Michael Mayer Is Focused On Getting Much Better, Which Is A Scary Thought
Notre Dame has a very, very long history of producing the game's best tight ends, and its current tight end - Michael Mayer - has a chance to be the best of the bunch. Mayer is off to a great start in his career, and he's working hard to make his game even better.
That's a scary thought for the rest of the college football world.
Mayer shattered every single season receiving record for a tight end at Notre Dame. Needless to say, when you shatter records at tight end for Notre Dame that's incredibly impressive, and Mayer did that as a sophomore.
The Kentucky native finished last season with 71 catches for 840 yards and seven touchdowns despite missing the Virginia Tech game with an injury.
As good as Mayer was last season there is no doubt his game has room to grow. Convincing a player as good and as productive as he was last season that improvement is needed can be a challenge. Making the matter even more complicated is that the man being tasked with pushing Mayer, position coach Gerad Parker, is new to the program.
There isn't an established relationship that might make pushing Mayer a bit easier, but that didn't stop Parker from immediately challenging his star pupil. Parker, however, immediately let Mayer know that he can - and must - keep getting better.
"Coming into this spring ball, I felt like I had a pretty successful season last year," Mayer explained. "Got right into the tape with Coach Parker and right away he was like this is what you’re doing wrong, this is what you need to change, I was like dang coach I thought I had a pretty good season."
That's a bold move for a brand new coach, but if you know Mayer you know that being challenge is exactly what he wants. Mayer was chuckling and spoke with fondness of that early interaction. Parker's coaching style and Mayer's desire to be the best player he can be clicked.
"He came in here we went straight into the film room and it was what do you need to work on," Mayer explained. "That’s what I love, that’s what I love about him, he knows that. He’s hard on me, that’s what I need in a coach …. He’s been pushing me to just get better, get better, get better, and I’ve been getting tremendously better this spring."
That's the scary part, a "tremendously better" Mayer is going to be a major, major handful for opponents. It's also a tremendous weapon for the Notre Dame quarterbacks.
For Parker, pushing Mayer is part of the job, but it's also a challenge to coach at the level that is fitting such an outstanding talent.
"It's a topic that's brought up a lot," Parker said of pushing Mayer after such a strong season. "I think anytime you coach a great player, a guy that's proven himself that well, the whole key to it is finding what makes him tick. All he wants to do is get better. He's hungry to get better. For me, it's just been a really good challenge to come in every day because I know if I'm not right and ready to coach him and coach that room, they'll get you. That's what's great about coaching great players. It forces me to wake up every morning like okay, let's make sure that you're making that room better."
At the end of a day having a great player that wants to be challenged has made the transition for Parker much easier.
"When a guy is that driven to be great, it's an easy thing to want to coach and make him get better," Parker stated.
Opponents will surely go into the 2022 season focused on slowing down Mayer, something we saw in the bowl game against Oklahoma State. The talented tight end still hauled in seven catches for 72 yards and two scores, but that attention allowed three of his teammates to surpass 100 yards in the game.
A better version of Mayer could very well lead to improved production, but if teams are willing to focus that much attention on him there's a chance he doesn't quite match last season's production. But if Mayer improves his game the only way teams can tamp down his production is if they commit extra resources to defending him, and that's why him putting in the work to improve his game is necessary.
Extra resources on Mayer means fewer on the rest of the Irish weapons. If that turns out to be true Mayer will have a huge impact on the offense whether he's putting up numbers or not.
But with his size and talent, make no mistake, Mayer will still get his.
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