Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff. This off-season I’m changing up our topics a little bit.
Top News
Head coaches all over the land are trying to scramble their bag men and LLC’s to see if they can land rising sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams who announced he’s entering the Transfer Portal this past Monday. The former 5-star and No. 2 quarterback from the 2021 class took over the Oklahoma job half way through this past season and finished 6th nationally in passer rating with 435 rushing yards, as well.
The Washington Football Team announced they are going to release their new team name on February 2nd among finalists of Armada, Presidents, Brigade, Redhawks, Commanders, Defenders, or keeping Football Team. Keeping the latter would be the funniest thing in sports history.
The TV ratings for the college football playoff semi-finals are in and as expected with New Year’s Eve blowouts they went down from 2020:
CFP Semis
16.1 million for Bama-Cincinnati
16.5 million for Georgia-MichiganLast year
18.9 million for Bama-Notre Dame
19.1 million for Ohio St.-Clemson— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) January 4, 2022
According to multiple reports, Notre Dame will be hiring Cincinnati’s Brian Mason for the special teams job in South Bend. He’s held that job for the Bearcats since 2018.
We’re tracking scholarships and roster moves like a hawk and defensive end Justin Ademilola is returning to Notre Dame. Now we wait for news on his brother Jayson.
Derek Stingley from LSU and Daxton Hill from Michigan have officially declared for the NFL Draft. They’ll be the main competitors with Kyle Hamilton as the top defensive backs off the board in the spring.
Uniform of the Week
I’d once again like to talk about color coordination in college football uniforms. In this year’s Sugar Bowl, Ole Miss wore their powder blue jerseys paired with a new white helmet. They kind of looked like the Houston Oilers but no doubt nearly everyone agrees the Rebels should ditch their navy blue color for this look, right?
Anyway, I noticed most players wearing low white socks, a few in high white socks, and a smaller group in either high red or high powder blue socks.
I noticed this because a few players in red also wore red undershirts, and honestly, that combination of contrasting colors looked phenomenal. I just think it’s strange that programs don’t coordinate these things better. And frankly, you’d think something like a team wearing 3 different color socks should be illegal.
Recruiting
Former 5-star linebacker from the 2021 class Terrence Lewis signed with UCF after sitting out a season at Maryland following a torn ACL.
Baylor receiver RJ Sneed is looking to transfer for a 6th season after totaling 46 receptions and 573 yards for the Bears last year.
Oklahoma State safety Tanner McCalister entered the Portal but quickly decided to follow his old coordinator Jim Knowles to Ohio State.
The No. 4 receiver from the 2021 class Mario Williams is leaving Oklahoma.
Texas A&M’s No. 1 class keeps chugging along with the nation’s top linebacker Harold Perkins (0.9961) signing last weekend and they are still lined up for even more talent for 2022 soon.
A&M is expected to sign DL Shemar Stewart next month. That would make 17(!!) Composite top 100 players in the 2022 class:
2nd
5th
6th
9th
16th
17th
19th
37th
50th
56th
62nd
66th
69th
80th
83rd
85th
91st— € Murt (@EMMurtaugh) January 3, 2022
Ohio State picked up a pair of blue-chip recruits this year for 2022, including IOL Carson Hinzman (0.9442) and Edge Omari Abor (0.9816).
Texas A&M quarterback Zach Colzada (who beat Alabama) is transferring to Auburn.
Oklahoma 3-year starting safety Patrick Fields is transferring to Stanford.
YouTube Channel
Video taping famous people eating hot stuff is genius, and frankly one of the most rewarding wastes of time when you’re bored. First We Feast’s channel is nearing 11 million subscribers and never disappoints when they drop a new episode of “Hot Ones.” You may have watched or caught glimpses of the Gordon Ramsey, Shaq, Idris Elba, or Paul Rudd getting after some wings and hot sauce and I would submit that every single episode delivers in some capacity.
A recent Thanksgiving episode with Rob Lowe he takes his jacket off and you literally see his soul leave his body for a bit. I’ve found myself enjoying more and more hot and spicy things as I grow older, too. I don’t think I would try Da Bomb Beyond Insanity hot sauce at its 135,600 Scoville Scale, though.
Tunes
Elton John is still collaborating and making music today which is amazing as he’ll be turning 75 in a few months. If you’re a younger reader and don’t really know John’s music too well, do yourself a favor and start with this 1971 album Madman Across the Water and listen to that through his 6th album later Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy from 1975. That’s an all-time 5-year run for an artist.
Today’s song “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” from 1972’s Honky Chateau is such a touching and sweet song. This video, taken from a February 1972 performance in London before the song was officially released, really highlights Elton John’s strong voice. The studio version has overdubs in the chorus (which I always thought was a strong suit of the song) but even here by himself he nails the singing so well.
Trivia (answers at the bottom of the article)
Can you name the longest tenured head coaches at each of the Power 5 schools?
The Other Football
As FIFA attempts to change the World Cup format to every 2 years instead of every 4–with stiff opposition from UEFA and most European countries–Gianni Infantino (FIFA President) has now said he’d like the European Championship every 2 years, too.
The winter transfer window is open! Despite massive financial troubles Barcelona was not deterred in signing Manchester City 21-year old winger Ferran Torres for $60.5 million. Financial Fair Play, baby.
Napoli’s Lorenzo Insigne is out of contract this summer and has reportedly agreed to a huge deal with Toronto FC for $13 million per season. He secured that bag.
In the world of the USMNT, World Cup qualifying picks up again on January 27th in Columbus against El Salvador. The team is 2nd in the standings with 14 points just 1 point ahead of Mexico and Panama. Also, forward Daryl Dike moved from Orlando to West Brom for $9.5 million recently. They’re in the Championship but have a decent chance to be promoted to the Premier League. The even younger forward Ricardo Pepi moved from Dallas to Augsburg in the Bundesliga and they’re currently in a relegation battle to stay up in the top German league.
The Big 5 Check-In:
EPL – City’s lead sits at 10 points as they look for their 4th title in 5 seasons. Liverpool and Chelsea settled for an entertaining 2-2 draw. Serbian billionaire Dragan Solak is set to buy Southampton for $200 million.
La Liga – Following a 1-0 defeat to Getafe, Real Madrid enjoy just a 5-point lead with rivals Barcelona still in disarray 15 points back. Coutinho is looking to come back to England.
Serie A – Inter look strong in their bid to repeat as champs, although they’re fuming because Bologna didn’t show up to their game on Thursday without advance warning due to Covid issues.
Bundesliga – Bayern Munich’s lead atop the table sits at 9 points as they’ll likely cruise to a 10th straight title. Check out SC Freiburg who are having an amazing year sitting in 3rd place.
Ligue 1 – PSG are saying they won’t sell Kylian Mbappe this January which opens the door for a free transfer to Real Madrid this summer. The Parisians look unlikely to blow the league title this year with a 13-point lead through 19 games played.
Streaming
I’m a few episodes into “Welcome to Earth” now streaming on Disney+ through their National Geographic banner. One must ask, at what point does Will Smith start aging? I thought the first episode was a little unfocused and it worried me that the series was going to be disappointing.
As you’d expect, the visuals are amazing. In the second episode, Smith descends to the bottom of the ocean floor and one of the main plots is just how little we know about what goes on down there. There’s some cool color tricks that they play but really this was the main scientist’s point–there’s so much we don’t know! The ocean is pretty frightening.
A Look Back
Senior Day, November 23, 2013. Notre Dame had just played BYU at home the prior year in a more entertaining game with more on the line for the Irish. Taysom Hill now at quarterback for the Cougars this time. Was this the game Sean Peyton fell in love? Hill would throw 36 times and run the ball 24 times, the absolute mad man.
There were touchdowns from both sides on 3 out of the first 4 series of the game but that was it for the end zone. Cam McDaniel ran for over 100 yards for the only time in his career. Tommy Rees threw for 235 yards on just 15 completions, including a 61-yard touchdown to DaVaris Daniels. By the way, our boy DaVaris is still kicking it in the CFL with 3,710 yards and 26 touchdowns in his career.
18S Paddock Club
Welcome to our Formula 1 section! We’re now a month past the highly controversial title-deciding finale at Abu Dhabi that crowned Max Verstappen as World Driver’s Champion after an absolutely bonkers 2021 season. We’re now only 47 days away from 2022 pre-season testing and the first real look at the new cars to come from unprecedented regulation changes.
We’ll talk about those new regulations in the week’s to come as well as cover any news that comes out during the pre-season. Also, each week I’ll provide a preview of a F1 team heading into 2022.
Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team (7th place, 77 points)
The re-brand from Racing Point to Aston Martin for 2021 produced some tremendous marketing but saw the team struggle mightily on the track with 118 fewer points while never really challenging in the midfield. Owner’s son Lance Stroll continued his mediocrity, although the team did get a boost from welcoming the burgeoning grandfather vibes of Sebastian Vettel after his split from Ferrari.
Lawrence Stroll continues to pour millions into the team, including scooping up engineering talent and overseeing work on a new state-of-the-art factory and wind tunnel set to open late in 2022. The team really struggled dealing with 2021’s floor regulation tweaks following their controversial copying of the 2020 Mercedes car–and like most teams–shut down updates to their car quite early with the big 2022 changes looming.
It’s hard to get too excited about the future with the young Stroll’s obvious limited ceiling. Although, their accumulating resources could mean they nail the new regulations (please lighten the green on the new livery!) and make a significant jump this year. They recently announced the departure of team principal Otmar Szafnauer after 12 seasons as well as the departure of major sponsor BWT, with both rumored to be headed to Alpine.
Trivia Answers:
ACC – Dabo Swinney, Clemson
Big 12 – Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
Big Ten – Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
Pac-12 – Kyle Whittingham, Utah
SEC – Nick Saban, Alabama
The genius of Hot Ones is the genius concept but also Sean Evans being a phenomenal interviewer. You get to learn a lot about a wide variety of people. Also, it’s hilarious.
I am here for the Formula 1 series!
Love Hot Ones. My favorite from this clip is Russell Brand’s “that shouldn’t be classified as food. That should be classified as a weapon”
Also excited to discuss some F1
The interviewing is legit great sometimes.
ferentz
gundy
dabo
whittingham (first thought was shaw)
saban
have to admit less suspenseful with the answers right above
I’m over the moon about the F1 talk going forward! Especially the liveries!
Hell yeah, it’s gonna be awesome.
Not to jump ahead, but how many legit contenders do we predict with the new rules? Mercedes, Red Bull, probably Ferrari, possibly McLaren?
I think Mercedes will be a strong No. 1 on top.
I’m willing to consider Ferrari jumping to 2nd but I think it’ll be a battle with Red Bull because Max is so good and consistent.
I kind of like the arguments that Alpine is a team to buy, I could see them making a jump past McLaren. I’ll definitely cover this in the week’s to come.
Yeah I almost added Alpine to my list, except I was going to call them Renault by accident, lol.
I’m all for jumping ahead after that last race. I’m no Mercedes fanboy but that didn’t feel right.
This is a boring answer but I think it’ll be Mercedes and Red Bull on top, in that order. I just don’t see anybody else toppling their engineering teams with the ground effects change and I put Merc on top because I imagine they’re pissed. Maybe Red Bull takes 1st if they figure out a way to keep the dirty air behind them that ground effect is supposed to cure (that would be so Red Bull).
I’d put Ferrari in 3rd because of their engineering prowess too (with the big asterisk being *if they don’t shoot themselves in the foot every race).
And then 4th, McLaren, just because I love McLaren. Papaya Orange, chef’s kiss.
But personally, that’s where I start rooting. My favorite races are the ones where somebody comes out of nowhere, forces their nose into every corner and gap like Ayrton, drives elbows way out, and cries on the podium.
So what I think will happen and what I hope will happen are very different things.
Good thoughts!
Thanks! I think one of the hardest parts of being an F1 fan is when you start out watching the race live and get way behind (making breakfast or whatever) and casually look at your phone, accidentally see the result and totally spoil the rest of the race. Am I the only one that does this? So. Many. Times.
I should probably put my phone like, outside in my truck during races.
Same. I lose the urge to finish if I see the results.
On the subject, does anyone know if you can watch formula 1 on the Hulu plus ESPN thing? I’m trying to cut cable, but ESPN is my last challenge.
Yes, I believe you can.
The F1/ESPN/Sky deal is up after 2022, though. Lots of rumors they might put everything right on Netflix.
Are you guys OG F1 followers or Drive to Survive F1 additions? I’m most definitely the latter but trying to learn as much as I can.
DTS convert, but I’ve gone from 0 to 60 (pun intended) and consume a sickening amount of F1 content.
That’s cool man, I do enjoy it as well.
We’re really into soccer here so the majority of the time that I watch something with my son it’s EPL matches. This was the first year he would sit and watch an ND football game with me so I’m making progress!
Should’ve mentioned this already, but I love this article! Great work.
Sounds like we are very similar. My son is only 3 months old though, hoping my girls (4.5 & 2.5) start like watching sports soon.
I got hooked on F1 a few years before DTS. I haven’t even watched any DTS even though everybody keeps recommending it. Not a ton of extra time with two young boys I guess, and just hasn’t risen to the top of the list yet. Now that I think about it, having kids was what probably got me into F1, because the races are on early here on the west coast, usually before my kids get up on Sundays.
DTS. Not sure I watched a second of motorsports in my life before that show.
Right there with you!
As Eric said as well, I think you can as long as the races/qualifying etc are on ESPN. Should be good. I used Hulu with Live TV for a while and it was ok. I use YouTube TV now and like the interface better but the price increases are getting super annoying. Will be back to cable prices before we know it.
I’ll also add I’ll be buying F1TV for this season. If you’re serious the price can’t be beat for what they offer.
Thanks, I’ll look into F1TV now that I have more Internet Friends to talk about it with (kip dynamite fist pump). And also because my 7yo has started coming downstairs and watching the races with me sometimes, awwww.
Yes, I watched on ESPN on Hulu this season. But heads up, I’m really frustrated with Hulu’s forced commercials. Even though I pay the “commercial-free” extra fee, many shows and especially sports seem to be exempt. I was forced to watch every second of every commercial during the Fiesta Bowl (can’t FF or RW during commercials, so it was excruciating to see that 2nd half unfold in super slo-mo) and after trying every live tv streaming service, I think… I’m going back to cable. But I can only watch my favorite NBA team on Xfinity so that’s another big factor for me and obviously that won’t apply to you and others.
That is a very helpful warning. I may look at F1TV. Only $80 a year?
It looks like a no-brainer if you’re the type who watches every race, or tries to, at least.
*All practice, qualifying, and races streamed. F2 and F3 races too.
*You can watch onboard cameras of drivers, I think there’s a limit of 4 at a time or something.
*Access to every driver’s team radio.
*Separate Pit Lane channel audio (and maybe video feed?) that focuses more on car issues, strategy, smaller details going on during a race.
*Access to the full Tech Talk and Jolyon Palmer’s video break downs (they sometimes put snippets of these for free on their YouTube channel).
*More access to data like lap times, tire status, track map, etc.
*Full race replays with the ability to change cameras.
*Full replays of all F1 races going back to 1981.
No native official F1TV app on LG TVs, though, same problem I ran into with Fubo (only Blazers streaming partner). And I always run into tons of problems casting (and Fubo didn’t allow casting at all). A quick Reddit search turns up a big community of *unofficial* apps and support, but that’s just not my jam anymore. So I think my takeaway here is never buy an LG TV again and I hope mine break soon. Samsung seems to have all the apps and those frame models are real pretty.
Not sure about the F1 app but my LG OLED is a beauty. Although I would agree that the native LG software is pretty bad. I use an Xbox to stream on the LG.
Oh you’re right, I’ll see if my Xbox One can support F1TV. It’s been collecting dust since I FOMO-bought a PS5. Xbox has Fubo too… maybe I don’t have to un-cut the cord.
PlayStation doesn’t have F1TV or Fubo. Seems like Samsung and Microsoft are way better at licensing than LG and Sony. Or put more $ into it anyway.
Haha I hear you. I had some FOMO as well and bought an Xbox Series X. It doesn’t appear there’s a Microsoft app for F1 though 🙁
just an idea for the offseason, and easy for me to say since I wouldn’t be doing the leg work, but I think a “what if” series for the kelly era would be fun.
what if…
kansas state goes 12-0 in 2012
urban does NOT come to osu in 2012
kelly gets the eagles job
kelly hires a minimally competent DC in 2014
kelly gets fired after 2016
kizer come back for 2017
BK doesn’t take the lsu job (freeman would be gone right now, right?)
anyways just an idea I thought of that i’m sure you guys would do a great job with if you took it on
Michael will have to update this piece.
https://18stripes.com/top-10-what-ifs-of-the-kelly-era/
hahahaha, not only did you guys already do it but it commented on it with many of the exact same ideas. dang I don’t remember that at all
Also: what if Clark Lea doesn’t take the Vandy job and sticks around one more year to aim higher?
That Vandy job is toxic. Up and comers would be smart to stay away.
Tbh, I think Luke Fickell or Matt Campbell is the ND HC if Lea stays. Lea is a very solid mind, but doesn’t have the magnetic pull and culture/recruiting appeal of Freeman, and Lea has no offensive background to speak of. I don’t think Lea would be setup to succeed as a first time head coach at Notre Dame.
Just my opinion, but I think the Freeman hire speaks to how special he was/is, his connection with the people and the ability to sell Swarbrick that they can get to the next level with Freeman’s strengths building upon the strong base already in place. Lea couldn’t make that pitch as strongly.
I probably agree, but I think it’s less than clear. There would have been an internal push for Lea too, and he would have presumably appealed to at least Father Jenkins given that Lea would be a good Representative Of The University. It would have taken Swarbrick being like “eh he’s actually not a good enough recruiter” to push back against that, which he may have. But maybe not! We’ll never know.
True, that could have played out. Def a non-zero chance it’s Lea making the huge jump. I know a lot of people aren’t thinking it worked out well for him, but he’s the head coach of his alma mater, lives in Nashville, is a SEC HC, life is pretty good for him. Pretty sure they recruited very admirably in 2022 as well. Long way to go, but I could def see a Pat Fitzgerald type of run for him.
Yeah. Lea is unique for the Vandy job in that it’s his alma mater.
That video brings back memories of good Tommy and bad Tommy. A question that popped into my head; Would you rather have Jack Coan this year or good Tommy without bad Tommy?
Coan was still a better QB. This season he matched Rees’s career high comp % (65% as a soph), had only 2 fewer TDs (27 as a SR on 30 more attempts), and had a higher Y/A than Rees’s best season (7.9 as a SR).
But I’m saying removing the bad Tommy which would change his numbers somewhat. And by bad Tommy, I’m not saying never making a mistake, but taking away not being aware of the time clock, throwing directly to the defense ect. I mean the highlights from the video show how good he could be.
Which set of skill players/line does he get?
2021’s
I just thought you meant remove the abundance of TOs. If we could have 100% mistake free football, sign me up for that, basically irregahdless of who it is.
I don’t mean perfect play, but if you had the games you walked away from saying we’re ok with Tommy every game.
Both surprisingly had a rushing TD!
Remember how HAPPY and RELIEVED and just YES!! LOOK AT THAT!! Tommy was when he ran that TD in and he spiked the ball? Jack was kind of the same, though more reserved, but the reaction of his teammates this year was even stronger.
All such good stuff. My older son’s time at ND exactly paralleled Tommy’s and when he came back home from LA for the holidays this year he was kind of surprised to hear me sing Tommy’s praises as OC since the Cincy game. He said he just has so much of “No Tommy don’t throw it ther…!!” in his head.
I think a lot of the fanbase has that in their heads and transposes it onto Thomas Rees, OC. It’s one of the reasons I find it so hard to judge him myself. People in “the industry” seem to think he’s really really good.
Not a huge surprise but still good news that Jayson Ademilola officially put on social media that the is coming back to Notre Dame. Foskey announcement tomorrow and it’s looking like the DL will be in a very, very good spot again for next season.
Come on, Foskey.
I’d be surprised if he left at this point:
https://twitter.com/IFoskey/status/1479491041988280320?s=20
Typically, you don’t wait this long to declare, or tease it like this only to leave. Plus, I don’t think he’s graduated and he’d be a true “leaving early” guy without being assured a round 1-2 pick.
Makes sense.
PFF has him rated as the #15 edge defender (98 overall) this year.
You’d think another big year and he could really catapult up those rankings and be a legit 1st round pick next year (or early 2nd).
Next year’s class is not as heavy in edge rushers either which helps Foskey. Pretty stacked class this year.
Same goes for WR, which makes the Austin thing a little more head scratching.
Is it a hot take to say even if Foskey comes back he’s definitely a top-3 player on the team going into next season?
What players would there be to even challenge for a top 3 spot?
Mayer
Foskey
Fisher
and ???? Buchner and Styles maybe?
Nah, I don’t think that’s too spicy. IMO Foskey was about a top-3 player and no lower than top-5 on the team in 2021 for total contribution (which, sadly and hesitatingly removes Kyle for only playing half a season).
Sorry, I was unclear: I was referring to Jayson A. when I said “he”.
I think the clear top 3 going into next year (if Foskey is back) is Mayer, Foskey, Jayson A., then a pretty clear break to maybe Patterson or Fisher or Alt or Justin A.
Ohhh, I see. Yeah that is pretty spicy then, but I like it
o yup, I misread that too.
Jayson A. could certainly be top 5. I think I’d put him with the clear break with the OL you mentioned. Though I think Fisher will be above that clear break pretty quickly.
I think one can reasonably hope that Fisher or Alt will be better players by the end of next season than Jayson A. (and maybe verge on expecting that for Fisher), but I don’t think you can rank them higher going into the season – Fisher has only played two games!
Styles maybe also could pass him by the end of the season, but I don’t think you can expect that going in. Putting aside my Buchner skepticism, I would think even a Buchner enthusiast could say that he and Jayson A. are in even close tiers going into next season. Jayson A. is proven and consistently really good! I feel like his very good season this year has been somewhat underrated in the ND commentariat.
Ok, so you are talking about going into the season.
I guess I was thinking more along the lines of who will be our top 3 players next year which would be different than top 3 of the guys coming back who played a lot last year so we know who they are.
Of the guys coming back who played a lot last year so we know who they are – the ones in the running would be who?
Foskey
Kiser
Jayson A.
Mayer
Patterson
Alt
So I suppose Foskey and Mayer are the top 2 obviously.
In which case, I wouldn’t argue too much (or maybe at all) with Jayson A being placed ahead of Patterson/Alt combo.
Kiser is not in the running IMO – I’d definitely rank Styles and maybe even Buchner ahead of Kiser even now. Cam Hart is also in the mix, and he should be way ahead of Kiser or any of the returning linebackers other than maybe Liufau if we hear good things about his recovery.
yea, I was partially based those names off of PFF’s grades from this year. He’s the 2nd highest graded defender on average. But digging a bit deeper, he seems to have played two elite games (against Wisconsin and GT) while Jayon A. was more consistent overall with a slightly lower grade (though interestingly far more snaps than Kiser too).
And yes, Hart would have been the next defender on the list.
Seeing rumors in the comments section on the Athletic that an offer for WR coach has been made, and we’re merely waiting on the response because that coach has a game to play on Monday. Other comments more directly just saying it’s Bama’s WR coach.
I mean outside of Hartline hard to ask for better. I don’t know anything about him but in his first year he coached Smith to a Heisman so…
And in his second made
some retread transfer who couldn't see the field at tOSUinto a biletnikoff candidate. And you know he’s going to recruit.Maybe I’m completely ignorant but being able to poach a coach from Bama (or that tier of school) would feel like a huge, huge deal to me. Like normally that street only goes the other way
Would be, for sure.
I’ve been thinking since the game that Freeman’s coach recruiting is going to be even more important than his player recruiting, at least in the next few months. If this is legit (which I have no idea), it would definitely be a step in the right direction in terms of WR coach as recruiter.
But playing devil’s advocate, he’s already WR coach and “Associate Head Coach of Offense” at Bama. Why leave unless you’re actually moving up in position? I don’t know, maybe Marcus is just that smooth a talker.
Maybe Marcus is that smooth…
…orr maybe there’s a gentlemen’s agreement that if/when Tommy moves on to an HC job in a few years, he gets first crack at the OC position.
I don’t know what the rumor mill says, but I can totally see TR wanting an HC job if he has two more solid years. He seems like an ambitious guy.
There were rumors that Tommy was a candidate at Duke this year.
That would be a bit surprising to me. He’s listed as WR coach and Assistant head coach of offense so it’s not like we can give him some fancy extra title (or likely increase his pay). So I wonder why the lateral move. But I agree with the comment below that getting someone to move laterally from Bama would seem like a huge get.
Could just be the part where Alabama isn’t actually a very fun place to work. The program under Sagan has seen so much coaching staff turnover, and not just because they were taking promotions.
The Ringer had a short podcast the other day where a couple guys briefly discussed culture fits. One guy said Saban isn’t even a culture fit in his own family. Gave me a little chuckle. Imagine how fun it must have been to work/play for the Browns team with Belichick and Saban.
??
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/70cc7740-3d6e-4921-ae98-6cff3f980abd
I think crazy Carl is right.
Interesting tidbit about non-promotion staff turnover.
Wasn’t it Josh Gattis who just up and left for the same job at Michigan? At least I think it was. And there have definitely been some assistants who have left for lateral jobs (I say while being too lazy to actually look it up).
Yea not sure how to look that up very easily but Gattis was Co-offensive coordinator/WR coach but at Michigan he is OC/WR by himself.
Yeah, and he didn’t call plays at Bama.
There was a whole kerfuffle in the twitterspaces between him and Mike Locksley, who did call the plays, when Locksley took exception to Michigan hyping up Gattis as the brains behind the Bama offense when they hired him. It was all dumb juvenile crap but Gattis moving to Michigan was a definite step up for him.
Also, Stewart Mandel on his & Feldman’s podcast alluded to some ND administrator going on a twitter rant about how NLI was ruining the game. Anyone know about this? We can all have our opinions and agree to disagree and all that crap, but someone complaining here about “free agency” is way different than an actual ND administrator going off on Twitter. Not a good look, if it’s as described.
Here ya go:
https://twitter.com/Lou_Nanni/status/1478743280342863875?s=20
Not really a rant.
Not a “rant,” but quoting “brobible” isn’t a great look either.
Took a marine biology course my junior year of HS (one of the few perks of HS in Florida) and the teacher’s main theme through the whole course was “EVERYTHING IN THE OCEAN WILL KILL YOU.” Amazed that after that I had any desire to go near the beach.
Also, since Will Smith doesn’t actually age, he’s going to play Freeman in the eventual movie, right?
Does the transfer portal have a timeline? Curious when all of it will shake out.
IIRC, the only timeline is whether or not you can actually enroll in the school on time. That’s why we’ll see a round of portal transfers come April/May as teams finish up spring and kids realize they’re #4 on the depth chart.
Harry back.
https://twitter.com/Matt_Fortuna/status/1479528427807985670?s=20
YES
Why did he leave to begin with?
Da bears.
That’s where he went (for a year) but why did he leave?
I remember reading that he went back so he could hit the number of years to qualify for a full NFL pension. Of course that is my memory from blogs like 4 years ago or whenever.
Interesting. Had no idea NFL coaches had some kind of pension.
He needed two years to get the pension. He got them, and left the Bears.
I am very surprised he wants in to the rat race again, especially considering the emphasis on recruiting. He did OL everywhere, but other than OL, I don’t think he was primary recruiter on anyone. We can’t really have that unless Bowden/Brown can cover.
What kind of pension do NFL coaches get?
About recruiting, the media saying this is a Rees-related hire. I’m sure Freeman/Rees feel like OL recruits itself at Notre Dame to a big extent, and Rees will have to pick up the slack and then Harry closes when necessary. Probably workable for all parties. If you have any of the 10 coaches that doesn’t need to be living and dying on the recruiting trail it has to be the OL.
Really this feels like a short-term year or two for Heistand, a lot of the rumors were Chris Watt is going to be basically his apprentice. Harry does his thing, also Watt gets experience and probably steps in as the OL coach in training.
I would think the coach part outweighs the recruiting part at Oline as much as any position group. Is Watt still at ND ?
Notre Dame? For the NFL money. The Bears? Because they fired him; the offensive line has not been better.
I hear he and Kelly weren’t exactly simpatico. Heard from Driskell on his podcast that ND actually reached out to Hiestand earlier this year and he said he wasn’t coming back to coach under Kelly.
I do wonder how many more times we’re going to find hints that maybe Kelly put a certain ceiling on the program
In some ways it’s amazing with these kind of limitations that Kelly was able to build and sustain such a top program then.
I don’t think Kelly is incompetent or sucks by any means and I think he’s clearly a high floor (very high floor) kind of coach. I do think he himself has some off putting personality traits or tendencies that will cap him at LSU and did so here
yea I was being sincere in my comment – that despite those handicaps he’s been so good.
I think Kelly was probably the perfect coach to rebuild ND after Weis-Ty-Davie and prove you could win at ND again. As I’ve said elsewhere, the one thing he personally wasn’t going to ever improve on was that next-level of recruiting. He’s not a Meyer or a Saban or a Smart in that regard. He probably built up literally everything else to the best possible point. After getting waxed in 2012, he said okay, let’s build our version of Bama…but he copied Bama 2012 and by the time it was rebuilt Bama and tOSU and Clemson had all moved beyond the 2012 model.
I think the Freeman hire (as DC) was Kelly’s acknowledgement that if they wanted to break the “playoff participant” ceiling and advance to “playoff semi-winner & NC game participant” they needed two things: next level recruiting AND a defense that could make things happen against title contenders. The Lea model was EXCELLENT at holding teams with inferior talent down, but didn’t have answers against a Trevor Lawrence or a Devonte Smith. It wasn’t classic “bend but don’t break” but it was the kind of D that played “smart” and let the offense make a mistake, then capitalized. Again, great to get you to 10 or 11 wins, but then you face the elite teams with a transcendent player and you can’t hope they make a mistake. You have to force it.
I’m not saying Kelly would have gotten rid of Lea–you don’t get rid of someone that good. But when Lea moved on, I think Kelly looked at Freeman’s defense and how it performed against UGA and the way it forces things to happen (“attacking” is so cliche but I think it fits) and then paired with Freeman’s obvious charisma as a recruiter, this was the chance to kill 2 birds with one stone. We’ll never see how it was going to play out, since Kelly left. I think we benefit from the recruiting and defensive playmaking, but may take a step back without the “steady hand” of Kelly for a bit, at least until Freeman grows into the role. If he does (and soon enough for the fans to be patient) I think it’ll be a net positive. If he doesn’t, well at least he’ll stock the cupboard.
I think this is pretty much spot on
It also fits with why Kelly left. Yes, he made the move to get Freeman hoping it would elevate recruiting, but then he got offered the keys to one of the few places that really does recruit itself. He can put in the same level of managerial effort, but at a place where you can drive an hour and hit 15 blue chippers per year, with 7 of them wanting to go to LSU regardless of the coach. He hired the local HS/small college guru as his recruiting coordinator, so he’ll get what he needs to win without having to transform into Kirby Smart. What LSU lacked was actual coaching/management, the thing Kelly is best at.
I don’t know if it will work, because the cultural FA-MUH-LEE fit is as odd as Orgeron was natural. But Kelly’s a detail-oriented guy who will fix a lot of the things that Orgeron ignored because he was too busy letting his girlfriends’ (yes, plural) kids participate in line drills.
Agreed here. Though winning makes everyone a fit! I think he’ll have pretty good recruiting success but it may take a year or two to improve the culture or get the right coaches in or his own “details” in there so to speak. And against the kind of competition he’ll be playing I’m not sure if they’ll have the patience with him to wait it out. And unless their QB position turns out well I’m not sure they’ll have early success in terms of wins with him just because the SEC is so ruthless. I mean 4-4 in the SEC next year would be magical I would think (going 8-4 overall). How are they going to feel about that?
I agree, but I wanted to pedantically point out that Lea did a pretty good job against Georgia, probably because UGA tries the least on offense of all the elite teams.
Fair. Nothing in this is meant as a criticism of Lea. I love Lea, and was really sad he left. And I spent the first 6 games this year grinding my teeth watching Freeman’s D look great for stretches and then seemingly forget how to tackle for stretches. Lea’s D would never do that. And Lea was MASTERFUL at halftime adjustments. Part of why I fret over the bowl game is that we didn’t adjust at halftime, but I’m hoping that was first-game-itis and not a trend.
True, true. Freeman and Lea are very different, but very good DCs (fingers crossed their promotions work out). And I definitely agree with the substance, that bend but don’t break probably won’t win a championship. Since Bama and Clemson torched each other’s defenses in their first title game matchup, momentum seems to have swing to the offensive side of the ball. If you want to beat an elite team, you can’t just hang on, the defense has to take risks and get turnovers or early drive stops to steal away a possession or two.
Agreed. Though I hate the term “bend don’t break” because I don’t really think that’s what Lea was, at least not in the traditional image of it. Diaco was more “let them move the ball and we’ll stop them in the red zone where they don’t have space to run away.” Lea had elements of that, but it was updated and his defenses would take the ball away and stop teams before they got to the red zone, etc. I guess I’m just saying that “bend don’t break” to me sounds pejorative and that’s not how I feel about Lea’s D at all.
And exactly–against an elite offense with 6 different ways it can beat you, you can’t sit back and hope it makes a mistake. It won’t. You have to accept that you’re going to get burned at some point when a gamble doesn’t work, but hope that you can force a mistake and get the stop/turnover more often, or at least more often than their D does against your O. Lea’s D would take away an offense’s preferred options, which works against everyone outside the top 5 or so who doesn’t have multiple stars at WR, RB, and QB. But the elite teams can just say oh, you’re taking away our star RB? Cool, we’ll just throw to our Heisman winning WR. Or like Bama did to Cinci, oh, you’ve got 2 All-American corners? That’s nice, here’s Brian Robinson down your throat.
Shouldn’t the trivia question read “from each of the power 5 conferences”?
Brandon Joseph is Irish now
Wonderful news.
Huge.
Somewhat tangentially related: I love the idea of informally treating the other high-academic schools as our JV squads in the free-transfer era.
That’s why I thought this would be great for the top schools. Everything will funnel up. And at least it shows that we CAN take some undergrad transfers from these high-academic schools.
That’s a big deal.
Jamie U simple summary: great in coverage, could use some work in run defense and tackling. The all-american status is more focused on his pass coverage than run defense. But he has room to grow and apparently potentially 3 years to do it.
mots self-reply
Though I would note that according to PFF his previous season was much better – not elite but way above average. Which hopefully is good news because it seems to show his potential – esp. with more talent around him. Not sure what their record was in 2020 – but better for 3-9 this year and I know in 2020 they had a 1st round CB that he played besides too.
If Jamie U’s summary is accurate where will he play?
He would seem to be more Free Safety type – which means he’d compete with Henderson, no?
Could Henderson move over (he seems our 2nd best safety) or would DJ Brown start at SS because he’s a better fit there?
And how is Watts feeling being at safety now? Any chance he moves back to WR?
Wasn’t Watts initially moved to LB anyway? He strikes me as an Isaiah Pryor S/LB tweener in how they used him.
Rover, yea. So are you thinking he may be more the SS? There’s not really much room for him at Rover with Sneed coming in I would think.
I won’t pretend to know. But I think that was brought up going into the bowl game and I saw somewhere (probably Sampson at the Athletic, as that’s who I follow most closely) that there wasn’t much thought about moving him back to WR. Maybe that was just meant “for the bowl game” but I took it as he was staying on D.
I remember seeing that myself. I just wonder if bringing in a transfer safety changes the calculus now. But maybe that’s just where Watts feels more comfortable himself and if he doesn’t contribute there he’ll likely end up transferring.
Saw some data he’s played FS, also lined up in the box as a SS and even 350+ career snaps as nickel corner. So Joseph should be able to play just about anywhere.
I wonder if they will adopt more concepts to have 3 safeties on the field at the same time. Not necessarily all lined up deep, but Joseph and I assume Henderson should be able to line up in the slot when needed. That type of hybrid play is really valuable.
And he has a lot of tackles, so he’s a safety that can “get the ball on the ground” as the coaches like to say. Some of the veteran ND safeties coming back have a lot of snaps and not a lot of tackles, so at least they got one guy now who looks like he seeks contact and actually can and will step up and tackle.
Given what Jamie U said though it seems like his tackling ability needs to be improved. So playing to his strengths would seem to keep him out of the SS/Box safety type of role.
Problem tackling? Based on the 2nd half of the bowl game, he’ll fit right in!
I think Sampson tweeted out that in the bowl game there were 94 or however many snaps and Houston Griffith had 0 tackles. Obviously he didn’t play every snap, but he played enough of them, and Okie Lite receivers were running around in our defensive backfield, you’d think he’d have gotten on the stat sheet somehow.
At the very least we should be able to play nickel now instead of staying in base personnel against 4 receivers…
Yea I think the base personnel against 4 WR was subbing mistake (on the coaches). But it’s true that having a safety that can slide down into the slot is potentially extremely helpful.
Need the purple-faced Kelly button for this comment like we have in the gameday slacks
lol yup. I watched a video with Jamie U talking about it. He was just at a loss for words how it could even happen. It’s one thing that it happened for one play but then get a TO to get subs in.
Maybe that helped sell Griffith and Brown on returning? “Look guys, yeah we’re bringing in Joseph but there’s room for more safeties on the field, just look at this play, we need all of you.” Even if he’s not a superstar this seems like a huge pickup.
Maybe, but I mean from their perspective where else are they going to go? Why leave Notre Dame and go somewhere lesser if you have the option to stay? Always gotta have the hope and self-belief to try and finally get that Bilal or McKinley type breakthrough for a final chapter. It’s not a sure thing, but not crazy to finally put it together.
The team needs 3-4 safeties over the course of a season that will get a chance to play a lot. Just bringing in one guy (when they’re seeing Kyle leave) isn’t really going to move the needle to scare Griffith or Brown away from still fitting into the puzzle. And they’re D1 athletes, blessed with a ton of skill and confidence. They’re (perhaps rightfully) going to think if they put in the work this off-season, they will get the opportunity and have the talent to shine at that point next year on the field.
Foskey back!
https://twitter.com/IFoskey
Hell yeah, DL is going to be beast next year again.
Who is left now? Patterson and then lower guys like Bauer and Bracy to make it official, I think.
It’s official, Foskey is BACK
https://twitter.com/PeteSampson_/status/1479878991158915079
His Twitter feed is pretty amazing. As the Top Gun boss said to Tom Cruise, “That’s pretty arrogant. I like that in a pilot.”
Totally unrelated, KG, your comments lately have been, like, on steroids great! Actually, I’ve been enjoying reading everyone.
Patterson would be very big indeed for the O-line.