Vols’ target, 2023 in-state lineman receives first Pac-12 offer.
2023 defensive line prospect Drake Carlson has received an offer from Stanford.
“Electric to receive an offer to play for Stanford football,” Carlson announced.
The 6-foot-4, 260-pound Carlson is from Father Ryan High School in Nashville, Tennessee.
Tennessee offered Carlson on April 22, 2021.
The in-state prospect has offers from Tennessee, Stanford, Eastern Kentucky, Liberty, Memphis, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and West Virginia.
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In November a request was approved to move to a six-regional format starting this spring.
On Thursday afternoon the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Committee announced Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, California, and Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tennessee, as regional sites for the 2022 NCAA Div. I Women’s Golf Championship.
In November the NCAA Competition Oversight Committee approved a request to move to a six-regional format starting this spring before the 2022 championship, May 20-25 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Each regional site will now be comprised of 12 teams and six individuals. The top four teams and top two individuals (not on an advancing team) will qualify for the championship. According to a previous release from the NCAA, “72 teams will still qualify for regional play, with the number of individuals not on an advancing team increasing from 24 to 36.”
The other regional hosts are The Championship Course at UNM (Albuquerque, New Mexico), University of Michigan Golf Course (Ann Arbor, Michigan), Karsten Creek Golf Club (Stillwater, Oklahoma) and Seminole Legacy Golf Club (Tallahassee, Florida).
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“The response from the NCAA membership and local organizing committees to host these additional regionals has been remarkable,” said Julie Manning, chair of the Division I Women’s Golf Committee and deputy athletics director and senior woman administrator at the University of Minnesota. “We are thrilled to add two outstanding venues and institutions as hosts for our 2022 regional championships and we look forward to awarding additional regional hosts for the 2023-26 championships in the very near future.”
Regional sites for 2023-26 are expected to be announced in March.
Thursday was Make Your Dream Come True Day, so Notre Dame decided it would make a few fans’ dreams come true. One such fan had it happen to him after his father tweeted the following:
Took my son to see 1st ND football & basketball games this year. Talks about Cormac Ryan all the time now. Just let him know he’s got a fan and to keep up the good work. Irish fan for life. pic.twitter.com/rJbJkjC2jF
And yes, his father expressed his gratitude in anticipation of his son’s day made:
Wow! Thank you! He’ll be so excited when he gets home from school. The extra effort is what makes Notre Dame so special. Thanks to Cormac for taking time to do this, continued success and health on and off the court. #GoIrish
Ryan probably wasn’t sure if we would make that much of an impression on somebody when he transferred to Notre Dame from Stanford, but that’s the case here. Hopefully before the season is over, these two will be able to meet in the flesh. Even if it doesn’t happen, this kid still will have this memory that will last him the rest of his life.
Ryan has started 10 of 15 games this season, though only one of those starts has come over the past six games. He is averaging 8.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists a game.
Perhaps the best way to sum up the historic year Rachel Heck had is to listen as she discusses what went through her mind standing on the 18th green holding up the NCAA championship trophy in Scottsdale, Arizona, in May.
This had been one of her goals for so long, and an unlikely one even after years of being hailed as maybe the best women’s golf prospect to ever emerge from the Memphis area. Here she was representing Stanford, the dream school she committed to as a freshman at St. Agnes, a dream that had to be deferred even longer because COVID-19 shut down the campus in the fall of 2020.
She wondered if this would even be possible, and it had nothing to do with her driver or her putter or the rest of the prodigious skills she so carefully cultivated, starting out at Chickasaw Country Club, then Windyke Country Club and, more recently, Spring Creek Golf Course and TPC Southwind.
So this moment, a moment that further cemented her as one of the world’s best amateur golfers, became a moment of clarity as well.
Stanford University golfer Rachel Heck celebrates with her father Robert Heck after being crowned individual medalist during the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club. Joe Camporeale / USA TODAY Sports.
“I think my mindset kind of changed after COVID,” Heck said. “There was a long period where I wasn’t able to play and I missed it so much. I didn’t know when I was going to be able to play again. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to go to Stanford. So I was just happy to be playing golf.”
Heck embodied what it meant to persevere and thrive as an athlete through a pandemic that continues to wreak havoc on sports, and became one of the symbols for the new name, image, likeness era that has completely changed the notion of what a college athlete can do.
Put simply: There was no Memphis-based sports figure who accomplished more over the past 12 months.
Heck, 20, became just the third freshman to sweep the NCAA golf postseason, winning her conference championship, her NCAA regional title, and the national championship. She was only the second freshman to win the ANNIKA Award, given annually to the best women’s Division I golfer. Her scoring average over 25 rounds of college golf (69.76) is also the lowest in NCAA history.
Heck also made it to the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur and made the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open for the second time in four years. She finished the year at No. 3 in the women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings and No. 2 in the Golfweek/Amateur.Golf.com rankings.
“All the golf accomplishments just added on to what was already an insanely special year,” Heck said. “In my day-to-day life, I don’t find happiness from knowing that I won the national championship. I find happiness from my friends and everyone at Stanford and my coach. They’re what really matters.”
Stanford University golfer Rachel Heck tees off on the 11th hole during the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club. Joe Camporeale / USA TODAY Sports.
This perspective is a boon in light of all the other opportunities afforded Heck because of her achievements.
She is an example of how a college athlete’s ability to make money off name, image, and likeness can’t simply be viewed through the prism of professionalizing college sports. It’s not just about football and men’s basketball, either. It’s also a tool to keep athletes in school.
Heck is now represented by Excel Sports Management, the same New York-based agency that works with Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas, among others. She has only signed one marketing deal at the moment with Six Star Pro Nutrition, she said, although there have been numerous other offers to sort through.
“I just wanted to do this process right, not make any rash decisions, not sign any contracts the day after NIL was finalized by the NCAA,” Heck explained.
More importantly, though, it helps offset the pressure to turn pro that a golfer of her acclaim might have previously felt.
“For me, I don’t want to go pro anyways,” Heck said. “But I think the incentive was to monetize how you’re playing. If you’re playing well, some people look at it as a waste to stay in college when you could be making money off of that now.”
“To know that you can make money while playing in college gives you the best of both worlds. I really do think it’s going to keep a lot of people in college, which is so important. If you get your degree, the Tour will always be there.”
The Lady Vols suffered its first loss of the season Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena.
No. 7 Tennessee fell to No. 3 Stanford, 74-63, before an announced crowd of 10,017.
The Cardinal (8-2) opened a 17-13 lead in the first quarter. Stanford then produced a 26-13 run in the second quarter and led 43-26 at halftime.
Tennessee (9-1) scored the first 14 points of the second half to pull within 43-40.
Stanford closed the third quarter with a 9-6 run, producing a 51-46 lead.
Jordan Horston totaled 19 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and four steals for the Lady Vols.
Alexus Dye added 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Sara Puckett scored 10 points and Jordan Walker finished with eight.
The Cardinal had five players post double figures in the scoring column. Haley Jones had 18 points and 19 rebounds and was 12-for-12 from the free throw line.
Ashten Prechtel added 12 points. Lexie Hull, who fouled out, and Hannah Jump had 11 points each, while Kiki Iriafen scored 10.
Kyren Williams probably is headed to the NFL after this season, but the man who coaches his unit appears he will stay at Notre Dame. A source has told Blue and Gold Illustrated that running backs coach Lance Taylor will remain in his position when Marcus Freeman takes over:
BREAKING: Sources tell @BGInews that #NotreDame running backs coach Lance Taylor will remainon the Fighting Irish staff.
Taylor, currently in his third season with the Irish, will have quite the amount of returning talent next year. Chris Tyree and Logan Diggs both have made great strides in 2021, and it will be interesting if either one of them can make up the production Williams is sure to leave behind after he most likely turns pro. It also will be worth monitoring how Audric Estime grows next year with more opportunities sure to come his way.
We don’t know if any of those running backs will develop into the next Christian McCaffrey, who Taylor coached at Stanford, but anything is possible after we’ve seen what Williams has become under the coaching of Taylor.
To the surprise of no one, Notre Dame wrapped up the regular season with a lopsided win over Stanford. Despite this and a little bit of chaos happening in college football over the weekend, it wasn’t enough to improve the Irish’s place in ESPN’s weekly power rankings. In fact, they’re exactly where they were last week. Here is the top 10 of the power rankings through Week 13:
Notre Dame dominated Stanford 45-14 to close their 2021 regular season campaign and moved to 11-1. Was it enough for Notre Dame to get more respect in terms of a College Football Playoff appearance?
According to ESPN, no, and not even close.
ESPN has 14 college football staffers pick their four CFP teams each week and did so as soon as games of significance ended Saturday night. Of those 14, none of them had Notre Dame picked to make the playoff.
Here are the five teams that appeared and how many votes each received:
Do seven people think Alabama goes into the SEC Championship and beats Alabama? That’s the only way they can get in at this point after a game they should have lost at Auburn had it not been for an epic, self-inflicted collapse.
Where does Kyren Williams rank on Notre Dame’s all-time running backs list?
Notre Dame has been playing football for 133 years and had some outstanding running backs along the way. Where Kyren Williams ranks on that all-time list is a conversation I’m sure some will have this off-season, but Williams just some very rare air in Saturday’s blowout win over Stanford.
Williams rushed for two touchdowns and 74 yards in the victory. Those 74 yards put his total at 1,002 for the season. By doing so, Williams becomes just the fifth Notre Dame running back to ever rush for 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons.
Notre Dame cruised to victory with a 45-14 win at Stanford. What was your biggest takeaway from the easy victory?
No. 6 Notre Dame had already had a solid day before they took the field at Stanford for their 2021 regular season finale and their easy victory over the struggling Cardinal. It got better though as the Irish jumped out to a 24-0 halftime lead and cruised in the second half as the issue was never really in doubt.
What comes next for Notre Dame? Where will they be ranked when the new College Football Playoff rankings come out on Tuesday night and have they done enough to stay ahead of a potential one-loss Big 12 champion?
Here are the five things we take away from Notre Dame’s 45-14 victory at Stanford that closes the 2021 regular season:
