JotCast | Notre Dame Football Live Chat Jan. 27, 2021

Notre Dame Football Live Chat Jan. 27, 2021

Prev Page View Full Chat

Bill 1000 Oaks Ca

12:52

Enjoyed your Rees article hoping for a massive offensive overhaul in the red zone in2021! When ND recruits do they have a prototype profile regarding height,weight,body mass, speed etc by position or primarily looking for position need and best athlete available who can meet academic requirements?Stay safe Eric hope YOU know you’re the best!! Go Irish.

Eric Hansen

12:47

Peter, that's the assumption, that Notre Dame will play its 2021 schedule as designed. If there somehow a reversal in the positive momentum and that needs to change, ONLY then would there be an announcement of another ACC season. Again, that would be shockingly unexpected.

Peter Burke Coto De Caza, CA

12:45

When do you estimate ND will announce thanks but no thanks to the ACC for 2021?

Eric Hansen

12:45

Phil, thanks for the heads-up on the roster. I was able to fix that. When I saw the all-freshman team, I was surprised and disappointed that the FWAA took the approach of modifying the positions. And Michael Mayer was certainly deserving. You're right. It is nuts not to include a tight end, period.

Phil - Litchfield, CT

12:43

Hi Eric, Thanks for the great football chats during these cold and lonely times at the end of January. Not sure if you covered this in last week's chat, but what's up with the selection committee for the FWAA Freshman All-America team? I certainly congratulate Kyren Williams for making the team after his terrific year in 2020, but what about a Tight End selection? They instead chose 3 WRs and no Michael Mayer at TE?? That's nuts! Was he so good they forgot he was only a freshman? (PS: The football roster on your SBT website says 2020 in the title instead of 2021)

Eric Hansen

12:43

Hi Ken. I'm not sure if you mean players/coaches ... or fans. In either case, there's the potential to move toward normalcy as the year goes on. If Johnson & Johnson's vaccine gets approval next month (and it's one shot, not two) and it's as effective as the first two vaccines that are out now, that could move the timetable way up on moving toward herd immunity. Right now the numbers in our county are plummeting, and that's a good thing. The new variants are a wild card. A lot of what happens depends on us.

Ken - Pensacola

12:39

Eric – Hope all is going well for you and yours! Do you think we’ll see a lot of restrictions this coming season due to COVID 19? Thanks mucho and keep up the GREAT chats.

Eric Hansen

12:38

I reread Carter's story and checked in with him with my phone-a-friend lifeline, and that's not what he was trying to imply. I think Carter and a lot of other media believe Jack Coan is the favorite, because of his experience. However, I do think there will be an open competition with the possibility of someone else emerging. And that happens more than you realize with grad transfer QBs. I agree Jack will start spring as the favorite, but not the heir to the position.

Jeff, Cleveland Irish

12:36

Eric, At least according to Carter Karels, it seems like Jack Coan is set to be the starting QB this season and Tyler Buchner is destined to be his understudy. Is this what you are hearing as well, or is Carter just reading between the lines with regards to Coan's transfer, and is assuming that it's Coan's job to lose?

Eric Hansen

12:36

If someone's asked a question already, or if it was asked and answered last week, or if it's overly broad or overly loaded, I skip it. If I think the question won't have enough mass appeal, I'll skip it. ... Like why did Notre Dame run the single wing formation in 1937? That kind of thing. Also, if someone asks like 10 questions, I try to be fair to the others in the queue and maybe pick the best one of those 10. I hope this helps.

12:33

Jeff, math and time constraints really factor in more than anything else. I just looked at the analytics from my last three chats. I answered 35%, 38% and 36% of the questions. I usually have to cut things off after three hours, because I have a print deadline and/or another work commitment. If someone doesn't include their name and hometown, that question better be a Pulitzer Prize caliber or it goes to the back of the queue. ... Some other mechanics ... I try to toggle between the questions that come in early and those being submitted live. ... I avoid questions -- even good ones -- that are going to slow the flow of the chat down too long. Sometimes I'll make a phone call or shoot an email ... and if someone gets back to me, I can get to that question. (more)

Jeff from Phoenix

12:27

Hey Eric, if I am anything like the other chatters, I would like your guidance on the type of questions to avoid for this chat. I think the vast majority of chatters just want to learn about ND football, but also we like to see our questions posted and answered. I realize time dictates that not all questions can be answered. And of course there are the eternal ground rules, but what other items/subjects are almost guaranteed to meet your delete button? Thanks-

Eric Hansen

12:26

Bruce, thanks. I will kind of answer this in the hypothetical, since you gave me that out. If reporters do know about egregious rules violations and don't look into it and report on it, then what are they doing in the journalism business? I hope it came as a surprise to those covering the team. Now, they may have suspicions and can't find substance -- that's one thing. But if they're covering up for a program, that's about as lazy and/or unethical as you can get.

Bruce, Centralia, IL

12:23

Hello Eric, A question pegged to the recent troubles at Tennessee: when a program starts to engage in egregious rules violations of the type alleged against the Vols, does this behavior become an open secret among media that are around the program a lot, or are they as surprised as the rest of when the NCAA investigation becomes public? Do reporters know or are at least suspect that the culture has turned? I understand that you may not be able to comment on the Tennessee situation in particular - just using it as an example. Thanks as always, and I hope you’re getting some off-season rest.

Eric Hansen

12:23

Tony, I've been in your shoes with the infant/toddler double team, though many, many years ago. Good luck with that ... and enjoy it. You'll miss it someday. ... To your question. I think the most important dynamic in what you described is Brian Kelly's belief that academic standards shouldn't be a stumbling block to upgrading recruiting. I think he's realistic about fit being important, but he also knows Notre Dame can do better with the pool of players to which they have access. If HE believed there was a ceiling ND couldn't break through, then that would be problematic. It starts there. Now as the pandemic eases (and even before it does), Notre Dame has to follow through on its blueprint of how to improve recruiting. I'll be writing soon about one particular facet that I believe will improve ND's "hit rate" significantly.

Tony, Fairfax, VA

Sorry. My question: Although I think the outward messaging is now there regarding the need to have top 5 recruiting classes, I feel that there was a lot of rationalizing of the teen rated recruiting classes under kelly as a result of the academic standards that Notre Dame brings. However, this did not seem to be case with Charlie Weis in a couple of years where he was bringing in some clout on the trail. Sure finding the right player that fits the coaching scheme is important and development is important (see what Kelly did with Weis's players in 2012). I know there a million factors as to why high schoolers make the choices they do and a million variables in recruiting but I have not really bought the narrative that the academic standards are the reason for not having top 5 classes. I think player development has been above par for sure, but imagine if the players are starting with a higher ceiling. I guess my question is, do you have any thoughts on this?

12:16

Hey Eric, I love these chats. Finding time to read between finishing work trying to wrangle an infant and a toddler is tough, but totally worth it.

Eric Hansen

12:14

Travis, thanks for following the chats. .. and your question. You make a really good point about Pyne's offer list. it's impressive: Alabama, Miami, LSU. Florida State, Texas A&M, Michigan, Penn State, Oklahoma, among others. I really do think it comes down to size, and the fact fans feel like they've seen that movie before. He's listed at 6-0, 194. He was 181 pounds when he signed. All the other QBs on the roster are 6-2 or 6-3. Pyne may be viewed very differently internally than he is from the outside looking in. We'll get a much better feel for that this spring. It's too bad both he and Brendon Clark didn't get a chance to show what they could do last spring.

Travis from Newport Kentucky

12:05

Eric, Thank you for doing these every week, admittedly, I don't catch them live, I wait for the transcript every Thursday and read them at my desk so thank you for giving me something to look forward to every week. My question, like so many others is regarding our quarterbacks. I am just as excited about Buchner as every ND fan but I think people need to relax their early expectations on him and remember that he's only played one year of High School football. Why do you think so many fans are skipping over Pyne's potential? I know he's undersized but this kid is a 4 star recruit who had offers from the likes of Bama and other big programs.

Eric Hansen

Lots of questions in the queue and more coming, so let's get started.

Please remember to include your NAME and HOMETOWN with your question.

12:04

Here are the rules.