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

Top News

Irish quarterback Drew Pyne has entered the transfer portal and will not play in the Gator Bowl. Also not returning for 2023 include 2019 recruit Osita Ekwonu who bounced around from linebacker to pass rusher without playing time and 2022 corner recruit Jayden Bellamy who did not play this past season.

Tight end Michael Mayer has declared for the NFL Draft and will skip the Gator Bowl.

The Athletic named Mayer a 1st team All-American while offensive tackle Joe Alt was named to their 2nd-team honors. 247 Sports also named Mayer (1st), Alt (1st), and Isaiah Foskey (2nd team) to their All-American teams.

Corner Benjamin Morrison has picked up Freshmen All-American honors from College Football News, On3 and 247 Sports.

The 2022 Heisman finalists include all the quarterbacks who made the college football playoff: Stetson Bennett, Caleb Williams, Max Duggan, and CJ Stroud.

A bunch of quarterbacks have entered the transfer portal since the last Rambler, including: D.J. Uiagalelei (Clemson), Zach Calzada (Auburn), Kedon Slovis (Pittsburgh), Devin Leary (NC State), Graham Mertz (Wisconsin), Hudson Card (Texas), Luke Altmyer (Ole Miss), Jeff Sims (Georgia Tech), Brennan Armstrong (Virginia), Hank Bachmeier (Boise State), Spencer Sanders (Oklahoma State), JT Daniels (West Virginia), and Haynes King (Texas A&M). I’m probably missing several prominent others, as well!

Phil Jurkovec entered the transfer portal late last week and picked Pittsburgh as his new school. Notre Dame will host the Panthers during the 2023 season. Phil and Pat Narduzzi, what a pairing for us Irish fans!

Deion Sanders has left Jackson State to become the new head coach at Colorado. They don’t have the money but they’re apparently going to work it out. Kent State head coach Sean Lewis is leaving to become the Buffaloes offensive coordinator. Prime has added Alabama associate defensive coordinator Charles Kelly to come help the Colorado defense.

Cincinnati has hired Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield in bit of a surprising move. Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm is finalizing a deal to go to Louisville where he was a former player and assistant.

Coastal Carolina head coach Jamey Chadwell has left the program to take the Liberty job. NC State offensive coordinator Tim Beck is set to become the new coach for Coastal.

Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh is the new head coach at USF.

Arkansas DC Barry Odom is the new head coach at UNLV.

Tulsa has hired Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson as their new head coach.

Oregon is signing UTSA offensive coordinator Will Stein for the same position with the Ducks.

Tom Herman is the new head coach at FAU.

North Texas has fired head coach Seth Littrell.

G.J. Kinne is the new head coach at Texas State.

Former Notre Dame assistant Lance Taylor was just named as the new head coach at Western Michigan.

Jim Leonhard is leaving Wisconsin as defensive coordinator after their bowl game. The Badgers are also taking North Carolina’s Phil Longo to coordinate their offense under Luke Fickell. That is a major 180-degree turn in offense for Wisconsin which will be fascinating to watch.

Alabama’s Will Anderson has won the Nagurski Trophy for the second straight season.

Quarterback Jordan Travis has announced he’ll return to Florida State for 2023. Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. will be returning to Seattle. Quarterback KJ Jefferson is returning to Arkansas.

Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson has declared for the NFL Draft and won’t play in the Gators’ bowl game. Kentucky quarterback Will Levis has done the same and won’t play in the Wildcats’ bowl game, either.

TCU head coach Sonny Dykes signed a contract extension through the 2028 season. The Frogs’ offensive coordinator Garrett Riley has won the Broyles Award as the top assistant in the country.

PJ Fleck also signed a new 7-year contract at Minnesota through the 2029 season.

Ohio State wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba is turning pro and will not be playing in the semifinals against Georgia.

Producer and betting expert Chris “The Bear” Fallica is leaving ESPN for Fox.

Uniform of the Week

Now that Louisville is getting a new head coach maybe now is the time for the program to get a makeover for their uniforms? I am not going to criticize everything about their look. There are some things they put together that are fine. Adidas has been with the school for quite a while and they use the Cardinals to promote a lot of different looks, which again, more power to you. However, stuff like this has to stop:

This is one of the worst uniforms that any team wore in college football during 2022. While I kind of like “The VILLE” wordmark across the chest there isn’t another redeeming feature to any of this gray and red mess. When Brohm played quarterback for the Cardinals they wore really simple and classic uniforms. Maybe he’ll move them back in that direction?

Recruiting

Notre Dame added Virginia athlete Brandyn Hillman (0.8943) on Wednesday. Commit post is HERE.

Former Irish target edge rusher Samuel M’Pemba (0.9850) committed to Georgia.

Running back Reuben Owens (0.9880) verballed to Louisville back in June with NIL bags firmly in hand. On Wednesday, he left the Cardinals class. First, I drag their uniforms, now this bad news. Would you look at that, Owens committed to Texas A&M the very same day he left Louisville’s class. I wonder why?

Safety Marvin Burks (0.9018) has given a verbal to Missouri.

Offensive tackle Spencer Fano (0.9401) has committed to Utah.

YouTube Channel

I was reading something recently about how the true wealth of the Saudi royal family is much larger than estimated. The crown prince is reported to have a personal wealth of $18 billion while the family as a whole measures $1.4 trillion in their coffers. Some experts believe the true amount is tens of trillions overall. With this in mind, I give you Saudi Arabia’s absolutely insane construction project The Line currently under development in the northwest of the country at the southeastern end of the Gulf of Aqaba:

It’ll be a city stretching 110 miles in-land with a pair of 1,640 foot tall glass sky scrapers set 660 feet apart. They are projecting 9 million people will live within its walls which would be nearly 7 times more people per square kilometer than the world’s most dense city in Manila. Estimates say it’ll cost anywhere from $800 billion to $1 trillion to complete the project by 2030. This is something people do when there is no limit to the amount of money you can spend.

Tunes

Fleetwood Mac keyboardist and singer Christine McVie passed away on November 30th at the age of 79 years old. Fleetwood Mac had a couple of dynamic transformations in their career and the addition of McVie in the early 1970’s was one of the biggest and most important after Peter Green left the band. If anyone says that the pre-McVie/Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham version of Fleetwood Mac was better they need to just stop it right now. Art is subjective but there are limits.

McVie married bass player John McVie early in Fleetwood Mac’s success. If you Google a fellow named Curry Grant (the band’s lighting director) he’s mostly pictured with Stevie Nicks which is odd because McVie had an affair with him and he was the inspiration for their 1977 top 10 hit “You Make Loving Fun” from their gigantic record Rumors. That is a really bad beat for husband John, banging out bass notes on tour with that bruised ego always on his mind. They did divorce later in 1977.

Trivia

I am the only player in recent memory to lead the country in tackles for loss in back-to-back seasons. Who am I?

The Other Football

Since our last update the World Cup has completed the group stages and moved through the round of 16, as well. Unfortunately, the United States were sent home in a 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands this past Saturday.

The US actually played pretty well all things considered but couldn’t find the finishing touch that the Dutch pulled out in the American final third. It’ll be a long 4 years to prepare for the next World Cup but it’ll be one heck of a pressure cooker as the tournament comes to North America in 2026.

The rest of the Round of 16 results:

Argentina 2-1 over Australia
Croatia 1-1 in penalties over Japan
Brazil 4-1 over South Korea
England 3-0 over Senegal
France 3-1 over Poland
Morocco 0-0 in penalties over Spain
Portugal 6-1 over Switzerland

This sets up the following quarterfinal matchups:

12/9 Netherlands vs. Argentina
12/9 Croatia vs. Brazil
12/10 England vs. France
12/10 Morocco vs. Portugal

Speaking of Saudi Arabia having too much money, there are reports that Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (who terminated his contract with Man U right before the World Cup) could sign for Al-Nassr through June 2025 for upwards of $500 million. I mean, sure.

Super sad news for Gabriel Jesus who injured his knee at the World Cup and won’t be able to return to the Brazil and Arsenal lineup for 3 months.

Streaming

I came across a scene from Mr. Robot a few days ago and I found it pretty intriguing. It made me realize I know nothing about this show. For whatever reason, I’ve missed everything about the show since it debuted back in 2015. I recognize Rami Malek (who I can’t unsee as Freddie Mercury anymore) and Christian Slater. I see that the show is on Amazon Prime now.

So what say you, readers? Is the show worth watching? It has really high approval ratings and picked up a bunch of awards over its short run on the USA Network. How high should I get my expectations?

A Look Back

With the Gator Bowl matchup against South Carolina coming up at the end of the month it made me go back and look at the beginning of the Lou Holtz era with the Gamecocks. I have memories of the 1998 Holiday season when news broke of Holtz taking over in Columbia and being kind of angry with the idea because he seemed like the type who would be forever retired. No, not our Lou! Little did we know he had different plans for his career, especially later with ESPN!

His first game with South Carolina came during Tropical Storm Dennis with high winds and rain. In the awful elements, the Gamecocks turned the ball over on their first 4 possessions and fumbled 6 times total in the first half. NC State only managed 96 total yards but won 10-0 thanks in part to a blocked punt returned for a touchdown. It was not a fun first year for Holtz coming back to college football.

18S Paddock Club

Previewing each team on the grid for the 2023 season…

Team: Williams
Founded: 1977
2022 Result: 10th
Base: Grove, Oxfordshire, UK
Owners: Dorilton Capital
Power Unit: Mercedes
Team Principal: Jost Capito
Drivers: Alex Albon (4th year, 2nd with Williams), Logan Sargeant (rookie)

The Good: Williams appears on a path to recovery with the infusion of money from the American investment firm Dorilton stabilizing the ownership situation for a legendary F1 team who fell on hard times. By all accounts, they had enough money to push toward the cost cap in 2022 and brought a considerable amount of updates to last year’s car. After a brief break from F1, Alex Albon came back to the sport and proved he’s super talented and capable of carrying the team.

The Bad: It’s not clear if the team as a whole is very talented. They spoke of having more money, brought updates, but also put it out there that they couldn’t focus too much on their 2022 car after their one big chassis change. Their initial offering to the new 2022 regulations flopped and they spent the first several months of the season spinning their wheels before abandoning the project and moving toward a more Red Bull-type concept. They were routinely the fastest on the straights at the speed traps but only because their downforce was terrible and they kept low downforce rear wings to compensate. With Haas fielding an actual F1 team again, it was Williams who sank to the bottom of the grid.

There’s an American on the grid for 2023.

2023 Hope: Ridding themselves of perennial loser Nicholas Latifi is a great start. Albon offers an excellent experienced driver with enough youthful talent to make Williams’ fans believe they could push towards the midfield. Adding rookie Logan Sargeant will give the team plenty of press as the American breaks into F1 as a soon-to-be 22-year old. Their social media and fan apparel are also some of the best in the sport, which helps to rebuild their brand. Still, it’s difficult not to think what could’ve happened if Oscar Piastri signed a multi-year deal with the team and what pairing him with Albon would’ve looked like next year. Sargeant has decent promise but his junior career was far from stellar–he’ll be under a lot of pressure to look like he belongs in 2023.

Trivia Answer:

Sutton Smith, Northern Illinois, 26.6 TFL in 2018 and 29.5 TFL in 2017.