Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1322461
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JAN. 1, 2021 11 THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "He has traveled to 13 countries to visit the Ameri- can troops. Lou's leadership and his faith and kind- ness have inspired and uplifted millions of fellow citizens. He's one of the greatest titans in American football history. And his towering reputation will en- dure forever in the chronicles of athletics, but more importantly, in the chronicles of life — because he's really a life teacher. He teaches people how to live and how to live properly, and how to live with dignity." — United States President Donald Trump on LOU HOLTZ, whom he awarded on Dec. 3 the Presidential Medal of Freedom "You can talk all you want about being in a conference but if you're not in the ACC, and we weren't — we were dipping our toe into it — you really can't talk firsthand about it. We can now. It's offered us a different perspective. There's no doubt about it ... Getting a chance to play for an ACC championship, is certainly the positive of be- ing in a conference. Losing out on playing some of the traditional rivalries is obviously the negative. "What the pluses and minuses of this comes down to how we see us as a program moving forward for the foreseeable future. Those are the questions, quite frankly, that Jack Swarbrick is entertaining at a higher level. I'll give him my feedback, but we've enjoyed this relationship." — Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly on playing in the ACC versus college football independence "The entire coaching staff is absolutely thrilled for Coach Lea and his family. He's getting a chance to go home and be a head coach in the Power Five ... I would have preferred that it was announced 48 hours later, but that's the world that we live in. "Were there some anxious moments? We identi- fied two or three players that we knew had very, very strong personal connections with Coach Lea, and we were very proactive about, 'Hey, Coach Lea's done a phenomenal job and he's going to be a candidate here at some point,' and especially when Vanderbilt opened, it was kind of easy to picture that. "When it became official and we had announced it to our own team, we got on the phone with every commit on defense. 'Are you okay? What are you concerned about?' The guys that expressed to us a little bit of hesitation, we got them on the phone immediately with Coach Kelly. Collectively as a staff, we handled it well." — Notre Dame recruiting coor- dinator Brian Polian on the departure of defensive coordinator Clark Lea and how it impacted recruiting "Is Notre Dame at times a tough sell? It is. At other times it's actually an easy sell because cer- tain kids have grown up — the Catholic schools, that's where a lot of great football is played across America. So he's got a built-in advantage, but for the most part you have to go out-work people. He does not have a backyard [for recruiting]. These other programs, Ohio has Ohio, Texas has Texas, UCLA and USC have California … Indiana high school football is good, but the quantity is not there, so he's a national recruiter." — FOX Sports college football analyst Urban Meyer on Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly UNDER THE DOME PHOTO BY COREY BODDEN OF THE WEEK ➤ "Highest-graded P5 front-sevens in College Football: 1. Clemson - 90.6 2. Ohio State - 89.8 3. Georgia - 84.8 4. Notre Dame - 84.0 5. Iowa State - 82.4" — Pro Football Focus College Football (@PFF_College) Dec. 8 Our life plan community for those over the age of 62, provides residents with exceptional personalized services, a secure atmosphere and carefree luxury lifestyle – while making it possible to ease into further healthcare levels as needs change throughout retirement years.