Tag: Kris Mitchell

Notre Dame vs. Army: Second-Quarter Analysis

The Irish have the lead halfway through.

Notre Dame’s defense did itself no favors at the beginning of the second quarter against Army. If one had told that unit the Irish would be up, xx-7, at halftime, they have might considered themselves lucky.

With the Knights near the end zone on third-and-short, [autotag]Rylie Mills[/autotag] was penalized for hands to the face, which gave Bryson Daily the fresh set of downs he needed to run for a 4-yard touchdown and get his team on the board.

[autotag]Riley Leonard[/autotag] led an impressive offensive drive that began at the Irish’s 25-yard line and mainly consisted of run plays. The Irish ultimately got to the 1-yard line on fourth-and-goal, but [autotag]Jeremiyah Love[/autotag] lost a yard on a carry, resulting in a turnover on downs.

Backed up by their own end zone, the Knights went three-and-out for the third time in four drives. James Wagenseller’s punt only went for 32 yards, and Love carried the ball 41 yards over three plays for his second touchdown of the game.

Another Knights three-and-out followed, and Wagenseller’s ensuing punt went to midfield. After Leonard completed a 28-yard pass to [autotag]Kris Mitchell[/autotag], the Irish went with runs the rest of the drive, including one by Leonard that went for 13 yards and set the Irish up at first-and-goal. Leonard failed to score on two straight runs before handing it off to [autotag]Jadarian Price[/autotag] for a 2-yard touchdown.

Daily ran the ball 20 yards on the Knights’ first play from scrimmage, but [autotag]Leonard Moore[/autotag] forced a fumble, which was recovered by [autotag]Jack Kiser[/autotag]. The Irish tried to add onto their lead right before halftime, but after a false start penalty, [autotag]Mitch Jeter[/autotag] missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt as the clock hit zero.

Things are looking good for the Irish, but there’s half the game left.

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Notre Dame Week 7 highlight: Kris Mitchell catches touchdown pass before halftime

Kris Mitchell caught a key TD before the half.

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard found wide receiver Kris Mitchell for a 5-yard touchdown pass with 1:11 remaining in the first half to put the Fighting Irish up 21-7 over the visiting Stanford Cardinal in South Bend.

The pass capped off a 9-play, 56-yard drive that took 2:37 off the clock. The 21-7 lead would stand heading into halftime.

Notre Dame started slow but rallied and controlled most of the remainder of the first half. If the Irish can maintain that level of performance, they should be able to avoid a season-crushing upset as they cling to college football playoff hopes.

Notre Dame wide receiver Kris Mitchell participates in a drill during a Notre Dame football practice at Irish Athletic Center on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, in South Bend.

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Notre Dame statistical leaders through four games

Who’s on the board going into the next game?

The great thing about Notre Dame’s dominant win over Miami (Ohio) is that a few more players got a chance to shine. Consequently, we have a few new names popping up in our weekly statistical leaders listicle heading into the game against Louisville. That should force the Cardinals to be a little more aware of the players they’ll be going up against.

This goes without saying, but the Irish always can benefit from new players appearing in these categories. It highlights just how deep the team’s talent is, and anyone can step in at any point. It might take some players longer to crack the leaders lists than others, but that’s the beauty of a regular season that runs through the end of November.

So who are the players standing out the most going into the Irish’s last game before their first bye week? Take a look for yourself here:

Notre Dame wide receiver Kris Mitchell is ready for Texas A&M

Mitchell is ready for Saturday night

As much as we can feel the Notre Dame football season getting close, the player feel it even more.

One of those is transfer wide receiver [autotag]Kris Mitchell[/autotag], who had spent the previous four seasons at Florida International. He broke out last fall, catching 64 passes for 1,118 yards and 7 scores before making a change of scenery.

Having played mostly in the state of Florida, the move to South Bend is something completely new for him. It seems like Mitchell is embracing the moment, as he embarks on his final collegiate season.

He went to social media to show his excitement, as he posted “the calm before the storm…”

Yeah Kris, we feel it too. All of Irish Nation can’t wait until Saturday night gets here.

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ESPN: Receiver is Notre Dame’s biggest question mark

Hope the Irish can make strides in that this season.

No matter how good a college football team is, there always is a weakness the opposition looks to exploit. Notre Dame is no exception.

ESPN has determined what it believes to be the biggest question mark for each team in its post-spring Top 25. Notre Dame was fifth on that list, and David Hale is the writer who listed receiver as the most pressing issue for the Irish. He elaborated this way:

“There’s room for optimism with this receivers corps, which includes the addition of transfers [autotag]Beaux Collins[/autotag] (Clemson) and [autotag]Kris Mitchell[/autotag] (FIU), along with holdovers [autotag]Jordan Faison[/autotag], [autotag]Jaden Greathouse[/autotag] and [autotag]Jayden Thomas[/autotag]. But last year’s leading wideouts, Chris Tyree and Rico Flores Jr., both transferred, and it was a unit that struggled often even with them. No wide receiver caught more than 27 passes in 2022 or 2023. Notre Dame hasn’t had a 1,000-yard receiver since [autotag]Chase Claypool[/autotag] in 2019.

With [autotag]Riley Leonard[/autotag]’s legs, a big O-line and a talented backfield (not to mention a burgeoning star in tight end [autotag]Mitchell Evans[/autotag]), there’s not a ton of pressure on the receivers to put up earth-shattering numbers, but genuine progress will be critical to an Irish offense that lost three games last season – all scoring 23 points or less. In those three games, the wide receivers combined for just two touchdown grabs and none had more than four catches in any one game.”

It’s a fair assessment, and the Irish have taken steps to address receive with five freshman receivers new to the program in 2024, including [autotag]Cam Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Micah Gilbert[/autotag]. Results might not happen right away, but at least the Irish were aware of this Achilles’ heel with their offense. It will be a fun group to watch develop.

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Notre Dame’s Mitchell Evans named top tight end heading into 2024

How much does this excite you?

Notre Dame has developed quite the reputation for developing tight ends in recent years. When one standout at that position moves on, there seemingly always is another one ready to fill that role.

The Irish’s top tight end this season is [autotag]Mitchell Evans[/autotag], who finished behind the departed Chris Tyree for most receiving yards on the 2023 Irish. Needless to say, he’ll be relied upon heavily for the Irish’s success in 2024. In fact, according to Big Game Boomer, social media’s college sports list aficionado, there’s nobody better in the country at his position:

In another list tweeted by Big Game Boomer earlier this week, [autotag]Kris Mitchell[/autotag], who transferred to the Irish from Florida International, was ranked the No. 16 receiver in the country. Still another ranked [autotag]Jeremiyah Love[/autotag] as the No. 42 running back, and one more earlier this month had [autotag]Riley Leonard[/autotag] as the No. 17 quarterback.

Needless to say, the 2024 Irish are going to be stacked with top-heavy offensive talent. The question is whether it will be enough to push them over the top.

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Notre Dame players, coaches speak after Blue Gold Game

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Notre Dame’s Blue Gold Game resulted in a 28-21 victory for the Blue squad. There were some moments that people came to see and weren’t disappointed by. No matter what happened, barring something catastrophic like multiple major …

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Notre Dame’s Blue Gold Game resulted in a 28-21 victory for the Blue squad. There were some moments that people came to see and weren’t disappointed by. No matter what happened, barring something catastrophic like multiple major injuries, the Irish and their fans were going to come away feeling good about themselves. That meant a good all-around day for [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] and especially for winning Blue coach [autotag]Al Washington[/autotag].

[autotag]Steve Angeli[/autotag] was the star of this game, leading the Blue team to the win by completing 17 of 26 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns. His longest pass also resulted in the game-winning score. That was from 62 yards out, and the beneficiary of that was [autotag]Kris Mitchell[/autotag]. It was one of only two receptions for Mitchell the entire game, but it was enough to make the difference in this one.

No, the result of these game won’t mean a lot compared to the regular season. However, the fact that everyone had a positive demeanor afterwards speaks volumes. Fighting Irish Wire was on hand for the postgame news conferences, and we’d like to share only a small sample of what was said as they still were processing the afternoon they had just had at Notre Dame Stadium:

Watch: Transfer Kris Mitchell scores his first touchdown in Notre Dame stadium

What a play by Mitchell

There was a big jump in stadium size for Notre Dame football transfer wide receiver [autotag]Kris Mitchell[/autotag].

Coming from FIU, where the capacity of the stadium was just 20,000, the adjustment to over 5-times that would clearly be different. It didn’t seem to faze the transfer, as he showed off his big-time playmaking ability with a touchdown in the Blue and Gold game.

Mitchell beat his defender, who slipped down the right side of the field, where Steve Angeli found him wide open for the long touchdown score. That’s the kind of explosiveness that many expect to see when he made the move to come to South Bend.

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Notre Dame Football: 2023-24 Transfer Portal Tracker

Everyday there is news – stay up to date here!

Things appeared bad for Notre Dame football when seemingly as soon as the regular season ended with a blowout victory at Stanford, the Irish began losing players to the transfer portal.

The good news is, about a week later Notre Dame began getting commitments to fill some of those voids.

A ton happened in terms of the roster between the regular season finale and the dominating bowl win over Oregon State.

So who did Notre Dame lose and who can Irish fans get excited about to be wearing blue and gold next season?

Here is the entire list of transfer portal activity for Notre Dame this 2023-24 off-season.

Notre Dame lands big-time receiver through transfer portal

Big get for Notre Dame next year!

Much needed help is on the way for the Notre Dame wide receiver corps.

On Tuesday, senior-to-be Kris Mitchell announced that he has committed to play his final year of college football at Notre Dame in 2024.

Mitchell comes from Florida International University where he led all of Conference USA in receiving yards this year with 1,118.  That was on 64-receptions as he also scored six touchdowns.

This comes just days after a mass exodus at receiver for Notre Dame.  Mitchell brings a speed element that will significantly soften the blow of losing both Chris Tyree and Tobias Merriweather.

Mitchell has just one year of eligibility remaining.  The 6-1, 175-pounder will join Jayden Thomas and Deion Colzie in that regard as Notre Dame certainly isn’t done looking to add more at receiver in the portal.