Top-ranked Mount Carmel sets sights on Baltimore Catholic League Tournament title
At 31-4, the Cougars have their eyes set on the Baltimore Catholic League championship.
"They actually trust and they believe and they care about each other and they care about this school and the community," Martin said.
Martin is one of Baltimore's winningest high school coaches, having won titles at Archbishop Spalding and John Carroll.
Mount Carmel is the top seed entering the league tournament which starts on Thursday at Loyola University. Not only that, the Cougars are ranked No. 1 in the state for the first time in the school's history.
Last year, Mount Carmel lost 10 games and ended its season with a loss to Archbishop Spalding.
Martin said the program just needed a "culture change."
"Last year, we took over, we needed a culture change, and that took a little bit of time," Martin said.
This year, Martin has gotten the most out of his players by stressing accountability.
"I think really just being affirming and positive while still keeping to your standards and making sure these guys understand that we believe in them and that we love them," Martin said. "They're going to have to be held accountable so we've just preached a collective accountability."
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New York Times
7 hours ago
- New York Times
How Notre Dame became a more durable national title contender for college football's new era
Editor's note: This article is part of the Program Builders series, focusing on the behind-the-scenes executives and people fueling the future growth of their sports. SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Six months after Notre Dame played for a national championship, Pete Bevacqua turned the floor over to Marcus Freeman. The athletic director greenlit the head coach to ask for anything he wanted. Flanked by deputy athletic director Ron Powlus and general manager Mike Martin at a sitdown in mid-July, Bevacqua wanted to know how the football program could make national title runs more frequently than once per decade. He wanted to know what Notre Dame required to win it all for the first time in 37 years, the longest gap between titles in school history. Advertisement But what could Freeman want? Notre Dame's indoor practice facility has been here barely longer than he has. Its stadium renovations aren't quite a decade old. Shields Hall, the future 150,000-square-foot home of the football operations center, will open next year. Notre Dame just re-signed with NBC at a dollar figure high enough to keep the program independent yet competitive with power-conference foes pulling in north of $50 million per year. Freeman already has an eight-figure contract extension of his own. And the College Football Playoff keeps rewriting its rules in Notre Dame's favor, giving it access to a first-round bye and potentially better at-large odds if the field expands. 'We have what we need,' Bevacqua said. 'Are you gonna play in the national championship game every year? No. Unfortunately, there's too many good teams. But we're gonna keep knocking on that door. 'We have to win national championships in football.' Bevacqua opens meetings by talking about Notre Dame winning a national title, which last happened before he was a freshman student from Connecticut. To administrators, donors and trustees, that's no small change in messaging for a program that has historically gotten in its own way. Ten years ago, school president Rev. John Jenkins was profiled in the New York Times, stating Notre Dame would opt out of big-time college football if the sport moved toward a pay-for-play model. As Jenkins spoke, bulldozers were already working on the $400 million renovation to Notre Dame Stadium, dubbed the Campus Crossroads Project. Notre Dame was slow in adopting pathways for players to enroll a semester early because the administration was concerned about the practice's impact on freshman orientation. Now the school is comfortable changing its academic calendar to accommodate the College Football Playoff. Advertisement Former athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Notre Dame would never have taken its football and gone home, but the school was right to attempt to lead the sport away from its current state of barely regulated name, image and likeness money. It failed. But it was worth a try. 'Wherever the bar moved to, we were gonna move,' Swarbrick said. 'You advocate for the position you'd like to see occur, but in the background you're always saying we're not gonna let Notre Dame football fail.' Yet avoiding failure is not the same thing as winning a national title. There's catching lightning in a bottle for one season, and then there's pouring the foundation on something more durable. That starts with Notre Dame's holy trinity of football buildings: a renovated stadium, an indoor practice facility and a new operations center. Two of those projects are done, and the third could be by the time Notre Dame opens Freeman's fifth season as head coach at Lambeau Field against Wisconsin in 2026. They are all part of the reason Notre Dame believes it can now produce College Football Playoff runs in perpetuity. It might seem like Notre Dame has everything to hold its reservation at college football's adult table for the long run — acknowledging that every coach wants more NIL funding. But faith in where Notre Dame football is headed doesn't require a Hail Mary anymore, and every little bit still helps. The Mendoza College of Business sits off the southwest corner of Notre Dame Stadium and is under construction, like much of the campus. Overhead, the building is shaped like a capital H. When it's done, it will look more like a capital A. Considering the school's profile around Notre Dame, the alphabetical metaphor probably fits. Namesake Tom Mendoza is an ardent supporter of the football program and helped start Notre Dame's NIL collective with Brady Quinn. Business remains one of the most popular majors, both around the campus and within the football team. When the school started a sports analytics program four years ago, it did so with athletes' schedules in mind. Then the faculty made sure the football staff knew about it. When Freeman took the head coaching job, one of his early meetings was a fireside chat with Mendoza College dean Martijn Cremers. But Cremers didn't come to the football facility to talk in front of the team. Freeman went to the business school to talk in front of the student body. Advertisement 'If you went in a laboratory and designed the perfect coach for Notre Dame, it would be Marcus Freeman,' Bevacqua said. 'He's become not just the football coach at Notre Dame, he's become such a part of this university and this campus.' The path by which Notre Dame positioned itself to keep competing for championships didn't start in the business school, but it can be explained there. Among the theories taught and employed at Mendoza is the Flywheel Effect, popularized in the book 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins. Without knowing it, Notre Dame football has made this theory an operating principle. As Collins describes it, imagine a massive wheel mounted on an axle. The job is to get this heavy wheel to spin at a high speed. One push won't do it. Not two. Not 10. Maybe not 100. But once the wheel spins with force, it creates its own momentum. It won't be stopped by minor obstructions (i.e. injuries, staff turnover, even losses). There's no way to know which push was most important in the flywheel reaching this self-sustaining velocity. It's just obvious when it does. The Notre Dame football flywheel is spinning, both inside the program and beyond its walls. As Freeman has grown into the job, the admissions office has become more of a partner with the football program, both in high school recruiting and the transfer portal. Irish coordinator salaries have almost tripled in the past six years. NIL is no longer a roadblock to player acquisition or retention; in general, the Irish don't lose talent they want to keep and rarely miss on portal targets they're desperate to sign. When Freeman needed a new strength coach a year ago, Notre Dame funded an NFL hire. When injuries rocked the Irish roster last season, the program didn't seem to miss a beat. When Bevacqua extended Freeman last December, days before the first-round game against Indiana, he paid him like a coach expected to make the national title game. When Freeman needed a new running backs coach last winter, he pulled Penn State's Ja'Juan Seider, the only position coach in college football with a group better than the Irish. When Notre Dame football needs resources, it doesn't go wanting. Some of this started under Brian Kelly, who professionalized the program to the point it could take a chance on a first-time head coach. Swarbrick got Notre Dame into the right rooms in the construction of the College Football Playoff. Bevacqua got it on the right golf courses, counting Donald Trump, Roger Goodell and Greg Sankey as playing partners this summer. When Notre Dame needed to meet the school's 100-75 fundraising rule for Shields Hall — before breaking ground on a large capital project, 100 percent of the money must be committed and 75 percent must be in hand — the development office went into warp drive before the end of Jenkins' presidential term on June 1, 2024. Dirt moved with six weeks to spare. Advertisement Freeman didn't start this wheel spinning, but he helped it achieve inexorable momentum last winter by beating Georgia and Penn State in a seven-day span. The Sugar Bowl was Notre Dame's first major bowl win in 31 years. The Orange Bowl felt like something bigger, the program's most significant win since the 1993 Game of the Century against Florida State. 'The Georgia win changed everything,' said Mendoza, who watched the Orange Bowl alongside Tony Rice, Notre Dame's last national championship-winning quarterback, and Tim Brown, its last Heisman Trophy winner. 'Notre Dame used to think it could win. Maybe it knew it could win. Now it expects to win. Marcus can sell playing for a national championship and everything else that comes with it at Notre Dame. The kids feel it. The players we're attracting feel it.' Freeman stood at the 50-yard line on a Saturday night in mid-June as Notre Dame hosted 21 official visitors. A dozen of the recruits were already committed. Nine were still up for grabs. Before Freeman talked, the players and their parents — a group that included NFL alumni Larry Fitzgerald, Thomas Davis and Jermichael Finley — watched a video on the stadium's screen showing the parents of former players, including Riley Leonard's, talking about the Notre Dame experience. Within a month, eight of the uncommitted prospects had picked Notre Dame. By the end of summer, the Irish had landed 11 of the 12 uncommitted prospects they'd hosted for official visits, including two 247Composite five-stars in cornerback Khary Adams and tight end Ian Premer. The biggest reasons why Notre Dame believes it can keep knocking on the CFP door are still in high school. With 27 commitments for 2026, Freeman is on track to sign the program's highest-rated recruiting class in 13 years. The Irish are yet to suffer a decommitment after watching 18 walk over the previous three cycles. 'You go into the semifinals game and you're losing starters, putting backups in,' Freeman said, 'but if you don't have the depth that you can put somebody in and get the job done, then all of a sudden that becomes a hole and it becomes a deficiency and you lose.' Advertisement Notre Dame could have fumbled away the goodwill of last season when general manager Chad Bowden left for USC in February. From the start of the CFP to the start of spring practice, Notre Dame landed two commitments, both on the offensive line, hardly a position that requires a recruiting full-court press. Notre Dame also lost presumptive recruiting director Caleb Davis to San Diego State. When Freeman tabbed Mike Martin from the Detroit Lions to become general manager — after an aggressive pursuit of James Blanchard from Texas Tech — he rebooted the recruiting operation alongside new director of recruiting Carter Auman, who graduated from Notre Dame during Freeman's first offseason as head coach. Organization picked up. For all Bowden's energy, he had a habit of giving little warning of what he needed and when he needed it. That start-up approach, move fast and break stuff, had worked. It also felt like the Irish were due for something new. After last season, the program was no longer a startup. It wanted to be a Fortune 500 company. So it had to act like one. There are no leprechaun costumes or gold boomboxes anymore. There's talk of branding and generational wealth, ideas floated about how Notre Dame can become business partners with its players. When Martin sets up calls for professors, alumni or former players with prospects, he produces one-page overviews that include other schools in play, GPA, and parents' professions. They arrive in advance. There's even a text chain for prospects' moms. The entire operation feels buttoned up. 'It's getting the talent,' Bevacqua said. 'Fingers crossed, knock on wood, we are firing on all cylinders right now with recruiting.' And National Signing Day is still four months away. Televisions line the second floor of Notre Dame's indoor practice facility, a gathering space that overlooks the field below. During the second week of August camp, the screens replay Notre Dame's run through the CFP, with highlights of wins against Indiana, Georgia and Penn State. Everyone knows how it all ended against Ohio State. The longest season in school history still lingers around here, as much as Freeman would prefer it didn't. Advertisement 'They're valuable lessons that you learn from last year, but I continue to remind them: 2024 has nothing to do with this 2025 team,' Freeman said. 'Yes, let's utilize the lessons. Let's utilize some of those good and bad things that we learned from last year, but you do that no matter what the previous experience was. They understand that. 'We try to stop talking about that '24 year.' Good luck with that. The last time Notre Dame made the national championship game, the hangover was harsh. So was the realization the Irish weren't as close to the mountaintop as they appeared before kickoff of that 42-14 loss to Alabama. Kelly interviewed with the Philadelphia Eagles, starting quarterback Everett Golson got suspended after spring practice and the program was out of the title chase by late September. Notre Dame ended that season against Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl. The Ohio State game felt different. So did everything leading up to it. But when it came for Notre Dame's title shot, the team on the other sideline still had the most talent. 'I would point to depth as the No. 1 difference now,' Swarbrick said. 'Our first D-line was really good that year. Alabama's third D-line was really good. It was all the difference in the world. 'Sport always exposes your weaknesses. If your nutrition program isn't right, if your strength conditioning program isn't right, If recruiting doesn't produce the quality of player and the depth, it always gets exposed. And I think the program is as solid across the board as any time in my memory.' Notre Dame will begin its difficult encore at No. 10 Miami on Sunday night of Labor Day weekend. It will have the national stage to itself, with a first-time starting quarterback and a new defensive coordinator. The Irish added five potential starters in the transfer portal. Behind the practice fields, Shields Hall continues to go up, windows added, bricks laid. The facility stretches an entire block. Advertisement For the first time in a long time, Notre Dame enters a season where winning a national title doesn't feel like a rote talking point. The Irish are betting favorites to return to the CFP and win double-digit games. If they get there, Freeman can lean into last season's experiences. So can his roster. Whether he wants to talk about it in August or not. 'To win a national championship in any sport, you gotta be good; we're good,' Bevacqua said. 'You gotta stay healthy. And no matter how good you are, you're gonna have to get lucky a couple of times. But I really feel we're positioned to keep knocking on that door. 'There is no secret, no doubt, no hesitation that we want to win national championships in football.' The wheel keeps spinning. Program Builders is part of a partnership with Range Rover Sport. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Miami Herald
Freshman Bear Bachmeier to start at QB for BYU
Bear Bachmeier has won the quarterback competition at BYU, coach Kalani Sitake said Tuesday. "He settled it on the field. He gives us the best chance to win right now," Sitake said. He will become the first true freshman in program history to start Week 1 when the Cougars open against Portland State on Aug. 30, ESPN reported. Bachmeier will wear the unusual QB number of 47, which he showed off in a social media video while dressed as a bear. It's a quick turn for BYU, which saw starter Jake Retzlaff withdraw from school on July 11 amid news BYU intended to suspend him for seven games over a violation of the school's honor code. Retzlaff now is at Tulane. Bachmeier initially committed to Stanford and spent the spring in Palo Alto, but he entered the transfer portal in May and headed to BYU. Transferring with him from Stanford was his older brother, Tiger. Tiger caught 46 passes for 476 yards and two touchdowns over two seasons at Stanford. The Bachmeier name could sound familiar. Oldest brother Hank concluded his six-year career as a college quarterback in 2024 with Wake Forest after previously playing for Boise State and Louisiana Tech. Bear was a four-star recruit, as ranked by the 247Sports composite, in the Class of 2025. Tiger was a three-star in the 2023 class. The brothers are from Murrieta, Calif. Bachmeier bested transfers Treyson Bourguet, a redshirt junior from Western Michigan, and redshirt sophomore McCae Hillstead from Utah State, to win the starting job. The Cougars finished 11-2 in 2024 in his second season in the Big 12. --Field Level Media Field Level Media 2025 - All Rights Reserved
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
If BYU goes with Bear Bachmeier as QB1 (as expected) it would be historic
It is expected that BYU will announce its starting quarterback this week. In my opinion, the Cougars will replace senior starter Jake Retzlaff, who transferred to Tulane, with true freshman Bear Bachmeier. It's a gamble. It's as rare as a bloody slab of sirloin steak. It's something BYU's quarterback factory, a system that's passed for more yards than any other college football program, is not used to doing. But these are times in the Big 12 when BYU must move forward and look to the future with a four-star recruit, a guy who signed with Stanford out of Murrieta High in California and had offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, Notre Dame and Stanford, to mention a few. You bring a recruit like Bachmeier to Provo with the carrot of competitive NIL money, and challengers McCae Hillstead and Treyson Bourguet would need to rocket past him and make it clear to offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick that there was no other decision to be made but to pick one of them. Apparently, from practice reports and media availability sessions, that didn't happen. Instead, all of them had their moments, and Roderick and other coaches felt pressed to give Bachmeier first-team reps. Not all, but a significant number, more than a fair share. Bachmeier, the younger brother of former Boise State, Louisiana Tech and Wake Forest quarterback Hank Bachmeier, displayed an impressive ability to digest Roderick's complex offense. He makes solid reads, doesn't take sacks and had a lot of completions. And, more importantly in Roderick's schemes, he has the ability to make the QB run a threat and gain yards when plays break down. He has decent speed, but his size at 6-foot-2, 225 pounds provides him with an extra tool to break tackles at the point of attack. Meanwhile, Hillstead provides not only experience but sprinter speed. He can extend plays like Arizona's Noah Fifita and has the arm to complete deep passes accurately. He is BYU's best improviser to extend plays and gave BYU's defense fits as the prep team QB. Sources say Hillstead believes he was brought in to play and could help the Retzlaff departure situation. He has been in the program the longest and his maturity is valuable. Some liken it to several years ago when BYU kept an older and more mature Jaren Hall on a string while they propped up freshman Zach Wilson, who ultimately started over Hall en route to being the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. There are plenty in Hillstead's corner, including those who covered him at Utah State, former BYU offensive coordinator Brandon Doman and Alpha Recruits owner Will Snowden, the former Cougar and father of Ute cornerback Smith Snowden. Hillstead's reputation among Utah prep experts is sterling and respected. At this stage of fall camp, Roderick and the offensive coaches must keep all quarterbacks engaged and challenged in a competitive atmosphere where they believe they can start, lead and win. There's always the draw of the transfer portal looming. You let all QBs get their beaks wet. Give them a taste. That's why many QB starters are not named until close to game week and the start of school. BYU begins fall classes Sept. 4. The other thought, according to sources, is that Roderick could start Bachmeier in the season opener against Portland State but bring in Hillstead after the first or second quarter, then evaluate what they saw and revisit their decisions for the Stanford game the following week. It would be easier to start Bachmeier and bring in Hillstead in relief if he stumbled badly. It would be a little tougher to start Hillstead, and if he stumbled, go to Bachmeier. That would be a lot of added pressure on the freshman. BYU saw this exact thing when freshman Jake Heaps replaced an older Riley Nelson. The time has come to give the BYU starting QB 90% of the reps and prepare for the opener. Could this happen on Monday? A big part of this QB dilemma is that all three candidates have faced perhaps the best defense they'll see this season. Jay Hill's side of the ball has been impressive. A great defense can retard the progression of an offense early, but can also become a strength because it eliminates a false sense of excellence. Historically, BYU has not had a true freshman quarterback start a season opener, which makes the potential for Bachmeier to do so in 2025 a significant milestone. While no true freshman has started the season opener, a few have played significant roles during their freshman seasons. In 2018, true freshman Wilson did not start the season but played in nine games, starting seven after taking over midseason. He completed 120 of 182 passes (65.9%) for 1,578 yards, 12 touchdowns and three interceptions. He also rushed for 75 yards and two touchdowns as BYU finished 7-6, including a 49-18 win over Western Michigan in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Wilson threw for 317 yards and four touchdowns in that bowl game. But remember, Wilson played an independent schedule in 2018, unlike the Big 12 slate that BYU's new starter will face in 2025. Max Hall, a redshirt freshman in 2007, started all 13 games for the Cougars but was not a true freshman. He threw for 3,848 yards, 26 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, leading BYU to a 10-2 regular season and 17-16 win over UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl. It's tough to see a true freshman rise up and lead a team to a double-digit season. It takes a tremendous talent, a lot of confidence and growth early and a good head. It also requires a team to have an outstanding defense to absorb QB mistakes and overcome possible bad field positions. Luckily for whoever starts, BYU could have a better defense than the one that led the Big 12 last season. A true freshman also needs an outstanding supporting cast, including an elite offensive line. It remains to be seen if BYU's O-line fits that utility. Here are four true freshmen who have started at the Power Four level in recent years. They succeeded because of all of the above factors. Their careers proved it in college and beyond. Trevor Lawrence (Clemson, 2018) Season results: Completed 259 of 397 passes (65.2%) for 3,280 yards, 30 touchdowns and four interceptions. Rushed for 177 yards and one touchdown. Led Clemson to a 15-0 record and the national championship, defeating Alabama 44-16. Impact: Lawrence's poise and arm talent made him an instant star, setting the stage for two more national title appearances and being the No. 1 overall NFL draft pick in 2021 just ahead of Wilson. Jake Fromm (Georgia, 2017) Season results: Completed 181 of 291 passes (62.2%) for 2,615 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Rushed for 55 yards and three touchdowns. Led Georgia to a 13-2 record, reaching the national championship game (lost to Alabama 26-23 in overtime). Impact: Fromm stepped in after Jacob Eason's injury and led Georgia to an SEC title and a near-national championship, showcasing remarkable poise. Dylan Raiola (Nebraska, 2024) Season results: As one of the only true freshmen to start Week 1 at a Power Four school in 2024, Raiola threw for 2,999 yards, 18 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, leading Nebraska to a 6-6 record and a bowl appearance. Impact: Raiola, a five-star recruit, brought stability to Nebraska's quarterback position and showed promise as a future star. JT Daniels (USC, 2018) Season Results: Completed 216 of 363 passes (59.5%) for 2,672 yards, 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Led USC to a 5-7 record, missing a bowl game. Impact: Despite a losing season, Daniels showed flashes of brilliance, becoming the first true freshman to start a season opener for USC since 2001. Could Bachmeier come in and complete 60% of his passes, approach 2,800 yards, deliver a dozen-plus touchdowns through the air and three or four on the ground with 300 or 400 yards rushing and have under 10 picks? If he does that, it would be impressive. If he starts and BYU gets eight wins, that would be a success. The success of true freshman quarterbacks is rare at the Power Four level due to the complexity of college offenses and the physical demands of the position. If BYU starts Bachmeier, and it appears it will happen, it would be historic in Provo. He has a great starting ramp with Portland State and Stanford at home before going to East Carolina, then the Big 12 opener at Colorado. Portland State is a great opener for a rookie. Stanford is rebuilding with a new staff and Bachmeier and his brother, receiver Tiger, fled that program to Provo. This is an intriguing situation. And a gutsy call for BYU coaches to make.
