A new venture.

I’ve used that phrase far too many times over the last couple of weeks.

Not that I wasn’t excited for that new venture. I just couldn’t wait much longer to reveal what that vague phrase actually meant.

I’m absolutely thrilled to be launching InsideNDSports.com on the Rivals network alongside Eric Hansen.

We couldn’t have picked a better launch date, and we technically didn’t. This was always the intended transition date. But to be launching on the day of Marcus Freeman’s first game as Notre Dame’s head football coach is some pretty cool fate.

There’s a new energy around Notre Dame’s football program, and we hope to bring a new energy to the Fighting Irish coverage on Rivals.

I’ve worked with Eric Hansen, who has been covering college sports since 1983, for nearly 10 years at the South Bend Tribune. He was part of the team that pushed to hire a recent college graduate in a new role to cover Notre Dame football recruiting. I’ll be forever grateful for that opportunity.

So it’s only fitting to be making this transition to Rivals with him. We’re excited as co-publishers to have even more control in shaping what we believe Notre Dame coverage should look and sound like. We want our subscribers to have a voice in that as well.

We know we will have some long-time supporters following us to Inside ND Sports, and we’re grateful to those loyal readers and listeners. We also are inheriting a community of subscribers, and we hope to convince you to give us a chance.

You won’t have to wait long for plenty of coverage from us. We’ve filed a number of stories ahead of the Fiesta Bowl and will have more football and recruiting coverage coming later today. We’re not exactly planning a slow start, even as the season comes to an end.

We still have more work to do. An immediate priority of ours will be hiring a full-time recruiting reporter for our staff. The sudden departure of head coach Brian Kelly made it a little difficult to conduct our own exhaustive search for a recruiting reporter who can make an impact in a competitive market. Eric and I will be carrying the recruiting coverage with the help of others across the Rivals network until we get that person in place.

We’ll launch a new podcast feed, new social media accounts and figure out how to provide compelling content on YouTube too.

Moderating a message board will be a new responsibility for us. Hopefully, we can cultivate a fun atmosphere where fans can share their thoughts, ask questions and suggest coverage ideas. We might be prickly if we disagree with the premise of a question, but we’re pretty light-hearted, too.

If you’re new to our coverage, I hope you find that we’re fair journalists who want to tell compelling stories through an honest lens. That’s the kind of coverage we appreciate as fans, and the kind of coverage you deserve as a subscriber.

A new venture is here. Welcome to Inside ND Sports.

Follow Tyler James on Twitter: @TJamesND

Follow Eric Hansen on Twitter: @EHansenND

Follow Inside ND Sports on Twitter: @insideNDsports

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