Tommy Rees on Sids favorite topic, leadership. Rees credits Notre Dame’s success -- now going on five years -- to the culture Kelly created following the disastrous 2016 season. “The starting point for leadership for me has always been Zack Martin,” Rees said. “He’s always been on the pedestal. You look across the board and you have guys that are leading in that manner. We’re not short on leaders and that’s pretty cool because across the entire team, you see guys stepping up and making an impact. “When you see guys take the natural progression within the program and rise through the ranks, it just shows we’re in a really healthy place. It shows that the consistent messaging of what we’re about and what we’re trying to do day in and day out -- coming from Coach Kelly down -- has really paid dividends over the last five years. You see it with the way we’ve been able to develop players late in their careers.”
I'm personally very excited for this Notre Dame team, for many of the reasons expressed in this clip from an ISD article. I don't expect us to be undefeated, that's always a tough one even Alabama loses games, in fact since the Bear retired Alabama has only had 4 undefeated seasons (1992,2009, 2016, and 2020) so it's not very reasonable to expect that for any team going into the season. I do think we can win 10 games and I'm not sure where the losses will come from. The logical choices are the teams that at least in the preseason are top 25. That would be Wisconsin, Cincy, North Carolina and USC and a lot of people feel the trip to Blacksburg for Va.Tech after back-to-back games with ranked opponents in Wisconsin and Cincinnati is a trap game. Of course, since we have a lot of new parts if they all work it could be a great season, but if they don't, or we have injury issues it could be a trying season. But either way I'm excited and this clip has a lot of the reasons why I'm excited to see how things play out. _________________ Of course, every fan likes when they are rooting for a winner and they’ve been winners lately. I don’t think that will change this season, although a step back wouldn't be unexpected. Even if that’s the case, it’s hard to deny that there are a lot of stories on this team that are going to be easy to root for. There are players we know will be great like Kyren Williams and Kyle Hamilton where you can’t help but respect their ability. There’s the receivers who all have a chip on their shoulder and something to prove this season. Any success from them will be worth celebrating. There’s the quarterback who dreamed of playing for Notre Dame, but ended up somewhere else. He somehow found his to the place he dreamed of going. There’s “The Mayor” who may be the first true freshman to start at left tackle in the Brian Kelly era. There’s the underdogs like Kurt Hinish and Drew White who have managed to not just become multi-year starters, but team captains. There’s a tight end that could be the best to ever play the position at Notre Dame, a host of players with star potential, and a former quarterback turned running back turned cornerback turned receiver who also earned the distinction of being a captain. There are so many things that make this particular 2021 Notre Dame football team interesting and that’s before the season has even started. I’m personally excited to cover the team this season because there’s a lot of potential for this team to make a run and they can do it with a bunch of players that are going to be easy to root for. 6 Thoughts on a Thursday
Very nice article, well worth reading: Late father's legacy inspires Notre Dame DE Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa
I'm not even looking beyond the first game. First game, on the road AT FSU, they home crowd back this year. We have big changes on O-line, new QB. Lots of questions. I don't care how FSU has played the last couple of years, McKenzie Milton makes them a better team by himself. He a winner and FSU has talent. We'll be lucky to leave there with a win and a loss won't surprise me.
Matt Freeman of ISD on Marist Liufau He’s a combination of the classic knock your face off linebacker with the new school skill set of being able to run and play in space. And it’s super enjoyable to watch, especially when he’s coming on a blitz.
I did not realize the game with Florida State was to be played on Sunday evening, September 5th. Is that a first for Notre Dame to play on Sunday? Just Curious
No we played Texas back in 2016 on Labor Day weekend and it was a Sunday night game as well. I was there and it was a 50-47 double overtime thriller that the Irish lost.
I wonder how it was that we didn't meet up? You probably were with a group (family) just like me and the weekend was planned out. Where did you stay?
Lots of interesting story lines for the Irish start to the season. 1. Blake Fisher, he's the 1st freshman to start at LT. Not the first freshman OL, there have been 4 others, Ryan Harris, Steve Elmer, Robert Hainsey and Sam Young all started as freshmen. But none at LT. 2. Jack Coan, talk about being under the microscope. More than a few fans hoped that Tyler Buchner would earn the job as they saw him as the elite level qB we have been missing. Some even thought that we are likely to take some lumps this year with all the new people on offense so why not give him a year of OJT. If Coan doesn't have a great game to open against FSU, there will be bulletin board talk about why are we playing him. 3. The OL New bodies except for Jarrett Patterson, how will they mesh. Transfer Cain Madden is getting a lot of love from the media being on several pre-season AA teams based on what he did at Marshall where Pro Football Focus graded him out very highly. 4. Marcus Freeman a big hit so far, but the rubber meets the road Sept 5th. He's got a lot of talent in the front 7 and Kyle Hamilton in the back...are those other 3 guys good enough to have this be an outstanding defense. 5. Kevin Austin, increasingly good reports are coming out about him. Hope they are all true and he's able to stay healthy. His running mates at WR haven't really done much in the past but they also have been getting praise. Hope it's earned and not hype. 6. Michael Mayer, not a lot of talk about him. He had an outstanding freshman year, should be poised to have an even better year.
Pete Sampson said in today's The Athletic Mailbag, that the WR group has exceeded expectations in fall camp and that he expects the front 7 to be really good esp at LB, only question marks are DE where the uber talented Isiah Foskey hasn't flashed as much as was expected when he saw him in open practice. Also said that CB continues to be a worry for the Irish. Coan is solid but not spectacular anybody hoping for a Joe Burrow breakout senior season better rethink it, and RB and TE's are expected to be good. The surprise for me in fall camp has been the good things I've read about true freshman RB Logan Diggs. Also TE Michael Evans another true freshman from Ohio has continued to show like he did in the Spring game but still learning the position as he played OL in HS. Comment I've read is that he's always close to offensive pass interference when going for the ball. Like most he said that 10-2 or 11-1 with a New Years 6 bowl win would be a great season for this team.
Dang I can't believe they gave him the day off, don't they know it's less than 2 weeks till FSU???? Give him some pain meds and one of those scooters to get around with ...suck it up!!
We'd been pretty fortunate with injuries during fall camp, but Marist Liufau who was having an outstanding camp and was set to have a breakout season at Will LB had a significant lower body injury. That was all that was said, and that he will likely miss a significant portion of the season. JD Bertrand and Shayne Simon will move up in the rotation. Betrand himself was having a great fall camp as well. Kurt Hinish is in the concussion protocol.