ND's Talking Heads ... The good, bad & ugly

[StPaul_Irish]

My question is, who inside the Gug would be feeding him unless the SI tag got him some cred.

Was just thinking about this earlier this morning.

There are now 6 paid sites covering ND Football:

247
On3
Rivals
ISD
SI
NDInsider

I have trouble keeping them straight lol. Do other blue bloods have the same coverage?

 

[IrishLax]

My question is, who inside the Gug would be feeding him unless the SI tag got him some cred.

Was just thinking about this earlier this morning.

There are now 6 paid sites covering ND Football:

247
On3
Rivals
ISD
SI
NDInsider

Man I totally forgot about NDInsider. So you're correct. There are six companies offering subscription services for similar content.

What is the hook for each of them? With 247, you get access to national network stuff. With ISD/IB, you get film breakdowns and other targeted premium info. On3 wants to replace 247 and also become an NIL facilitator. Rivals is... just a worse 247 at this point? NDInsider is... a less established ISD? I've never used either so I don't have a clue.

It seems that the natural friction points will be between On3/247 and ISD/IB moving forward.

 

[NDFAN420]

The hook for On3 for me was $1 for a subscription. They tout their message board as the best, but it's nothing compared to IE (knowledge, maturity dedication, etc). They are very try hard and put out a lot of content, which for some might make up in quantity what 247 has in quality. My gut feeling is that the 247 staff is the most plugged in. Hansen at Rivals seems plugged in as well.

I can't say anything bad about ISD because when I was overseas it was the only ND podcast around and kept me in the loop when I had limited access to things. Maybe Mike Frank didn't change with the times. It happens.

 

[SouthSideChiDomer]

My question is, who inside the Gug would be feeding him unless the SI tag got him some cred.

Was just thinking about this earlier this morning.

There are now 6 paid sites covering ND Football:

247
On3
Rivals
ISD
SI
NDInsider

Wait, I thought NDInsider was Rivals now after the Rivals guys went to On3?

But still, there would be six given that Sampson is at The Athletic.

 

[BobbyMac]

Wait, I thought NDInsider was Rivals now after the Rivals guys went to On3?

But still, there would be six given that Sampson is at The Athletic.

Sampson makes 7.

But I don't put the Athletic in the same category as recruiting centric sites.

 

[Dale]

To be fair, Rivals isn’t very recruiting centric either at this point lol. It’s ghost town there.

 

[BobbyMac]

To be fair, Rivals isn’t very recruiting centric either at this point lol. It’s ghost town there.

Rivals will change that right? They can't allow Hansen & James to run a Rivals product like they did NDInsider.

 

[BrownerandFry]

Rivals will change that right? They can't allow Hansen & James to run a Rivals product like they did NDInsider.

Hansen said they were hiriing a recruiting specialist.

 

[Dale]

Hansen said they were hiriing a recruiting specialist.

And it’s been 5 weeks from launch and who knows how long since they should have begun the process. I’m locked in till the spring but pretty disappointing launch.

 

[MacIrish75]

And it’s been 5 weeks from launch and who knows how long since they should have begun the process. I’m locked in till the spring but pretty disappointing launch.

I really enjoy Hansen and James, and James especially is a great Twitter follow—but, I did not understand their move to Rivals. Seemed like a weird fit for both of them from the jump.

 

[MacIrish75]

I miss the days where I got my recruiting scoop from the hardcopy of BGI that my dad subscribed to. Those were the days. Will Victor Abiamiri be Irish? Is Anthony Vernaglia going to be the next great Irish defender? Will Freddie Parish Jr win a defensive Heisman? Find out next month!

 

[ColinKSU]

I really enjoy Hansen and James, and James especially is a great Twitter follow—but, I did not understand their move to Rivals. Seemed like a weird fit for both of them from the jump.

Like all of my former coworkers who worked for Gannett papers, I’d imagine a lot of the allure was “we don’t have to work for a Gannett paper anymore.”

 

[Luckylucci]

I still have my Rivals/NDInsider sub but I have been on maybe 3 times since the transition. It’s pretty slow over there.

Honestly just too lazy to cancel but they’re not earning the sub, IMO

 

[BobbyMac]

I really enjoy Hansen and James, and James especially is a great Twitter follow—but, I did not understand their move to Rivals. Seemed like a weird fit for both of them from the jump.

And if they get the right person or two to do the Loy/KS portion of the gig, Hansen & James can be the Tim & Tim's of Rivals/ND.

 

[spoonidentity]

So something happened yesterday when I clicked on the post link it brought me back to page 1... And I decided to read all 31 pages of posts over the last 5 years.

Some thoughts of new and old:

Tom Loy has gotten very strong with his reporting from where he began with the ND site.

I didn't subscribe to Rivals/BGI but Lou was a legend - yet he brought on people like Holland and Driskell and others who apparently were lame. Maybe it's because he was a good Catholic and believed in charity to others.

Rivals recruiting had a bump when they added Singer. He brings really excellent recruiting coverage and some great content there. But the more I read On3 now the more his frat boy arrogance is coming out in some of his posts. The drunken podcasts he was doing belongs with an unpaid blogging site. The feel of that message board's fans is starting to tip into the ND Nation realm of uncontrolled hissy fits.

ISD is good for content - but it's not a place for non stop breaking news. Mike Frank's behind the scenes summation posts are really really good. Jamie is usually the most brutally honest of the film breakdowns (with Prister just behind).

The new Rivals/Inside ND sports desperately needs a recruiting insider. Ditto on not being the place for breaking news right now but I think Eric did report Coach Deland's name first as a RB coach candidate . But I pay for 5 different services so I don't need it but recognize it would help their site. Eric Hansen's long form content is good. Like really, really good. His Harry Hiestand profile after the coaching announcement was well written and in depth. I would revisit how they doing after spring camp.

So yeah...I can give my reviews on the 5 sites I use if anyone wants it

Other random thoughts - I saw Old Man Mike's profile pop up. I miss him and hope he is ok.

And lastly - people were excited about EJ Holland joining the beat because he "did well with recruiting coverage" at Texas. Others thought he was a goober. Lax pulled no punches on him though lol.

 

[dublinirish]

I miss the days where I got my recruiting scoop from the hardcopy of BGI that my dad subscribed to. Those were the days. Will Victor Abiamiri be Irish? Is Anthony Vernaglia going to be the next great Irish defender? Will Freddie Parish Jr win a defensive Heisman? Find out next month!

jump before the push most likely

 

[Irishize]

Like all of my former coworkers who worked for Gannett papers, I’d imagine a lot of the allure was “we don’t have to work for a Gannett paper anymore.”

They saw the writing on the wall. Especially, James who is young and is nowhere near retirement. Newspapers are a dying breed relegated to digital subscriptions and smaller newsrooms.

 

[Rack Em]

My question is, who inside the Gug would be feeding him unless the SI tag got him some cred.

Was just thinking about this earlier this morning.

There are now 6 paid sites covering ND Football:

247
On3
Rivals
ISD
SI
NDInsider

Plus Sampson and Fortuna at the Athletic

 

[Dale]

Not ND but Bud has taken his annual rant to video this year lol

 

[CHIDomer9]

It is premium content, but if you are a subscriber, go on over to 247 and read 'Sinclair’s Midweek Recruiting Rundown' from today. This is quite possibly the worst attempt at writing an installment of a regular column that I've seen in quite a while. The article has been up for over 4 hours and it is still a mess of mistakes, missing words, ambiguous quotes not explained, etc. I don't know if they have an editing service or not, but it is SO needed. This is how Sinclair transcribed a quote-within-a-quote from a HS coach of a recruit:

‘You play he played basketball but lift like a football player.’

It is a chore to read.

Unrelated, I think Irish Breakdown podcast and youtube content has gotten a lot better over the last month since Driskell has shed Vince. He used to put out 2-3 hour podcasts that could have been 90 minutes, if not for Vince repeating what Driskell just said. At least with the new guys he has brought in they had some original thought or disagree with him sometimes. Vince adds absolutely nothing.

 

[IrishLion]

Blue. Chip. Ratio.

 

[Huntr]

tangential to ND on NBC

 

[Dale]

Gene Smith said this the other day. B1G is correct to shop around. Someone has to pony up to make the CFB Playoff not a only SEC/ESPN backed event. What a twist it would be to have NBC/B1G/ND/Playoff alignment

 

[greyhammer90]

tangential to ND on NBC

Hmmm... I've often wondered what requirements ND has baked into it's NBC contract to require NBC to put the majority of its games on the national NBC channel. Or does NBC just own the rights to televise and could put all our games on the the Olympics channel if it wanted to?

 

[irishog77]

Gene Smith said this the other day. B1G is correct to shop around. Someone has to pony up to make the CFB Playoff not a only SEC/ESPN backed event. What a twist it would be to have NBC/B1G/ND/Playoff alignment

The only problem with that thinking is that, outside of the big 10 schools and its fans, nobody else that's a fan of college football really wants to see more of the big 10.

 

[Dale]

Didn’t want to clutter Moore’s thread but EJ Holland is going straight off the reservation on Singer over his Moore pick lol. Originally told his board don’t listen to anyone besides him or Wiltfong, who works for a competitor. Now today said “every time I make a pick, there is intel behind it. That wasn't the case here, so I'm not putting much stock into it nor should you.”

He also had a completely false tweet, made a weird NIL comparison between Michigan/ND and wrote an article specifically about chances of getting ND decommits.

Pay board banter is silly but this dude is fully dug in.

 

[INLaw]

Didn’t want to clutter Moore’s thread but EJ Holland is going straight off the reservation on Singer over his Moore pick lol. Originally told his board don’t listen to anyone besides him or Wiltfong, who works for a competitor. Now today said “every time I make a pick, there is intel behind it. That wasn't the case here, so I'm not putting much stock into it nor should you.”

He also had a completely false tweet, made a weird NIL comparison between Michigan/ND and wrote an article specifically about chances of getting ND decommits.

Pay board banter is silly but this dude is fully dug in.

I am not following what you are saying here.

 

[Crazy Balki]

I am not following what you are saying here.

Essentially, this is EJ Holland:

 

[ThePiombino]

I am not following what you are saying here.

Holland going full potato

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

 

[GoldenAura]

Can someone fill me in on why EJ has a massive hate boner for ND? I know he briefly covered ND recruiting but did something else happen?