SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame’s spring practice will end with the Blue-Gold Game on April 25. Marcus Freeman should take his fifth — and arguably most talented — team back into spring practice around Saint Patrick’s Day, one month earlier. And with more than one-third of the roster new, never mind three new assistant coaches, Freeman will be faced with sky-high expectations while reorganizing the program.
Naturally, you’ve got questions about all that, although this week’s Notre Dame mailbag is bigger picture (What’s with the ACC? Are the Irish leaving non-football sports behind?) than the smaller stuff (What does the quarterback spot look like behind CJ Carr?).
Let’s get started. Spring practice will be here before you know it.
Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length.
Have we made a Faustian bargain with football’s success? For the first 20 years of this century, football was on the fringes of consistent national relevance. But men’s and women’s basketball, plus hockey, were at historical zeniths. Now women’s hoops is in a funk, men’s basketball is largely unwatchable, and hockey is best not mentioned. What are Notre Dame’s (and Pete Bevacqua’s) ambitions in those sports? Where is NIL beyond football? What are Pat Garrity’s strategies for roster construction in basketball? — Dennis C.
This is a great question. Because you’re right, the state of both basketball programs and hockey is disastrous. There’s a good chance the men’s team doesn’t make the ACC tournament. The women’s program might miss the NCAA Tournament despite having a national player of the year candidate in Hannah Hidalgo. Somehow, hockey is 1-15 in the Big Ten under first-year head coach Brock Sheahan.
Think back a decade when men’s basketball went back-to-back with the Elite 8 and an ACC tournament title, the women’s team made four national title games in a five-year stretch (not including winning it all in 2018), and hockey made the NCAA tournament six times in a seven-year stretch (2013-19).
Has the college sports landscape changed? Obviously. But going from Muffet McGraw, Jeff Jackson and Mike Brey to Micah Shrewsberry, Niele Ivey and Sheahan is a massive shift. To go from Hall of Fame-level coaching (literally with McGraw) to two first-time head coaches and a third coach who had two seasons of major college experience was always going to be a step back. Your question is whether Notre Dame will devote the resources to restart those engines. I don’t know the answer to that. I’m not sure Bevacqua knows the answer to that.
Is investing in signing a five-star men’s basketball prospect or retaining an All-American in women’s hoops money well spent? And does it even matter if you’re going to surround those players with mid-major talent? Looking at both basketball programs, it feels like Notre Dame built two programs using half-measures, while the football program is funded like a team expected to win a national title (opposed to just hoping to compete for one).
Notre Dame doesn’t pretend to compete for national championships in men’s basketball, but it’s on a stretch of one NCAA Tournament appearance in nine years with no end in sight under Shrewsberry. Notre Dame does expect to compete for championships in women’s basketball, but Ivey has yet to get the Irish past the Sweet 16, although she’s made it that far each of the last four seasons. It’s harder to get a read on hockey, but last place in the Big Ten is failing. None of this should be good enough for Bevacqua. In a month, we’ll find out whether he (and hoops general manager Pat Garrity) can tolerate it enough to back Shrewsberry and Ivey or move in a different direction.
No, running it back a year from now can’t be the solution. But is it worth spending more on basketball when football drives the athletic department’s engine?
A lot of people have reposted your “prediction” that Notre Dame may leave the ACC and enter into a scheduling agreement with the Big Ten/SEC without necessarily understanding the context of the article in which it appeared. On a scale of 0-100 in factual basis, with 0 being “aliens land on the White House lawn this evening,” and 100 being “Marcus Freeman will be the Notre Dame head coach tomorrow morning,” what number would you give it? — Stephen M.
Just so we’re clear, our editors asked us for a “Bold Prediction” with the emphasis more on “Bold” than “Prediction” for next season. Three years ago, my bold prediction was Michigan winning the national title and Jim Harbaugh jumping back to the NFL (nailed it). Last year, I went with something similar: Texas wins the national title and Steve Sarkisian heads to the NFL, then drafts Arch Manning at No. 1 (not quite).
I suppose I could have gone with another “head coach wins national title, goes straight to the NFL” take, but that would have meant I’d be covering a coaching search next January.
As for the prediction I did make, it’s both a stretch and the kind of question Bevacqua needs to have answered. Notre Dame leaving the ACC would be expensive, and the Big Ten taking on the Irish as a partial member would mean the conference swallowing some of its pride. There’s the issue of the other sports fitting into the Big East, which wouldn’t be uncomplicated. So yeah, this is all a huge reach, especially if Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti is still calling the shots. Entrusting Notre Dame’s athletics future to a league that’s tried to railroad private equity into the conference while stumping for a 24-team playoff … I’m not sure anyone around here would willingly go there.
But.
When the next round of media rights deals comes up at the end of this decade, wouldn’t this kind of arrangement basically be printing money for Notre Dame, the Big Ten and the SEC? The College Football Playoff is almost certain to expand by then, putting more slack into the regular season. It’s no secret that NBC and CBS won’t get better inventory to pick in their Big Ten contract. And considering how much NBC is paying Notre Dame, is the network getting what it bargained for with next year’s schedule?
Notre Dame already has the Clemson series locked up, regardless of its affiliation with the ACC. Could there be a similar deal with Miami or Florida State? Let’s create a future schedule of three Big Ten games, three SEC games, Clemson, a TBD ACC school, Navy, Stanford and two Group of 5 games. That’s seven home games and five road games each season.
Am I making this seem infinitely easier and more simplistic than it actually is? Of course! But what else are we supposed to do in the offseason?
Notre Dame leaving the ACC feels like a reach, at least for now. (Sam Navarro / Imagn Images)
What is the modern Notre Dame record for first-round picks in one draft? Over/under 3.5 first-round picks in the 2027 NFL Draft?
The modern record is four first-round picks after the 1992 season: Rick Mirer (2), Jerome Bettis (10), Tom Carter (17) and Irv Smith (20). The next year, the Irish had three first-round picks: Bryant Young (7), Aaron Taylor (16) and Jeff Burris (27). Since then, there have been only three drafts in which Notre Dame had two first-rounders: 2012 (Michael Floyd and Harrison Smith), 2016 (Ronnie Stanley and Will Fuller) and 2018 (Quenton Nelson and Mike McGlinchey).
In fact, Freeman only produced one first-round pick during his first three years when Joe Alt went No. 5, with Jeremiyah Love a lock to be Freeman’s second this spring.
I would bet a large sum on the under for a year from now when Leonard Moore, CJ Carr, Boubacar Traore, Adon Shuler, Tae Johnson, Anthonie Knapp and Bryce Young could all leave for the NFL. From that group, it’s not a huge stretch to see Moore, Carr and Traore playing their way into the first round next year, but history says the odds are against it … at least in the immediate future.
But three or four years from now, when the incoming freshman class ages into draft prospects? The volume of incoming five-star prospects should put Notre Dame in better position to pump out multiple first-round picks similar to the days of Lou Holtz. I just wouldn’t put an even-money bet on Notre Dame hitting three first-rounders a year from now.
With CJ Carr hyped as a Heisman contender, the depth behind him is nerve-racking. Blake Hebert, Noah Grubbs or Teddy Jarrard don’t seem ready to step in. Will Notre Dame regret not landing a more experienced backup in the portal? — Daniel J.
I never understood the allure for a quarterback to come to Notre Dame this offseason just to sit behind Carr while the coaching staff would prioritize developing Grubbs and Jarrard over you. Would taking an experienced FCS quarterback help Notre Dame next season? Of course. But the recruitment of Braden Atkinson (same class as Grubbs) seemed bizarre, both for his talent and his opportunity here. The fact that Atkinson ended up at Oregon State said plenty about how other major programs viewed him.
In an ideal world, Notre Dame would have kept Kenny Minchey like it kept Steve Angeli a year earlier after bringing in Riley Leonard. But speculation is that Kentucky is paying Minchey established starter money at approximately $2 million, which is an economic non-starter for Notre Dame’s roster budget, especially with Carr worth more than that, never mind a secondary believed to be priced above $4 million. There’s only so much money to go around, and that money needs to be playing.
I think Notre Dame made the right decision by investing in portal additions on the defensive line, at defensive back and at wide receiver. If Carr gets hurt next season beyond a sprained ankle or concussion — two-game injuries, for example — Notre Dame will be in major trouble. That’s true of most NFL and college football programs, with few exceptions like Ole Miss last season.
To quote former Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore on why the backups behind Peyton Manning didn’t get more practice work: “Fellas, if 18 goes down, we’re f—ed, and we don’t practice f—ed.”
Not to compare Carr to Manning … but that sentiment will hold true for Notre Dame next season.