Tag: 2019 notre dame football

Notre Dame Football: Plays of the Year – Number 9

He had a huge impact in the Louisville but that impact came from Louisville altering a game-plan to largely stay away from the true freshman.  The same can be said about the USC game where the game plan was built on USC’s extremely talented group of wide receivers not being able to get past the trusted Hamilton.

As we near the end of the 2019 calendar year its a good time to look back at everything that went on in 2019 both personally and for our favorite sports teams.  We’ll be doing that in the coming days here at Fighting Irish Wire during the course of the week as we continue to get ready for the Camping World Bowl versus Iowa State on Saturday, December 28.

We will unveil the plays twice a day from now through Friday and feel free to leave comments in our forum if you agree or disagree or are just looking for some general Notre Dame or college football conversation.

Without further interruption your Number Nine Play:

Sometimes you know something is special when you first see it, even if you don’t necessarily see it or them do something that special.  Keep that in mind as we go through the ninth play.

A year ago at this time Kyle Hamilton was a high school player who was watching his recruiting ratings soar after a fantastic senior year at The Marist School in Georgia.

A year later he looks like the real deal at the collegiate level, intercepting four passes, breaking up six more and making 39 tackles along the way to being named a Freshman All-American by Pro Football Focus.

That is why our number nine play of the year for 2019’s regular season is:

Kyle Hamilton’s interception return for a touchdown versus New Mexico

You can forget that it was the first home touchdown of the year for Notre Dame and ultimately it wasn’t a huge play in a game the Irish wound up winning 66-14.

He had a huge impact in the Louisville but that impact came from Louisville altering a game-plan to largely stay away from the true freshman.  The same can be said about the USC game where the game plan was built on USC’s extremely talented group of wide receivers not being able to get past the trusted Hamilton.

His pick-six against New Mexico was the first real highlight he had in a Notre Dame uniform and it coming in his first game at Notre Dame Stadium will be the thing of legend when he’s a first round NFL Draft pick in a couple of years.

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No. 10 – Cole Kmet’s touchdown reception at Georgia

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.