Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Notre Dame will open up spring practice on March 22nd and the Blue-Gold Game will take place on April 22nd. The Pro Day for Irish athletes will take place on campus on March 24th.
Isaiah Foskey clocked a 4.58 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine on Thursday night.
Notre Dame has hired offensive line coach Joe Rudolph to complete the 2023 staff. The school also officially announced Gino Guidugli was quarterbacks coach this week.
Emotional news out of Athens where presumed top 5 pick Jalen Carter has been charged with reckless driving and racing misdemeanors in the crash that killed teammate Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy.
The Mark Emmert era as NCAA President is officially over as Charlie Baker stepped into the role beginning on Wednesday, March 1st.
Stanford has just hired their own offensive line coach in Viane Talamaivao who played at USC through 2018 and has been a graduate assistant at Oregon and Northern Arizona.
Autry Denson had just been hired as Northwood Academy’s athletic director but is headed to be the running backs coach for the Arizona Cardinals.
Bob Diaco is headed to LSU and reuniting with Brian Kelly as a defensive analyst.
Florida has hired Alabama linebackers coach Austin Armstrong to be their defensive coordinator.
Maryland is set to hire Josh Gattis as their next offensive coordinator.
In more “not great news in the ACC” this week, Florida State AD Mike Alford is calling on the league to institute an uneven revenue distribution plan or the school will leave. The Clemson AD Graham Neff has also echoed that statement. Related, the FSU general counsel has put a $120 million price tag on buying out of the ACC media rights deal.
The NCAA came out with recruiting violations and infractions for 4 former Tennessee football employees resulting in show-cause orders for those people .
Uniform of the Week
If you’ve followed college football for any length of time you probably are aware of the 1999 BYU football uniforms. Up until this point, the Cougars wore very familiar royal blue and white uniforms with a sprinkling of black in them beginning in the 1990’s. Then, the school teamed up with Nike and decided to pivot to navy blue and sandstorm gold for BYU colors. They also introduced a new logo. Combined, these decisions were not popular, but it was the home football jersey that year which book its ticket in the annals of worst uniforms in the history of human sporting and holds a special place in college football tradition.
The 1999 BYU “Bib” jersey was magnificent and audacious in its approach to conventional uniform wisdom. It was mocked, derided, and eventually thrown away by Nike to start 2000. But the memories remain forever. Also, check out the road uniforms with their distinct Penn State vibe which also includes the banner in the background. Penn State had unveiled a new alternate logo with their lion atop the script in 1996. I bet it was the same designer from Nike that did the BYU logo, too.
Recruiting
Drama in the recruiting world as young buck site On3 has lowered Notre Dame quarterback commit CJ Carr’s ranking to no. 200 overall in the country. The nerve.
Maryland offensive lineman grad transfer Mason Lunsford reported an upcoming visit to Notre Dame but it was called off after never receiving an offer from the Irish.
Top 100 wide receiver JJ Harrell (0.9486) committed to Tennessee.
Running back David Eziomume (0.9000) committed to Clemson.
Michigan linebacker Kari Jackson (0.8910) gave a verbal to Penn State.
YouTube Channel
Let’s talk megaprojects, shall we? The YouTube video today breaks down the top 10 new and/or recent projects throughout the world:
#10 Petronas Towers, Malaysia – For some reason, I don’t know if it’s the perspective, but these towers have never seemed that large to me. Big yes, but they don’t look like they are among the largest towers in the world.
#9 Marina Bay Sands, Singapore – This reminds me of the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World.
#8 Forest City, Malaysia – How did any adult, let alone potentially hundreds and thousands of adults, think this project was a good idea?
#7 The Line, Saudi Arabia – We talked about this project in a previous Rambler.
#6 Tesla Gigafactory, Nevada – I drive by the Buffalo Gigafactory once and a while. It is hilariously long as you see it from the road. This Nevada factory will potentially be so, so much larger.
#5 Jubail Island, UAE – It’s like the Forest City project but completed with some touches of sanity.
#4 Meryal Waterpark, Qatar – If you watch the video, it’s basically all of Doha as a city as megaproject which is great but also as we know from the World Cup actually terrible through the lens of human rights.
#3 The GERD, Ethiopia – I didn’t think much of these water projects until I saw Hoover Dam up close. Yeah, these are pretty cool.
#2 Hinkley Point C, England – I have to be honest, a little underwhelming while being this high on the list. The circular structure (is that considered the core?) of the nuclear reactor project is neat, though.
#1 South-to-North Water Transfer Project, China – I mean this project is so large we don’t really have any solid pictures and videos to understand it. Quite the ambitiousness!
Tunes
Post Malone’s 2019 hit “Wow.” has some memorable lyrics, including “G-Wagen, G-Wagen, G-Wagen, G-Wagen all the housewives pulling up.” It always reminds of a time in 1999 while walking to our general store on campus and seeing a brand-new Mercedes W641 G-Wagen in murdered out black (this being before the look became popular) and it’s as surprised and impressed as I’ve ever been of a vehicle in person. That person was way ahead of their time, and presumably, really really wealthy.
Did you know that Post Malone’s father worked for the Dallas Cowboys? A native of Syracuse, New York he moved to Grapevine, Texas as a kid and his dad eventually became the manager of concessions for the Cowboys. Hence, Malone’s love for America’s Team. Although, I wonder if he stayed in Syracuse is he a fan of the Giants today? Jets? Bills? Steelers? Since he was born in the mid-1990’s I’m going to say he would’ve been a Giants fan all the way.
Trivia
What is the most played video game of all-time?
The Other Football
Manchester United beat Newcastle 2-0 on Sunday to win the English Football League Cup, the first trophy for the club under manager Erik ten Hag who was appointed 9 months ago. It’s the 6th time the Red Devils have hoisted the EFL Trophy.
Tottenham thrashed Chelsea 2-0 on Sunday, let us celebrate. I would imagine new owner Todd Boehly is going to reach into his wallet again and fire new manager Graham Potter at some point soon. Chelsea sit in 10th place in the EPL with only 9 wins in 26 games since Potter took over in September.
In true Spurs form, they then crashed out of the FA Cup 1-0 at Sheffield United on Wednesday. Grimsby Town (currently 16th in League Two!) took out Southampton 2-1 on Wednesday, as well.
Arsenal beat Everton 4-0 this week to move 5 points clear atop the EPL table.
Barcelona suck past Real Madrid 1-0 in the Copa del Rey semifinals on Thursday.
Streaming
I’m still scarred to this day. Back in 1993, Hollywood Pictures made the Super Mario Bros. film that was one of the biggest flops of the decade. It was like they took Mario and made it a dystopian nightmare along the lines of Demolition Man, also released in 1993. That was 2 different production companies but man, the films are so similar. That period during the early 1990’s just had that vibe in movies, though.
We’re a month away from the new animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie coming out in theaters. I’m debating making this my daughters’ first movie experience. I’m getting really strong Lego Movie vibes from this trailer, which isn’t a bad thing. That would be a hard movie to live up to, I think. My oldest (turning 6 this summer) really doesn’t have any concept of what movie theaters are all about.
A Look Back
Many remember the disgraceful 1985 game at Miami, but do you know about the previous year’s meeting in South Bend? You can probably trace the beginning of the end of the Gerry Faust era to this game. Faust lost by 15 or more points twice during the 1981 season, both on the road. He didn’t suffer any larger losses in 1982 and only just once in 1983 (again to Miami and on the road). Were things really turning around for the tearful coach?
Notre Dame suffered a close loss to Purdue in the old Hoosier/RCA Dome to open 1984 but then won their next 3 to set up this ranked vs. ranked matchup in South Bend. It would be another flop on the big stage for Faust in a 31-13 loss. Quarterback Steve Beuerlein injured his shoulder in the 1st half and Notre Dame said, “Hey what if we just kept him in the game?” That led to 46 yards of total offense in the 2nd half. The Irish would lose the following 2 games in 1984, and then were blown out 3 times in 1985, culminating in that infamous 58-7 beatdown at the Orange Bowl to finish the season.
18S Paddock Club
Formula 1 is back! The first free practice of the season kicks off this Friday with the opening grand prix in Bahrain going lights out on Sunday at 10 AM eastern time. If anyone is getting into Formula 1 this season I would highly recommend getting F1TV, it costs just $79.99 for the whole year and is one of the best deals in sports. The 3-day testing period was completed here in Sakhir last weekend and we have a handful of interesting nuggets coming into the first race of 2023.
Introducing….the 2023 opening titles 😍#F1 pic.twitter.com/WzrK5nVyhE
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 2, 2023
Red Bull look mighty strong and might pull away from the field early this season. The question is if other team’s can develop their cars enough to get closer or if Red Bull’s aero testing penalty hurts them later in the season. Keep in mind the last 6 drivers to win the opener in Bahrain would go on to finish 2nd in the championship.
Most expect Ferrari to hold down 2nd place quite comfortably, but there are fears the SF-23 lacks balance, is struggling with the front of the car, and eats tires like most of last year.
Round 1 of 23
Bahrain Grand Prix
Date: March 5th
Race: 10:00 AM ET
TV: ESPN/F1TV
Location: Sakhir, Bahrain
Circuit: Bahrain International Circuit
Laps: 57
Tire Compounds: C1, C2, C3
Track Evolution: 4 out of 5
Asphalt Abrasion: 5 out of 5
The battle for 3rd is where things start to get interesting.
Mercedes still doesn’t look like it’s pre-2022 self or a team that is going to win more than a race or two across the season. Aston Martin showed incredible race pace during testing last weekend and could end up fighting Mercedes hard for 3rd place. Also, Alpine threw out the sand bags in testing and are hoping a major upgrade package this weekend propels their team to 3rd place, too.
Unfortunately for McLaren they look really down and out with many of the same problems as last year, plus the midfield is looking to be extremely compressed this year. It’s possible McLaren could be hanging around at the bottom of the points unless they can develop their car a lot better in the coming months.
Nighttime temperatures and tire wear will be the key to this weekend’s race. The Bahrain track and all the sand blowing around is perhaps the most abrasive on the calendar and has bothered many fast cars in the past. Last year, an overweight Red Bull car struggled with tire degradation allowing Ferrari and Charles Leclerc the victory.
Trivia Answer:
PUBG: Battlegrounds (this is what Wikipedia says anyway).
Hard to believe the trivia answer isn’t Pong or GoldenEye or Halo. Guessing this must include international time or something, which may lead to more recent games racking up numbers.
PUBG can also be played on mobile, so that’s probably part of it, as well. And yes, lots of international players.
This is such bad data. What does “most played” even mean? Is it time spent played? Unique gaming sessions? None of these could ever be consistently tracked prior to whatever year all games were always online in some capacity.
I was at a trivia event where they asked something very much like “What is the best selling video game of all time?” and the Mario people (800 million copies sold in the franchise) and the Minecraft people (200 million copies of a single game sold) were very upset that according to the trivia person the answer is Pacman which sold 400,000 arcade cabinets.
That’s my contribution because I don’t know anything about PUBG: Battlegrounds.
Is an arcade game a video game? In my head, a video game is a home thing and arcade game is in a big box.
arcade games are most definitely video games, just a tiny fraction of the total video game market compared to their glory days
Yeah, you’re right. I guess what I was trying to articulate was that I’d never call an arcade game a “video game”, it’s just an “arcade game”.
That 1984 Miami game looks like a night game. How did anyone get back to Chicago in time for dinner?
That’s why games vs. Miami are supposed to be play in Soldier Field, preferably with asymmetrical helmets
Literally the only thing Soldier Field has going for it as a sports venue is being walking distance to Smith and Wollensky for dinner afterwards.
After a full day of outdoor drinking, the first place I want to go is an upscale steakhouse.
that’s at least a two mile walk too
SteveBeuerlein is still the all-time Panthers single season passing leader with his league leading 4,436 yards in 1999 for a top 5 offense that went….8-8
A legend.
In other Irish athletic news this week, women’s basketball in the ACC, ND finished first in the regular season, Niele Ivy won Coach of the Year, and MILES, CITRON, WESTBELD AND BRANSFORD EARN POSTSEASON ACC HONORS. Miles is a Finalist for national Player of the Year. They’re loaded for next year losing only one current starter to graduation.
Three of the highest paid WNBA players are from ND.
ND fencing swept the ACC individual and team titles.They are ranking #1 nationally and will compete for their fifth in the last six NC titles. The Olympics is fast approaching.
In other ND athletics, women’s basketball finished first in the regular season in the ACC. Niele Ivy is the ACC Coach of the Year, and Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron are on the ACC first team. Nationally, Miles is a finalist for Player of the Year. The Irish do not lose any current starters for next year’s team.
Three of the seven highest paid players in the WNBA are ND grads.
In fencing, the Irish swept all the individual first and team titles in the ACC, are ranked #1 nationally and will compete for their fifth in the last six NC tournments. The Olympics are fast approaching.
How’s Olivia’s injury heading into the tournaments?
She didn’t play today. The announcers intimated that she probably isn’t available for any of the ACC tournament despite being “day to day”.
So still hope that she’ll be available for the NCAA.
Excellent. Looks like we play L-ville again. Go irish!
Thanks for the ACC deal, Jack!
Brian Mason 😪
Tough blow.
Kinda surprised ND didn’t try to block it
The possible top candidate is Notorious like the rapper.
Similar energy to Mason. Hopefully we get the right guy.
Late to the discussion, but I’m now on the MLS bandwagon since St. Louis has a team. Did you cover the opening of the MLS season yet?
St. Louis is 2-0-0. Five goals so far, all pretty interesting
Six goals, and only one was off a normal shot/header. It’s been fun!
I missed the opening of the season. 29 teams now, woof! That’s a lot and by the sounds of it the league is going to keep getting larger.
The National Women’s Soccer League is expanding, too, to twelve teams with Boston and San Francisco paying. a franchise fee of $50 million each. Quite a number of athletes – and owners – are investing in the MLS and the NWSL.Pat Mahomes invested in Sporting KC (men) and his wife Brittany, a former soccer player, invested in the KC Current (women). Pat has now invested too in the Current.
The NWSL draft is wild in that not only draft picks are traded, but players, allocation money, international slots, rights to players, and conditions to trades are some elements to trades. Another element is that contract lengths are short (1-2 years) which seems to add to the trading.
Angel City wanted to draft the phenom, Alyssa Thompson, who with her sister were set to enroll at Stanford for their freshman year. AC traded up for the #1 pick with the condition that Thompson would turn pro. She did and also signed a lucrative deal with Nike that included her sister. Last year Trinity Rodman was the youngest player at 18 years old to sign a NWSL contrct and signed with the Washington Spirit. She was chosen as the Rookie of the Year.
Then there is … The Washington Spirit has just signed the youngest person to ever play in the National Women’s Soccer League at 15,
Kinda sucks that MLS has nearly all of their games behind a paywall. I’m only a month or two into my Apple TV+ subscription and thought I’d be able to watch all of the MLS games. Was able to successfully watch the first STL v ATX game and was excited to see the atmosphere inside Citypark, only to realize I needed another subscription.
Same exact experience with STL vs. CLT. It’s almost worse that a few games are free, just makes it more painful when your game isn’t!
The league is getting larger…Eric, I hear that soccer is quite popular in some parts of the world. Also with baseball gradually declining in popularity, soccer is ready to pick up the summer slack.
Went to a Sporting KC game last year, vibe was great. I love the Cards at Busch stadium, but the intimate atmosphere of a soccer match (and the intensity of the fans) is hard to beat.
After ruminating on this a bit, I suppose it’s not any different than being out of market for MLB/NBA/NHL/NFL you have to subscribe to the something additional to see all of the games (either an RSN or league-affiliated package). Premier League has some games on NBC/USA but you can get all of the rest of the games on Peacock, which I already have.