Notre Dame's Torii Hunter Jr. Accepts No. 1 Receiver Role
Torii Hunter Jr. said he doesn’t want to call himself Notre Dame’s No. 1 receiver.
Despite his modesty, the Irish will need him to be exactly that this season.
“I’ve kind of accepted that role,” Hunter said last week. “You hear it everywhere, but I do want to go out everyday and be the best player that I can be.”
Notre Dame loses a significant portion of its receiver production from 2015, with 327 career catches, 5,508 career receiving yards and 47 career receiving touchdowns either off to the NFL (most notably Will Fuller), or in the case of Corey Robinson, gone with the decision to retire from the game due to concussion problems.
Replacing that production will largely fall to Hunter, who finished third on the team in receiving yards (363) and receiving touchdowns (2) while splitting time with Amir Carlisle in the slot.
The 6-foot, 195-pound Hunter is moving to the X receiver spot. The position — which has more open space on the field side — was held by Fuller the past two years, utilizing the speed of the 2016 first-round draft pick.
Hunter has plenty of speed as well — Kelly said in the spring that Hunter ran a 4.43 40-yard dash during winter conditioning.
A former consensus four-star prospect, Hunter said he watched plenty of film of Fuller playing X last season to prepare for his new role. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly compared Hunter’s flexibility to that of a former Irish star.
“Torii Hunter, I think we all know is going to have to play a central role,” Kelly said. “If you go back to when we had Michael Floyd here, we moved him all over the place. He was a central figure in what we did. We may have to move Torii around a little bit, as well to, keep double coverages off him.”
Floyd, Fuller and TJ Jones have produced a combined five 1,000-yard seasons in Kelly's first six seasons at Notre Dame. Hunter could be next in line while also mentoring the team’s young receivers.
“I have probably the most game experience in the wide receiver room,” said Hunter, a native of Prosper, Texas, and the son of former MLB outfielder Torii Hunter. “My input can definitely help out a lot. Going through camp, the struggles of camp, things like that I can help out with that wide receiver group, be that spark when we have a two-a-day or something like that, try and help out in that room.”
Hunter said he did most of his training over the summer “in house,” preparation for a season in which there are questions about the receiver group.
And while there is inexperience, there is a lot of capable playmakers ready to step up, Hunter said.
“There’s a lot of potential there,” Hunter said. “It sucks to use the word potential but there’s a lot of potential there and hopefully we can bring out the potential in everybody, including myself.”
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