Former Notre Dame offensive lineman Bob Morton (2002-06) discusses the progress that can be made in winter workouts, how realistic strength/weight gains are, if Michigan would be smart to promote Sherrone Moore to replace Jim Harbaugh for the sake of continuity, his recruiting visits to Notre Dame, if it's possible to always play the best five offensive linemen, what he thought of Charles Jagusah's starting left tackle debut, the development of three-star recruits and more.

Then @Eric Hansen and I answer questions from Twitter and The Insider Lounge (29:14).

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Notre Dame's additions to the defensive end board continued Thursday when 2025 recruit Javeon Campbell reported a Notre Dame offer. Campbell recorded 14.5 sacks as a junior at Frankfort (Ky.) Western Hills.

Campbell's offer list has started has only started to expand this month with offers from Minnesota, Cincinnati, Purdue, Western Kentucky and West Virginia.

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“I would rather lose with the dudes that are going to play the right way, that are going to build this culture, than win with somebody that’s not doing it the right way,” Micah Shrewsberry said of benching Kebba Njie and Carey Booth for the entire second half.

“Not to say they haven’t been. They’ve played really hard in other games. I hope this helps them play really hard against Boston College the same way they sat and watched those dudes compete like that.”

@Eric Hansen and I will record our weekly Inside ND Sports podcast Thursday. 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!

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Notre Dame football welcomed 2025 wide receiver target Jerome Bettis Jr. back to campus last weekend for junior day. Bettis attends College Park (Ga.) Woodward Academy and was last on campus in October for the USC game.

Per Rivals, Bettis is a three-star recruit and unranked nationally. He is the No. 99 wide receiver in the 2025 recruiting class. The 6-foot-2, 191-pound Bettis has 19 total offers including Notre Dame, Arkansas, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, Missouri, NC State and Texas A&M. He has visited the Irish eight times in his recruitment.

I caught up with Bettis to discuss his trip, impressions of Mike Brown and Mike Denbrock, connecting with recruits and more.

On his visit:

"It was amazing," Bettis told Inside ND Sports. "Obviously it was really cold up there but I had a great time. Getting to see everybody again. Going into it, I was super excited [and] looking forward to it and then leaving it ... my perspective was like, 'That probably was one of the best visits I've ever been on personally at Notre Dame and then at other schools as well.'"

"Just because I feel like the way they took care of me and my family while we were up there ... it was special and it's been different from all other visits and so I just enjoyed it."

On meeting Brown and Denbrock:

"I got to meet them. Talk to them. That was great. had a meeting with coach Brown. We sat down, went over some things and so really just getting to know him throughout the visit was great for me because we talked over the phone sometimes but that doesn't necessarily translate to how it's gonna be in person. Getting to meet him was great [and] I had an amazing time talking to him."

On Denbrock's offensive scheme:

"I feel like this is where I've been waiting on, to see Notre Dame go out there and be explosive and create some big plays. I've seen what he's done at LSU this recent year and in years past when he was at Notre Dame. I'm super excited to see how they get this thing going."

On the coaching staff's final message to him:

"This whole process, obviously they've been recruiting hard. And on this trip, they let me know that obviously they're still after me and they still want me but they just want to assure that I know that they know it's a process and I need to take my time with it to make sure that wherever I go is the right fit for me. And so they want to make sure that I'm making the decision based on how I feel and not anything else. They're enthusiastic about me, this recruiting class and they're just excited to get it going."

Bettis said he spent most of his time around 2025 QB commit Deuce Knight, 2025 S commit Ethan Long and 2025 DE commit CJ May. Bettis said he actually saw May at the airport when both were departing for South Bend.

Bettis said the coaching staff and his family spoke about returning for spring practice and said that is the plan, although no date is currently set.
Link to full story:

InsideNDSports - How Notre Dame’s junior day left mark on 2025 WR Jerome Bettis Jr.

2025 WR target Jerome Bettis Jr. recaps his Notre Dame junior day visit and why it went so well.

notredame.rivals.com

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Eric/Tyler, I noticed Gabriel Rubio is not on the official roster. Just an oversight?

We took a stab at it. Lots of changes looming in the weeks ahead.

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Tickets are available HERE

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Notre Dame offered 2025 defensive end Ethan Utley on Wednesday. Defensive line coach Al Washington visited Utley this afternoon at Nashville (Tenn.) Ensworth.

Per Rivals, Utley is the No. 10 strongside defensive end and No. 161 overall player in the 2025 class.

The 6-foot-3, 265-pound defender has collected 38 total offers in his recruitment process and released a top five of Michigan, Oklahoma, Syracuse, Texas and Tennessee on Christmas.

He also received an offer from Oregon on Tuesday.

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Notre Dame men's basketball will play tonight its first game since Monday of last week. The Irish (7-11, 2-5 ACC) will host Miami (12-6, 3-4) in Purcell Pavilion at 7 p.m. EST on ESPN2.

The Irish will wear green tonight, but they'll need more than that to beat a Miami team that beat the Irish, 62-49, in Florida in early December. Miami was led by 14 points by guard Matthew Cleveland and 13 points each by forward Norchad Omier and guard Nijel Pack.

Notre Dame is still looking for its first home win of 2024 with losses to NC State, Duke and Florida State already on the books.

Tip: 7 p.m. EST
Watch: ESPN2
Listen: Notre Dame Radio Network

Notre Dame season stats:

Any idea of the date of the Blue Gold game? I thought it was supposed to be April 27th.

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Notre Dame offered 2025 wide receiver Donovan Olugbode on Wednesday while the coaching staff, including Marcus Freeman and Mike Brown, stopped in at Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy.

Per Rivals, the 6-foot-1, 197-pound Olugbode is a four-star recruit and the No. 92 overall player in the 2025 recruiting class. He slots in as the No. 15 wide receiver in the class.

Olugbode is the eighth wide receiver in the 2025 class to report a new offer from the Irish since the hire of Brown. Olugbode, who is originally from Chicago, received an offer from Brown while at Wisconsin.

He reports 22 total offers including Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Louisville, Miami (Fla.), Michigan State, Missouri, Tennessee and USC.

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Notre Dame will have a major focus in the South on today's trips on the recruiting trail.

I received an interesting press release this morning. I don't know that I can explain it well, so I'm just going to copy and paste.

Would any of you attend something like this?

Here was the brief explanation before the full release:

As a part of the partnership with NBC, Cosm will present select Notre Dame football games LIVE in “Shared Reality” on their 87-foot diameter 8K+ LED domes – the first of which is slated to open in Los Angeles later this year next to SoFi Stadium in Hollywood Park.

“Shared Reality” blends the virtual and physical worlds, meaning that Notre Dame and college football fans will be able to attend Cosm’s venues and cheer side by side as if they were sitting at the 50 yard line at Notre Dame Stadium even though they are miles and miles away from the actual venue itself.

You can see some images at cosm.com

FULL RELEASE:


January 24, 2024 (Stamford, CT and Los Angeles, CA) – NBC Sports and Cosm, a leading immersive technology, media, and entertainment company, today announced a multi-year partnership wherein NBC Sports will bring an expansive offering of live Premier League soccer matches, along with additional live sports content from NBC Sports’ world-class portfolio, to Cosm’s forthcoming immersive venues.

In addition to Premier League games throughout the season, Cosm will produce and present select Notre Dame Football and Big Ten Football games, as well as NBC Sports’ premium horse racing events, in “Shared Reality”— an experience which bridges the virtual and physical worlds through Cosm’s pioneered technology and 87-foot diameter, 8K+ LED domes.

The sports media rights agreement marks the first time that these professional league soccer, college football, and blockbuster horse racing events will be available in Shared Reality. Additionally, it marks the official debut of internationally staged events at Cosm’s new venues in the United States.

“This NBC Sports partnership represents another critical step in our mission to redefine the way the world experiences content,” said Jeb Terry, Cosm’s President and CEO. “The deal expands our sports content offerings beyond the NBA, NHL, and UFC, and allows us to super-serve fans of all types. Fans know NBC Sports delivers a best-in-class sports experience and by adding the EPL, College Football, and Horse Racing to the programming schedule, it ensures we always have live, original, immersive content. When fans come to Cosm, there is always something new to see, and Cosm is the world’s best place to experience the event next to actually being there in person.”

“We’re excited to partner with Cosm to offer fans a unique viewing experience for some of the most prestigious properties in our portfolio,” said Gary Quinn, Vice President, Programming & Owned Properties, NBC Sports.

“One of our primary goals as a company is to democratize access to the world’s greatest sporting events,” said Peter Murphy, Cosm’s SVP, Content and Media. “For most EPL fans in the U.S., getting to a game in England is prohibitive for many reasons. Through this tremendous partnership with NBC Sports, sitting pitch side on weekend mornings in LA, Dallas, and beyond will be possible. It will feel like you’re there, especially as we pair the experience with contextual F&B opportunities.”

Cosm’s first two public venues – set to open in 2024 in Los Angeles at Hollywood Park and Dallas at Grandscape, with plans to expand to additional locations in key markets – will deliver state-of-the-art visuals and merge the energy of the crowd with elevated food and beverage service to make guests feel like they are sitting front row, courtside, or on the pitch at live events taking place across the world. Details of the schedule of events upon the opening of its venues will be shared at a later date.

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There are six Irish players on the current roster who were former McDonald's All-Americans: Sonia Citron, Hannah Hidalgo, Emma Risch, Kylee Watson, Maddy Westbeld and KK Bransford. Olivia Miles and Cass Prosper did not have that opportunity after enrolling early at ND.

Uncommitted five-star forward MacKenly Randolph, who Notre Dame is still hoping to sign this spring, also made the team. The game will be played at the Toyota Center in Houston on April 2 at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

Notre Dame QB CJ Carr makes the list from the national analayst crew.

I don't remember this happening before, but Notre Dame sent us a notes package to recap the 2023 season.

It's a collection of interesting statistics, where players are in various record categories and a recap for every play on the roster.

For instance: Joe Alt and Xavier Watts gave Notre Dame at least two unanimous All-Americans in the same season for the first time since 1990.

It's a lot of information that I haven't made my way through yet, but I thought I'd share it for anyone looking for a deep dive on the 2023 season.

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Notre Dame football hosted 2025 defensive end commit Christopher Burgess Jr. on a visit last weekend for junior day. Burgess, a four-star recruit out of Chicago Simeon, was last on campus in September for the Ohio State game, when he was uncommitted.

Per Rivals, Burgess is the No. 6 strongside defensive end and No. 62 overall player in the 2025 recruiting class. The 6-foot-4, 241-pound Burgess committed to ND over finalists Alabama, Ohio State and Michigan.

Although he committed earlier this month and already had multiple visits to campus under his belt, Burgess told me it was always the goal for him and his family to get back for junior day.

"Felt it was important to get back so that I can continue to build relationships," Burgess told Inside ND Sports. "[Head] Coach [Marcus] Freeman and [defensive line] coach [Al] Washington hung out with me for a few hours the day before junior day ... it’s always good to see them."

Burgess said Freeman and Washington asked about his school year so far and how his offseason is progressing. Since the group had just caught up the day before, Burgess said junior day was mostly about becoming more familiar with each other and learning more about the coaches, program philosophy and more. Burgess also said Freeman reiterated the 4-for-40 approach in speeches to the recruits and one-on-one conversations with Burgess, his brother and father.

Later in the day on Saturday, Burgess attended Notre Dame's hockey game at the Compton Family Ice Arena, where they defeated Penn State 6-3. It was his first time meeting 2025 cornerback commit Cree Thomas and 2025 defensive end target Damien Shanklin.

Burgess told me the relationships within the class are growing and said the five defensive line commitments — himself, CJ May, Dominik Hulak, Joseph Reiff and Davion Dixon — all have different skillsets that they can bring to Notre Dame's defense and help the Irish win a championship. Burgess said he's fully healthy after suffering an arm injury last season and is working to be dominant in everyhting he does this offseason.

Link to full story:




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Pretty cool honor, and Notre Dame's first since Drue Tranquill in 2017.

There had been rumbling about this for a while. He's ready to take on the business world.

Final Rivals250 for 2024 class: https://n.rivals.com/prospect_rankings/rivals250/2024

Top 10 risers in final ranking: https://n.rivals.com/news/rivals-rankings-week-ten-biggest-risers-in-the-rivals250-17

Gorney's thoughts: https://n.rivals.com/news/tuesdays-with-gorney-final-2024-rivals250-released

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According to a Notre Dame spokesperson, Inside ND Sports was told Rubio is stepping away to attend to some personal matters.

Full story:

SATURDAY
Baltimore Ravens 34, Houston Texans 10

Active for Houston ...
DT Kurt Hinish: 3 tackles and 1 sack.

Inactive for Houston ...
Practice squad: CB Troy Pride Jr.
Reserve/Injured: OL Jarrett Patterson

Active for Baltimore ...
S Kyle Hamilton: 3 tackles.
LT Ronnie Stanley: Blocked for an offense that rushed for 229 yards and 2 touchdowns on 42 carries and allowed three sacks.
C Sam Mustipher (backup)