Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden spoke with the media after Friday's fall practice. Golden touched on what he wants to see from Irish linebackers, growth entering his second season as Notre Dame's defensive coordinator, relationship with current defensive coaching staff and graduate assistant Max Bullough's impact.

Login to view embedded media
Click here to subscribe to Inside ND Sports on YouTube.

@Charleston Bowles and I were joined by No. 1 dual-threat QB Deuce Knight, Notre Dame's top remaining quarterback in the 2025 class. I'm working on editing it now and will share it here soon.

Login to view embedded media
Update: Here's the whole thing.

Deuce Knight, the top-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the 2025 class, discusses how much time he spends on recruiting, the experience of competing in the OT7 Nationals, why other recruits want to play with him, why he's returning to Notre Dame later this month, his interest in the Irish, his connections with head coach Marcus Freeman, QBs coach Gino Guidugli and offensive coordinator Gerad Parker, his NFL inspiration, the importance of his family in his decision, why Tennessee is another top contender and more.

Then Charleston and I answer questions from Twitter and The Insider Lounge (18:30).

Login to view embedded media

Just read that he is moving closer to campus as he will play for LaLaM this season.

This only helps if you live near an opponent who's coming to Notre Dame this season or if you're a local fan looking to see some road games, but United has added direct flights to and from South Bend for eight games this season:

Sept. 2: Tennessee State @ Notre Dame
Sept. 9: Notre Dame @ NC State
Sept. 23: Ohio State @ Notre Dame
Sept. 30: Notre Dame @ Duke
Oct. 14: USC @ University of Notre Dame
Oct. 28: Pittsburgh @ Notre Dame
Nov. 4: Notre Dame @ Clemson
Nov. 18: Wake Forest @ Notre Dame

This was the worse refereed game I have seen in awhile. I knew that they would find some way to keep Haiti from winning. FIFA needs to review this and suspend the ref. VAR is there to assist not make the call. Haiti should have been given two penalty kicks maybe even a third. This has been the worst refereeing in a World Cup in awhile, just no consistency. When you can’t trust the ref to make the correct calls it’s hard to play the game. Go Irish

Notre Dame freshman tight end Cooper Flanagan addressed the media on Thursday for the first time since he arriving on campus in June. He described his transition from high school to college, the legacy of wearing No. 87, freshman expectations and more.

Login to view embedded media
Click here to subscribe to Inside ND Sports on YouTube.

@Eric Hansen and I will record an Inside ND Sports podcast Friday. 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!

Players report Tuesday. First practice is Wednesday morning. First media mob with Marcus Freeman is Wednesday at noon ET, My first appearance as a co-host back on WSBT radio (960 AM, wsbtradio.com) is Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET. Our next Football Never Sleeps on YouTube is Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.

Login to view embedded media

Login to view embedded media
Notre Dame welcomed its first big visitor of this week late Wednesday evening with 2025 quarterback target Deuce Knight.

Below is directly from his Instagram story. I saw Knight briefly before Thursday’s practice on a golf cart with his family and recruiting coordinator Chad Bowden.

Login to view embedded media
The 6-foot-4, 190-pound signal-caller is rated as a four-star prospect and ranked as the No. 59 overall player in the 2025 recruiting class. According to Rivals, he is the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in the 2025 class.

@Tyler James and I had a really good conversation with Knight earlier in July on the Inside ND Sports podcast. You can listen to that here. The full transcript is here.

Knight attends Lucedale (Miss.) George County and holds 21 total offers including Notre Dame, Alabama, Ole Miss and Tennessee. He originally released his top 10 (see below) just before his Alabama offer.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Just got back from post-practice interviews at Notre Dame. I'll have a full transcript up a little later this afternoon from OC/Tight ends coach Gerad Parker. ... I did get a chance before that interview to chat briefly with sophomore TE Eli Raridon. He is still on his way back from ACL surgery last fall — his second ACL surgery in less than a one-year span. ... He said he's not yet 100 percent, though he is suited up for practice. He does not yet compete in any drills, he said, that involved defenders in which he might get bumped. Really only doing the non-competitive periods. He said he's feeling good, but not rushing things. He felt like he did that a little bit with the last surgery. He said the two surgeries were different, so the recovery process is different. He feels great about what's ahead but doesn't think he'll be at 100 percent for another month.

“We have a great room, so that’s never really crossed my mind of having that extra weight on my shoulders,” Evans said. “My approach has never really changed. If anything, it’s changed to working my butt off even more. I came in and just worked, worked, worked. Now we’re in camp and our whole team’s working here.”

From BetOnline.ag

Here’s the direct link to the lines for the player stats: https://www.betonline.ag/sportsbook/futures-and-props/ncaaf-player-performance/quarterbacks.


College Football Quarterback Stats

Sam Hartman - Total Pass Yds 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 3100½
Sam Hartman - Total TD Passes 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 27½ TD

Bo Nix - Total TD Passes 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 26½
Bo Nix - Total Pass Yds 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 3000½

Cade Klubnik - Total Pass Yds 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 3200½
Cade Klubnik - Total TD Passes 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 29½

Caleb Williams - Total Pass Yds 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 3600½
Caleb Williams - Total TD Passes 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 34½

Drake Maye - Total Pass Yds 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 3000½
Drake Maye - Total TD Passes 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 26½

Jayden Daniels - Total Pass Yds 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 2700½
Jayden Daniels - Total TD Passes 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 18½

Jordan Travis - Total Pass Yds 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 2700½
Jordan Travis - Total TD Passes 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 24½

Michael Penix Jr - Total Pass Yds 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 3800½
Michael Penix Jr - Total TD Passes 2023 Reg Season
Over/Under 32½

Quinn Ewers - Total Pass Yds 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 3000½
Quinn Ewers - Total TD Passes 2023 Regular Season
Over/Under 25½

We were limited to viewing the first five periods of practice today, which will be the norm for much of camp.

Four-star QB Deuce Knight, the top dual-threat QB in the 2025 class, arrived at practice alongside head coach Marcus Freeman. Then as practice began, he was given a tour elsewhere.

WR KK Smith (shoulder) remained the only injured player working out on the sideline.

Notre Dame offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Gerad Parker talks after Thursday's practice about his adjustment to offensive coordinator duties, his vision for Notre Dame's offense, Sam Hartman's leadership and how the tight end room is moving forward after the departure of Michael Mayer.

Login to view embedded media
Click here to subscribe to Inside ND Sports on YouTube.

Offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Gerad Parker transcript from his post-practice interview today (Thursday).

Disclaimer: This is a hard guy to transcribe. Not because he doesn't enunciate well, but he doesn't always finish his thoughts, or he omits words or uses regional colloquialisms. Not a criticism, but it may help you understand some of the quotes. There are a couple of ways to interpret -- getting lost in the details. Parker uses that as a positive trait.

July 27, 2023

Q: With the running backs group, it looks like you have four guys behind Audric Estimé who can help you. With backs 2 through 5, it looks like there’s a lot of improvement?

“Yeah, it's good. I'm glad you all — and I mean this — I'm glad it looks that way. I don't know if maybe as you see them work out when we could watch them in the summer and the work we could get done, it probably started to look that way when you're like, ‘OK.’ Now, the trick is, of course, there's not as many reps on those guys backs’ yet. But, certainly the first indicator of success is having [the] genetic makeup and ability to do it. And man, that room looks good, and they’re wired up and working the detail. And, of course, they’ve got a long way to go there. But as far as physical gifts and remaining healthy, you love the way that group lines up right now.”

Q: Seeing the receivers on Wednesday going up against such a talented group of cornerbacks, how do you go about evaluating and pushing them, knowing the talent they're going up against?

“Well, you evaluate it on win/loss. There's only one way to evaluate it. And the quicker we win more than we lose, you’re starting to get to a point where we can have some big-time short-term and long-term success. And you can see some of those strides coming together. Like, our guys have already made strides. You can see where they come from and where they've built from in practice 1. But now we’ve got to do it until practice 6. And then we'll have to do that after that — does that make sense?

“But, in a very quick answer, there's only one way to evaluate success, and that's won/loss, and then getting lost in the process of it. So, [it’s a] very competitive situation in [the] low red zone, kind of a tough situation on us to start those days. But it keeps our legs short and back, so we don't get any soft-tissue stuff early in camp. It makes it challenging. It's harder when the lower you get, the harder the drill is to execute, because everything happens faster. So, it's a good evaluation tool, and then we can put them out in space, like we did today, to get a little more air to win them [reps].”

Q: What did you like about your red zone work Wednesday? What do you want to improve upon?

“Good question. So, the first thing would be certainly we like putting ourselves in those low spots. I just think being in the spot it was forces our guys to think about things differently. So, I like some of the things we did with the timing of our stuff, like the timing of our routes, the timing of some meshes — all those things. And then our alignment was pretty good. I was really proud of how we did pre-snap and operated in our pre-snap alignment [in] practice 1. You always get out there sometimes and — I don’t want to say worry — but you're concerned with, ‘Hey, can we operate, get in and out of [the] huddle, get the ball snapped, keep it off the ground? Those things were good [Wednesday]. So, I love the ability for us to operate in a short field that way [Wednesday] in practice 1.”

Q: You knew you were going up against a pretty good secondary after that practice, right?

“Oh yeah, you knew that going in. We knew that before we started, which is a testament to them. That better be the way it is, though, on both sides. If we're not able to challenge them as this thing continues, and them [taking it] right to us — if it’s that lopsided, we know that we’ve got a huge deficit. So, for our ability to be in that fight and those guys straining to win and win in fights, that's going to be a telltale sign of where we are.”

Q: In talking to some quarterbacks who played for offensive coordinators who weren't also their quarterbacks coach, they talked about how important that relationship was with the play-caller. So, what's your relationship like with Sam Hartman, and how have you gone about trying to make that stronger?

“I think at its core before you go anything into football, like how do you build any good relationship? Time. So, I've invested purposeful time to where Sam feels comfortable coming over to the house [to] fish, and be off the field and start there. And then anytime we're in the office there have been purposeful moments where we have meetings separate, or I get in with Gino [Guidugli] and him and all the quarterbacks to make sure they know what we feel together.

“Like me and Gino have to be on the same page in all things, and we are. So, as long as our communication is felt through, Gino and me together, that's how it goes seamless. Anything else to where, ‘I thought this’ or ‘I like this, but you didn't,’ then it's on me. So, I think [with] anything, first build a relationship off the field. How do you build it? Make sure that we're echoing everything together and communicating the same way.”

Q: In terms of his skill set and his leadership, what are you seeing now that maybe it took him a while to get into when he was in a quarterback competition?

“Complete ownership of the position and of the job with the 1s and with the offense. That's happened, and he's been thrust into that this summer. He's been there before, so he knows what that feels like. So, when he got thrust into that and [he] took over in the summer workouts, he took it and ran with it. I think he taught our guys a lot about owning what we need to do and learning install and timing of routes and those things. So, their throwing sessions and who we were this summer was way more accountable. And that's because of his leadership.”

MORE

Notre Dame football completed its second fall practice on Thursday. Watch Irish quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, offensive linemen, defensive linemen and more go through drills. Players highlighted include Audric Estimé, Jayden Thomas, Jaden Greathouse, Eli Raridon, Cooper Flanigan, Joe Alt, Charles Jagusah, Javontae Jean-Baptiste, Brenan Vernon, Gabriel Rubio and others.

Login to view embedded media
Click here to subscribe to Inside ND Sports on YouTube.

In which @RivalsFriedman compares Notre Dame OL commit Peter Jones to Quenton Nelson.


Login to view embedded media

In which @Clint Cosgrove compares Notre Dame QB commit CJ Carr to Joe Burrow.


Login to view embedded media

Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman discusses Matt Balis' decision to resign as Notre Dame's director of football performance earlier this week, how Freeman learned the news, how the Irish will move forward with Fred Hale as the interim director, if Freeman had any clue this was coming and how this loss compares to others he's faced as head coach.

Login to view embedded media
Click here to subscribe to Inside ND Sports on YouTube.

DEs Jordan Botelho and Javontae Jean-Baptiste.

On Botelho: "He's just physical. He's always been a physical guy. So he's good work to go against, good competition."

On Jean-Baptiste: "He's got length. He's quick and he's got length. He can beat you with like one or two steps. You're like, 'Woah.'"

Login to view embedded media
I had a phone call with Notre Dame 2025 defensive end prospect Israel Oladipupo on Wednesday evening. He informed me of his plans to visit Notre Dame for its cookout recruiting event on Sunday.

The 6-foot-2, 220-pound weakside defensive end camped with the Irish in June at Evaluation Camp I and struck up a good relationship with defensive line coach Al Washington while working out.

"All I knew is I had to go up to that camp and ball out," Oladipupo told Inside ND Sports. "I knew something great was going to come out of it. When me and Coach Washington get back talking, we're going to talk about how potentially I fit into their scheme."

Oladipupo attends Noblesville (Ind.) High and is actually entering his second year of playing football. He hadn't played the sport before his sophomore season.

I watched Noblesville three times last season and Oladipupo looked very much like a player still learning how to play football, but he flashed his natural physical gifts at times. Washington must see noteworthy upside in Oladipupo and will likely monitor how he performs as a junior to decide if he's worthy of an offer.

"That's the best education that anybody can get," Oladipupo said. "On top of that, you get to play football on the biggest stage. There's nothing better."

Oladipupo holds six offers from Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan. He also is receiving interest from Notre Dame, Penn State and Purdue. He took an unofficial visit to the Boilermakers in June. He doesn't have a star rating or ranking from Rivals currently.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Link to full story:

He joins former Irish Michael Mayer, Jerry Tillery and Alex Bars in Las Vegas.

Login to view embedded media

I'll be updating the Heat Index for the 2024 class today, but first wanted to share some tidbits about the 2025 class.

Top 2025 QB target Deuce Knight will be back at Notre Dame for a July 27 unofficial visit, three days before the Irish host their July 30 cookout recruiting event. Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney recently spoke with Knight, who said the Irish and Tennessee were the two leaders in his mind at this time.

Login to view embedded media
Confirmed for the July 30 cookout are four-star WR Talyn Taylor and DE Chis Burgess, both from the Chicago area. Also in the mix and now confirmed is Florida four-star DB Ivan Taylor. Taylor participated in Notre Dame's Irish Invasion Camp on June 4 and received an Irish scholarship offer after the camp's conclusion. Expect the list of late-July visitors to continue to expand.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Three eventual 2024 ND commits attended last year's cookout event: OL Peter Jones, S Brauntae Johnson and RB Aneyas Williams. DT Justin Scott also attended as did 2023 safety Ben Minich, now an Irish freshman but who as uncommitted at the time.