Irish Insights: Bowling, Stadium Addition And Skylar Diggins

Goin' Bowling

Notre Dame will face the 22nd ranked LSU Tigers on December 30th in the Music City Bowl.

Music City Bowl President and CEO Scott Ramsey expanded on having 2 traditions like the Tigers and Irish in the bowl game:

"I can't think of starting the new deal with two programs that have any more rich histories and traditions than Notre Dame and LSU," Ramsey said. "And they're two teams that we've never had in the bowl game before."

LSU coach Les Miles: "We see this as a national matchup, a very attractive television game, and we recognize that Notre Dame is tremendously talented and pick from a pool of players from across the country in virtually every city."

Irish coach Brian Kelly: "We wanted to be challenged. There's no sense in going into this bowl game situation and not feel challenged. There are matchups out there that don't give you the same kind of challenge. This is one that we wanted. They're a formidable opponent, a very good SEC team. You can see what their record indicates and what they can do."

Campus Crossroads

With the completion of the 2014 season, shovels quickly found themselves back around Notre Dame Stadium.

Notre Dame announced earlier this year the largest building project in its 172-year history, integrating the academy, student life and athletics with the construction of more than 750,000 square feet in three new buildings attached to the west, east and south sides of the University’s iconic football stadium, at a projected cost of $400 million.

“The integrated nature of this project will maintain the compact walkability of campus, facilitate deeper connection and collaboration across the various units of the University and offer an exciting addition to what we believe is the best on-campus student learning experience in the country,” Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president

Completion of the project is set for 2017 and will include among other items club seating and press boxes on both sides of the stadium.

Recruiting Rumblings

When college football programs resort to former athletes to lure recruits to campus or to a commit, many often pull on legends of the football program.

When the Oklahoma Sooners recruited Marcus Dupree in the 80's, Billy Sims was paraded out to entice the blue chip recruit.

This weekend at Notre Dame's annual football awards banquet, a different tactic is being deployed (sort of)-and it's very clever.

Not that the intention is to lure recruits with a pretty face, but it will help in many ways with several top recruits in the audience when they see former all-world Notre Dame basketball star Skylar Diggins on stage.

Among several key recruits on tap, a new prospect has entered the fold for the Irish- and will be on hand this weekend.

Army All-American runningback/athlete Jordan Cronkrite from Florida will be on a visit and is currently on Tony Alfords radar.

The 4-star back de-committed from Miami earlier this year, and joins a list of needs at the position alongside SoSo Jamabo and Ronlad Jones among other possible signees come February.

Jones, from Mckinney,Texas and the states overall number 11 prospect- is a possible no-show for this weekend.

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