Category: Notre Dame Football

Notre Dame Football COVID-19 Testing Update

If you’re looking for good news in the way a group here nationally is handling COVID-19 you certainly don’t want to look at Major League Baseball as five more St. Louis Cardinals tested positive on Saturday morning. One place in sports where test …

If you’re looking for good news in the way a group here nationally is handling COVID-19 you certainly don’t want to look at Major League Baseball as five more St. Louis Cardinals tested positive on Saturday morning.

One place in sports where test results continue to comeback negative, however?

The Notre Dame football program.

Saturday saw the football program release the results of their latest round of COVID-19 testing and to make a long story short – Notre Dame got a perfect score.

103 players tested and 103 negative tests.

Notre Dame has now administered 459 tests to the football team and athletic staff in recent with just two positive tests coming back and both of those players have since recovered.

The Notre Dame football program has clearly done a great job keeping COVID-19 from overtaking their locker room. Let’s hope they can keep that up and that more programs nationally start to have similar success stories.

College football scholarships for 2021 class officially offered August 1

Welcome to August, college football fans. As we await what will happen with is the first Saturday of college football four weeks from now we’ve reached a significant date on the recruiting calendar. August 1 is the first day that teams can make …

Welcome to August, college football fans. As we await what will happen with is the first Saturday of college football four weeks from now we’ve reached a significant date on the recruiting calendar.

August 1 is the first day that teams can make official, written scholarship offers to players in the 2021 recruiting cycle.

Notre Dame, along with the rest of college football created graphics and sent them to their ’21 pledges to share on social media.

Four-star quarterback Tyler Buchner’s post:

Plenty of the rest of the class of ’21 shared the same personalized posts to acknowledge the official offers.

Notre Dame currently sits with 15 commitments in the ’21 class after tight end Mitchell Evans and running back Logan Diggs both made their announcements this past week.

Farewell to Golic & Wingo on ESPN Radio, Mike Golic’s morning show

After 22 years the voice of ESPN morning radio hangs it up to return to the collegiate game.

Former Notre Dame standout defensive tackle Mike Golic has had plenty of success on and off the field. Golic was a captain in his senior season with the Irish before being drafted in the 10th round by the Houston Oilers and playing in the NFL for 8 seasons. His post playing career has been even more impressive, as he began it prior to even finishing his NFL career.

During his time with the Philadelphia Eagles, Golic would do a weekly segment on the Randall Cunningham Show which began a long, successful media career. I did take him a few years to blossom but once he did, along with Mike Greenberg, Golic became the face of ESPN radio. The show began just on ESPN radio affiliates then moves to a simulcast on ESPN2. When Greenberg left, Golic had about two weeks off before getting back on the mic with Trey Wingo as their show’s run of three years came to an end today. That’s over 22 years of morning radio for the former Notre Dame star.

What’s in store next for Golic isn’t retirement, he will be behind the mic for ESPN during the college football season. That means we will get plenty more of Golic in our ears for the foreseeable future and that doesn’t seem to bother us one bit.

Irish stay hot on the recruiting trail, add ’21 TE Evans

With Ohio tight end Mitchell Evans committing to Notre Dame today, that makes 4 commits this week for the Irish.

It’s safe to say the Irish are red-hot on the recruiting trail right now. Just this week Brian Kelly and his staff have landed 2021 RB Logan Diggs, class of 2022 offensive tackle Joey Tanona and tight end Jack Nickel. You can now add ’21 tight end Mitchell Evans to the group also.

The Ohio tight end stands 6-foot-7-inches and weighs 240-pounds and the Irish beat out West Virginia, Florida State, Michigan State and others for Evans commitment. By the 247Sports composite, Evans is the 20th tight end nationally and the 435th overall player in the country.

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You want to know go good of an athlete Evans is? Just watch his highlight reel above and you see right away what the Irish staff liked about the tight end. The first play Evans lines up a quarterback and takes the snap 50-plus yards for a touchdown. There’s a lot to like about Evans’ game even though he didn’t put up eye-popping stats. The large frame will be a red zone nightmare for opposing defenses.

The commit by Evans is the 15th total commit for the 2021 class, bringing their national ranking to 13th rated by 247Sports. He is the second tight end commit for the Irish in the ’21 cycle joining Georgian Cane Berrong. Kelly and his staff are most likely done at the position as they continue to add premium talent on their way to South Bend.

 

Is the Notre Dame Offensive Line the best group in the country?

Five returning starters give the Irish a very formidable group, but just how good are they when compared to other top groups?

A long history of putting offensive linemen into the NFL has obviously gotten the notice of plenty of national pundits. Mike Farrell, the Recruiting Director over at Rivals, has ranked the best group of five offensive linemen in the country and the Irish came out on top of the list.

It’s not just one elite player on the line that Farrell likes its everyone “from Liam Eichenberg to Aaron Banks to Robert Hainsey, the front is loaded with talent and should pave the way for a strong running game and a dangerous offense under Ian Book.” The Irish will depend on the offensive line to pave holes for a very green running backs unit. They will also have to give Book enough time to find his also green wide receivers.

It is a very good luxury to have all five returning starters, with the aforementioned three along with Tommy Kraemer and Jarrett Patterson, to help ease the offense this coming season. Having a line that has been through the trials of a season together will surely help as Book finds go to targets and who will be the lead running back. You can add in Josh Lugg into the mix as well in case an injury occurs. Winning the battle on the trenches is often a good sign for great teams, and if the Irish offensive line plays up to expectations, you can expect very good results.

Notre Dame/Georgia Tech moved back to campus

Notre Dame will be playing in one less NFL stadium in 2020 as their game against Georgia Tech has been moved to Tech’s campus.

Notre Dame is set to play Georgia Tech on November 14.

That game was set to take place in the beautiful new Mercedes-Benz Dome in downtown Atlanta, home to the NFL’s Falcons.

However, with the shift in schedules and safety precautions being taken, the game has been moved back to Bobby Dodd Stadium on Georgia Tech’s campus.

That keeps Notre Dame from playing their first game in the Mercedes-Benz Dome for the time being and is the second game in an NFL stadium Notre Dame has seen switched so far as the game against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field has been cancelled.

The November contest in Atlanta will mark the first time Notre Dame has played at Georgia Tech since the 2006 opener, a 14-10 Irish triumph.

Notre Dame Offers Top 10 ‘22 Running Back

Gi’Bran Payne, a 5-10, 190 pound running back from La Salle High School in Cincinnati was given a scholarship offer by the Fighting Irish on Thursday

One day after landing their next running back in class of 2021 commitment Logan Diggs, Notre Dame got right back after it on the recruiting trail as they made an offer to one of the top backs in the ’22 class.

Gi’Bran Payne, a 5-10, 190 pound running back from La Salle High School in Cincinnati was given a scholarship offer by the Fighting Irish on Thursday.

247Sports ranks Payne as a four-star talent and the tenth best running back nationwide in the entire 2022 recruiting class.  They also rank only four players in the entire talent-rich state of Ohio ahead of him in that class.

Payne has roughly 15 scholarship offers and on the Fourth of July named his then top ten teams which included Alabama, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan, Northwestern, Penn State, Pitt, West Virginia and Wisconsin.  It’s worth noting he did say in that announcement that his recruitment remains 100% open.

Payne averaged over 10 yards per carry as a high school sophomore, totaling 790 yards on 77 carries.  He also totaled 13 touchdowns (9 rushing, 3 receiving and an interception return) despite missing three games.

Related:  Meet Notre Dame’s 2022 Recruiting Class Commitments

Former annual rival offers prized Notre Dame commitment

With Notre Dame’s “friends with benefits” deal with the ACC the meetings between the Irish and Spartans have become a lot more rare as the two haven’t met since 2017 and won’t again until 2026 and 2027.

Notre Dame and Michigan State used to play annually in football in a series that featured one of the most famous games in the history of college football, the 10-10 tie in the 1966 battle.

With Notre Dame’s “friends with benefits” deal with the ACC the meetings between the Irish and Spartans have become a lot more rare as the two haven’t met since 2017 and won’t again until 2026 and 2027.

Just because the teams haven’t met on the field for a while doesn’t mean the battles in recruiting have gone away as new Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker recently offered prized 2021 cornerback and Notre Dame commitment Philip Riley, Jr. a scholarship.

Riley committed to Notre Dame on May 5 in what was a huge win for new cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens and the Fighting Irish.

Riley had some big time offers before choosing Notre Dame as the likes of Clemson, Oregon, Penn State and Texas were just a few of the several.

It seems like it’d still be a major upset to see Riley not ultimately wearing blue and gold but it’s worth noting and worth following a bit how hard Tucker and Michigan State go here as that will tell us what we need to know about how open, or not open Riley may be to potentially even looking elsewhere.

CBS Sports Suggests Options for College Football Playoffs in 2020

The staff at CBS Sports dream about different scenarios for the 2020 College Football Playoff.

Since the inception of the College Football Playoff in 2014, there have been plenty of suggestions as to how to make the selection process better. This year could be a preview of what’s to come, as with so much uncertainty surrounding the 2020 season, the committee might just have to alter their methods. After all the Big 10 and Pac-12 have already gone to a conference only schedule while the other Power Five conferences are looking at potential conference games plus-one schedule.

The college football staff at CBS Sports all gave their suggestion as to how they would make adjustments to this years College Football Playoff. Starting off with Barrett Sallee, who suggests expanding the field to 8 teams due to the decisions from the Big 10 and Pac-12 altering their schedules. Sallee would like to see each Power Five conference champion get an automatic bid while 2 of the other open spots go to at-large teams. He would like to see the top Group of Five team get in as well, making it six automatic bids. Sallee does see an issue however, and it deals directly with the Irish as he says “unless it’s (Notre Dame) a full member of the ACC in 2020, its only chance should be through an at-large.” With Clemson most likely being the heavy ACC favorite, this would make sense.

Ben Kercheval would like to see the playoff field stay at four teams, but the committee would make their selections post-Bowl games. This allows the selection committee to get another data point to make an assessment on teams after many, if not all of the out of conference games will be canceled. Tom Fornelli would like to see conference-only tournaments with the top 4 teams and go back to the old ways of having the polls dictate a champion.

The final idea comes from David Cobb, who suggests a six-team playoff with a twist. Each of the Power Five conferences’ champion would get the automatic bid but the final spot would go to a Group of Five team. For that Group of Five team to get in, the team would have to win a “wildcard” type game to get in, pitting the top two highest ranked teams together for the final spot. What would be interesting is that a Group of Five champion would be crowned, the winner of the “wildcard” game.

All of these ideas are farfetched at the current moment but still very fun to entertain. For the Irish, the best scenario would be Sallee’s, as with two extra spots the chances for a return to the playoff for Notre Dame would be much greater. What do you think of these ideas for a playoff in 2020?

One Notre Dame Star made 247Sports Top 50 College Players in 2020

The analysts at 247Sports are extremely high on an Irish defender.

Heading into the season it is interesting to see which players are viewed as the best in the country. It should not come as a surprise that the Irish have a player on 247Sports list of top players, but just one of them made their Top 50, rising sophomore safety Kyle Hamilton.

A part-time non-starting player in his first season, Hamilton flashed big time ability as he registered 4 interceptions (one returned for a touchdown) which ranked him 17th nationally, while adding 41 tackles and defending 6 passes. These kind of numbers from a true freshman would lead to plenty of hype for their next season and that’s exactly what’s happening for Hamilton.

The brass at 247Sports broke the players down into positional tiers, using past performance and positional value as tie breakers ranked Hamilton as the 25th best player in the country. It’s a bit shocking to see him that high, but many view the star safety as a player who most likely will be a three-and-done player for Notre Dame. I can’t argue with that analysis, as we will be seeing a first-round draft pick roaming the secondary for two more years.

Chris Hummer, who wrote the piece, said “Hamilton might be Notre Dame’s best defensive player since Manti Te’o.” High praise indeed for a sophomore that allowed just a 1.3 passer rating on 250 coverage snaps according to Pro Football Focus.

It is also worth mentioning that linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah made the other’s considered list which put’s him into the Top 75 or so players in the country. Back to Hamilton, as we are seeing the next star Irish defender making his mark early on in his Irish career. Enjoy these next two years, as most likely they will be Hamilton’s remaining time as a Notre Dame star.