Notre Dame Football: 2019 Mid-season Superlatives
"SOUTH BEND, IN – OCTOBER 12: Tony Jones Jr. #6 and Jalen Elliott #21 of Notre Dame football celebrate after the game against the USC Trojans at Notre Dame Stadium on October 12, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated USC 30-27. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)"
The bye week is in the rear view mirror for Notre Dame football and Michigan week is upon us, but let’s first take a look at how our superlatives’ list has changed since the start of the year.
Our categories again are Team MVP, Mr. Reliable, Breakout Player, Top Newcomer and Wildcard athlete. In taking a look back at our preseason list, there are definitely some changes and surprises, but overall I think this is a list most Notre Dame football fans would agree upon and understand. The main difference I noticed while compiling this list is the variety of players that could have been chosen for each topic — and that is exactly what happened. There was zero consensus on any of the categories, a few players definitely stood out.
Team MVP
Preseason Pick: Ian Book
While Book has not been bad this season, he hasn’t taken the necessary steps that most expected when we chose him for team MVP — shout out to Corbin Whitney for being the only staff writer to pick someone different (Chase Claypool).
With that said, winning the award for mid-season MVP for the Notre Dame Football Team with 7 of 9 writers choosing him is Tony Jones Jr.
This comes as quite the surprise, as Jones entered the season as the second string running back behind Jafar Armstrong. While he was expecting to get a good amount of carries, his workload wouldn’t be what is right now if Armstrong didn’t go down with a Week 1 injury to Louisville.
Jones currently leads the program in rushing attempts, rushing yardage and is tied with Chase Claypool for the team lead in touchdowns. He is doing this all while rushing for an impressive 7 yards per carry and is on pace for over 1,000 yards on the season. He also has 3 straight games with over 100 yards and 4 overall. It is hard to deny him this award.
The two remaining votes went to Cole Kmet by Corbin Whitney and myself. After missing the first two games with a broken collarbone, Kmet has been nothing short of tremendous, and at least in my opinion has taken the offense to a level they wouldn’t be at without him.