SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Mitchell Evans has as good a chance as anyone in Notre Dame’s deep stable of tight ends to be the next elite one to emerge in the rich ND position group lineage, currently led by junior All-American Michael Mayer.
For now, the 6-foot-5, 255 sophomore is Mayer’s new sidekick. And a gimmick of sorts.
And one that may reappear or even expand Saturday night when Notre Dame (5-3) hosts fourth-ranked Clemson (8-0), owner of both the nation’s longest active win streak (14 games) and best road record in the FBS since 2015 (34-4).
Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. EDT, and NBC has the telecast.
"It's up to (offensive coordinator Tommy) Rees,” Evans said when asked this week if he’d be comfortable throwing a pass from the gadget play, that to this point has consisted of lunging forward with the football.
“Whatever he has cooked up, I don't know. I'll just do what he tells me to do."
The play is called “Mitch-a-palooza,” and so far it’s been about converting critical short-yardage plays in the four times it’s been run — two each in Irish victories over UNLV on Oct. 22, and Syracuse last Saturday.
Evans, a former high school quarterback for Wadsworth (Ohio) High, essentially motions from his tight end spot, stops behind center Zeke Correll, takes a snap and surges with the Irish offensive line.
The results have been two third-down conversions, a fourth-down conversion and a touchdown from the 1-yard line.
Three weeks ago Rees sent Evans a text with a message and a picture of a poster attached that said “Mitch-a-palooza.”
“I think he made it up,” Evans said. “I don't remember what was on it besides it said that."
Actually, it was a reference from the film Old School that came out the same year Evans was born (2003). Evans didn’t give it another thought until tight ends coach Gerad Parker explained in a position-group meeting that “Mitch-a-palooza” was a “QB sneak thing.”
“I'm like, ‘All right, I'll do whatever I have to do to help the team,’” Evans said.
He actually had to re-learn to take a snap under center. Every one of his high school snaps, Evans said, came out of the shotgun formation, with his most recent under-center snap coming in middle school.
“I went down there with Zeke (Correll), and got a couple snaps in (before practice),” Evans said. “Never dropped it, and (Rees) was, ‘All right, I trust you. Let's do it.'"
Evans would like to do some traditional tight end things too against Clemson, namely catching passes. That hasn’t happened yet in his first three games back from summer foot surgery that kept him sidelined for the entirety of August training camp and the first five games of the season.
Evans caught two passes for 21 yards last year as a freshman.
"It was a bit rough the first week back for Stanford (Oct. 15),” Evans said. “I took like 19-20 plays in the game. I could tell I was a little bit tired. But working back, they told me when I come back, it's going to be a couple of days to get back in the flow of things. Even though you're back, you're still going to be a little wobbly. I'm (now) 100 percent and feel good. It's good to be back."
As a committed recruit and senior in high school, Evans and then-offensive tackle recruit Blake Fisher came to South Bend in hopes of finding their way into Notre Dame Stadium for the Nov. 7, 2020, Clemson game won by the Irish (47-40) in double overtime.
But it was during the height of COVID-19 restrictions, so just 11,011 fans were allowed in, mostly students, faculty and staff and all of whom had been COVID tested. Recruiting visits were banned by the NCAA during that time.
“We were watching at some guy's house on campus,” Evans said. “It sucked we couldn't come up to the game. Watching that game, I couldn't imagine if the stadium was packed. It would have been so cool and we're going to have that this weekend. It's going to be great."
Signs of the times
Two days before No. 4 Notre Dame’s takedown of No. 1 Clemson two Novembers ago, then-Irish coach Brian Kelly was asked whether the Tigers’ reputation for stealing opponents sideline signaling was real.
Kelly didn’t dispel the notion.
Successor Marcus Freeman got a similar question during his weekly Zoom on Thursday.
“That's a college football thing,” he said. “I think competitive advantage is something that all teams will try to do. If you're going to let teams steal your signals, they'll do it
“And so, we have to every week have a plan for that — continue to switch signals, continue to switch who’s live (as opposed to dummy signallers) and have a great plan in terms of how we're going to be able to communicate with the guys on the field, what we want them to do.
“That's every week. It's not a Clemson thing. That’s an every-week thing in terms of if you don't think it's real, then you're probably getting your signals stolen.”
Finding a mental edge
In building his own foundation for the Notre Dame football program rather than annexing Brian Kelly’s, Marcus Freeman decided to part ways with a key figure in the 2017-21 Irish football renaissance, mental performance coach Dr. Amber Selking.
Selking eventually reconnected with Kelly this summer and conducted offseason classes for his LSU football team.
Freeman hasn’t abandoned the concept of mental performance, but goes about it in a much different way.
“We have resources for them to utilize here on campus on an individual basis,” the first-year ND head coach said. “As far as what we want our players thinking during the week and as they get ready for a game, it can be from the head coach or the position coach, and we're speaking similar messages.
“It's the things that I feel, as the head coach, that they should be thinking about and what's important. But again, we have to make sure we have resources to serve these guys that, if necessary, they feel like they need it. We have resources for them in terms of mental performance.”
Recruit-a-palooza
Close to 60 recruits will take in Saturday night’s ND-Clemson clash, with the Irish carrying some impressive streaks of its own into the game.
The Irish have a 16-game November win streak on the line as well a run of 26 straight victories against ACC competition in regular-season games. It will be the 28th night game in the history of Notre Dame Stadium, with the Irish holding a 21-6 record in the previous 27.
“It's going to be a great environment,” Freeman said. “This is what I tell (recruits): ‘This is why you come to Notre Dame, to be a part of games like this.’ And the best thing we can do is put on a good performance, but for them to understand that this is what Notre Dame is about and you’ve got a chance to be a part of this in the future, in this football program.”
Squibs
• When Irish wide receivers coach Urban Meyer left Notre Dame to take his first head coaching job, at Bowling Green following the 2000 season, then-ND head coach Bob Davie hired Joker Phillips to replace him.
One of the candidates who applied for that job who didn’t get hired? Dabo Swinney, now the head coach at Clemson.
• Swinney at Clemson is 135-8 when his teams lead at halftime and 123-8 when they win the rushing battle. In November of 2020, the Irish outrushed Clemson, 208-34.
• NBC Sports has announced former Notre Dame cornerback Julian Love and former Clemson linebacker Levon Kirkland will join host Kathryn Tappen for halftime and postgame coverage of Saturday night's game.
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