The Notre Dame football team commences their 2020 spring practice period tomorrow, Thursday, March 5. Afterward, Head Football Coach Brian Kelly will address the media. Here are some FYIs and other things to watch the next six weeks or so.
What’s the general outlook for Notre Dame football next fall? Well, they’re not exactly like a national title favorite by any means, but they’re not long shots either.
They’re usually backed among the top ten, in terms of national title odds by the casinos taking bets on US football. Typically, you’ll see the Irish receiving odds in the neighborhood of 30/1. Not Clemson or Ohio State level favorites, but certainly not way down on the chart either. Also big time hat tip to SB Nation’s One Foot Down for pointing out that a composite of all the-way-too-early preseason rankings have the Fighting Irish at #10. So there’s some key consistency there:
Key Dates: beginning of spring practice March 5, Last spring practice April 17, Blue-Gold Game on Saturday, April 18 (12:30 p.m.)
He’s leaving: This fall will mark Mike Collins’ 39th and final year as public address announcer at Notre Dame Stadium
He’s got a new gig: Notre Dame football legend and last year’s QB Coach, Tommy Rees, called plays for the first time as the new offensive coordinator in the Camping World Bowl win over Iowa State.
He needs to replaced someway/somehow: pretty much the entire starting secondary and most of the leading pass catchers, the defensive ends are being retooled as well. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic though about who will step up and fill the big shoes at these key positions however.
He’s here/back: QB Ian Book is still here and the depth and experience on the OL is top notch. Despite losses in the running backs corps, plenty of depth and talent remains. For more on all this, please read our way too early 2020 Notre Dame football preview at this link.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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