Notre Dame defensive tackle Howard Cross III will return for 2024 season
Howard Cross III dominated on Notre Dame’s interior defensive line in the past two seasons, and he’s coming back for one more. Cross will return for the 2024 season, he announced in a social media video Sunday.
It will be Cross’ sixth season with the Irish.
The Paramus (N.J.) St. Joseph Regional product was undersized for a nose tackle at just under 6-1 and 288 pounds, but he learned from the Kurt Hinish school of using that to his advantage. Cross was quick with his hands and immensely powerful for his slightly smaller stature. As a result, he was an absolute menace for opposing interior offensive linemen.
A 12-game starter in the 2023 regular season, Cross started his career slowly — as most trench warfare comrades typically do. He played in 12 games as a true freshman in 2019 to preserve his redshirt season. He quickly became a 12-game contributor without any starts in 2020. In 2021, he played in 11 games with a pair of starts. It was in 2022 when Cross really made himself one of the best players on the Notre Dame defense. He had 33 tackles that year, the most of any Irish interior linemen.
In 2023, Cross had a whopping 64 total tackles. That wasn’t just the most of any interior linemen on Notre Dame’s roster. It was the most of any interior linemen in the entire FBS. He added 7.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, 6 quarterback hurries, 4 pass breakups and 1 forced fumble. That’s absolutely stuffing the stat sheet for an interior linemen. Cross was much more than just a run-stopper and gap-filler. He was a versatile asset in many disciplines.
In the Duke game alone, Cross had 13 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and a quarterback hurry. One of the forced fumbles was a sack of Blue Devils quarterback Riley Leonard in the final minute of the game. Notre Dame jumped on the ball to secure a 21-14 victory.
If Cross left, rising senior Gabriel Rubio would have been next next up to start at nose. He’s much bigger than Cross at a shade over 6-5 and 306 pounds. But as Cross showed in his highly successful collegiate career, more size does not always equate to more success. His return will be huge for the Irish defense.
Cross was rated by Pro Football Focus as the No. 13 interior defender and No. 125 overall prospect in the upcoming NFL Draft. He would have had a great chance to hear his name called in April, but instead, he’ll come back to Notre Dame.
