*Notre Dame* - On Vacation

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by Thoros of Beer, Feb 3, 2016.

  1. Voodoo

    Voodoo Fan of: Notre Dame
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    Also #5wide LOL
     
  2. NilesIrish

    NilesIrish Not a master fisher but I know bait when I see it
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    Going #5wide is simply not defensible. It's a game changer.
     
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  3. Mission From God

    Mission From God Ive been told a big legged woman aint got no soul
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    I will never forget 5 wide
     
  4. dallasdawg

    dallasdawg does the tin man have a sheet metal cock?
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    :idk: who’s running besides manning? who mods think will still end up in the class?
     
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  5. Gonff

    Gonff Prince of Mousethieves
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    We're told it's mostly being terrible on defense and needing to see some actual improvement to buy in. Haven't seen anything about it being a problem with the corners coach himself, outside of maybe some concern that he played linebacker and not corner in college. Not sure how much that actually matters.

    If the defense shows some improvement it'll probably work itself out mostly. Manning wanted to take trips and not feel guilty for being committed. Watts has also taken some visits and I'm sure he's keeping his options open if OU shows no improvement under Grinch.
     
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  6. dallasdawg

    dallasdawg does the tin man have a sheet metal cock?
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    ou is getting hammered by teams on nfl production on the defensive side, even though pretty much the entire staff is new, and a little bit on the defensive staff’s experience

    grinch has a good track record, but it’s not flashy just because it was at wazzou

    how they look in the first few games will be very telling on how they close on defense. in on some talent, just have to prove it to them
     
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  7. Rise

    Rise Well-Known Member
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    Thanks guys - the Cb coach thing comes from our recruiting guys “something he can’t get too much into”
     
  8. theregionsitter

    theregionsitter Well-Known Member
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    This guy our recruiting guy also is douche who hates OU because he used to work at Texas horns down
     
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  9. AHebrewToo

    AHebrewToo Albino Hebrew Extraordinaire
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    Cool. You guys gonna be tailgating? I’m actually parking in Joyce for the first time ever but I don’t have a lick of tailgating gear.
     
  10. NilesIrish

    NilesIrish Not a master fisher but I know bait when I see it
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    What time are you landing? I may be able to assist. I have too much shit for a storage unit, so if you want some stuff to play with and I can get it to you, I'm happy to do so. All lays on the kid. We have tickets to Lion King Thursday, she may be a mess early Friday.
     
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  11. dallasdawg

    dallasdawg does the tin man have a sheet metal cock?
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    ej holland? lol
     
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  12. Voodoo

    Voodoo Fan of: Notre Dame
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    That’s the guy! Seems to be pretty good at his job but he’s insufferable.


    But he is picking fights with other ND sites, which is entertaining.
     
  13. dallasdawg

    dallasdawg does the tin man have a sheet metal cock?
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    sounds right on brand
     
  14. I can not stand the guy but it is july and no sports things that interest me are going on so a cripple fight between them would entertain me for the next month
     
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  15. Red Rover

    Red Rover Neck water faucet, mockingbirds mocking
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    Lathan Ransom to OSU

    Not surprising but he was the top DB left on the board
     
  16. laxjoe

    laxjoe Well-Known Member
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  17. Rise

    Rise Well-Known Member
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    Let’s stop hiring former nd players pls
     
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  18. Beeds07

    Beeds07 Bitch, it's Saturday
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    That dude has been OSU for a while.
     
  19. NilesIrish

    NilesIrish Not a master fisher but I know bait when I see it
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    Did not see this coming.

     
  20. Juke Coolengody

    Juke Coolengody One name. Two men?
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    Anyone have an Athletic sub? Curious to read this new Sampson story on ND/Clemson.
     
  21. laxjoe

    laxjoe Well-Known Member
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    SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Like most unofficial visits, this one included a locker room tour.

    That was actually why Clemson’s three-man touring party came to Notre Dame in the first place last March, when director of football recruiting and external affairs Thad Turnipseed, director of recruiting operations Jordan Sorrells and deputy athletics director Graham Neff joined their men’s basketball team on a chartered plane here before a March 6 game.

    When Clemson basketball landed in South Bend, Turnipseed, Sorrells and Neff first headed to Northwestern for a look at college football’s most sparkling practice facility. Then they circled back to Notre Dame to see a locker room refurbished in a vintage style two years earlier. Clemson wanted a few pointers, even if it already had the expertise of visiting three dozen programs before building its two-year-old, $55 million football building that’s a leader in both the seemingly superfluous (a playground slide) and the scientific (an applied science lab to aid recovery).

    That Notre Dame would open up a brick-and-mortar space to Clemson did not risk divulging a competitive advantage. Name plate fonts and the orientation of halftime meeting spaces are not what builds College Football Playoff rosters. What came after that tour, though, spoke to something more detailed, as both programs pulled back the curtain on how they’d been constructed on a personnel level.

    For roughly an hour, Notre Dame director of player personnel Dave Peloquin, coordinator of recruiting operations Aaryn Kearney and associate athletics director Ron Powlus traded ideas with their Clemson counterparts. Even in the hyperconnected world of college football, none of the six knew each other from previous posts. Aside from that week in Dallas before the Cotton Bowl, an emphatic 30-3 thumping by Clemson en route to the national title, these staffs were basically strangers.

    And that made the candor that followed all the more remarkable in a college football world where secrecy trumps sharing.

    “All of us came into it thinking, how much are we gonna share? You’re tip-toeing,” Peloquin said. “After we got comfortable with each other it was very open. It was very organic in the way the conversation happened. We went the full gamut.”

    The programs compared notes on recruiting evaluations, College Football Playoff preparations and travel logistics. They talked about how to run summer camps, manage early enrollees and monitor the transfer portal. On some points, Notre Dame and Clemson found an acreage of common ground. On other issues, there was little shared philosophy. But in the end, the takeaway was that Notre Dame and Clemson were more similar than different, at least compared to the rest of the sport.

    “They weren’t like, ‘We’re not gonna divulge that, we’re not gonna talk about that.’ It was a good healthy conversation,” Kearney said. “We’re obviously competing. We go against them for kids. But I don’t think anything was a trade secret that’s gonna help them get a kid over us. It was just opening your eyes to how somebody else is doing it at a very high level and maybe take something from that and kind of make it your own.”

    The recruiting crossover between the two programs is limited but not insignificant. Notre Dame offered six members of Clemson’s 29-man freshman class but was only seriously involved with three-star linebacker Keith Maguire. Clemson offered seven players in Notre Dame’s 22-man freshman class, going hard after defensive tackle Jacob Lacey while showing early interest in safety Kyle Hamilton and offensive lineman Zeke Correll.

    The closest Notre Dame and Clemson came on the recruiting trail this cycle was Brian Kelly bumping into a Tigers defensive line coach at Port Huron Northern High School in Michigan last winter to see four-star defensive end Braiden McGregor, who committed to Michigan.

    So yes, Notre Dame and Clemson compete for prospects, but not enough to concern themselves with that competition and restrict exchanges of information. Neither program, it seems, confuses the recruitment of Josh Adams with splitting the atom. The latter is science. The former is football, and these conversations between staffs are an opportunity to help the sport and the college athletes who play it.

    [​IMG]

    Less than three months after Brian Kelly and Dabo Swinney met in Arlington, some of their key staffers met in South Bend. (Tim Heitman / USA Today)
    Turnipseed came to Clemson in 2013 from Alabama, his alma mater, as Dabo Swinney’s right-hand man. Turnipseed’s charge was to make Clemson football better, but that mission has expanded into taking what’s helped get the Tigers to the mountaintop and sharing that institutional knowledge. He’s hosted more than 30 programs at Clemson since the new indoor facility opened. He’s not trying to keep the place to himself.

    “I probably came away from the meeting respecting them more than I did, not that I didn’t respect them,” Kearney said. “I came away thinking, ‘Damn, they’ve got it together, they’ve got a good thing down there. That’s impressive.’

    “It’s not all cutthroat out there. There are actually some good people who want to get to know you and make things better.”

    From a practical standpoint, Notre Dame’s biggest lesson learned may have been Clemson’s reliance on private air travel for assistant coaches in recruiting. Notre Dame uses private planes to move Kelly, but assistants fly almost exclusively commercial, unless they’re headed where Kelly is headed. Clemson wasn’t much different from that a decade ago as Swinney got the program up and running. About a quarter of all recruiting travel was done by private plane. Now Clemson estimates nearly half of recruiting air travel goes through private contractors like Wheels Up.

    That let Clemson get nimbler on the trail, and it has doubled the number of prospects the Tigers see in contact periods. In other words, if Clemson saw 200 prospects during its fall evaluation days, now it sees 400. Considering no program requires a national footprint more than Notre Dame, that investment could pay dividends, especially for coordinators Chip Long and Clark Lea as they spot-recruit.

    How both programs adapted to the new recruiting calendar is another differentiator, both in official visits and summer camps. Both programs want to be nearly done with their classes before the season, but Clemson doesn’t take advantage of spring official visits to do it. Notre Dame has embraced that change. There’s a reason for that: Notre Dame lacks the backyard talent of Atlanta, the Carolinas and Maryland. The Irish are more likely to need to fly prospects in, and the official visit allows them to defray that cost. Clemson is more likely to save those all-expenses-paid trips for after a prospect commits.

    Meanwhile, Clemson’s approach to its summer camp organization was unique enough to make Notre Dame think. Swinney is adamant about not testing players at summer camps — no 40 times, no vertical jumps, etc. The goal is to get prospects comfortable with Clemson the culture before testing fits for Clemson the football team. Notre Dame views the summer camps as a workout opportunity, which helped it evaluate a handful of three-star cornerbacks this summer, landing three.

    “I thought that was interesting because you always want the data and know what you’re getting,” Kearney said. “At the same time, I can look at Deshaun Watson and I don’t need a 40 time on him. It sounded like they have a unique culture with their camps and recruiting when they come in.”

    Where Notre Dame and Clemson shared the most ground was in their recruiting philosophies on cultural fits, even if the fits aren’t exactly the same. In recent campaigns, Notre Dame has figured out that academic fit is paramount, not simply preferred. Faith works at both places, built into the university at Notre Dame and built into the program at Clemson.

    Clemson is militant in defending its culture through recruiting to the point of evaluating prospects on details as seemingly small as whether they throw away their own trash during meals. They track social media follows and retweets. Turnipseed, Sorrells and the recruiting staff maintain a chart with every prospect that includes a line of demarcation about character. Prospects who pass cultural muster are in black. Prospects who don’t are listed in red, with the support staff then having to explain why they should or should not be recruited moving forward.

    Any assistant coach can take a prospect off Clemson’s board at any time for reasons of fit. It’s not that Notre Dame’s coaching staff and recruiting staff doesn’t have that same agency, but Swinney explicitly demands it at Clemson.

    “And one of the things they stress in their program is they don’t ever talk themselves into exceptions,” said Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick. “If you say you want to live with these characteristics, don’t convince yourself that someone outside the characteristics is going to help you.”

    When it comes to the evaluators of those fits, both programs rely heavily on their current rosters. Once a culture is established, the players already indoctrinated are best suited to pick who’s coming next. It says something that Notre Dame doesn’t always use front-line players to pitch prospects, either. When three-star receiver Xavier Watts took his official visit last month, he spent time with career backups Jonathan Jones and Donte Vaughn, a linebacker and cornerback. They could have complained about a lack of playing time or personal opportunity. Instead, they helped convince Watts to leave Nebraska for Notre Dame.

    “They lean on their (players) just as much as we do, trying to get their guys to see if they would fit with what they’re doing,” Peloquin said. “As much as you watch kids with their parents around, they behave differently when they’re talking to the assistant coaches than when they’re talking to the players.

    “It’s not always on the bad side. It’s about, how do they fit in socially? If a kid is trying to be out all the time and going to a bunch of big parties, that’s not us. That’s not the culture that we have. If they get a city kid down at Clemson, is that going to fit? Because all their guys love to be outdoors.

    “It was reassuring to hear what they were doing because we’re on the same page.”

    It’s not that Notre Dame has never collaborated on operations or recruiting before. It’s just that the circumstances have been different. When former NBC analyst and current Raiders general manager Mike Mayock came to campus for pro day, Peloquin would pick his brain on player evaluations. When Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian is in the building – his son is Notre Dame’s special teams and recruiting coordinator Brian Polian – that’s another opportunity to share ideas.

    Peloquin tries to quiz NFL scouts passing though Notre Dame, too. What are they looking for in draft prospects? What matters? What doesn’t? The issue there is NFL scouts are evaluating 21-year-olds with consistent tape against consistent competition. Notre Dame and Clemson are looking at teenagers from wildly inconsistent backgrounds.

    That’s why the opportunity for Notre Dame to talk to Clemson and the opportunity for Clemson to talk to Notre Dame was so valuable. Two of college football’s best could share best practices. Both schools felt those approaches got a little better by the end of these conversations. And while Notre Dame is never going to compare notes with Michigan or USC, the same way Clemson won’t conference with Florida State or South Carolina, the meeting was enough for both groups to want to do more of this.

    Next month most college programs will send representatives to the second annual Personnel Symposium in Nashville. It’s two days of panels on recruiting operations, from evaluations to official visits to logistics. What felt like trade secrets a few years ago are now discussed out in the open.

    Peloquin attended last year. He’ll be back next month. Sorrells should be there, too.

    “We’ll get together, too, to pick each other’s brains again,” Peloquin said. “You start to develop those relationships and you feel more comfortable talking about things, how they’re doing their own process. Everybody is a little different. It’s all about just having a good open mind and trying to make it better. It’s not a perfect system. You learn from your mistakes and try to make it better.”

    (Top photo: Matthew Pearce / Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)
     
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  22. NilesIrish

    NilesIrish Not a master fisher but I know bait when I see it
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    laxjoe
     
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  23. laxjoe

    laxjoe Well-Known Member
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    i also can't recommend the athletic enough
     
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  24. laxjoe

    laxjoe Well-Known Member
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    i have clemson like speed this morning
     
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  25. NilesIrish

    NilesIrish Not a master fisher but I know bait when I see it
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    Damnit.

    I am cool with an alliance with Clemson though.
     
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  26. a1ND

    a1ND Bold & Spicy
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    midweek musings

    Midweek thoughts about the Notre Dame football program, its recruiting efforts and college football.

    WILL 2019 BE A BOUNCE BACK SEASON FOR TOMMY KRAEMER?
    No matter how good a team is, it seems every year there are players who show dramatic – and surprising – improvements in play. But there are also veterans expected to improve that regress. That is what happened with right guard Tommy Kraemer in 2018, but now the senior could be in line for a breakout season.

    Kraemer started nine games at right tackle in 2017, his redshirt freshman season, playing his role on the nation’s best offensive line. A move to guard in 2018 was expected to allow him to build around his best strengths (size, power, run blocking) and mask his areas of concern (playing in space, athleticism).

    Instead of his game improving, Kraemer took a major step back. According to Pro Football Focus, his pass blocking grade was even lower at guard in 2018 than it was at tackle in 2017. Kraemer appeared a bit out of shape, and his ability to handle more athletic linemen suffered, as did his ability to handle the twists and stunts thrown.

    Kraemer eventually was benched for two games, but the Cincinnati native was reinserted into the lineup for Notre Dame’s 42-13 victory over Florida State. I graded that performance as his best of the season, and so did Pro Football Focus. Kraemer was part of a line that dominated the Seminoles, with Notre Dame rushing for 365 yards in the win.

    Despite his struggles last season, Kraemer enters the season with multiple organizations naming him a preseason All-American despite the fact he might not even be Notre Dame’s second best returning blocker.

    We don’t know what kind of player Kraemer will be in 2019, but thus far he has not lived up to his elite prep billing. Rivals ranked him as the nation’s No. 41 overall player in the 2016 class, and 247Sports ranked him No. 8 overall. Although he hasn’t been as good as hoped for – at least not yet – Kraemer does enter the season as Notre Dame’s most experienced blocker, checking in with the most career starts (19) and second most snaps of any offensive lineman on the roster.

    I had a chance to see Kraemer in June while he was working one of Notre Dame’s summer camps. Kraemer showed off a completely reshaped body. A lot of the fat around his midsection was gone, he looked stronger in the upper body and his overall conditioning appeared vastly improved.

    Talking to sources around the program, there is a great deal of optimism that last season’s struggles are actually going to benefit Kraemer in 2019 by motivating him to attack the offseason. Kraemer went into the offseason being talked about as a guy whose job was in jeopardy, but as we head into fall camp he has put himself in position to be a standout up front for the Irish.

    Notre Dame absolutely must get dominant play from its offensive line this season, and Kraemer must be a key part of that. If he can play to his potential and be his best self on a more consistent basis it will give Notre Dame a big and powerful run blocker at guard, and it should help take pressure off sophomore center Jarrett Patterson, who enters his first season in the starting lineup.

    Right tackle Robert Hainsey enters the season as Notre Dame’s best returning linemen, and he is the unit leader in career snaps. A motivated, focused and productive Kraemer would give Notre Dame a dominant right side of the line, one that could rival – or even surpass – the play of the 2017 right side that consisted of Alex Bars at guard and Hainsey/Kraemer at right tackle.

    There are reasons to believe Kraemer could in fact be in position to make a big leap as a player. He enters his third season as a starter, and I’ve written extensively about the kind of progress most Notre Dame linemen make in their third seasons in the starting lineup under head coach Brian Kelly.

    He has that kind of ability. While we might chuckle at Kraemer being the Notre Dame blocker to be named a preseason All-American, there is no doubt the big Irish right guard has the tools to back up that preseason hype. If Kraemer makes the year-three leap he will be a driving force in Notre Dame once again fielding one of the nation’s elite offensive lines.

    2020 OFFENSIVE CLASS IS KELLY'S BEST YET
    Notre Dame OC Chip Long has not been shy about his desire to add more impact talent to the Irish roster. His first two classes took steps towards making that happen, and we'll likely start to see the fruits of that labor in a big way this fall.

    The 2020 class the staff is putting together, however, is the best all-around haul of the Kelly era.

    1. 2020 – The five Rivals100 players in the 2020 class is the most of Kelly’s tenure, besting the three from the 2013 and 2014 classes. Six of the nine commitments are ranked in the Top 130, and OL Michael Carmody is ranked as a Top100 recruit by another service. Everyone knows how I feel about Xavier Watts at wide receiver, and that unit also has 5-star Jordan Johnson. If he remains a 5-star he'll be the first of the Kelly era. Notre Dame landed a Top 100 recruit at quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end and offensive tackle. That has never happened under Kelly. This class has home run ability (hello Chris Tyree), it met all of its numbers goals and it has impact talent across the board.

    2. 2013 – This class can absolutely compete with the 2020 haul, at least when you look at what it was at the time it was being put together. Notre Dame signed three Rivals100 recruits (Greg Bryant, Steve Elmer, John Montelus) and four more Rivals250 players (Will Fuller, Tarean Folston, Malik Zaire, Hunter Bivin). Some of those players didn’t pan out, others did. The class also included Mike McGlinchey, who absolutely should have been at least a Rivals250 player and also had wide receivers Corey Robinson (4-star), Torii Hunter (4-star) and tight end Durham Smythe, a 3-star that became a starter and 4th Round NFL Draft pick.

    3. 2018 – If we just look at Rivals rankings this wasn’t a great class, but based on my rankings and looking at how players in this class were viewed by others it was one of Kelly’s strong skill classes. QB Phil Jurkovec was a special talent and a 5-star player on my board, and the Irish landed four receivers that I graded as 4-star players, and Kevin Austin was a Rivals100 player. That doesn’t include Joe Wilkins, another guy I graded as a 4-star, but he was actually signed to play defensive back. I loved Tommy Tremble’s game and George Takacs was a 4-star on Rivals. Jarrett Patterson should have been a 4-star, but the rest of the line class was just okay, which drags down the grade a bit.

    4. 2015 – If not for an average line class this group might be able to compete with the 2020 class. It lacked the star power, signing just one Rivals100 player (Brandon Wimbush), but it had five Rivals250 signees (Miles Boykin, Equanimeous St. Brown, Alizé Mack, Dexter Williams, Tristen Hoge) and I graded Josh Adams out even higher than Williams. To me, Adams was a Top 250 player. CJ Sanders was another 4-star player and I loved Jalen Guyton’s game. It came up short on numbers up front, but the skill talent in this class was outstanding.

    5. 2014 – The 2013 and 2014 classes tied for second most Rivals100 recruits with three. The one five-star in the class, Quenton Nelson, was absolutely that. This was easily Notre Dame’s best offensive line class on paper and how it panned out. Notre Dame signed a pair of Rivals100 linemen (Nelson, Alex Bars) and a third signee, Sam Mustipher, was in the Rivals250. All three became multi-year starters and captains, and all started on the 2017 line that was named the nation’s best. DeShone Kizer was a 4-star QB signee and put up good numbers at ND, but the tight ends and skill players in the class disappointed, and the reality is Justin Brent was always overrated.

    6. 2016 – On paper this was a very top-heavy class that came up short on numbers along the offensive line, didn’t land an impact running back and didn’t bring in a tight end, although that was done on purpose. Receivers Javon McKinley and Chase Claypool were extremely talented high school players with high rankings, and I graded Kevin Stepherson out as a 4-star player. He would have been a star at Notre Dame if not for his off-the-field actions. The two OL signees (Liam Eichenberg, Tommy Kraemer) were outstanding and are both starters, but the misses at running back and the lack of depth along the OL hurt the class. Ian Book turned out to be good, but he wasn't a highly ranked player at the time.

    7. 2011 – The 2011 haul added some talented players to the roster, but the highest drafted signee (Nick Martin) was arguably the lowest ranked player in the class. Notre Dame landed a pair of Rivals100 recruits (Matt Hegarty, Ben Koyack) and three Rivals250 signees (DaVaris Daniels, Troy Niklas, George Atkinson). Everett Golson was a three-star by Rivals, but his film was way better than that. Landing him was a coup for the class.

    8. 2017 – This class was solid when it signed and it has a chance to be even better, but this ranking is about how it was when it signed. The OL class was outstanding, with Notre Dame landed three Rivals250 recruits (Robert Hainsey, Joshua Lugg, Aaron Banks), and Lugg was my top ranked player in the class. It also landed a pair of Rivals100 tight ends in Cole Kmet and Brock Wright. CJ Holmes was a Rivals250 running back, but neither Michael Youngnor Jafar Armstrong were top recruits, although I had Young as a 4-star player. It was a solid class, but ending up with Avery Davis at QB and not having true top-end talent at WR leaves it below other top hauls.

    9. 2019 – This is another class that I believe will far outshine its rankings. The OL haul was one of the nation’s best, with a Rivals100 player (Quinn Carroll), two more Rivals250 players (John Olmstead, Zeke Correll) and there is no doubt in my mind that Andrew Kristofic is a Top 100 caliber blocker. The quarterback and running back picks were solid but unspectacular players, but I love Cam Hart as a player. It lacks star power at the skill positions, but this was a solid class that is right between two of the best hauls of Kelly’s tenure.

    10. 2010 – Kelly’s first class was solid, but the tragic passing of Rivals100 offensive lineman Matt James really stung in every way possible. James was the only Top 100 player in the offensive class, although the Irish did land four Rivals250 players, which included wide receiver TJ Jones and offensive tackle Christian Lombard, who started on Notre Dame’s 2012 squad.

    11. 2012 – The one big-time recruit it landed – QB Gunner Kiel – was overrated and committed to three different schools. It surprised very few people when he transferred from Notre Dame. WR Davonte Neal was always a stretch for Notre Dame, but Chris Brown was a solid player and Ronnie Stanley became a star. The class lacked depth and star power, and four of the seven offensive signees transferred or were kicked out of school. KeiVarae Russell was originally recruited to play offense but moved to defense, a moved that was countered by CJ Prosise being recruited to play defense but moving to offense, and he emerged as a 1,000-yard rush and third-round draft pick. It was a class with excellent talent at the top but a huge drop off after that.

    NOTE: It should be noted that two classes (2015, 2016) were knocked for OL numbers compared to 2020, which only has two commitments up front. The difference is the 2015 and 2016 classes needed more players, whereas Notre Dame chose to go short on numbers in 2020 because of what it landed before and after that class. Also, the rankings are based off what the class was when it signed, not what it became.

    ADJUSTMENT TO THE TRANSFER RULE
    Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby recently made a comment about transfer that I fully support. I’m a big proponent of some changes to the transfer rule, like the graduate rule where players are rewarded for graduating on time.

    I’m completely opposed to the notion of letting non-graduate transfers to play right away, barring legitimate unique circumstances.

    Bowlsby recent suggestion about altering the underclassman graduate rule was a good one.

    [​IMG]
    Brett McMurphy

    ✔@Brett_McMurphy



    Bob Bowlsby if he could mold transfer policy his way: “The data could not be any clearer: sitting a year is good academically. And I would advocate you can get that year back"


    16

    9:43 AM - Jul 15, 2019
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    See Brett McMurphy's other Tweets



    If a player redshirts at one school and transfers he is forced to sit out a year, which I support. At the same time, that player now loses a chance for four seasons to play. A rule allowing players that redshirt at one school getting the year back they lost through transferring is one I support.

    My only caveat/requirement would be the player must graduate first and be in good academic standing. It’s sort of a new graduate rule where a player doesn’t have to leave the school he is graduating from.

    TWEET OF THE WEEK
    Bruce Feldman of The Athletic produced his annual Top 50 Freaks list. Notre Dame had a pair of players on the list. The highest was Julian Okwara, who checked in at No. 10. Pro Football Focus analyst Mike Renner was happy about that.

    View image on Twitter
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    Mike Renner

    ✔@PFF_Mike



    Glad to see the hype for Notre Dame edge Julian Okwara starting to build. More than deserving

    [​IMG]61 pressures in 2018 (7th most in CFB)
    [​IMG]Top-10 on @BruceFeldmanCFB's freaks list
    [​IMG]1st round grade from NFS (soon from PFF too)


    60

    9:39 AM - Jul 12, 2019

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    Notre Dame continues its quest to add to the 2020 secondary class, which is all that is left for the staff. Part of the process involves trying to close on players already on the board. Another is continuing to expand the board to find other players that fit what the staff is looking for.

    Last night, Notre Dame expanded the board a bit by offering Argyle (Texas) Liberty Christian cornerback

    Collin Gamble
    . Here's a look at his game:

    the transfer rule i think is a really good idea. I am surprised this hasn't been brought up before
     
    chase538 likes this.
  27. Wicket

    Wicket Fan: ND, PSV, Pool FC, Cricket, Urquel, Dog Crew
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    Shocker. Mike Frank is a sourpuss about the level of the OL
     
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  28. CTownND

    CTownND Well-Known Member
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    Maybe I'm late to the party, but I had no idea a co-founder of The Athletic was an ND 2010 graduate.

    I wonder how their business model works, though - hopefully they last. They have ~50 cities with someone covering each market plus I'm guessing ~10-20 national writers, a bunch of engineers, etc. Let's say they have 150 people total making an average all-in of $100k - thats $15 million (and I'm sure guys like Jayson Stark and Shams are making a lot more than $100k). Then assume $10 million of costs for IT hosting, lease on their HQ, new tech development, travel to events, etc etc. So that's $25 million just to break even. They have no advertising so their only revenue stream is subsctiptions. I believe subscriptions are $4 a month - so that's $50 per year per person.

    So to break even on costs of $25 million they need 500,000 subscribers. Their official twitter only has 54,000 followers, so I'm assuming they are well below 500,000 subscribers right now. Anyway, high level assumptions and obviously I'd love for it to work out, just wondering how it does given they keep on pumping more and more high-paid writers onto the platform.
     
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  29. Juke Coolengody

    Juke Coolengody One name. Two men?
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    Sounds like the vast majority of gig economy business models to me - burn a pile of money to create hype, cash in on inflated valuation, rinse & repeat
     
  30. Bert Handsome

    Bert Handsome I'm sorry, the card says Moops
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    They got a shit ton of VC/PE money
     
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  31. Bert Handsome

    Bert Handsome I'm sorry, the card says Moops
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    There is a Packer blogger that has bounced around from a bunch of spots but now runs a blog called Cheesehead TV. The Packers won't give him a credential, and he used to always bitch that all of a sudden The Athletic and their VC money shows up out of nowhere and they all get credentials but Cheesehead TV can't.
     
  32. Wicket

    Wicket Fan: ND, PSV, Pool FC, Cricket, Urquel, Dog Crew
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    https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/31/t...NvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=4momuap4ODpPnY6hvbDXeg

    So i dont know enough about their business model to comment much but this goes into it superficially. Most markets being profitable i believe only when you just set writers against subscribers honestly
     
  33. Good Effort! Good Game!

    Good Effort! Good Game! Dallas Clark's biggest fan
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    :moon:
     
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  34. Wicket

    Wicket Fan: ND, PSV, Pool FC, Cricket, Urquel, Dog Crew
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    one difference being they actually create a very inflexible cost base with all those contracts
     
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  35. CTownND

    CTownND Well-Known Member
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    Interesting... so as of 9 months ago they had 100,000 subscribers paying $60 per year, or $6 million revenue per year.

    He then says they have 300 editorial staff - he specifically mentions 400 additional contributors later, so I'm assuming that's 300 full time employees. That's $30 million in costs if you assume the average all-in cost of an employee is $100k. Yeah, I dunno what's gonna give here or how they are profitable in most markets.
     
  36. beist

    beist Hyperbolist
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    They’ll give and sell advertising in a few years. Time is a flat circle.

    But they do good work in the meantime.
     
  37. Bert Handsome

    Bert Handsome I'm sorry, the card says Moops
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    If someone from the Athletic does a weekly spot on the radio, does that radio station pay Athletic or the writer?

    In other words, is there another revenue stream outside of subscription $ or can they pay writers less since they have opportunity to supplement their income on the side.

    I have to imagine Rosenthal has separate deals with Fox/MLB Network
     
  38. Rise

    Rise Well-Known Member
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    I hope it fails for the selfish reason that sampson is my favorite writer by far and I liked him on the beat
     
  39. IrishLAX2

    IrishLAX2 So you’re telling me there’s a chance
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  40. Bert Handsome

    Bert Handsome I'm sorry, the card says Moops
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    He's still on the beat and the Athletic is cheaper than than the recruiting sites that are a bunch of creeps
     
  41. Rise

    Rise Well-Known Member
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    I am definitely leaning toward unsubbing from it’s and maybe picking up the athletic - does he do like information about the team? He has the best sources in the gut
     
  42. IrishLAX2

    IrishLAX2 So you’re telling me there’s a chance
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    He posts a bunch of “inside info” in the comment sections of his articles if you ask good enough questions
     
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  43. theregionsitter

    theregionsitter Well-Known Member
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    The Athletic is fantastic

    The articles are of a quality not found anywhere else

    I’m talking about in general not just Sampson who I like despite his flaws
     
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  44. IHHH

    IHHH Well-Known Member
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    Never liked Sampson, he seems to be always overly pessimistic. He is objectively a pessimist that doesn’t know shit about football
     
  45. Rise

    Rise Well-Known Member
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    I dunno he always seemed to tell it like it is - I really remember him being one of the only ones who was saying 2016 may not be great
     
  46. IHHH

    IHHH Well-Known Member
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    Do you also remember him saying the 2017 was going to be a 7-8 win season...and 2018 being a step back being maybe a 7-9 win team?
     
  47. IHHH

    IHHH Well-Known Member
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    Also Sampson absolutely dismissing the idea of Ian book taking over for wimbush


    Mike frank,..,not a fan....actually called that one.
     
  48. NilesIrish

    NilesIrish Not a master fisher but I know bait when I see it
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    Pretty sure this was said earlier as well by Clemson staff.
     
  49. IHHH

    IHHH Well-Known Member
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    It was obvious
     
  50. NilesIrish

    NilesIrish Not a master fisher but I know bait when I see it
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    I'll say this, it made me feel better about making the trip to Dallas after I saw Bama get wrecked.I think we were the clear #2.
     
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