Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 14, 2023 13 UNDER THE DOME " The guy I like the most right now is Notre Dame's Audric Estimé. He's powerful and nimble in a 5-foot-11, 227-pound frame. He has a low center of gravity to make defenders miss in the hole, and he shows the vision to cut on a dime and change direction. "Estimé was bottled up for most of the game against Duke on Saturday — until he went off for a 30-yard score to win the game with under a minute left. He has runs of 30 yards or more in four of the Irish's six games. Estimé has just 9 catches this season, but he's a hands catcher when he does get targeted. I think he has a higher ceiling and could play on third downs at the next level. Again, there's no Bijan Robinson in the 2024 draft, but Estimé is the best running back I've seen so far." — ESPN NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. "This isn't an accident. He has A-plus ball skills, he was a high school quarterback, he's a great route runner, he's got good top-end speed. There's reasons. And so it wouldn't be a surprise, but there was a pretty good player here before him. Some- times that kind of keeps that thing sheltered a little bit before it comes out. So I wouldn't be surprised at all, but he deserves what he's getting and he's put himself in by a skill set that allows him to." — Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker on not being surprised by junior tight end Mitchell Evans' success so far this season "I use it. I try to teach our team some of the ways that we can learn from the analytics, but I'm just not 100 percent dependent on it. There's a part of feeling the game, feeling your team. What do you need? … You can't put all your decision-making on someone else's input. You have to use it, and I use it, but at the end of the day, I have to trust in my gut, what's best for the football team." — Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman on using ana- lytics to make coaching decisions "Notre Dame was good enough to beat Ohio State. Duke was good enough to beat Notre Dame. Both games were incredible theater, but one result shouldn't be a referendum on an entire program. At least not in September. Notre Dame is plenty resilient, gritty and tough. That could be equally true if the program was 6-0 or 4-2." — Pete Samp- son of The Athletic "Carey Booth is a toolsy big, so the intrigue starts there. The reality of it is he is still raw in his game and his development. Entering Notre Dame, he needs strength and reps. With that said Booth has a lot of natural tools that project moving forward. He has touch that projects beyond the three-point arc, he has defensive timing and length around the rim, and he can move well both vertically and laterally. "Booth is also the son of former NBA center Cal- vin Booth, the current general manager of the Den- ver Nuggets. Looking at Booth, you see the upside. The way the Notre Dame roster is constructed, he will have an opportunity this season. While the initial thought is with Booth as a multi-year player, he will be able to get on the floor, play through his mistakes and have the chance to take steps." — On3 national basketball recruiting analyst Jamie Shaw on listing Notre Dame freshman forward Carey Booth as one of his "10 Sleeper one-and- done prospects for 2024 NBA Draft" THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "Cross' performance against Duke was one of the most impressive interior D-line games that we've seen over the past cou- ple of years, period. For an inside guy to finish with 13 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss and a couple forced fumbles, and even one of his hurries resulted in interception and that doesn't show up on the stat sheet. "Just a really good athlete. Technically sound. Plays hard. Finds the football. Ex - cellent with his hands. He's just a really good football player. He might be under- sized, but you don't see the size show up much at the point of attack because he is so good with his hands and his feet. He's just a really hard guy to block. It's going to be fun watching him the rest of the year." — Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy on Notre Dame graduate student Howard Cross III PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP TOP TWEETS