Irish lost a DL recruit in Darrin Agu, this is Irish Sports Daily's Matt Freeman's take on the situation. 2022 DE Darren Agu has backed off his pledge with the Irish. Believe he is the only commit who didn't visit in June. One of the negatives of having two big-time 2023 commits is the 2022 project likely feels a little pressure combined with the Irish continuing to pursue 2022 edge rusher Cyrus Moss. Tough break for Notre Dame as Agu has the talent to become a star, but it was also going to be a process. Looks like he may want to expedite that process a little quicker elsewhere. I don't think Notre Dame is going to lose too much sleep over this one as they loved his potential, but at the same time, defensive line recruiting is going well at this point under Mike Elston's watch.
Sobering take on Notre Dame recruiting by Pete Sampson. We're currently putting together a good class, but it's not close to Alabama and Ohio State. ___________ To me, this class is more about consolidating Notre Dame’s place among the second tier of college football with Oklahoma, Georgia and LSU than it is catching Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson. Because Notre Dame is not catching those programs in recruiting barring some sea change in the sport. And that’s not the end of the world! The Irish can get closer to those juggernauts without actually catching them. And then you’re banking on Notre Dame putting it all together in a special season with a special quarterback. To put an arbitrary number on Notre Dame’s recruiting compared to Ohio State, Alabama and Clemson, let’s go with 4.5. Notre Dame is making recruiting progress. But so are the Buckeyes, Tide and Tigers. If you look at the 247 Player Rankings and count crystal ball picks as commitments, Ohio State is on pace to sign 11 Top-100 players, with Georgia (9), Alabama (8), Oklahoma (8), Texas (7), LSU (6) and Clemson (5) giving chase. Notre Dame is projected to sign two in Williams and Sneed. All those other programs listed are projected to sign at least two five-star prospects, with Notre Dame a player for only offensive tackle Zach Rice. The reality for Notre Dame is that it needs to be nearly perfect in recruiting to truly catch Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson in raw material. And it needs to do it three straight years. Losing Nicholas Singleton to Penn State snuffed out that idea for this cycle, although the Irish could still sign a very strong class.
Waiting, Waiting, Waiting...Jaylen Sneed come on man let's hear you say "My Decision is for Notre Dame" or something like that!
As good a season as the Irish Baseball team had, they did it without hardly any players who were drafted. Even our "star" Niko Kavadas" who bashed a ton of HR's in the post season was taken late, 10th round #316 by the Red Sox. Here's how our fellow ACC teams did in the MLB draft. Notre Dame - 2 players drafted (and it's not like we did it with an abundance of underclassman talent) NC ST - 8 players drafted Louisville - 7 players drafted Florida State - 7 players drafted Virginia - 6 players drafted Clemson - 6 players drafted Duke - 5 players drafted UConn (who we beat 26-3) - 5 players drafted
I hope she gets in as well. While I know a lot of furor erupted over parents cheating to get their kids into various colleges. I hope that if this young lady is a good enough student to succeed at ND that she gets a slot.
Waiting on another defensive verbal! Good player defensive recruiting with Freeman has really been good. But he's another example of we are getting good players, but he's not in the 247 top 300. Alabama and Ohio State rarely dip into the outside of the top 300. It's just going to be tough to catch those guys when their raw talent is greater than ours. We'll have to count on superior player development, some of the players being underrated, and the proverbial diamond in the rough. Also, somehow we must get one of those elite QB's. We have 1, in Tyler Buchner, but that's it right now and none on the radar either. It’s time for Phoenix (Ariz.) Brophy College Prep four-star cornerback Benjamin Morrison to announce his commitment. The 6-0, 172-pounder from the class of 2022 is ready to chose from one of his 25-plus scholarship offers. On Thursday at 2pm ET, Morrison will announce his commitment. Morrison’s final three include Notre Dame, Washington and Alabama. All three programs have hosted him throughout his recruitment. In a recent story with Irish Illustrated and 247Sports, he discussed each program.
Tim did you watch his video? It's very well done, I hope that is reflective of his character and the type of player that we are getting.
Kyle Hamilton has signed a deal with shirtmaker, Rhoback. I hadn't ever heard of them so I looked them up, they have a nice-looking product and reasonably priced. Can't really say what sets them apart from all the other companies that will sell you shirts/hoodies/etc. Hope he does well with the product endorsement.
While all the talk is NIL and upcoming football season. Basketball summer workouts are going on all across the country including South Bend. Brey has made a lot of changes to his staff, hopfully positive ones, that help with team development and recruiting as well. Also a couple of well thought of freshmen are being added to the mix this fall, just so happens both are from South Bend. Blake Wesley and J.R. Konieczny. They aren't 5 star recruits but have potential to develop into very good college players. The new coaches are both former Irish players, Antoni Wyche and Anthony Solomon. Solomon was on Brey's 1st staff. Naturally, the hope is that Brey has found new life as he looked worn out and tired most of last year. A lot of people thought he should retire that he just didn't seem to have the fire necessary to get the program going, esp with regards to recruiting. We'll see, this team has a lot of veteran players and some new blood as well. The women's program has higher expectations for this season, the staff is settled in after a bumpy first year. They've had transfers and injuries and all sorts of growing pains. But they have a core of very talented players who unlike their male counterparts are all mostly high ranking players with a few 5 stars mixed into the team. Niele Ivey last year as I said had a rough first year taking over for a HOF coach like Coach McGraw. The team is healthy and a year under their belts, more is expected than just making the NCAA tournament. High ACC finish and certainly a shot at the Sweet 16. We'll see.
Really good article on the Irish Women's Basketball. Focus is on the young stars, Sonia Citron, Oliva Miles and Natalija Marshall. But we have some other big stars as well in Maddy Westbeld and Samantha Brunelle. There is potential with this team, maybe not Final Four potential but building towards that. Why This Trio’s Performance Is Crucial For Notre Dame Women's Basketball
As we head into fall camp is there any more anticipated thing than can Marcus Freeman coach defense like he recruits. He's been a star to say the least, poor Tom Rees looks like the ugly stepsister in comparison. It does seem though like there are more questions than answers. Who is going to be the starting 5 on the OL? If Jarrett Patterson is one of the top Centers in College football, why are we going to play him at Guard? Can Kevin Austin who has never been able to stay healthy, do so and finally show that he is the receiver everybody thinks he is? Is Jack Coan any more than a system QB, or a Game Manager QB? Can he actually be a dynamic leader at the QB position. Is Houston Griffith finally going to reach the potential that we thought he had when we recruited him? Just a few of the many questions.
I'm more an O line worrier. Coan is serviceable and we have good talent at RB. Meyer is a force at TE but we need a lot more from our receivers.
Of all the things I've been worrying about going into the 2021 season, one of them was out of sight and out of mind till today when I read a Mike Frank article and he commented on whether or not Jonathon Doerer can regain his confidence. Yikes I'd forgotten that he'd not been as reliable as he was in 2019, he went from being an 85% kicker to a 65% kicker. This year with the rebuilt OL with lots of talent but also lots of questions and not many starts between them, drives are more likely to stall and we'll need those FG's to win games. I hope he's ready!