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Fourteen former Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players sat down at different times to takes questions from the media about themselves and the upcoming NFL Draft. Notre Dame will hold their Pro Day on Wednesday, and 11 of those 14 hold invites to be a part of the “virtual NFL Combine.” (Liam Eichenberg, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Ben Skowronek, Shaun Crawford, Tommy Tremble, Tommy Kraemer, Nick McCloud, Brock Wright, Ian Book, Robert Hainsey, Daelin Hayes, Adetokunbo Ogundeji, and Daelin Hayes).
A few of the highlights from these interviews...
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, who is likely to be the first Notre Dame player called in the NFL Draft, brought some energy and more than a handful of really great answers. He also pulled out the finger guns when he said Drew White will be the best player on the field for Notre Dame’s defense in 2021 — damn near killing Kyle Hamilton superfan, Greg.
https://t.co/w66ZQrKwr6 pic.twitter.com/SKvXxPM739
— Ivan (@ivancanfield) March 29, 2021
Liam Eichenberg thinks he’s better at playing football than you are at being a critic of him playing football.
Liam Eichenberg downplayed a common criticism: “The athleticism, if you turn on my tape, I think I blocked everyone I played against pretty well. People who say that, I don’t think they understand football very well and definitely don’t watch my tape."https://t.co/LQxRVj9tm0
— Patrick Engel (@PatrickEngel_) March 29, 2021
Tommy Tremble is one of the more interesting players in the entire draft because of his unique skill set, and he fully embraces that concept.
“The thing he brought to Notre Dame for us and the team that he’ll go to is a different physicality. He was a spark plug for our team and for our offense especially." — Ian Book on TE @TommyTremble https://t.co/sPJs45DFog
— Eric Hansen (@EHansenNDI) March 29, 2021
Aaron Banks confirmed what we already knew — had he come back to Notre Dame in 2021, he’d be the left tackle.
Aaron Banks says he thought about returning to Notre Dame for a fifth year and that he would have played left tackle for the Irish if he had come back.
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) March 29, 2021
Ben Skowronek won’t participate in the Pro Day because he’s not 100% — which is unfortunate because he has a lot to prove to the NFL... and a lot of backing up to do with his own words.
WR Ben Skowronek was looking forward to showing off his speed at Pro Day. States he has always had some of the highest GPS numbers. Adds he’s a couple weeks away from being 100%. pic.twitter.com/bFWi1y2clZ
— Irish Sports Daily (@ISDUpdate) March 29, 2021
The full playlist of all 14 interviews can be found in the player below.
Four Irish players in the top 100
Dane Brugler has his rankings of the top 100 players in this year’s NFL Draft and the Irish put 4 of its sons on that list.
- #15 LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah
- #48 OL Liam Eichenberg
- #84 TE Tommy Tremble
- #99 OL Aaron Banks
I’m not sure how much a great showing during the pro day will help these four’s ranking (and others), but past NFL Combine’s have shown significant jumps for guys with “better than advertised” performances — especially when it comes to the 40 yard dash.
Keep in mind these are player rankings, and not exactly where Brugler thinks they finish in the draft. Those are two entirely separate things as teams draft more to their needs than always just selecting “the best available player” at that moment.