Welcome back to another edition of Five Wide Fullbacks. In today’s article we will be covering Notre Dame’s bowl decision making, a positional matchup with Iowa State, returning seniors, the best coaches of all-time, and the 2020 Heisman race.
Let’s get started.
1) The hottest topic this week is a 10-2 Notre Dame falling, so to speak, to a less than desirable bowl game against a 5-loss unranked team. Where are you on the outrage meter?
I really only have 2 strong opinions on this topic.
First, as a fan it is incredibly stupid for a 10-2 team to face a 7-5 team. I was furious to see the Irish projected to play a Texas team falling apart at the seams, firing assistant coaches, and going through a rebuild before the season is even complete. I don’t care about brands, or selling tickets, or TV ratings because a 7-5 team is only going to move the needle so much. I feel a lot better about playing Iowa State (because they are a better team) but it’s a crappy situation either way.
Is this Jack Swarbrick’s fault? Is it the Orange Bowl’s fault? Is it the ACC’s fault?
I don’t really care because…
Bowl. Games. Are. Dumb.
I agree the country has gotten a little too playoff-obsessed but I also agree that the lasting legacy of going to the new format is that bowl games are even more devalued–and that’s okay! This is the reality college football has been staring at for decades and Notre Dame just happens to be stuck in one of those frustrating situations for which there really isn’t a good answer right now. It is what it is.
2) As we look ahead to the 2020 season what is an important aspect to the bowl game against Iowa State that could carry over into the off-season either for good or bad?
As I’ve reflected on the matchup for a couple days one thing sticks out to me and that is we need to see a big game from Shaun Crawford and especially Tariq Bracy.
Iowa State throws it all over the field, including 15th most passing attempts, 11th most passing yards, and 22nd in yards per attempt. It’s possible we see a pretty static combination of Troy Pride and Donte Vaughn sprinkled in with Crawford, but man, would it be nice to see Bracy gain some confidence, play really well, and carry that into the spring where he’s a projected starter.
If Bracy barely plays we are going to have so many questions at corner next year, it’s kind of scary.
3) The program now awaits the decision of several Notre Dame upperclassmen and whether they will return for 2020. Among those going through this process who is the most important to come back?
Let’s list them and the recent scuttlebutt for each:
QB Ian Book – 80% returning?
RB Tony Jones – 40% returning?
WR Javon McKinley – Not coming back, near lock
TE Cole Kmet – Returning
OL Tommy Kraemer – Returning
OL Liam Eichenberg – Returning
DE Daelin Hayes – Returning
DE Ade Ogundeji – Returning
LB Jonathan Jones – Not coming back, near lock
S Alohi Gilman – 10% returning?
LS John Shannon – ????
I would imagine Book is being lobbied hard by everyone to stay and it seems like he’s welcomed the idea a lot more than maybe he wanted to back in August. So, let’s just say he’s coming back for the sake of this argument.
I think it’s crazy for Tony Jones not to come back, honestly. It’s true if he wants to test out the NFL he should leave but in my opinion he has a 0% chance of being drafted, 0.2% chance of making a NFL roster next year, and a 0.8% chance of being on a practice squad for 2020. He’s drawn comparisons to former Irish running back Robert Hughes and this is his professional career:
April 2011: Undrafted
July 27, 2011: Signed by Chicago
August 31, 2011: Released by Chicago
April 19, 2012: Signed by Tampa Bay
August 31, 2012: Released by Tampa Bay
September 3, 2013: Signed to Washington practice squad
September 11, 2012: Released by Washington
October 10, 2012: Signed to Indianapolis practice squad
October 29, 2012: Activated from Colts practice squad
May 1, 2013: Release by Indianapolis
August 5, 2013: Re-signed by Indianapolis
October 8, 2013: Waived by Indianapolis
December 23, 2013: Signed to Arizona practice squad
September 5, 2015: Released by Arizona
October 22, 2015: Signed to Arizona practice squad
April 15, 2016: Cut by Arizona
August 4, 2016: Signed by Cleveland
August 29, 2016: Released by Cleveland
That’s a tough life to live for 8 rushes and 10 receptions in a career. Over a 6-year period, Hughes was basically unemployed for 70% of the calendar months and averaged $168,000 per year for his troubles. That’s still good money for a young man in his 20’s but it’s not a glamorous life. For a lot of graduates, you also have to balance how far this pursuit will set you back in your future profession outside of football.
This is the long way of saying, Jones should come back because he’s needed at Notre Dame.
I know people think he’ll be at best the third-string back (or worse) next year. I’ve admitted I am as critical of Jones as anyone, too. Still, he at least brings a skill-set that I’d like to have on the team and that you can work with against a vast majority of opponents. You can’t sit here and tell me we won’t be frustrated with Chris Tyree’s lack of progress, a couple other guys are banged up, and we’d wish Tony Jones was on the team to be the starter for a few games. I think that’s going to happen for sure.
4) ESPN recently released their Greatest 150 Coaches in College Football History list to celebrate the 150th season of this crazy sport. Does anything jump out to you as ridiculous?
Notre Dame fans have argued through the years about how to rank our coaches. Granted, this is taking into account more than just their time spent at Notre Dame (if they did) so it changes the argument a little bit. Still, here’s how ESPN ranked the Irish coaches:
#3 Rockne
#10 Leahy
#15 Parseghian
#23 Holtz
#88 Devine
#89 Kelly
#95 Layden
#131 Harper
I’m not sure I would’ve included Layden. He won just under 75% of his games which was really good and he had a nice solid run at Duquesne before coming back to South Bend. Still, he couldn’t win the big game and his resume really doesn’t jump out that much to be inside the top 150 let alone the top 100.
Devine and Kelly (often compared in Irish circles) are interesting to see on the list right next to each other. Obviously, Kelly’s success prior to Notre Dame plays a large role in him making it.
Here’s a look at the active coaches:
#2 Nick Saban
#31 Dabo Swinney
#58 Chris Petersen (just retired or something)
#59 Mack Brown
#74 Gary Patterson
#78 Lance Leipold
#110 Jimbo Fisher
#136 Mark Richt
#140 Les Miles
My initial feeling is that Swinney is too high, I’m sure there was some predictive nature of what he’ll do in the future in the back of people’s minds. Still, it’s “only” been a 5-year run to date that has been historic. If you keep that going for 5 or 6 more years (even if it’s a tick down in winning) then he has a case to be moving way up the list.
Mostly, I’m shocked to see Urban Meyer at #46 all-time. This makes zero sense. Is this a slight because he’s working for Fox now? The case could easily be made Meyer is inside the Top 10 all-time and yet he’s only 4 spots ahead of friggin’ Lloyd Carr!?? URBAN MEYER IS THIRD ALL-TIME IN WINNING PERCENTAGE FOR FBS COACHES WHAT ARE YOU DOING.
5) Once again, we are set to witness another non-favorite and someone a little off the radar winning the Heisman as LSU quarterback Joe Burrow is likely to clean house this weekend when the voting is announced. Do you think 2020 is shaping up to keep this trend going?
It looks like 2020 is shaping up to be a year for a favorite. Here’s a list of the top teams in the country and some of the options at the all-important quarterback position:
Ohio State – QB Justin Fields
Clemson – QB Trevor Lawrence
Alabama – QB Taulia Tagovailoa?
Oklahoma – QB Spencer Rattler?
Georgia – QB Jake Fromm
LSU – QB Myles Brennan?
Baylor – QB Charlie Brewer
Penn State – QB Sean Clifford
Michigan – QB Dylan McCaffrey
Auburn – QB Bo Nix
Notre Dame – QB Ian Book
We’re not even sure Tua is actually declaring for the NFL or if he’ll be healthy enough to play at Alabama if he stays. Obviously, he’d be a top choice if he isn’t injured.
Fromm could decided to leave which further weakens this list. Nearly half of the list could be new full-time starters and it’s going to take one heck of an effort to topple either Fields or Lawrence. I also think the pressure is going to be there to give Lawrence a lifetime achievement Heisman especially if he’s going into 2020 as a two-time champion.
I’m preparing myself for disappointment on Kmet returning. I know he said mid-season that he’s returning, but if you look at the Kiper/McShay draft boards the highest ranked tight end is Jared Pinkney from Vanderbilt in the second round. His fully healthy junior season looked very similar to Kmet’s slightly shortened season this year and Pinkney missed most of this season with injury. Add to that Kmet is both taller and lighter than Pinkney, 6’5″ 250 compared to 6’4″ 260, and it seems possible that Kmet could be the top TE prospect in the draft this year with a reasonable combine.
I suspect we’re going to find out just how much he wants to play baseball this spring because it’s not tough to see Kmet getting 1st round feedback. That said, he’s got 2 injury-filled seasons and 58 career catches, not a ton on tape…And if he doesn’t test well, then what? Can see a perspective to hammer home that report isn’t a guarantee and maybe see the wisdom of getting to play baseball and having a great senior year could still benefit him and get the degree wrapped up too.
Not sure why but I feel like it won’t be a tough sell to get Kmet back, I’m pretty confident on it. Though, I do agree it’s worth mentioning as not a total slam dunk at this point that he’s back at ND next year.
Eric, I saw on Twitter the other day Daniel Jeremiah ranked top CFB jobs right now as:
1. OSU
2. Bama
3. USC
4. UGA
5. Clemson
6. Florida
7. LSU
8. Oklahoma
9. Oregon
10. Texas
What are your rankings and where is ND? What would they have been when Kelly took the job?
That’s tough to do a then vs. now from a decade ago.
I wouldn’t put Oregon in the top 10, though. I would have FSU, Miami, Penn State, Michigan, Auburn, Notre Dame, and maybe Wisconsin ahead of Oregon.
I’d say the ND job is maybe 12th or 13th? Maybe it had slipped closer to 20th in the early part of the 2000’s?
This is such a weird thing to rank in my opinion. I suppose if the claim is to rank the prestige that each job invokes (right now) it can be done. Though even then you’re trying to separate the job from the current coach which may be the whole reason for the prestige – if Dabo leaves Clemson, would anyone be that surprised if 4 years later they’re right back to their mediocre perception that they used to have?
However, if the question is what job is most desirable, that seems so subjectively based on the person seeking employment that it is almost impossible to ask. Some coaches would love to step into Alabama’s talent pool, others would (wisely) never want to follow immediately after Saben. Do you want to be a big fish in a small pond (Clemson)? Or are you happy to be a middle fish in a big pond (Florida)? How much do you weigh financial support, vs. relaxed expectations, vs. freedom to work outside the box, vs. etc?
I took it as: desirable because you could have the greatest success. I agree trying to account for things like the community you’d live in, make it too much of a personal preference.
The major points to me are ability to bring in top recruits, and support from the university. ND has the national brand, while at USC it’s easier to get 5-stars to naturally come there, while Texas has blank checks for the football program. Those are the tradeoffs I think it’s interesting to weigh and discuss.
The current/recent success does play a part and one reason I asked Eric for the comparison from 10 years ago, is that I think it provides a good measuring stick for BK’s success. How many things did he improve to make this an “easier” job for the next coach whether it be getting the new practice facility/field turf/Jumbotron to help with recruiting, laying out the blueprint for how to get talent to ND once again, and showing that the Irish could have success.
ESPN is the stupidest pile of garbage of all time.
All media/journalists are mediocre thinkers. Pure internet sources often have much better critical thinking skills.
I read that top coaches list earlier, saw that Frank Beamer was ranked one ahead of Urban Meyer, and literally laughed out loud.
Contra ND Twitter, Offensive Coordinator Tommy Rees, is Not Good, actually.
Depends. Have a feeling in the coming days/weeks we’re about to hear how post-Michigan it was mainly Kelly/Rees taking over and running the offense in-game anyways. In which case, no big deal, just a status quo from the last 4-5 games where the offense (read: QB) was better than the Long-centric portion of the season. (And whether true or spin, who knows).
And who is going to work better with Kelly than Rees? Rees is uniquely qualified with experience with Kelly, with Book to coordinate the offense at Notre Dame. I mean I get how ideally it’s a proven coach, but the offense is always going to be Kelly’s so I’m approaching it more from the perspective of who out there is going to be able to work with Kelly and be best to keep operations cohesive and on track?
Rees checks a lot of boxes there and I have time for him as an OC candidate. Maybe he could be the college version of a Kellen Moore or the Notre Dame Joe Brady. Don’t have to be old or an All American player to make a good coach.
Surprising to see Long and ND “part ways.”
I know the offense was not that great, but that seems to be largely the lack of skill position players and Book’s unevenness for most of the year.
Unless Rees is somehow the next Lincoln Riley I’m hoping we get someone else.
With regard to ESPN’s list of the top 150 football coaches, I think it’s a pretty subjective metric (what the hell does “top” mean?). However, two things are clear.
1) There is no way Paterno should be ranked at all. I will never forgive him for bringing pedophilia to Penn State. Penn State will have to go a long way to live down that stain. And no human who countenanced what he countenanced should be given any honors whatsoever.
2) There is no way Bowden should be ranked ahead of Frank Leahy. Are you kidding me? He got “bumfuzzled” by Tyrone Willingham!!
Leahy’s record speaks for itself.