Tag: Nicole Auerbach

Riley Leonard pens message to Notre Dame fans in The Players’ Tribune

Hear from the Irish’s QB.

[autotag]Riley Leonard[/autotag] has experienced it all in what will be his only season as Notre Dame quarterback. After a celebrated career at Duke, he opted to use up his college eligibility with the Irish, with whom he experienced incredible highs and the lowest of lows.

Leonard details all of that in a piece for The Players’ Tribune directed towards Irish fans. While some of it touches on his earlier life and his path to becoming a faith-based individual, the parts Irish fans likely will be most interested in are about his decision to come to the Irish and his experience in the immediate aftermath of the stunning loss to Northern Illinois that opened the home schedule.

No matter how the 2024 Irish’s season ends, Leonard forever will be seen a key reason the team made the College Football Playoff during its first year under the 12-team format. And if you’d like to hear more from him, here’s a recent interview he did with NBC Sports’ Nicole Auerbach:

Best of luck to Leonard for the rest of the season.

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Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89

NBC Sports analyst thinks Notre Dame has done enough to wash away NIU loss

This is a great narrative for the Irish

They say that if you are going to sufferer a loss in NCAA college football, that it is better if it’s earlier in the season, which is exactly what happened to Notre Dame.

The Week 2 upset to Northern Illinois was a tough pill to swallow, as many immediately panicked and wanted to move on from Marcus Freeman. Well, those same people might be trying to jump back on the bandwagon, as the Irish have now reeled off six-straight victories follow its blowout of Navy on Saturday afternoon.

[autotag]Nicole Auerbach[/autotag], one of college football’s best analysts, believes that with what Notre Dame has done over the past six games is enough for everyone to kind of forget the loss to the Huskies. She claimed that Notre Dame’s appeal to the College Football Playoff committee is that they’re a “different team, they’re allowed to get better over the course of a season.”

There is no doubt in my mind that this is correct, as both side of the ball have improved for Notre Dame. It’s been a rollercoaster season for the Irish, as the ride isn’t quite done yet.

Oct 26, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish safety Rod Heard II (2) celebrates after recovering a fumble during the second half against the Navy Midshipmen at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

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Big Ten Network providing on-site coverage of College Football Playoff National Championship

The Big Ten Network will be airing lots of coverage from the College Football Playoff.

In four days, Washington and Michigan will face each other in the College Football Playoff with a national championship on the line. With everyone in the college football world focused on NRG Stadium, the Big Ten Network will be airing on-site coverage.

As part of the festivities, Dave Revise, Jake Butt and Nicole Auerbach will be live from Houston. Rick Rizzo, Mike Hall, Gerry DiNardo, Anthony Herron will be providing analysis from Chicago.

The fun begins on Saturday at 10 a.m. with B1G Live: Michigan National Championship Media Day. Hall and Griffith will react to Michigan’s press conferences and preview Monday’s game on B1G Live at 11 a.m. ET. On-site coverage for Washington is set to begin at 11:30 a.m. ET.

 

Coverage is set to continue on Sunday with B1G Live: National Championship Head Coaches Press Conference starting at 10 a.m. ET. After a few hours of rest, coverage will resume at 10 p.m. ET.

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On Monday, Jan. 8, coverage returns at noon ET with two hours of B1G Today and continues with B1G Live: National Championship Pregame at 6:30 p.m. ET. Following the game, B1G Live: National Championship Postgame will air at 11 p.m. ET with continued analysis on The B1G Show at midnight ET.

Once the dust settles and the final whistle blows, the press conference of the newly crowned National Champion will be featured on B1G Live: National Champions Press Conference at 10 a.m. ET.

Big Ten Network’s Nicole Auerbach gives Rutgers football’s Kyle Monangai a helmet sticker for the season

Big Ten Network’s Kyle Monangai is given a helmet sticker by the Big Ten Network.

With the college football regular season in the books, schools nationwide have shifted their focus to the 2024 campaign. However, the fun is far from over, as awards still have to be given out. On Tuesday, Rutgers earned high praise from Big Ten analyst Nicole Auerbach.

On the X app, Auerbach and Howard Griffiths revealed their rankings for who has the best helmet sticker. The list included Blake Corum, Aaron Casey, Jay Higgins, Marvin Harrison Jr., Mike Sainristil and Kyle Monangai. While Monangai was the only Rutgers player on the list, he earned a special ranking.

 

Auerbach listed the Rutgers star as second on her list, ahead of Marvin Harrison Jr. Her list also included Sainristil, who was ranked number one. Griffith’s top three consisted of Casey, Higgins, and Corum.

During the 2023 campaign, Monangai’s helmet sticker was a source of frustration for defenses as he took his game to another level. In 12 games, the New Jersey native recorded a career-high 1,099 rushing yards. He also was a touchdown machine with seven.

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As a result, he gained more national attention than ever before as Rutgers got off to an encouraging start. Auerbach seemingly took notice, placing him on a list that included some of the best players in the conference.

We just got a reason to want Notre Dame in the Pop-Tarts Bowl

Don’t say you don’t want to see this.

With Notre Dame waiting to see what bowl game it will be invited to, speculation about it is running wild. At this point, your guess is as good as mine. But what if I told you there now is something to look forward to should the Irish play in the renamed Pop-Tarts Bowl? College football insider Nicole Auerbach has the scoop:

Yes, you read that right. If the Irish are invited to the Pop-Tarts Bowl and win it, they will be helping themselves to a bite out of the giant Pop-Tart that is serving as the game’s mascot. Now isn’t that better than the thought of [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] having mayonnaise poured on him after a Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory?

To make things even more interesting, the Irish won this bowl in 2019 when it was the Camping World Bowl. So it’s not out of the question to see them in this game again. I personally am rooting for it because who doesn’t love Pop-Tarts?

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Big Ten Network’s Nicole Auerbach throws out first pitch for the Somerset Patriots

A Big Ten Network personality, Nicole Auerbach threw out the first pitch for the Somerset Patriots on Wednesday night.

Nicole Auerbach tapped into her New Jersey roots on Thursday, throwing out the first pitch for the Somerset Patriots. Time for Rutgers baseball head coach Steve Owens to check out her film?

An affiliate of the New York Yankees,  the Patriots are a Double-A team in the Eastern League. Their top prospect this season is Jasson Dominguez, a centerfielder who has earned some rave reviews.

A columnist for The Athletic and a contributor to the Big Ten Network, Auerbach is a highly-regarded journalist. During the fall, she appears on the Big Ten Network’s multiple platforms where she provides analysis.

Auerbach seemed to inspire the Patriots. After falling on July 4, the Patriots rebounded for a 7-3 win over the Reading Fightin’ Phils.

 

Perhaps when the Big Ten Network returns with live programming in August, [autotag]Gerry DiNardo[/autotag] can analyze her throwing motion. Or perhaps we can get BTN’s baseball analyst [autotag]Michael Huff[/autotag], who played for seven years in the Major Leagues and is currently part of the Chicago White Sox organization, to do a deep dive on her potential as a pitcher.

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Reactions to Notre Dame’s first half performance against Ohio State

The Irish have the lead going into half 👀

In a massive matchup like No. 5 Notre Dame visiting No. 3 Ohio State there are going to be plenty of hot takes. There was a rollercoaster of emotions for both teams and here are the best reactions to game action during the first half.

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REPORT: Two Pac-12 teams are talking about joining the Big Ten as soon as 2024

Huge conference realignment news for the Big Ten, as two Pac-12 schools are in conversations to join the conference:

As first reported by Pac-12 insider Jon Wilner and The Athletic senior writer Nicole Auerbach, the USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins are in conversations to join the Big Ten conference as soon as 2024.

Related: Wisconsin NT among six lesser-known Big Ten players with high draft grades

This would be a groundbreaking move for the Big Ten conference, which has remained unchanged since Rutgers and Maryland joined the Big Ten East in 2014. This is the first major realignment proposed for the conference since the most recent round of power five conference shifts, which include Texas and Oklahoma going from the Big-12 to the SEC in 2025.

If USC and UCLA were to join the Big Ten, they would most likely join the western division for football and could provide a balance in strength between the divisions.

Locked On Spartans: Special teams breakdown, Nicole Auerbach joins the show

Wil goes over some interesting notes on Rutgers’ depth chart and touches briefly on the suspensions of Luke Fulton and Charles Willekes.

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Wil is flying solo today with Matt off on very important business. He goes over some interesting notes on Rutgers’ depth chart and touches briefly on the suspensions of Luke Fulton and Charles Willekes. Then he breaks down the MSU special teams then ends the show with a pre-taped segment of Matt interviewing Nicole Auerbach of Big Ten Network and The Athletic.

You can find the episode on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

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NCAA chief medical officer speaks overnight, gives grim outlook for college football

Speaking on CNN in the early hours of Sunday morning, NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline painted a disturbing picture for sports.

In case you were sleeping like any sane human being would be, NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline appeared on CNN just after midnight on Sunday morning and didn’t provide much optimism about the chances of college football or any college sport for the time being.

I am yet to find any video of his appearance to link to but thanks to the likes of Chris Vannini and Nicole Auerbach on Twitter, we were able to get the most-significant of quotes from Hainline’s appearance.

  • “The pathway to play sports is so exceedingly narrow right now. Everything would have to line up perfectly.”
  • “If testing stays as it is, there’s no way we could go forward with sports.”
  • Added the greater risk is regular students resocializing on campuses. Says that could be “the downfall” if schools can’t handle that.

If you’re hoping college football gets played by the ACC, Big 12 and SEC in less than a month, it’s not the kind of comments you want to wake up to be reading today.

Our colleague Clint Lamb of Roll Tide Wire then made a compelling point about why there being no college football this fall is in the best interest of the NCAA, and it doesn’t necessarily have to do with anyone’s physical health.

As I’ve said all along this is an outcome that is next to impossible to predict.  Some thought the significant amount of positive tests at Clemson, LSU and Alabama months ago meant there was no way we’d even get to now without everything being called off for the fall.

With the rest of students returning to college campuses across the country over the last week and this next one, the real indicator is still to come after we see how quickly this virus does or does not spread over said campuses.