Like you, Terry, I don't believe it will happen, but it will be interesting to watch. P.S. I've subscribed to the Athletic for quite some time. I love the quality of the writing and the depth of the insights. I highly recommend it.
Irish have their final piece of he staff puzzle. They promote Chris O'Leary from GA to Safeties coach. He's getting a lot of good press from the websites. Young, players like him, and he's a good eager recruiter..also I have to assume Marcus Freeman signed off on the hire. A lot of people thought a former DB coach at ND, Kerry Cooks, who left a few years ago to take a position at OU where he coached a few years before getting let go.
Longtime voice of Notre Dame Athletics, Jack Nolan, has announced he is retiring. His catch phrase was ...Got it...maybe better represented by Goottttttt it! Good read on his career at ND at the link Jack Nolan, Voice Of Notre Dame Athletics, Announces His Retirement
As storm broke out over Tyson Ford's comments that Lincoln Riley contacted him all the time while he hardly ever heard from Kelly. Many fans, maybe accurately, feel that Kelly doesn't work as hard at recruiting as Saban, Dabo, Ryan Day, Urban Meyer when he was coaching, etc. That is why the Irish have typically been outside the top 10 in most of his classes. That comment by Ford must have really hit a nerve as on Wed all the assistants, lead by Polian, came to the defense of Kelly and his involvement in recruiting. I don't really know what to believe, I have seen things on message boards like Mike Franks ISD and the others that say that Kelly doesn't have the same level of intensity as the top recruiters/programs, that he is not as demanding of his staff with this regard. I'm guessing that those guys are probably right, but don't really know of course. This year was a pretty good year, top 10 class, but it lacked the star power of the top programs, no 5 star players. We have talented kids and if they develop we'll continue to be very good team win 10 games and such and it we hit it just right maybe actually win a CFP game. ______________________ Ask Notre Dame recruiting coordinator Brian Polian about the perception of Brian Kelly as it relates to his efforts on the recruiting trail and he’ll tell you that the Irish head coach gets a bad rap. Questions have arisen – based upon snippets of behind-the-scenes recruiting information – about how hard Kelly works at that part of the job and how effective he’s been as a recruiter. The collective Notre Dame coaching staff came to their head coach’s defense Wednesday on the second of two signing days in the Class of 2021.
Who knows why but our consistent lack of five star players rears its head in January every year but no more so than this year. The Irish are a 6-10 ranked team until they get a few top shelf players on a regular basis.
Frustrating loss to GaTech tonight, had 15 point lead at half then Tech decided to press and we just couldn't stop turning it over. Final insult was we got a steal with 4 seconds left and then didn't even get a shot off. Also missed critical free throws in the last 2 minutes. 82 - 80. GaTech seemed to be able to throw it in the basket from anywhere in the 2nd half. Irish Hockey slaughtered Ohio State this weekend in Columbus, 6-1 and 8-1. This is not a good Ohio State squad, they have been one of the best B10 Hockey programs recently, don't know what happened this year. Tomorrow the Irish women go to Louisville and I expect a 20 point loss at best.
I wonder where Tim is, the Irish picked up a verbal from Aiden Gobaira, a DE from Virginia that people are pumped about. He is a high 3 star player, but apparently is likely to move up to a 4 star in the future. This is a reminder of where we are with recruiting, we get a lot of good players and with coaching and development they can be very productive. To make the next step though we need high 4 stars and a few 5 stars sprinkled into the mix.
I did catch the end of the women's game with Louisville, and they had chances at the end of the game. But as has been the difference all year they have trouble making the play to win it. Still competed well v the #1 team in the Nation.
Micha Jones has entered the transfer portal. He was unlikely to get much or any playing time in 2021, has only played in 5 games in his ND career. He will graduate in May and move on, good luck to him.
Irish women's basketball had it's game with NCState postponed due to Covid. We've been pretty luck up till this point. The students have returned to campus and no matter how careful the Univ has been in what they have required of students before they can return, it was bound to see an uptik with the students being home for 2 months with their family.
Irish Hockey taken to the woodshed by the Minnesota Gophers at Notre Dames Ice rink. Both games were shutouts. In an odd year the Irish have a better road record than they do at home.
Irish men beat Miami 71-61 at home, they have won 6 out of the last 8. Going to need to keep it up to have any shot at NCAA, if there is an ACC Tournament we'll have to win a couple of games.
Several Irish teams are dealing with Covid issues. Baseball and WLax along with WBB have postponed games due to positive tests and while football is of course not in season they have had some positive tests as well and they have slowed down the off season conditioning program.
Irish Hockey sort of splits with the Badgers in Madsion. Lost 1st game and skated to a tie in the 2nd game.
Women's basketball got the win last night at Pitt, as per their usual they had a very nice double digit lead that they allowed to slip away when the other team turned up the heat and pressed. Turnovers and then Pitt also got hot on the 3pt line got the lead down to single digits before they finally put them away 59-48. They hadn't played a game due to Covid for 2 weeks and only 3 games in 5 weeks. They were though missing 2 starters who didn't make the trip.
ND is getting a grad transfer LB from Michigan. All I know is that, 1) he started the last two games of last season, and 2) he's pursuing an MBA. His name is Adam Shibley.
The discussion about not getting 5 star players sounds a lot like the Gators. We do seem to get them off the transfer portals but not so much recruiting. Seems Bama gets most of them down our way, Clemson also. Georgia is not far behind.
He's a good story Sid. He went from walk on to scholarship to starter at Mich. He reportedly is going to walk on at ND.