The link below is a shortcut to ask questions or just to lurk and admire the other questions.

Don't know if any of you will find this interesting at all, but I'll share anyway:

I've mentioned before that I had the privilege of serving as a student manager during the 1993-94 season. The week of the Florida State game was definitely my most memorable as a manager, and one of my most memorable overall as a student.

Sophomore managers typically worked one practice per week, with some male managers pulling locker room duty for an additional day.

I had the Wednesday practice that week. As usual, I got assigned to Coach Moore and the offensive line. Coach Moore was arguably the best offensive line coach ever, but he was also a tough guy to work with. I guess he liked me, or at least hated me less than everybody else, so I got assigned to him nearly every time I worked, including manning his headset and cords (for you younger folks, headsets used to have cords) for both the Michigan State game and the Cotton Bowl.

Back then, the football locker room and associated facilities were all in the Joyce Center. Right in the middle of the locker room, training room and film rooms was the equipment room, which had the FSU War Chant blaring NON-STOP the entire week. You couldn't walk anywhere without hearing it.

The night before the game was prepping the locker room. I was not one of the ones chosen to paint the helmets, so I got to hang uniforms in lockers.

Every game morning, the band marched through campus beginning at 7am (I think they still do this). My room in Cavanaugh faced North Quad, so I got to hear them come by at 7:15 sharp. A friend of mine in the band always yelled at us as they passed by.

Before the game, I checked out some of the College Gameday show from the Joyce Center. It was the very first time they did the show live on campus.

Since I wasn't working the game, I watched from the top row in the student section. I can still remember every second of the final play. Shawn Wooden lived in my dorm, and it's a shame that he got injured when he got mobbed after batting down that pass.

Anyway, if you read this far, thanks for indulging me. This will be my first FSU game since then.

The ACC Network's Kelly Gramlich is bullish on Notre Dame women's basketball

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From the Tuesday night media availability of Notre Dame football coordinators and players, we’ve provided full transcripts of both offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and defensive coordinator Al Golden.

We also wanted to give you some content from the other interviews. So, here are the greatest hits, or at least the most intriguing quotes, from wide receiver Kris Mitchell, linebacker Jaylen Sneed, safety Xavier Watts, tight end Eli Raridon and special teams coordinator Marty Biagi:

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Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden met with local media Tuesday night after practice ahead of Saturday's home game against Florida State. Here's everything Golden said during his session with writers.

Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.

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Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock met with the media Tuesday after Irish football practice as 10th-ranked ND continues its preparations for Saturday night's home matchup with Florida State. Here's everything he had to say. Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.

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@samspiegelman has an early look ahead at Notre Dame's big recruiting weekend.

Mitchell Evans hasn't returned to the level of production he had in the 2023 season, but the Mackey Award still recognized him Tuesday as one of the best tight ends in college football.

Evans was included as one of the eight semifinalists for the Mackey Award. He's caught 16 passes for 133 yards this season. Nine of those receptions have resulted in first downs and four of them were third-down conversions.

Here's the full semifinalist list:

Notre Dame's Mitchell Evans
Bowling Green's Harold Fannin Jr.
Texas' Gunnar Helm
Ball State's Tanner Koziol
Michigan's Colston Loveland
Vanderbilt's Eli Stowers
LSU's Mason Taylor
Penn State's Tyler Warren

Notre Dames' CFP ranking tonight will depend on many factors. For one how will the CFP look at the NIU game. Will they see an inexperienced O line? A QB transfer who was out all Spring? A WR group that had three new players? A new Australian punter? A new OC? An playing but injured Howard Cross? Playing an NIU team that was older, experienced, who although 4 - 4, has not lost any game by more than one score. Will they see in the NIU game that ND lost the yardage battle by over 100, loss the turnover battle by 2. Loss the special team game with bad punts surrendering field position and blocked field goal attempts. Loss the big play battle where NIU had 3 big plays. And loss the key stops battle where ND could not sustain drives or stop NIU from keeping the ball especially in key moments. These are the stats I monitor. The last game ND had such a bad group of stats was the CFP playoff game against Alabama in 2020/2021. Maybe the CFP committee when looking at this game, and where the team was at the time and how they are playing now, will see NIU as an early season aberration and not count it that much. Tonight we will find out. As for Indiana, the only team that is .500 in a power 4 conference and has an overall winning record that IU has played is Washington. And all three of their non power conference games have a 3 - 6 record. Yes IU has the best point margin in the country., but look at the schedule. It is incredibly weak and much weaker than ND's. That power 4 best win was against Washington, 3 - 3 in the Big conf. and 5 - 4 overall. Who is Penn State's signature win? There isn't one. Only team with a power 4 winning record they have beaten is West Virginia. They have beaten No one in the BIg conf. with a winning conference record. IMO ND should be ahead of both these teams.

For the newbies (and not-so-newbies) ...
DON'T SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS IN THE REPLY BOX HERE ... for this chat
Do submit them at the Jotcast link below ... and the question queue is already open
Please include your name and hometown along with your question(s)
The Live Chat will run from noon ET until around 3 on Wednesday
A full transcript will be posted later Wednesday afternoon

https://live.jotcast.com/chat/notre-dame-football-live-chat-nov-6-2024-19523.html

I joined WSBT sports director Pete Byrne to share takeaways from Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman's Monday press conference, the challenge of preparing for a Florida State team that's significantly underperformed, what kind of talent the Seminoles have and what Tae Johnson's return from injury means for the Irish secondary.

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Inside ND Sports is partnering with WSBT to provide even more coverage of the Notre Dame football season. James and Byrne will record a video every Monday following a Freeman press conference.

Click here to subscribe to Inside ND Sports on YouTube.

Story by Bill Bilinski.

Bill, a retired longtime sports editor at the South Bend Tribune, will be helping us out again with game coverage in November and December in both men's and women's basketball. Tyler and I will still handle a lot of the news on those beats and recruiting. Then the two of us will get involved in game coverage once ND's postseason football run is over. Bill is a member of the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame.

Live Stats: LINK

Join us Monday at 7 p.m. EST on YouTube as @Eric Hansen and I go live for the next weekly edition of "Football Never Sleeps."

We'll discuss No. 10 Notre Dame's drop in the AP poll, what the Irish can prove in November as the College Football Playoff rankings start, takeaways from head coach Marcus Freeman's Monday press conference and the latest in recruiting. We'll answer questions live from viewers, too.

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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If you'd like to submit questions, make sure you click through so you're watching on YouTube's site or in the YouTube app if you're on mobile. You can do so by clicking the headline at the top of the embedded video above. So where it says "Football Never Sleeps: ..." Or there should be spot that says "Watch on YouTube" in the bottom left.

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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No details on which year will be in Austin and which in South Bend, nor are there details on dates.

Texas had a series with Georgia for those years that got wiped out when they became a conference opponent. ND already has Arkansas in '28 and Alabama in '29 as SEC opponents on the schedule.

Here's the full transcript from today's Marcus Freeman press conference.

He was much heralded. Why has he not seen any action

Will update the title as the polls are released. My prediction:

1 Oregon
2 Ohio State
3 Georgia
4 Miami
5 Texas
6 Tennessee
7 BYU
8 Penn State
9 Notre Dame
10 Indiana

I can barely watch the Indiana vs msu game.

Shaking like crazy

The Florida State game has always been billed as Notre Dame's biggest recruiting weekend of the year. Even though the matchup won't be a ranked one, the Irish are putting together an impressive visitors list for the game.

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Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman will hold his Monday press conference at 12:30 p.m. EDT.

We'll have updates from his press conference posted in this thread while it's happening.

The live stream is available here:

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