Notre Dame in This Year’s Herbie’s

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit released his annual Pre-Season Herbie Awards on Monday and Notre Dame was pretty well represented.  Here’s a quick look at how Herbstreit ranked the Irish.

golden-tate-herbie
ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit ranks junior wide receiver Golden Tate as the #7 receiver in the country. (Photo - Icon SMI)
  • #7 Wide Receiver – Golden Tate
  • #3 Tight End – Kyle Rudolph
  • #3 Pocket Presence QB – Jimmy Clausen
  • #2 True Freshman – Manti Te’o
  • #2 Team Movin’ On Up – Notre Dame
  • #4 Up and Coming Assistant/Coordinator – Corwin Brown
  • #7 Student Section – Notre Dame
  • All Uni Team: What A College Team Should Look Like – Sam Young

The most surprising is seeing Rudolph listed as the #3 tight end in the country.  While Notre Dame fans are expecting big things from Rudolph, it’s nice to see him getting some recognition from the mainstream media.  Rudolph could be ready to burst on to the college football scene this year and is going to be a major weapon for Jimmy Clausen and the Irish offense.

It’s also nice to see Corwin Brown getting recognized as one of the better young coaches in the country.  While he might not be calling the plays on defense this year, his role with the team this year could be equally as important.

It would have been nice to see Michael Floyd get some recognition from Herbstreit though.  Herbie had AJ Green and Julio Jones in the top 3 wide receivers in the country, but didn’t have Floyd on his list even though he had comparable stats to them before his injury last year.  Golden Tate is getting most of the recognition between he and Floyd this pre-season, but by the end of the year it wouldn’t surprise me if Floyd had the better overall numbers.

Some Notre Dame opponents made Herbie’s list as well.

Nevada’s Colin Kaepernick was the #6 pocket passer; Stanford’s Toby Gerhart the #1 RB ready to take it to the next level; USC’s Damian Williams the #4 WR, Kristofer O’Dowd the #1 Hogmolly, Matt Barkley the #3 first year starting QB & #1 True Freshman, Everson Griffen the #5 DE, Taylor Mays the #1b Safety; and Washington’s Jake Locker the #6 dual threat QB.

As far as teams go, Herbstreit has Michigan as a team on the rise and Boston College and UConn as teams on the decline.

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10 Comments

  1. I agree NEPA Chris!! I hope they don’t get offers from another school they can’t refuse. And is NEPA northeast pa? I’m from wilkes barre.

    1. yup, that would be it. i am from tunkhannock dating a penn state family, haha! at least my girlfriend has come around to the irish and the future mom-in-law is coming around too after i schooled her in the tradition of nd. she esp. loved the whole pass right thing.

      i just dont see either leaving considering nd can pay them the best right now and like i said earlier, corwin is at least one more year away from offers, i hope!

    1. how so? tenuta has been in the game for nearly 30 years and hasn’t taken a head coaching spot. i am not sure if he wants one. i really believe his passion is defense and will remain at nd as long as they will have him.

      i love corwin and i believe his move to associate head coach(i think i got it right?) was due to him being able to motivate the young kids and get them fired up. something charlie doesn’t have down yet, hence the move. also, i just don’t know if he has the resume ready yet to be a head coach elsewhere. who knows, mike haywood got a shot at miami(oh).

      all in all, i think both will be back after this SUCCESSFUL year. then i think weis really grooms corwin and then he will be offered a head coaching job the following year.

  2. I think how the defense performs this season will determine whether Tenuta is brought back or not. Personally I think he should be brought back. I can’t imagine them moving Brown out of DC position and not have plans of keeping Tenuta passed this season.

  3. I actually like Kirk, he is probably the only guy on ESPN that is NOT ANTI-Notre Dame like the rest (and Lou of course)

    I think ND will go 11-1 or 10-2…hopefully!

  4. Two coaches that might be gone after this year. Corwin Brown and Jon Tenuta. Tenuta’s contract is up after this year.

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