Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com PRESEASON 2021 23 the season with two returners who have taken a combined 62 college snaps and two freshmen. Instead, it boasts a veteran senior who com- pleted 69.6 percent of his passes and threw for 2,727 yards, 18 touchdowns and five interceptions in 2019. He missed 2020 due to a foot injury. 4. RB KYREN WILLIAMS Maxwell Award watch list. Doak Walker Award watch list. Slight Heis- man Trophy buzz. If Williams doesn't have your attention going into the 2021 season, well, you've got your eyes closed and your ears covered. It's hard to miss the 5-9, 199-pound junior who combines bruising power for his size with sheer athleticism. Williams has the potential to be one of the best running backs in the coun- try. He was one of 14 rushers in the nation to eclipse 1,000 yards last sea- son. He had 1,125 on 211 carries, and he was just a true sophomore with four career carries going into the year. 5. C JARRETT PATTERSON Patterson accounts for 21 of the squad's 31 returning offensive line starts and is the unit's lone returning full-time starter. He's also one of the better returning linemen in the coun- try and was part of an elite front five before his November foot fracture. The senior has garnered some pre- season All-America honors. Patterson was Pro Football Fo- cus' sixth-highest-graded center in college football last season prior to his injury eight games in. He has al- lowed just 16 quarterback pressures since 2019. He's one of two returning Power Five interior linemen to not have allowed a sack in at least 650 career pass-blocking snaps, per PFF. 6. DE ISAIAH FOSKEY At 6-5 and 257 pounds, Foskey has the build of someone who could be one of the best pass rushers in college football. He has not started a game in his career, though, so his status in this ranking is based on potential and the flashes he showed in a reserve role last season. Foskey recorded 4.5 sacks, but 3.5 of those came in the first six games of the season. He was nonexistent at times in the latter half of the cam- paign. Now a junior starter, Foskey must find consistency in his game. If he does, he could be the pass-rusher many expect him to turn into. 8. CB CLARENCE LEWIS Lewis' true freshman season was one for the books. He started six times, made 33 tackles and broke up seven passes. His emergence at field corner has been big for a Notre Dame defense that is set to start Cam Hart, who didn't start a single game last season, at boundary. Lewis plays like a veteran, and the country has taken notice. He earned second-team Freshman All-America honors from The Athletic last year. He was the ACC Defensive Back of the Week for his 12-tackle perfor- mance against North Carolina. 9. WR KEVIN AUSTIN JR. A senior with six career catches and two games played the past two seasons does not often find himself at the center of an offense's plans. But here's Austin, a much-discussed yet mystery-cloaked senior who Notre Dame still believes can add explo- siveness to its offense. The 6-2, 215-pound Austin was un- officially suspended for all of 2019. A pair of foot fractures wrecked a po- tential 2020 breakout. No player may fit the "if he emerges, the ceiling goes way up" category of our rankings more than Austin, a former top-100 recruit. If he's healthy, Notre Dame's offense is in business. 10. DE MYRON TAGOVAILOA-AMOSA All of Notre Dame's potential de- fensive starters are important. But considering this graduate student's 21 career starts and his eagerness to ap- proach defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman about changing positions this fall, Tagovailoa-Amosa might mean more to the Irish than most. He is making a move from the in- terior of Notre Dame's defensive line to strong-side defensive end. He has shed 14 pounds in that process, drop- ping from 282 to 268. That might be considered small for a strong-side end, but the change is designed to make him quicker and more elusive when going up against opposing of- fensive linemen. Marshall graduate transfer guard Cain Madden has the same number of career starts (31) as the rest of the Fighting Irish offensive line. PHOTO COURTESY MARSHALL ATHLETICS 7. OG CAIN MADDEN Excluding Madden, Notre Dame's offensive line has 13 scholarship players. Only three have started a college game, and they have 31 combined starts. There's a lot of room for uneven play. Enter Madden, a graduate transfer from Marshall with 31 starts himself. He's a 24-year-old who has started for three years and concluded his Thundering Herd career with second-team Associated Press All-America honors in 2020. PFF rated him as the best run-blocking guard in college football. He's experienced. He has per- formed well at the college level. He's old. All three of those traits are a boost for a retooled offen- sive line.