The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have a roster full of players, and we want to talk about all of them. One Foot Down’s player profile series will take a look at every single one of them, and hopefully we all learn a little bit more about these guys, and Notre Dame’s chances for the upcoming 2018 season.
#39 Jonathan Doerer
Jonathan Doerer is a sophomore kicker/punter from Charlotte who came to Notre Dame a year ago as a rangy and athletic (6’3”, 200 pounds now) three-star kicking prospect.
He saw time in seven games last season as a kickoff specialist, and looks to be the likely starter in that role in 2018, as well as backup place kicker behind senior Justin Yoon. He will likely take over starting place kicker duties next year as a junior, with Yoon graduating.
3 Things To Know About Jonathan Doerer
- As a senior in high school, he only made 9 of 16 field goals. However, he registered touchbacks on 92% of his kickoffs and had a long field goal of 44 yards, so that along with his size and length made him a very intriguing kicking prospect for major D-1 programs.
- He was originally committed to the Maryland Terrapins before being offered by Brian Polian and flipping to the Irish in January 2017.
- He saw his first playing time early in 2017 against Boston College and Miami Ohio, but did not perform well and did not see the field again until the Wake Forest game. From there, he performed very well, as only one opponent made it past the ND 30-yard line in throughout the month of November.
Youtube Hot Fire
Oh hell yes.
Country, Condiment, or Canon
Identifying the player as either a country, condiment, or member of the Star Wars Canon.
Wasabi.
Both have a bit of a kick to them.
AM I RIGHT????
2018 Forecast
I think Jonathan Doerer, after having gotten some solid experience last season as a freshman and bouncing back from a poor start to finish the season very strong, will have a very strong year handling kickoffs for Notre Dame.
Maybe he’ll get a couple field goal attempts in garbage time of some games as well, but mainly I think we will only see him as the kickoff specialist next year before he takes up the mantle of starting kicker for the Fighting Irish in 2019.