Rakes Report: A Notre Dame podcast

Jessica Smetana joins for a conversation with Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel about his interview with Jack Swarbrick, the doomsaying about NIL's effect on college sports, Notre Dame's chances at staying independent and Marcus Freeman's second season.

Patrick Engel of Blue and Gold and the On3 network joins to talk about early impressions from spring practice and the hiring of Micah Shrewsberry as Notre Dame's new men's basketball coach. Topics include Sam Hartman, development at wide receiver, the ceiling for the offense under Gerad Parker, potential breakout players on defense and how long a hoops turnaround might take.

Getting you prepared for the start of the tournament and beyond with an all-star lineup: Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic breaks down Notre Dame's corner of the bracket and their chances at making it to a second straight Sweet Sixteen. Then, Chantel Jennings of The Athletic stops by to talk about her great profile of Niele Ivey and what she learned about the Irish program while writing it. (30:22...

Jessica Smetana and Jamie Uyeyama join to discuss Tommy Rees heading to Alabama and what Marcus Freeman should ideally look for in a replacement offensive coordinator. Jamie's list of potential candidates at Irish Sports Daily.  

The Athletic's Pete Sampson joins to talk about the finalized 2023 Notre Dame football schedule and how this fall's roster compares to last year's team.

Let's chat about a good basketball team and also a bad basketball team. First, Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic (2:07) joins for a fun talk about Niele Ivey's top ten women's squad and Irish alumnae in the WNBA. Then our friend Sam Werner hops on (38:45) to discuss the rough situation on the men's side and the likely end of Mike Brey's tenure.

Jessica Smetana joins to talk about Notre Dame's thrilling win over South Carolina, enjoying the Fiesta and Cotton results, a Mini Movie Club on Glass Onion and much more.

A re-release of our carol draft from 2018. Merry Christmas, everybody!

Notre Dame basketball head coach Niele Ivey joins to talk about the big win over UConn, her relationship with Muffet McGraw, coaching Olivia Miles, the joy of fast breaks, the Mabrey sisters and her experience at the NBA Draft. Donate to the Center for the Homeless in South Bend  here  or go to  www.rakesreportchristmasgiving.com . Purchase the Christmas Giving design shirts (with all proceeds goi...

Donate to the Center for the Homeless in South Bend  here  or go to  www.rakesreportchristmasgiving.com .  Eric Hansen of Inside ND Sports joins to talk about Marcus Freeman's first season, his outlook on Freeman's potential for the future, how the Irish are approaching the transfer portal, NIL opportunities for Notre Dame athletes, a bunch of Charlie Weis stories and much more. Purchase the Chris...

Donate to the Center for the Homeless in South Bend here or go to www.rakesreportchristmasgiving.com .  It's a full house to start the week as Jessica Smetana and Jamie Uyeyama join to run through all the news including but not limited to the playoff field, Drew Pyne's transfer, bowl opponent South Carolina, transfer portal crashing into recruiting, bowls we're excited to watch, who Jamie consider...

Our Trojan insider Nick Tresnowski joins to preview this weekend's Top 15 matchup between Notre Dame and USC. A tremendous offense and sketchy defense await the Irish in Los Angeles for their season finale.

Jessica Smetana joins to recap a 35-14 victory over the No. 4 Clemson Tigers. 

On the tenth anniversary of a wild fourth quarter comeback and perfectly officiated overtime session, Jessica Smetana and Paul Rigney join to talk about 8-0 Notre Dame trying to stave off an upset by Paul Chryst, Aaron Donald, Tino Sunseri and the Pitt Panthers.

Jessica Smetana joins to discuss Notre Dame's 41-24 road win against the Orange.

Jessica Smetana joins to partake in Michael Bryan of 18 Stripes' new game show: LepreCard Sharks (sorry) where the categories are all Fighting Irish stat rankings. Also, field reports are filed from the UNLV and Stanford games plus big picture thoughts seven games into Marcus Freeman's first season.

Jamie Uyeyama of Irish Sports Daily joins to review the offense through four games. Discussed: What from the UNC game might work going forward, slow starts under Tommy Rees, how a roster is built, Marcus Freeman's overall philosophy, Tobias Merriweather snaps and much more.

Jessica Smetana joins to discuss Notre Dame's 45-32 victory in Chapel Hill, a fun day of college football (go Blue Raiders) and how we're feeling going into the bye week.

Jessica Smetana joins to discuss the Fighting Irish's 24-17 victory over the Golden Bears.

Our old friend Carter Karels, now covering the Seminoles for the Tallahassee Democrat, stops by to talk about the wild Florida State/LSU opener, how things are going for Brian Kelly in the bayou, his thoughts on Marcus Freeman and the potential of Tyler Buchner.

Jessica Smetana joins to pick the things we're most excited for about this Fighting Irish season, plus bonus fun we're looking forward to from around college football.

Alex Herrmann and Andrew Smith of Notre Dame, Our Blogger join to preview all 12 opponents on this fall's Fighting Irish schedule. 

Jamie Uyeyama of Irish Sports Daily joins to discuss every true freshman on the Notre Dame defense before wrapping with overall thoughts on the  2022 class and where recruiting stands in the first year of Marcus Freeman's tenure.

Jamie Uyeyama of Irish Sports Daily joins to run through every true freshman on the Notre Dame offense. Topics include what to expect from Tobias Merriweather, the continued excellence of the Irish tight end room and the future of the quarterback depth chart.

Jessica Smetana and Bridget Reynolds join to discuss the new Netflix documentary about Manti Te'o.  (We were going to arbitrarily break this into two parts like the documentary but instead are just releasing the supersized version and including a bunch of punctuation in the title. Pause in the middle for that two-part experience!)