I just don’t know if there really is one out there or expected. Add tanner mckee as well and they all were various levels of meh at their respective schools
True. I’m easily swayed by this idea so anything to the positive or negative will see saw me to that side.
Give me a shot at a national title. If DJ figures it out in a place he can thrive in, that team's going to be a playoff contender I'm not sure I've seen a name where I've said "they can transform our program" / team yet. It looks like we're heading for Jack Coan 2.0 unless we take a chance on a high variance guy like DJ (who we can always bench for Buchner and he even comes with his brother)
Sort of where I would be in this unlikely hypothetical. Think they can make the playoffs with the dudes listed next year but good luck beating anyone with an elite qb and defense
Ahhh. I'm torn. The talent is there, but is the mental part? The one thing that makes it intriguing is the storyline if it were to work out. He's clearly well-known, as are his struggles. Imagine the story if ND were to turn him into a success. That would be a HUGE recruiting boost. On the other hand, I feel like they have one chance to get this right and there are safer options out there.
I haven't heard anything about DJ or his dad being headaches off the field. From what I can tell he seems to be very well liked at Clemson, he's just not really that good. I'm all for taking him, especially if he comes as a package with his brother, although in the transfer portal world I wouldn't hold my breath that the brother sticks around for his whole career. Especially if DJ doesn't have a good run at ND.
the fact that Rees has been forced (or is simply limited) to dumb down the playbook because of Pyne/Buchner/Coan's ability might actually work in that hypothetical. DJ's obviously physically capable and a run heavy offense with simple reads/PA looks can eliminate or at least limit some of his deficiencies
Ii podcast needs to read the room. I don’t care about all the ways a team that will never play together agains a unit got fucked up by usc
If it’s not going to be someone like Leary or Hartman, I’d take DJ *if* it meant getting his brother too. Breaking into that HS would also be fantastic.
His stat line is absurd. He’s literally the perfect scenario if you disregard the injuries. Kills teams from the pocket. Throws a great deep ball. Ability to elude rushers in the pocket and pick up yards with his legs if necessary.
I'd probably take Hartman over Leary but don't know that much They'd both at least give me confidence we'll have a real offense next year, but Leary ending 2 of the last 3 years injured doesn't sit great
Hartman isn't transferring. He's flat out said he's not playing a 6th year of CFB. There's enough film on him already for the league to make up their minds. He'll take his shot there and if he doesn't make it, he'll move on.
Also ii shutting down the podcast schedule for the off-season (maybe once a week or less). Coach d is going to blow them out the water
If those guys don’t have jobs elsewhere and are doing II as their full-time employment, this is an absolutely terrible decision.
Coach D about to drop a "What the 3rd quarter of Jeremiah Love's 8th game this season tells us about the wrinkles Rees can add against Texas A&M in 2025" podcast at 2 AM on New Years Day
There are going to be some bonkers vids “reevaluating the entire rosters hs film for what it could have told us about them as a player”
Pretty incredible to look back at DJ U’s trajectory after his freshman year. He was on the cover of everyone’s preseason edition and was on every “too early” Heisman ballot. Two back-to-back, subpar seasons and now he’s on everyone’s trash heap.
And watching his highlights from this year all I can think is holy shit he’s so much better than anyone on nds roster
Pete also came out and said on the pod that freeman and staff will be very aggressive in back door portal recruiting. Nice change from kelly
That isn't unusual for them, is it? I haven't listened to the new one yet, but they definitely have always kept it to once per week max during the offseason. Pretty sure this is Prister's only thing. Ditto for O'Malley but I remember hearing his wife is a doctor or something so I think he's just kind of living the dream. If Prister does retire, I'm not sure what he'll do. O'Malley is my favorite guy on the beat but I don't think he would do well as the #1 guy. Maybe he could go over to the Athletic with Pete and take the ND stuff away from Fortuna.
freeman would cut your heart out to win. kelly just wants to be paid, told how great he is and be able to golf whenever he wants
Yea they usually shut it down. I think it’s a full time gig and the main guys make decent money at it. I mean there are a fuck ton of people subscribed to the site and on3 l/rivals will soon die. I bet with prister out Pete may come back and they bring over singer from on3 to help loy
Reading between the lines, kelly wasn’t huge on (1) identifying portal talent, (2) recruiting committed players, or (3) processing guys and freeman is focused on all 3
II should just let Sinclair/Loy run the podcasts in the summer with the insiders joining when there is team news. Most of the summer is recruiting information anyway
This is actually a good idea, with the only downside being Loy's voice. I'm not even trying to rip on him. His squeaky voice just doesn't translate well to the format.
man, i forgot he was a top 40 recruit...had we landed him back as a recruit, we all would have been rejoicing. Now he's not good enough and as a UT grad who follows the team, he's not good enough IMO but he is a ton better than Pyne it's just funny how bad recruiting rankings really are regarding QBs, even the kids ranked in the top 100
from D3 Spoiler There’s a lot out there about portal quarterbacks right now. A lot of it will be smoke, but I’ll give you what I know for now. Number one, there isn’t “one guy” that Notre Dame is focused on right now. My sources have indicated Notre Dame has a “few” quarterbacks they are looking at right now, some are in the portal already and some are not. But any discussion about how they have zeroed in on one guy needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Here’s what I know about guys already in the portal. Hudson Card There is definitely interest in this one. Card’s people have expressed interest in Notre Dame for some time, should he jump in the portal. The fact he jumped in the portal now is because there is legit interest in him, and not just from Notre Dame. If Notre Dame zeroed in on him I think they’d be tough to beat, but they aren’t quite there yet. They want to see who all is in the portal, but they have definitely done their due diligence on Card in regard to everything they can legally do before he jumps in the portal. Reminder, he’s not on the portal yet, that can’t happen until next week, so it’s probably not a good idea to report that Notre Dame has talked to him about visiting, since it’s not legal to contact him yet. The discussion about visiting is more on the Card side, but when it becomes legal I fully expect to see Notre Dame get in contact with him. Regarding what people like, Card has some tools that are impressive and he’d be a very good fit in the offense. He has some Ian Book to his game (athleticism) and some Jack Coan to his game (accuracy, decision making). He had some impressive performances this year in limited time and his film is actually quite impressive in many ways. Talking to sources at Texas, there were a lot of people in the program that thought he should have started over Ewers. Jeff Sims Talking to sources there is zero interest from Notre Dame at this point. He’s really, really inaccurate and there are some leadership questions about him. This one won’t go anywhere and I am totally good with that. Cade McNamara There’s some natural draw here since Tommy Rees recruited McNamara out of high school. McNamara was obviously an Irish commit at one point. There are some things that my sources like about McNamara. He’s experienced, he’s accurate, good decision maker, can run the offense at Notre Dame. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some discussion with McNamara but of the players in the portal right now I don’t believe he’d be their top target, but I do think they’ll continue to explore things with him while also digging on other players. Not In The Portal There will be a lot of discussion about Devin Leary but it’s a bit early to go there because he’s not in the portal yet. If he gets in the portal I’ve heard for weeks that Leary would be very interested in Notre Dame. I know that some folks at Notre Dame like him as a player and would give him a very strong look, but the medicals are concerning. He’s had two big season ending injuries, one lower body and one upper body, which is very problematic. Another name to keep an eye on is Michael Pratt from Tulane, but things are a bit crazy there. It was expected that Willie Fritz was going to take the Georgia Tech job, and there were rumblings that if he did Pratt would jump in the portal. Fritz decided to stay at Tulane, so right now i don’t know what that means for Pratt. Will he stay at Tulane and play his last year with Fritz, or will he still jump in the portal? That’s a big question. I’m told that if he did enter the portal there would be legitimate interest on both sides, but I’m not sure it would vault him to the top of the board. A couple of other names to keep an eye on if they jump in the portal are Tyler Van Duke of Miami and Tanner McKee of Stanford, although Van Dyke would be the most realistic.
There isn't going to be a Caleb Williams. He was rare in that his coach went to USC and he followed. QBs in the portal are going to look meh because they are either not starters, got replaced as starters, or starters for smaller programs. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in the portal.