2021 ND Football – Page 3 – Syndication Server

Kurt Hinish headed to Hula Bowl

All the best to the man who wore the gold helmet more than any other player in program history

Veteran Notre Dame defensive lineman Kurt Hinish has been announced as headed to this year’s Hula Bowl in Orlando.

Relentless IDL with active punch & use of hands, quality burst, and good play speed. We look forward to seeing @NDFootball Kurt Hinish @Truk_sauce in the Bounce House in 2 weeks! @DraftDiamonds are found at the #HulaBowl @SAGECards @draftguyjimmy @scott_nfl @Marcus_Freeman1 pic.twitter.com/6xuvA6WlS6

— Hula Bowl (@Hula_Bowl) January 1, 2022

Hinish finished his career having played more games in a Notre Dame uniform than any other player in program history.

The Hula Bowl has been traditionally been played in Hawaii as you would expect but was moved to Florida this season. Last year’s game saw Notre Dame cornerback Nick McCloud intercept a pair of passes.

Hinish will suit up for the game on January 15.

Notre Dame blows Fiesta Bowl lead – 5 Instant Takeaways

College football world reacts to Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl collapse

Five plays that loomed largest in Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl loss

Five Stars: Best and worst from Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl blunder

Notre Dame leading receiver to opt for NFL draft

What will Notre Dame do at receiver for 2022?

Notre Dame wide receiver Kevin Austin appears to have played his final down for the Fighting Irish as Pete Sampson from The Athletic stated on Twitter on Sunday that Austin will opt for the NFL draft instead of return to Notre Dame.

Austin has a year of eligibility remaining but appears headed to the NFL. His Notre Dame career was shaky early on between off the field issues and a foot injury that kept him sidelined but in 2021 he was finally able to show his full potential as he hauled in 48 receptions for 888 yards and seven touchdowns.

Austin’s departure is even more of a hit to Notre Dame’s wide receiver group however as troubles in recruiting paired with departures via the transfer portal have left a significant hole at the position.

The departure of Austin likely means Notre Dame will head to the transfer portal to try and get help at the receiver position for 2022. Also, don’t be surprised if the Irish try adding another scholarship wide receiver in the next signing period that opens in February.

College football world reacts to Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl collapse

Five plays that loomed largest in Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl loss

Five Stars: Best and worst from Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl blunder

Kyle Hamilton responds to Herbstreit and Howard

Kyle Hamilton spoke up about the controversial comments that were made on College Gameday

Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard broke in the new year by being college football’s equivalent of old men yelling at a cloud. During Saturday morning’s “College Gameday” they spoke about how players today don’t love football like players back in their day loved football because of the massive opt-outs you now see in bowl games.

You can check out the clip below but one of the biggest names to opt-out of their bowl game was Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton who figures to have his name called very early in the 2022 NFL draft. Hamilton took to Twitter on Sunday morning to respond to the commentary.

Another sports broadcast offers you the opportunity to make “X” amount of dollars that would help you and your family in ways you couldn’t in the past, but there’s a possibility that you don’t get the job if you film another College Gameday. What would you do? https://t.co/3TOY1lVamN
— Kyle Hamilton (@kyledhamilton_) January 2, 2022

Players have more power now and that’s much to the chagrin of some out there.

Kyle Hamilton came to Notre Dame likely to get a great education and develop more as a football player. His greatest window to make money as a football player is now. If he doesn’t want to risk losing what will likely be generational wealth to play in Fiesta Bowl why should he?

I applaud Matt Corral of Ole Miss for playing in last night’s Sugar Bowl. It was his choice and the likely first round pick was unfortunately injured early in the contest. He wanted to play with his team one more time and chose to do so with an unfortunate result.

In applauding Corral’s choice though I feel it’s as equally important to applaud players like Hamilton, Kyren Williams, and plenty of others nationally who made their choices as well, even if they hurt their teams chances at winning a bowl game.

Too often I think these student-athletes are grouped together as being “money hungry” or “in it for the wrong reasons” when ultimately they’re often making the same decision the vast majority of us would make under the same circumstances.

Marcus Freeman discusses Fiesta Bowl collapse

Well, one way to go from here…

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman made his debut in a head spot Saturday and things looked great for him and the Fighting Irish until it all went south.

Notre Dame blew a 28-7 lead and ultimately fell 37-35 as their streak of not winning a major bowl game since January of 1994 continued.

Freeman spoke after the contest and had the following to share in regards to all things Notre Dame and Fiesta Bowl related:

ESPN makes notable mistake with Notre Dame history

It was awful but it wasn’t record setting awful…if that makes you feel any better.

I was largely a fan of ESPN’s coverage of the Fiesta Bowl and am a big fan of Dan Orlovsky’s work. I again thought he largely shined during the game despite the result not being the way anyone visiting Fighting Irish Wire likely wanted it to.

During the game we were told that Notre Dame had never lost a game in which they led by 21 or more points at any point.

(Editor’s note – a graphic stated “Since 2004” but the announcers did not acknowledge it)

That perhaps made for more dramatic theatre but the problem with it was that it simply wasn’t true.

Notre Dame has actually blown 24 point leads before. Most recently in happened in 1991 with the Irish collapsing at home against Tennessee after leading 31-7 before halftime.

The more famous of the happenings however was in 1974 when USC, led by Anthony Davis, overcame a 24-0 deficit to torch the Irish 55-24.

College football world reacts to Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl collapse

Five plays that loomed largest in Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl loss

Five Stars: Best and worst from Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl blunder

Notre Dame running back makes grand proclamation

A Notre Dame freshman made a grand claim following the Fiesta Bowl disaster

If you were looking for Notre Dame players to be hanging their heads and feeling down after their Fiesta Bowl unraveling then freshman running back Audric Estime was the wrong place to work.

Estime, who was one of three running backs called upon to make up for the absence of star rusher Kyren Williams, made a grand proclamation on Twitter just after Saturday’s game.

I will win the Doak Walker award and a national championship next year. Until then it’s time to work…

— Audric Estime (@AudricEstime) January 1, 2022

I don’t know what the odds at Tipico would be if you were to parlay those both happening (incredibly large) but if nothing else it’s great to see a key figure for the Fighting Irish going forward wasting no time to turn the page.

College football world reacts to Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl collapse

Five plays that loomed largest in Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl loss

Five Stars: Best and worst from Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl blunder

Twitter reacts to Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl collapse

Summarize what just happened in five words or fewer.

The more things change the more they stay the same. Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for the bayou and Marcus Freeman took over as the Fighting Irish head coach just a month ago.

Freeman’s first game came in the Fiesta Bowl and everything went swimmingly for roughly 28 minutes. And then the Irish didn’t close the first half, Oklahoma State seized the opportunity, and the Irish have yet again lost in a major bowl game.

Here is how college football Twitter reacted to the latest Fighting Irish loss in the Fiesta Bowl:

Notre Dame blows 21 point lead in Fiesta Bowl: 5 takeaways

Would you rather get blown out or blow a massive lead?

Everything was fine and dandy for Notre Dame with two minutes to go in the first half of the 2022 Fiesta Bowl. They led Oklahoma State 28-7, Jack Coan was doing seemingly whatever he wanted, and the Irish appeared headed towards an easy victory to put an end to their drought in winning a major bowl game that dates back to January of 1994.

And then Oklahoma State answered quickly with a touchdown before halftime while the Irish chose to run out the clock despite having all three timeouts.

A third quarter that was entirely dominated by Oklahoma State gave the Cowboys a 31-28 lead that they wouldn’t look back from and what we’re left with is Notre Dame’s biggest collapse in program history.

Here are five takeaways from a brutal defeat on New Year’s Day 2022.

Michael Mayer sets Notre Dame record

Remind us again how Michael Mayer wasn’t a Mackey Award finalist?

With his two first half touchdowns against Oklahoma State, Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer set a program record for touchdowns scored by a tight end in a single season. The pair of scores gave Mayer seven for the year which breaks the record of six in a year that Cole Kmet set in 2019.

Mayer pulled in five first half receptions for 43 yards en route to those two scores and a 28-14 halftime lead for Notre Dame. The 43 yards also helped him to a Notre Dame record for most receiving yards in a single season ever by a Fighting Irish tight end.

Tight end Michael Mayer tallied 43 receiving yards in the first half to set the program record for most receiving yards in a single season by a tight end (811).

He surpassed Tyler Eifert's record of 803 from 2011.

— Notre Dame Football PR Team (@NDFootballPR) January 1, 2022

Watch Michael Mayer’s first touchdown of Fiesta Bowl

Notre Dame’s all-time bowl history

Notre Dame starts 2022 with recruiting bang

Notre Dame landed a big victory an hour before the Fiesta Bowl kicked off.

Roughly an hour before Notre Dame kicked off the Marcus Freeman era in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma State the Irish landed a significant commitment in their 2023 recruiting class.

Peyton Bowen, a four-star safety from Denton, Texas announced his commitment to Notre Dame on New Year’s Day 2022. Bowen had offers from several college football blue bloods including Florida, Florida State, Texas, Auburn, Michigan State, and several more.

Bowen is easily ranked as a top-100 overall player in the 2023 cycle as ESPN ranks him the 50th overall player while 247Sports puts him at 58th overall. Both have Bowen as one of the nation’s top four safeties in the class as well.

Notre Dame landing this commitment is huge for a variety of reasons. Obviously Kyle Hamilton departs and although Bowen won’t be at Notre Dame until 2023, he’s certainly expected to be an impact player. He joins Adon Shuler of New Jersey in the class at safety after the Irish struck out on the safety position in the 2022 cycle and lost Khari Gee of Louisiana to the transfer portal from the 2021 class.

Bowen’s commitment becomes the eighth for Notre Dame in the 2023 recruiting class that is currently ranked as the nation’s top class on both 247Sports and Rivals.