Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels has won the Heisman Trophy. That is the 3rd winner for the Tigers after Billy Cannon (1959) and Joe Burrow (2019).
Joe Alt and Xavier Watts have been named Walter Camp 1st-team All-Americans. In addition, Howard Cross was named to the 2nd team. Those same teams were named for these players with the FWAA, Sporting News, and AP, as well. Audric Estime made 2nd-team All-American with the AP and Sporting News.
Notre Dame left tackle Joe Alt and right tackle Blake Fisher have declared early for the NFL Draft.
Irish linebacker Jack Kiser, defensive tackle Rylie Mills, and nose guard Howard Cross have announced they are returning to Notre Dame.
Ohio State receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr. won the Biletnikoff Award.
Former Irish center Zeke Correll is transferring to NC State. Former defensive end NaNa Osafo-Mensah is headed to TCU along with wide receiver Braylon James.
Former Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne is transferring back to South Bend to get his degree but will not be playing football. He will graduate and then grad transfer to another program to play football.
Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel has transferred to Oregon. Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke is transferring to Wisconsin. Coastal Carolina quarterback Grayson McCall is transferring to NC State. Oregon State quarterback Aidan Chiles is transferring to Michigan State.
Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe announced he’ll be returning to Tuscaloosa for 2024.
The 2024 SEC schedule was released on Wednesday night:
Texas backup quarterback Maalik Murphy is entering the portal and will not be playing with the Horns in the playoffs.
North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye is skipping the Tar Heels’ bowl game and entering the NFL Draft.
Oregon and Oregon State have agreed to a 2-year extension of the Civil War.
Tulane has hired head coach Jon Sumrall from Troy.
Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano has received a contract extension through 2030.
Chip Long is the new offensive coordinator at Southern Mississippi.
A West Virginia circuit court judge granted a 14-day restraining order for college athletes who have transferred more than once to have immediate eligibility. For now, this could have a big impact on college basketball transfers who could play for 2 weeks without penalty.
Uniform of the Week
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you all 13 uniforms worn by the Oregon Ducks this season. White on white (3x) was the most common choice followed by green on yellow (2x) although no other color combination was repeated if we are differentiating between their bright and dark green. Of course, when you factor in the helmets and colored trim no uniform was worn twice all season. It’s kind of Oregon’s thing now.
These are my top 3 favorite uniforms from this bunch:
#3 Green/White/White – The school loves to wear all-white and this is one of the combinations that continues to look sharp without feeling dated or overdone while sticking to their school colors.
#2 Black/Green/Black – I love the way this looks with the solid black sandwiching the bright green and yellow trim.
#1 Yellow/Green/Yellow (throwback) – The Ducks have an up and down history with the yellow helmets. The ones with the wings haven’t looked great but the traditional “O” or this current throwback are incredible when fit to these uniforms. I think this a top 3 college football uniform.
Recruiting
Notre Dame added Duke quarterback transfer Riley Leonard, let’s go. The Irish also added Duke defensive end RJ Oben and kicker Mitch Jeter from South Carolina.
The no. 1 receiver in the 2025 class is reclassifying to 2024. Wideout Ryan Williams will sign with Alabama in the February window and join the Tide on campus this upcoming summer. The Tide also added edge rusher Javion Hilson (0.9748) from the 2025 class.
Colorado added Texas wide receiver Drelon Miller (0.9694) to the Coach Prime family.
Texas picked up safety Kobe Black (0.9819).
4-star tight end Jonathan Echols (0.9260) committed to USF.
Edge rusher/athlete Amaree Williams (0.9650) is reclassifying from 2025 to 2024.
YouTube Channel
Do we really need more pro sports teams? There are entire classes in colleges devoted to tackling pesky issues like this, I even took something along those lines for a semester. In the conclusion of my professor that year, pro sports teams were generally a blight on the community. I sometimes agree, but not all the time. This video is an interesting look at places that could add new pro sports franchises:
They are as follows: The Inland Empire, Richmond, Birmingham, Virginia Beach, Austin, Raleigh, San Jose, San Diego, Sacramento, Columbus, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Seattle, and Montreal. I don’t have strong feelings about these places but if anyone lives near these parts of North American I’d be interested to hear if there’s a sport worth bringing to town.
Tunes
Back to the Beatles for the 2nd time in recent weeks. In addition to releasing the new song “Now and Then” they remastered and re-released the “Red” and “Blue” greatest hits albums last month, too. These albums were originally released on CD in 1993 and were the reason why I became such a huge Beatles fan. On a road trip with a family friend to Pittsburgh we listened to these 2 albums non-stop while sharing each side of the headphones. Since these songs were in stereo it was an interesting listening experience but I literally fell in love all the same.
The remastered albums feature an additional 21 more tracks. With the 1993 version (which I believe was the same as the original vinyl track listing back in 1973) I always thought the 2nd half of the red album running into the first half of the blue album is the most potent concentration of the Beatles essence as musicians and the best collection of songs ever by an artist. Here’s the stretch:
I Feel Fine
Ticket to Ride
Yesterday
Help!
You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
We Can Work It Out
Day Tripper
Drive My Car
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Nowhere Man
Michelle
In My Life
Girl
Paperback Writer
Eleanor Rigby
Yellow Submarine
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band
With a Little Help From My Friends
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
A Day in the Life
All You Need is Love
I Am the Walrus
Hello, Goodbye
The Fool on the Hill
Magical Mystery Tour
Lady Madonna
Hey Jude
Revolution
30 songs. What a run! You miss the real early Beatlemania stuff and the real late stuff from the White Album until they broke up but the bulk of their musical development and journey happens as this list unfolds. It’s remarkable to this day. I included the newly remastered 2023 version of “We Can Work It Out” today because they did an awesome job finally opening up Ringo’s bass drum.
Trivia
Can you name the game with the most commented instant reaction and full game review in this website’s history?
The Other Football
The Columbus Crew won the 2023 MLS Cup following a 3-2 victory over Cincinnati FC this past Saturday. It is the franchise’s 3rd title joining 2008 and 2020.
The last games of the Champions League group stages wrapped up this week:
Copenhagen 1 – 0 Galatasaray
Bayern Munich 1 – 0 Man United
Lens 2 – 1 Sevilla
PSV 1 – 1 Arsenal
Napoli 2 – 0 Braga
Real Madrid 3 – 2 Union Berlin
Inter 0 – 0 Real Sociedad
Benfica 3 – 1 Salzburg
Atletico Madrid 2 – 0 Lazio
Celtic 2 – 1 Feyenoord
Dortmund 1 – 1 PSG
AC Milan 2 – 1 Newcastle
Man City 3 – 2 Red Star
Leipzig 2 – 1 Young Boys
Porto 5 – 3 Shakhtar
Antwerp 3 – 2 Barcelona
In Group A, Bayern Munich and Copenhagen are through while Man United finished last and are knocked out. In Group B, Arsenal and PSV are through. In Group C, Real Madrid and Napoli. In Group D, Real Sociedad and Inter. In Group E, Atletico and Lazio move on. In the Group F of Death, Dortmund and PSG move on but Milan and Newcastle are out. The favorites in Group G in Man City and Leipzig are through, and Barcelona and Porto move on in Group H.
This is the end of the final group stage format in the Champions League. Next year, UEFA is moving to a larger tournament with one large table instead of 8 groups of 4 teams in pods.
Mohamed Salah scored his 200th goal for Liverpool as the team moves into the top spot of the Premier League following a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace. Previous top of the table Arsenal lost 1-0 to Aston Villa with the latter club now in 3rd place ahead of Man City.
The United States and Mexico have formally submitted a bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup alongside proposals from Brazil and a joint bid from Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.
The FIFA Men’s Player of the Year finalists are Leo Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and Erling Haaland.
Italian centerback legend Giorgio Chiellini has retired effective immediately.
TV & Movies
I’m looking at Quentin Tarantino’s filmography and I’ve yet to watch Death Proof and his most recent release Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Of course, he famously doesn’t work on many projects but something is supposed to be coming down the pipe in the future. Since 1992, Tarantino has only released 10 films, or 1 every 3 years. That actually makes it seem like he’s working a lot more!
This scene between Uma Thurman and David Carradine from Kill Bill, Volume 2 using the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique to kill him is excellent cinema. I remember being so enthralled and confused about what just happened in the first watch. Truly one of the all-time great death scenes in a movie. Check out the noise Carradine makes at 0:21 seconds after she performs the maneuver. That’s the noise I make whenever bad things happen with Notre Dame football. “Huhanghhhh.”
A Look Back
This was what Brian Kelly signed up for, right? Going to LSU meant an easier time in many ways but also a schedule typically not real conducive to winning it all. The Tigers lost to no. 4 Alabama, no. 5 Florida State, and no. 11 Ole Miss. That’s tough. Still, Jayden Daniels winning the Heisman is a big deal and a nice consolation price for Notre Dame’s former head coach.
After the September 11th attacks they stopped hosting the ceremony at the Downtown Athletic Club and while it’s moved around a bit through the years this set up at the Lincoln Center uptown continues to grow and expand on stage. This is where ESPN is spending their money! This is in contrast to my comments last week about the playoff Selection Show. At the Heisman ceremony we have a stage, a podium for speaking, and people standing on stage. A nice formal affair. Although, a large chain across a shirt and tie while wearing a suit never looks good, I am so sorry to tell these youngsters this knowledge.
18S Paddock Club
Reviewing the 2023 season for each team on the F1 grid…
AlphaTauri (RIP AlphaTauri)
Place: 8th/10
Points: 25
Yuki Tsunoda: 17 points
Daniel Ricciardo: 6 points
Liam Lawson: 2 points
Nyck de Vries: 0 points
If your retiring team principal of 18 years remarks this week that he’s neither happy nor proud about his time with AlphaTauri that’ll about sum up the 2023 season real well. Yes, it was a pretty poor year for this team, definitely a weird one, but also a season in which things improved quite a bit towards the end.
Using 4 different drivers was pretty wild. The initial off-season signing of de Vries was a massive mistake as the Dutch driver struggled from day one. The team caught headlines for bringing in the affable Danny Ricciardo who eventually missed time with a broken wrist suffered at Zandvoort. The young Liam Lawson stepped in and did a pretty good job with his first handful of F1 races before being quickly shuttled back to reserve driver duty when Ricciardo became healthy again.
We’ll chalk this up to a transition year for AlphaTauri. They lost veteran Pierre Gasly late in 2022 and obviously were not prepared to fill his seat. The team also struggled to maintain their car development and staffing in their base in Italy, too.
Moving forward, things are looking up. The team is moving back to England to be on campus with sister team Red Bull and will also be going through a marketing makeover. They are dropping the Red Bull fashion line AlphaTauri as their team name and reports suggest they will be called “Racing Bulls” which sounds so bad let’s hope it’s not true.
Next year, Tsunoda will be heading into his 4th season and Ricciardo should be more comfortable with a full off-season with the team. Since we’re hearing plenty of grumbling from other teams about their close association with Red Bull, I think the Racing Bulls (please don’t call them this, please) will be a team to watch in the midfield in 2024.
Trivia Answer:
2021 Fiesta Bowl vs. Oklahoma State
As a South Carolina student my senior year home slate being Old Dominion, LSU, Akron, Ole Miss, TAMU, Mizzou, and Wofford feels just really underwhelming
LSU could have a real reality check next year post Jayden Daniels and having no Tennessee Florida or UGA at all really stinks
I’m really excited to see Mitch Jeter go to ND and as a whole I’m remain really impressed at how Freeman and Co. work the portal
Someone at the Athletic noted that currently ND are really the portal kings with who they have gotten so far.
Looking at 247’s transfer portal WR rankings, all 4 of the WRs who have left rank higher than Kris Mitchell who is higher than Beaux Collins. I wonder how they come up with those rankings…
Oregon needs to go full “NLF on Nick” or ToyStory NFL mode for one game a year & really lean into owning the best mascot in all of sport. Puddles inspired T-to-B, but not the way they did before (TBF – these uniforms do rule):
Would like to see more actual Puddles on their uniform
(Also, the yellow with black #’s sucks. Should be green or white #’s)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if I were a major college recruit, I’d 100% have Oregon in my top 3, especially with their B1G move. Usually great uniforms, decent weather – never too hot or cold, decent scenery, good football pedigree and interesting matchups.
Gah, those Puddles uniforms are so ELITE FIRE.
I was a game off on the trivia question I was thinking 2021 Stanford. I was figuring it was one of the two though.
Good guess, though.
The comments section after bad news: losses, transfer, kelly leaving suddenly, always drive the comment numbers wicked high.
Is that a notre dame fan thing exclusively? An 18S phenomenon? Or is that common across all fandoms? It’s always wild to see the comment count for an article exceed 100 on here, and I think I’ve only ever seen it for losses? Maybe we’re just gluttons for punishment
I’m sure it’s just natural to analyze why it’s gotten this bad, what needs to be done to get out of the problematic situation, and whether or not the school will actually do what is best (or will they fail for one reason or another).
Also, when things are good, you say great and everyone mostly agrees! But there’s no suggesting things should be done differently one way and then arguing with other people who think they should be done differently in a different way.
Good point!
Next year we should collectively ensure that Miami (Oh) cracks the top 10:
“I think scoring that many touchdowns was a good thing!”
“I ALSO thought it was good to see Chuck Martin.
Negative emotions drive clicks. *Gestures towards all news media.*
It’s also probably why Eric made the Red Sox number 50 in his uniform series.
Here’s a list of all the 100+ comment articles:
*Moving on from BK quickly
*5WF about ND’s assistants
*2021 Fiesta Bowl review
*Freeman hired
*2021 Fiesta Bowl instant reaction
*Kelly to LSU
*5WF on BK breaking up with us
*Bama’s handout from the playoff committee this year
*2022 ESD open thread
*2016 opinion piece on Jack and BK
*A Rambler from January 2022
*Marshall game review
*2020 ACC Championship review
*2021 Cincy game review
*Elko leaving for A&M
*2021 ND program assessment, part 1
*2017 Stanford instant reaction
*2018 Vanderbilt game review
*A Rambler from January 2022
*2017 Citrus Bowl review
*Quinn announced as OL coach
*A Rambler from January 2022
*2017 Georgia instant reaction
*2018 Cotton Bowl game review
*2023 Clemson game review
*Rees to Alabama
*Parker hired as OC
*Ranking the 2017 bowl games
*Minchey commits
*2018 Miami (OH) game review
*Tyler Buchner’s passing abilities
*2017 NSD open thread
*2018 Wake Forest game review
*2017 Wake Forest instant reaction
*2018 Virginia Tech preview
*2023 OSU game review
*2017 BC game review
*Reviewing 2017 pre-season predictions
*2018 Michigan advanced stats review
*Andy Ludwig scheme breakdown
*A Rambler from March 2022
*2021 Stanford game review
*2017 Stanford game review
*2022 Stanford game review
*2016 USC instant reaction
*2018 Vanderbilt advanced stats
*2022 ESD primer
*Max Redfield dismissed from ND
*2019 Michigan game review
*2022 Marshall instant reaction
*A Rambler from February 2023
*2023 Louisville game review
*2018 Virginia Tech game review
*5WF from summer 2022 (ND media deal)
Fascinating!
Is it just me, or did I see “stanford” in there a ton? I suppose that makes sense from an emotional standpoint:
2022 game yuck,
2017 game, yuck end to the season
Maybe it was just the 3 articles back to back to back listed.
Have you as an 18S admin community seen a trend towards engagement over the years? I.e. are there more comments on average for this season relative to the past? Or is the same names? I do see a lot of familiar names in the thread, not sure if the anonymous community here is growing
Hmm, I’d say very small growth overall.
I’m making $1.4 million per year up from $1.27 million in 2022.
Basically losing money with inflation.
^One of these was purely cold-gum driven.
Cold gum: 2/11/22, 136 comments!
https://18stripes.com/the-weekly-rambler-communists-in-the-nfl/
Was ketchup on hot dogs over 100?
/uncontrollable sobbing
Marshall was my guess, so I wasn’t too far off. Woof that game…
Florida’s 2024 has the potential to be incredibly hilarious. If Billy Napier isn’t careful, there’s a real chance he could be fired BEFORE his team even reaches the final stretch of the season, where they could possibly play 7 straight ranked teams.
Their schedule is so brutal. Probably 11 top 50-ish teams, yikes.
Chicago should have a second NBA and NFL team. When the baseball teams aren’t tanking (and unfortunately at least 1 of the 2 has been tanking most of the past 10 years), they both draw really well, and they both have really strong local TV contracts. If I were trying to expand either league, Chicago would be my next choice as a place that is basically guaranteed to make a boatload of money for a new owner.
Of course, the current owners of the Bulls and Bears would never go for that.
I once made a second NBA franchise in 2K out of Chicago. The Chicago Flight, big Jordan operation.
I really like Oregon’s dark green, but don’t think it goes great with the yellow numbers. Would like to see more combos with dark green/white or dark green/light green use together on the jersey/helmet/pants, but probably not something like dark green jersey, light green pants.
And I think the black pants with yellow swoosh is a really sharp look (but the yellow with black as someone mentioned is not good on pants or jerseys). I would be interested to see how a black jersey with yellow numbers would look, basically the inverse of their yellow/black jerseys. Could still be too much neon, but could make an all black look really pop.
Their all-dark green with iridescent silver helmets back in the 2011 Rose Bowl was pretty cool:
Just a little bit of yellow trim.
If they had just switched the yellow for white. Boom.
Kelly looks like he is looking forward to doing a proctoscopy. The TCU – SMU rivalry like so many others may be the victim of conference contraction. With NaNa going to TCU, I am reminded of their Fight Song, which is one of the oldest in college football (an offseason article?):
One year too late for his “inclusion” in TCU fans chanting to SMU:
In fairness, here are SMU’s traditions whose alma mater was written in 1916.
The Oregon yellow doesn’t come across well in the above illustrations. Perhaps the yellow inclusion in some uniforms gives them an edge when the fog and rain rolls in at Autsen. I doubt the white ones will be used in B10 away games in November.
Good to see Georgia playing Tennessee Tech an HBU. They have a two previous game history with cumulative points totals Georgia 105 vs Tennessee Tech 0. Time to see more SEC teams schedule more HBCU teams. I’d pay to see Kelly dancing to the Southern band.
Looks like Texas A&M is taking a bye week before playing New Mexico State.
Will we see the Big E bowl picks weekly?
I’m retired from the Big E bowl picks.
That’s a loss to all college football prognostications.
Picks mean clicks.
But you are so passionate about bowls.
Watching bowl season…
Jaiden Ausberry’s brother Austin, a Safety with Auburn, entered the Portal. Prime has recruited five O-line transfers to protect his son plus Will Sheppard as their third WR. They should schedule a HBCU. Make it so. Bronco Mendenhall’s hire by New Mexico is getting high grades.
After Dillon Gabriel chose Oregon, Ty Thompson entered the Portal. Oregon’s O-Line could be formidable again next year. At least four starters are back and depending on a NFL decsion, Jackson Powers-Johnson, their Center and Rimington Award winner could also return. The O-line is one of the four finalists for the Joe Moore Award.
Did the Ducks also lose the minute they put on that ND throwback green and gold uni?
No, because those are actually their school colors.
Those are gorgeous uniforms and Oregon should never wear anything else.
MF wiil probably keep a few scholarships for those players who finish up in the spring and enter the Portal then. Stanford’s Alaka’i Gilman and Connor McLaughlin would be welcome additions. Among the advantages for them would be less travel.
Court ruling gives Oregon State and Washington State control of the Pac-12
Charles Jagusah has seized the left tackle position away from Baker and Wagner, who are competing for the start at RT during the bowl game. Marcus Freeman talking about him like he’s the real deal. Excited to see it at the Sun Bowl.
Troy should be happy, what is the saying? When one door closes, another one opens.