6 Thoughts on a Thursday

It will never stop being funny to see “All nine conferences and Notre Dame” in a sentence together. It should be a constant reminder to anyone who thinks otherwise that Notre Dame remains a power player because they are the only program who is standing on its own and getting away with it.

We’ve seen the reporting on the new format and television agreements for the College Football Playoff, led by Yahoo!’s Ross Delenger. The Irish get a bigger piece on their own than any Big 12 conference school even if Notre Dame fails to qualify for the CFP.

If they do qualify, they get an additional six million. That puts them behind the SEC and the Big Ten, but not by a big enough margin that would cause them to finally give up independence.

Pete Bevacqua did well in his first test as soon-to-be athletic director at Notre Dame. He kept Notre Dame competitive in terms of payout while maintaining the independence that is cherished by so many.

Hold tight to that independence for now, though. It’s going to be difficult to keep with the instability of the ACC.

Dellenger laid out the scenarios for the ACC in this piece he wrote on Tuesday. It seems to me this is the likeliest version of what will happen, with Florida State and Clemson now suing their own conference, is this:

Complete ACC implosion. For the most part, the league is held together by the deal with ESPN. There are largely two ways that ESPN itself could set fire to the contract: If the league drops below the requisite 15-member threshold; or if ESPN elects next February to decline to opt into the final nine years of a contract that extends through 2036.

If ESPN ends the deal or if FSU and Clemson are successful in setting precedent in exiting the grant of rights, the ACC will be much like the Pac-12, with many of its members left desperate and searching for homes as its more valuable schools either coalesce or join other conferences.

In this scenario, eight to 10 of the programs could reform the ACC into a smaller and more valuable conference — a curing of the league and one of the topics discussed among the seven last spring.

Weirdly, that scenario might be the only way for Notre Dame to hold on to its independence in the long term. The schools would break off to form a smaller conference that is deemed more valuable to the television networks, which would have to include a similar agreement to the one they have currently with Notre Dame.

Any new ACC would be stupid not to negotiate something similar because without Notre Dame, they don’t have enough programs who can drive ratings.

I’m not sure there is another way because the Big Ten and SEC can continue to do what they’re doing now: bleeding the clock while running up their financial lead on everyone else. That is what is leading to the end of the ACC and of course the B1G would be happy to pounce by adding Notre Dame at that time. It’s the only school left that could get their media partners to pay additional money on their current deals.

I think that most people believe that this is the most inevitable future for Notre Dame (outside of these conferences not existing any longer and football breaking off completely). They are a Big Ten school in-waiting, which will drive many traditionalists mad.

Staying independent may rely on the ACC burning up and then rising again like a phoenix without the dead weight of programs who don’t bring value in football.

At this point, I think many fans are confused on what to root for with the changing landscape of college football. If the priority for Notre Dame fans is to stay independent, then a re-formed ACC might be the only way.

2. I have high expectations for Charles Jagusah during his career at Notre Dame, but how quickly he can become a great offensive line is to be determined. I feel a lot better about that happening sooner than later after seeing this from offensive line coach Joe Rudolph after practice yesterday.

“Yeah, I tell you what, the first thing I liked was the first practice we had when we knew we weren't going to have Joe (Alt) and Blake (Fisher). (Jagusah) came out and he practiced like “this is mine.” And to me there's something about that, no matter how old you are, or what you're doing that says, “look man, this is the direction I'm going.”

“And I was like, okay. And he came out and practiced his tail off for the first two days and I thought he practiced exceptionally well, which probably led to what coach Freeman said about him being one of the guys . He came out and worked that way. And then in the game, sometimes you get into a game, in your growth experience, guys will practice better than they play. Most guys, you should practice better, you know what I mean? Because it's more controlled.”

No matter what kind of talent a player has, he can’t become great until he dedicates himself to becoming great. Jagusah taking this kind of approach immediately when Alt and Fisher were gone is a great sign of things to come for him.

I mentioned last week the challenge Notre Dame will face with Texas A&M’s edge rushers. There’s a long way to go before we get to week one, but if Jagusah continues this approach then he may be ready to handle it.

3. I unfortunately had to miss Power Hour earlier this week, but please check it out if you haven’t yet. Mike Frank and Christian McCollum gave a great overview of Notre Dame recruiting this spring that’s a must-listen.

I did want to add to Mike’s answer on Ashton Craig in regards to whether or not he can be a national championship caliber center.

This all depends on what the definition of a national championship caliber center is, but I’m assuming that the person who asked is asking whether or not Craig is an NFL caliber center. Notre Dame had that with Nick Martin, Sam Mustipher, and Jarrett Patterson. (Mustipher went undrafted, but he’s started 42 games in the NFL)

Craig has the potential to get there and that’s what ultimately matters. He still has a lot to prove with it, but building off what Mike mentioned on Power Hour, what he showed stepping into that Clemson game was more than enough to make me believe he can handle himself against elite competition.

Clemson’s group of interior defensive lineman was as good as any in the country last season. Tyler Davis and Ruke Orhorhoro are going to be drafted this year. Peter Woods is a future first round pick and DeMonte Capehart ate up Correll earlier in the game.

Correl gave up three pressures on seven true pass sets against Clemson. Craig stepped into a situation where Notre Dame was behind and stuck in long yardage situations frequently. He gave up zero pressures on 16 true pass sets.

If Craig can hold his own in that situation against that level of competition in his very first significant bit of playing time, it means he can play against anybody. I think it’s a safe bet that he’ll only get better and holding his own seems like the floor for him going forward.

4. Notre Dame will have only one player selected in the first round this year. Joe Alt is pretty much a lock for the top-10, but no one else is considered close to being selected in the first 32 picks.

Looking at the top College Football Playoff contenders from last season, Washington has three players projected in Daniel Jeremiah’s latest mock draft. Texas has two. Alabama has four (at what point will we start mentioning that Nick Saban’s final team underachieved greatly?).

Michigan only has one (JJ McCarthy) and Florida State only has one as well (Jared Verse).

The biggest difference between those teams and Notre Dame is the total number of top NFL prospects they had overall.

Michigan has ten ranked in ESPN’s top-10 prospects by position. Washington has seven. Alabama, Texas, and Florida State each have six.

Notre Dame has three: Alt, Audric Estime, and Marist Liufau. Those other programs will end up having several selected on day two (second and third round). Estime and Liufau are far from locks to go off the board then and though others like Blake Fisher or Cam Hart could be possibilities, I don’t think anyone could legitimately argue that Notre Dame was a match for those teams in terms of draft-eligible talent.

The 2016 NFL Draft is the last time Notre Dame had six players selected in the first three rounds. The last time it happened before that was the Lou Holtz era. That’s where they need to get to in order to become real contenders fora national championship.

5. That brings us to the team this season.

It is a LONG way until the 2025 NFL Draft, but Benjamin Morrison is the one no-brainer first round prospect on this version of the Fighting Irish. After that, there are some other possibilities for the Irish who should be near the top of their positions in college football this fall like Howard Cross, Rylie Mills, and Xavier Watts. Time will tell where they fit as prospects, but that’s a solid core.

Mitchell Evans should probably be included with them. PFF has him as the second ranked tight end returning to college football in 2024 and it’s hard to argue against that. Then it all depends on what kind of growth we see from transfers like Riley Leonard, RJ Oben, and Kris Mitchell or if we see a big jump from others returning on the roster like Jack Kiser.

The last five national champions in college football have averaged seven day one or day two selections in the following NFL Draft. Michigan is probably going to take that average up a tick.

It feels like a broken record to keep mentioning where Notre Dame needs to get to in terms of top tier talent on the roster, but the standard is still the standard. The pack isn’t coming back to everyone else, so it’s up to Marcus Freeman, Chad Bowden, and everyone involved in recruiting and developing the roster to meet that standard.

6. Romeo Okwara announced earlier this week that he is stepping away from football.

http://instagr.am/p/C4tpQ7RxI_y

The former Notre Dame defensive end played eight seasons and 92 games. He put up double digit sacks in 2020, but injuries held him to only 11 games in the next two years. Considering he was an undrafted free agent, he put together a heck of a career and he’s still only 28 years old.

That was always the most amazing part with Okwara at Notre Dame. He arrived on campus at 16. He weighed 239 pounds as a freshman and was 270 when he left. He was very good as a senior (13.5 tackles for loss), but it seemed like he was just hitting his stride at that time.

For many he’s at the top of the list of players that could have greatly benefited from one more year in college and he’s easily getting drafted if that happened.

The common theme with Okwara after seeing his announcement is that he is still going to be very successful now that he’s done playing. That’s certainly not unique with former Notre Dame players, but still always great to see.

Still, I can’t help but think about how Okwara would have benefited greatly from playing at a different time for Notre Dame. He could have been helped by the four game rule as a freshman to gain an extra year. He could have been helped by being in a four down scheme right away rather than Bob Diaco’s defense. He could have been helped like all of these current players who are benefiting from the extra year of eligibility that they gained after 2020.

I guess that’s just for people like me to think about how that might have changed his career trajectory for the better. He never put himself before the team at Notre Dame and it was the same in the NFL.

Okwara more than made the best out of his situation and will continue to be someone Notre Dame coaches can point to as an example of who to emulate on and off the field. It was a great run and it was fantastic to see him blossom into the kind of pass rusher many thought he could be in the NFL.

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