Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Xavier Watts has been named the Walter Camp Defensive Player of the Week.
Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick commented after a Senate hearing this week that collective bargaining with athletes, while maintaining they are not employees, could be a solution to the current problems in college sports.
Georgia tight end Brock Bowers is having surgery on his sprained ankle.
Wisconsin quarterback Tanner Mordecai will be out indefinitely following a pin being put in his broken hand suffered last weekend against Iowa.
Air Force quarterback Zac Larrier will miss extended time after suffering a knee injury.
Iowa tight end Erick All has torn his ACL and will miss the rest of the season after leading the team in receiving in 2023.
Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke is questionable this weekend against Clemson.
South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer broke his foot after kicking an object after South Carolina’s loss this past weekend.
Uniform of the Week
Back in 2002, the Carolina Panthers debuted a new Carolina blue jersey. In a couple years, the franchise will be celebrating its 30th anniversary and I am amazed that they’ve gone this long without an uniform makeover. To my knowledge, the team has only made very subtle changes to their uniforms throughout the years but still has the same basic concept from their 1995 inaugural season.
A handful of years ago, the Panthers started mixing in their white pants with the teal jerseys. I saw someone on X (first time not typing Twitter, RIP Twitter) call this an underrated gem uniform in the NFL. What do we think? I love the teal/black/silver/white color combination but the silver helmet doesn’t seem to fit in with this combination. I’d be interested to see a white helmet used.
Recruiting
Defensive lineman Aydin Breland (0.9797) committed to Oregon.
Edge rusher CJ Jackson (0.9238) gave a verbal to LSU.
Georgia cornerback Jalewis Solomon (0.9228) committed to South Carolina. The Dawgs also flipped LSU commit and fellow cornerback Ondre Evans (0.9350).
In the 2025 class…
Corner Blake Woodby (0.9609) committed to Ohio State.
Auburn picked up the commitment of defensive lineman Jourdin Crawford (0.9242).
YouTube Channel
In a past edition of The Rambler we discussed Eliud Kipchoge running a 1:59:40 marathon time in an unsanctioned race in Vienna on freshly paved flat roads with a large team of pacers protecting him just 4 years ago this month. A couple years later, Kipchoge broke the world marathon record with a 2:01:09 time in Berlin as he was itching closer to breaking the competitive 2-hour mark. However, he’ll be turning 39 in November and as so often happens Kipchoge is motivating others to break a seemingly impossible record just as much as he is chasing it, too.
In recent weeks, 23-year old Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum won the London Marathon with a 2:01:25 time and then followed that up at the Chicago Marathon with a world record 2:00:35, shattering Kipchoge’s previous mark by 34 seconds. We are getting so close. Probably within 5 years someone, likely Kiptum at this rate, is going to break 2 hours. My goodness, running 4.5 minute miles for 26.21 miles is insane.
Tunes
One of the last editions of FIFA that I played until EA Sports ruined the franchise (still super worried about the upcoming college football game!) was back in 2015 when I heard an artist called Milky Chance and a decent song called “Down By the River” on the game soundtrack. I thought the sound of this artist was interesting and then in a matter of weeks their song “Stolen Dance” made its way on to American hit radio. You can listen to it here:
This was a top 15-ish song in the United States, does anyone remember it? It topped the charts in several other countries including France, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, and Hungary. I like the somewhat haunting quality to it, which I think is Milky Chance’s (they’re a German duo) vibe with a lot of their music. It looks like they haven’t really capitalized on this success from 8 years ago, though.
Trivia
With the beating imposed upon Caleb Williams in South Bend, who is the current highest rated passer in the country heading into this weekend?
The Other Football
The United States jumped out to a 1-0 lead over Germany in a friendly at Hartford’s Rentschler Field this past Saturday thanks to a goal from Christian Pulisic. However, the Germans came back to win 3-1 in manager Julian Nagelsmann’s first game in charge of Die Mannschaft.
The Americans came right back on Tuesday for another friendly and smashed Ghana 4-o in Nashville.
Former United States captain Michael Bradley will retire at the end of this MLS season.
Brazilian star forward Neymar has torn his ACL.
The Italian football association has banned Juventus midfielder Nicolo Fagioli for at least 7 months after an investigation into illegal sports gambling. Fellow Italian Sandro Tonali at Newcastle is also under investigation.
TV & Movies
I’m looking over Nick Kroll’s filmography and I can’t say I am really familiar with much of his work. It looks like he does an awful lot of voice work and that’s how he’s cashing a lot of checks. I have watched several skits from his comedy Kroll Show that ran for 3 seasons in 2013-15. Specifically, he created this character Ref Jeff that cracks me up.
The exaggerated backwards running with the huge butt and his giggling with Jordan Peele make me want to watch an entire season of these refs. He used this character in other skits but this was by far the best one. Most of this skit had to be ad-libbed and it really seems like Kroll broke Peele big time with the doody head comment to the mascot. As an admitted Ref Hater™ we need more light comedic stuff on sports officials to change their perception a bit.
A Look Back
I’ve only tried field goals on a standard regulation football field once in my life and I found it a lot easier than I thought. No big deal. I was able to hit from 40-ish yards with some regular consistency. I think anyone who grew up playing soccer would find kicking field goals not that difficult, up to a point. On ESPN GameDay they keep trotting out students attempting 33-yard field goals (at least that was the length last week) and some people are just terrible with many saying they’ve never kicked a ball before.
Have kids stopped kicking balls and is this a concern for future generations? That’s certainly not happening in the NFL where any miss is a shock these days. Not so much in the college game and specifically for the Purdue redshirt freshman kicker Julio Macias who witnessed a student bang in field goals during halftime while the real Boilermakers player missed all 3 attempts against Ohio State. So far in 2023, Purdue kickers are just 3 for 9 on field goals and they’ve missed a pair of extra points, too.
18S Paddock Club
Yeehaw everybody, Formula 1 is back in the United States this weekend getting ready to rip some 1,000 horsepower machines around the Circuit of the Americas. It feels like the Miami race was a million years ago and it’ll be interesting to see what shenanigans F1 and its sponsors will foist upon the crowds for the 2nd race in the United States. Expect a lot of celebrities and even more uncomfortable interviews. Meanwhile, the insane spectacle of the race in Las Vegas looms large in 4 more weeks.
Round 18 of 22
United States Grand Prix
Date: October 22nd
Race: 3:00 PM ET
Location: Austin, Texas
Circuit: Circuit of the Americas
With both the driver’s and constructor’s championships already wrapped up by Max Verstappen and Red Bull the drama is lacking as we approach the end of the 2023 season. Back in 2021 when Verstappen chased down Lewis Hamilton here in Texas, man, we were spoiled. That race was awesome.
But, there are still some interesting storylines as we begin this 4-race swing through the Americas.
80’s guitar swoons.
Adopted American driver Daniel Ricciardo is expected to make his return to the AlphaTauri seat this weekend at a place where he’s become perhaps the biggest F1 celebrity over the last decade. Coming back from a pretty nasty wrist injury would normally put the pressure on Ricciardo but with a contract signed for 2024 this should be a pretty chill last few races unless…
…the rumors about Sergio Perez’ tenuous situation at Red Bull are true. There are reports that Perez may retire or that if he can’t secure 2nd place in the driver’s standings he will be axed in favor of Ricciardo moving back to Red Bull once again. It’s been a quiet Silly Season this year but something like this happening late in 2023 would be wild.
It’s the home race for Haas. Cool, I guess? The team has announced that they are bringing a massive aerodynamic upgrade package this weekend that will finally ditch the 2022 Ferrari concept and embrace the Red Bull downwashing approach that most of the teams are favoring now. For a team that has struggled so much during races maybe this is the start of some concrete improvement.
Also, it’s another sprint weekend.
Trivia Answer:
Jayden Daniels, LSU, 197.74 rating
I’m a big fan of the Panthers uniforms, but you’re right, the helmet is just a bit off. I would be ok with them trying white, but I think their black helmets could look good with this uniform. I also wouldn’t mind seeing them try a teal helmet with this look, but that might end up looking like a college alternate uniform instead of a pro uniform.
I am not sure the 4.5 minute mile thing resonates with me as much as the thought of turning a treadmill up to 13 and then just running at that pace for 2 hours. honestly not sure what percentage of humans could run at the speed for 20 seconds. Absolutely insane what those guys are doing
Granted, I hate running in general and don’t understand how anyone could enjoy doing it, but I truly don’t comprehend how any human can run marathons this fast. Already, try to imagine running A 4:30 mile, let alone 25 consecutive times after that first one. I ran track in HS and ran 400m. Between the 800m & 400m, the two worst races to run, they’re distance sprints – my best 400m time was :52 – this dude just ran 104 consecutive :67s. It’s just insane. Guy is an alien.
Oh yeah, the treadmill visualization I think hits home for people a lot more shockingly. My old gym had treadmills that would be shaking at that speed and these humans are just casually handling that for 120-130 minutes.
I watched the Boston marathon in 2009 from around mile 23. I still remember the winner flying by me in his orange shirt, with a smile on his face, and no one else in sight. Even at like 24, I was confident that I couldn’t sprint as fast as he was moving. At mile 23!
The only other human that I’ve ever seen in person as physically impressive as that was when I had Row 1 seats (the row behind courtside) for an NBA game with Shaq. Even compared to other NBA players, he looked like a superhuman size-wise. It helped that it was his last season, so he was at his thickest.
NBA players are also wild. The guys who look tiny on the court are still 6’3″-6’4″, which are genuinely tall humans
Also the guys who look slow…are not slow compared to any normal human.
Watching the USC game with my wife, she saw an Estime TD and said he looked so small. But it was in comparison to the gigantic Oline men. He is not small. Putting that many giant people together definitely warps the perception.
Any more injuries to the Iowa offense, and I take the field (D, special teams, and heck the marching band) for more TDs the rest of the year than the offense.
Jayden Daniels…Anybody see this week’s SEC shorts where the doctor has to break it to the SEC that he’s having a down year? Favorite bit is when the “patient” is in denial and says “What about LSU?” and the nurse leans in and says “Jayden Daniels can’t do nuthin’ ’bout that defense.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2ykWPTaPxQ
As a Panthers fan myself, the uniforms are about all I have to like about the franchise anymore. I think they’re great. I don’t really care for the blue ones in comparison to the black and the white ones, but they’re just a rock-solid collection of uniforms and I don’t want to see them changed.
I’d also disagree about the silver helmets, there wouldn’t be enough color in the uniform if they went with white helmets. The Panthers have a black helmet, but I don’t like that very much either.
Maybe silver in the numbers instead of white on those blue jerseys!??
As a fellow Panthers fan I have to say: I hate the Panthers
Super excited to go to COTA tomorrow for FP and Quali! I got GA tickets so I’ll just be walking the grounds and finding a good turn to watch the qualifiers from. My wife is joining me after work to see the Killers show in the evening after the racing is over.
Jealous!
Taking a look, I wonder if there’s good GA spots in the turns 12-16 section. I think I’ve heard that is a great spot to see the cars.
COTA’s building some really rad roller coasters to create an additional draw, here’s a POV animation of one by Vekoma that’s one of their Tilt Coaster designs. Looks absolutely bananas
https://youtu.be/MB-ovITxe2M?si=DB_oyBKDw0-lkG4h
Swarbrick is putting a finger in the dike of the coming classification of players as employees and their ability to unionize – without Congressional intervention. The NLRB lawsuit against USC, the Pac 12 and the NCAA will inexorably move forward, though the BIG will be substituted for the Pac as a defendent.
Significant NLRB Move Will Aid Pursuit of College Athletes Becoming Employees
I don’t think his argument makes much sense as a practical matter. OK, let’s say that schools collectively bargain with non-employee players. What is the players union’s first demand going to be, do you think?
This is where I stand too. The good news for Swarbrick is that he’s at the point in his ND career where he won’t have to deal with the repercussions of anything he says/does, so he can throw whatever he wants against the wall and see what sticks!
Like a new UnderArmour deal!
It’s the biggest in the history of ever, you know.
The National Labor Relations Board classified the money-making sports players as employees and are suing the plaintiffs for interfering with their rights as employees, including unionizing and collectively bargaining. The NIL lawsuit was decided on restraint of trade violation for individuals.
A few random thoughts would be:
-players whose work generates in the case of the BIG and SEC billion dollar media contracts would negotiate how much of that and gate receipts, etc they deserve
-each universities’ player union would have unique situations with regard to their programs and how much they may receive based on profitability. Georgia, Texas, Michigan, Ohio State, etc may have different contracts and some may be more lucrative with their players. Players making less at one school may be motivated to transfer to earn more negotiated money, better exposure and potentially higher NIL endorsements.
-recruits would see the advantages in going to a better paying job
-contracts will be signed with the individuals who are entrants to the business such as high school recruits and transfers.
-beyond the regular season, how much more will each team’s union bargain for post-season play? The CFP media money is huge and players as employees deserve to bargain for their share probably with the conference.
-how will athletic departments cope with the increased costs and what decisions will need to be made?
-medical liability issues may be a negotiated issue. To what extent and for how long will universities be liable for brain injuries or CTE?
Just thinking of this situation as any business with unionized employees
NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo Issues Memo on Employee Status of Players at Academic Institutions
Coach of the year
You beat me to it.
I really wish the NFL let teams have more wiggle room to just go nuts with alternate uniforms. Is there a reason they don’t? I want to see several different helmets each year, I want to see them experiment. No Fun League applies in this area of the game for sure imho.