Good luck to this kid, I'm sure he want's to play and I do hope he's leaving with his degree but unless he's got some quantum leap in talent about to happen, he's not ever going to make a living as a kicker.
Logan Diggs had shoulder surgery, and will miss the bulk of the 2022 season. RB room is pretty thin right now with his loss. We will need Chris Tyree to be injury free and Audric Estime to show up big time along with true freshman JD Price who has shined in winter workouts and Spring Drills to be the real deal.
As we move along with recruiting and NIL, it's eminently clear that the NIL deals are crucial for many of the top 250-300 players. Dante Moore the top QB target for us and at one time we were considered favorites and most thought he would commit by June. That was the the old model where many top QB'S were early commits as their presence helped attract other players especially skill players on offense. Now he will take all 5 visits and just came back from Oregon gushing about their program. I have no doubt that Phil Knight will make him a generous NIL offer should the Oregon coaches ask him. Everyone should note that the Blitnekoff award winner from Pitt who is generally considered one of the top 2 returning WR, and Pitt went out and got former USC QB Jason Dart to replace Pickett who has moved on to the NFL, is in the Portal. Word is the USC collective reached out to him and offered him 3M dollars and a house if he went to the Portal and came to USC. That's what is happening, a really good DE from TCU went to the Portal and is going to Nebraska. Texas offered him but he chose Nebraska. I am speculating that NIL money was a part of the reason. He's not getting the really big money so certainly the opportunity to start and the fit in the Nebraska defense played big parts. I have seen some speculation that some of our top verbals are not solid as they are still entertaining other schools who have bigger NIL collectives.
You can't count on a single high profile player holding his commitment. This system has changed all the rules.
This all started with state laws in California. They planted the seed of the weed that will kill college football. ESPN makes a lot of money broadcasting the Little League World Series. By their logic, the kids should be getting a piece of the pie. Just how far is this insanity going to go?
Irish Lacrosse beat Duke to finish with a tie for the ACC crown. Next up is the NCAA selection to see if we make the post season. Irish Softball swept a double header from Louisvile at home play them again today then the ACC Tourney. Irish Baseball was supposed to go to Williamsburg to play William and Mary this weekend but that got cancelled for travel logistics. Finish the season with a midweek against Mich State and then a 3 game series at Miami. Football picked up another player in 4 star 2023 Saint James School (Md.) defensive lineman Devan Houstan. He joins Keon Keeley, Boubacar Traore and Brenan Vernon to give us a strong DL classs for 2023
to give us a strong DL class for 2023 Irish are looking very strong for next years recruits. Far different from the job Kelly was doing.
No doubt now more than ever we have to wait for them to actually sign. While the Irish do have their version of a collective I don't think it has the $to get in bidding war for these kids. Freeman has been hustling his ass off in recruiting. Something Kelly never did, we are still unlikely in the end to have a class to match programs like Alabama, Ohio State and now Texas A&M can put together. What we are going to have to do is to get a lot of good players and coach /develop them into 5 star players.
The whole NIL thing has the potential to ruing college football. I sure don't have a problem with college student athletes being able to earn a bit of money but the massive numbers I am seeing thrown around seem pretty ridiculous to me.
Read where SEC and PAC-12 commishs met in DC with lawmakers regarding NIL legislation. That could help but doubt those slugs will do anything important.
defensive lineman Devan Houstan has given his pledge to Marcus Freeman. The four-star prospect chose Notre Dame over Michigan, Northwestern, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers and Wake Forest.
I don't know how my ND friends or any other Skyboxers will receive this, but it's directly related to a major current topic of conversation, so I thought I'd post it.
I do think that there are still kids/parents out there who see and get what Brady is saying. But right now for those few kids who are 5 stars athletes and high 4 star kids there is the money now issues. I am sure thqt some of these kids need the money now, maybe their mom is working 2 jobs and they drive a beater that breaks down all the time. If the Irish selling point is the long term benefit of a ND degree, vs a collective that is offering them cash now. I'm not really sure where the breaking point is for these kids, I mean would you let 5K influence your choice, 50K? 100K? Certainly a million dollars is going to influence it. While I have no idea how much money Brady's Collective has to work with, so it's hard to guage what they can offer a player to entice him to come to ND. We are off to a good start in recruiting, I don't know if any of the kids have NIL deals and if they do how much are they getting.
Terry, the only point I would like make about your statement is that I believe that the other schools are also using a college degree as a selling point, not just "cash now".
We're looking at this through our value system. What is an 18 year old thinking? Most are thinking I'm outta here in three years if I get the chance.... I can come back for a degree later if I even want to. Or, if they are offered a Million or two or three then they're thinking what degree can I earn here where I will make that kind of cash?
George, a lot are graduating though. A couple of years ago the graduation rate at Alabama football was 86%. So more than 4\5 of the team is graduating. I think we were 4th and Stanford was.1st and ND was 2nd. This was.before NIL.
kp, I think George is looking forward, and not at recent historical data. You can probably expect grad rates to drop across the board. The transfer portal is going to hurt it all by itself. When kids are jumping ship left and right, it puts their degree plan behind. Rarely are all credits carried over from school to school.