UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

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Nice people. Nice river. Lot of bars. Superb mayor. What's not to love about it?

Simply put, our immediate recruiting geography - IN, MI, OH, IL and KY - does not produce many 5 stars. That matters.

Of course it can be overcome. OSU has had some recent success, but they still badly trail the elites (Bama, Clemson, Georgia).

But after we win our 31st National Title this year (using Bama math), things will pick up.

EDIT: Added a link that further illustrates my point.


Link: State breakout

First, there aren't very many each year. You've got about 30 or less to work with.

Second, of those 30, how many are academic fits to Notre Dame? That cuts the list by a good amount I imagine, so let's say 20.

Third, how many are interested? Half of that? So let's call it 10.

So it's about 10 each year with some interest, give or take, who may or may not want to go to a school in a cold climate, where you won't skate academically, can't focus solely on football, and isn't the most fun place socially. For some, the positives outweigh the negatives. For most, it doesn't.

Notre Dame has to get lucky with fit, geography, and interest. They did this year with Tyree and Johnson.

Being located in a lousy college town in the middle of nowhere where you are held to account for academic and behavior standards limits the list of kids that even have to want to/can do to be at Notre Dame. Then we have to recruit them into that versus the coddling/look-the-other-way/pandering environments at 90% of Power 5 schools.

It is what it is.

The bigger problem is that we don't do well enough with the talent we do have.

and are preseason #5 this year

That's not shabby.....pretty darn good

When the 2nd best team you played(regular season) was NW, you know you got some schedule breaks. We got credit for what at least appeared to be a tough schedule even if in the end it really wasn't.

- We got Michigan at home in the first game with a new qb. As it were, it is likely Michigan would have been picked over us, absent an epic meltdown vs OSU.
- Stanford, USC, and FSU were down.
- We got lucky when a good Syracuse lost it's best player, the qb, in the 1st qtr.
- We struggled to beat Vanderbilt, Ball State and Pitt, pretty weak teams, all in all.

Yes, I knew that is the way college football sometimes rolls, but getting in the playoff was more a result of being last man standing than really earning it. The 6 thru 9 teams were 10-3, 11-3, and 10-4.

I suspect we won't be so lucky schedule-wise in 2019.

We were beating Syracuse already when the guy went down. Even with him, odds are we win that game.
Michigan's 'new' qb was a two-year starting veteran from an SEC school. Hardly a rookie. We killed them, considering that.
Stanford ended 8 and 4. Down by the last two or three years, perhaps, but still a very solid win for us or any team.
Pitt, Vandy and BSU did blow. That was bad.
I expect we will win them all this year, however.

Just saying. Still very happy with that victory.

and you're drinking way too much kool-ade

we were a little fortunate last year that teams were down. However it is still an accomplishment that we went undefeated as it is any time. When we played Michigan they were undefeated and hyped up for a big game like we were. It was a very solid win. Stanford was still capable of being very physical and we did beat them in a pretty controlled manner. We did have a target on our back and performed admirably at other times. Making the switch to Book made us very solid. I would say we deserved a ranking no worse than 4 and possibly 3. We are a legitimate threat to make the playoffs again and I would submit that there are only about 8 teams that can claim that.

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I said we got lucky that the schedule wasn't as tough as it appeared.

Fact is that schedule luck does play a part in every football season. Who you play, when in the season you play them, where you play them, injuries, suspensions etc etc. are all random acts that effect the season.

But pointing out three accurate things - about Michigan's qb's status, about Stanford being a solid 8-4 and not 'down' by their long-term historic standards, and about the point of the Syracuse game where their starting qb got injured - also doesn't make me a "homer". There were some things wrong last season, but those were not among them.

the fact we went 12-0, and may it to the CFP

Coming from me that is pretty amazing huh?

Let's savor the fact we are #5 going into Fall 2019 with a pretty darn favorable schedule...

Enjoy the ride

It hasnt looked like this in a long time

But it does take strong rose-colored glasses to say we "killed" a team in a 7 point win with a whooping total of 60 yards by ND in the 2nd half. And thinking it wasn't much of a break that Syracuse's qb got hurt in halfway thru the 1st quarter because we were ahead and going to win anyway? Or thinking this wasn't a down Stanford team when it only beat 2 teams with a winning record. Heck, I didn't even mention getting to play Stanford coming off a overtime, away, night game against a big rival the week before.

Fact is, not withstanding that we did finish 12-0 which is no easy feat for sure, we caught a lot of breaks along the way to get there. But when the breaks didn't go our way, it didn't look pretty (3 - 30), now did it?

And it is certainly okay to wear rose-colored glasses. Lots of fans have them!

to show you that when you don't get the breaks(overturning the kickoff fumble recover) that things can go south if a really good team gets on a roll.

Well said and quite accurate

Other than Michigan and Georgia, 2019 is looking pretty darn weak.....but agree we had some nice breaks......but the team and Kelly really stepped up last year. I hope they continue that trend this year

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She also said "you can't hurry love".

Michigan sucks. We will throttle them. Take the 7.5 points and back up the truck.

Link: GO IRISH

Happy to get out with a victory of an size.

If we expect to make the CFP

And we've landed some this cycle which should help close the gap with Clemson.

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Though a lot of people think Tyree is going to get that 5th star before it is done.

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He was uncoverable at the Opening and there's some who think he could get a 5th star if he plays that way in the fall.

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Mayer is already 71st overall though and should only rise. He might not fully get to 5-star, but he's very likely going to be on the cusp which would give Notre Dame a top 50 overall RB, TE and WR. If the offense plays at the level I think it will this year, it also wouldn't surprise me to see Notre Dame get back in on another highly ranked player like McMillan too.