BTC4

I don’t know if he’ll turn into Kyle Hamilton but he certainly looks like Hamilton when he committed as a junior. They have the same long lanky frame, no pun intended. Even when you see Hamilton in the NFL he looks extremely long compared to most of the league.

Baldy only one I’ll disagree on is the safety spot. I feel that spot has been an enormous wildcard since Hamilton has left. And I think it many problems were covered up by his greatness while he was here. I thought DJ Brown was a prime example for Notre Dame of the gap between being elite and being in the next tier. On elite teams he is a backup and rotation player, not someone starting. If you look at big plays over the course of his career, he always seemed to be on the wrong side of them. The drop int at the end of the OSU game. I can’t remember how many times he took the wrong angle and gave up a huge run when he was the last line of defense. Hopefully Watts returns and the recruits will turn the corner. O’Leary seems to be well liked and thought of so hopefully it he turns a corner.

We will see on this hire, I’m not educated enough to offer an opinion. Although the timing sure makes it seem like this has been in the works. Especially considering how quickly Stuckey was fired and then replaced. I have a hard time believing this all happened this week.

At the end of the day losing any of these players, although significant in terms of depth, doesn’t feel the same as losing a Chase Claypool or Will Fuller type player. Doesn’t mean one of them won’t develop into that type of player, but in the state of college football right now going through the development process is not seen in a good light. I think the late bloomers like Miles Boykin at Notre Dame will be fewer and further between especially at the skill positions. I also think Tyree is in a much different positions than the other 3. He has a degree and played two positions without really excelling for a significant period of time. Almost like an eclipse for Notre Dame in terms of a couple of great moments and totally forgotten in others. Very mind boggling career considering his lofty recruiting status coming in. ND never found the best way to use him. He has to be one of the rare players in ND history that has a kick return, punt return, a rushing, and a receiving td. Always thought he had way more to offer. Really hope wherever he ends up it works out and he has a successful year!

I believe this is a great time to look at Marcus Freeman’s coaching hires. This is a pivotal year for Freeman and nothing is going to determine his fate coaching at Notre Dame more than the people he surrounds himself with. By all accounts Freeman is a great person and mentor of young men. However, being a leader of an organization is a different ball game. Part of the reason the administration used for hiring him was keeping things the same and moving forward in the right direction. Well I think it is safe to say now that isn’t the case any longer. There has been a ton of turnover in the past year with more likely to come. So let’s evaluate who he has surrounded himself to this point. OC Rees he inherited and stayed for a year. People can have their opinions, but Rees is going to be a head coach at a power 5 school and has Alabama playing pretty well at the moment. In replacing him he choose Parker which is likely going to ultimately determine his fate. I know what happened with Ludwig but at the end of the day he is the head coach and hired who he hired. Parker has a lot left to be desired right now. DC Golden has been very good for the most part. Some questionable play calls against Ohio St keep him from being a homerun hire. ST Mason was a home run hire, I don’t even think that is debatable. Biagi the jury is still out, but the special teams seemed to improve over the course of the year. They had some huge moments throughout the year which is very encouraging. Qb Guidugli the jury is still out, but you have to question the regression from Hartman. With reports of not letting him check at the line seems to be odd considering he was a 6th year qb. Guidugli is well regarded within the industry it seems and he has some great prospects coming in that could really show his worth. RB Deland is a home run hire without debate. If he leaves it will be a big hole to fill by all accounts. WR In hindsight hiring Stuckey over the current Washington coach was a major whiff. Getting rid of Alexander was a good choice by all accounts, but it seems to be looking like one step forward and two steps back. If he deferred to Rees on that decision, it was a major mistake and shows his inexperience/vision on offense. TE Parker was solid at that time, but he arguably walked into one of the most talented rooms in the country when he was hired. The fact that was parlayed into the OC job is highly questionable. OL Harry was a home run hire at the time and now they have moved on to Rudolph which the industry believed was a good hire. Rudolph seemed to have a good year and is moving in the right direction. DL Washington has taken a major step forward this year and seems to be a solid hire. But he still needs to land that major recruit or develop that major player to be a home run hire. DB Freeman inherited Mickens, but they played together I believe in high school so I have a hard time believing he wouldn’t have ended up at ND anyways. Mickens has been a home run, look at what they did to Marvin Harrison Jr compared to the rest of the year. S O’Leary has been solid especially considering Watts’ development. Losing Bowen and Hillman in recruiting have left a huge hole moving forward. You can’t continue to recruit cornerbacks and move them to safety or wide receivers. Sooner or later without safety recruits you will be exposed. Overall, it seems he has done a solid job surrounding himself with qualified people. But there has been a lot of turnover in 2 years which is concerning. Defensively seems much better than offensively which isn’t surprising considering his background. But in the game today you can’t win without a high octane offense. His decisions on offense have been head scratching the last year. It seems to me they were unprepared for Tommy to leave and then did not have a solid plan moving forward or even a backup for that matter. I’d be interested to hear other thoughts on the matter.

The 2023 Football team is exactly what the university has paid for. The entire coaching staff makes less together than the average SEC head coach. The program has some great position coaches, but in terms of coordinators they are not elite since the university will not commit money to pay the elite. If you go cheap on a head coach, you need to pay top end coordinators to make up for it. Right now that isn’t the case which is very unfortunate for Freeman. Hopefully Freeman turns into Dabo, but right now it looks more like Will Muschamp. Dabo surrounded himself with elite coaches, Muschamp did not. Look at Oklahoma in year 2 with Venables with who he is surrounded by including Bob Stoops being right there. Not only do they not pay coaches elite money, but they will not pay to get end players. Look at the 3 guys everyone knows they missed out on because of NIL - Bowen, Moore, and Keeley. I would argue if Bowen is on this team Notre Dame would be undefeated. Just watch the Oklahoma-Texas and you can see the difference. I know it is an ethical decision in regards to NIL, but that is what college football is today. You can blame Freeman all you want and he definitely deserves a lot of blame. But the structure is more of the problem and going to become even more of an issue if it is not corrected.

Has Notre Dame changed its stance on undergraduate transfers? I know we have speculated a lot here about it, but I still haven’t seen ND get many undergrad transfers. Obviously it is a case by case basis, are Lucas and Williams fitting for those cases?

He should have called that the time before instead of that fake screen pop pass.

There offense has like 100 yards in the second half, if you go up two scores you basically break their spirit. Who runs a fake wr screen with a pump and go from the 5 yard line.

That is why Tommy Rees should be coaching with Sean McVay. Want to get cute when you have no reason too

Buchner doesn’t have it, just not a good throwing qb. Late on reads, inaccurate, and poor pocket awareness. Sure he’s a nice kid, but if he starts next year you are looking at the same type of record as this year. The running game actually looks worse with him in there which makes no sense to me.

I am sure Bowen is going to be a great player, but if he doesn’t come it is what it is. The last big time 5 star safety ND signed (I think Hamilton was more of a late bloomer recruiting) was Max Redfield and I feel like it was the same situation with USC. He didn’t pan out so all the worrying was for nothing. With Bowen even if he comes he could leave in a year if something doesn’t work out.

Faith, I hear ya but I won’t believe it until I see it consistently. Coan wasn’t a stud until after the Va Tech 2nd half which was deep in the season. The lack of development has gone on for some time at Qb so I just don’t understand the draw. I would love it to change, just don’t have high hopes considering the current make up of the offense and offensive staff.

Am I missing something? Why would a qb come to ND for development? ND hasn’t shown anything to help a qb become a pro. I just do not understand the draw to Notre Dame for a qb. ND is a ball control, run first team, that has numerous top 300 qbs who haven’t developed or lived up to their potential. If you only get 1 free 2nd chance why would you use it on ND?

I don’t disagree that ND has to be a part of it to be successful. I don’t fault the players because they should have been making legit money decades ago. The player movement I have an issue with, because it is worse than professional. No contracts, nothing to honor. Leave whenever you feel like it. ND couple pay Maye from UNC 10 mil to play and they could win it all, but are you going to get the same satisfaction? I like to see the growth over the years and the development of the program, because that is much different than the pros. This isn’t ‘college’ sports in any way shape or form anymore which is fine. Just not my cup of tea until we can play fantasy football with it lol.

Agreed college football free agency, smh. What has college athletics come, I am fine with guys opting out not wanting to play because they are turning pro. But opting out to transfer to another school is just craziness. Sad time for college athletics in my opinion.

Agreed. I appreciate what he did for ND this year and last year against Wisconsin. I have always wondered if his throw to Kevin Austin (a little behind him that Austin dropped wide open for a big gain during the comeback) was completed against Cincy would that have changed the course of his time and that season. In my opinion he is the ultimate backup qb. He did his job and was serviceable throughout most of the year. I don’t think he is a great player by any means, but you can argue he saved ND from a miserable year. The guys seem to like him and play hard around him which is a good sign. Unfortunately for him and not fault of his own people took out their frustration on him, especially after watching CW on Saturday Night. Thanks for making it a manageable season and best of luck in the future to Pyne!

Why would Riley leave? Ask Saban about going to the NFL and just about every other college coach that has tried. The NFL has rules that invite parity and wants parity. College Football and college sports in general want the opposite. NIL is only going to grow the disparity. Riley isn’t going anywhere, USC is primed for NIL and the transfer portal. Who wouldn’t want to move to LA with stacks of cash? Hopefully Freeman can deal with the circumstances at Notre Dame or the loses of Keeley and Moore to NIL will only be the beginning.

Absolutely difference in the game. CW to the victor goes the spoils, you can do whatever you want if you play like that. To say ND didn’t control the line of scrimmage is incorrect. They got pressure after pressure but couldn’t get CW down. Also they played a lot of coverage and that is what resulted in the running lanes (and poor linebacker play). I think Notre Dame didn’t play very well and they still had a chance in the second half. The turnovers turned into 14 points and not getting 1 yard cost them points as well. Maybe should have ran the jet sweep handoff with Evans under center this week instead of when you are up 37-0 against BC. All in all Notre Dame got much better in the 2nd half of the season which is a good sign moving forward. I wanted to shout out Diggs, Watts, and Colzie thought they played really well the last couple of weeks. I am excited to see what they turn into moving forward. Think they could be big time impact players next year. Everyone knew about Diggs once he got healthy, but Watts and Colzie were nice surprises.

I appreciate how ND plays hard until the end. Colzie has looked very good the last couple of games. I think people need to remember that Freeman and Golden have never seen Riley’s offense. Good learning experience for them. They will make adjustments for next year. USC is going to crush the portal for offensive players now until Riley leaves. At the end of the day the game wasn’t changing the outcome of the season. Considering Pyne was the qb 8-4 is a solid record. Freeman has laid the foundation and now needs to put his stamp on the rest.

Perfectly stated. Has been the difference between Notre Dame and the elite for a long

Jayden Mickey should talk less and play more. Very surprised how poor the linebackers are for Notre Dame. I just can’t make sense of it with our coaching staff.

Bowen looks like a stud, but at the end of the day if he doesn’t want to be at ND then he should go somewhere else. I have followed recruiting for almost 20 years if guys don’t want to be at places it usually doesn’t end well for either side. I gotta say considering the development of Morrison and how well Hamilton and Gardner have been in the NFL this year I would want to play for Freeman, Mickens, Golden, and Bowen. Really impressed with the development of the DBs over the course of the season. Hamilton’s and Sauce’s signing bonus are way more than any money he’s going to make in NIL.

It is definitely hard to judge Rees with Pyne under center. The commentators talk about guys being wide open and Pyne just doesn’t throw it. Every time they cut to Rees he looks beyond frustrated and pulling his hair out, which he has very little anyways. I think Rees has his own issues, but he is coaching with enormous limitations. Although limitations he has directly contributed to with his qb recruiting. The big question I have right now is who was the problem recruiting qbs Kelly or Rees? Everyone has blamed Kelly (like with everything recently), however, Kelly is bringing in talent after talent at the qb position right now. It makes you wonder if something is array in the qb recruiting with Rees.

Yup and I raise you with Cooper Rush having 1 lose in his career as an NFL starter. So he should be starting in the NFL and playing over Dak? Or Ian book is the winningest qb in ND history so he is the greatest qb to every play at ND? Im sure Pyne is a nice kid and a great story of perseverance, but he shouldn’t be a scholarship qb at ND. Just my opinion.