Tag: Fighting Irish football

Notre Dame Football joins viral trend of High School to Now

The Irish join in the trend and post multiple pictures of current players in high school and now.

The internet constantly gets creative, even during tough times like we are currently facing. The Notre Dame Football social media coordinator hit a home run with their series of Irish players in high school and then now. Take a look at their work:

Quarterback Ian Book

Running back Cameron Ekanayake

Long snapper Alex Peitsch

Defensive end NaNa Osafo-Mensah

Linebacker Paul Moala

Defensive back John Mahoney

Safety Kyle Hamilton

Linebacker Jack Kiser

Defensive end Adetokunbo Ogundeji

Defensive back Houston Griffith

Sporting News ranks best programs of the decade, Notre Dame ranked highly

Bill Bender of the Sporting News came up with a formula to determine the best schools from the last decade and Notre Dame finished high.

The end of the decade has brought many people to retrospectively look at what has happened in the last 10 seasons.

Bill Bender of Sporting News came up with a system to determine the best schools, giving 10 points for a national title, 5 points for each title game appearance and college football playoff selection, 3 points for a New Year’s Six or BCS bowl appearance and 2 points for each Heisman winner. Winning percentage, All-Americans and NFL draft picks were also part of the equation.

With that scoring system, the Irish amassed 27 points, which put them 12th. Bender breaks down the last 10 years of Irish football, noting that “Brian Kelly led the Irish to a BCS championship appearance and a College Football Playoff appearance as part of undefeated regular seasons, but the reality checks Alabama and Clemson provided show what it takes to reach those national championship heights. The Irish are 33-6 the past three seasons and have produced the 11th-most NFL draft picks.”

Looking at the top five schools, Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and LSU, only the Sooners have not won a championship in that time frame. The Nick Saban-led Crimson Tide dominated the decade, resulting in 166 points, over 40 more than second-place Clemson. Not too hard when you played for a championship 6 out of the 10 years.

Only 7 points separated the Irish and Auburn, which was 10th, while 8.5 points away was Wisconsin at 8th. The Irish are not that far away from being viewed as one of the best teams of the decade, and, hopefully, this decade is a bit more fruitful than last 10 years.

ESPN relives Notre Dame’s National Championship in ‘66

A inside look at the 10-10 tie against Michigan State in the Irish’s 1966 championship season.

Way back in 1966, the Irish had an opportunity to defeat Michigan State after trailing early, 10-0. With time left on the clock, the Ara Parseghian-led Notre Dame squad had an opportunity to go for the win. Instead Parseghian played it safe and ran the clock out, resulting in a 10-10 against MSU.

In what was dubbed “The Game of the Century,” the final result wasn’t quite what one would expect. Yes, the Irish went on to win the national championship, but it was an odd decision for Parseghain to run the clock out when the Irish clearly had an opportunity to win the game outright.

ESPN looked at that game, along with other controversial games and championship claims. Find out what people had to say about the classic tie against the Spartans.

This past week in Notre Dame Twitter

Take a look at the best Irish tweets from the week.

Going forward, we at Irish Wire will bring you the best of what we saw during the week on Twitter every Sunday. Hope you enjoy!

Irish 2021 defensive tackle commit Gabe Rubio getting some work in:

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly preaching the team’s new motto:

Great qualifications for associate head coach Mike Elston:

Happy birthday to transfer wide receiver Bennett Skowronek:

Recently drafted Notre Dame pitcher Joe Boyle signs his contract with the Cincinnati Reds:

Notre Dame hockey shows off its sweet helmets:

The hype for Irish linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah continues:

Notre Dame announces staNDtogether Time

The Irish football team with get together tomorrow and hold a prayer along with a peaceful march on campus.

The Notre Dame football team will come together tomorrow, Friday June 19th for a peaceful prayer and walk in support of equality and unity. The march begins at 12:30pm EST at the Irish Green Arena, and a request has been made to wear black along with protective face coverings.

The Irish now join multiple schools who have responded to the Black Lives Matter movement, including Clemson, South Carolina, Auburn and others to back the cause. After multiple instances of issues around the country, such as Iowa firing their strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle for numerous accusations from players for his treatment of them, Oklahoma State’s head coach wearing a OAN shirt and star running back Chuba Hubbard not standing for that.

It takes many for a movement like this to continue to see progress and the Irish have joined in on the cause. Just look at how many player’s tweeted about the event.

 

 

 

Notre Dame understands it reach and the impact they can have on many young peoples lives. Actions like these bring groups together and with the college football season still influx anything the Irish can find to rally around is a good thing.

CBS Sports Ranks QB Tiers, Find out where Notre Dame’s Book Landed

Irish quarterback Ian Book has received some hype going into the season, find out where he ranks among his peers.

As the most important position on the football field, and potentially all of sports, having an elite level quarterback typically elevates a teams play. Ben Kercheval of CBS Sports ranked the collegiate signal callers into tiers, as he explained that passing numbers were the primary focus along with experience.

All of those factors led to 5 tiers, the first being All-American and Heisman contenders, the second as all-conference players and fringe Heisman contenders, third being the established starters, players primed for a breakout in the fourth tier and questions to be answered in the final tier.

Based on this criteria, it would be easy to think that Irish quarterback Ian Book probably would land into the second tier, given the decent amount of hype for the fifth-year senior. Well, Kercheval didn’t quite see it that way, as Book landed on the top of the 3rd tier. A bit disappointing where the Notre Dame star landed but it was also noted that this list could change and it just how he sees things shaking out at the moment.

The Irish will have to face many talented quarterback’s this coming season, as one of two tier 1 QB’s (Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence), one tier 2 quarterback (USC’s Kedon Slovis) and two tier 3 QB (Wisconsin’s Jack Coan and Louisville’s Micale Cunningham). Not surprising that each of those teams have very high expectations coming into the 2020 season.

We know Book is an established starter, but for the Irish to make the leap to the next level of elite football, quarterback play is paramount to getting there. Kercheval’s lists isn’t the end all of quarterback rankings, but it’s a good indication of how much potential these players possess. Book has the makings of a final go around that could be among the best in the nation. If he improves in just a few areas (completion percentage and yards per attempt), Book could have one hell of senior sendoff.

247Sports: A Super Team would Consist of an Notre Dame Positional Group

An Irish positional group is included as part of a super-team of units across the country.

This should not come as much of a surprise to anyone, especially from the school that hold’s the mantle of Offensive Line U, that Notre Dame’s group of 5 road graders would be named among the best in the nation. As 247Sports continues their preview of the upcoming season, Chris Hummer chose the Irish offensive line as his group when building a super team.

The talented group of linemen all return boasted by some impressive stats they as a group accumulated last season. Pro Football Focus was very high on “all five Irish starters return off a unit that ranked 13th nationally, per PFF College. Notre Dame was particularly good as a pass-blocking group, ranking second nationally in PFF’s grading system.” Those numbers equal a very formidable group heading into this season.

Of the five returning starting offensive linemen just one, guard Tommy Kraemer, didn’t make PFF’s top 30 returning offensive linemen. The rest of the group, tackles Liam Eichenberg and Robert Hainsey, guard Aaron Banks and center Jarrett Patterson combine to make the best group in the country.

There was some negative about the group however, as they we not particularly great as a run-blocking unit. Hummer noted that “Notre Dame finished a respectable 28th nationally in yard per carry last season. But that’s a little misleading. The o-line finished just 62nd nationally in line yards per carry – a Football Outsiders stats that gives the line credit on a percentage basis depending on the length of the run – indicating much of the Irish’s rushing success was due to running backs creating chunk runs instead of the line consistently creating holes.” If that is the one issues with the unit, then the Irish are in great shape. Run-blocking can be seen as a mentality, one that former Irish star Quenton Nelson has plenty of. If this current line can get that nasty streak going, there is no doubt in my mind they can fix their perceived run-blocking issues and be the best group in the country.

Rivals: Irish in on top RB’s but not seen as leaders

Notre Dame has offered many backs in the 2021 cycle and face uphill battles to gain a commitment from one of them.

There is a lot of unknown as to who will lineup beside quarterback Ian Book for the 2020 season. What we do know is that after this year, the Irish will graduate Jafar Armstrong, Avery Davis, and Stanford transfer Trevor Speights, although each of them could petition the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility. If both opt to move on, the roster would only have 4 scholarship backs remaining.

This probably isn’t a number Brian Kelly and running back’s coach Lance Taylor want to see, so getting a quality running back in the 2021 is extremely important. Rivals took a look at the best 5 remaining uncommitted backs and the Irish have offered all but one of them.

The Irish have offered Texas’ Camar Wheaton, but at this moment he is viewed as a pipedream for Notre Dame. Mike Farrell, Rivals national director of recruiting, see Oklahoma as the leader in Wheaton’s recruitment. Michigan’s Donovan Edwards, however, is a much more realistic possibility for the Irish. Edwards had intended to visit multiple schools over the summer, but COVID-19 has stopped everyone from visiting schools. Although Farrell sees Michigan as the leader for Edwards, he also sees the back’s recruitment to drag on for a few more months prior to a commitment. If the Irish push hard for Edwards, I could see him spurning the Wolverines and heading a bit south to South Bend.

Like Wheaton, another Texas star in LJ Johnson has an Irish offer, but Notre Dame is not seen as a player in his recruitment. Prophet Brown, a California prospect, is a back that I really think could be a great fit in the Irish offense. Unfortunately, like Edwards, the Irish are trailing in Brown’s recruitment to the supposed leader in Oklahoma. Here is the kicker, the Sooners are in on Wheaton and are looking at Brown as more of a defensive back. These two factors could play a huge role in the Irish being able to get Brown’s attention and ultimately land a commitment from the back.

Getting a quality back in this class is paramount, the depth needs to be addressed. It could be another graduate transfer like Speights or the Irish could land one these talented backs. Look for Notre Dame to make a push for a 2021 back to create some solid depth for Taylor’s group.

Irish Ranked Highly in another Pre-Season Poll

It seems like all but a certainty that Notre Dame Football will be ranked inside the Top 10 to start the season.

Other outlets have updated their pre-season Top 25 and it was 247Sports turn to do the same thing but with a caveat. “This isn’t an updated version of something 247Sports put out in the winter. This is a start-from-ground-zero ranking that takes into account an offseason worth of coaching changes, recruiting wins and transfers.” I’m sure other publications take this into their equations as well, but the eight experts polled by 247Sports just wanted to make sure you knew the criteria for their rankings.

With that in mind, Notre Dame has come in 8th in this newest update. At first glance, noticing the Irish ranking 83rd overall in returning production is a bit scary.  This shouldn’t be a concern at all, look at the rest of the teams ranked in this Top 10. Each of the top three schools, Ohio State, Clemson and Alabama are in comparable returning production areas, while Oklahoma, who is ranked 7th is just one spot ahead of the Irish.

The Irish preview starts on the offensive end as “Notre Dame has maintained some offensive continuity this offseason by promoting quarterback coach Tommy Rees.” The offensive line will clearly be a strength for the Irish this season but having to replace each skill position starter is a challenge. Chris Hummer, who wrote the snippet, see that “there’s a strong skill cast beside him and some exciting impact freshman (Chris Tyree, Jordan Johnson) than can help right away.” It is a lot to ask for freshman to be big time contributors, but the Tyree, the Virginia running back and Johnson, the Missouri wide receiver could do just that. Look out for Kentucky tight end Michael Mayer to make an impact as a first-year player as well.

Looking on the other side of the ball, Hummer is a bit worried about the “defense is far more of a question mark with just five defensive starters returning.” Yes, it is a bit worrisome but as I mentioned earlier, returning production doesn’t tell the whole picture. “You have to trust coordinator Clark Lea, though. He’s put together back-to-back top 15 defenses.” The trust is there, with a reworked secondary and the emergence last year of linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah the base for a solid defense is there.

As we have seen the Irish have been ranked somewhere in this range by the majority of outlets. A pre-season Top 10 ranking will bring a lot of expectations in South Bend. Brian Kelly will have his work cut out for him to finish with Notre Dame’s fourth consecutive 10-plus win seasons.

Brian Kelly to join Scott Van Pelt tonight on SportsCenter

A heads up for everyone looking to hear from Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly – he will be on SportsCenter this evening with Scott Van Pelt. What will be discussed I’m sure will be Notre Dame’s plan to bring student athletes back to the …

A heads up for everyone looking to hear from Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly – he will be on SportsCenter this evening with Scott Van Pelt.

What will be discussed I’m sure will be Notre Dame’s plan to bring student athletes back to the University as well as the safety measures that will be put in place.

Last time Kelly was on with Van Pelt it was a discussion largely built on timeframe of when workouts would have to get started by in order to have the season begin when scheduled.

You can watch Brian Kelly on SportsCenter tonight with Scott Van Pelt. The episode airs at 11:00 p.m. ET.