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

In the News

Long-time Notre Dame writer Lou Somogyi passed away from an apparent heart attack this past Saturday following a round of tennis. He was just 58 years old. I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic in saying that I, as well as many of our writers here at 18 Stripes, drew inspiration from Lou and the way he covered Notre Dame athletics. I never met him personally but you could still feel his kindness in the way he approached Irish sports. We’ve seen an outpouring of support about what an extremely nice person Lou was and on a human level he was someone to strive towards in life.

I can remember getting the larger Blue Gold Illustrated magazine papers in the mail in the early 2000’s and feeling like this was top notch sports journalism on something I loved. What a treat! That seems like 40 years ago now which make it all the more sad that Somogyi hadn’t even reached 60 years old yet. He had so much more to give and knowledge to impart to us all.

Lou was a big part of the reason why I started writing about Notre Dame–I wanted to be like him. In fact, you could definitely trace the roots of this website back to Lou in a way. We wanted to be factual, historical, and provide writing that was entertaining for Notre Dame fans but with content that never crosses the line into being nasty to players or coaches. Firm but fair and honest.

I think this will be Lou’s legacy that will live on for many years, perhaps decades. He got started well before the internet, dealt with a massive industry change, and held on to become such a standard bearer for Notre Dame coverage while paving a path for so many others to follow in his footsteps. He will be missed greatly.

Lou Somogyi will have a Mass of Christian Burial at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus today, April 23rd. Blue Gold Illustrated has also set up a memorial scholarship in his name, as well.

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Notre Dame has signed up for a 2-game series with Indiana for 2030 and 2031.

Former USC offensive lineman Chris Brown tragically passed away at 24 years old.

The Football Oversight Committee is set to recommend changes to fall camp which would reduce padded practices from 21 to 8, ban collision exercises, and limit teams to just 2 scrimmages in August pre-season.

The FCS playoffs are set to begin this weekend, check out the schedule and matchups.

Neal Brown got an extension after one year at West Virginia.

The overtime rules will be changed this year, now you have to go for a 2-point conversion after the 2nd overtime period.

Throwback Article

It’s almost time for another scholarship update. HERE is a look at the situation back in January.

The Portal

Former Michigan quarterback Joe Milton has decided to transfer to Tennessee.

Arkansas receiver Mike Woods is coming off 5 touchdowns last year and is leaving Fayetteville.

Penn State corner Joseph Johnson is leaving Happy Valley after one season with the Nittany Lions. Former teammate and defensive end Shane Simmons will transfer as well, after saying he was headed pro.

Syracuse linebacker Tyrell Richards has 6 career sacks and is leaving the Orange.

Southern Miss defensive end Jacques Turner didn’t play in 2020 but had 13 tackles for loss 2 years ago and is now transferring.

Western Kentucky freshman All-American defensive tackle Ricky Barber is transferring to UCF.

Clark Lea lost safety Donovan Kaufman to the Portal, he was the 2nd highest recruit for Vanderbilt in the 2020 class.

Helmet Talk

I’m weird about the Florida helmet. Sometimes I feel like they could do better. Their white helmet with the large blue “F” is a pretty tasty look, especially with their home uniforms.

Then, other times I feel like this is an iconic look. I typically don’t like script, though. I feel like I’m perpetually being the Larry David unsure gif with this helmet.

Recruiting

Wide receiver Tyler Morris (0.964) suffered a knee injury and then made a surprising commitment to Michigan.

Kentucky dipped into Indiana (right across the border) to pick up the verbal from offensive lineman Kiyaunta Goodwin (0.977). The Wildcats also added linebacker Keaten Wade (0.925) from Tennessee.

Janiran Bonner (0.912) is a receiver from Georgia who is staying in-state with the Yellow Jackets.

LSU landed the nation’s top tight end Jake Johnson (0.965) out of Georgia.

House of the Week

Any time I hear Aspen I immediately think of the movie Dumb and Dumber. Anyone else? I kind of like the rule of not being able to build up and creating these elaborate subfloors below your home.

I love the nonchalant, “I have 6 fridges in this home” talk. You fancy! There’s something really creepy about the well shafts in the basement even if it’s a smart idea for safety. Armstrong continues to talk about his fridges and really opens himself up to a lot of doping jokes, I’m afraid.

Tunes

For many of you, Chicago the band has turned into a meme or joke based off their incessant appearances during Notre Dame halftime shows. Don’t let that blind you to the fact that this band absolutely ripped it up in their prime. Here’s a track off their 2nd album from January 1970:

As musicians, Chicago were so damn good. I’ve always had a soft spot for drummer Danny Seraphine who I think is criminally underrated, even within his own band. There are so many tracks where he’s truly carrying the song and “Make Me Smile” is a good example of him shining.

On This Day in Sports

Major League Baseball’s 1919 season began on this day and would end with the infamous Black Sox Scandal that rocked the entire country.

Book Nook

I’m about half-way through “Arctic Dreams” from Notre Dame alumnus Barry Lopez who recently passed away. It’s a little more academic than I was hoping, which is fine, but at times it can be a bit of a slog to read so many various names for animals and plants across various languages (including Latin) and put the pieces together visually. I’m through the chapters on the muskox, polar bear, and just finished up the narwhal. Man, did people love them some narwhal ivory back in the day!

Hot Take

In the summer of 1994, I moved from a small town an hour outside of Buffalo to the north Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda. It’s also weird the things you remember, but I always recall how the police force in town had these white squad cars decked out in royal blue and bright green colors, mimicking the official colors of the town.

Now, their squad cars look like THIS. 

Say what you want about the militarization of local police forces, I would just like to see more vibrant police cars again, or at least some variety. My local village now has primarily black cars, my county’s sheriff office just switched to all-black cars, and don’t think I haven’t noticed New York State troopers vehicles used to be a somewhat medium-to-dark blue, but still blue looking, and now the blue they use is so dark it might as well be black.

Trivia

Who scored the last touchdown for Notre Dame last year and on what kind of play?

Note: With the NFL Draft and Blue Gold Game coming up over the next week there will be no Weekly Rambler next Friday. We will return to our regularly schedule programming on May 7th.