Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 19, 2024 9 UNDER THE DOME 2 Fighting Irish players were named to On3's Midseason True Fresh- man All-American Team: left tackle Anthonie Knapp and linebacker KYNGSTONN VILIAMU-ASA. "Anthonie Knapp was thrust into the starting left tackle role at Notre Dame, following a preseason injury to former five-star, Charles Jagusah," On3 direc- tor of scouting and recruiting Charles Power noted. "The true freshman has performed admirably, despite playing out of position at the toughest spot on the offensive line." "Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa was viewed as one of the most ready-to-play linebacker prospects in the 2024 cycle," Power added. "He's lived up to that expectation, carving out playing time in Notre Dame's experienced defensive unit. … The true freshman has made plenty of plays, too. He's tallied 16 tack- les, 1.5 tackles for loss, a sack and an interception. Viliamu-Asa looks to be next up at linebacker for the Fighting Irish." 4th Most watched game through Week 6 of the college football season was Notre Dame at Texas A&M with 7.92 million viewers, per On3. Here are the top 10: Rk. Game, Date Channel Viewers 1. Georgia at Alabama, Sept. 28 ABC 11.98 million 2. Texas at Michigan, Sept. 7 FOX 9.35 million 3. LSU vs. USC, Sept. 1 ABC 8.62 million 4. Notre Dame at Texas A&M, Aug. 31 ABC 7.92 million 5. Clemson vs. Georgia, Aug. 31 ABC 7.58 million 6. Georgia at Kentucky, Sept. 14 ABC 6.60 million 7. Miami at Florida, Aug. 31 ABC 6.35 million 8. USC at Michigan, Sept. 21 CBS 6.32 million 9. Tennessee at Oklahoma, Sept. 21 ABC 6.27 million 10. Colorado at Nebraska, Sept. 7 NBC 5.67 million 7 Of the eight teams that will participate in the 2026 Maui Invitational were revealed by CBS Sports men's college basketball insider Jon Roth- stein on Oct. 7: Arizona, BYU, Maryland, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Providence and VCU. The eighth team in the event is currently to be determined. 7 Players for the two-time defending national champion Notre Dame men's lacrosse squad were included in Inside Lacrosse's 2024 Power 100 Incoming Freshmen Rankings, including three-five stars. Irish midfielder Matthew Jeffery was No. 1 on the list, and he was joined by attackman Brady Pokorny (No. 12) and long-stick midfielder Jimmy Kenney (No. 23) as five-stars. The other four Irish on the list were midfielder Joey Bambrick (No. 39), attackman Luke Miller (No. 40), midfielder Ben Burmeister (No. 56) and long-stick midfielder Luke Crowe (No. 79). The Irish also placed three on the women's top-100 list: five-star midfielder Madison Rassas at No. 2, attacker Katie Mallaber at No. 32 and defender Carson Didden at No. 42. 12th Is where Notre Dame landed in The Athletic's survey of what people in the industry thought were the top five jobs in college football. The Athletic anonymously polled 50 people working in college football — from head coaches to general managers to assistant coaches, analysts and recruiting staffers — to determine which programs are now at the top of the food chain. First-place votes received 5 points, second-place received 4 points and so on. (Several voters had a tie for fifth place; each school received 1 point for that vote.) The Irish received six fifth-place votes for a total of 6 points. Here is how the top 12 shook out: Rk. School 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Points 1. Georgia 16 16 8 2 1 173 2. Texas 12 11 10 9 3 155 3. Ohio State 8 9 13 13 2 143 4. Alabama 6 9 10 9 9 123 5. LSU 3 2 3 5 11 53 6. Oregon 2 0 1 3 9 28 7. Michigan 1 0 1 2 7 19 8. USC 1 0 0 4 3 16 9. Florida 0 1 1 0 1 8 10. Miami 0 0 1 1 3 8 11. Texas A&M 1 0 0 1 0 7 12. Notre Dame 0 0 0 0 6 6 13 Fighting Irish players saw a change to their overall rating in an update released by the College Football 25 video game in early October, with 12 getting a bump up and one a decrease. Freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp, who stepped into a starting role after Charles Jagusah's season-ending knee injury during fall camp, was the biggest riser at +7 to a 77 overall rating. The others whose ratings improved were: sophomore safety Adon Shuler (+5, 81), sophomore left guard Sam Pendleton (+5, 79), freshman cornerback Leonard Moore (+5, 74), sophomore wide receiver KK Smith (+5, 71), sopho- more tight end Cooper Flanagan (+4, 77), graduate student safety Xavier Watts (+2, 94), sophomore cornerback Christian Gray (+2, 80), graduate student kicker Mitch Jeter (+2, 79), sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love (+1, 86), junior running back Jadarian Price (+1, 84) and sophomore offensive linemen Sullivan Absher (+1, 77). Senior center Pat Coogan (-1, 78) was the only Irish player to see his rating drop. 55th Was how Notre Dame's remaining strength of schedule was ranked in ESPN's College Football Power Index as it headed into its matchup with Stanford in Week 7. The FPI gave the Fighting Irish a 27.1 percent chance to win their remaining seven games — the third-best percentage in the country, behind only Tulane (30.6) and Ohio State (27.4). Following the completion of Week 6, FPI listed the Irish with a 49.4 percent chance to make the College Football Playoff — the 10th-best percentage in the country, behind Texas, Ohio State, Miami, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, Penn State, Ole Miss and Indiana. ✦ BY THE NUMBERS PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER