Category: Notre Dame

Notre Dame Baseball Win’s Jarrett’s Coaching Debut

The Notre Dame baseball team begins their season with a road victory against UAB.

The Link Jarrett era began with a 4-2 road victory against University of Alabama-Birmingham this afternoon. Left-hander Tommy Sheehan got the start, going seven strong innings, allow just one hit and walked a batter, while striking out a career high 9 Blazers.

The weather wasn’t ideal conditions for a lot of runs, 46 degrees and sunny, but the Irish did enough to get the job done in the opener. The Irish offense scored a pair of runs in each of the 7th and 8th innings, getting things started was SS Zach Prajzner, as he drove in 3B Niko Kavadas with a single then scored on a UAB wild pitch. The eighth saw two more runs on a wild pitches as CF Spencer Myers and 2B Jared Miller both scored insurance runs the Irish would need.

In the bottom of the 8th, left-handed reliever Tommy Vail gave up a two-run double for the Blazers only runs. Sheehan was the star of the opener, needing just 89 pitches to face 24 batters in a masterful outing. Jarrett and the Irish don’t have much time to celebrate, as they return to the field tomorrow afternoon to face UAB once again at 2pm EST.

Recruiting Analyst Explains Why He Holds Notre Dame OT Commit Baker In Higher Regard Than Peers

Recruiting expert explains why he ranked Notre Dame Commit OT Baker higher than most.

The 247Sports recruiting guru’s each ranked their own top prospects and yesterday they owned up to some prospects they individually had ranked higher than others. According to their composite rankings, only 31 players made the prestigious 5-Star ranking, so with that discrepancy, the experts had some explaining to do.

Brandon Huffman had one Irish commit ranked much higher than his peers, OT Tosh Baker from Arizona. Huffman ranked Baker as the 28th overall player, while the composite put Baker at 56th in the country. His explanation did not penalize Baker’s injury during the week of the All-American Bowl which kept him out that game as well as the Polynesian Bowl.

Huffman had an opportunity to see Baker earlier in the year and made his assessment on him then as “Baker dominated his defender, another FBS prospect. He has elite athleticism for his size, a tribute to his basketball background, his mobility and quickness not a commonality with tackles.” To see what Huffman is talking about, you can see Baker’s senior highlights right here.

It is typical for one expert to differ from another on assessments of prospects, which creates these kinds of outliers among them. Huffman is very high on Baker as a tackle, something that Brian Kelly and Offensive Line Coach Jeff Quinn must feel as well.

Notre Dame Football Putting in Off-Season Work

Notre Dame Football is putting in the off-season work.

At this point in the season the Notre Dame team does not belong to Brian Kelly, the team is run right now by Matt Balis, the strength coach. Due to NCAA rules Kelly and his staff are not allowed to have contact with the players, but Balis is and they are clearly hard at work.

It’s common to say that championships are not won during the season, they are won with the hard work put in during the offseason. If this video is any evidence of the work the Irish are putting in, then you should be very excited for what is to come this season.

You can get your first preview of the 2020 Notre Dame team on April 18th, during the Blue-Gold game. Tickets go on sale next Wednesday which is a great time to see the Irish for a fraction of the cost of a regular season game. Although not much is normally shown during spring games, it is still a neat opportunity for fans to see their favorite team inside Notre Dame Stadium for a discounted rate.

Rivals Names Notre Dame’s ’20 TE Recruiting Haul Among Best in Nation

Notre Dame’s 2020 TE recruiting class among best in nation.

Rivals is continuing their wrap up of the 2020 recruiting cycle and today they have released their Top 5 TE classes of for incoming freshman. It should not come as a surprise to see Brian Kelly’s efforts in this position group among the best in the country after signing 5-Star Michael Mayer and 4-Star Kevin Bauman.

Chad Simmons ranks the Notre Dame TE class as the second best in the country, behind LSU’s efforts. He says the combo of Mayer and Bauman are the best nationally as “Both have size and ball skills, but Mayer is the more polished of the two and he could play major snaps immediately.”

Mayer’s highlight package is more than enough to get Irish fan’s excited for his arrival this fall, but look at what the star did his senior year. Mayer’s won the 5A Kentucky State title game MVP, was the Gatorade Mr. Football, the AP Mr. Football in the state along with 15 TD’s and 970 yards in his final high school season.

I would have to agree with Simmons assessment of Mayer regarding playing time this coming season. With the early departure of Cole Kmet, Kelly has to find a replacement and Mayer would be a solid choice for playing time. Any time a 5-Star prospect hits campus the expectations are high but Mayer should have a chance to show early why he was so highly regarded by recruiting analysts.

Notre Dame Baseball Names Captains Ahead of Season Opener Friday

Notre Dame Baseball names 4 captains ahead of season opener Friday.

The Irish Baseball team gets their season started and today they named the 4 captains in Head coach Link Jarrett’s first year. Starting pitcher Cameron Brown, reliever Joe Boyle, 3B Niko Kavadas, and OF/1B Daniel Jung were selected by their peers to be the leaders of this team.

Just recently both Kavadas and Boyle were named Preseason All-American’s by Baseball America, both on the third team, and it’s a good sign that they were named as captains. Three of the four are first time captains, with Brown getting the nod for the second straight year, but not all good news for the starter as he will miss the season recovering from arm surgery.

The Irish take the field for the first time this Friday, a road trip to University of Alabama-Birmingham at Regions Park. The season opener starts at 5:00pm eastern, while the Saturday and Sunday’s game are mid-afternoon contests. It’s very typical that Midwestern baseball teams don’t play home games until later in the season and that’s exactly the case for the Irish. They won’t host a game in South Bend until March 17th against Western Michigan, their 18th game of the season.

There are high expectations for Jarrett’s first year as head coach but the Irish face preseason #1 Louisville, #8 North Carolina, #11 Florida State, and #21 NC St on the road, while hosting #6 Miami and #25 Clemson. The schedule is not easy in the deep and talented ACC, but there is always hope at the start of a new baseball season’s.

Elite ’21 WR Thornton Schedules Notre Dame Visit

Notre Dame ’21 WR target Thornton schedules visit to South Bend in April.

The recruiting weekend of April 15th has an elite player coming to South Bend. WR Dont’e Thornton of Maryland, Kevin Sinclair of Irish Illustrated reports, will be making his way to Northern Indiana for a visit. The one-time Penn State commit is an imposing figure on the field, standing at 6’5” and 190-pounds, a body type that has red zone target written all over it. The talented WR is ranked as the 44th best overall prospect in the 2021 class by the 247Sports composite.

Thornton has already tried on the Irish uniform, as he attended the Elite Skill’s Camp in 2018, so he somewhat familiar with his surroundings. Since that visit, the Irish have added a new indoor facility after years of being in the Loftus Center. The coaching staff has changed also, as Tommy Rees is now calling plays, so there is a new dynamic among the coaching staff that surely Thornton wants to see.

This is an absolute win for the coaching staff in getting Thornton to return to campus, looking at his offer list that consists of LSU, Ohio State, PSU, Oregon plus others, you can see why. Although there are two WR’s already committed in the class, Deion Colzie and Lorenzo Styles Jr., adding a player of Thornton’s caliber is never a bad move.

Rivals Updates Top 250 Recruit Rankings, Multiple Notre Dame Commits Highly Ranked

Six of the 8 current commits are ranked among Rivals Top 250.

Rivals has made it’s first update to their rankings since December and there are more than a few Irish commits among the nations best. The fast start Brian Kelly and his staff has been impressive, 8 total commits in the 2021 class to date, six of them ranking inside the Top 250 that was released.

The highest ranked commit is in-state Offensive Tackle Blake Fisher. The six-foot-six 300-pound lineman is 20th nationally and 3rd among his position group. Locking up the states top talent is a huge win for Kelly. Offensive guard Greg Crippen is the other lineman commit and the 6’4” and 270-pound Florida native is 129th overall and fifth at his position.

WR Lorenzo Styles Jr. checks at at 37th overall and 7th receiver in the country. Styles has been committed since last October, stands six-foot-one and is 170 pounds. He will need to add a bit of weight to his frame, but he is a big-time player. There is another highly regarded wide-out in the class, Deion Colzie, and he is 71st in the country and 11th at his position.

Tyler Buchner hopes to reap the benefits of his classmate’s elite abilities and he is among the best of his peers as well. Bucher ranked 2nd among dual-threat QB’s and the country’s 43rd best player. At 6’2” and 210-pounds, Bucher has the build of an elite signal caller. An extremely talented group of offensive commits for the Irish.

There are only two commits on defense, but it is Defensive Tackle Gabriel Rubio that stands out, ranking 99th overall and eighth at DT. Rubio had the size at six-foot-five and 280-pounds to be a force battling opposing offensive lines.

Two of the eight commits were not ranked inside the Top 250, TE Cane Berrong and S Justin Walters, but that doesn’t mean they’re not good prospects. It is still very early in the process, with almost a year until the final rankings are made. Nevertheless, what Kelly and his staff have accomplished bodes well for the future of the program.

There are plenty of high ability prospects who are highly considering the Irish including: RB Will Shipley, OT’s Landon Tengwall and Nolan Rucci and SDE Aaron Armitage. Elite recruits want to play with others to win and the Irish are well on their way to having a that kind of class that attracts the best players from the country.

5-Star Class of ’22 Hicks Speaks on Notre Dame Offer, Will Visit in Summer

Ohio 5-Star athlete C.J. Hicks speaks on his Notre Dame offer and will visit South Bend this summer.

The Irish have been very busy recently giving out offers to class of 2021 and 2022 prospects and yet another offer went out to Ohio class of ’22 Athlete C.J. Hicks a few weeks ago. At this moment early in his recruitment, Hicks holds 17 total offers with the likes of Miami, Iowa, West Virginia and Iowa vying for his commitment.

Hicks recently spoke with 247Sports Bill Greene and reacted to the Irish offer saying, “that’s a huge offer. They started following me late in the season but I never expected them to offer me this early so the offer was a big surprise to me.” You can give credit to Defensive Line Coach Mike Elston as he went to Kettering Alter, Hicks high school, and offered him in person after they met.

Alter is no stranger to the Irish as they have sent players like Malik Zaire and Nick Coleman to South Bend. Hicks has his education stressed by his mother, which is always a plus when comparing Notre Dame to other schools in the recruiting process.

Hicks does plan on visiting South Bend soon, most likely this summer as he has never visited the campus. Getting Hicks attention early will be an integral part to his recruitment, with Brian Kelly and Mike Elston establishing a solid base relationship with Hicks, hopefully it will pay off in the future for the Irish.

Notre Dame ’22 WR Target Saunders a Top Performer at Best of Midwest Combine

The camp season has begun for the upcoming football season and yesterday the Best of the Midwest Combine was held in the suburbs of Indianapolis. With this event being held in Indiana, there was no surprise that a Notre Dame target would be at the …

The camp season has begun for the upcoming football season and yesterday the Best of the Midwest Combine was held in the suburbs of Indianapolis. With this event being held in Indiana, there was no surprise that a Notre Dame target would be at the camp.

Class of 2022 WR Kaden Saunders, holding an Irish offer, was one of the top offensive performers at the camp according to Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports. Wiltfong said Saunders “logged two sub 4.5 40-yard dashes including a 4.40 making him the fastest man in the building. He was electric during drills as well, just didn’t get as many 1-on-1 reps to make a stronger case for overall Alpha Dog honors.” Although Saunders missed on the top award, he was still named MVP of the receiver group along with Nick Munson, who is in the same class and could be in line for an Irish offer.

Saunders mentioned his top 3 of Notre Dame, Penn State and West Virginia with Michigan right behind them, but I feel like the Irish lead in this one. His current pinned tweet is of his recent offer from Brian Kelly and the Irish, coming off a strong Junior Day visit, the momentum is with Brian Kelly and the staff.

Notre Dame’s Book Name Among Top 10 Returning Signal Callers in Nation

Notre Dame QB Ian Book ranked among Top 10 returning signal callers.

The most important position on the football field is always the Quarterback and having an elite one typically can raise your chance of winning immensely. Brad Crawford of 247Sports ranked the top returning signal callers for the 2020 season and you’ll be happy to see where Irish QB Ian Book is ranked.

Among the nation’s best returning QB’s Book ranks 6th according to Crawford. He explains why he ranked book inside the Top 6 “Book’s return for a fifth season is a shot in the arm for a Playoff-caliber Irish team that will welcome back six offensive linemen with experience and four ballcarriers to go along with other offensive playmakers. Book led Notre Dame to the final four during the 2018 season and holds a career record of 20-3 as starting quarterback.”

Looking around the rest of Crawford’s list, you’ll see two other QB’s on the field this coming season the Irish will face. His number 8 returning QB is USC’s Kedon Slovis. Slovis coming off an impressive freshman campaign, will be among the nation’s best this season. The number 1 QB on the list is Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, which comes to no one’s surprise. Lawrence has lost one game in collegiate career, this past years National Championship game. The Tigers signal caller will most likely hear his name called first in next year’s NFL Draft.

There are plenty of reasons to be excited for this upcoming football season for the Irish, and Ian Book is surely one of them. The Senior will have to find new weapons to hand the ball off to and throw to, but with a veteran offensive line that will give Book plenty of time to find his receivers, everything should work out fine.