Doak or joke? Notre Dame football RB Audric Estime takes out award snub on Stanford

PALO ALTO, Calif. — If this indeed was Audric Estime’s closing statement in a Notre Dame football uniform, consider it a resounding mic drop.

Not to mention a vigorous stiff-arm of the Doak Walker Award selection committee. (More on that later.)

Those career-best 238 rushing yards and four touchdowns against overmatched Stanford? All came in the first three quarters of Saturday’s 56-23 beatdown, and it only took him 25 carries to get there.

The scores came on runs of 39, 6, 5 and 25 yards. That gave him 18 rushing touchdowns on the season, breaking a program record Allen Pinkett (1984) and Vagas Ferguson (1979) had shared for the past four decades.

“It’s amazing,” Estime said. “Coming into this school, coming in as a freshman, coming into Notre Dame, I always said, ‘I’m going to give them something to remember. I’m going to do something legendary.’ Having a record like that has my name stamped in the history books forever.”

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Just three Irish backs have rushed for more yards in a single game. Just four have gone for more yards in a season than the 1,341 Estime has posted this fall as a junior.

He started the night 14th on that list and proceeded to pass Pinkett, Ferguson, Kyren Williams, Julius Jones, Darius Walker (twice) and Autry Denson (three times). Estime is just 2 yards behind Reggie Brooks (1992).

Career totals? The 227-pound bruiser from Nyack, N.Y., bumped his rushing output to 2,321 yards, leaving him 11^th on the program’s all-time list.

He is 20 yards behind George Gipp.

The Gipper’s last carry was in 1920 against Northwestern. Three weeks later he died of pneumonia.

Estime? He looked positively superhuman against the rebuilding Cardinal.

He flashed the “foot fire” position coach Deland McCullough noticed soon after his hiring 21 months ago.

The young man blessed with “Incredible Hulk” biceps and a “Shrek”-level smile ran over, through and around any poor soul wearing red on this record night.

Doak or Joke? Walker Award overlooks Audric Estime's massive contributions

Estime also left no doubt as to the ridiculousness of his omission from the list of 10 semifinalists for this year’s Doak Walker Award.

Released on Tuesday, it included star rushers from Michigan, Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, North Carolina, Oregon State, Missouri, Central Florida, Georgia State and Troy.

Named in honor of the 1948 Heisman Trophy winner from Southern Methodist — Ewell Doak Walker II, who also finished third behind Notre Dame’s Johnny Lujack in 1947 and runner-up to Irish end Leon Hart in 1949  — the award seeks to honor the running back who:

∎ Has made extraordinary contributions to his team.

∎ Is in good academic standing and is on schedule to graduate.

∎ Holds a record of good citizenship within and beyond the athletic sphere.

∎ Has demonstrated a record of leadership.

∎ Exhibits the characteristics of sportsmanship and fair play associated with Doak Walker.

So, yes, Estime took it personally when he learned the night before the announcement that he didn’t make the cutdown to 10.

“It was pretty hard,” he said. “It was definitely a goal of mine, but it wasn’t the end of the world at that point. We still had some football to play, which is all that matters.”

He noted how his teammates rely on him.

“I couldn’t shut down, no matter what,” he said. “Just had to keep on going. I had to come in the next day of practice like nothing happened and just keep on rolling.”

Those who know him best were even more insulted than Estime himself that he was left off the list.

“Just to say that there are 10 guys out there that are better than him … “ said defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste, who grew up playing youth football with Estime’s older brother Khadar. “You just have to really look at the film and watch the film and analyze and you’ll see how much he gives, how much he puts his heart into it. It made him a little mad.”

Asked if the snub fueled his devastation of Stanford, Estime smiled.

“Yeah, I’m not going to lie,” he said. “It definitely fueled me. I definitely feel like I’m one of the best running backs in the country, if not the best. I would definitely want other people to notice. After today I feel like a lot of people will notice.”

Estime’s only public comment on the matter before Saturday was a one-word tweet: “Bet …”

Asked what he meant by that after the Irish covered the 26-point spread, Estime suggested it was more about a challenge accepted.

“I felt like I was kind of cut short,” he said. “That was just like, ‘All right, you guys don’t think I’m one of the 10 best in the country? I’m going to show you.’ “

Estime’s pilot light never dims, but Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman could sense the determination in his star back all week.

“We all are competitors and we all find different ways to motivate us,” Freeman said, “and I’m sure that motivated him.”

A scary proposition for anyone charged with trying to tackle Estime.

“What a tough, physical, special football player,” Freeman said. “Obviously, he’ll have a decision to make here after the season on what he’s going to do. But he is a special talent that has given Notre Dame everything he’s had for the past three seasons.”

No matter what the Doak Walker Award people think of him.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and is on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame's Audric Estime responds to Doak Walker Award snub with record