Notre Dame Football: Top 5 MVP candidates for Fighting Irish

Oct 17, 2015; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish celebrates after the game against the Southern California Trojans at Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame defeats Southern California 41-31. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

After losing several key players to season-ending injuries the Notre Dame Fighting Irish had many players rise to the occasion, but none more than these five MVP’s of the 2015 season.

The 2015 Notre Dame Fighting Irish had to overcome the adversity of losing their starting quarterback, tailback, tight end, nose tackle and many other contributors. After losing many key players to season-ending injuries the Irish needed many guys to step up, like DeShone Kizer, C.J. Prosise, Josh Adams, Daniel Cage and Jerry Tillery.

The Irish could have folded, but they stood true to their “next man in” mentality that head coach Brian Kelly has preached since taking over in 2010.

When Malik Zaire went down early in the year redshirt freshman Kizer stepped right in and led the Irish to a 10-2 record. Kizer went from being the third-string quarterback in spring ball behind Zaire and Everett Golson to being the starter for a playoff contender. He was rather untested but he stepped in and the rest is history.

The Irish thought they would have two studs in their backfield coming out of spring ball with Tarean Folston and Greg Bryant who was eventually let go for academic reasons and Folston went down for the year with a knee injury against Texas.

Prosise took hold of the running back position and never looked back. He went from being a converted safety/wide receiver into one of the most versatile and explosive backs in the nation. Without the emergence of Prosise the Irish would have had to rely on two freshman backs in Josh Adams and Dexter Williams.

After all these injuries the experts had Notre Dame going from an 10-11 win team to a 7-8 win team at best. Thanks to all the “next men in” Notre Dame was able to turn a less than ideal situation into a really successful season.

From Kizer to Prosise and Jaylon Smith to Sheldon Day, the Irish had a plethora of guys step up to lead them to the brink of a playoff birth. Since so many guys stepped up and had great seasons it’s hard to pick just one MVP of the team, so I ranked the top five MVPs.

Next: 5. Sheldon Day