Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Notre Dame has hired LSU’s Mike Denbrock to be offensive coordinator for the Irish.
Texas quarterback Maalik Murphy is transferring to Duke.
Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton is entering the NFL Draft and skipping the Vols’ bowl game.
Florida State wide receiver Keon Coleman is entering the NFL Draft. The Seminoles starting quarterback Tate Rodemaker is also in the transfer portal and won’t play in their bowl game.
Florida running back Trevor Etienne is transferring to Georgia.
The former 247 no. 1 player in the 2022 class defensive tackle Walter Nolen is transferring to Ole Miss.
Florida State is suing the ACC to get out of their grant of rights fee in order to leave the league.
Michigan has received a notice of allegations from the NCAA for recruiting violations during the quiet period of COVID-19.
Jerry Kill has stepped down as head coach at New Mexico State with the school hiring Tony Sanchez as his replacement.
Uniform of the Week
I’m pretty sure I’ve brought up the Illinois uniforms in a past Rambler. Their current set below, while completely fine and even nice looking in a vacuum, don’t look like Illinois to me. It looks much more like Syracuse and even Virginia. I’ve been looking back through their uniform history and I’m not sure there’s a lot for them to do to not look like Syracuse. I do know that the solid block “I” logo doesn’t help. It’s now on their helmet, front bumper, and collar of the jersey in addition to the hip of the pants.
Getting rid of the UCLA shoulder stripes would help. Also, the orange numbers on the road white jersey doesn’t fit the attempt to move away from the team in New York. I miss the old script “Illinois” in plain white on the helmet. Sure it was a boring logo but that’s what I grew up with and damn it that’s what matters most.
Recruiting
Notre Dame added 2025 offensive tackle Will Black (0.9000) last week.
Former Colorado commit and corner Aaron Butler (0.9450) committed to Texas.
Linebacker Bradley Shaw (0.9245) committed to Arkansas.
Former Texas A&M commit and offense lineman Coen Echols (0.9123) committed to LSU.
Defensive lineman Jericho Johnson (0.9361) committed to Oregon.
In the 2025 class…
Offensive lineman Solomon Thomas (0.9876) committed to Florida State.
Defensive lineman Antonio Coleman (0.9503) committed to Auburn.
YouTube Channel
I contend that Shaquille O’Neal is truly one of the Great Americans. If you have free time go peruse Shaq’s Wikipedia page sometime. His page is insanely long and full of a ridiculous amount of biographical information. It’s similarly long to Abe Lincoln’s I’m not even lying. I was a big fan of O’Neal a long time ago and he was my second favorite NBA star after Michael Jordan. However, when he went to the Lakers I started to like him a lot less–even though he was as dominant and entertaining as ever.
He’s led an amazing life and at 51 years old should be in the spotlight for many more years to come. There are probably more current athletes who have enormous endorsement deals, although Shaq has been among the best and most consistent product endorsers the past 30 years. When Papa Johns needed a PR makeover guess who they turned to? Yes, it was Shaq. A quick Google check says that he currently endorses 30 different companies and that doesn’t include his ownership of several other businesses. What an amazing story and career for the Big Diesel.
Tunes
The debut Weezer album was such a lightning bolt of genius. When it came out I was in a feeble attempt with a couple of friends to learn how to play guitar (I never devoted enough time or bought my own guitar) and we listened endlessly to The Blue Album. To this day, I’m still disappointed that Weezer didn’t amount to more. They’ve sold 35 million albums worldwide don’t get it confused they were still really successful! It was just that they never approached the awesomeness of this debut album.
I came across their performance on the Letterman Show from the summer of 1994 and it’s an excellent flashback. Once again, the YouTube comment section comes through with crucial information. Why does lead singer Rivers Cuomo look so weird and why is he wearing ridiculously baggy pants? He had just had Illizarov surgery to correct one of his legs being 2 inches longer than the other. He couldn’t move on stage and told his other band members to move around a lot so it would seem less weird that he stood still.
Trivia
Which Notre Dame player is 3rd in total offense this season behind Sam Hartman and Audric Estime?
The Other Football
The 25% minority ownership of Manchester United by INEOS’ Jim Ratcliffe is official. That amounted to a cool $1.3 billion pounds. If any of my cycling enthusiasts are wondering why the INEOS Grenadiers WorldTour team hasn’t been splashing cash around much this year, this is your answer.
Through Wednesday’s action, Liverpool sit atop the Premier League with 42 points coming off a 2-0 win at Burnley. Second place Arsenal have a game in hand and face West Ham on Thursday.
Manchester City are set to sign 17-year old attacking midfielder Claudio Echeverri from River Plate in Argentina. The deal is expected to cost around $22 million.
PSG are also looking to South America to sign Corinthians midfielder Gabriel Moscardo for a reported $22 million transfer fee.
The moves across the Atlantic continue as Barcelona are set to welcome Vitor Roque for $43.6 million from Athletico-PR in the Brazilian league.
TV & Movies
We had a discussion in my family this Holiday season about our favorite Christmas movies. I have a very concrete top 4 in some order of Elf, Home Alone, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. I’ve tried and I don’t think I could truly pick a top favorite. It seems to change each year. I know that I won’t include Die Hard because it’s not a Christmas movie. Or is it? Fight it out in the comment section.
Christmas Vacation is probably the most rewatchable of my favorites although that’s different than enjoying with my kids. We started watching Elf on Christmas Eve but got distracted by our family party. They were digging the humor early in the movie. I could re-watch so many scenes with Clark Griswold and while many others believe this isn’t the best National Lampoons movie that is crazy to me. I might argue it’s Chevy Chase’s finest performance.
A Look Back
In terms of public relations of course Mike Tyson has been the antithesis to Shaq. He made nearly $400 million from prize money during his boxing career but ended up filing for bankruptcy 20 years ago. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t think of a company or product that Tyson endorses these days. According to the super official Google machine, Tyson’s net worth in 2023 is around $10 million. That’s a lot for us mere mortals, but not for the former heavyweight champion of the world.
Every once and a while, I like to throw on some Tyson highlights to feel alive. As someone who has always enjoyed boxing more than MMA it’s amazing to witness Tyson’s raw energy and power back in his prime. I miss those pay per view days with crazy Don King standing in the ring. It’s always fun to watch opponents get humbled by Tyson, who knows why some thought it was a good idea to poke the bear before the fight. I guess it’s not in most boxer’s nature to stay humble and quiet.
18S Paddock Club
Reviewing the 2023 season for each team on the F1 grid…
Mercedes
Place: 2nd/10
Points: 409
Lewis Hamilton: 234 points
George Russell: 175 points
If you’re not a Mercedes fan you probably find the team highly annoying. Despite being miles behind Red Bull, as former champions and a British-based team they receive a ton of engagement from the media with every race weekend seemingly a top of the website report about whether the Silver Arrows are closed to being back.
Well, Mercedes didn’t win a race in 2023 and they were close to being chased down for 2nd place by Ferrari. Once a fixture atop the podium, Lewis Hamilton hasn’t won a race in his last 45 grand prix appearances. For their standards, it’s not been real great since 2021 ended.
At the same time, you can’t really say they had a bad year when they finished above 8 other teams. Their mistake was using the George Russell victory at Brazil in 2022 as a vindication of their car design and specifically not turning away from that concept for 2023. So, they continued to deal with many of the same issues with a fickle mistress of a car this past season.
In terms of the teammate battle, things remain juicy. Russell was by far the more unlucky driver in 2023 and finished well behind Hamilton in points. However, the dead even qualifying battle this season (24 to 20 in favor of Hamilton since 2022) signals a fierce battle that continues to rage within Mercedes. Hamilton will turn 39 in a couple weeks and even though you can’t imagine Mercedes never not being his team at some point Russell might force his way into the no. 1 driver role.
Trivia Answer:
Jeremiyah Love – 346 yards
Whether Die Hard is or isn’t a Christmas movie is a bit like when we had no CFP or attempt to match #1 v. #2 for a football national champion. The debate about it is what keeps the move popular, probably the most popular for its genre and age. The debate about who was champion did not diminish the popularity of college football. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter, the debate matters.
As we move into a 12 team play-off awash in money, NIL deals, unlimited transfers, conferences without rivalries, etc. does anyone think we are better off than when a bunch of folks in a bar could argue forever over who should have really been #1 in X year. We have turned college football into a mini-NFL (complete with an AFC and NFC Big 10 or is it 20/SEC) except with greater free agency. I guess the people who wanted finality won, but I think it was a pyrrhic victory.
The NFL has an overriding group of Owners and the Commissioner who negotiate with the Players Union. Players sign contracts though teams can release players with implications on their Cap, which is applied to all teams. Nothing like that exists in college football to provide guardrails. It could get worse for those clinging to the concept of amateurism.
At What Point Should College Athletes Be Considered Employees? (NY Times)
The example in the above link of USC and Lincoln Riley is not something that as far as I know bears any similarity to ND’s practices.
The transfers, condensed calendar, and NIL stuff 10000% needs to be addressed quickly.
I don’t think going back to a non-playoff system is the answer to many current problems.
There are 43 bowl games. There really isn’t anything that can be done to make that many games interesting. The sport doesn’t need to do anything (in terms of awarding a championship) to appease the entertainment value of that many bowl games.
Would moving the bowl games up and the transfer portal window back solve some of the issue? Would more players play in the bowl games if the portal didn’t open until maybe January 2nd?
I have to think it would help quite a bit.
The issue with that would be the academic calendar, which I know nobody honestly cares about, but to stop pretending to care about it may have unintended consequences down the line, just as NIL and transfers have
I am not sure what the answer is, but it has become such a big business now. Between Fox/NBC/CBS having the Big 10 and ESPN having the SEC, there is no room, or need, for an ACC or Big 12. The money in those contracts demand marquee games each week. Thus, the expansion. Each conference will need to create two-three marquee games a week for television. The rest is noise.
Chip Kelly was right. Everyone should be independent in football and the conferences should go back to something more logical. I can’t wait for that Oregon-Rutgers women’s softball game.
So in the B1G, Ohio St. will have to play Michigan every week. Hopefully they can both figure out a way to go 5-7.
It will be tOSU, UM, UW, Ore, USC and then hope for Wisconsin and Nebraska to get better. At least one game between those teams each week. Nobody is going to want to watch the Minnesota- Maryland game or that riveting Iowa-Rutgers match-up.
With this many teams, the old UM-MSU rivalry game won’t mean anything anymore.
The game schedule will look a lot like the NFL schedule. One good game flexed to the evening. A marquee game for 4 pm. Then some hopes at 1.
At some point, the big draws will realize they are subsidizing Northwestern, Illinois, Iowa, etc. and the same will dawn on the SEC, so long Vandy football, Missouri, Kentucky the Mississippis. More realignment and then we will go to one 32 team super conference on all the networks. Since there will be a 12 team, soon to be 16 team playoff, you can be 9-3 0r 8-4 and get in. If only there was a model for that. Oh, yeah, it will be an NFL for Saturday. TV wants that because TV understands that. The uniqueness of college football is withering away in a ratings game. Realignment has already destroyed so many rivalries, what is a few more.
The super conference will only be for football. The rest of the sports will go back to some semblance of what once was.
I think a lot of what made football great back in the day was tied to its being a live sport vs a TV sport – regional brands and rivalries, amateurism, contested championships. These things all work when you’re driving back to your old Alma mater for the weekend, but don’t play as well when billions of dollars of TV money start circulating for a broadcast entertainment event. So maybe this started way back in the 80s with the Supreme Court case against the NCAA having TV rights and only broadcasting one national game per week
Demand all non playoff bowls feature edible mascots.
Thirty players at New Mexico State have transferred out. That number includes some who entered the portal during the season. Eight players transferred after Kill announced his retirement including the top two QBs. Here’s a link for transfer offers for some. Some of those players entered the portal after the NCAA recently eliminated the restriction on number of times a player can transfer. As chaotic as it seems, the Portal works for many G5 players and teams. Twelve players have transferred in so far. Kill retired due to health and age with a long tenure as a college football beginning in 1985.
At the P5 level, what is happening at Minnesota? All QB commits from 2021-23 have transferred out. They did not have a QB commit for 2020. The latest is their starter in 2023. P.J. Fleck completed his sixth year there. Their starter for the bowl game was sixth year Senior Cole Kramer (Class of ’19) who stuck around to make his first career start. The Gophers have a QB transferred in from New Hampshire and a QB committed for the Class of 2024 but Kramer was their only QB for the bowl. Kramer was 8/16, averaging 1.6 yards per completion. They ran the ball forty-four times.
It’s a good thing Michigan State did not have a bowl game since they had only a walk-on QB to run the offense. They too have only a transfer QB (Chiles) and a 2024 commit for next year. All of their QB signees from 2019-23 have transferred out.
How Notre Dame is hiring Mike Denbrock from LSU: An unsigned extension, a record deal
Weezer does have that one rather odd song about the lead singer fetishizing a Japanese school girl who wrote him a fan letter
It is a great song…
In regards to the trivia question, that can’t be correct, right? I thought Tyree and Evans both had over 400 receiving yards.
I had guessed Tyree, too.
Yup, Tyree had 483 yds from scrimmage 484 receiving -1 rushing
Lol -1 rushing yard is such a perfect way for his final ND season to end.
That is all-purpose yardage, it’s sort of a trick question 🙂
for those of us confused:
Total offense in football is the combined amount of rushing yards and passing yards accumulated by one player or team. Receiving yards are not counted towards this total statistic.
All-purpose yards is a combined total of rushing yards, receiving yards, and all forms of return yards.
Hartman – 2689 passing yards
Estime – 1341 rushing yards
Love -346 rushing yards
Basically, can’t count receiving yard towards total offense, because the passing yards of the QB are already counted. So in essence you would count those yards twice for your total offense, over inflating how much total offense you really had.
This must be why WRs never win the Heisman. QBs get all the credit for their hard work.
Shaq is a Great American but will never be as much of a national treasure as Charles Barkley.
Both were excellent guests on Conan O’Brien’s podcast!
I had a few philosophy classes with a Dominican Priest in college that was a golden gloves champion in his younger years, he came to believe that boxing is intrinsically evil.
Scoring depends on how ‘clean’ (punch lands on unprotected area) and how much force and power it is delivered with, basically condoning intentional injury to another person. Every fighter wants to win the fight by knockout, often causing unconsciousness of the opponent, or by technical knockout where the ref deems it is unsafe for one of the fighters to continue, usually after said fighter has been knocked down several times in a single round. Many sports have an element of physical domination over the opponent, very few have the intent to win through injuring the opponent.
I found it to be food for thought.
To your point, the science of a knockout is grim:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/sports/a6372/boxing-knockout-sports-science/
Counterpoint: Bengal Bouts is awesome
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G4H4mkOm1ydBfYqDXxVUMaS4gG8t0G3i859ZWi4zwNjKAfSkubJqOcSS+Z8UflInQbakm5yrsY5t2GDoRtyV+NLxycvUZlL7naT8Lmh/D8ReCZqZwfy6SpDceckAkNP3CgNxAgmGA9AAjwGENR0mcg1gXP2VKUY9tUZVkl/LGV2WrK1ZrP4lrD3f4M2obBH4o/DJi5sU0O1FQclZ9neLOpF7AJaZzAgQRoQRpEbIuM9lG1mOr4NsOAzPoAzbd1Lfrl9uSePNG9r4K8+jlW9O/ZWHtVU/tSH9q6k2AWYKJaTnUa5natwMwEo9r3/ANIWPlCU6HTNb/8AltT+kJup2rqHRrVliji0oCmacdqan9LUFl5RIoVP2ABGAiRygkGRyRge6JphFCQjTdj6Mve87AAcyTNh8Le4XCEAF+wus32Ew4FM1alhmOXrYAn4I91r31wQcsLm6ltyZ2dEqikZ3j+MjKGnKZ+NR9FVUuI1BIzJHaKqTUHR0BNCgZlQpbU2dSEnucUi2w2MqGwJV5hsO97QXEnkBaPNUuEIaBsrLDYoZrOKq4LmmWr3uAvrbT2ScPiDcG0FNalPPoAx5obK2lXJKbQJh0zJB/RWVKpFlFwwseQ+U450XOgufRQffBCUtyp+CZhH5Yyutp6iysBiszHc9D7arNYDFDNp4XWuPMj5KtcVU/lkOtpFwJggkCd1v3NUmcn6abco/sKc85ATbwyef+DCocRxHI9oOjvoIG/WU5Xc+Wsd4acSTeTyvv6LNccqxVaBoGN9JJVMlfBdSik12uyL2u4O1kVKQ8Dplg/L1H9vTby0ocGwtblIiDPvdbLD1e8pljj9grLYwZKjp0lOMm1tZdBRbU/ITGHl7p7CMyOzbfcJbIcE7kgAc7ffyoptcEppSVmjwFRrpBEza+h/RYXj/BTRqlosxx8JnY7f+OnqOa02ArEHLO8lXNWkzEU8lSJmWncEb/p6lShPYymUIzXJy+pw5zMmYHxiR7kfotj2awQp3tfWf86JmvwyDlePGJiZy5ZJke59TsmRi4hpsOY+U8uVy4Rdh0sYK67Lrh1WmMWS1gytNy0BpJ/7oMea6DhcWHggaxYkgx6xNvlc/wCC1GRDQC7W145T0stZhQcviPl9xCpWRp0GTGpFd2u/06pYua2Hc2lVuXDL/LqHmQLtcTq4AzuJuuMcSwNSjUdSqtLXtMEH4iLEHUEWK9GUcaWsIdAJ0v8AC5R/qPTDxTrRDsxY75cAecEO91txZ+VF+TmZtK1Fy9HPyEsU7SnqFODLko0yTOy1Wc4jU2TqiykmFIrskw3RETDY3RYWIyBGk9y5EmA3KMhFG6AumMVE3UzheFNWo2mJg6kbN3++qhaLUdkmNac51cYG5htz7m3soTltVlmKDnKka8U+7pMa0BoNgOgH0jdRapFNpc0kzNwfDbkR7KNjcZnqFxzA7CNOVjzUHiHEC492czbCJEBY393XR1seNYnz34/BWY7E53tkXDr/ACrAO0jkqfiBDXNvJm/srfAwW5juoZopRTRq0mV7pKXZKw7nGArHDU4vH39yo+FuYV0/D2HJZrNznbE03wE4yo5x6BN93f7spFOmdAodkZFnhK0yNkvE1W5CHOAnSd46DVR+HOs4u2n2CawlEVXue+8Rb9PIK3HG1ufgxZ509qXLLDhtSmZa08joQNAN+v1UrFVZaWAySQHNnYz+yaYxlMTAaNz/AMqBh6JdUNQiIJIM2OzY9Famm3IzSTilH36HOK1gWwImRA35abLKcbZNZ21h+8Fa5mCBqGoTvOX5vzusjxp4/iKg8v8A+QkqdUE26baroZwlTKVG4xTDyUbWmQpGIpnKeuhQ+HaDFKnT6KTDPDBJJJKcfi/EBB9Tz0TLyJgak26AWCAYS6PU6bfubKdJ8s1UkqRaMqHXTn+itMHX6grPscYI5EqXTdBsbKEkVx4NUzu8Qw03GHDR246+vJL4f2coZgagzuGxAy/+pkO9ZVBh6pEOb6rRjiBFPOLlg05qlPnkvaceE+zRnAUg05WMa7SWtDT0EgKG+uGWfqOf6JnC8UztBgzGn6Ku4sD3YAubzsDY39/qnKSb4KoJriTGMRxFzqzD+SSBBPXxHpZZPt/jw8spAjwkvf0kQ31jMfbmkcV433fgZeoQCSbhgNwepi/3CyT6xJMkkuMknUlbMGDa9zOdrNUprbH4Fjx2FoTkgDL8pI8GmpTjWSMy1nNBkFPW5KZfQA8c2T7PHqm6jp8EIAY70IJz+FCCAIEo3Ih8o26qYwxotZwTC/8AxujQazAE3KyWVbfhpcKdhIDW2sdo38lRm8I2aRLmXqiXUqsc4DJmI3kggfqo3FGlzfCyAJ3tr9f8qwwIGQuc0hxMAC3uOSru0WJc1gaCACdrbCxCy7fRvWVSfL+eDJ46oS4A6g3V1wZ5eAOSzlYySeqtuz9XxZeZCvzQ/T+DNpsv67/JtuH0RMn0/dXD2yc0nSI/VVmGEQrfDkZZlclM7Dk0xNFvMJ9zNSdAP+Ebag2R1HS2Obh8Gf0CEw3OyXhqbQyNiIPXmoNI9zUgz3bt+XJWT3gAAbKJiXBzSDoroSpU+jPPG5Pcuw+Itc/KAC4XJgjWLSToLlOYWiGNDR0k8zFyqrB4otd3bnT/AEunUcj1CuqLrSU5N1XgrjFW5ef7Cq7oauecVqfz6hJ1I+AB72K2fFcYGseRo0E+cCR9Fzms8uJLtTdTxryRnK1RYd6plGrmYQTdUlFwAvPyn5NtWgxFtjN/Kx9iptLyRxwk5UhvF4cB5LZjytrz5DRHhy0SXEWP0Hzc+tlYuxdMQC20NbqeZcbxJs0D1UbFVmPAim1rnGDGkEOGhHh0/wD1STbXJ0Y40qZXirDnO0DiDHIumPoFMZVBHlZQcdgyDDfEIB3taPv9Ey0vY4E6FTaTXZmyRak3Rq+G0CSb67fsrCk8sInQiIWWw+Mc0y1XbeJ5m3bl67+ipeN2VvIq5ZfNxdKmP7voqrjPFWhhc4+EC/0jzOnqq7vC4y0e6y/aDiOc920y1puf6nc/Iae/RW4cCbM2bPUXRXcQxJfUdUP4nGfIaAeggeiTTHhnfZNUW3kpQBJ6LoHJbHqBk3Sw8zGybeZsE4ww3qkFjtR8XaiLrSdUilY3SXST0QA33jkE/maiUgKwhGRN0QQFkxhha7AvzDKBBGltumyyMLS8MxcMDm3cAB5RqVTmTaTRq0zjymXP+4d22ATIm2w/yszjMSaj3EzOwJJj1TuMxhu50EnoodGvB0Ek3H0Vai+zRCSTS8EbFUsriNrfS6tuy+GmoXHQR8/fyoeJeCTy0+/kqz7OPysMbn/CM039J+yWPDFajh8cs1hcCco9egVjh8obEyqqjGgVjgqcuXHR1ZP0SmtkyNPopdJseI7aeZTRN7bRolYl+UAKa4By8B1K5KQ5wH+Ey1/oU60TqpDTQbKDXiHAEfe/NIxRfTgU3k3/AAu8Vt4OoUmcoUUmxJ1U4tlWSEWyBxmoG0XSfxW9zf4lZMgGSAXHpp6rWVKRqCS1rgDHiEgQLmDabqvxrLRy8grU64M/07d2U7KYaQ50GOeg/dWWGxzXfjjoYOu/306lDDYWm6ziWg6OtE9Z2VfjsA6kHNdcEkhzbt133b5iQh/cbsS2xpIa4g4BxIbaXb2MCLfso7KLgZkAxMEmABa6b73K5t7Zi64zC2nujr44OM5YI0i42iPLxH1CsUWlSE5xbt8BDEvvIvECOQNxHol95mAGotqE2HNIMGXG/QeqfotkB28RbkiVLminJPirsAJZZseep9yrDCPzD8Jnmq51NzvdMY/ij6P8tkBwAl2pE7CbTG/VShBz4MOacYq2TuO8TFJvdNP8xw8RH5Adv+4/A9Fk2sJM7JYGc3JnWTcnmSjzAeH5WyEFBUjlzm5O2E/xaJzNAy7oZcnmUAwRmUiAbBl1QDd9kQ8ZRl/5UALc7NYIy8ARum/wIotmUQB3JQQ/iiiUgIrgNkSMH/hERCYwSpeDxZpukXadR96FQ4RgpDTo0LqTajc7fEPlvRwVQ+mWO/VJwmLfTdmYYO41B6Ebq3ZxSlUH8xmQndolv7t+UtpNTd2yldWJU/A4zKAM0G/1V/wHsh/F1PA7LS3cL+jZ3+i3+J/0xwZZFMvp1Bo6S8H/ALmuOnlCTimqaJLJJO0zmNDiREw919Va8PxtSpYVyxsgSTBJOw67pPGeyeJwxOekXMGlSmC5h84u31CnYWpws02A/wAWxwaA6BTc0vjxPFyRJ28lGWJV9sVZfp8q3/qydel5JHAOO1XU62DD89V0voucQcr23cwz+UhpvsZ520PaPipw9Ck3u6bqrzJkAENbeJ1Doc0e6zTeyeJdXFfBtqNptLXsfWysfIALvBrEyNLjzWn4nwKnj3sNcVaVWkyHNpw9jwSPE2RLTI08tYSlji2rSKnkkpPa3V8FHT4+3V1E/wDi8H6hWGE45h3WcX0z/e2R7tlAdisJoKlVjtBmDbnXSAqzH9ksRSvTc2q3pY+x/dVPS430XLV5Y9mlq0Q5oexwc3ZzSCPhQ8U8ZHQdislh+JVcNU8TXMP5gQQ1w/uaduqu8djWOoPfT3Y4wNQY0nTVZ5YHCSro2YtWpxd9oy2NxJcSTmOu8geQmyguqRu4eRI+E/Wq1HD/AOItjUt/XUD0hQ+/duBHVzB8khdBJHIcm3dhVMTUFmVCRyJn4Kn4TEY3IKgoF9IvFP8AC4tc7ZggyddlW1q1MC5zOnRoMRGuY7zaAPVX2C7U0qdKk0UHZqLXZXCqWjM8ul0BtneIwZkZna7RlGL8F+HUTi+JNFbWxdMAuFKoxwIDrTTBm956iP8AKbp4mm95JeGzpmbb4NvfdSafaMgNYGhoJ8b3DPUEnxOzDKXTckWknXkxxrG0yA2nRoFhaA14vUJEZnv8WYOnZwg3ICj9JP8ABo/jpryn8qhRw4i0Ec2kGfObJVOAb529QCPmIWbDiNDCnYLiFVhGV09DdRlhdcMgtWpO5KjUYBt8xcHNEnS8DW4WOxFcve551c4k+pmAtW3izTQrF7MtTIQHcy7wgA6zefdZZjfDJF9lLDBxu0U6nIpVQQ8GmpTrGiM26bw9z4tOqPOc1tPhXGUcZ4zdEX/liyVVdH4UejZ3QA2/w6IgLTul0zOv3/hNOcZ6IANrs2qQ6ptshWPL1RTbrsgBeRqCjIIoKFG9990TTsiCMjcIGFoiIShe26LzTAAup3B8E+tVZRZq8weg1J9ACVCIj9FsewGF8VStewDGnqbu+APcoA6p2awjaLGsaPC0BoFtNZ6n91divmezK4ZBObmTHhhUOHq5W5dev7KRSqEQZj4t+qdDsvKlaAXGwE3VA7BU31O+FBgJ0fkbmPUmPlDFYguhuYkDnqfVOvr0zEgTAFxpsY5BJjXBbtLiyJAJ5D3UBmFzVcwe4Fo2i8WvbqUipjMpAa7MNuihHEu/E0w7WUCsn8WDokuGYm0tMdLzbzVS3iDmmHU5H9rp+D+6TV4kXZg54BdEzIiPRNiP62O8ilQWxdbC0sS0te0X2Igj9PUQsDxThlTDOqUGkFlQZmF2kNd42Ec9LdVtg8G3t0hN4v8AhXEMxjajxH8vuy8VM5sMha4dRBm8WSa9klJ3wc2q8OhveMljmm7g6R/45JM+ZHluoVbvGO/mtc4c58Xo+DB9/JbQdnTWqup03VqVVrXOLKuZwIsDlc4NIkui5dPNZTHAt8Mh2UmT4vo4D6KKlboJQpWQajGk5mEx/cBInaQb7XtvbmlzRvlPkEKhY4+E5TGkWLp0ufD56eU2SXSLiOiZAj1HDQWCKnTzaWPx9/uluAQ7y2UyB/bv1I31PupAEaJBjwu8nD6p6nh2nXMw9QY9CE02i06OdPl/lW3D8ExuR76joJjw2i2l9TppoPNKyUFukl/cYrsOQFxBynUQbXG3pqAq4sJMjRa3/bsO5jg57muJMEAFpEwC4Oylp6gnyhUHE8H3DzTnMDBDtiCOnskpX32W5cDhbTTXtEaqM0BuyMCGxN0KTMlygac+LZSM4KTS3VFkMzsjec2iBdAyoATVE/hSXGBG6W3wa7pGQE5psgBtjYuU2RN0685jZJeREC/MoATmQScqCACRiyJBMYCErUdUaCQgmxoV0XsZlGEa3d5e426lo9fCPdBBSQM04xQLI5X9k43FZRIJgR8yggpCQ+HNhoIubkj3SDXJIy3PI2hBBQJDlXGBhjXmOpTP8ZBkWPkgghgE973GR3Z/7mfFiipsqm/cU/MEfQwggkAVKm4u0FhdROMcI/iIdnDcjYgtJkk3Mg2tA0KNBQytqLL8EFKaszlfjmOwfhFV2UggSWvsbeEuGZsbcllauImIEIIKGJtx5HqIqM3FFa90nqjFQm2/3uggrjOKFMlSKWGOphBBIQ66gjp0XDRxHyPYoIJDJuEwzn5iajgGgE+s7DyUnHYBxYGOgwSWncHX53/dBBUOb+ptO0tJjWj+orv/ACUD2y4tdYtJHPTVJc4Dw7IILQcQMgME7lEA0jMggmAQcH62SKlQfhGnNBBADbob1KbEao0EAFnQQQTGf//Z
Hard to argue with that take!
Too much boxing!
Re: Christmas movies, I watched the muppets Christmas carol for the first time last week, and what an excellent movie.
Michael Caine crushed scrooge, and it finds a great balance between the silliness of the muppets and seriousness of dramatic acting. Plus it was the directorial debut of jim hensons son at the ripe ol age of 28.
Andddd, to toss a grenade in the fire, die hard is definitely a christmas movie: putting aside differences, travelling to see family, giving gifts, embracing strangers (albeit falling down a flight of stairs while snapping a neck). It truly has the spirit of the holidays.
Muppet Christmas Carol is a pillar of cinema and a top 3 Christmas movie.
I don’t remember John and Hans putting aside their differences. I must have seen the directors cut or something.
Pretty sure they were fighting about a watch, and near the very end of the movie, Hans finally gives it to John.
Ah. Makes sense. I guess that explains the good firm final handshake he gives Holly.
I’m both excited and sad for the last game of the season. Tomorrow is basically the worst day of the year.
You do know the game is today, right?
Yeah. So tomorrow is the longest point from football. I guess tonight would be equally bad. Worse if we lose.
I am looking at other things. I want to see Angeli do well although with Leonard coming that is less important. I want to see how Love/Price do as the featured backs. How Jagusah holds up at LT, and for that matter the entire OL.
I want to see how Sneed does with hopefully more snaps. Perhaps some of the younger DL get a chance. Get an early look at the Mickey/Gray competition for the other CB slot. I figure Watts and Brown will get most of the snaps at S, but the freshman should get some and that should be interesting. I assume Lewis will take all the snaps in the slot.
A win is good and a bonus, but if the youngsters play well, it bodes well for 2024.
THe problem is that it always seems to take a new OL a couple of games to gel and this OL won’t have had that time. It does get one of those games out of the way for next year, other than the reinsertion of Spindler.
Jagusah and Sneed are top of my list to watch for sure. I’m also just excited to see Love get like 12-15 carries.
Im also curious on S. I really hope we see a young guy flash at S. That would be huge. It stinks Tallich is out.
And it sounds like the other freshman CB (blanking on name) will get some snaps. If hear ready for a solid slot backup role to Clark we are going to have a 2nd string that would probably be a top 40 defense.
If they follow bowl tradition and put the names on the backs of the jerseys, that will help.
I thought I saw that Bell and was it Gray(?) were battling for slot snaps – not Lewis.
Gotcha
Die Hard is undeniably a Christmas movie. The entire soundtrack is Christmas songs, including ominous jingle bells as part of ominous atmospheric soundtrack from the very beginning of the movie.
“Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho”
What about the argument that, since an ND-USC game is being shown at one point, it can’t be later than Thanksgiving?
The movie takes place on Christmas Eve, this is mentioned many times. The ND USC thing is just an error/something the filmmakers didn’t think the viewers would notice.