Jonaz Walton has literally taken the ball and run with it the last three weeks for Notre Dame
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Don't look now, but Notre Dame appears to have found its difference-maker at running back.
No, he's not the same kind of runner that Jeremiyah Love was for Notre Dame the last couple of years, and he's even different from Jadarian Price, another first-round draft pick, but Jonaz Walton is looking every bit the part of being Notre Dame's next great running back.
The last three weeks have seen Walton go from emerging player to developing into a superstar.
Walton rushed for a Notre Dame true freshman record 181 yards in the 58-7 victory over Stanford, in large part thanks to his 97 yard touchdown dash in the second quarter.
Jonaz Walton Receives Significant National Praise
After Walton's impressive showing Saturday, he vaulted to the top of the Pro Football Focus running back rankings for the 2026 season.
No, not for just Week 6, but for the entire year to date.
Notre Dame freshman Jonaz Walton is now the highest graded RB in all of College Football per @PFF_College! https://t.co/vHmMKD7a3w pic.twitter.com/2yPq4ZcOgQ
— Brad Powers (@BradPowers7) October 12, 2026
Walton was also the highest rated freshman from Week 6 by Pro Football Focus.
As great as the story of Aneyas Williams sticking around is, and as much as you want to root for Nolan James, Jr. to have great success, its crystal clear that Walton has a gear that the others in the running back room can't currently touch.
Nick Shepkowski's Quick Thoughts
I have to be honest and say that there is a bit of a Catch-22 here with these ratings.
If there are ratings then you hope that your team and your players are as close to the top as possible - that's simply human nature.
However, with ratings from Pro Football Focus, I have trouble valuing them too much.
They rely on subjective film analysis and not anything statistical. Just like how fantasy football predictive statistics are only valuable if they're correct, the same goes for these.
Many have felt for a long time that these ratings overlook context of a play or game, which is certainly hard to argue against.
That all said, it's pretty much impossible to argue against what we've seen from Walton the last few weeks. He has breakaway speed, coupled with better vision that allows him to anticipate and hit holes that Williams and James have both struggled to do.
Now, as good as Walton has been, it's one thing to do it against North Carolina or Stanford, and another to be able to do it at BYU.
Walton can tear up the track all he wants against what Notre Dame has faced to date, but do it against BYU this week and have a night against Miami a few weeks out, and the whole nation really will be talking about him being one of the best around.
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Managing Editor for Notre Dame On SI. Started covering Chicago sports teams for WSCR the Score, and over the years worked with CBS Radio, Audacy, NBC Sports, and FOX Sports as a contributor before running the Notre Dame wire site for USA TODAY.