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Notre Dame Football: ‘Baby Bus’ shooting up draft boards

By Oliver Vandervoort

Oct 14, 2023; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Audric Estime (7) jumps over USC Trojans safety Zion Branch (8) and linebacker Tackett Curtis (25) in the fourth quarter at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 14, 2023; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Audric Estime (7) jumps over USC Trojans safety Zion Branch (8) and linebacker Tackett Curtis (25) in the fourth quarter at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Notre Dame football star Audric Estime is reportedly starting to catch a lot of NFL scouts’ eyes and moving quickly up draft boards.

Despite the fact that the Notre Dame football team’s offense has been less than perfect at times, it appears as though the Fighting Irish have an honest-to-goodness budding star on their roster.

It shouldn’t really surprise anyone that Audric Estime, who some refer to as the “Baby Bus” in honor of former Notre Dame football star Jerome Bettis, is starting to get some serious looks from NFL scouts. He’s reportedly starting to shoot up various draft boards and could even be looked at as one of the best running backs in the 2024 NFL Draft class.

According to NFL Rookie Watch on Twitter, many NFL scouts love Estime because of his “freakish” build. Estime stands just 5-feet-11 inches tall and weighs in at 227 pounds. Despite his bowling ball build, he’s faster than he looks, sometimes able to reach speeds upwards of 20 miles per hour.

One only need to watch his game-winning touchdown run against the Duke Bluedevils to see how that speed can be both deceptive and explosive.

The build and the speed of Austime is why he’s compared to Bettis and why his name Baby Bus is likely going to stick, especially on the next level. Bettis is good with it, which makes it even more likely we’ll see it more.

Notre Dame football star shooting up draft boards

If there’s one thing that makes Estime’s growing popularity a bit surprising, it’s that the running back has had a very up-and-down season.

In Notre Dame football’s second, third and fourth games the of the year Baby Bus ran for over 100 yards in each. Including a career-high 176 yards against Central Michigan. But he hasn’t run for over 100 yards in a game since that CMU game.

He was held to 70 against Ohio State, 81 against Duke (despite that 30 yard TD run), 95 on 22 carries against USC and an abysmal 20 yards on 10 carries against Louisville.

It appears that Estime will reach 1,000 yards for the first time in his career, but he’s not going to clear that bar by a wide margin. Of course, individual stats aren’t the end all and be all for telling if a player can excel at the next level. Especially as a member of an offense that both struggles and isn’t all that trusted by outsiders.

Audric Estime’s climb as Baby Bus on draft boards is going to be something to watch in the next few months for Notre Dame football fans.

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