Notre Dame Football: 5 breakout freshmen to watch in 2018
There’s more than 30 freshmen to watch on the roster for Notre Dame football in 2018, but some will make a bigger impact than others.
Notre Dame football saw some reasonable level of contribution from younger players last season, but most of it came from the experienced returning starters. This season, the Fighting Irish can put more reliance on some of the incoming freshman. The 2017 team could have done that, but with how hot Notre Dame started the season, it seemed like the safe move to go with more experienced options.
It was the losses to the Stanford Cardinal and Miami Hurricanes that derailed everything for the Irish last season. The season was somewhat salvaged last year for head Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly by winning the Citrus Bowl against the LSU Tigers.
Notre Dame is mostly counting on a battle-tested defense and the quarterback to make waves in 2018. It was mainly the downfall of the quarterback that caused Notre Dame to falter. But, the defense didn’t help in losing efforts against Miami and Stanford.
Projected starting quarterback Brandon Wimbush is going to be a huge factor in the massive Week 1 showdown against the Michigan Wolverines. If both Wimbush and fellow quarterback Ian Book don’t work out early on in the regular season, we could see Kelly turning to a host of different options to make the team a contender this fall.
Pushing this team to national contention could include something like giving some highly touted incoming freshmen some extra playing time in 2018. The more exposure this freshmen class gets for Notre Dame, the more likely the chance that someone from this 10th ranked recruiting class in the nation will breakout.
Here are the five breakout freshman to watch for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in 2018.