General team info

[NDWarrior]

Didn’t know where to post this, but all good for ND, especially re: hiring coaching staff I guess. Notre Dame named America’s Best Large Employer by Forbes

 

[slick7410]

Man, just subscribe to Blue & Gold On3.

It's not that much money, and they are always doing deals. I pay $12 CAD ($8.50 USD) per month for a yearly subscription.

That’s it? I thought I would be hire.

 

[dublinirish]

Man, just subscribe to Blue & Gold On3.

It's not that much money, and they are always doing deals. I pay $12 CAD ($8.50 USD) per month for a yearly subscription.

pff i pay the pricely some of $0 for IE and all i have to endure are shitty food takes from midwesterners

 

[Pete]

I think ND owes them a few games.

 

[317Irish]

Man, just subscribe to Blue & Gold On3.

It's not that much money, and they are always doing deals. I pay $12 CAD ($8.50 USD) per month for a yearly subscription.

Damn right!

 

[ulukinatme]

I think ND owes them a few games.

Give them the Navy Lite treatment. "We will play you as long as Parker is your HC."

 

[Terry Jillery]

Maybe this is the secret to why Notre Dame and Michigan make it to the national championship back to back years with a number 12-20 ranked classes and beat up Georgia and Bama? Some of that top talent isn’t mentally tough.

 

[ulukinatme]

Maybe this is the secret to why Notre Dame and Michigan make it to the national championship back to back years with a number 12-20 ranked classes and beat up Georgia and Bama? Some of that top talent isn’t mentally tough.

It's hard for a lot of teams to repeat. Climbing the mountain you're hungry. When you get to the top you often lose your edge a bit. Happens in a lot of sports. Sometimes exceptional talent will allow you to coast for a spell, but in college football it's rare to repeat and you don't see 3 peats.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Maybe this is the secret to why Notre Dame and Michigan make it to the national championship back to back years with a number 12-20 ranked classes and beat up Georgia and Bama? Some of that top talent isn’t mentally tough.

Well actually for the latter program it’s by building a program through the greatest cheating scandal in modern college football history.

 

[INLaw]

Well actually for the latter program it’s by building a program through the greatest cheating scandal in modern college football history.

That has been memory holed right next to people’s curiosity on where covid came from

 

[Crazy Balki]

Maybe this is the secret to why Notre Dame and Michigan make it to the national championship back to back years with a number 12-20 ranked classes and beat up Georgia and Bama? Some of that top talent isn’t mentally tough.

Eh, I think that is true, but I can't imagine why Georgia wouldn't have been hungry.

They had their shot in 2023 to repeat, only to fall flat against Alabama and lose the SEC title. Then they had a shot at revenge in Tuscaloosa against a much worse Bama team, only to fall flat again. Then when they got their shot to get back to the top after falling short, they ran into a blue and gold buzzsaw.

Culture is important. I think Georgia had the talent to overwhelm teams for years. I think the on-field talent took a step back, but more importantly, I think the NIL era is starting to really show how important program culture is. ND has arguably the strongest program culture, as the guys who are at ND are there because they want to be at ND, they embrace all the aspects of ND. It's not just a ticket to big NIL money and the league for them.

Talent will still ultimately be a major factor in determining the best teams year to year, but culture is going to play a much bigger role now.

 

[zbikowski88]

 

[Irish5Saint]

On the Irish Illustrated podcast, John Brice said that ND football would go to 95 scholarships for this year

 

[The Backer]

Maybe this is the secret to why Notre Dame and Michigan make it to the national championship back to back years with a number 12-20 ranked classes and beat up Georgia and Bama? Some of that top talent isn’t mentally tough.

Is "Entitlement" code for "I refuse to move on from underperforming coordinators"?

 

[slick7410]

Anyone catch Brice's comment on II podcast talking about football moving from headcount scholarships to equivalency scholarships?

It does look like this is going to happen and I haven't seen it discussed much and they didn't go into much conversation on it - but this seems like a huge development. Could help save the walk-on program type change. With NIL, full tuition/benefit assistance (on-paper) isn't really needed.

Instead, all NCAA sports will be designated as equivalency sports. Equivalency for all sports allows each athletic program to freely determine what fraction of a scholarship they will give to each student-athlete within the maximum scholarship limits.

*might be old news, but I wasn't aware of it

 

[NDohio]

Anyone catch Brice's comment on II podcast talking about football moving from headcount scholarships to equivalency scholarships?

It does look like this is going to happen and I haven't seen it discussed much and they didn't go into much conversation on it - but this seems like a huge development. Could help save the walk-on program type change. With NIL, full tuition/benefit assistance (on-paper) isn't really needed.

Instead, all NCAA sports will be designated as equivalency sports. Equivalency for all sports allows each athletic program to freely determine what fraction of a scholarship they will give to each student-athlete within the maximum scholarship limits.

*might be old news, but I wasn't aware of it

I was thinking the same when I heard it. If ND is allocating 95 scholarships for the football team, that can easily be stretched to the full 105 roster positions.

 

[NDWarrior]

Good news here: Sources: Notre Dame adding offensive staffer with Big Ten experience

 

[Rockin’Irish]

I was thinking the same when I heard it. If ND is allocating 95 scholarships for the football team, that can easily be stretched to the full 105 roster positions.

The scholarships can also be partial……not full rides.

 

[Dale]

Seems the DB Analyst may have come as a Seider influence. Maybe a sidekick for Florida recruiting?

 

[NDWarrior]

There’s a lot of click baiting going on with this news, but I am wondering, could ND find a way to schedule in Tennessee in ‘26 and ‘27 with their newly diminished schedule. Would be a cool matchup! CANCELLED: Nebraska BACKS OUT of Tennessee Football Home & Home | Notre Dame, USC, Michigan Next?

 

[calvegas04]

There’s a lot of click baiting going on with this news, but I am wondering, could ND find a way to schedule in Tennessee in ‘26 and ‘27 with their newly diminished schedule. Would be a cool matchup! CANCELLED: Nebraska BACKS OUT of Tennessee Football Home & Home | Notre Dame, USC, Michigan Next?

Pass, we already have a solid schedule

 

[Irish du Nord]

There’s a lot of click baiting going on with this news, but I am wondering, could ND find a way to schedule in Tennessee in ‘26 and ‘27 with their newly diminished schedule. Would be a cool matchup! CANCELLED: Nebraska BACKS OUT of Tennessee Football Home & Home | Notre Dame, USC, Michigan Next?

Wait, a middling Big 10 team that wears red backed out of games against a more successful program? Where have I heard this before?

 

[texbender]

re-upped season tix; no price increase

 

[Terry Jillery]

I’m not usually negative about much bc I generally think we do a good job with most things. That said, I’m displeased by the lack of urgency for 2025.

We just came 1 game short of a championship and are returning a lot of guys. We lost a really good quarterback that had a big role in getting us there.

Our recruiting class coming in was mediocre and the transfer portal class was nothing overly special. If we had a chance in the past 30 years to actually win a title it was 2025 or 2026. I personally would’ve saw this as a once in decades chance. A do whatever it takes time in ND history. I feel like this off season, portal, and class was less than needed. Could they have actually done more? IDK. Maybe they did the best they could. Either way, I don’t think it was enough.

 

[Dale]

I’m not usually negative about much bc I generally think we do a good job with most things. That said, I’m displeased by the lack of urgency for 2025.

We just came 1 game short of a championship and are returning a lot of guys. We lost a really good quarterback that had a big role in getting us there.

Our recruiting class coming in was mediocre and the transfer portal class was nothing overly special. If we had a chance in the past 30 years to actually win a title it was 2025 or 2026. I personally would’ve saw this as a once in decades chance. A do whatever it takes time in ND history. I feel like this off season, portal, and class was less than needed. Could they have actually done more? IDK. Maybe they did the best they could. Either way, I don’t think it was enough.

You can argue the HS recruiting classes, but I strongly disagree on the portal class. In terms of retention + additions (to date) it is probably one of the best portal seasons of any team in CFB. The portal was frankly, below mediocre this year.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

You can argue the HS recruiting classes, but I strongly disagree on the portal class. In terms of retention + additions (to date) it is probably one of the best portal seasons of any team in CFB. The portal was frankly, below mediocre this year.

I agree, this year seems like a nice haul of quality of quantity:

DL adds are nice, particularly Dawson, andHughes is a good depth add.

WR: Malachi Fields was a massive get. 1600 yards and 10 TDs over the past two years at UVA. He's going to be the best outside, physical WR we've seen since Boykin. Going to be a nice addition to a room that's getting more and more experienced. Pauling also had a really good 2023 before the entire passing offense had some serious regression for UW in 2024.

S: DeVanta Smith from Alabama is a nice addition to add depth to a position that is losing X. Adon Shuler should be really good returning for us next year, but massive shoes to fill. Nice adding Smith to the competition.

 

[SeekNDestroy]

I agree, this year seems like a nice haul of quality of quantity:

DL adds are nice, particularly Dawson, andHughes is a good depth add.

WR: Malachi Fields was a massive get. 1600 yards and 10 TDs over the past two years at UVA. He's going to be the best outside, physical WR we've seen since Boykin. Going to be a nice addition to a room that's getting more and more experienced. Pauling also had a really good 2023 before the entire passing offense had some serious regression for UW in 2024.

S: DeVanta Smith from Alabama is a nice addition to add depth to a position that is losing X. Adon Shuler should be really good returning for us next year, but massive shoes to fill. Nice adding Smith to the competition.

Smith is replacing Clark at nickel.

 

[NDFAN2008]

I’m not usually negative about much bc I generally think we do a good job with most things. That said, I’m displeased by the lack of urgency for 2025.

We just came 1 game short of a championship and are returning a lot of guys. We lost a really good quarterback that had a big role in getting us there.

Our recruiting class coming in was mediocre and the transfer portal class was nothing overly special. If we had a chance in the past 30 years to actually win a title it was 2025 or 2026. I personally would’ve saw this as a once in decades chance. A do whatever it takes time in ND history. I feel like this off season, portal, and class was less than needed. Could they have actually done more? IDK. Maybe they did the best they could. Either way, I don’t think it was enough.

In regards to the portal class we brought in guys who will feel the holes needed. 1 stud WR, another proven WR with over 800 yards in a season, 1 stud DT and another depth piece, if I had any complaints on portal additions I woulda liked to see another TE Bauman brother I wish we woulda went after. The recruiting class had a lot of misses but I would still give the class an overall B. The DB class is elite, we coulda used another WR whose ready day 1 and another DT, but besides that I like the overall class.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Smith is replacing Clark at nickel.

Ah, I missed that. Clark was also solid. So the point that he's a good addition still stands

 

[Old Man Mike]

What-the-heck, everybody has an uninformed opinion on how next season will go, so why not me?

I think (with deep knowledge and conviction ) that:

A. We roll out an offense that other teams don't want to play because it has the best RBs they'll see all year AND a bunch of violent monsters on the O Line, who get better all season and enjoy inflicting damaging acts on other people in opposing uniforms despite being in Notre Dame's wonderful culture. Because of that, all opponents (as usual) have to stack the box (even though that doesn't work as well as it should given people like Jagusah actually occasionally lifting and throwing someone into the D backfields and Love turning circles in the air to avoid LBs, and, well, smaller opponents not really wanting to throw themselves in there all game.

We re-create our ND history of being TE-U, and field 3 or more good ones at that position. Our WRs turn out to be way better than even our IE negativists think (I'm using the word "think" loosely), and get open all the time because the opponents all have to be within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. That leaves QB. I believe that Steve Angeli is good, Ian Book good. And he might not start. Minchey, who I really don't know anything about, nor Carr actually, BUT if either of them can beat Angeli out, we have a MUCH BETTER THAN AVERAGE QB. If it's Angeli (and Book 2.0) we're pretty good.

B. Defense: If Golden was still here, I'd just say rewind the last few shows ... but I don't quite have the confidence. Personnel-wise I believe, from my IE in-the-know observers, that we're still pretty solid (for next year and barring too many injuries) at all three layers of defense, and maybe still ELITE in the D Backfield (Moore will be the best in the country, and it's hard to overvalue a shutdown side of the field). When you're elite in the D Backfield in today's ball, you're 80% of the way to being elite anyway. AND if people like Kingston is as good as he might be, this might not be a fantasy. Our running blaster-and-time-dominating offense should give our D Line a help-out. Optimism is possible.

SO ... pessimism that our great "bridesmaid" season may be a fluke or a waste is, I assert, wrong-headed. I'm Koolaid rich until proven wrong.