This Guy Plays Notre Dame Football: #13 Tyler Luatua

Tyler Luatua (#13), a Senior tight end from Parmount, CA, helps us move along on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish player profile train. Tyler has had an interesting career, including some ups and downs. He began playing after being recruited for the 2014 class. In the 2014 season, he played in 10 of the 13 games. Coming in as a backup tight end, he was not much of a presence. His playing was sporadic, being overshadowed by Ben Koyack. The offensive scheme of including the tight end helped him, but Tyler became more of a blocker than a catching TE. He hasn’t been much of an on-field presence since his freshman season, and he falls behind Alize Jones, Nic Weishar, and Durham Smythe. So, his playing time might be limited. However, maybe he can find another blocking role in some form.

3 Things to Know about Tyler Luatua

1. We almost lost him to the BYU Cougars. During the off-season preceding the 2016 season, Tyler announced that he was transferring to BYU. He later pulled a 180, saying that wasn’t happening, and he would be back with the Fighting Irish.
2. Tyler was ranked 107th in his recruiting class, which makes his output and playing time somewhat disappointing. He came in with a lot of hype, but that fizzled out quickly.
3. Besides his little “will I transfer, will I not” announcements, he has pretty much flown under the radar, even when he played in 2014. He’s up there for one of the best players coming out of high school that get so overshadowed by other stars/quarterback controversies.

YouTube Hot Fire

Tyler hasn’t done a whole lot, but this block is (as the youths would say) “flames.” It gets kinda overshadowed by Malik Zaire’s monster block, but it was still crucial to keeping the play alive.

I, MattyG, Dub Thee...

Tyler, Triskaidekaphobia, Luatua. Maybe he should change his number from 13 if he wants to change his luck with playing time.

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

2017 Forecast

Again, Luatua might be overshadowed by his tight end counterparts. If he wants to look into more playing time this season, he might need to work with the offensive coaching staff to see if his role could change. He has his size going for him (which is nice), so that could be used in different positions.

If the Fighting Irish run more two back sets or have Brandon Wimbush under center, Tyler could run as a fullback or definitely as more of a run-blocking TE. We see that could work, but it would all depend on the offensive scheme being run. Hopefully the team can use his size and athleticism in some way, because wasting that talent would be a shame. Look and hope for Tyler to become lucky number 13.