Notre Dame Sophomores Are Poised To Take Over In 2022

Notre Dame's rising sophomores started their careers off with a bang, but the unit is just getting started

Early in the 2021 season the former head coach of the Notre Dame program complained about the "youth" of his football team, using it as an excuse for the team not coming out of the gate playing to its potential.

The irony is that Notre Dame wasn't actually young. It was a veteran team with some young players sprinkled it, but that changed during the second half of the season.

Notre Dame's freshman class had players that forced themselves into the lineup, and others were granted opportunities by injuries. Whenever a freshman stepped on the field the results were impressive.

When Notre Dame's freshmen and sophomores were more prominent in the lineup, and the Irish actually became a young team, you started to see the team really take off. Notre Dame won its final six games by an average margin of 27.3 points per game, and it won each of those contests by at least 10 points while averaging 39.7 points per game.

Heading into the spring the 2021 class, which are now rising sophomores, are ready to take on even more prominent roles. That unit is going to litter the two-deep and will have a lot say about the production at some very important positions.

This is especially true on offense.

Quarterback Tyler Buchner provided the offense a much-needed spark with his legs last season, but he also had his moments as a passer. With Jack Coan off to the NFL the expectation is that Buchner is going to slide into the starting role.

He still has a lot to prove and improve upon, but Buchner is an ultra-talented player. We've seen sophomore quarterbacks go from lightly used to outstanding as sophomores more and more in recent seasons. Of course, the most obvious and most recent example is Alabama quarterback Bryce Young.

Young accounted for just 133 total yards and one touchdown as a true freshman while completing 59.1% of his 22 pass attempts. Just one year later Young hoisted up the Heisman Trophy after he passed for 4,872 yards (66.9% completions) and accounted for 50 touchdowns.

That's a leap that could be very hard for Buchner to match, but the Irish signal caller totaled 634 yards and six touchdowns in his rookie season while completing 60% of his 35 pass attempts.

Buchner will be surrounded by classmates this spring, and they are also being asked to step into prominent roles.

The book ends at tackle this spring are expected to be true sophomores Joe Alt and Blake Fisher. Alt was a Freshman All-American last season, but that opportunity only came after Fisher went down in the opener with an injury. Alt was rock solid and Fisher is a truly elite talent. This duo is expected to anchor what should be a vastly improved offensive line, and getting to see them with the coaching of Harry Hiestand is something I cannot wait to see.

Another sophomore lineman - Rocco Spindler - will look to push his way into the rotation this season as well, and that begins this spring.

Lorenzo Styles is Buchner's roommate, and you can expect him to be a top target this spring. Styles didn't get much action for much of the 2021 season, but when injuries thrust him into a primary role for the bowl game he showed his top-level talent.

Styles hauled in 8 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown in the Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State.

He's not the only talented sophomore pass catcher that will get a chance to shine this spring. Deion Colzie also got some action late in the season, and while he didn't get the targets that Styles saw (4 catches, 67 yards) he is an extremely talented player with arguably the highest ceiling of any receiver on the roster.

Colzie is much younger than most of the players in his class and he didn't arrive as advanced as Styles, which leads me to believe he could have a much bigger sophomore-year jump than we usually see. Colzie certainly has elite size (6-5, 207), something the rest of the depth chart lacks. That alone makes him a valuable asset for the offense this spring.

Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees has even more young weapons to utilize in the offense. While the focus so far has been on quarterback and the pass game, the running back depth chart will be fueled by youth as well.

Junior Chris Tyree will be a key cog in the offense, but there's a good chance we'll see a three-headed monster in the backfield this season that will contain two sophomores in Logan Diggs and Audric Estime.

Diggs and Estime combined for just 290 rushing yards last fall, but the duo looked very impressive in their limited touches. Diggs had some outstanding highlight reel plays despite not playing a snap until the sixth game of the season. Estime was mostly a special teams player but looked great in the one game he got touches.

There are several players on defense that could get a chance to shine this season (Prince Kollie, Gabriel Rubio, Ryan Barnes, Philip Riley, Chance Tucker), but the offense cannot play championship caliber football without the sophomore class.

The key for Rees and the offense is embracing that youth, establishing strong fundamentals, starting with a limited package early that allows the young players to get comfortable and then slowly build onto that package.

If Rees is willing and able to coach to that youth, something his previous boss was unwilling to do, the sophomores should get a chance to shine. If this group is as good as I think it is, and builds on its freshman season success, the Notre Dame offense could be truly special in 2022. 

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