With apologies to Dexter Holland, Notre Dame football has their own “The Offspring.” So “hey, eh, come out and play!”
No, the Fighting Irish don’t have a ’90s light-metal/pop punk/alternative rock band contained within their roster. What they have are the sons of Jon Bon Jovi, Torii Hunter, David Robinson and Cris Collinsworth. Two of which are receivers, so you “got to keep ’em separated” from opposing defensive backs when they’re on the field.
Austin Collinsworth, a senior safety, was named one of the team’s captains this season (“pretty fly for a white guy”).
We profiled Corey Robinson, the son of The Admiral himself David Robinson last time here. We continue to “smash it up” with the offspring this week, by profiling Torii Hunter Jr.
Some Q&A between a reporter and Brian Kelly before the Arizona State loss:
Q. What does Torii Hunter, Jr., have to do to get on the field a little bit more? In terms of his snap count, what does he need to do to get higher volume?
COACH KELLY: “Well, if Will Fuller practices the way he did last week, he’ll get a lot more playing time, because that’s the way he played.”
Hunter only had two catches for 14 yards in that game, giving him six for 58, and one touchdown on the season. Versus Stanford he also had two catches, for 24 yards. The 6’1″ redshirt sophomore hails from Prosper Texas and has been described by Kelly as a “five tool player,” intentionally borrowing the baseball term. Move ahead to this week and now here’s the Torii Hunter related exchanges from Tuesday’s presser, following the ASU game, previewing Northwestern.
Q. Brian, we finally got to see Torii Hunter in extended action this last week. What did you see from him that you like?
“It’s what we have known, it’s a matter of getting him on the field because you gotta take Fuller off the field to get him on the field. We’re going to cross-train him in all three positions this week.”
Kelly was then asked if Hunter should see more playing time versus Northwestern.
“Torii, yes, we’re going to try to give him even more work at “Z” and “W” because we like what we see. We don’t necessarily want to take Will off the field to get him on the field.”
Torii Hunter the Elder played for the Minnesota Twins (1997–2007), Los Angeles Angels (2008–2012) and Detroit Tigers (2013-2014) The current free agent is a five-time All-Star who will certainly heat up the hot stove league next month. He won nine consecutive Gold Glove Awards as an outfielder and has won two Silver Slugger Awards.
So the potential is there for Torii Hunter the Younger, quite possibly, the son also rises.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2