'19 MO RB Kyren Williams (Notre Dame Signee)

[CanadalovesND]

Plus, Ok State first time ever facing ND. Their players aren't skipping that, even for a "meaningless" bowl game.

How many of their players are potentially second round picks?

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

Good for him. Nonplayoff bowl games are only for additional practice and a payout to the school.

 

[tko]

Let's go Diggs, Tyree and Estime

 

[Irish#1]

Very disappointed. This is a major bowl game and to have a healthy captain skipping it deemphasizes its importance to everyone on the team. College football is on a very dangerous path right now between “playoffs of bust” mentality + being able to hire agents while still in school + immediate transfer eligibility. The sport will be unrecognizable in 3 years or less.

We’re dangerously close to “pay me $X of NIL money to play in this game or I’m going to sit.”

I say all of this as a HUGE Kyren Williams fan - amazing effort and energy, classic lead by example guy. So if your lead by example guy doesn’t give a shit about a NY6 game then why should anyone else?

I'm as disappointed as anyone, but I think all of these guys will make up their own minds. Look at the bright side. The program is in a position where some are upset because we have multiple guys sitting out because they're good enough to leave early.

 

[Me2SouthBend]

What would a $5 or $10 million insurance policy cost? Suffer significant injury in the game or leading up to it you get paid. Just curious as I’m sure it’s been done.

 

[IrishLax]

Fun fact -- these are apparently the first two ND players to ever sit out a bowl game for draft reasons.

 

[NDRock]

Fun fact -- these are apparently the first two ND players to ever sit out a bowl game for draft reasons.

Didn't someone during the Kelly era get sent home from a bowl because of a hooker? Am I remembering that wrong?

 

[IrishLax]

Didn't someone during the Kelly era get sent home from a bowl because of a hooker? I'm I remembering that wrong?

Yes, Deon McIntosh I believe. That would not be sitting out for draft reasons haha

 

[Me2SouthBend]

Didn't someone during the Kelly era get sent home from a bowl because of a hooker? I'm I remembering that wrong?

It wasn’t a hooker it was Lisa Ann the porn star. Not a bowl game rather a dorm room. Only half kidding.

 

[pumpdog20]

How many of their players are potentially second round picks?

no clue

 

[NDRock]

It wasn’t a hooker it was Lisa Ann the porn star. Not a bowl game rather a dorm room. Only half kidding.

Yeah. Justin Brent. Wonder what he's up to.

 

[NDPhilly]

Fun fact -- these are apparently the first two ND players to ever sit out a bowl game for draft reasons.

Yup - In our 2019 Camping World Bowl Game against ISU, none of Kmet, Claypool, or Okwara (All top 3 round draft picks months later) sat. In fact, it wasn't even discussed as a possibility on this board.

Here we are just 2 years later in a much bigger bowl game with significantly more implications for the future of the program, and we have 2 sit, one of which has been fully healthy all year. The precedent at ND has now been set.

 

[Armyirish47]

Yup - In our 2019 Camping World Bowl Game against ISU, none of Kmet, Claypool, or Okwara (All top 3 round draft picks months later) sat. In fact, it wasn't even discussed as a possibility on this board.

Here we are just 2 years later in a much bigger bowl game with significantly more implications for the future of the program, and we have 2 sit, one of which has been fully healthy all year. The precedent at ND has now been set.

Program modernization marches along.

 

[zelezo vlk]

This was an inevitability. Sites have been saying for years that it's a matter of time until an important ND player sits out a bowl. But that doesn't make it easier on us. Go get that bag, Kyren.

Oh and there's an awful lot of people claiming these bowls aren't important who would be pissing their panties in the game thread if Pokie State was up 10-3 in the 2nd quarter...

Sent from my SM-J337U using Tapatalk

 

[Irish#1]

We still win both of those games comfortably without Kyren starting, so it probably wouldn't have changed a thing regarding our playoff odds.

Who's making these calls about which games "matter" and which ones are OK to skip? As a captain, I hope Kyren cleared this with his teammates before announcing it. Were I on this team, I would care a lot about beating the Pokes and winning our first NY6 bowl in nearly 30 years. Maybe I'm just out of touch though.

Two or three years ago, I would have taken the same position as you. The fact of the matter is CFB has changed considerably and players think way more about themselves than they do their school today. As many have said, the landscape is changing. We don't have to like it, but if you don't get use to it, you (not you in particular) won't enjoy CFB in the not too distant future.

 

[BrownerandFry]

Very disappointed. This is a major bowl game and to have a healthy captain skipping it deemphasizes its importance to everyone on the team. College football is on a very dangerous path right now between “playoffs of bust” mentality + being able to hire agents while still in school + immediate transfer eligibility. The sport will be unrecognizable in 3 years or less.

We’re dangerously close to “pay me $X of NIL money to play in this game or I’m going to sit.”

I say all of this as a HUGE Kyren Williams fan - amazing effort and energy, classic lead by example guy. So if your lead by example guy doesn’t give a shit about a NY6 game then why should anyone else?

Well, this is begging the question, but can you give me YOUR good faith estimate (and there is some tricky causation here) of how much money Taylor Decker, the Buckeye ignoramous cost Jaylon Smith? My estimate would be hovering around $50 million dollars.

 

[phork]

Yup - In our 2019 Camping World Bowl Game against ISU, none of Kmet, Claypool, or Okwara (All top 3 round draft picks months later) sat. In fact, it wasn't even discussed as a possibility on this board.

Here we are just 2 years later in a much bigger bowl game with significantly more implications for the future of the program, and we have 2 sit, one of which has been fully healthy all year. The precedent at ND has now been set.

This bowl game will have zero impact on the program. Time to relax a bit.

 

[Me2SouthBend]

I wonder how this will affect the line of the game. ND opened as 2.5 point favs. Has or will this change things? Gotta believe it will.

 

[Dale]

I wonder how this will affect the line of the game. ND opened as 2.5 point favs. Has or will this change things? Gotta believe it will.

Still same. I’d guess Hamilton was priced in and Kyren wouldn’t move the line

 

[Dale]

Yup - In our 2019 Camping World Bowl Game against ISU, none of Kmet, Claypool, or Okwara (All top 3 round draft picks months later) sat. In fact, it wasn't even discussed as a possibility on this board.

Here we are just 2 years later in a much bigger bowl game with significantly more implications for the future of the program, and we have 2 sit, one of which has been fully healthy all year. The precedent at ND has now been set.

The precedent for non-Playoff Bowls. Damn shame Merriweather won’t be play in the Mayonnaise Bowl in 5 years if we miss the Playoff! The NY6 is likely going away as stand alone bowls in a few years regardless. So much romanticizing over something already in motion to change

 

[NDPhilly]

This bowl game will have zero impact on the program. Time to relax a bit.

I don't buy it - from this perspective only a few of ND's games a year matter. Get killed by OSU certainly would effect Freeman's recruiting momentum.

 

[T-Boone]

The bowl games should be seen as the first game of the next season.
The team should "invite" the players who are juniors or above to play in the game and otherwise to attend the game.

 

[Luckylucci]

Yup - In our 2019 Camping World Bowl Game against ISU, none of Kmet, Claypool, or Okwara (All top 3 round draft picks months later) sat. In fact, it wasn't even discussed as a possibility on this board.

Here we are just 2 years later in a much bigger bowl game with significantly more implications for the future of the program, and we have 2 sit, one of which has been fully healthy all year. The precedent at ND has now been set.

All of this. We had no precedent at ND for this. I’m just saying, I wouldn’t want to be that guy. That guy that was the first healthy scratch from a big postseason bowl game at ND. I’d give it some thought but I’m not setting that precedent. Of all the players to play over the last decade he’s that guy. I would’ve never guessed it.

 

[IrishLax]

All of this. We had no precedent at ND for this. I’m just saying, I wouldn’t want to be that guy. That guy that was the first healthy scratch from a big postseason bowl game at ND. I’d give it some thought but I’m not setting that precedent. Of all the players to play over the last decade he’s that guy. I would’ve never guessed it.

Right!? Makes me like 100% convinced that was driven by people besides him. There is just no way that the hardest working, toughest, most team first guy on the team just up and opts out after the day before saying that he was going to play.

I’m less worried about the fact that Kyren, as a person, is doing this and more concerned about the precedent that was just set and that many may follow. Next 3-5 years of CFB is going to be weird.

 

[T-Boone]

All of this. We had no precedent at ND for this. I’m just saying, I wouldn’t want to be that guy. That guy that was the first healthy scratch from a big postseason bowl game at ND. I’d give it some thought but I’m not setting that precedent. Of all the players to play over the last decade he’s that guy. I would’ve never guessed it.

Maybe it is a sign of the times at ND in terms of its natties or nothing.

 

[NDRock]

Maybe it is a sign of the times at ND in terms of its natties or nothing.

I thought it was always that way. Conference championships are for others, we’re about NCs.

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

I’m honestly surprised by all the handwringing over this business decision. If it was any other profession…. I’d believe it to be a different response and we be condoning his smart choice in making a generationally impactful decision

 

[SaltyND24]

After seeing the Jaylon Smith injury live, I'm understanding of any player that chooses to not risk injury in a NY6 bowl if they are slated to be picked within the first 3 rds...With that said, wish he was out there one last time.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

I thought it was always that way. Conference championships are for others, we’re about NCs.

Every game matters. That used to be one of the things that made CFB special. Now it's "Every game matters as long as it has playoff implications; otherwise, ima do me."

Fuck that. This Fiesta Bowl matters. It's our opportunity for a first NY6 bowl win in nearly three decades. It's the first game of Marcus Freeman's tenure as headcoach. It's our opportunity to consolidate the program's tremendous momentum heading into 2022. To tell the hundreds of people busting their asses day in and day out behind the scenes to help NDFB succeed that it doesn't matter because it's not the playoffs is a bitch move.

More importantly, it's really bad for locker room culture. A good football team is more analogous to a company of soldiers than it is to most other sports. Allowing individuals to place themselves before the team is poisonous. This is the latest example of the professionalization of CFB threatening to ruin everything that makes this sport special. If I wanted to watch a bunch of highly paid mercenaries go through the motions against each other, I'd tune into the NFL.

 

[Rockin’Irish]

I sincerely thought that KH would not miss this game and although the decision is not one I prefer……I can see what his perspective may be. He gave 100% every day and by what I could glean, a great teammate. Wish he was out there against the Cowboys, he will be missed. Let’s hope the rest of the team is fired up to fill the void.