The most important... Junior

With 16 players listed as juniors on the Notre Dame roster only 5th year seniors have less players representing their class.  This class has what most would call untapped potential, many of them cutting their teeth on the scout teams and or playing behind upperclassmen.  Several juniors should have the opportunity to step up and show what they can offer the Irish this year including safeties Elijah Shumate and Nicky Baratti, and wide receiver James Onwualu. 

Juniors Sheldon Day and KeiVarae Russell are proven commodities for the Irish defense but it is still incredibly important  for them to continue to improve and play major leadership roles for Brian VanGorder.

With all of that being said Jarron Jones play maybe the most important on the defensive side of the ball this season at the very least it is the most important on the defensive line.  There is little doubt that Notre Dame has a lot of young talent coming in with a ton of potential; Grant Blankenship, Jonathan Bonner, Daniel Cage, Jay Hayes, Ryan Kilander, Peter Mokwuah, Andrew Trumbetti, and Jhonny Williams  but the Irish cannot rely on true freshmen to carry the load.

After redshirting his freshman year it looked as if Jones may spend is sophomore season on the bench behind established stars like Nix and Tuitt.  However Jarron stepped up and made the most of his opportunity when the defensive line was hit with injuries in 2013.  Jones will have to stay healthy and use his 6' 6" 315lb+ frame to hold the middle of the line.  With this being his third year in South Bend Jones has the opportunity to live up to all the potential and more everyone thought he had.

The most important...Seniors

Today we will look at which Seniors are most important for a successful Irish season.  Experience, leadership and game action are all reasons why in general seniors are important to a college football program.  At Notre Dame seniors always have seemed to step up and rise to the occasion.  Most recently I think of

Everett Golson may be the most important player on Notre Dame's roster heading into the 2014 season.  We are not saying he is the best but in a offense who has to score more points this season he is the key piece of the puzzle.  In addition to being the biggies piece of the puzzle he is also the teams biggest question mark.  Even though Malik Zaire has looked good on the scout team and in the Spring Blue and Gold Game and true freshman DeShone Kizer has a lot of potential Golson is the ONLY scholarship quarterback to ever take a college game snap.  As goes Golson as goes the Irish.

Honorable Mentions:

Ben Koyack came to Tight End U very highly touted including being named the best tight end in the country by Scout.com.  Like the quarterback position Koyack is the only tight end to take a snap in a college game.

Ishaq Williams is not necessarily one of the most important seniors this season but his senior season is one of the most for him.  Much like Koyack Williams came to South Bend with multiple stars next to his recruiting profile but has not yet lived up to his hype. 

The senior class as a whole may be the most important class overall as they will need to not only provide leadership but results.