AnTostal

Who would you guys say have been the best 5 transfer QB's, those who transferred and played just one year at their new school? Jalen Hurts. Russell Wilson. Cam Newton. Others? Anyone like that going to be available in this year's portal?

I like Angeli. He's a good quarterback. I think Hartman is better. Freeman needs to keep his job, and he needs to keep recruits coming. If ND loses either of its last 2 regular season games, in my opinion recruiting will suffer. Gotta play the guy who gives ND the best chance to win both of those games. In my opinion, that's Hartman. But, I DO think it would be wise to play Angeli a lot. Not just mop up duty, but meaningful parts of both games. How to do that effectively would be quite a balancing act.

Yes. Yes it will. It’s what happens when you hire a head coach who has never been a head coach. It’s what happens when you hire a guy like Gerard to be your OC. Freeman really might be an amazing head coach in two more years. That would be the right time for ND to hire a guy like him. Four years into a head coaching career.

I take solace in that I predicted ND would go 9-3 this season, winning 1 of the ‘big 3’ (OSU/USC/Clemson) and losing 1 other. If ND wins out, and they should, it will have been a successful season from my perspective. A head coach on the rise, a good team. But ND CANNOT lose to Wake or to Stanford. Cannot. Lose to either of those and watch your 2025 recruiting tank. Freeman needs to be a cut throat coach and find a real OC. Hard to dump the guy he knows and likes but necessary if he wants to become the head coach I think he can be. 9-3, and hopefully a bowl win against a good team, then on to 2024. With a new OC.

Just beat Louisville and be ranked 6. But nope. Better than 2-loss LSU? Would love to see that game.

USC defense shining again.

Clemson with 4 losses now. ND HAS to win that game!

Sure is fun to watch Caleb be such an arrogant, petulant child during and after losses.

Michigan. Good grief. Schedule: Northern Michigan School of Cuticle Studies Western Ohio Little Sisters of the Poor East Lansing High School JV Mishawaka Community College Minnesota Snowflake U Wisconsin School of Cheese Curd Excellence Bowling Green Rutgers Maryland Ohio State One hard game. Two, if you believe in Penn State. And, they've been cheating. So there's that.

And for us all to learn, again, that after exhaustive national searches, it turns out that the best candidates to replace them just happen to already be on staff!

At about the 5 second mark, watch McFerson (#14), in the lower center of the screen, get blocked toward the left. How on earth did he catch Branch??

That ‘glub glub’ sounds you hear are Williams’ Heisman chances sinking into the abyss. That guy looks like one of the most smug, cocky dudes ever. Maybe he deserves to be cocky, but it sure was sweet watching him losing it on the sideline.

That was an amazing thing to see. He was running faster than the USC guy.

A crazy game for him. I’ve been watching him miss tackles all year long. Just whiff on them. Then this game happens. Happy for him and the team. His is a good story I hope he and the entire D make this the new norm

Wasn’t sure I was going to watch this game. Oh so glad I did! Love to see those turnovers!

I find myself oddly disinterested in this game. The loss to Louisville has completely and totally deflated my expectations regarding ND football. Always a fan, but now a bit dispassionate.

Like Swarbrick, doesn’t want the legacy of being ‘the guy’ that led ND to join a conference for all sports (?). Of course, I’m sure that numerous other reasons are given, but I also suspect he sees the writing on the wall.

USC has been spraying punt returners with hoses, preparing for the rain. https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2023/10/11/23912806/usc-vs-notre-dame-weather-rain-practice-hoses-video-trojans

I guess part of the question would also be, which QB would get the most out of the rest of the players on offense. It's not knowable, but probably is a factor. I suspect most of us think we've seen everything that Buchner is and will be as a QB. Could Buchner allow development of the wide receivers, given his limitations, and would wide receiver recruits have wanted to keep coming to ND with Buchner as their QB for the next few years? Hartman is good, and I believe he's much better than Buchner. But that can certainly be debated. I think Hartman at least has a presence on the field and doesn't just duck and run. He can get the ball down the field and I believe that gets receivers more involved and more excited than they ever would have been with Buchner as QB. Did ND run Buchner out of town? No, Buchner left. Buchner knew that he would not be the starter because the other guy was better. He saw it in practice and he saw it in the spring game. Buchner could have chosen to stay but he left for Rees-er pastures. In my opinion, ND is a much better team with Hartman as their QB than they would have been with Buchner. Next year there will be a wide-open QB competition and another QB will likely transfer. I also believe the portal is the way of the future. Every year every team will plug their weaknesses with players who weren't good enough to start on the teams that they are leaving, or who just want a new experience somewhere else. It's fluid, and players and coaches and schools and fanbases are still adjusting.

I totally agree that the way the schedule is structured this year is not favorable to a team trying to win a championship. Not at all. But, take for instance the 2030 schedule ( ND football schedule 2030 ); 7 football seasons from today. As of today, there 8 games on the schedule, meaning there are contracts already signed committing both teams to play those games. The exact date is penned in for 3 of the 8. That means there are likely 4 more games to be added, depending on what conferences exist and how the conferences schedule games in 2030. Those are a couple of major question marks. I don't know the details of the 2023 schedule. Which games were inked on what dates. But, I am sure that it is really hard to get 12 opponents cobbled together in a schedule, particularly when most of those opponents have about 8 obligatory conference games in a given season. It's a significant give-and-take for both teams, each of which has its own issues with scheduling. "Hey, let's agree to play in 2030, and we'll work out the dates during the 2029 season." But by 2029, a lot of other schedules will have solidified, leaving few options remaining where both teams can actually play. This year's schedule team-wise seemed like it could get ND into the playoffs. But, no doubt, how the schedule actually shook out makes that next to impossible. BTW, as I looked at future schedules, it looks like the USC contract expires after 2026 (?). I don't see them on the schedule after that. And, conference realignment could conceivably put an end to it before that (?). That would be a big loss, at least to me.

To me, so far, there’s Freeman the great dude, good looking, lovely family, and there’s Freeman the coach, mister nicey nicey, looks like he’s going to throw up during close games, questionable in-game decisions. I’m sure ND will give him 4 years. If he goes 8-4 for those 4 years, ND football will have been relegated to the category of also-ranks like Wisconsin, UCLA, and Oklahoma State. Get some good recruiting classes and occasionally have a very good year but not anywhere near enough to win championships. And, by then, ND will have had to join a conference, making it even harder to get into the playoffs. He really needs to win 9 regular season games this year and next. He seems like a terrific person. I’m sure every mother of every recruit wants her son to play for a guy like him. But the best recruits want to play for championships, play in the NFL, and make gobs of NIL cash. Sorry, moms.

Sadly, if ND loses 4 games this year, recruiting will decline. I’m already nervous enough about the 2024 class. Not a lot of star power there. Good? Yes. Good enough for a Freeman-coached team to win a championship? I don’t think so.

Exactly. Parker is probably a terrific dude. But how in earth did ND end up with him as OC?

We’ll watch and see. Then we’ll talk.

Venables is a second year coach. Seems like he has his team moving in the right direction. A team with 5 turnovers pretty much never wins. But, there are a lot of issues with the coaching. And how the coaches design plays and call plays put players in position for success as well as turnovers and failure. Just maddening. ND should be better at this juncture than that.