Irish versus Beavers in cereal bowl … There was a time when Notre Dame disdained playing in any bowl; later they at least disdained playing in anything but a big New Year’s game. Friday, they’ll play Oregon State in a bowl named after the mascot for a kid’s breakfast cereal. Time’s have changed! For the record its actually the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl (2:00 PM ET; CBS) in beautiful downtown El Paso. And like Clemson in Friday’s first game, Notre Dame won’t have it’s best prospect – All-American OT John Alt, a legitimate top ten candidate for the upcoming draft – as well as QB Sam Hartman, but will have just about everybody else in El Paso including rising FS Xavier Watts (#0, 6-0, 205), the Irish’s other first-team All-American who was also named college football’s DPOY after he picked off 7 passes on the campaign. They’ll also have rising DT Rylie Mills (#99, 6-5, 310), along with fellow DT Howard Cross (#56, 6-1, 290), and LB Jack Kiser (#24, 6-2, 232), as well as soph CB Ben Morrison (#20, 6-0, 185) a top candidate for 2025. Unfortunately, Oregon State, which had a real nice season the final year of the original PAC-8/10/12 also won’t have their QB – DJ Uiagalelei – who is checking out his transfer options across the country in Florida; they also won’t have either of OTs Taliese Fuaga, a possible late first round candidate, and Josh Gray.
