Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 17, 2026 25 JONAZ WALTON RUNS INTO HISTORY WITH AN EYE ON IMPROVEMENT It's hard to fathom now, but freshman Jonaz Walton never left the Irish bench during Notre Dame's 41-13 season- opening win over Wisconsin Sept. 6. And five games later, he's on a trajec- tory to concoct a better yards-per-carry average in a single season than any other running back in Irish history but two — George Gipp (8.11 in 1920) and Reggie Brooks (8.04 in 1992). Much bigger challenges than a Stan- ford rush defense that came into the 58-7 pummeling from the No. 3-ranked Irish ranked 97th lie ahead. Like, for in- stance, Notre Dame's next opponent, No. 8-ranked BYU (5-0), which came into the weekend ranked ninth nation- ally against the run. Then again, the best is likely yet to come for Walton. He was the third of five scholarship running backs to see duty against the Cardinal (2-4) and is the new Irish record-holder for rush- ing yards in a game by a true freshman with 181. "We know he's gifted," head coach Marcus Freeman said. "He has a lot of ability. But what you're seeing now is that he's being consistent in practice, consistent in his reads, consistent in what he is every single day that's giving him more opportunities to go out there and play on the field." Walton had 13 opportunities to carry the ball versus the Cardinal and bury Josh Adams' 11-year-old milestone of 168 yards, also set against Stanford. Two of those carries went for long touchdowns, a 40-yarder and a 97-yard sprint, the latter constituting the third- longest offensive play in Notre Dame Stadium history. He is now Notre Dame's leading rusher with 409 yards on 52 carries, which works out to an average of 7.9 yards per carry. If he just maintained his per-game average of 81.8, he'd break Adams' freshman single-season record of 835 yards by the end of the regular season. "I would just say just to get better ev- ery single day," Walton said of what his next steps might look like. "It's just my freshman year, so there's such a long road ahead of me, to continuously try to improve, try to work on my craft — getting faster, getting stronger, reading better. "So, it's just going every single day and trying to get to the best version of myself." The current version helped Notre Dame rush for 361 yards on 47 carries with 5 rushing touchdowns. That's Notre Dame's highest rushing total since a road rout of Purdue in 2024 (362) and the third most (381 versus Stanford in 2023) of the Freeman era. That af- ter sitting at 116th nationally in rush- ing offense two games into the season. Walton at that point had just 8 carries on the season, then one more in Game 3 against Michigan State. But he got on a roll against Purdue in Game 4 and has been rolling ever since. The two players in front of Walton on the depth chart — for now — had their moments, too. Starter Nolan James Jr. had 73 yards and 2 touchdowns on 10 carries. Junior Aneyas Williams added 28 yards on 7 carries and a 70-yard touchdown reception. "Those are two really impressive run- ning backs that I continuously want to learn from," Walton said. "The way they read, the way they work throughout, the way they train. So, I'm just continu- ously looking up to those guys, so I can be like them. "It doesn't matter who starts. It mat- ters just how well you do when you get into the game. And I love learning from those guys, seeing how they play and how I can play well when I get into the game." Added Freeman, "He's learning how to practice and prepare consistently ev- ery day. If he continues to do that, man, he's got a bright future." And a pretty bright present as well. — Eric Hansen STANFORD GAME NOTES BY ERIC HANSEN AND JACK SOBLE Walton is just the fifth Notre Dame true freshman since 1972 to record back-to-back 100-yard rushing performances, 120 versus North Carolina Oct. 3 and 181 against Stanford Oct. 10. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER