Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM JANUARY 2023 19 transfer portal as a graduate student. He has two years of eligibility left. The highest-rated of four linebacker signees in Notre Dame's 2019 class became the least used of that quartet. Ekwonu appeared in 16 career games, including three this season, and made 6 tackles. He moved from linebacker to the vyper defensive end spot after the 2020 season. He missed the 2021 cam- paign due to an Achilles injury. Ekwonu's lone appearance on defense in his career was an 8-snap sample at the end of the 2022 Senior Day win over Boston College. He made two other ap- pearances on kickoff teams this season. He also practiced at running back dur- ing 2020 preseason camp. All told, he logged 147 special teams snaps for the Irish, with 88 of those coming on kick- off coverage. He also played 39 snaps on punt return teams, 17 on the kick return unit and 3 on punt coverage. Jayden Bellamy, Fr., CB Bellamy is leaving after two semesters at Notre Dame. He has four years of eli- gibility left. The 5-foot-11, 175-pound corner did not appear in a game for the Irish this season and took a redshirt year. A con- cussion kept him out of uniform for the last several weeks of the regular season. Bellamy was the first member of Notre Dame's 22-player 2022 signing class to seek a transfer. He is the second to step away from the football program, though. Offensive lineman Joey Tanona medi- cally retired before preseason camp due to a head injury suffered in a car crash. Bellamy came to Notre Dame from Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic High School, where he was teammates with Irish freshman quarterback Steve An- geli. He was a three-star prospect and the No. 456 player in the 2022 On3 Consensus. He originally committed to the Irish on July 2, 2021, when Freeman was the defensive coordinator, choosing them over Penn State. Cane Berrong, So., TE Berrong played one game this sea- son, seeing five snaps in the Irish's 44-0 win over Boston College Nov. 19. He was limited in fall camp and the early part of the year as he recovered from a torn ACL last fall. He played three games as a freshman in 2021 before suffering the injury but preserved a redshirt. Without Berrong, Notre Dame will have just three healthy scholarship tight ends for the Gator Bowl: sophomore Mitchell Evans, sophomore Davis Sher- wood and freshman Holden Staes. DECLARED FOR NFL DRAFT Michael Mayer, Jr., TE Mayer announced Dec. 7 he is turning pro after three seasons at Notre Dame, which came as no surprise. He will not play in the Gator Bowl. In 36 career games, Mayer became the most statistically impressive tight end in Notre Dame history, finishing with 180 catches for 2,099 yards and 18 touchdowns. All three are program re- cords for a tight end. His 180 receptions are third in team history regardless of position. His 9 touchdowns this season are a single-season program record for a tight end. He broke his own mark of 7, set last year. His 71 catches and 840 yards in 2021 are also the most by an Irish tight end in one season. Elsewhere, Mayer holds the team re- cord for catches in a game by a tight end, with 11. He did it in a win over BYU on Oct. 8, 2022. He had five career games with at least 100 receiving yards, with a career-high 120 that came in the 2021 season opener at Florida State. Mayer is the 22nd Notre Dame player to declare for the draft after three sea- sons since the NFL permitted it in 1990. Isaiah Foskey, Sr., DE Foskey announced his declaration for the NFL Draft Dec. 8. Like Mayer, he will skip the bowl game. The senior became Notre Dame's all-time sack leader Nov. 19 in his final home game. He eclipsed Justin Tuck's mark of 24.5 with his takedown of Bos- ton College quarterback Emmett More- head on the final play of the first half. He added 1.5 sacks against Southern Cal Nov. 26 to finish his career with 26.5. Foskey is tied for fourth in the FBS in sacks this year, with 11. It's his sec- ond straight season hitting the 11-sack mark, which has been bested just twice in team history. His 14 tackles for loss this year are tied for 22nd nationally. He had 33 quarterback pressures in 2022, the most on the team. RETURNING FOR A FIFTH OR SIXTH SEASON Cam Hart, Sr., CB Hart, a starter since 2021, announced Nov. 29 he is coming back for a graduate year in 2023. It will be his fifth with the program. He has 25 tackles (3 for loss) and 4 passes broken up in 11 games (10 starts) this season. Hart was Notre Dame's leader in de- fensive snaps played heading into the regular-season finale at Southern Cal, but he missed the game due to a shoul- der injury that will also sideline him for the Gator Bowl. The 6-2½, 198-pound Hart has started 20 games over the last two sea- sons. He has 70 tackles (7 for loss), 13 passes broken up and 2 interceptions in his career. Opposing quarterbacks have completed just 49.6 percent of the passes thrown at him over the past three years, per Pro Football Focus. He has allowed 22 catches on 44 targets for 240 yards and 3 touchdowns this season. Michael Vinson, Gr., LSN The man known as "Milk" has not reached his expiration date with the Irish program just yet. Vinson is returning for a sixth and final season using the COVID-19 waiver given to all 2020 FBS players. The for- mer walk-on has been the starting long snapper since 2020 and earned a schol- arship after the 2021 season. He has not missed a game since taking over the long snapper job. STILL TO DECIDE The following 12 players have not an- nounced fifth- or sixth-year plans, but they are expected to remain with the team through the bowl game: Fifth-year decisions: center Zeke Correll, defensive end Nana Osafo- Mensah, defensive tackle Howard Cross III, linebacker JD Bertrand, linebacker Marist Liufau, linebacker Jack Kiser and safety Brandon Joseph. Sixth-year decisions: wide receiver Braden Lenzy, wide receiver Matt Salerno, defensive end Justin Ademi- lola, left guard Jarrett Patterson and safety DJ Brown. Patterson and Joseph are projected mid-round draft picks and were hon- ored during the Senior Day ceremony. Brown, Lenzy, Salerno and Ademilola were also part of Senior Day. Correll, Osafo-Mensah, Cross, Ber- trand, Liufau and Kiser did not partici- pate in Senior Day send-offs. ✦