Michael Mayer identifies national championship as Notre Dame’s goal

Notre Dame is one of the most storied programs in college football history. However, in recent decades, a national championship has eluded the program and forced some people to reconsider what the modern ceiling is to the program. Still, players like Michael Mayer have high expectations for the program.

While sitting down with ESPN’s Holly Rowe, Michael Mayer identified Notre Dame’s goal in 2022, to win a national championship.

“It’s awesome, it’s awesome,” Michael Mayer said. “It’s growing on me, it really is. I came here freshman year, Covid, everything was happening. I was kind of stuck in my little apartment and only going to class and football, whatever. This place is growing on me. The fans here, the community, the coaches, it’s grown on me.”

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“And everybody has one goal. National championship. I think that’s going to come soon and I think that’s just–you know–you just got to keep working towards it and that’s what we’re doing here. And this is a special place and special people are around this place.”

A consensus four-star recruit in the Class of 2020, Michael Mayer came to Notre Dame with high expectations. He, almost immediately, surpassed those. Now a junior, most people expect this to be his last season in South Bend before the NFL comes calling. He’s already a top-10 player on Mel Kiper’s big board, and his nickname “Baby Gronk” makes it easy to see him in New England.

Michael Mayer cited his inspiration

All athletes have role models growing up, and Michael Mayer is no different. He pointed to two athletes as inspirations for his career. The first was the tight end who gave him his nickname, Rob Gronkowski. The second was NBA star, Kevin Durant.

“So Kevin Durant was, I had a fathead of Kevin Durant growing up with the Oklahoma City Thunder,” Michael Mayer explained. “So I had a fathead, I was big Serge Ibaka, Russ Westbrook, like that team was like my team. That was when I was huge into basketball, that’s kind of grown away from me a little bit, but I don’t watch basketball as much as I used to, but that was my team.”

“I think freshman year that nickname started coming out, I don’t know Gronk is just, I can’t not say Gronk. Right when I started playing tight end my freshman year in high school realized alright, maybe I can go to college for this whatever, that was kind of Gronk in his prime just balling with [Tom] Brady. And that’s kind of how I want to be when I get to the NFL, so I can’t not say Gronk, so I gotta say Gronk.”