Notre Dame football: 5 great players who didn’t live up to the NFL hype

Notre Dame football NFL busts: Autry Denson

From the moment that Autry Denson stepped on campus in South Bend in the mid-1990s, he clearly had huge potential for the Irish. He garnered 137 carries as a true freshman and dominated in limited work as he amassed 695 yards and eight touchdowns. That, however, was just a precursor to what Denson would do for the rest of his career with Notre Dame.

As a sophomore, Denson to up a bigger role in the offense and shined in doing so. He took 2020 carries for 1,179 yards and another eight touchdowns. That paved the way for his most productive college season as a junior where he had 264 carries for 1,268 yards and 12 touchdowns. Though he didn’t match the yardage total in his final season with the Fighting Irish, rushing for 1,176 yards on 251 carries, he set a career-high mark with 15 touchdowns as a senior.

For his sustained production throughout his time in college, Denson finished his career as the all-time leader at Notre Dame in rushing yards and second all-time in career rushing touchdowns. Both of those marks still stand in those positions to this day.

Even though he was a productive workhorse for Notre Dame, his NFL value was never there. Denson was selected with just a seventh-round pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but never played a down there. He bounced around between three other teams over four years, garnering just 62 career carries for 212 yards and no touchdowns before a brief career in the CFL.