Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 23, 2019 15 you're going to see a guy that's going to be back to 100 percent [soon]." Although he is a senior, Jones has the option to play a fifth year because he redshirted as a freshman. How- ever, it is currently unclear if he will want to return in 2020. Again, this puts a lot of pressure on Armstrong to begin to consis- tently produce out of the backfield at a higher clip the rest of the season. Another possibility could be that he continues to be used as more of a receiver for the rest of 2019 and be- yond. Notre Dame recruited him to play receiver before moving him to running back in 2018, and that's been his more productive position since returning from injury. "We're trying to figure it out," head coach Brian Kelly said. "He's a young man that played receiver. We like his ability to catch the football. He has that, role right now as both a running back and a guy that we can put in as a receiver, but I still think he's a guy that has a dual capability for us. "As we go through the year, we're kind of trying to identify where he fits and helps our football team the best." Armstrong carried the ball 19 times against Virginia Tech for 37 yards. He was also targeted in the passing game five times for four catches and 49 yards. In the Duke game, he had three carries and senior quarterback Ian Book targeted him three times. Instead, it was sophomores Jah- mir Smith and C'Bo Flemister who did the most damage from the run- ning back position, combining for 83 yards and a touchdown. "Our running back coach [Lance Taylor] has a really good feel for the guys during the game in terms of the kind of runs that we're looking for, how the game shaping up, the kind of runs that are going to be available to us," Kelly said. "He goes with the guys that he feels as though have ei- ther played well on particular carries and keeps them in the game, or he has a hunch that these are the guys that we want to go with." What will Taylor's gut tell him for the rest of the season and next year? Will he call on Jones for a fifth year even if Flemister and Smith continue to outplay their three-star recruiting rankings and emerge as primary options? Notre Dame commit Chris Tyree, the No. 2 all-purpose back and No. 40 overall player nationally per Ri- vals, will also be on campus next fall. Could he need to carry more of the of- fensive load than even he may expect? Or will Armstrong become the player everyone thought he'd be at the start of the season? Time will provide the answers, but what's clear is that the Notre Dame running back room has created more ambiguity than anyone could have anticipated. ✦ After an abdominal tear in the opener at Louisville, Armstrong has rehabbed his way back into the lineup, but yards have been tough to come by for this versatile back. In five games, he has averaged just 2.1 yards per carry on 28 rushes, and has caught eight passes for 77 yards. PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS "Sometimes stuff's not going to go your way. I've been hurt before, and I knew exactly what I had to do." ARMSTRONG