Newsstand: Notre Dame tight end Mitchell Evans named Mackey Award semifinalist
Notre Dame senior tight end Mitchell Evans is a semifinalist for the John Mackey Award, the Irish announced Tuesday . He's one of eight candidates to be named college football's most outstanding tight end.
The other semifinalists are Bowling Green's Harold Fannin Jr. , Penn State's Tyler Warren , Michigan's Colston Loveland , LSU's Mason Taylor , Ball State's Tanner Koziol , Texas' Gunner Helm and Vanderbilt's Eli Stowars . The winner will be announced Dec. 12 on ESPN's College Football Awards show.
Evans burst onto the scene as a junior in 2023, when he caught 29 passes for 422 yards and a touchdown in 8 games. His season ended early, though, when he tore his ACL and MCL on Oct. 28 against Pittsburgh.
The Wadsworth, Ohio native played extremely limited snaps in Notre Dame's season-opening win over Texas A&M and has slowly regained confidence in his knee ever since. His 2024 numbers are modest — Evans has caught 16 passes for 133 yards — but the Irish hope the flashes he showed in Week 8 against Georgia Tech (4 receptions for 26 yards) and Week 9 against Navy (2 for 25) are a sign of things to come.
Evans and the Irish begin their final third of the 2024 season at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, when they face Florida State in South Bend.
Notre Dame Tweets of the dayThe Irish are No. 10 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings.
A matchup with the Nittany Lions?
Men's basketball begins Wednesday.
Quote of the day"Well, the logic was they opened the season with a great win against Texas A&M, also against No. 22 Louisville. Their performance against a Navy team that was ranked as a time, that was ranked at the time — didn't have a loss — going into Navy and winning in a dominant fashion, we felt overcame what was a troubling loss to Northern Illinois.
"They won six-straight games since that loss, and Riley Leonard is really coming on, into that offense. Not only passing, but actually running. A very good runner. Their defense is in the top 10. I mean, they're a very solid team. And I say troubling, because we all thought it was not the Notre Dame that we've seen and we've looked at, what happened against Northern Illinois."
— Michigan athletic director and College Football Playoff Selection Committee Chairman Warde Manuel on ranking Notre Dame 10th
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