I guess it's time for a new topic to catch the bowls, recruitng and the winter sports like basketball and hockey. Speaking of basketball the Irish lost a close game to the hated Jim Boeheim and Syracuse, who hasn't had a good season so far, by one point at the end of the game. Fans are frustrated by this loss following the wipeout of a good Michigan State team. Hockey sits at .500 right now and really not a great team. They are off this weekend before playing Penn State at home next weekend. We are 3-4-1 in Big 10 play, We are 5-1-1 though at home. So maybe something can get going against Penn State who is ranked #6. Irish Women play UConn at Purcell tomorrow but this is as usual an elite UConn team and while this ND squad is a really good and a legit top 10 type of team they aren't likely to beat UConn tomorrow. Irish football is expected to pickup and DL from the Portal in Western Michigan's Braden Fiske. The 6-foot-5, 300-pound Fiske had 57 tackles (10.5 for loss) and 4.5 sacks this season for the Broncos. He visitied this weekend and picked up an offer, it's expected that he'll commit sometime next week.
Really good article on ND Women's basketball player Olivia Miles. She is a a great player, but I have noticed a couple of things. All that passing wizzardy also leads to turnovers, and she is a pretty chippy player. She is a fun player to watch. The marvelous Olivia Miles and her gasp-a-minute act
I read a Notre Dame fan's comments on Drew Pyne's leaving the team in an apparent huff on Face Book. It made me consider the other side of the story. To paraphrase his take on the Pyne timeline...... Pyne loses a spring and summer camp battle to Buchner for the starting job. In Buchner's two games at the helm he is far less than impressive and he gets knocked out for the season. Pyne gets thrown into the fire and despite obvious limitations and uneven O-Line play throughout the balance of the season manages to lead the team to an 8-2 record. Within 48 hours of the USC loss Coach Freeman announces that Buchner may be able and ready to play in a bowl game. Almost simultaneously Freeman announces that a touted defector QB recruit from Pitt's program has pledged to the Irish and will be an early enrollee. The next day the word spreads that the Irish are looking to a possible starter QB in the portal. Two days after that Pyne "shocks" the staff by announcing he is entering the portal himself. When you look at the events through that prism you can certainly understand why Pyne would be upset. And I looks like Freeman made a big "rookie mistake" in the short term not unlike Brian Kelly's early miscue of dividing his own team by labeling half the team Weis' players which he could not be expected to win it all with.
Drew Pyne can't win with ND fans. The majority have been critical of him all season, he's too short, noodle arm, an example of the lousy QB recruiting by Kelly. Please play Steve Angeli. We need a transfer QB who will start. So many were hoping that Drew would never take another snap at QB, play Angeli in the Bowl game. So looking over the fact that the majority of fans hoped he'd never take another snap at QB, and that it was clear that they were going to bring in a transfer QB to be the starter and Buchner was going likely play in the bowl game to get him ready for the Spring. It would seem like he wasn't abandoning his team the coaching staff was sending a message, go back to the bench Drew. While I can't know I wouldn't be shocked if Angeli got the backup role for the bowl. Oh yeah the fans pretty much blamed the USC loss on him. So since he was headed to the bench and likely to be at best 3rd team next season, he transfers. It's clear hat if you are going to transfer you need to go into the portal early so you have time to talk to other programs and take visits to their campus and meet with the staff and all that. Then make the decision and enroll in January. If you wait till after the bowl then you have less time for all that and some options will be closed to you as teams don't want to wait on you to enter the portal. Now Drew is a bad guy who abandoned the team and the fans who hoped he'd transfer and that he'd never take another snap for ND but quietly take his spot on the sideline and pass signals into the QB.
Initially I was a little irked at Pyne for the transfer but only on the timing aspect. After looking and considering whats happening with the Portal it probably does make sense for him. I was mainly thinking about the Bowl game. Also he is going to get his degree before or shortly after leaving. It's no secret that I like Pyne as a person but I think he has too much down side to continue to start for ND or any Power 5 team. If you aren't in the playoffs the bowls now are even less important and with the players opting out for transfer portal or sitting our for the NFL draft for a lot of teams you don't know what you have until game day. So probably for Pyne it was best and for ND it may turn out for the best anyway too. We may get to see Buchner again and a little of Angeli.
Notre Dame has offered Western Michigan transfer Braden Fiske following a visit to South Bend. "My visit was great," Fiske added. A native of Michigan City (Ind.), Fiske has high interest in the Irish but is not ready to close up his process yet.
Terry, you have a history of outstanding, sensible posts. Your post above on Pyne may be one of your best ever, at least in my opinion. You may not realize it, but IMO, you accurately described a common malady of the human condition among some fans: being so focused on a person's shortcomings that they miss (or willfully ignore) his strengths. I believe it's the basis of the famous Lou Holtz comment that the most popular player on the team is the second string QB. We've seen it here on Skybox, and it exists among fans of all college FB teams as well as in other sports. I'm a fan of Pyne for no reason other than he stepped in and did a good job at QB. Of course, there are better QBs out there, and of course he doesn't have a future as our starting QB, but when called upon, he helped lead the team from his position to an 8-2 record. I say "helped" because, while the QB sometimes gets too much credit and always gets too much blame, every outcome is a team win or loss. Frankly, I'm glad he was available when Buchner went down. The season is over, we move on, and he moves on, carrying a portfolio of work in 2022 that is admirable and that will make him an attractive addition to another program. Good luck, Drew, and thank you for your outstanding contribution to this season's team.
I realize that Pyne was the target of ND fans frustration but the real culprits were coaches who didn't do an acceptable job. No. 1 on my list is Stucky. He did an absolutely miserable job of recruiting top receivers. This could well have spilled over into QB recruiting since kids today are sophisticated enough to consider things such as schemes and targets. Second but nearly first is Kelly who just wasn't as involved in recruiting as he should have been. Freeman seems to have breathed life into our recruiting most importantly at QB. If Carr stays committed we should be in great shape at that position for half a decade. Besides Pyne, Rees has been a favorite whipping boy of the malcontents. I'm not sure if he deserves all the flack he's getting. Maybe it was bad evaluating of Buchner's talents. Maybe it was no help from Kelly (or worse, top QBs didn't want any part of Kelly.) Watching the games this weekend just confirmed in my mind the difference in talent we have at the QB position. Pyne at best was serviceable but he's miles away from Stroud, Williams, Young and a number of others. He did his job the best he could and that was enough to win most games. Hopefully he'll have success wherever he ends up but he wasn't in any way acceptable for future PT unless in an unusual emergency. Thanks and good luck.
If Fiske doesn't commit this coming week I will start to worry that his initial enthusiasm for going to ND has faded and his new recruitment is bringing NIL into the picture. I read that a couple of weeks ago he couldn't wait to get to ND and told people if he gets an offer he's going to Notre Dame. But since then he's sort of exploded with other offers from Power 5 programs and as I noted NIL. So we'll wait and see.
Irish Women have a big win over UConn today, they really dominated them esp in the Paint. A great game from both Miles and Maddy Westbeld, Lauren Ebo came off the bench and had a great game in the post. To be fair though we have to temper it with the fact that their best player Azzi Fudd was injured in the 1st half and didn't play in the 2nd half, but no matter it's always good to beat Geno and he always has a team full of highly recruited players so it's not like they had nobody after Fudd went down. That' would be Iowa if Catlin Clark goes down. But as we all know in basketball it's a long season of getting the team ready for the tournament, unlikely that very many teams won't lose at least 4 or 5 games along the way. I see that we are going to the Gator Bowl and playing South Carolina who finished their season very strong by beating both Tenn and Clemson soundly. Their QB Spencer Rattler was esp dynamic in those final 2 games, where as he was struggling most of the earlier part of the schedule. We're going to have portal guys and guys going to the NFL and opting out. Don't really know the extent of all of that though. South Carolina will have that as well as will all non-playoff teams.
Terry, I noticed that Olivia was wearing dark glasses. The glasses certainly did not seem to bother her, just curious
Don she's been wearing those glasses/goggles since she was in high school. Not sure why she started, a few NBA players (Kareem Abdul Jabbar) wore them because they kept getting poked in the eye. Don't know if that's her reason or maybe they are prescription and she needs them and doesn't like wearing contacts like most players.
I’m hearing that Pyne didn’t take it well when he was told he wouldn’t be starting the bowl game and he would have to compete for the starting job next season. It was already in the works that the staff was going to start Buchner if he continues to meet all Med qualifications before the bowl. Source says he and his family weren’t happy at all and that’s why he decided to transfer now.
Tim as you know I'm a Drew Pyne fan as a person. I can't say that he's a QB who can guide us to a Championship, but I am sorry that it has all played out this way. I said in the past all the articles I've read about him say he has always wanted to come to ND to play QB at ND since he was a young kid. He got his dream fulfilled when he got the scholarship, last year he came into some games and played well and this year he took over when we needed him and he did the best he could. It's clear from what I've read that he's very well liked by his teammates and unlike so many QB's when he lost the competition for QB1 and Boucher was given the starting job he didn't pout and leave he stayed and we're lucky he did. So for it all to end on a sour note I just hate it. I certainly understand him transferring as he wants to play and it's pretty clear that Freeman was hoping to bring in a guy to replace him and maybe even revive Tyler's career at QB. Drew was going to have to accept that he was likely to be #3 at best. I do hope he gets his degree this December and wish him luck at his next stop.
Being ever the optimist, I see this situation from a different angle. First of all, I like that Coach told him up front what the plans were while the portal window is open. I believe that Coach truly wants him to stay, but he realized that leaving was a definite possibility. If you (rhetorical) didn't see during the season that Pyne is a ferocious competitor who wants to play and wants to win, you weren't watching. After ten games as the starter at his beloved ND and a portfolio of success to "carry" to a new program, and facing a likely return to the bench for the rest of his time at ND, he can, 1) always treasure this season as the fulfillment of his dream; 2) be truly thankful to Coach and his teammates for their confidence and support; 3) go to a program where he has a legitimate chance to start over the next 3 years. I try to put myself in his shoes and don't see it as negative or a sour note. He's not a kid. He's a man who has shown his toughness and intelligence. He understands that he's had an amazing life experience that was very positive for him and set him up to continue playing the game he loves instead of warming the bench for the rest of his college years. I wish him success wherever he lands.
Well add Jayden Bellamy to the Portal list. The freshman fom NJ never really factored into the defense this year, besides being a freshman he had a concussion in fall camp that set him back. Don't know if this is a big loss or what. I mean he's a freshman and while I get it that he watched fellow freshman Ben Morrison become a star, it wasn't like he had no future with the Irish. But nowadays they are quick to bail on teams. Good Luck to him
Players usually know where they stand and if PT is more important that the school that they chose than the portal is now the tool for them to use. As we've seen at other places, roster spots are important assets and the portal allows for more auditions.
I wonder what Freeman will do with the bowl game. Fans of course want a win and truthfully I think the program needs to win to finish on a high and give us a good lead into the Spring Drills. But also with the players who are in the portal and the players who are opting out of the bowl it's certainly an opportunity to play the younger players and see what they've got rather than focusing on winning the game as the top priority. Of course playing younger players isn't a white flag to wave, we can do both. I wish our seniors would play, guys like Mayer, Patterson, Lugg and Foskey among others. But if they don't play turn it into an early Spring. Alt, Correll and Blake Fisher will be back to give us a good core to build the 2023 OL. So now is a good time to see the guys who will compete for the 2 opens slots on the OL. We have talent at TE, so they get more snaps and targets without Mayer. Of course Buchner and Angeli (Tim's favorite) will get a lot of practice snaps and they should give both a good bit of playing time.
Pretty neat story about a 25 year tradition at one of the dorms at ND (Dillion Hall). One of the many things that make Notre Dame unique. Jesus, Joe and Milkshakes | Notre Dame Magazine | University of Notre Dame