With the 2024 defense looking very strong once again. Al Golden has to be retained. Associate Head coach title, pay raise, do whatever it takes.

Parker has to help out the defense as well. This 2024 offense cannot be predictable and conservative.

Hoping to hear some news about Golden getting an extension or additional titles to his name here soon. Pay the man.

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2025 four-star cornerback target Chuck McDonald III, out of Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei, included Notre Dame in his top 10 schools on Friday.

The Irish join Alabama, Oregon, USC. Stanford, UCLA, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas A&M and Tennessee on McDonald’s list.

McDonald, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound recruit, was offered by ND last March during its annual Pot of Gold Day Recruiting event but has shown little interest beyond his latest move of including the Irish in his top 10. He has not visited campus at any point of his recruitment.

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Former Notre Dame offensive lineman Bob Morton (2002-06), whose playing career overlapped with Mike Denbrock's first stint at ND, discusses Denbrock's impending return as the Irish offensive coordinator, his evolution as a coach, how the Jayden Daniels example impacts the potential of Riley Leonard, the value of Denbrock's experience and familiarity, how he can help ND's other offensive coaches, the financial alignment behind head coach Marcus Freeman, Denbrock's skills as a recruiter and more.

Then @Eric Hansen and I answer questions from Twitter and The Insider Lounge (37:36).

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@Charleston Bowles looks at what's to come ahead in the 2025 recruiting cycle that aligns with what occurred in the 2024 cycle.

That includes aiming high at linebacker, pulling from the Chicago area, prioritizing legacy recruits, pushing for in-state talent and targets arising late in the cycle.

Good read here:

@Eric Hansen and I will record our weekly Inside ND Sports podcast on Friday this week. 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!

I'm starting a new thread here and I'm going to remind everyone not to ignore positional fit. Not that you can't move people around, but it's harder at some positions than others. I mentioned Mike Denbrock on another thread. At LSU, he's the coordinator of the No. 1 team in total offense and scoring offense in 2023 with the Heisman Trophy winner. The year before Kelly and Denbrock took over, LSU was 91st in total offense, then 28th last year and 1st this year. He's an excellent recruiter and did a very good job on the West Coast under BK. Positional fit is not an issue. He's coached tight ends, offensive line, quarterbacks, wide receivers. He's been a defensive coordinator. ... I think his end game still is that he'd like to be a head coach at some point, preferably at the Power 5 level. ... Mike has worked with Gino Guidulgli and Mike Brown at UC. Also Mike Mickens. ... Mike Denbrock and Marcus Freeman text regularly. ... Would he leave LSU for ND? He'd listen, but it would take a lot of money. He just got a raise after he turned down Texas A&M and Mike Elko He's 59 years old.

On Wednesday, Notre Dame football wide receiver Tobias Merriweather posted the following message on his X/Twitter account. Merriweather is the second wide receiver, along with Chris Tyree, to leave the Irish program and plan to enter the transfer portal when it opens Dec. 4.

Story from @Tyler James:


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Notre Dame swapped out five-star heartbreak for five-star certainty in the 2024 class. On a drama-free finish to an Irish recruiting class that set standard for how to move forward.

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Another must watch from today:

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And if you do want to ask a question, please include your name and hometown in THIS format. Here's a shortcut to the question queue:

With Notre Dame's 2023 class signed, @Eric Hansen put together our first 2023 scholarship chart. We'll keep this post pinned and update the link as changes occur.

As expected here ...

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I hate USC and their team is imploding. It's amazing. Tackett, williams and Jackson all jumped ship today.

This is the EASIEST (yet BEST) cookie recipe ever. At my previous company, I took our safety manager and his wife to dinner. Since she was Scottish, the subject of shorthead cookies came up and she baked and gave me the recipe for the best shortbread cookies EVER.

American ingredients:

1 cup Sugar

2 cups (1 lb) of room temperature, lightly salted butter

3 cups Plain Flour

1 cup Rice Flour (can be brown or white)

2 tsp Vanilla

demerara sugar



Directions:

• Beat the approximately room temperature, softened butter, sugar and vanilla in Mixmaster (any electric, handheld mixer/beater will do).
• Combine flours in a separate bowl, mixing well.
• Slowly add flour mixture to butter, sugar and vanilla.
• When mixed, make small balls of dough (about 1/3 the size of a golf ball, the dough handles more easily (less sticky) after it has dried out a bit or been cooled in the refrigerator for an hour)
• Flatten into round shape approximately 2 to 2½ inches in diameter, about a ¼” thick.
• Add a light coating of demerara sugar (sugar in the raw, also called turbinado) to cookie tops
• Bake at 325oF for ~18 to 20 minutes – Ideally, there will be a light golden-brown ring on the cookie edges, you should NOT wait until the entire cookie is golden brown (I rotate the cookie sheet at 9 minutes to make sure they are evenly done – all ovens have warmer and cooler areas
• Let cool.
• Makes 60 to 70.

Variations

Add cinnamon to the demerara sugar

Add ¼ cup cocoa powder to the flour mixture (for chocolate flavor)

And the #1 OL recruit in the country.

Portal:

2 OL from Indiana
1 Houston
1 Jackson State
1 UConn
1 UTEP

Sanders should have a much much improved OL room in 2024. Plus they got WR Sheppard from Vandy.

They’re gonna be good next year

Lord have mercy !!

Notre Dame's search for a new leader of its football strength and conditioning program has reportedly narroweded to Loren Landow.

Landow is the former strength and conditioning coach for the NFL's Denver Broncos. He's worked privately with the likes of Christian McCaffrey, Von Miller, Peyton Manning and others as the owner of Landow Performance in Colorado.

FootballScoop first reported the news.

Updated with story:

In an era of college football, where coaching staffs have become numb to managing incoming and outgoing transfers, recruits flipping commitments late in the process and everything in between, head coach Marcus Freeman's vision for building continuity is evident in Notre Dame's 2024 recruiting class.

Link to full story:

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If you'd like to catch up on some of the big national recruiting stories today, check out this live show from Rivals.

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