Things People Forget About Notre Dame Football: Random Player Names

I was with a few Domer friends this past weekend and our time together can attest to the fact that there are few forms of male bonding more genuine than hanging out and naming random athletes and talking about how underrated/awesome they were. So today, as we anxiously await the upcoming action in a week and a half, we’re going to do just that for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. People forget…

Daniel Smit

Smith, a local product of Clay High School in South Bend, was with the program for the first four years of Brian Kelly's tenure. While he never put up big numbers for the Irish (his best season came in 2012, when he caught 7 passes for 47 yards), Smith was known as a key glue in the receivers room. This was especially true in his last few years, when Notre Dame's younger wideouts often he shouted out as a leader in practice. A true team player, he was also an effective blocking receiver to the point that my friends and I often joked that his presence on the field meant the next play was almost certainly a run to the outside.

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Those of you who already know will notice that I buried the introduction about what Smith was probably most known for at Notre Dame, namely being the boyfriend (now husband) of future WNBA star Skylar Diggins. Not every victory happens on the field, people.

Mike Goolsby

One of those guys who often didn't show up on the stat sheet, but whose name was mentioned constantly during games from 2000-2004 (Goolsby missed the 2003 season with a torn labrum), Goolsby was a special-teams hero for his first few seasons before becoming a starter at inside linebacker in 2002. A vintage linebacker with tremendous downhill pursuit and hustle, Goolsby specialized in backfield havoc, collecting 13 TFLs and four sacks as an inside rusher in 2002 and leading the team with 97 total tackles in 2004.

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Goolsby's best game and play came against the Volunteers from Tennessee in 2004, when his 14 tackles and unconventional pick-six (sorry for the terrible video quality below) sealed an unlikely Irish upset in Knoxville.

Faithful followers of the Notre Dame blogosphere are no doubt familiar with Goolsby's name, as he now presents his own show at Blue & Gold.

Darrin Muren

Darrin Walls is an exceptionally talented corner who has had his fair share of adversity both at Notre Dame and at the next level. He may be the best player you've forgotten about if you're an Irish or American fan. New York Jets.

As a college player, Walls had quite the rollercoaster ride, starting his career against Calvin Johnson in a season opener against the Georgia Tech Yellow Vestshe became one of the few bright spots in Notre Dame's secondary over the next two seasons. His playmaking ability came to the fore in a tough matchup at the Penn State Nittany Lions in 2007, when his 73-yard interception return for a touchdown briefly gave Irish fans hope that the season wouldn't be a complete disaster.

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However, an academic honor code violation caused him to miss the 2008 season, and some of the rust from that missed year of action was still evident in a mixed 2009 campaign. But operating in Bob Diacos' defense in his fifth-year campaign in 2010, Wall's leadership and playmaking became key to that team's second half. He recorded 30 tackles and three interceptions, including a final pick-six against — funnily enough, in 2024 — the Army Black Knights at Yankee Stadium.

Walls had a similar detour in the NFL, when he made the Jets practice squad in 2012 after an injury to Darrelle Revis. Undeterred, Walls found himself in a starting role by the end of the season. By 2014, he was a full-time starter and the Jets lead in breaking up passes and intercepting them.

After leaving the NFL in 2016, Walls turned to coaching and is now co-defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach for the FCS Albany Great Danes.