Notre Dame linebacker Osita Ekwonu has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal as a graduate transfer after spending the last four years in South Bend. The 6-foot, 235-pounder redshirted as a freshman in 2019 before playing nine games as a sophomore. In 2021, Ekwonu tore his Achilles and missed his junior campaign. As a senior, Ekwonu played in three games and registered two tackles. For his career, Ekwonu leaves Notre Dame having played in 15 games with six career tackles and one blocked punt. As a recruit, Ekwonu held over 20 offers and committed to Notre Dame in June of 2018.
I am amazed at how many students choose to be married by the Priest that was their dorm rector. My nephew and most of his classmates at Sorin were married by the same priest Fr. Steve Newton who was their rector. None of them got married at ND, but paid for him to come to their weddings and officiate.
I'm more than a bit surprised that ND has opened as 4.5 point favorite over South Carolina esp given that their QB will be staying for the bowl game and ours won't and that we'll be down quite a few players due to portal and NFL. I saw where they have 12 seniors and all are going to stay for the bowl game.
I would take SC and the points all day with the intel we have at this point. Assuming Mayer doesn't play that simply kills the ND offense, even more than losing our QB. And SC comes into the game red hot.
It won't kill the run offense for sure. SC is going to have some players sitting out this game also, the already are losing the best DB to the NFL draft and I'm not sure about Rattler's status as well as others on the team. Rattler was really hot only in the Tenn game. Clemson should have beat them but Dabo wouldn't give up on DJ and they had some turnovers as well. Their weakness against the rush is what gives ND a good chance to win this game and throwing TB in the mix will only help us. It's hard to say for both teams who will actually be there on game day.
Like I said, we don’t know who will playing for sure for either team: “South Carolina playmaker Jaheim Bellannounced Monday that he would enter the transfer portal, a surprising move for one of the SEC's top returning players at the tight end position. Bell rises to the top of the list of available talents after Day 1 of the portal opening and leaves a sizable hole in the roster for the Gamecocks, who also lost tight end Austin Stogner to the portal this week.”
Southern Cal was supposed to be weak against the run too, remember. Mayer was our offense; everything else worked around him. Of course this is all just talk until we hear the final body count on attrition.
Re: Drayk Bowen. I like the kid. I watched his state championship game. He's all in on ND. I hope he has a solid college football career.
Yes, he sounds like a great kid and great LB too. Looking forward to seeing him in Blue and Gold for sure!
Irish Women had a game at Lafayette postponed due to health protocols which is a euphemism for Covid issues. I wondered why they were going on the road to Lafayette, but it turns out that Olivia Miles family lives in the area and it was so they all could watch her play.
Portsmouth (Va.) Churchland high school four-star athlete Brandyn Hillman is the newest commit for Notre Dame from the class of 2023. This is a pickup that has literally everyone inside the Gug fired up because of his playmaking abilities on both sides of the ball.
Mayer is officially out of the Garor Bowl and finished at ND. He cites his goal of playing in the NFL as his main reason for attending Notre Dame. Not the school, the education or even winning a national championship. He is disarmingly candid. Notre Dame TE Michael Mayer announces plans for 2023, Gator Bowl - Saturday Road
Not a big shock that Mayer is leaving for the NFL or foregoing the Gator Bowl. Highly rated kids all want a path to the NFL. I'm not sure it's fair to infer that he doesn't love Notre Dame or care about academics and that it was merely a the best stepping stone to the NFL.
Read the article, Doc. How could you infer anything else? It's in his own words. I'm not saying he's abad guy. I'm saying he is honest. Maybe we need to adjust our recruiting message accordingly.
I read the article, it wasn't very long hasn't really changed my mind about Mayer. I guess this paragraph is what is the crux of how you feel. “I’ve really enjoyed my experience at Notre Dame,” Mayer told Thamel. “The first reason I picked Notre Dame was the NFL, it was on my mind a very, very long time. I saw a lot of good tight ends in in the NFL from Notre Dame. That was one of the main reasons I went there.” So while I don't know but I won't be surprised if a lot of our "hero's" or stars from long before NIL also didn't choose Notre Dame for the fact that we were really good and won a lot of games and had a lot of players in the NFL. While it's not true today but there was a time esp during the Holtz era that Nortre Dame annually had the most players on NFL rosters, I don't know if it's still true but we also had the most players in the NFL HOF at one time. I think guys like Ron Powlus who was the #1 overall recruit in his class came to Notre Dame for football, not for academics. Not to say that our Academic reputation didn't help with a lot of our big stars, but it was not likely to be their primary motivation. Brady Quinn didn't grow up a ND Fan, Rick Mirer didn't grow up a ND fan, Drew Pyne did grow up as a ND fan. I don't know if Mayer is a Catholic, but I have read recruiting articles on various kids who we've brought in even recently who attended Catholic HS and the fact that Notre Dame was Catholic resonated with them Catholic or Non-Catholic. But top HS players all see themselves in the NFL and the vast majority of them factor that into to their choice of college. Right now Alabama has 3 successful starting QB's in the NFL, Tua and Mac Jones and Jalen Hurts who I guess you really have to put in the Lincoln Riley camp but most of his playing time was at Alabama. I'm guess whatever QB's Saban ends up with see Tua and Mac Jones and all the winning and base their decision on that, rather than academics or love of the Crimson Tide growing up. I guess for me the bottom line is that for my life as a ND fan the top recruits that we have had over the years have mostly chosen ND for the football program, for it's national appeal, for many other reasons, including it's Catholic, including that they or their family grew up ND fans, and it's academic reputation. I doubt if we get many players who put academics #1 on their list of reasons. I do agree that times has recently changed and highly rated kids are factoring in potential NIL money, Quinn Ewers of Texas is the prime example, along with Caleb Williams, that QB who is going to Tenn for 7 or 8M. But I don't think NIL money is enough. I do think kids still want to play and play for a coach who prepares them for the NFL and oh yeah wins a lot. That's why Saban has 5 5 stars right now, he's got a ton of players in the NFL and more will be going in the 2023 draft. I do think if a reporter talked to Mayer about ND Academics he would give answers that show that he does care that he has recieved so far a great education. But Thamel did direct the interview in that direction.
All American Teams are starting to come out. We have 3 players who are going to be on pretty much all of them. Mayer is likely to be "unanimous" 1st team AA. Joe Alt is going to be close and Foskey is going to be on a lot of 2nd, 3rd, or Honorable Mention. Patterson who was a pre-season AA as a Center might not make very many after moving to guard, he had a very good year and is deserving but the move to guard might cost him. Mayer and Alt were 1st team on the recently released CBS AA Team while Foskey was 2nd team BTW assuming the HOF considers CBS as a "major" selector. This makes both Alt and Mayer eligible for the HOF when they quit playing football. Joe Montana as great a player as he was at ND and the Pro's will never even be on the ballot for the College Football HOF because he was never a 1st team AA QB. I don't believe Tom Brady will be eligible for the College HOF either.
I couldn't tell anything about Mayer's feelings about ND other than he "enjoyed" his time there. The article was short, was for the purpose of covering his choice of leaving early and really didn't go into anything else. Who knows, someday when his NFL career is over, he may end up on campus again working towards a degree like the Bus just did.