Trask with 3 picks already- Sooners 17-0 first quarter

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Was talking to a buddy who had no idea about the pipeline of former head coach “analysts” at Alabama, and it got me thinking when / if ND could ever move in that direction.
Most of our blowout losses over the past 5-10 years have come after off-weeks (Bama 2013 NC, Clemson 2018 Cotton Bowl, Michigan 2019, Ohio State 2016 Fiesta Bowl), whereas when we play these top tier teams in-season (not after bye week) we tend to play them much closer (Clemson 2020, both UGA games, Clemson 2015, FSU 2014). One way to make sense of this is that when teams have analysts on staff they have an enhanced ability to prepare than we do, which increases their advantage (in addition to talent in most of these cases). I recall after the Bama 2013 NC there being a quote that Bama was calling out all of our plays before we ran them.
Given these analysts tend to work for sub-$100k is it a move that Kelly could pull off under the current administration to help close the gap with the football factories?

With the pass catching skill of Williams, and predictability that he will be blocking to protect Book, can we not slip him out 5-6 times for a dump off? I think he could be special in space.
Our WRs simple take off on fly patterns and run the TE clear out the middle....( yes, we actually can have someone down the middle 10-15 yards- it’s not a penalty).
Williams should have 5-6 catches Friday.

If nothings been reported yet does anyone know when there will be an announcement?

Should begin around 10:25 a.m. ET.

I don't mean to be a downer, but can you imagine ND vs Bama in the Rose Bowl (playoff) in normal circumstances (I know, I know, we will likely get smoked), BUT, in the unlikely event that we were competitive, or, God forbid, we could actually win....what a spectacle that would be. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I've had daydreams about this scenario for years. It would be an iconic ND football memory. Happy New Year and thanks for listening.

Opening statement: It's an honor for us to play against a very well-coached Notre Dame team. Brian Kelly has done a great job. We're looking forward to this in what has been an unusual season.

The Crimson Tide has changed its identity during the Nick Saban era that now leans more toward offense rather than defense.
https://notredame.rivals.com/news/notre-dame-alabama-taking-the-offensive

After today's release of the uniform Notre Dame will be wearing against Alabama on Friday, I began to ponder whether I am a fan of what Under Armour has done with the Irish uniforms since ND signed with UA in 2014. What say you?

Here is the CFP look for this year: Login to view embedded media

Not up to the task. 3 picks in the first quarter. Missing a lot of weapons but still surprisingly bad performance

This doesn't present the prettiest picture for the 20-point underdog Fighting Irish ... but great moments are born from great opportunity.
https://notredame.rivals.com/news/notre-dame-vs-alabama-on-paper

Here are tonight's Lucky Charms...

*** One of Notre Dame's recent class of 2022 offers went out on Dec. 14 to Lake Balboa (Calif.) Birmingham's Arlis Boardingham. Rivals lists the 6-5, 220-pounder as a wide receiver, but Notre Dame's Mike Elston offered him as a defensive end. A few schools are recruiting him on defense while others see him as a tight end. I spoke with Boardingham a few days ago, and he is interested in Notre Dame but admittedly doesn't know much about the program and hasn't been to campus. Arizona State, Boston College, Colorado and Oregon State are among his other early offers.

*** Suwannee (Ga.) Lambert wide receiver Kojo Antwi received an offer from Notre Dame Nov. 22, but the Irish's offer looks to have been too late. Earlier today, Antwi announced a top schools list of USC, Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Florida, Texas A&M, South Carolina and Oregon. If the Irish stay involved here, I do believe they can quickly make up some ground as Antwi seemed like a Notre Dame type kid in my interaction with him recently.

*** Notre Dame offered Ponchatoula (La.) class of 2022 athlete Amorion Walker in early November, and the 6-3, 170-pounder says the Fighting Irish are among his top schools along with Mississippi State, Kansas State and Florida State. Below is an excerpt on Walker from a Rivals.com article that was posted Tuesday:

Notre Dame was the most recent school to offer Walker back in November. It was an offer he said he was blessed and honored to receive.

“I had been hearing from them for a little bit, I’d say for about a month prior,” Walker said of Notre Dame. “I got hurt this season so I wasn’t able to play too much, but they still came through because they’d seen something special.”

With the Notre Dame offer being new, Walker is still familiarizing himself with the program and building connections at the school.

“My uncle, Reggie Walker, he plays for the Arizona Cardinals,” Walker said. “Terry Joseph works at Notre Dame and he has a cousin (Vance Joseph) that coaches for the Arizona Cardinals, so that’s kind of a connection.”

Liam Eichenberg, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Kyle Hamilton all made the first-team. No one from ND on the second.

The full teams:

I was reading Joe Posnanski's list The Athletic of the greatest players not in the Hall of Fame. His #22 player was Keith Hernandez. This profile contained a couple of interesting topics:

One topic of course was if Hernandez should be in the Hall of Fame. I did not think that Posnanski exactly pushed for his candidacy so much as to bemoan the fact that Hernandez has never gotten the proper consideration - pointing out that he never received more than 11% of the vote in the 9 years he was on the ballot.

Posnanski said the Hernandez is generally recognized as the greatest defensive first baseman of all-time and is a former MVP. While acknowledging that his lack of home run power hurt his candidacy, he used Hernandez's WAR numbers as proof of his worthiness. He compared his WAR numbers to three first basemen who are in the Hall of Fame - Tony Perez, Orlando Cepeda and Eddie Murry:

Here are those three in career WAR, seven-year peak WAR and JAWS, the Jay Jaffe invention that combines them both.

1. Tony Pérez (54.0 career WAR, 36.5 peak, 45.3 JAWS)
2. Orlando Cepeda (50.1 career WAR, 34.5 peak, 42.3 JAWS)
3. Eddie Murray (68.7 career WAR, 39.1 peak, 53.9 JAWS)

OK, now compare them to Keith Hernandez — 60.1 career WAR, 41.3 peak, 50.8 JAWS.

Posnanski makes a compelling case for those who love WAR as a way of measuring a players greatness. However I saw Hernandez play, and never for one second did I consider him a Hall of Fame caliber player. A very good player certainly, but the Hall of Fame should be reserved for the best of the best - the truly elite. I just think that Hernandez fell a little short of that designation despite his WAR numbers. I have to also admit that I do not put as much emphasis on WAR as do many other baseball fans in evaluating players.

In support of Hernandez, Posnanski also listed his all-time defensive players for each position other than pitcher:

C: Johnny Bench, HOF
1B: Keith Hernandez, not Hall of Fame
2B: Bill Mazeroski, HOF
SS: Ozzie Smith, HOF
3B: Brooks Robinson, HOF
LF: Carl Yastrzemski, HOF (maybe Barry Bonds, not a Hall of Famer though that has nothing to do with his defense).
CF: Willie Mays, HOF
RF: Roberto Clemente, HOF

I have no problem with this list, except for a slight quibble over Ozzie Smith. I thought Mark Belanger, Omar Vizquel and Luis Aparicio were better.

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah will likely be a consensus 1st team All American. The Butkus Award winner is special. Who could have imagined this when he committed? I checked all sites and was surprised on how he was perceived as a high school recruit. He was Rival's 18th best player in Virginia. 247 had him the 456 best player in the nation. Was this all a mistake? Apparently not by his offers. Interestingly, JOK was quite the student (SAT 1310, with 680 math). This is revealed by many of his offers which include Dartmouth, William & Mary, Princeton, Yale, Vanderbilt and UVA. Other offers were App State, Marshall, Rutgers, ODU, NC State, Hampton, JMU, Coastal Carolina, Mich St, Temple and Towson. He was NOT offered by Va. Tech, amazing since Hokies have made a living off Tidewater kids. BC recruited but did not offer. Were we lucky or insightful, I don't know. But whoever made the case to offer him deserves much credit as does the staff which has nurtured him. Most credit though goes to Wu for his hard work and patience. No wonder Coach Lea loves the kid.

Mary Ann RIP
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I guess getting Blake Snell was not enough for the Padres. According to the San Diego Union, the Padres and Cubs have agreed on a deal.

Texas repeatedly was very effective with the screen pass last night. These are relatively easy plays that are successful when Texas sets up a wall of blocking for the receiver. I was kinda hoping the offensive coaches at ND were watching the game. !!

Virginia's men's basket ball team is in South Bend playing this Irish tonight. However the Louisville vs Virginia women's basketball game on Sunday is canceled, due to covid issues at Virginia. How is this possible? My head hurts..

1. J. Chadwell (Coastal)
2. Tom Allen
3. Fickel
4. Saban
5. Brent Brennan (SJ State)