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Newsstand: Breakout Notre Dame football players to watch in 2024 per ESPN

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•03/14/24•

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Notre Dame junior tight end Mitchell Evans. (Chad Weaver, Blue & Gold)

A collection of ESPN college football writers put their minds together and came up with the players fans need to keep their eyes on from the top 25 teams to watch in 2024. Here’s what one of those scribes said about the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

ESPN’s David Hale: “Notre Dame should have one of the best tight end tandems in the country with Mitchell Evans and Eli Raridon. Both are big targets in the passing game and should provide nice safety valves and imposing red zone targets for transfer QB Riley Leonard, but both have a lot of room for growth after solid showings last season. Their success is critical for Notre Dame, too, as the Irish could be something of a work in progress at wideout.”

Evans is coming off an ACL injury suffered last October. He might not be 100 percent healthy until sometime a few weeks into the season. That was the case for Raridon last fall. He didn’t make his sophomore debut until Oct. 7. He finished the season with 5 catches for 51 yards. Evans, meanwhile, had 29 catches for 422 yards and a touchdown until he tore his ACL in the eighth game of the season.

Leonard leaned on new Irish wide receivers Kris Mitchell, formerly of Florida International, and Marshall transfer Jayden Harrison in Notre Dame’s first spring practice last week. Senior wideout Jayden Thomas was also heavily involved in 11-on-11 work.

Notre Dame tweets of the day

You’re going to want a copy of this Blue & Gold Illustrated issue if you’re a big Fighting Irish fan.

How about a first career grand slam on a Wednesday evening? Hats off to Simon Baumgardt. The Irish won a pair of midweek games at Radford, 10-3 and 11-6.

Will Lynch is gifting the Irish men’s lacrosse team extra possessions.

Quote of the day

“When I get on the internet and I look at KenPom, I see No. 361 in the country in roster continuity. No. 357 in the country in experience. You start three freshmen and two sophomores in the second round of an ACC Tournament game against a team that’s got a few fifth-year seniors and some older guys. Just proud of our effort, proud of our fight.”

— Irish men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry on his team’s season-ending loss to Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament

Headlines of the day

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