Notre Dame football: Top 5 offensive players from 2022
By Tyler Kruse
With Notre Dame football’s season officially in the books, we’re ranking the top 5 Notre Dame players on offense from the 2022 season. While it’s pretty clear who comes in at the top, there may be a couple of surprises rounding out the group.
Notre Dame football: 5) QB Drew Pyne
Drew Pyne was thrust into a challenging situation early in the season with the injury to starting quarterback Tyler Buchner. With the offensive line still gaining cohesion, Pyne and the offense fought through some growing pains to have a relatively solid season. While outcries on Twitter and other social media apps would lead many to believe otherwise, Pyne had a fairly successful year. The problem with Pyne was his struggles at home and a few games he notably could have played better in.
Overall, a completion percentage of 64.6% with 22 touchdowns to 6 interceptions and 2,021 yards is nothing to be ashamed of. However, it was the stretch against Stanford, UNLV, and Syracuse where the fans noticed a lack of a passing game.
Pyne did about as well as expected, given how the year started. While he’s off to Arizona State to (potentially) finish his playing career, Notre Dame could’ve had a much worse record if it wasn’t for some solid games out of Drew.
Notre Dame football 4) WR Jayden Thomas
Though it was a down year from the wide receiver position for the Irish, Jayden Thomas put together a productive season. Jayden only had 25 receptions but turned that into a solid 361 yards while averaging 14.4 yards per catch. He also added 3 touchdowns on the season. While rated as the 51st overall receiver in his class, Thomas has shown the ability to be a playmaker at the college level.
Deion Colzie was the only other Irish receiver with multiple receptions that averaged higher yards per catch than Thomas at 21.3. Regardless of what happens moving forward, Jayden proved to be a more than capable receiver, which bodes well for Hartman and Buchner.