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Notre Dame Football All-Decade Team: Tight End

By Nathan Erbach

SOUTH BEND, IN - OCTOBER 13: Theo Riddick #6 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish moves to celebrate with Tyler Eifert #80 after Eifert caught a touchdown pass against the Standford Cardinal at Notre Dame Stadium on October 13, 2012 in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated Stanford 20-13 in overtime. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN - OCTOBER 13: Theo Riddick #6 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish moves to celebrate with Tyler Eifert #80 after Eifert caught a touchdown pass against the Standford Cardinal at Notre Dame Stadium on October 13, 2012 in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated Stanford 20-13 in overtime. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /
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SOUTH BEND, IN – NOVEMBER 02: Troy Niklas #85 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish catches a first down pass in front of Cody Peterson #53 of the Navy Midshipmen at Notre Dame Stadium on November 2, 2013 in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated Navy 38-34. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

There were four names up for discussion, but really it was a two man discussion between Tyler Eifert and Cole Kmet for top Notre Dame tight end of the decade.

Tight End U has a lot of really talented tight ends this decade, but Eifert and Kmet are cut above the rest. Unfortunately for Kmet, he really will only have one season of dominant play in this decade, or else he might have been able to compete with Eifert for the number one spot. You’ll also find that I left Kyle Rudolph off this list, as he only played in 6 games during the 2010 season due to his torn ACL. However, he would have easily made the previous decades list. The other two tight ends included in our Twitter poll were Troy Niklas and Durham Smythe, and we will get to their careers below. Just missing the list were Aliz’e Mack and Ben Boyack.

For what it’s worth, all of these players were drafted and Kmet will join that list soon. Notre Dame has quite the run on starting tight ends going to the NFL.

Let’s take a look at the top four tight ends of the decade.

Troy Niklas (2011-2013)

Niklas is somewhat of an enigma at the tight end position, not only at Notre Dame, but in general. He was recruited by the staff as an outside linebacker/defensive end and played in 12 games during his freshman campaign on defense, accumulating 20 total tackles. He made the transition to tight end for his sophomore year and started 7 of the 13 games alongside Tyler Eifert. While he only caught 5 passes for 75 yards and one touchdown, he was instrumental as a blocker and his catches went for big gains. After Eifert graduated and took his talents to the NFL, Niklas became the main tight end in 2013 and he really shined. He would start all 13 games that year and catch 32 balls for 498 yards and 5 touchdowns — ranking third on the team in all three categories.

This was good enough to make him a second round pick of the Arizona Cardinals in the 2014 draft after he skipped his senior season — much to the chagrin of Notre Dame fans that were excited for his senior year in South Bend. From a pure talent standpoint, Niklas is right up there with some of Notre Dame’s best.

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