Tag: Dabo

2023 college football team recruiting rankings following five-star’s commitment

How much will these change in the next two weeks?

We’re less than 10 days until college football’s early signing period begins. It certainly feels a bit different these days with the growth of the transfer portal in recent years but don’t get it confused. Recruiting is the lifeblood of a program, and if you’re not doing it well, chances are you aren’t going to win big.

Where will some of the teams that got off to fiery starts end up in the rankings? And who may have started slowly but is closing the gap in the final days?

Here is the up-to-date top 40 team recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports following the commitment of five-star edge rusher Keon Keeley to Alabama.

Notre Dame-Clemson: Halftime reaction as Irish lead 14-0

A+ first half for Notre Dame?

Notre Dame has struggled mightily at home in 2022 as losses to Marshall and Stanford (who was boat-raced today by Washington State) remain inexplicable.  Forget that for a minute, though.  Heck, forget it for the rest of the year.

Notre Dame just played their best half of football this season and has a 14-0 halftime lead against No. 4 Clemson.  Sure there was a missed field goal but beyond that, things could have gone almost no better for the Irish as special teams have again come up huge the running game took the word “punishing” to a whole new level right before halftime.

Here are some first-half thoughts from myself and the Twitter world as Notre Dame is 30 minutes away from putting what would be an assumed end to Clemson’s College Football Playoff hopes.

Talking Notre Dame-Clemson with BetMGM’s Ryan Horvat

“…as college football fans, we should all be rooting against Clemson this Saturday” – @RyanHorvat

Notre Dame is beating Clemson on Saturday night.  There are no if-and-or-buts about it. Notre Dame is knocking off unbeaten Clemson and putting a severe dent in their College Football Playoff chances.

As I write this, I want to believe that, but I have concerns over how Notre Dame will move the ball against the Clemson defense as the running game that the Irish rely heavily on has its work cut out.  But I’m not the one making a claim, or guarantee.  Instead, that comes from Ryan Horvat of BetMGM.  

Full disclosure, Ryan is a Catholic league kid at heart from the south Chicago suburbs (Joliet Catholic Academy specifically so Roll Hill and shoutouts to Tom Thayer, Mike Goolsby, and [autotag]Rudy[/autotag] himself).   Ryah has been following Notre Dame football for more than a hot minute.  He also LOVES the Irish at home this weekend, a place I’m having trouble getting myself to.  

I’ve known Ryan since my radio days and thought his strong belief in the Irish this weekend would music to some Notre Dame fan’s ears.  If you’re on the pessimistic side for the Clemson game like myself, take Ryan’s word on 2022 Notre Dame and why Irish fans will be thrilled around 10:00 p.m. ET on Saturday night.  

College Football Head Coach Salaries

Who is the most overpaid and underpaid on this list?

Each year the USA TODAY compiles the salaries of current NCAA FBS football coaches and the 2021 edition came out this week.  Atop the list you’ll be anything but surprised to find Nick Saban who is set to earn $9.753 million in 2021.

Related: The winningest college football coaches of all-time

Ed Orgeron at LSU is second on the list as he’ll make $9.012 from LSU this year.  Also worth noting with the LSU head coach is that his buyout is listed at $17.150 million dollars after December 1, something that appears to be headed into play in Baton Rouge.

Third on the list is a bit of a surprise in David Shaw of Stanford who $8.924 million while Dabo Swinney of Clemson ($8.37 million) and Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma ($7.672 million) round out the top five.

Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly is listed all the way at 60th as his total earnings amount to $2.670 according to the report which can be viewed in full here.

Related:

FiveThirtyEight handicaps College Football Playoff odds 

Kirk Herbstreit’s college football top six entering week seven

Latest bowl projections see various blue bloods in Notre Dame’s future

Dabo Swinney calls out Florida State over cancellation

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was none too pleased about Saturday’s game at Florida State being called off over the weekend.

Saturday saw a shocker in college football and not in the form of an upset but instead in the form of a postponement that came in the No. 4 Clemson at Florida State game as it was called-off just hours before it was scheduled to kickoff.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney shared his thoughts on the matter Sunday evening and he was clearly none-too-pleased with Florida State’s decision to not play on Saturday.

The following are quotes from Swinney during his media availability on Sunday night:

“This game was not canceled because of COVID. COVID was just an excuse to cancel the game,”

“To me the Florida State administration forfeited the game and if they want to play Clemson, in my opinion, they need to come to Clemson or they need to pay for all expenses,”

“Other than that, there’s no reason for us to play them.”

“I feel bad for their players, too. There ain’t no way anybody can convince me their kids didn’t want to play,”

“It is what it is. We feel great, we’re healthy, we’re ready to go, we were in a good place, ready for kickoff,”

“We’ll just pick up where we left off.” 

-Dabo Swinney – Nov. 22, 2020

Are we really supposed to believe Florida State was afraid of being embarrassed?

Getting boat-raced by Clemson would be expected but in terms of embarrassment, that ship sailed long ago for the Seminoles who have lost five games to Miami, Notre Dame, Louisville, Pitt and NC State by a combined 130 points.

Clemson practiced all week with a player who wound up testing positive and traveled with him to Tallahassee.

Can you imagine the backlash had Florida State chose to play and then had a COVID outbreak on their roster this week, after knowing of that positive test on Clemson, who again, practiced and traveled with the team?

But damn those Florida State administrators who dared to look out for the well-being of part of their student body.

Right, Dabo?

Clemson-Florida St. game postponed for today

No. 4 Clemson won’t suit up at Florida State today after a late postponement. Details as to why the two won’t play on Saturday can be found here.

No. 4 Clemson was set to go on the road and take on Florida State on Saturday but that game has been postponed due to a positive test of a Clemson player who spent the week practicing with the team.

A source told ESPN that the unnamed Clemson player tested positive for COVID-19 after practicing with the team all week long, which in turn caused Florida State to not be comfortable with playing the game according to the source.

In a statement released Saturday morning, Florida State coach Mike Norvell offered his disappointment in the postponement.

“Our first priority is the health of our student-athletes, and I appreciate the protocols that have been put in place by FSU and the ACC to ensure everyone’s health while allowing us to play this season,” Florida State coach Mike Norvell said in a statement. “It’s unfortunate that we will not have the opportunity to compete today, but we hope to be able to play Clemson in December. I am thankful for the support and coordination between our administration, Clemson and the ACC office. Our team will now turn our focus to hosting Virginia next week.” – Mike Norvell, FSU head coach

Per ACC guidelines, each team is fully tested for COVID-19 the day before each game, and based on the results of those tests, the teams go on a call with the conference to sign-off by saying they’re comfortable playing the game.

In this case it was Florida State who was not comfortable with playing and decided to not proceed with playing despite Clemson having traveled to Tallahassee and seemingly being ready to play as star quarterback Trevor Lawrence expressed his disappointment on Twitter:

There is no official word on if this game will ultimately be played in December like Norvell said he hopes happens.

In other ACC news the Louisville at Boston College game that was moved to December 12 has now been moved to November 28 while Wake’s game at Louisville has now been moved to December 19.

It was also announced that the Duke vs. Wake Forest game that was originally supposed to be played today, won’t be rescheduled.

A crazy year in the world continues to affect college football with a season unlike any we’ve seen before and hopefully never see again.

 

How much is Georgia paying San Jose St to get out of 2021 opener?

Georgia football is set to give San Jose State a massive payout after cancelling their 2021 season opener to play Clemson instead.

It was announced on Tuesday that the Georgia Bulldogs will play the Clemson Tigers for the 2021 season opener in Charlotte.

The game was not originally on either teams’ schedules, which then begs the question; how did they fit this in?

The Bulldogs were set to play San Jose State for their season opener but worked out a deal that would relieve them from the contest.  The Dawgs will be out a hefty $1.8 million just from cancelling this game while San Jose State will be cashing in.

In the grand scheme of things, this game will make both schools way more money than if Georgia had kept their original season opener.  This matchup is a rivalry that has died out in past years but now seems to be revived.

The Dawgs and the Tigers are set to face off September 4th, 2021.  Georgia has won 6 of the past 7 matchups against the Tigers.

Both teams are tied for 27th in most games played against Power 5 opponents in the past 15 years. 

This will be the first of six matchups between the two programs over the next 13 years.

Notre Dame Football Well Represented on ESPN’s Top 150 Coaches List

Knute Rockne was the highest former Fighting Irish coach to make the list, coming in at three. He trails only Paul Bryant and Nick Saban on the list.

In honor of 150 years of College Football, ESPN and other publications have been releasing their lists of greatest all-time everything this year.

Earlier we went over the 150 greatest games list and the incredible games Notre Dame contributed to that list both good and bad.

Today ESPN released their rankings of the 150 greatest coaches in college football history.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Notre Dame is again well represented.

First up – “Rock”

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