Tag: zach martin

Anyone up for a pointless debate today?

Ok, good.

Me too.

While scrolling Twitter on Friday morning I stumbled into a list that they put together on the ACC Network’s “Packer and Durham” show that take a look back at the last 20 years of ACC football.

The two compiled their lists of the best offensive players the ACC has seen since 2000 as they named one player for each of the current member programs.

Now before you get angry, yes, I too realize that Notre Dame hasn’t been an official member of the ACC until this year.

That applies to other teams such as Boston College, Louisville, Miami, Pitt and Syracuse who all weren’t playing in the ACC at the start of this century, either.

Here is who Mark Packer and Wes Durham both chose as their best offensive players from each ACC football program since 2000.

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙱𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝙾𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝙰𝙲𝙲 𝙿𝚕𝚊𝚢𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝟸𝟶𝟶𝟶𝚜 🏈 pic.twitter.com/ZS3yR3mOrb

— ACC Network (@accnetwork) August 27, 2020

Fun names on this list, no doubt, but the vast majority of these are no-brainers which takes away some of the fun of debating.

Luckily for us Notre Dame’s is one of the schools where there wasn’t an obvious choice, at least between these two who were deciding.

As you can see, Packer choose Brady Quinn while Durham went with Quenton Nelson, both of which are worthy of the praise.

Statistically speaking, nobody puts up better numbers than Brady Quinn.  He’s thrown for more yards, more touchdowns and led Notre Dame to consecutive BCS appearances at a time when it look like the Fighting Irish football program was headed to irrelevance.

There are a ton of players that you can mention that didn’t get named by either, as well.  

Golden Tate won a Belitnikoff and despite the win-loss record during his time not being where anyone would have liked, was a legend and a thrill to watch each Saturday, specifically in 2008 and 2009.

Michael Floyd was similiar to that as well. Maybe his style of play wasn’t as exciting as Tate’s but his production was truly elite.  Will Fuller also comes to mind as do others, as some might argue that Jeff Samardzija was just as good as either.

Josh Adams nearly became a Heisman Trophy finalist and seemed like he was putting up over a 50 yard run each week for some time.

And the countless lineman that have come through and been stars whether it be Ronnie Stanley, Zach or Nick Martin or Mike McGlinchey.

But I’m with Durham on this one.

When you look at Notre Dame football over the last 20 years, who was simply the best player?

It may not be the most exciting position but you can argue that very few dominated their position in the last 20 years like Nelson dominated at offensive guard, specifically in 2017.

Nelson was nearly flawless by the time he left the program after 2017, much of the reason he became the highest drafted offensive guard in the history of the NFL Draft.

How about this for awareness from Notre Dame OG Quenton Nelson?! One of 5 best players in this draft. pic.twitter.com/jrXlipnyZw

— Todd McShay (@McShay13) February 9, 2018

It’s not what he’s done with the Indianapolis Colts that puts him on the top of the list for me, but his complete dominance of the position while at Notre Dame.

When you go back and look at Quenton Nelson you see what was easily the best player at the position not just in terms of the Irish, but as dominating as any guard has been in college football has been in quite some time.

Nelson gets my imaginary vote.  Who gets yours?