Rakes Report #144: And bring us back together when the day is done
Muffet, Ivey, NFL Draft, the new merch you see above, rewatch pods, optional musical accompaniment. Let’s go.
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Even in a universe where Kevin Austin and Braden Lenzy were able to fill up the Blue-Gold Game stat sheet and highlight reels, the biggest Notre Dame news of the month would still be the retirement of Muffet McGraw after 33 years as head coach of the Fighting Irish. She is a Hall of Famer who attained two titles, made nine Final Fours and won 936 games over the course of her career, many of those coming inside the Joyce Center, an arena she filled often over the final two decades of her career. Considering that she both built the program and then accrued so much success at the sport’s highest levels the case could be made that she is the second-best coach in the history of the university, behind only Rockne.
The retirement, which she specifically said was from coaching and not Notre Dame entirely, is the result of a confluence of events. After her statement about women’s equality went viral at last year’s Final Four, she got to see the size of her platform and the ability to reach beyond sports, which led to an increase in activism at the national level and also in the South Bend community, where she’s spearheaded a number of food drives since the shutdown occurred. That cessation of normal operations also allowed her to see what a life without basketball would look like, and by her own admission, she liked the view. McGraw specifically ruled out runs for political office and any interest in Jack Swarbrick’s job, which is sad because I had “Athletic Director Muffet McGraw announces Tommy Rees as next Notre Dame head coach” on my vision board.
McGraw is so hard-wired as a competitor that the losing of this past season after the entire starting five migrated to the WNBA seemed to physically pain her. She is also old school enough in her style that I’m not sure she was built for our current age of player empowerment, taking the time to criticize transfers in her farewell press conference last week. She leaves a strong incoming recruiting class, one final gift for the program that exists only because of her dedication and talent.
Named minutes after the news of McGraw’s retirement dropped in a tidy piece of regime changing, Niele Ivey is a slam dunk (basketball reference) replacement, and Swarbrick said no one else was considered. Why bother? She won a national title as a player for the Irish in 2001 and then again as an associate head coach in 2018, serving as McGraw’s top lieutenant for most of the past decade. As an added bonus for the recruiting trail, Ivey spent the past year as an assistant with the Memphis Grizzlies, one of the most pleasant surprises of the past NBA season. When her hire was announced, she received praise from Ja Morant (the 2019 No. 2 pick and certain Rookie of the Year winner) and Jaren Jackson, Jr. (2018 No. 4 overall pick) for her coaching, scouting and sartorial ability. To put a stamp on the transition, two days after taking over, she received a verbal commitment from the No. 2 prospect in the Class of 2021. (Highlights here if you’d like to see a girl in glasses casually obliterating the competition.) Two days after that, she secured the commitment of the No. 16 player.
While it’s sad to see McGraw retire after everything she did, her legacy is secure and the statue should be erected outside the JACC in short order. There are the championships, of course, including the 2018 edition that featured half her roster injured and two clutch shots from Arike that will be long-remembered. There’s also the conference dominance (the Irish lost six ACC regular season games in their first six years in the league), the success against Geno Auriemma (her five victories over UConn in the Final Four is the most by far of any competitor against the gold standard of the game) and a number of heartbreaking close calls that show just how often she was in the mix at the top of the sport.* Her program also produced an extensive network of badass alumnae, and both McGraw and Ivey said one of the highlights of the most recent championship was celebrating with the dozens of former players who were in the building in Columbus.
* 2019, obviously, when they came within a point of repeating. 2017 saw the Irish, No. 2 in the nation, lose leading scorer Brianna Turner to injury in the Sweet Sixteen. 2013 was a bummer because they beat UConn the first three times they played them only to fall in the Final Four. 2011 was perhaps the toughest because they managed to vanquish Maya Moore in the Final Four but fell to a Texas A&M team that had done the dirty work of knocking out Brittany Griner in the Elite Eight, denying Skylar Diggins a title after a masterful sophomore year.
Thank you to Muffet for everything she accomplished in South Bend, truly one of the best to ever do it. The nice thing is the future of the team appears incredibly bright with Ivey in charge, so this is where I once again drop to my knees and beg the bookstore and Under Armour to sell more basketball things: Create a faux throwback of Ivey’s #33 Notre Dame jersey. It’s tricky when dealing with college players who can’t profit from their Name Image Likeness (yet) but no such issues with the coaches, so get going.
Before we move on, here is my conversation with ESPN’s Holly Rowe — who knows the game of women’s basketball as much as anybody — on an emergency episode of the podcast discussing the surprise news. And yes of course I asked her about being there for Ice Twice so now along with play-by-play announcer Adam Amin half of the ESPN crew for Arike’s epic weekend are on the record talking about it on the Report, in addition to Shea Serrano, if you ever get the urge to relive it.
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It was a successful weekend at the NFL Draft for the Fighting Irish. No first rounders, unfortunately, but six overall, with selections in the second (Cole Kmet and Chase Claypool), third (Julian Okwara), fourth (Troy Pride, Jr.), fifth (Khalid Kareem) and sixth (Alohi Gilman). The six picks ties for ninth most of any program with the Auburn Tigers.
There was a fun homecoming and reunion vibe to most of the picks. Kmet was taken by his hometown Chicago Bears, which led to a couple of awesome videos: Watch Kmet and his family absolutely losing their shit with joy when they get the call and then watch people driving through his neighborhood to celebrate and congratulate him! Awww, you guys! It’s a shame he couldn’t slip into the first round after declaring early but first tight end off the board is an impressive accomplishment and as fun as it would have been to see him catch a few more balls in blue and gold it seems like he made a wise decision heading out early.
Okwara was drafted by the Detroit Lions, meaning he gets to join his big brother, Romeo, which is so cool. The pair are just far enough apart in age that they didn’t play together in high school or college, so this is a first. Pride is a North Carolina native and was taken by the Panthers, and please watch his poor dad unable to handle the love and, uh, pride of the moment the call comes.
Claypool and Kareem both ended up in the AFC North with the Steelers and Bengals, respectively. I think Claypool’s stock was perhaps hurt by things shutting down as he didn’t have an opportunity to build off his monster combine and generate some watercooler buzz with a pro day, but second round is still impressive in a wide receiver class this loaded. Kareem went with the first pick of the fifth round which seems like it could be a really good value for the Bengals.
Gilman landed on the Chargers, joining Jerry Tillery, Drue Tranquill and Isaac Rochell, and also Asmar Bilal and Donte Vaughn, who were signed as undrafted free agents. (The Chargers general manager, Tom Telesco, played football at John Carroll University with Brian Polian before working under Brian’s father Bill in the NFL, if you were wondering about the Notre Dame du LAC connection.) Was Alohi Gilman very Alohi Gilman after being selected? Absolutely, telling a Hawaiian reporter “I know by heart every safety that was picked before me” and noting there were 15 names on his list.
The other UDFAs and their new homes: Tony Jones, Jr. to the Saints, Jalen Elliott to the Lions, Chris Finke to the 49ers and Jamir Jones to the Texans.
One nice thing about this draft class is it feels commensurate to the season that just passed: A really solid but not spectacular 11-2 was paired with a really solid but not spectacular draft class, with plenty of returning talent to make a run at a similar record and draft output the next time football is played. There are certain years when you look back through things that feel like missed opportunities*, but this all jives together quite nicely.
* 2014 and 2016 drafts in particular. In 2014, the Irish had a first rounder (Zack Martin), two second rounders (Stephon Tuitt and Troy Niklas), two third rounders (Louis Nix and Chris Watt), a fourth rounder (Prince Shembo) and two sixth rounders (Bennett. Jackson and T.J Jones) but managed only an 8-4 regular season in 2013.
In 2015 the Irish went 10-2 in the regular season, which is fine, but still feels like a missed opportunity after they shipped three first rounders (Ronnie Stanley, Will Fuller and I’m counting Jaylon Smith here), a second rounder (Nick Martin, and this is also where Jaylon went after the injury), two third rounders (KeiVarae Russell and C.J. Prosise), a fourth rounder (Sheldon Day) and undrafted free agent Romeo Okwara the following April.
There are all kinds of reasons for these teams falling a little short of their potential — injuries, coaching, roster construction, Brian VanGorder, quarterback suspensions, good old-fashioned rotten luck — but it just feels nice to have the draft and season results line up.
Overall, this all corroborates the results and recruiting of the past few seasons to confirm our current macro situation: Notre Dame is ahead of 115 or 120 of the 130 teams in the FBS but still lagging behind a handful of powers at the top. Coaching and development are strong but whether the Irish can take that final step will come down to whether Brian Kelly (and/or the coach who ends up succeeding him, whenever that might be) to take the next step in recruiting. Will we see movement in the right direction with the Class of 2021? Fingers crossed.
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That image at the top is the work of the talented and generous Bridget Reynolds and is available over at TeePublic at the Rakes shop, a little tribute to Kmet and Claypool being the first two Irish prospects off the board. There’s also a green version that looks pretty sharp, particularly on the white baseball shirt with green sleeves. I just launched them this morning so both versions will be on sale for the next couple days if they interest you. If you were considering a larger order, sign up for updates at TeePublic because they usually do at least one 35 percent off per month so if you’re not in a rush, save your bucks.
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If you’re looking for some background listening, we did rewatches of some classic Notre Dame games from the tenures of Charlie Weis and Brian Kelly for the podcast. You can listen to them here, or on Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts. (You can also do me a favor by rating and/or reviewing at that last link.) The rundown:
2005 Stanford: Brady Quinn, Darius Walker and Jeff Samardzija try to clinch a BCS bid in the season finale.
2007 UCLA: 0-5 Notre Dame is a three-touchdown underdog in the Rose Bowl. Hijinx ensues.
2009 Washington: Jimmy Clausen vs. Jake Locker in one of Golden Tate’s best games, including overtime and multiple goal line stands.
2014 Michigan: A very nice time had by all even though everybody didn’t get to score.
2012 Oklahoma: Maybe the biggest Irish win of the 21st century, with Manti at the peak of his powers and a masterful performance by Everett Golson.
2015 Southern Cal: Impossibly dumb game with 72 total points courtesy of Will Fuller, C.J. Prosise, Adoree Jackson and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Start of the still ongoing Clay Helton Era.
Only half of these games were Kelly teams, but they really provided affirming spot checks on the All-BK-at-ND Team. You remember Louis Nix being good and you see the numbers but then there’s him knocking down Landry Jones passes to snuff out red zone possessions and suffocating the Sooners run game. KeiVarae Russell is making big plays in Norman in 2012 and then generating two interceptions against JuJu three years later. Manti and Jaylon and Fuller are all absolutely as good as you recall – a really fun exercise.
We might have one more next week and then I think there will be a break. I understand that many people have had their podcast listening routines completely disrupted by the shutdown, but the one nice thing about these is they should keep for an opportunity when you have a commute or a vacation again, so I hope you get a chance to check them out at some point. Big thanks to everybody who joined me for an episode, they were a great deal of fun.
One takeaway from doing these: Many people remarked that even though these games occurred years in the past with results already decided it still felt like watching live action because of how we’ve conditioned ourselves mentally and emotionally to process Notre Dame football games. The folks at One Foot Down put together a handy guide to YouTube links for games so if you find yourself needing a little taste then skim through this, find a game and kick back – I think you’ll enjoy it.
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Another side effect of rewatching old games was remembering how much fun I had attending some of them before getting quite forlorn about Our Current Situation and the fact we may not even have college football this autumn. It made me feel downright wistful just to see people celebrating in the stands, embracing one another joyously after Irish successes, and imagining thousands in packed bars across the country doing the same. (And it’s not just attending the games – the other evening I got emotional just thinking about going to a friend’s place to watch a day of college football. My brain is fine, thank you very much.)
I don’t have any idea when we’ll be able to do any of that again, but at some point, we will. When it happens, I very much look forward to joining you all in achieving the sort of holy communion available only through a chilly parking lot Bloody Mary at 9 a.m. followed by passing a bottle of Mad Dog to a dear friend nine hours later.
In the meantime, as we wait for that blessed day: Stay smart, stay safe and please take care of yourselves and each other. Go Irish.
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