FILM ANALYSIS: Mike Goolsby Assesses Tape Of Notre Dame’s Chris Tyree
Former Notre Dame captain and linebacker Mike Goolsby has joined the BlueandGold.com staff and will provide his candid thoughts on Irish recruits, players and games through articles, message board chats, podcasts and postgame analysis. Click here to sign up for a FREE 60-day free trial!
The article below is an example of the type of analysis Goolsby will bring to BlueandGold.com.
Prior to the 2020 recruiting class, the last Rivals four-star running back to sign with Notre Dame was C.J. Holmes. He played in three games in 2017 as a true freshman before being dismissed from the team due to shoplifting. He is currently listed as a safety at Penn State.
The previous four-star running back to land at Notre Dame was Dexter Williams in the 2015 haul. He rushed for 1,636 yards and 22 scores during his four-year career, but didn’t come into the forefront until his senior year in 2018 for the College Football Playoff-bound Fighting Irish. Despite serving a suspension the first four games, Williams finished with 995 yards and 6.3 yards per carry for the 12-1 Notre Dame team.
Notre Dame has struggled to recruit elite talent at the running back position, but that changed in the last recruiting cycle. Chester (Va.) Thomas Dale's Chris Tyree, the nation’s No. 4 all-purpose back and No. 78 overall prospect per Rivals, inked with Notre Dame last December. He picked the Fighting Irish over Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, Stanford, Tennessee and others.
Former Notre Dame linebacker and BlueandGold.com football analyst Mike Goolsby (2000-04) played against a running back who reminds him a bit of Tyree — none other than former USC Trojans’ star Reggie Bush.
“Tyree shows a willingness to cut back against the grain,” Goolsby said. “He’s even Reggie Bush-esque in that there were a couple plays I saw on film where a defender was pursuing Tyree from behind, and he’ll jump out of the tackle even though the defender is behind him. When you see a kid doing that, it’s pretty impressive. He’s a really, really good athlete.
“Reggie Bush is more slight than it looks like Tyree is. Bush did not want to run between the tackles, but it looks like Tyree is more comfortable doing that.”
During his high school career, Tyree rushed for 3,930 yards and 37 touchdowns. He also added three receiving scores, two interceptions returned for touchdowns and four kickoff return scores.
“He’s definitely a make-you-miss type," Goolsby added. “He’s really loose in his hips. [New York Giants running back] Saquon Barkley is kind of the gold standard for that. You’re not comparing a kid like Tyree to Barkley yet, but they run with a wide base so they can move better laterally and can make people miss because of that.
“Tyree is the type of kid who can make a five- or six-yard run look spectacular. One clip I saw from him is a seven-yard run, but he makes three people miss before he goes out of bounds.
“He’s really sudden, too. You can watch him tackle some people when he’s playing cornerback, and the way that he snaps his hips, it’s evident just how loose his hips are. Another thing I liked about him was that he doesn’t always bounce the play outside, which you see a lot at the high school level.”
Goolsby is impressed with Tyree’s ability to cut back inside rather than just using his elite speed to run past defenders down the sideline.
“For most stud high school running backs, if the hole isn’t there, they just bounce it outside,” Goolsby noted. “But with Tyree, he’ll cut back against an over-pursuit angle. That’s really nice to see.”
Notre Dame rushed for merely 46 yards in its 23-17 loss against Georgia last fall, and the ability to run the football is essential to come out victorious against top competition. In re-watching that game last week, Goolsby noticed the Irish attempted a lot of off-tackle runs against a speedy Bulldogs’ defense.
“You’re not going to beat a team like Clemson or Georgia to the edge,” Goolsby explained. “It’s just not going to happen. You’re doing the defense a favor by trying to run outside, versus trying to make them be disciplined and run the ball inside.”
Tyree could be the elixir at running back to close the gap on a team such as Georgia.
“A player like Tyree is going to use that over-pursuit to his advantage,” Goolsby continued. “Being a smaller guy at about 5-9 hiding behind an offensive lineman who’s 6-5, as a middle linebacker, you’re going to lose sight of him.”
While Tyree stands at just under 5-10, he is closer to about 5-5 when his knees are bent and looking to burst through a hole behind his 6-5 or taller offensive linemen. For Goolsby at 6-3, getting down to tackle a player like Tyree is difficult.
“I’d have to come down there and his hitting surface is much smaller,” Goolsby said. “I’d much rather play against a bigger back than a smaller one. With a big back, he’s not going to run me over. I can stand him up and hold on for dear life until someone else helps me bring him down. But a kid like Tyree, you might come up empty handed because of his lateral quickness and jump cuts.”
The No. 1 aspect analysts rave about with Tyree is his speed, but that is the last item Goolsby will address, which is a testament to how good of a ball carrier Tyree is.
“He’s a running back who has some wiggle with track speed, versus a track guy who is trying to play football,” he said.
There are reasons to believe the Fighting Irish may be turning the corner when it comes to recruiting running backs at a high level. Tyree was the top back on their board during the last recruiting cycle, and Brian Kelly and Co. could be closing in on their top target in the 2021 class.
Matthews (N.C.) Weddington’s Will Shipley, the nation’s No. 1 all-purpose back and No. 36 overall player according to Rivals, plans to announce his commitment in the next couple of weeks, and all indications are that Clemson and Notre Dame are his top two choices.
Despite Shipley’s higher ranking, Goolsby contends that the North Carolina native does not possess the wiggle of Tyree, although there are elements in his game as well that can bode well at this level.
“He has really nice body lean and that’s why he’s able to break tackles,” Goolsby said. “He just leans through them. He’s more of an outside runner than an inside runner, but with his speed, you can see a centerfield safety comes down to fill the alley — but Will outruns a good angle. They say you can’t beat a good angle, but he does on tape. He runs nice routes too.”
Thinking as a former linebacker, Goolsby would not want to see a split backfield with that duo.
“If those two are back there, I’d have my fingers crossed that it’s a pass play,” he said.
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