Every Notre Dame fan knows that running back is one of the biggest for Notre Dame in the class of 2021. Lackluster recruiting at the position over the last few years has forced the coaching staff to get creative with some position changes. The good news is the Notre Dame staff has a number of highly touted backs in their sights who are keen on the Irish. None might be more exciting than Chris Tyree whose junior film was just released and boy is it something.
We’ve known that Tyree is crazy fast for a little while now. Tyree ran the nation’s best 55m dash recently at 6.3 seconds. That’s crazy fast. To put that in perspective, at that rate, Tyree’s 40 time would be int he 4.2 range. That’s Rocket Ismail territory. Track speed and football speed don’t always equate though. In Tyree’s junior year film though, that speed is on full display.
Take a look.
Tyree is running past the competition a lot of times almost like they’re standing still. His track speed translates well to the football field where he is a smooth runner in the open field. Since Tyree is considered more of an all-purpose back and not necessarily an every-down back, it’s encouraging to see his ability to run between the tackles in this clip.
Tyree even plays a little defense in this reel. He won’t be asked to do that for Notre Dame should he select the Irish over one of the other 30+ offers he’s collected. Greg wrote pretty extensively about Tyree a couple weeks ago, but it’s worth repeating that Tyree is the kind of offensive weapon Notre Dame hasn’t had on its roster in much supply in a long time.
As a junior, Tyree ran for 1,446 yards on 177 carries for an 8.2 yards per carry average. That was actually down from the 10.2 yards per carry he averaged as a sophomore on 109 carries.
Notre Dame is almost certainly going to take two backs this year and they would be thrilled if Tyree is one of them. The Cotton Bowl really highlighted Notre Dame’s need for more speed on the offensive side of the ball. For years it was the defense that was sorely lacking speed for the Irish, but that side of the ball has caught up and has Notre Dame on more of a level playing field than the offense.
Chris Tyree is expected to officially visit Notre Dame over the summer on June 21st. There’s been some talk of Tyree getting back on the Notre Dame campus unofficially once more before then as well. Obviously that would be huge for Notre Dame’s chances in securely one of the nation’s most explosive offensive prospects.
Yes, Chris Tyree’s film is very impressive, but a faster/better back would not have solved ND’s biggest offensive problem in the Cotton Bowl. If ND had Barry Sanders running the ball, it would not have made much difference because ND’s O-line has serious issues with athletic defensive lines. Clemson’s d-line dominated that game, even with Dexter Lawrence out! Until this gets corrected, ND will continue to struggle offensively against Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, and others. Heck, the ND offense struggled to move the ball against Ball State!
Notredame really needs a back like this who can RIP off big plays a lot of the time.It forces defenses to pay extra attention to him or double him opening it up for other skill guys.
Not sure your use of RIP means what you want it to mean.