6 Thoughts on a Thursday
Tradition matters in college football. Sometimes too much, but that hasn’t stopped the game from evolving on and off the field in many ways.
I know there are a number of Notre Dame fans who liked holding on to the fact that the Irish were one of three programs in the country not to schedule an FCS school. That will change in 2023 when Tennessee State travels to South Bend and I know that gets people upset because now Notre Dame can’t claim to be different from Alabama or Georgia or any other program that Irish fans dislike.
I’m certainly not mad about it. One of the things that drew me to Notre Dame was the tradition, but I’m not one of those people who think that they need to continue to play Navy every year or who was furious when they added a jumbotron.
I do think people are concerned that this changes the narrative about Notre Dame’s scheduling. I’m specifically talking about the narrative that Jack Swarbrick and Brian Kelly were happy to share as a reason why they shouldn’t be penalized for not joining a conference about SEC teams having “bye weeks” and how Notre Dame had equal “data points” because of it.
Now there can be no ripping on SEC teams for scheduling, which is pretty hilarious when you realize that the main person saying this left Notre Dame to coach in the SEC. Notre Dame also can’t complain that they play an equal amount of FBS games as teams who are in a conference championship who scheduled an FCS opponent. The “data points” won’t be equal. Some fans are now worried that this means Notre Dame will be looked at differently because of this.
Kelly and Swarbrick really sold it like that mattered, but the reality is that it had nothing to do with whether Notre Dame made the College Football Playoff or not. It also had no impact on the other teams who played FCS teams who were selected in the CFP. That’s because those games, and every other game against bad FBS teams, don’t matter when it comes to comparing teams against one another.
That’s a fact. The committee, no matter who is part of it in a given year, doesn’t talk about those games. They don’t care if a team wins by 35 or 50 in those matchups, especially when they take place in September. Those games don’t decide who gets in or who is left out. It’s the big games against top opponents that matter.
That’s why the Irish didn’t make it last year when they lost to CFP contender Cincinnati and didn’t have a win against any one else who cracked the top-20.
And it’s not just Notre Dame who is judged that way. Alabama wasn’t getting in last year if they lost to Georgia in the SEC Championship game. Michigan got in with one-loss because they beat Ohio State. Cincinnati got in, the first Group of 5 program to do so, because they beat Notre Dame.
3 of the 4 CFP teams played FCS programs last year. Funnily enough, the CFP committee didn’t care.
That might flip the argument for some who think this means Notre Dame needs to go find another top program to play in 2023 rather than playing an FCS program or a bad FBS team. That ignores the fact that the Irish are traveling back from Ireland after playing Navy in week zero and playing a top program that week would be setting the team up to fail. Or that the schedule is already set up to have at least three of those games with them playing Ohio State, year two of Lincoln Riley at USC, and Clemson.
They probably don’t need a fourth one, but still might have an extra game like that if Wake Forest or Pitt plays at the level they did in 2021.
It’s those games that matter the most when it comes to the goals Notre Dame is trying to accomplish. That’s how college football is set up these days for teams who are competing to make the College Football Playoff.
Playing an FCS program is not going to hurt Notre Dame’s strength of schedule in the eyes of the people whose evaluations decide who is and who isn’t playing for a championship. Maybe it takes away something for some fans who care a lot about the Irish being different, but it won’t have an impact on the bigger strength of schedule picture when things are being looked at by the CFP committee.
2. You know what else matters? Stars in recruiting.
Out of Daniel Jeremiah’s current top-50 prospects in the NFL Draft, 32 of them were ranked as at least a 4-star prospect by one or more recruiting sites. 12 of them were ranked in the ISD Fab 50 as recruits.
Like every year, the odds of the hundreds of blue-chip recruits becoming top NFL prospects is much greater than the thousands of 2 and 3-star recruits. I’m always fascinated by the ones who slip through the cracks and aren’t highly ranked recruits, though. This year it’s guys like Cincinnati’s Sauce Gardner, Utah’s Devin Lloyd, Minnesota’s Boye Mafe, and Iowa State’s Breece Hall who stand out as players that every program in the country wish they could have a do-over and go back to offer them when they were recruits.
I think every fan should be excited about the recruiting class Notre Dame is putting together for 2023. Every player who is in it is ranked as a 4 or 5-star and that’s obviously a good thing. It’s a strategy that has worked pretty well for Nick Saban.
I do hope that there are voices in the room at Notre Dame who will fight to continue to bring in players like Marist Liufau, though. The NFL Draft always works as a reminder that late-bloomers are out there every recruiting cycle as well and I hope we see at least one diamond in the rough prospect commit before they finish out this class.
3. Speaking of Liufau, I don’t think we’re going to see a repeat of this statistic for Notre Dame’s linebackers this upcoming season.
Last year the Irish had 41 sacks. Only five came from the linebackers. Only one came from a defensive back (Clarence Lewis).
It’s not surprising that the defensive line makes up a significant percentage of the sacks, but I think the Irish have some linebackers, led by Liufau and Jordan Botelho, who can rush the passer pretty well.
The linebacker sacks could double from what they were last season.
4. One thing that could help that is JD Bertrand finishing as a blitzer. He finished with 1.5 sacks, but he could have had five all by himself if he tackled the quarterback better.
Bertrand feels like the forgotten linebacker this spring because he did not participate in 11-on-11 drills during the open practice due to wearing a cast on his left wrist. He played the 2021 season with an injury to that wrist and had surgery in the off-season.
If he’s healthy, the missed tackles in the backfield likely would have flipped to tackles for loss. That alone would have changed the perception of him heading into this season.
He’s never going to have the athletic traits to be an elite player in coverage and he was miscast in sub-packages last year. Being healthier in the fall and having Al Golden find him the right fit can bring back some positive vibes with his role in the defense.
5. Back to the NFL Draft and this piece by Bruce Feldman with his mock draft that features quotes from anonymous coaches. Those are always fun to read because the coaches can say whatever they want without any consequences. Unfortunately that can lead to some dumb stuff that becomes more opinion than anything else.
One coach had this to say about Kyle Hamilton:
“People remember that (he) made that long INT against Florida State. He is long and rangy, but we didn’t think he was a good cover guy in space. He is fast and has all the measurables, but he had a hard time tackling our slot and covering our guys. I didn’t think we had to go away from him. When I heard top-5 pick, I get it, because he has the measurables, but I didn’t really see that.”
This might give you pause about Hamilton’s ability reading this, but “we didn’t think he was a good cover guy in space” is doing a lot of work here because I watched every Hamilton game and couldn’t tell you a game where he struggled in space.
I guess this could be a Cincinnati coach because their slot beat Hamilton for a touchdown on an underthrown fade where the receiver made a great adjustment, but that was literally the only touchdown Hamilton gave up in over 30 games at Notre Dame.
Wherever Hamilton ends up getting taken in the Draft, any smart team won’t be thinking about matching him up with the other team’s slot receiver because that’s not what safeties do in the NFL. Corners handle that because base defense for teams is nickel.
I spoke to an anonymous coach and he had this say:
“He’s obviously a freak athlete, but I didn’t see that against us. He was just okay in our game. But yeah, a total freak and a great player.”
Of course, that’s not a real coach and something I just made up. But it sounds like it could be something one of these coaches would have said about any of these guys. If you’re going to say something like that, it makes me think it’s probably better to say nothing at all, but maybe that’s just me.
6. Notre Dame has two sophomore offensive tackles who could end up being very high NFL Draft picks. Ohio State has two sophomore edge defenders who could also end up being very high NFL Draft picks.
And they’re going to play against each other twice in the next two years.
Irish fans know about Blake Fisher, who was 8th in the 2021 ISD Fab 50, and Joe Alt, who went from a tight end as a high school junior to a 4-star offensive tackle as a senior. They will know about Ohio State’s defensive ends very soon. That would be Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau, both 5-stars in the 2021 class and projected starters for the Buckeyes.
This is the kind of game where Fisher and Alt will have an opportunity to put the greater college football world and NFL scouts on notice that they are going to be big time players. It’s the same for Sawyer and Tuimoloau, although people who follow recruiting closely are very aware of them already.
There aren’t many non-conference games in back to back years that will feature matchups like this at offensive tackle and defensive end. There’s a lot to be excited about for the season opener, but seeing these four players against each other near the top of my list.
Men’s UA Green Gameday Half-Zip Jacket
