Things People Forget About Notre Dame Football: Position Oddities

With fall camp still underway and the filling of all positions on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish roster just being finalized, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some Notre Dame players who have left their original spots on the field at various times. People forget…

Tom Zbikowski as quarterback

Tom Zbikowski became a legend at Notre Dame (he is the most mentioned player in these articles in recent years) in part because of his ability to do it all – hit hard downhill in the run game, play in pass defense, and light up the field on special teams. But even that wasn’t the limit of his abilities; Zbikowski actually signed with the Irish in 2003 as a Dual threat quarterback. He never took the field in that role again until his final Senior Day game against the Duke Blue Devils in 2007. As a nice farewell, and probably a thank you for hanging in there during that brutal season, Charlie Weis decided to turn Zibby loose in the backfield after the Irish – amazingly considering it was 2007 – won things early against the Dukies and earned their only home win of the season.

Zbikowski’s performance under center easily generated the Irish’s greatest excitement of the season. Duke, for its part, had gone on serious offense and went out of its way to cheer and beat the fifth-year senior as he ran a series of option plays under center. Zbikowski ran four plays before the drive for the Irish ended with a fumble – not by Zbikowski, but by Travis Thomas, because 2007. Still, it was a rare fun moment for the Irish this season and a great moment for the Irish captain in his final home game.

Harrison Smith as linebacker

Harrison Smith is generally one of the most underrated Notre Dame football success stories of the past few decades. That’s not just because of his incredible professional success — he was a six-time Pro Bowler and until recently the highest-paid safety in the league, he has a good shot at the title of the most successful domer in the NFL right now — but also because of his history at Notre Dame, where he served as a striking example of the importance and impact of player development. When you remember the safety he was at the end of his time at Notre Dame and the one he became in Minnesota, it’s easy to forget that he didn’t even start his college career at that position.

Photo by: Jeff Gross/Getty Images

When momentum was lacking at the linebacker position in 2008, Notre Dame decided to draft redshirt freshman Smith, and he actually produced some great results — 57 tackles, 8.5 TFLs, and 3.5 sacks. Smith was so successful in that role — and so unsuccessful in his first six games as a safety the following season — that he was actually moved back there in the second half of 2009. As an incredible testament to the inadequacies of Notre Dame’s defensive personnel in the Weis era, Smith as a safety was one of the most common complaints I heard when speaking to other Irish fans about the team’s defensive woes.

Needless to say, Smith made it clear in his final two seasons that he could do more than just be a safety. He recorded over 90 tackles in 2010 and 2011 and seven interceptions in his junior year before going on to incredible NFL success. Smith’s story is a great one to keep in mind when watching players struggle in their early years.

Joe Alt’s beginnings

Although he has yet to take an official snap in the NFL, Joe Alt is already unashamedly on the long list of Notre Dame’s outstanding offensive linemen to enter the league. He was such an effective and natural offensive tackle in college that it’s easy to forget that he was a tight end in high school and first took the field at that position wearing number 45:

It’s hard to believe, but Alt was only on the field because Notre Dame’s starting offensive line struggled to apply pressure in the first few games of the season, facing a fearsome Purdue pass rush led by George Karlaftis. He proved so effective in that game and in relief in the two games against Wisconsin and Cincinnati that he eventually earned the coveted blindside job for Game 6 at the Virginia Tech Hokies. From that point on, the Irish’s former fourth left tackle never gave up his starting spot until he was selected with the No. 5 pick.