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Newsstand: Notre Dame DT Howard Cross III wins three Defensive Player of the Week awards

IMG_7504by:Jack Soble•10/04/23•

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Notre Dame defensive tackle Howard Cross III. (Larry Blankenship, special to Blue & Gold)

Notre Dame defensive tackle Howard Cross III won multiple Defensive Player of the Week awards for his performance against Duke in a 21-14 Irish win Saturday in Durham, N.C.

Cross was named the Walter Camp Defensive Player of the Week, the Bednarik Player of the Week and the Senior Bowl Defensive Player of the Week for Week 5. He finished with 13 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble near the end of the first half and a strip sack to steal the game for the Irish.

In addition to commenting postgame, Cross went on ESPN’s College Football Live to discuss his career game.

“I was only able to do what I’ve been doing because of my D-line,” Cross said. “They’re been pushing me, and I can’t do what I do without them doing their jobs as well. And also I wanna give a shout-out to the scout-team O-line. They were getting on me all week, making sure I was doing what I’m supposed to do and I couldn’t really have done anything without them.”

According to the Notre Dame football PR team, Cross is No. 2 in the country among all defensive linemen in defensive stops. He’s having a dominant season, and NFL Draft evaluators like Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy are starting to notice.

“There’s not a DT in the 2024 NFL Draft putting out better tape right now than @NDFootball senior Howard Cross III,” Nagy said on the website formerly known as Twitter. “@HowardCrossIII is also one of the biggest risers on @seniorbowl board this fall. Absolute game-wrecker vs. Duke.”

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The Irish and Blue Devils produced one of the crazier finishes in college football this season.

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Quote of the day

“Boubacar [Traore] could be in that mix, too. We’ll see how it evolves here in the next 48 hours, but you’ve got to get guys ready because Junior [Tuihalamaka] and Josh [Burnham] are playing a lot of special teams. So, if you’re bumping them up, who’s taking those other reps? There’s a big puzzle that we have to put together in the next 48 hours.”

— Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden on the play at Vyper with senior starter Jordan Botelho suspended for the first half against Louisville (targeting)

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