No doubt, Gilman solidified the defensive backfield and without Book our offense was going to be mediocre at best. But this team had a lot of difference makers, esp on defense. Don't forget maybe the play of the year was by former walkon Chris Finke with his great catch in the endzone in the Michigan game.
Irish had 1 1st team AA on the AP. Julian Love . Tillery was a 2nd Team AA and Tevon Coney was a 3rd Team AA Finals this week, so both basketball teams are off till the weekend.
Sam Mustipher was the ESPN 1st Team AA at Center and Julian Love was 1st Team AA at DB. Meet the ESPN All-America team
Head Football Coach Brian Kelly has been named the recipient of the 2019 Stallings Award presented by Dr Pepper. The Stallings Award is presented annually to an exceptional Division I football coach that celebrates humanitarian contributions along with on-field achievements. Kelly and his wife, Paqui, founded the Kelly Cares Foundation and since 2008 they have raised over $4.6 million to causes locally, nationally and globally through the foundation. in 2014, the Saint Joseph Health System announced the creation of the Paqui and Brian Kelly Comprehensive Breast Center. It is a state of the art facility funded entirely through the Kelly Cares Foundation.
ND recruit from a small town in Indiana that probably only Sid can find on a map, was named Indiana Mr. Football. He plays in the smallest division of Indiana football, 1A and is the only 1A player to win Mr. Football. Jaylon Smith was a 2A player at Ft. Wayne when he won it. Hopefully Jack will have a similar career at ND. Jack is however starting way back from where Jaylon started. Jaylon was a 5 star player and if you search for Jack on the 247 recruiting site, he's outside the top 1000 players and is the #66 player at his OLB position. He played both ways in HS, QB and LB, his team was undefeated this year and state champions. He's a legend to say the least. Will be a big step up for sure, a lot of people scratched their heads when he was offered by ND, but reportedly Clark Lea went to see him play in person and came away very impressed and made the offer. So this is a trust the coaches type of thing. He'll be an early enrollee in January. I'd be shocked if he plays as a freshman so it'll be awhile before we can see if Lea has a good eye for talent. I think either Sid or I posted an story on him earlier this year, and it was extremely positive. High Character kid. Notre Dame commit Jack Kiser becomes first Class A player to win IndyStar Mr. Football
I watched his entire state championship game. He was the QB. He clearly was a man among boys, ripping off big run after big run. He wasn't as much a factor on defense because he played safety, and the team's front 7 were very effective in stopping the opponent's rushing game. Because it was "only" Class A does not mean there weren't good athletes on both sides of the ball. He comes from a strong line of family athletes. My assessment: Do not be shocked by anything positive he does at ND. I'm not going to predict his future, but I would NOT be surprised if he achieves a very high level of contribution to the team early in his career. Keep this in mind: He beat out a big-time athlete from Warren Central in Indy who is being highly recruited by Ohio State and other major D-1 programs. Indiana is a small state which doesn't turn out the numbers of the big states, but the top athletes can compete with anyone in the country. IMO, Kiser is one of those. P.S. If you read the article Terry posted, you'll see how Mr. Football is selected. Kiser received respect from every class, from A to 6A. The Bell kid is the recruit I referred to above. It's entirely possible that the recruiting services just missed Kiser. No one's perfect. Time will tell.
Brian Kelly is the AP coach of the year, beating out Nick Saban and Josh Heupel of UCF. It's his second award, he was the Home Depot coach of the year as well. AP Coach of the Year: Notre Dame's Kelly wins for 2nd time
Tim Prister has a nice interview with Kelly's parents. They haven't missed any game in Brian's Notre Dame Career. I don't know if it's a pay only article, but I'll post the link and if it isn't you can read the whole thing and enjoy it. If not then pay up! The Kellys: Living the Notre Dame dream
I think that's understandable. Both ND and OU are double digit underdogs because both Clemson and Alabama are considered the cream of the college football world. They are the clear #1 and #2, they have tons of playoff experience. Many think that the only other team that could give those two a good game is Georgia and they aren't in it.
From what I read all the ones who we have verbals from have signed, there is still some slim, very slim, hope that a kid from Washington (Asa Turner) who is a verbal to the Huskies might flip at the last minute. But don't count on it and then there is the kid from Concord De La Salle (Foskey) who many think will sign with ND in Feb. After that it's on to 2020!
Also while as far as I can tell this is a very good class for the Irish, great on the OL esp. But we are not likely to finish as a top 10 class.
Asa Turner did not sign with UW today, said he needs more time. So maybe he is seriously torn between UW and ND. Reports were that he really liked his ND official visit. Probably distance from home is the biggest factor I guess. He's from Carlsbad CA. So it's not like Seattle is just around the corner either.