Linebacker Drue Tranquill, center Sam Mustipher and punter Tyler Newsome were named Notre Dame's 2018 football captains Tuesday morning prior to the start of spring practice.

Tranquill was a no brainer, serving as a captain last season as well. He is the 23rd 2-time captain in school history.

"It makes me feel really good but with that, it comes with a lot of responsibility and I recognize that," Tranquill said Tuesday after the first spring practice. "It's a lot of work and I saw that last year. I'm excited to take on this challenge."

After playing the rover position (linebacker/safety hybrid) last season, the Irish 5th year senior will move to inside linebacker in 2018. He has started every game each of the last two seasons, with 29 total starts in his career. In 2017, He had 85 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, one sack, one interception, one forced fumble and three fumble recoveries.

Mustipher has also started each game of the last two seasons for a total of 25 in a row at center. He's the unquestioned lead of that group, especially after the departure of Quenton Nelson and Mike McGlinchey to the NFL.

"A blessing and privilege to be voted on by your peers to be a leader of this football team and this great university and to be a part of the prestigious group of Notre Dame captains and the guys that came before me and well before me," Mustipher said. "It means the world to me."

The captain that caught many fans off guard was Newsome. But it was no surprise to the players, who voted in the punter as one of their captains. Newsome is the first punter since Blair Kiel in 1983 to be named a Notre Dame captain. Kiel was also Notre Dame's starting quarterback.

"It's definitely one of the biggest honors of my lifetime," Newsome said. "So blessed and humbled to know my teammates think of me that way and to be able to represent Notre Dame at the highest stage, is definitely a dream come true."

Newsome is quirky and beloved. He also does a ton of charity work locally.

"I believe South Bend is a great place with great people," Newsome said. "I really find from me interacting with people in South Bend, it not only makes the community better, it makes me a better person."

He says his inspiration to do charity work dates back to a serious car accident he was in when he was 16-years-old that led him to getting airlifted and to spend 17 days in the hospital.

"That whole experience for me was very eye opening," Newsome said. Throughout my time in the hospital, I realized nothing is guaranteed. There's a point in the hospital the first couple of days where the doctors were like, 'oh we don't know if will be completely whatever normal is again.'"

Newsome says he fractured his hip, tailbone elbow and back and cut his spleen and ribs open. He says he also suffered a pretty bad concussion that 'cut off his filter' and caused him to say whatever was directly on his mind.

The doctor was like, 'you may not play football again' and I was like, 'get the f--- out of my room,'" Newsome said bluntly to a lot of laughter. "I was like, 'I don't want to talk to you.'"

Newsome says he doesn't plan to change how he interacts with his teammates or how he operates on a daily basis.

"I try to be a very consistent guy and bring the same amount of energy every single day to everything because tomorrow is not guaranteed," he explained. "I just try to make the most of every day I do have here because Notre Dame is such a special place and Notre Dame will always be Notre Dame with or without me. I want to make the most of it while I have it."

Notre Dame practiced for the first time Tuesday morning for spring ball. They will be back on the field on Thursday before taking time off for spring break. The Irish will practice a total of 15 times this spring, culminating with the Blue-Gold Game at 12:30pm on April 21st at Notre Dame Stadium.

The Irish open the 2018 season at home against Michigan on September 1st. That game will kickoff at 7:30pm at Notre Dame Stadium and will be broadcast on WNDU.