Tag: notre dame 2020 football

Chirp chirp: Best Notre Dame tweets, half time edition

Take a look at some of the best Notre Dame tweets through halftime of their game against Duke.

It was not quite the first half that we wanted to see out of our Irish. Ian Book has looked rattled, but the defense has looked very good. Notre Dame holds onto a slim lead of 10-6 over Duke. Take a look at some of the best Notre Dame Football related tweets through halftime of the game against Duke.

ESPN and 247Sports make predictions ahead of ‘20 season

Experts from two major outlets predict how the 2020 ACC and college football season will play out.

Saturday can’t get here soon enough, but until then we have to count down the hours until the Irish kickoff against Duke at 2:30pm EST. While we wait, let’s take a look at how some of the biggest football analysts see the season playing out.

Over at ESPN, Mark Schlabach gave out his predictions to how the conference would shake out, the Irish finishing second behind Clemson, and conference awards, where the Irish went home empty handed. Notre Dame was featured in each of Schlabach’s game’s of the year: ACC conference game, non-conference game and upset of the year. The game of the year is obvious, when the Irish host Clemson on November 7, which Schlabach has Notre Dame winning. If correct, the Irish could potentially stop the Tigers from tying the longest winning streak in-conference play at 29 games set by FSU in the early 90’s.

When looking at the upset of the year, you won’t think the Irish would worry much about Pat Narduzzi’s Pittsburgh Panthers. A so-so offense, but solid defense, shouldn’t pose many problems from Brian Kelly and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees but Schlabach thinks Pitt will. Having home-field advantage won’t be much on an advantage for any team this year, as crowds aren’t expected to be capacity by any means. An upset would be very disappointing especially against the Panthers, as Notre Dame on paper is a much better team.

As for the non-conference game of the year, the tilt against South Florida won’t be an easy win, but should be a win regardless. It’s a bit concerning that Notre Dame didn’t sniff any of the individual awards, but if it’s wins over individual awards, the Irish will surely take it.

Over at 247Sports, it was more of a collective on how the season would play out. Six of their seven experts have the Irish making the ACC championship game, the other team with a berth was North Carolina. The end goal is winning an ACC championship, at least this year it is, getting to the College Football Playoff is a byproduct of winning the conference.

Staying with 247Sports, only one of their seven experts had Notre Dame in the final four of the CFP, Bud Elliott had them finishing 3rd overall. That’s the good news, back to ESPN, Schlabach has the Irish losing twice, once to the aforementioned Pitt and again to North Carolina. This loss would hurt the most, as Schlabach predicts it will knock the Irish out of a CFP spot. What hurts even more is the Irish will have a shot to beat Clemson twice, but fail to achieve the sweep and finish second in the ACC.

These are just predictions, a guess as to what the season will hold of the Irish as they venture into the ACC for the season. I think we all hope Elliott is correct, making the CFP would be exactly what Brian Kelly is looking for this season.

ESPN updates Power Poll, Irish sitting pretty

Notre Dame is in a much more advantageous position in ESPN’s final preseason Power Poll than either of the other polls.

The season is finally upon us, we can officially say it’s game week. The Irish start their season on Saturday, hosting Duke at 2:30pm EST. The excitement for 2020 is at it’s peak and ESPN just put more gas on the Notre Dame hype machine heading into the regular season.

The world wide leader updated their Power Poll prior  to major conference play and Brian Kelly’s Irish squad ranked 5th overall according to the experts at ESPN. Chris Low, who compiled the rankings had some very encouraging things to say about the Irish: “Finally, Notre Dame has joined a conference, at least for this season. This Irish will play 10 ACC games and be eligible to play in the conference championship in December. They have the pieces in place to get there, too, from veteran quarterback Ian Book to one of the top offensive lines in the country to budding superstars on defense in linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and safety Kyle Hamilton. This is a team primed to win 10 or more games for the fourth straight season.”

That’s high praise from Low, who is very high on what the Irish can accomplish this season. In a surprise, Low actually doesn’t have Clemson, they’re number two, as his top overall team like both polls do, it’s Alabama. Looking at other Notre Dame opponents for his coming season and you’ll find North Carolina at 15, Louisville at 22 and Florida State at 23.

The season is here and we are extremely excited for what lies ahead in what could be the only season the Irish could qualify for an ACC title. Hell, might as well go win it since we can.

Duke names their starting QB against Notre Dame

The Blue Devils gave up some valuable intel when they announced their season opening quarterback. Advantage Irish.

Clemson has been a quarterback factory, with many of them highly ranked who can’t crack the starting lineup transferring to different programs. Duke was the benefactor of Trevor Lawrence’s greatness, as Chase Brice transferred to Durham looking for an opportunity to start. Well, that opportunity has become reality, as Duke named Brice their starter.

The Irish will face a former 3-star recruit who in limited playing time behind Lawrence completed 82-of-136 passes for 1,023 yards and 9 TD’s with 4 INT’s. Brice also rushed for 187 yards and 1 TD on 30 attempts.

Duke struggled at the quarterback position last year after first round pick Daniel Jones went off the to NFL. Brice is a solid quarterback, but obviously is not Lawrence and will not have the talented skill position players Clemson has at their disposal.

Now that Clark Lea and the rest of this defensive staff know who they are going up against they can properly game plan for Brice. Honestly, this isn’t the smartest decision by Duke head coach David Cutcliffe. He could have announced to the team his intentions, and not make it known to everyone, giving Duke an advantage without the Irish knowing who would be behind center the first snap. Now this is a wash, as Brian Kelly and Lea will surely be looking over old Clemson tape to get a feel for what Brice can do. Duke’s announcement is Notre Dame’s gain in this situation.

Best case, worst case for Notre Dame in 2020

Find out what the potential best case and worst case scenarios for Fighting Irish Football in the 2020 season could be.

With the season rapidly approaching and the schedule finalized for the Irish, we can now look ahead and try to figure out what the best case and worst case scenarios. Brad Crawford of 247Sports did that and it’s pretty obvious what the best case looks like for Notre Dame.

Going undefeated is the best case, beating Clemson twice, once in the regular season and the second time for the ACC crown. How great would it be to be one-and-done with conference play bringing the ACC trophy back to South Bend. 12-0 sounds damn good to all of us.

How about the worst case? The Irish are set up to win at minimum 7 games, but there are some traps along the way. Crawford sees the Irish potentially losing to Clemson, North Carolina and either Pittsburgh or Louisville. Let’s just say the Irish lose all four of those games. This would be a complete disaster, an outcome I just can’t see happening.

But let’s live in that world for a second, this scenario could happen if multiple things went wrong for the Irish. If quarterback Ian Book went down with a season ending injury in the opener against Duke, the depth just isn’t there to compensate for a loss of Book. How about an injury to safety Kyle Hamilton? Or linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah? Injuries to any of the Irish stars wouldn’t be ideal, but probably wouldn’t derail the whole season.

The worst case probably won’t happen, but meeting in the middle is a possibility. In this weird season, anything could happen, so prepare yourself for a while season of Notre Dame football.

Notre Dame Football: Kelly raises bar for freshman RB Tyree

It is clear that Brian Kelly and Notre Dame have high expectations for Chris Tyree in 2020 after the coaches comments on Thursday.

Notre Dame’s 2020 recruiting class was plenty good with some star power but lacked the depth to be considered great by any stretch of the imagination.

One of the prized pieces of it was all-purpose-back, speedster Chris Tyree of Chester, Virginia.

Tyree has blazing fast speed and comes with a four-star ranking from both 247Sports and Rivals, but the concern about him entering his freshman year was his size, or lack thereof.

Tyree was listed at 5-10, 170 pounds during his recruitment, a weight that made his potential durability come into question for some, myself included.  Tyree is listed now at 5-10, 179 pounds on Notre Dame’s official roster.

That added weight, assumed to largely be muscle, had head coach Brian Kelly raising expectations for the freshman back when Kelly met the media via Zoom call on Thursday.

“He’s not a specialist who just plays in the slot or hand-off sweeps, he’s a guy who can run the football downhill between the tackles too” Kelly said, “He’s not going to get 30 carries, don’t get me wrong, but he’s a guy who’s going to play as a freshman.”

Tyree will be one of the most interesting players to watch in 2020 as he comes with speed that’s comparable to the likes of Braden Lenzy, Rocket Ismail, Armando Allen and George Atkinson, just to name a few of Notre Dame’s fastest players in semi-recent memory.

For comparisons sake, Allen entered Notre Dame listed at 5-10, 181 pounds.  Sure the 2007 Fighting Irish were awful which allowed for more reps early in his career, but Allen recorded 86 rush attempts and 24 receptions his freshman year, something Greg Flammang pointed out on Twitter early Thursday.

With the backfield not yet appearing to have a standout load back and there now being only ten regular season games compared to the twelve originally scheduled, the amount of playing time and carries Tyree gets as the year goes on will be a compelling story-line to watch, especially with his head coach already tooting his horn a bit.

2020 Virtual Notre Dame Football Cards: Ian Book – Quarterback

We can’t make cardboard football cards for you so instead we give you virtual Notre Dame football cards. Check out quarterback Ian Book’s!

2020 Notre Dame Football Player Cards

Remember how great football cards were when you were a kid?  So do we!  We unfortunately can’t print out a bunch of pictures on cardboard and send them to all of you but we have the next best thing, virtual player cards for the 2020 Notre Dame football team!  Here you’ll find all the information, stats, facts and in some cases a photo gallery and/or highlights of all of your favorite Notre Dame players ahead of the 2020 season.  Check it out as we build the complete team set throughout July!

First up is the signal caller himself, quarterback Ian Book.

Credit: Matt Stamey-USA TODAY Sports

First: Information and Stats

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8, Page 9, Page 10, Page 11, Page 12, Page 13

Which Notre Dame True Freshman Steps Up Contributes Immediately? (Part 2)

Yesterday, it as the offensive freshman that were profiled as contributors and today it’s the defenses turn for potential early impacts.

Yesterday we took a look at which Notre Dame offensive true freshman could make an impact this coming season. The key part of yesterday’s quote from Irish head coach Brian Kelly was that he expected both sides of the ball to have an impact freshman. Today, it’s time to look on the other side of the ball and see who could impact the Irish defensive after being in high school just a few months ago.

Linebacker Jordan Botelho

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The Irish have had good luck with Hawaiian prospects before, Manti Te’o worked out pretty well and Alohi Gilman was just drafted in the sixth round a few weeks ago, and the 6’3” and 230-pound edge rusher could see time early this coming season. Botelho won’t be an every down player, but in certain situations he could be deadly. Imagine a 3rd and long with a fresh Botelho coming off the edge, causing havoc for opposing offenses. The leading tackler from last year Drew White returns along with rising star Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, but there is one spot open and there is potential that Botelho can force Brian Kelly to get him on the field early and often.

Defensive End Rylie Mills

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The Illinois native was a wanted man during his recruitment, the who’s who of college football was after his pledge (Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, LSU and others) but Kelly won the battle for Mills’ commitment. A player with that kind of offer list is not expected to come in and sit, and the 6’5” and 275-pound defensive end should have an opportunity for some early playing time. With Khalid Kareem and Julian Okwara moving on to the next level, Kelly will be looking for someone to fill that production and Mills could be that guy. There aren’t many proven commodities at defensive end for the Irish and Mills could push his way into the lineup early in his career.

Athlete Ramon Henderson

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Henderson does not come with the accolades as his two classmates before him do, but he could have just as good of a career as either of them. Henderson could make his impact first on special teams, where the 6’3” and 180-pound Californian strides long, gets to his top speed quickly and takes fantastic angles to find open return lanes. The Irish haven’t returned a kick or punt for a touchdown since 2016, when C.J. Sanders did it twice. In the long term, Henderson could be a special cornerback, his length is elite and if he continues to get more experience on that side of the ball, his ceiling is sky high. Henderson could very well end up as a high pointing receiver as well, his body type gives the Irish staff plenty of options.

The last two days we have looked at potential freshman who could make an impact in their first year at South Bend. Who knows, maybe one of the overlooked prospects such as Germany’s Alexander Ehrensberger emerges as the freshman who has the biggest impact next year. What we do know is it will be fun watching each of these 17 recruits for the next 3-5 years while they wear the Blue and Gold.

NCAA.com Releases Preseason Top 25, See Where Notre Dame is Ranked

NCAA.com has released their preseason Top 25 and Notre Dame is highly ranked. Find out exactly where they are compared to the nation.

Although spring practices and games have been canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, NCAA.com still has released a preseason Top 25 late last week. With so much uncertainty regarding the sports world, it is always nice to look forward to what could be and where Notre Dame is ranked.

The Irish are just outside the Top 10, checking in at 11th overall in the country which is just a bit lower than where we have seen Notre Dame ranked in other preseason polls. The Irish’s ranking was justified by “QB Ian Book’s return, Notre Dame Should be potent on offense.” With every offensive lineman returning along with Book, the offense will have to find weapons on the outside, making the loss of spring practices loom large for the offense.

Defensively, the Irish “should be strong, though the secondary is the biggest question mark there,” is how NCAA.com sees the other side of the ball. Ohio State transfer Isaiah Pryor bring experience with Shaun Crawford, but the rest of the secondary is fairly green. Again, spring practice would have helped this unit out a ton.

Looking ahead at the schedule, the Irish will face #16 Wisconsin, #1 Clemson and #19 Southern California according to the NCAA.com’s early rankings. They also mention the season opener in Dublin against Navy and the home date against Louisville as tough matchups, so the road to grabbing a Top 4 College Football Playoff spot won’t be easy, but it’s certainly attainable.

Notre Dame’s Highest “Top Early Top 25” Ranking We’ve Seen

The Irish also come in one spot behind Florida who is fresh-off an Orange Bowl victory and 11-2 season.

We tend to react when national college voices weigh in on Notre Dame gets mentioned, whether it’s good or bad.

This week you’ve seen us post a few different “Too Early Top 25” rankings that various college football writers have offered.  We reacted to one by considering firing it into the sun while the other we dissected, we pretty much fell in line with.

Now we have one that has ranked Notre Dame higher than any we’ve seen this week.

From Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde:

9. Notre Dame

There are two attractive but difficult additions to the schedule: Clemson at home and Wisconsin at Lambeau Field. Those are in addition to games at USC and Pittsburgh. But with Ian Book and most of the offensive line returning, Brian Kelly has some building blocks. There are a lot of good players to replace on defense. The recruiting consistency of the Fighting Irish will come into play there.

Notre Dame coming in at nine placed them a spot ahead of national champion LSU which may come as a shock to some.  The Irish also come in one spot behind Florida who is fresh-off an Orange Bowl victory and 11-2 season.

Three 2020 Notre Dame opponents show up on the list with Clemson being top-rated in the nation and Wisconsin checking in at 13 and USC at 16.  Simple logic leads you to understand why the November 7 showdown with Clemson could very easily be the biggest game at Notre Dame Stadium since The Game of the Century versus Florida State in 1993.