We are running out of days without football to talk about. Preseason camp is right around the corner. For student-athletes, they get one last chance to spend time with family and friends before returning to campus and kicking off camp.
Notre Dame announced officially that they’ll begin camp at the Culver Military Academy on Monday, August 4. It’s a great opportunity to get away from campus as they did last year, and Culver’s facilities -- not to mention a long tradition with Notre Dame -- make for a perfect fit.
“Culver Military Academy will provide a unique and rewarding opportunity for our football program as we embark on the 2014 season,” said fifth-year head coach Brian Kelly. “Culver holds a special place in my heart as my family has participated in camps on the grounds for years. We were able to initiate a successful program last year at Shiloh Park Retreat and Conference Center. Culver will significantly help improve the experience for our team this fall.”
The Irish will spend the first week of camp at Culver, opening on August 4th before returning to campus and the LaBar Football Practice Fields on Saturday, August 9. The official release calls the first week their “acclimatization portion of training camp.”
Culver is about 45 minutes from campus, and the historic military academy has a long history with the Irish football program. That, along with some top-notch football facilities, made for a great opportunity.
“We are happy to welcome Notre Dame back to Culver,” Head of Schools John Buxton said. “Culver and the Irish have enjoyed a great relationship through years dating back to Knute Rockne and Bob Peck. Lou Holtz brought his teams here in 1995 and 1996. Our teams have played at ND on several occasions and Notre Dame teams have used our facilities over the years. This exchange gives our coaches and student-athletes the opportunity to see in action the ideals we aspire to with our programs.”
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While Andrew Trumbetti and Justin Brent enrolled at Notre Dame early and took part in spring practice, we’ll get our first official look at the rest of the freshman class come training camp. But for those wondering about the jersey numbers that the freshmen will take to the field, Notre Dame’s sports information department confirmed Irish Illustrated’s scoop on who will be wearing what next year.
Florida transfer Cody Riggs is taking over Bennett Jackson’s No. 2 jersey for his lone season in South Bend. The rest of the scholarship newcomers will wear the following:
No. 2: Cody Riggs
No. 5: Nyles Morgan
No. 11: Justin Brent
No. 13: Tyler Luatua
No. 14: DeShone Kizer
No. 15: Corey Holmes
No. 19: Nick Watkins
No. 23: Drue Tranquill
No. 33: Jhonny Williams
No. 43: Kolin Hill
No. 48: Greer Martini
No. 53: Sam Mustipher
No. 55: Jonathan Bonner
No. 56: Quenton Nelson
No. 67: Jimmy Byrne
No. 71: Alex Bars
No. 75: Daniel Cage
No. 82: Nic Weishar
No. 85: Tyler Newsome
No. 92: Grant Blankenship
No. 93: Jay Hayes
No. 96: Pete Mokwuah
No. 98: Andrew Trumbetti
Some additional info to add to my profiles as I keep rolling through the Irish A-to-Z.
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It was a big week for new Miami (Ohio) head coach Chuck Martin. The former Irish offensive coordinator made a few headlines this week, as he was profiled by the always excellent Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports and appeared on the Jim Rome Show on Friday afternoon.
As you’d expect, Martin came off great in both profiles, with this section of Wetzel’s article particularly interesting:[Martin] was the perfect combination of experience and acumen; a proven tactician and motivator. He could both develop talent and recruit it, both at the elite level of Notre Dame and finding diamonds in the rough in D-II.
He was on the radar of any number of higher paying programs where even if they were struggling he’d take over teams with players who scored more than two touchdowns in an entire season. Basically he wouldn’t risk the trajectory of his career on a winless bunch in the MAC.
“When he took the job, six ADs from other schools called and said, ‘how’d you get him?’” Miami athletic director David Sayler said.
Yeah, how?
“I’m just a little bit off,” Martin noted.
Then he laughed again.
Wetzel also talked about Martin’s skills on the recruiting trail, highlighting a recruiting battle Martin had late in the cycle against Rutgers for the services of receiver Sam Martin. When Martin talked about wanting to go to the Big Ten, Martin didn’t struggle to set him straight.
“He said, ‘Coach, I want to play at the highest level,’” Martin told Wetzel. “I said, ‘The highest level is the NFL. If you think they can get you to the NFL more than me, then go play there.’
“He signed with me.”
On Jim Rome’s program today, Martin talked a little bit about the decision to take a roughly $200,000 pay cut and take over a program that wasn’t even competitive last season, losing all 12 games.
Martin also talked about the perfect fit he found at Miami, able to sell the marriage of academics and athletics that worked for him at Notre Dame. As you’d expect, he didn’t mince words.
“The national graduation rate is hard for me to stomach. The amount of money we make in Division I athletics in football and basketball, graduation rates should be in the 80s to 90s. We have all these resources with all these schools with tutors, and all these specialists that help Division I athletes, but we’re making hundreds of millions of dollars and coaches are making millions of dollars off these kids, and we’re graduating kids at a much lower percentage than we should.
The sad thing is that they go on and when they’re 30, they’re having a hard time functioning in the world, and we’re still making millions of dollars. To me, I’m an old Division III, non-scholarship athlete that went to school to get a degree and I played football because I wanted to do something with my free time, nobody paid me to play college football. To me, we’re committed and I’m committed to finding the schools that graduate kids and are committed to graduating kids, just like they are committed to making their hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Martin talked openly with Wetzel about recruiting players to Oxford by telling them up front that he planned on kicking their a**. He didn’t soften his sentiment at all, continuing to be the blunt and up front guy Notre Dame fans never really got a chance to know.
“If you want it easy, don’t come and play football for us,” Martin said of his recruiting pitch. “If you want it easy every day for the rest of your four-year career, I’ll do that, but that’s not going to help you get to where you want to go. I want, on the field for you to help us win championships, and I want to develop you into an NFL player.”