Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.

In the News

According to reports, the NCAA has voted to allow all sports, including football and basketball, to have players transfer once and be eligible immediately effective this fall. You can read Brendan’s write up on the developments HERE.

Eddie George was hired as the head coach at Tennessee State.

The AAC is the latest conference to allow athletes to transfer with no issues within the league.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area you may be able to sneak into USC’s practice if you try.

Throwback Article

I think about THIS article all the time.

The Portal

Former Penn State receiver TJ Jones has transferred to UAB. His former teammate tight end Zach Kuntz has transferred to Old Dominion.

Ohio State offensive lineman Alex Wray has entered the Portal.

Michigan 2021 signee wide receiver Xavier Worthy (0.971) has asked for his release and will not be reporting to Ann Arbor. You see it, and you just hate it.

Helmet Talk

To my knowledge, ECU has not worn this helmet on the field. But they should! You may recognize this look from the Pirates’ mid-field logo used in recent years. It’s amazing.

In the past, ECU has paired their regular helmets with yellow facemasks but I prefer this all-purple look.

Recruiting

Notre Dame picked up the commitment of defensive end prospect Darren Agu shortly after we published last Friday’s Rambler. You can read our commit post HERE.

By the way, the normal recruiting calendar is back in effect beginning June 1st so Notre Dame’s massive official visit schedule for this month is on for sure.

As heavily rumored in recent weeks, quarterback Gavin Wimsatt (0.961) committed to Rutgers.

Alabama picked up the verbal from defensive tackle Jaheim Oates (0.939) out of Mississippi. He was infamously offered by the Tide back in 8th grade.

House of the Week

I added this week’s video because Terry Crews is an awesome human, not knowing this wouldn’t even be his actual home. What a place! I agree with him (you can’t not agree with Terry on anything really) that his wallpaper in the bedroom is fantastic. The place overall was far larger than I was expecting, too.

This man has an Old Spice computer, folks. I think if you could trade the turntables for amps and guitars with the cartoons for more sports stuff this would be the perfect space for me. Including the Fruity Pebbles and Cap’n Crunch cereal. I’d be curious to see his actual house and what kind of things he keeps there versus this office/apartment/man cave.

Tunes

I started working ‘task’ at Media Play in May of 1998 as my first job at 16 years old. Basically, I was a stock boy working truly awful hours (Thursday nights, Friday nights, Saturday morning, Sunday morning with an occasional extra day or 6-hour shift sprinkled in throughout the week) waiting for semi-trucks of merchandise to be delivered, which we sorted in the back, and then pushed out on to the store floor.

Mind you, this was a time when Media Play was selling an absurd amount of music CD’s. Just racks and racks of CD’s (the cassette section was still kicking too!) and it was my favorite job to re-stock this area. Sometimes you got stuck in books (children’s books was a nightmare area) or other multimedia or toy areas but music was the place to be. This was only 3 years or so before Napster and the iPod devoured the music industry but at the time it seemed like CD’s would be around forever. Within a couple years, my two thick CD binders would reach their peak size.

Warning: Explicit lyrics because X gonna give it to ya. 

One day I was in the singles section working (remember singles sections!?) and I noticed this song “Get At Me Dog” from someone named DMX. I’ll never forget how intrigued I was by the name and cover of the single that you can see HERE. So, I bought it and immediately loved his voice and delivery. I told all my friends about this new rapper DMX, felt incredibly cool, and only 2 or 3 weeks later his debut album It’s Dark and Hell is Hot came out and completely blew up across the country. His first 3 albums especially were just so, so influential and dominated a lot of my rap taste right through my college years. RIP DMX.

On This Day in Sports

On this day in 1935, Babe Ruth hit his 1st National League homerun with the Boston Braves. He’d slug 5 more to end his career at 40 years-old with 714 dingers.

At the Cinema

Who among us watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks as a kid? Maybe you preferred Mary Poppins instead but I had this VHS and watched BaB (my shortened title) 100 times or more.

It’s weird to think about 1988 little me watching this movie released in 1971 and how it felt like from six eras before I was even alive (I think the Britishness doesn’t help in that regard). Now, thinking about my oldest daughter watching a movie from 2004 and that generational gap in the look, feel, clothing, etc. of a film is absolutely gone. It’s an example of how generations are kind of blurring together this century. Also, I just found out that Angela Lansbury is still alive at 95, good for her!

Hot Take

Men should focus more on contrasting pants and shirts while wearing a darker tie than their shirt. We can make exceptions but let’s get back to fundamentals. Unless you’re supremely confident (and likely incorporating a jacket or blazer) and stylish/smart with your accessories you should not be wearing a black dress shirt, either.

Trivia

Can you name the teams who have never appeared in the Super Bowl? Can you name the NFL teams who have never won a Super Bowl?