This is not good, the men's swimming program has been on the upswing, one of our swimmers is on the Olympic team and expected to medal and the HC is also with the team. But apparently they have are responding to a complaint about the culture of the program, not sure what that means. But I am thinking Northwestern football, sadly. x.com
Irish renew the seies with Michigan State in 2026, in fact in 2026 we play 4 Big 10 teams. MSU, Wisconsin, Purdue and USC. Then add the 5 ACC games and Navy and that's 10 games I imagine the other 2 games will be MAC type of opponent. I remember when MSU hired Saban and I thought, who's he? I'd forgotten that he'd been briefly with the Houston Oilers. The University of Notre Dame football program has announced a continuation of its storied rivalry with Michigan State via a two-game series against the Spartans that will begin in 2026. Notre Dame will host Michigan State in Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 19, 2026, and the Irish will then travel to face the Spartans in East Lansing on Sept. 18, 2027. Game times and broadcast networks will be announced at a later date. Notre Dame and Michigan State have met on 79 occasions, which is the fourth-most prolific series in Irish football history. The programs first met in 1887 – a 34-6 Irish victory. Since 1949 the winner of each installment of the rivalry earns the Megaphone Trophy, which is currently held by the Irish after a win in the most recent matchup, a 38-18 victory in East Lansing in 2017. A highly competitive series, which features the legendary 10-10 tie when top-ranked Michigan State and second-ranked Notre Dame met in East Lansing during the 1966 season, the last 64 meetings between the Irish and Spartans have featured at least one Associated Press ranked team. Notre Dame holds a 249-131-16 record in program history vs. the Big Ten.
Recruiting just drives me nuts these days, ND fans were pleased when they got the verbal from a highly ranked QB for the class of '26, Noah Grubbs. He of course said all the right things, but a couple of weeks later he's going take some official visits to other schools. Says he's still 100% ND, but wants to experience other programs and the official visits which are fully paid for him and his family. This of course sends ND fans into a tailspin. I liked it better in the old days when a lot of teams would allow you to take officials after you'd given them your verbal. Mack Brown, Mr. Feb, was like that you take another visit then your scholarship was back in play.
In an Olympic year even though I don't really follow ND Track and Field very closely, it's hard not to notice all the accolades that are piling up for a Distance runner from Western PA who will enroll this fall at Notre Dame. Hopefully he will continue to develop and have a great college career and eventually become an Olympian. Many past winners of the Post-Gazette Boy High School Athlete of the Year have been two-sport standouts, or even played three sports. This year’s winner is more of a one-trick pony. Scratch that. When it comes to distance running, Drew Griffith is more of a thoroughbred. At Butler High School this school year, Griffith did only one thing — run. He went to great strides. If someone wanted to sketch the best distance runner in WPIAL history, they would draw Drew. But calling him the best in WPIAL history is selling Griffith short. Considering his accomplishments during his senior year in cross country and track, it would be more appropriate to call him one of the best distance runners in U.S. high school history. Even his future college coach at the University of Notre Dame will tell you that. Post-Gazette 2023-24 high school boys Athlete of the Year: Butler's Drew Griffith one of the best distance runners in U.S. history
JaDon Blair a highly rated safety from North Carolina has verbaled to the Irish. A big pickup gives us 3 kids at safety but our top kid, Ivan Taylor, has been looking around so it's unknown if he'll sign in Dec or even make it that long before he decommits and goes somewhere else.
The awards just keep coming for the 2x NCAA Champion Irish Lacrosse. Pat Kavanaugh was named the ACC Male Athlete of the Year, only the 3rd Lacrosse player to achieve that, and Sr Eric Dobson was the ACC Men's Lacrosse Scholar Athlete of the Year. 25 members of the Lacrosse team were named All ACC Academic Team.
Ivan Taylor to nobody's surprise has decommitted from the Irish and will be a Wolverine. That's why the verbal from JaDon Blair was so important. From what I am reading WR recruiting is so far a swing and a miss. That is concerning as we do have a nice QB room developing, but unless they have guys to throw to that get open and make plays it won't amount to much. It'd be nice to be able to get WR's like they do at Ohio State or LSU. Riley Leonard has been getting a lot of love from the various ND sites/writers.
TEXAS coming to South Bend and now the Irish head to South Central. Both Texas and USC are highly ranked in the preseason polls.
For what ever reason the Irish are struggling with WR recruiting. Saturday 5* Derek Meadows out of Bishop Gorman in Vegas, will announce his choice. It's reportedly down to LSU or ND. If we don't get him most are declaring the WR class a disaster and pointing fingers at the plan/effort of Freeman and Mike Brown. Funny thing to me is that Meadows only caught 15 passes last year as a Jr. Yet he's a 5 star. Other drama is ongoing with QB Deuce Knight who says he's 100% committed to ND, but really looking forward to the Auburn recruiting event in 2 weeks. Reports are that Freeze/Auburn are all in on doing whatever is necessary to flip him.
Bad news on the recruiting front, Derek Meadows verbals to LSU. WR recruiting has not been good for the class of 2025.
ND grad Lee Kiefer won the gold in foil. Nice to see graduates of our fencing team continue with their sport at the highest level.