We don't know where we are going but we do know we won't be going the CFP or a New Years Six Bowl. We ended the season ranked #15. Again in August that looked good, but end of Nov it is a disappointment after such a great start to the season. Hopefully we get a bowl win and finish on an up tick. As far as recruiting, the early signing period is Dec 20-22. Right now we have 19 kids who have given their verbals, I expect all 19 to sign LOI's in the early period. There is always a possibility of a surprise but from what I read all these kids are not interested in looking around. Kelly, Polian, and Del Alexander had their in house with Amon Ra St. Brown arguably our top kid on the board. His dad likes ND a lot, and his dad likes Kelly a lot from the quotes I read on the recruiting sites. Naturall they are concerned about the QB situation, who wouldn't be. He's likely a starter from day 1 at ND. He said in one article I read that he wants to win the Heisman, lofty goal for a WR as Tim Brown was the last one to win it and that was 1987 and there have been a lot of great WR's in between. So he will have to do more than be a great WR, he'll have to be great on Punt returns and/or KO returns. They are looking at a kid from Huntsville Lee HS in Alabama, Malik Langham I wonder if Carson's team played him or Corey has seen him play. Anyway we have 6 spots left that we can fill, whether we will fill them all I don't know of course. But a couple of names I really hope fill out this class are the Petit-Frere OL kid, the Payton Wilson LB kid, and maybe another OL as well. We need more DL's so maybe this kid from Alabama would be a great pickup. We are getting in late on him though which is never a good thing. He has however not taken any official visits, but if he does take an official to ND he'll see snow and cold! It's always better for Southern Kids to come on visits earlier in the year when it's so beautiful. On other sports. Big games in Basketball this week. The men go to East Lansing to take on a very good and possible Final Four team in Mich State and the Women travel to Ann Arbor to take on Michigan a team they should beat. Both teams are in the current top 5, Men at #5 and Ladies at #3. Hockey is ironically at Mich State as well. Hockey is in the top 5 and undefeated in Big 10 play ( that still sounds weird to me!)
Terry, when you mention 6 spots to fill, does that factor in room for 4-5 fifth year guys? I've heard nothing yet about who might be approved to return for a 5th year.
Sid, you are correct that it all depends on who's coming back for next year. But most of what I have read indicates that we'll be able to take 25 kids. I'm not exactly sure who is eligible for 5th years. I know Q.Nelson is and isn't likely to take it, and Drue Tranquill said it's a decision he'll make after the bowl game, he graduates in Dec with his M.E. Degree. Johnathon Bonner has announced he will not be returning for his 5th year. Others like St. Brown and Josh Adams are kids who some have speculated will leave early for the NFL. So we won't know till January after the Bowl game for sure.
Yup, Carson's team played them over at Milton Frank Stadium in Huntsville. He's a fine SEC level strong side DE prospect. We'd do well to land him. He's 6'5" 260ish. Very good speed rusher. He's suppose to be a lock for Vandy, but recently decided that he wanted to take a look at Notre Dame. I'm telling ya guys, we'd do well to pay more attention to the Tennessee Valley.
On ESPN radio yesterday I heard an interesting point. At 57 yrs old, and just recently retired, you've never once heard Stoops name mentioned in all the coaching vacancies. Then it was said that he may be laying in wait mode for the ND job. Rumor, longshot, I know....but it did make one think. Just for the spirit of the idea...thoughts? I know Doc O would cringe. Never say never. Ain't that right Herm Edwards?
I guess it's possible that Stoops just wants a year or so to recharge the batteries. But I would be wary of him at this point, does he have the fire in his belly to put out the effort that would be needed if he took the Notre Dame Job. He's never had to recruit Nationally, he's never had to recruit with academic restrictions, he's never had to recruit to a school that doesn't have a reputation as a party school, it's different at Notre Dame in so many ways than it was at OU. I think it's widely assumed that Brian Kelly has a 3 year window, this being year 1, to get us back on track. So year 1 was a big improvement over last year. Year 2 and Year 3 still to be determined. If he makes it to year 3 he'll have been at ND 10 years we don't have a history of coaches going 15 or 20 years like at some places. I think Kelly will make it to year 3, the team next year should be as good as this year (which to many fans means it won't be good enough) 9 wins. If Kelly is able to close out the recruiting class well then that means year 3 should also be 9 wins. 9 wins and no playoff appearances will have the fanbase going nuts, but that's the earliest that a new coach is likely to be on the horizon. Stoops ..just don't know.
Don't count out the possibility that Kelly either moves on or maybe even retires. You can only take so much crap from the brilliant fans. If at all possible you want a successful coach with an established staff. We saw that Charlie had trouble right from the start with a coaching staff. Hiring someone like Herm Edwards is really risky. He has been out of the game for so long he really doesn't have connections for a staff. As for Stoops he still has a big name and would probably cause some excitement as far as recruiting is concerned. As to a staff maybe he could get that old gang together.
I read and heard a thing about Stoops wanting to enjoy his kids for a few years because he's already missed out on so much. If Stoops came back to replace Kelly, I'd do backflips.
Some top coaches like Jimmy Johnson and Parcells just leave and enjoy being out of the pressure cooker. I put Gruden and Cowher in that same group. It's a lot easier just blabbing on TV.
ESPN has a really interesting article on Stoops. He's already lived longer than his father did. His father basically collapsed during a Cardinal Mooney game and died later that night. Sometimes, you got enough money and there's more important things in life.
I didn't see the game but Mich State beat the Irish soundly last night. The women handled Michigan easily on Wed night. This might be one of Izzo's best teams and the game was at East Lansing so I'm not really bothered by the loss. The good thing about Basketball is that a bad loss is just that and you have a lot of games to play and then the conference tournament. Hardly ever does a team go undefeated or even just lose one or two games. So it was a good lesson that maybe we weren't as good as our top 5 ranking but I also think we have a really good team that is going to win a lot of games this year and have a shot at going deep in the NCAA's. The women play UConn this weekend, and they (UConn) is as good as ever, their 5 starters are all potential AA's and Geno hasn't lost a step. It would be nice to pull the upset, but I really hope we play them well and have a shot at the end. We are a pretty good team, just lost a good player though in Mikayla Vaugh a freshman forward to an ACL tear, but we still should be a very good team and a top 10 team all season.
I watched the second half of the men's game. I thought we played them well, but MSU clearly is a superior team. They just wore us down.
On Irish recruiting, I hear the kid from Huntsville was absolutely giddy to hear from ND. His previous #1 was Vandy, so he's interested in academics. Personally, I thought he was a little light in the ass to be an immediate impact kinda guy, but after a year in the circuit, he could be a monster.
Re: men's basketball. I see that despite our lopsided loss to Michigan State and the fact that we had only 5 offensive rebounds, Gary Parrish (whoever he is) did not drop us from his #4 ranking. Strange, but it's a sign of respect for our program by at least one person.
Markese Stepp has decommitted. https://www.indystar.com/story/spor...markese-stepp-decommits-notre-dame/916731001/
Will have kids and grandkids here for the holidays. Granddaughter wants to go to ND and is a great student. Looks like we are probably going to tailgate in Orlando.