Four Notre Dame players named to AP All-American teams
Two Notre Dame players made the Associated Press’ All-American first team, while two more made the second team. The AP announced both teams Monday morning.
Junior offensive tackle Joe Alt was one of two players named first-team AP All-Americans in both 2022 and 2023, alongside Ohio State junior wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. Senior safety Xavier Watts joined Alt on the first team, while junior running back Audric Estimé and graduate defensive tackle Howard Cross III made the third team.
Alt finished the 2023 season with a 90.4 overall Pro Football Focus grade, including a 92.2 mark as a pass blocker. That 90.4 grade is No. 1 in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) among offensive tackles, with a minimum of 700 snaps.
Of every FBS tackle who met the threshold, none of them came close to Alt’s score. Oregon State’s Taliese Fuaga came in second with a mark of 86.9, while Missouri’s Javon Foster is No. 3 at 84.4. As far as pass-blocking goes, Alt is second in the nation behind Houston’s Patrick Paul, who just edged him out at 92.8.
The junior from Fridley (Minn.) Totino-Grace only allowed 5 pressures all season, according to PFF. That’s down from 8 in 2022 as a sophomore and 11 in 2021 as a freshman. Experts love Alt for his size, length, athleticism and fluidity as a blocker, and he’s expected to hear his name called early in the first round of the upcoming draft.
Watts won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, which is given to college football’s national defensive player of the year. The former wide receiver, who took reps on offense as recently as fall camp of 2022, led the nation with 7 interceptions this season.
Against USC, Watts picked off Trojans quarterback and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams twice. He also forced a fumble and recovered another one, which he returned for a touchdown. Two weeks later, Notre Dame’s first bye week, Watts did it again. He intercepted another 2 passes against Pittsburgh, and one week after that, he picked off Clemson sophomore quarterback Cade Klubnik to spark a comeback attempt against the Tigers.
The Omaha (Neb.) Burke graduate added 47 tackles and 4 passes defended to his banner year.
Estimé became the 13th running back in program history to surpass 1,000 yards in a single season and the 19th to break 2,000 yards in a career, both in the same quarter against Wake Forest. He finished the game with 124 rushing yards, bringing him to 1,103 in 2023 and 2,083 over his 3 years at Notre Dame.
In Week 13 against Stanford, the Nyack, N.Y. native set career highs in carries, yards and touchdowns with 25, 238 and 4, respectively. He finished his season with 1,341 yards, and in all likelihood he finished his career with 2,321.
Cross made 64 total tackles this season, which was the most of any interior defensive lineman in the entire Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). He added 7.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, 6 quarterback hurries, 4 pass breakups and 1 forced fumble — and he’s coming back for a sixth season at Notre Dame.
In the Irish’s win over Duke, Cross had 13 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and a quarterback hurry. One of the forced fumbles was a sack of Blue Devils quarterback Riley Leonard in the final minute of the game, and Notre Dame jumped on the ball to secure a 21-14 victory.
