Notre Dame Football: The three most irreplaceable players on the Irish offense

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WINSTON SALEM, NC – SEPTEMBER 22: Jafar Armstrong #8 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish scores a touchdown against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons during their game at BB&T Field on September 22, 2018 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

After a breakout season last year, Jafar Armstrong solidified himself as one of the guys that the Notre Dame football can not afford to lose. Armstrong’s speed and presence out of the backfield is currently unmatched on Notre Dame’s roster.

Last season, in a backup role to Dexter Williams, Armstrong racked up 383 yards on 72 carries and scored 7 touchdowns on the ground, along with adding 159 yards through the air on 14 receptions. It’s rare to have a player like Armstrong that can catch the ball just as well as he can run it.

In the backup role this season you find senior Tony Jones Jr. Last season Jones played a decent amount of snaps and was effective. However, if Jafar Armstrong were to go down for an extended period of time, Notre Dame’s offense would become much less explosive.

Armstrong is and will be the key to a lot of what the Irish do offensively. He just simply does things that Tony Jones Jr. cannot. Jones is the power-back to Armstrong’s speed-back and while they should provide a great 1-2 punch together, losing Armstrong could prove fatal for the Irish offense.

Looking past the first two options at running back, you’ll find Jahmir Smith, Kyren Williams and C’Bo Flemister. Each is largely unproven in an Irish uniform as has been widely discussed in previous articles. One of them will emerge as the number three running back, but it is hard to tell who it will be at the moment.

If I were a betting man, I would put my money on Smith.

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