Notre Dame football: Which seniors will stick around for 2017?
By Greg Hadley
The next-level guys
These are the players who, if they leave, will be headed for bigger and better things in football. When maybe not really bigger and better, but they will be moving on to the next level: the pros. That’s not to say they’ll be very successful, but the lure of a professional contract and top-flught competition might prove too much for these guys to ignore.
11. Mike McGlinchey
Yeah, yeah, I know he said he’s gonna stay, but come on. What is he supposed to say? McGlinchey is a legitimate first-round draft pick. Staying another year will do what, exactly? Vault him into the top 10? Maybe, but I would hardly be surprised if he just decided to strike while the iron is hot and get the hell out of South Bend, especially if the rest of this season goes poorly.
10. Torii Hunter Jr.
If Hunter leaves Notre Dame, it won’t be for the NFL. It’ll be for the MLB. The son of an All-Star outfield, Hunter isn’t too shabby on the diamond himself, pinch-running and hitting for the Irish baseball team on the side. That, plus his pedigree, was enough to convince the Los Angeles Angels to select him this past summer in the 23rd round of the amateur draft. That’s not a ceremonial pick. The Angels must think he might actually be a future baseball star.
9. Malik Zaire
With all the hype over DeShone Kizer possibly going first overall in the 2017 draft, there’s been basically no talk about Notre Dame’s other quarterback: Zaire. After losing the QB battle this fall, Zaire has basically fallen off the face of the planet onto the bench, which he has left only on occasion and never with much success.
But come next fall, Irish fans could be looking to Zaire as their savior once Kizer moves on to the pros. That prospect should be enough to keep him at Notre Dame through the spring, especially as no NFL team has much incentive to pick him at the moment. But if Brian Kelly subjects Kizer to another QB battle with Brandon Wimbush, I expect he’ll pull an Everett Golson and transfer elsewhere.