The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have gotten off to a 4-0 start in a rather peculiar way. Instead of relying upon their starting quarterback, starting running back, and other projected starters elsewhere, the Irish have had to relegate themselves to the arm of the previously unproven DeShone Kizer, and safety-turned-slot-receiver-turned-running back C.J. Prosise.
Forget for a minute that Notre Dame’s early season success is incredible on its own; Prosise’s rise to dominance is bordering on fiction that rivals anything buried at the bottom of a clearance section at a local bookstore.
Through four games, Prosise has rushed for 600 yards while scoring six touchdowns. Now, remember, this is his first season playing the running back position at any level, and only his second year playing on the offensive side of the ball.
The senior started his career as a safety. In a well-documented move, Brian Kelly eventually moved him to play slot receiver, and then — during the previous offseason — he gave Prosise some experimental snaps at running back during spring football.
The “idea” of C.J. Prosise playing running back this season was more theoretical than it was by design — at least before the season began. However, like many other programs throughout the country, Notre Dame started to become ravaged by injuries. A preseason darling appeared to be doomed by an epidemic of injuries.
Enter, by force and not will: C.J. Prosise — and, as importantly, the Irish’s offensive line.
Before all the praise starts to get pinned on the running back, let’s not forget how dominant an offensive line Notre Dame has sent to the gridiron each week. The holes have been huge, the linemen have been getting to the second tier of defenders on the regular, and it is pretty safe to assume an average running back would look good behind the plethora of talent up front — although, to be fair to his excellence, Prosise has looked great-to-bordering-on-unreal through four games.
Only once this season has Prosise not rushed for at least 100 yards. That was the season opener, when Prosise was not Notre Dame’s showcase running back, in which he still managed to rush for 98 yards. After that game, when full-time rushing duties were assigned to the jack-of-all-trades, the senior has run for 155, 198, and 149 yards respectively — with his 149-yard performance against UMass not fully doing his awesomeness justice.
After Prosise rushed for 100 yards in the first quarter (yes, the very first quarter), he saw very few carries as the game went on, and none after midway through the third quarter — he finished the entire game with only 15 carries.
Stats alone do not do Prosise justice, either. His running style is amazing to watch. His field vision would lend the uneducated to believe he has been a running back his entire life. He also possesses a punishing approach that results in arm-tacklers being left in his wake and first-attempt tacklers being shoved to the ground as though they were mere toddlers.
At this point of the season, most of the Heisman focus has been directed towards Leonard Fournette, and deservedly so. Yet, it might be time to start acknowledging some of the other candidates who have emerged through the early portion of the season — with few, if any, emerging in as explosive a way as C.J. Prosise has.
While Prosise isn’t Fournette — not in stats, not in talent level, not in any way — we are simply talking about Prosise in terms of being a Heisman candidate… not a front runner or someone who will definitely end up being a finalist. However, if he maintains this staggering pace and fewer opportunities are presented in which Brian Kelly gives him rest due to the Irish blowing out foes, it seems likely he will be a name on the lips of Heisman prognosticators in November.
Notre Dame is about to embark on a tough stretch of games in the next few weeks. Starting with Clemson on October 3, the Irish not only have a chance to continue to show that they are a legitimate College Football Playoff contender; C.J. Prosise will have a showcase of games to prove to the country that he not only only has an origin story as interesting as Wolverine’s, but is as effective running the football as the comic hero is at healing himself.
The Heisman race is still Fournette’s world, which the rest of the nation is simply paying rent to live in, but Prosise has bought a few apartments in Heisman-land, and he’s just starting to acquire more assets. Luckily for the Irish, it seems he has a good credit score as well — which means the sky is the limit for Notre Dame’s unlikely budding superstar and legitimate Heisman hopeful.
