Notre Dame Still Tight End U. In Longevity
As a 57-year-old, I might understandably have an issue with recency bias more than most when it comes to achievement in athletics. I find in a lot of analysis that anything that occurred prior to 2000 is ancient history and cannot be included in reasonable discourse.
The term “Tight End U.” is one such example. For the 2010-19 decade, I have seen Stanford or Iowa with that moniker, and previously it belonged to the Miami Hurricanes.
While all those schools have indisputably produced an assembly line of supreme tight ends, longevity should also count for something. There is a hot streak, and then there is consistent excellence. No school better demonstrates the latter at tight end than Notre Dame.
Some college football programs have had supreme decades at tight end that have eclipsed the Fighting Irish. However, when you look at the last 50 years of consistent excellence, there is no comparison.
Last week, Notre Dame’s Cole Kmet became the 11th Notre Dame tight end who was drafted in either the first or second round since the NFL-AFL merger 53 years ago.
Yet, recently I’ve seen Stanford lauded as Tight End U. because from 2010-19 it had seven such players drafted, from Jim Dray in 2010 (seventh round) to Kaden Smith in 2019 (sixth round), plus two others who made an NFL roster as free agents.
This year, it saw Colby Parkinson selected in the fourth round.
If we are talking the 2010-19 decade, then yes, maybe Stanford would be at the top, even though Notre Dame had more first- (one) and just as many second-round picks (two) at the position than the Cardinal, plus three others who were drafted, giving it six compared to Stanford’s nine.
Meanwhile, Iowa also received notice, mainly because in 2019 it had two first-round selections in T.J. Hockenson (eighth overall) and Noah Fant. Plus, All-Pro George Kittle was chosen in the first round in 2017.
For much of the turn of the century, Miami also often has been declared as Tight End U.
Indeed, no school ever had a run in the NFL Draft with tight ends like the Hurricanes did from 2000-07 with four first-round picks at the position: Bubba Franks, Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow Jr. and Greg Olsen (who originally enrolled at Notre Dame).
Since the NFL-AFL merger, Miami has had seven tight ends taken in the first or second round. Still, one decade does not a Tight End U. make. In that same span Notre Dame has had 11.
Particularly notable is the consistency decade after decade.
1970s — Hall of Fame members Dave Casper (college and pro) in the 1974 second round and Ken MacAfee (college) in the 1978 first round
1980s — Tony Hunter in the 1983 first round
1990s — Derek Brown in the 1992 first round, followed by Irv Smith in the 1993 first round
2000s — Anthony Fasano in the 2006 second round, and John Carlson in the 2008 second round
2010s — Kyle Rudolph in the 2011 second round, Tyler Eifert in the 2013 first round and Troy Niklas in the 2014 second round
2020s — Kmet
That is not including 12 other Fighting Irish tight ends drafted in that 50-year span, among them future All-Pro and fourth-round pick Mark Bavaro in 1985.
That is 23 in the 46 years since 1974, or one every two years.
The 2020s already have continued the tradition with Kmet, who as Rivals’ No. 95 overall recruit in 2017 actually was rated behind current Irish senior Brock Wright (No. 44 that same year).
Junior Tommy Tremble, who grabbed 16 passes for 183 yards and four touchdowns as a sophomore (better than Kmet’s 15 receptions for 162 yards and no scores his sophomore year) is on track to be next in line. (His father, Greg Tremble, was an NFL safety.)
And for good measure, the Fighting Irish in this recruiting haul signed the nation’s top duo at tight end in Michael Mayer (No. 36 nationally) and Kevin Bauman (No. 129).
Whether it is from the long past, the present or future, no college football program has more consistently remained Tight End U. than Notre Dame.
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