We here at 18 Stripes got a lovely little gift in our mailbox the other day from our friends at the South Bend Tribune, as they sent an advance copy of the 2016 NDInsider football preseason magazine for us to review. If you want to order your own copy, you can click here to do so. Spoiler alert: You should get it. It’s good.

A Solid Roster

The usual group of Trib contributors – Eric Hansen, Tyler James, Al Lesar, and Mike Vorel – shouldered most of the load for this magazine, with each providing features and snippets. One of the things that really stood out to me as I read through the issue is that these are guys who write for a newspaper. This isn’t meant in any way as a dig at the folks who write the various Notre Dame websites’ preseason content; they all work hard and are good at what they do. But this content is a little sharper, a little deeper, and just in general is clearly the work of people who approach feature stories from a hard copy perspective.

They also managed to get comments from a lot of very interesting names inside and outside the Notre Dame family. Joe Theismann, Brady Quinn, Mack Brown, and Greg McElroy add some color to the quarterback competition article, Shane Walton and Pat Terrell chime in on fixing the secondary, and recruiting industry veterans Mike Farrell, Tom Lemming, and Steve Wiltfong join in a round-table discussion about Notre Dame’s place in the recruiting world.

Six Easy Pieces

There are six features that go into considerable depth on Torii Hunter, Nyles Morgan, Brian Kelly, the secondary, the quarterback competition, and talent development. They’re all a great read, but the player profiles – Hunter’s by Vorel and Morgan’s by Hansen – are especially good. The Hunter feature includes great stuff about Torii Sr. and Jr. that touches on the transfer of work ethic and their competitive drive in general and with each other; for example, Senior spent a good bit of time steaming because Junior had just beaten him in Xbox golf.

The Morgan piece was particularly excellent, with a lot of insight into Nyles’s background and approach to the game, some emotional moments shared with Jaylon Smith, and some comments from Morgan on Brian VanGorder and Joe Schmidt that just might surprise some people. After reading that article, it’s pretty clear that a Morgan transfer that so many had feared was never a serious threat, and I came out of it more bullish than ever that he’s in line for a big year. That feature alone is probably worth the price of the issue.

The Q&A with Brian Kelly is really good, with some great quotes from him about progress on defense, how he manages the stress of the job, and how he deals with some of the challenges unique to Notre Dame football.

Bartlett’s Familiar – 2016 ND Football Edition

There are a number of noteworthy lines scattered throughout the issue. Some of my favorites:

“I’d rather bet my money on the Zune.” – Tyler James, in response to who of Brian VanGorder, Max Redfield, or Gunner Kiel would post the biggest comeback this year

“

[The fans] are going to have favorites [in a quarterback competition], and it’s usually the one who hasn’t played as much, because they think he’s got fewer problems because they don’t know him as well.” – Mack Brown

“‘Competitive, not combative.’ That’s been a line we’ve used for the last year and a half.” – Mike Sanford on the quarterback competition [very interesting that the line’s lifetime extends to the previous bowl season]

“Quenton Nelson… looks like a garage with arms.” – Eric Hansen [I LOL’d in the lunch room over this one]

“I’ll give [VanGorder] his props 100 percent. I know so much more about football than I thought existed. I thank him for [criticism early and often]. I really do, because now I see what he was doing.” – Nyles Morgan

“People assumed we had bad blood, but I loved Joe. If I had a question, Joe would answer it any time.” – Nyles Morgan

“I was a Notre Dame fan first. Tony Rice… was my favorite. I tried to be like him.” – Torii Hunter Sr.

“To answer your question, the university acted on it. Fr. John [Jenkins] acted on it when I became pretty public about it… We’re in the process of closing in on the needs we have.” – Brian Kelly, in response to a question on opportunities for improvement highlighted by the Frozen Five situation

“Stud’s play is not really a surprise to me or anyone else in the 2016 class. None of us are cocky about what we do, but we’re all very confident about what we do.” – Jalen Elliott, on Devin Studstill’s spring ball ascendancy to the #1 free safety role

“I love hot bubble baths.” – Parker Boudreaux [I swear I did not make this up]

Odds and Ends

Towards the front of the magazine there’s sort of a prop bet section for the four main contributors with some interesting bits. Notably, Kizer was tabbed as the ultimate winner of the quarterback derby by three of the four writers, with Al Lesar the lone Zaire backer. Also, all four have Alabama, Clemson, and Oklahoma in the playoff – I feel like a missed a memo or something on Oklahoma. I’ll believe it when I see it. The fourth projected playoff participant for each contributor, by the way, is LSU (Hansen), Michigan (James and Lesar), and Florida State (Vorel). The Michigan love seems a bit premature to me as well, but we shall see… Mike Vorel offered the highest projection for our total defense ranking, at #37, while Tyler James had us highest in the final polls at #9. All were unanimous in their selection of Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey as the best player the Irish will face this year.

There’s a fun review of the 2016 recruiting class, which is where we discover Boudreaux’s affinity for bubble baths. I mean…

The guys take turns writing up position unit previews of the Irish – each is very much worth a read.

The opponent preview section is well done also, with a full page on each opponent that features the usual quick-glance info plus a few key questions for each team and well-written answers. If you want to sound like the smart guy at your tailgater, or maybe the overly-football-obsessed guy, check it out.