Notre Dame Tight End Michael Mayer Continues To Raise His Game

Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer sets records and continues to play at another level for the Irish.

It’s a fool’s errand to try to come up with new superlatives to describe Michael Mayer. Special, great, extraordinary, exceptional, awesome ... exceptionally awesome.

Take your pick. They’ve all been attached to Notre Dame’s All-American candidate tight end, and Mayer just keeps finding ways to wear them out, just like he does do opposing defenses.

"He is a special (there it is) football player,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said after watching Mayer overwhelm BYU’s defense Saturday night in Las Vegas. "The thing I love about Michael Mayer is that he's the hardest worker. When your best player is your hardest worker, that's the greatest example you can have for young guys and the whole team.”

The fruits of Mayer’s work have been on display throughout his two-plus year Notre Dame career. He took them to another level with his 11-catch, 118-yard, two-touchdown performance in the 28-20 victory over then 16th-ranked BYU inside Allegiant Stadium.

Mayer went into the night with 135 career receptions, which was five behind former All-American and Mackey Award winner Tyler Eifert for the program record for tight ends. His fifth catch of the night gained 13 and tied Eifert’s mark. Two plays later Mayer scored on a 24-yard pass from Drew Pyne to take sole possession of the Notre Dame tight end record.

He was honored for it afterward on the Allegiant Stadium video board.

TOUCHDOWN MICHAEL MAYER#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/0h7iJ6q3JS

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) October 9, 2022

"(I) went back, sat on the bench, and saw me up on the screen, and then I heard they kind of announced it,” Mayer explained after the game. "(I am) very, very grateful. I've been around a ton of good football coaches, ton of good players that have got me to this point starting in fifth grade really. I mean, I'm just very, very grateful.”

Mayer is clearly Pyne’s favorite target, but let’s just be honest, he’s the favorite target of every quarterback he’s played with at Notre Dame. As a freshman, Mayer’s 42 receptions from Ian Book tied him with Javon McKinley for the team-high.

Those 42 catches were a program record for a true freshman tight end, as were his 450 yards that season.

Mayer hauled in another team-best 71 passes last year with Jack Coan and Tyler Buchner quarterbacking, and his 33 catches from first Buchner and then Pyne this season, of course, once again lead the team.

The Pyne to Mayer connection has gone to another level in Notre Dame’s last two games. The junior had 18 catches for 208 yards and three touchdowns combined against North Carolina and BYU, but it also hasn’t happened by accident.

"A lot of practice,” Mayer said when asked how Pyne is able to find him with such frequency. "He’s throwing me balls all day in practice, but then we’re staying after practice to get balls. Sunday or Mondays on our off days or our lift days, we’re going out there and getting some balls. It’s a lot of practice, a lot of repetition (and) it works, it really does and it worked today.”

But it’s not just that Mayer is catching balls in volume. He caught big pass after big pass on the primetime stage Saturday night near the Vegas strip. Six of his 11 receptions resulted in a first down and five of those came on third down, where he helped the Irish convert at a 68% (11 for 16) clip. One of his two touchdowns came on a third down play as well.

"What you see is Mayer knowing he's going to be single or double covered,” Freeman said when asked about Mayer’s success on third down. "He still has a plan. If a guy is going to play that outside leverage, he has a plan to break the leverage. That comes from coaching and preparation.

"So those are things that the great players do,” Freeman continued. "The guys trying to become great players just have to figure out what to do. The ones that are the great players, like Michael Mayer and some of those guys, they say, okay, I know what the defense is going to do, how do I still find a way to win? You see he does that more than not.”

Catch # 🔟 for @MMayer1001 is another Irish touchdown#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/kQXqEJdFur

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) October 9, 2022

Mayer’s 11 catches were half of Pyne’s 22 completions against BYU. In fact, his 18 receptions in the last two games represent 39% of Pyne’s completed passes, which has helped the junior to a 74% completion rate since being inserted in the lineup prior to the California lineup.

"Coach (Tommy) Rees gets Mike in such an unbelievable position to go ahead and succeed,” Pyne said of Mayer. "And then Mike absolutely dominates whoever is in front of him. For me, having such a great O-line and being able to find Mike a couple times today was unbelievable in big moments, and it adds so much to our offense. He's an unbelievable player and my best friend. (It is) really cool to be out there with Mike and I'm happy he's on our team.”

Don't expect this duo to slow down any time soon.

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