Rakes Report #256: And I can see that this is me, and I will be - you'll all see I'm the one
New hires, scheduling updates and celebrating a return to the top of the polls.
~optional musical/television accompaniment~
One nice thing about winning 14 games beyond the whole being very happy 14 times part is it keeps things relatively calm in the offseason. Sure, you can seek out panic in areas of the internet if you like, but people wanted to believe in Marcus Freeman and he delivered in a way that allows for some deserved benefit of the doubt and trusting of the process.
This is helpful when your defensive coordinator hire is a name that wasn’t on many radars to start. Chris Ash bears some similarities to Al Golden as a former college head coach who had been spending time in the NFL but there are some key differences. One is that Golden was coming off a Super Bowl run with the Bengals while Ash has been bouncing around. The other is that while Golden did great work at Temple and was solid at Miami (considering sanctions and the fact that program hasn’t had sustained success in two decades) Ash’s run at Rutgers was historically awful.
But when you dig in a bit, this makes sense. Ash worked closely with Luke Fickell, Freeman’s old boss, during his time with the Buckeyes so there shouldn’t be any surprises.* Both Ohio State and Texas fans speak fondly of him, which says a lot, especially since his season with the Longhorns wasn’t during an ideal time (2020, so limited practice time and Tom Herman was on his way to being fired). He also has coordinator experience at Arkansas and Wisconsin, which doesn’t hurt. I don’t think failing at Rutgers means much more for his ability in this role, and there’s a case that those setbacks will make him a better coach.
* Urban Meyer has spoken very highly of Ash, which is a bit of a double-edged sword because while Meyer knows ball he’s also the worst. Creep can roll.
This may not have been the splashiest hire but there aren’t many red flags as to his ability to be a good defensive coordinator. I also think it’s important that Freeman was interested in the Jims Knowles and Leonhard before landing where he did. I believe this ended up better than the 2023 offensive coordinator search but it was similar in that looking into Andy Ludwig and Collin Klein meant they spent time in the correct aisle which is good in the macro.
The issue for Ash and Freeman is how you handle losing one of the best safeties in school history as well as three grad student rocks in the middle of the front seven. The defense was so incredible last year (3rd in F+) that even if they’re 10th or 12th or some other admirable mark it’ll still be regression from 2024. These might be famous last words but I find it hard to imagine Freeman is ever going to have a poor or even average defense, but the difference between elite and very very good could be critical when it comes to playoff positioning.
An aspect that confuses me is it felt like Mike Mickens was ready to ascend to becoming coordinator, a fact I based on public compliments about Mickens made by Freeman. As of this writing, Mickens is still on the staff and had an encouraging Instagram post — Texas reportedly targeted him for a lateral move before filling the slot with someone else — which is wonderful news and hopefully means we’re getting the best of all possible worlds. If/when Mickens ends up elsewhere as a head coach, we will tip the cap, but it’ll be sad if he has to leave to get a coordinator title.
Bunch of bullet points to follow. I was feeling a little burnt out on college football and was going to save this until a slightly later date in case others were feeling similarly but I eventually jotted down too many little sections and felt compelled to send so here we are. Save it for a rainy day when you need a football fix if need be. Plus we’ve got a number one team on an 18-game win streak to acknowledge.
☘️ The national runner-up afterglow is also nice if you have a miss on a candidate who was at the finish line of joining the program, as was the case with Texas Tech’s James Blanchard being targeted to come in and run personnel. The position of college general manager is evolving and the processes of both high school recruiting and transfer portal fishing can be so opaque it’s tough to know how to allocate praise for success. However, if you want someone who is good at evaluating college players, getting Mike Martin from the Detroit Lions’ scouting department seems like a wise choice considering how well that roster has been turned around.
🫶 One indisputable coup for Freeman was the hiring of Ja’Juan Seider as the replacement for Deland McCullough, who returned to the NFL. Seider started as the Nittany Lions running backs coach in 2018 before beginning to accrue the additional titles (co-offensive coordinator in 2022, assistant head coach in 2023) and presumed pay bumps you give to an assistant you really want to keep on staff. Seider assembled an elite backfield in State College and has a great reputation as a recruiter so this feels like the definition of a home run hire. Consistent Jeremiyah Love third down snaps coming our way, perhaps?
☝🏼 If you’re not enjoying every minute you possibly can with Niele Ivey’s team I’m not sure what to tell you at this point but the dominance continues apace with Maddy Westbeld back. I was a little nervous with how things broke (playing a Top 15 opponent hours after becoming number one for the first time since 2019) but a 17-1 run in the third quarter buried the Blue Devils on Monday evening.
Of the many spectacular traits possessed by this squad, one I especially adore is how they have the ability to put an opponent on the wrong foot before the game even begins. Are you used to playing a lot of zone? Well, this is one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country, and even if they miss, they’re good at rebounding so you better have that on lock, too. Are you used to pressing? There are two All-American point guards on this team and everyone in the starting lineup is capable of bringing the ball up the court so you may want to reconsider your approach there.
Perhaps you’re a team that loves to crash the offensive glass to get extra possessions? Sure, you can try that, but any time you fail to collect you’re going to have a fast break going the other way. And if you’re used to playing an up-tempo game? Hmm. How committed to that are you? Do you have faith you can win a track meet against this team? Or are you going to blink and go against habits to try and slow it down?
There are a number of capable teams in the ACC who could still derail this and come March (and ideally, April) there are plenty of excellent opponents who could prevail but this team is special. Next up: At Miami on Thursday and then monster clash on Sunday in a rematch of last year’s ACC title game when they travel to Raleigh with “College GameDay” in the house. Noon ET on ESPN against a Wolfpack team that went to the Final Four last year and has their own set of lethal guards.
🏀 Couple quick follows: The Athletic story on Kate Koval’s journey from Ukraine to South Bend and the podcast on the same topic are excellent. The SLAM cover is so incredibly cool, instantly iconic. Also going to re-plug the interview from last fall with Olivia Miles, who was not exaggerating the amount of work she put into her three-point jumper. I also agree with Miles’ assessment of Sonia Citron, a perfect basketball player.
🏆 Al Golden won the Broyles Award, which honors the nation’s top assistant coach, and his speech was good. Highly complimentary of his experience at Notre Dame and — to return to a topic above — stated that Mickens would be in attendance at the event for the finalists soon.
📖 Congrats to Ian Book on adding Super Bowl champion to a resume that already includes being Notre Dame’s all-time winningest quarterback. Big few months for quarterback rushing stats counting. Here’s a chart that shows just how amazing Riley Leonard was on the ground this season (and you’ll notice Book in solid company as well). Two takeaways: Sack avoidance is a real skill that shouldn’t be taken for granted and Lamar Jackson was/is absurd.
☘️ McCullough and Seider’s predecessor Lance Taylor is coming off his second season as head coach at Western Michigan and creating a little Irish-adjacent fiefdom in Kalamazoo. Former safeties coach Chris O’Leary is the new defensive coordinator and he’s bringing in former linebacker Greer Martini and former defensive back Nick Coleman as assistants on his staff. Coming off a bowl appearance this past season, the Broncos have trips to both Sparty and Illinois - would be fun if they could make at least one of those interesting.
☘️ Tough times for the men’s basketball team. Micah Shrewsberry inherited a bad situation and chose to lean on developing high school recruits and younger transfers versus attempting a quick portal turnaround but his squad seems to be getting worse as the season goes on despite participating in a woeful ACC. There’s an incredible class coming in but it’ll take a leap to even be in the bubble conversation. I suspect he’s getting four years at a minimum but it would be nice to see a strong close to this season, if only for vibes.
(I wrote this before Shrewsberry went off in the postgame press conference Sunday night. My man, no one is calling for you to be fired, and if this is a motivational tactic for your team I would maybe have them practice late-game situations instead. As always, for coverage of the men’s team, I recommend the Three-Point Jesus podcast.)
🗓️ Last month news dropped that as part of ESPN’s extension of its ACC deal there would be an effort to have Notre Dame face Clemson, Florida State and Miami more often (one report was two of them every year). There are some minor details to consider with this — Florida State just went 2-10, Miami has never won the ACC in football and has participated in only one title game since they started holding them in 2005 — but I think the result is it increases the chances of the ACC staying alive for the near future (a positive for both Notre Dame and college sports as a whole) and also probably/potentially gives the Irish a more interesting schedule. The possible downside is if all of those teams are playing at a high level and the committee considers “number in loss column” more than strength of schedule/overall resume but I think this is a net good.
⛔ One reason this might be helpful long term is that it seems like USC is getting ready to pull the plug on playing Notre Dame annually. Lincoln Riley, a coward, has been whining about it and in a recent interview Trojans athletic director Jen Cohen, a coward, said this:
Lincoln has talked a lot about future nonconference scheduling. Everyone wants to know about the Notre Dame series. What’s the outlook for that rivalry?
It’s such an important series to our fans and both universities. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: In an ideal world, we’re going to keep playing each other. With that being said, the landscape has changed dramatically. We’re now playing in a conference where we fly back and forth across the country every other week, and CFP expansion and how you get access to the CFP and how things are seeded and selected. Those, to me, are important, unanswered questions. So we remain in conversations with Notre Dame about the series. I think we’re clear to each other (that) we’re going to continue to evaluate what’s best, and it’s my job to evaluate what’s best for our student-athletes and our program. As we keep doing that, we’re excited to go back to South Bend next year.
Embarrassing. In the words of the late, great David Lynch, “Fix your hearts.” It’s important to remember no one forced the Trojans to join the Big Ten and put themselves in a position where they “fly back and forth across the country every other week.” It’s also important to remember that if you don’t suck at football, the travel is less of a big deal (USC was Maryland’s only Big Ten win; Notre Dame beat AAC champ Army on one coast and then a week later beat the Trojans on the other). It’s a shame to see the Trojans, who for years leaned into aggressive non-conference games, go this route. They canceled a series with Ole Miss (Lane Bowl would have been so cool), tried to get out of their game with LSU last season and now have a sparse future non-conference slate.
While Big Ten programs love to act like playing nine conference games makes them braver than the troops, they don’t have to do that. If the Big Ten announced they were moving to eight conference games and mandating at least one Power Four opponent in non-con for their schools because it would be good for college football, that arrangement would have a high approval rating. A retort could be “Our bloated monstrosity of a conference already fails to have balanced league schedules with nine games so moving to eight would make us even more of a loose scheduling consortium without an identity or purpose” but, again, no one made you do that. In the words of the late, great Robert Morse as Bert Cooper, “You sold your birthright so you could marry that trollop.” (Let’s bring “trollop” back into the lexicon.) Instead, it seems like the Big Ten and SEC are going to try and destroy the sport so they can make a few extra bucks to rule over a pile of ash and degenerate gamblers.
I love the Notre Dame/USC rivalry and hope it is preserved but if one side wants to increase their chances of going 8-4 instead of 7-5 every season via cowardice there isn’t much to be done on the Irish end, unless you know Trojan donors who can step up and threaten/shame them into maintaining it.
👋🏼 That’s it for now. Thank you all for reading. Not sure what the exact newsletter or podcast schedule will be the next few months but keep your eyes on your inbox and listening app of choice. Obligatory merch link. Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other.