Tag: chick fil a bowl

Tom Herman named to Dodd Trophy preseason watch list

Texas Longhorns head coach Tom Herman was named to the Dodd Trophy Preseason watchlist. Herman was also apart of the list last year.

These days it isn’t only the players who are added to award watch lists. Coaches are also subject to being added and that is the case for Texas Longhorns head coach Tom Herman. He was added to the Dodd Trophy Award watch list.

The Dodd Trophy, college football’s most coveted national coaching award, celebrates the head coach of a team who enjoys success on the gridiron, while also stressing the importance of scholarship, leadership and integrity– the three pillars of legendary coach Bobby Dodd’s coaching philosophy. – per The Dodd Trophy Award press release

Coaches who are entering their first year as head coach with their perspective teams will not be eligible. Also only teams participating in fall season will be considered for the award this year.

“An unprecedented season calls for an unprecedented preseason watch list,” said Jim Terry, chairman of the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation. “When considering candidates for this year’s Dodd Trophy, the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation made the decision to align with the College Football Playoff’s timeline and only consider coaches who will play during the fall season. That said, we still would like to recognize coaches from other conferences who met all of the criteria and under normal circumstances would be included on our list.”

The coaches named include one former Longhorns head coach

  • Dabo Swinney (Clemson)
  • Luke Fickell (Cincinnati)
  • Nick Saban (Alabama)
  • Josh Huepel (Central Florida)
  • Gus Malzahn (Auburn)
  • Dan Mullen (Florida)
  • Bronco Mendenhall (BYU)
  • Brian Kelly (Notre Dame)
  • Kirby Smart (Georgia)
  • Lincoln Riley (Oklahoma)
  • Mack Brown (North Carolina)
  • Ed Orgeron (LSU)

The Award winner will be announced the week of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Herman was not apart of the finalist last season but he does return to the original watch list in 2020. Mack Brown won the award in 2008 when he was with Texas.

247Sports Bowl Predictions – Notre Dame to meet recent foe again?

247Sports released their pre-season bowl projections for college football. If you could, would you sign up for where they project ND to go?

247Sports released their pre-season bowl projections this week and have Notre Dame completing a good but not great season as they project the Fighting Irish to meet Georgia in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.

Their write-up doesn’t give any detail of how Notre Dame gets there but one can assume it’d be a 10-2 record that does the trick.  One would assume 11-1 with both Wisconsin, Clemson and a trip to USC on the schedule would have them making a great case to be included in the College Football Playoff, while a 9-3 mark or worse wouldn’t have them in the New Years Six.

Would you be satisfied with this as the end result for Notre Dame football in 2020?

I know every coach and player will state that the mission and goal is to win a national championship and fans certainly want the same.  However, when you look at the defensive line, secondary, wide receivers and running backs you see there are at best questions and at worst issues at several positions on the current roster.

If I made the offer today that you can sign up to have Notre Dame go 10-2 and play in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl do you take that offer or do you think something better is coming?

As I said when I predicted each game of the season a couple weeks back, I think 10-2 is the most likely scenario as we sit here today.  So in my case, no, I wouldn’t sign because I don’t expect worse than that and I’d take my chances on Notre Dame getting a win over either Wisconsin or Clemson before I’d expect a third regular season loss.

Share your thoughts on the question with us on Twitter, @IrishWireND.

2020 Bowl Projections – Who cares if it’s too early?

Bill Bender released his bowl projections ahead of the 2020 CFB season today and has Notre Dame meeting a familiar bowl game foe.

Is it too early to start projecting bowl games for the 2020 college football season?  Considering we don’t even know if games will be played by some teams or conferences I’d say yes but why not go about business as usual right now and do what we normally do?

Has it ever hurt anyone to try and speak some positives into existence?

With that in mind Bill Bender of The Sporting News released his initial bowl projections for the 2020 college football season on Thursday and he has Notre Dame in the New Year’s Six.

The Projection:

January 1:  Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta vs. LSU

It would fall short of Notre Dame’s ultimate goal of a College Football Playoff appearance and potential national championship but it’d also likely mean for a 10-2 mark at very worst which doesn’t look bad with Wisconsin, Clemson and an always difficult trip to USC all scheduled.

It would also be the fifth time Notre Dame and LSU met in a bowl game, doing so four times since 1997 with both teams winning twice.

Bowl Projections in April?! – We may as well react…

Perhaps even more absurd is trying to project bowl projections right now in a season that may or may not be played and at that, very possibly would at least start after a significant delay.

Quick – name something absurd you’ve done during your time having to stay home during the Coronavirus pandemic we’re all living through.

I’ll start:

I stayed up until almost 3 a.m. on Saturday night and into Sunday morning as I not only started but completed the entire seven episodes of “Tiger King” on Netflix.  Thoughts:  humans are just the worst, I’ve never rooted so hard for a team of tigers in my life and, uh, I have a lot of questions but will save them for another place and time.

Perhaps even more absurd is trying to project bowl projections right now in a season that may or may not be played and at that, very possibly would at least start after a significant delay.

Now enter Pete Fiutak, my partner on the College Football News Podcast (I’ve got technical issues on my end so recording has hit a snag for the time being).  Pete runs College Football News and his idea for fun was to try and project each and every bowl game for the 2020 season.

On April 1.

Yes, he’s crazy but we already knew that.  Now to answer your immediate question of “Where did he put Notre Dame!?!!”

The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl facing off against Florida.

He had a lot of positive things to project about Notre Dame a few days back when he claimed they’ll knock off Clemson and be a player for a College Football Playoff spot but in his projections kept them just short of the CFP here.

Take all complaints up with @PeteFiutak.

Would this count as satisfying for you as a Notre Dame fan?  For me it’d be satisfying, sure, but it’s not often a schedule sets up to be both as strong but also as favorable in terms of being very top-heavy but also allowing for a potential playoff berth even if there is a loss in there.