The week of numbers continues! Earlier, we published our primer on the Early Signing Period that began this Wednesday and should just about sew up Notre Dame’s 2022 recruiting class. Next, we jumped into the overall scholarship situation for Fighting Irish football as Marcus Freeman takes the reigns of his first full recruiting cycle.

Today, we’ll look at the young players who burned a year of eligibility in 2021 and those who were able to preserve a year.

Burned

WR Lorenzo Styles – 12
TE Mitchell Evans – 12
LT Joe Alt – 11
RB Audric Estime – 11
QB Tyler Buchner – 10
WR Deion Colzie – 10
LB Prince Kollie – 9
RB Logan Diggs – 7
DE Kahanu Kia – 7

Raise your hand if you thought this many players would burn a year up in 2021? I know I certainly wouldn’t have predicted this many in a million years but injuries did accelerate a couple of situations.

Prior to the season, the inclusions of Styles and Kollie would’ve made sense. During fall camp, Kollie didn’t look to be near playing time at linebacker but you just knew they’d find a way to get him on the field eventually.

Obviously, Buchner isn’t shocking although it seemed like most did expect him to preserve a year. That he played in so many games and with as many snaps as he did was quite surprising.

On the basis that wide receivers worth their salt typically aren’t going to be coming back for a 5th season it made sense to get Colzie involved this year despite only 4 receptions.

Colzie lining up against an All-American.

Estime being a mainstay on special teams explains why he was in more games than classmate Diggs despite carrying the ball 37 fewer times on offense.

It did seem like the staff genuinely felt like they found a gem in Mitchell Evans–especially after his spring game performance–but the leg injuries to Kevin Bauman and Cane Berrong pretty much sealed the deal that Evans would need to be used heavily in 2021.

You could’ve put Joe Alt just about last in terms of players most likely to play as true freshman at any point through August of this year and no one would’ve said a word. Now, he’s a freshmen All-American who played more snaps than any of his classmates by a mile.

Kia is a bit of a surprise to me with this many games played as a linebacker recruit moved to defensive end, even if that’s a lot of special teams work. He looked like someone who would definitely keep his redshirt.

Played but Saved a Year

S Justin Walters – 3
TE Cane Berrong – 3
CB Ryan Barnes – 3
DE Will Schweitzer – 3
LG Rocco Spindler – 2
WR Jayden Thomas – 2
LT Blake Fisher – 1
PK Josh Bryan – 1

As mentioned, Berrong tore his ACL in mid-October and it could’ve been a close call to keep his redshirt if he stayed healthy.

The 1 game for Fisher still looks so strange given where his stock was coming into the season. Oh, what could have been for a true freshman season if not for his injury. Luckily, he’s bounced back and is at least participating in bowl practices even if he won’t play against Oklahoma State.

Everyone else on this list makes sense as players a little further down the depth chart who got into some action late in games throughout the season. The possible exception would be Rocco Spindler who people clamored for early in the year but he never came close to grabbing a start or any meaningful minutes.

No Games

QB Ron Powlus III
OT Caleb Johnson
OG Pat Coogan
DT Gabriel Rubio
DE Jason Onye
CB JoJo Johnson
CB Chance Tucker
S Khari Gee

JoJo Johnson tore his ACL and was shelved for the year. We spent quite a bit of time this off-season speculating whether Tucker or Gee could make a move in the secondary and it turns out both were quite a far way from making an impact. I’m still really high on Gee, though. He’s someone to watch for the spring.

Rubio not even seeing the field at least a couple times definitely raises an eyebrow as a highly regarded defensive lineman (#117 overall nationally) at a position Mike Elston has not been shy about rotating bodies in throughout recent years. In some ways, Rubio feels like a forgotten piece to the 2021 class but should hopefully be a big part of Elston’s success moving forward.

2020 Saves

QB Drew Pyne
TE Kevin Bauman
DT Aiden Keanaaina
CB Caleb Offord
LS Alex Peitsch

Thanks to the Covid year we have 2020 recruits who essentially returned to campus this season as true freshmen eligibility-wise. From that 18-man class we’ve already seen 3 players transfer (Jordan Johnson, Landon Bartleson, and Jay Brunelle), 10 played pretty significant roles on the field in 2021, while the 5 named above all played in 3 games or less.

In case you missed the breaking news, 2018 long-snapper walk-on Michael “Milk” Vinson was put on scholarship and with the Covid year can play through the 2023 season. With Peitsch, that is 2 long-snappers on scholarship, although the younger Peitsch has eligibility through 2025.

Pyne did not play over the final 7 regular season games. 

Is it possible that the coaching staff never expected Pyne to be in the thick of the quarterback competition this year with an eye to redshirt if possible? That never seemed likely based on the fall camp reps between Pyne and Coan, though. Yet, Buchner being inserted first in just the second game and the sudden abrupt end to Pyne’s playing time after back-to-back games really makes you wonder if there was more of a long-term approach being considered behind the scenes.

Of course, Pyne still having 4 years left to play college football might make you believe he’s ready to jump somewhere else and start over. However, surely he knows how close he’ll be to playing time next year with the possibility of Buchner fully injured or banged up, plus Pyne was an early enrollee back in January 2020 and could be on the 3-year plan to graduate. If that’s the case, I’d think Pyne at least stays through this upcoming 2022 season, assesses his options, and if he decides to leave to play elsewhere maybe it’s with a diploma in hand too?