This week’s news that the NCAA has eliminated the national letter of intent (NLI) program sent a new shock wave through the rapidly changing world of college athletics. NLI has existed for 60 years, serving as the formal, binding agreement for college programs and prospective student athletes.
While NLI will cease to exist in name, it will be replaced by a new financial aid template that will incorporate the coming revenue sharing model that is coming to college athletics. Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman had the chance to address it for the first time when he spoke during his weekly Thursday media call.
“We’ve had an idea of this happening,” Freeman remarked. “So, we’ve thought about this in the past and there’s still some things to get worked out. But every school in the country will play by the same rules. So, as it affects Notre Dame it’s going to affect every other school. (Student athletes will) sign some type of agreement with the institution, which a lot of times is what you’re doing with transfers now. So, it won’t affect our recruiting class or how we recruit. It’s just different logistics in terms of the recruit signing a different agreement instead of an NLI (the student athlete) will obviously sign an agreement with the university.”
Jaylen Sneed Clarification
When Fighting Irish linebacker Jaylen Sneed was last seen, he was leaving the field after the Louisville game without staying with the team on the field to sing the alma mater. Sneed played a season low 12 snaps in Notre Dame’s win over the Cardinals. His 23 snaps against Miami (Ohio) a week earlier were his previous season low.
The premature field departure led to rampant speculation in a lot of different directions over the past two weeks about Sneed’s present and future status with the team.
"I wasn’t aware of that,” Freeman said of Sneed’s early postgame exit. "But maybe he had to use the bathroom, or ... I don’t know. I wasn’t aware of that, but he’s had a great two weeks of practice. He has a lot of opportunities to learn from the previous game. Jaylen Sneed wants to be the best football player he can be and help this team be successful. So, he’s had a great bye week, a great week of practice this week and expect for him to do great things in the game on Saturday.”
Tyler Buchner’s Role
Former Notre Dame starting quarterback Tyler Buchner is back with the team as a walk-on receiver after spending last season as a reserve quarterback at Alabama. Buchner transferred back to Notre Dame last spring as a member of the national champion lacrosse team. He has a visible role on game day as one of the team’s signalers from the sidelines.
"I think he’s done a great job at signaling for us,” Freeman said of Buchner. "That’s so important. Everybody’s role is so important to get done for us to have success. He helps with signals. He’s still playing wide out. But a lot of times when you’re the signaler or you’re one of the guys that are signaling, during scout teams you have to signal. So, he’s just been a vital piece of this program and has done a great job at his defined roles in terms of helping us have success.”
Improving The Screen Game
Notre Dame’s screen pass game has been hit and (mostly) miss so far this season. Irish running back Jeremiyah Love turned in the team’s biggest screen pass of the season with his pivotal 32-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter two weeks ago against Louisville.
Love has 11 receptions for 67 yards this season but take away that big play and he is left with 10 catches for 35 yards. Meanwhile, fellow running back Jadarian Price is completely non-existent as a screen pass recipient with one reception for minus-one yard. Freeman has a simple answer for how to get the screen game into gear.
"Practice, practice, practice,” Freeman remarked. "We’ve got to continue to practice it. Work on those timing, work on our perimeter blocking, see different looks. That’s a part of running a screen is you don’t know what look you’re going to see defensively and there’s certain looks that you like, there’s certain looks that you don’t. But we have to continue to practice it. We’ve attacked it in practice, and we’ll improve our screen game moving forward.”
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