General team info

[Lberry]

Nice to sacrifice another home game #iNdEpEnDeNcE

 

[stlnd01]

I was hoping they'd find a better site, but sounds like ND will make an official announcement soon. A warmer location like Vegas in November would've made a lot more sense. There are literally no appealing home games next year - too bad the Shamrock game doesn't help

Has anyone been to a football game at Yankee Stadium? I don't really get the appeal of playing a football game in a baseball stadium, but I don't watch baseball so maybe I'm biased

I went when we played Army there in 2010 (also went to Fenway vs BC in '15). The sightlines are mostly crap. You want to be up high if you can. Also, depending on where you are seated, there could be a lot of open grass between you and the field. The closest seats to the field are likely going to be behind one of the two end zones. In all, a baseball stadium is not a particularly fun place to watch a football game. I will say taking the subway to Yankee up and back from Manhattan with carloads of fans was pretty fun though.

We should just find someone to come to ND that weekend. The Shamrock Series is pretty played out.

 

[KPENN]

What a stupid game. Make the team travel to NYC to play probably a night game before USC.

 

[NDohio]

Friday at 4: Notre Dame's football future will be most determined by President Fr. John Jenkins's successor

Marcus Freeman may find great success at Notre Dame. Another transfer quarterback could become a star. But no one will have a greater impact on Irish football in the decade to come than the next university president.

sports.yahoo.com

Two weeks ago, Notre Dame announced University President Fr. John Jenkins will step down from his role in May. The news was far from unexpected, both in that he will be concluding his 20th year as University President and in that Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick rather bluntly hinted at its coming when he announced his own resignation in the summer.

“It’s important for Father John to make the selection of the next AD, because I don’t know how much longer he’s going to go,” Swarbrick said to Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde.

When Swarbrick made public the plan to hand over the reins of the athletic department to then-NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua, there was brief consideration about removing the previous quote from this space’s article on the coming transition, one effective in early 2024. That was quickly and firmly pushed back against because Notre Dame’s effort to find its next president will have more impact on the Irish football program than any other development across the next decade.

Jenkins’s replacement will hold more influence on the Notre Dame football program than Bevacqua, even as the latter negotiates the next television deal, one widely expected to at least double, if not triple, the money the university collects on football broadcasts.

Jenkins’s replacement will determine the Playoff success of the Irish more than any head coach, be that Marcus Freeman for years to come or anyone who may replace him.

In many ways, there is no single individual with as much power in college football as Notre Dame’s president, rightly or wrongly. He is the only individual on the College Football Playoff Board of Managers unbeholden to a conference, each of the other 10 explicitly representing one of the 10 conferences, just as Swarbrick is and Bevacqua will be the only member of the College Football Playoff Management Committee free of a conference, the other 10 members all being conference commissioners.

As college football faces its coming changes, the Board of Managers and Management Committee will have little impact; they already used their influence to create the 12-team Playoff beginning next season. But Jenkins’s successor will be the one to set the tone on Notre Dame’s usage of the transfer portal and the one to decide how to respond to student-athlete employment.

The former is already a hot topic around Irish football, Freeman struggling to bring in underclassmen transfers while most of the rest of the country reloads rosters with them. But that will not be the make-or-break item.

How Notre Dame approaches student-athlete employment will define the future of Irish football, and Jenkins and Swarbrick always struck a hard line, at least until recently as that inevitability became more and more clear.

“I don’t think there’s a compulsion or some demand of justice that we [share football revenue with players],” Jenkins said to The New York Times in 2015, an article that then pondered what would come if college football players enjoyed an open market.

“That’s when we leave,” Jenkins said. “We will not tolerate that. Then it really does become a semipro team.”

Looking around now, eight years later, college football is as akin to an open market as rain is to snow. In a few weeks, with temperatures a few degrees cooler, inevitability will set in.

Jenkins and Swarbrick co-authored an opinion column in The New York Times this past March, arguing to hem in the usage of name, image and likeness rights that have turned into pay-for-play opportunities — hello, current Notre Dame starting quarterback Sam Hartman — while still keeping NIL rights, as originally intended, available.


“The claim that student-athletes otherwise get nothing from a multibillion-dollar college sports industry is false — and the misperception behind it goes to the heart of what is at stake,” they wrote. “If a talented high school player heads straight to the minor leagues, he earns a paycheck. If he goes instead to college, he can earn something far more valuable: a degree. …

“Congress, too, must act to resolve conflicting state regulations, clarify that our athletes are students, not employees, and give the N.C.A.A. the ability to enact and enforce rules for fair recruiting and compensation.”

Setting aside the increasing calculus that college degrees are worth less and less of a return on investment, and setting aside the tuition bubble that has financially crippled many college graduates this century, and setting aside the enrollment cliff rapidly approaching higher education that has every administration in the country trying to shore up its finances, each change in Jenkins’s and Swarbrick’s rhetoric has reflected the coming reality: College football players will be paid before much longer.

The television contracts have gotten too big. The travel now demanded is too exhausting for athletes as conferences stretch from New Jersey to Los Angeles, from Miami to San Francisco, from West Virginia to Phoenix. And the Supreme Court was too one-sided when it ruled 9-0 against the NCAA in NCAA v. Alston, removing a cap on non-cash education-related benefits due to antitrust law, setting an expected precedent that the NCAA is teetering on violating antitrust law as it keeps players from receiving fair market value.

The NCAA is wary of any other case reaching the Supreme Court, lest it be smacked further, and thus has turned to the cohesive and collaborative body of Congress to save its grip on all the finances.

Keep in mind, the NCAA is not an organization itself but a member organization, one doing as its members dictate, those members being the schools. And keep in mind, those schools are largely gathered in subsets — conferences — with one notable exception.

Thus, Jenkins’s replacement will have the loudest single voice in driving the NCAA forward, and when the day comes that Congress laughs at supposed amateruism or Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is able to voice his concurring opinion — so, not the majority of the Supreme Court back in 2021 but roughly parallel to it — that antitrust laws “should not be a cover for exploitation of the student athletes,” then Jenkins’s replacement will be the one to decide if Notre Dame will follow through on Jenkins’s threat to leave the top tier of college football when athletes are paid their fair market value.

That will impact Irish football more than any transfer quarterback, more than any head coach, more than any television contract.

The greatest likelihood was Jenkins was trying to posture, dig his heels in, perhaps even bluff. That would be Lobbying 101. But the tides have continued to shift against that mindset and against the NCAA. Kavanaugh is one of the staunchest conservatives on the Supreme Court, so when he broke away from some of his colleagues to point out the NCAA may have to worry about “serious questions under the antitrust laws,” that represented the NCAA losing one of its loudest anti-labor voices.

Earlier this month Swarbrick hoped Congress may develop a collective bargaining system for NCAA student-athletes in which they are somehow not employees but bargaining over compensation, benefits, hours, etc.

In other words, they would be employees.

That day will come.

Before it does, Jenkins will wrap up his 20 years in the Golden Dome, years marked by Notre Dame growing its endowment, controversially inviting President Barack Obama to be a commencement speaker, not inviting President Donald Trump for the same gig, expanding campus and drastically raising tuition more than 200 percent.

Notre Dame Stadium’s profile changed entirely halfway through his tenure, two head football coaches were fired while the men’s and women’s basketball teams enjoyed prolonged years of continuity.

Jenkins’s 20 years as Notre Dame President can be remembered in a dozen different ways and then some, as should be expected from the third-longest tenure in school history behind only founder Rev. Edward Sorin (1868-1893) and Rev. Ted Hesburgh (1952-87). His successor’s term will be most and quickly defined by how Irish football handles player employment, an overdue inevitability.

 

[Armyirish47]

Nice to sacrifice another home game #iNdEpEnDeNcE

Nice to use football as a platform to continue to spread the University's higher mission around the nation/globe #oBjeCtiVe

Keep grinding Barney Fife.

 

[DillonHall]

Nice to use football as a platform to continue to spread the University's higher mission around the nation/globe #oBjeCtiVe

Keep grinding Barney Fife.

I understand the underlying purpose of the Shamrock game, but going to the NYC area twice in less than a month to face boring opponents doesn't really help accomplish that

 

[Coachstradamus]

Nice to sacrifice another home game #iNdEpEnDeNcE

Wait, do you not like the fact that ND is independent? I couldn't tell from you complaining about it in every single thread

 

[irishff1014]

According to Prister, the Shamrock Series game in 2024 will probably be versus Army in November, maybe at Yankee Stadium

Kinda lame. Especially since we're already playing at MetLife against Navy

And it’s Army.

 

[PutuporShutup]

Nice to use football as a platform to continue to spread the University's higher mission around the nation/globe #oBjeCtiVe

Keep grinding Barney Fife.

What the hell is expanding by playing football in the Bronx

 

[Armyirish47]

What the hell is expanding by playing football in the Bronx

Your number of accounts.

 

[SeekNDestroy]

Your number of accounts.

 

[stpeteirish]

I was hoping they'd find a better site, but sounds like ND will make an official announcement soon. A warmer location like Vegas in November would've made a lot more sense. There are literally no appealing home games next year - too bad the Shamrock game doesn't help

Has anyone been to a football game at Yankee Stadium? I don't really get the appeal of playing a football game in a baseball stadium, but I don't watch baseball so maybe I'm biased

It was a really big deal about 70 years ago. Now, not so much.

 

[Lberry]

Wait, do you not like the fact that ND is independent? I couldn't tell from you complaining about it in every single thread

Well almost every day we get a situation that reminds us how stupid independence is.

 

[allenm5333]

According to Prister, the Shamrock Series game in 2024 will probably be versus Army in November, maybe at Yankee Stadium

Kinda lame. Especially since we're already playing at MetLife against Navy

So I live in NY and coach HS football. Very difficult for me to make it to ND games. Them playing twice in NY/Nj next years sounds great. However, I am in a wedding for the Navy game. The Army game is right during state playoff runs...

 

[Reaper97]

Well almost every day we get a situation that reminds us how stupid independence is.

There has been a thousand more reasons during all the realignment crap that makes Independence WAY better.

And now with the 12 team playoff, even the haters agree there is zero reason for ND to join a conference.

I don’t think you have a bit of understanding how Independence benefits ND & the fact every other team in the country would be too if they could.
Texas tried & failed miserably. But they really wanted to.

 

[INLaw]

There has been a thousand more reasons during all the realignment crap that makes Independence WAY better.

And now with the 12 team playoff, even the haters agree there is zero reason for ND to join a conference.

I don’t think you have a bit of understanding how Independence benefits ND & the fact every other team in the country would be too if they could.
Texas tried & failed miserably. But they really wanted to.

Comes back in throwing hay makers. Welcome back

 

[Lberry]

There has been a thousand more reasons during all the realignment crap that makes Independence WAY better.

And now with the 12 team playoff, even the haters agree there is zero reason for ND to join a conference.

I don’t think you have a bit of understanding how Independence benefits ND & the fact every other team in the country would be too if they could.
Texas tried & failed miserably. But they really wanted to.

Pleae visit the independence thread, where this opinion has been wrecked

 

[stlnd01]

Nice to use football as a platform to continue to spread the University's higher mission around the nation/globe #oBjeCtiVe

Keep grinding Barney Fife.

It would be more effective at that if they spread the locations around a little more and/or played a wider range of opponents. Vegas vs. BYU was cool. New York vs Army is been there/done that. I think this'll be the third in NYC since 2010, where we have also played "road" games against Navy and Syracuse in that time.

But of course most P5s won't agree to a one-off ND home game at a random (to them) neutral site. Even with BYU didn't we kind of have to twist their arm?

 

[INLaw]

Pleae visit the independence thread, where this opinion has been wrecked

Your own personal echo chamber that forced me to press the ignore button for the first time in 2023. No thanks. Heard your 73 points the first time don’t need em repeated daily.

 

[irishff1014]

Question for everyone?

Do we realistically think ND can ever win a national championship again?

I am starting to think no. We keep hearing this will be the year and it keeps falling short. The odds are low anyway but I think we are fighting an extreme up hill battle.

 

[Giddyup]

Well we were in the championship game 10 years ago

 

[Irishdawg]

Question for everyone?

Do we realistically think ND can ever win a national championship again?

I am starting to think no. We keep hearing this will be the year and it keeps falling short. The odds are low anyway but I think we are fighting an extreme up hill battle.

Not sure if I’m over-simplifying it but a stud QB like Carr and 5* receiver like Williams is a good start!!

 

[SoIll]

Question for everyone?

Do we realistically think ND can ever win a national championship again?

I am starting to think no. We keep hearing this will be the year and it keeps falling short. The odds are low anyway but I think we are fighting an extreme up hill battle.

A lot of things needs to change. Answer is no.

 

[PutuporShutup]

Not sure if I’m over-simplifying it but a stud QB like Carr and 5* receiver like Williams is a good start!!

It is but need to improve both lines recruitment and development
Only reason our dline could be good next year is due to Covid 5th years if mills and cross come back. Sophomore oline needs to improve big time with alt sure to leave

 

[Rockin’Irish]

Question for everyone?

Do we realistically think ND can ever win a national championship again?

I am starting to think no. We keep hearing this will be the year and it keeps falling short. The odds are low anyway but I think we are fighting an extreme up hill battle.

I certainly think it’s a realistic possibility, it is one of the reasons that I follow the team so closely. I‘ve been able to witness three NC seasons for ND and I’d love to see at least one more before the final dirt nap. I have to admit I watch every game and season with guarded optimism.

 

[TorontoGold]

Question for everyone?

Do we realistically think ND can ever win a national championship again?

I am starting to think no. We keep hearing this will be the year and it keeps falling short. The odds are low anyway but I think we are fighting an extreme up hill battle.

When was the last time someone said “this is the year”?

 

[NDWarrior]

I think we're getting closer and the one exciting thing that's kicking in next year for 2024 and beyond, is the expanded 12-team playoff where it looks like there's going to be 7 at-large spots which makes it much easier (but certainly not assured) for ND to at least get a shot at winning it all. Now we have to fix the important things which right now are getting the right OC (and whatever other coaches maybe be required to fill due to end-of-season cc changes) in place and tapping the right motivational and game planning strategies to take the team to another level. Lastly, just keep recruiting and developing and getting even better at both. Leveraging the term many have used on this site... Then just maybe Freeman and team catch lighting in a bottle where we get the right team of key coaches, a stud QB including CJ Carr, and finally, a group of talented, productive receivers all in place in the same season so that just maybe it all come together and we finally win the big one (and of course with a bit of the Luck of The Irish!)! There's still A LOT of work to do, but we can at least dream it...

 

[DillonHall]

When was the last time someone said “this is the year”?

September 2023, right before the Ohio State game

 

[irishff1014]

When was the last time someone said “this is the year”?

Every year in when it comes to recruiting. We this will be the year that they excel and then then class is good but not great.

 

[stlnd01]

I think we're getting closer and the one exciting thing that's kicking in next year for 2024 and beyond, is the expanded 12-team playoff where it looks like there's going to be 7 at-large spots which makes it much easier (but certainly not assured) for ND to at least get a shot at winning it all. Now we have to fix the important things which right now are getting the right OC (and whatever other coaches maybe be required to fill due to end-of-season cc changes) in place and tapping the right motivational and game planning strategies to take the team to another level. Lastly, just keep recruiting and developing and getting even better at both. Leveraging the term many have used on this site... Then just maybe Freeman and team catch lighting in a bottle where we get the right team of key coaches, a stud QB including CJ Carr, and finally, a group of talented, productive receivers all in place in the same season so that just maybe it all come together and we finally win the big one (and of course with a bit of the Luck of The Irish!)! There's still A LOT of work to do, but we can at least dream it...

The 12-team playoff cuts both ways.
It'll be fun to be in it, like we would've this year if we'd just beat stinkin' Clemson, to have a shot. But it'll be harder to win it. Beating three elite teams is harder than beating one (2012) or even two (2018, 2020). Just math.

But to answer the question, yeah I think we still can. Our defense, in recent years, has been good enough several times. So has the OL. The RBs are right now. Obviously QB and WR have not, but there's reason to be hopeful on the recruiting front. Then we just need to put all those pieces together at once and have the coaching and get the right breaks. Easy-peasy.