Jonathan MacCollister is a Freshman. He is transferring to UCF so I think he has some talent. I don't know how to compare this with other schools. But between disciplinary suspensions and expulsions, academic casualties , homesick and playing time defections as well as early outs to the NFL, there is a significant turnover.
FWIW, Alabama has some years where the turnover is sizable. They just fill them in with the massive classes they sign, but they do have years like this and even worse.
For those Hockey fans....Irish take down Michigan for the series sweep! As far as turnover in the programs...I wish they'd all come and stay and graduate and contribute to the program in a meaningful way. In today's college football, that is less and less common. I don't know anything about our latest kid to transfer except the "guru's" didn't seem to think he'd ever play much, maybe he realized that and maybe he just didn't really see himself in South Bend for 4 years, he's from Florida and maybe he figured he'd get back to the Sunshine State and at UCF have a better chance at playing. I don't know. I do know that in the current climate where there is a large faction of the fanbase who absolutely hate Kelly and don't understand how any player would want to play for him. A transfer is usually taken as an indictment of Kelly and a validation of their feelings that he's a terrible coach and human being. I keep wondering when Avery Davis will wake up and see Wimbush and Book ahead of him and Phil Jurkovec behind him and another kid coming in at QB in 2019 who was the Gatorade player of the year in Nevada. I doubt if Avery ever takes a snap for the Irish.
I also think a big part of it is that UCF is letting him play TE, and ND just keeps reloading with top notch TEs.
Irish finish at #11. It was a good season, the loss to Miami is the one that hurts the most, Stanford was the next. The UGA loss was just UGA having such a great defense and that kid making the 1 handed grab falling out of bounds and hanging on enough to make the catch. I saw on one of the sites that the Irish are talking to Jon Heacock the current Iowa State DCoord. He's got experience and he runs a similar scheme to Elko. We'll see if he's the guy. I haven't seen any other names beyond speculation. He was the HC at Youngstown State after Jim Tressel. We've been in a dead period for recruiting so not much news out there, I hope we can add some more talent to this class but there aren't any sure things out there for us. The biggest fish is the OL Petit-Frere. That and recruiting Tillery and Coney into staying for their Sr. year. Irish Men travel to Ga.Tech for a rematch, Irish beat the Dec 30th in a close game. Irish Women have a huge road game with unbeaten #3 ranked Louisville. Like the men they are dealing with injuries that have left them with only 7 scholarship players. Louisville has the full compliment.
Well the latest hot rumor is that ND is going to promote Clark Lea to DCoord. It's a risky move, as he's never been a DCoord. But it's not like there haven't been guys who did just that and were successful. The sainted Barry Alvarez was Lou's LB coach when Foge Fazio moved on to the NFL and Lou elevated him to DCoord. Now they have to find a guy to coach safeties, as that was what Elko coached.
As Krebs noted in another topic, our OL coach Harry Heistand is leaving for the NFL. That really sucks. I'll be the kids who signed their LOI's in Dec aren't very happy that they won't be playing for HH. We have a verbal from OL Luke Jones and are chasing Nicholas Petit-Frere who is big time. With HH things were probably looking good, now both those guys have to be listening hard to other schools, now maybe Kelly brings in a good OL coach, problem is these guys aren't likely to have any relationship with him and that seems to be a big factor for these kids, developing some relationship with their recruiter.
Some are saying that Harry has been getting NFL offers for a couple of years now and some serious ones after last year but he wanted to come back and coach this line. So in this case maybe Kelly wasn't blindsided by him taking the Bears job, and maybe he does actually have a list of guys in mind he wants to talk to about the job. I wonder if HH even gave him a heads up that he was going to seriously consider taking an NFL job if he got more offers, when Nagy called it probably felt right since he's been in the midwest for a long tiime, at Illinois, at The Bears and at ND...so not a big move for him and his family. Although as far as I can see there is no previous connection between Nagy and Harry.
Good read...an open letter from Q.Nelson's father. https://www.onefootdown.com/2018/1/10/16875460/notre-dame-football-a-letter-from-quenton-nelsons-father-offensive-line-parent-post-outland-nfl
Very nice letter. Reveals a positive aspect aspect of Kelly's leadership that likely does not please the NDN naysayers.
Well HH went out on a high note and with good feelings all around. In statements released he was grateful to ND and Kelly for the chance to coach here and everybody including his OL guys and Kelly said nothing but good things and wished him well with the Bears. https://247sports.com/college/notre-dame/Article/Harry-Hiestand-calls-Notre-Dame-job-an-honor-113544996
Well the only thing positive I can take away from HH leaving is that apparently he did not blindside Kelly, so in theory Kelly should already have a couple of guys in mind to take the spot. He probably hoped they could convince HH to stay by offering him more money, but from what I've heard HH really wanted to get away from College recruiting and get back to just coaching guys. Pete Sampson says don't expect a quick hire like Clark Lea. That there will be a search for a "homerun' type of hire. They want somebody with NFL experience and definitely want somebody who will be agressive with recruiting. That was an area that HH was not esp eager to participate in, he had his guys that he was fine with recruiting, but he wasn't eager to get out there and help with other positions. He was strictly OL, and he didn't like working a large list.
No word on Tillery or Coney yet, deadline is Monday. UNC comming to ND today, still no Farrell, unless someone starts showing some offense it won't be pretty.
Yeah the game was right there fro the taking. I couldn't really see what happened on the foul that put Berry on the FT line, but it was a tough call. Then TJ Gibbs had a tough shot to win it but got his own rebound and it looked like a routine put back but it didn't go down. I didn't watch the whole game just the last few minutes as I sort of expected a blowout. But as always there is some grousing about the calls at the end and during the game. But that's college basketball, or even NBA basketball always one teams fans think they got the short end of the calls. Would have been a very big win for the Irish. But instead it's just a loss. Still no word on Tillery and/or Coney. Tommorrow is the deadline. Not sure why they are waiting till the very last to tell you the truth. I'm sure they have had plenty of time to talk to family and others about their decision and they both now know who their coach will be for next season. I hope they both come back. Also no word on who will be the new OL coach, some names are being speculated like the BC OL coach, Jeff Quinn of course, and the Auburn OL coach has come up as well. Also with Elko we had Lyght, Lea, and Elston as Defensive coaches, no word on the 4th Defensive coach either and really no speculation either. I would think it would be a DB coach to help Lyght, but not necessarily. Some teams like Clemson have 2 DL coaches, and some have 2 LB coaches. Irish women take on BC today and try to get back on track after the embarrassing loss to Louisville the other night. Irish Hockey is off this week, next week it's Wisconsin. If Bobda reads this maybe he'll comment on why ND and UM are playing 4 times in Hockey while we play all the other B10 teams twice.