As spring practices rev up around the country, time for a check-in on Notre Dame's 2026 opponents. How did they finish last year, what major moves did they make with their staffs and portal players, and what are they looking for this offseason? open.substack.com/pub/spreadsh...

Rylie Mills making me feel things (like what if he was playing against Ohio State last year)

New newsletter: a January wrap-up of the ND transfer portal haul, "lessons" from the CFP, and quick reaction to the official 2026 schedule / Mike Mickens departure: open.substack.com/pub/spreadsh...

Hmmmm

hard for Miami to be less likeable next year with Carson Beck leaving, but they're trying hard with Duke guys who did the big show of returning, only to take a late bag of cash. (not acting high and mighty about poaching, but do it like professionals! don't do the "return" video then leave!)

The Super Bowl winning QB will be a guy who lost by 13 at home against Drew Pyne or a guy who lost by 35 against Brandon Wimbush

Andruw Jones making the hall makes me so happy. Played CF with such swagger, seemingly made every diving catch in the gaps and catch at the wall. An imperfect hitter but such a sweet uppercut when he connected. A rare cool points + advanced numbers case to get over the hump. Forever the Curaçao kid.

if Notre Dame loses a championship and gameonpaper looks like this i'm hanging it up

i can feel the tension through skycast right now, have not heard from Kirk Herbstreit or Chris Fowler since November, #blessed

please dont put your life in the haaaands, of a Carson Beck plaaan

Malachi Toney vs. Leonard Moore next fall

looking forward to seeing how Mario is going to screw up this short yardage situation

there have been a lotttt of balls thrown over the middle and off someone's hands in this game with no picks. that's not going to last forever and history says Carson Beck will oblige, but i'm keeping my options open

Mario classics. Run up the middle on every 3rd and short and the defense knows its coming, 50-yard FG attempts because "gotta get points on the board" as if you'll have lots of scoring chances in this game

finding small pleasure in the knowledge that while Miami or Indiana will win, the fans in attendance will all be subjected to the pain of DJ Mal-ski

watching Miami's DL on skycast is giving me PTSD

Ugh let’s just get this over with and simulate ahead to the way too early top 25s and win total lines like normal, well-balanced people

Tonight is the first semifinal of the 12-team playoff. One year ago, @sjwerner11.bsky.social @mbryan.bsky.social and I recorded a barely coherent zero-edit podcast about Notre Dame's victory over Penn State in that same game. Happy anniversary, give it a listen. open.spotify.com/episode/4AxO...

My initial reaction was ”please not Miami” but I’ve flipped. Make Miami a # 1 undefeated super team coming to South Bend next November. let’s make that the biggest ND regular season game in years.

the portal just replenishes. guys commit, you start thinking maybe someone is going to miss out at QB, ope here’s a Demond Williams, maybe a Ty Simpson to come, whew

Marcus Freeman, I’m gonna need you to step up the tampering

What would Bama’s record be playing an independent schedule? 7 wins?

You have to wonder if Joey McGuire and Texas Tech playing a more competitive schedule this season - perhaps a robust and varied independent slate? - would have better prepared them for the Orange Bowl.

wisdom is realizing Third Eye Blind playing the show the first weekend on campus freshman year is just never gonna be topped for greatest concert experience

when I play CFB dynasty I’m doing a lot of playing offense only, recruiting skill guys and QBs, losing games when I sim against mid tier conference opponents So i get where Lincoln Riley is coming from

☘️ new pod ☘️ @mbryan.bsky.social joins to close out 2025 and discuss: * Marcus Freeman new contract * Being sad and mad over Trojan cowardice * What the Notre Dame football roster needs from the portal open.spotify.com/episode/5ELC...

A quick holiday check in- on the USC cancellation, BYU replacement, roster losses to the draft and portal, and confirming Marcus Freeman is staying for 2026 open.substack.com/pub/spreadsh...

I was far from perfect on preseason takes but calling out the numerous Clemson red flags everyone was so eager to look past was easily my biggest hit. The late ACC title run and CFP friskiness vs Texas put lipstick on a very gross 2024 that should have weighed much heavier in the national outlook

Since 2020 BYU has been ranked above USC in the final CFP rankings 4/5 times, so this feels more like losing history than losing strength of schedule at the moment

Players are starting to declare their transfer plans in preparation for the portal opening in early January - what's on Notre Dame's Christmas list this year to fill out the 2026 roster? open.substack.com/pub/spreadsh...

Closing the book on Notre Dame's wild week, from processing the CFB snub, bowl game opt-out reactions, and what the Irish should do about it open.substack.com/pub/spreadsh...

yes. if you woke up from a coma you slipped into sometime in late september/early october and saw this bracket, sure. but hearing so much about how close Alabama and Notre Dame were — Irish were ahead two weeks ago! — and then doing that is insane.

hate being sad comrades with FSU fans on this topic, hate that the conspiracy theorists and cynics were right

never want to hear a “Notre Dame doesn’t have to compete for a conference championship” again

This has cemented the year of Skycast for me. Listening to Kirk and Fowler instead of crowd noise and bands turned all the way up? couldn’t be me

ok moratorium on the ND-Miami debate after this. But if you use yards / play as a decent proxy, and line up margins from the game's this year, you start to see why the Irish are ahead in all the metrics, even accounting for slightly better Canes SOS

a Miami -Texas A&M first round playoff game would be cruel and unusual punishment for ND fans. And kind of a great matchup for the Canes, where a win would be even more miserable

☘️ new pod ☘️ If you have questions about the playoff, how the process works and where Notre Dame stands after last night, @mbryan.bsky.social and I did our best to answer them in a tidy 30 minutes. Odds, metrics, conspiracies -- all the pieces matter. open.spotify.com/episode/4eit...

i really do feel for Miami fans bc if this flipped a lot of Notre Dame media and accounts would be doing deeply embarrassing stuff online too. would take us back to the BK days of having to argue on the same side of the worst people

Kalani Sitake to Penn State is the kind of thing that happens in your CFB dynasty and makes you laugh because it’d be so random

LOTS to play out but the numbers suggest Notre Dame is in a good spot matching up first round with Oklahoma (13 in F+) or Ole Miss (12th). Oregon (3rd) or Bama (8th) stand out as tougher matchups should somehow ND fall or Bama jump up. Hosting BYU somehow seems unlikely but would be ideal!

the CFP discourse is going to be exhausting this week but I'd bet on: 1. Oregon jumps Ole Miss (no one will really care, they just want the Egg Bowl and Lane news) 2. ND still > Miami (same tired Miami outrage) 3. Canes net same spot (either holding or jump Utes / slide behind Vandy)

if Miami somehow makes the ACC Championship they should have to take a blood oath that if they lose they forfeit the right to lobby for an at-large bid. you aren't one of the 12 best teams if you lose three times to this mess of an ACC, conference title game or otherwise

ok I thought they’d outscore them but this is wild

the S&T Notre Dame - Pitt review was sidelined this week, but threading a few nuggets below, back to regular programming next week. Pat Narduzzi's last 3 ND matchups combined: Irish 140, Pitt 25 Game within those games: ND Defense 36, Pitt offense 19 spreadsheetsandtailgates.substack.com

So many playoff takes make me think of the adage "Everything’s a conspiracy when you don’t know how anything works." Hard to believe so many people are this dim and yet.

It won’t last, but I liked the at BYU / Indiana projected CFP brackets way better than the at Oregon / Ohio State ones we will see this week!

☘️ new pod ☘️ @jessicasmetana.bsky.social and @mbryan.bsky.social were kind enough to hop on after the game last night and talk about Notre Dame blowing out Navy, Jeremiyah Love heroics, great defense, the poor ACC, playoff rankings, so much more. open.spotify.com/episode/2vmg...

ND-Boston College Review: -really strong foundational numbers marred by some loud mistakes and missed scoring chances -the Chris Ash defense is causing turnovers and havoc like Al Golden's did now -a caution on assuming Navy will go like last year open.substack.com/pub/spreadsh...

hand up, as soon as this made it out of drafts I had a feeling BC would be gross