Tag: Big Game Boomer

Benjamin Morrison third, Jack Kiser ninth on respective position lists

Does this excite you?

Despite the hopes for Notre Dame’s offense, it appears the defense once again will the program’s primary strength in 2024. This is not only because that’s how the program traditionally has been, but some real quality talent is on that side of the ball. College football diehards have taken notice of that.

Big Game Boomer is known on social media for making lists, particularly relating to college football. The time has come to list the top 50 players at each position entering the upcoming season.

Big Game Boomer released the list for linebackers Sunday, and a familiar name for Irish fans ranked highly:

The next day, the list for cornerbacks came out, and another Notre Dame name was even higher up:

Morrison isn’t a surprise as he’s widely expect to be picked early in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft. Kiser could be drafted on the second or third day depending on how well he builds his stock this season. Either way, Irish fans have reason for excitement.

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Big Game Boomer names Notre Dame nicest college campus

Irish fans are lucky to have so many wonderful things to look at.

If you’re reading this site, chances are you have been to the Notre Dame campus at least once. And you don’t need to be told how nice it looks.

Now, it’s at the top of the rankings in that area in at least one person’s opinion. Twitter user Big Game Boomer, who makes lists related to just about everything in college sports, released one that ranks the niceness of all Power Five campuses. Notre Dame topped the list:

Having made numerous trips to Notre Dame this past basketball season, I can attest to that niceness. A lovely autumn afternoon is the perfect time to check the campus out as the colored leaves really bring out the beauty. Of course, going at any time during the year is good. From the Golden Dome to Touchdown Jesus to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, there is no way anyone can leave campus feeling disappointed by what they just experienced.

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Notre Dame’s Mitchell Evans named top tight end heading into 2024

How much does this excite you?

Notre Dame has developed quite the reputation for developing tight ends in recent years. When one standout at that position moves on, there seemingly always is another one ready to fill that role.

The Irish’s top tight end this season is [autotag]Mitchell Evans[/autotag], who finished behind the departed Chris Tyree for most receiving yards on the 2023 Irish. Needless to say, he’ll be relied upon heavily for the Irish’s success in 2024. In fact, according to Big Game Boomer, social media’s college sports list aficionado, there’s nobody better in the country at his position:

In another list tweeted by Big Game Boomer earlier this week, [autotag]Kris Mitchell[/autotag], who transferred to the Irish from Florida International, was ranked the No. 16 receiver in the country. Still another ranked [autotag]Jeremiyah Love[/autotag] as the No. 42 running back, and one more earlier this month had [autotag]Riley Leonard[/autotag] as the No. 17 quarterback.

Needless to say, the 2024 Irish are going to be stacked with top-heavy offensive talent. The question is whether it will be enough to push them over the top.

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Notre Dame-Marshall named third-worst Group of Five loss in CFP era

Like you needed a reminder of how bad that loss was.

We all knew that when Notre Dame lost to Marshall in Week 2 of the 2022 season, any College Football Playoff hopes for the year were cooked. But just how bad was it in the big picture? Well, Twitter user Big Game Boomer has offered one opinion. The college football list aficionado lists the Irish’s 26-21 loss to the Thundering Herd as the third-worst loss by any Power Five program to a Group of Five program since the College Football Playoff began:

The good news for the Irish is that they appear only once on this list. But the fact that they appear in such a prominent spot on the list shows how much they should not have lost to the Herd. They probably weren’t going to the playoff anyway in 2022, but it was an awful feeling to have those hopes dashed so early into the season. It was both a reminder and a hard lesson not to take any opponent for granted.

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Notre Dame on list of fan bases that don’t care for college basketball

Do you care for Irish hoops?

It’s no secret the past couple of years have been rough for Notre Dame basketball fans. The Irish vastly underachieved last year, and a new roster and coaching staff this year meant the program had to start from scratch. That doesn’t exactly draw interest from fans.

Whatever the reason though, Irish fans simply don’t care about college basketball. At least that’s the opinion of Big Game Boomer, a college list aficionado on social media who decided to include Notre Dame among a group of college fan bases that allegedly could care less about college hoops:

First of all, Irish basketball fans haven’t had much to cheer about over the past few years. Secondly, while football rules supreme at Notre Dame and always will, that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t care about the second-most popular sport at the college level. Finally, Purcell Pavilion is about two-thirds full for an average game just as it was a year ago.

It really makes you wonder what criteria Big Game Boomer used to create this list. Then again, maybe this shouldn’t be taken seriously. After all, this is the same person who thinks MLB, the NFL and, yes, the NHL all need teams in Honolulu.

Whatever. Irish fans will support the basketball team in droves when it’s really good again. We just need to be patient. The time will come.

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Notre Dame left out of Twitter user’s Big Brother-Little Brother chart

Should the Irish have been on this chart?

Notre Dame’s independence is a major part of what makes it unique. The drawback to that is except for USC, Navy and Stanford, no annual rivalries are played. That means none within the state of Indiana. Perhaps it was for that reason that the Irish were left out of Twitter college list aficionado Big Game Boomer’s chart listing the “Big Brother” program and “Little Brother” program in all 50 states, if applicable:

The Irish and Boilermakers will play each other five consecutive years between 2024 and 2028. They have a home-and-home scheduled with the Hoosiers in 2030 and 2031. However, neither program is facing each other this year, which possibly factored into the Irish being snubbed. Bur perhaps the biggest factor is that the Irish aren’t conference rivals with either program.

If the Irish join the Big Ten in the future for whatever reason, perhaps we can revisit this list. Until then, that appears out of the question. Oh well. At least the Irish are supposed to have a better year than both programs.

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Marcus Freeman fourth on list of coaches most likely to win in a fight

Don’t mess with him.

Fighting in sports seems to be on a lot of people’s brains lately. Those of us in the Chicago area who regrettably cheer for the struggling White Sox still are reeling from Jose Ramirez knocking down Tim Anderson recently. The memes and shade that came from it are another chapter in a season no one in the fan base wants to remember.

This may or may not be related to the latest list from Big Game Boomer, social media’s college football chart and list aficionado. He decided to list college football’s top 50 coaches who would win in a fight, and [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] was ranked fourth:

Hopefully, we don’t have to see Freeman fight anybody as it would give Notre Dame some unwanted attention and subject it to ridicule. But the 6-foot-1 coach’s playing weight as an Ohio State linebacker was 240 pounds. That is not a build anyone in their right mind wants to mess with.

So if you happen to see Freeman somewhere, don’t say or do anything to make him test what he truly is capable of. You’re going to have a really bad time if you do. No one wants to be the next Tim Anderson right now.

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Big Game Boomer: Notre Dame biggest college brand in…Illinois?

Not sure we agree with this.

It’s no secret that a large portion of Notre Dame’s fan base is in the Chicago area. That’s reflected by the fact that every writer on this site is based there. But is that reflective of the state of Illinois as a whole?

Big Game Boomer, a top college sports list and graph aficionado on social media, has been mentioned on here many times before. His latest entry as of this writing is a U.S. map that lists the biggest college brand by state. Notre Dame is listed for Illinois and the only school not located in the state it represents:

Inevitably, someone asked about this, and he was quick to respond:

And when asked why Indiana doesn’t have Notre Dame, he said this:

The first event I covered on location for this site was the now-defunct Crossroads Classic in Indianapolis. Even though the Irish were the designated home team, the crowd at Bankers Life Fieldhouse was heavily for the Hoosiers. So the statement about the Hoosiers owning the Hoosier State is not wrong.

Still, as nice as it is to see Notre Dame represented on this map, it’s hard to call it the best college brand in the Land of Lincoln. Sure, Northern Illinois is too small for consideration, and everyone is distancing themselves from Northwestern right now, but what about Illinois? While the Illini football program has done little to help the brand lately, it’s a little unfair to discount those fans.

Anyone who lives in Illinois knows that the further south you go, the more you’ll find people who don’t care for Chicago. I won’t go into the reasons for that here, but this is one case where Chicago probably shouldn’t represent the whole state.

Illini fans reign supreme throughout Illinois, and one merely needs to travel throughout to find them. They are proud, and they are passionate about their team. Many of them still are mourning the loss of Chief Illiniwek as an official university symbol.

So as nice as it is to have Notre Dame as Illinois’ representative on this map, it really should be a school from Illinois. And Illini fans probably are most deserving to represent the state. After all, Chicago is a pro sports town first, so it should not be taken into account when making a map like this. Consider the rest of the state please next time, Big Game Boomer.

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Top ACC players Notre Dame will be playing in 2023

Keep your eye on these players when the Irish face them.

In exchange for retaining its football independence, Notre Dame plays a certain number of ACC opponents every season. The only other sport in which Notre Dame is not an ACC member is hockey, which plays in the Big Ten. While old-school Irish fans might long for the days of the program being able to schedule almost anyone at anytime, some often forget that this arrangement means some thrilling football. The home wins over recent powerhouse Clemson in 2020 and 2022 are two examples.

College football isn’t back yet, but you still can look at the rosters and see which quality players play for whom. Twitter’s Big Game Boomer has done just that and come up with a list of the top 50 ACC players for the upcoming season. When you look at the list, you’ll see the Irish have many of them set to face them. Let’s see who the Irish are playing when you take away the players whose teams aren’t on their schedule:

Twitter user: Quarterback is Notre Dame’s biggest strength in 2023

Does this surprise you?

Every team has a strength that stands out above the rest. With training camp still a month away, fans have plenty of time to look up and down every roster and identify that strength. Not the least of those fans is Big Game Boomer, Twitter’s college sports list aficionado. He released a list of the biggest position of strength for every Football Bowl Subdivision team, and what he came up with for Notre Dame may or may not surprise you:

We could talk about every Irish quarterback to drive this point home, but we all know this has everything to do with [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag]. Had he played for the Irish in 2021, he would have set the single-season program records for passing yards (4,228), completions (299) and touchdown passes (39). Irish fans have every right to be excited about the Wake Forest transfer, and everyone will be watching to see how he does on a bigger stage. There’s little reason to think he’ll do poorly, so keep the faith up.

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

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89