Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
3 News Stories
#1 It’s a slow week in the news with spring football just around the corner. However, big bags of money are being prepared in the northwest as Oregon head coach Dan Lanning signed a new contract extension last week. He’s 35-6 overall as a college coach, with all 3 seasons coming leading the Ducks. I know I’m getting old but I remember not too long ago the top coach’s in the country were getting paid $2 million per year. Lanning just got a raise of $2 million per year and is now making $11 million annually in Eugene.
Coming up this year, Oregon misses Ohio State/Michigan with home games against Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Indiana, Wisconsin, and USC plus road dates at Penn State and Washington.
#2 Last week we discussed Scot Loeffler leaving Bowling Green for an assistant job in the NFL. This week, the Falcons moved to hire Eddie George away from Tennessee State. Welcome to the FBS, Eddie!
This is a quality rise for Georgie who spent only 4 seasons with Tigers in his first-ever coaching job. Remember, he wasn’t even an assistant anywhere prior to being hired by Tennessee State. He made a nice rebuilding effort for the FCS program, culminating in a no. 19 ranking this past season following a 9-4 campaign and playoff berth.
#3 We’ll shift away from the coaching ranks getting paid and take a look at the NFL where former Notre Dame offensive lineman Aaron Banks recently inked a free agent contract with the Green Bay Packers. He was the 48th overall pick back in the 2021 NFL Draft and spent his first 4 seasons with the 49ers, starting 43 games over since 2022. His rookie deal was worth a modest $7 million and those days are long gone now as Banks signed a new 4-year contract with the Packers for $77 million, including $29 million signing bonus.
A quick note that the Vikings recently re-worked safety Harrison Smith’s deal and he’ll return to Minnesota on a 1-year deal worth $10 million. This will be Hayseed’s 14th season in the NFL. I remember a few years ago our writers were debating whether Smith would make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Heading into the 2025 season, his PFR HOF monitor score is 43.90 which is right near the bottom score of players who could eventually make it to Canton.
Recruiting
Notre Dame offers continue as spring is just around the corner. The Irish dipped back into California to offer defensive end Khary Wilder (0.8792) out of Junipero Serra in Gardena.
Tall and lanky receiver Brian Williams (N/R) was offered out of Lake Mary, Florida.
Top 2027 prospect Richard Wesley (0.9932) just reclassified to 2026 recently and picked up an offer from the Irish. He comes out of Sierra Canyon in California.
Indianapolis native and 2027 recruit Monshun Sales (0.9804) was offered, as well. He attends Lawrence North High School.
It hasn’t been a great week for Notre Dame on the recruiting trail vis-a-vis their rivals. Clemson has picked up an entire haul of commits over the last week including IOL Grant Wise (0.9226), offensive tackle Adam Guthrie (0.9169), wide receiver Connor Salmin (0.9284), wide receiver Naeem Burroughs (0.9683), and safety Kaden Gebhardt (0.8915).
USC added double Notre Dame legacy wide receiver Trent Mosley (0.9315) and IOL Esun Tafa (0.9126) this week.
Offensive tackle Maxwell Riley (0.9471) is from Avon Lake and stays in-state with Ohio State.
Linebacker Izayia Williams (0.9723) committed to Florida.
Miami keeps cornerback Jaelen Waters (0.9376) in-state.
Uniform of the Week
Notre Dame is familiar with the gold rush moniker. That’s what Charlotte calls these gold uniforms worn last year against James Madison. This isn’t the first time the 49ers have worn gold jerseys and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Or, should I call them cream jerseys? Whether it’s UCF, Vanderbilt, or Georgia Tech this beige flag color is so difficult to pull off. I don’t think it’s arguable to say it’s never been done well in college football.
What is the more fireable offense?
This is a good reminder that Bigg Poggi–the worst dressed head coach in college football–was fired by Charlotte this past season and has run back to Michigan as an assistant head coach. A bacon neck cut-off tee-shirt on the sidelines, no university in America should be allowing this nonsense. Charlotte hired Tim Albin away from Ohio, and he should be a nice upgrade in the dress and football department. He went 30-10 over his last 3 seasons in the MAC.
TV & Movies
I’ve been avoiding reviews on A Complete Unknown released on Christmas last year here in the United States. I think it’s already on Netflix and I’ll eventually get around to watching it. For our readers, if you’ve watched let’s hear your brief review. I’m ready! I know the film received a bunch of Oscar nominations so I’m assuming it has been well received by mostly everyone. I’ve gone back and forth my entire life on how much I like Bob Dylan.
I really enjoy his pivot to electric so this movie should be right up my alley. I like Dylan’s first 4 albums well enough and appreciate them for what they meant at the time. His next 3 albums though, running from Bringing It All Home to Highway 61 Revisited and finishing with Blonde on Blonde are where I love Dylan the most. There are bits and pieces I like from the late 1960’s onward but that mid 1960’s stretch was magical.
Tunes
If you’ve been listening to hit radio/streaming over the past couple years you have probably heard of Teddy Swims. Bluntly, this is a terrible stage name. His real name is Jaten Dimsdale and his childhood nickname was Teddy. Okay, but he uses Swims because it stands for Someone Who Isn’t Me Sometimes. I’m not making this up, I swear. He should’ve just gone with “Dimsdale” as his stage name.
Anyway, he released his 2nd studio album I’ve Tried Everything but Therapy (Part 2) this year with the first single “Bad Dreams” released several months ago. Swims has a really unique sound and like his music. He has a very soulful voice and I think from what we’ve seen to date and his hit songs, he has a bright future. Maybe he needs a name change and some fashion advice but the music is going well!
I feel like most music biopics have been ruined for me by Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
“You don’t want no part of this!”
It turns all your bad feelings into good ones!
Chonky white dudes with face tattoos are on an absolute banger the past several years in the music & Oreo industries – Post Malone, Jelly Roll and Teddy Swims
Teddy sounds okay, but to me his songs sound a little too over-produced which makes it come across as too poppy. Maybe I’d like it more if it was just him with a guitar
He sounds like Post Malone trying to cover Saint Paul and the Broken Bones
I’m not advocating for/against any of those dudes, just throwing out that they are having a moment
Fun fact: the first million dollar contract was Spurrier in 1996! With inflation, that would be a salary of $2 million a year.
Coaches’ salaries are pretty wild these days.
Same for players!
Haha, I’m all for casual dress at work (you can find me in a hoodie throughout the winter), but the clothes should at least look neat and not like your 4-year old just attacked them with a pair of scissors
Gotta engage on A Complete Unknown.
I also am and have always been ambivalent about Bob D. I was always a rock n roll then blues and rock guy (check out my Farley Hall band Savage Rose, one of the very first of its kind at ND). Not so much liking folk music. Lo and behold, in my first ever trip to New York City, ND-Army (in Shea Stadium, we won 17-0 when their middle guard went down) Dylan’s Positively 4th Street was like, in the air.
Magic beyond belief. That organ.
Well, to your point, the film is pretty damn good. Everybody knows how Chalamet spent over 5 years learning to play and sing like BD, and how he convinced the director and sound guys to film him live, and how they went with it, and how that works like jet fuel. He also dragged Monica Barbero into doing the same as Joan Baez. I gotta say, I have a fan-boy crush on Monica, when after she flipped off Hangman in Top Gun Maverick, she does the same to Dylan at Monterey.
Their duo there is extraordinary, and the screen play hangs together pretty damn well.
As an undergrad during those transition years to electric, I guess I could say I had skin in the game — and regardless of biopics being overdone or whatever — IMO you’ll like it. But damn, you should see it in a theater with good sound.
Did you boo at the festival?
Ho ho.
Like A Rolling Stone, gang. It was only the folkies who booed.
It was way better than “I’m not there” and overall one of the better movies I’ve seen the past year. Dylan was never religious about sticking to an ideology. Which was one of my take aways from the movie. He advocated deeply for social justice but also understood how these movements could be fickle. Dylan was too restless , too skeptical,.too self aware to be swallowed by ever changing movements. He was selfish but in a cool anti hero way. Arguably the coolest antihero of our time