Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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50 yards for a score against Massa- chusetts and a kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown against Stanford. Hip surgery kept him out most of the spring, which raises some concerns about his readiness for next season. If healthy, he could bring playmaking skills to the offense. Miles Boykin is the most physi- cally imposing wideout on the roster, checking in at 6-3½ and 225 pounds. He lacks the speed of his classmates, but his length allows him to compete for any ball thrown in his direction and head coach Brian Kelly regularly singled him out for his progress in practice last fall. 2. Running Back — Despite rush- ing for 4,446 yards and 63 touch- downs as a prep player, Josh Adams was mostly overlooked by the recruit- ing services. A season-ending knee injury to starting back Tarean Folston after just three carries thrust Adams into the rotation, and he quickly made his presence felt by rushing for a 14- yard touchdown on his first career carry versus Texas in the opener. When C.J. Prosise — who replaced Folston in the starting lineup — went down with an array of ailments, Ad- ams ripped off 570 rushing yards (6.9 per carry) and three scores in the fi- nal five games, and surpassed Darius Walker's (2004-06) freshman rushing record of 786 yards with a total of 835. The Warrington, Pa., native is physically imposing at 6-1½ and 219 pounds, but his home run ability was the key ingredient to his success. Ad- ams produced scoring runs of 98 (a school record), 70 and 62 yards. By season's end he had 22 runs of at least 10 yards and eight runs of at least 23 yards. Dexter Williams saw limited reps as a freshman, rushing just 21 times. This spring, he started to show the skills that made him one of the high- est ranked recruits in the class. His explosiveness made him a con- sensus top-150 prospect. Those traits were evident throughout the spring practice session, culminating in an impressive Blue-Gold Game perfor- mance in which he led all backs with 60 yards of total offense. Williams manufactured a 14-yard scoring run on the opening series of the game. Even with the senior Folston re- turning, both sophomore backs will be counted on heavily. If Adams can continue his freshman success and Williams can utilize his playmak- ing skills, the Irish backfield could emerge as one of the nation's best. 3. Linebacker — Notre Dame's trio of linebackers in the 2015 class ranked as one of the top groups in the country. Lindy's ranked the unit as the nation's fourth-best incoming group of freshmen. In their first year, only early en- rollee Te'von Coney saw action. He served as captain Jaylon Smith's pri- mary backup, but saw limited game action (62 snaps on defense). Coney was a key special teams player (third in kickoff tackles with six), while As- mar Bilal and Josh Barajas spent the year preserving a season of eligibility. Coney missed the spring while re- covering from a shoulder injury he suf- fered in the Fiesta Bowl. Even without any spring reps, Coney will push to replace Smith at Will linebacker. He