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The Marcus Freeman era officially begins. Let’s put the 2021 season behind us and look forward to what’s in store ahead.

Bears offered a job to Olin Kreutz as a consultant. The offer was for $15 an hour. 🤣

The biggest challenge will be finding their desired opponents in week 1 or week 2 only. If they had the option of playing out of conference during other weeks, more options could be considered. Here are a few ideas. “Wish List” opponents are those that probably couldn’t be worked out based upon current schedules and games the opponent would not want to drop to pick up an SAC school. Homestead - Wish list: Elkhart. Realistic: Week 1 Carmel, Week 2 Valparaiso. Carroll - Wish List: Elkhart. Realistic: Week 1 Chesterton, Week 2 Harrison (WL). Snider - Wish list: Merrillville. Realistic: Week 1 Lafayette Jeff, Week 2 Penn. Dwenger - Wish list: Cathedral, Roncalli, Brebeuf. Realistic: Week 1 South Bend St. Joseph, Week 2 Chatard (after they drop Arsenal Tech, see South Side below). Luers - Wish List: Andrean, Mishawaka Marian. Realistic: Week 1 Indianapolis Scecina, Week 2 Leo. Northrop - Wish List: South Bend Washington/Clay/Riley. Realistic: Week 1 Anderson, Week 2 South Bend Adams Concordia - Wish List: Indianapolis Lutheran. Realistic: Week 1 Culver Academies, Week 2 Norwell North Side - Wish list: South Bend Washington/Clay/Riley. Realistic: Week 1 Huntington North, Week 2 Hammond Central South Side - Wish list: South Bend Washington/Clay/Riley. Realistic: Week 1 Marion, Week 2 Arsenal Tech (renewed series). Wayne - Wish list: South Bend Washington/Clay/Riley. Realistic: Week 1 New Haven, Week 2 Indianapolis Attucks

College football has the same problem that 6a Indiana football has. In order to win the national championship, you have to be better than Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, and Ohio State. The chances of being better than all four are slim. At least one of those teams will have a strong season. You'd have to catch them all on an off year in order to win. The chances of that are low. The comparison is to Carmel, Warren Central, Ben Davis, and Center Grove. It doesn't do you any good to be better than just three of them if you want to call yourself champion. You have to go back over two decades to find a year where they were all down at the same time.

New Albany’s non-conference schedule is now complete on John Harrell’s website. The Bulldogs will once again play Gibson Southern in week 2. Floyd Central is the only team in the conference that doesn’t have its non-conference opponents listed.

Love it. Carmel should have some openings by this time next week.

Irish picked up northwestern safety transfer Brandon Joseph. Big get for the Irish defense.

In reading this topic I see some questions are being asked. Here is what I see as someone who is around a lot... 1. We have had a couple of classes in a row who don't play football. The kids in those grades are good kids but they aren't football players. I wish they could've got some wins but if you look at them through the years they just haven't been successful in football. So lack of talent is reason number one. 2. Our move from the option based offense that worked in the early 2000's to shotgun spread (when Coach Barron's youngest was QB) to wildcat (Jake Reichard at QB), to this past season where we didn't have an identity. The offense switched from game to game. None of them worked. But we had an offense we hung our hat on and changed it for the coach's son and we still are searching for an identity. 3. New AD over the last couple of years who had a well-known outburst after a boys basketball game that has made it difficult to get coaches to apply for open jobs. (Girls/Boys Basketball). We will see about Football. But on a side note even though we had limited people apply to for the Boy's Job they seem to be showing improvement and hopefully we will turn the corner there. Joel Grindle and his staff of former basketball players are doing an excellent job. But still there is a lot of distrust from the coaches on staff for the current AD. 4. But our Junior High teams were both very successful this past season and things are looking up. Will we be competitive next year? Not unless we can get some more athletic kids to play. But there is a chance for us to get better with the right person in place. Patience will be key for the new hire. I haven't heard any rumors about where the coaching search will go but I do hope we get plenty of people to choose from and if any of you are looking to apply please do and if you want any info about the school that can't be asked here, DM me on the digest and I will try to get you your answers. I want us to be good at the major sports. When schools see success in Football and Basketball in Indiana they seem to have better overall school culture. So please if you are coach looking for a challenge please apply!

This is about next season........just like 2020 was no reflection of what IU did this last season, this season is no reflection of what will happen next season. Northwestern being in Indy says a LOT more about the imbalance in the divisions than anything else. Like I said, IU's recruiting class for this coming season is ranked 4th in the conference. Illinois and Northwestern were ranked 12 and 13. And while Nebraska may still sell out, their recruiting class is 14th in the conference.

This is a huge get for the Irish. https://www.si.com/college/notredame/football/notre-dame-football-harry-hiestand-returning-a-home-run-for-marcus-freeman-tommy-rees Harry Hiestand Returning To Notre Dame Is A Home Run For Marcus Freeman, Tommy Rees The return of Harry Hiestand to coach the offensive line at Notre Dame is a coup for Marcus Freeman and Tommy Rees Irish Breakdown readers and members have known this was coming, but more and more national reporters are learning what we've known for awhile, and what has been reported on Irish Breakdown for weeks, that Harry Hiestand is going to return to Notre Dame as its next offensive line coach. Hiestand and Notre Dame have been working on a contract for weeks, and IB sources indicate all the hurdles have been cleared and the former Irish line coach will once again be the Irish line coach. Of course, Hiestand was the Notre Dame offensive line coach from 2012-2017, and during that time the program came to be known as O-Line U for its success at producing elite lines and high NFL Draft picks. Notre Dame won the 2017 Joe Moore Award, which goes to the nation's best offensive line, during Hiestand's final season in South Bend. A case could be made that Notre Dame also had the nation's best offensive line in 2015, two years before that award was created. Of course, that award is named for a former Irish coach, one who was part of Notre Dame's last championship squad (1988) and also had a legendary career at Pittsburgh. During Hiestand's six seasons at Notre Dame he developed four players that became 1st Round NFL Draft picks (Zack Martin, Ronnie Stanley, Quenton Nelson, Mike McGlinchey), including three that were Top 10 NFL Draft picks. Notre Dame also had a second and a third round draft pick during that tenure, and three more players that Hiestand recruited and coached for at least one season were drafted in the second (Liam Eichenberg, Aaron Banks) and third round (Robert Hainsey) a year ago. Notre Dame's offenses averaged 204.1 rushing yards per game during Hiestand's tenure (minus sacks, team runs), compared to 191.8 in the four year since he departed and 142.7 in the four years prior to his arrival. Notre Dame's offense also averaged 5.83 yards per carry (minus sacks, team carries) during his six seasons, compared to 5.41 in the four years that followed his departure and 4.74 in the four years prior to his arrival. Notre Dame's 2015 team set a modern program record for yards per play (7.0). In 2017, Notre Dame's 6.25 yards per carry also set a modern program record. Despite a narrative emerging about his recruiting passions, Hiestand landed top line classes year after year. He even recruited a player inJerry Tillery that eventually became a first round pick at defensive line. Tillery, of course, was initially recruited to Notre Dame as an offensive tackle. For Notre Dame to become a national title contender a major step was getting its offensive line back to the levels it had during much of Hiestand's tenure. The program has grown in other ways since he left, but the line steadily took steps back. Head coach Marcus Freemanand offensive coordinator Tommy Rees convincing Hiestand to come back gives the program a chance to get its line where it needs to be. This is a coup for both coaches. For Freeman it gives him one of the best, and most respected names in the business. For Rees, more practically, it gives him an offensive line coach who will certainly be able to improve the physicality and production of the run game. It's the first, and arguably most important, big coaching domino to fall for Notre Dame this offseason. It's step one towards Freeman building the kind of top-to-bottom elite staff that his predecessor never could build. Hiestand and Rees clearly have a relationship. The former was the offensive line coach for the final two seasons of Rees' career, including overseeing the line that allowed Rees to be sacked just 8 times in 2013. They also worked together in 2017 when Hiestand was the offensive line coach and Rees was in his first season as the quarterbacks coach.

https://outsidethehuddle.net/2022/01/06/oth-exclusive-sac-very-close-to-big-changes-for-football-beginning-in-2023/ OTH EXCLUSIVE: SAC “very close” to big changes for football beginning in 2023 There is considerable momentum and discussion ongoing that could see the Summit Athletic Conference look much different come fall of 2023. Per sources close to Outside the Huddle, SAC coaches and athletic directors are nearing an agreement on the adoption of a two-division format, non-conference games and a Week 9 “championship week” for football beginning in the 2023 season. In the plan that OTH is told is “very close” to being endorsed, the SAC will be split into two divisions – big school and small school – similar to the format currently used in the Northeast Corner Conference. The big school division will feature Bishop Dwenger, Carroll, Homestead, Northrop and Snider. The small school division will consist of Bishop Luers, Concordia Lutheran, North Side, South Side and Wayne. It is uncertain at this time just who would need to pass this plan to make it official, although sense says it will be the athletic directors, but it will need to have unanimous approval by the 10 member schools. Under the proposal, each team’s schedule will have Weeks 1 and 2 open for non-conference competition. The next six weeks will see teams play all four of their division opponents and a pair of crossover games against teams from the other division. Some of these inter-divisional games will be rotated, but others will be used to protect rivalries such as the Battle of the Bishops. OTH has also been told that an SAC schedule for the first six years of this new format has already been prepared, pending the plan’s adoption. Week 9 will be “Championship Week” as the first-place teams in each division face off for the SAC Championship and the Victory Bell. The second-place teams will take each other on, and so on. OTH has been told that while there is near-unanimous support for this radically-changed setup for the league, it has not been greeted with universal approval from all parties, due to a few factors. One point that has been brought up involves the fact that schools in the small division will sacrifice a considerable amount of big-time tests by not playing the entirety of the league powerhouses. Concordia Lutheran and Bishop Luers have each benefited in the postseason from playing a tough, higher-class schedule. The other is a concern that suitable opponents will be difficult to find. But considering the amount of programs that would be willing to schedule SAC foes just in this region, especially a Northeast 8 Conference that also has its non-conference games in Weeks 1-2, this feels like a considerable non-factor. While some may love this new format and others not so much, it guarantees the ability for SAC schools to challenge themselves outside of the conference and allow areas of the state to see Fort Wayne’s best in terms of programs and talent. In some circles, the recent era that saw Elmhurst High School close in 2010 and Harding one year later, allowing SAC programs to step out of the region, was sensational. High-profile matchups included Snider taking on the likes of Penn and Cathedral, Bishop Dwenger challenging Cincinnati LaSalle and Bishop Luers traveling to out-of-state powerhouses like Columbus Hartley and Toledo Whitmer. Conversely, other SAC teams were able to find like-talented squads to play, with South Side and Arsenal Tech building a mini-rivalry and Northrop adding central Indiana teams such as Anderson and Muncie South. The ability to schedule out-of-conference games disappeared\ when Homestead and Carroll entered the league in 2015. Over the last six seasons, grumblings have only grown about the regular-season schedule within Fort Wayne growing stale, area 6A programs with the inability to compete with its compatriots due to lack of games against like-sized schools and the allure of seeing big inter-conference matchups within northeast Indiana, such as Leo vs. Bishop Dwenger, East Noble vs. Carroll or Eastside vs. Bishop Luers (in the regular season). While nothing is assured as of this time, this is the closest the SAC has gotten to real change that brings what many consider one of the top three leagues in the state into the present day in terms of scheduling.

It's understandable that so much focus is on enrollment. It's the simplest and cleanest way to class schools, and football is the most numbers-dependent sport. Focusing on enrollments in 6A is a waste of time. Those schools all have enough material to compete. They fall short elsewhere. This should be so obvious by now it hurts. We don't even have to look that hard for good examples. How about we take two weeks of Merrillville's 2021 season? Merrillville (2187) 39 - Penn (3338) 7. Westfield (2334) 48 - Merrillville (2187) 19. I'm just using the IHSAA numbers, but Penn's enrollment is actually more like 3800 if that helps any. With you here for sure. Diluting 6A is definitely not a solution to any problem, if one exists. This would be akin to class basketball in my opinion. The Indy area football programs have traditionally dominated the largest class, and, to some degree, the second largest class in football. Creating an additional class does nothing to change that. Large schools outside of Indy are disadvantaged because of their competitive environments, but that doesn't necessitate the creation of an additional class to give them the chance at a state championship they "deserve". There were at least five. Penn has had 3000+ students for two decades, and a lot of good that's done them in that time.

Per WHME 46 FB page, BREAKING: Plymouth head football coach John Barron has resigned after 19 years at the helm. He went 126-70 in his tenure, winning a sectional in 2015 and six NLC titles