Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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18 SUMMER 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED ANEYAS WILLIAMS FINDS WAYS TO IMPACT WINNING Williams' impact on the Notre Dame offense is a bit like Adon Shuler's on the Notre Dame defense. Shuler isn't flashy. He has average size and he won't wow NFL scouts with his speed. But he has two traits that are immensely helpful for winning football games. No. 1, Shuler is a bona fide playmaker. He is always around the football, both on the back end against the pass and near the line of scrimmage against the run. He has tremendous instincts, he creates turnovers when he gets his op- portunities and he can lay the boom on wide receivers like he did early in the Blue-Gold Game, jarring the football loose from Ohio State transfer wideout Mylan Graham. And No. 2, he does all the little things well. Shuler is never in the wrong spot, and he helps ensure that the same is true about his teammates. If he is healthy, he will more than likely lead Notre Dame in defensive snaps for the second straight year. Williams is the same kind of player, but on offense. He is not flashy. He is obviously not as shifty and explosive as Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, but he's tough to tackle in the run game and helps immensely in the passing game. He showed that as a true freshman and he showed that in the Blue-Gold Game, with 3 receptions for 13 yards — includ- ing a slant from the outside that he ran like a wide receiver. Williams' pass-catching ability will help open up Notre Dame's offense. With the amount of skill the Irish have on the outside, defenses will often for- get about Williams, and when they do, he will punish them. He's also adept at helping Carr set protections and iden- tify things pre-snap. Like Shuler on defense, he does a ton of little things that contribute to winning. SANDERS STANDS OUT Without Leonard Moore in the lineup, Carr decided Saturday's Blue-Gold Game would be a great time to pepper the boundary. It did not go according to plan. Carr completed 1 of 6 passes in his first 2 possessions when targeting Michigan transfer Jayden Sanders, mostly with throws in the direction of redshirt sophomore wide receiver Mi- cah Gilbert. Sanders, a true sophomore, finished with 2 passes broken up — in- cluding one on a deep ball that Gilbert had a great shot at. Even though the wideout had a step, Sanders did an out- standing job to get his hand on the foot- ball and knock it away. Sanders is not as physically domi- nant as Moore; no cornerback in col- lege football is. But he's quick, agile and extremely scrappy at the catch point. He had actually been playing nickel for much of spring practice, but before the Blue-Gold Game began, he bounced back outside to the boundary. "He went out there and did a great job," Notre Dame defensive coordinator Chris Ash said. "It just speaks to him as a person and what he's done here in such a short amount of time to learn multiple positions, and whatever we ask him to do, he's going to try to go do it." NO SHORTAGE OF YOUNG PLAYMAKERS In addition to Sanders, several other young defenders stood out for the Irish. Five-star freshman defensive end Rodney Dunham looked like a ready- made contributor, splitting a sack with Alabama transfer Keon Keeley. Fel- low freshman edge rusher Ebenezer Ewetade made one of the best plays of the day when he deflected a pass on a trick play that looked like it would've Cornerback Jayden Sanders, a true sophomore, finished with 2 tackles and a team-best 2 passes broken up in the Blue-Gold Game. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER