Notre Dame’s sophomore tight end Kyle Rudolph was named the John Mackey Tight End of the Week.
Rudolph is coming of a career high 95 yards on 6 catches in Notre Dame’s 33-30 win over Michigan State this past weekend. Rudolph’s big game was highlighted with a 52 catch and run from Jimmy Clausen in the first quarter. The 52 yarder was a career long. Rudolph had a 72 yard catch and run called back two weeks ago against Michigan as well.
So far this season Rudolph has caught 13 passes for 162 and a touchdown – the first Irish touchdown of the season. Rudolph’s role in the Notre Dame offense figures to expand for the rest of the season with the loss of Michael Floyd.
Rudolph has also seen an improvement in his blocking in the early part of the season. Charlie Weis said on Tuesday that tight ends coach Bernie Parmalee was riding Rudolph pretty hard in practice after the season open er against Nevada for his blocking in the run game. Since then Rudolph’s blocking has steadily improved and will need to continue to improve in order for Notre Dame to continue running the ball well as defenses key on the run more in the absence of Floyd.
Rudolph was named to the Mackey Award Watch List in the pre-season. He was the only sophomore on the list.
people say he is improved because he is still a young player. He will continue improving as well. Its not saying he was terrible before, but he has gotten much better with experience.
The number of times people have mentioned “they are an improved blocker” just makes me scratch my head and wonder why they weren’t blocking before.