Notre Dame & NFL Draft History: 10 To 1 Countdown
10 This will be the 10th NFL Draft with Brian Kelly having been Notre Dame’s head coach the previous season. Beginning in 2011, he has seen 39 Fighting Irish players selected for an average of 4.3 per year.
This year, at least six are popularly projected to be chosen in the annual seven-round affair that will begin tonight and concludes on Saturday: tight end Cole Kmet, wide receiver Chase Claypool, defensive ends Julian Okwara and Khalid Kareem, corner Troy Pride Jr. and safety Alohi Gilman.
Safety Jalen Elliott could be a dark horse.
9 The nine first-round picks during Kelly’s regime have tripled the total of three Notre Dame had combined under predecessors Bob Davie (1997-2001), Tyrone Willingham (2002-04) and Charlie Weis (2005-09) in their 13 seasons.
The Notre Dame record (NFL strictly) for most first-round picks is 16 by Frank Leahy (1941-43, 1946-53), who coached 11 seasons.
However, context is important. In Leahy’s time there were never more than 13 picks in the first round — whereas today there are 32. Thus, using today’s standards, we count that Leahy would have had at least 10 more picked in the first round (not including recruits who later starred for successor Terry Brennan).
Lou Holtz (1986-96) and Ara Parseghian (1964-74) had 12 first-round picks apiece in their 11 seasons. For Parseghian, that’s not including second-round running back Nick Eddy in the 1966 draft with the 24th overall pick — which would be first round today.
8 The most players drafted under Kelly were the eight in 2014, with five in the top three rounds: offensive lineman Zack Martin (first), defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt (second), tight end Troy Niklas (second), nose guard Louis Nix (third) guard and current graduate assistant Chris Watt (third), linebacker Prince Shembo (fourth), cornerback Bennett Jackson (sixth) and receiver TJ Jones (sixth).
7 Kmet, a popular first- or second-round projection, will become the seventh Notre Dame tight end drafted in the Kelly regime. The previous six were second-rounder Kyle Rudolph (2011), first-rounder Tyler Eifert (2013), second-rounder Troy Niklas (2014), seventh-rounder Ben Koyack (2015), fourth-rounder Durham Smythe (2018) and seventh-rounder Alizé Mack (2019).
Mack became the eighth consecutive opening day starting tight end from Notre Dame to get drafted, dating back to Anthony Fasano in the second round of 2006.
6 Players under Kelly who were drafted in the first two rounds following their junior season. Kmet could be the seventh. The previous six were Rudolph in 2011, Tuitt and Niklas in 2014, wideout Will Fuller and linebacker Jaylon Smith in 2016, and quarterback DeShone Kizer in 2017.
Last year consensus All-American cornerback Julian Love also left after his junior year and was chosen in the fourth round.
5 If Okwara and Kareem are both taken in the first three rounds in this year of 2020, it would be the first time in five decades a pair of “bookend” starters on defense from Notre Dame were taken that high in the same draft. The last occurred in 1978 with luminaries Ross Browner (first round) and Willie Fry (second round).
4 Players from Notre Dame were first-round picks in the 17-year stretch from 1995-2011: defensive lineman Renaldo Wynn (1997), offensive tackle Luke Petitgout (1999), center Jeff Faine (2003) and quarterback Brady Quinn (2007).
In the eight drafts from 2012-19, that number more than doubled to nine. In other words, more than twice as many in about half the time.
3 With 69 players selected all time in the first round, most recently defensive lineman Jerry Tillery last year, the Fighting Irish are in third place all time, behind Ohio State (83) and USC (81). Miami (63) and Alabama (59) round out the top five.
2 Notre Dame has the second most players drafted all time with 504 after having six last year. USC is No. 1 with unofficially 506 (four last year), that also has been listed at 509. Ohio State is a distant third with 452, although it had nine last April.
1 After not having a graduate from the school selected during the regular NFL Draft in 1977, Notre Dame’s current streak of 42 straight with at least one chosen is the longest in the program’s history since the initial draft in 1936.
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