Notre Dame Football needs Chase Claypool to be elite in 2019
By J.P. Scott
If Notre Dame football is going to make another run at the College Football Playoff this season, Chase Claypool needs to dominate.
The 2018 Notre Dame football team was defined by big-time players making big-time plays in key moments. A lot of those big-time plays came from wide receiver Miles Boykin in the passing game.
Boykin is now a Baltimore Raven. Someone else needs to step up.
Enter Chase Claypool.
Claypool is similar in size (6’4′, 225 pounds) as to what Boykin was, but he’s a different type of receiver at this point. He has the speed to be a deep threat, but often plays like more of an oversized slot receiver.
That needs to change this season.
Chase Claypool will be the biggest target Ian Book has as far as pure receivers go. Book needs Claypool to master things like high-pointing the ball and running precise back-shoulder routes quickly. Boykin excelled at those those. As a result, Book could depend on him anywhere on the field in various routes.
Claypool flashed some of this ability to be an elite No. 1 receiver last season in both the Syracuse and Northwestern games. He dominated those games statistically, but rarely used his size as a deciding factor on any of the plays. It doesn’t do him any good to be 6’4″ and not be able to allow his quarterback to just toss it up and trust him to come down with it. Ian Book — like any quarterback — needs that type of guy to bail him out once in a while.
Ideally, Claypool will remain a similar type of receiver between the 20’s, helping Book methodically move the ball down the field. At some point, however, he needs to be a jump-ball threat in the red zone and show the same ability that Boykin did to be able to get behind the secondary on deep balls.
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We know he has the speed to be that guy — we’ve seen it on special teams. In 2019, Chase Claypool needs to roll all of his best traits — size, speed, soft hands, and crisp routes — together to be the elite receiving target Notre Dame is going to need in order to make another serious run at a College Football Playoff berth.