Notre Dame Tight Ends Quietly Lurk, Produce In The Arsenal
Football conversation about Notre Dame’s five scholarship tight ends this spring have been relatively limited.
• Fifth-year senior Nic Weishar (shoulder) and early enrollee freshman George Takacs (torn cartilage) have both been sidelined while undergoing rehab.
• Sophomore Cole Kmet was interviewed — but that was for baseball, where he owns seven of Notre Dame’s eight recorded saves this season, most against top-10 ranked foes. One of them came last weekend down at North Carolina State, preventing him from partaking in Saturday’s spring scrimmage, and the baseball team also was in Indianapolis on Tuesday, when the football team practiced.
• Senior Alize Mack has been enjoying a strong spring to the point where he just might be the top target on the team this season — but he has not been available for interviews this spring. Given his somewhat roller-coaster career, it’s likely a sensible move.
That left sophomore Brock Wright as the tight end representative to speak with the media this past weekend. At the start of spring, it appeared he too would be out of commission after undergoing shoulder surgery when he tore the AC joint and tendons with an awkward landing following a catch during a scrimmage in preparation for the Citrus Bowl.
Surprisingly, Wright was cleared by the medical staff to go full contact a couple of weeks ago. In each of the last two Saturday practices open to the media, he took one of the biggest hits in practice on pass receptions, yet sprang right up.
“He put himself back into position to be a solid player for us after shoulder surgery — and I say that because that doesn’t happen easily,” head coach Brian Kelly said. “Guys come back, they’re hesitant, they’re not fully engaged … he’s picked up and put [himself] back in a position where we didn’t even know he had surgery.”
Wright’s presence also is evidence of the quality recruiting Notre Dame consistently has at the position. At No. 44, he was the highest-ranked Fighting Irish recruit by Rivals.com in the 2017 haul — Kmet was second-highest at No. 95 — yet will be hard-pressed to make the two-deep with Mack and Kmet in the picture, plus Weishar returning.
Nevertheless, Wright’s physicality earned him a monogram last fall as a situational blocker in short-yardage/red-zone situations, usually lining up as the “fullback” in the backfield, and also handling the edge on field goals and extra points.
While Mack and Kmet can be more off-the-line tight ends as pass catchers, Wright’s primary role as a blocker that he had last year will remain.
“Probably not since seventh grade,” replied the 6-4 ½ , 250-pound Wright on when he last lined up at fullback. “But it was a lot of fun and I’m glad I was able to do it."
Although the former USA Today first-team All-American is plenty capable as a pass catcher, he likely will have more of a niche role for at least this season again before he and Kmet become the mainstays at the position in 2019.
“We didn’t recruit him for that,” said Kelly of Wright not having maybe as active a receiving role as a Mack or even Kmet. “We wanted a great point-of-attack blocker, a guy that can catch the ball off our boot game, play-action game, and I guy that we can use with his size in the red zone. I think he’s going to be that and more.”
For now, Wright knows his bread and butter is with his blocking while developing other aspects of his game.
“It’s also nice having those guys who are so good at certain things,” Wright said. “Like watching Alize run routes — I love doing that, he’s phenomenal. And then getting to talk with him afterwards and kind of get his advice on what I need to do route running better, it really helps to have guys like that with me.”
Since 2013, only four other Irish players were rated higher by Rivals than Wright: linebacker Jaylon Smith (3) in 2013, offensive lineman Quenton Nelson (29) in 2014, defensive end/linebacker Daelin Hayes (31) in 2016, and current freshman early enrollee Houston Griffith (43), who has already made a strong impression this spring to vie for action at safety.
Normally, a player with such lofty status would be disappointed with the more limited role, but because offensive coordinator Chip Long is also the tight ends coach who heavily involves his group in the attack, the opportunity for continued growth in fundamentals, point-of-attack blocking, patterns, etc., is appealing to Wright.
In Long’s first season with the Irish (2017), the Irish tight ends accumulated 45 catches (led by Mack’s 19) after totaling only 12 and 20, respectively, the two years prior.
Furthermore, whereas in 2015-16 Notre Dame was in single-tight end alignments 10 percent of the time, last year under Long it was 37.2 percent of the time, per Blueandgold.com analyst Bryan Driskell. That is expected to continue, maybe even expand, despite the graduation of starter Durham Smythe.
“There’s a lot of variability there,” said Wright of the tight end’s role. “We have so many two tight-end sets — and last year we even had a lot of three tight-end sets, so it’s cool. There’s a lot of ways Coach Long wants us to get in there, get us executing and make plays for the offense.”
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