Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/705594
UNDER THE DOME 1 Career start returning at the three wide re- ceiver positions this year for Notre Dame. Senior TORII HUNTER JR., who basically was a tag-team figure at slot receiver last year with the graduated Amir Carlisle, owns the lone start and his 35 career receptions make him the sole wide- out on the team with more than one. The last time Notre Dame had fewer returning starts — zero —at the wide receiver spots was in 1988 after Tim Brown, Reggie Ward and Ray Du- mas all graduated, while Pat Ter- rell was shifted to free safety. It turned out okay when the Irish went on to capture the national title. 2 Notre Dame alumni w h o w e r e ra t e d a m o n g t h e t o p 1 0 0 Players in the NFL by the NFL Network this summer. Cincin- nati Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert (2009-12) was No. 44, while Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith was No. 73. The only two tight ends ranked ahead of Eifert were New England's Rob Gronkowski (No. 9) and Carolina's Greg Olsen (38) — who originally enrolled at Notre Dame in 2003 before transfer- ring with his brother a couple of weeks later. Smith recently signed a five-year contract extension, including a $10-million bonus, that at the time made him the highest paid safety in the league. 9 Games among the 12 in the regular season that will not be played on the opponent's home field. Notre Dame hosts six home games and has three neutral site games versus Syracuse (East Rutherford, N.J.), Navy (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Army (San Antonio). Its lone three on-site campus games on the road are at the beginning (Texas Sept. 4), right in the middle (North Carolina State, Oct. 8) and at the end (USC, Nov. 26). That has not occurred since head coach Brian Kelly's first season in 2010 when the lone BY THE NUMBERS PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA