Notre Dame Football: Which players could set milestones in 2019?

The 2019 Notre Dame football team has a handful of players closing in on career and team milestones. Who will re-write the record books this season?

After a 12-1 record and College Football Playoff appearance a season ago, Notre Dame football is looking to reload and put together another National Title run in 2019.

The Irish lost plenty of talent to the NFL, but return most of their starters on offense and a solid core on defense, giving Brian Kelly one of his most talented teams on paper since he’s been at Notre Dame.

From top to bottom, this roster has big names and NFL talent, ranging from players that have been major contributors over the last few seasons to some who burst onto the scene last year. Many of these guys have put together great careers for the Irish, and are closing in on some career milestones that would re-write the school record books.

It is impossible to predict individual game records that could be broken, but season records or career bests by individuals and school records should be expected to be set this fall.

Quarterback

After taking over the offense in week three last year, Ian Book went on to throw for 2,600 yards and 19 touchdowns in only ten games of work. With a full off-season under his belt and most of his receiving production returning, many expect Book to put up Heisman-like numbers heading into 2019, especially with an offense that might stretch the field more with a group of explosive, speedy receivers.

Book currently sits at 3,084 passing yards for his career, which is just 1,328 yards away from ousting Joe Theismann from the school’s Top-10 career passing yards list. If we project a modest 3,000 passing yards for Book this season, that would land him at number 6 on the list, surpassing Theismann, Jarious Jackson, DeShone Kizer, Everett Golson, and Rick Mirer. Steve Burlein sits at number 5 with 6,527 yards while Brady Quinn holds the top spot with 11,762 yards.

The projected 3,000 passing yards would also place Book at number 5 or 6 on the single-season passing yards list. Jimmy Clausen sits at number 6 with 3,172 and current QB coach Tommy Rees is 5th with 3,257 yards.

Lastly, if Book just matches his 19 passing touchdowns from a season ago, that would give him 42 for his career, which would be good enough for number 6 on the all-time career passing touchdown list. He would have to throw for 25 touchdowns to surpass DeShone Kizer at number 5 with his 47 career touchdown passes.

The Running Game

Next let’s look at Jafar Armstrong. While he is not close to cracking the Top-10 or breaking any school records just yet, he is just 458 yards away from 1,000 career yards from scrimmage. It might not be too crazy to think he could break 1,000 career rushing yards this season as well, needing just 617 yards to get to that mark.

With the absence of Dexter Williams eating up 15-20 touches a game, the door is open for Armstrong to break out and become a huge part of this offense this season.

Receivers

Chase Claypool and Chris Finke both took steps in the right direction last year, setting career marks for receptions, yards, and touchdowns. Now with last year’s team-leading receiver in Miles Boykin catching passes in Baltimore, both players should see more targets and more opportunities to make plays for the offense.

Finke is 35 catches away from 100 in his career and 205 receiving yards away from 1,000. Claypool has surpassed the 1,000 yard career mark, heading into 2019 with 1,122 yards to his name to go along with 84 receptions.

It’s doubtful Finke gets enough targets to crack the Top-10 for career receptions (number 10 is 137 receptions by Tim Brown), but Claypool just needs 54 to make the list. After 50 receptions a year ago for Claypool, that number is very doable.

Defense

Now let’s head to the defensive side of the ball, where Notre Dame brings back both their edge rushers from a season ago in Julian Okwara and Khalid Kareem.

Both players will be zeroing in on the Top-10 career sack list. Okwara (10.5) and Kareem (7.5) are within very reasonable striking distance of Anthony Weaver’s 17 career sack total, although it might be asking for quite the season for Kareem to reach that mark.

On top of that, there is currently a four-way tie at the number 10 spot for most sacks in a season in school history with eight. While it is unlikely, if both Okwara and Kereem turn in 10-sack seasons they would both be tied for the fourth-most sacks in a season. A 10-sack season for Okwara would also land him at number 6 all-time for career sacks in school history with 20.5, right behind Mike Gann’s 21.

As you can see, a handful of players are in a prime position to have career years and move up the leader-boards for various career statistics. Of course, none of it matters if the wins and success of the team don’t follow. The good news is that if these players turn in the type of season they are capable of, Notre Dame will be making noise in the College Football Playoff discussion once again.