Tag: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame Injury News: Kevin Austin Breaks Foot

Wide receiver Kevin Austin, who was suspended for 2019 but is a big reason for huge expectations for the 2020 receiving corps, has broken his foot.

It’s not even the start of official practice yet but Notre Dame football has already suffered a significant injury.

Wide receiver Kevin Austin, who was suspended for 2019 but is a big reason for huge expectations for the 2020 receiving corps, has broken his foot.

From the Notre Dame Football PR Staff on Twitter:

The good news is that he’s not out for the season but the bad news is obvious. It’s a broken foot and not an injury that likely just is gone and forgotten about the second it’s technically healed.

Strength building and conditioning will come after as his potential 2020 outbreak so many are expecting, takes a major hit.

Austin only has five receptions in his Notre Dame career but was likely to enter 2020 as a starter and the benefactor of a significant amount of targets.

We’ll have more on this news at Fighting Irish Wire as more information becomes available.

Notre Dame shakes up ESPN’s FPI after joining ACC

The Irish make their presence known with the latest update to ESPN’s Football Power Index.

With the announcement last week of the Irish joining the ACC for the 2020 season, many outlets needed to adjust their preseason rankings to account for this massive change. ESPN has just updated their Football Power Index and it looks fairly favorable for Notre Dame.

When looking at the numbers, there are plenty of them when breaking down the FPI, they Irish are almost assured of having a bowl game, as long as more of them don’t get canceled. With a 89.3% chance at more than 6 wins, you can bring that one to the back. The problem when looking further into the FPI is that the projection model has Notre Dame winning only one more game past that threshold.

ESPN’s projections have a final record of 7-3, but there is a silver lining to this, a chance to bring home an ACC Title. Clemson is the overwhelming favorite to win the conference, as the FPI gives the Tigers an 88.7% chance to bring home the hardware. The Irish rank second, and although chances are slim at 4.3%, it’s still a chance.

There’s a smaller chance the Irish win out, at a minute 0.2%, and even smaller chance to win the national title at 0.1%. Playoff’s are now the gold standard goal of ever program, and the FPI gives the Irish a 1.6% chance at making the coveted final four.

Getting an opportunity to play for a title in 2020 would be fantastic, even if it is an ACC one. How awesome would it be to play in a conference for a season, win the ACC title and ride off into an independence sunset hoisting the trophy and heading to the playoffs. Hopefully the FPI is off and that’s exactly how the 2020 season plays out for the Irish.

Will a true freshman be Notre Dame’s rising ACC star?

There is lot of hype surrounding an Irish true freshman and his opportunity to make an impact early for the Notre Dame Football team.

It seem’s weird to be included into ACC content regarding the Notre Dame football team, but here we are. It’s been a very odd year, but as football gets closer and closer, 247Sports took a look at up-and-coming players that they were excited to see this fall.

Irish incoming freshman Michael Mayer made Charles Power’s list, and for very obvious reasons. With the departure of Cole Kmet to the NFL, the path to early playing time is in the hand of the 5-Star recruit. Power believes “Mayer is a ready-to-go type prospect who is entering what looks to be a favorable situation in South Bend.”

What we don’t know is how quickly Mayer will pick up the playbook from new offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. If he is able to grasp the scheme quickly, the talented freshman should be able to hit the field running. “He’s (Mayer) physically developed and skilled enough to make an impact as a freshman,” said Power.

It makes sense to at least give Mayer a shot early to see if he can prove himself on the field. Since players are now able to play in 4 games without losing a redshirt season, Mayer could even play a bit part without losing a year of eligibility. Ideally, this is not the case, with Mayer forcing Brian Kelly’s hand to play him throughout the year. I think this is the most realistic scenario, as Mayer should. work his way into the tight end rotation this year, before breaking out nationally as a sophomore.

It’s worth noting that former Notre Dame quarterback Phil Jurkovic made the list for Boston College, although the NCAA has yet to determine if immediate eligibility will be granted to the transfer. With BC on the new Irish schedule for 2020, it would be interesting to see how Jurkovic performs against his former teammates if eligible.

Will Irish commit Diggs make you forget about missing out on Shipley?

Notre Dame finally got their running back in the 2021 class, but will the commit of Logan Diggs make your forget about losing Will Shipley?

The Irish gained a commitment from Louisiana running back Logan Diggs this week, but the sting of missing out on North Carolina’s Will Shipley still is there. Rivals recruiting experts Mike Farrell and Adam Gorney played fact or fiction if Diggs will ultimately be better than Shipley. Not so fast my friends, as Lee Corso would famously say on ESPN.

Both Farrell and Gorney believe that the statement is fiction, although both think that Diggs is underrated compared to his class of 2021 peers. I see Diggs as having tons of untapped potential, and so do Rival’s experts. Farrell noted that Diggs “missed some time due to injury as a sophomore and is just starting to emerge as a playmaker. He’s not Shipley, but he’s a solid replacement.” Gorney see’s Diggs as “underrated in this class, has great film, is a dynamic back who has make-you-miss ability and will be a nice weapon in Notre Dame’s offense, but there’s only one Will Shipley in this class.”

Yes, losing Shipley hurt. Hurt a lot, but the addition of Diggs will help ease the pain. The state of Louisiana is set to begin practice’s for high school teams tomorrow, but their season will soon be adjusted. As long as Diggs is able to continue his breakout from last year, he will rise in the rankings and hopefully will make every forget about missing out on Shipley.

Notre Dame Football COVID-19 Testing Update

If you’re looking for good news in the way a group here nationally is handling COVID-19 you certainly don’t want to look at Major League Baseball as five more St. Louis Cardinals tested positive on Saturday morning. One place in sports where test …

If you’re looking for good news in the way a group here nationally is handling COVID-19 you certainly don’t want to look at Major League Baseball as five more St. Louis Cardinals tested positive on Saturday morning.

One place in sports where test results continue to comeback negative, however?

The Notre Dame football program.

Saturday saw the football program release the results of their latest round of COVID-19 testing and to make a long story short – Notre Dame got a perfect score.

103 players tested and 103 negative tests.

Notre Dame has now administered 459 tests to the football team and athletic staff in recent with just two positive tests coming back and both of those players have since recovered.

The Notre Dame football program has clearly done a great job keeping COVID-19 from overtaking their locker room. Let’s hope they can keep that up and that more programs nationally start to have similar success stories.

College football scholarships for 2021 class officially offered August 1

Welcome to August, college football fans. As we await what will happen with is the first Saturday of college football four weeks from now we’ve reached a significant date on the recruiting calendar. August 1 is the first day that teams can make …

Welcome to August, college football fans. As we await what will happen with is the first Saturday of college football four weeks from now we’ve reached a significant date on the recruiting calendar.

August 1 is the first day that teams can make official, written scholarship offers to players in the 2021 recruiting cycle.

Notre Dame, along with the rest of college football created graphics and sent them to their ’21 pledges to share on social media.

Four-star quarterback Tyler Buchner’s post:

Plenty of the rest of the class of ’21 shared the same personalized posts to acknowledge the official offers.

Notre Dame currently sits with 15 commitments in the ’21 class after tight end Mitchell Evans and running back Logan Diggs both made their announcements this past week.

Farewell to Golic & Wingo on ESPN Radio, Mike Golic’s morning show

After 22 years the voice of ESPN morning radio hangs it up to return to the collegiate game.

Former Notre Dame standout defensive tackle Mike Golic has had plenty of success on and off the field. Golic was a captain in his senior season with the Irish before being drafted in the 10th round by the Houston Oilers and playing in the NFL for 8 seasons. His post playing career has been even more impressive, as he began it prior to even finishing his NFL career.

During his time with the Philadelphia Eagles, Golic would do a weekly segment on the Randall Cunningham Show which began a long, successful media career. I did take him a few years to blossom but once he did, along with Mike Greenberg, Golic became the face of ESPN radio. The show began just on ESPN radio affiliates then moves to a simulcast on ESPN2. When Greenberg left, Golic had about two weeks off before getting back on the mic with Trey Wingo as their show’s run of three years came to an end today. That’s over 22 years of morning radio for the former Notre Dame star.

What’s in store next for Golic isn’t retirement, he will be behind the mic for ESPN during the college football season. That means we will get plenty more of Golic in our ears for the foreseeable future and that doesn’t seem to bother us one bit.

Irish stay hot on the recruiting trail, add ’21 TE Evans

With Ohio tight end Mitchell Evans committing to Notre Dame today, that makes 4 commits this week for the Irish.

It’s safe to say the Irish are red-hot on the recruiting trail right now. Just this week Brian Kelly and his staff have landed 2021 RB Logan Diggs, class of 2022 offensive tackle Joey Tanona and tight end Jack Nickel. You can now add ’21 tight end Mitchell Evans to the group also.

The Ohio tight end stands 6-foot-7-inches and weighs 240-pounds and the Irish beat out West Virginia, Florida State, Michigan State and others for Evans commitment. By the 247Sports composite, Evans is the 20th tight end nationally and the 435th overall player in the country.

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You want to know go good of an athlete Evans is? Just watch his highlight reel above and you see right away what the Irish staff liked about the tight end. The first play Evans lines up a quarterback and takes the snap 50-plus yards for a touchdown. There’s a lot to like about Evans’ game even though he didn’t put up eye-popping stats. The large frame will be a red zone nightmare for opposing defenses.

The commit by Evans is the 15th total commit for the 2021 class, bringing their national ranking to 13th rated by 247Sports. He is the second tight end commit for the Irish in the ’21 cycle joining Georgian Cane Berrong. Kelly and his staff are most likely done at the position as they continue to add premium talent on their way to South Bend.

 

Is the Notre Dame Offensive Line the best group in the country?

Five returning starters give the Irish a very formidable group, but just how good are they when compared to other top groups?

A long history of putting offensive linemen into the NFL has obviously gotten the notice of plenty of national pundits. Mike Farrell, the Recruiting Director over at Rivals, has ranked the best group of five offensive linemen in the country and the Irish came out on top of the list.

It’s not just one elite player on the line that Farrell likes its everyone “from Liam Eichenberg to Aaron Banks to Robert Hainsey, the front is loaded with talent and should pave the way for a strong running game and a dangerous offense under Ian Book.” The Irish will depend on the offensive line to pave holes for a very green running backs unit. They will also have to give Book enough time to find his also green wide receivers.

It is a very good luxury to have all five returning starters, with the aforementioned three along with Tommy Kraemer and Jarrett Patterson, to help ease the offense this coming season. Having a line that has been through the trials of a season together will surely help as Book finds go to targets and who will be the lead running back. You can add in Josh Lugg into the mix as well in case an injury occurs. Winning the battle on the trenches is often a good sign for great teams, and if the Irish offensive line plays up to expectations, you can expect very good results.

CBS Sports Suggests Options for College Football Playoffs in 2020

The staff at CBS Sports dream about different scenarios for the 2020 College Football Playoff.

Since the inception of the College Football Playoff in 2014, there have been plenty of suggestions as to how to make the selection process better. This year could be a preview of what’s to come, as with so much uncertainty surrounding the 2020 season, the committee might just have to alter their methods. After all the Big 10 and Pac-12 have already gone to a conference only schedule while the other Power Five conferences are looking at potential conference games plus-one schedule.

The college football staff at CBS Sports all gave their suggestion as to how they would make adjustments to this years College Football Playoff. Starting off with Barrett Sallee, who suggests expanding the field to 8 teams due to the decisions from the Big 10 and Pac-12 altering their schedules. Sallee would like to see each Power Five conference champion get an automatic bid while 2 of the other open spots go to at-large teams. He would like to see the top Group of Five team get in as well, making it six automatic bids. Sallee does see an issue however, and it deals directly with the Irish as he says “unless it’s (Notre Dame) a full member of the ACC in 2020, its only chance should be through an at-large.” With Clemson most likely being the heavy ACC favorite, this would make sense.

Ben Kercheval would like to see the playoff field stay at four teams, but the committee would make their selections post-Bowl games. This allows the selection committee to get another data point to make an assessment on teams after many, if not all of the out of conference games will be canceled. Tom Fornelli would like to see conference-only tournaments with the top 4 teams and go back to the old ways of having the polls dictate a champion.

The final idea comes from David Cobb, who suggests a six-team playoff with a twist. Each of the Power Five conferences’ champion would get the automatic bid but the final spot would go to a Group of Five team. For that Group of Five team to get in, the team would have to win a “wildcard” type game to get in, pitting the top two highest ranked teams together for the final spot. What would be interesting is that a Group of Five champion would be crowned, the winner of the “wildcard” game.

All of these ideas are farfetched at the current moment but still very fun to entertain. For the Irish, the best scenario would be Sallee’s, as with two extra spots the chances for a return to the playoff for Notre Dame would be much greater. What do you think of these ideas for a playoff in 2020?