Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Here are a handful of prospects for Chargers fans to watch in Week 4.
The fourth week of college football is here, which means we are back with another edition of the Scouting Notebook.
The Scouting Notebook will feature prospects to keep an eye on throughout the day. While some may think it’s too early to start talking about the 2024 NFL draft, there’s never a bad time to talk about the future of the Chargers.
With that being said, here are a handful of prospects to watch for in Week 4.
The four are set for the Irish
It’s a right of passage at many schools to be named a captain and it’s no different for [autotag]Notre Dame football[/autotag].
The Irish have a storied tradition in South Bend and many of the luminary players were once named captain. Previous players like [autotag]Brady Quinn[/autotag], [autotag]Zack Martin[/autotag], [autotag]Knute Rockne[/autotag], and [autotag]Manti Te’o[/autotag] have all been named Notre Dame captain.
The 2023 season will feature four captain, two players on each side of the ball. It’s a bit different from last season, where six different players were captains at one point during the year.
Find out below which four were named Notre Dame captain for this coming season.
The Irish are looking for some depth
It might not seem like [autotag]Notre Dame[/autotag] head coach [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] is concerned with his secondary this fall, but an offer to a transfer suggests that might not be the case.
With [autotag]Benjamin Morrison[/autotag] and [autotag]Cam Hart[/autotag] holding down the starting spots and transfer [autotag]Thomas Harper[/autotag] most likely taking care of the nickel, it seems like the Irish would be set.
An offer to Rhode Island transfer cornerback Antonio Carter might tell a bit more of what Freeman thinks about the group. The three starters will be fine, but the depth might not be up to the head coach’s standard at the moment.
blessed to receive an offer from the university of notre dame! pic.twitter.com/OghfAYdNbh
— Antonio Carter (@AntonioC_viii) May 5, 2023
Carter has made a few visits already since entering the portal and the Irish are a bit late to the party. We will see if the timing of the offer matters for Notre Dame and the transfer corner.
[lawrence-auto-related count=5]
[mm-video type=video id=01gzbxw8bn5vhvb98gpf playlist_id=none player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gzbxw8bn5vhvb98gpf/01gzbxw8bn5vhvb98gpf-960ba811c97e8ebaaa0d6b320d8ab805.jpg]
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen
Does this happen anywhere else besides Notre Dame?
There is showing up to your friends and classmates games to offer support and then there is being their ultimate hype team. Notre Dame’s football team offered the later on Saturday afternoon as the top-ranked Irish hosted No. 3 Virginia.
The football team had just wrapped up their Saturday practice obligations as the showdown of lacrosse powers was taking place in South Bend. The Fighting Irish football team didn’t just show up to watch the game but instead turned into as great of group of cheerleaders one could ever ask for. The game was broadcast on ESPNU and the cameras caught the sight of the football team getting more than a bit excited when the Irish tied things up at seven early in the second half.
WE ARE TIED!
Pat cashes in on the EMO from the pass from Dobson and Arlotta is BOUNCING! Watch on ESPNU.#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/9oSN1mOueN
— Notre Dame Lacrosse (@NDlacrosse) March 25, 2023
If you’re wondering, that’s corner back [autotag]Cam Hart[/autotag] with the stick during the celebration. We’re not sure how he got it but we’re certainly glad he did. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you see [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] showing up to cheer on the Irish women’s basketball team regularly and then see this kind of support from the players for some of their classmates.
Unfortunately, the support wasn’t enough as the top-ranked Irish fell to No. 3 Virginia, 15-10.
[lawrence-related id=71096,71017]
Just because someone is a three-star doesn’t mean they can’t be great.
In the world of recruiting, rankings clearly matter. It’s no shock that when you look at the best teams nationally, they’re the ones who usually ranked the highest in team recruiting rankings during the previous three or four years. Maybe the top team doesn’t always have the top class, but you can bet they’re in or right there with the top-five nationally.
Another key part of recruiting comes to finding those diamonds in the rough. That isn’t to knock three-star talents, but the hype around them clearly isn’t the same when a five-star prospect visits campus or commits to a program.
We decided to go back and rank the top three-star players Notre Dame brought to campus dating to the start of Brian Kelly’s run at Notre Dame that began with the 2010 recruiting class. Here are the top 25 of those such players in the last roughly dozen years.
The 247Sports composite was used in each player’s star rating for this piece.
Look who’s coming back.
[autotag]Cam Hart[/autotag] is one of those unsung heroes of Notre Dame’s defense. He doesn’t do a lot of things that would gain him a lot of attention, but he is important nonetheless. His numbers took a slight dip from a year ago, and the Irish’s secondary looks just a little different with him out for the rest of 2022. Fortunately, that unit won’t have to worry about his absence in 2023 because Hart has announced that he’s coming back for a fifth year:
— C. Hart (@CamHart_) November 30, 2022
Hart currently is tied with [autotag]Benjamin Morrison[/autotag] for the team lead in pass breakups with four. He recorded 25 tackles and three tackles for loss. Those totals are down from the 41 tackles and 4.5 tackles for loss in 2021, and he did not have an interception after picking off two passes last season. While that probably is a bit of a disappointment for him, he has a chance to prove this step back was a fluke, and he will do everything in his control to ensure that happens.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz1mmy7gev0xbr player_id=none image=https://fightingirishwire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
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
Relatively small list which is good news heading into a huge game
Notre Dame will be in fairly good shape healthwise when they enter the Los Angeles Coliseum in hopes of wrecking USC’s College Football Playoff dreams on Saturday night. Marcus Freeman held his weekly press conference on Monday and gave the following updates in regard to player health.
“[autotag]Cam Hart[/autotag] will probably be questionable for this one. He had a shoulder injury that he had previously, but he had a shoulder injury. [autotag]Isaiah Foskey[/autotag] is probable. Mitch Evans I would say is probable with the ankle sprain. Probable for [autotag]Jayson Ademilola[/autotag], probable for [autotag]Brandon Joseph[/autotag], still questionable for [autotag]Tobias Merriweather[/autotag]. Still trying to see his recovery of the concussion.” -Marcus Freeman on Nov. 21, 2022
Obviously with USC’s talent at wide receiver the Hart status is a bit concerning. Getting Joseph back, which it sounds like is going to happen, should go a long way as well after he’s missed the last two contests.
More Notre Dame-USC coverage:
ESPN FPI increases Notre Dame’s upset chances
Notre Dame’s statistical leaders for 2022
College Football Playoff ranking projections following Week 12
[mm-video type=video id=01gjh09ehjzsb1pyjvzp playlist_id=01eqbz1mmy7gev0xbr player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gjh09ehjzsb1pyjvzp/01gjh09ehjzsb1pyjvzp-89c789233edfb160dc4c69edcae99518.jpg]
[listicle id=64940]
Better days ahead for the Irish
It’s been just about 24-hours (at the time that this was published) since the game started on Saturday, but my mind is still focused on Notre Dame’s loss to Ohio State. It was just one game and there are plenty of aspects that can be taken from it. Here are a few thoughts that have racked in my brain over the last day.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen
Plenty of take aways from the seasons first depth chart
As in each year of college football, a new group of stars emerge from one season to another. This season will be no different and for Notre Dame, there are more then a few players who could make a significant leap in the eyes of college football fans everywhere. Here are a few observations on Marcus Freeman’s first regular season depth chart.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen
Are you buying this hype?
We’ve started our positional breakdowns here at Fighting Irish Wire with the quarterbacks and running backs done and the rest of the offense to come this week. Soon after we’ll get to the defensive side of the ball and the secondary to be more specific.
When we discuss that might we be talking about the strength of this entire Notre Dame defense? And if so, when was the last time you looked at a Notre Dame defense and said the defensive backs were what you trusted the most?
There are certainly arguments to be made for other position groups as well but Notre Dame’s secondary received some grand praise from College Football News as they were called the nation’s second-best unit by the outlet recently.
Here is what Pete Fiutak of College Football News said about the Notre Dame defensive backs (and check out the link to see who Fiutak ranks right above and right below Notre Dame):
There’s a shot the secondary turns into the team’s biggest strength. Corners Clarence Lewis and Cam Hart can hit, the depth is – for the most part – there for all spots, the safeties are experienced, and on top of all of that, Northwestern transfer Brandon Joseph might be the best safety in college football.
I’ve thought for a while simply by watching the improvement in the secondary and specifically at cornerback that [autotag]Mike Mickens[/autotag] doesn’t get enough credit for his work since replacing Todd Lyght following the 2019 season.
Is this unit the second best in the nation? I hesitate to go quite that far but if it turns out to be you may very well be looking at one of the two or three best defenses in all of college football in 2022.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz1mmy7gev0xbr player_id=none image=https://fightingirishwire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[lawrence-related id=56492,56399,55908]
[listicle id=58599]
