Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Under the Dome gust camp before suffer‑ ing a high ankle sprain, was moved to slot re‑ ceiver upon his return the week of the Michi‑ gan game. Because of the gradu‑ ation of Theo Riddick (917 yards rushing in 2012) and Cierre Wood (742 yards rushing in 2012, and 2,447 for his career), the running back situation has been fluid since the spring — and head coach Brian Kelly indicated it might be for a while. A football axiom states that when your top two quarterbacks are equal in ability, it means you have two second-team quarterbacks. Running back is not the same as quarterback because using three backs in a game has its advan‑ tages. Nevertheless, the preference still would be to have a pared-down and more settled rota‑ tion in order to achieve a team rhythm and con‑ tinuity. Juniors George At‑ kinson III, Amir Carl‑ isle and Cam McDaniel possess different run‑ ning traits, but none was appreciably or sig‑ nificantly above the fray. Crawl … Walk … And Then Run In the first 20 years of freshman eligibility from 1972-91, a freshman running back played for Notre Dame and scored a TD almost every season. Then in 1993, rookie Randy Kinder rushed for 537 yards for the Irish. Two years later, freshman Autry Denson totaled 657 yards rushing. In 2004, Darius Walker, after not playing in the opener, finished with a Notre Dame freshman-record 786 yards rushing. USA Today second-team All-American Greg Bryant or classmate Tarean Folston were projected as maybe having that kind of instant impact in 2013, and they could. But a look at some of the top Notre Dame running backs the past 40 years reveals they too needed a breaking-in period: Vagas Ferguson (1976) — The future first-round pick had 144 yards rushing his first eight games as a rookie before busting out with 107 in a 21-18 victory versus Alabama. Greg Bell (1980) — The future first-round pick carried only five times (66 yards) on an Irish team that played No. 1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Allen Pinkett (1982) — The second-leading rusher in school history had 29 carries for 113 yards (3.9 yards per carry) his first six games before later exploding with a 112-yard effort in an upset of No. 1 Pitt. Ricky Watters (1987) — The future second-round pick and Pro Bowl performer predicted 1,500 yards rushing as a freshman, but settled for a solid 370 after totaling 51 in his first four games on 14 attempts. Jerome Bettis (1990) — The first-round pick after his junior year had only 18 carries for 142 yards as a freshman in a deep backfield. Autry Denson (1995) — The all-time rushing leader at Notre Dame began his career at cornerback. Julius Jones (1999) — The future second-round pick had 26 carries for 105 yards in his first seven games as a freshman. Ryan Grant (2001) — In his first 10 games as a rookie, he had 10 carries for 33 yards. He would be a 1,000-yard rusher the next season and also in the NFL. — Lou Somogyi