With Early Signing Day coming tomorrow the 2022 recruiting cycle is essentially over and Notre Dame turns most of its focus to the hot start with the 2023 class in hopes it’ll be one of the best to come to South Bend in 30+ years. For certain, these days around the Holidays are a weird time for managing the scholarship situation in college football. On one side, we’re looking at the space available for the next recruiting class but there’s still plenty of number-crunching to do for the upcoming season kicking off at Ohio State on September 3rd.
First, let’s start with the current projections for the 2022 football season. With the special rules surrounding Covid now complete all programs will be required to get down to the traditional 85-man limit by the start of next year.
Current Notre Dame Scholarships for 2022: 98
From the current graduate students:
WR Avery Davis’ knee injury pretty much squashes any chance of a NFL off-season training regiment and he’s weighing whether to come back for a 6th season. As an aside, if he does come back he’ll have a great shot at eclipsing 100 career receptions which would be a cool milestone for him.
OT Josh Lugg has let it be known he’s contemplating coming back for a 6th season.
DT Myron Tagavailoa-Amosa, LB Drew White, and LB Isaiah Pryor could all come back for 2022 and a final year in college.
From the 2018 current senior class:
WR Kevin Austin, OC Jarrett Patterson, DT Jayson Ademilola, and DE Justin Ademilola are pondering exits for the NFL. I have to believe Notre Dame feels at least 2 if not 3 will be coming back.
TE George Takacs has mentioned he may be willing to enter the Portal and a get a change of scenery.
We’ll surely see more transfers among these players but this group can return for 2022 grad seasons: RB C’Bo Flemister, WR Braden Lenzy, WR Joe Wilkins, OG John Dirksen, LB Bo Bauer, LB Shayne Simon, LB Paul Moala, CB Tariq Bracy, S DJ Brown, and S Houston Griffith.
You’d think Freeman & Co. will definitely want Lenzy, Bauer, Moala, Bracy, and Brown to return.
From the 2019 current junior class:
DE Isaiah Foskey will be weighing leaving early for the NFL while RB Kyren Williams and S Kyle Hamilton have already decided to skip the Fiesta Bowl and go pro.
P Jay Bramblett has unofficially announced his intention to transfer as he’s graduating early and wants to play closer to home.
Since our last update, QB Brendon Clark and S Litchfield Ajavon have entered the Transfer Portal.
As I said, do not be alarmed! This is a weird time for the scholarship post as we’re moving from the 2022 to 2023 recruiting cycles and still don’t know who is returning next fall. Be aware, down below you will see players like Isaiah Foskey listed for graduate seasons who may not even come back next year but could return all the way to 2024, thanks to the Covid year.
***18 Stripes Scholarship Tracker CLICK HERE***
Out of Eligibility Following 2022:
DT Jayson Ademilola
LB Bo Bauer
LB Shayne Simon
CB Tariq Bracy
S Houston Griffith
No matter what, these players will be done if they play during the 2022 season. Again, if not for the 2020 Covid rules this list would be a little more extensive. For example, Jarrett Patterson would be playing his normal 5th year in 2022 and be done with eligibility but he can play through 2023.
2023-24 Academic Classes
7 Verbal Commits
22 Sophomores
26 Juniors
15 Seniors
24 Graduates
94 Total Scholarships
These are some unprecedented times in the aftermath of the Covid season, NIL rules, and now Notre Dame is welcoming a new head coach after 12 seasons. We would’ve predicted plenty of roster turnover due to some of the log jams at certain positions and classes anyway. I would be prepared to see a handful more players than usual seeking opportunities elsewhere this off-season.
List of Eligible 2023 Grad Students
* Indicates no redshirt, 2023 eligible only due to Covid.
$ Indicates 6th-year 2023 eligible due to Covid.
# Indicates regular 5th-year eligible for 2023 but also 6th-year eligible for 2024 due to Covid.
Tier 1
DE Isaiah Foskey #
C Jarrett Patterson $
WR Kevin Austin $
CB Cam Hart #
LB Marist Liufau #
LB JD Bertrand #
LB Jack Kiser #
DE Justin Ademilola $
OG Andrew Kristofic #
DT Howard Cross #
S DJ Brown $
WR Braden Lenzy $
DT Jacob Lacey *
TE George Takacs $
WR Joe Wilkins $
C Zeke Correll #
P Jay Bramblett *
Tier 2
LB Paul Moala *
DE NaNa Osafo-Mensah #
RB C’Bo Flemister $
S KJ Wallace #
Tier 3
OG John Dirksen $
DE Osita Ekwonu #
OG Quinn Carroll #
We don’t need to spend too much time on this list right now in December. After all, a whole bunch of these players could be gone from Notre Dame in a matter of weeks whether it’s to the NFL, transfers, medical scholarships, or other situations that come up.
We typically see 6 or 7 homegrown (meaning they’ve been at Notre Dame their entire career) graduate students on the team each year with a few new graduate transfers coming in for one final season. So, somewhere in the 9 to 11 range total.
Quickly bouncing back to the 2022 season, we could see as many as 15 or more graduate students if guys like Lugg, MTA, White, etc. are coming back. But, into 2023 we should start to see more normal levels of graduate students on the roster.
2023 Positional Needs
I think it’s pretty clear there will be 3 major priorities for the 2023 cycle.
Quarterback
Notre Dame was interested in taking 2 quarterbacks for 2022 although that doesn’t look like it will materialize. But, you can see why that would be a favored route. Jack Coan’s one-year internship is ending, Brandon Clark is heading out after a year-long knee injury, Ron Powlus III is a practice player, and while Drew Pyne still has 4 years(!!) of eligibility remaining who knows if he’ll even want to stay for 2022.
The Target: Dante Moore, Detroit, MI (0.994)
— Dante MOORE (@dantemoore05) July 28, 2021
Notre Dame already has 4 offers out to quarterbacks for 2024 but has really been focused on nabbing Moore out of Detroit for this cycle, offering back in March. As you’d expect, Michigan as the local team is going to be stiff competition and they offered over 3.5 years ago the summer after his 7th grade year.
Safety
In a recent bowl practice presser, Marcus Freeman was pretty effusive in his praise of Xavier Watts and Ramon Henderson at safety. Still, an upgrade of talent at this position is extremely needed.
The Target: Peyton Bowen, Denton, TX (0.974)
Thank you @NDFootball and to all the coaches for the experience of seeing Notre Dame, i had an amazing time!! @Coach_OLeary @Marcus_Freeman1 @CoachBrianKelly pic.twitter.com/0PTNKsTgPF
— Peyton Bowen (@PeytonBowen10) June 9, 2021
Like the aforementioned Moore above, Notre Dame also offered Bowen back in March. If he were to pull the trigger today many feel he’d choose the Irish.
Wide Receiver
Notre Dame now awaits the decision of 2022 recruit Amorion Walker just a couple days after former commit C.J. Williams decided to leave the Irish class. This cycle still has Tobias Merriweather (the best wideout recruit at Notre Dame since Kevin Austin, IMO) so all is not lost. Still, numbers are very, very thin and 2023 needs to be a big year at this position.
The Target: Carnell Tate, Bradenton, FL (0.989)
GLEE☘️ pic.twitter.com/KOgNztw19y
— Carnell Tate ¹⁷ (@carnelltate_) November 23, 2021
Tate is an IMG Academy product originally from Chicago and the Irish look to be in a massive showdown with Ohio State to bring him to South Bend. Can Notre Dame win this one?
I guess one way to solve the “we’re not taking undergrad transfers” problem is by having so many recruits that you don’t have space to take undergrad transfers!
That’s really the best thing we can do in response.
1 scholarship extra now as Amorion Walker flips to Michigan.
And Tate becomes all the more important.
Obviously I’d rather have him than not given the WR depth but do we make much out of him never quite having that meteoric rise up the recruiting rankings? Same with Agu, though he’s long gone.
I believe the really big schools (Bama, LSU) only liked him as a DB too, FWIW. Not sure what the plan is for him going forward, but he seems more athlete than polished, and to your point, wasn’t recognized hugely in the scouting community.
Was he the next Will Fuller for ND, speedy athlete with raw talent?
As irritating as the losses at WR were this week if guys who still have eligibility come back for 2022 then the depth chart isn’t a disaster for ’22. It looks much more like the ’23 season will be when we absolutely must bring in depth transfer(s).
WR: Kevin Austin, Deion Colzie, Tobias Merriweather
WR: Braden Lenzy, Joe Wilkins, Jayden Thomas
WR: Avery Davis, Lorenzo Styles, Matt Salerno
That’d be nine guys you can trust to touch the football and maybe five or six of them are difference makers. Plus we’ll enter the season four deep at both TE and RB. If you keep the seniors and added a Ben Skowronek-type transfer that guy would be the sixth-ish receiver to see the field. Not ideal, but workable.
How do we break out of this cycle? It seems we have trouble getting elite, 5* skill players, because we don’t have an offensive style that features them enough. But we don’t have that offensive style, because we don’t have those kinds of players, so we lean on RBs/TEs. So we keep getting good RBs/TEs, and can’t get the other players.
Do we just need to roll with a pass happy offense and wait for the players to come? Or do we need the luck of somebody like Merriweather or Colzie just blowing up and becoming a huge star, eventually attracting more top flight talent?
Yes on the latter (a talented WR blowing up – like Claypool, Boykin) but also the biggest key is the QB I think. If Buchner plays well (and we throw the ball well) and we get Dante Moore in 2023, then you’ll start to see the WRs wanting to come (or at least not wanting *not* to come because of the offense).
Did Claypool or Boykin really move the needle in terms of recruited WR talent pool? It doesn’t seem so, but maybe I’m wrong.
Agree that QB is the biggest issue. Maybe, if we can’t really get that elite talent at QB, our best hope is for a surprise star like a Baker Mayfield
The examples were meant to be of WRs who were talented but kind of blew up – not that they of themselves got WR recruiting going. The QBs would need to be part of it too.
At the risk of my beating a dead horse: even if he ends up being a solid QB, I don’t think Buchner’s arm is going to be a thing that draws in WR recruits in the near future. Even well before he decommitted, the message board rumblings were that CJ Williams preferred the idea of playing with Jaxson Dart to Buchner.
Yea Williams thinks that now. I’m just saying hypothetically for the 2023 or really 2024 class if Buchner throws the ball really well and we have another elite QB in the class that WRs will be more interested in coming.
Agreed that Buchner being solid is not sufficient. He’s going to have to be pretty darn good and much of that will have to come with throwing the ball (as opposed to really darn good on the basis of his being a really good runner).
I think it’s just as much, if not more about the play style and just the offense than the QB. Everyone knows Buchner isn’t going to be Colt Brennan (RIP!) or Timmy Chang or something as an air raid 5,000 yard passer next year.
But if you’re CJ WIlliams and you see that the ND running back has 42 receptions on the season and the WR1 in Kevin Austin has 42 receptions? That’s a problem. And it’s more than just the QB play, it’s just an offense that is not designed to look at feeding a WR 8-12+ times per game. That is an issue to attract many very good receivers. They want the ball.
They need a QB who will get it to them, but they need to be in an offense that’s more likely to have 4 or 5 WR on the field at the same time instead of 2 or 3 TE’s…
I guess it’s a tough cycle like Texan was saying, tough to get stud WR’s until you have WR production, but tough to get WR production without having great WR’s. Breaking the cycle would be hard, and elite QB play is one way to step it up a notch, but just stylistically ND needs an offense that emphasizes WR’s more if they want to attract better WRs. Sounds simple enough, eh?
I guess I’m assuming that the style is dictated by the QB. If we had a better QB (or one that could throw it better) we’d be throwing it more to the WRs.
Maybe. I mean that could well be a part of it. But I’m convinced the offensive style is a lot more “2 WR’s on a route, first read is Mayer, second read dump it down to a RB” more often than not.
Just too conservative to attract major WR’s when they perceive the offense is too reliant on TE and RB and WR isn’t a point of emphasis for the offense. And it’s tough to honestly disagree when ND runs 2 TE sets so much.
But would we be running that offense with Bryce Young or CJ Stroud as our QB? I’m thinking we wouldn’t be.
Certainly the talent we have at those other positions plays a role. We have more talented RB/TE than we typically do at WR. But I still thinking with Young or a Stroud we’d open things up a little more.
Yeah, that would open the offense up more to WRs but at the same time, Bryce Young ain’t winnin a Heisman or even going to NY if his WR’s are Austin (inconsistent), Lenzy (disappears for games on end), 1/2 a season of Davis and a freshman Styles.
QB is a big piece of the puzzle, but the ND offense still would have been built around Kyren and Mayer this season, no matter the QB.
Just like next year, the offense is going to be built around Mayer and probably Diggs. Just like last year the offense was built around Mayer and Kyren…There’s a trend there that doesn’t attract WRs.
Sure, but I think that if Austin lives up to his potential and becomes more consistent (this is really his first year playing in games) and Styles and Colzie continue their development we could have 3 really good, bordering on elite WR next year.
If Buchner is a 60% passer hits the easy ones and connects on a fair share of deep passes we could have an exciting passing offense while still featuring Mayer, Diggs, and Tyree at the same time.
Let’s be honest, we also need to hit a home run in our WR coaching hire. We need an elite recruiter at that position. If we had that, maybe we are able to keep Williams at least.
Sure, but we’ll see. Buchner was a 60% this year (well close enough at 58.3%) so that’s not the issue.
I would love to see a formation breakdown, and maybe it’s injury related, but the problem is still going to be Takacs gets a lot more snaps than some of the WR’s. It’s an offense that leans into the team’s strengths, but those strengths are run the ball, throw to the TE, feed the RBs. I don’t think that’s changing drastically in the near future, and more importantly most elite WR’s don’t really think that is changing in the near future for Notre Dame.
Well sure, I see what you are saying and I think we could see some formation changes. We could certainly put 3 WR on the field alot next year and still be running the ball.
But I actually agree with your last sentence. The perception is really the key.
I hope so. And yeah, perception is reality in this case.
At the same time, ND is trying to win. The way to win right now is have Tremble or Takacs on the field as an extra blocker and give it to Kyren a lot. That’s plenty effective, but makes a sales job for WRs pretty tough. Hopefully with Freeman+new WR coach this all morphs a bit.
This is less a response to your particular response here and more the whole thread. I think it comes down to recruiter/recruiting more than the on the field production/formation for the WR position.
Take a look at Bama. They were getting elite WR talent (Julio, Cooper) before moving to a pass first offense. Granted, I know they had won a few NC’s in there so not apples to apples.
We just haven’t been (or felt like maybe is the better wording) downfield passing team since Kizer/Fuller and IMO since Golson in 2014. Felt like the first 6 games in 2014 we were really attacking teams downfield.
I like a lot the 2022 combination of Austin, Styles, Colzie, Mayer, and Tyree/Diggs. Need Buchner to elevate the most IMO.
I would take Golson again right now. Does he get an extra year for covid?
What’s wrong with Buchner’s arm? I think there’s a lot of overreacting going on based on a couple of receivers who de-committed, one of which clearly got cold feet about leaving the warm confines of southern California and another who is probably slated to play DB in college.
The way that Buchner can run combined with what should be a very good OL in 2022 is going to result in some big windows for him to throw into. There will be a lot of explosive plays on the table for our receiving corps next fall.
Based on what we saw this year, Buchner is not a good thrower of the football at the moment. Certainly not good enough to make WR recruits younger than him want to come play with him.
Funny funny, but Slovis’s true freshman season rating was 167.6. Slovis may be mostly washed up at this point – there were rumblings that his mechanics got screwed up by an elbow surgery – and he’s definitely injury-prone, but, come on, let’s not pretend that Buchner and Slovis are similar passers if Slovis is fully healthy.
Though, as I think more about it, the meme to some degree supports my (unpopular) point above. The general attitude for USC fans was “jeez what is wrong with Kedon Slovis?” last season, and even passing at that concerning level Buchner is only effectively even with him through the air. So, based on what is currently available, what about the possibility of playing with Buchner should be appealing to, e.g., CJ Williams or Carnell Tate when the alternative is, e.g., Jaxson Dart or Ohio State’s stable of 5-star QBs?
Also lest folks think otherwise I am not the meme downvoter. I am pro-meme.
I’ll continue to say Buchner’s sample size is so small that it’s really difficult to say he’s bad as a thrower.
Re the USC guys, they’re high-volume passers which would be appealing to a receiver, I suppose. Other than that, they’re fine as passers with a lot of L’s on their resume. Dart would’ve been 10th in Pac-12 passer rating (also lower than Buchner’s) if he qualified I don’t see why he’s all of a sudden so special.
I’m one of the skeptical ones (it’s just hard to play QB) but I agree with you here.
And I think it was Loy who said on a podcast that what he had seen in practice and what coaches saw that they really think he’s going to be the guy. If Loy is right about that, it sounded like ND had no intention to get a QB in the transfer portal and they that are fully on board the Buchner train.
As they probably should be. Buchner has a lot of tools and talent. Time to develop it and see how far he can go. I think Buchner is probably best case in the Tajh Boyd role of being “the guy before the guy” that really takes a program to the next level. But after Kedon Slovis’ last two years it’s pretty obvious he ain’t the guy either. Ready to see what Buchner can do, and hopefully in 2023 or 2024 it’s Dante Moore or some other high-end 2023 recruit’s time.
I do wonder if Kelly’s 2nd half strategies were a bit of a damper on WR recruiting. Our dudes never put up huge numbers, and their backups never put up any numbers, because until late this year, we never really ran up the score in the 2nd half of games where we led by 14. We would lean on teams with the running game and break them down slowly but surely. A great way to ensure you don’t let teams back in the game with dumb mistakes, but not necessarily a method to highlight skill players and pump up stats/highlight reels.
This worked out great for RB recruiting. But maybe Freeman will let the offense open up a bit more later in games with big leads, to showcase the talent we have here (and the opportunity for future guys to make a name for themselves here).
Or maybe he will be a traditional defensive guy and want to lean on the run game. I’m not sure, but I know Day, Riley, and even defensive-minded Saban have shown no hesitation to run up the score late in games. And they’re the guys getting elite talent on the outside.
This is an interesting point. If we run up the score in garbage time, running pass plays for chunk yards, getting away from the offensive game plan that we had coming into the game in order to highlight our talent, do we attract more talent?
Of course then you might lose the appeal to the excellent RBs out there. Do Diggs and Estime both come to ND without seeing C’Bo getting 10 rushing TDs despite being buried on the depth chart behind 2 great RBs? Maybe, maybe not. It’s a tough balance for sure.
Not directly related to us, but… Travis Hunter, the #1 overall player in the 247 Composite, flipped from FSU to FCS Jackson State today. Jackson State, you may remember, is coached by Deion Sanders, late of Barstool Sports. There are rumors from credible sources that Hunter got a $3M NIL deal from… wait for it… Barstool Sports.
Hmm.
whoooooooooooooaaaaa.
What is in it for Barstool sports exactly? Why would they shell out that kind of cash?
That doesn’t make a lot of sense. And I think to clarify what Brendan said, Deion is still involved with them. Is he pitching in aflac money for this? Like you said, ends don’t really justify the means on the ROI for a website/gambling company to pay serious money for one recruit..Something is fishy. I know they were looking into some Texas and the BYU walk on NIL deals, not sure what will come of that or how to enforce anything anymore, but I guess we’ll see.
Also, this kid if he’s on an NFL path has to transfer to a P5 school eventually, right? No way he is going to maximize his future career (and a lot more than $3m potentially in his future) for long, right? Just doesn’t add up.
Lifetime customer value for gambling apps is something like $2,500. If the stunt gains them 1,200 new customers they break even, if it nets them 7,500 it’ll have been a cheaper way to gain new customers than everything else they’ve been doing to expand their base.
How many fans does JSU have again?
Interesting. The money involved in gambling is just absolutely nuts, I saw one major app gave Pat McAfee $30m per year for 4 years just to be a sponsor on his Youtube show. But given his social media footprint and all, it’s probably worth it.
Maybe ND can endow the Dick Corbett or some other rich guy starting QB position and pay a kid millions to come play? (Joking….kinda)
Thinking about it this way, announcing that they bribed Nwankpa to ND probably would have had a better ROI, haha.
His career earnings will depend on his second contract. But $3mil is actually very good money for an NFL rookie contract. Basically the equivalent of a 3rd round pick.
Fair points. But we also don’t know what potential strings are attached of when/if it all comes in. I’ve also seen figures of less than half the $3m amount, and it probably benefits all parties to inflate and peacock a little bit. Not saying money wasn’t a consideration but there’s a lot of rumor and innuendo.
For the #1 or #2 overall recruit out of HS, I think you could be aiming for a bit better than 3rd round pick by going to the right school maximize your future. Then again, don’t blame any kid for getting paid what they can when they can either.
There’s also the risk of injury or just being a bust. Even if it’s just $1million now, I would take that 10 times out of 10, over going to a better school with a higher potential draft spot.
Sure. But Jackson State would not be the only place the #1 recruit in the country could get a payday in this era, either. Could get paid and better position his future pro prospects was my point instead of taking a path that possibly derails his future growth with substandard facilities, coaching and competition than what he would get playing at a major FBS school.
I imagine the difference in the deal was significant enough to make up for that. If he was getting offered the same, or close to the same, from UGA, he obviously would have gone there.
I have a hard time imagining that, considering we’re not talking about just any prospect but literally the best one in the country. The QBs at Alabama and Miami made over a million this year, it’s not like the money is not around at high profile schools or only available in this special circumstance.
I believe Hunter at his word that going to an HBCU was a consideration, and the pull of a magnetic influence like Deion was a factor. And none of that is necessarily wrong or bad at all, it’s his choice and admirable to blaze his own path.
But I find it very difficult to believe he couldn’t get a reasonable financial package from a place like A&M that shelled out enough to get 11 top-100 players this cycle to meet short-term cash goals and set himself up much better and more conventionally for a brighter longer-term future.
Well he’s at Jackson state, not Bama, Miami, etc. And Brendan said he got $3 Mil, which makes a lot more sense to me than simply going to play for Prime Time. No matter how or why he made the decision, I think it is a fine one.
That could be part of it, I heavily doubt the $3m figure as well, a lot has been thrown out and other rumors are for far less. Makes more sense if that is the case, but to me that’s more unknown at this point.
I don’t disagree that he possibly/probably maximized his short-term earnings, which I don’t knock and can understand. But I do think that this is a highly questionable decision for his long-term potential future earnings, considering it’s not like he would be without NIL opportunities and the ability for immediate money at any school.
Obviously there are tons of things we don’t know. Maybe the kid just wanted Deion’s autograph and isn’t getting paid anything. But Brendan’s number, on the chain we are commenting on, make a lot more sense to me for actually getting the top player to choose FCS (for the first time ever?).
Financially, I think it is a smart decision. It’s essentially a hedge, probably sacrificing a few rounds of draft $, for all the risks that could have dropped him anyway or eliminated him completely from the draft. Most of his career earnings will be decided by his second, third, etc. contracts.
If he drops from a first rounder to a third rounder, he looses $15million (http://footballnextlevel.com/tag/2020-nfl-rookie-salary/). But being a first round pick is hardly a given.
Only 22% of 5 stars turn into a first round pick, while 35% go undrafted (https://www.si.com/college/notredame/recruiting/five-star-recruits-and-the-nfl-draft).
Based on those 2 sites, the expected value of a first contract for a 5 star is $4.5 million.
Even if it’s only $1mil more than other NIL deals. Seems smart to take that now and eliminate the risk.
And For all we know, the kid could still be a first round pick. FCS kids don’t get picked in the first round because they aren’t as talented to begin with. It isn’t like there’s an equal distribution of talent and those who get stuck at FCS schools don’t develop because of where they play football.
This kid made this decision for reasons, which we don’t know. You seem to be choosing to believe he made a bad choice, without knowing all the details.
And you seem to think it was a good choice without knowing all the details. Deion Sanders, FWIW, said Hunter got $0 in NIL. This chain started on $3m, but I don’t think that is anywhere close to accurate.
And I don’t think it was a necessarily a bad choice, btw, just a potentially risky and harmful decision because it is going against conventional wisdom on the best path to maximize his future earnings. Also doesn’t mean you’re wrong that the short-term benefits (whatever they are) could outweigh some of that, but it also doesn’t change the long-term outlook either. Becoming a bit circular now, so I’ll leave it at that.
True. It hard to say either way. And even if we knew all the information, it’s clearly a cost benefit decision, that one can never really know the result of until everything plays out. And there’s about 0% chance I will look back at the end of this guys NFL career and figure out if it was worth it (even if all the details become available).
It doesn’t make sense,
But Coach Deion Sanders picked his target well, top 10 talent that is a cornerback (position Deion played, and arguably one of the best) and was committed to Deion’s Alma Mater. (This is a bigger surprise than Kelly leaving for LSU.) The possibility that they connected while Sanders was recruiting him, and that the news Sanders has been in with the Coaching Carousel this year, all make it plausible that Hunter could pick Jackson State over FSU.
However, much like Cam Newton to Auburn, I think this will eventually haunt Sanders and Jackson state. Deion said they would have a huge signing day weeks ago.
Hope Sanders read the bag man article posted on here the other day. No email trails, no traceable communication, not friends with the money man (that one will be hard to deny), etc…
Deion Sanders also works for barstool.
This makes me ill. I think this is probably the beginning of the end for me. Or maybe it began a while ago and I’m just now realizing it. Oh well…..Now get off my lawn.
And get those clouds out of here!
I think this development could reflect a positive change. Many people highly value HBCUs, and the NIL could give players more options.
https://sports.yahoo.com/travis-hunters-hbcu-jump-may-not-lead-to-a-sea-change-but-its-great-for-college-football-194653364.html
About time these kids are getting paid. This shows you how much money these kids have been getting screwed out of for years. Capitalism is finally involved in a multi-billion dollar industry.
Urban Meyer for DC?
That would be interesting. I can’t see it happening, although CMF could potentially learn a lot about the HC management from him.
What’s the worst possible place he could end up (for ND) at this point? I don’t see many places high profile enough for him to consider that need a HC right now. But I am always trying to prepare myself for the worst case scenario for ND football, since those things usually happen to us.
Maybe a 1-2 year hiatus then FSU? They would shell out dough, not care about anything other than winning, and have lots of pretty coeds. Texas could have similar appeal once they tire of Sark, but at least we wouldn’t face him.
He’s still only 57, so could easily try another 5-10 year run in CFB.
FSU would probably be the worst spot from a Notre Dame perspective, since they’re on the schedule in the future. Can’t really see him going to any other ACC school to be a similar possibility. Glad he didn’t land at USC, but USC getting Riley is probably even worse for ND in the long term.
Vinson, the long snapper, just got a scholarship. So that’s one less available. Kinda strange considering how many players we could have.
Just came to post this, too.
https://twitter.com/DollBrian/status/1471504775132762116?s=20
If my math is correct, he has eligibility for 2022 and 2023 with the Covid year.
What happens if ND just says, screw it, we are going to have 95 kids on scholarship? Wins don’t count?
Milk is industry. I guess best to give him one and make sure he doesn’t portal somewhere else for a free ride, but not sure how likely that would have been. One less thing to worry about though. Does that mean 2 long snappers on scholarship now? That’s not very efficient. Maybe they know the other kid is leaving?
Yup, both Vinson and Peitsch on scholarship now.
Darn, guess we can’t get that 16th OL now for the 84th scholarship 🙂
How will we even hold a practice?
If we’re at 86+ scholarships in late July, Peitsch is presumably going to all of a sudden come down with a career-ending injury
Shayne Simon enters portal, Peitsch is safe…for now