Tag: Indiana

Notre Dame Football: Kiser woken up to news of Saturday start

I can’t imagine a Saturday getting off to a much better start than Jack Kiser’s did before Notre Dame played South Florida.

How did your Saturday morning go?

I’ll start.

At roughly 5:25 a.m. CT my 10 month old daughter, who has been a rock star with sleeping through the night of late, woke me and my wife up as she was screaming endlessly down the hall.

A little time with mom and dad made the tears go away though and she was back asleep within 15 or so minutes and I got to sleep in until almost seven as a result.

Although lively, my morning wasn’t nearly as intense as Notre Dame sophomore Jack Kiser’s had to have been.

Kiser, Indiana High School’s Mr. Football in 2018, went to bed Friday night without any intention of starting against South Florida but those plans changed shortly after he woke up Saturday morning.

According to Brian Kelly, Kiser practiced with Notre Dame’s scout defense on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week.  Because both Shayne Simon and Marist Liufau were made unavailable, Kiser suddenly found himself on top of the depth chart.

And Kiser didn’t just fill a hole on Saturday, he starred as he led Notre Dame with eight total tackles that included a pair of stops behind the line of scrimmage.

In what wound up a 52-0 drubbing of South Florida plenty of players had moments and made plays but Kiser was chosen by Brian Kelly as the winner of Saturday’s game ball.

Kiser, who grew up in Royal Center, Indiana, located about 75 miles south of Notre Dame’s campus.  It’s safe to say making his first career start and getting the game ball on the same afternoon meant for an all-time day.

“Notre Dame is the peak of the mountain,” Kiser said “I’m wearing a golden helmet just to be on the team.”

“So to put the helmet on, walk down that stair case and to actually take live snaps and contribute to win? To get the game ball? You just don’t think those things will happen!”

I don’t know what will happen with the Buck linebacker position next week at Wake Forest but I do know based off his performance on Saturday that Jack Kiser isn’t going to be just a flash in the pan.

Related:  FIW Selects Game Ball Winners for South Florida Game

Michigan State Football offers 2022 4-star WR Omar Cooper Jr. from Indiana

The Spartans will compete with Indiana and Purdue for standout Indiana high school wide receiver Omar Cooper.

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The 2022 recruiting period keeps rolling on, and this time Michigan State Football is going after one of the top players in the state of Indiana. On Thursday, the Spartans extended an offer to 4-star wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. out of Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis, Indiana.

247Sports has Cooper ranked as a 3-star recruiting prospect in their internal rankings and a 4-star recruit in their composite rankings. He’s a top ten recruit in Indiana by both.

Cooper is a 6’1″, 170-pound wideout with offers out from a number of teams already, including Arkansas, Central Michigan, Indiana, Purdue, West Virginia, West Michigan, Wisconsin, and a few more.

You can watch his highlights here.

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Rivals ranks Wisconsin outside of the five best coaching jobs in the Big Ten

Four days ago Rivals’ Dan McDonald listed, in order, the best men’s basketball head coaching jobs in the Big Ten Conference…

Four days ago Rivals’ Dan McDonald listed, in order, the best men’s basketball head coaching jobs in the Big Ten Conference.

His top-5 are Indiana at No. 1, Ohio State at No. 2, Michigan at No. 3, Michigan State at No. 4 and Maryland at No. 5.

Then, coming in at No. 6 is the Wisconsin basketball program.

Here’s what he had to say about the Badgers’ coaching job:

“Making calls to different college coaches and scouts in preparing this list, the one response that kept coming up was, “You know what’s a really underrated job? Wisconsin.” It’s hard to disagree. Badgers fans love their team, they always win and the state produces some pretty good players that like to stay home. Plus, as a college town, Madison gets rave reviews.”

Though Greg Gard and company recently lost out on in-state four-star 2021 small forward James Graham to the Maryland Terrapins, McDonald is spot on here about the program, its winning history, its ability to keep players in-state and the overwhelming fan support year-after-year.

Maybe the program isn’t a blue blood national title contender every year (though they may be this season), but in arguably the nation’s best overall basketball conference the No. 6 slot seems right for the program.

Shocker: Notre Dame named best college football team in Indiana

CBS Sports has named the best football team in each state and in a shocker, Notre Dame reps the state of Indiana.

In a complete stunner on Friday morning, Notre Dame was named the best college football program in the state of Indiana entering the 2020 season.

Alright, I hope despite not using any italics or bold or anything else, that you were at least able to pick up on the sarcasm of this very predictable determination.

CBS Sports put together a list of the best football team in 48 of the 50 states as Alaska and Vermont didn’t have a program that qualified by their standards.

Notre Dame was named the best college team in the state of Indiana, hardly a surprise as it was pitted against the likes of Ball State, Indiana and Purdue.  Here is what Barrett Sallee had to say about college football in the Hoosier State:

Indiana — Notre Dame: Notre Dame has double-digit wins in four of its last five seasons, made an appearance in the College Football Playoff in 2018 and should be one of the favorites to unseat Clemson now that it’s a quasi-member of the ACC for 2020. Indiana, Purdue and Ball State can’t hang with the Fighting Irish. — Barrett Sallee

It’s not a surprise whatsoever as outside of a couple years in the late-nineties and early-2000’s that has been the case.

The interesting part of that list comes from other states however.

Virginia overtaking Virginia Tech, Appalachian State taking home the Tar Heel State’s honors and Baylor representing the state of Texas all stand out a bit in the piece.

This writer just wishes Division III programs would have been considered so reigning champion North Central College would have gotten the national love over Northwestern in Illinois.

Ohio State star quarterback Justin Fields starts ‘We want to play’ petition

Ohio State star quarterback Justin Fields is using his platform to try and apply pressure to get Big Ten football back for this fall.

Aside from Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who has already been very vocal about his wishes to have college football played this fall, there probably isn’t as recognized name in the game as Justin Fields.

For those who may not know though, Fields quarterbacks Ohio State and after a standout 2019, was a big reason for the Buckeyes being among the favorites to win it all in 2020.

‘Was’ might be a short word but carries massive importance in this case as Ohio State and the rest of the Big Ten saw their football seasons canceled last week in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now Fields is using his platform to try and pressure Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and all 14 Big Ten presidents to reinstate football to the conferences 2020 fall schedule. Fields began a petition seeking nationwide support to this cause on Sunday and has already received more than 65,000 as of early Sunday afternoon.

Fields says of the ‘We want to play’ cause:

We want to play. We believe that safety protocols have been established and can be maintained to mitigate concerns of exposure to Covid 19. We believe that we should have the right to make decisions about what is best for our health and our future. Don’t let our hard work and sacrifice be in vain. #LetUsPlay!

I credit the young man for putting his support behind his belief. It’s not just about staying healthy this fall in order to be a first round pick in next spring’s NFL Draft. He clearly wants to play, potentially raise his draft stock and help lead a team with legit national championship aspirations.

Hats off to Fields for stating and acting on his wishes. Unfortunately for his cause I’d be shocked if this petition changes any minds of those in charge, even if it ultimately lands one million signatures that would fill all 14 Big Ten football stadiums.

If you’d like to sign the petition you can do so by clicking here.

Watch: Half-Naked Man Interrupts Urban Meyer’s TV Appearance

There are a lot of questions to ask after Urban Meyer’s appearance on the Big Ten Network this Tuesday.

Let’s face it – if you’re reading this website chances are you’re a college football fan.  Maybe huge, maybe somewhat of one, but certainly at least a fairly decent college football fan.

Today’s news sucks, I have no other way of putting it.  It’s the Big Ten and Pac-12 today and could very easily be the rest of FBS college football in a matter of days.

It’s yet another kick to the mid-section of 2020, a year that simply can’t end soon enough.

We do have an important piece of video to share with you however that will hopefully at least make you smile a bit.

Urban Meyer was on the Big Ten Network’s breaking news coverage of the cancellation, sharing his insight as to what happens next.  In the middle of answering a question from Dave Revsine, something strange happened, see for yourself below:

I have more than a couple questions.

  • Where is Urban Meyer doing this hit from?  An RV?
  • Who is the half naked man behind him?
  • How does it take Meyer so long to realize the half-naked man is there?
  • How does Meyer not have any idea they’re not cutting away from him towards the end of the hit?

A lot to dissect here, no doubt.  I know we have a lot of questions about college football today and what happens now, but for a breather I’d like to know a lot more about what in the wide-world of sports is going on in this interview.

Report: Big Ten Cancels Football in 2020

According to the Detroit Free-Press, the Big Ten has decided to not play football this fall.

In a report by the Detroit Free Press on Monday morning, the Big Ten has cancelled football for the fall of 2020.

The report states:

The Big Ten has voted to cancel the 2020 college football season in a historic move that stems from concerns related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, multiple people with knowledge of the decision confirmed to the Free Press.

The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the decision. A formal announcement is expected to Tuesday, the sources said. 

The move by the Big Ten comes just two days after the Mid-American Conference canceled their football season and much of the feel is that most, if not all the other power conferences will cancel football for the fall before long.

The report adds that no decision has been made about the Big Ten potentially playing football in the spring.

Keep it tuned to Fighting Irish Wire and the USA TODAY wire sites for all of the latest on this developing story.

Sixers, Pacers collectively take knee during National Anthem in protest

The Philadelphia 76ers and the Indiana Pacers all take a knee during the National Anthem.

The NBA is resuming the season in the midst of a global pandemic as well as a huge Civil Rights movement that has swept the nation. This is a tough time for everybody involved and the NBA has allowed players to have social justice messages on the back of their jerseys rather than their last names.

The league has also loosened up on their rule of having to stand during the national anthem during the restart as every team has kneeled in peaceful protest during the anthem to get the message across. The Philadelphia 76ers and the Indiana Pacers are no different.

As the anthem was playing in their resumption opener on Saturday, both teams took a knee and locked arms to help spread awareness of the social injustices in the world. Coach Brett Brown and the organization will be on the side of their players at this time. That is the message the team wants to spread.

“One of solidarity,” said Brown pregame. “This topic, this attention, this racial injustice issue that we’re living and breathing in such a significant way and how it’s impacted everybody, not just the United States. To show a level that this is a unified message that the coaches supporting the players, the league supporting the players, the Philadelphia 76ers organization led by Josh Harris and David Blitzer and Elton Brand supporting our players.”

“This is not something that we take lightly,” Brown continued. “We have been talking about this as a team for many, many months with all of the flashpoints that have happened along the way. I think tonight encompasses many, many things, but sort of none more important than supporting the desire of our players.”

This is a huge movement that is continuing to gain momentum and it is important to the players to express themselves in this manner. They just want to be heard for their thoughts on social issues. [lawrence-related id=35953,35945,35939]

Three bold takes and one guarantee for the 2020 Big Ten conference-only season

The scheduled kickoff for the Wisconsin Badgers’ 2020 football season is now only 47 days away. Yes, there are still question marks…

The scheduled kickoff for the Wisconsin Badgers’ 2020 football season is now only 47 days away.

Yes, there are still question marks about what the schedule will look like and if September 4 is a realistic date to start the season. But from what we know now, the Badgers and the rest of the conference will play a conference-only schedule and (hopefully) a conference championship and bowl season.

A lot about the season and each team’s chances changed when the Big Ten altered their schedule, so I went through the top teams in the conference earlier this week and analyzed how their stock was affected by the change. Long story short, the elimination of out-of-conference games has a profound affect on the season outlook of many of the conference’s leading programs.

Today we’re going a little more into the weeds and making three bold claims and one guarantee about what is to come during the altered season.

First, the three bold claims:

 

No. 1: The Indiana Hoosiers will finish the season No. 3 in the Big Ten East and with a better record than Michigan

NCAA Football: Indiana at Maryland
Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Michael Penix Jr. (9) looks to pass during the first quarter against the Maryland Terrapins at Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium. Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

I never thought I would ever type those words out, but when you look at each team’s schedule and different preseason situations it makes a lot of sense.

First, Indiana has only four challenging games on their schedule: at Wisconsin, vs Penn State, at Ohio State and at Michigan.

Michigan, on the other hand, has five: vs Wisconsin, vs Penn State, at Minnesota, vs Indiana and at Ohio State.

What’s the difference between those schedules? Most of Indiana’s tough games are on the road in what will likely be empty stadiums and most of Michigan’s will be at home in front of an empty stadium.

So the playing field is leveled a bit to start.

Second, and the biggest reason the Hoosiers are trending upward while Michigan is going the opposite direction, is Indiana welcomes back Michael Penix Jr. after an 8-5 2019 season while Michigan needs to groom Dylan McCaffrey to take over the starting job after going 9-4 last season.

Having talent and experience return at the quarterback position is pivotal this year as the preseason is already different and shortened in addition to the fact that out-of-conference “cupcake” games that are usually important to preparing a quarterback for conference play are no longer on the schedule.

I’m buying Indiana’s stock with Penix Jr. under center, a veteran offensive line and an improving defense and selling Michigan’s with a new quarterback and a gauntlet of a schedule.

 

Next…one of the Badgers’ division rivals who will be taking a step backwards this season

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Big Ten’s Statement on 2020-21 Fall Season

Well, it’s official.  Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic had the news earlier today that the Big Ten would only be playing conference games this fall, which means no Notre Dame/Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.

Well, it’s official.  Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic had the news earlier today that the Big Ten would only be playing conference games this fall, which means no Notre Dame/Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.

The Big Ten just released their official statement in those regards that reads as follows:

We are facing uncertain and unprecedented times, and the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes, coaches, game officials, and others associated with our sports programs and campuses remain our number one priority.

To that end, the Big Ten Conference announced today that if the Conference is able to participate in fall sports (men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball) based on medical advice, it will move to Conference-only schedules in those sports. Details for these sports will be released at a later date, while decisions on sports not listed above will continue to be evaluated. By limiting competition to other Big Ten institutions, the Conference will have the greatest flexibility to adjust its own operations throughout the season and make quick decisions in real-time based on the most current evolving medical advice and the fluid nature of the pandemic.

This decision was made following many thoughtful conversations over several months between the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors, Directors of Athletics, Conference Office staff, and medical experts including the Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee.

In addition, the Conference announced that summer athletic activities will continue to be voluntary in all sports currently permitted to engage in such activities. Furthermore, Big Ten student-athletes who choose not to participate in intercollegiate athletics at any time during the summer and/or the 2020-21 academic year due to concerns about COVID-19 will continue to have their scholarship honored by their institution and will remain in good standing with their team. 

While Big Ten member institutions continue to rely on the most up-to-date medical information to establish the best protocols for voluntary workouts on their campuses, in compliance with local and state regulations, the Conference is working with the Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee to finalize Conference-wide protocols.

As we continue to focus on how to play this season in a safe and responsible way, based on the best advice of medical experts, we are also prepared not to play in order to ensure the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes should the circumstances so dictate.

The Big Ten is the first to announce this move but don’t be surprised if the majority, if not all of the other Power Five conferences join them by the end of the day.

Stay tuned for all the breaking news right here at Fighting Irish Wire!

Related:
Jack Swarbrick not as hopeful for season to start on time

Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin at Lambeau called off

ACC to be Notre Dame’s 2020 football life-raft?