Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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murphy's Law dan murphy this season. That's enough spots for every starter on the top 36 teams in the country to be considered at least once, including kickers and punters. There are 107 candidates for the lineman of the year (Lombardi Award) alone, and 31 of those aren't linemen. Joe McCarthy's list was harder to make. Twelve Notre Dame players made the cut for various awards this year, and most of them are on multiple lists. Fifth-year senior Zack Martin is on three. Defensive line duo Louis Nix III and Stephon Tuitt will go head-to-head in five categories. Last year, despite the hundreds of possibilities, all five of those awards landed in South Bend courtesy of Irish linebacker Manti Te'o. Usually, that's not the case. Since 2001, only Te'o and Nebraska's Ndamukong Suh have been considered both the best defensive player in the country (Bednarik Award) and the most outstanding defensive player in the country (Bronko Nagurski Trophy) in the same year. Those words apparently mean different things. Suh and Glenn Dorsey from LSU are the only players to win the Outland Trophy for outstanding lineman and the Lombardi Award for lineman of the year in a single season during the 21st century. The gaps in congruity and common sense continue with Notre Dame players this season. Senior Bennett Jackson, for example, is listed as one of the 75 best defenders in the country — but not one of the 48 best defensive backs. Fifth-year seniors Carlo Calabrese and Dan Fox, who play the same position on the same team, are both candidates for the Butkus Award (nation's top linebacker) this season. Junior Ben Koyack is one of two Irish players to watch for the tight end of the year award despite having only four career catches for 44 total yards. That's 136 receptions shy of Tyler Eifert, last year's winner, but at least it's more than fellow Mackey hopefuls Brian Volger from Alabama (two career catches for 21 yards) and Stanford sophomore Luke Kaumatule, who is still waiting for his first collegiate touch. Watch lists have eclipsed even preseason polls on the bottom rung of ways in which we pass the time. That's a hard bar to limbo beneath. The pollsters started before Notre Dame had played its final game last season, and they'll continue right through the end of August with their projections. Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame's athletics director, called the practice "the bane of my existence" in a recent interview with Blue & Gold Illustrated. He must not follow the watch lists. Yet, here we stand, debating and dissecting these lists and polls nonetheless — all trying to find one more way to kill the waning moments of our football exile. College football needs a better offseason, but soon that will be a problem for another day. Practices and games, real live football, are fast approaching. Enjoy it, football fans. There is a lot to watch. ✦ Dan Murphy has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2011. He can be reached at dmurphy@blueandgold.com