Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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18 PRESEASON 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Korbin Albert — Soccer On July 25, the Illinois native and rising sophomore mid- fielder learned she had made the Under-20 Women's Youth National Team for the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Costa Rica is the host country for this year's mid-August event. Albert was a member of the ACC All-Freshman Team and a third-team all-league selection in 2021, and scored 8 goals in her final 11 games of the season. Jack Brannigan — Baseball After a standout season both at the plate and at third base for Notre Dame, the junior was drafted in the third round of the 2022 MLB Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Brannigan made his profes- sional debut for the Class A Bradenton Marauders on Aug. 6, and he went 2 for 4 with a two-run home run. The Orland Park, Ill., native also pitched for the Irish but remains an infielder at the next level for now. Arike Ogunbowale — Basketball The former Irish star from 2015-19 continues to impress with the Dallas Wings, becom- ing the fifth-fastest player to tally 2,000 career points in the WNBA during the 2022 season. Ogunbowale also posted 32 points, 6 rebounds and 5 as- sists against the Minnesota Lynx July 14, becom- ing just the third player to hit 30 points with at least 5 rebounds and 5 assists in a single game this year. It marked her league-best 12th 30-point game since entering the league. Landon Slaggert — Hockey Slaggert, a rising junior for- ward and South Bend native, was named an alternate cap- tain for Team USA at the August 2022 IIHF World Junior Cham- pionship in Edmonton, Alberta. It is Slaggert's third time on the national team, and he be- came the first Irish player to medal at the event since 2018 with his 2021 gold medal perfor- mance. In two seasons at Notre Dame, he has posted 20 goals and 28 assists. — Ashton Pollard TOP TOP OF THE CLASS OF THE CLASS Irish student-athletes excelling on the field and in the classroom ✦ GIMME FIVE The dominant offseason storyline of Marcus Freeman's first year as the Notre Dame head coach has been recruiting. As of Aug. 12, Notre Dame boasted the No. 2 classes in the On3 Consensus in both 2023 and 2024. Three of the 2023 pledges are wideouts, and each of them ranks inside the top 200. Austin (Texas) Westlake's Jaden Greathouse was No. 127 nationally, Round Rock (Texas) Stony Point's Braylon James was No. 159, and Folsom (Calif.) High's Rico Flores Jr. rounded out the group at No. 186. When was the last time that happened for the Irish? Well, never. At least not since 2004, the earliest year On3 has retroactively applied its "Con- sensus" rankings. That is also around the time online rankings started to flourish; few sites go back further. The Irish have, however, notched two top-200 players at the position on six occasions since 2004. The highest-rated duo came in 2007, when Duval Kamara was the No. 26 overall player in the class and Golden Tate checked in at No. 45. Here are the top-five receiver duos by average recruiting ranking that have signed with the Irish since 2004: Rk. Receiver Duo, Year Avg. Ranking 1. Duval Kamara/Golden Tate, 2007 35.5 2. Lorenzo Styles/Deion Colzie, 2021 84 3. Michael Floyd/Deion Walker, 2008 102 4. Javon McKinley/Chase Claypool, 2016 129.5 5. Kevin Austin/Braden Lenzy, 2018 154.5 — Ashton Pollard CHARTING THE IRISH ESPN FOOTBALL POWER INDEX PROJECTS 10 WINS FOR IRISH The computers have spoken. In late July, the ESPN Football Power Index (FPI) released game-by- game win probabilities for Notre Dame's 2022 schedule to supplement its season projections. It gave the Irish at least a 50 percent chance to win 10 of their 12 games and an 80 percent chance of victory in eight of them. If Notre Dame won every game the FPI favored it in and lost the two where it's an underdog, it would finish 10-2. That's higher than the FPI's overall prediction of 9.1 wins, which is tied for the 12th-highest projected win total among FBS teams. Notre Dame is the No. 5 team in the FPI, though, at +17.7. That's behind only Alabama (29.0), Ohio State (28.3), Georgia (27.9) and Clemson (22.8). Rounding out the top 10 are Michigan (16.8), Texas (16.7), Oklahoma (14.9), Miami (14.5) and LSU (14.0). ESPN describes FPI as a "measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team's performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 20,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule." FPI gives Notre Dame a 1.2 percent chance to win out (10th highest), an 18.8 percent chance to make the College Football Playoff (fifth), a 6.1 percent likelihood of reaching the national title game (fifth) and 2 percent chance of winning the national championship (fifth). Alabama (30 percent chance) is its national championship favorite. — Patrick Engel Date Opponent (FPI Rank) FPI Win Probability Pct. Sept. 3 at Ohio State (No. 2) 16.5 Sept. 10 Marshall (No. 58) 90.8 Sept. 17 California (No. 67) 94.1 Sept. 24 at North Carolina (No. 19) 56.7 Oct. 8 vs. BYU* (No. 46 81.6 Oct. 15 Stanford (No. 62) 92.8 Oct. 22 UNLV (No. 117) 98.3 Oct. 29 at Syracuse (No. 60) 83.4 Nov. 5 Clemson (No. 4) 40.0 Nov. 12 vs. Navy^ (No. 104) 95.7 Nov. 19 Boston College (No. 59) 91.5 Nov. 26 at USC (No. 35) 66.4 * at Las Vegas; ^ at Baltimore