Category: Notre Dame Football

Notre Dame in NFL: Four Irish Named to PFF’s Top 50

PFF ranked the 50 best players entering the 2020 NFL season. Four Notre Dame players made the list and one star QB shockingly didn’t.

Who are the 50 best players in the National Football League?  If you ask 100 people then likely nobody of that 100 shares the same 50 names.  However, there are some obvious ones that’d be on all lists if they’re done honestly.

Pro Football Focus released their list of the top 50 NFL players entering the 2020 season and some obvious names made it and at least one name that most would probably have in their lists was nowhere to be found.

More on that last part later but for now let’s look at Notre Dame’s representation as four former Fighting Irish players found themselves listed while one player made a run at the top overall spot.

For the entire list – check out Pro Football Focus.

No. 48 – Ronnie Stanley, OT, Baltimore Ravens

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6

Countdown to Notre Dame Football: 94 Days

In 94 days we’ll again see Notre Dame football on the field as the 2020 season will open. Find out today’s ND Football fact about 94 now!

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.  Notre Dame is set to open their 2020 football season now on Labor Day weekend at Navy as the Irish will play in Annapolis for the first time in the series that’s seen 93 meetings to date.

Yesterday we got news of the game being pushed back a week and moved from Ireland to Annapolis so we moved the counter back up to 95 as we count down the days to the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.

Today we move back down to 94, a number we discussed a week ago as we remembered former star defensive lineman Willie Fry.

Today we look at another 94 in regards to the history of Notre Dame football and it has an obvious link to the 2020 season opener.

94:  This year will be the 94th meeting all-time in the series between Notre Dame and Navy.

As you’re most definitely aware, Notre Dame has dominated this series for the better part of a century, leading all-time against Navy with a 79-13-1 mark to date.

Some quick facts about the Notre Dame/Navy series:

  • Having been played every year since 1927, Notre Dame and Navy is the longest uninterrupted inter-sectional rivalry going in college football.
  • The series has been played in 11 different cities:  Baltimore, South Bend, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, East Rutherford, Dublin, Landover, Orlando, Jacksonville and San Diego.
  • Notre Dame won 43 straight in the rivalry from 1964-2006, a streak that started with the Irish beating the reigning Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach and the Midshipmen, 40-0 in Philadelphia.
  • Navy’s four wins in the series from 2007 to 2016 match the amount of wins they had against Notre Dame from 1957-2006.
  • Why keep playing such a one-sided rivalry?  As fans of both programs are likely aware, Navy using Notre Dame as a training center for V-12 candidates during WWII, paying the University enough in that time to keep the doors open.

Football Recruiting: Irish Active with Offers in last 24 Hours

The Notre Dame staff has been active in the last day, offering three different prospects across two recruiting classes.

The Notre Dame staff stayed active last night as they offered two new prospects. First it was 2021 Californian athlete Chance Tucker to report his offer.

The two-sport star, who also runs track, could play either corner back or wide receiver at the next level. His frame suits either position, 6’1” and 170-pounds, although Tucker will have to add some weight when he arrives on a college campus. Tucker holds offers from Washington, Colorado and Oregon State among others.

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The second offer out last night was to class of ’21 Erik Olsen from Colorado. The tight end stands 6’5” and weighs 230-pounds has released his Top 10 schools, but obviously that was prior to the Irish joining the fray.

Olsen’s top schools are mainly in the west coast, but the Irish have a good relationship with prospects on that side of the country. At the moment, Notre Dame has accepted a commitment from Georgia’s Cane Berrong, so it remains to be seen how strong the Irish staff chases Olsen.

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The third and final offer out in the last 24 hours went out this morning to class of 2022 linebacker Langston Patterson. The Tennessee star has seen his recruitment heat up recently, adding offers from Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech and others since last month.

At the moment Patterson projects to play inside linebacker, the same position his brother Kane plays for Clemson right now. It’s very early in Patterson’s recruitment so it’s hard to have a pulse as to where he is leaning, but if Clemson offers, they could be tough to beat for his commitment.

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The Notre Dame staff has been active with offers out to the 2021 and 2022 class. At the current moment the class of 2021 has ten members and is ranked 14th nationally by the 247Sports composite. The 2022 class does not have a commitment to date, but with many offers out to prospects that should change in the coming months.

Notre Dame: Top Ten Most-Viewed Stories of May

What were the stories you all read the most over the last month? Find out here.

We’re a couple days late to the party but it’s worth recapping the month of May here at Fighting Irish Wire as we share with you what our ten most-viewed stories of the month were.

First off a big thank you to a few people for making us reach unexpectedly high numbers during a month that again saw no live college sports.

Mike Chen has been doing a great job with recruiting news and keeping an eye on what a lot of the nation is saying about everything related to Notre Dame football.

Geoffrey Clark continues to grow and take more chances which has resulted in his best work to date with us.

Jeff Feyerer remains a constant to bounce ideas off of and a key part of talking sense into some of my weaker thoughts.

And you.  Seriously, as cheesy and corny as it may sound a huge thank you goes to you all for reading our site regularly and continuing to help it grow during an incredibly challenging time in an amount of ways that only continues to grow.  Thank you.

Here is your list of the top ten most viewed stories at Fighting Irish Wire in May:

10.  Greg Bryant’s death still stings four years later

9.  Confidence Picks for the 2020 Notre Dame Football Season

8.  Notre Dame’s best teams to not win a national championship

7.  Where Notre Dame ranks in pair of new pre-season polls

6.  No Stanford or USC for Notre Dame this fall?

5.  Notre Dame makes scholarship offer to son of former Fighting Irish star

4.  Top 10 College Football Helmets

3.  Rivals: Brian Kelly a great hire, Notre Dame to join super-conference?

2.  Notre Dame to limit attendance for 2020 home football games

Most Viewed Story of May:  The eight football opponents Notre Dame has never beat

You guys really like lists as 40% of that list consists of a list in some capacity.  We’ll take note of that as we get going in June.  Let’s make it a great month.

 

Notre Dame Intrigue Remains Undeniable

Who has the best non-conference schedules in college football this year? Hint: the teams that scheduled Notre Dame (and a couple others).

Love them or hate them, you have a feeling when you hear the three words “Notre Dame football”.

For some it’s love and admiration and memories of Ara Parseghian or Lou Holtz’s squads being an annual powerhouse.

For others it’s anger and a team that gets too much love from the national media and “is always overrated”.

Either way there is a feeling attached to Notre Dame football, even if they haven’t won a national title since 1988 and that feeling presented itself in a recent list put together by Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman.

Tramel ranked the non-conference schedules of the 64 Power Five teams based on how interesting they are.  The grand takeaway?

If you schedule Notre Dame gets major points.

On Tramel’s list you’ll find USC first, Georgia Tech two, Wisconsin fourth and Stanford fifth. Meanwhile, Louisville and Clemson can both also be found in the top eight.

Navy and Western Michigan are the two Group of Five schools that Notre Dame will play in 2020.

The common theme of the list in terms of the Fighting Irish?

Those six teams all have an out of conference schedule that features Notre Dame.

Wake Forest (14) and Pitt (17) also make the top twenty.  Arkansas (25) and Duke (29) round out Notre Dame’s Power Five opponents in 2020 as all ten of those teams appear in the top half of this list of intrigue.

Even without a national title to their name in decades, Notre Dame has again reached the point of national intrigue that had escaped it from the late-nineties until 2012, with the exception of 2005 and part of 2006.

Other thoughts on the list:

Georgia (13) is the only SEC program playing two Power Five programs out of conference (Virginia and Georgia Tech).  I get the SEC is loaded but that’s a pretty sorry fact.  I guess that’s what happens when so few are ever willing to travel out of conference.

Sorry case from the Land of Lincoln squads as Northwestern (63) and Illinois (64) check in as the last two on the list.  A combined Tulane, Central Michigan, Morgan State, Illinois State, Connecticut and Bowling Green between the both of them?  Keep it.

USC gets it.  Along with Notre Dame and UCLA they’re the only other program who has never played an FCS school and with Alabama and Notre Dame on the schedule the Trojans deserve credit for doing it right.

The list makes me remember how much I dislike the neutral site games.  Why can’t Notre Dame and Wisconsin play in each others home stadiums instead (they might, actually)?  Alabama and USC opened against each other in 2016 and will again this year – why not do a home-and-home instead of neutral field it up?  College campuses help make the great game of college football even greater and I’d never be opposed to the big-time OOC showdowns taking place in each others home fields.

88…scratch that, 95 (ish) Days Until Notre Dame Football Returns

Notre Dame football returns in 95 days. Or 96. We’re not fully sure but we do know the countdown went up, not down today. ’95 Notre Dame.

Happy Wednesday, folks.

A few days have passed by without updating the countdown but just to catch you up, we’re 88 days…scratch that…

94 or 95 days away from Notre Dame football returning.

Yeah I know, we started the countdown almost two weeks ago as we reached the 100 day mark and then the announcement came that Week Zero will instead be Week One and that Notre Dame and Navy will instead meetup on Labor Day weekend in Annapolis.

So with that in mind we go back to the future in a way and end up at 95 days.  If you missed 95 the first time around it was dedicated to Kyle Rudolph’s go-ahead touchdown against Michigan in 2010.

This time with 95 we will honor the 1995 Notre Dame team that went 9-3 after a stunning, season-opening loss to Northwestern, who would end up winning the Big Ten championship.

It started with the shocking defeat to a Northwestern squad who hadn’t won more than four games in a single season in 24 years previous.  As awful as things appeared to be headed Notre Dame bounced back with wins over Purdue and Vanderbilt before destroying No. 13 Texas, 55-27.

The season again hit a snag when Eddie George ran wild en-route to the Heisman Trophy as No. 7 Ohio State beat up the Irish 45-26.  Notre Dame would go on to win their final six regular season games which included a 38-10 win over No. 5 and eventual Rose Bowl Champion, USC.

Ron Powuls broke his arm against Navy in the second to final game of the year and No. 6 Notre Dame entered the Orange Bowl an 11 point underdog against No. 8 Florida State as leading rusher Randy Kinder was suspended for the game.  It was the third straight season Notre Dame and Florida State met with the teams splitting the first two games.

Despite that, backup quarterback Tom Krug used Derrick Mayes to his advantage and had the Irish leading 26-14 with just 11 minutes to play.  Danny Kanell led the Florida State comeback however as Andre Cooper snagged three scores for the Seminoles in their eventual 31-26 win.

Notre Dame finished the year 9-3 and ranked 11th in the final AP Poll in what was one heck of a roller coaster ride of a season.

ESPN: Four What If’s for Notre Dame to be Title Contenders

The Irish have appeared on many experts short list of title contenders, with ESPN looking at scenarios for those teams to make a CFP run.

When you look at what it takes for a run at the College Football Playoff Championship, teams with the least questions heading into the season usually have the best opportunities to finish the season winner of the CFP. ESPN’s Bill Connelly looked at 18 teams and their If’s regarding making a run at being a contender this season.

The Irish were included by Connelly, with 4 Ifs, two each on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. The first If for the Irish starts with who will be catching passes from Book.  Now that Tommy Rees took over for Chip Long as the offensive coordinator, Rees will have to figure out Book’s best bet to make plays. Connelly mentions Northwestern transfer Ben Skowronek, Javon McKinley, Braden Lenzy and in-coming freshman Jordan Johnson as receivers who could step up and says, “someone needs to come through.” Connelly is right, at least two receivers or tight end’s will need to step up and be a major contributor. Keep an eye out for a pair of unknowns in Kevin Austin and incoming freshman Jordan Johnson, either one of them could have an impact this coming season.

Next, Connelly stays on the offensive side and looks at who will line up next to Book in the backfield. C’Bo Flemister, Jafar Armstrong and Jahmir Smith are the returning players mentioned while freshman Chris Tyree could make an impact as well. Connelly fails to mention the potential impact of Stanford transfer Trevor Speights, which gives me a feeling his impact might be minimal. I expect Tyree to emerge from the group, provided he stays healthy.

Moving on to the defense, Connelly is looking at the defensive backfield as and If for the Irish. This point I actually disagree with as I feel like this group will be a strength for Notre Dame. Sophomore safety Kyle Hamilton should become a household name by the end of the year, while cornerback Houston Griffin has been working hard this offseason to finally make an impact, which I think he will. The addition of NC State transfer Nick McCloud, a cornerback, along with Ohio State transfer Isaiah Pryor makes a solid group in my eyes.

Connelly’s final point stays on the defense and questions the “lack of beef” on the defensive line. I would agree with this point, as he points out that just “two of 10 returning contributing linemen are listed above 286 pounds. This group will have to grow up in a hurry to protect the linebackers and allow them to continue to make plays.

These four If’s are important keys to the Irish season, although some of them aren’t nearly as concerning as others, especially on the defensive side of the ball. If Kelly is able to overcome some of these questions, Notre Dame should have a standout 2020

Fans at Notre Dame/Navy This Year?

Notre Dame and Navy have changed their season opening venue to Annapolis. Navy AD shared thoughts on if there will be fans in attendance

Notre Dame and Navy have been playing each other 93 straight seasons with episode 94 now coming Labor Day weekend.  As announced earlier, that game will take place on Navy’s actual home turf for the first time in the history of the rivalry.

If you’re like me at all you have an interest college football road trips and want to experience as many of the unique venues as you can.  For me Navy is high on that list and Notre Dame now playing there makes it that much more compelling for me to try and get to.

But before I or we can go, do we know if there will be fans allowed in the stands?

Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk was on the ABC News affiliate in Washington, DC on Tuesday and discussed exactly that.

On a visit with the Baltimore ABC station he shared a little more information on the Labor Day weekend affair.

So a limited crowd is what it appears to be.  Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium seats roughly 38,000 people and the pandemic means for this possibility.  If Navy goes the route that Iowa State did just over a week ago it’d mean that roughly half of that would be allowed in attendance, 19,000 in this case.

Let’s hope that Gladchuk is right (since he wasn’t for much of the spring) and that fans are in the stands.  Even if it’s just at half or a quarter capacity, it’d still mean for a memorable experience for those able to go because like he said, it won’t be happening again.

Notre Dame/Clemson Line Update After Ross Injury

Justyn Ross’s injury certainly won’t help Clemson in 2020 as they contend for another national title. How does it effect their odds vs ND?

Yesterday we received news that Clemson star receiver and potential first round NFL Draft pick Justyn Ross won’t play in 2020 due to a congenital fusion that will require surgery and leave his future in football very much in jeopardy.

Obviously the sad news of this is the star player possibly not realizing his full potential on the football field all because of something he has no control whatsoever about.

I was curious what the odds-makers thought about the injury to Ross and if it changed the way Clemson was viewed at all.

Back when we looked over Notre Dame’s odds in seven games listed by BetMGM in April the Irish were a 7.5 point underdog against Clemson.

Checking back today we see that, well, not a lot has changed in that department whatsoever as Clemson is still listed as a 7.5 point favorite for the November 7 showdown at Notre Dame Stadium.

Odds via BetMGM. Access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated June 2 at 6:15 p.m. ET.

If you look at where Notre Dame has the biggest questions on defense you’d think this may matter a little bit more considering it’s a secondary that comes with virtually no experience playing together.  However, if the Notre Dame front seven is unable to to take care of business up front it could just be a Travis Etienne show.

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College Football Morning Announcements: June 2, 2020

One of the best WRs in college football will miss 2020. What does it mean for his teams title hopes? And Notre Dame/Navy reschedule opener.

Happy Tuesday to each and all of you.  If you’re looking to escape the craziness of the world we live in for a few minutes then check out my podcast, the “College Football Morning Announcements”.

I don’t get an episode out quite every day (yet) but am looking to grow it in the not-so-distant future.

Today’s episode is short with two main topics:

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