Also, doing the roster-churn math, projecting the state of the program, what offseason priorities should look like.

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Great ND program discussion

I haven't found this on the NCAA site anywhere yet, but no reason to doubt Nicole's reporting here.

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This year, at least.

The Jim Thorpe Award named Tuesday its three 2023 finalists for the best defensive back in college football:

Cooper DeJean
Iowa, Cornerback, Jr.
41 tackles (26 solo, 15 assist), 2 interceptions (41 yards), 5 passes defended (through Week 10)

Malaki Starks
Georgia, Safety, So.
43 tackles (25 solo, 18 assist), 2 interceptions (21 yards), 6 passes defended

Trey Taylor
Air Force, Safety, Sr.
71 tackles (39 solo, 32 assist, 0.5 sacks), 3 interceptions (97 yards, 51-yard long interception, 1 touchdown), 4 passes defended

Xavier Watts was one of the 15 semifinalists. Here are his stats for comparison:

47 tackles (28 solo, 19 assist, 2.5 for loss), 7 interceptions (137 return yards, 38-yard long), 4 pass breakups, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery returned for a touchdown.

Maybe ND can motivate him to return for a chance to win it next year?

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Here are the final reported stats for Williams as a senior at Glen Ellyn (Ill.) Glenbard South: 37 receptions, 909 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns. He averaged 24.57 yards per reception and 82.6 yards per game. Also ran for 468 yards on 30 carries for six touchdowns.

Some stats on defense: 24 tackles including 12 solo and two for loss and two interceptions.

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Notre Dame 2025 safety target Ivan Taylor will make his college commitment on Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Per Rivals, Taylor is a four-star recruit and the No. 14 safety and No. 134 overall player in the 2025 recruiting class.

The 5-foot-11, 170-pound recruit attends West Orange (Fla.) High and visited Notre Dame for its games against Pittsburgh and Wake Forest this season. He was also on campus twice in the summer for Irish Invasion and ND’s Grill & Chill recruiting event.

Taylor reports 14 total offers including Notre Dame, Louisville, Tennessee, USC, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida State. He visited Wisconsin on a game-day visit this season.

Inside ND Sports has confirmed with Taylor through text his plans.

Taylor is an NFL legacy recruit and son of former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Ike Taylor. Ike has accompanied Ivan on every visit except the Irish Invasion camp in June.

Now updated with story:


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Was looking at the recent rankings. Michigan jumped to #2. Florida State is #4. What happens if Alabama beats Georgia? Would both Georgia and Alabama be selected? I think that would be awful but it could happen.

Also I see that ND is the third ranked 3-loss team behind LSU and Arizona. I can understand being behind LSU. Their losses were at Florida State(4) , at Mississippi (ranked 11) and @ Alabama (ranked 8), plus they won at Missouri. But how do they rank us behind Arizona? Their big win is at home against #20 Oregon St 27-24. They lost to unranked Mississippi State, #3 Washington and USC (just a week before we played them). A couple wins were suspect. They beat Stanford 21-20 and Colorado 34-31. Our losses were to 3 teams currently in the top 25 - Ohio State (6), Louisville (14) and Clemson (23) . Our signature win was the destruction of USC who at the time was top 10. Unfortunately they imploded. NC State is now ranked 19. We beat them at their place by 3 touchdowns. The placement above us does not really matter except in my Irish blood.

Remember to include your name and hometown along with your question(s). Here's a shortcut to the question queue: https://live.jotcast.com/chat/notre-dame-football-live-chat-nov-29-2023-17100.html

Some of the players transferring like Correll and Tyree would probably be starting next year don’t understand reason for transfer. Is there a rule I am missing?

Now that Notre Dame's College Football Playoff ranking won't impact it's bowl placement, we'll just use this thread to update the weekly rankings.

From Nov. 14:

Notre Dame is No. 19, though the ranking means little to where the Irish will end up in a bowl this postseason.

Two Notre Dame opponents are in the top 25: No. 2 Ohio State and No. 10 Louisville.

Full Top 25:

1 Georgia 10-0
2 Ohio State 9-0
3 Michigan 10-0
4 Florida State 10-0
5 Washington 10-0
6 Oregon 9-1
7 Texas 9-1
8 Alabama 9-1
9 Missouri 8-2
10 Louisville 9-1
11 Oregon State 8-2
12 Penn State 8-2
13 Mississippi 8-2
14 Oklahoma 8-2
15 LSU 7-3
16 Iowa 8-2
17 Arizona 7-3
18 Tennessee 7-3
19 Notre Dame 7-3
20 North Carolina 8-2
21 Kansas State 7-3
22 Utah 7-3
23 Oklahoma State 7-3
24 Tulane 9-1
25 Kansas 7-3

When a player announces they’re going to transfer and hit the Portal, are they done practicing or being part of any Football activities ?
do they clean out their locker and gone?

Live Stats: Link

South Carolina so far this season:
NOVEMBER
1 -/- Wofford (exhibition) W, 60-57
6 -/- USC Upstate W, 82-59
10 -/- vs. Virginia Tech ^ W, 79-77
13 -/- VMI % (unbracketed game) W, 74-64
17 -/- vs. DePaul % W, 73-68
19 -/- vs. Grand Canyon/San Francisco % W, 75-68
28 -/- Notre Dame $ 7 p.m., SECN

ND STATS

Thanks to all who submitted questions for me and @Eric Hansen on our latest podcast. These are the questions we answered with timestamps.

28:55 • @irishbluedevil: Why are they sticking with Parker? It’s very obvious where the struggles were and there was nothing in his remarks and comments over the season to suggest he knew what those issues were and how to fix them.

33:00 • Burton Sharp - @SecondChildhood: Did the 3 offensive players join the portal because coach said he is keeping the OC?

34:38 • @CoffeeDarkRoast: Reading between the lines, freeman said he didn’t reach out to current UNLV OC, & he wants everybody back.
1. Did he specifically say he wants everyone back in their current roles?
2. Couldn’t he have reached out to another coach?
3. Could Parker get pressure to resign as OC?

39:09 • Marie Biafore - @biafore_marie: Now that the season is over, can you please give a season ending grade for each coach? Assuming what Freeman said about wanting to keep all the coaches was more Coach speak than truth, can you predict if each coach is more or less likely to be at Notre Dame next year?

44:44 • @BleachersBobby: Do you think the seeming decision to bring Gerald Parker back as OC could be a defining moment in MF’s tenure. Next year is year 3. This year felt like a dud. I think hiring someone with more success/experience would be prudent.

47:56 • @MikeDevoy1: Hi, Eric and Tyler, if Joe Alt sits out the bowl game, who do you think starts at LT? I can’t imagine they’d move Blake Fisher over there since Billy Schrauth is relatively new at RG. Is Stanford’s front seven that bad or has the O-line progressed that much?

50:46 • @stevegoforth5: How good would X Watts be if he had only focused on playing Safety for his whole career?

53:19 • @CharlesWWolfe: If you could add one near-miss person to the 2023 team out of the following, who would it be, and why? And, if you added that person, would ND’s record have improved? Keon Keeley, Dante Moore, Peyton Bowen, Andy Ludwig

55:40 • @JeremyLamb19: Relative to expectations when he signed with ND, do you think Angeli is currently better, worse, or the same? If the answer is better or the same…and the team doesn’t believe he’s good enough to start…why was he signed?

58:10 • Mike Eulitz - @NdEulitz: How do you feel the QB room is with/without portal transfer. And who transfers if we get a portal QB?

59:50 • Marie Biafore - @biafore_marie: If either Will Howard or Tyler Van Dyke wanted to come in Notre Dame would you take them Why or why not?

1:03:10 • @DanQuinlin: Can you talk about NIL dollar ranges by position, and compare them to $ for NFL late-round picks or undrafted free agents? For examples, you might use Sam Hartman 2023 ND vs 2024 NFL, or Chris Tyree 2024 NIL in college versus if he went to the NFL and made a roster. Thanks.

1:07:55 • Nathan Reynolds - @Enforcers2117: Do you think Mike elko getting the A&M job helps ND bc they know what to prepare for since they played Duke this year and do you think Riley Leonard follows him to A&M?? Also do you think Tyree wants to be a running back again since he hit the portal?

1:11:20 • Pat, from Texas - @elbigpadre: Good evening sir. Pat here. Long time reader, first time caller. ND might face LSU in a bowl game, but we know they’re facing A&M next year. (In my Stephen A Smith voice) Who would you rather be stuck on a desert island with, the Aggie Yell Leaders, or a hungry Brian Kelly? o transfers if we get a portal QB?

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Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney discusses what kind of interest Zeke Correll and Chris Tyree should command in transfer portal, if NIL is driving transfer portal decisions, who the most intriguing quarterbacks in the portal are, if any portal quarterbacks are better than Sam Hartman, lessons from the first year of ranking portal players, how impressed he's been by Notre Dame LB commit Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, the senior seasons of WR commit Logan Saldate, LB commit Bodie Kahoun and QB commit CJ Carr and more.

Then @Eric Hansen and I answer questions from Twitter and The Insider Lounge (28:07).

*Note: This podcast was recorded before news broke Tuesday that Notre Dame was parting ways with WRs coach Chansi Stuckey.

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Please include your name and hometown along with your questions in this format ... here's a shortcut to the question queue: https://live.jotcast.com/chat/notre-dame-football-live-chat-nov-29-2023-17100.html

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May had 54 tackles including 19 for loss this season for Highland Home (Ala.) High. He also added nine sacks, 29 quarterback hurries and forced and recovered two fumbles. Also had an interception.

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I'm late to post this again. Didn't bounce back from last night's red-eye flight very well. But help us out with some questions.

...

@Eric Hansen and I will record our weekly Inside ND Sports podcast Tuesday. Send us some questions you'd like us to discuss. We like to give priority to questions submitted on The Insider Lounge.

If you have multiple questions, try to be succinct and ask them separately. Thanks!

Chansi Stuckey gone

Word is the WR room didn’t like him for a lot of different reasons.

ND
@A&M
NIU
@Purdue
Miami(OH)
Louisville
Stanford
@ Ga Tech
Navy
FSU
Virginia
@usc

USC
Vs LSU(Vegas)
Utah st
@michigan
Wisconsin
@ Minnesota
PSU
@Maryland
Rutgers
Nebraska
@Washington
@UCLA
ND

Oklahoma
Temple
Houston
Tulane
Tenn
Bama
Vs TX
@auburn
@LSU
@Missou
South carolina
@Ole Miss
Maine

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2025 strongside defensive end Andrew Hines reported an offer from Notre Dame on Monday evening.

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound recruit out of Kissimmee (Fla.) Tohopekaliga High School adds an Irish offer to go along with Appalachian State, James Madison, Marshall, Pittsburgh, Ohio and Richmond.

He is not currently rated or ranked by Rivals. According to MaxPreps, Hines had 112 tackles including 23 for loss, 12 sacks and 37 quarterback hurries this season.

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Hines’ junior season film below:

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Marcus Freeman was asked about the status of his coaching staff moving forward:

"If it's up to me, as I just told the coaching staff in our staff meeting, I have a strong belief in the coaches that we have in this football program and would love all of them to be back.

"There's obviously places that we have to improve on all three phrases. The coaches understand that. They definitely are up for the challenge."

Unless Freeman is being coy or misleading, it sounds like another year for offensive coordinator Gerad Parker.

Forget it you just answered the question.

A few quick waves of stats and content to throw at you for now ... With a 159.5 pass-efficiency rating, Sam Hartman ranks 17th overall in that stat category and No. 1 among the QBs available in last offseason's transfer portal cycle,

Notre Dame has ascended to the top spot in pass-efficiency defense (94.91) and has faced Nos. 2 and 3 on Saturdays -- 2. Ohio State and 3. Clemson -- this season.

The Irish continue to ascend — in a good way — in sacks allowed. They're in a six-way tie for the 13th fewest (1.17 per game) with Michigan, Miami (Fla.), Colorado State, SMU and Rutgers.

Audric Estimé wakes up 10th in the nation in rushing yards per game (111.8), 12th in yards per carry (6.39) and third in rushing TDs (18). The only two Notre Dame players ever with more rushing TDs that Estimé's four against Stanford in a game are Art Smith against Loyola of Chicago in 1911 with 7 and Bill Downs with 6 in 1905 against DePauw.