The team they beat, Indpls. Ben Davis, is a perennial local powerhouse who's in a rebuilding/reloading year. ND's Asmir Bilal is a Ben Davis alum. Avon won, 54-13.
Blake has been a relentless recruiter for the Irish, evidently has a lot of personality and maturity. I hope he's a great OL for the Irish!
Because none of the Internet sites are allowed to view ND practices, there isn't much information coming out regarding the Irish. But ISD has some reports and it's all pretty positive. Book apparently is having a really good camp as is the defense. Of course to be truthful, this time of year we always get a lot of really positive reports on how things are going, including comments that players look bigger faster stronger! Hopefully we are developing our depth as I think with the possibility of losing players during the season, not to injury but to Covid and quarantine/isolation you will need that depth.
That has to be one of the weirdest stories ever, I'd never heard of the term "catfished" before that blew up with Maniti. That was a magical season for the Irish, lots of close games, Manti himself was a tremendous player that year and by all accounts a really good person. Till it all came crashing down around him. I still watch that OU/ND game in Norman where the Irish came in and just flattened a good OU football team and Manti made what everybody's favorite play by play guy, Brent Mushburger, called a Heisman moment when he picked off a pass at a critical point. Weis won him away from USC where most thought he would go, Kelly got the advantage of having him on the team. He was a leader and great player. Too bad he has had only a so so NFL career, but he's not the first great college player to do so. I wish him a lot of luck.
ND has finally released it's policy on attendance at games. Naturally it will be limited. Students, faculty and staff, along with parents. Faculty will not be able to resell their tickets. Estimates are around 15-20K in attendance max. Season Ticket holders are out of luck. They have options on what to do with the money. Visiting teams will be given a limited number of tickets for their parents and other staffers that travel with the team. Season ticket holders can get a refund, or they can donate the money, or apply to 2021 season.
His story presented a template of the worst aspects of social media both in how he was “cat-fished” and all of the online abuse he received after the story went public. I remember thinking the story was funny when it first came out but then regretting that emotion after the avalanche of social media abuse started. He had a great college career, pulled in some big $$ in the NFL and is now married to a beautiful woman. Glad he has the last laugh.
Last summer on a cruise we met a really nice couple from So. Car. They were Clemson fans and were so looking forward to going to the game at ND this fall. Just another disappointment in the story of 2020.
Terry, I think we make a mistake when we use the stats of the NFL to measure the college career. There are many immeasurables that come into play in college that don't exist in the pros. There are many college players that I think are great and I don't really even know how they made out in the pros.
I would agree, college careers are just that, failure at the pros to achieve the same level of success are don't invalidate what guys did at college. Same really is true for HS All-Stars, greatest ever at their school who are just run of the mill college players. Sometimes those guys played in the right system, with the right coach, and with excellent teammates that facilitated their success. Then they move to the Pros and play on a crappy team with a crappy coach, get injured, etc and the outcome is different.
Game times have been announced and for the 1st time ever, ND will be on the USA Network for the So. Fla game. USA Network is a part of the NBC family. Also Tony Dungy will be the color guy with Mike Tirico. Kelly held a press conference yesterday a couple of things that were very positive. He had a lot of praise for both Kyren Williams who was a great HS RB from St. Louis, but he didn't really play last year. Also had a lot of praise for true freshman Chris Tyree. C'Bo Flemister also came in for some praise as well. RB room has lots of bodies but we didn't have a sense of who was going to give us production. They also moved a couple guys to RB, WR Kendall Abdur-Rahman and linebacker Osi Ekwonu. Not sure what they are thinking here as with Williams, Armstrong, Tyree, Flemister, and Jahmir Smith there are plenty of options. There is concern about the DB's, Kyle Hamilton is poised to have an AA type of season, but Houston Griffith and Ohio State transfer Isiah Pryor apparently haven't locked up the spot opposite him and Shawn Crawford is moving to safety, which means CB will be thinner and younger. Hopefully new CB coach, Mickens, is good at development. NCState transfer Nick McCloud though has gotten praise at CB. But CB remains a position where there is little game experience. We have lots at LB though and everyone expects Jerimiah Owusu-Koramoah to have an AA type of season. There is a lot of depth and good competition here, same for the DL. The OL is experienced and should be a great OL, they are all likely to play in the NFL. WR's will miss Kevin Austin as he provided that bigger faster WR who could stretch the field. Braden Lenzy and Lawrence Keys III have a ton of speed, but are smaller players. The Northwestern transfer Ben Skowronek is going to be the starter in place of Austin. He was a big productive receiver in the Northwestern offense so I expect he'll be a good addition. The guy I can't wait to see how he develops is TE Mike Mayer the true freshman, he's a big time talent. We'll see a lot of Tommy Tremble and Brock Wright as well, but look out for Mayer. I've been slow to get excited for the season, but I'm starting to get fired up to see the team play. To see what Tom Rees does with the offense, one thing I know is that he'll going to judged quickly and harshly as more than a few fans don't think he should have been given the job by Kelly. Go Irish!