Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1527865
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 19, 2024 11 UNDER THE DOME THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "[Riley] Leonard was billed as an up- grade from [Sam] Hartman, and while he has hurt defenses with his feet, the passing prowess hasn't come consistently. Denbrock ultimately will be judged on whether he can get more from Leonard and the wideouts in the second half, as Notre Dame's CFP hopes remain alive." — ESPN's Adam Rittenberg on giving Notre Dame's offseason hiring of offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock a grade of C- heading into Week 7 of the 2024 season "Last week and the week before, the way he practiced and threw the ball with confidence and the way people went, 'Wow, that's a dude.' That whole aura that's surrounding him right now is really positive, and I think everybody's feeding off that." — Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock on senior quarterback Riley Leonard "Those guys love the game, they talk the game, they're competitors. And they do not flinch, whether it's Leonard Moore, Bryce Young, Kyng [Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa] — it doesn't matter who it is. They go out there, and they're part of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish defense. They're not freshmen [anymore], and they've earned that." — Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden on the freshmen who are seeing action on his unit "As you take a look across college basketball's current landscape and see the tenured and suc- cessful coaches, many times you can look back at one class that changed their trajectory of success. … There are many examples of other coaches and classes that did this, and I am not here to say that Micah Shrewsberry is about to embark on a career like a [Arkansas head coach John] Calipari or a [former Dule head coach Mike] Krzyzewski, but what I am saying is this is the caliber of a class that certainly could raise the floor for the current Notre Dame program. " This trend started last year as Notre Dame signed three players, each who were ranked among the top 150 players in their class by at least one of the major recruiting services." — On3 national basketball recruiting analyst Jamie Shaw "It was a good week to not play football. Thanks to all the chaos, Notre Dame graduates from 'in the mix' to 'probably in,' but those odds are very much in the Irish's favor despite the loss to North- ern Illinois. Missouri taking an unexpected loss — and doing so in resounding fashion — was a per- fect start to the day for Notre Dame, and watching Alabama, Tennessee and Michigan go down later was even better. "The only issue — and it could be a minor one — is USC also taking a loss means the potential for Notre Dame to add a big-time win in its season finale took a hit. Army and Navy look dangerous and could be quality wins (or massive stumbling blocks) over the next two months. Surging Texas A&M is a massive boost to Notre Dame's resume." — David Ubben of The Athletic after a litany of upsets in Week 6 "If Freeman could erase two Saturdays from his record — home losses to Marshall and Northern Illinois — there is no conversation to have regard- ing his job status. But those games did happen, so here we are. The current team's season-opening win over Texas A&M looks better by the week, and beating Louisville should help the résumé as well. In an interesting twist, a guy with two bad Group of 5 losses faces two unexpectedly major G5 games in the coming weeks: undefeated Navy on Oct. 26 and undefeated Army on Nov. 23. "Too soon to file for divorce? Yes. It seemingly would take some very bad losses the rest of this season to put Freeman's status in doubt — but again, very bad losses have been part of the deal." — Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde on including Marcus Freeman on his list of 10 college football coaches on increasingly hotter seats "I'd love to see it for 60 minutes because we haven't yet seen it for 60 minutes from Notre Dame. We've seen it in really 15-minute incre- ments, whether it's the fourth quarter against Texas A&M, whether it's the one quarter of domi- nance and brilliance against Louisville in the first quarter. I'd love to see it for 60 because if they can do it for 60, they could play with anybody." — ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy "Look at the rosters of the ones that have won it. Georgia, of course Michigan has one, but Clem- son and Alabama, too. That's the difference with Notre Dame." — An anonymous Group of Five head coach on Notre Dame's lack of a future NFL-caliber wide receiver in a story by The Athletic Irish On Social Media PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER