Author: Leprechaun Express - Steve Welsh

High-profile, early-season match-ups between highly ranked teams meant a smattering of elite programs with early losses.

‘Notre Dame’ is one of three 0-1 teams still in the top-10.  The #9 Irish are joined by #6/7 Texas, who were beaten by current-#1 Ohio State, and #8 Clemson, knocked off by Brian Kelly’s current-#3/4 LSU.

Another 0-1 team in the top-20 is #21/20 Alabama, who lost to current-#14/19 Florida State.

With ‘Notre Dame’s’ schedule already getting softer, the only nationally ranked Irish opponent remaining is #19/22 Texas A&M.  The Aggies are next up after an early bye week.

The Catholic Church regards abortion, prenatal filicide, as so serious that it brings about automatic excommunication, like other forms of homicide.

At least a third of ‘Notre Dame’s’ 2025 football opponents have been associated with abortion.

It is not a question of “bad-mouthing” an opponent, but whether they should have even been an opponent in the first place.  ‘Notre Dame’ is enhancing abortions schools’ revenue and prestige, and contributing to a “business-as-usual” complacency, a false normalization, that has helped make so many millions of abortions in the United States more possible.

The University of Miami (Fla.) is open and notorious about offering surgical and chemical abortions.

“We provide general gynecologic care, family planning services, access to contraception, management of miscarriages, pregnancy terminations with surgical and non-surgical treatments, and counseling to prevent unplanned pregnancies.”

(emphasis added)

Couched within slippery, sugar-coated public-relations language about would-be “reproductive healthcare” that is “allowed by the laws of the State of Florida,’ the University of Miami (Fla.) admits its abortion involvement within a webpage about
“Complex Family Planning: Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences” at the University of Miami (Fla.) Miller School of Medicine.

While trying to include abortion among a laundry list of OB/SYN services, the University of Miami (Fla.) openly declares that it trains abortionists and even boasts that it is officially certified to do so:

“The Division of Family Planning is committed to educating healthcare practitioners at all levels of medical training. We provide both classroom-based and clinical instruction in comprehensive family planning, options counseling, and induced and spontaneous abortion. Training at our clinical sites gives medical students and OB-GYN residents opportunities to care for patients with a wide range of complex medical conditions. We are designated as a Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion and Family Planning.“

[Jersey Number, Name, Height, Weight, [Eligibility-]Year, unofficial 40 times (from third-party sources; 40 times not necessarily current)]

– QB –

13 CJ Carr 6-3 210 Fr. – 4.94
8 Kenny Minchey 6-2 208 So. – 4.78
10 Tyler Buchner 6-1 206 Sr. – 4.65

– RB –

RB 4 Jeremiyah Love 6-0 214 Jr. – 4.44
24 Jadarian Price 5-11 210 Jr. – 4.42
22 Aneyas Williams 5-10 205 So. – 4.46
23 Nolan James Jr. 5-10 215 Fr.

– WR –

0 Malachi Fields 6-4 222 Sr. – 4.5
14 Micah Gilbert 6-2 204 Fr. – “closer to a 4.7 … than … a 4.4”
5 Cam Williams 6-2 200 Fr. – 4.4

1 Jaden Greathouse 6-1 215 Jr. – 4.46
or 2 Will Pauling 5-10 190 Sr. – 4.39
19 Logan Saldate 6-0 189 Fr. – 4.47

6 Jordan Faison 5-10 185 Jr. – 4.4
11 KK Smith 6-0 176 So. – 4.59(?)
17 Elijah Burress 6-0 185 Fr. – 4.5 “range”

– TE –

9 Eli Raridon 6-7 252 Sr. – 4.68
7 Ty Washington 6-4 248 Jr. –
or 85 Jack Larsen 6-3 250 Fr. – 4.87

Average size of offensive line: 6-6, 312
(average size of starters 6-6, 314)

– LT –

54 Anthonie Knapp 6-4 300 So. – 5.33
71 Styles Prescod 6-6 292 Fr.

– LG-

74 Billy Schrauth 6-4 310 Jr.
55 Chris Terek 6-6 322 So.

– C-

70 Ashton Craig 6-5 310 Jr.
64 Joe Otting 6-4 308 So.

– RG –

76 Guerby Lambert 6-7 335 Fr.
or 75 Sullivan Absher 6-8 327 So.

– RT –

59 Aamil Wagner 6-6 300 Jr. – 5.15
76 Guerby Lambert 6-7 335 Fr.

[official release for both offense and defense at: [PDF] fightingirish.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025-Depth-Chart-Game-01.pdf]

‘Notre Dame’ Head Coach Marcus Freeman is “working without a net” in two major respects, with no veteran quarterback on the roster and no one on the coaching staff with veteran head coaching experience.

Quarterbacks

For the first time in three years, Marcus Freeman does not have a veteran starter at quarterback. And for the first time in his still-young head coaching career he does not have a single scholarship quarterback on the depth chart with extensive collegiate game experience.

Of course, if either of the two inexperienced quarterbacks atop the depth chart play well, they might benefit from the honeymoon period that sometimes magnifies the results of a newly emerging phenom, before opponents have time to study up on the new phenom’s tendencies and game plan accordingly.

On the other hand, if, in their raw inexperience, they run hot-and-cold, making some “gee-whiz, the sky’s the limit plays” while also making some game-crushing mistakes, there will be that uncomfortable, sporadic gray zone where the head coach tries to figure out if, and when, to yank them.

Freeman’s agility at navigating the expanding world of transfers and quasi-ringers has meant that, for the past two seasons, Freeman had the luxury of two different veteran quarterbacks with robust playing experience gained elsewhere.  Both transferred in to become instant leaders.

Last year it was Riley Leonard, currently in the NFL, where it looks like he might turn out to be the best quarterback option for the Colts, even if, for now, someone else is starting.

Backing up Leonard in 2024 was seasoned quarterback Steve Angeli, who had robust game experience, including winning a sub-major bowl game as a starter.  Angeli also would contribute in a significant way in the 2024 playoffs.

Additional raw talent populated the quarterback depth chart, to such an extent that, when former ‘Notre Dame’ and Alabama starting quarterback Tyler Buchner returned to campus as a walk-on, Buchner was turned into a wide receiver.

Two years ago, Freeman had veteran Sam Hartman come in as a ringer/transfer, backed up by the faithful Angeli, who already had meaningful playing experience at that point.  Even after Buchner had jumped ship, Hartman and Angeli still were accompanied by additional raw talent in the depth chart.

When Hartman played hooky from the bowl game, Angeli stepped in to start and win a sub-major bowl game.

Ironically, Freeman does have, third on the quarterback depth chart, the same player who was Freeman’s first starter, who was on scholarship back then.

In Freeman’s first year, his initial starter, before getting injured, was none other than Tyler Buchner, who had played in 10 games the previous season, rolling up 634 yards of combined offense as a duel threat.

Yet that player is now a walk-on, who transferred out to Alabama then back again, and spent last season as a little-seen wide-receiver.

So now, Freeman, for the first time in three years, literally has not one single scholarship quarterback with meaningful game experience.  All he has on scholarship are a few rookies who got in for a few plays.

The 2025 starter, CJ Carr, helped run out the clock in one blowout victory, and apparently has never thrown a pass in collegiate competition.

The backup, Kenny Minchey, has thrown a handful of passes in a handful of games.

As for Tyler Buchner, Freeman only returned him to the quarterback position in the off-season, after Freeman failed to hang onto NFL prospect Steve Angeli.

Angeli, of course, still might end up playing in The House That Rockne Built after all, if he hangs onto his new starting job at Syracuse.  The Orange, p/k/a The Orangemen, pay a visit later in the season.

One might argue that Freeman actually is in a stronger position now than in his first year. As in his first year, Freeman has Buchner himself available, along with a few players reputedly with enormous raw talent.  Perhaps they have more talent, and more ready to play, than Drew Pyne was way back when he came in, in relief of Buchner.

On the other hand, failing to hang onto Angeli seems like a mistake that a more experienced, veteran head coach might have tried hard to avoid.  “Rolling the dice,” with two unproven young talents, arguably runs the risk of sounding like the excessively wishful bravado of inexperience.

No Veteran Head Football Coaches on Campus

For Freeman’s first three years, he had Al Golden on the coaching staff, a veteran head coach with roughly a decade of mostly successful head coaching experience, half a decade  at the power conference level.

Golden built a losing Temple program into a bowl team and helped Miami (Fla.) stay a winning program despite sanctions and scandal, carrying over from the past, that reputedly were not fully disclosed to Golden when he was first hired.

Golden, of course, was not at ‘Notre Dame’ to be a head coach.  He seemed to embrace his defensive coordinator role wholeheartedly, and advanced to the same role in the NFL.

Yet even as a defensive coordinator, a veteran head coach like Golden still would add a certain weight, tenor and character to the fiber of the program.

And Freeman himself apparently spoke of benefiting from having a veteran head coach of Golden’s stature around, to gain insights and advice about head coaching.  Whether Golden was officially deemed a head coaching mentor, he certainly sounds as if he was a valuable resource for a novice head coach.

With Golden off to the NFL, in 2025 there are no veteran head coaches, anywhere across the coaching staff, and only two coaches in the program with any head coaching experience at all.

Freeman himself has three years of head coaching experience, as does Golden’s replacement, defensive coordinator Chris Ash.

Ash was the Rutgers head coach for three years, averaging roughly 2 wins per season.

Charlie Weis

Curiously enough, like Freeman, Charlie Weis was another head coaching novice who had a veteran head coach on the staff when Weis started out.

Weis had limited head coaching experience at the high school level, then extensive NFL experience as an assistant coach.  He won four Super Bowl rings, three as an offensive coordinator.

When Weis became a new collegiate head coach, he had Rick Minter as defensive coordinator for Weis’s first two years.

A highly successful defensive coordinator under Lou Holtz, Minter then spent a decade as head coach at Cincinnati, building up the Cincinnati program.  Minter’s foundations helped lay the groundwork for Mark Dantonio and Brian Kelly to be successful at Cincinnati.

With Minter back onto the Irish staff as a defensive coordinator, Weis had 10-win seasons and major bowl appearances.  After Minter left, Weis went 3-9, then fought to get back above .500 for two years before seeing his tenure come to an end.

Perhaps that was largely just a coincidence, and there were other changes and issues afoot, such as the roster and other foundations of the program still recovering from downturns under previous head coaches.

And, about the same time, a veteran positions coach with a string of consecutive All-Americans across two programs, suddenly had to leave the staff, for health reasons.

Of course, it did not help that Minter’s replacement, who was supposed to be an up-and-coming young phenom, later, after his departure, turned out to claim that he had football-related brain damage.  That point came up as an attempted defense to legal problems, when the replacement, much later, had a dangerous run-in with law enforcement.

In any event, novice head coach Weis was successful for the two years that he had a veteran head coach as defensive coordinator, but then things went downhill after that coach left.

Novice head coach Marcus Freeman did fairly well during a time frame when he had a veteran head coach around, as a defensive coordinator and possible head coaching mentor.

Now that resource is gone.  Time will tell whether, and how, that impacts the program’s success.

Bob Davie

Of course, looking back further, there was the curious case of Bob Davie and Jim Coletto.

Bob Davie was another defensive coordinator with no head coaching experience, promoted to take the top job. He hired experienced head coach Jim Coletto as offensive coordinator.

Coletto had struggled to average more than three wins per season, during his six years as Purdue head coach.  Years earlier, he had a fairly poor record at Cal-State Fullerton.

Unfortunately for ‘Notre Dame,’ when they lost Lou Holtz, they lost one of the best offensive coaches in college football. And, at the same time Holtz left, his offensive coordinator, Dave Roberts, left to become head coach at Baylor.

Meanwhile, they still had Joe Moore as offensive line coach — yes, that Joe Moore, whom the award is named after, and whom the endowed current offensive line coach position is named after after.

Despite Moore being, by at least some measure, the most successful positions coach in the country, Davie insulted him for being “old” and fired him.  That action ended up resulting in the university losing an age discrimination lawsuit brought by Moore.

Coletto decided that, since an offensive coordinator takes over some positions responsibilities, and since he had some offensive line background, he would take over the offensive line positions coaching.

So the combined net effect of Davie’s stewardship was that ‘Notre Dame’ ended up losing three of their best offensive coaches, including two of the best offensive coaches in college football, and replaced all of them with Jim Coletto.

Now, no one could accuse Marcus Freeman of following in Bob Davie’s footsteps in most regards, and Freeman, of course, has had significantly greater success than Davie as a head coach.

Yet, interestingly enough, with experienced head coach Coletto as a coordinator, Davie did start out with two winning seasons, going 25-9, with two bowl appearances, one of them a sub-major bowl game in which they played competitively.

After Coletto’s departure, Davie dropped to a losing record the following year, with two losing seasons in the subsequent three years.

While an interesting coincidence, the comparison between Davie and Freeman, across all aspects of the program, are such a night-and-day difference, that some of the details are little more than curious historical trivia (and legal history).

Yet it still will be interesting to see if any hiccups occur in the character and fiber of the program, after losing a veteran head coach from its ranks, with a younger, still-developing head coach like Marcus Freeman at the helm.

For one thing, a seasoned veteran of a head coach might not have blundered into letting a somewhat tried-and-true, experienced quarterback like Steve Angeli get away, or perhaps arguably allow him to be driven away, in favor of “rolling the dice” with a few practice-field hot shots whose game day abilities are still hypothetical.

Wiser heads might wonder if “rolling the dice” like that might turn out to be more of a “rose-colored-glasses,” semi-reckless, young-guy mistake, especially with the schedule front-loaded the way it is.

Time will tell.

(Steve Welsh –  SCW 8.30.25)

Speculation, and debate, periodically surfaces about whether college football realignments might result in ‘Notre Dame’ and Southern Cal dropping what used to be the greatest national rivalry in the sport.  Perhaps the glaring question is, why did the now ill-fated matchup go on so long, with the Irish claiming to be Catholic while Southern Cal boasts of “high-volume abortion training.”

The Catholic Church regards abortion, prenatal filicide, as so serious that it brings about automatic excommunication, like other forms of homicide.

The words “University of Notre Dame” essentially mean the “University of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” in that “Notre Dame” is French for “Our Lady.”

Beyond administrators’ personal standing with God Himself, which is what ultimately matters, the university also does rely on its public affiliation with the Catholic Church for its professed identity and “good-guy” public image.  Even their sports marketing evokes “God, Country, Notre Dame” as part of their social media “branding.”

Meanwhile, the University of Southern California openly admits and promotes the fact that they train abortionists, including what they call “high-volume abortion training.” At a minimum, for starters, their webpage for their “Complex Family Planning Fellowship Program” declares:

“The Fellowship in Complex Family Planning is a two-year fellowship focused on subspecialist training in research, teaching and clinical practice in abortion and contraception. …”

As can be seen from their webpage, the details of the program are somewhat voluminous, including “clinical” training, contributions to would-be research, and training in the “political landscape.”

The program professes to include “clinical training at the Los Angeles General Medical Center, where fellows learn to provide all family planning procedures up to the state’s legal limitations.” It also speaks of “[h]igh-volume abortion training” at so-called Planned Parenthood locations.

A “Reproductive Options Clinic” is said to provide “comprehensive counseling for pregnancy disposition, with provision of surgical or medical termination as indicated.”

In addition to whatever abortion-related activity might exist within a Southern Cal residency program or elsewhere, their family planning fellowship is said to operate a so-called “Reproductive Options Clinic” at the Los Angeles General Medical Center.

From 1968 to 2023, the facility was known as the LAC+USC Medical Center, “to reflect its academic partnership” with Southern Cal, and apparently is still significantly interwoven with Southern Cal medical activities.

Apparently, at least for the Southern Cal fellowship program, some Southern Cal abortions are performed at that site, with mention of Southern Cal also partnering with so-called Planned Parenthood for “high-volume abortion training.”

In addition, even Southern Cal student health services gets involved with abortion.  They publicly offer Southern Cal college students access to chemical abortions: “Medication abortion is available as a USC Student Health service. Contact us to make an appointment to see a provider.”

Given the horrific nature of the subject, and, in contrast, the comfort some draw from sports entertainment and historic nostalgia, there might always be those who would like to avoid the facts, if not try to silence them and “punish the messenger.”

They might try to argue, oh, let’s just think about football, or, oh, that’s something happening to somebody else, somewhere else.  Yet it is just that kind of cozy obliviousness that has helped more than 63 million surgical abortions come about in the United States.

And when ‘Notre Dame’ plays an abortion school like Southern Cal, they are doing more than just enhancing the abortion school’s revenue and prestige.  They are helping to legitimize the abortion school, and, even worse, add to the “business as usual” casualness that makes it easier for pregnant mothers and expectant fathers to lapse into something they ordinarily would consider unthinkable.

Even as abortion is unthinkable, disreputable, and out of step with Southern Cal’s previous stature as what had been a fine academic institution, it is precisely that contradiction that makes it valuable for abortion forces, perversely, to establish a foothold there.

Normal mothers and fathers who ordinarily might never have considered such madness, but who, perhaps might be under some kind of pressure or distorted mindset, see a previously reputable institution like Southern Cal hosting it.  Perhaps that false sense of pseudo-normalization might conceivably help sway someone already in a vulnerable state of mind.

And if they see things like ‘Notre Dame’ still playing Southern Cal in football, complacently invoking historical nostalgia, perhaps that is part of a range of factors that can contribute to the pseudo-legitimization of a corrupted institution.

it adds to the entire ambience that somehow it is the old, reputable, vaunted Southern Cal endorsing abortion, instead of some new, morally bankrupt alter ego, coopted, corrupted, and distorted.

It is would be improper for leading scholars of non-medical subjects to enhance the reputation of a corrupted, abortion-performing Southern Cal, by joining the faculty saying, oh, we’re not directly involved, and we like the money and the title over in our department.

It is even more harmful for ‘Notre Dame’ to help lend a false air of legitimacy to an abortion-performing institution.

The trappings of historic nostalgia should not be used to lull the public into complacency with human rights violations.

Indeed, whatever the Southern Cal abortion numbers, high-volume or otherwise, as the leading human rights violation of the day, abortion is likely the most widespread violence against human life on the planet.

With over 63 million surgical abortions in the United States since 1973, the number of Americans murdered in the womb even approaches the numbers needed to win the Presidency.

Then there is the racial factor. Abortion is far more wide-spread than slavery ever was in the South before the Civil War, numerically, and abortion is impacting Blacks at a rate several times higher than Whites per capita.

‘Notre Dame’ Football especially should be more racially sensitive about the abortion issue, given the large numbers of Blacks on football rosters, much higher than the Black portion of the population, and even higher still than the much lower percentage of Blacks in the ‘Notre Dame’ student body.

Then there is the abortion connection for ‘Notre Dame’ Football itself. A ‘Notre Dame’ Heisman winner from the 1950’s made a disclosure in his memoirs that was taken as an admission that, after getting a young woman pregnant out of wedlock, he was complicit in her obtaining what would have been an illegal abortion.

In addition to any legal problems, had the facts been known at the time, that player likely would have been expelled from ‘Notre Dame’ before winning the Heisman, and, given the disreputable nature of the matter, probably would have had difficulty winning such accolades anywhere else.

Yet instead of disavowing the player, suggesting he give back his Heisman, and giving up whatever Heisman Trophy, or replica, ‘Notre Dame’ itself possesses, they invited the problem individual to speak at a pep rally (at which a bizarre spectacle unfolded in which his pants fell down at the podium, prompting excuse-making about losing weight).

Even in 2025, roughly one-third of the ‘Notre Dame’ football schedule is against abortion schools.

As said before, the words “University of Notre Dame” essentially mean the “University of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” in that “Notre Dame” is French for “Our Lady.” ‘Notre Dame’ associating with an abortion school, enhancing its revenue and prestige, is like trying to associate the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Divine Son with an abortion school.

It is long overdue for ‘Notre Dame’ to boot Southern Cal, Miami (Fla.), Stanford, Pitt, and any other abortion-connected schools off the schedule, and to leave conferences like the ACC and so-called Big Ten that include abortion schools.

Yet perhaps an initial question might be, how many people even knew about it.

Perhaps part of the modus operandi of this particular evil seems to be to seep “into the woodwork,” get interwoven with institutions that have many other, completely unrelated, elements that built goodwill, then sit back and try to deflect scrutiny about the evil, while trying to poach the institutional goodwill.