Tag: John Carlson

Notre Dame’s JD Bertrand named First-Team Academic All-American

The captain is quite smart.

[autotag]JD Bertrand[/autotag] was a captain at Notre Dame the past two years. Somehow, that didn’t take the linebacker away from his studies enough for his grades to suffer. In fact, he absolutely thrived in the classroom, and now, he’s been recognized for that.

Bertrand has been named a First-Team Academic All-American by the College Sports Communicators. He’s the 37th Irish player to be so honored and the first since [autotag]Drue Tranquill[/autotag] in 2016 and 2017. Other Irish honorees over the years include [autotag]Mike Golic Jr.[/autotag], [autotag]Manti Te’o[/autotag], [autotag]John Carlson[/autotag] and [autotag]Joe Theismann[/autotag].

Bertrand was recognized by virtue of earning a 3.62/3.74 GPA. He also was named to the CSC Academic All-District Team alongside [autotag]Jack Kiser[/autotag] and [autotag]Davis Sherwood[/autotag]. There are some smart players on the Irish indeed.

Bertand’s current focus is preparing for the NFL draft. Whoever picks him, if anybody, will be getting someone with intelligence and leadership qualities. Hopefully, those will be on full display at the next level.

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ChatGPT’s top 10 Notre Dame tight ends not including Michael Mayer

Remember any of these guys?

ChatGPT is a useful AI writing tool, but it’s not without its flaws. You have to be specific in what you want when you enter a prompt. Otherwise, it will assume things that aren’t true, and you have to enter the prompt again to account for the things that weren’t correct initially. While it doesn’t take much time to edit and regenerate prompts, it still can be mildly frustrating.

Another problem, at least at the moment, is that it only accounts for information through September 2021. Since then, [autotag]Michael Mayer[/autotag] became arguably the best tight end in Notre Dame history. So when we asked ChatGPT to generate what it believes is the program’s top 10 tight ends, Mayer wasn’t included.

The point of this particular introduction is to explain why Mayer isn’t on this list. But hopefully, you have fond memories of the 10 names ChatGPT did generate. Without further adieu, here it is, edited for accuracy:

Notre Dame’s all-time tight end touchdown reception leaders

Mayer is the king of this list.

If there was any doubt before, you can vanquish it away. [autotag]Michael Mayer[/autotag] is the greatest Notre Dame tight end who ever lived. Heading into Notre Dame’s 35-14 upset win over Clemson, he already had the program records for receptions and receiving yards by a tight end. The only thing left for him to grab sole possession of was receiving touchdowns for a tight end, and he did that on this 17-yard reception from [autotag]Drew Pyne[/autotag]:

We can celebrate Mayer all we want, but let’s not forget all the Irish tight ends before him who gave him something to shoot for. It’s important to know that Mayer breaking all of these records does not diminish their places in program history. Notre Dame is built upon tradition as much as any other prominent program, and the Irish always will have a special place for them.

In the spirit of that sentiment, here are the all-time program leaders in touchdown receptions by a tight end:

Notre Dame football: All-time tight end receiving yard leaders

It’s not a matter of if but when for Baby Gronk at this point. See how close he is to setting another Notre Dame record…

Few college football programs can lay claim to producing top-level tight end talent quite like Notre Dame.  Dave Casper, Ken MacAfee, Tyler Eifert, and Kyle Rudolph are just a few of the best to have played the position for the Irish before moving on to NFL careers.

As we sit in the middle of the 2022 season it’s not crazy to think we’re all watching the best of the bunch right now in junior Michael Mayer.  Mayer set the program record for career receptions by a tight end in Notre Dame’s win over BYU in October and will only expand on that.

He’s not at the top of the all-time receiving yardage list by a tight end but that should be coming in a matter of weeks.  Here are the top-ten receiving yardage leaders in Notre Dame football history (through Oct. 10, 2022).

Notre Dame Football: Tight End U Past, Present and Future – A Conversation

This conversation began moments after Cole Kmet declared for the NFL Draft.  It was entirely conducted through Twitter DM’s which may as well be the modern-day AOL Instant Messenger.

What a week to be a Notre Dame tight end, whether it be from past, present or future.

It began with Cole Kmet declaring for the 2020 NFL Draft after previously saying he’d be around for his senior season.  It’s impossible to fault the top-rated tight end in the class but still stings when you wanted to see him in blue and gold and as the ultimate weapon for Ian Book in 2020.

The week continued into the Saturday when Michael Mayer, part of Notre Dame’s latest recruiting class playing in the Adidas All-American Game.  Not only did he play but he provided one of the biggest highlights of the afternoon, going 37 yards on a touchdown reception.

Finally, perhaps one of the best to ever play tight end at Tight End U sent the Vikings to the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs as Kyle Rudolph pulled down a Kirk Cousins pass in overtime to send Minnesota to the second round and the Saints home.  We’ll leave the pass interference debate for a later date.

With that in mind, Nick Shepkowski and I had a conversation.  It includes a bunch of former tight ends at Notre Dame and discussion as to what the future of the position may hold.  I hope you enjoy a slightly different post than you’re probably used to at Fighting Irish Wire.

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