Breaking down and grading the 2021 commits for Notre Dame. But part of this is about knowing your players, and the reality is sophomore Phil Jurkovec has a game that isn’t conducive to practice dominance. Inside the newsroom of the onetime gold standard of sports journalism, it all adds up to a sense of rising uncertainty about SI’s future, staffers said, and a long-shot hope that Maven could be replaced as the magazine’s publisher. SI would continue to publish ambitious journalism, he said, while blanketing the country with an army of “credentialed" journalists covering every major pro and college team. “We’ve put them on notice on things that aren’t proper and said, ‘You need to fix them,’ ” he said. At other times he is unwilling to throw the ball with any kind of anticipation. ""This is now.''. Like at SB Nation and similar blog networks, the Maven site operators are independent contractors. I put a great deal of value on how a player practices, and it’s difficult to make the decision to put a player who isn’t thriving in practice into a game, especially when there is as much pressure to win as we see at Notre Dame. But games should also matter, and right now the starting quarterback at Notre Dame isn’t playing well enough on Saturdays. I don’t think he’s a Top 100 player and he darn sure isn’t close to being the No. To me he’s a Top 250 player. But the underachieving play in 2019 is not excusable. Heckman said the lawsuit was the work of a hostile board. I'd give Jurkovec legit first-team reps. Not the 40% reps with the second team, I'd give him actual first-team reps. Notre Dame officials have steadfastly maintained, no students on campus, no football. Then the student body came back, the rules were in place, but so were off campus parties. And experienced journalists keep leaving, including college football writer Andy Staples, NBA writer Rob Mahoney, editors Matt Dollinger and Eric Single, and NFL writer Robert Klemko. If he’s locked into his program and has his hand on the pulse of his squad, he should know what buttons need to be pushed. Or just an unwillingness to throw the ball downfield? The situations are different with each quarterback situation. The Trojan Maven writer no longer writes for the site. Asked about SI staffers’ concerns about permanent damage to the brand, he said: “We will not let it get there. It seems like the line just isn't developing according to the talent it has and considering the OL is the lifeblood at ND, it is a pretty big deal. Oddly, the situation has some Sports Illustrated staffers wondering whether enough embarrassment might cause owner ABG to consider revoking Maven’s license to publish SI. And is it reasonable to fix these issues without making changes on the coaching staff? The employees were dumbfounded: Levinsohn’s company, Maven, had just bought the rights to publish SI, and around 40 people, more than a third of the staff, had been laid off in the deal. dbhenders — It is so easy for a coach to "lose" a team for any number of reasons ... Too strict discipline which causes the team to pretty much decide this isn't what they want and mentally check out ... Too loose and the attitude becomes "we do what we want". The second part of leadership is leading by example on the field, and that is where Notre Dame is struggling in a big way. If you set a standard, you hold yourself to that standard, hold your players to that standard, show your players you care for them and lead your players will follow you, no matter how strict - or how loose - you might be. Playing quarterback at Notre Dame is also a high-pressure situation, and being “the guy” is a lot different than being “the replacement.”. Notre Dame still has a lot to play for this season. Together, ABG and Maven offered a novel rescue plan: While ABG pursued marketing opportunities for the SI brand — monetizing decades of SI covers and photos, licensing the SI name to kids’ sports camps — Maven would expand SI’s digital reach, with hundreds of “affiliate” websites covering pro and college teams. Meredith, which specializes in lifestyle brands catered to women, sold SI last spring to Authentic Brands Group, a marketing company that licenses the rights to celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and fashion brands such as Juicy Couture. SI’s ownership odyssey began in 2018, when longtime owner Time Inc. was sold to the publishing giant Meredith Corporation. According to two people with knowledge of the outreach, Maven has asked the spokespeople in college athletic departments — the institutions SI is supposed to be covering — to recommend potential hires.