This isn’t a list of the best players at Notre Dame. The top 25 rankings from our illustrious writing staff will be coming soon. Today’s list is more of a look at Notre Dame’s weaknesses and which players can step into those areas to make the Irish a lot more well-rounded and competitive. I like to think about it as not so much raising Notre Dame’s ceiling but more so really raising the floor of the team.

Players who just missed the cut:

S DJ Brown
DE Rylie Mills
CB Clarence Lewis
C Zeke Correll
WR Jayden Thomas

Now for our top 5 list:

#5 PK Blake Grupe

Notre Dame’s transfer kicker isn’t in an envious spot. He’s tiny (even for kicker standards), has no history as an Irish recruit, and many people think he already stinks based off a couple kicks in the spring game. Such is life with kickers, where even a 70% success rate can lead to plenty of death stares. For example, departing kicker Jonathan Doerer finished with a 75.4% success rate on field goals and there are probably enough people who think he struggled too often.

Yet, even one field goal miss can turn a season.

Going with no. 99 is certainly a choice. 

I actually think Grupe will surprise the naysayers, he’s got a nice follow through and more pop on his kicks than his size suggests. But, until we see it consistently the kicking game is a major weakness and opening up in Columbus, even with PAT’s and kickoffs, is going to be a massive spotlight for the Arkansas State transfer.

#4 RB Chris Tyree

Tyree graces our header photo of today’s article and was originally higher in these rankings. He falls back a little bit for mostly positive reasons at the running back spot. One, Tyree looks ready to be the no. 1 running back and a weapon in the passing game. This shouldn’t be a big surprise as we hear good news during August. Tyree has all the tools to be an excellent running back, including his speed.

Outside of the Jadarian Price season-ending injury the news has been good for the running backs with Audric Estime developing and in the mix, plus the shoulder injury recovery for Logan Diggs looking optimistic enough that he could be available way sooner than expected.

Still, Notre Dame needs a huge effort from Tyree and the running backs. We know the offense is going to heavily rely on the ground game in certain parts of the season and being able to rely on 13 to 15 carries per game from Tyree could be great medicine for the offense. He’ll also need to improve his vision, balance, and ability to break tackles in order to better his 3.96 yards per carry average from last year.

#3 QB Tyler Buchner

Buchner could be, and maybe should be, no. 1 on our list. But, that’s not as much fun. There’s a timeline where Buchner is solid-to-good overall in his first year of starting and this is where he brings a lot of importance to the floor of the 2022 Fighting Irish.

If we’re looking at Notre Dame living up to its pre-season ranking well Buchner is going to be pretty damn important. I think he’ll get his and put up some gaudy numbers. If I am Tommy Rees then a 3,000 passing/1,000 rushing season should be a goal. That would put Buchner close to the single-season school record (Brady Quinn, 2005, 4,009 yards) for total yards.

If he can stay healthy, those figures don’t seem crazy. That total yards record has to fall at some point, right? There have been well over 100 players in college history who have thrown for over 4,000 yards and 18 have even surpassed 5,000 yards in one season. Surely, the Irish will get someone to surpass Quinn’s (relatively) modest record soon?

Buchner’s season of importance could come down to turnovers, picking up third downs, and converting in the red zone. Those are three of the most important things that could overshadow a strong season in total yards.

#2 LB Marist Liufau

How good is the Notre Dame linebacker corps? It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot this off-season. Individually, I don’t think Irish fans are ready to rave about anyone to a great degree. The one exception may be redshirt junior Marist Liufau. It feels like he’s this mega veteran ready to come back from injury yet in total Liufau has 22 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss in his entire career.

He’s still largely unproven as a starting linebacker over the length of a full season.

Tribal arm sleeve is worth 15 extra tackles and 3 sacks.

How do we feel about a starting lineup of Jack Kiser, JD Betrand, and Bo Bauer? That’s…just okay? Big-time recruits Prince Kollie (concussion during fall camp) and Jaylen Sneed would have to really make a big jump late in August to athletically transform this group. A full healthy season from Liufau with his size, range, and havoc rate (from his small sample size) is really needed to keep this defense playing at a high level.

#1 WR Lorenzo Styles

Styles was in contention for the top spot on our list and with the season-ending knee injury to veteran receiver Avery Davis he’s the no-doubt pick as the most important player for Notre Dame. As things stand today, the Irish may have to open up their first snaps in Columbus with Braden Lenzy moved to the slot and Jayden Thomas with no career catches on the outside. There will probably be a copious amount of tight ends playing in the slot (Michael Mayer probably is flexed out 20% more now without Davis on the field) and even more motioning out of the running backs, too. It will force a lot more creativity from Tommy Rees & Co. that’s for sure.

We’re going to need a lot of this in 2022.

That kind of stuff can only go so far, though. There will be times when Mayer is going to be schemed out, or nicked up, or off the field and someone like Lorenzo Styles is going to have to step up and carry the offense. My talk of a 4,000+ yard Buchner season will come to a screeching halt if Styles doesn’t have a true breakout season.

What would be a breakout season?

Something like 60 receptions is a good start. That would be the most since Chase Claypool in 2019 for Notre Dame. Styles has big-play ability and really good speed but his average may be lower just because this offense is likely to force-feed him the ball on a ton of shorter routes, screens, and things of that nature. Can he get up to 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns?