Recruiting News
Wide receiver coach Chansi Stuckey is on fire, having received a commitment today from North Carolina four-star prospect Micah Gilbert. Stuckey now has commitments from two four-stars and one five-star for next year’s recruiting class. Cam Williams has been committed and has a close relationship with five-star quarterback recruit CJ Carr and four-star Georgia receiver Isiah Canion committed last week to the Irish.
Three-star safety Kennedy Urlacher, son of hall-of-fame former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, committed as well. The Irish also received commitments from defensive end Bryant Young, Jr., the son of former Irish defensive lineman and NFL Hall of Famer Bryant Young, and from four-star cornerback Karson Hobbs. In his second year, head coach Marcus Freeman is putting together another solid recruiting class in the early going.
NFL Draft
Freeman can show recruits the recent success of Irish heading to the NFL and needs to look no further than last week’s NFL draft in which both tight end Michael Mayer (Pick 35 Las Vegas Raiders) and defensive end Isaiah Foskey (Pick 40 New Orleans Saints) were taken in the second round, and offensive lineman Jarrett Patterson was taken in the sixth round (Pick 201 Houston Texans). Six other Irish were free agent signees and invited to rookie mini-camps: kicker Blake Grupe (New Orleans), defensive tackled Jayson Ademilola (Jacksonville Jaguars), safety Brandon Joseph (Detroit Lions), defensive tackle Chris Smith (Detroit Lions), defensive tackle Justin Ademilola (Green Bay Packers), and offensive lineman Josh Lugg (Chicago Bears).
The Irish receiver recruits, especially with their size, speed, and athleticism, can make immediate impacts and, next year, will join this season’s current group of talented young pass catchers.
The recent past has been solid for the Irish in the NFL draft, but the future looks even brighter with the current squad’s talent and the level of recruiting that Freeman and the staff have been able to maintain. If Notre Dame keeps this level of recruiting going, the Irish just may be hosting playoff games in late December under the new format in 2024 and 2025.
Playoff Format Changes Announced
The College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams after this season, with first-round games being hosted on campus sites on December 20th and 21st 2024 – and with three quarterfinal games on New Year’s Day. The quarterfinals will be at traditional bowl sites, including the Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Rose Bowl in 2024, and the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl joining the quarterfinal rotation for 2025. The 2023-2024 season will be the last season of the 4-team playoff format.
It is the offseason, but there’s plenty to be excited about as the weather gets warmer, recruiting heats up, and summer camps are just around the corner.
Bemoaning the “professionalization”
of college football now is more than a little late! I protested way back when offensive linemen were allowed to untape their hands and unfold their arms while blocking, NFLing college football…followed by replacing g the tie game with high school tie breaking rules. It had been a great feature of sportsmanship and respect for a good opponent in college football. The end of proper college clock rules after a first down ensured the demise any more “Joe Montana” miracles in college football. All we had left of our unique game before the free agency and silly ass kick return rules went into effect was our rules for passes caught behind the line of scrimmage, currently on the NFL’s death watch.
So the bereavement of the now non-existent game we used to call a uniquely college game is way late for most of you, David excluded, maybe, but his objection is to our own Administrators, and the power of NFL and TV money. Mine is against them, of course, but even more against the organized gamblers and “The Commitee’s” whining that they “can’t process” ties into the selection process.
BGC 77 82
Bemoaning the “professionalization” of college football now is more than a little late!
…proclaims the preacher of the Rockne/Parseghian/Leahy revival meetings.
“We are aware of some comments and likes on social media that have caused concern and pain for individuals in our community. Michigan Athletics is fully committed to a place where our coaches, staff and student-athletes feel welcome and where we fully support the University’s and Athletic Department’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion….except, of course, those goddamn Catholics. We’ll never acknowledge or apologize for that.”
Narduzzi railing on Sanders over abuse of the portal. And he’s 100% right.
But business is business.
And that’s all “college” football is.
All the years of calling for these kids to get paid, and THIS is what it has set off.
Most kids will end getting shafted way worse than before…..the Colorado example is simply the worst so far.
And Sanders — predictably, finally — responds to Narduzzi with infantile insults, faux outrage, deflective lies and outright bullshit.
Thanks to a fawning media, his shtick is already getting old, months before the first snap of the ball.
I really hope this guy fails miserably. College football needs better people than this.
Pointing to NFL draft success isn’t going to do much when you didn’t produce a 1st rounder.
I’m pretty sure Rick Mirer was the last Irish player to be taken with a top 5 pick.
If ND wants elite talent, they’re going to have to pay for it like everyone else. It is time to fully embrace NIL. ND has everything it needs to compete—the Irish just need leadership that can exploit effectively exploit those resources. Notre Dame should be spending more on football than any other school
Yeah, you keep saying.
Instead of making ridiculous ultimatums that ND become just another amoral, money grubbing, defacto pro football team, why not just follow your beloved Kelly to the SEC?
Geaux fuck yerself!
Pointing to NFL draft success isn’t going to do much when you didn’t produce a 1st rounder.
I’m pretty sure Rick Mirer was the last Irish player to be taken with a top 5 pick.
If ND wants elite talent, they’re going to have to pay for it like everyone else. It is time to fully embrace NIL. ND has everything it needs to compete—the Irish just need leadership that can exploit effectively exploit those resources. Notre Dame should be spending more on football than any other school
Breaking news:
On Thursday, a “sports integrity monitor” launched a tool to help athletes, coaches and staff to anonymously report integrity-related concerns such as the misuse of insider information, match-fixing, game manipulation or illegal wagering.
A tip hotline! That will surely make everything okey dokey!
What a crock of transparent, hypocritical boolshi+.
It’ll make it’s owners some good money, and the NCAA to keep kicking the can down the orad.
Living and growing up in Ohio I remember watching Schlichter play in high school and at Ohio State. I believe he currently is back in prison for scheming millions from a woman. A tragic story for not only himself divorcing from his wife and kids but his father went bankrupt and committed suicide trying to help and save his son from gambling and bookmakers he owed money to.
Anyone here old enough to remember the Art Schlichter story?
He was a chronic gambler all through his tOSU college days, but never got busted for it thanks to the standard cover-ups most colleges arrange for their star players….rapes, burglaries, DUI, etc.
But it all caught up to him in the NFL, after a lengthy illness of betting and losing HUGE money on *everything* — including the NFL and college football.
I vivdly rememeber how HUGE a scandal it was….that a big-time athlete would be so fucked up as to gamble on sports, let alone on games he played in. The public reaction was absolute shock.
Well, fast forward 40 years.
Sports gambling is legal and huge…..every sport and fanbase is embracing it.
Star college athletes are now million dollar NIL businesses, auctioning their services off to wheover pays the most.
And sports fans ethics and values have certainly “adjusted” easily, quick to forgive whatever sins are committed in the pursuit of the only thing that matters in America: money.
College football is no longer on life support.
It’s dead and buried.