Notre Dame Football: Best Case, Worst Case for Position Groups

SOUTH BEND, IN - OCTOBER 21: Drue Tranquill #23 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish celebrates with teammates after recovering a fumbled punt in the second quarter of a game against the USC Trojans at Notre Dame Stadium on October 21, 2017 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

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PALO ALTO, CA – NOVEMBER 25: Chris Finke /

Special Teams

Best: Justin Yoon and Tyler Newsome each have All American caliber seasons at kicker and punter, respectively. I’ve already predicted (boldly) that Chris Finke will break be Notre Dame single season punt return record. I’ll roll with that here. Thanks to the new kickoff rule, Notre Dame has an average field position of the 30 yard line after kickoffs.

Next. Wimbush Remains The Starter. dark

Worst: Justin Yoon kicks more like he did in 2016 than 2017. Tyler Newsome’s average punt drops below 40 yards after being about 44 on average in his career. Chris Finke continues to be the anti-John Goodman, attempting to return too many punts he should probably fair catch, getting blown up on a few of them. Kick returns take a huge blow with the loss of CJ Sanders and dips between 15-18 yards per return, in addition to trying to return too many kicks inside the 25, giving longer fields for the offense.

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