Why Notre Dame RB Audric Estimé says he can be the best in the country

In a way, Notre Dame running back Audric Estimé is just like any other rising college junior. It’s not all football, all the time. He has to balance his life away from the game just like his classmates have to balance life away from the books.

Of course, Estimé’s head is often buried in those too. It used to be buried in fast food as well, but now he limits himself to one such meal a week. He said Thursday he wants to be the best running back in the country. French fries generally aren’t a daily staple for anyone who ever holds that title.

“I feel like I got more mature this year,” Estimé said. “I really used to eat whatever. I liked to eat out a lot. I stay more strict with my diet. I’m taking care of what I’m eating more and my calories and supplements and all that.”

The result is a leaner Estimé — not a smaller one. There is a difference. Estimé still hovers between 225 and 230 pounds, an absolute load for a running back. But body fat makes up less of the equation. Muscle makes up even more of it than it did before.

Not only did Estimé change the way he eats, but he changed the way he trains, too.

For dedicated weight lifters, the formula has long been laid out; the more you eat, the bigger you get. Estimé adhered to that his first two years at Notre Dame. And it worked. But it took away some of the nuance from his potential. He was viewed as a north-south bulldozer of a back when he knew he could be more.

Estimé’s epiphany is less is more.

“I really want to focus on being more explosive, so not really seeing how much weight you’re pushing but how fast the weight is moving,” Estimé said. “So that’s the emphasis this year.”

Estimé’s realization that he can be the ball carrier who breaks multiple tackles in the box and the one who breaks free from opponents in the secondary by modifying his intake in the kitchen and output in the gym is a game-changer for Notre Dame. The thought of a player who had 1,055 yards from scrimmage on 6.4 yards per touch with 12 touchdowns being even better than before is tantalizing.

He’s already showing flashes of his new self in spring practices. He said he feels like his feet are moving a little faster. The words he used were “more twitch,” and Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough employed a variation of the same verbiage.

“He’s more twitchy,” McCullough said. “He’s more explosive. That’s very evident. It gave him another step that we really can see.”

Fellow Notre Dame junior running back Logan Diggs has missed majority of the Irish’s spring practices with a nagging lower-body injury. With no time to actually go through the motions himself, he’s had an up-close opportunity to watch his position mate’s progress.

Even he likes what he sees.

“Audric is definitely looser now,” Diggs said. “Freshman year, sophomore year, he wasn’t stiff, but you could tell he’s definitely a step quicker than what he was. He’s way more explosive. Way twitchier. Just as strong, maybe even stronger, and he’s faster.

“I lot of people don’t know that Audric is pretty fast. He doesn’t ever get the opportunity to break free. But he’s definitely faster and more explosive than he was last season, and you can definitely tell his body composition is changing. He looks more toned. He looked like an NFL running back.”

There’s that word again; twitch, twitchy, twitchier. To Estimé’s classmates, the ones who are still eating more than one fast food meal a week, it reminds them of a video game streaming platform. But for Estimé, it’s the word that will give him those opportunities to break free.

When he’s in the open field with this newfound twitch, Estimé’s go-to maneuver doesn’t have to be plowing into the closest defender for five extra yards. It can be a subtle shake that gives him a running lane that wasn’t there before. The best backs in the country have that extra gear.

That’s what Estimé is aiming to be. Well, not exactly. He wants to be the very best. And if it’s less Raising Cane’s chicken fingers and more jumping Bulgarian split squats that will get him there, then so be it.

“I feel like I’m getting a lot better than I was last year already,” Estimé said.

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