Torii Hunter Jr. Becomes Prime Figure In Notre Dame Offense
The lives of senior wide receivers Torii Hunter Jr. and Corey Robinson have had a similar background, path and intersection.
Both hail from Texas. Both have had famous fathers as Hall-of-Fame-caliber athletes, although in different sports. Both of the sons ended up at Notre Dame … and now both are involved in other activities besides football.
Robinson is making preparations to take office as the Notre Dame student body president on April 1, while Hunter has been working out with the Fighting Irish baseball team, the sport in which his father, Torii Sr., spent 19 MLB seasons before retiring last year.
In 2016, both are vital components to compensate for a relatively green receiving corps that lost its three 2015 starters, All-American game-breaker Will Fuller, Nick Pietrosante Award winner Chris Brown and slot Amir Carlisle, whose 32 catches last season were third on the team to Fuller (62) and Brown (48).
Renaissance man Robinson saw his production slip from 40 catches as a sophomore to 16 as a junior, prompting theories that possibly his numerous activities and interests beyond the gridiron did not allow him to maximize his football potential.
“Corey has a lot on his plate,” Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said, “and so the conversation that I had with Corey really was where is football in this priority list for you, and how important it is to you. As we got a chance to talk more about it, it was important for him to play football.
“We’ve both had some give and take in terms of how we can make it happen, and then we had the conversation about student government, and we were certainly very supportive of it.”
Overlooked some is Hunter’s involvement with coach Mik Aoki’s baseball team, which made the NCAA Tournament last year but has sputtered to a 7-8 start this year. Hunter has made seven appearances (no starts) and has batted only six times, getting one hit (.167 average) and striking out three times. On Wednesday, he practiced with the football team in the morning and had an at-bat that evening in a 10-3 win over Toledo.
On the surface, it might not seem worth Hunter’s while to continue playing baseball, but it’s a pursuit he wants to continue, and he has Kelly’s blessing.
“We need him, and we’ll have him here,” Kelly said. “Torii is very realistic about the balance that needs to take place between football and baseball. He wants to continue to pursue both and we’re fine with it, but he knows he’s in a very important part of this offense, as well. If there’s a conflict on one practice for a four-game series or a three-game series, we’ll make some opportunities available to him, but he’ll be here and won’t be missing in action.”
“I have a pretty good hold of the offense, so that kind of makes it a lot easier,” Hunter said of his experience. “Going in there [for the first practice], I felt like I knew what I was doing. Of course there are things you can work on, but I just felt comfortable … it makes life a lot easier when you don’t have to panic about what’s going on.”
Hunter began to come into his own last season as a junior after recovering from a devastating leg injury prior to his freshman season. He was a standout during August camp, and his junior campaign with 28 catches for 363 yards and two scores were similar to C.J. Prosise’s 29 catches for 516 yards and two scores in 2014 as a junior. (The numbers were similar as sophomores, too, with Prosise catching seven passes for 72 yards and Hunter seven for 65 yards with a score.)
Like Prosise, Hunter is versatile, carrying the ball five times last season on jet sweeps (Prosise had 10 such carries as a junior), plus also taking a few snaps at nickel back for the defense, where Prosise originally began his career.
Like Prosise at running back in 2015, Hunter might need to make a similar powerful impact as a receiver because of the relative green corps that is returning at the X (wide field), W (boundary side of the field) and Z (slot).
Working with Robinson at W is sophomore Miles Boykin, who redshirted last year.
At X, sophomore Equanimeous St. Brown and junior Corey Holmes have one career catch between them.
At Z, behind Hunter, sophomore CJ Sanders’ one catch in 2015 was good for no gain.
Hunter is the wild card in the receiving equation because he has learned how to play all three positions.
“Coach really stressed that I should learn every position and know the concepts,” Hunter said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do the last couple of years and it’s really paid off and allowed me to move around. … I know what to do; it’s just the way I have to run routes and things like that.
“I’m not striving [to play] any position. I told Coach just keep moving me around until you find a fit for me. I don’t really have a preference. I played Z last season … I’ll just work to be the best at it.”
If there is one absolute about the receiving corps, it’s that the 6-0, 195-pound Hunter is going to have to be an alpha figure.
“Torii is going to be on the field starting for us somewhere, but we’ve got to figure out some of these guys that don’t have a home right now that are really, really talented, and then kind of go from there,” Kelly said. “It'll depend on the development of our W position. We’re feeling pretty good with EQ [St. Brown] out at X.
“We’re going to use this spring to figure out where we want Corey Holmes to play … we’ve got to figure out is he an X, is he a Z, which if he is, can we move Torii into the W position with Corey Robinson. We really like the way [freshman Kevin] Stepherson looks, as well, and of course Miles Boykin. We feel like we’ve got a lot of flexibility there.”
For now, Hunter appreciates partaking in baseball because he describes it as “a game of failure” — the greatest batters fail seven out of 10 times — where mental toughness and discipline are imperative.
“In baseball you can strike out — and you then you have to go play in the field,” Hunter said. “You don’t want to carry your bat onto the field, and you don’t want to carry your last at-bat to your next at-bat. In football, you drop a pass, you’re still on the field and you have to go and make the next play.”
In 2016, Hunter will be called upon to be one of the top playmakers, maybe even to the level Prosise was at running back in 2015.