Listed Measurements: 6-foot-3, 200 pounds
2018-19 year, eligibility: Sophomore with three seasons of eligibility remaining, including 2018.
Depth chart: Doerer will presumably handle kickoff duties to allow senior placekicker Justin Yoon to focus on the uprights.
Recruiting: Doerer’s de-commitment from Maryland to pledge to Notre Dame the weekend before National Signing Day came shortly after the Irish began focusing their pursuit on the kicker, a somewhat surprising recruitment considering Yoon had, at that point, two full years of eligibility remaining.
CAREER TO DATE
Doerer saw action in seven games last season with mixed results. His debut against Boston College consisted of three kickoffs yielding the Eagles an average field position of their own 30-yard-line, buoyed by a kickoff out of bounds.
He recovered only somewhat from his shaky debut two weeks later late in the blowout of Miami (OH), sending two of his five kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks.
2017: 32 kickoffs, nine touchbacks, one out of bounds.
SPRING
Doerer never came up this spring. Part of the reasoning for the coming indoor practice facility — to be completed next summer — is to allow for more springtime work for the specialists. Only two or three of Notre Dame’s spring practices were outdoors this year, and the current indoor facility’s ceiling is too low for a kicker like Doerer to properly work on hang time and placement.
He did convert a 20-yard field goal and one extra point in the Blue-Gold Game.
WHAT WAS PROJECTED A YEAR AGO
“Expect Doerer to handle kickoffs from the outset and retain that duty until/unless it goes awry. Yoon’s injury concerns should be in the past by September, but allowing him to focus on placekicks could hold value for Notre Dame. Hence, [Irish head coach Brian] Kelly welcomed the chance to fill a scholarship slot with Doerer.”
2018 OUTLOOK
Doerer arrived at Notre Dame praised for his ability to send deep kicks high with hang time. It is a unique skill, albeit one needed less and less as the NCAA and the NFL increasingly try to diminish the high-speed collisions of kickoffs.
As a freshman, Doerer eventually proved his ability to handle the specialty duties by pinning Wake Forest returners inside the five-yard line six of nine times, with the other three landing as touchbacks. The Demon Deacons couldn’t risk the ball bouncing away from the end zone, but fielding a kickoff at the three-yard line after it has decent hang time is, and indeed was, a recipe for poor field position.
No longer. The NCAA has now adopted a rule wherein such a kickoff could be fair caught and the ball would be subsequently placed at the 25-yard line. There is no longer anything to gain from lofting a kickoff to the two-yard line rather than simply blasting it out of the end zone.
Doerer will still be asked to do the latter, but the uniqueness of his abilities has been reduced drastically.
DOWN THE ROAD
Both Yoon and fifth-year punter Tyler Newsome will be out of eligibility after this season. Doerer will almost certainly take over as the placekicker, and working as the punter could reinvigorate some of the pertinence of his skillset. Pinpointing a punt out of bounds at the four-yard line does not incur a penalty like it does with a kickoff. Instead, it entirely alters an opposing offense’s strategy.
NOTRE DAME 99-to-2:
No. 99 Jerry Tillery, defensive tackle, senior
No. 98 Ja’Mion Franklin, defensive tackle, incoming freshman
No. 97 Micah Dew-Treadway, defensive tackle, senior
No. 95 Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, defensive tackle, sophomore
No. 94 Darnell Ewell, defensive tackle, sophomore
No. 91 Ade Ogundeji, defensive end, junior
No. 89 Brock Wright, tight end, sophomore
No. 88 Javon McKinley, receiver, junior
No. 87 Michael Young, receiver, sophomore
No. 86 Alizé Mack, tight end, senior
No. 85 George Takacs, tight end, early-enrolled freshman
No. 85 Tyler Newsome, punter and captain, fifth-year senior
No. 84 Cole Kmet, tight end, sophomore
No. 83 Chase Claypool, receiver, junior
No. 82 Nic Weishar, tight end, fifth-year senior
No. 81 Miles Boykin, receiver, senior
No. 80 Micah Jones, receiver, early-enrolled freshman
No. 78 Tommy Kraemer, right guard, junior
No. 76 Dillan Gibbons, offensive lineman, sophomore
No. 75 Josh Lugg, offensive lineman, sophomore
No. 74 Liam Eichenberg, starting left tackle, junior
No. 72 Robert Hainsey, right tackle, sophomore
No. 71 Alex Bars, left guard and captain, fifth-year senior
No. 70 Luke Jones, offensive lineman, incoming freshman
No. 69 Aaron Banks, offensive tackle, sophomore
No. 68 Jarrett Patterson, offensive tackle, incoming freshman
No. 60 Cole Mabry, offensive tackle, incoming freshman
No. 57 Trevor Ruhland, offensive lineman, senior
No. 57 (theoretically) Jayson Ademilola, defensive tackle, incoming freshman
No. 56 John Dirksen, offensive lineman, incoming freshman
No. 55 Jonathan Bonner, defensive tackle, fifth-year senior
No. 54 John Shannon, long snapper, junior
No. 53 Khalid Kareem, defensive end, junior
No. 53 Sam Mustipher, center and captain, fifth-year senior
No. 52 Bo Bauer, linebacker, early-enrolled freshman
No. 47 Kofi Wardlow, defensive end, sophomore
No. 45 Jonathan Jones, linebacker, junior
No. 44 Jamir Jones, defensive end, junior
No. 42 Julian Okwara, defensive end, junior
No. 41 Kurt Hinish, defensive tackle, sophomore
No. 40 Drew White, linebacker, sophomore
No. 33 Shayne Simon, linebacker, incoming freshman
No. 24 Tommy Tremble, tight end, incoming freshman
MEDICAL EXEMPTION
No. 35 David Adams, linebacker, sophomore
OUTGOING TRANSFER
No. 11 Freddy Canteen, receiver, outgoing transfer
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