Tag: Ari Wasserman

On3 projects Notre Dame as 11th seed in College Football Playoff

How encouraged are you by this?

Notre Dame has played only five games so far, and the way the season has played out has complicated its College Football Playoff prospects. That loss to Northern Illinois will hang over the team as long as it remains in contention. But the important thing is the Irish do remain in contention.

On3 is among those outlets that has the Irish in the playoff. In this projection, the Irish are the 11th seed, visiting Georgia in the first round. Ari Wasserman, who built the projection, explains why the Irish are among the last four major teams in:

“The loss to Northern Illinois is still fresh on everybody’s mind because that was such a shocking loss, but Notre Dame took care of business against Louisville on Saturday. Remember, many thought Louisville would be one of the toughest tests on the Irish’s schedule. Notre Dame has to travel to USC in its season-finale, but it’ll likely be favored for the rest of its games leading into that trip to Los Angeles on Nov. 30. Notre Dame’s schedule is really manageable.”

We’ll find out how much this hold up or if it even improves as the season goes on. For now though, the Irish are in with at lest one projection.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89

Wasserman lists Notre Dame among ‘overrated’ in AFCA Coaches Poll

Not everyone likes the Irish’s preseason ranking.

[mm-video type=video id=01fcvd67j5gb8s0a0v2j playlist_id=01eqbz1mmy7gev0xbr player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fcvd67j5gb8s0a0v2j/01fcvd67j5gb8s0a0v2j-29ec56aceb3fa74d166438a0714dc90b.jpg]

The first USA TODAY AFCA Coaches Poll is out, and, as expected, Notre Dame is ranked highly. In fact, the Irish claim the seventh spot in the poll. However, not everybody agrees that they should be ranked that high. One such person is Ari Wasserman of The Athletic.

In a piece available only to subscribers, Wasserman lists the programs he thought were overrated and underrated in the poll. Notre Dame is one of four programs he puts in his “overrated” column. The others are North Carolina, Ohio State and Alabama.

In explaining his decision to call the Irish’s ranking too high, he mentions an almost entirely new offensive line having to block for a transfer quarterback in Jack Coan, who is expected to win the starting job. He also doesn’t believe that the team is built for consecutive College Football Playoff appearances. If it were up to him, he would have placed the Irish outside of the top 10.

What do you think? Are the Irish right to be ranked seventh in the preseason poll, or would you have placed them somewhere else?

The Athletic thinks Notre Dame’s ‘22 recruiting class ranking will drop

The Athletic is iffy on the Irish’s finish for their 2022 recruiting class

Recruiting for the 2022 class is about to take a turn, with the dead period being lifted after the conclusion of this month, expect a whole lot more action. For Notre Dame, so far it’s been a great start on the recruiting trail, with 13 commits and a top 4 ranking according to the 247Sports composite.

[listicle id=17189]

With the early success of the class, The Athletic’s Ari Wasserman (subscription required) was asked in his mailbag if the Irish could keep their high ranking and finish inside the top 5. Well, Wasserman wasn’t very high on that projection.

Right now, Notre Dame has a top-five class, yes, but some of that is due to the fact that the Irish already have 13 commitments. The way you can see if a particular class is actually built to finish in the top five is by counting how many top-100 players it has. Right now, Notre Dame’s class doesn’t have a single one.

It’s easy to discount the Irish as this moment if you look at it the way Wasserman has, but there are certainly some big fish still out there to be caught. Virginia offensive tackle Zach Rice, a top-10 player, is highly considering the Irish. South Carolina linebacker Jaylen Sneed, California linebacker Niuafe Tuihalamaka, and instate defensive tackle Caden Curry are just a few names that seen as top-100 players who could end up in the Irish’s class.

Don’t forget about the always underrated prospects that Brian Kelly seems to find or ones that could have big senior years and make a recruiting ranking leap.

In all reality, although it would be nice to see the Irish finish with a top-5 class, it really doesn’t matter. Was does is the development of the classes and the results on the field. Kelly has shown over the last three years, that Notre Dame is among the best schools in the country at racking up wins and making it to the playoff field.

The Athletic takes a look at Florida Gators, SEC dominance in recruiting

Over the past decade the SEC has dominated recruiting but the Gators have been very hit-or-miss with their carousel of head coaches.

It is no secret that the Southeastern Conference has been a perennial powerhouse over the past decade-plus, winning 10 of 14 national championships between four teams: the LSU Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers and — most distantly — the Florida Gators.

Ari Wasserman and Max Olson at The Athletic took a look at the SEC from top-to-bottom, assessing each school’s recruiting record over the past 10 years. The Georgia Bulldogs lead the way in the East Division, who can be expected to be among the top-5 classes year in and year out. The Gators trail their cross-border rivals by a small but appreciable margin, with reasonable expectations landing the program in the top-10 recruiting nationally on a yearly basis.

Here is a look at the aggregate data and the authors’ explanation.

Reasonable expectations: Top-10 classes

The data: Dating to 2002, Florida has had only two classes ranked lower than 10th nationally in seasons in which there was not a coaching transition, and both occurred under Jim McElwain’s watch — No. 12 in 2016 and No. 11 in 2017. Those rankings aren’t horrible, but they are below what should be expected at a school with so many built-in advantages.

Will Muschamp didn’t win a lot of games in Gainesville, but he stockpiled the roster with elite talent. His two full recruiting classes, in 2012 and 2013, ranked third nationally and included a total of five five-star prospects and seven other players ranked in the top 100. McElwain’s two full classes, on the other hand, had no five-stars and a total of five top-100 players. Dan Mullen is restoring order and will sign a third consecutive top-10 class in 2021.

The outlook: Florida, for all of its advantages, is proof that no program is immune to mediocre (or bad) coaching. Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer won at a high level, but Ron Zook, Muschamp and McElwain failed to meet high expectations. Mullen appears to be the right coach at the right time. He has the program recruiting at a consistent top-10 level once again, and that could get even better if the Gators start competing for championships, which they are close to doing. Florida has no ceiling.

[lawrence-related id=25807,25782,25780,25734,25760]

The Athletic complimentary of the Florida Gators’ latest work on football recruiting trail

Florida’s upcoming class now stands at 24 members. Marshall, the lone five-star, is the highest-rated of the group, followed by Tyreak Sapp.

Releasing his latest “This week in recruiting” article on August 12 (subscription required), The Athletic’s Ari Wasserman praised the recent work of head coach Dan Mullen and the rest of his Florida Gators coaching staff on the recruiting trail.

“This week, Mullen enjoyed perhaps his best two days on the recruiting trail as Florida’s head coach,” he began.

“Mullen went into South Florida and landed teammates from Miami (Fla.) Palmetto who both rank in the top-100 nationally: (five-star cornerback Jason Marshall) and four-star safety Corey Collier, the No. 83 overall player. Florida’s class jumped to No. 6 nationally with the two commitments.

“We could make this a discussion about how Miami, which is recruiting quite well this season, missed on two local players who could have vaulted its class into the top-three in the nation. Remember, the Hurricanes have two five-star prospects from Miami committed, including defensive tackle Leonard Taylor, who also plays at Palmetto. The Hurricanes had a chance to do something truly remarkable.

“But you have to give credit to Florida for recruiting these two Palmetto stars. Even though they are much closer to Miami’s campus, they are still in-state prospects for the Gators.”

Florida’s upcoming class now stands at 24 members. Marshall, the lone five-star, is the highest-rated of the group, followed by Collier and Fort Lauderdale four-star defensive end Tyreak Sapp.

A name to watch to join this group is Bradenton four-star defensive end Tunmise Adeleye, who decommitted from Ryan Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes on August 11.

[lawrence-related id=20315]

Playing his first three seasons at Katy (Texas) High School, Tunmise plans to suit up for IMG Academy, one of the nation’s premier talent-producing programs, as a senior.

Florida first extended him an offer on January 29, 2019 and have twice secured his presence on campus, first on February 1 for a Junior Day and again on March 7 for an unofficial visit.

Defensive line coach David Turner and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham have been leading the charge on his recruitment.

On the offensive side of the football, Ocala wide receiver Trevonte Rucker and Loganville, Georgia quarterback Carlos Del Rio-Wilson and wideout Daejon Reynolds lead the way, with another receiver, Jacksonville’s Marcus Burke, not far behind.

As Wasserman mentioned, this collection of pledges now ranks No. 6 in America, per the 247Sports Composite, trailing only Ohio State, Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide, Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers, Mario Cristobal’s Oregon Ducks, and Jeremy Pruitt’s Tennessee Volunteers.

Ed Orgeron’s LSU Tigers, Clay Helton’s USC Trojans, and Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines round out the top-10.

[lawrence-related id=20402,20281,20116,20029,19586]