Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Notre Dame running back Logan Diggs was dealing with a shoulder injury during the spring, banged it up at the Blue-Gold Game, and recently had surgery. He could be out for a while.
Former Notre Dame receiver Chris Finke was claimed on waivers by the Chicago Bears.
A task force of university administrators are expected to present new guidelines on NIL rules soon, including recommending enforcement of booster-led recruiting for anything over the past 10 months. The commissioners of the SEC and Pac-12 were in Washington yesterday to lobby for federal legislation surrounding NIL rules.
Maryland has signed head coach Mike Locksley to an extension through 2026.
Scott Frost at Nebraska has been given a one-year show cause and 5-day suspension for illegal use of a special teams analyst. He may be suspended by the university.
Ohio State and Boston College have signed a home-and-home series for 2035 and 2036.
Due to a conflict with the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the National Championship is being moved to Atlanta for 2025.
Uniform of the Week
Which college football is this? I’m sure I didn’t fool anyone this time although I’d bet there was at least one person who briefly thought this was a weird Green Bay Packers throwback. Folks, today we are headed up north to the land of Larz in the Canadian Football League. Specifically, today’s team is the Edmonton Eskimos who were re-branded the Edmonton Elks last June. My first thought was doesn’t ‘Elk’ sound better than ‘Elks’ and more grammatically correct? Sounds like naming a team the Kamloops Deers.
I picked this alternate uniform for Edmonton since their standard uniforms are pretty traditional and really do look quite similar to the Packers. The giant “EE” on the chest looks so damn weird, doesn’t it? As Michigan proved years ago, removing the number on the front for something else is never going to look right.
Recruiting
Former Notre Dame safety KJ Wallace has transferred to Georgia Tech.
Wide receiver Jordan Addison (2,259 yards in 2 seasons) is leaving Pittsburgh with rumors of a NIL-backed commitment to USC with maybe Alabama lurking.
Pittsburgh picked up a commitment from quarterback Kenny Minchey (0.8923). Kenny good luck charm?
California wide receiver Jurrion Dickey (0.9425) committed to Oregon.
Interior offensive lineman Austin Siereveld (0.8911) gave a verbal to Ohio State after having Notre Dame in his final 3 schools.
Texas Tech has a verbal from running back LJ Martin (0.9038).
Former Texas and USC wide receiver Bru McCoy is transferring to Tennessee.
Former Florida quarterback Emory Jones is headed to Arizona State.
YouTube Channel
On my last visit to Las Vegas we decided to rent a car for a day and travel around some spots outside of Paradise, including the short trip to see Hoover Dam. It wasn’t something I really cared about visiting, at the time I thought about the scene where Fresh Prince mocks Carlton because they had to see the dam soon. We ended up parking up on the Arizona side and walking down across the river to the visiting center. Full disclosure, I am an absolute wimp in major heat and that walk had me unnecessarily sweaty and tired. You feel all of that concrete baking in the sun.
Thank goodness the visitor center had air conditioning. Hoover Dam is awesome! In terms of expectations versus what we experienced it was one of my favorite visits to a national icon. At the time, the visitor center was a little outdated and cramped. My issue was that I didn’t really know what to expect, but the sheer awesomeness of the structure, the intake turbines, and how they built this in the early-t0-mid 1930’s was awesome to witness. I was just reading the water levels in Lake Mead are at their lowest levels since 1971 which is sad.
Tunes
I have mixed feelings about Imagine Dragons. When they burst on to the scene in 2012 I found them super annoying. Their second album in 2015 made me feel the same. I wouldn’t classify it as bad music, just that their sound and style was very monotonous in a way that is grating when their songs are featured so heavily across media, especially as promotional vehicles.
This is straight from their Wiki page: The band’s music has been criticized for its repetitive lyrics, “overblown” arena rock production, overemphasis on reverberation effects, sticking to formulas, and genre-hopping. I mean, fair.
My opinion turned a little bit in 2017 with “Thunder” and “Believer” which I thought were still very Imagine Dragons-y but their best work yet. Recently, the group released a single “Enemy” for the Netflix series Arcane and I actually like this one, too. Forgive me.
Trivia
Who are the top 5 career receiving yards leaders in Notre Dame history?
The Other Football
Liverpool (up 2-0 from the 1st leg) had a moment of panic as Villarreal scored 2 first half goals in the 2nd leg of the Champions League semifinals this Tuesday. However, Liverpool answered with 3 goals in the 2nd half to reach their 10th UCL Finals and 3rd in the last 5 seasons.
Wednesday night’s Real Madrid vs. City game was absurdly entertaining. Trailing 5-3 in the 90th minute, Real scored in the 90th and 91st minutes to force extra time then sealed the UCL semifinal victory with a 95th minute penalty by Karim Benzema.
Liverpool and Real Madrid face off on May 28th for the Champions League title.
Rangers came from behind to beat Leipzig 3-2 and will face Frankfurt in the Europa League Final after the German-side beat West Ham 3-1 on aggregate.
Roma got past Leicester 2-1 and Feyenoord kept their 3-2 lead over Marseille in the Europa Conference League. The two teams will battle for the title on May 25th.
We have major league champions who have clinched trophies. Bayern Munich have won their 10th straight Bundesliga title, Real Madrid have won their record 35th La Liga title, and PSG have won their 10th Ligue 1 title, god bless Mauricio Pochettino that beautiful man.
According to FIFA, there have been 23.5 million requests for tickets to the World Cup taking place this fall in Qatar.
UEFA has banned Russia from hosting the Euro’s in 2028 or 2032. What a spine!
Super agent Mino Raiola passed away on April 30th at just 54 years old.
Bayern Munich and Manchester City will play an exhibition at Lambeau Field this July.
Streaming
I am so excited this compilation video was put on YouTube by Netflix. I know I Think You Should Leave has been a big hit in Notre Dame corners. They’ve yet to renew for a 3rd season which is concerning. Maybe Tim Robinson is ready to move on to different things but at least give us one more season!
I was excited about this upload because of the first episode from the 2nd season that opens up this video. In total, probably one of the least funny skits from the season. However, the ending: “Whose bag’s this? [foot tapping on the bag with vomit on it] I almost tripped on it” with the quick cut had me cackling out loud when I first watched it. Absolute classic ITYSL delivery.
A Look Back
I’ve written over the years that I generally watch most Notre Dame games at home by myself, with an occasional friend or small party. Now that I’m usually juggling our Slack and Twitter responsibilities I’m almost always alone grinding out these games. Long before we were tied down on this internet machine for gameday I have sweet, sweet memories of the 2008 Michigan game during a spontaneous day-drinking party at a friend’s house.
Does euphoric describe this game aptly? In hindsight, it wasn’t pretty (6 Michigan turnovers, Clausen throwing for just 147 yards) but in the moment this game felt so, so good. I have this vivid memory of the party starting to ignore the game during the second half (remember all the rain!) and I was just sitting there drinking and thinking, “I’m dialed in and enjoying this so damn much.”
18S Paddock Club
Despite the hype of the recent Las Vegas GP announcement to come starting next year we have the inaugural Miami GP welcoming itself to the F1 world this weekend. Being in the works since 2018, it’s been an arduous 5-year journey to get here featuring the need to ditch the original circuit plans in downtown Miami shifting to the perimeter around Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
It’s a parking lot race!
Miami Grand Prix
Miami International Autodrome
FP1 5/6 2:30 PM ET
FP2 5/6 5:30 PM ET
FP3 5/7 1:00 PM ET
Qualifying 5/7 4:00 PM ET
Race 5/8 3:30 PM ET
Most American fans have been like “do we have to?” for this race while the rest of the world has harbored stronger negative feelings to this track receiving a 10-year deal to host races. As a brand new track the teams will be collecting data feverishly throughout practice especially with race temperatures expected to be in the high 80’s and some of the hottest on the F1 calendar.
The track itself, doesn’t seem too bad.
With 3 full throttle straights it’s an extremely fast circuit. Turn 1 will offer a heavy braking zone down into 2nd gear while the long left-hander at turn 7 will see some down-shifting into the long back straight. Turn 11 will be another heavy braking zone and begins the most technical part of the track as the next 6 corners all come quickly within 15 seconds. Turn 17 is the last braking zone after the longest straight before it’s full throttle down through the main straight.
Whether this turns into a good race remains to be seen but this weekend will be the first litmus test for Formula 1 attempting to turn this into a “Super Bowl-like” event. They’ve coordinated, promoted, and set up the race, are charging exorbitant ticket prices, and have surrounded the track with a dizzying array of party areas, including pulling in a row of yachts in a fake dock (featuring plastic covering meant to mimic water) for the visual effect. Trashy Monaco!
The potential for a huge success for F1 or a huge embarrassment are both equally in play–classic Florida right? Although, I think generally this will get very good reviews for the glamour and celebrities on hand with more criticism aimed at the inaccessibility for the common folks of America.
The new track surface was built to provide high tire degradation and with the high temperatures and possibility of rain on Sunday it’s likely a few drivers really struggle getting their cars into the right set up windows on the track. The season is quickly devolving into a battle between Leclerc (+125) and Verstappen (+100) for every win and both have enormously heavy odds compared to 3rd place in either teammate Sainz (+1200) or Perez (+1200). Some teams (like Mercedes) are using this weekend to ramp up their upgrades and we’ll see someone outside of Red Bull or Ferrari can mix it up at the top, but I doubt it.
During the last couple races in Australia and Imola the perceived favorite didn’t win. If Red Bull can stay within a couple tenths of Ferrari in that technical section their power in the straights should make them tough to beat. But, it’s Ferrari’s turn to bring some updates (a new rear wing and floor are supposedly coming, plus rumors of Leclerc breaking out his 2nd power unit) and I think Charles wins for the first race ever in Miami.
1st – Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
2nd – Max Verstappen, Red Bull
3rd – Sergio Perez, Red Bull
Trivia Answer:
1) Michael Floyd, 2) Golden Tate, 3) Jeff Samardzija, t-4) Derrick Mayes, t-4) Will Fuller
Man, I’ve got my money on the Miami GP being embarrassing. The fake water and yachts, the fake “beach club” – it’s tacky and artificial, so perfectly encapsulates the host city. The track looks decent, but I hate that they had to do it in a parking lot, instead of making it a true street circuit.
It seems like so far it’s a huge hit with the teams and drivers. It’ll probably have to be a terrible race for the fans to think it’s embarrassing.
First race of the season that I’m really not excited about. The fake water is not helping.
I’ve never been able to easily convey my disain for Florida to those outside the South, but I will try to keep an open mind.
2008 Michigan was the most pure, unadulterated fun I had in Notre Dame Stadium as a student. The week leading up to the game was the most rain that South Bend had received in one week in recorded history, which is saying something. And it rained so hard during the game that it drowned almost everyone’s cell phone.
And it gave us this wonderful revenge video.
And then this happened that night.
Pretty great day.
A bunch of us celebrated by dancing in Stonehenge afterwards. We were already wet!
My phone was water damaged and I got sick of course. Worth it!
I was thinking Tim Brown was going to be on that list of receivers… guess we didn’t throw the ball enough in the mid -80’s.
Also can’t help but compare Addison to Zay Flowers at BC. ESPN did an interesting article on him. Have to admire Flowers dedication. Half a million to transfer would be tempting to any young man, let alone one with a large family and no mother.
Lastly, I hope the NCAA can do something meaningful on the booster led recruiting. Pretty sure this wasn’t the intent of NIL. Unforeseen consequences.
Looks like Derrick Mayes beat Tim Brown by 19 yards over 4 seasons of playing.
Rec Yds Avg TD
Mayes 129 2512 19.5 22
Brown 137 2493 18.2 12
Wow those are actually the 5 WR that I thought of. Mayes was among the first “stars” I can remember. Best hands ever if I recall.
I wasn’t sure in terms of yards but those seemed to be the most recent “best” WR. Most recent seemed necessary since the ball just wasn’t thrown as much the further you go back.
Completely agree, which is also why I find Mayes accomplishment even more impressive. Those were still very heavy run first teams he was a part of. I was still a bit too young to remember when Tim Brown was playing, so Lake Dawson and Derrick Mayes were my favorite WRs back then. Of course, Rocket, but he was more remembered for returning kicks.
Which has me wondering as TE U, who are the top 5? Rudolph, Eifert, Fasano, Carlson, Kmet, Irv Smith, Niklas? I am sure Meyer is up there even with just 2 years
Eifert far more productive in college than Rudolph if memory serves. Rudolph had some injury issues didn’t he? Eifert would have to be #1. A true threat from the outside like a WR. Rudolph was probably the 2nd most talented but some injuries held him back.
After that maybe Kmet. Irv Smith was a stud but again like above not much of a passing game so hard to compare.
Other recent NFL draft picks: Niklas, Koyack, Smythe, Mack, Tremble. Not sure how to distinguish these guys. Smythe seems to be better in the NFL than he was at ND. Some of the other guys had a lot of potential but not a ton of production (Niklas, Mack). Tremble was good obviously but didn’t catch a ton playing more of a blocking role.
Fasano and Carlson might have been better than most, if not all, of this group.
And yes of course Meyer.
So a top 6 would be something like Eifert, Rudolph, Meyer, Kmet, Fasano, Carlson.
Yeah, this sounds exactly right to me. Although I will always love Koyack for ripping Stanford’s heart out in the 2014 game.
Irv Smith playing in the last 10 years would’ve been a beast. He did make good on the touches he got though…i mean, there are defenders from IU that are still embarrassed about that.
ahem,,.., Dave Casper, Mark Bavaro….just sayin.
i think you meant to reply to irishchamp23, but i agree…also add MacAfee, Tony Hunter, and Derek Brown.
And in my googling to remember Hunter’s name i relearned that Irv Smith was actually the 20th pick overall, one pick ahead of Eifert but only the 4th highest ND TE taken in the draft.
Sorry guys – that’s a bit before my time so while I believe you I don’t really know those guys first hand.
No worries. ND has been TE U for a long time. Here is a clip to explain my comment about IU defenders still being embarrassed 30 years later
https://youtu.be/JMRELfUFzn0
Here’s the career receiving of all ND TE draft picks:
1,840 – Tyler Eifert
1,759 – Ken MacAfee
1,112 – Anthony Fasano
1,093 – John Carlson
1,032 – Kyle Rudolph
899 – Derek Brown
838 – Irv Smith
771 – Mark Bavaro
716 – Alize Mack
692 – Jabari Holloway
691 – Cole Kmet
585 – Pete Chryplewicz
573 – Troy Niklas
532 – Ben Koyack
507 – Tony Hunter*
401 – Tommy Tremble
383 – Dan O’Leary
381 – Durham Smythe
335 – Dave Casper
306 – Jim Winegardner
224 – Joel Williams
79 – John Owens
67 – Jerome Collins
*1,897 career yards but only played tight end as a senior.
Michael Mayer has 1,290 yards and is already 3rd all-time at Notre Dame.
Thanks Eric. Had no idea that MacAfee was that productive. Barring injury, Meyer should eclipse Tyler
Casper played Tackle one year.(72′ honorable mention AA) Then his senior year was AA TE on the 73’NC team.
Exactly! I do remember Rocket – but like you my main early memories are from a bit later than the Rocket really.
You did it!!
https://deadline.com/2022/05/i-think-you-should-leave-with-tim-robinson-renewed-season-3-netflix-1235018286/