A lot was made this season about the veteran presence on the Notre Dame football team, but as it turns out, the Irish gave snaps to more freshmen than almost any team in the country.
That’s important not just because of what it means for the talent level on the team but also because of the blowout wins they had that allowed young players into the game. It’s also important because it means that Marcus Freeman and company are genuinely reloading instead of rebuilding as they lose many impact seniors from a squad that went to the National Championship game.
Earlier this week, PFF released their counts for the teams that had the most freshman snaps during the 2024 season. Notre Dame football was fourth in the entire country by the site’s count, and was less than a game’s worth of freshman snaps away from being all the way to No. 2 in the nation.
Most True Freshman Snaps Played By Team in 2024⭐️ pic.twitter.com/OQ3Q7l9QdG
— PFF College (@PFF_College) February 12, 2025
Notre Dame football was not afraid to give youngsters a shot
In all, according to PFF, true freshmen got 2,843 snaps during the 2024 season. That was behind Auburn’s 2,891 snaps, Oklahoma’s 2,913 and Clemson’s 3,494 snaps. When it came to the Top 5, Freeman’s squad had a big advantage over Alabama’s 2,305 true freshman snaps.
While it’s true that Anthonie Knapp (843) and Leonard Moore (736) had the bulk of those nearly 3,000 snaps for freshmen, others saw quite a bit of action.
Defensive lineman Bryce Young logged 374 snaps on the defensive side of the ball. Linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa was close behind with 343. Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price got the most touches by far at running back but Aneyas Williams saw his fair share of action with 213 snaps.
Safety Kennedy Urlacher didn’t see a ton of action but he did get 65 touches and cornerback Karson Hobbs got 83.
These kinds of stats are also plenty important for the Notre Dame football team moving forward as it shows true freshmen have a legitimate shot at playing right away.