Notre Dame 2020 Two-Deep Projection: Offense
The “Way Too Early” polls in college football have been out in full force this month for the 2020 season. Notre Dame has been a popular pick in the No. 8-to-10 range.
Thus, it’s “Never Too Early” to start looking ahead to how the depth charts will formulate. Today we will look at the offense, with the class years referring to the 2020 campaign.
QUARTERBACKS
Scholarship Players: 3
It was supposed to be four, until 2019 No. 2 man Phil Jurkovec transferred this month to Boston College.
The days of four on scholarship in one season might be forever gone. That's because if a school recruits at a high level, top quarterbacks such Top-100, four-star Jurkovec generally want to be on field by year 2.
Starter: Ian Book (graduate student)
For the first time since Jimmy Clausen from 2007-09, Notre Dame will have the same starter at this position for three consecutive years.
The 2020 fifth-year senior has passed for 6,118 yards at a .635 completion percentage rate, and has tossed 57 touchdowns compared to only 17 interceptions.
Book also has rushed for 1,033 yards, and his 546 (4.9 yards per carry) this past season were second most on the team.
Top Backup: Brendon Clark (sophomore) or Drew Pyne (freshman)
Clark preserved a year of eligibility while playing a total of 19 snaps in three blowout wins. Owning the strongest arm on the roster, he completed his lone pass for a 22-yard touchdown, and also ran five times for 33 yards.
Ranked the nation’s No. 117 overall prospect by Rivals, Pyne is the first early entrant quarterback at Notre Dame since Malik Zaire in 2013, and could vie for the wide-open No. 2 spot.
RUNNING BACKS
Scholarship Players: 7
This includes former walk-on and senior Mick Assaf, whose service to the team was recognized by getting his tuition paid through at least this spring semester.
Starter: Jafar Armstrong (senior)
He was the projected 2019 starter, but an injury during the first series in the opener shelved him a good portion of the season while the now graduated Tony Jones Jr. took on the lead back role.
Armstrong returns with the most career yards rushing with 505, but 383 came as a sophomore in 2018 and 122 last season as a junior.
Top Backups:Jahmir Smith (junior) or C’Bo Flemister (junior), or Avery Davis (senior), or Kyren Williams (sophomore) or Chris Tyree (freshman)
Yes, it’s a cop-out to not name one, but that’s how it was last year, too. Until someone truly separates himself this spring, second-year running backs coach Lance Taylor is going to go more by situation and feel for the moment.
Power back Smith’s 180 yards rushing are the most returning by any back from last year.
Top-100 recruit and game-breaking speedster Tyree in one way or another is projected to make an impact. However, he is not an early entrant and there will be questions on how durable his 5-9 ½, 179-pound frame will be while making the transition to college.
RECEIVERS
Scholarship Players: 12
There remains murkiness on whether Javon McKinley, who made his first 11 catches (268 yards, four touchdowns) as a senior, will receive a fifth season of eligibility in 2020.
Starters: Bennett Skowronek (graduate transfer), Braden Lenzy (junior) and Lawrence Keys III (junior)
This is merely an "experience matters" guess on Skowronek, who caught 110 passes in his career at Northwestern before taking a medical redshirt as a senior in 2019 to be eligible at Notre Dame. At 6-4, 215, his frame would be seem to fit the boundary side position held by predecessors Chase Claypool, Miles Boykin and Equanimeous St. Brown.
Lenzy and Tyree will challenge for the fastest player on the team designation, and Lenzy’s role on the wide side of the field began to expand later in the year, finishing with 23.1 yards average on his 11 catches, and placing third in rushing with 200 yards and 15.4 yards per attempt.
In the slot, Keys returns with the most receptions among the Irish wideouts last year (13 for 134 yards) and succeeds two-year starter/captain Chris Finke.
Top Backups: Kevin Austin (junior) or Joe Wilkins (sophomore) and Jordan Johnson (freshman).
Suspended all of 2019 but allowed to practice, Austin might possess the best all-around physical attributes at this position, and is capable of the type of breakout running back Dexter Williams had in 2018 after serving his own suspension. But he will be made to earn trust and his spot in the rotation this spring.
Wilkins is a bit of an enigma in that head coach Brian Kelly often has raved about his progress, but he has yet to catch a pass his first two seasons.
We normally would not put a true freshman here — especially if he did not enroll early in January — but the 6-2, 180-pound Johnson is a rare five-star recruit.
The caveat is if McKinley does indeed return, then he would be in the rotation.
The group is rounded out by senior Isaiah Robertson (redshirted last year after moving over from defense), junior Micah Jones, sophomore Kendall Abdur-Rahman, and freshmen Jay Brunelle and Xavier Watts — both early entrants this January.
TIGHT ENDS
Scholarship Players: 5
Had Cole Kmet — projected as possibly the first tight end to be selected in the 2020 NFL Draft — returned for his senior year, this Irish position group would have been evaluated as the nation’s best.
Starter: Tommy Tremble (junior)
Redshirted as a freshman in 2018, Tremble is primed to be the next in line of a 50-year run as “Tight End U.” after finishing with 16 catches for 183 yards and four touchdowns last year, and even starting seven times in double-tight end sets.
Top Backup: Brock Wright (senior)
Classified mainly as a blocker, it’s easy to forget that he was Notre Dame’s highest ranked recruit in 2017 (No. 44) while overshadowing Kmet at the time.
Like Johnson at receiver, freshman Michael Mayer (6-5, 234) is anticipated to be in the mix right away and is Notre Dame’s highest ranked tight end recruit (No. 36) since Kyle Rudolph (No. 20) in 2008. Had he enrolled in January, that opportunity would have been more open.
Junior George Takacs, a four-star prospect in 2018, and freshman Kevin Bauman (No. 129 prospect nationally), would be major figures this year at a lot of schools.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Scholarship Players: 16
Neither of the two incoming recruits (tackle Tosh Baker and guard Michael Carmody) is an early entrant, but the Irish still could field almost three full teams here in spring practice alone.
Starters: LT Liam Eichenberg (graduate student), LG Aaron Banks (senior), C Jarrett Patterson (junior), RG Tommy Kramer (graduate student) and RT Robert Hainsey (senior)
There is an unofficial school record 114 starts returning here — including senior Josh Lugg (5) — with none of the top five having less than 13, or a full season.
Eichenberg has started all 26 games at left tackle the past two years, while 2019 captain-elect Hainsey started the first eight in 2019 before getting injured, leading to Lugg opening the last five at right tackle.
Kraemer started the first seven games at right guard before suffering a season ending knee injury in the loss at Michigan.
Banks at left guard and Patterson at center made all 13 starts in 2019.
Top Backups: LT Andrew Kristofic (sophomore), LG Dillan Gibbons (senior), C Colin Grunhard (senior), RG John Dirksen (junior) RT Lugg
Lugg could be the “sixth man” at any of the five spots, including center, where he was seen taking snaps late last spring.
Rounding out the unit this spring will be sophomores Quinn Carroll (tackle), center Zeke Correll (center) and John Olmstead (guard), plus senior Cole Mabry (tackle).
Carroll, ranked the No. 68 player nationally in 2019, tore his ACL last August, and likely will be limited this spring.
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