The Top RBs Notre Dame will Face This Season
Heading into last season, Notre Dame knew they were going to face two of the top backs in the nation.
The first was Georgia’s D’Andre Swift and he was spectacular in a win against the Irish. His stat line wasn’t ridiculous (98 yards, 5.4 yards per carry, one touchdown), but the amount of times he made tacklers miss in the second half for first downs made a huge impact on the game.
The main goal of Notre Dame’s defense was to stop him and he still managed to be productive.
The second was Boston College’s AJ Dillon and Notre Dame shut him down. 56 yards was his lowest output of the season and BC was blown out by the Irish.
This season Notre Dame knows they are going to face at least three great backs. At the top of the list is Clemson’s Travis Etienne.
Most assumed he would turn pro, but he decided to stay in school. Notre Dame fans surely cringed when he announced that because they remember him putting the Cotton Bowl away with a 62-yard touchdown. Notre Dame had shut him down before then, but Etienne is always a threat to break open a game with an explosive play.
He’s scored 43 touchdowns over the last two seasons and averaged 7.96 YPC. Etienne can pretty much do it all, including make plays in the passing game. And with how much talent Clemson has at receiver and Trevor Lawrence throwing to them, it’s impossible to put all of the focus on stopping Etienne.
Notre Dame’s defensive line has to dominate up front to help slow him down.
Louisville’s Javian Hawkins didn’t come into 2019 as one of the best backs in the ACC, but he put people on notice he was headed there with 122 yards (6.4 YPC) against the Irish to kick off the year. It was one of eight 100-yard games for Hawkins who totalled 1,525 on the season.
He’s a dangerous player on his own, but the added dimension of quarterback Micale Cunningham and his ability to make plays with his feet and down the field with his arm forces defense to account for everything.
Arkansas is likely going to go with Florida transfer Feleipe Franks at quarterback and he wasn’t exactly reliable for the Gators. The safe bet is that they will rely on the running game under head coach Sam Pittman, an O-line guy, and why wouldn’t they with the back they have returning?
Rakeem Boyd was one of the lone bright spots for an offense that finished 101st in yards per play in 2019. He rushed for 1,133 (6.16). They didn’t have a receiver break 500 yards and the second leading rusher put up 278 (4.03).
Boyd is going to be the bell cow for Arkansas under new offensive coordinator Kendal Briles. They have some big wideouts that will present some challenges as well, but stopping Boyd will be a priority in this matchup.