Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JANUARY 2023 23 2. Isaiah Foskey Foskey's last two seasons will be re- membered as one of the best two-year stretches for a Notre Dame pass rusher. The senior vyper had 11 sacks this sea- son and 11.5 in 2021. He set the Notre Dame career sack record, with 26.5, breaking Justin Tuck's prior mark of 24.5. His 33 quarterback pressures in 2022 led the team. Foskey was the foundation of a Notre Dame pass rush that is tied for No. 18 nationally in sacks per game (2.92). He was also a staple of a punt block unit that rejected seven kicks, tied for the most in the country. Foskey had two of those blocks himself. 3. Jarrett Patterson and Joe Alt It's hard to include one without the other. Notre Dame's left side of the of- fensive line was a reliable and sturdy force in the run game and pass protection with the sophomore Alt and the graduate student Patterson at tackle and guard, respectively. (Patterson was injured and did not play in the opener at Ohio State.) No tackle has a higher PFF overall grade than Alt's 91.7. He allowed 0 sacks and just 5 pressures all year. His mix of strength and athleticism helped him wipe out defenders at the line of scrimmage and reach the second level with ease. He looks like a potential early first-round pick at the end of his sophomore year. Patterson, though, felt like the cog that holds the whole line together. He's a two- time captain and a four-year starter who made the move from center to guard look seamless, especially when considering he did not participate in spring practice or half of preseason camp due to injury. He became a strong combo block partner with Alt and senior center Zeke Correll. He allowed 0 sacks and only 7 pressures in pass protection. Patterson has played more than 1,600 career pass protection snaps and given up 0 sacks. He has 45 career starts and just 35 pressures allowed. MOST IMPROVED 1. Audric Estime Estime's statistics as a freshman in 2021: 7 carries for 60 yards. Estime's sta- tistics in 2022: 142 carries for 825 yards and 11 touchdowns, the latter two num- bers registering as team highs. It doesn't matter if a strong offseason set the stage for a breakout in the fall. Estime still had to live up to lofty expectations, and he did. The sophomore struggled with fum- bling issues in the middle of the year, losing the ball to the opposition three times in a four-game span. After the third giveaway, he did not get another carry versus UNLV. He finished with a season-low 3 totes for 17 yards. In the very next game, Estime had 20 rushes for 123 yards and 2 touchdowns in a road win at then-No. 16 Syracuse. That's true poise for an underclassman. 2. Xavier Watts Watts looked the part of a defensive back who is completely comfortable playing that side of the ball. This is a guy who took a week's worth of reps at wide receiver after team captain Avery Da- vis tore his ACL in fall camp. The Notre Dame staff moved him back to safety, and Watts blossomed in the second half of the season. The junior played at least 20 snaps in each of the final seven games of the year with a career-high 52 in the regu- lar-season finale versus Southern Cal. Watts finished tied for fifth on the Notre Dame roster with a season-long Pro Football Focus tackling grade of 80.9. He's as sure handed as it gets in the Irish secondary. 3. Jayden Thomas Thomas couldn't get on the field as a true freshman in 2021. He played 14 offensive snaps. In 2022, he was on the field for 483 plays. That ranked sec- ond on the team among wide receivers behind only graduate student Braden Lenzy (548). Thomas finished tied with Lenzy with 20 receptions, which was good for a tie for third on the roster. His catches went for 295 yards, also third among Notre Dame pass catchers, and 3 touchdowns. Only Michael Mayer came away more touchdowns (9) through the air. The most exciting aspect of Thomas' game is that it still feels like there is un- tapped potential there. His sophomore season was a good step forward in get- ting to a point of maximizing it. TOP SURPRISES 1. Benjamin Morrison Nobody was forecasting much of a Year 1 impact from the freshman corner- back on National Signing Day last year, and who could say that was wrong? Notre Dame signed 22 players in the 2022 cycle. Freshman cornerback Benjamin Morrison was ranked higher than only five members of Notre Dame's 2022 signing class, but he became a starter by the first month and a star by the end of the year. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER