Notre Dame senior wide receiver Chase Claypool claimed Most Valuable Player honors on Dec. 13 at Echoes 2019, this year’s version of the program’s annual awards banquet.
In order to accomplish this feat, Claypool had to beat out reigning MVP Ian Book, who took home the hardware in 2018 as a junior.
Claypool, who said afterward that he was surprised to receive the award, always had the talent to put together an MVP-type season, but he needed four years of growth and maturity to get to this point.
“I always knew that in my freshman, sophomore and junior year that I could be a lot better because I saw the growth over the years, even from high school,” Claypool said after the Echoes. “I knew that I was going to improve, but I didn’t know I was going to receive something like this for my improvement.”
With the bowl game remaining, he has already had a historic season for a Fighting Irish wide receiver. Claypool is tied for sixth all-time in Notre Dame history for touchdown catches in a single season with 12. He would need to catch three touchdowns against Iowa State in the Camping World Bowl to tie the record of 15, which is held by Will Fuller (2014), Golden Tate (2009), Rhema McKnight (2006) and Jeff Samardzija (2005).
His season was capped off by a four-touchdown performance against Navy, which tied former Notre Dame wide receiver Maurice Stovall for touchdown catches in a single game. Stovall set the record in 2005 against BYU.
Three of Claypool’s touchdowns against Navy came in the first half. This was the first time a Notre Dame player accomplished this feat since 1950.
“His competitive spirit has gotten him to where he is today,” Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said on stage. “If he had a weakness, he worked on it, whatever it was. That’s why he’s such a great player. I think Chris Finke said it the best, ‘he works as hard as anyone that we have on this football team.’ And the great players do. They work at it.”
Claypool also caught 59 passes for 891 yards so far this season, which is over 400 yards more than the next highest Irish pass catch.
His production this season has lifted him to 10th all-time for career touchdowns by a wider receiver with 18. Claypool also surpassed the 2,000 receiving yard mark with 2,013 yards over his four-year career.
“Being from Canada, I don’t know if Chase took it as carrying a chip on his shoulder,” Kelly said, “but he wanted to prove to everybody that you can come down here and dominate and he did.”
Ian Book — Offensive Player of the Year
While it could be construed as a step back for Book to go from team MVP to Offensive Player of the year, no one in the audience seemed to feel that way, especially when it came to his ability to get the ball in the end zone.
Book went from averaging 2.55 touchdowns per game — both passing and throwing — in 2018 to 3.08 touchdowns per game in 2019.
His 33 touchdown passes in 2019 are second only to Brady Quinn in 2006 when it comes to touchdown passes by a Notre Dame quarterback in a single season.
Through 12 games this year, he’s thrown six interceptions compared to nine last year in nine games.
Another impressive feat for Book this season was his ability to run the ball. He was second on the team in terms of total rushing yards with 537. Only running back Tony Jones had more.
“His legs are probably underrated, in terms of running the ball and being able to extend plays and make plays,” quarterbacks coach Tom Rees said on stage after presenting Book with the award. “Even when a play is not supposed to work, he finds a way to make it work. There are times where the defense might have the right call or something might break down a way to get through.”
Where Book may have regressed a little bit this season is, at times, relying too much on his legs, and he was significantly less accurate in his second year as Notre Dame’s starting signal-caller.
He set a Notre Dame record in 2018 with a 68.2 completion percentage, eclipsing the mark former Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen set in 2019 with a 68.0 completion percentage. This season, Book dropped nearly nine percentage points, completing 59.3 percent of his passes. His yards per attempt by almost one yard as well.
The good news is that Book played his best football of the season over the last four games, completing 61.4 percent of his passes and throwing 16 touchdown passes. The biggest question on Fighting Irish fan’s mind is this production due to player lesser competition or did Book find his mojo at the end of the season?
Whatever the answer may be, one can bet that Book is going to keep working to improve, whether he comes back in 2020 or takes bets on himself and declares for the NFL Draft.
“No one on the team has worked harder,” Rees said. “No one has put in more effort and time to get to where he’s been. The success he’s had is really a testament to how hard he’s worked.”
Khalid Kareem — Defensive Player of the Year
Breakout senior linebacker Asmar Bilal was likely also a candidate to receive this award, but it’s hard to argue that, throughout the season, any other player was more important to the Notre Dame defense than senior strong side end Khalid Kareem. This was the first Echo award Kareem received during his four-year Notre Dame career.
The senior captain was the only Notre Dame defensive end to start all 12 games this season, despite consistently deal with nagging ankle injuries.
He was fifth on the team in total tackles with 45 and led the Irish in sacks with 5.5 and tackles for a loss with 10. He also forced three fumbles this season, personally recovering one of them.
2019 Echo Winners
Irish Around the Bend – Jalen Elliot
Scout Team Player of the Year: Offense – Brendon Clark
Scout Team Player of the Year: Defense – Isaiah Foskey
WOPU Player of the Year — Mick Assaf
Newcomer of the Year: Offense – Jarrett Patterson
Father Lange Iron Cross – Asmar Bilal
Rockne Student-Athlete – Chris Finke
Pietrosante Award – Shaun Crawford
Moose Krause [Defensive] Lineman of the Year – Julian Okwara
Offensive Lineman of the Year – Robert Hainsey
Humble & Hungry Award -- Trevor Ruhland
Special Teams Player of the Year – Bo Bauer
Impact Player on Defense -- Alohi Gilman
Impact Player on Offense -- Cole Kmet
Back of the Year -- Tony Jones Jr.
Next Man In – Jamir Jones
Co-Newcomer of the Year: Defense – Drew White and Kyle Hamilton
Defensive Player of the Year – Khalid Kareem
Offensive Player of the Year – Ian Book
Most Valuable Player – Chase Claypool
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