Former Notre Dame Standouts Part of XFL Draft Pool

The XFL will hold its first player draft on Oct. 15-16, and several former Notre Dame players have already been added to the expanding draft pool.

Running backs Jonas Gray and Tarean Folston are joined by defensive lineman Jay Hayes and long snapper Scott Daly on the list of released names provided by the league. More names will be added from now until Friday, Oct. 11.

The draft won't be anything like the current NFL Draft. Basically it will go like this:

Teams will be assigned one quarterback prior to the draft, which the league says has five phases. 

During phase one, each team will choose from a list of offensive skill players, which consists of quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers and tight ends. 

Phase two will include offensive linemen, phase three will be defensive linemen and linebackers, and phase four will be defensive backs.

Phase five will be more of an open format of remaining players.

There are currently eight teams in the league, and the draft will have a “snake” format, which means the rounds will go in reverse order. The team with the first pick of round one will then pick last in round two, and the team that picks last in round one will pick first in round two. That will be the format for all eight teams, and that will continue until the draft is complete.

The draft order in round one will be: DC Defenders, Houston Roughnecks, New York Guardians, Dallas Renegades, Tampa Bay Vipers, St. Louis Battle Hawks, Seattle Dragons and then the LA Wildcats.

Gray played at Notre Dame from 2008 to 2011, rushing for 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns during his career. His best season was his senior campaign, when Gray racked up 791 yards, 6.9 yards per carry and scored all 12 of his career touchdowns in 11 games before a knee injury ended his season.

Folston played for the Irish from 2013-16, rushing for 1,712 yards and 11 touchdowns. Folston had the fifth most rushing yards for a Notre Dame back after two seasons, but injuries derailed his career. Folston had jut 353 yards in his final two seasons. Folston also caught 31 passes for 291 yards and a score during his career.

Hayes played for Notre Dame from 2014 to 2017 before transferring to Georgia as a graduate player in 2018. The New York native registered 39 tackles, four tackles for loss and one sack during his Fighting Irish career.

Daly was Notre Dame’s starting long snapper and short snapper for four seasons.

Stay tuned to Irish Maven for updates on additional updates on the XFL Draft pool.

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