My friend Drex Heikes is a diehard Oregon fan. He was the editor of their school newspaper back in the 70s. He went on to become a longtime editor for the LA times. Last year, after Oregon suffered a tough loss to archrival Washington, he wrote a sports article that I believe is right up there with Grantland Rice's best.

Drex had a ticket to see Oregon play USC in Eugene on September 23, 2001. He wasn't able to go, as he was put in charge of the LA team that got sent to New York to cover 9/11. This is the story: Offering Perspective on a Difficult Loss.

We are a 34.5 point favorite. Do we cover the spread?

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After rewatching the NC State game, i saw that on many occasions, Alt would like up on the right side next to Fisher and Evans would take his left tackle spot. This was the case on Estime 80 yard run. That is a formidable right side on those situations, although pretty obvious they are running to the right side. However, I suspect they will run other plays out of that formation down the road and Evans is eligible even though he lines up as a left tackle.

Blake doesn't look like the player he was as a freshman. I'm not sure if it is the lost weight or what it is? I'm curious whether it would make sense to try him at guard which might be his future? The left side of the line still looks pretty solid, but the right side is struggling and maybe bumping Blake inside and putting Baker or someone else with a bit better mobility and length to RT might be something to look at?

Remember to include your name and hometown with your questions in this chat ... the shortcut to the question queue is here: https://live.jotcast.com/chat/notre-dame-football-live-chat-sept-13-2023-16468.html

Here's my ballot. I still concoct a top 25 after decades of doing so as an AP voter, plus I think it's a better format. Only my top 16, though, count in this poll.

1. Georgia
2. Florida State
3. Texas
4. Washington
5. Michigan
6. USC
7. Ohio State
8. Penn State
9. Notre Dame
10. Alabama
11. Utah
12. Tennessee
13. Duke
14. LSU
15. Kansas State
16. Ole Miss
17. Oregon
18. Oklahoma
19. North Carolina
20. Oregon State
21. Colorado
22. Miami (Fla.)
23. Clemson
24. Kansas
25. UCLA

Inside ND Sports highlights three defensive targets who stole the show last Friday for their high school programs.

Recruits include:

2025 DE target Damien Shanklin

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2025 LB target Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng

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2025 CB target Cree Thomas

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Link to full story:

Rivals is releasing its first prospect rankings for the 2026 class this week. Today, the top 10 players in the class is being revealed. Tomorrow, the first Rivals100 for 2026 will be unveiled.

You can follow the Top 10 reveal here:


No. 6 on the list is Notre Dame safety target Blaine Bradford from Louisiana. Bradford received an offer from the Irish in May and camped at Notre Dame in June for the Irish Invasion.

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We named Bradford one of our Irish Invasion standouts.

This originally aired on Netflix five years ago. This was season 2. Bears QB Justin Fields is one of the other two QBs featured. I stumbled upon these last night and watched one episode so far. Really enjoyed it. These are links to watch it free.

QB1 links

Trailer
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Episode 1
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Episode 2
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Episode 3
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Episode 4
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Episode 5
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Episode 6
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Episode 7
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Episode 8
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Episode 9
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Episode 10
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@Eric Hansen and I will go live on YouTube at 7 p.m. EDT for the next edition of "Football Never Sleeps." Throughout the season, we will plan to be live every Monday at 7 p.m.

We'll discuss head coach Marcus Freeman's Monday press conference, what mattered most from Notre Dame's 45-24 win at NC State, what to expect from Saturday's Central Michigan game and answer questions from viewers.

Football Never Sleeps is sponsored by Legacy Heating & Air.

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.

Click here to subscribe to Inside ND Sports on YouTube.

Inside ND Sports dives into the top performances from last week on each side of the ball. Notre Dame 2024 commits highlighted include:

2024 RB commit Aneyas Williams

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2024 RB commit Kedren Young

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2024 WR commit Cam Williams

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2024 DT commit Sean Sevillano Jr

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2024 LB commit Bodue Kahoun

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2024 CB commit Leonard Moore

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2024 S commit Brauntae Johnson

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Link to full story:

Is anyone else concerned with Al Golden’s delayed blitzes? Obviously the OSU safety blitz on 3rd down that gave up the TD was the first bad sign, but the 3rd quarter against NC St was equally as brutal. We never get close to getting home and it puts our DBs in a bad spot.

I understand we need to get pressure because our D-Line seems to struggle in that department thus far, but the delayed blitzes have been an eye sore to say the least.

I think the only way to see this game is if you have Peacock.

NC State's handling of the lightning delay vis-a-vis the fans in the stadium was irresponsible. After the game was stopped, for 30 minutes or more there were repeated obnoxiously loud wolf calls over the PA system followed by the blaring announcement that "the game has been suspended due to DANGEROUS LIGHTNING. Please exit the stadium and go to your vehicle. You may not remain in the concourse. If you do not have a vehicle, you may go to the PNC Arena and wait there until an announcement is made that the game is being resumed..." In other words, they told us fans that there is DANGEROUS LIGHTNING but you should walk out into that DANGEROUS LIGHTNING to seek shelter - regardless of whether you were 70+ years old or were parked 2 miles away - when shelter was readily available within the stadium. While the PA system was blaring the leave-the-stadium announcements, some of the cops were hassling people to exit the stadium, saying that they would be forcibly removed if they didn't comply. Then a short while later, another announcement was made that fans should shelter in the concourse for their safety (a responsible suggestion)... After about 30 minutes without any wolf calls and "dangerous lightning" announcements, NC State resumed the obnoxious wolf calls with the previous announcements that there was DANGEROUS LIGHTNING and we could not remain in the concourse. At this point, the cops stopped trying to enforce the ridiculous edict, and we all waited in the stadium concourse until the concession stands re-opened at 2:15 PM and the game resumed at 2:35 PM. All in all, the fans handled the delay much better that did NC State and the police...

I just googled "notre dame nc state predictions" and was surprised at how many predictors took the under and the points. Five CBS writers all had ND winning, but only two of them predicted ND would cover the spread.

Predicting Notre Dame to win and not cover seems like some sort of cognitive dissonance to me. It seems like there's no way that a 7-point margin gives better than even odds against the rest of the field, i.e. winning or losing by more than 7.

My favorite example of subconscious Notre Dame antipathy causing someone to deservedly lose money: Data Skrive of Fox Sports predicted NCSt 29, ND 13. I sure hope he bet 10 grand on that outcome, because I already don't like him.

JD Bertrand might not play against Central Michigan. Devyn Ford should be back.

And other updates:

Does anyone know the options if one has Spectrum?

I’m headed to the ND vs OSU games and want to attend the Trumpets in the Dome at midnight.

Does anyone know if they’re having it this year? It was closed due to pandemic last couple years,

Go Irish! Thanks guys

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman is expected to address the media at his Monday press conference at 12 p.m. EDT.

I'll provide live updates from the press conference in this thread. You can watch live on YouTube using the link below.

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