Notre Dame & The Fifth-Year Dimension
Every year Notre Dame redshirts approximately a dozen freshmen football players, give or take a few either way. This past campaign, 11 of the 21 were redshirted.
However, just because the potential for that fifth season is preserved, it doesn’t mean it will be utilized down the road — or at Notre Dame, either.
The No. 3-ranked Fighting Irish recruiting haul in 2013 redshirted 13 of the 23 players who signed, but only three remained as fifth-year seniors at Notre Dame: offensive linemen Mike McGlinchey and Hunter Bivin, and tight end Durham Smythe. Others either transferred, were dismissed from school, had medical issues that ended their football careers, used their fifth season elsewhere (a la quarterback Malik Zaire at Florida) or felt that it was time to move on with their lives, either in the NFL or in another sector of life.
In 2018, “taking the fifth” at Notre Dame is a much more viable option. In fact, it appears this year will tie the school record of nine that occurred twice. Many of the decisions to opt for a fifth year were even a pleasant surprise:
• The least surprising were offensive linemen Sam Mustipher (center) and Alex Bars (right guard), who will be third-year starters with potential NFL careers ahead of them.
• Equally important are the return of starting defensive linemen Jonathan Bonner and Jay Hayes. Bonner had indicated to the student newspaper The Observer in November, prior to Senior Day, that his plan was to move on from football after his senior year. Hayes had been on the bubble.
Now, combined with junior nose guard Jerry Tillery also opting to return rather than turn pro, the defensive line could be one of the two or three strongest areas of the team (along with offensive line) when combining experience, depth and pro potential.
• Likewise, rover/captain Drue Tranquill — slated to be married this July 14 — was primed for either an NFL tryout or, as an Academic All-American, to utilize his engineering degree after an outstanding senior year in which he was third in tackles (85), second in tackles for loss (10.5) and first in fumbles recovered (three).
Yet his decision to return for a fifth season provides much-needed experience in the middle of the Irish defense with current junior linebacker and No. 1 tackler Te’von Coney.
• Also a pleasant surprise is the return of cornerback Nick Watkins, who started most of the season and was second in passes defended (eight). Whether he will start in 2018 at the highly competitive corner slots is uncertain, but the depth will be significantly enhanced with his presence.
• Tight end Nic Weishar (nine catches for 52 yards and two touchdowns in 2017) appeared to be stuck in the middle if he returned in 2018. He didn’t take as many snaps as incumbent Alizé Mack (348 to 215), and freshmen Cole Kmet and Brock Wright — the top-ranked Irish recruits in 2017 — have promising football futures ahead of them.
However, with the mercurial career of Mack, Weishar is capable of having a quality fifth season the way Smythe did this past year.
• Punter Tyler Newsome will be a fourth-year starter.
• Finally, wide receiver Freddy Canteen, who played his first three seasons (2014-16) at Michigan, will valiantly give football one more try after an injury-riddled career that has seen him catch two passes the past three years. He played in the first two games for the Irish in 2017 before suffering a torn labrum.
Again it’s an enhancement of competition at a position that loses “The S Squad” of Equanimeous St. Brown (turned pro), Kevin Stepherson (dismissed) and C.J. Sanders (transferring after he receives his undergraduate Notre Dame degree).
There has been no public disclosure yet on whether reserve offensive lineman Jimmy Byrne would return, a la Bivin in 2017, for a fifth season.
The most fifth-year seniors the Irish ever had were nine apiece in 2003 and 2007. However, that in itself hardly ensures success.
The 2003 team finished 5-7 despite the presence of fifth-year stars and future NFL players such as linebacker Courtney Watson, defensive linemen Cedric Hilliard and Darrell Campbell, offensive tackle Jim Molinaro and even explosive, record-setting running back Julius Jones, who was academically ineligible a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the 2007 team also had nine, led by top fifth-year seniors and future NFL players such as tight end John Carlson, center John Sullivan, defensive lineman Trevor Laws and safety Tom Zbikowski, but they were part of a 3-9 train wreck that year with the Irish.
The overall 2018 roster is much better fortified than in those seasons, and should be more capable of vying for a third 10-win campaign in the past four years, especially with the quality and quantity of the fifth-year players.
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