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

OhioIrish

OhioIrish

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I’ve been getting back into all things ND football related since the Freeman Era began. As a result, I am learning a bit about the various ND oriented media outlets — Irish Illustrated, Blue & Gold, Rivals, ISD, Irish Breakdown, etc. They all have different strengths and weaknesses— but, which are the most professional and reliable?? Seriously asking, because based on what I can see, none is truly plugged in— though I do really like Prister, O’Malley and Sampson on their podcast, they seem the most polished and professional.
 
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notredomer23

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OhioIrish said:
I’ve been getting back into all things ND football related since the Freeman Era began. As a result, I am learning a bit about the various ND oriented media outlets — Irish Illustrated, Blue & Gold, Rivals, ISD, Irish Breakdown, etc. They all have different strengths and weaknesses— but, which are the most professional and reliable?? Seriously asking, because based on what I can see, none is truly plugged in— though I do really like Prister, O’Malley and Sampson on their podcast, they seem the most polished and professional.
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Irishillustrated is head and shoulders above all the others in terms of info, but they sometimes jump the gun. Just giving the subscribers what they want though. Sometimes they pump a little too much sunshine.

BGI is slow to report and run by someone who doesn't care for ND fans much in Singer. His Lucky Charms posts during the week are about the only thing that makes the $1 for On3 worth it for now, but definitely won't be keeping that subscription.

Irish Breakdown gets their info from the other pay sites and adds some slight nuance to it to claim it their own.
 
IrishLion

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OhioIrish said:
I’ve been getting back into all things ND football related since the Freeman Era began. As a result, I am learning a bit about the various ND oriented media outlets — Irish Illustrated, Blue & Gold, Rivals, ISD, Irish Breakdown, etc. They all have different strengths and weaknesses— but, which are the most professional and reliable?? Seriously asking, because based on what I can see, none is truly plugged in— though I do really like Prister, O’Malley and Sampson on their podcast, they seem the most polished and professional.
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It depends on what you're looking for.

Sampson is the most plugged-in in terms of the current team. He doesn't really do breaking news, but he turns out the best written content in terms of profiles, mailbags, and even recruiting impact pieces. He doesn't really cover recruiting, but he's plugged in enough that he has longform stories ready to go about some of the bigger commitments, like the recent CJ Carr story he did.

Loy and 247 are probably the best for recruiting news. They're never going to get it perfect, because they're at the mercy of 16/17 year old kids, but they seem to be on their game lately.

ISD is the best for actual recruiting write-ups. They aren't breaking news on recruits as often as 247, but their post-commitment coverage and analysis is really good.

I don't have access to Rivals, so I can't make too many judgements there.


Sampson is the most reliable for polished content, whether it's about the team, a player, a coach, recruiting, etc.
247 is the most reliable for breaking recruiting news.
ISD is the most reliable for quality recruiting analysis, even if they aren't breaking the news itself.
 
FightingIrishLover7

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IrishLion said:
It depends on what you're looking for.

Sampson is the most plugged-in in terms of the current team. He doesn't really do breaking news, but he turns out the best written content in terms of profiles, mailbags, and even recruiting impact pieces. He doesn't really cover recruiting, but he's plugged in enough that he has longform stories ready to go about some of the bigger commitments, like the recent CJ Carr story he did.

Loy and 247 are probably the best for recruiting news. They're never going to get it perfect, because they're at the mercy of 16/17 year old kids, but they seem to be on their game lately.

ISD is the best for actual recruiting write-ups. They aren't breaking news on recruits as often as 247, but their post-commitment coverage and analysis is really good.

I don't have access to Rivals, so I can't make too many judgements there.


Sampson is the most reliable for polished content, whether it's about the team, a player, a coach, recruiting, etc.
247 is the most reliable for breaking recruiting news.
ISD is the most reliable for quality recruiting analysis, even if they aren't breaking the news itself.
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...IB is the most reliable Fox News coverage
 
Dale

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On3 and IB are unsubscribable if professionalism is a need

Rivals I no longer have but found their interviews to be well done. Hansen/James are good team wise too, though they don’t deal in any “rumors”.
 
IrishLax

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OhioIrish said:
I’ve been getting back into all things ND football related since the Freeman Era began. As a result, I am learning a bit about the various ND oriented media outlets — Irish Illustrated, Blue & Gold, Rivals, ISD, Irish Breakdown, etc. They all have different strengths and weaknesses— but, which are the most professional and reliable?? Seriously asking, because based on what I can see, none is truly plugged in— though I do really like Prister, O’Malley and Sampson on their podcast, they seem the most polished and professional.
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From a "professionalism" standpoint you're probably looking at The Athletic as being head and shoulders above all.

247 strikes a good balance of "recruiting buzz" without being unprofessional, but at this point with ~5 sites on the beat I don't feel like anything of value stays under wraps and frankly it's a race to the bottom by many to report conjecture/rumors. And at that point, might as well just trust random strangers on the internet for "news".
 
Irish#1

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OhioIrish said:
I’ve been getting back into all things ND football related since the Freeman Era began. As a result, I am learning a bit about the various ND oriented media outlets — Irish Illustrated, Blue & Gold, Rivals, ISD, Irish Breakdown, etc. They all have different strengths and weaknesses— but, which are the most professional and reliable?? Seriously asking, because based on what I can see, none is truly plugged in— though I do really like Prister, O’Malley and Sampson on their podcast, they seem the most polished and professional.
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Save your bucks and just come here. There's a lot of IE members with subscriptions to those sites that post on here. So, info from all of those sites eventually makes it here. To me, I really don't care if one site beats the others in reporting updates. It's still the same info just a few hours later.
 
Dale

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P_Rose said:
I'm not definitely not Driskell, I've been a member of this board for years just don't interact on it much. By all means though be a "Baby" when someone asks a question requesting proof of a claim.
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Can you provide proof of claim you’re not Driskell?
 
stlnd01

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Irish#1 said:
Save your bucks and just come here. There's a lot of IE members with subscriptions to those sites that post on here. So, info from all of those sites eventually makes it here. To me, I really don't care if one site beats the others in reporting updates. It's still the same info just a few hours later.
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This right here. Free-rider. Though I subscribe to The Athletic as well and it’s worth every penny (and yes Sampson is, overall, the best reporter covering Notre Dame football, if not necessarily recruiting, and their college football coverage in general is excellent).
 
P_Rose

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Dale said:
Can you provide proof of claim you’re not Driskell?
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Definitely can what do you want I will PM you the proof. It's funny someone is requesting for proof on a claim out of general curiosity and they are instantly accused of being Driskell.
 
TNUtoNotreDame

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P_Rose said:
Definitely can what do you want I will PM you the proof. It's funny someone is requesting for proof on a claim out of general curiosity and they are instantly accused of being Driskell.
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It is in italics, that means he is kidding.
 
StPaul_Irish

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P_Rose said:
Definitely can what do you want I will PM you the proof. It's funny someone is requesting for proof on a claim out of general curiosity and they are instantly accused of being Driskell.
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Hmmm, ask about Driskell, gets upset and defensive, pretty sure you are him, or on of his sources...who so happen to be, also him. 🤔
 
Some Irish Bloke

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stlnd01 said:
This right here. Free-rider. Though I subscribe to The Athletic as well and it’s worth every penny (and yes Sampson is, overall, the best reporter covering Notre Dame football, if not necessarily recruiting, and their college football coverage in general is excellent).
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Bump; I was basically going to reply to Irish#1's post with the same content as stlnd01.

I don't subscribe to any of the "recruiting" sites because IE does such a nice job of being "plugged in" with the various recruits' threads that you get the gist of it. It might be secondhand, not "breaking" coverage, of these recruits, but you get the info eventually.

As far as team-related content, opponent previews, game summaries, etc., it is really hard to compare anyone to Pete Sampson. I love his writing style, he is witty and fun to read. He's definitely worth the Athletic subscription alone, but I enjoy the content the Athletic puts out for all of my other teams across, college and professional.

I enjoy the ISD power hour podcast as well, particularly during the season when they recap the previous weeks' game and preview the upcoming opponent. They do some fun recruiting ones throughout the offseason as well.
 
OhioIrish

OhioIrish

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IrishLion said:
It depends on what you're looking for.

Sampson is the most plugged-in in terms of the current team. He doesn't really do breaking news, but he turns out the best written content in terms of profiles, mailbags, and even recruiting impact pieces. He doesn't really cover recruiting, but he's plugged in enough that he has longform stories ready to go about some of the bigger commitments, like the recent CJ Carr story he did.

Loy and 247 are probably the best for recruiting news. They're never going to get it perfect, because they're at the mercy of 16/17 year old kids, but they seem to be on their game lately.

ISD is the best for actual recruiting write-ups. They aren't breaking news on recruits as often as 247, but their post-commitment coverage and analysis is really good.

I don't have access to Rivals, so I can't make too many judgements there.


Sampson is the most reliable for polished content, whether it's about the team, a player, a coach, recruiting, etc.
247 is the most reliable for breaking recruiting news.
ISD is the most reliable for quality recruiting analysis, even if they aren't breaking the news itself.
Click to expand...
I’m looking for different things at different times. But, it does seem like the team at II is best for overall coverage of the program — they have an actual journalistic integrity to them. The others tend to seem more like fans who started a blog — which can be fun too. Maybe I’ll give ISD a bit more attention now that we are in recruiting season. I joined the IB message board to get more Intel, it’s hit and miss. Driskell seems to be a great analyst, but he gets really sensitive and defensive on the board — which is a big drag sometimes because the threads tend to get petty and can be more work than fun.

Thanks everyone for all the feedback!
 
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NDMD

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99% sure Driskell is so defensive he is getting people to go onto other sites and defend him. Other tenured media members have said off the record that many in the progr don't like him.
 
ACamp1900

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P_Rose said:
Definitely can what do you want I will PM you the proof. It's funny someone is requesting for proof on a claim out of general curiosity and they are instantly accused of being Driskell.
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(Immediately pms a picture of Pete Rose)
 
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