I must say that there is a lot of angst over Marcus Freeman and ND out there. I am hearing he's been offered a very good extension and the AD has publicly said they would match any other offer he's getting and they want to provide him with what ever he needs to succeed at the highest level. But that he's not signed the deal offered. Much talk about Freeman and the Giants. I can't imagine that he is a better fit for the NFL than he is for the NCAA, I don't even think the $$$ would make it worth while. I mean top college coaches are making 10M/year and up. Top NFL coaches are making more but is that all there is for him? I think most of us would agree that he's a perfect fit for the Irish. I just wish he would sign the new deal and we could all breath a sigh of relief. What I wonder about is the snub of ND by the committee stunned him about what he has to accomplish to make the playoffs at ND. I wonder if he was stunned by the players (reportedly) coming to him and saying they didn't want to play in the bowl and the AD saying OK at the same time he was verbally taking the ACC to task along with the committee. Maybe he thinks this isn't what I signed up for, I don't know. I do know if he leaves the Irish I'll be devastated.
I cannot believe that he would seriously opt out for the NFL! I think that would be a serious move his part.
Huge rash of younger coaches going to the pros and currently there. If its a rumor. Might be true then. Speaking of moves, when are you guys supposed to join the B10? Merry Xmas Everybody.
Billy Schauth to the NFL . Good luck to him. It seems like he could have used another year of playing in college, but I imagine he's tired of college and wants to move on to the next level. He was really playing well till he got injured.
Billy seems to get injured every year. I'm not sure that's going to help him at draft time. It would help if he could play a full season injury-free but then again, maybe he can't. In any event good luck to him and his agent who may be encouraging this.
Pat Forde is reporting that Marcu Freeman has turned down the NFL and will be having his contract restructured to put him in the top tier of College Coaches. Whew!!
Donovan Hinish has had his last snap. The younger of the Hinish Brothers gave all! They are quite the family. Notre Dame defensive lineman Donovan Hinish has played his final snap. The 2025 Fighting Irish captain will retire from football due to a shoulder injury. If you know the Hinish family, then you know this decision wasn’t easy and speaks to the severity of the injury. The Pittsburgh native will finish his career with 37 games played. Hinish recorded 57 career tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. 2024 was Hinish’s most productive year as he ended the season with 35 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. One of those sacks will go down in Notre Dame history as Hinish recorded the game-ending sack in the Sugar Bowl to send the Irish to the Orange Bowl.
A couple of things, apparently it was a real interest by Marcus in the Giants job. The other thing is I can't remember when there has been more hate/negativity against Notre Dame. Coaches are even jumping in, Joey McGuire has twice publically criticized Notre Dame for not being in a conference, Lincoln Riley took a shot at ND saying that if we held to our play them anytime anywhere matra then the USC series would still be going on, he forgot to mention that USC wouldn't play us anytime anywhere they would only play us when/where they wanted. Kirk Bohls the Austin based UT writer has taken several shots at ND in columns since we were snubbed by the CFP. I saw several articles around the PopTarts bowl about us "chickening" out or being critical that we decided to take our ball and go home, compared us to entitled children. Nobody mentioned that the players went to ND and asked to pass on the bowl game. I don't remember any articles taking Iowa State or KState to task over their opting out of the bowls. Some made excuses that it was ok because they had lost their HC's. Sure, but how many teams who had interim coaches went ahead and played in bowl games. Media Blitz against the Irish is the biggest in my lifetime.
Re: Terry's concerns about attitudes toward ND. We always have been a lightning rod program. The players' decision not to go to a bowl game has just brought the "haters" out from under their rocks. Now they have two reasons to speak out, our independence and the CFP fiasco. As happens all the time in the internet age, they're not concerned with the facts. They just want to be heard, gain "clicks", achieve relevance, like the Austin writer, Paul Finebaum, and others. Re: coaches, if I'm an AD and my coach publicizes negative comments about another program that isn't even on our schedule, e.g., the TT coach, I have to wonder why he even cares. I'm not surprised by the USC coach, who's trying to shift the focus for cancelling the series to ND and away from his program. All the other "noise" falls into one of these categories. My stock reply to all these negative inferences, even outright hate, is, So what? No one cares what you think. I know I don't.
Irish women were dominant last night vs Pitt 94-59. Hannah Hidalgo had 30 points tonight. Pitt is a mediocre team, likely to struggle to get to .500 so can't really take away a lot from a big win. Next up is Ga.Tech in Atlanta, they have the worst record in the ACC so far. It's New Years day.
Re: Riley Apparently SC will no longer fight on. What a lying sack of crap that ahole is. We've always played them in South Bend when the fall foilage is at it's peak and the weather is usually good football weather.. And of course we take the team there for the Thanksgiving weekend "reward." One of the teams is afraid of a late season loss and it ain't ND.
Irish men are out on the West coast for 2 games . Tonight vs Stanford and are underdogs, but they have never lost to the Tree's. 4-0 all time Friday the go across the Bay to Berkley to play CAL .Likely to be underdogs ther
Talk about a fugly game. Stanford/ND Irish win 47-40. Neither team could throw it in the Ocean. Irish played great defense but shot horribly. But an ugly win is better than a pretty loss!!