Tag: Marshall

Florida State’s 0-2 start reminiscent of Notre Dame’s start to 2022

The Seminoles are in trouble.

All of a sudden, Notre Dame’s game against Florida State in November looks far less intimidating. No other conclusion can be reached after the Seminoles lost to Boston College, 28-13.

With this loss, the Seminoles have made some dubious recent history. Ranked 10th in the AP Preseason Poll, they’ve become the fourth program in the past 10 years to be ranked in the top 10 and drop their first two games. The most recent team to do that? The 2022 Irish.

We’ll see what happens with the latest poll, but when the 2022 Irish lost to No. 2 Ohio State on the road and then Marshall at home, they dropped out of the rankings entirely and didn’t get back there until November. Even then, they never got higher than 13th.

The Seminoles don’t even have the excuse of dropping to one ranked team to begin the season. One has to think Mike Norvell is on the hot seat now for what’s happened to a team that had College Football Playoff aspirations. The pressure is on now to right the ship.

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Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89

Standout rookie OL impressed expert in Chiefs’ loss to Lions

Rookie OL Ethan Driskell put together an impressive performance in the #Chiefs’ preseason loss to the #Lions on Saturday.

The Kansas City Chiefs showed a ton of fight in their one-point loss to the Detroit Lions over the weekend, and experts have been pouring through film from the game to see which players stood out in the preseason exhibition.

Among the most impressive contributors in Kansas City’s most recent defeat was rookie offensive lineman Ethan Driskell, who astounded former NFL scout Jim Nagy with his performance against Detroit.

Nagy singled out one of Driskell’s most outstanding snaps this weekend to demonstrate just how much talent the Marshall product has, and what he could do for the Chiefs in 2024 if Brett Veach saves a spot for him on Kansas City’s 53-man roster.

Though Driskell went undrafted back in April, his dominating presence on the Chiefs’ offensive line in the preseason is a good sign for his future, whether he sticks with Kansas City or is forced to seek an opportunity elsewhere.

Expect to see the rookie lineman back in action when the Chiefs face the Chicago Bears at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday.

Notre Dame-Marshall named third-worst Group of Five loss in CFP era

Like you needed a reminder of how bad that loss was.

We all knew that when Notre Dame lost to Marshall in Week 2 of the 2022 season, any College Football Playoff hopes for the year were cooked. But just how bad was it in the big picture? Well, Twitter user Big Game Boomer has offered one opinion. The college football list aficionado lists the Irish’s 26-21 loss to the Thundering Herd as the third-worst loss by any Power Five program to a Group of Five program since the College Football Playoff began:

The good news for the Irish is that they appear only once on this list. But the fact that they appear in such a prominent spot on the list shows how much they should not have lost to the Herd. They probably weren’t going to the playoff anyway in 2022, but it was an awful feeling to have those hopes dashed so early into the season. It was both a reminder and a hard lesson not to take any opponent for granted.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Dolphins to bring in Marshall RB Rasheen Ali for visit, per report

Rasheen Ali led the FBS with 25 touchdowns during a breakout season in 2021.

Former Marshall Thundering Herd running back Rasheen Ali is set to visit the Miami Dolphins before the 2024 NFL draft, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.

Ali, 23, broke out during the 2021 season when, as a redshirt freshman, he racked up a nation-leading 25 touchdowns. His 23 rushing touchdowns were tied with current Atlanta Falcons running back Tyler Allgeier for the FBS lead, but Ali also added a receiving touchdown and a 97-yard kickoff return touchdown.

While Ali missed most of the 2022 season due to injury, he returned to earn All-Sun Belt honors in 2023 with 1,348 all-purpose yards and 16 touchdowns.

Earlier this year, Ali participated in the 2024 Senior Bowl but suffered a torn biceps tendon during a practice and was unable to participate at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine and Marshall pro day.

While the Dolphins have a dynamic duo at running back in Raheem Mostert and De’Von Achane, Ali isn’t the first back they’ve wanted to take a closer look at this offseason. Miami also reportedly plans to host Louisville’s Isaac Guerendo on a visit.

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Notre Dame Football: Irish Get Special Teams Jolt Through Transfer Portal

Notre Dame special teams got better today.

The transfer portal has been good to Notre Dame so far this winter and they came up with another catch from it Tuesday.  Former Marshall wide receiver and kick returner [autotag]Jayden Harrison[/autotag] is on his way to play for the Fighting Irish.

Harrison is coming off a year where he hauled in 28 receptions for 410 yards and a touchdown which came against North Carolina State, but on kickoff return is where he has done most of his damage.  Returning 23 kickoffs for 705 yards (over 30 yards per return), Harrison returned two for scores and was named a First Walter Camp All-American as a Kick Returner as a result.

This is a major boost for the Notre Dame special teams unit and a win for the Irish over Deion Sanders and Colorado as the Buffaloes were Harrison’s other finalist.

And before you ask, yes, Harrison was on the Marshall team that beat Notre Dame in 2022.  He led the Thundering Herd with 38 receiving yards that day but did not return any kicks.

Harrison originally enrolled at Vanderbilt and played the 2020 season there before spending the last three seasons at Marshall.  He’ll have one year of eligibility remaining with Notre Dame.

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Former Michigan State football WR Christian Fitzpatrick commits to Marshall

Former Michigan State football WR Christian Fitzpatrick commits to Marshall

Another former Michigan State football wide receiver has found a new home. On Friday night, Christian Fitzpatrick announced on social media that he will be transferring to Marshall.

Fitzpatrick had transferred to Michigan State as a redshirt freshman for the 2021 season. He only had two catches in 2021 and 2022 each, but had 18 receptions in 2023 for 252 yards and a touchdown.

READ: MICHIGAN STATE FOOTBALL TRANSFER TRACKER

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NC State statistical leaders through one game

Does anyone on this list concern you?

NC State is having a very peculiar season with its schedule. It opened the 2023 season with a win over independent UConn and now will face a second straight independent in Notre Dame. It then will face VMI before playing its ACC schedule except for one game against Marshall. Talk about one quirk after another.

Like the Irish, the Wolfpack have a quarterback finishing out his eligibility with them after spending the remainder of his career at a different school. In this case, the Wolfpack’s quarterback spent the previous five seasons at Virginia and even has experience facing the Irish (including on this writer’s wedding day). Of course, that’s only one player. There are many others who could give the Irish fits in what many are saying is their first real test of the season.

The Wolfpack have played only one game, but here’s who you might want to look out for when they face the Irish:

Chiefs UDFA Spotlight: Marshall S Isaiah Norman

Our annual #Chiefs UDFA Spotlight Series begins with an athletic safety who started his college career at the FCS level.

A letter winner at Cordova High School in Cordova, Tennessee, Norman was a two-star recruit coming into college. He committed to Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tennessee in January of 2017, agreeing to a redshirt season as a Freshman.

Norman would spend the next four years of his career with the Governors before transferring to Marshall for his final year of eligibility in 2022. After proving he could play at the FCS level at a high level, he wanted to do the same at an FBS school before taking the opportunity to go pro in the NFL.

Catching up with the Boston Celtics’ 2023 NBA draft workouts part II

A new round of prospective Celtics have worked out for Boston ahead of the 2023 NBA draft.

The Boston Celtics are working very hard to work out as many prospects seen as likely to go somewhere in the second round of the 2023 NBA draft ahead of the big event, with the ball club bringing in quite a few prospective targets seen as likely to end up somewhere outside of the first round of the annual affair.

With a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) giving contending teams like the Celtics a new two way player slot on rosters to raise the total to three per team at the same time it puts up new barriers to teambuilding for teams over the so-called “second apron,” it is more important than ever to make the most of the draft to onboard talent around the roster’s margins.

Adding to our previous reporting of the team’s known workouts comes a new wave courtesy of our sister sites Rookie Wire and HoopsHype — let’s take a look at who Boston has been scoping out.

CBS Sports grades Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman after his first season

What grade do you give Freeman after year 1?

We know how [autotag]Notre Dame[/autotag] finished the first season with [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] as the head coach: a thrilling, 45-38, [autotag]TaxSlayer Gator Bowl[/autotag] win over [autotag]South Carolina[/autotag]. The victory gave Freeman a 9-4 record in his first full season.

That was enough to impress CBS Sports [autotag]Shehan Jeyarajah[/autotag], who graded each first-year coach’s performance.

Jeyarajah noted Freeman “got off to an inauspicious start” as we all know, but after “winning six of the last seven games” he turned things around. That was good enough for Freeman to earn a B grade, which I believe is completely fair.

Obviously there were games the Irish should really have won, [autotag]Marshall[/autotag] and [autotag]Stanford[/autotag]. But the team didn’t throw in the towel and kept battling. By finishing on a high note, the grade most likely was given a bit of a boost. What letter grade do you think Freeman earned during his first year?

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