How nervous should Notre Dame be about the 2022 running back outlook?

On3 imageby:Tyler Horka07/02/22

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In a way, Notre Dame fans are getting exactly what they wanted. They’re just not getting it in the set of circumstances they would have liked.

Junior Chris Tyree and sophomore Audric Estime have the floor. Er, the field. The running backs are clearly the top two healthy options for the Fighting Irish as things stand in late June. In a vacuum, those are two really solid options to rely on. The thing is, the vacuum doesn’t have a whole lot to suck up at the moment.

Outside of Tyree and Estime, the only healthy scholarship running back on the Notre Dame roster is true freshman Gi’Bran Payne. He hasn’t even been on campus for a month. Sophomore Logan Diggs is still recovering from shoulder surgery in late April, and mid-year enrollee freshman Jadarian Price tore his Achilles last week. He’s out for the entire 2022 season.

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Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman isn’t oblivious to the tough situation his running back room is in. He addressed it with BlueandGold.com on Monday. The stock answer was always going to be “next man up.” It’s just that Notre Dame is getting dangerously close to not having that next man.

Tyree missed time last season with turf toe, and he missed time during spring practices with an ankle ailment. He might be the fastest guy on the team when healthy. Key words: when healthy. A team relying on an injury-prone 5-9 1/2, 190-pound running back always comes with moments of holding the breath.

Estime is the opposite at 5-11 1/2, 228 pounds. Nobody is really fearing injury with him. Rather, they could be fearing the unknown. He has carried the ball seven times in his college career.

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In a perfect world, Estime and Tyree are thunder and lighting. A bruiser and a speedster. On paper, it works. But the game isn’t played on paper. It’s played on a field where unforeseen obstacles are aplenty. Ask Diggs and Price.

And on the topics of unforeseen things, the addition of Payne to Notre Dame’s class of 2022 cannot be understated in importance. Previously committed to Indiana, Payne followed Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough to South Bend. Now he could be a major contributor early in his true freshman season.

Notre Dame fans wanted Payne. They just didn’t know they’d need him this much.

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