Tag: Aaron Taylor

Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts becomes two-time consensus All-American

The Irish will miss him after this season.

Notre Dame safety [autotag]Xavier Watts[/autotag] has a bright future in football. The NFL is calling him, and he hopefully will have a nice career there. For now though, he continues to rack up accolades as part of the Irish.

Watts has repeated as a consensus All-American, becoming the first Irish player to do so since [autotag]Aaron Taylor[/autotag] in 1993 and the first Irish defensive back to achieve it since [autotag]Todd Lyght[/autotag] in 1990.

When the Irish face Indiana in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Watts will have chance to add onto his five interceptions, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, nine passes defended and 49 tackles. He has earned one honor after another this season, and a college football team usually can’t get far without a player of his caliber.

Hopefully, Watts enjoys what will be his final game at Notre Dame Stadium on Friday win or lose. And if you’re interested in his thoughts about these honors, here’s what he recently said on WNDU-TV:

The Irish are lucky to have him for sure.

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Former Irish star wants Notre Dame Stadium to be loud for Indiana

Crowd noise could be a factor for the Irish

One of the obvious difference with the new 12-team College Football Playoff format is that teams like Notre Dame football are hosting first-round games.

It’s a huge advantage for the four teams to play in front of their home crowds, but the fans will need to bring the noise. Former Irish All-American [autotag]Aaron Taylor[/autotag], who now is a college football analyst, pleaded for everyone who is inside Notre Dame Stadium to turn up the volume.

Taylor has an issue with the fans, as he said “they’re just not loud. It’s not loud in that Stadium.” This clearly can be an X-factor in the upcoming game against the Indiana Hoosiers, they providing them with a hostile environment, especially when they are on offense.

The crowd can make a difference in a game like this, and every little thing will matter in the College Football Playoff for the Irish.

Notre Dame walks into the stadium before a NCAA college football game against Virginia at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in South Bend.

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Watch former Notre Dame great Aaron Taylor tells his favorite Lou Holtz story

If the story doesn’t get you, Taylor impersonation of Holtz will

There are so many stories to be shared about Notre Dame football that we don’t know about, and on Thursday former Irish All-American guard [autotag]Aaron Taylor[/autotag] told a doozy about his former coach [autotag]Lou Holtz[/autotag].

The College Football Hall of Famer described a practice where he got under his coaches skin. As Taylor recalls, late during his sophomore season he was lining up against a scout team defender and completely whiffed on his assignment, giving up a tackle-for-loss.

Holtz then kicked him out of the drill, and actually completely removed his guard position from the play. The national championship winning Holtz then went on to tell Taylor that there was no difference if he was in there or not after the play was once again blown up.

https://twitter.com/CBSSportsCFB/status/1834288499895189580

The “spectacle” as he called it worked, as Holtz actions taught his team that what we do matters, if they don’t do their job, someone else plays the price. While this type of coaching tactic is surely unique, it got the job done.

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Watch 1992 ESPN highlight of Notre Dame shutout win over Purdue

Remember this game?

While it may not seem like it on the surface, there are quite a few present-day connections to Notre Dame’s 48-0 shutout of Purdue in 1992.

The Irish and Boilermakers will face each other in 2024. Although this game will take place in West Lafayette as opposed to the 1992 game in South Bend, a player involved in that game, Irish All-American [autotag]Aaron Taylor[/autotag], will be seen on that game’s broadcast on CBS as he just joined the network’s college football pregame show.

On ESPN’s recap of the game, you can see Taylor being highlighted as a blocker for one of [autotag]Jerome Bettis[/autotag]’ two touchdowns that day:

While Bettis did well on this day, he still couldn’t touch Reggie Brooks, who ran for three touchdowns and 205 yards. In fact, all of the Irish’s touchdowns for that game came on the ground with [autotag]Rick Mirer[/autotag] and [autotag]Kevin McDougal[/autotag] rounding out the scoring. How times have changed considering today’s pass-heavy game.

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Notre Dame legend Aaron Taylor to join ‘College Football Today’ on CBS

Set your DVR this fall.

Since he stopped playing, former Notre Dame All-American [autotag]Aaron Taylor[/autotag] has had a successful broadcasting career. Most of that has been with CBS Sports, and he’s paid his dues enough that he now will be featured on one of its top college football shows.

Taylor has been announced as an addition to “College Football Today”, the top pregame show on CBS Sports. He’s earned it after many years as the lead college football analyst on the CBS Sports Network. He will join the existing team of Adam Zucker, Brian Jones and Rick Neuheisel.

CBS Sports executive Harold Bryant said the following:

“Aaron’s extensive football IQ has been integral to our coverage for many years, and we look forward to him joining Adam, BJ and Rick on Saturdays given their deep chemistry cemented over the years on ‘Inside College Football’. And as we extend our postgame coverage, Aaron’s personality and analysis will be a welcome addition with more runway to recap the most pivotal games and moments from earlier in the day.”

Meanwhile, Taylor said this, playing up his comparable youth in doing so:

“BJ, Rick, Adam and I have so much respect for the sport and for the platform we’re given to break down all the exciting twists and turns that college football offers. t gives us the freedom to not take ourselves too seriously and have some fun at each other’s expense. I can’t wait to sit with those guys on Saturdays and be the one person at the desk who isn’t battling a receding hairline.”

Remember that the Irish play Purdue on CBS on Sept. 14. That definitely will be the ideal day to watch if you’re an Irish fan, and it will be interesting to see how, if at all, Taylor plays up his alma mater.

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Aaron Taylor shares old recruiting letter from Lou Holtz

Can someone get me some of that letterhead?

Aaron Taylor had his pick of the litter back in the late-eighties when he was being recruited by seemingly every school in the nation to help their offensive line.  Ultimately Taylor chose to attend Notre Dame where he starred for the Fighting Irish under Lou Holtz, eventually becoming a first round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers in 1994.

Taylor recently shared a recruiting letter that Lou Holtz sent him back in June of 1989 before Taylor decided to commit.  As much as things have changed in the world of college football since 1989 plenty has clearly stayed the same in terms of Notre Dame’s recruiting pitch which you can read below.

Personally I’d like to know where I could get that letterhead.  Top-notch stuff.

Related:

Every Notre Dame player to win a Super Bowl

Every Notre Dame leading rusher since Lou Holtz era began

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ChatGPT ranks top 10 offensive linemen in Notre Dame history

How many of these players do you remember?

Talk to any back who’s had a great football game, and they almost always will give credit to their offensive linemen. Those are the guys who make every explosive offensive play possible. They will do whatever it takes to hold off the attacking defense. They seldom get any glory compared to those backs and receivers, but no offense can function without them.

While every college football blocker is good, some are just so much better than others. So in light of that, we’ve asked AI writing tool ChatGPT to list what it believes are the 10 best to ever block for Notre Dame offenses. It doesn’t matter which position they played. They just have to have excelled at whatever it was.

This concludes us putting ChatGPT to work ranking Notre Dame players by offensive position. We’ve already ranked ChatGPT’s 10 best quarterbacks, running backs, receivers and tight ends. Now, we look at the offense’s unsung heroes. Here they are with the entries edited for accuracy:

Notre Dame’s top five offensive lineman since 1992

Happy #NationalLinemanAppreciationDay to all who celebrate. Who are your top 5? #ThankALineman

Depending on who you ask Notre Dame is known as being “Tight End U” or “Offensive Line U”.  Some will even tell you that it’s in fact both as the Fighting Irish football program has turned out incredible talent at both positions for decades and decades.

If you weren’t aware, and I’m guessing you most likely weren’t, April 18 is known nationally as National Lineman Appreciation Day.

From LinemanAppreciationDay.com:

National Lineman Appreciation Day is a time to express our utmost appreciation to the great men and women that work so hard for us every day. It’s our honor to celebrate the hard work, innovation, and dedication of Electrical Lineworkers. #thankalineman

Although it isn’t intended for linemen on a football team, we’ve decided to take the opportunity to show some appreciation for a few of the best offensive lineman Notre Dame has ever had.

I would be lying if I said I could begin to fairly evaluate offensive linemen from before I was watching football so here is my list of top-five Notre Dame offensive linemen since 1992.  When the list of those left off is as good as this one will be, that tells you just how much talent Notre Dame has had on the offensive front historically.

Watch: Bryant Young gives Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech

The Notre Dame alumnus tore at everyone’s heartstrings in his speech.

It took long enough, but former Notre Dame defensive tackle [autotag]Bryant Young[/autotag] finally is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As soon as his bust was unveiled in Canton, the longtime San Francisco 49er was ready to give the speech he undoubtedly has been preparing in his mind for years.

Notre Dame is allowed to share the spotlight as where he met his wife as well as teammate [autotag]Aaron Taylor[/autotag], with whom he became best friends. He also gives [autotag]Lou Holtz[/autotag] a shout-out.

Here’s the speech in full:

Young’s story about his son in particular really makes you think about the important things in life. You can tell he misses him greatly every day, and no family should have to go through what they did. At the same time, he clearly became a better person for it, and his faith never has been stronger.

Congratulations, Bryant. Enjoy everything that is to come.

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College football hall of famer SOUNDS OFF on state of college football

Do you agree and if so, how do you start to fix the issue?

Although most have seemingly been on board with college athletes getting more than just a scholarship and having the rights to name and image likeness, the way it has all gone down has left plenty with questions.

National college football writer Josh Pate of CBS recently compared college football to bacon in an excellent analogy that compared the end result in both to the process to get there.

Related – USC about to snag Belitnikoff Award winner in transfer portal?

Now a College Football Hall of Famer, Notre Dame legend Aaron Taylor has weighed in with incredibly strong thoughts.  Taylor, a 1994 graduate of Notre Dame, sent out a strong video to those in charge of college athletics.

What are your thoughts on NIL?  Although done with the best of intentions, they’re certainly adding an element to the great game of college football that the game wasn’t prepared for.

Share your comments below or on our social media sites to help us try and solve the issues Taylor and so many others have discussed.

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