Notre Dame's 'Unknowns' At The Skill Positions
‘Tis the season for college football Watch Lists.
Beginning this past week and continuing the rest of this month, the myriad individual awards in college football began unveiling an initial list of candidates for honors to be handed out in December.
Among them this week were the Davey O’Brien Award for quarterbacks, Doak Walker Award for running backs and Fred Biletnikoff Award for wide receivers.
Notre Dame went 0-for-3 in representation at those three “glamour” positions, which featured 26 quarterbacks, 62 running backs and 50 receiver candidates.
This marked the first time since 2007 — when the Fighting Irish finished 3-9 — that they had no one on any of those three preliminary charts. That 2007 Notre Dame team had graduated quarterback Brady Quinn and top wideouts Jeff Samardzija and Rhema McKnight, all of whom helped rewrite the school’s football record book.
Had running back Darius Walker opted to return for his senior season in 2007, he undoubtedly would have been on the Doak Walker Award Watch List after eclipsing 1,000 yards rushing his two previous seasons.
Likewise in 2018, had running back Josh Adams and wideout Equanimeous St. Brown returned for their senior seasons, they would have been repeat figures on their respective Watch Lists, but both turned pro last winter.
Senior quarterback Brandon Wimbush would have seemed a logical choice at quarterback this summer after accounting for 2,673 yards total offense (1,870 passing and 803 rushing) and 30 touchdowns (16 passing and a school-record for quarterbacks 14 rushing) last year for the 10-3 Irish. However, a benching in two of his final four games, including the entire second half of the Citrus Bowl win over LSU, likely made voters skeptical.
And let’s face it, it doesn’t hurt to have a big-name reputation either for such lists. As a sophomore in 2008, quarterback Jimmy Clausen made the Davey O’Brien Watch List despite the 3-9 outcome the year prior while throwing for only 1,254 yards and having a passer rating of 103.9 compared to Wimbush’s 121.4 last year. But when you are heralded as “the LeBron James of college football,” as Clausen was, you have a far better chance of receiving the benefit of the doubt.
Nevertheless, while Wimbush was not among the candidates for the O’Brien Award, he was one of 85 players selected to the Watch List for the Maxwell Award, presented to the nation’s outstanding college football player. Among those 85, nearly half (41) were quarterbacks.
Either way, it would be well to keep in mind for the players at the three aforementioned positions a Lou Holtz line he used even prior to leading Notre Dame to the national title 30 years ago: “I don’t mind starting a season with a bunch of unknowns; I just hate finishing one with them.”
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