With starter DJ Uiagalelei and freshman backup Aidan Chiles both in the portal as of today, Oregon State is down to its third-string QB Ben Gulbranson for the Sun Bowl game with Notre Dame. He threw just one pass (and completed it) in game action in 2023. HOWEVER, the 6-3, 215-pound redshirt sophomore has plenty of experience. He played in 10 games and started eight due to injuries in 2022, and the Newberry Park, Calif., product went 7-1 as a starter last season. He completed 121 of 194 pass attempts for 1,455 yards and nine TDs with five interceptions. He also rushed for 52 net yards and five scores.

@Eric Hansen and I will go live on YouTube at 7 p.m. EST for the next edition of "Football Never Sleeps." Through the bowl game, we will plan to be live every week.

We'll discuss Notre Dame landing in the Sun Bowl against Oregon State, head coach Marcus Freeman's Monday press conference, a busy week in the transfer portal market, ND's expected hire for wide receivers coach and answer questions from viewers.

Football Never Sleeps is sponsored by Legacy Heating & Air.

We hope you join us live with questions or submit some ahead of time. Hit the bell to set a reminder to get notified when we go live.

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Then to submit questions, there's a chat box to the right of the video on desktop or below the video on mobile.

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We are now living in 1923!! Calvin Coolidge is excited!!

We expect to meet with Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman over Zoom at his annual weekly press conference on Monday at 4 p.m. ET.

This will be the first time Freeman has spoken to the media since last Monday. That conversation occurred before 11 Irish players decided to enter the transfer portal, the dismissal of former wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey and the bowl announcement.

Inside ND Sports will be in attendance and I'll have live updates from the press conference below in this thread.

There is no YouTube stream available.

ND cannot continue to run a 90’s offense and expect to win anything meaningful. Featuring TE’s in the pass game over WR’s is leading to roster churn and offensive struggles on Saturday.

Losing Tobias is a major loss. The WR room guys are doing the math, they get about 8-9passes thrown to them per game. That’s 8-9 WR’s competing for the ball that’s only thrown to them 8 times per game. That won’t cut it. These explosive WR’s don’t won’t to be glorified Tackles blocking downfield. Hence the transfers.

Tyree gonzo, Tobias gonzo, expect at least another WR transfer….

The most athletic players leaving the ND program: Tyree, James, Tobias transfers

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Story by @Eric Hansen

The conference champs will get automatic bids then it’s 5,6,7,8 in the AP and Coaches polls? Maybe add the next largest conference to the mix next year, seeing as the PAC-10 is noooooooooooo more. Go Irish

Rolling 4-month recruiting rankings...

That's all.

Inside ND Sports picked out five members of Notre Dame's recruiting 2024 class most deserving of a bump in the next set of Rivals rankings expected to be released this week.

Every commit with at least a 5.9 rating or above were not considered. Here is a look at the five commits with breakdowns on each individual recruit in the story.

Link to full story:


2024 RB commit Kedren Young

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2024 WR commit Micah Gilbert

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2024 DE commit Bryce Young

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2024 LB commit Bodie Kahoun

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2024 CB commit Karson Hobbs

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Also Bill Hancock on the conference call ...

BRETT DANIELS: I'd like to welcome everyone to the final College Football Playoff Selection Committee teleconference for the 2023 season. Joining us today is Bill Hancock, the executive director of the College Football Playoff, along with Boo Corrigan, College Football Playoff Selection Committee chair.

Q. Boo, similar to Florida State, SMU lost its starting quarterback late in the season. Did that play any factor in the decision to have Liberty ahead of SMU?

BOO CORRIGAN: No, it didn't. As we were looking at it, Liberty 5-0 against teams .500 or above, put up 700 plus yards against New Mexico State, a team that a week before went down and held Auburn to 10 points.

Again, each one of these is held in isolation in looking at it, and SMU goes from unranked to ranked. A really good win against Tulane, but at the end of the day, the committee voted for Liberty at 23 and SMU at 24.

Q. How deep was the schedule conversation, the fact that SMU only lost to Power Five teams and Liberty didn't play Power Five teams? How did you guys kind of square that?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, good question. It was part of the conversation as we were going through it. Our job is not to regulate who plays whom. It's to just on the opponents that they do play.

But again, Liberty is averaging over 500 yards a game, scoring over 40 points. Looking at it any differently than going against their schedule, and again, we do strength of schedule in bands, and the band between SMU and Liberty was not so great that we looked at it as a key reason as to change the vote.

Q. Obviously when the conversation is Florida State versus Alabama, you've got a team that's played multiple top-15 opponents. You mentioned, of course, the injury to Jordan Travis. Did you feel like Florida State was given enough of an opportunity to kind of earn its way back after that injury, or was that something that once that happened and they had sort of a poor offensive performance, it was over?

BOO CORRIGAN: No, not at all. I think what we were looking at, and again, like the previous question, and I don't know if you heard it or not, it doesn't happen just in isolation. It happens, as well, when other teams around them are doing.

But in the eyes of the committee, Florida State is a different team without Jordan Travis. One of the things we do consider is player availability, and our job is to rank the best teams, and in the final decision looking at that, it was Alabama at 4 and Florida State at 5.

Q. Do you worry that by setting a precedent that once a player goes out that you're kind of incentivizing teams to mislead or hide information that might hurt them in the committee's eyes?

BOO CORRIGAN: That's not a topic that ever came up. So no.

Q. What do you say to people that say you rewarded Liberty for going undefeated despite the strength of schedule that you mentioned and did the opposite for someone like Florida State?

BOO CORRIGAN: Well, again, everything is – we don't look at it as compare one to another, between No. 5 and No. 23. Not to take away from what Liberty did this year and the job that they played. They can only play the people that are on their schedule. They were dominant on the field, as I said before. They were 5-0 against teams above .500.

Again, Florida State, great year. Really hard for everyone down there, but the injury to Jordan Travis is something that in the eyes of the committee changed them as a team. Rodemaker and Brock Glenn came in, but they're a different team with Jordan Travis on the field.

Q. Just wanted to ask about Oklahoma's case for a bid in the New Year's Six, and what was it about Missouri and Ole Miss and so on that kept Oklahoma out ultimately of the top 11?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, again, I think you're looking at the way that we do is the teams around them, and what did Missouri do this year, what did Penn State do this year, Mississippi. Four really good teams. As we looked at it, they were 4-2 against teams with winning records. The records in Bedlam, the loss to Kansas, and as we weighed that in relation to Mississippi, Penn State and Missouri, the committee came in with Oklahoma at No. 12.

Q. Did Oklahoma's quality wins, say over Texas, where did those fit into the conversation?

BOO CORRIGAN: Very much a part of the discussion as we were going through it. Missouri has got the win over Kansas State and Tennessee, Penn State, the two games they lost were two Ohio State and Michigan, including a big win over Iowa, the team that everyone saw last night defensively is really good, to win that game 31-0, again, Mississippi and the season they had.

Q. I heard on the ESPN broadcast in Alabama-Florida State today, you mentioned one of the things considered was from a coaching standpoint, who do you want to play, who do you not want to play. I don't believe that the criterion is listed in the rules for selection, so when and why did the committee start to consider that factor?

BOO CORRIGAN: Well, there's 13 people on the committee, all of whom have unique views. As we go into this, a coach is going to have a different unique view as opposed to an athletic director or a former player or Kelly, all of whom take great pride in what they do. Really more the point of that was to make sure that we're getting every single, hearing every opinion that's in the room to make sure that everyone is able to weigh everything as they look at it and everyone has got their own view finder, if you will, as they watch the games and make sure that we're hearing from everyone in the room.

(more(

It’s interesting most of the DEFECTORS from the IRISH have be on the offensive side of the ball. Freeman needs to STOP hiring friends, he may have done it again with Brown from Wisconsin. It would have been easier just to hire FICKELL from Cincinnati ,that way ND would already have most of the staff Freeman is now hiring . It’s starting to look a lot like UCINN at South Bend. Go Irish

I am tired of this discussion about who is better at what time of the year. Uuuuuuuuu play the teams you schedule , and you win or loose. I don’t care if it’s at the beginning of the year, the third game of the year or the last. When it’s all said and done , you look at the wins and losses. The bottom line is Texas beat bama in tuscaloosa , done. I don’t care who the QB was, this is why you recruit, in case a player gets hurt, you have a backup, that’s the game, U play who you got win or loose. I guess the games NOTRE DAME looses don’t count if we don’t have our starters on the field.Like another contributor said , Texas beating bama doesn’t count because everyone thinks bama is a better team now , maybe they should have been better at the beginning of the season. Head to Head Texas beat bama and won their conference.Either the committee follows the rules they make or they disband. Next year’s 12 team playoff will still have controversy, just wait. Go Irish

Let's use this thread for any discussion of the conference championship games today.

A couple weeks ago on the podcast, I predicted a playoff field of Georgia, Michigan, Washington and Texas. It's still in play with a lot left to happen today.

Notre Dame junior cornerback Ryan Barnes has announced his plan to enter the transfer portal.

Barnes played in two games each of the past two seasons.

Barnes has been added to our Portal Roundup:


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Link to full story:

Sure hope Gilbert is also complimentary toward Coach M ike Brown

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The Notre Dame football coaching staff had its in-home visit with 2024 defensive end commit Cole Mullins on Sunday.

Head Coach Marcus Freeman, defensive coordinator Al Golden and defensive line coach Al Washington were all present.

Mullins did not play his senior season at Hoschton (Ga.) Mill Creek due to injury. He did not make it up to campus for a game-day visit this season. Listed as an outside linebacker by Rivals but has been recruited by the Irish at defensive end.

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Junior season film:

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Presumably will be staged Monday. We'll let you know as soon as we have a time.

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I spoke with 2024 WR commit Cam Williams on Sunday evening after the report of Notre Dame hiring Wisconsin wide receivers coach Mike Brown. Story by @Tyler James here.

The four-star recruit out of Glen Ellyn (Ill.) Glenbard South discussed the potential hire, Friday's visit with Notre Dame's staff and more with Inside ND Sports.

"[I'm] very excited about Coach Brown," Williams said. "I’ve got to know him a bit considering that he recruited me with [quarterbacks] Coach Gino [Guidugli] at Cincinnati and then Wisconsin. I think it’s a great hire. He’s got a great personality and demeanor so can’t wait to get started in January."

Williams also said the chemistry between himself, Micah Gilbert and Logan Saldate is developing even more now after the dismissal of former wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey.

"I think it has to grow stronger now, considering that we were all in a situation that left us hanging a bit," Williams said. "I say that because during this time we had talked together and kind of just kept each other strong and reassured each other that everything would have been OK and it is."

Williams was visited by director of recruiting Chad Bowden and offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Gerad Parker on Friday at school. Williams is expected to have an in-home visit with head coach Marcus Freeman and the staff next weekend.

"My conversations with Coach Parker and Chad went great on Friday," Williams said. "I was very happy that I got to see them. It was a great reassurance moment that they cared ... again, just great to see them. I’ve spent a lot of time around them so anytime I get to do so more, it makes the connection just that much better."

Link to full story:


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Notre Dame’s coaching staff conducted an in-home visit in Roswell (Ga.) with 2024 offensive line commit Anthonie Knapp on Sunday.

Head coach Marcus Freeman, offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Gerad Parker and offensive line coach Joe Rudolph were all in attendance.

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I could put together a longer list of names that are intriguing, but I'd rather keep this list short and expand as we learn of more names to monitor.

Right now, we're watching two names in Notre Dame's search for a wide receivers coach: Wisconsin's Mike Brown and Washington's JaMarcus Shephard.

I shared Brown's name on the board yesterday afternoon. He was the first name floated my way. His first job as a wide receivers coach was at Cincinnati in 2019. He was promoted to passing game coordinator in 2022. Then he followed Luke Fickell to Wisconsin this year as associate head coach/wide receivers coach. He worked closely with Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli when they were both at CIncinnati and was on the coaching staff for a couple years when Marcus Freeman was defensive coordinator.

Wisconsin's passing game didn't exactly light it up this past season. It's leading receiver, Will Pauling, followed the staff from Cincinnati and caught 66 passes for 694 yards and four touchdowns. The headline items on Brown's résumé are his work with three NFL Draft picks at Cincinnati: 2022 second-rounder Alec Pierce, 2023 third-rounder Tre Tucker and 2023 fourth-rounder Tyler Scott.

Shephard is a name we should all be familiar with, because he interviewed for the job in 2022 when Chansi Stuckey was hired. Things have certainly worked out for him at Washington, where he took a job in 2022 after coaching at Purdue. Rome Odunze (73 catches, 1,326 yards, 13 TDs) is a Biletnikoff Award finalist. Ja'Lynn Polk (55-943-8) is having a big year. And Jalen McMillan (25-337-3) is very talented but has missed time due to injury.

Shephard is an Indiana guy. He was born and raised in Fort Wayne. He went to college at the wonderful institution of DePauw University. But returning to his home state might not be a strong enough pull. He's currently the associate head coach/passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach at Washington. He's making $800,000 this year. And he seems likely to be the next offensive coordinator for Washington if/when Ryan Grubb moves on. So Notre Dame might need to a combination of lucrative pay and job title responsibility to make a serious run at him.

The least he can do to demonstrate some awareness of the O's challenges is to bring in a knowledgeable and experienced O analyst to work with Parker.