Notre Dame Football: Will the Irish have a 1,000-yard rusher in 2022?

Notre Dame football is losing 1,000-yard rusher Kyren Williams to the NFL but will the Irish have an adequate replacement in 2022?

For the past two seasons, Notre Dame football has had the pleasure of featuring a 1,000-yard back in the form of Kyren Williams.

As a redshirt freshman in 2020, Williams broke out and looked like one of the best backs in the country but he got off to a slow start in 2021 and it didn’t feel like he was going to reach that 1,000-yard mark again. He just barely got there, rushing for 1,002 yards and 14 touchdowns before declaring for the NFL draft.

Now, the Irish are tasked with replacing him and that wealth of production.

So could they have another 1,000-yard rusher in Marcus Freeman’s first full season as head coach? Absolutely, but who’s the top candidate?

Chris Tyree could be Notre Dame football’s next star RB

I’ve been high on Tyree for the past couple of years as Williams’ backup and now he’s going to have an opportunity to step up and be the lead back.

Tyree had 496 yards and four touchdowns on 6.8 yards per carry as a freshman in 2020 but took a bit of a step back in 2021 while splitting time with freshman Logan Diggs. He rushed for 222 yards and a touchdown on just 4.0 yards per touch while Diggs had just four fewer carries than him and averaged 4.4 yards per carry.

The sophomore running back had a much larger impact in the passing game last season, though, catching 24 passes for 258 yards and two scores. That could set him apart as the clear RB1.

If he can recapture that explosiveness that he had in 2020, he could be a star on a national level in 2022 — to be fair, the run game struggled as a whole in 2021.

Diggs will be a solid backup and may even split carries at some point, but I like Tyree leading the way and he can approach 1,000 yards in 2022.

Don’t sleep on Audric Estime being part of the run game as well.

My prediction? Tyree sneaks just over 1,000 yards while Diggs finishes with around 600 and Estime is around 300-400.