Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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T BY DAN MURPHY at midfield and found an open spot in Wake Forest's zone defense on Notre Dame's first play of the third quarter. He spun, ball in hand, and plunged forward for another five yards and an Irish first down. It's a play the reliable se- nior has made dozens of times in the past four years. This one stood out, yler Eifert released from his spot at tight end, stuck his foot in the ground though. The catch was his fifth of the game, his 39th of the season and the 129th of his career. With that grab, Eifert officially passed three- time All-American Ken MacAfee for the most career catches at one of the school's trademark positions. He is also now just 50 yards shy of breaking McAfee's tight end record of 1,759 re- ceiving yards. He is a tight end among tight ends. "I was really happy to have it, but just happy that I don't have to think about it anymore," Eifert said about his record after the game. "You can say what you want about not thinking about it, but you know right where you are." Notre Dame is a tight end school. The posi- tion's unique line-strad- dling stance — clinging to a blue-collar, rough- in-the-trenches attitude while trying to play with all the excitement and flash of the fast- paced modern game — suits the Midwestern college campus. Maybe that's why South Bend has raised as many elite college players at tight end as anyone in the country. The three players that sit directly behind Eifert and MacAfee on the all-time catches list have formed a lineage of Mackey Award fi- nalists during the past decade. Anthony Fa- sano revived the Irish heritage at tight end in the early 2000s when the team moved from a triple-option offense back to a more pro-style attack. He ended his career with 92 catches. John Carlson followed him and became the second tight end to hit triple digits, finish- ing with exactly 100 catches after being the team's leading receiver in 2007. Kyle Rudolph took over as a freshman the following year. He racked up 90 catches in two and a half seasons and could have pushed for MacAfee's 35-year- old mark if he didn't leave school early for the NFL. Eifert opted to come back to Notre Dame for his senior season, but it wasn't to chase down any records. He caught an Irish single-season- record 63 passes as a junior and toyed with the idea of cashing in his college chips and turning pro. Instead, he returned to prove he could do more than catch the ball. The 6-6, 250-pound Ei fert was a wide receiver at Bishop Dwenger High School in Fort Wayne, Ind. He was too valuable an as- set there to spend his time chopping away at defenders on the of- fensive line. The largest knock Eifert heard when he offered himself up to NFL scouts for assess- ment last winter was that he couldn't block. So, he skipped the draft and spent his spring in the weight room, add-