Through 15 spring practices in the spring of 2021, as Notre Dame’s first-year defensive coordinator and deep into August training camp that year, Marcus Freeman couldn’t concoct a solid answer to the question of how to defend Irish tight end Michael Mayer.
So, Freeman desperately/comically suggested a position switch.
“I keep telling him, ‘Man, come on to the dark side.’” Freeman, now ND’s head coach, said of his hypothetical defensive end project, just ahead of the 2021 season opener at Florida State.
“I don’t think (offensive coordinator) Tommy (Rees) is going to let that happen. God, he is a great football player. And the best part about it is we have to have him for two more years.”
There was no pretense, even then, that a senior season at Notre Dame had any basis in reality. And on Wednesday, the 2022 Pro Football Focus first-team All-American made it official.
Mayer told ESPN's Pete Thamel he’ll opt out of No. 21 Notre Dame’s Dec. 30 Gator Bowl matchup with South Carolina and start preparing for next spring’s 2023 NFL Draft. He becomes just the third Irish player to opt out of a bowl game, joining 2021 Fiesta Bowl bystanders Kyle Hamilton and Kyren Williams.
The 6-foot-5, 265-pound Independence, Ky., product is the 22nd true junior from Notre Dame to declare as an early entry since the league opened its doors to underclassmen in 1989 and fifth tight end among that group.
He’s a consensus mock draft first-rounder. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. rates him as the No. 8 prospect overall in the draft, while colleague Todd McShay has him 14th. PFF has him at No. 13.
Through the collegiate prism, if he doesn’t go down as the greatest tight end of all time at Notre Dame, he’s at least in the thick of the debate with three-time All-American and 1977 Heisman Trophy third-place finisher Ken MacAfee.
He holds all but one of the career, single-season and single-game records for Irish tight ends, with Kyle Rudolph preventing a complete monopoly by holding onto the single-game receiving yards mark.
In 12 games this season, Mayer had a team-leading 67 catches — more than twice the number of ND’s second-leading receiver, Lorenzo Styles (30). His 5.6 receptions per game is second nationally to Utah’s Dalton Kinkaid for tight ends.
Mayer had 809 receiving yards and a school-record nine TDs in 2022. His 71 receptions for 840 yards last season are school standards for ND tight ends, as are his career 180 catches for 2,099 yards and 18 touchdowns.
When you include Irish wide receivers, Mayer is third in career receptions behind only Michael Floyd (271) and TJ Jones (181). Mayer had at least one reception in all 36 college games in which he played, including 8 for 88 yards and two TDs in his final one, a 38-27 loss at Southern Cal on Nov. 26.
Sophomore Mitchell Evans and injured freshman Eli Raridon are projected as the two returning tight ends most likely to become TE1 in 2023, though neither has a reception in 2022. Freshman Holden Staes has impressed as well.
Junior Kevin Bauman, recovering from an ACL tear, and sophomore Cane Berrong are also eligible to return as is sophomore fullback/tight end hybrid Davis Sherwood. Four-star prospect Cooper Flanagan of Concord, Calif., is committed to signing with the Irish later this month.
Incidentally, Mayer actually doubled as an elite defensive end at Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, Ky., racking up 99 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, five forced fumbles and four interceptions for a team that went 15-0 his senior season and 44-1 over his final three years, winning two Kentucky Class 5A state titles.
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