Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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22 AUGUST 2020 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI A pparent instability or lack of confidence resulted in Notre Dame adding to its backfield stable near the end of May. Recruited to Stanford in 2016 by current Fighting Irish running backs coach Lance Taylor, 5-11, 203-pound graduate transfer Trevor Speights announced he will enroll at Notre Dame this season for his final two years of eligibility. How much football value will be added with the former three-star re- cruit from McAllen, Texas, who has seen limited action? Speights was redshirted in 2016, his lone year with Taylor, while luminaries Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love starred, and he did not play in 2019. This Jan- uary, he became the 15th Cardinal player to enter the transfer portal. During the 2017 and 2018 seasons in a reserve capac- ity, Speights carried the ball 95 times for a modest 363 yards (3.8 yards per attempt) and one score. Yet it speaks to Notre Dame's lack of full confidence in its current backfield situ- ation, which includes: • Jafar Armstrong, 6-1, 220 — He was supposed to be a prime figure the past two years, but injuries have sig- nificantly hampered the former wide receiver recruit. His 505 career rush- ing yards are the most on the cur- rent roster, but last year his 46 carries averaged a meager 2.7 yards while recovering from an abdominal tear. Tests have shown his stamina is extraordinary. It comes down to if he can remain healthy. • Mick Assaf, 5-11, 212 — The fifth-year senior was placed on schol- arship in December and is a team leader despite carrying only nine times for 34 yards last season. • Jahmir Smith, 5-11, 205 — Al- though he tallied Notre Dame's first touchdown last season, he has been mainly a spot player, finishing with 180 yards and 4.3 yards per carry in 2019. In his final four games, his seven carries netted zero yards, and he did not play in the Camping World Bowl. • C'Bo Flemister, 5-11, 200 — He had his moments last year, including some effective blitz pickups. He fin- ished with five rushing touchdowns, which ranked second on the team, be- hind the graduated Tony Jones Jr.'s six. However, his 48 carries netted only 162 yards, a 3.4 average. • Kyren Williams, 5-9, 205 — Played in the first four games and garnered four carries for 26 yards as a freshman last season before getting redshirted. The lack of star power at running back showed during the final six games of the regular season, when Jones was injured. Here is what the running backs produced during that time: • At Michigan Oct. 26: 18 carries, 35 yards, 1.9 yards per carry. • Virginia Tech Nov. 2: 23 carries, 58 yards, 2.5 yards per carry. • At Duke Nov. 9: 23 carries, 110 yards, 4.8 yards per carry. • Navy Nov. 16: 20 carries, 55 yards, 2.8 yards per carry. • Boston College Nov. 23: 25 car- ries, 82 yards, 3.3 yards per carry. • At Stanford Nov. 30: 25 carries, 113 yards, 4.5 yards per carry. That comes out to 453 yards on 134 carries, or 3.38 per attempt — a fig- ure that is laudable as a grade-point average in the classroom but not in a big-time college football arena. Quarterback Ian Book was the leading rusher in most of those con- tests, and wide receivers Braden Lenzy and Lawrence Keys III were used regularly on jet sweeps to com- pensate for the lack of an edge threat. Lenzy in fact finished as the team's third-leading rusher with 200 yards. Losing the right side of the of- fensive line in the final month with Tommy Kraemer (knee sprain) and Robert Hainsey (fractured ankle) didn't help either. There was an "it is what it is" ac- ceptance from head coach Brian Kelly. "We don't have Adrian Peterson back there. … These are guys that are going to go into the corners and dig and grind, and there's no glamour there," Kelly sum- marized in Novem- ber. "I think they know who they are, a n d t h e y ' re g i v - ing us all that they have." T h e s u p p o s e d elixir to the running maladies is incom- ing top-100 recruit Chris Tyree, maybe the fastest player in the nation's 2019 high school ranks. Unknown for now is how much will the 5-9½, 179-pound Tyree need to adjust to the college game. He missed four games as a high school senior while totaling only 71 carries. Many questions remain to be an- swered. Is there an impending transfer(s), m e d i c a l p ro b l e m o r p o s i t i o n switch(es) that necessitated recruit- ing another running back to join the team? With so many unproven backs, how will the reps be divided to where an alpha figure emerges? Will this be the ultimate backfield- by-committee situation? Speights was brought in to help provide experience to the corps, yet has plenty of proving to do of his own. On the surface, this recruitment seems a bit of a head scratcher. What kind of stable, and stability, the Fighting Irish backfield possesses might be answered in August camp, and ultimately during the season. ✦ Speights saw action in 20 games for Stanford, and carried the ball 95 times for 363 yards (3.8 yards per attempt) and one touchdown. PHOTO COURTESY STANFORD ATHLETICS STABLE STORAGE Analyzing the addition of Stanford graduate transfer Trevor Speights