Rakes Report: A Notre Dame Podcast

Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic drops in to talk about covering football in a Clemson/Bama world, how blue blood programs are working hard to sell tickets and her sit-down with Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown. (Plus a cameo from Nicole's dog, Red.) Then (34:00) Matt joins to go over news (injuries, captains, transfers, camp reports) and a quick HOBBS & SHAW review. Read Nicole's piece on the push to get people to attend college football games here. Sign up for the Rakes Report newsletter here.

Carter Karels of the South Bend Tribune runs down what he's seen so far in Irish camp, including the Cole Kmet injury, Kyle Hamilton and Julian Okwara being scary good, the continuing shuffle at linebacker, Phil Jurkovec's progress, the potential of the wide receivers and concerns/pleasant surprises.   Purchase the ND Insider preview magazine here.   Sign up for the Rakes Report newsletter here.

South Bend Tribune writer Tyler James stops by talk about the NDInsider preview magazine and take an early look at the season. Among the topics: Julian Okwara's sack quest, Ian Book's potential improvement, setting expectations, potentially elite offensive, breakout stars, general vibes, questions at special teams and linebacker, lightning round stat guesses. Buy the ND Insider preview magazine here. (It's really fun and good!)

SBNation's Bill Connelly stops by to talk about his preview of the 2019 Notre Dame season (read here). Among the topics: Where Brian Kelly ranks among head coaches, Notre Dame's struggles running the ball, how to leverage Ian Book's efficiency to get more big plays, the biggest trap game of the season and how a 4-8 team finished 18th in the S&P+. Subscribe to the Rakes Report newsletter. (If you enjoyed this episode, scroll back through your feeds to Bill's previous three visits, all occurring in the spring.)

ESPN play-by-play announcer Adam Amin stops by to help with a proper Irish wake to celebrate the last two seasons of Notre Dame women's basketball. Topics include talk calling "Ice Twice," what he'll remember from these past two Muffet McGraw teams, the growth of women's college hoops and the best college football games he's called. Newsletter tribute to the women's hoop team (second section).

Jamie Uyeyama of Irish Sports Daily joins us to recap Blue-Gold and the many practices that preceded it by doing an old fashioned position group draft. Which part of the depth chart has the highest upside? What are the biggest weaknesses? How do we feel about the team as a whole as we enter the long night of the offseason? All that, and more.

The Observer associate managing editor Elizabeth Greason joins us to discuss covering the last three seasons of Notre Dame women's basketball. Topics include: Being in the arena for Arike's heroics, how Notre Dame bounced back from the unraveling versus UConn earlier this season, and what it's like spending a lot of time around Muffet McGraw. We also get into a little bit of football at the very end.

We go deep on Tuesday's federal indictment of nearly 50 people in a massive fraud case that involved rich people buying their kids' way into colleges. Among the talking points: Getting into USC as a long snapper who doesn't play football, Stanford having a sailing coach, lawyers who are into rules, the lies of the meritocracy, Filliam H. Muffman and Aunt Becky's beauty influencer daughter who isn't here to play school. Read the full complaint. Read the full indictment. The ProPublica story.

Sam Werner (The Observer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) joins us to update the starting lineup of the best Notre Dame players to take the field between 2010 and 2018. Listen and discover our opinion with which you vehemently disagree.

Carter Karels of the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com stops by to talk about Notre Dame's Class of 2019, what to expect for next year's class and his first season covering Notre Dame. Then Matt and Chris discuss "Hobbs and Shaw" because it's the offseason and this is important. Read Carter's work. The Hobbs and Shaw trailer.  

Andrew Smith and Alex Herrmann of Notre Dame Our Blogger stop by to talk coaching changes, expectations for the 2019 season, recruiting standards and more. Read Andrew and Alex's work. Take the survey.

We're joined by Jess Smetana of Sports Illustrated and the Most Valuable Podcast to work our way through the 13th and final game of Notre Dame's 2018 season. What went the worst? What's the long-term prognosis of the program going forward? What are our favorite memories from 12-1? What should we expect in 2019? This is basically a giant rambling therapy session but we felt better after talking so hopefully you can feel a little better after listening.

There is no football talk* in this episode so if you want to skip it no hard feelings but if you need some audio content for your holiday travels perhaps you'll enjoy this 15-round holiday carol draft. Two notes: 1) Outside of a couple "Damns" and a "Hell yeah," this is clean if you want to listen with children/discerning family. 2) Apologies for the occasional keyboard clicking in the background but I was trying to keep our draft board updated. Here's the link to the Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/psychicplatypus/playlist/6zhrNnaFb1kYqkOCkVXmsl?si=901UtiBdRwaFUQmoYH3UDQ Merry Christmas, everybody! Thanks so much for listening. * Okay to be fair there is one reference to the East Dillon Lions. 

With Christmas travel looming we thought we'd go ahead and have this discussion (there may be more episodes previewing the Cotton Bowl to follow if time permits) with Michael Bryan of 18 Stripes. Do the Tigers have any weaknesses? Can the Irish defensive line take over the game and is there any way to neutralize Clemson's? Is there any kind of mental edge available to either side? What sort of architectural treachery awaits us in Jerry World? Did Michigan make the playoff? All of this and more. Read Michael's work here: https://www.18stripes.com/author/michael-bryan/ Donate to Christmas Giving here: https://gofundme.com/rakes-report-christmas-giving-2018

Christmas Giving season! With the help of an all-star lineup of our past guests, we take a walk through our favorite things from the 12-0 season along with some thoughts on the playoff selection and those dastardly Clemson Tigers. If you enjoyed this episode or any previous episodes of the podcast, please consider donating to our drive to raise money for the Center for the Homeless in South Bend, which you can do here: https://www.gofundme.com/rakes-report-christmas-giving-2018

A discussion of the Syracuse victory, the Shamrock Series and chicken tenders transitions (at the 16:00 mark) to a preview of the USC game with our Trojan insider Nick Tresnowski. Can USC pull off the upset? And if they don't, who will be the next Trojan head coach?

John Cassillo (@JohnCassillo), managing editor for SBNation's Syracuse site Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, stops by to look at Saturday's match up in Yankee Stadium. How are the Orange going to attack the Irish defense? How can the Irish return the favor against the Cuse D? How do you become number one in special teams S&P+? All that and more.

Looking back at Navy and forward to Northwestern. Matt reflects on his visit to San Diego and then we take a look at the Wildcats' very weird season and the chances it will include "Upsetting Notre Dame" after Saturday. 

Jessica Smetana (@jessica_smetana) of Sports Illustrated and "Most Valuable Podcast" stops by to discuss playing Navy, the Shamrock Series uniforms, how Crossroads turned out, MVPs of the season so far and then also Jess jinxes the Navy game pretty epically so apologies in advance for that.  

We're considering this a spiritual extension of the bye week so it's time to talk concerns and hopes for the next five games with Jamie Uyeyama of Irish Sports Daily. Will the offensive line, third down defense or the pressures of winning down the Irish? Or will they be carried by the excellence of Ian Book, Jerry Tillery, Julian Love and friends? We'll find out!