Tag: Courtney Cronin

ESPN’s analyst has Notre Dame as the biggest winner of Week 1

Can you make a case for a bigger winner?

The consensus for Notre Dame after the first week of the season couldn’t be clearer: This team is good. A road game against Texas A&M that previous Irish teams would have lost became the 2024 Irish’s first victory. It’s resulted in more than moving up to fifth in the latest AP poll and making College Football Playoff projections.

During Tuesday’s broadcast of ESPN’s “Around the Horn”, the panel was asked which team emerged as the biggest winner of Week 1. While every panelist had a different answer, Courtney Cronin went with the Irish. She explained it the following way:

“Going down to College Station in the heat as underdogs despite being ranked higher than Texas A&M in front of a hundred thousand people and pulling out that win in Week 1? This was supposed to be the hard one for a team that doesn’t play in a conference. We’re talking about the playoff, what Notre Dame needs to do to get there. They answered the toughest test from the first game of the season.

I know if you like offense, this might have been a little bit of a snooze fest early on, but to watch how that offensive line that had six starts combined going into this season, didn’t give up a sack, protected [autotag]Riley Leonard[/autotag] all night, that go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter leaving nothing in doubt.

And let it be clear: They have a great front seven. It’s that secondary of Notre Dame that is one of the best, if not the best in the country, and they proved that.”

If you want to watch everyone’s pick, you can watch here:

https://twitter.com/AroundtheHorn/status/1831078464209990064

The vibe surrounding the Irish couldn’t be more positive right now. A win like we saw against the Aggies will do that.

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Dalvin Cook: ‘Look for the Vikings to still be contenders’

Despite a rocky start to the offseason, the Vikings Pro Bowl running back is still expecting big things for Minnesota.

There have been a lot of questions regarding the Vikings’ offseason, and rightfully so.

They’ve traded star receiver Stefon Diggs, while losing Trae Waynes, Mackensie Alexander, Xavier Rhodes, Linval Joseph, Andrew Sendejo and likely Everson Griffen in free agency.

Even so, the Vikings still have Adam Thielen, Kirk Cousins, Harrison Smith, Danielle Hunter and Dalvin Cook.

Cook was on ESPN’s “First Take” on Tuesday and addressed the Diggs trade in a realistic way, but also gave fans a reason to be optimistic about 2020.

Via ESPN’s Courtney Cronin:

The Vikings certainly have the talent to compete, especially when seven teams will make the playoffs from each conference.

But GM Rick Spielman has plenty of work to do. The Vikings are incredibly thin at receiver and need to add at least one in the draft, and preferably in the first two rounds.

The same can be said about the cornerback position.

And then there’s the holes on the offensive and defensive lines.

Hopefully for Vikings fans, Cook is right. But in order to get to the “contender” status, a lot of things still need to go right for the Vikings in the remainder of the offseason.