Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Kyle Hamilton was selected 14th overall by the Baltimore Ravens in the 1st round of the NFL Draft last night.
Notre Dame has their first commit in the 2024 class with Brandon Davis-Swain on board. Commit post HERE.
The Irish also have their first OL commitment for 2023 as Sam Pendleton joined the class on Monday. Commit post HERE.
More commits this week as Boubacar Traore added to Notre Dame’s defensive line haul for 2023. Commit post HERE.
Mark Emmert will be stepping down as NCAA President next summer. That will end a 13-year run in the role which was, uh, pretty controversial.
Georgia football is getting rid of their rounded jersey numbers in favor of more traditional block script. Perhaps more importantly, the Bulldogs broke a common draft era record with 5 first round draft picks from their defense last night.
Peyton Manning and Georgia Tech have teamed up to form a scholarship in memory of Demaryius Thomas.
Uniform of the Week
While doing some research I learned Ball State used to have the St.Louis/Arizona Cardinals logos on their helmets until 1990 when they moved to their more familiar bird logo that you’re probably picturing in your head right now. When Ball State visited Notre Dame back in 2018 [shudders] they wore a pretty simple all-white uniform. In recent years, they haven’t changed their uniforms much and still use this traditional UCLA shoulder stripe look.
However, check out that throwback helmet logo! That was created in 1965 but had never been on their helmets as far as I can tell. Also, you can see the modern logo on the pants. Overall, this kind of makes them look more like an old-school Louisville but I like it.
Recruiting
Former Notre Dame commit Justyn Rhett (0.9528) has committed to Georgia.
Safety Sylvester Smith (0.9358) committed to Tennessee.
Texas added a couple of playmakers recently in running back Tre Wisner (0.9111) and wideout Ryan Niblett (0.9529).
DC edge rusher David Ojiegbe (0.9171) has committed to Clemson.
Alabama safety Kaine Williams has entered the portal. He was the No. 176 overall player in the 2020 class.
YouTube Channel
People getting defensive and ornery about their hometown states, plus the added keg powder of food. Let’s get ready to rumble! I’m just going to list some of the more popular states for our readers and lay it out for ya’ll to play it out.
California – Avocados
Florida – Cuban Sandwich
Georgia – Peach Cobbler
Illinois – Chicago Deep Dish
Indiana – Pork Tenderloin
Massachusetts – Clam Chowder
Michigan – Mackinac Island Fudge
New Jersey – Saltwater Taffy
New York – Pizza
Ohio – Buckeyes
Pennsylvania – Philly Cheesesteak
Texas – BBQ
I’m interested in some of the states that are large enough where there could be a dispute. For example, are people in Pittsburgh crushing Philly Cheesesteaks with state pride? Here in Western New York we are more known for wings, beef on weck, or sponge candy but so much pizza is eaten that it’s fine if we’re lumped in with the New York City-driven aspect to the ranking.
Tunes
Last week’s focus on Andre 3000 made me think of one of his biggest inspirations, the incomparable Prince who died just a little over 6 years ago. I can’t believe it’s been that long since we lost him. Watching Purple Rain as a little kid on MTV or something was an experience that was hard to forget. This was after the Batman soundtrack (which I ride and die for) and Prince’s star was on its downturn.
It’s weird, I never really felt like Prince was that relevant to my tastes in the 1990’s and specifically remember his Crystal Ball box set of bootleg material being released at my summer job and not selling well. It didn’t matter, this dude just kept releasing music at a prolific rate. His work in the 1980’s was legendary and it blows my mind that he made 28(!) albums after that initial run. Prince was just sitting in his weird house in Minnesota making a song every other day for 30 years.
Trivia
What is the single-game lowest quarterback rating for a starting Notre Dame quarterback since 2017?
The Other Football
Manchester City is close to their first-ever UEFA Champions League Final. On Tuesday evening they got out to a 4-3 lead over Real Madrid in the 1st leg of their semi-final meeting. On the other side, Liverpool jumped out to a 2-0 lead over Villarreal. We’re so close to an all-England final for the 2nd straight year and 3rd time in the last 4 years.
In the Europa League, we saw Leipzig go 1-0 up on Rangers and Frankfurt lead West Ham United 2-1 in the semifinals.
In the majestic Europa Conference League both Leicester City and Roma are tied 1-1 and Feyenoord is up 3-2 on Marseille. We wait with anticipation to see who will lift this trophy for the first time.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has signed a contract extension through 2026.
Inter Miami has won approval to build a new stadium on the current site of Melreese golf course directly east of the Miami airport.
Streaming
The 2011 film Immortals was produced by the same people as 300 and dare I say that the former is a better movie? Maybe the 300 top set pieces and popular scenes were better or more memorable. On the whole, I love the way Immortals looks and the visuals throughout are a masterpiece. I didn’t even get a chance to see this in the movie theater either–a life mistake.
Do we need more movies about antiquity? It felt like Gladiator set off this great 10-12 year run for the genre but now everyone is too busy making super hero movies. Or, maybe the antiquity content has transitioned more to shows on Netflix or something.
A Look Back
This video caught my eye during a recent search because this real estate guy randomly uploaded the 1983 game between Notre Dame and Air Force. After doing some digging he’s uploaded a few more Air Force videos but is way too young to have played in this game. Anyway, this is a good look at those Faust-era uniforms (nameplates!) and this was Senior Day as well as the last game of the regular season.
Check out the white goal posts with the blue and gold base. If you watch a little bit of this video there are some absolutely wild defensive formations up front for Notre Dame. They were a really good defense (they flash early on that the Irish are 3rd nationally in total defense) but on one 3rd & 1 you can see only 1 lineman on the ball with 2 others way off the ball and yet another even further off the ball. People would riot today if we saw this against the triple option.
I wish I was kidding when I tell you Air Force scores a late touchdown at the goal line only for their toe-kicker to absolutely bomb the PAT wide left, except Notre Dame was flagged for offsides. The kicker hit the second attempt and the Irish lost 23-22.
18S Paddock Club
There were loads of points available at Imola last weekend with the Sprint format on Saturday and Red Bull came through with an absolute dream weekend. Ferrari, not so much to the surprise of many. After taking pole on Friday’s qualifying, Verstappen was beaten off the line by Leclerc during the Sprint. However, Leclerc later suffered graining to his tires and Verstappen would pass him on the penultimate lap. The other Ferrari in Carlos Sainz started 10th after a late Q2 crash but he worked his way up to 4th place for the Sprint.
During Sunday’s race, both Red Bulls got away perfectly to take over 1st & 2nd place where, outside of a brief overcut from Leclerc to pass Sergio Perez, they’d stay and finish the day. More pain for Ferrari as Sainz was spun after contact from Ricciardo’s McLaren and had his day ended early for the 2nd straight race.
Beached in the rain 😖
Carlos Sainz’s race ended before it got started ❌#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/mESDZ5yOYm
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 24, 2022
The race began with a wet track and everyone on the green inter tires, although the threat of more rain never materialized. The race director was a little slow to allow DRS once all the drivers switched to slick tires, but the race saw plenty of back-and-forth battles, particularly in the midfield. Well, unless you’re Lewis Hamilton.
A big winner early on was George Russell in the Mercedes who jumped up from 11th to 6th after the chaotic start. The former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas had a great shot at a podium but a poor pit stop kept him away from that glory. With 10 laps remaining, Leclerc compounded his issues by spinning over the turn 14 chicane, suffering damage, and came out in 9th place after a pit stop.
A podium finish slides away from Charles Leclerc 😖#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Y55Wplnb3V
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 24, 2022
Leclerc was able to pass 3 more cars and finish 6th to limit the points damage. Verstappen and Perez completed just the second 1-2 for Red Bull in the hybrid era since 2014, while Lando Norris in the McLaren pipped 3rd place for his first podium since Monza last year.
How the turntables! Whether it was the rain or tire wear, we finally saw Leclerc look less than perfect this season compounded by his first mistake of 2022. Red Bull did end up bringing some upgrades to Imola and they certainly paid off. Now, Leclerc’s once massive points advantage has shrunk down to 27 points with Verstappen squarely back in the title race.
F1 Fantasy – Michael B. lead the way in Imola with 239 points.
Formula 1 is off this weekend but returns for the first ever Miami Grand Prix circling the Hard Rock Stadium in Coral Gables.
Trivia Answer:
Ian Book, 2019 at Michigan, 69.73 rating
Hey did anyone notice whether Freeman was with Sauce Gardner at the draft? I wasn’t watching that closely but my son thought he noticed Freeman in his “corner”. If so, that’s got to be a nice recruiting tidbit – even at Cinci I was creating 1st round draft picks.
Was distracted by how sharp freeman looked. probably need an entire article dedicated to freeman’s fashion
haha, are there any pictures?
I thought Hamilton also looked the sharpest of the guys there for the first round.
I guess anything those 2 wear look good. They are very handsome men.
The trend is totally dress pants that only come down to mid-calf or high ankle.
I’m older I guess b/c we would have called those “high waters”
Here’s video of him congratulating Sauce:
https://twitter.com/MattLochWNDU/status/1519839587698458624?s=20&t=m-GgCqu4VCoGYasLJozX4Q
A preview of GameDay to open next season.
A forest green suit with an open collar. Sheesh.
Until December 2021, the last time an ND coach didn’t have moobs was 2004
Me in that same suit.
I was irrationally angry how the producers let Sauce wander off on TV. Good signage/adequate staff is basic stuff!
here is something tom loy posted on twitter of a brief interaction
https://twitter.com/tomloy247/status/1520017441623007239?s=21&t=L9IAPAzaGmpkeySy3v_IGw
Saw that live and wasn’t positive it was Freeman, very cool that it was.I think Sauce’s suit was the best of the ones I saw for draftees
Check out the kicks, too. I don’t think I could pull off a green suit with white sneakers. . .
Statewide cuisine is tough, unless it’s one of the dinky New England states.
As a native Illinoian, I’d argue Deep Dish is a Chicago food. The other 20% of the state rarely has access to the stuff. Hot Dogs and Italian Beefs are becoming a bit easier to come-by “down state” thanks to the expansion of Portillo’s, but those are also more regional than statewide.
Having lived in St. Louis for ~10 years, they’re recognized by Toasted Raviolis, Provel Cheese/St. Louis Style Pizza {{{{ABSOLUTE TRASH, DO NOT ATTEMPT}}}} & Gooey Butter Cake. However, a Kansas Citian will largely have no idea what the latter two foodstuffs are.
Even locally where I live now, IA/IL border, we have our own unique pizza style, invented the loose-meat/Maid Rite sandwich (think the diner from Rosanne), and invented the taco pizza.
I’d guess Iowans would rally more around a walking taco/taco pizza (Casey’s Gas Station pizza, specifically, though I’ve proudly never had) than they would anything else. I also associate a Pork Tenderloin Sandwich with Iowa rather than Indiana, but unlike many of you, I’ve never done any time in Indiana, so WTF do I know.
Hell, even in NY, as you mentioned, I’d guess a lot of Rochesterians would wonder why you didn’t mention the garbage plate. And I remember a mention of salt potatoes from Syracuse thanks to an OFD article from 2014ish.
Geographic cuisine is a very interesting topic to me, as is specific words we use/don’t use. The book “Speaking American” is extremely interesting, mapping usage of words/phrases like garage sale vs yard sale vs stoop sale vs tag sale, water fountain vs drinking fountain vs bubbler, garbage can vs trash can vs waste bin. Interesting to compare how my wife, who was raised in southeastern central Illinois, speaks vs how I speak.
For Illinois, I’d not pick deep dish because it’s not even the most popular local pizza, so that’s kind of an issue. Plus you can get deep dish all over now as Lou’s and other chains have expanded.
Quad Cities pizza is good, there’s a chain in Chicago that’s helped popularize it, but since it and Maid Rite are split with Iowa it’s hard to pick them as the representative for Illinois.
My answer would be the horseshoe. Not super well known but you can also basically only get it in Springfield and other parts of Central IL
Roots, I believe is the name of the QC place in Chicago.
Going to school in southern Illinois, I was aware of the Horseshoe, but never had one. Sgt. Peppers is the progenitor, yes?
Also, to clarify, I wasn’t suggesting that pizza or Maid Rites take over the mantle of “Illinois”, just more that food is regional rather than state-wide.
It is, I think they have at least three locations now. It’s really good but I mostly stick to Chicago thin crust if I’m ordering pizza.
The creator of the horseshoe is one of those debated things locally, I’d have to have a Springfield friend give me the proper answer. but you could get them in Bloomington but not any further, basically
And gotcha, no harm no foul. FWIW I do think it’s fair to pick a Chicago food since what, 80% of the state lives in Chicagoland or is otherwise able to get Chicago stuff easily? But geographically Central IL was a pretty decent mix of Chicago/St. Louis/Midwest choices when Iw as down there
Coming from the largest dinky New England state, Lobster definitely dominates. BUT, once you get up north (an entirely different world and language), they would almost certainly claim poutine as the local dish.
Provel is beautiful and perfect and I will not stand for this slander.
I’ve never called for the banning of another member, but this stupid take might be the one to do it.
Great art is often unappreciated in its own time.
Although I am very happy to have found a take that makes 18S madder than “hey gang not sure Tommy Rees is qualified for this job”
Imo’s Pizza is as stupid as refrigerated gum
It is the very first thing that I get upon arriving in St Louis and you, sir, have an Agenda.
If you enjoy the thinner crust, go get Fortel’s. If you just like pizza, Felix’s in Dogtown. T-Ravs from Trattoria Marcella, then head down Watson to get some Gooey Butter Cake from Gooey Looey and then a night cap down Chippewa at Ted Drewes.
I grew up there and I will accept nothing but Imo’s. Two Nice Guys was better but that’s closed now.
Imo’s on Olive in Creve Coeur had mozzarella and it wasn’t horrible.
Is Talayna’s at Olive & 141 still around? I remember that being very good.
Only Talyana’s I’m aware of was on Hampton and that closed recently. RIP.
should I try provel? I’m not adverse to processed cheese. I insist on American for burgers because of its melting properties and we had Munchee cheese all the time growing up
Do whatever you want. I’ve found very few people who weren’t born in the 618/314/636 area codes who enjoy provel, however.
You should! If you like American, you’ll like provel.
You’d also need to ask yourself why no one puts American on a pizza, though. Or on a salad. Or on garlic bread. Or on any other sandwich other than a burger. Or Chicken Parmesan.
i’ve definitely seen American in a salad, usually paired with also finally diced ham. It’s also important but need not be the only cheese for a grilled cheese or a melt.
American and Provel have very similar textures and meltiness but the flavor is pretty different.
Yeah, another non-native living in the STL for 20+ years now piling on to the provel hate. Gimme some toasted rav and a fishbowl at Rigazzi’s and I’m happy though. Plenty of great Italian food on the Hill (+1 for Trattoria Marcella), why settle for St. Louis style Pizza?
Speaking of regionally, the KC people will vote for BBQ as Missouri’s regional food, and given the rural leanings of everything in Missouri outside of I-270, hard to disagree.
Given the Pappy’s, Bogart’s, Adam’s, & Sugarfires, etc. of the STL area, I think that would be a fair assessment for MO
curious what arizona food is? had to be tacos right?
From illinois, agree chicago deep dish is most iconic, but also kind of garbage. I mean it’s just so much dough. We have lou malnatis out here now and 0 chance id pick that over the new york style pizza places
Deep dish has gone around from overrated to overhated at this point. It’s not even particularly doughy unless some weird chain out there is butchering it
fair but i am begging the iowa transplants to please shut up about pequod’s
Yes correct just get Lou’s like a normal person. Or a slice at Art of Pizza, that’s pretty clutch
Isn’t the draw of Pequod’s the burnt cheese part? Which the other places don’t emphasize.
yeah that’s their specialty and I (1) don’t actually like it and (2) it is just not worth the wait. But I take a hard stance on (2) in the city because there are so many options
I guess? I don’t really get what the draw is. It’s a huge, heavy disc of burnt crap that takes 90 minutes to make. It’s like the shitty alternate ending to Big Night.
Arizona has a large chunk of the Navajo Nation on it. Could be mutton stew and Fry bread, or Indian Tacos.
They got New Mexico right, but probably not a hard one. Everything is “red or green” (chile) here, or you can ask for “Christmas” style.
Regional differences – true of Mexican food too obviously. Chichuahuan Mexican food is very different from what you will find in Mexico City. Yum.
Food – I defer to CardinalBaseball because (I think he has lived in the Valley of the Sun longer than I have) but the Sonoran dog?
That sounds like it was written by an LA person who couldn’t say no to the avocado but wanted to fit their bacon wrapped dog in there somewhere. I would put the pork verde burrito up there first as AZ’s entry.
I do miss me some beef on weck though, my parents were both Beefalo born and bred. I remember Scwabls more than the Anchor Bar.
I wondered how long it would take to get to Prince after Andre 3000, not long apparently.
oh maybe sonoran dog, I guess for iconic that might be it (i’m at 14 years out here). I guess I just never eat it but I eat a lot of tacos so kind of figured that was it
Are we best friends?
More like Bros
As an alum I love the Ball State shout-out. We brought back “Dancing Charlie”, as he’s known, in 2020 and I believe they wore him on the helmet every game this last year. It’s been a huge hit.
Georgia having 5 defenders go in the first round is wild, especially when you consider that arguably their best defender is going in the 2nd round.
Didn’t they have another potential 1st/2nd rounder decide to stay for another year, too?
Yeah they’re projected to have at least 2 1st rounders next year, PLUS PFF still thinks they have 6 more guys who will go before the end of the 5th round this year.
That’s insane. I mean in some ways that is more talented than a typical NFL defense. How many NFL defenses have 5 first round picks and a couple of 2nd round picks on their defense? (I’m not even including next year’s defenders that will be 1st-2nd round picks from Georgia.)
What’s amazing is that they still likely would have lost to Bama if Bama could have kept both star WRs on the field.
Tired: omg navy finally broke the streak 2007 what a crazy year
Wired: Getting absolutely paved, blown out, embarrassed, humiliated at home by Air Force the following week.
Are Buckeyes even the most well known desert from Ohio? Peak Oprah was never handing out cases of Buckeyes, but she practically did a sales tour for Graeter’s.
Mackinac Island Fudge beating out Coney dogs or Detroit pizza for Michigan seems a bit suspicious to me; surely if you wanted someone to identify the state immediately from a food it’d be the pizza.
Indiana on the other hand they nailed. Nothing better in any random rural Indiana dive than the pork tenderloin sandwich.
part of the distinction is definitely local preference vs. nationally known and it seems like the went with the latter.
Pork tenderloin sandwiches rule, you can get them in central IL too.
In the whole time I was at ND, I never heard of pork tenderloin being a thing. 15 year reunion coming up in a month. Where should I go to get the best PTS?
I feel like it’s more of a central/southern Indiana thing. I can’t think of anywhere in South Bend that’s known for pork tenderloin sandwiches but they are delicious.
most of you’d know better than me but South Bend definitely feels more Great Lakes/rust belt than rural/farm country midwest, which is a worthwhile distinction
Nailed that one. Southern Indiana actually starts just a few miles south of The Bend. i knew that growing up, but my freshman year at Ball St cemented it lol.
Sorry, that’s not true. Southern Indiana starts where the hills do, around Bloomington. North of that is rural northern European upper midwest, south is Scots Irish Appalachian. Lot of Polish people in South Bend that have a lot more in common with the German heritage farm people I grew up in northern rural Indiana.
Source: lived 10 years in Mishawaka, then moved out to the edge of Amish farm country outside of Elkhart for the next 12, then grad school in Bloomington and 6 months in Lexington and Louisville.
It’s the internet so i totally understand if you missed that my proclamation is mostly tongue in cheek…but it is something ive been saying for 30 years. Southern Indiana isn’t just a physical region, it’s a culture…and somewhere between New Rd and Lakeville things get a whole lot different from the Bend, Northwest Indiana, and Ft Wayne.
To put it another way, it’s simply the difference between rural and urban Indiana…but Indianapolis, Kokomo, Bloomington, Evansville are all more closely related to rural Indiana than they are to the northern cities. It’s very much like Steenalized said…which i’m extrapolating to the northernmost strip of the state is Rust Belt/Great Lakes while the rest of the state is rural/farm country. Muncie is a great example…definitely a Rust Belt casualty itself but culturally Southern Indiana.
To tie this back into the main thread…i never once heard of a Pork Tenderloin Sandwich until i got to Ball St. i don’t know if they’re even available at the St. Joe County Fair.
You can definitely get them in SB, like at Fiddlers, Yellow Cat, or Waka Dog, but personally I end up having one once in a while randomly when eating at an Indiana or NW Ohio dive. Just always a fun different thing.
I was born and raised in the Bend. I never had a PTS and my friends never talked about them
Same for me. It sounds good, but have never had one.
Buckeyes are a generic dessert while Graeter’s is a brand. I would say most people in Ohio know what a Buckeye is given the near universal Ohio State fandom. Graeter’s is also more regionally focused in the Cincinnati/Columbus area. I had never heard of them growing up in Toledo.
I guess that’s true about the brand, but outside Ohio I think people just call “buckeyes” “peanut butter truffles” and they’re a reasonably common holiday dessert.
been in Illinois my whole life and everyone always called them buckeyes. They look like the nut, it’s not just an Ohio State thing
Got to ask. you from peoria? everything you said made it seem that way. My college roommates dad owned a restaurant in peoria so I ate hotshot and pork tenderloin sandwiches for free for a large portion of undergrad
Nope, live in Chicago and have for a plurality of my life now, grew up in the burbs, lived in Bloomington-Normal for a couple years out of school
You can tell he’s not from Peoria because he doesn’t smell like pee
still smells better than Decatur
Northern Minnesota I think of Wild Rice and Pasties (Other names might include, Hidden treasure buns, runza, clangers, etc…).
The twin cities area I think of Juicy Lucy’s. The Juicy Lucy is a burger invented by one of two South Minneapolis restaurants: Matt’s Bar or the 5-8 Club. Both claim responsibility for coming up with the very good idea to cook cheese right into the burger.
And southern Minnesota seems to be tater tot casserole and jello salad country to me.
Wisconsin has a universal love of the cheese curd and butter burgers which the Culver’s food chain is trying to spread across the nation.
Truly, the Lord’s work
Culver’s the GOAT
Had to learn how to make those butter burgers since the closest Culvers is too far away.
The keys are butter and ground beef
5 UGA defenders in the first round is wild, but what about 3 Ohio State WRs (I’m counting Jameson Williams in this) going in the top 12 picks? 45% of the starting defense vs. something like 60-75% of the starting WR room?
crazy to think they have a guy like Flemming, the #3 overall recruit in 2020, and he basically hasn’t seen the field
Two of the unluckiest drivers so far this season crashed into each other on the first turn of the first lap. I feel for Sainz, because bad luck leads to falling out of points contention with your teammate, which quickly turns you into #2 on the team. It can also lead to pushing, leading to more bad luck.
Think of the way Danny Ric had 8 DNFs in 2018, giving Verstappen opportunity to jump into that #1 driver position, which has led to Ricciardo’s wayfaring in the subsequent seasons.
Alonso too, terrible luck the last 3 races.
Yeah, poor Alonso. You can see that he’s still got the racing chops, but bad luck with the car
Also, we would be remiss to let a pizza debate go by without mentioning Barnaby’s. Holy shit it is so good.
Rocco’s supporter checking in.
You both spelled Bruno’s wrong
I can’t remember all the arguments about Austin going pro, but it seems like ending up undrafted means he definitely should have come back for another year and it would have definitely helped his stock if he could put together even another halfway decent year.
Well apparently he wanted to get to the pros as soon as possible, but definitely a mistake to leave after one decent year, with injury and off field issues cutting his first two years short and being inconsistent his final season.
He would have been more likely to transfer than to come back to ND, IMO.
why’s that? He’s still be WR #1 and I don’t think he’d get to be that on basically any other team similarly ranked
Two reasons. One his time at ND wasn’t exactly great and two the QB situation.(it’s a big ? as to how good it’ll be)
yea i don’t get the reason for transferring but staying in college somewhere would have been better for his pro chances.
Certainly couldn’t have hurt his stock. Man, what a terrible draft for ND.
About as expected though, no? Maybe figured Austin would go late-round and maybe Coan would sneak in there but not shocking that Coan didn’t get drafted. Williams going in the 5th was about as expected I thought.
In the meantime Georgia had 15 (!!!!) players taken.
It’s going to take 3-4 years of Freeman doing what he’s doing on the recruiting trail to actually close the gap or rather get at least within a stone’s throw of what those guys are doing.
Individually nothing was particularly surprising. But all together it was about as bad as possible. Only 2 out of 5 draftable players picked. Hamilton outside the top 10 (although probably great for his career).
Even if all those guys guys only had a 30% chance to get drafted individually. It’s still a 65% chance at least one of them does.
MTA and Austin in particular seemed very draftable to me. Coan was no surprise once the top QBs started falling (and getting drafted where they should have in any other year).