Tag: Toledo

Notre Dame’s Michael Vinson makes Patrick Mannelly Award Watch List

Yes, even long snappers get honored in college football.

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There might not be a position in football that gets as little recognition as long snapper. After all, they don’t do much more than hike the football a longer distance than a center and also block when necessary. Fortunately, college football has the wits about it to recognize the best at every position, including long snapper. Notre Dame’s Michael Vinson can attest to that after being named to the Patrick Mannelly Award Watch List, which lists players who could win the award that goes to the best long snapper in college football annually.

Vinson is coming off a season in which he was the Irish’s first choice for long snapper every game. In 2021, he will face off with a few of his fellow preseason nominees. Barring injury, they will be Sean Mills of Toledo, Oscar Shadley of Virginia Tech, Damon Johnson of USC and Kyle Petrucci of Stanford. If long snappers are your thing, pay particularly close attention to that position in those games.

Top recruit from each team Notre Dame will face in 2021

The Irish could face some very good true freshman this fall

The recruiting world has changed, no longer do prospects who are highly ranked have to wait their turn when they arrive to their respective college campuses. Each year more and more true-freshman get significant playing time and the opportunity to make an impact. Here are the top incoming recruits, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, from each team that Notre Dame will face this fall.

Notre Dame gives offer to offensive tackle recruit Ashton Craig

The Irish are after a recruit who could end up with them or in the Big Ten.

With much of his 2020 unit not returning in 2021, Notre Dame offensive line coach Jeff Quinn has his work cut out for him. He will do everything in his power to keep the Irish’s reputation for churning out quality offensive linemen going for as long as possible. To that end, he has presented an offer to a tackle who would need to wait only a year before arriving in South Bend. This latest target is the 6-foot-5, 260-pound Ashton Craig from Lawrenceburg, Indiana:

Craig is very interested in Notre Dame, but he also is giving serious consideration to numerous Big Ten schools. Namely, he is looking at Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa and Nebraska. Other programs in the running include Duke, Wake Forest, Florida State, Boston College, Purdue, Indiana, Cincinnati and Toledo. Wherever he ends up, he has the body that belongs in college football, and any offense would benefit from having him.

Feel Good: Notre Dame opponent creates unique friendship

A feel good story involving a young man who will strap up against Notre Dame this football season.

Looking for something positive going into the weekend?

Look no further than the University of Toledo where an ultimate feel-good story has come out in relation to the Rockets football team.

Notre Dame is set to host Toledo on September 11 as the Rockets make the trip west to South Bend for the first time in program history.  When they do they’ll have a pretty special person suiting up for them in offensive tackle Lavel Dumont.

Dumont, a Tampa native, saw a high school student playing football alone multiple times last summer in Toldeo and decided to do something about it.  The rest they say is history – take a peek for yourself.

Good on Dumont and the rest of his teammates that showed up to Winter’s birthday party.

Maybe humanity isn’t in that bad of shape after all.

Related:

Way too early look at Notre Dame’s 2021 football schedule

Jags claim former Cowboys WR Jon’Vea Johnson off waivers

Jags WR coach Sanjay Lal and former Cowboys WR Jon’Vea Johnson will be reuniting in Jacksonville.

With the No. 1 spot in the waiver order in their possession, the Jacksonville Jaguars claimed former Dallas Cowboys receiver Jon’Vea Johnson off waivers Saturday. The transaction comes as the Jags named the Cowboys’ former receivers coach, Sanjay Lal, to their staff this offseason, who was with Dallas for two seasons (2018-19).

https://twitter.com/jpshadrick/status/1373364710142308358?s=21

Johnson, 25, entered the NFL in 2019 after going undrafted to the Cowboys out of Toledo. As a rookie, many took note of Johnson’s speed down the field in training camp, though he could never put it all together in the actual preseason games. He eventually had to go on injured reserve with a shoulder injury and didn’t return for the remainder of the season.

During his second season, Johnson went on the reserve/COVID-19 list in late July. He was eventually removed from it in August and activated but was waived and placed on the Cowboys’ practice squad in August. After signing him to a reserve/future contract in January, Dallas ultimately decided to go in a different direction two days ago by waiving him.

As a collegiate player, Johnson was a second (2016) and third-team (2018) All-MAC player, finishing his time with the Rockets with 125 catches for 2,265 yards, and 25 receiving touchdowns. Overall, he played in 53 career games for Toledo, which placed him second in the school’s record book.

Watch: Western Michigan clocks Toledo with vintage ‘Dan Marino’ fake-spike TD

Western Michigan pulled the old fake spike on Toledo in a MAC game to perfection.

Some plays are worth waiting 20 years to call. Western Michigan’s Tim Lester displayed patience before finally sending in his secret play. The fake-spike worked as the Broncos stunned Toledo, 41-38, in the final seconds of MACtion Wednesday in Kalamazoo.

Setting the scene: Western Michigan trailed 38-28 with 2:54 left. The Broncos scored to draw within four but Thiago Kapps missed the PAT with 45 seconds remaining. That meant Western Michigan still needed a touchdown instead of a field goal to force overtime.

Time for the onside kick. Kapps’ kick is recovered by punter Nick Mihalic.

With the clock stopped momentarily for a first down with 20 seconds left, everything lined up for Lester, who had been awaiting this moment for decades. The final seconds started to tick as Western snapped the ball.

“We have two different plays like that. I’m not going to give you the names of them, but one’s supposed to look like spike it, and it’s pass, and one’s supposed to be a true spike it,” Lester said. “I told them at the beginning of the drive when they came up that I was going to use it and just reminded them of some of the key points, but we run that play every week.

“Like I said, in at least 20 years of coaching, I’ve never called it — I’ve called it one other time, but the D-coordinator called timeout; it was going to work, too. To see them execute that, I was proud of them.”

Watch as Broncos quarterback Kaleby Eleby fakes the spike at the Toledo 9 and finds Jaylen Hall in the end zone, who was open by an entire county.

For those of you who wager on sports, this had to be the mother of all bad beats. The betting line entering the game was Toledo getting 2.5 points. So, if you went to sleep up 38-28, you woke up to find out the Rockets lost by three points after the PAT. Ouch.

The original fake-spike happened Nov. 27, 1994, when Dan Marino found Mark Ingram after baffling the New York Jets.

Marv Albert and Paul Maguire on the call for NBC:

Watch the entire Western Michigan comeback sequence:

Return of the MAC – Schedule released

MACtion is back. See what days you’ll get to see MAC football back in your life this fall!

The MAC is officially back in business for the 2020 college football season.

Sure, it will last only five games for MAC teams but for some of us that enjoy flipping through their televisions on a Tuesday night and finding a live college football game to watch, the MAC’s return fills a football void.

Notre Dame was previously scheduled to play Western Michigan this season before the pandemic wound up forcing the cancellation of that contest.

The MAC today released their 2020 football schedule and it’s unique even by MAC standards.  It goes as follows:

Week 1 – Wednesday, Nov. 4
Buffalo at Northern Illinois
Ball State at Miami University
Eastern Michigan at Kent State
Ohio at Central Michigan
Bowling Green at Toledo
Western Michigan at Akron

Week 2 – Tuesday, Nov. 10
Miami University at Buffalo
Akron at Ohio
Kent State at Bowling Green
Wednesday, Nov. 11
Central Michigan at Northern Illinois
Eastern Michigan at Ball State
Toledo at Western Michigan

Week 3 – Tuesday, Nov. 17
Akron at Kent State
Buffalo at Bowling Green
Ohio at Miami
Wednesday, Nov. 18
Northern Illinois at Ball State
Toledo at Eastern Michigan
Western Michigan at Central Michigan

Week 4 – Saturday, Dec. 5
Ball State at Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan at Western Michigan
Toledo at Northern Illinois
Bowling Green at Akron
Buffalo at Ohio
Kent State at Miami

Week 5 – Saturday, Dec. 12
Central Michigan at Toledo
Northern Illinois at Eastern Michigan
Western Michigan at Ball State
Akron at Buffalo
Miami at Bowling Green
Ohio at Kent State

Conference Championship – Friday, Dec. 18
held at Ford Field, Detroit, MI

Notre Dame Fighting Thanos?!?!

Check out some concept work of Marvel themed college helmets done by 247Sports.

When I saw the headline Marvel themed college football helmets, I wondered what was in store as 247Sports prepared to change some of the most iconic looks to Marvel comic book themed mascots.

Some of them were very obvious, Michigan didn’t have to change much as they were already the Wolverines, Iowa the same with Hawkeye (just added an s), and Air Force staying with the Falcons. Other teams saw additions to their names like Richmond adding men to Spiders, Pitt added Black to their Panthers (RIP Chadwick Boseman), Toledo added Racoons’ to become the Rocket Racoons, Duke transformed into the Daredevils and Oregon became Howard the Ducks’.

There were some more fantastic reworked names such as the Arizona Hellcats, Marshall Thundering Thors, Army Moonknights, Virginia Tech Loki’s and others.

What they had in store for Notre Dame was quite different, as an avid Marvel reader and viewer, I knew this one was going to be a bit more difficult than others. The closest Notre Dame figure in a Marvel comic was actually when the reworked opening game covers for ESPN in 2016. They ended up with the Fighting Thanos’, if you have been under a rock for the last ten years then you need no introduction to the big, baddie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you are unfamiliar, Thanos is the epitome of evil, using the Infinity Gauntlet to house the Infinity Stones and posses massive power.

It’s hard to argue with what 247Sports chose for Notre Dame, it was going to be tough anyways. By adding the Infinity Gauntlet to the iconic gold helmet was a nice addition, but even cooler was the middle of the gauntlet was a clover. The kid in me loved it, moving away from tradition and having fun with Marvel. Which one did you like the best?

Report: MAC becomes first FBS conference to cancel college football 2020

The Mid-American Conference is the first to cancel college football 2020 due to the pandemic.

The Mid-American Conference canceled its football season this fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report.

The decision was first reported by Brett McMurphy of Stadium.com.

Per Stadium.com: 

The MAC reached its decision Saturday morning in a vote by the league’s presidents, sources said. The conference presidents initially met Thursday to finalize the league’s scheduling format. However, Northern Illinois president Lisa Freeman, a former research scientist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, indicated her school would not play this fall because of the health and safety concerns, sources said.

“The league didn’t like the look of NIU going out on their own and not playing,” said a source, explaining the MAC’s non-vote on Thursday.

The Huskies have made a league-record eight MAC title game appearances and won four of the last nine MAC titles. After the league didn’t reach a decision Thursday, it voted Saturday not to play this fall, sources said.

The MAC is comprised of Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan — along with Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Northern Illinois, Ohio, and Toledo.

Western Michigan was scheduled to play Notre Dame in South Bend Sept. 19.

Notre Dame Basketball Player Review: Nate Laszewski

When an underclassman comes off the bench one season, he often performs well enough that you know he’ll be starting the following year.

When an underclassman comes off the bench one season, he often performs well enough that you know he’ll be starting the following year. Sophomore Nate Laszewski has all but assured himself of that after a solid season of 7.4 points and 4.6 rebounds a game while averaging 21.0 minutes. With Notre Dame set to lose senior forwards John Mooney and Juwan Durham, Laszewski’s table with the starting five is ready.

Statistically, Laszewski had his best game in a Jan. 29 win over Wake Forest, scoring 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting while also playing solid interior defense. In other games, he proved he can handle big moments. Most notably, he hit the deciding 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds in a one-point win over North Carolina on Feb. 17. He also forced overtime Nov. 21 vs. Toledo with a buzzer-beating 3, and the Irish went on to win.

Laszewski’s only getting started with his Notre Dame story, and barring some major setback, the best still is to come.