s most important offensive players has ever seen no longer wears blue and gold. The blocker? Tommy Tremble. The player who gave him that title? Sophomore tight end Michael Mayer.
Tremble, now with the Carolina Panthers, took on most of the blocking duties for Notre Dame tight ends last season. Mayer could subsequently focus on pass catching. And he did, hauling in 42 receptions for 450 yards and two touchdowns.
Expectations for himself in that department this year, even with the running mate who drew so much attention and helped him record those numbers moving on to the NFL?
“I know what I’m capable of,” Mayer said. “I’m thinking this year, what I did last year times 10. That’s where I hold myself. I’m very accountable for what I can do.”
OK. Mayer is obviously not going to catch 420 passes for 4,500 yards and 20 touchdowns in one season. The "times 10" talk was clearly just a figure of speech; one of great hyperbole. Maybe he’ll have those statistics seven years from now when he’s half a decade into what many expect to be a great professional career, though.
Rob Gronkowski had 357 catches for 4,379 yards and 54 touchdowns in his first five NFL seasons. That’s one of the players Mayer models his game after. Mayer was a dominant defensive end in high school. He made a permanent switch to tight end with the vision of doing what the NFL's best tight ends of the last decade have done in the league.
“Just watching Rob scoring a touchdown or (Travis) Kelce getting a 30-yard drag route, I was like, ‘I can do that. I can do that,’” Mayer said.
He did it as a true freshman. He’s expected to do it as a sophomore. But what about what Tremble left behind? The blocking. Mayer is expected to do that too, and it’s something he admittedly could improve upon.
“Obviously coming from high school to here, blocking is very, very different,” Mayer said. “You’re dealing with bigger guys. … I could block people in high school with bad technique. That’s pretty much a fact. Coming here, it takes way better technique. Hands inside, keep my feet running.”
Mayer watched film on Tremble last season and into this offseason. He has gotten better at blocking by putting Tremble's practices into play, but it’s always going to be a work in progress. And if it’s a work in progress for Mayer, then the same goes for those behind him on the depth chart.
Senior George Takacs finally has his chance to be a regular contributor as a second-stringer. At Notre Dame, that designation might as well make him a starter. He’s going to play, and he’s going to play a lot. Many times concurrently with Mayer, which means one of the two has to play the Tremble role of bulldozer.
With Mayer’s pass-catching prowess, that’ll likely be the 6-6, 247 Takacs.
“George has done everything we’ve asked,” offensive coordinator Tommy Rees said. “He’s a guy that owns his role. He’s a guy that understands what we’re trying to do offensively. He’s a guy that we feel comfortable with right now, and we like where his development is headed.”
Sophomore Kevin Bauman has been getting plenty of reps with Notre Dame’s second offensive unit. He was hampered by an injury in the spring, but Rees said he has come back nicely this summer. Mayer was complimentary of his hands and route-running.
Then there are the two early-enrollee freshmen: Mitchell Evans and Cane Berrong. Rees had plenty to say on both. He particularly sung the praises of Evans, who played quarterback as a senior in high school. It’s been a few years since Evans lined up as a tight end, which has made everything he's done in the last eight months all the more impressive.
“Mitch Evans, for a kid who has never really played tight end, is such a naturally gifted athlete that he does stuff that is like, ‘Whoa man,’” Rees said. “That’s without any learning. That’s without really ever doing this.
“I think Mitch is a guy who has shown abilities to be a complete tight end. He’s long and strong at the point of attack. He’s athletic. He can make contested catches fully extended.”
From Mayer on down to Evans and Berrong, Rees used a word to describe the Notre Dame tight ends that should come across as comforting — especially after losing Tremble to the next level: Trust. The unit is led by a sophomore, is backed up by a senior who has never started and flushed out by another sophomore and two true freshmen.
And yet, the trust is still there.
There is enough of it, in fact, to perhaps put four tight ends on the field at the same time like the Irish did in a goal line formation against UNC last year. Rees didn’t rule that out. Anything is possible for the Notre Dame tight ends in 2021.
“I think when you have a guy like that in charge of a room, it’s obviously going to raise the expectation level of play,” Rees said. “Mike demands so much from everybody around him — coaches, players, staff — that it raises the level. He sets the standard in that room.”
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