Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.

3 News Stories

#1 Transfer Doubts

Deep down, we all doubted the process and what was happening. After a week and a half of a singular 2-week transfer portal opening, Notre Dame remained with zero commits (if we don’t include the new Aussie punter who had committed earlier). Finally, after an arduous and painful wait the dam broke open with a flurry of commits this week. Let’s get to them all!

Ohio State WR Quincy Porter – Redshirt Freshman
Ohio State WR Mylan Graham – Redshirt Sophomore
Pittsburgh DT Francis Brewu – Redshirt Sophomore
Oregon DT Tionne Gray – Redshirt Sophomore
Alabama DE Keon Keeley – Redshirt Junior
Colorado CB D.J. McKinney – 5th Year Senior
Michigan CB Jayden Sanders – Sophomore
Purdue PK Spencer Porath – Junior

The portal closes today for non-graduates. We’ll have a lot of ground to cover on our winter depth chart article coming out in the future.

#2 Almost Done

The quarterback merry-go-round in the transfer portal is slowly coming to an end. We think? Or maybe things will get crazier, still. Since last week’s update we’ve had the following updates and commitments from the top signal callers in the portal:

Sam Leavitt – Arizona State to LSU
Demond Williams – Washington back to Washington LOL
Dylan Raiola – Nebraska to Oregon
DJ Lagway – Florida to Baylor
Deuce Knight- Auburn to Ole Miss
Husan Longstreet – USC to LSU
Eli Holstein – Pitt to Virginia

Of note, Miami has not signed anyone and were one of the teams looking to lure Alabama’s Ty Simpson away from the NFL Draft for a reported $6.5 million. He’s betting on himself! If Simpson ends up a mid-1st round pick (I mean I wouldn’t do it but it’s possible given the market) he’ll get a signing bonus alone worth twice what Miami would’ve paid. We’ll see!

That leaves a very small group of ‘names’ left on the market right now.

Again, this is assuming a quarterback or two doesn’t suddenly leave their current school after already transferring and setting off a new round of chaos.

#3 Moore College Football

Last off-season, Duke dished out $8 million over 2 years to lure Darian Mensah away from Tulane. This year, the market continues to be re-set. Instead of heading off to the NFL, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore will return to Eugene for a whopping $7.5 million deal.

Did they check with Dylan Raiola about that? Both him and Moore will turn 21 ahead of the 2026 season but with Raiola coming off an injury perhaps he’s willing to essentially sit out a year, collect a nice paycheck, and take over the Duck’s offense in 2027. Oregon’s 2026 incoming freshman quarterback Bryson Beaver (0.9297) is now in the portal and won’t continue in Eugene. Why would a Beaver go to Oregon anyway??

Moore looked set for a hefty paycheck in the NFL so this is a curious decision. Maybe he didn’t feel ready for the pros yet? Trying to avoid certain franchises this year in favor of something better next year is tough to pull off–I’m certain the Jets will be there again in 2027 if they want Moore.

Uniform of the Week

I didn’t realize how strict Wake Forest had been with their helmets in the past. I’m guessing Dave Clawson had things on a pretty tight leash. I’m thinking they’ve worn a bunch of different helmets but nope. Since 2014, they had worn either a black helmet with gold leaf “WF” logo or a shiny chrome gold helmet with a black “WF” logo. They wore just two alternate helmets through 2024–one with the cartoon Demon Deacon face and another with a patriotic “WF” logo. Well, things changed with new head coach Jake Dickert. Also, major props to Dickert on winning 9 games in his first season at the program.

Can you make out the logo?

Wake used 5 new helmets for 2025, a verified uniform coming out party. To be fair, three of them were variations of the same “Deacs” script logo. They also used a plain-lettered “WAKE” logo which I think looks pretty nice* overall. For a couple games, including their bowl game win over Mississippi State, Wake used their shiny gold helmets with the silhouette walking Deacon logo, complete with the cane and everything. It’s tough to see (maybe a white outline is needed?) but this is a fun change for the team.

*Does Wake Forest have the worst helmet logo in FBS? I’m pretty much out on most letter logos unless you’re one of the few iconic schools that can get away with it. Just a “WF” stacked next to each other is so low effort, I hate it.

Media

I’ve been trying to make my way through The Chair Company on HBO, the latest comedy series from Tim Robinson of I Think You Should Leave fame and elsewhere. It’s been a challenge because of time commitments but also because the show is just so bizarre. It’s funny as hell, and I imagine writing the show was full of giggling inside a fever dream. It’s also uncomfortably cringey, but in a good way? I don’t know it’s hard to explain. If you’ve watched it, does that make sense.

I’m about half way through season 1 so far. Should I finish it, I should probably finish it. There are some deeply funny scenes but the plot is so bizarre and I’ve noticed the end of season 1 has people a bit confused or something? No spoilers! I’m not invested in the show at all but still want to watch Robinson do funny and outlandish things.

Tunes

I’ve always been fascinated by huge artists who reached the top of the world and then quickly disappeared. Today’s band is Duran Duran out of Birmingham who spearheaded the 1980’s British Invasion. It’s January 1982, I was just born, and the group was in the AIR studios in London recording what would become the legendary second offering Rio album. Their third album the next year got bad reviews, they waited 3 more years to release their next album with a different lineup, and their fame was long gone by then.

I was there in the early days of MTV (which helped propel them to international fame) and remember thinking they were already an ‘old’ group by the 1986-87 era. Anyway, John Taylor is a brutally underrated bass player. He’s killing it on this track, in one of the most iconic bass performances of the 1980’s.

One More Thing

Washington is one of several teams who applied for new uniforms ahead of the 2026 NFL season, although a full re-brand from this disastrous Commanders era pivot doesn’t look like it’ll be coming this soon. According to rumors, the team will be reverting back to their “Super Bowl era” throwbacks that have been alternates and are still extremely popular. I’d expect them to stick to those throwbacks for 85% of a new uniform with a much more wild alternate.

The team is also on the road to a new stadium. They’ve been playing at Northwest Stadium aka Jack Kent Cooke Stadium aka FedEx Field since 1997 in Maryland and are on track to move back to D.C. with a new home by the 2030 season. Recently, architects HKS released a new render for the stadium:

You have my attention.

HKS designed the Cowboys, Vikings, and Rams stadiums and will also be working on the new stadium to come in Cleveland. This will be on the site of the former RFK Stadium.

This render looks pretty amazing. There was another render out there previously (I’m not sure if it was official) and it had a much more European giant oval stadium look to it. This style fits nicely in Washington.

Locals or people who have lived in Washington, what will be the situation with parking? A quick check on Google Maps shows plenty of old parking lots surrounding RFK Stadium but these renders have virtually nothing for cars. All of those buildings surrounding the rendered stadium currently are not there. This seems like it’ll be a tough situation.