Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker has been hired as the new head coach at Troy.
Notre Dame unveiled the Muffett McGraw statue this past weekend to a crowd outside the Joyce Center on campus.
Former Broncos strength and conditioning coach Loren Landow has been hired for that position with the Irish and will start in January.
Notre Dame defensive lineman Aidan Keanaaina committed to California and will be joined by wide receiver Tobias Merriweather. Wide receiver Rico Flores committed to UCLA. Tight end Holden Staes committed to Tennessee.
Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord has transferred to Syracuse. UCLA quarterback Dante Moore is transferring to Oregon. Toledo quarterback Dequan Finn is transferring to Baylor. Utah quarterback Nate Johnson is transferring to Vanderbilt.
Penn State is hiring former Indiana head coach Tom Allen for its defensive coordinator position.
North Dakota State head coach Matt Entz is headed to USC to be the Trojans’ assistant defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. The Bison are hiring Wyoming offensive coordinator Tim Polasek for the head coaching vacancy.
Vanderbilt is hiring New Mexico State OC Tim Beck for the same job with the Commodores.
USC defensive backs coach Donte Williams is taking the same job at Georgia.
2023 5-star freshman Malachi Nelson–who left Oklahoma’s class to follow Lincoln Riley to USC–is entering the transferring portal and leaving the Trojans.
Oregon State and Washington State have agreed to a 2-year deal to join the West Coast Conference in all sports except football and baseball.
Florida State have scheduled an emergency meeting of their Board of Trustees this Friday to discuss (again) their plans to leave the ACC.
Uniform of the Week
Check out the Harvard football home uniforms. They are a FCS classic. In modern times, the Crimson have adopted a ton of black and often wear black jerseys with a ton of black accessories. However, it’s this standard home uniform that I really want to focus on today. The sandstorm brown pants paired with the crimson jerseys and white numbers looks fantastic, and the black accessories fit in nicely, too.
The interesting shaped player numbers also add a cool modern touch. Go ahead and add a nameplate, please. Check out that large 150th anniversary patch on their right chest! The only thing I have a question about is the helmets. Something doesn’t feel right. I’m thinking a white, gray, or red facemask could look better. Or, maybe switch to another helmet color…but I’m not sure what could work for them. The color matching of the crimson helmet and jersey bugs me.
Recruiting
The 247 Composite team rankings after Signing Day are led by Georgia, Alabama, Miami, Ohio State, and Texas. The Irish have remained in 10th place.
Top quarterback Dylan Railoa (0.9965) flipped from Georgia to Nebraska.
Safety KJ Bolden (0.9951) flipped from Florida State to Georgia on Signing Day.
Elite safety Xavier Filsaime (0.9857) flipped from Florida to Texas.
Wide receiver Jeremiah McClellan (0.9766) flipped from Ohio State to Oregon.
Running back Jordan Lyle (0.9374) committed to Miami. The Canes also flipped linebacker Adarius Hayes (0.9636) from Florida on Wednesday and later defensive lineman Armondo Blount (0.9903) flipped from Florida State.
Florida commit Amaris Williams (0.9608) flipped to Auburn.
Edge rusher Jayshawn Ross (0.9157) committed to Alabama. The Tide also added receiver Aeryn Hampton (0.9177).
In the 2025 class…
Linebacker Elijah Melendez (0.9407) committed to Miami.
Tight end Emaree Winston (0.9106) committed to Texas.
YouTube Channel
Have you seen the Tik-Tok videos from recent weeks where women ask their men how often they think about the Roman Empire? I would answer probably a dozen times per week and that might be a very conservative estimate. Just recently my 6-year old wanted to explain Jesus Christ to me (she started Sunday school this fall) and we ended up discussing the internal politics of the Roman Empire as occupants of Judea. I think she understood things pretty well. In terms of time and historical facts I’ve always loved the Romans versus the Egyptian pyramids.
The pyramid complex Djoser had been around for nearly 2,700 years during the time of Jesus Christ. We are still closer to Jesus Christ’s time than he was to the completion of this pyramid. We have to wait roughly 650 more years to be as far away from Christ as he was to the debut of the Djoser pyramid. It’s a shame he probably never saw it, though. Even in ancient times, he was pretty close by!
Tunes
Wu-Tang are still breaking boundaries as they announced recently they’ll become the first hip-hop group to have a Vegas residency. They will kick things off when the Super Bowl is in town during February and plan on announcing further dates soon. Which casino? Well, they’ll be staying at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas which is a little off the Strip. That hotel sits a couple blocks to the east and used to be the Hard Rock Hotel site.
Perhaps controversially, I’ve view Wu-Tang a lot like KISS, at least in terms of publicity. Both have been extremely well known in pop culture with a few songs in the American zeitgeist. Wu-Tang’s potency came more from their individual solo albums, though. As a group, they only released 2 albums in the 1990’s! That’s wild to think about given how popular they were throughout the decade.
Trivia
How many passes has Notre Dame intercepted since the beginning of 2022: 17, 21, or 25?
The Other Football
Thanks to Liverpool’s 0-0 draw against Man United, it’s Arsenal back on top of the Premier League as the Gunners beat Brighton 2-0 this past weekend. Man City also coughed up a 2-0 lead against Crystal Palace and dropped 2 points. The defending champions now sit 5 points back from the top currently in 4th place.
The European Court of Justice ruled against FIFA and UEFA preventing them from blocking the creation of a European Super League. The Premier League (among others) issued statements rejecting the Super League concept. The company set up to run the Super League (A22 Sports) released a new format to a potential league on the same day as the ruling.
Nottingham Forest have fired manager Steve Cooper. The club are expected to hire Nuno Espirito Santo in his place.
The semifinals are set in the EFL Cup with Fulham, Chelsea, Middlesborough, and Liverpool advancing this week.
Neymar’s doctor announced that due to the forward’s knee injury he’ll officially miss the Copa America this summer.
The Champions League round of 16 matchups were announced this week and they are short on games between the bigger clubs:
Real Madrid defender David Alaba has torn his ACL.
Houston Dash forward Maria Sanchez is now the NWSL’s highest paid player after signing a new 3-year deal with a 4th-year option totaling $1.5 million in salary.
Lipscomb midfielder Tyrese Spicer was the top pick in Tuesday’s MLS SuperDraft after being selected by Toronto FC.
The MLS wants to opt out its top rostered players from next year’s US Open Cup. However, US Soccer denied their request.
Shout out to the Spurs women for winning their first ever North London Derby 1-0 over Arsenal.
TV & Movies
We lost actor Andre Braugher recently after he passed away on December 11th at just 61 years old. He had quit smoking in 2010 but was diagnosed with lung cancer this year and died just 3 months later. Brutal. You probably know Braugher for his iconic performance as Captain Raymond Holt in the Fox series Brooklyn Nine-Nine that aired from 2013 through 2021.
Braugher won a pair of Emmy’s during his time with us. First, in his breakout performance in the TV series Homicide (that’s where I first got to know him) and then he won again in 2006 with the TV mini-series Thief in the lead actor category. I’m not sure I remember that one. Anyway, rest in peace to a wonderful actor gone too soon.
A Look Back
It’s been a bit of a downward trend for North Dakota State football as they’ve gone 2 years (gasp!) without winning a National Championship. In response, their head coach decided to leave Fargo and is moving to sunny Los Angeles to be USC’s new linebackers coach. I hope he is bad at his job there, no hard feelings sir. The Bison’s season recently came to an end this past weekend thanks to no. 2 seed Montana winning a wild national semi-final.
The Grizzlies only gained 284 yards in a game that went into overtime, yet they pulled through for the win. Check out the shot of that hill right next to their stadium, it’s gorgeous out there in Missoula this time of year. You can fast forward to the 6-minute mark of today’s video and get straight to double overtime. Montana scores a 2-point conversion on a ridiculous play while North Dakota State fails on their equally insane 2-point attempt. Game over.
18S Paddock Club
Reviewing the 2023 season for each team on the F1 grid…
McLaren
Place: 4th/10
Points: 302
Lando Norris: 205 points
Oscar Piastri: 97 points
This was one of the best turn around seasons in recent Formula 1 history. To start 2023, McLaren were absolutely nowhere. They’d just gone through an off-season coup of ditching Daniel Ricciardo and grabbing young star Oscar Piastri away from Alpine only to see the rookie score 5 points through the first 8 races.
That 9th race in Austria would be the beginning of a massive move up the standings and a complete rewrite for the team’s future. No. 1 driver Lando Norris only totaled 12 points through those first 8 races and then finished P4 in Austria signaling something new. Suddenly, McLaren were back in business.
After scoring a paltry 2.1 points per race through the first 8 grand prix, the team averaged 20.3 points per race to finish the season and ended up cruising past Aston Martin (a team who had the inverse type of season after starting 2023 really fast) for 4th place.
Now, the future looks very bright. Despite rumors of a switch to Red Bull, the 24-year old Norris is locked in with McLaren through 2025 and Piastri is signed through 2026. They might not be the best overall duo on the grid but it’s by far the best young duo in F1 today.
The sport will look to a revamped Mercedes and a more consistent Ferrari to challenge Red Bull in 2024 but a continuing improvement from McLaren might be the best bet to move up to 2nd place next year.
Trivia Answer:
25
The thing with the helmets that bothers me is they don’t seem to be exactly the same shade. Gray helmet with the Harvard crest would work best.
A fun soccer fact – Barcelona just played a game yesterday in Spain and have a friendly today in Dallas against Club América.
My also 6 year old daughter is learning about religions in 1st grade and asked me something about JC. We are a very non-religious household, so I tried to explain his whole story as factually as possible. When I finished explaining it, she just looked at me and said “That doesn’t seem very believable”
….so this guy 2,000 years ago….
I had a very similar conversation with my 7 y/o about Noah this week.
“Where did the water go? Sounds like a story to me.”
Sure. Downvote the quote from my 7 y/o.
I just assumed people disagreed with my Harvard helmet selection, but I guess some people are hurt that I don’t brainwash my children
Religion is for grown ups, and it’s OK that it can’t immediately be grasped by a child.
Book Suggestion
https://x.com/WPXI_Lori/status/1737836044702351545?s=20
Put that right on your hot dog like God intended.
Certainly not on your steak.
You are inviting rebuttals from the Chicagons.
Ketchup is children’s food, like chicken nuggets.
My thoughts on this: Ketchup is mostly vinegar. Vinegar can be used to break down muscle tissue on tougher cuts of meat. Hamburger and hotdogs, sausage (traditional foods ketchup is used with), are historically made of scrap pieces of meat from the butcher. Ketchup is cheap. So ketchup really is a condiment for low quality meat. In the 21st century they have been efforts to gentrify it with designer ketchups, using higher quality meats to make hamburgers and sausage, etc… but at its heart, ketchup is substandard condiment for substandard food.
Hamburger and hot dogs are ground meats, so you don’t need vinegar to break down tissues in it. If this were the case, you’d put ketchup on chuck roast or flank steak or pork butt.
Ketchup is mostly sugar. Mustard is primarily vinegar.
That’s why ketchup is gross and mustard is good.
mustard is also related to horseradish, the great condiment
What makes the most suspicious of ketchup is my child will gladly eat it solo.
They’d probably eat sugar straight up, too. Might be some correlation there.
Yup. I’ve had the same thoughts about yogurt. I now am suspicious of any food my children request.
So ketchup IS mostly sugar. It’s a high sugar fruit plus high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup for Heinz. 80% of its calories are from added sugar and the rest from natural sugar in the tomatoes.
Mustard on the other hand depends. Most are vinegar based. Dijon is white wine based. The Chinese mustard that is sometimes on the table at Chinese restaurants that packs a punch is water based and the punch goes away very quickly. Water not as good a preservative as oil (vinegar based mustards often use oil to mix with and the punch is somewhat neutralized by the vinegar).
In conclusion I’d take a mayo based sauce like a nice aioli or just plain mayo any day. Except hot dogs. Then it’s chili (not the bullshit Cincinnati kind. That’s not chili. That’s shitty meat sauce).
Sausage???
Be warned: If I see you, or anyone else for that matter, putting ketchup on sausage, I WILL call the police.
People, I know this is an open comment section, but fortheloveofgod let’s try to remember that we’re living in a society here!!!
Thank Heaven someone on here is willing to fight for high standards!
I believe he gets $1 mill per year from Hunt’s
The story behind Patrick Mahomes’ intense love of ketchup
Of course ketchup goes on hot dogs….
Ketchup isn’t the first choice of condiments for any food, ever. The world would be just fine without ketchup, but people are allowed to like whatever they like.
Their prior coaches jumped to K-State and Wyoming, so that does seem like they’ve lost their fastball.
Who is Troy?
I believe he co-hosts “Troy and Abed in the Morning”
Bill Connelly often contends, and i’m paraphrasing, that oklahoma is the best job because every coach has been successful that for pretty much ever. Is there any chance riley was more a byproduct that infrastructure rather than he drove their somewhat elevated success from 17-21? I could still be wrong but this usc stretch is going less than great
I mean that’s looking like a real strong argument right now.
Not often discussed, but what does the Preferred Walk On class look like this year? I know we had Anthony Rezac (3 star,82), brother of Teddy (3 star, 88), and last year we had Luke Talich (3 star, 87) walk on. Has the floor of the the PWO’s lifted under Freeman ? Are there other three star walk ons? I know Tommy Powlus is in the PWO fold as well. (No Scholarship? Is he foregoing academic aide so he can walk on to the football team?)
Thinking about Pyne and Buchner coming back to Notre Dame even to not be on the football team. Seems like a really solid reflection on the school. I don’t know how you sell that to recruits but it’s not nothing.
I don’t think that would be at the top of my list of selling points to highlight failed recruits. Maybe mention how Jerome Bettis came back decades later because of how great ND is.
Haha right, that’s why I’m saying it’s tricky. But it’s not meaningless that guys want to come back here even without playing
OL Will Black commitment. ISD is very high on him.
Denbrock is coming home. This has been a very good offseason so far after seeming bleak at the start
We are SO back
Apparently the LSU board of trustees wasn’t meeting until February to approve the new Denbrock deal, so he hadn’t signed it… so the buyout was just one the last year of his current deal. Amazing.
Well looks like the administration learned from the cockup last year.
If the timing had been the same as last year it might not have worked out either.
Well let’s hope the administration learned from last year and we don’t cock this up. I don’t think it’s final, yet. But at least there aren’t any packed hockey games to parade him around at right now.
This was really well orchestrated. You have to think that the Stuckey/Parker removal and Brown/Denbrock hiring was all planned behind the scenes long before the press caught wind. Very exciting to see how Freeman has his sh%# together.
I don’t really understand this line of thinking, which is prevalent on the 247 board as well – we couldn’t force Troy to hire Parker (unless some ND donor decided to fund Troy’s football program upon one minor condition, in which case: thanks rich person, whoever you are), and the reports were Parker interviewed this past Sunday before the announcement. Given that, it couldn’t have been planned beyond this past week.
I think it would have been super optimistic to assume Parker was going to get some head coaching job. Of course, it worked out – at a pretty solid Sun Belt job, no less – but planning on that wouldn’t have been particularly prudent given Parker’s track record.
But, again, it worked out given that hire, and it seems like they had a plan they executed once the situation arose, so that’s a clear win. But it just doesn’t really make sense to think there was a grand plan for like the past month (see also above re: getting lucky that Denbrock hadn’t signed his deal).
Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. It could be CMF was starting conversations for replacements before firing Parker.
I also wonder about the timing re NSD.
I don’t think anyone knew Parker was going to land at Troy. But I think it is fairly reasonable to assume that MF had already had convos with GP that he wouldn’t be returning to ND, or GP saw the writing on the wall, so his agent had been poking around for a while and had a good idea that there was at least one low level school interested in hiring him.
I mean, things like this rarely happen this quickly. ISD was on Denbrock from the moment the Parker move to Troy was announced. MF publicly supported both Stuckey and Parker until the end, but was clearly making plans to move on well ahead of their leaving. My best guess is that they had a deal with Brown, at least in concept, before firing Stuckey. And ND knew Denbrock wanted to return to the Bend, and allowed Parker some space to pursue other opportunities before firing him. The outgoing Troy coach has a close relationship with Parker.
Nothing is done until the ink is dry, but these plans were clearly in motion for a long time. At least a lot longer than the public is aware of…
Self reply. I have also seen it reported that Denbrock could not sign his deal until the LSU Board of Trustees approved it, which would not be until they meet in February.
Ah, I kind of misunderstood – if you’re assuming they would have fired Parker if he hadn’t gotten the Troy job, then, yeah, great plan, support 100%. Everybody wins this way, that’s for sure.