Notre Dame 99-to-0: No. 5 Tobias Merriweather, sophomore receiver subject to lofty comparisons

Listed measurements: 6-foot-4, 205 pounds.
2023-24 year, eligibility: A sophomore, Merriweather has three seasons of eligibility remaining.
Depth Chart: Merriweather should be the receiver aligned furthest from the ball on Notre Dame’s first snap in Dublin in 36 days. In other words, Merriweather will be the starting field receiver.
Recruiting: The No. 22 receiver and the No. 135 overall prospect in the class of 2022, Merriweather was the only receiver Notre Dame signed—blah, blah, blah. Merriweather’s recruitment will forever be best remembered for being Brian Kelly’s last stop as the Irish head coach, momentarily leaving the visit to take a phone call that was most likely from his agent confirming Kelly’s new job at LSU. As Notre Dame’s coaches left empty plates that were once filled with home-grilled burnt ends, Kelly denied the rumors of his impending departure to both the Merriweathers and his assistant coaches.

CAREER TO DATE
Whether it was Tommy Rees’s playbook or a reality of jumping into college football (more likely the latter), Merriweather struggled to grasp the entirety of the Irish offense as a freshman. Most notably, he missed a motion call against Cal on a 3rd-and-4. That directly led to a botched snap, a blown play and a costly one-yard loss.

Not coincidentally, Merriweather did not play again that day or the week after.

His physical skills mandated he play at some point, though, and Rees kept an eye on defensive tendencies for a look that would set up Merriweather for success. When Rees saw a way to likely get Stanford to single cover Merriweather with a safety, he took it. The result: A 41-yard touchdown, Merriweather’s only catch of the season.

He suffered a concussion weeks later, one that knocked him out of practice for the better part of two weeks. Just as Merriweather was positioned to break ino the receiver rotation, he was set back multiple steps, returning only in the Gator Bowl against South Carolina and at that point with a new (though also old) quarterback in Tyler Buchner.

QUOTES
There are two portions of quotes here from receivers coach Chansi Stuckey. The first part is the pertinent part, the truth about Merriweather’s immediate future, a truth established in that presnap snafu against Cal last September.

“A lot of this game is mental,” Stuckey said in mid-April. “He’s turned the corner mentally, and he loves being challenged. I challenge him in a different way than I might challenge (juniors) Deion (Colzie) or [Jayden Thomas] or (senior) Chris Tyree. And with every challenge, he’s responded.”

The first sentence of that answer was intentionally left off just now. It applies more to the next portion of quotes.

“The expectation is for [Merriweather] to be a great receiver and be one of the guys that goes down in history,” Stuckey said.

That much was still relatively boilerplate. Perhaps a little over-the-top, but nothing outlandish. What Stuckey said an answer or two later, however, was over the top. It was outlandish. It will stick with mentions of Merriweather for a bit, for better or for worse.

“The physical part will come,” Stuckey said. “What I look at and I know what separates guys at the next level is the mentality. He has matured so much in a year, and you can just tell the focus is different. He’s confident making plays down the field. He understands his body better. He understands that given the freedom, he has saviness in his routes.”

So far, so good, that’s all worthwhile descriptions, especially when remembering Stuckey began his collegiate career as a quarterback at Clemson and moved to receiver successfully enough to spend five seasons in the NFL. But then, then Stuckey said …

“[Merriweather] is such a creative route-runner and he has some speed. He’s a guy that — I don’t do comparisons, but Randy Moss, the ball was in the air, it’s like he got faster.

“Tobias, the guy is right next to him (and) I feel like he gets another gear and just runs away from guys. That’s a very unique skill set to have.”

For not doing comparisons, that sounded a lot like a comparison, let alone one to the greatest “What if?” in Notre Dame football history. Then again, Merriweather might be that fast …

WHAT WAS PROJECTED A YEAR AGO
“A touch of curiosity can be disappointed Kelly will not coach Merriweather this season. For most of his 12 years at Notre Dame, Kelly failed to incorporate freshmen receivers. Though not an exhaustive list, the most notable contributions came from three freshmen in those 12 seasons:

“TJ Jones in 2010: 23 catches for 306 yards and three touchdowns.Kevin Stepherson in 2016: 25 catches for 462 yards and five touchdowns.Lorenzo Styles in 2021: 24 catches for 344 yards and one touchdown.

“It is not that it would have been a shock to see Merriweather match those lines, it is that Kelly turning to a freshman in two consecutive seasons would have been a mild shock.

“But, of course, he would not have had a choice. The Irish are so thin at receiver, a freshman like Merriweather is practically assured two dozen catches for 300 yards. He may be a bit slighter than would be preferred, but he has enough physical assets to handle a modest workload, especially against lesser opponents. (Looking at you Marshall, Cal, Stanford and UNLV.)

“Merriweather won the state championship in the 200-meter dash in 21.8 seconds and finished second in the 100-meter dash in 10.94 seconds. Those may not be the kind of times that will lead him onto the track in college, but they are impressive marks regardless, especially when remembering Merriweather is 6-foot-4.

“More may be possible. Maybe Kelly would have played Merriweather even on a deep team. Perhaps he will shine against Notre Dame’s top opponents, as well. Those are hypotheticals.

“The stark reality is Merriweather will play this season out of necessity, and he will play a good amount.”

2023 OUTLOOK
Think back a few days to the Sam Hartman entry of this summer series. Within all his stats and five years of collegiate starting experience, a very simple trait separates him from all of Notre Dame’s recent quarterbacks: The Wake Forest graduate transfer excels at throwing deep.

He has 42 completions and 24 touchdowns on passes of 30 yards or more in the last two seasons. About one of every 20 Hartman pass attempts gained at least 30 yards. He has both a strong arm and accuracy downfield.

Drew Pyne completed more of his passes, but he did so by keeping the attempts short because he lacked both the arm and the downfield accuracy.

Hartman in 2021 and 2022 combined: 60.8 percent completion rate, 8.47 yards per attempt.
Drew Pyne in 2022: 64.6 percent completion rate, 7.96 yards per attempt.

Deep threats like Merriweather were relatively wasted in Notre Dame’s 2022 offense. That will not be the case in 2023 with Hartman behind center. That should benefit Merriweather more than any other Irish receiver.

“You can never out-throw him,” Stuckey said, another statement that will stick to Merriweather.

But at his height and with his speed, it should. Get Merriweather into single coverage and throw it up to him.

If Hartman takes that shot once a week this season, Notre Dame will be better off for it, and Merriweather should end up with 30-plus catches for 400-plus yards, at a minimum.

DOWN THE ROAD
The Hartman luxury will be for one year only, but the quarterbacks behind him on the depth chart also have stronger arms than Pyne did. (Well does, he’s not dead, just competing to start at Arizona State.)

Merriweather should start for the Irish for the next two-to-three seasons simply because years of recruiting woes left them without any other valid deep threats in the room.

NOTRE DAME 99-TO-0
The summer countdown begins anew, Rylie Mills to Deion Colzie
No. 99 Rylie Mills, senior defensive tackle, moving back inside from end
No. 98 Devan Houstan, early-enrolled four-star defensive tackle
No. 97 Gabriel Rubio, junior defensive tackle, one of three Irish DTs with notable experience
No. 95 Tyson Ford, sophomore defensive tackle, up 30 pounds from a year ago
No. 93 Armel Mukam, incoming freshman defensive end, former Stanford commit
No. 92 Aidan Keanaaina, a senior defensive tackle now ‘fully healthy’ after a 2022 torn ACL
No. 91 Aiden Gobaira, sophomore defensive end, former four-star recruit
No. 88 Mitchell Evans, the next starter at ‘TE U
No. 87 Cooper Flanagan, incoming freshman tight end, four-star recruit
No. 84 Kevin Bauman, senior tight end coming off a torn ACL
No. 83 Jayden Thomas, junior receiver, probable No. 1 target in 2023
No. 79 Tosh Baker, senior tackle, again a backup but next year ...
No. 78 Pat Coogan, junior interior offensive lineman
No. 77 Ty Chan, sophomore offensive tackle, former four-star recruit
No. 76 Joe Alt, first-team All-American left tackle
No. 75 Sullivan Absher, incoming freshman offensive lineman
No. 74 Billy Schrauth, sophomore left guard, likely starter
No. 73 Andrew Kristofic, fifth-year right guard, likely starter
No. 72 Sam Pendelton, early-enrolled freshman offensive lineman
No. 70 Ashton Craig, sophomore interior offensive lineman
No. 68 Michael Carmody, senior offensive lineman
No. 65 Michael Vinson, sixth-year long snapper, four-year starter
No. 64 Joe Otting, incoming freshman offensive lineman, four-star recruit
No. 59 Aamil Wagner, sophomore offensive tackle
No. 56 Charles Jagusah, incoming freshman offensive lineman, four-star recruit
No. 56 Howard Cross, fifth-year defensive tackle, multi-year starter
No. 55 Chris Terek, incoming freshman offensive lineman, four-star recruit
No. 54 Blake Fisher, junior right tackle, second-year starter
No. 52 Zeke Correll, fifth-year center, third-year starter
No. 51 Boubacar Traore, incoming freshman defensive end, four-star recruit
No. 50 Rocco Spindler, junior offensive guard
No. 47 Jason Onye, junior defensive tackle on the verge of playing time
No. 44 Junior Tuihalamaka, sophomore defensive end, former linebacker
No. 42 Nolan Ziegler, sophomore linebacker, Irish legacy
No. 41 Donovan Hinish, sophomore defensive tackle following in his brother’s footsteps
No. 40 Joshua Burnham, sophomore linebacker-turned-Vyper end
No. 38 Davis Sherwood, junior fullback/H-back, former walk-on
No. 34 Drayk Bowen, early-enrolled freshman linebacker, baseball infielder
No. 32 Spencer Shrader, South Florida transfer kicker
No. 31 Nana Osafo-Mensah, fifth-year defensive end
No. 29 Christian Gray, early-enrolled freshman cornerback coming off a knee injury
No. 29 Matt Salerno, sixth-year receiver, former walk-on
No. 27 JD Bertrand, fifth-year linebacker, third-year starter, possible captain
No. 25 Preston Zinter, early-enrolled freshman linebacker, subtle recruiting win
No. 24 Jack Kiser, fifth-year linebacker, third-year starter, most efficient defender
No. 24 Jadarian Price, sophomore RB, reportedly recovered from an Achilles injury
No. 23 Jaiden Ausberry, early-enrolled freshman linebacker, four-star recruit
No. 22 Ben Minich, early-enrolled freshman safety, four-star recruit
No. 22 Jeremiyah Love, incoming freshman running back, four-star recruit
No. 21 Adon Shuler, early-enrolled freshman safety coming off shoulder surgery
No. 20 Benjamin Morrison, sophomore cornerback, preseason All-American
No. 19 Jaden Greathouse, early-enrolled freshman receiver, Blue-Gold Game star
No. 18 Steve Angeli, sophomore quarterback, competing for the backup role
No. 18 Chance Tucker, junior cornerback
No. 17 Brenan Vernon, incoming freshman defensive end, four-star recruit
No. 17 Rico Flores Jr., early-enrolled freshman receiver, four-star recruit
No. 16 Micah Bell, incoming freshman cornerback, speedy four-star recruit
No. 15 Ryan Barnes, junior cornerback
No. 14 Bryce McFerson, sophomore punter facing a challenge for a second straight year
No. 14 Braylon James, early-enrolled freshman receiver, four-star recruit
No. 13 Holden Staes, sophomore tight end, up 20 pounds in a year
No. 13 Thomas Harper, Oklahoma State graduate transfer safety/nickel back
No. 12 Penn State RB transfer Devyn Ford gives Notre Dame newly-needed backfield depth, experience
No. 12 Jordan Botelho, senior Vyper defensive end
No. 11 KK Smith, incoming freshman receiver, speedster
No. 11 Ramon Henderson, senior safety
No. 10 Sam Hartman, Wake Forest graduate transfer quarterback, QB1
No. 9 Eli Raridon, sophomore tight end coming off a second ACL tear
No. 8 Kenny Minchey, early-enrolled freshman quarterback, former Pittsburgh commit
No. 8 Marist Liufau, fifth-year linebacker, second season as a starter
No. 7 Audric Estimé, junior running back, bellcow, workhorse
No. 7 Jaden Mickey, sophomore cornerback coming off big and small life lessons
No. 6 Clarence Lewis, senior cornerback with more experience than most realize
No. 4 Rhode Island transfer safety Antonio Carter gives Notre Dame desperately needed backline depth

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