Notre Dame Football 2017 preview

By John Buhler | Aug 22, 2017

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - OCTOBER 01: Head coach Brian Kelly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and his team wait to head on to the field for the start of the game against the Syracuse Orange at MetLife Stadium on October 1, 2016 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

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Freshman to Watch: Tight end Brock Wright

Under head coach Brian Kelly, the Fighting Irish offense loves to feed the football to the tight end position in the passing game. Notre Dame had a solid recruiting class in 2017 even after a bad 2016 season on the gridiron. One player that is going to be huge for the Golden Domers is tight end Brock Wright.

According to 247Sports, Wright was the No. 2 tight end in his recruiting class, the No. 9 player from Texas and the No. 70 player nationally. He was a four-star recruit out of Cypress, Texas with a 0.9682 composite grade. Look for Wright to make an impact right away as a true freshman.

Wright seems to be on that same career path trajectory of former Notre Dame tight ends like Kyle Rudolph and Tyler Eifert. If that’s the case, then the Fighting Irish have another future Pro Bowler at tight end for their football team. Rudolph stars for the Minnesota Vikings and Eifert for the Cincinnati Bengals.

What makes Wright such a likely candidate for a big freshman season is that he plays the right position in the Notre Dame offense, as well as having a first-year starter in mobile quarterback Brandon Wimbush. Dual-threat signal callers love having a security blanket at tight end coming off scrambles.

Look for Wright to take advantage of a few of these dump passes early to gain momentum as a collegiate player. In this Notre Dame offense, it only takes about 2.5 to three years for a tight end to be pro-ready. Notre Dame may not recruit like it used to, but few programs have a better feel for the tight end market than the Irish.