Just crazy how pretty much all our high end talent from last year is coming back with a year of experience
I know Jordan Clark was not really projected to be drafted but I don't get it, he is undersized but the guy can play and has NFL bloodlines. Don't know why a team hasn't taken a flier on him. Cross is almost the same with size and bloodlines but I get it more with a DT than a slot corner
I guess, and teams keep taking shots on guys with athletic traits I get it. Just think Clark is going to play in the league but I am wrong very often so we shall see
At a bar for junior mother/daughter night with St. Mary’s and the moms are hotter than the kids and picking up what I’m putting down. I love drugs. Old as shit.
Miami is really going all in on the portal- they’ve gotten quite the list of transfers it might be best ND gets them in Week One
They're going to have two consensus top 15 draft picks, a ton of talent, and a new DC who should be pretty good. Beck is a total wild card - he could be anything from an injured mess who just cashed in on the $4m in Miami to a Heisman trophy candidate. Its a big game but I will take it as the opener and I'm hoping there's a lot of ND fans in the crowd. We'll be prepared.
SIAP, but this was a super positive update mid-week. Edges and Craig are full strength for fall camp, Lambert seems like he'll get there too
I thought you meant the real Miami, who also has gone all-in on the portal w/ the #1 class in the MAC
I feel like I need this. https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/70632099-great-notre-dame-football-coaches
Tried listening to the Independent podcast for the first time - is Pete Sampson ever positive? The majority of the spring recap was a focus on whether the upcoming season will be a repeat of the 2016 year.
Feel like Sampson and Prister are both guilty of judging current ND against the standard of 2015 - 2023 Bama/Georgia/Clemson/Ohio State rosters - which were probably some of the greatest college football rosters in the history of the sport. That same concentration of talent at the top of the sport doesn't exist today.
They also have serious PTSD and haven’t realized a lot of the previous bullshit we went through can be lumped squarely on Brian Kelly’s shoulders. All that said, doing it one year versus multiple is a question mark for Marcus. As is doing it when expectations are sky high. I hope he’s the anti-BK in that regard.
Their skepticism may also come from (now thinking of this I think it is by far the #1 reason) is that in the days of Bowden and Rees every issue that popped up they were probably fed an excuse or explanation. Now they are in the dark and have to figure shit out on their own.
We also went 12 years where there was 0 depth so you only had 2-3 positions that were championship caliber each year with the rest being holes or some patchwork effort that bk, to his credit, would scheme to win close games or move a guy from a different position. Under bk dl would be a huge question mark next year and the beat can’t adjust to being able to reload a late round pick and a udfa
i gotta say, i'm absolutely stunned by the silence on the transfer portal...it's literally like guys don't want to leave the team Freeman/the rest of the coaches/ND admin must really have created something special
if you want something to pass the time, read Prister's film review on Pouncey...doesn't get much more glowing than that Spoiler Oh my goodness. To watch 6-foot-2½, 165-pound four-star Ayden Pouncey play football for Winter Park (Fla.) High School is one of the great joys of analyzing prep football players and projecting them to the next level. This is a tremendous athlete and instinctual football player who influences games in a multitude of ways. He'll bring those skills to Notre Dame next year after his verbal commitment to the Irish Saturday. Pouncey is the 12th player to commit to the Irish in the Class of 2026 and arguably the most dynamic outside of perhaps EDGE-Rodney Dunham (Charlotte, N.C.). Pouncey is 247Sports' No. 135 overall prospect and a composite No. 140. There's no way he doesn't rise to top 100 status during his senior campaign. If he were listed 15 pounds heavier than he is, he might be a top 50 prospect. The versatile Pouncey is an acrobat in cleats. His is a graceful, greased-hip athlete who glides around a football field. He's a hovercraft. He can make all the plays at receiver, cornerback/safety and as a return man, and does so with the greatest of ease. He'll flash from brilliant offensive skill-position athlete to defensive hammer from one play to the next. He'll sideswipe a receiver like a car careening down a crowded street. He's a very physical hitter against offensive players who leave themselves vulnerable to impact. He'll explode into the lower body of an offensive player and chop him down at the knees/ankles. Pouncy's ability to break down into a tackling position, avoid lunging and then time up his explosion into the offensive player happens in a blink of an eye. He's a quick-twitch tackler, which makes him incredibly difficult to keep blocked. It's no wonder Notre Dame coveted him on the defensive side of the football. And yet projecting his ideal position on the collegiate level is tricky for all the right reasons. He's impactful at everything he does. For sure, he's a punt/kick return candidate. Notre Dame sees him as a defensive back, similar to 2025 freshman Dallas Golden. But like Golden, he can also show his dynamic athleticism as a receiver. He'd make a great safety, but his length (including his arms) hint cornerback, a la former Irish great Bobby Taylor. When he's playing the game with the football in his hands, you see a beautiful, long-striding athlete in the open field. He shows the vision to weave his way through traffic. He can explosively high-point the football as a receiver or defensive back. He has elite ball skills, which includes timing. He came made gymnastic-like twisting grabs. He has dynamic stop-start ability. Trying to tackle the slightly-built Pouncey often looks like an attempt to grasp a player in a Crisco-slathered jersey. He breaks tackles like a player much stronger than his weight seemingly indicates. Notre Dame needs impact wide receivers like him, which makes it difficult to pigeon-hole this player into one position prior to his senior season of high school. But for now, think in terms of safety with the skillset to play cornerback or nickel if need be and the assets of receivers that the Irish, generally speaking, don't have at the present time. He truly is a three-way player. Pouncey, who chose Notre Dame over LSU, Miami and Syracuse, has 38 offers from Power 4 conferences, including Clemson, Florida (where his older brother and cousins played), Florida State, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oregon, Penn State, Texas A&M, Tennessee, and couple dozen more. That speaks volumes. He's slated for an official visit to Notre Dame on June 13. He previously had official visits planned to Miami (May 30), Syracuse (June 6) and LSU (June 20). This young man is a born athlete, but most especially, born to be a football player in the Pouncey lineage. His commitment to the Irish lifts them into the No. 3 overall slot point-system-wise in the Class of 2026 behind Clemson and Ohio State. Of the top seven-ranked players committed to the Irish, four – Dunham, Pouncey, OT-Gregory Patrick (Portage, Mich.) and DE-Ebenezer Ewetade (Garner, N.C.) -- have come in the month of April. This is a four-and-a-half-star prospect who rightfully belongs among the nation's top 100 players in the Class of 2026. D3 has him graded as a top 100 prospect as well with all this DB depth, i really think one of Golden/Pouncey/O'Brien if he commits needs to move to WR Mickens fixed the DB issue, he can fix the WR issue as well and ND can justify giving him another $500k to his salary and we as ND fans all win
also, the Kyle Hamilton and Malachi Starks duo at Safety in Baltimore is going to be scary good...just a shame it's not Xwatts paired with Kyle
Blair could play into that, as well, and he fits the profile of the biggest current need at WR. Either way, when you have that much athleticism stacked up on one side, it just makes sense.
Was he injured last year? I didn't really pay attention. But just looking at his stat line, if he wasn't, he made absolutely no progress at all. Good kid from a good family. I hope it clicks for him somewhere.
Thought I saw that he committed to one of the west coast G5 schools earlier today but now I can't find it. Probably where he belongs.
My theory is everyone tasted what it’s going to be like to finally win the title for ND and wants to be a part of it when it happens. And it’s probably the first time in 15-20 years you can legitimately see it happening
People are also very open to the fact that nd is paying everyone decent to stay - not matching but making it close enough it’s not worth leaving.