Notre Dame football running back Audric Estimé keeps chugging forward

SOUTH BEND — From Audric Estimé’s earliest days on a football field, the unmistakable sound of his mother’s voice accompanied his every step.

Now a junior running back for Notre Dame football, Estimé was 4 when he took his first handoff. This was back east in Spring Valley, N.Y., hard by the New Jersey state line, and it didn’t take him long to earn a classic nickname from his .  

“My sister would be on the sideline, cheering him on: ‘Go Bulldog!’ “ Garick Noisette, 53, recalled in a recent phone interview. “He was all over the field, like a little bulldog, so that’s what they called him. I remember vividly. She would yell, ‘Go Bulldog! Go Bulldog!’ “

Bertha Noisette was a frail woman who battled the effects of sickle cell disease throughout her short, painful life. A single mother, she worked long hospital shifts as a registered nurse but always made sure to be there for Audric and his brother Khadar, 2 years older and a 2022 graduate of Monmouth (N.J.) University with a business degree.

“Honest to God, sometimes I didn’t even know how she did it,” said Garick Noisette, who served in the U.S. Army and now works as East Coast operations field manager for Motorola Solutions. “Mind you, she could hardly walk. But she found herself every weekend or every game day right there, cheering her boys on.”

Treatments for sickle cell have improved over the years, but blood flow was always a concern during Bertha Noisette’s lifetime. Any open wound would take much longer to heal than it would for the average person.

According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s website, the condition affects more than 20 million people worldwide, including 100,000 in the U.S.

“Unfortunately, when she was growing up, they didn’t know too much about sickle cell, per se,” Garick Noisette said. “She used to get a lot of blood transfusions. Getting cleaner and better blood into her system helped with the crisis, but once the crisis hit, it used to be terrible. She had pain all over.”

And yet her family saw her battle constantly and without complaint until she died on Oct. 30, 2013. Bertha Noisette was 41.

“Determination, heart, courage,” Garick Noisette said. “If you saw my sister, that’s the inspiration she gave Audric and Khadar. Not by telling them. Just by doing. She found the strength and the courage on a regular basis.

“Sometimes you transfer more information to someone just by doing instead of telling. My sister, she did it by example, and that’s how Audric and Khadar are. Once they set their minds to something, it’s like, ‘Go, go, go, go!’ “

Terrence Fedé and the Miami Dolphins offer inspiration

Suffering such a devastating loss at such a young age could have broken 10-year-old Audric Estimé. His mother’s death could have left him embittered and angry.

Instead, with the support of an extended Haitian American family that rallied around him and Khadar, sports became even more of a refuge. At the forefront were Uncle Garick Noisette and Aunt Marise Fedé, Bertha’s other sister, who raised the Estimé boys as their own.

“Because we have such a tight-knit family, we rallied around both of them and just made sure whatever they needed was being taken care of,” Garick Noisette said. “The good thing about football with kids, that’s their escape. We tried our best to keep them active and busy in other aspects of life so they wouldn’t have to worry about the fact their mother just passed away. That took them out of that mindset that ‘Mommy’s not here.’ ”

Cousin Terrence Fedé, Audric’s godfather, finished up his senior season at FCS-level Marist University in upstate New York and was drafted in 2014 by the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

“That gave flame to my fire,” Estimé said last season. “I was 10 years old. That gave me a picture like, ‘Dang, my dream.’ I can actually make this thing happen.”

It didn’t matter that Fedé, a 6-foot-4, 267-pound defensive end, had to wait until the seventh round (234 overall) to hear his name called. Six months after burying Bertha Noisette, the family had something to celebrate.

“Every time (the Dolphins) came to MetLife Stadium, I was there,” Estimé said. “We made a trip to Miami once a year. And when they played in Boston, too. We tried to make every game we could.”

Fedé went on to play four seasons with the Dolphins before retiring due to injury. His blocked punt late in his rookie season was the difference in a win over the Minnesota Vikings.

“We grew up in the same house,” said Estimé, who switched to No. 7 (Fede’s draft round) before his sophomore season with the Irish. “He’s been there. He’s been a role model my whole life, a guy who I always looked up to. I saw him do it, so that opened up my eyes.“

Dunking in CYO basketball games by age 13, Estimé started lifting weights under his uncle’s supervision. The varsity coaches at St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, N.J., wanted Estimé as a freshman, but his Uncle Garick vetoed that idea out of safety concerns.

Born on Sept. 6, Estimé won’t turn 20 until two games into his junior season this fall.

Estimé was disappointed, but he kept working to get stronger and keep his weight under control. It took him until his senior season in 2020 to become the lead running back for the Green Knights, but he capitalized with a record-breaking performance that earned him a slew of scholarship offers.

Named New Jersey’s player of the year, Estimé accounted for more than 2,000 yards from scrimmage (1,857 rushing) and 24 touchdowns in that COVID-marred season. A four-star recruit rated as high as No. 7 (Rivals.com) among the nation’s running backs, Estimé flipped his commitment from Michigan State after a late push from his dream school, Notre Dame.

Transfer portal beckoned after a quiet freshman year at Notre Dame

Stuck behind Kyren Williams, Chris Tyree and fellow 2021 signee Logan Diggs on the depth chart, Estimé was limited primarily to special teams as a freshman.

Doubt and frustration began to creep in as he carried just seven times for 60 yards all season, burning his redshirt in the process. Six of those carries came in a 55-0 blowout of Georgia Tech on Senior Day, and the transfer portal began to seem like the smart play among some of those in Estime’s circle.

Michigan State, Boston College, Rutgers, Mississippi and the Georgia Bulldogs all were mentioned as realistic options. Estimé quickly shut down that talk.

“Audric would hear none of it because that’s a situation he’s comfortable in,” says Lennie Rogers, a Rockland County (N.Y.) probation officer and a family confidant since he was commissioner of coaches during Estimé’s Pop Warner days. “He has this thing where he says, ‘The real will prevail.’ His whole life has been against the odds. He doesn’t see odds. He has no fold in him.”

Then came a turbulent two-month period, starting with the coaching change from Brian Kelly to Marcus Freeman. Williams turned pro ahead of the Fiesta Bowl, and position coach Lance Taylor left to become Louisville’s offensive coordinator.

Estimé stayed put and doubled down on his offseason training, reshaping his body.

Deland McCullough, a veteran running backs coach with a Super Bowl ring from his three-year run with the Kansas City Chiefs, arrived in February 2022. A father of three FBS football players himself, including two currently at Oklahoma, McCullough and Estimé connected immediately.

“Audric said, ‘All right, I’m going to go through the spring; I’m going to see what happens,’ “ said Rogers, 44. “Then, in the spring, things started to turn. He was like, ‘I’ve got a chance,’ and the rest was what it became.”

Part of McCullough’s so-called 'three-headed monster' in the Irish backfield, Estimé rushed for 920 yards and 11 touchdowns, averaging 5.9 yards per carry. Along the way, he had to overcome three lost fumbles in a four-game stretch, but by season’s end there was no doubt Estimé was the most feared back in the Irish arsenal.

Tyree converted to wideout in the spring. Diggs transferred back home to LSU.

And this summer, Estimé made his online acting debut in the role of Rod Tidwell, Cuba Gooding Jr.’s unforgettable character from the 1996 blockbuster film “Jerry Maguire.”

Thanks to the former Green Knight from North Jersey, “Show Me the Green Jersey!” has become part of modern Irish football lore. 

Audric Estimé at birth: 'Three pounds might be exaggerating'

It’s hard to imagine now, but as a newborn Estimé was small enough to fit in a nurse’s hand.

Born several months prematurely while his mother was living in the Atlanta area, Estimé was a miracle from the start. Bertha Noisette was placed in a medically induced coma to control her bleeding during the Caesarian section.

“Oh, man, how much did he weigh?” Garick Noisette said. “If I said three pounds, that might be exaggerating.”

Now listed at chiseled 233 pounds after slashing his body-fat percentage from 16% as a freshman to the single digits, Estimé has made himself into an NFL draft prospect. Expected to get the lion’s share of the carries this season for an offense with sixth-year quarterback Sam Hartman at the controls, Estimé can see his dream coming into focus a little more each day.

Soon, perhaps, media types will even learn to say his surname properly, with an accent on the last syllable as the French Creole pronunciation requires. That’s all part of the constant learning process Estimé has embraced throughout.

“He always says, ‘Uncle, you’ve got to learn something new every day,’ “ Garick Noisette said. “I’m like, ‘OK, you’re teaching me.’ And he’s right. If you don’t grow every day, then somebody’s going to pass you.

“I always tell him, ‘Listen, nobody’s going to hand something to you. If you want something, you’ve got to go and get it.’ That’s the military in me right there.“

Another favorite Estimé saying: “Life’s too short, man. Just live it.”  

Whenever Estimé looks down at his superhero triceps, he sees a tattoo of Roman numerals on his left arm and thinks of his late mother.

“I remember her from that, no matter what,” Estimé said. “I have my mom tattooed on me. She’s always with me. I literally came out of her, so everything I do is a reflection of her. Everything I’m doing is trying to make her proud.”

Always, there is more work to be done.

“I wake up like, ‘I’ve got to be great today,’ “ he said. “I can’t take this day for granted because you never know when it’s going to be gone. I always want to get better, learn something new, teach someone something new. Because I know that’s what my mom would want me to do.”

Always, there is that same encouraging voice Bertha Noisette’s youngest has been heeding since he first ran with a football at age 4.

“She always told me to keep on going, give 100%, and that’s just what I’m going to do,” Estimé said. “I’m going to keep on going no matter what adversity I face, what success I face. Just keep on going. A lot of people, when they face those two, they stop going. You have to keep on going — even harder.”