Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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24 JANUARY 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 3. Howard Cross III and Marist Liufau — Cross showed flashes of greatness in 2022. He flashed all year in 2023. Cross nearly doubled his total tackles from 33 in 2022 to 64 in 2023. He more than doubled his tackles for loss count from 2.5 to 6. His passes defended and forced fumble counts went up from 1 to 2 in both categories as well. In just about every regard, Cross made himself a better player. An NFL-caliber one. Liufau, meanwhile, had his best year in a Notre Dame uniform. He used it to declare for the NFL Draft in early De- cember. He increased his tackles for loss count from 4.5 to 6.0, and he also had 3 sacks after only having 1 in his entire career coming into this campaign. Liu- fau seemed much surer of himself in his final season in South Bend. TOP SURPRISES 1. Jordan Faison — There was no other option for the No. 1 top surprise. Faison was once nothing more than a walk-on with a lacrosse scholarship entering the month of October. Now he's a scholarship Notre Dame football player with 14 catches for 204 yards and 3 touchdowns. There is no world in which you would have believed a 5-10, 182-pound lacrosse player would put up numbers like those, but we're living in it. 2. Mitchell Evans — Evans didn't catch a single pass in the season opener against Navy. It felt like the post-Mi- chael Mayer era, a far less fruitful one for Notre Dame tight ends, was setting in all too soon. In the next three weeks, Evans only had 5 catches for 62 yards. He missed the Central Michigan game with a concussion. Then the Ohio State game came along, and he was unstop- pable from then until the ACL injury. Evans was one of the most surprising Notre Dame players of 2023 because it felt like the Irish tight end room would produce by committee, but he clearly asserted himself as the No. 1 option when healthy. His 134 yards against Duke were more than Mayer ever had in a single game. Not too many people saw that coming. 3. Chris Tyree — Somebody who had never had a full-time role at wide re- ceiver prior to this year led Notre Dame with 484 receiving yards in the regular season. Tyree ranked third with 26 re- ceptions and tied for third with 3 touch- downs, too. The numbers aren't as surprising as where they ranked. Given how much the Notre Dame offense struggled at times, you'd have been wise to assume Tyree would have struggled too. But, all things considered, he didn't. He was Notre Dame's most consistent wide re- ceiver in a season in which consistency at the position nearly proved impos- sible. Just look at No. 1 on this list — a former walk-on who's going to play for Notre Dame's reigning national cham- pion lacrosse team in a few months. BEST 'NEXT OPTION' 1. Jaden Mickey and Christian Gray — Shortly before Notre Dame hosted Pittsburgh, star sophomore cor- nerback Benjamin Morrison was ruled out with a quad injury. His running mate, graduate student Cam Hart (more on him later) left the game with an up- per-body ailment. Mickey and Gray had to play every meaningful snap the rest of the way, and they dominated. Pittsburgh quarterback Christian Veilleux threw 4 interceptions, one to Mickey (which he took to the house) and one to Gray. Veilleux finished 14-of-29 passing for a paltry 127 yards. Mickey and Gray proved to be Notre Dame's best backups at any position, and they'll have a chance to start in 2024. 2. Jordan Faison — Where did Faison rank on the Notre Dame depth chart at the start of the season? Eighth? Ninth? After the Irish inserted him into the game against Louisville, they quickly realized that even as the team got healthier at the position, Faison was too good to leave off the field. Extrapolated over a full season, Fai- son's numbers would have ranked sec- Jordan Faison, a freshman lacrosse player who walked on to the football team, made a sudden impact when given the opportunity for playing time in October. He finished the regular season with 14 catches for 204 yards and 3 touchdowns. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER