Tag: John Shannon

Notre Dame players named to preseason award watch lists

Will anyone win this year?

It’s the time of year when we start seeing award watch lists come out in anticipation of the college football season. With Notre Dame expected to be highly ranked once again, there are plenty of players who are ripe for watching. Whether or not any of them actually take home any of this hardware is anyone’s guess right now, but they’re at least on the radar of those who know college football best.

In some cases, more than one Notre Dame player is on the watch list for the same award. Also, as different award watch lists come on different days, it can be difficult to keep track of them all. Rest assured, we will be doing just that as these lists continue to come out.

At season’s end, we’ll find out if any of them or maybe somebody different becomes the first national award winner for the Irish since [autotag]Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah[/autotag] won the Butkus Award in 2020:

Notre Dame long snapper named to Patrick Mannelly Award watch list

He very well could take home the hardware after this season

One of the best long snappers in the history of football, [autotag]Patrick Mannelly[/autotag], has a long snapping award named after him and recognized [autotag]Notre Dame[/autotag]’s [autotag]Michael Vinson[/autotag].

The Mannelly Award is give out annually to the top long snapper in college, was created in 2019 and the [autotag]John Shannon[/autotag], the Irish long snapper, took home the initial award.

Vinson, who has been named to the watch list for the second consecutive  year, did not take home the hardware after the 2022 season. The 6-foot, 2-inch and 235 pound long snapper is a known commodity, being named as the First Team All-American selection by the American Football Coaches Association for his work last year.

A semi-finalist for the Mannelly Award last year, Vinson will look to take home the award after this fall.

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Notre Dame’s Michael Vinson makes watch list for Mannelly Award

Here’s hoping Vinson can get this type of recognition in 2022.

The long snapper might be the most unheralded position in football. Very little fanfare is given to it, but it’s just as important as the other 10 positions out on the field at the moment of truth. Fortunately, the Patrick Mannelly Award was created in 2019 to be presented to the best long snapper in college football. Notre Dame’s [autotag]Michael Vinson[/autotag] has made the watch list for this year’s award.

Although the Mannelly Award hasn’t been around for very long, the Irish benefited from it immediately upon its establishment. The first recipient of the award was [autotag]John Shannon[/autotag]. Though Shannon never played football again after that, it sure was a nice way to go out. His departure paved the way for Vinson to become the top long snapper, and Vinson has held the fort down ever since.

It’s hard to tell how Vinson will do this season, but at least the experts have high hopes for him.

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Preseason bowl projections: Hurricane warning for Notre Dame?

It’s a U…of Notre Dame thing.

As the college football regular season inches closer and closer, we’ve been getting hit with more and more preseason predictions and projections for how just about every one of the 131 Football Bowl Subdivision programs will do. The latest is a set of bowl projections for every bowl game this season from veteran college football scribe Bill Bender of The Sporting News.

Bender sends Notre Dame to a bowl game we’ve seen several outlets project the Irish to already, but the opponent Bender projects is about as compelling a potential bowl opponent as there could be for the Irish, short of it being someone in the College Football Playoff.

Bill Bender’s Notre Dame Bowl Projection:

Orange Bowl – December 30, 2022
Notre Dame vs. Miami (FL)

If Notre Dame isn’t playing in the College Football Playoff (which I’m not sold on to be frank), then go ahead and sign me up for this one. The disaster that was the 2017 game at Miami, where the Irish were obliterated, 41-8, still leaves a bad taste in any Notre Dame fan’s mouth.

And whenever you put Notre Dame and Miami in the same sentence, the collective antenna of college football fans everywhere is raised.

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Notre Dame Football: John Shannon Wins Inaugural Patrick Mannelly Award

John Shannon is a name only the most doe-hard of Notre Dame fans are probably familiar with even though he has played in every Fighting Irish game over the last three seasons.

John Shannon is a name only the most doe-hard of Notre Dame fans are probably familiar with even though he has played in every Fighting Irish game over the last three seasons.

His most recent game saw him get awarded the game ball because of a huge play he made in determining the victorious outcome at Stanford.

That wasn’t the only hardware Shannon would bring home in 2019 however as Saturday night he was awarded the inaugural Patrick Mannelly Award for being the best senior long snapper in the nation, edging out Liam McCullough of Ohio State and Steven Wirtel, Iowa State.

Taken from the official award website is the following:

Long Snappers don’t make the cover of the program. They’re rarely asked to sign autographs. You don’t typically see them being interviewed before the game. But Long Snappers aren’t driven by these things. Quiet, selfless, focused and courageous, the Long Snapper is content to trade conventional superstardom for the opportunity to do one job very well.  – PatrickMannellyAward.com

Upon reading that I find it fitting Shannon won the award on Saturday of all days. Just hours earlier Brian Kelly announced that Shannon would be passing up his fifth year of eligibility at Notre Dame. It wasn’t because he is trying to make it on an NFL roster, however, it’s because he’s beginning his career in law enforcement.