Reviewing the Redshirts is an off-season project meant to resurrect discussion about the 2022 Notre Dame freshmen who retained a year of eligibility and discuss their possible impact in 2023 and beyond. The Fighting Irish were able to redshirt 17 players this past season while 1 player medically retired (Joey Tanona) and another player has transferred already to Syracuse (Jayden Bellamy).
Today we’ll take a look at a running back who was a late addition to the 2022 class.
RB Gi’Bran Payne
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Height: 5-9 1/8
Weight: 195
247Sports Composite Ranking: 4-star, No. 25 RB, No. 11 OH, No. 285 National, 0.9036 score
18 Stripes Grade: N/A
Payne committed and signed so late to Notre Dame that we had already published our grades and comments for the entire 2022 class. These were my comments when he announced his final decision for the Irish:
Gi’Bran has quick feet and impressive acceleration. He uses a swift and tiny hop step to find open holes with relative ease. He can make a quick bounce and get upfield in a hurry. Gi’Bran has a compact body and shows good balance with a low center of gravity. He’s a pretty versatile athlete who can catch the ball out of the backfield and played a lot of defense in high school, too. He’s a bit of a mystery as to what his ceiling can be without a ton of upperclassmen tape. However, he showed a lot of talent at a young age and may surprise a lot of people in college.
A commit with the Indiana Hoosiers since July 26, 2021 he would sign in December of that year but later ask out of his Letter of Intent in March 2022, then commit to Notre Dame in April, and enroll on campus in South Bend in June.
Need at Position: Low
Payne was running out of the tunnel for Notre Dame 5 months after signing and picked up his first carry for the Irish just 7 months later in a process that was incredibly sped up compared to the early verbals and early signing day set up we’re used to these days.
Things were looking a bit dire for Payne when Notre Dame had 3 running backs committed in the 2023 class but now there’s only 1 coming in there’s much more of a clear path forward, although it may take a while to get there.
Expected Spot on the 2023 Depth Chart: 5th String
We covered some good stuff about the running backs in Jadarian Price’s RtR post HERE so we won’t try to repeat most of that content.
It does feel like Payne was a bit of a lost man on the roster heading into 2022. He came into the picture so late and didn’t see the field at all until game 10 with just 2 carries on the season in the 44-0 thrashing of Boston College a week later. Still, I was surprised to see how highly rated he was coming out of high school (based off my memory) and that came while dealing with some injuries at the prep level, too.
Perhaps Payne is a little underrated?
If Chris Tyree moves to slot receiver and Price’s recovery is slow then we could see Payne step up and be a legit part of the running back rotation this fall. I think many are assuming incoming freshman Jeremiyah Love is going to step in and be a factor sooner rather than later. That’ll be tough given this depth chart while not being an early enrollee. If Payne can hold off Love and get 25+ carries on the season I would think that’s a very successful year for him.
His size and your description/analysis are giving me Kyren Williams vibes.
Also, he must have thrown up an IU in his ultrasound to commit so early:
New recruiting tactic, we’re getting those grown men.
Following in BYU footsteps I see.
It’s been edited, now IU grabbing commits from 1st/2nd graders!
Someone must have set the year counter to +10 every 22 hours. On Friday he’ll be the first recruit to have invented time travel!
Apologies, DrIck is the editor.
He’s now been fired.
The state of the running back room is super exciting. I always think back to 2013 with cam McDaniel as the team’s leading rusher, or 2014 with tarean folston, who was an exceptional player, but I’m not sure where hed stack up with the current backs.
Even the 2019 team, gosh a logan Diggs or estime on that squad would have been baller. Definitely counting my blessing here.
Personally I think Folston was an excellent RB. He did lack top end speed and seemed to lose a step after his ACL(?) injury.
He was exceptional between the tackles agreed. Who would start: folston or Diggs? They seem to offer a similar skill set
I’m always a little suspicious of running backs with injury problems, which is why I wouldn’t have drafted Adrian Peterson in 2007, but as a rule it probably works out for more RBs than it misses for. Injuries combined with the current depth chart I agree with the idea that Payne risks being the lost man in the running back room.
If one of Diggs or Estime have the kind of season that could let them head to the NFL after the season plus Tyree heading out we could be really happy to have Gi’Bran Payne on the depth chart, so hopefully he keeps developing. He can only make the team better by beating out other really good players.
I would think that if they have the same season as last year we would probably lose both, count Tyree as gone by the end of the season also (either transfer before or grad after). That leaves Payne, Price, Love for next year with Williams as a maybe EE?
Experience gets thin really quick in the RB room if Payne and Price don’t get some experience and carries in ’23. Whiffing on both “WHOOSH Jr.” and Irvin hurts badly.
They told Irvin to take it on down the road, not enough room for him by virtue of getting recruited over.
RB is about the last place I’m worried about depth in the near future for Notre Dame. Even if it could presumably be low on experience in 2024, that wasn’t much of a big deal replacing Kyren Williams this past year. Won’t be too bad to replace whatever of the current big-3 departs after this year.
I’d be a little surprised if they both felt it was in their best interest to go pro, but looking at last year they both had over 1,000 yards from scrimmage and both averaged at least 5 yards per carry.
They’re both really good. Maybe it could happen.