Hunter's run in the 1976 South Carolina game to seal it IIRC.

My first ND game ever.

It must have had the scientific community recalculating the effects of gravity.

And the commentators do not give enough emphasis to the pipe hit he made subsequent to landing.

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I'm a little surprised. He was an important part of IU's OL last year. I know those IOL guys don't get a lot of love in the draft but I wouldn't be surprised to see him have a good NFL career.

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Montana's TD against Clemson in 1977 kept a NC alive. Penick's run against USC in 1973. There are a few others. But it was huge.

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Not sure if they can fix the guy but they do need an heir at the position with A. Rodgers turning 43 during the season.

Then again this could be Christian Hackenburg Pt Deux.

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At least they seem to be dedicating the early parts of the draft to their running game

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Raridon and Schrauth both possible. Wagner and maybe Pauling or Smith tomorrow.

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How can you not love this guy?

while the clock was counting down, and they were freaking out.

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Te'o did a great job as an ILB but he also was dependent mightily on having a clean DL front occupying blockers so he could get a clear path to the ball. He was a perfect player for Diaco's D, but as we saw in Miami and really in the non-2012 years, Diaco's scheme was basic enough to have a pretty hard ceiling.

A guy like Watts - smart, instinctual, organized, and athletic enough to man-cover from the safety position let Golden get to a whole different level. I think there's a strong argument to be made for Watts as the cornerstone player of the early Freeman Era. Think of it this way, if you'd had a chance to put Te'o on the 2024 defense, I don't think it would have appreciably raised the unit's ceiling. If you gave me a choice between adding Te'o and losing Watts from last year's defense, or just keeping Watts, I'm keeping #0 every time.

only a single season at the correct position and with proper coaching. His last year, he had both, and he was pretty awesome.

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the player led the team to a playoff game/title contending season, that eliminates Jaylon.

He and the GM held an interview last night (sorry, not in a position to link it). The GM was talking Simpson up a lot whereas McVay came across as kinda ticked-off and annoyed, honestly.

Kinda has the feeling of "we were really close to winning a Super Bowl last year, and our MVP-winning quarterback is 38 years old; why aren't we picking someone that can help us win a ring this year?"

The Wild Hog formation would fall out of favor after Bobby crashed his motorcyle.

From 2001 (Bettis's last 1,000-yard season) until 2020, Julius Jones and Ryan Grant were the only ND running backs who were ever their team's lead guy.

To now simultaneously have 3 guys in the league who will be bell cows is a pretty huge deal.

If he'd been able to stay for 2012 it might be a different conversation

three of the four starting RBs in the NFC West, possibly the best division in the league.

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The 2007 ND-UCLA game was a once in a lifetime experience, I hope

Young, Taylor and Burris.

Seven in two years is something I could see Freeman approaching or even matching once his death star is fully operational.

there was another RB picked between them: Cedric Benson at No. 4 to the Bears.

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McFadden / Felix
Cadillac / Ronnie ?

I might bump Martin to both categories in your ranking system. He's probably the only OL in college that made Aaron Donald look human.

Was listening to Nate Tice on the Solid Verbal (don't ask me his credentials other than he writes for Yahoo! Sports). But he likes him as one of the most complete TEs in the draft. Athletic and his tape has shown he's an effective inline blocker.

Fields should go today, right?

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I saw a comparison that Love had 400-some carries in his career and Jeanty (Boise State) had over 700.

Watching that highlight film Jay posted, which isn't just Love's untouched long runs for TD, reminded me what a beating RBs take. He turned so many 5-yard runs into 10-yard runs by getting low and dragging guys with him.

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Good luck picking one.

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#Team128

Although maybe not the physical freak that Jaylon Smith was, I'd still put him ahead. Te'o was amazing and all he could be, but Jaylon was kind of squandered in the Van Gorder defense.

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1993 had 4 ND first rounders:

2 - Rick Mirer (Seahawks)

10 - Jerome Bettis (Rams)

17 - Tom Carter (Redskins)

and I had forgotten

20 - Irv Smith (Saints)

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[Normal] Florida man

Really good player, great story, everyone wanted it to be more than it was, and ultimately it wasn't. I have a lot of fondness for him and he was a really good player but from a purely football perspective he was in my mind clearly a notch below a guy like Jaylon Smith even, to say nothing of a Top 5 pick like Love or all-time greats for the position like Martin and Nelson

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award, right?

Its natural given the way things unraveled and how his NFL career didn't pan out to lessen his impact in retrospect, but he was absolutely tremendous. It's tragic that he got caught in two larger forces--the internet and shifting defensive demands--that resulted in an athletic demise.

Glad to see that he appears to be doing well, though.

Brady Quinn
Jeff Samardizjia
Golden Tate
Mike Floyd
Manti Te'o
Zack Martin
Quenton Nelson
Will Fuller
Jaylon Smith
Julian Love
Kyle Hamilton
JOK
Kyren Williams
Joe Alt
Xavier Watts
Leonard Moore
Jeremiyah Love

IF I were to split these guys into categories:

MOST PURELY OUTSTANDING
Love
Tate
Nelson
Hamilton
Jaylon Smith

MVP TYPES
Quinn
Martin
Smith
Te'o
Kyren Williams
Alt
Watts
Moore
Nelson
Love

GUYS ON BOTH LISTS
Love
Smith
Nelson

I think it's among those three guys

I don’t think Price ever started a game for Notre Dame at RB. He may have technically “started” on special teams but I don’t know if that counts.

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The last before Alt was Rick Mirer back in '93.

(This is admittedly an arbitrary cut line. Q and Stanley both went #6. So did Tim Brown. But it does suggest that ND is getting back in the business of putting high-end players in the NFL.)

...he needs to transfer somewhere he can be RB1". Wrong.

...he needs to stick around for another year and prove he can be a lead back". Wrong again!

What I love most about this is that JDs unselfish attitude really paid off in the end. Hope the staff will use his story as an example for others. "Delayed gratification".

I feel like RBs only have so many carries in a career. Splitting time while still getting meaningful snaps means you’ll have a better chance of a longer NFL career.

We need a clean sweep of ND RBs in the NFC West.

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Really happy for him

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Enjoy the quality of life.

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come here. Get NFL caliber coaching. Even if you have to split time you can still be taken in the 1st round.

To players on the current roster with itchy feet -- wait your turn. Learn a system. Even if you never get penciled in as a starter, you can be a 1st round pick.

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who averaged less than 10 plays per game while in college is Jadarian Price -- end of list. Feel pretty confident about that.

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when they let Walker go I wondered what they had in mind. Price would have been the feature back at almost every other school. He's not quite as fast as Love but he's comfortably under 4.5. Excellent vision. Tough to bring down. Not quite as accomplished in the pass game. But when he came into the game, I never felt like we were taking a step back.

And it's easy to forget some of the huge plays he made, like the KO return against USC.

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But Price is probably going to end up in a better spot than Love, but $40M poorer.

I don’t know much about the Cardinals, but their offense seems like it’s a bit of a mess and my Google search described their OL as “patchwork.”

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Google this “Coach Google me”.

It would be a mistake to think we will forget that they went out of their way to screw ND last season.

One of the greatest runs in football history.

and the Rams draft record speaks for itself. I was very anti on Simpson Eh but the Rams taking him so early has me rethinking that opinion.

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but there's a small chance Seattle could take him. If he's still available in the 2nd round and the Niners pass on him I will break stuff. They can't keep giving McCaffrey 900 touches a year.

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he definitely took advantage of the times he was on the field.

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says the Niners fan. They probably could've traded down a few spots and still got him. A lot of these reaches for QBs in the mid to late first round haven't panned out until they got traded (if at all). Goff, Mac Jones, Kenny Pickett, etc. But from Simpson's standpoint, this is an ideal landing spot.

The other thing is that despite Bama havig two picks thus far, they sucked last year. They were 11-4 and barely had a 10 ppg margin. Their big win against UGA was wiped out in the SEC championship game and UGA didn't prove to fearsome. They beat an Oklahoma team that was the worst team in the playoffs from a major conference and then to absolutely embarrassed by IU.

Bama and OU had no business in the playoffs ahead of NY and BYU.

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outside of Mike Anello

https://youtu.be/pItoBGX5JF8

1. On its face that's really high for a guy thought to be a late 20s pick. The Rams must have caught wind of someone else who really liked him for them to grab him mid-first.

2. McVay has shown me he knows what he's doing. If he (Simpson) had went somewhere with a less renouned offensive mind I'd probably question the selection.

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other contenders -- Floyd, T'eo, Nelson, Hamilton.

If I had to pick an early leader for the #1 overall pick in 2027 it would be Carr.

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Freeman's got so much riz they need to call him Aura Parseghian

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Feature on Landow's NFL prep regimen. Some good stuff in here.