Mike Frank of Irish Eyes with Mike Frank has what many Irish fans would consider a dream job: To cover Notre Dame athletics. Every day. All day. Year Round. In doing so, Mike’s provided the Irish fan base with tons of excellent coverage of ND athletic programs, a wonderful community for Irish fans, a podcast that should be a national radio show, and more inside recruiting information than you could shake a stick at.

Anyway, we at HLS were curious about what it’s like to have such a cool job, so we did a little Q&A with Mike via e-mail…

HLS – A lot of ND fans would love to have a career covering Notre Dame Football and Recruiting. How did you get into the business? Did you cover other teams before the Irish? Were you always a Notre Dame fan?

Mike Frank – I grew up a Notre Dame fan. My parents are from Kansas, and since there wasn’t good football teams in Kansas, and the fact that my parents are Catholic, Notre Dame became the school of choice. My dad’s side of the family is full of ND fans. It rubbed off on me. I grew up loving the Irish in the land of Huskers. I somehow managed to get into this business by chatting in a chat room of all places. I happened to run into Jamie Newberg, who is a great friend of mine and a Scout.com national recruiting expert. At the time Jamie was starting in a business called Border Wars. He followed recruiting in the state of Georgia and Florida. He was somewhat new to the business, and I was really into recruiting. I told him I’d help him for free. I did that for about two years as well as called for free for a company called Studentsports.com. They then helped me get started with my own business.

HLS – What’s the toughest part of your job? On the opposite end of the spectrum, what keeps you waking up day after day and pursuing leads and news?

MF – The toughest part of my job is missing all the football. That’s very true. I get to watch ND and that’s about it. While everyone is at home watching the morning games, I’m at the tailgates meeting up with our customers. As soon as the game is over I’m doing our post-game radio show. I rarely get to watch much college football other than the ND games. I really miss that. As for what keeps me going, how could you not love a job like this? I keep reminding myself how many people would kill to have my job and so that keeps me going. It can be a grind, but it’s also a great job to have.

HLS – How has the exponential growth of sports blogs affected your business? There are more Notre Dame blogs than we can count. Do you enjoy reading any sports blogs in particular?

MF – I think the blogs have been outstanding, actually. There are a number of great ND blogs out there already, and I think they do a fantastic job of bringing some perspective we don’t have time to do or can’t do. I do read some of the blogs when someone draws my attention to a particular article, but I don’t read anything other than our stuff on a daily basis. I simply don’t have time to check all of that out. Wish I did because I know there is some great stuff out there.

HLS – How on earth do you go about picking such diverse music for your Irish Eyes Power Hour Podcast? Any chance we could hear “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass soon?

MF – I have a very diverse music taste I guess. I like music from all kinds of different time periods and genres of music. What I like is good music. I don’t care if it’s blues, rock, country, funk, rap, etc. The problem is the best musicians and songwriters rarely get played because we’re bombarded with what MTV and the record companies think they can easily market, not what’s actually good music. So I’ll gladly pick up the torch and run with it when it comes to introducing people to truly talented and gifted people who deserve some exposure. I actually don’t own the song “Brandy,” although it’s a fine song.

HLS – Did you have any aspirations to play a role in the sports world as either an athlete or coach? Are there things about either role that you really envy? Are there any things about either role that you look at and think, “Man, I’m glad I’m not that guy?”

MF – Who wouldn’t want to be the starting QB at ND? Sure, I would’ve loved to be physically gifted enough to play at the college level. I even enjoyed coaching when I coached baseball many moons ago. But I wouldn’t want to be a college coach. While the job has it’s perks, I can’t stand to travel via the airlines. These guys are gone for months at a time traveling on the airlines. Too many hours. Too much travel. Too little job security. As for the player aspect of it, I don’t think anyone wants to be the guy who cost ND the game, and unfairly, that’s usually someone, even though it isn’t just one guy that costs ND a game.

HLS – Who’s your dark-horse candidate to be, let’s say, “Impact Player of the Year” for Notre Dame?

MF – My dark-horse candidate would have to be Armando Allen. I just think coach Weis will find a way to give him opportunities to make big plays. I think we’ll see a lot of him on the field in 2007.

HLS – What 2007 Freshman, aside from JC, do you think will have a real opportunity to compete for playing time and make real contributions this season?

MF – Armando Allen, Duval Kamara, Robert Hughes, Ian Williams, Brandon Walker, Kerry Neal, Brian Smith and probably Golden Tate. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Harrison Smith and Mike Ragone on the field as well this fall.

HLS – When the transition from Ty Willingham’s coaching regime to Charlie Weis’ occurred, what sort of obstacles did you find you had to overcome in order to establish connections with the new coaching staff, and continue to pursue information about Notre Dame’s quickly changing recruiting “landscape?”

MF – With change always comes uncertainty. I just did what I’ve always done. I think we’ve been around long enough for people to know who we are, what we do, and how we operate. It’s always a slow process, but if you do things right, problems like this always seem to work itself out.

HLS – Are there any players in this year’s 2007 Notre Dame squad that you covered during recruiting that you find yourself cheering for because of what you came to know about them as people?

MF – That’s a good question, and for the most part, all of them. I know some of them better than others through the recruiting process, and I probably clicked with some better than others as well. That’s just natural for anyone. There are some that I do really hope succeed because they’re very nice young men trying their best to succeed. I don’t think most people realize the pressure that many of these kids are under. All of them hope to play in the NFL. All of them want to succeed. All of them want take care of their families with a big NFL contract. The reality of the situation is very, very few will actually accomplish that goal, so I’m more hopeful they’ll get their degree because I know that the real world is their future reality, at least for most of them. I do have my favorites though—like anyone. If you watch a game with me, it’s pretty obvious. I’m not good about keeping quiet during the games.

HLS – What past players have you maintained relationships with even after they’ve left Notre Dame?

MF – A good number of them, actually. Probably the most recognizable to everyone is Sean Milligan because he and I work together with his bus trips and my speaking at Victory Liquors. Ryan Robert is another many know about because he helped out for a long time on Power Hour. There are quite a few others, but I’m not sure they’d want me to “out” them.

Thanks a ton, Mike! We’ll be sure to get a copy of “Brandy” to you soon.

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