For those interested it will be on FS1 tomorrow at 10:30 pm eastern 11-17.
Two 4-6 teams trying to get a win.

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Notre Dame football takes on Wake Forest in its last home game this Saturday which means the final recruiting weekend of the season where the Irish will host recruits on game-day visits is approaching.

2026 offensive guard Jake Namnun out of Delran (N.J.) High is expected to attend Notre Dame's game on Saturday. Namnun camped at Notre Dame in June and has visited Boston College and Duke for games this season. Boston College has extended an offer.

The 6-foot-1, 275-pound recruit is not currently rated or ranked by Rivals. He reports a 4.9 GPA and is also a decorated wrestler.

From what I gathered during our conversation, Namnun is a big fan of Notre Dame and its academic and football tradition. He's been playing "Here Come The Irish" around his house this week to prepare for Saturday.

On how much he's going to focus on the Irish offensive line:

"I'll be smack dab right in front of them," Namnun told Inside ND Sports. "[Offensive line] Coach [Joe] Rudolph, back in the summer, I loved his style of coaching so to get to watch it firsthand with his guys would be a fun experience. You got one of the best offensive linemen in the country who's going to be pretty much a top-10 pick ... to be able to watch him, that'll be an awesome experience as well."

On his favorite part of playing his position:

"To get the bully somebody for 48 minutes straight at my high school level ... it's just such a fun experience. Guys just get angry at you and they start taking trash. You don't even have to say anything back because you know next play, they'll end up eight yards into the secondary and on the ground."

On what he's looking for in his recruitment:

"The football and the relationships that are there with the coaches and continuing to build those. Then, on the other hand, it's can this place be a fit for me? Is there a glass fence ... a true family environment. It's not a four-year decision. It is truly a 40-year decision."

Namnun also has early interest from Florida, Penn State and Rutgers.

Link to full story:


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A rumor that SD interested in Bill B which would likely leave Moore unemployed and Bill would likely bring McDaniels to try to run that AFC West or would retain O'Brien or another crony

Hopefully not a pipe dream but he's my dream OC hire if ND could lure him away

Also personnel/injury updates, process for replacing Matt Balis, reimagining WR roles, and transfer kicker trend.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman will speak with reporters at 12 p.m. EDT today via Zoom for his weekly Thursday press conference.

I'll use this thread to provide updates from it.

Notre Dame will put Billy Schrauth into the starting lineup with Rocco Spindler out due to a knee injury.

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Gilbert finished his senior season at Charlotte (N.C.) Christian with 76 receptions for 1105 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. Also had 30 tackles, three interceptions and two pass deflections at defensive back.

The four-star recruit plans to enroll in January.

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Diving deep into the PFF numbers for Notre Dame's defense.

Defensive grades, run defense grades, advanced run defense stats, pass rush grades, advanced pass rush stats, coverage grades, advanced coverage stats, tackling grades, advanced tackling stats and where Notre Dame's best in those categories rank nationally.

Diving deep into the PFF numbers for Notre Dame's offense.

Offensive grades, passing grades, advanced passing stats, receiving grades, advanced receiving stats, rushing grades, advanced rushing stats, blocking grades, advanced blocking stats and where Notre Dame's best at each position rank nationally.

Hey All - I am heading to the game this weekend (my 2nd this year but hadn't been to campus since before COVID before that). Looking for recommendations for dinner(s) and nightlife. I am accustomed to many of the main stays such as La Salle Grille, Rocco's, Barnaby's, Corby's and Linebacker but interested to hear other options that might be good options. Staying downtown in SB.

No. 16 Notre Dame (1-1) vs. Northwestern (2-0)
Where: Purcell Pavilion; South Bend, Ind.
Tip: 7 p.m. EST
TV: ACC Network
Radio: Notre Dame Radio Network
Live Stats: Link

Jack Lange, a 2025 offensive tackle from Eureka (Mo.) High, reported a Notre Dame offer on Wednesday night. Lange attended Notre Dame's victory over Pittsburgh in October.

The 6-foot-8, 275-pound Lange also has offers from Michigan, Washington, Tennessee, Iowa, Nebraska and others.

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I stopped by coach Niele Ivey's brief media availability today for a WBB notebook I'm working on for later in the week ... before I head to football interviews tonight. A few things I can share now ... Notre Dame still believes it is in play for Mackenly Randolph, the 6-1 five-star forward from California, though Ivey can't say anything about that on the record. Her finalists are ND, Louisville and Michigan State, and she visited all three in October. The last day of the WBB early signing period is Wednesday. ... This Olivia Miles thing is not getting any more clarity in terms of a public timeline. Freshman Hannah Hidalgo is doing a great job of running the point. Having the two of them on the court together at times would be intriguing... Notre Dame's home opener is Wednesday night, against Northwestern -- a game that got chippy last year. The Irish dropped six spots, to 16th, in the latest AP poll. South Carolina is the new No. 1 team. ... Ivey is pretty cloak-and-dagger with injury specifics, but she did tell me that sophomore G KK Bransford is close to returning from an undisclosed injury. She did not play in either game the Irish have played in so far, nor did she practice in the Media Day availability last month. ... Got lots of good stuff on today's five-star center signee Kate Koval from Ivey. Ivey, as a player, was in the class just ahead of Ruth Riley's arrival, and because Ivey redshirted, they were teammates for four seasons.

It's time for round 10 of Place Your Bets for the 2023 season with Saturday's road game against Clemson (12 p.m. EDT on ABC).

I detailed the results of the Pitt prop bets here and updated the standings for the season.

@Scottclarisey remains in first place in the season standings with 27. @CURTVI95, @jbm19 and @rover219 are tied for second with 26.

I'm right behind at 25. @Eric Hansen's sitting with 23.

We'll share our predictions for the Clemson game Friday on YouTube, but you can start submitting your predictions through the Google Form now.


Here are the five prop bets for Notre Dame-Clemson:

• Over/Under 131.5 Clemson rushing yards
• Who will lead Notre Dame in receptions? (Anyone tied for lead will be accepted)
• Over/Under 250.5 ND QB Sam Hartman passing yards
• More sacks: Notre Dame or Clemson?
• Over/Under 1.5 Clemson turnovers

Remember the top two subscribers in the Place Your Bets standings at the end of the 2023 season will get one year (first place) and six months (second place) of a free subscription.

Get your picks in before voting closes prior to kickoff on Saturday. Make sure you include the same email address with your submission as you did last week. And if you haven't shared the username associated with your entry, please email it to insidendsports@gmail.com.

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

32:50 • ldlgoirish (TIL): My O line coaches always told me that center is different than any other O line position. A center wants to win at the point of attack, but more importantly, cannot lose. He cannot be blown up. Zeke played a vital role, with his experience, considering the team had 2 new guards. Was there anyone with high end potential that could have played center? Because of the new guards was a third inexperienced player at center ever considered an option? Seems you can grow with an inexperienced player at cornerback but not on the O line. Your thoughts and insights are always appreciated. Sorry for the length.

36:47 • sjb75 (TIL): Do either of you believe Gerad Parker will be the OC at Notre Dame in 2024?

38:24 • @MurrayOConnell: Would you rather have Rees or Parker as your OC?

39:48 • @BleachersBobby: Was Gerald Parker a “buddy hire”? How did they decide he was the guy to be OC? Who signed off on that? Was that decision, in your opinion, the most debilitating, aka the main reason ND has 3 losses?

44:30 • @NotreDameExpert: Smash Hires at OC: Byron Leftwich, Charlie Weis, Philip Rivers, Andy Ludwig, Tony Alford. If Parker stays, Mike Sanford Jr as Co-OC and MANDATORY zoom meetings with great offensive minds such as Charlie Weis Sr, Dave Cutcliffe, and Bob Stoops. Parcells can help too. Thoughts?

47:30 • Marie Biafore - @biafore_marie: What do you need to see from the offense this weekend against Wake Forest to convince you that sufficient self-scouting and evaluation was performed during the bye week and that there is some movement in a positive direction?

49:07 • frank serra - @frankse44617564: Will ND try to run more RPO against Wake? I feel Hartman lost his confidence on throwing the ball down field.

51:33 • Steven Goforth - @stevegoforth5: What is the best course of action for next season:

(a) get the best transfer QB we can and hope for the best record?

(b) let’s go with the QBs on the roster (including Carr) and let them get experience but have a worse record?

55:10 • @CharlesWWolfe: This is putting the cart way before the horse, but can you think of a season opener with more unknowns for both teams than 2024? Between the Fisher dismissal and ND roster turnover, I have no idea what to expect from either team; both could be playoff contenders or really bad.

1:00:25 • @NWI_Irish96: Any new info on a potential new TV deal?

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Also possible positions of need, beyond QB, when it comes to transfer-portal additions; Billy Schrauth's opportunity. ... and more.

When the NCAA announced its 48-team bracket for the men's soccer NCAA Tournament on Monday, Notre Dame found itself as the owner of the No. 2 overall seed.

That means the Irish (11-2-4) will have a first-round bye and will host Sunday the winner of the first-round matchup between Xavier (9-3-6) and Kentucky (7-7-4). The other top seeds in Notre Dame's path to a College Cup semifinal are ACC teams: No. 15 Duke (11-3-3), No. 10 Wake Forest (11-2-5) and No. 7 Virginia (10-3-4).

The Irish beat Duke 1-0 on Oct. 7, tied Wake Forest 1-1 on Oct. 20 and beat Virginia 3-1 on Sept. 22.

Nine ACC teams made the NCAA Tournament with six receiving national seeds and first-round byes: Notre Dame, No. 3 North Carolina (10-3-6), Virginia, No. 9 Clemson (10-3-5), Wake Forest and Duke. The other three will play in Thursday's opening round: Louisville (11-5-3), Pitt (6-6-4) and Syracuse (8-4-7).

Notre Dame's only losses this season came against Michigan State (7-2-7) on Sept. 12 and Louisville in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals on Nov. 5.

The ACC has won the last two national championships with Clemson in 2021 and Syracuse in 2022.

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The Bronko Nagurski Trophy named its five finalists for the 2023 season on Wednesday. Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts is one of them. He's joined by Iowa cornerback Cooper DeJean, Illinois defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton, Georgia safety Malaki Starks and NC State linebacker Payton Wilson.

The Nagurski Trophy is awarded to the country's top defensive player.

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker spoke to local beat writers Tuesday evening. Here's a transcript of that conversation. Questions may be paraphrased.

GERAD PARKER

When you’re trying to build confidence, do you look at the things you’ve done well? Or do you look at the things you didn’t and find better ways to do them well?

“I think you have to. It’s the toughest thing in sport. How do you build confidence? Everybody says you have to build confidence through work ethic and all these things. Those are all true. But what’s also true is you don’t build confidence until you see the ball do something positive. I always equate it to the young days of basketball. It’s hard to say I’m get better at my shot until the thing goes in the hoop. There is positive affirmation from past success, which leads to future success, all the staff. Those guys, they’re smart. They’re sharp. They know. They know success. They know when we don’t hit our mark together. We know all those things. So you have to remind them of that. They’re pros enough to understand, hey, we didn’t our mark or I have to do this better. How do I get it done better? Then we get lost in the work of it. Yeah, it matters.”

When you’ve looked at the bad of those games, do you say, ‘I should have called something different,’ or ‘This was execution.’? How do you blend that?

“It’s a good question. I stand with our staff and our players. You have to have a belief in them knowing — I think if you come up there, I would hope. I’d be really pissed off if [not]. Our players know we believe in them. Our guys are happy here. They’re happy in our locker room. They’re happy with the way we treat them and coach them to be better. Now, that being said, there’s always stuff. I try to stay away from it. You guys know why. It’s really hard to do your job if you read too much. So I have to stay out of it to serve our staff and players the right way. But, at the same time, if you care about the players and the staff you serve, you’re always going to stay up and wake up in the middle of the night wondering, ‘Should I have …? Should we have used this? Should we have called this? What could I have done differently?’ If not, you’re sure to fail. That’s what’s kept humility within me maybe throughout a whole career when we’ve done well and hit our mark and when we fell short. I definitely have questioned those things. When you go back to it though, you stand behind — I mean this, and I don’t mean this wrong way. I stand behind the job we’ve done, the game plans you’ve put together, and that doesn’t mean we have to do them better. There’s things on that tape from the Clemson that we all collectively together would say, and I hope you guys like at it and say, ‘Ugh, if we just execute that the way I know we can, the way I believe as a coordinator we can, we feel really good about that result.’ Unfortunately, there were too many of those in that game that we didn’t. Then it falls on me first. I know Sam [Hartman] tries to own everything. That’s not true. It’s me. It’s me. We’ll own that together. Then hopefully we’ll all stand on top of the hill one day together, too.”

How often do you see the execution Tuesday-Thursday out here and then not see it for whatever reason on Saturdays?

“There are moments of that, for sure. Honestly, there won’t be — you guys don’t care that we’re young. You guys don’t care that we’re young at wideout. But you could take it back to detailing like even Rico [Flores Jr.] when he runs the corner route at home when we start against Pitt. I firmly believe tomorrow or next year he sticks that route sooner and we start with a corner ball in the end zone. That’s a touchdown that he took too deep that we start with a bad result. We know that. But sometimes growing through those things is the only way a young guy learns how to play. That doesn’t mean we want that result. It doesn’t mean you all want the result. But standing in that fire and learning how, sometimes there’s only one way to do it. I could tell you that he would have stuck it sooner. I’m just using that as an example. I’m not trying to bury anything on him. But it’s just those things happen. Sometimes when the bullet flies and there’s 78,000 people over there, sometimes the body responds differently as you learn how.”

What’s fair to expect from a wide receiver group that has three freshmen, one of them who is a lacrosse guy, and a converted running back?

“It’s fair to expect greatness, which is what is expected here. It’s also fair to understand that that’s where we are. We have to get them there. It’s my job to get them there. But there’s somethings that we’re trying to grow through, and there’s only one way to grow through them. But this place is special, and expectations are high. Nobody understands that more than I do. We’re going to fight like hell every day to try to get to that expectation. That’s what we expect of ourselves. I know the guys do too. We’re going to make it a positive experience for them.”

Where can you bring these tight ends over the last three games? How can you bring them along to help? Because Mitchell Evans became your most consistent weapon.

“He was. He put himself in a really good position. I’m so proud of him for where he got himself to as a pass catcher and run blocker. The expectation doesn’t change of this place. So we’re going to keep bringing our guys along. But I was very happy for him. For what it’s worth, it’s something we forget to ask about. It was great. Mitch is healthy. He came out of surgery healthy. It’s good for him that he did. We’ll get him back and help him out. Then the other guys have to step up. A young Cooper Flanagan goes down there to Clemson and has to play in that football game and play the amount of reps he did is going to be invaluable for him through these next two weeks, through bowl practice and as spring practice goes. I have to keep on repeating it. The expectation’s still high in the tight end room, just like everywhere. So we’re going to bring those guys along, keep on fitting it up, and I hope you see some steps of that this week.”

Was it an impossible task to get the chemistry between Sam Hartman and the receivers where you need it to be based on the youth and the injuries? That makes it tough on a quarterback, I would imagine.

“It’s fair to him. It is. It’s hard. With that being said, we all know society don’t give a shit. But there’s some realities to it. I swear if you all would have looked at it in a man game, because I did. I try to keep up with Katy [Lonergan] and make sure of what you guys, because I respect your all’s job piece of it and questions. You lose play actions when it becomes pieces of a man game. That’s what that game was. So there’s no eye conflict. If I’m guarding Pete, I’m guarding Pete. So what’s happening in action throws, [they don’t care]. We lost that some. When you do that in a man game. In a zone game where you’re able to find some windows and there’s a little bit more room for windows to sit in air in some ways. In a man game, precision, accuracy, route, depth, ball location and all those things are critical. You saw some plusses of that when we did it coming out of the second half and got through those things. Then you saw a good D-coordinator check some stuff and go to middle of the field, closed zone, too. He played the game of chess on us. It’s there. I’m going to be honest with you. But at the same time, we’re pushing like hell to make sure we meet the mark so we can be there.”

(more)

Here's a shortcut to the question queue ... https://live.jotcast.com/chat/notre-dame-football-live-chat-nov-15-2023-16990.html

Notre Dame men's basketball (1-0) is set to continue its regular season Saturday against Western Carolina (1-0). Tip off is at 2 p.m. ET.

The Irish defeated Niagara, 70-63, on Monday in head Coach Micah Shrewsberry’s debut. Western Carolina also won its season opener, defeating Dalton State 106-65 on Tuesday.

In Monday’s win, Notre Dame was led by freshman guard Markus Burton. The former Mishawaka (Ind.) Penn standout scored 29 points, breaking the single-game point total record for a freshman previously held by LaPhonso Ellis with 27.

Burton was joined in the starting lineup by Julian Roper, Braeden Shrewsberry, Tae Davis and Matt Zona.

Sophomore forward Kebba Njie, who started in Notre Dame’s exhibition against Hanover, missed Monday’s game with a hand injury. He is considered day-to-day and is questionable to play on Saturday.

Bill Bilinski is in the building for our postgame story. I’ll bring updates to this thread throughout the game.

Watch: ACC Network Extra
Listen: Notre Dame Radio Network

Ewers is coming back,,,, You never know? 😂😂😂😂🍀🍀