Hey speaking of recruiting, hats off to the ND golf coach. Incoming freshman Palmer Jackson just made it to the quarter finals of the US Amateur beating a couple of high ranked college grads.
Michael Young has an undisclosed shoulder injury, no word on what happened and what's the recovery period. Rumors are that he broke his collar bone and will have surgery. I read a very good interview of Brady Quinn on Ian Book. He acknowledges that Book needs to be able to stretch the field more and believes that he can do that. Says he's impressed with the progress he's made since last season. I'm also reading more positive things about Phil Jurkovec and his progress. We need to see development from Phil, hopefully he'll get chances early in the season vs Louisville and New Mexico and show us why he was so highly rated coming out of High School Irish golfer Palmer Jackson that Mike pointed out, finally lost in the US Am. Still great run by the kid. I hope he has a great career as a NCAA golfer. I'd like to see both mens and womens golf teams step up a bit.
If you are an Irish Illustrated subscriber, they have an interview of Brady Quinn about Ian Book. It's all pretty positive and he feels that he really feels Book is poised for an excellent season. He does say that Book needs to push the ball down field more than he did last season.
Funny how much difference there is in contracts based on position. You could be a 10 time All-Pro as an OG and while you'll get paid a handsome sum, it'll pale in comparison to a 10 time All-Pro Left Tackle. 4 yrs ago JJ Watt signed a 6 year 100M contract with 50M guaranteed, and that's not a top 5 contract for his position in 2019. There are no Inside Linebackers in the NFL who come close to that, only Khalil Mack who is an outside LB exceeds it.
You have to hand it to the Cowboy organization that took quite a chance at using a second round draft choice on Jaylon. He repaid their faith in him by rehabbing his way back from a really terrible injury and you have to feel good about this story.
Looks like things are coming together in the LB group and Drew White is the apparent Mike headed into the first game.
Things are settling in for sure Tim. From listening to Kelly and Clark Lea it does look like the starters at LB are going to be Owusu-Koramoah, White and Bilal, but that the other guys are going to play. I expect to see quite a bit of Jack Lamb as well. We do have a lot of options at WR so while the loss of Young hurts, we have guys who should be able to step up and fill in for him. Nobody talks about Kevin Austin who might be the most talented kid at WR, but whatever he's done to get into the Doghouse sounds more and more like we won't see him for a few games, much like Dexter Williams last year. The kid everybody wants to see out there on defense is Kyle Hamilton, he's just had an awesome camp for a true freshman. Keep hearing good things about Phil Jurkovec, and I hope we get to see him play vs both Louisville and New Mexico, so we can see him run the offense in game conditions and because that likely means those games are under control in the 4th qtr. If you guys haven't read the interview of Coley O'Brien over on NDNation, it's a good read. Next Man Up - NDNation
Jack Kiser is the kid from the small Indiana School who was Mr. Football in Indiana last year. He was a do it all kid, played QB and LB/S and was good at all of them. A lot of people wondered why Clark Lea liked him so much since he didn't play against good competition and wasn't rated very highly when he was offered. But when I read the stories about him I became a fan, he might not have been a highly rated player but the kid had character and heart. My first thought was I hope he makes it big at ND. Jury of course will be out until we see him on the field. I'm guessing that he'll likely play special teams and see some action at Rover this year, I'll be surprised if his playing time stays under the 4 games that are allowed to grant a redshirt year. This is what Clark Lea had to say about him yesterday. Paul Mola is another local area kid who people questioned why we offered him, but Lea liked what he saw and he's fit in very well and while he won't be a starter this year at Rover, he can play and I'll bet he's a Special Teams star.
Kevin Austin suspended from football for the year. It's not clear if he will continue at ND or what. Tim Prister says he remains enrolled at ND. Nobody seems to know what his problem is, he played last year but in spite of some good things he was left off of traveling squads for several games and had limited participation in the Spring. Kelly has been vague when asked about him. It's not a legal issue, or it would be public record. He hasn't been a full participant in the fall camp either leaving many to believe he was getting the 4 game suspension that Dexter had last year. But this is something different, maybe academic, or maybe he constantly shows up late for meetings, practice or stuff like that. I doubt if we'll ever know. The Irish have really had bad luck with kids from Florida, so many of them seem to come to ND and proceed to get into trouble both legal and otherwise. Makes you wonder what is wrong with kids from Florida.
Odds are he's gone. I was just getting ready to make a comment that we had made it thru the off season with no dismissals etc. right....
If you want to feel good about the Irish chances this season, read this article on Pro Football Focus. Led by Ian Book and an underrated defense, Notre Dame is set to dethrone the Power Five in 2019 | College Football and NFL Draft | PFF