Category: 2021 ND Football

Notre Dame football: top 10 plays of 2021 season

What was your favorite play of Notre Dame’s 2021 regular season?

Coming into the 2021 football season Notre Dame had a preseason top-10 ranking but plenty of outlets had the Irish projected to take a significant step back this fall.  As it turns out, Notre Dame finished the regular season as the fifth-ranked team in the College Football Playoff rankings and will cap their season against Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl on January 1.

The regular season brought some great highs, including comeback victories over Toledo and Virginia Tech in the closing minutes and some straight blow outs, especially over the final month.  In those, plenty of memorable plays were made in all phases of the game.

Here are what we decided were the ten best plays of Notre Dame’s 2021 football season:

Notre Dame defensive back enters transfer portal

A former four star recruit from Notre Dame’s 2019 recruiting class will be taking his football talents elsewhere.

Notre Dame defensive back Litchfield Ajavon is entering the transfer portal.  Ajavon was a member of Notre Dame’s 2019 recruiting class and rated as a top-250 overall player in 247Sports composite ratings but that rating never translated to much playing time for the Fighting Irish.

Litchfield redshirted his freshman year in 2019, saw limited playing time in 2020, and appeared in parts of five games in 2021, including in the nail-biting win at Virginia Tech.

Ajavon stated in the announcement he posted on Twitter Wednesday that he’ll be finishing his undergraduate work at the end of the academic year and looks to continue his football career elsewhere after that.

Ajavon is perhaps best known by Notre Dame fans for the work he put in for the social media team as he provided regular interviews in the locker following practices and games.

All the best going forward to one of the more entertaining personalities we’ve seen under the golden dome in recent years.

Related:

Tommy Rees discusses all things Notre Dame and Fiesta Bowl

Marcus Freeman discusses wild week that was with Dan Patrick

Watch Marcus Freeman’s entire introductory press conference 

Nations top safety recruit chooses to stay home

Xavier Nwankpa is rated as the nation’s top safety in the 2022 recruiting class and will be remaining close to home to play college football

Xavier Nwankpa is rated as the nation’s top safety recruit in the 2022 cycle and the high school senior is staying home.  Nwankpa, an Altoon, Iowa native announced on Wednesday that he’d be attending college at the University of Iowa.

Nwankpa chose the Hawkeyes out of an offer list that included over 30 programs.  Iowa was his choice after he listed Notre Dame and Ohio State as his other finalists.  He is ranked by 247Sports as the nation’s top safety recruit and the 11th overall prospect nationally.

We predicted today that Notre Dame was unlikely to win his services like anyone else, I always find myself holding out even a little hope whenever there is a Notre Dame hat on such an elite players table of finalists.

Related: Notre Dame’s 2022 recruiting class commitments

Purdue star officially declares for NFL draft

Was this defensive performance by Notre Dame perhaps a bit overlooked at the time?

Purdue star wide receiver David Bell officially declared for the NFL draft on Wednesday, making the announcement on Twitter.  That doesn’t really surprise anyone nor does if affect Notre Dame in 2022 but with Bell in the news perhaps it’s a good time go look back at one of the best defensive performances Notre Dame put up this season.

When Notre Dame welcomed Purdue to South Bend in September both teams were 2-0 although the Irish had just snuck by both Florida State and Toledo.  Purdue would go on to finish the year 8-4 and earn a spot in the Music City Bowl where they’ll take on Tennessee.

Related: Notre Dame’s all-time results vs. Big Ten opponents

Notre Dame did something that day that only Wisconsin did against Purdue in 2021, however.

Hold David Bell under 70 receiving yards.

Bell finished the day with seven receptions for 64 yards against Notre Dame on a day that saw him exit the game late in the fourth quarter after being a hit from Kyle Hamilton.

The good news for Bell is that despite that hit and scary scene, he was able to bounce back and play a huge role in multiple Purdue upsets this fall.  At then-No. 2 Iowa he hauled in 11 receptions for 240 yards in a victory while Purdue’s upset of No. 4 Michigan State in November saw Bell go off for 11 receptions and 217 more yards.

In all, Bell pulled in 93 receptions for 1,286 yards and six touchdowns this season.  Yes he did get hurt late in the contest but perhaps Notre Dame deserves a bit of credit for limiting him to just 64 yards that September afternoon, as he went over 100 yards seven times alone this season.

Related:

Best photos from Notre Dame’s 27-13 win over Purdue

Best photos from Marcus Freeman’s introductory press conference

Joel Klatt’s College Football Playoff Proposal

What is the perfect number of teams for the College Football Playoff?

We may still be years away from the College Football Playoff adding teams but that didn’t stop analyst Joel Klatt from reworking what this year’s CFP could have looked like.

Related: Best images from Marcus Freeman’s introductory press conference

Klatt took to Twitter to offer his idea of how to come up with a 12-team playoff that makes the most sense.  Below are the details to his plan that we’ll comment on along the way as well as his top 12 rankings.

Notre Dame a finalist as nation’s top safety set to announce college decision

Do the Irish still have some sort of hope here?

One of the best safeties in the entire 2022 recruiting cycle nationally will be announcing his college commitment on Wednesday night and the good news for Notre Dame is that they’re one of three finalists.  There may be some bad news as well but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Xavier Nwankpa has a five-star rating at 247Sports as they list him as nation’s top safety in the 2022 class and 11th best player overall.  Nwankpa checks in at 6-2, 190-pounds and starred at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa and will announce his college decision at 5 p.m. ET in his school’s auditorium.

Notre Dame is a finalist for Nwankpa along with Iowa and Ohio State.  Based on Marcus Freeman spending his time on the west coast while Nwankpa has tweeted photos from visits with both Ryan Day and Kirk Ferentz this week, it’d seem that the Irish are an underdog compared to the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes here.

That said, I’d be thrilled to be wrong about this later today.

Related: Notre Dame’s 2022 recruiting class commitments

Polian bids farewell to Notre Dame community

So long as he’s off to the Bayou

News broke late Tuesday morning that Notre Dame special teams coordinator and assistant head coach Brian Polian was leaving to join Brian Kelly’s staff at LSU.  If any further confirmation was needed on top of the Bruce Feldman report, Polian provided that late Tuesday night as he bid farewell to the Notre Dame community on Twitter.

Polian is off to be reunited with Kelly at LSU, the coach that hired him back to Notre Dame in 2017 after he was let as Nevada’s head football coach.  Polian also spent from 2005-2009 as a member of Charlie Weis’s staff at Notre Dame is best remembered during that time for his efforts in successfully recruiting Manti Te’o to South Bend.

Polian was one of just two members of the current remaining Notre Dame staff with head coaching experience so it’ll be worth keeping an eye on to see if Freeman and company hire another assistant with such experience to aid the first-time head coach.

Related:

Notre Dame coaching staff tracker

Notre Dame finalizes 2022 football schedule

Manti Te’o through the years

Everything Marcus Freeman said at introductory press conference

Kyren Williams still yet to decide on returning for 2022

Does he stay or does he go?

Even though he was somehow left off the list of finalists for the Doak Walker Award that goes annually to the nation’s top collegiate running back, Notre Dame’s Kyren Williams was about as good as it got at the position in all of college football in 2021.  Despite playing behind a makeshift offense line that had no cohesion for nearly an entire half of the season, Williams still rushed for over 1,000 yards and was Notre Dame’s best offensive player on seemingly a weekly basis.

From afar it would seem like Williams will be suiting up for Notre Dame for the final time in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma State on New Year’s Day but the star running back isn’t so sure that’s the case just yet.

“It’s something that obviously I’m thinking about and obviously I’ve got to make something happen,” said Williams following head coach Marcus Freeman’s introductory press conference on Monday, ““Coach Freeman has always been a coach I’ve wanted to play for and I felt like our connection this season has grown a lot stronger. But (stay at Notre Dame vs. declare for the NFL draft) is something I still have to think about and put into action later on.”

Williams was later asked if he was certain to play in the Fiesta Bowl to which he answered, “As of right now, yeah.”

I don’t want to speculate but I have trouble thinking that was still at all up in the air if there was much of a likelihood that he was returning to Notre Dame.

My guess is that with the short window most running backs have to be at their peak that Williams would go make an NFL salary starting next year but I never would have guessed Travis Etienne of Clemson would have stayed for his senior year back in 2020, either.

Related:

Marcus Freeman discusses crazy week and new role with Dan Patrick

Kyren Williams joins rare list of Notre Dame running backs to accomplish this

Longtime Notre Dame assistant coach headed to LSU to join Brian Kelly

Marcus Freeman pens letter to Notre Dame community

Are you all-in on the Freeman train?

Marcus Freeman has only been Notre Dame’s head coach officially for a handful of days but I feel safe in declaring something about him.

He gets it.

Lou Holtz once said about Notre Dame that those who don’t understand what makes it special, no explanation to them will suffice and that nobody who understands requires any explanation whatsoever.

I think it’s crystal clear at this point that Freeman is in the later.

Freeman penned a letter to the Notre Dame community through The Players Athletic that was released on Tuesday morning.  Check out the full letter here as some highlights include:

  • Stressing the importance of being himself as a head coach
  • Coaching not being now and never being in the future, about himself
  • A huge reason he sees as to why the 2021 Notre Dame team has gotten so much better as the year has gone on
  • Who he names as the best leaders he’s ever talked to – perhaps more noteworthy is who he doesn’t mention
  • The two main ideas of his leadership style

I’m not going to simply steal their letter and post it as my own like some places may do, but I’ll use certain things that are said in it and react to them in a matter of days after their link has made its rounds.

Related: The best images from Marcus Freeman’s introductory press conference

Just know that my main takeaway not from just the letter but from seeing how Freeman has handled this entire situation is that Notre Dame got the right guy.

Plenty more on that thought to come in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Related:

Marcus Freeman discusses wild week that was with Dan Patrick

Notre Dame OC Tommy Rees talks all things Fiesta Bowl

Watch Marcus Freeman’s entire introductory press conference 

Longtime Notre Dame assistant is joining Brian Kelly at LSU

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Longtime Notre Dame assistant to join Brian Kelly at LSU

How much will be missed: A ton? Some? Not at all?

Brian Polian, Notre Dame’s assistant head coach and special teams coordinator appears to be headed to join Brian Kelly at LSU.  Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports and The Athletic presented the news on Twitter on Tuesday morning.

As Feldman points out, Polian has experience from the time he spent at Texas A&M, albeit for just one season in 2012.  There a few other things about losing Polian that interest me the most from Notre Dame’s perspective.

As has been well-discussed by many, Marcus Freeman brings no head coaching experience to his new role.  That’s not to say it’ll be the Achilles heal to his ultimate success at Notre Dame, but one would think an assistant with head coaching experience would be important for his first staff.

Losing Polian, who was Nevada’s head coach from 2013-2016, certainly doesn’t answer that question.  Offensive line coach Jeff Quinn, who we’re still unsure the future of, is the only other current assistant with such experience as he was Buffalo’s head coach from 2010-2014.

Next:  Polian’s Rainbow (Hawaii) Connection

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