Notre Dame Football: Chase Claypool Named Team MVP

There are cases you could make for perhaps Ian Book or Cole Kmet but what it keeps coming down to for me – when a play absolutely needed to be made – who was asked to make it and delivered the most?

Whenever there was a big play needed in 2019 it felt like you knew where Ian Book and Notre Dame were going with the football.

Find Chase Claypool and let the 6’4” wide receiver make a play.

And seemingly every time he was called upon he answered.

That’s why on Friday night at Echoes, the 2019 Notre Dame Awards Show, Claypool was named team-MVP.

There are cases you could make for perhaps Ian Book or Cole Kmet but what it keeps coming down to for me – when a play absolutely needed to be made – who was asked to make it and delivered the most?

Think of the Virginia Tech game for example.  Before Ian Book’s go-ahead touchdown run, who caught the pass that converted the fourth down to make the touchdown run even possible?

Trailing 3-0 to USC and in the shadow of their own goalposts facing third and seven, who caught the nine yard pass to extend the drive and give the offense some breathing room before eventually marching the rest of the field and taking the lead?

And after a slow start at Stanford in the regular season finale, who was called upon to make the huge touchdown catch just before halftime to put Notre Dame in the lead once and for all?

If you answered Chase Claypool to any of these questions you’re right.

We didn’t even mention his four-touchdown performance against Navy or countless other great showings he had.

So yes, there may have been a case you could make for another player or two, Notre Dame undoubtedly isn’t sniffing 10-2 without Claypool this year.