Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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it's more of a question of can it "close the gap" against the Alabamas, Ohio States and Florida States of the world? The Fighting Irish continue to sign top-10 to top-15 groups that should keep them in the College Football Playoff hunt or conversation. This year 's 23-man class was ranked No. 12 by Rivals, No. 13 by Scout, No. 15 by 247Sports and No. 16 by ESPN. Other than USC, Notre Dame's hauls have been consistently higher than everyone else on the 2016 schedule, so the program has evolved enough under Kelly & Co., to where a 10-2 regular season/Big Six Bowl has become the minimum expectation. That's a positive sign. Whether Notre Dame can consis- tently get back to the 1988-93 level for an extended period is what re- mains uncertain. BASKETBALL U. For an athletic department that is often castigated for not even having its own basketball practice facility like other big-time powers, Notre Dame continues to prosper remark- Top Five Male Rookies 1. Axel Kiefer (Fencing) — Already noted among the top five male athletes overall in terms of achievement this past season, his gene pool is outstanding. His father, Steve, competed at Duke while older sisters Alex and Lee have combined to win four NCAA foil titles at Harvard and Notre Dame, respectively. 2. Matt Vierling (Baseball) — The outfielder earned Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America notice while starting all 54 games (Notre Dame finished 27-27), one of only three players to do so on the team, and finishing second in home runs (six), RBI (29) and runs scored (26), tied for second in walks (20) and third in hits (55). He also had a .985 fielding percentage and pitched 10 innings, allowing no earned runs over the final seven. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Perfect Game/Rawlings named him a second-team Freshman All-American. 3. Josh Adams (Football) — After undergoing major knee surgery early in his junior high school season, Adams arrived with relatively limited fanfare and had redshirt written all over him when he arrived last summer as maybe the No. 5 option at running back. Instead, he scored from 14 yards on his first career carry, versus Texas in the opener, and his 835 yards rushing broke the Notre Dame freshman record of 786 set by Darius Walker in 2006. With 168 rush- ing yards at Stanford, he also eclipsed the single-game frosh standard of 148 set by Jerome Heavens versus Georgia Tech in 1975. It was Adams' fourth 100-yard effort of the season, tying Heavens' mark. 4. Ryder Garnsey (Lacrosse) — Surrounded by a veteran cast of stars in the lineup, the ACC Freshman of the Year finished second on the Irish goal-scoring list with 27, tied for second in assists (12) and third in scoring (39 points). He also was among the nation's leaders in shooting percentage at .443. 5. Justin Yoon (Football) — Considered the nation's top freshman kicking prospect entering the 2015 campaign, Yoon lived up to the billing by earning Freshman All-America honors. He converted 15 of 17 field goals, notably each of the last 12 (highlighted by one from 52 yards versus Navy). Over the final nine games, Yoon missed neither a field goal nor an extra point (50 of 52 overall) while tallying a Notre Dame freshman-record 95 points.