Notre Dame Football: Jersey Number Countdown - 16

If you follow me on Twitter, which a good number of you probably don’t, you know that for the last few weeks I’ve been posting photos of old and current ND players in countdown to the first game. Today we are officially 16 days away from kickoff between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Temple Owls, so here are your 16s...if you thought 17 was rough, you haven’t seen nothin’ yet.

Rashon Powers-Neal - RB/FB - 2002-2005

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Powers-Neal was a versatile back, who could line up at both tailback and fullback. He and Asaph Schwapp are probably the last real fullbacks to strap it up for the Irish. Powers-Neal’s stats don’t jump off the page, but he got the tough, gritty yards as the short yardage/goal line back. In his senior season of 2005, Powers-Neal only ran the ball 31 times for 100 yards, but he slammed home six touchdown runs.

A little fun fact about Powers-Neal is that he played high school football in Minnesota with Minnesota Twins great — Joe Mauer. Powers-Neal was Mauer’s tailback, and as you can imagine they were pretty good.

Torii Hunter Jr. - WR - 2013-16

Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Hunter’s career at Notre Dame was slowed before he even set foot on campus. In the 2013 U.S. Army All-American game he broke his leg. Because of this he redshirted his freshman campaign, but was able to come back and earn Scout Team Player of the Year honors. In 2014 we got a taste of what he could do as he caught seven passes for 65 yards.

Hunter really made his presence felt his junior and senior seasons, as he combined 68 catches for 884 yards and five touchdowns. He was named a captain in 2016 and was second on the team in receiving with 521 yards.

Hunter had the option of coming back for a fifth year, but because of all the injuries he sustained over the course of his career he decided to forego the extra year. Instead, Hunter decided to follow in the steps of his dad, and go the baseball route. Hunter was drafted in the 23rd round by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He’s currently playing for the Angels short-season single A Orem Owls. He’s hitting .306 with an OBP of .384 with one homer and 12 RBIs.