How coaching Michael Mayer is a unique task for Notre Dame football staff
When a college football coaching staff has a player of Michael Mayer’s caliber, it treats him a little differently.
Notre Dame tight ends coach John McNulty, for instance, joked that he is either going to put Mayer in a protective plastic bubble during spring practices next year or just not let the rising junior in the building at all.
It’s a preserve Mayer at all costs type of mentality. There are reasons for that.
Two of McNulty’s tight ends went down with injuries this season. Sophomore Kevin Bauman fractured his foot in the season opener at Florida State, and freshman Cane Berrong tore his ACL after the sixth game of the year. Even Mayer himself missed a game with a hip ailment.
When healthy, McNulty likes what he has in all three of those tight ends. Add in fellow freshman Mitchell Evans and incoming class of 2022 signees Eli Raridon and Holden Staes, and it’s a tight ends group just about every program across the country would long for. Raridon, though, tore his ACL this week. It’s going to take him a little longer to enter the fold now.
It’s also still a tight ends group with one man standing tall above the rest — however talented those waiting for their turns may be. That man, of course, is Mayer. The Associated Press third-team All-America selection is just that good, and McNulty has seen it every day for the last two years.
McNulty was asked what is left for Mayer in his college career.
“The draft?” he quipped.
In all seriousness, there is a lot left for Mayer. A national championship and the Mackey Award as proof he is in fact the nation’s top tight end would be two cherries on top of an already baked and ready to go holiday pie produced by Mayer himself.
How does a player who was listed at 251 pounds over the summer but has since bulked up to 265 keep improving physically and tactically enough to help the Irish attain the first goal and take the second home for himself? McNulty said the extra weight has allowed Mayer to go “off the charts” in his run blocking. Now it’s about becoming an even more dynamic receiver than the one who led the team with 64 catches for 768 yards.
Mayer’s film sessions are unique. Often times, they’re not spent watching himself. They’re spent watching the best tight ends in the NFL. Darren Waller. Travis Kelce. George Kittle. Mayer's next step in his progression is to dominate games with the ball in his hands like that trio consistently does at the highest level.
‘He’s at that point where he’s watching those guys for little things technique-wise to say, ‘Hey, this might be a better way to do it,'” McNulty said. “It’s trying to get incrementally better with him at a different level than everybody else. Those other guys can watch it too and aspire to that, but there’s just a little bit more in his tank that he can work on that stuff. And he's hungry to do it.”
McNulty said at this stage in Mayer’s college career, it’s about challenging him in ways the other tight ends on the team aren’t pushed. McNulty has plenty of trust in Evans and Bauman. He said he’s surprised the former hasn’t played much this season, but then he remembered every time he thought it was a good time to put him on the field offensive coordinator Tommy Rees would say, “No, let’s keep Mayer out there.”
Mayer is just that much of a difference-maker.
There will come a day when Evans, Berrong, Bauman, Raridon and Staes are the top options at the position, but that day won't be in 2022 barring a Mayer injury. This is still Mayer’s team from that perspective. He didn’t win co-MVP at the private team banquet last week for nothing.
Mayer even played a huge part in senior tight end George Takacs having a relatively quiet Notre Dame career. McNulty said Takacs could “start anywhere” because he has one of the best sets of hands on the team. Mayer’s targets and reps have taken away from Takacs’ share. He had three catches for 36 yards and a touchdown all year.
Such are the stat lines when playing with someone like Mayer, though. He’s not taking looks away from teammates on purpose. He’s just getting open and giving graduate student Jack Coan and true freshman Tyler Buchner somewhere to throw the ball. That is his job, and he does it well.
“This is his life,” McNulty said. “He’s dead focused on football. He wants to be the best tight end in the game. He’s willing to do whatever that takes.”
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