First game of the year always is fun to discuss because there is literally months of anticipation leading up to it.
And it's even more fun when it's an actual real game, not a preseason warmup against HS teams.

Notre Dame coming to Texas A&M will be a national game with CFP implications opening weekend.

I figured I would start a thread since spring practices have begun & actual roster movements & development have started.

Im a ND guy who is originally from Indiana & ND was my local team growing up. This was long before the NBC contract & back when Holtz was hired in '86.
I didn't know ND was national program & hated until I lived in Texas in the mid 90's.

I'm back in Indiana now & ND football is my vice, pretty much the only team I still follow from my youth.
But I have really good connections to the program now & get to see some practices & reports & can answer most questions about the team.

Funny enough, I'm close friends with someone who covers ND and was texting him back & forth at the exact same time he was texting back and forth with Elko about Elko leaving for the DC job at A&M from ND after the '17 season. That guy is still friends with Elko & a huge fan of his.

Anyways, any questions are welcomed. I truly enjoy talking college football, not just arguing with opposing fans or trolling.

I noticed a lot of talk on here about A&M's OL being a weakness? Is that a legit problem?

Sidenote: I was going to Subscribe, but when reading the notes it said to be able to post on some of the boards you have to have a pass (either A&M grad or associated with the university). Is that true? If I subscribe can I post on the forums? Thanks

What size shoes do you wear?

Welcome! Looking forward to the game and thanks for the engagement. Apologies in advance for some of the knuckleheads that'll you'll meet here.

My father in law is about as big of a ND fan there is. So this game is pretty high on the radar with the family (his daughter is an Aggie which is where we met).

OL has been our Achilles last couple of seasons. Great prospects/talent, but sub par scheme and OL coaching has prevented them from being cohesive. New OL coach and offense will hopefully remediate the issue. Other biggest weakness has been our secondary. As you can imagine Elko attacked it hard in the offseason and portal so hoping to see a marked improvement.

BTHO ND!

Thanks for all the replies!
Sorry it took me a minute to get back to you, I just got back from the practice. Today was an open period where we could see the first 5 periods of practice. I will talk about that at the end.

Sorry this post will be long, but I saw during the probationary time you can only post 3 times in 24 hours, so I might subscribe just to get around that. But I will try to answer the previous questions now & then talk practice.

First question, my shoe size is 11.5
Thanks for asking.

It's interesting the questions about ND's roster and the OL being good as always but so many other questions. Funny thing is, the biggest question mark for ND this year will be OL.
Some asked about RBs and Leonard. Others about the defense losing players. So I will try to go over each.

Leonard had surgery a couple weeks ago. But he was at practice throwing today. The surgery he had actually makes the ankle stronger than it was before, so he should be fine.
As for him an Elko; ND brought back Denbrock at OC (his 3rd stint at ND) who had the #1 offense last year & it will be completely different than what ND ran or what Leonard has ran before. I don't think either will have an advantage with all the new circumstances.

RBs were asked about, including Price (from Texas). First of all, I'm a huge Price fan. I thought he was 5 Star talent. Here is an interesting fact about him. He actually, as a true freshman, passed both Estime and Diggs in the depth chart and was the number one RB going into 2022. Then he blew his Achilles and missed over a year. He did really good last year (96 yard return against USC was awesome), but wasn't 100% yet. He looks more like his old self now pre-injury. The other RB Love is just speed. He was a sprinter & a WR who ND plans on throwing to out of the backfield a lot.

The OL is the question mark. They lost both OTs to the draft & the Center to the portal.
The Center left because he got passed up. But ND will be starting two new OTs this year.
Interestingly enough, if you want to see ND's OL, or offense in general, watch the Bowl game. The entire OL, QB, TE, & Estime all sat out that game.
So the OL and RBs that started that game will be the starters against A&M.
The bad news is they are inexperienced. The good news is they are a bunch of 5 Star & high 4 Star recruits. But they aren't the typical veteran ND OL.

TE is a question mark because nobody knows when Evans is back from injury. They are hoping fall camp, but no one knows. WR is the biggest upgrade because ND hammered the portal there.

Defense is my favorite, since that is what I played in college, so I'm more like Elko.

There is a narrative ND lost so much on Defense that I don't get? They are expected to be better this year. Last year they were 5th nationally & 1st against the pass.

They bring back the defensive national player of the year in Safety Watts. They bring back All American CB Morrison. They bring back CB Gray, a top 50 recruit who played great as a true freshman last year, they got an All Conference Safety in the portal to go next to Watts.

They bring back Mills & Cross at DT who both got NFL draft grades & I still don't know why they came back? They are rated the 2nd best returning interior DL by PFF. ND got DE Oben in the portal, who Elko said was the best player he coached last year.
ND brings back a 5th year Senior Captain at MLB.
I think ND's defense will be the strength this year and top 5 nationally again.

My worries this year revolve around the offense.
New QB, new OL, new OC, new WRs.
Very talented group, but haven't had time together.

I think ND will lean on their defense the opening week to allow their offense to gel against easier opponents the next couple weeks afterwards.

This has an MFBarnes feel.

Maroon Flash said:

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Surprised Notre Dame signed up to come play at Kyle. The playing surface is roughly 10 feet below grade level and is going to be hot as hades even if the game is at night.

Won't be surprised if this is a 2:30 pm game.

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God never intended football to be played in Texas in the daytime in August. I'm pretty sure that's in one of those books in the Bible nobody ever reads.