Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JANUARY 2023 25 serious shoulder sprain. A 6-6 record felt questionable. Notre Dame went 8-2 to end the reg- ular season, though. That turnaround involved way more than just Pyne, but he was absolutely part of it. Raise your hand if you would have passed on an 8-2 finish and Pyne posting a 22-to-6 touchdown-to-interception ratio in hopes of something better. Now put it down, because that's not true. Pyne was bumpier game-to-game than his overall numbers suggest. But in the context of taking over in a pre- carious spot, he delivered a lot more than expected. 2. Jack Kiser Kiser didn't envision himself as a "next option" after starting eight games in 2021 and grading out as Notre Dame's best tackler. But that's where the senior found himself in 2022 when the Irish leaned into nickel as their base defense and used his rover position intermittently. Instead of a starter and two-down player, Kiser was a substitute for start- ing senior linebackers Marist Liufau and JD Bertrand as needed. He played more than 19 snaps just twice in the final six games, and one of those instances was against Navy's triple option when Notre Dame started three linebackers. Kiser handled the shift in his role with aplomb. He was Notre Dame's best tack- ler, per PFF. He is still second on the team in tackles with 52, despite playing the 14th-most snaps among Irish defenders. He added 4.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. 3. Zac Yoakam In Brian Mason's own words, fresh- man Bryce McFerson won the kickoff job "about five minutes" into preseason camp. It made sense. He was a top-five punter in the 2022 class and a scholarship recruit. A groin injury prevented him from playing in the first few games of the year. But when he recovered, the job was taken. The man behind the heist? A 5-foot-8 walk-on freshman who joined the team as an entirely off-the-radar addition. Yoakam stepped in for McFerson at Ohio State and booted two of his three kickoffs for touchbacks. He reliably reached the end zone and hung onto the job. He is 38th nationally in touchback rate, at 61.54 percent. That's the highest touchback percentage by a Notre Dame kickoff specialist since 2014. Notre Dame also held opponents to 17.34 yards per kickoff return. FRESHMEN OF THE YEAR 1. Benjamin Morrison It's not easy to stand out to Pro Foot- ball Focus as a cornerback. Corners of- ten live on an island, and sometimes there just aren't many resources in the sand. Morrison said to heck with that and received the second-best PFF grade (74.6) among Notre Dame defensive players who played at least 10 snaps. Only senior defensive tackle Howard Cross III had a better figure (75.9). Morrison isn't just the Irish's fresh- man of the year. He's one of the pro- gram's players of the year, period. His ball-hawking — 5 interceptions in a span of three games — is going to make quarterbacks think twice about throw- ing his way in 2023. And that's fine. If he shuts down one half of the field, that's a win for Notre Dame. 2. Junior Tuihalamaka Tuihalamaka played 130 special teams snaps this season. Only six Notre Dame players were on the field for more, and four of those were seniors or graduate students. He only played 63 defensive snaps across 9 games, but the three other linebackers who came in with him in the class of 2022 — Jaylen Sneed, Nolan Ziegler and Joshua Burnham — played four games or fewer and will redshirt. Tuihalamaka was clearly seen as the most college-ready of the four. There is something to be said for that. The only other scholarship freshman who im- pacted games with as much regularity as Tuihalamaka was Morrison. 3. Tobias Merriweather Merriweather only had 1 catch in his true freshman campaign, but that recep- tion went for 41 yards and a touchdown versus Stanford. He ran the deep post in a way no other player on the Notre Dame roster could. It ignited a lightning bolt of optimism among the fan base about what Merriweather can be in his career. Merriweather missed the last three games of the regular season with a concussion, and the conversation sur- rounding him was about how much he was missed and how much he could have progressed had he been playing. He was a hot button topic all year, for better or worse. He deserves a spot here as one of six scholarship freshmen in a class of 22 who will not redshirt. ✦ Junior Drew Pyne started 10 games at quarterback after Tyler Buchner's injury and threw 22 touchdown passes with just 6 interceptions. PHOTO BY JOSHUA BESSEX