Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Notre Dame running back Devyn Ford has moved positions to safety/nickel.
Former preferred walk-on safety Luke Talich has been awarded a scholarship.
Drue Tranquill has agreed to a new contract with the Kansas City Chiefs.
In college football playoff expansion news, the champions of the SEC and Big Ten would like to secure the pair of first round byes. Also, there are reports that Notre Dame would qualify for one of the at-large bids if they are ranked inside the final top 14 playoff poll.
The early signing period has now moved to early December prior to the transfer portal opening.
Over 10,000 athletes have opted into the upcoming College Football 25 video game, but that does not include Texas quarterback Arch Manning.
The NCAA is freezing NIL investigations.
In-game helmet communications has been approved by the FBS football programs.
West Virginia head coach Neal Brown has received a one-year contract extension through 2027.
Wink Martindale has been hired as the new defensive coordinator at Michigan.
Former Duke offensive coordinator Kevin Johns is joining Oklahoma as an offensive analyst
The state of Iowa has dropped all charges against student-athletes in their gambling probe from last year.
Former Michigan defensive lineman Craig Roh has passed away after a battle with colon cancer.
Uniform of the Week
It needs to be said that the Los Angeles Clippers had nowhere to go but up with any uniform and logo changes. As the franchise gets set to open up what should be an insane new arena Intuit Dome in Inglewood in August, they decided to unveil a refreshed look more than 7 months before the next NBA season. You can see the uniforms in today’s main header photo. Here are the released new logos and typefaces. I have to say, this stuff is still bland as hell and will look boring and dated by November. I predict another re-brand within 5 to 7 years. This is some SB Nation 2011-era logo work, folks.
The old-timey ship logo would be so much more inspired, not this cruise ship nonsense. Arguably, the Clippers should’ve changed colors to something less boring too. I’m actually surprised they didn’t do that. Really nothing about this redesign feels like it’s going to stick. The main logo has a ship, the letter “C”, and a compass. The secondary logo is the same thing except it’s supposed to have a sailors knot but all I keep seeing is a four-leaf clover. Go back to the orange and black Buffalo Braves colors, you cowards.
Recruiting
*cricket noises*
Defensive lineman Antonio Coleman (0.9465) committed to Alabama.
YouTube Channel
The NFL Combine wrapped up this past weekend and Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy was FLYING in the 40-yard dash. He broke the Combine record with a blistering 4.21 scamper across the turf in Indianapolis. Sheesh! He had been floating around the end of the 1st round coming into the workout after a very productive 3 years in Austin totaling 197 receptions, 2,755 yards, and 26 touchdowns as a receiver. He was also a very good punt returner, too. Here he is compared to the former speed champion John Ross, whose leaning running style has always looked awkward to me.
I’d like to point out that Texas listed Worthy at 6’1″ but he measured in at just 5’11” 1/4 at the Combine. At just 165 pounds it’s a valid concern about his overall size and being able to justify a 1st round pick in the NFL. Then again, I’ve seen him mocked to the Kansas City Chiefs and I’m sure Patrick Mahomes is just licking his chops waiting to get someone like Worthy on board. As long as he can catch the ball, though.
Tunes
I’m going to say something that is controversial and would get me into trouble if not limited to this tiny little blog. I might have brought this up in the past, too. I think Beyonce is overrated. Yup, I do. There’s no denying her overall greatness and impact on music and culture. She’s 42 and still producing great music and I’m not taking that away from her. However, let’s listen to her new single “Texas Hold ‘Em” released recently with her new album coming later this month:
I like it, for sure it’s different for Beyonce. If you couldn’t tell by the title and her fashion in recent weeks the new album will have a country feel to it. I’m just pointing out that this shouldn’t be the number 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 like it is right now. No other artist could release a perfectly nice song like this and have it get even in the same universe as the top spot. It is what it is.
Trivia
Which Notre Dame quarterback has the most pass attempts in a season since 2010?
The Other Football
The United States got past Canada 2-2 on penalties during the Women’s Gold Cup semifinals and will face Brazil (they beat Mexico 3-0) in the championship this Sunday.
In the Champions League this week, Bayern Munich punched their ticket to the quarterfinals with a 3-1 aggregate win over Lazio. Also, PSG went through easily after an aggregate 4-1 win over Real Sociedad. Man City easily got through after a 6-2 aggregate beat down of Copenhagen. Real Madrid advance 2-1 over RB Leipzig.
Manchester City beat Manchester United 3-1 on Sunday. Arsenal crushed Sheffield United 6-0. Liverpool won late 1-0 over Nottingham Forest as did Aston Villa 3-2 over Luton Town. Spurs beat Crystal Palace 3-1 so the top 5 in the Premier League were all victorious.
TV & Movies
I watched Joker over the past week not expecting to enjoy it much. I wasn’t thrilled in the beginning but found myself really caught up in the middle part of the movie. Joaquim Phoenix did an amazing job in the role and I agree with a lot of the reviews stating that this was a very real and believable origin story for the Joker that makes more sense than some of the comic book stuff. On the other hand, I’m not sure it really works that well.
I absolutely love grimy early 1980’s city life, in this case Gotham. But, I wish they made this movie far more grimier and I’m shocked that they didn’t. At times, they seemed to go to great length to make it feel like slummy early 80’s NYC vibes–yet with all the references to people being broke and pissed off–I didn’t quite feel it enough with many of the shots. They certainly put in a lot of cigarette smoking, though! I also didn’t like the Joker with the gun, even in the 1980’s surely an unstable clown wouldn’t have been able to sneak a weapon into a late night show? That was silly, and I thought the ending kind of sucked.
A Look Back
If anyone under the age of 30 is reading this, do you watch Saturday Night Live at all? What if you’re under 40? The ratings have been on a slow and steady decline for years which is no surprise for a show that has been on such a long time and suffering from the cable cutting woes. Some episodes are only getting a few million people watching, a far cry from the hey day a couple decades ago.
I catch clips all the time from YouTube and that’s a huge part of their continued success. Many clips get several million views and that’s part of the business these days. I think the “Please Don’t Destroy” prerecorded segments can be really funny. The video for today with recent guest host Dakota Johnson was a banger. The zoom in on Johnson at 0:29 hits home, I get that a lot from my wife when I’m trying to be funny 🙂
18S Paddock Club
The opening weekend was shaping up to provide a super close qualifying session, until Max Verstappen picked up a massive tow in sector 1 and took pole over Charles Leclerc by nearly three-tenths of a second. Any hope that 2024 was going to be different from last year was immediately put to rest during the grand prix as Verstappen put 1 second into the field over the first lap and once again drove away for the win. Not great for the old competition sporting side of things.
Other notes from the opening race:
- The Carlos Sainz leaving Ferrari world tour kicked off with a bang. The Spaniard qualified 4th and finished P3 in the race comfortably ahead of George Russell in the leading Mercedes. Sainz’ teammate Charles Leclerc didn’t have a great weekend after a good qualifying session and suffered from massive brake issues during the race.
- Sergio Perez put in a decent P5 for qualifying and then calmly finished P2 behind Verstappen. The Red Bull dominance continues, but we’ll see if Checo can keep this up because he didn’t last year.
- Speaking of Red Bull, their team remains engulfed in controversy over team principal Christian Horner with a million rumors flying around the paddock from Verstappen joining Mercedes in 2025 and Ford ready to bail on their power unit partnership.
- Not a great start for Lewis Hamilton in his final season at Mercedes with a P9 qualifying to P7 finish.
- McLaren is starting off way, way better than last year although they didn’t expect much at this track. Still, Norris and Piastri bagged a combined 12 points which is a decent start to the midfield battle.
- Bad luck for both Williams cars in Bahrain, they should perform better this weekend though.
- All 3 of Haas, Stake, and RB showed a variety of feistiness and could pick up some points soon. In other feisty news, RB driver Yuki Tsunoda wasn’t happy with being asked to let teammate Daniel Ricciardo by late in this race and then randomly dive bombed Ricciardo on the cool down lap. That was pretty strange.
- There was a ton of reporting coming into Bahrain that troubles were brewing with Alpine. Yup, trouble is here. They qualified dead last and finished in P17 and P18 without any mechanical issues. Now, they’ve had a couple top level engineers resign in disgrace. This team looks to be in big, big trouble and you wonder if parent company Renault would think about pulling the plug in the coming years if it continues to look so poor.
F1 heads to Saudi Arabia for another Saturday race this weekend as Ramadan begins this Sunday. It’s a fast and dangerous track but one of the best for the spectacle of racing, especially on television. Last year, Verstappen had a mechanical issue during qualifying which opened the door to Perez winning. Will someone else dethrone the current world champion in Jeddah?
Trivia Answer:
Everett Golson, 427 attempts, 2014
team branding is my passion
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/823/the-question-trap
The Beyonce question is apparently a big one for women on first dates…
The odd thing about this is how sure the people on the podcast are that not liking an artist is an indicator of character.
What if I only like classical music?
Congrats to Drue and Luke. Drue played himself into a starting LB position with the Chiefs. He took a $3 million one year contract with incentives that could amount to $5 (some not likely to be earned). Chiefs starting linebacker, Willie Gay, is a free agent with his rookie contract ending. Drue signed a 3 year, $19 million contract ($16 million guaranteed).
With a fourteen team playoff, more universities should include a “Kelly Rule” that a head coach cannot bail on a team in contention for a playoff spot to chase a more lucrative contract elsewhere. When Kelly left, potentially ND could have gotten one. A Playoff Committee could take that interim HC into consideration in final selections. Or, in the New World Order, will those decisions be up to the Biggies? Then there is the Early Transfer Window that could possibly change a team’s composition of players. A temporary $25 million buyout until the Playoffs are over should do it in most cases. Of course, players do not have contracts limiting their movements and a college players union could demand a piece of the playoff pie but would be contractually committed.
The NFL is more organized, stable and appropriately a for-profit enterprise.
Good for Drue Tranquill.
Watching him tear his ACL while celebrating a PBU was such a heartbreaking moment, especially IIRC it was his second ACL tear and you could hear him scream when it happened, because he knew exactly what it was. Not quite the Princess Bride sound of Ultimate Suffering, but close.
Details for Chiefs’ linebacker Drue Tranquill’s new contract are now available
Drue bet on himself taking that one year contract that turned into significant contributions to the Chiefs, a Super Bowl ring and that guaranteed $16 million.
And he is the NFL Chess Champion.
Tranquill graduated with a 3.73 in mechanical engineering. That’s super impressive: I know some very bright people who did not graduate with those grades in the engineering program, and they didn’t have to deal with all the varsity athlete time commitments either.
Since the Clippers are nautical in nature, they should adopt a more nautical colorway. Black–MidGray–(Slightly lighter) Carolina Blue–(Slightly lighter) Navy Blue. I like how the Rams have adopted somewhat of a beachy look since moving back to LA. Clippers should do the same.
Also, they were going to change to this logo in ’93, but it fell through:
It’s not terrible and obviously better than what they’ve had for the last 30 years.
That has NY Liberty, Phoenix Suns, Tulane Green Wave vibes!
Liberty is exactly what I was thinking
Clips should just really lean into the baby blue and red, like the Oilers best uniforms
Don’t the Lakers somewhat claim baby blue already from their Minneapolis days?
Lakers can’t claim every color under the sun, right?
Clips did have this combo down and should definitely bring it back without the sleeves.
I do like the script LA and Clips/Clippers for the new clips look, but yeah the colors and logos are uninspired.
This has been happening to soccer a lot. Get ready for the circle-ification of most logos. The teams’ marketing departments want things to show up well on mobile, so they’re going for simplified logos.
I wouldn’t have even noticed that they rebranded if it weren’t for this article. Uninspired is a great description.
Interesting move for a 90 year old retired game show host to jump into the world of college football…getting a DC gig as his first job in the industry seems a little odd though.
The Beyonce thing is (like all over-/underrated discussions I suppose) a question of baseline. I think the press generally treats her like a musical genius and a peer or near-peer of Taylor Swift in both fame and musical ability and, by that standard, she is indeed overrated. But, she’s probably one of the five biggest musicians still after being famous for two decades, so she’s doing something right. Plus Halo is a truly great song.
Can we as a society finally acknowledge that both Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are talentless hacks or are we going to keep lying to ourselves?
Nah, this is an extremely weird and troubling take not backed up by facts.
Keep bringing the good heat
Wooie this might be the hottest take in the history of the comment section here.
No – It’s still the refrigerated gum
After chewing the gum:
I had five mediocre beers and chose violence.
This is a horrendous take. I’m neutral at best on most of their music, but they’re both very talented. Come on.
An absolute trash take
Anyone who has ever seen Beyonce perform can tell you this is utterly untrue.
I don’t listen to her music more than any average northeastern white guy in his 30s who isn’t a huge music person. BUT, I saw her in concert and it was one of the most impressive things I have ever witnessed.
I still don’t listen to her music anymore than I did prior, but she was such an incredible experience that I feel morally obligated to defend her honor anytime someone questions her greatness.