jimbo

On Defense, Jack Kiser is a guy I have a ton of respect for. He’s not the most physically gifted, but he gets the most out of what he has and he’s always giving it everything he has. 

Offense: I’d like to see Deion Colzie rip it up this season. He’s had some bad luck with injuries and he’s stayed at ND throughout, especially when it seemed like everyone was jumping ship recently.

6 hours ago, NDhoosier said:

Cant be happier right now. Perfect way to move the coaches and promote from within! I truly think ND was victorious this off season.

Yes! It sure seems ND and Marcus Freeman were ready to respond to whatever came their way this offseason. Swooping in to get Mike Denbrock when he had the offer on the table to stay at LSU was impressive (and quick!). Extending Al Golden - great! Promoting Mike Mickens and Max Bullough in short order shows me they have contingency plans at the ready. 

The only question mark to me is the new WR coach Mike Brown, as I know exactly nothing about him.

6 hours ago, TexasDomer said:

All of this is incredibly encouraging 

Definitely yes!

6 hours ago, mcgov12 said:

Not a change, but Golden signed a 4 year extension. Love this move with him and Denbrock

YES! And the news about Deland McCullough is icing on the cake. MF is putting together quite a staff.

I’m not worried in the least about ND finding a new coach for the Safety position. Perhaps they expand Mike Mickens role to DB coach with a nice increase in salary? 
 

Yes, the schedule certainly looks easier for this next season. I saw this though, the teams on the ND 2024 scheduled actually had a better winning % in 2023 than the teams on last season’s schedule. Nonetheless, I’m also looking for 11-1 or 12-0.

I believe more and more college coaches are looking to the NFL, what with the mess college football is in these days. Until (If) the college football world comes to its senses, we can expect to see the exodus to the big show continue. 

I have every confidence in MF to hire an excellent replacement for O’Leary (best of luck to him). His track record in hiring staff has been excellent. Al Golden, Joe Rudolph, Al Washington, Hank Bullough,  the new S&C coach. I can’t comment on the new WR coach as I know next to nothing about him.

I saw somewhere today that Al Washington was ranked the #5 recruiter nationwide for the 2024 recruiting season. Quite a turnaround from his 1st class!

The Lions kick those field goals, they are on their way to Vegas for the Super Bowl. They had the game in the bag, blew it, and Campbell’s decisions didn’t help matters.

4 hours ago, TexasDomer said:

I have a rice cooker.  Don’t judge 

Who’s judging? My wife is Thai, we have 4 rice cookers. One is for cooking sticky rice. Believe it or not, she doesn’t know how to cook rice without a rice cooker! 

9 hours ago, irishwavend said:

Better than mine who has everything ever sold on QVC….like seriously…do we need a rice cooker…?  Isn’t that what a pot and pan are for…?  Pancake maker?  Again, pan….  😜😜😜  At least your wife contributes to ND Football for you…haha

It really depends upon your perspective. Pretty much every household in Asia has a rice cooker, if not 2. 

Watching football without the commercials yields a lot of blank/dead time or watching players standing around waiting on the commercial breaks. It’s probably better with the commercials to fill that empty time. Although on occasion, you catch the announcers on a hot mike when they think no one can hear them! 555

I can vaguely recollect from my youth when they claimed cable would eliminate the need for commercials, really, that was one of the selling points, IIRC!

On 1/14/2024 at 8:21 PM, AnTostal said:

I have never been a fan of TR as an OC.

But, what an amazing coaching pedigree the guy will have. It just HAS to be worth a lot to have been an OC under Kelly, Saban, and Smart. Those guys absolutely know how to build winning programs. Good for Tommy. Good for the program that hires him as a head coach. 

It sure seems that a number of very successful HC’s think pretty highly of Tommy. Nick Saban was quoted as saying something to the effect that Tommy is one of the brightest guys he has come across. Now Tommy is hired by Kirby Smart, doubtless with a recommendation by Saban. BK wanted Tommy at LSU. ND wanted Tommy to stay at ND. 

Despite what our loyal fanbase thinks, Tommy seems very well regarded as an OC.

16 hours ago, jbrown_9999 said:

For what it worth, jury is probably still out on Deon. Let's see how next season fares for him. Colorado was in really bad shape so unfair to expect a one year miracle.

 

Deion stoked those expectations more than anyone. From the outside, it looked as though he gave up on the season. 

11 minutes ago, IrishGuy said:

That is a bit unfair. Brady owes his career to Belichick as much as Belichick owes his to Brady. That would be like putting an asterisk next to every coach that had a great / HoF QB (Dungy, Walsh, Reid, Tomlin, Johnson etc.) or only considering coaches great when they won without a great / HoF QB.

Simple truth, Brady would not have been Brady if he was not drafted by the Patriots and was not able to play in Belichick's system and Belichick likely wouldn't have half a dozed rings if he hadn't drafted Brady and/or if he didn't run the team the way he did. 

I'm not so sure I agree with this assessment. Look at what happened when they parted ways. Tom Brady won another Super Bowl. Belichick has just…well look at his record and consider the fact that he is no longer coaching NE. On the surface it seems Belichick needed Brady more than Brady needed Belichick.

I think Nick Saban retiring reasons are:

1a transfer portal

1b NIL

1c he’s older now, deserves to take it easier and is fed up with what is happening in college football today.

In no particular order. 

2 hours ago, lazard said:

doesn't hurt or help...it's a boon for programs like Georgia, Texas, LSU, etc.

Yes sir!

I’m having a difficult time understanding some of these transfer decisions.

Malachi Nelson / USC to Boise St? He was a pretty big get for USC and now he goes to Boise St? A school not exactly known for their QB’s.

Kyle McCord goes from starting QB at OSU to Syracuse?

And OSU brings in Will Howard from Kansas St? 

Probably a lot going on behind the scenes, but I just don’t see the logic of some of these moves. 

Imagine walking into that situation being compared to Saban from day 1. The expectations for the new HC will be for him to be the second coming of Nick Saban. Anything less….  

What’s the expression, “never follow a legend”.

I’m just glad not to see bama, Georgia or Texas playing for the NC.

12 hours ago, irishwavend said:

Agreed….how can you rank anyone based on bowl games where one teams entire first team literally didn’t show up…

This crap is stupid.  Quit letting these guys transfer.  Lock them in to rock solid contracts that say you owe us three years and bowl games.  And, make the NCAA force every team to impose those contracts.

You wanna go to another school and break your contract?  That’s fine but you won’t play ball and you can be just another ordinary student.

This has gotten out of hand.

Definitely it is out of hand. The NCAA is a spent force. They got their asses handed to them in the courts, and the NCAA was wholly unprepared for that. This year they tried to enforce a limit of 1 transfer without having to sit out a year, but a judge somewhere said ‘no can’t do that’. 

Everyone - coaches, admins, fans - can plainly see what the problems are, but the solution(s) not so apparent. 

My guess is the whole mess gets re-organized and the NCAA gets left out of it.

Marcus Freeman and the staff deserve a ton of credit for having ND ready and fired up to play in the Sun Bowl. More than a few teams looked as though they were just going through the motions during their bowl game. Looking at you OSU, FSU etc.

OSU in particular has no excuse, they always have a top 3 or so recruiting class, their depth chart should look awesome. If I was FSU, I would have wanted to show the BSC they made a big mistake. 

My point is ND lost quite a few players for the bowl game, but still came out and played with some fire/pride. Kudos to MF and his staff and the players!

Yes Gents, a Merry Christmas to all and to a great new  year coming up! Cheers!

3 hours ago, jbrown_9999 said:

Sort of like freshmen practicing before school starts in the fall.

Exactly. 

4 hours ago, Baldy said:

This right here, and which I feel will happen!

The reason is I remember Golden saying he came to Notre Dame because of Freeman’s character, morals, values, and goals at Notre Dame.

With that being said, I do believe Golden will be the Defensive Coordinator for a while. Let’s hope for at least as long as Venables was at Clemson! 🤞🏼

 

Yes, I seem to recall him also saying something to the effect that he came to ND because, well, it’s ND. Wasn’t really interested in returning to the college ranks until Notre Dame came along. I’m guessing that is why the speculation around Al Golden is he would only leave for an NFL job.  

1 hour ago, Baldy said:

 

That would be the icing on the cake after the news about Mike Denbrock!

This is awesome. I thought no way would Mike Denbrock be returning as OC.

14 hours ago, Mike said:

219. I love these, especially when the winner is something fun like that 

Last year Philadelphia did something similar where they had a vote to name the public restrooms, but they didn't take the fun route with the final choice.

• Wee the People
• Potty McPottyface
• Whiz Wit
• Porta Jawn
• Gritty Sitty
• The P Stop
• Wooder Closet
• Perma Potty
• Here Wee Go
• The Dallas Cowboys

But the finalists were:

1. Phlush (winner)
2. Philly Loo
3. Philly Public Restrooms

Do we need a Community Mascot? If so, it would need a name 😅... 🤔

The top 10 from So Tahoe, a few of these are pretty good. And for all you Taylor Swift fans out there, Taylor Drift came in the bottom 3

1. The Big LePlowski
2. Plowy McPlowface
3. Scoop Dog
4. Snowbi Wan Kenobi
5. Darth Blader
6. Sled Zeppelin
7. Clearopathra
8. Sleetwood Mac
9. Austin Plowers
10. Snowbacca