Ten years ago today we launched www.18stripes.com and I can’t believe it’s been that long. A decade, already?
Some may know our background from the past. We had been plugging along at One Foot Down with SB Nation during the 2015 season when things turned sour. We’d been with Vox media for 6 years and it was always a respectful but guarded relationship. They kept asking for more content (we used to have 20-30 writers on staff!) and by 2015 it just became too much. We kept kicking the can down the road to make changes and SB Nation’s college football leadership kept trying to “help” with more and more writers and more and more “solutions.”
We knew it was never going to be a long-term solution and if we wanted to keep writing our own way something needed to be done.
On June 17, 2016 I announced I was leaving OFD and we opened this new site a few weeks later.
We spent that off-season leading up to 2016 getting the site ready, and while many of our writers have long since left, many still remain with us as friends in our patrician Slack chat–even if they don’t write articles as much anymore.
Ten years ago today READ HERE.
As many know, that 2016 season when we debuted this site was rough on the football field but from all that pain and frustration maybe it made our community a little more familiar. It’s always good to have a place to vent. A quick look back at the 2016 Notre Dame coaching staff is wild now with hindsight:
HC Brian Kelly
OC Mike Sanford, Jr.
DC Brian VanGorder
WR Mike Denbrock
RB Autry Denson
TE Scott Booker
OL Harry Heistand
DL Keith Gilmore
LB Mike Elston
DB Todd Lyght
S&C Paul Longo
Kelly is famously out of work as a coach and joining CBS Sports as an analyst this fall, Sanford is coaching high school football in Colorado, VanGorder is a DC at an Alabama high school, Denson is coaching running backs with the Cardinals (with Jeremiyah Love now!), Booker is coaching safeties with the Patriots, Heistand is retired, Gilmore is a DC at a NAIA college in Florida, Elston joined Jim Harbaugh in the NFL as defensive line coach, Lyght hasn’t been coaching for several years, and Longo is retired.
At least Mike Denbrock came back to put things right.
Will we make it another 10 years? I don’t know, maybe!
Our site isn’t what it used to be and the readership is smaller, but that’s okay! Our social media accounts have long been dormant and I thought it was a good idea long-term to create a Discord server for our community to have for themselves. WordPress hasn’t always been the easiest place to comment and Discord is a good place for anyone who wants to remain internet friends and talk about anything they want.
18 Stripes Discord Server Sign-Up HERE
Today’s article will be our 3,117th since starting this blog. I’m sincerely appreciative to anyone who has taken the time to read our stuff, reached out to offer their thoughts, and allowed us a space to discuss Notre Dame football and plenty of other stuff.
Cheers and Go Irish.
Glad to be along for the ride! And a special thank you from us to all the readers of our lacrosse content!
The best friends are old friends. Rock Steady Eric!
You are one of the OG readers!
Are you watching any of the TDF ? I think Tadej might be toying with the field.
Every single second that I can, of course.
Wouldn’t you love to have a cycling vacation over there?
I’m planting the seeds of a vacation with the Mrs. to Girona or Mallorca in the future…
Been a great ride. Let’s hope you get to write a NC article someday.
GOD PLEASE.
Thanks, Eric. Been reading for 16 years, since 2010 when you and the other guys brought in a guest poster to explain the 3-4 defense that we were planning to run, if I remember correctly. What a ride!
Wow, the origins of the Diaco defense!
https://www.onefootdown.com/2010/04/01/46897/chalk-talk-the-nd-3-4-transition-part-v-the-secondary
Took me a minute but I found it – wow!
That is so old! I believe the OFD founder Whiskey did those articles with this former Texas HS coach father.
Congrats on the milestone. 10 years on the internet is basically 50 years in any other industry. What’s most impressive is how you’ve managed to keep the content fresh while slogging away. Thanks for all you do for the ND community! You’re the best.
Congratulations on 10 years! It will be a sad day whenever you and the team decide to hang it up, but I appreciate all the effort and work you and the staff put into the content. You could easily throw a crap article out there to try and chum up engagement, but you guys just do it for the love of the game so thank you for that!