Our weeks-long wait until the bowl game is upon us. For this blog, it’s the first step towards pivoting towards off-season content. As I searched for some ideas I got to wondering what the ACC is going to look like in a transformative season for college football in 2024. That’s normal, right? Who isn’t thinking about the future of the ACC most of the time!?
Starting next year, the Irish will still have 13 more seasons remaining on the deal with the ACC. We’ll start with the opponents coming up on next year’s schedule before tackling the rest of the league. Sure, the Irish just fired Chansi Stuckey and the coaching staff is on high alert but how about over 2,500 words on ACC football instead!
Notre Dame’s 2024 ACC Opponents
Louisville 11/28
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 8.0
2023 Wins: 10
SP+ Ranking: 23rd
FEI Ranking: 17th
What a debut season for Jeff Brohm! He came into Louisville, brought in a bunch of transfers, and it all worked out really well for the program. Now that they’ve beaten Notre Dame the consensus seems to be that the Cardinals will be a tough opponent again next year. We’ll see. They are filled with a ton of experienced talent and could be going through a lot of roster churn this off-season. You could argue many other programs will be in the same predicament, plus Louisville showed they can quickly re-load already under Brohm.
Outlook – I would imagine Brohm’s offensive system and recent track record will continue to be attractive to recruits and transfers. They struck gold with all the right pieces on defense in 2023 and I find that hard to replicate again next year. They’ll probably need to improve by a decent margin on offense to make up for that.
Stanford 10/12
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 3.0
2023 Wins: 3
SP+ Ranking: 109th
FEI Ranking: 90th
I covered Stanford enough in the recent game review. They have some nice pieces on offense to foresee a decent future…if they can hold on to most of their roster. Still, the days of having ultra-tough line play on both sides of the ball are long gone and the defense has been a travesty in recent years. The switch to the ACC at least offers something different. They face TCU, Cal Poly, San Jose State and the Irish out of league play which isn’t too bad. They also miss Florida State, Miami, and North Carolina in 2024.
Outlook – Until proven otherwise, the NIL/Portal era is going to continue to be a major struggle for Stanford. They also have a coach without much experience and they are in a multi-year rebuilding process with no quick turnaround in sight.
at Georgia Tech 10/19
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 4.5
2023 Wins: 6
SP+ Ranking: 69th
FEI Ranking: 53rd
It feels like those successful Paul Johnson teams were a million years ago and Georgia Tech had been wandering around completely lost until this actually decent season kind of out of nowhere. This has always been one of those really low floor but also a convincing high ceiling (to a degree, let’s not get too carried away) jobs and maybe Brent Key is the right guy to make the Yellow Jackets a real problem.
The Bees weren’t much of a pushover.
Outlook – I’d be more worried if this game had let down potential in 2024. Instead, it comes sandwiched in a very friendly spot between Stanford and Navy. Hopefully it’s a really fruitful October for the Irish. We’ll definitely need to see more from the Bees but I could see them moving up into the tougher half of the ND schedule (especially because the back half of the 2024 schedule is very weak).
vs. Florida State 11/9
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 10.0
2023 Wins: 12
SP+ Ranking: 6th
FEI Ranking: 8th
Yup, the arrow is definitely pointing up again. Did you know Florida State opens next year in Ireland against the aforementioned Yellow Jackets? The recruiting is on fire in Tallahassee and with their on-field success I’m guessing they will be an extremely attractive landing spot for a bunch of transfers. Next year’s schedule is pretty demanding though.
Outlook – The Seminoles are the class of the ACC and it doesn’t look particularly close for anyone else right now. Just look at the SP+ and FEI rankings–no one is near FSU right now. And no one has the resources and ability to maintain this high level of play like the Noles.
vs. Virginia 11/16
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 3.5
2023 Wins: 3
SP+ Ranking: 106th
FEI Ranking: 95th
I believe most thought the Tony Elliott hire was a pretty solid decision for Virginia, especially after Bronco Mendenhall suddenly took off out of Charlottesville in the middle of the night. However, it’s not gone well at all for the former Clemson offensive coordinator. They somehow had a couple of quality wins against North Carolina and Duke this year but the offense was hot trash with patience already running out as Elliott heads into 2024 with a poor 3-12 record in ACC play.
Outlook – This is potentially the easiest Power 5 game on the schedule next year. At least with Stanford (gross) there’s a rivalry element to factor into things. Virginia also has to come to South Bend late in the season when Elliott might be barely hanging on to his job.
The Others
Boston College
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 5.5
2023 Wins: 6
SP+ Ranking: 81st
FEI Ranking: 81st
Jeff Hafley looked like one of the surest bets to be fired this year, although it hasn’t happened…yet. The expectations were sufficient low from Vegas and I suppose Boston College beat those odds. Is that enough for Hafley to save his job? The Eagles did finish the regular season with 3 straight losses, including a blowout to Miami last weekend.
6 wins, baby.
Outlook – Gone are the days of Jurkovec chucking up prayers to Zay Flowers as the only redeeming quality to this program. Hafley hasn’t won more than 6 games in any season so far and the momentum around this team is as low and unexcitable as it’s been in many years. A new hire could re-energize things but Boston College might be the worst ACC team next year.
California
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 5.0
2023 Wins: 6
SP+ Ranking: 62nd
FEI Ranking: 50th
I’m interested to see where this new move to the ACC takes a program like California. They were quietly decent on the field this year, winning their last 3 games of the regular season, and played well in close losses to Auburn, Oregon State, and USC. Sure, just 6 wins but it was one of the tougher schedules in the country. They don’t recruit the occasional 5-star or top 100 player like they used to so there’s a definite ceiling to the program.
Outlook – On3 projects California with the 14th best recruiting class in the ACC for 2024. There’s just not enough high-end talent to move the needle, although as Notre Dame found out in 2022, Cal can still be a tough out. This move to the ACC could also add another Portal Partner™ for Notre Dame to attract transfers looking for a better move in football at an academic-minded school.
Clemson
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 9.5
2023 Wins: 8
SP+ Ranking: 24th
FEI Ranking: 22nd
Notre Dame had a chance to really put the screws in Clemson this year and failed. Still, 4 losses is the most for the Tigers since 2011 and this was by far their worst season in the ACC since 2010. They also are predicted to face a pretty tough opponent (Pac-12 or SEC, most likely) in an upcoming bowl game. Their recruiting is fine but not nearly strong enough to overcome the *magic* being gone from Dabo Swinney’s program. It’s certainly not enough to catch up with Florida State.
Outlook – Notre Dame won’t face Clemson in the regular season next year so I thought maybe their schedule could be a little easier. Well, they open with Georgia in Atlanta and face Appalachian State plus the annual rivalry against South Carolina, too. They are likely a very solid to very good team next year although it’s difficult to see them being terribly different from 2023.
Duke
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 6.5
2023 Wins: 7
SP+ Ranking: 29th
FEI Ranking: 25th
This has to hurt for however many Duke football fans are out there in the world. They had a great thing going with Mike Elko, quarterback Riley Leonard was driving a ton of their success on offense, and yet their best football season in forever felt like such a weird let down. Riley got hurt and never looked the same once he came back and now Elko is skipping town running back to Texas A&M’s oil money.
Outlook – The Cutcliffe to Elko run wasn’t too shabby for the Blue Devils, you have to say. Yet, Elko was only in town for 2 years and this is probably a program that is going to shoot way down the rankings in the coming years unless they nail another new hire.
Miami
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 7.5
2023 Wins: 7
SP+ Ranking: 22nd
FEI Ranking: 24th
Miami went from 5 wins to 7 wins in Mario Cristobal’s 2nd season in Coral Gables. However, he’s put together back-to-back 3-5 campaigns in the ACC and 2 of those league wins this year were miraculous efforts in overtime. A nationally respected program they are not. Vegas had them pegged pretty well this year although their advanced stats rankings suggest they underachieved a bit.
Not much has changed.
Outlook – Cristobal is recruiting well enough that things could begin to turn around quickly and they really aren’t that far away from taking the next step. However, when has this not been the case for the Hurricanes? So they didn’t lose at home to Middle Tennessee State this year, that can’t be respectable progress.
North Carolina
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 8.5
2023 Wins: 8
SP+ Ranking: 26th
FEI Ranking: 27th
The curtain is coming down on the Drake Maye quarterback era that saw him throw for 8,000 yards, 63 touchdown, only 16 interceptions with 1,200 rushing yards and 16 more scores on the ground. It was a great college career accompanied by a decent but far from impressive 17-9 record with the wheels coming off towards the end of each of the last 2 seasons. This has been a fun and occasionally explosive team with only 1 win against a ranked opponent since 2022.
Outlook – North Carolina has been on quite a run at quarterback but surely they aren’t going to lose Maye and get much better, right? Mack Brown will also turn 73 right before next season and as the oldest head coach in FBS I’m not sure how much longer you can expect him to stick around. This is a competent ACC program that gets a decent amount of hype that isn’t really paying off.
NC State
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 6.5
2023 Wins: 9
SP+ Ranking: 30th
FEI Ranking: 40th
I’m not really sure how NC State won 9 games and overachieved this much. At the mid-point of 2023 their offense looked completely out of sorts and like it was going to tank their whole season. Instead, they finished the regular season winning their final 5 games and giving Notre Dame its top quality victory of 2023. The future of that offense seems shaky at best, but Dave Doeren keeps churning out really tough defenses and staying competitive in the ACC.
Outlook – The Wolfpack deserve the benefit of the doubt at this point, in a way that a program like North Carolina doesn’t. They won’t knock your socks off with offense, that’s for sure. I’ll be interested to see how their defense moves on without linebacker Payton Wilson. He has been on campus since Phillip Rivers was at quarterback seemingly, and might be one of the most important players for a team in the country.
Pittsburgh
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 6.5
2023 Wins: 3
SP+ Ranking: 87th
FEI Ranking: 79th
The worst season in Pat Narduzzi’s head coaching career says it all. This past season Pitt beat Wofford, Boston College, and managed a hilarious upset of Louisville. Of course, Iowa gets most of the headlines but Pitt’s offense wasn’t much better in 2023. They’ll be moving on next year with a new coordinator on that side of the ball and hoping to rebound to something better.
Outlook – Are things getting stale with Narduzzi and Pittsburgh? Maybe a little bit, still he’s signed for 7 more years and he’s built up enough good will to stick around and turn this around. Next year, I’m not sure they’ll be that competitive but the Panthers have a little more tradition and recruiting cache where they should be beating most of the middling ACC teams of the world and definitely winning far more than 3 games.
SMU
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 8.0
2023 Wins: 10
SP+ Ranking: 25th
FEI Ranking: 35th
This has been a really quick rise up the conference ladder for SMU without being dominant on the field. It wasn’t that long ago that the Mustangs were in the Conference USA and WAC. Now, they’ll be moving up to the ACC while coming off one of their best seasons in modern times. I mentioned before, this was a lucky career move for Rhett Lashlee who just signed an extension and enters a new league with a ton of momentum, and presumably, a decent amount of Texas cash backing him up.
This could be a fun new addition.
Outlook – I’m sure those SMU boosters are smiling. They secured several bags to give this program a financial boost, and due to their location in the Dallas metroplex, the Mustangs have a ceiling far higher than a program like California, for comparison. Will there be a transition period? Almost certainly you would think. I’m really curious to see how SMU gets along in the next few years because it wouldn’t surprise me if they zoom past the lower half of the ACC into a decent contender.
Syracuse
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 6.5
2023 Wins: 6
SP+ Ranking: 68th
FEI Ranking: 72nd
Well, the Orange officially gave up on the Dino Babers era after nearly 8 full seasons. Time flies, that Yankee Stadium game against the Orange was in Babers’ 3rd season when they ended up winning 10 games. He only won 10 more games TOTAL in the ACC since that season which is…a huge problem. It’s easy to forget Syracuse started 2023 with a 4-0 record and a win over Purdue. But, we found out Purdue stunk too.
Outlook – Just recently, the Orange hired Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown to replace Babers. He’d only been in Athens for a couple years but has a reputation as an ace recruiter. If you’re Syracuse, why not take a chance on a young and enthusiastic coach? Other names like Dan Mullen were being thrown around and I’d rather see someone like Brown get a shot.
Virginia Tech
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 5.0
2023 Wins: 6
SP+ Ranking: 50th
FEI Ranking: 54th
I’m looking over their schedule and I don’t think I caught a single second of a live Virginia Tech game this past regular season. They looked rough in September losing 3 straight to Purdue, Rutgers, and Marshall. Following a 3-8 debut (remember their finale last year against Virginia was cancelled) things were not looking great for Brent Pry. They figured some things out, quarterback Kyron Drones (great name) is fun, and they were able to get bowl eligible.
Outlook – I can’t say I’m surprised if I didn’t watch them but being 50th in SP+ wasn’t something I expected to find. I think we can grade on a 2nd half season curve and say Pry is officially Doing Good Things™ with the Hokies. After their Purdue debacle their only home loss this year was to Louisville. Step one for the future could be turning Enter Sandman World back into a really difficult place to play.
Wake Forest
Vegas ’23 Over/Under: 6.0
2023 Wins: 4
SP+ Ranking: 92nd
FEI Ranking: 82nd
Yes, Dave Clawson was still salty about Sam Hartman and Notre Dame’s love for him after the Irish laid a 45-7 beatdown and the Demon Deacons followed that up with a loss at Syracuse to finish 2023. Ouch. This was America’s 5th worst scoring offense among the Power 5 and that’s no winning philosophy for a little school like Wake Forest. A one year drop from the 16th best scoring offense to the 114th best is insane. If we’re for real, this is basically a mini-Stanford situation. Wake won’t be able to hold on to their best players and it’s not an attractive destination for many transfers, either.
Outlook – I’d say it’s quite poor. Clawson has put together a heck of a run in Winston-Salem and the school just isn’t set up to navigate this new era of college football in a way that is going to bring success. I get the sense he’s the type of guy who is going to get so frustrated and walk away soon. They open next year against North Carolina A&T–an atrociously bad Coastal Athletic FCS team–and I have a feeling Wake is going to struggle big time in that opener.
NC A&T wasn’t good this year but traditionally they are better than most…Wake could definitely struggle against them next year.
Impressive look at the ACC, but if there’s one rule about the conference…don’t trust anything about the records from the year before. There’s too much parity to predict what will happen next season. It’s just one big random event generator.
I think you are right on this, another thing to look at is returning players, a team that went 4-8 this year could very easily be 9-3 next year just because of the experience in the system that is returning. However generally the top teams stay top teams and the bottom teams stay bottom teams due to talent levels. A 7-5 team at Wake is a good year and a 7-5 team at Florida State is not meeting expectations.
Duke likely to be without Riley Leonard next year.
Sounds like he likes the all green uniforms, I’m told.
There’s actually this photographic evidence of ND tampering with Leonard in advance of entering the portal.
He likes losing?
What does everyone think about Leonard…if he comes to ND can he really stay ahead of Minchey? His numbers are pretty average and most of his games with a high passer rating were against poor teams.
I wondered about this on the other thread. But I found this from two days ago from PFF draft rankings of QBs:
Kinda sounds like calling it potential not polish…this actually makes me think even more that Minchey will end next season as the starter
that’s a lot of potential. But I’m not sure why MInchey is thought so highly off without having played a snap. I mean maybe he’ll turn out to be a 1st rounder – I don’t know. But what kind of evidence do we have that he’ll turn out this year to be better than something like Riley? Experience starting is one of the biggest indicators of success at the college level for a QB (all other things being equal).
Everyone talks about Angeli leaving. Minchey should 100% transfer ASAP.
He’s nowhere close to graduating, presumably has another grad transfer coming in above him on the depth chart, and will have Carr breathing down his neck beginning in just a few weeks.
Maybe Angeli leaves first or something. But if I’m Angeli it’s at least worth it to stick around, potentially graduate by this time next year, and finish his career with 2 more years somewhere else.
Yea that makes sense. I think Buchner is a cautionary tale too for those QBs. The grass is not always greener and it may not be best to leave unless your way is clearly blocked. But if Leonard is only at ND for a year then Angeli could start for ND for 2 years.
I think I’m of the mind that it’s better for the QBs themselves to stick it out as long as possible because situations at QB change so quickly (here and elsewhere). You could easily go to another situation that seems great, until it turns out its not. It’s just such a crapshoot.
I guess I’m not sure that Minchey should leave either unless he’s going to move “down” and so be more the big fish in a smaller pond, so to speak. Where would or should he go that would be better for him?
The only way he should leave is if Carr comes in and Minchey decides that Carr is easily better than himself and he’s got no shot then to play at ND. Because otherwise, of course, Angeli could leave and next year Minchey is the returning upperclassmen QB.
I see it similarly, too.
But, we do have the history of quarterbacks always transferring, plus now the madness is even worse with the Portal.
Part of me thinks QB’s should be even less likely to transfer now unless you’re a sure-fire starter jumping to another program.
You’re right though, searching for a good opportunity to actually play, even if at a lower level, isn’t always something these players do. Not knowing their QB situation, it really wouldn’t make a ton of sense for Minchey to transfer to Tennessee, for example.
I’m in the school of either transfer quickly (after 1 year, perhaps what Minchey will do) if you’re pretty sure you’re still going to be buried or wait 3 years, hope you graduate, and still have a couple years to play somewhere else. Using this formula, Angeli should stay for 2024.
Exactly.
And the early/late transfer principle makes sense. At least if you transfer quickly you’ll be roughly at the same spot somewhere else and get a chance to develop in that program – even if it’s with no necessarily better shot at actually starting.
And I think with transferring late, that would have meant you’ve given the situation a real shot to work out for yourself and you are likely in a better shot to transfer and start somewhere since you’d be older.
But you are right QBs are going to transfer whether it’s a good idea or not nowadays. I wonder how long it’ll take before QBs realize they be more careful about finding another spot.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Buchner transfers again. Milroe is a RS Soph and Buchner is third string behind a RS Fr. Buchner passed for.a total of 61 yds and rushed for 20 yds this season.
Yea I’d expect him too. No way he’s ever playing at Bama without a rash of injuries in a given year.
What’s the rule though now? You can’t just continue to transfer for free, no? Don’t you have to sit out now as a 2nd time undergrad transfer?
Though maybe he’s graduating soon?
If Leonard comes to ND, I think that is competition in the QB room. No guarantee of starting. With Coan and Hartman, I think they were both told they would have an excellent chance of being a starting QB. I’m not sure that Leonard would provide anything (game experience I guess) that Minchey or Angeli don’t provide. Also Angeli looked pretty serviceable in the games he got into, although in garbage time of overmatched opponents.
Curious about Leonard’s injury history. What are the odds a running QB with an injury history lasts a whole season? It’s why I never was sold on Buchner as a full season starter after he somehow got hurt walking down a flight of stairs, and we ended up with a season of Pyne.
It sounds like the staff made it pretty clear that they were taking a portal guy. If Angeli or Minchey were going to jump, feel like they would have already.
I assume part of the sell coming to ND for his NFL-polish season is the idea that he’ll run less frequently in a more pro-style offense. In his last two years at Wake, Hartman ran 8.1 times per game, this year 3.7 times per game for ND.
Leonard has carried 9.1 times per game over the last two years and gotten banged up for his trouble. If that drops to 4 or so carries per game it’s conceivable he could stay healthy through the season.
Grayson McCall from Costal Carolina might be a better fit, admissions wise, as a graduate transfer. Will Howard from K-state and Max Johnson from A&M are graduate transfers as well.
Side Note WF doesn’t seem to be able to hold on to QB’s: Mitch Griffis will transfer after he struggled this season. He went 124-for-207 for 1,553 yards with nine touchdowns and seven interceptions as Wake Forest finished 4-8. Wake Forest backup QB Santino Marucci also announced he would be transferring.
Max Johnson already committing to North Carolina, and the portal isn’t even open.
Wow, does that constitute tampering?
I thought McCall was dumb as a sack of potatoes based off last year’s attempt to transfer….
I think your right on SMU. They have Texas to recruit, and will be in a Power 4 conference. Texas recruits will have their in state choice between the ACC, SEC, and Big 12. Only SMU will be the ACC though, so if a recruit wants to stay ‘home’ and play in the ACC (LOL), SMU is the answer. Also like ND, smaller college atmosphere.
In the early 1980’s they were a force, second only to Texas in the SW conference. But when they were hit with the death penalty, it gutted the program. Joining the ACC is a big step in their long road back.
I suppose the one thing that might hold SMU back is not getting a slice of the ACC revenue pie for up to 9 years. That’s a lot of money for boosters to front, even if its just supporting the athletic department at the level of their AAC payout.
SMU boosters have raised $100+ mill to pave their way into the ACC. One report says they’ve raised $200 million.
yea i don’t think it’ll be a problem with money.
SMU raises more than $100 million in 1 week to help its ACC transition
Tobias to the portal.
Well that sucks. Here’s hoping Braylon James figures out how to put it together on the outside.
Oh boy, you’re not going to be happy with what I’m about to tell you 😬. He’s in the portal.
Third year in a row without enough WRs to practice. Yippee.
For the bowl game you mean? Yeah, if Colzie stays there are only 6 WRs right now, but 9 next year.
Nah, I was talking next season. But the bowl and spring practice will be particularly rough.
There were times the past 2 years we haven’t had enough bodies at WR to run full practices (or at least that was the internet hyperbole). And we are losing more WRs than we have coming in, since we also lose Salerno. I think we would have ideally had 2 more WRs this past year, so we are likely going to get hit with some injuries at some point and have a day at practice with like 4 healthy WRs. We needed bodies in the portal last year and we got 1, who turned into 0.
Will likely be another dark year at WR, albeit a more talented year.
Don’t disagree that it’ll be another dark year for the WR group, but if we somehow hold on to Colzie and Flores then numbers won’t be the issue…especially if an additional 1 or 2 get picked up from the portal. Lack of experience and a new position coach will be the problems. Sadly that relies on a big if regarding numbers.
To early for me too. I noticed:
Ex-Oregon State HC Jonathan Smith is bringing five assistants with him to MSU. Those five are OC and QB coach Brian Lindgren, OL coach Jim Michalczik, RB coach Keith Bhonapha,TE coach Brian Wozniak and DB coach Blue Adams in addition to Smith’s chief of staff and director of operations Dan Van De Riet, strength coach Michael McDonald and director of player personnel Cole Moore.
All three QBs on scholarship at MSU have announced they will transfer. MSU welcomed fifteen transfers last year with sixteen transferring out. Injuries plagued MSU finishing with eighteen players on the Injury list. How many return to the team is,yet to be determined. Besides the QBs, so far six players have already announced they are entering the Portal. Nine MSU starters are listed as RS SRs, Srs or Grad plus two more are RS JRs. This may be a roster rebuild along the Deion mode without a talented son to bring along at QB.
Smith will be making $6 mill a year in base pay with $1.25 million in supplemental pay plus performance bonuses. Should Smith be fired by MSU at any time over the eight year contract period he is guaranteed 85% of the remaining contract.
Nebraska coach, Matt Rhule, who may also be looking for a transfer QB, said “Make no mistake: a good quarterback in the portal costs $1 million to $1.5 million to $2 million right now,”
At OSU, Trent Bray, DC, has been named their new HC. Like Smith, Bray played football at OSU. He has coached their defense for six years. The Beavers ranked 15th in nationly in rushing defense. OSU have had two players entering the Portal per 247 so far.
This conference is a pile of farts.
Instead of protecting the conference from its TV contract getting thrown into renegotiation for dropping below 14 members by getting Stanford, Cal, and SMU in we should have been financing FSU’s exit fee to destroy this moronic conference.
Two more portal casualties today. Now at:
Remaining scholarship receivers:
Incoming scholarship receivers:
Great information. Not a pretty picture. Really do love Jordan Faison and Jaden Greathouse.
And now Rico might be leaving too.
So, only recruiting 3 receivers this year and only taking one transfer last year (who quit football) were good decisions, right?
Where is all the Flores stuff coming from? Just internet speculation?
Sounds like it’s real and likely, which, man, yikes. The “WR room mutiny” thing that was circling almost certainly wasn’t true, or rather has become true but not in the way it was rumored (i.e., was the basis for getting rid of Stuckey).
Seems like in this case either Freeman either read his WR room wrong or was just looking for a fall guy for the offense who wasn’t his BFF Parker. Either way not great, though I suppose could be something else.
Man, that is not what I was wanting to hear. Big yikes is right. Wonder what is going on there. Seems odd the way Freeman talked about the staff continuity and then basically fired the WR coach the next day.
Wow, this would be a real disaster. I wonder what the basis really is. If Stucky is gone, and he was the problem, you’d think they would not be leaving.
But if it’s Parker…. then I don’t blame them. The way the hit and hustle podcast talked (with friend of the site Jamie U) I got the impression that Parker wouldn’t have made a very good high school OC – that is that he wasn’t doing even very basic things. They admitted that the youth/inexperience of the WRs maybe played a role in some of that. But it hasn’t left me feeling very good about Parker and so it wouldn’t surprise me if these players can see it too and know as WR they aren’t going to be put in good positions to win and get the ball and so want out.
We now basically must get 3 WR – at a minimum – from the portal.
But this is also why we should always be “overrecruiting” at positions – because we can’t really take so many portal players. 4 freshmen WR should have been a minimum.
I’m not a football savant by any means, but I’ve found the complaints of Parker interesting because the offensive stats haven’t been worse than what they were under Rees or previous ND OC’s. Pre-season everyone had major questions about Parker and the offense in general and here we sit 4 months and everyone is acting like ND was expected to have a top 5 offense. Going into the season there were major questions about the WR room and the interior O-line and some questions about how much could Hartman cover those up as he learned a new system.
I think we got our answer. The interior o-line wasn’t great so losing Correll isn’t a loss IMO. Hartman was exactly the guy he had been for 5 years and honestly it sucks that ND couldn’t bench him for the last 3 games to see what they had in Angeli or Minchey. I know everyone is high on Leonard, but I would take a strong pass because you’re tied to him starting no matter the results. And last the WR room was exactly what we talked about before the season. Merriweather never got better and frankly his effort on a lot of deep balls sucked. I don’t think I can believe another word that Pete Sampson says about spring or fall camp after the reports of Randy Moss and then seeing the results.
IMO and I know people will think I’m crazy for this but going and getting Hartman was the biggest mistake (outside of Swarbrick not hiring the Utah OC/OL duo) of the last year. He missed a lot of open WR’s this year, he had bad turnovers, you were forced to keep with him all year in order to get transfers the next year, and it created this notion that ND was going to be this pass happy, chuck it offense.
I do think the Parker criticism boils down to two things: (a) like said above, he seemed to not do things that you don’t need to be a football genius to realize should be done more with our offense (more play action, just generally play faster) and (b) people who, like me, think the offense had more talent than its results. I’m pretty confident I said here before the season that, given the talent level of the offense, my view on Parker would be that (assuming Hartman health) a top-10 advanced stats offence means he was a clear hit, 11-15 would be good enough, and anything below that is bad. Obviously we were below that almost all year, especially post-Duke. But, if you don’t think we had a top-15 level offensive talent, then that’s less concerning!
Even after watching the season, I think Hartman is more talented than it appears you do (though definitely not a top-5 QB nationally, maybe a Book-like 8-12 or so). WRs were worse than I ever anticipated going into the season, though, so that helps explain it. Still, some position groups are going to be worse than you think going into a season and some are going to be better (TE, RB for us this year… so like the two least important positions). Still, I think this team should have managed a top-15 level offense if coached correctly.
Well there’s your problem, trusting anything Pete Sampson says in the first place.
Henderson is a bit of surprise. Isn’t he in line to start next year next to Watts? Or who else would be starting?
I don’t think it can ever be a surprise when a fifth year player, with both a bachelor and masters degree, decides 5 years in SB is enough. Perhaps he thinks one year will make him an NFL player, perhaps not. Perhaps he sees the talent behind him and thinks he won’t start.
Aiden K is leaving for football and academic reasons. He wants a masters in health policy or admin, which ND does not offer.
IMO, so far we have lost two players that should have stayed. Tobias, but many, including me, think he hasn’t lived to his potential and he should have a change of scenery. James is really the only one that is a surprise.
as for the as of now rumors about Flores and Staes, they seem to be somewhat unfounded rumors. Time will tell. If you are Staes though, Evans was clearly TE1. Coming back. Seemingly Raridon went past you. Then there is Flanagan and the incoming FR, not to mention Bauman. Crowded room. Personally, I think Staes cab be better than all of them.
There is message board gossip that James is a Darnell Ewell-level bad recruiting eval miss and the coaches are not sad to get him off the scholarship count.
The coaches quotes about him all year were all like “he’s practicing with us and trying hard”, which may be an indication of that.
Wow really? Given his athleticism is legit, it’s hard to imagine how one could be that bad? But maybe his speed is not legit? Isn’t that what happened with Ewell? He just wasn’t very athletic?
The Hit&Hustle guys always make it sound like his athleticism is legit. They talk about how Tobias and Braylon are just different athletes than any of the other WRs.
But that doesn’t always translate. The NFL board I used to follow frequently used a term around the draft, AMC (athletic mythical creature), for guys that were freak athletes and therefor drafted way higher than their tape and production would warrant. Some work out, most don’t. I do think the hit rate is a lot higher for those in college, since all the kids are still learning. But still, some are destined to not be great football players.
That said. James hurts. Any warm body would be welcome next year at WR, especially a fast one.
Yea that makes sense at the NFL level when those athletes have had a chance to become football players (but haven’t really or not enough for the NFL) – but an athlete like that after 1 year in college? I would think you’d want to keep a guy like that around to see if you can turn him into a football player. But I realize there’s a lot we often don’t know that goes into decisions like this.
Well that’s the problem, he’s trying to run go routes at 300lbs.
Ewell would be in our 2 deep at WR this spring. He’d be on the field if we had a play that ran 4 wides.
Well we need a boundary receiver. If you’re that big you should be able to beat getting jammed at the line, right?
Of the bottom tier BIGs, many are looking to the Portal for transfer QBs.
Michigan State currently does not have any scholarship QBs on the roster.
Indiana has one scholarship QB left-a RS FR/Tr-after two QBs hit the Portal
Minnesota’s starting QB has entered the Portal. Their only scholarship QB is a Freshman
Wisconsin’s starting QB is out of eligibility after his sixth year – his third team
Northwestern’s starting QB is out of eligibility after his sixth year – his third team, too.
Nebraska’s QB that played the most of their three ranked 111th in QBR.
Iowa’s starting QB, a Soph, had the second worst QBR (127th) in FBS
Rutgers backup QB has entered the Portal. Their starter is a Junior.
Purdue’s starter transferred there last year with three years remaining.
Illinois’s starter is a Sophomore. Their backup QB finished his sixth year.