Notre Dame’s 2020 recruiting class was plenty good with some star power but lacked the depth to be considered great by any stretch of the imagination.
One of the prized pieces of it was all-purpose-back, speedster Chris Tyree of Chester, Virginia.
Tyree has blazing fast speed and comes with a four-star ranking from both 247Sports and Rivals, but the concern about him entering his freshman year was his size, or lack thereof.
Tyree was listed at 5-10, 170 pounds during his recruitment, a weight that made his potential durability come into question for some, myself included. Tyree is listed now at 5-10, 179 pounds on Notre Dame’s official roster.
That added weight, assumed to largely be muscle, had head coach Brian Kelly raising expectations for the freshman back when Kelly met the media via Zoom call on Thursday.
“He’s not a specialist who just plays in the slot or hand-off sweeps, he’s a guy who can run the football downhill between the tackles too” Kelly said, “He’s not going to get 30 carries, don’t get me wrong, but he’s a guy who’s going to play as a freshman.”
Tyree will be one of the most interesting players to watch in 2020 as he comes with speed that’s comparable to the likes of Braden Lenzy, Rocket Ismail, Armando Allen and George Atkinson, just to name a few of Notre Dame’s fastest players in semi-recent memory.
For comparisons sake, Allen entered Notre Dame listed at 5-10, 181 pounds. Sure the 2007 Fighting Irish were awful which allowed for more reps early in his career, but Allen recorded 86 rush attempts and 24 receptions his freshman year, something Greg Flammang pointed out on Twitter early Thursday.
With the backfield not yet appearing to have a standout load back and there now being only ten regular season games compared to the twelve originally scheduled, the amount of playing time and carries Tyree gets as the year goes on will be a compelling story-line to watch, especially with his head coach already tooting his horn a bit.