That is a tough schedule. I'm surprised it is the 12th hardest. I would have thought it was higher than that.
It's a solid schedule, a couple of cup cakes and a bunch of average to above average teams depending, and a couple of really good squads. USC , Stanford and Georgia are the headliners. But from what I'm hearing you'd better watch out for NCState, they had a top 25 defense last year and are bringing back most of it and they have a very good QB who is returning as well. They would have beaten Clemson last year if they'd had a FG kicker. And just for Joel, Navy is still on the schedule.
There was a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth over the loss of Oregon 2 sport athlete Braden Lenzy, who decommitted basically over Kelly not being overly enthusiastic of him devoting his spring to track. Most people blamed Kelly for losing him, and said Kelly should have been more supportive of him running track in the spring. Which is what Oregon did to get him to flip. But I didn't really feel like a guy coming on a football scholarship should not pay attention to football in the Spring. We've had plenty of 2 sport athletes, most recently Jeff Samardzja who is a MLB player, but when he was at ND he fully participated in football. This year Troy Pride, a DB with a great HS track career joined the track team after the spring and ran in some races and did OK. But he was there for Spring Ball. So I find myself liking what Jim Harbaugh has to say about 2 sport athletes.
Good article on the ND/UGA connection for one family. https://www.dawgnation.com/football/team-news/uga-notre-dame-game-carries-special-meaning-for-atlanta-family BTW there are several other excellent stories about ND/UGA on the left side of the page, just click on the links.
Well the Irish have a new Men's Golf Coach. He comes from the Fla Gators, not a UF grad but seems to have a very good background. http://www.und.com/sports/m-golf/spec-rel/070717aae.html Also since we are this far into the summer and the Irish baseball coach has not been fired you have to assume that he will return for the 2018 season. He might be a nice guy, but he's been a long way from a successful coach at ND. Even if you gave him that he took over a mess, you'd have to figure he'd have fixed it by now.
Well the Maxwell Award list is out today. Josh Adams and Mike McGlinchey are on the list from Notre Dame. Interestingly the only member of the list for the Fla Gators is......Malik Zaire. http://files.constantcontact.com/1ebc87fb001/acf71581-dd36-4a45-9f1c-128000e2f3fb.pdf
RIP Bob Elliott, former ND DB Coach. 64 yrs. old. Way too soon. Was coaching at Nebraska. From Nebraska web site:
Pete Sampson has an interview with Jack Swarbrick up on Irish Illustrated. I haven't read it, but not surprisingly it doesn't salve those who would like to see both he and Kelly fired.
Also at the ACC media days the ACC commish said they are very happy with the relationship with Notre Dame. He noted that there are some who have floated that ND was seeking full time membership in football, but Swarbrick has denied that and the ACC commish also said it's not on the table. He said the Irish have helped the teams they played:
Swarbrick in a published interview in USAToday originally in the IndyStar https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/notre-dame/2017/07/14/q-a-notre-dame-ad-no-reason-we-cant-compete-national-championship/467734001/
Cade McNamara is your Irish QB commit for 2019. He's from Reno Nv and is 6'1"/185. He's a 3 star QB. He's being described as Ian Book II. Which isn' all bad, Book got very good reviews in the Spring. Naturally I'd rather have a highly rated QB and early on it seemed like we were chasing several kids who were, but I guess nothing panned out. Recently a kid from Washington, Dylan Morris, was thought to be the guy but he up and committed to UW suddenly. To me it was a surprise because Washington is loaded at QB, they have two top 100 QB's coming in the 2018 class and a bunch of other QB's already on the roster. So it would seem our situation was much more favorable to him. We have Ian Book who I doubt anybody is afraid to compete against, Avery Davis an athlete who will need time, and Phil Jurkovec who is a solid 4 star kid. That's it. So it's not a loaded roster at QB, not like Washington. I guess we'll have to trust the coaches.
Happened to see on Twitter that we received a commitment from a CA kid, Jack Lamb of Great Oaks HS. 6'4", 220 lb. LB. 4*. For the record, I think this is my first post ever announcing a recruit. With all the free time I've had in retirement, I finally have been sucked into the vortex of following recruiting.
ND <t>Sid!!! You're joining the ranks of the recruiting nuts like me!!👍<br/> <br/> Anyway, great news on the new 4* LB from Caly. Maybe JO,Co can give us some details on him.</t>
:idea: :arrow: I don't have much on Jack Lamb, even though Temecula isn't that far away. He plays at Great Oak HS, which is one of the newer schools in that fast growing area. I'll try to find out more. In the meantime, here's a peak. He looks great on film... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qcMh4ZVkqn4" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Sid be ready to have your heart broken on a regular basis, right Tim? 8) Everybody is really high on the Lamb kid, seems to be a great athlete and while I haven't watched his film everybody who does says he's got tremendous upside and likely to play as a freshman. A couple of weeks ago I think everybody thought he was going to UCLA. Camp starts soon!
:idea: :arrow: Great Oak plays in Division 2, which is incredibly tough. Vista Murrietta HS plays in the same league and they have won state titles.