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

3 News Stories

#1 Onye Yay!

Notre Dame’s off-season leading to the #LeaveNoDoubt 2026 season took another positive turn on Tuesday as Irish defensive tackle Jason Onye won his appeal for a 6th season. You can check out my recent winter depth chart HERE for more information on how the team is shaping up for 2026.

While Notre Dame loses Rubio, Hinish, and Dawson this good news about Onye’s return, paired with a couple of top transfers through the portal, gives the defense arguably a stronger defensive interior for the fall. This is excellent news.

#2 YCNHTMK

Notre Dame’s 2026 recruiting class grew to 30 players recently. You Can Never Have Too Many Kickers. In the wake of the firing of Sherrone Moore all of the players and commits within the Michigan program were free to transfer. The Irish swooped in for Hinsdale, Michigan kicker Micah Drescher. He had been committed to the Wolverines since June 2025 but was released from his NIL on January 14th.

Drescher joins junior Purdue transfer Spencer Porath as recent additions to the roster. The program also has sophomore Erik Schmidt coming back after a rocky debut season in 2025.

#3 Duke Lawsuit

National Champion runner-up Miami appeared to swing and miss in the quarterback transfer portal in recent weeks. They’d had great success with Cameron Ward and Carson Beck in back-to-back portals but weren’t able to bring anyone in recently for 2026. That is until they set their sights on Duke quarterback Darian Mensah.

Things are getting awfully messy.

Mensah announced he was returning to Duke a month ago, while deciding on leaving for the NFL. He’s entering the second of a 2-year NIL deal worth $4 million per season but reversed course and alerted Duke that he’d be entering the transfer portal.

Miami is rumored to be offering a financial package upwards of $10 million.

Duke is suing to keep Mensah as a Blue Devil, although it seems unlikely a judge will allow it. Will Duke be owed some compensation though? We may find out more in early February when a judge makes a ruling.

Of course, this affects Notre Dame as Miami is set to be the premier matchup of the 2026 season. In my eyes, Mensah is a clear upgrade in the quarterback department over Carson Beck. Over the last 2 seasons (the first at Tulane), Mensah has thrown for 6,696 yards (66.5%) with 56 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

Uniform of the Week

Does TCU’s helmet(s) qualify as one of the better in college football? It usually doesn’t pop up on the top 10 lists. Maybe it shouldn’t be quite that high. In terms of uniqueness, it’s way up there. Traditionally since 1998 at least, they use a purple helmet, black facemask, white TCU letters, and a silver horned frog logo. No other team rocks a helmet with those colors. It’s always been one of my favorites.

Now Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover back in 2025.

TCU entered the alternative helmets all the time phase back in 2009, an early adopter. In 2019, they used one of the most unique helmets in the game–a purple shell heavy with red accents. They’ve worn several different variations, including this year with the red facemask, red stripe, and red outline. In the past, these purples helmets were matte, now they’re gloss. They continue to wear these specific helmets with the weird gray uniforms. If they wore all-black, it’d be special.

Media

Christopher Nolan has a new movie coming out in 2026 after the success off Oppenheimer back in 2023. We’re now going way back to Greek history with a July release of The Odyssey featuring Matt Damon in the lead role of Odysseus complete with a $250 million price tag. How long do you think the run time will be for this one? Three and a half hours or more?

People are mad online about the historical inaccuracies of some of the costumes we’ve seen in the trailer and posters. Who am I to judge? The thumbnail in the video above and black helmeted character is supposed to be Agamemnon played by Benny Safdie. Of course it looks pretty ridiculous for the era, but also it’s kind of awesome? People have been discussing the historical accuracy vs. fantastical aspect of the movie and Nolan may be leaning more into the latter category. These things rarely matter in Hollywood but neither Damon nor Safdie are particularly tall yet they make Safdie look a towering 7 feet in this clip we get to see.

Tunes

Have you  heard of Sombr yet? He’s a 20-year old lanky kid who grew up in New York City, and like many new artists, originally blew up on TikTok. If you haven’t heard his hit single “Back to Friends” perhaps you’ve heard today’s tune “Undressed.” His music is that quintessential upset and confused romantic type that doesn’t really make a lot of sense for someone so young. But for a huge amount of listeners it’s just the right type of sense. I’m interested in the music industry aspect to Sombr.

He released his first single in October 2021, aged 16. In 2023, he was gaining some fame online, signed a deal with Warner Records, and released an EP In Another Life shortly thereafter. He’d release the two singles I mentioned above 1.5 years later, released a couple more singles in 2025, and finally gave the world a full album I Barely Know Her this past August. Except, it’s not really a full new album. It’s the 4 singles from 2025 with 6 other new songs. In the streaming era, that’s lame.

One More Thing

I’m going to rank the 12 months of the calendar based on my personal preference. Share your ranking in the comment section. I’m basing mine on weather, family, holidays, sports, and personal activities while living in Western New York for most of my life.

#12 February

The vast majority of lists will have February in the last spot. I’m no different. It’s still winter, and although Fake Spring nos. 1, 2, and 3 may be just around the corner it can sometimes still be DEEP winter. No one older than 10 years old enjoys Valentines Day, although I think there’s some merit to flip-flop Christmas and Valentines Day to help balance the calendar and give February a huge boost. College football and NFL are officially over. Most other sports are months away from crowning champions. Mentally, everyone is trying to get through February each and every year.

#11 October

I don’t really like Halloween all that much, and don’t really vibe with the fall is life ethos very much. It’s pretty much the end of going outside a lot month. Work slogs on forever waiting for upcoming holidays. I don’t watch baseball. We’re often caught between good early college football games and waiting for the bigger games towards the end of the season. The transition to warmer clothes is also tough.

#10 May

Sure, the weather is getting nicer but most of the time it’s still wet and cold. The school year end is achingly far away but close enough to annoy you. Memorial Day is so late in the month, you’re looking forward to the long weekend but also just waiting to get to June.

#9 March

This month is an absolute grind. The first half of the month is still winter and while spring technically begins later on it’s still winter in reality. We have March Madness to look forward to, I suppose.

#8 June

Yes, it’s the end of the school year but I am slammed at work during this month. It’s too chaotic. Too many things are going on and it’s hard to enjoy the warmer weather. Also, my in-laws have a beautiful inground swimming pool that they never open during June because it’s often not warm enough to really enjoy it. I think about that all the time when it comes to June.

#7 November

I find myself liking Thanksgiving more as I get older. We get that holiday break plus Veterans Day earlier in the month. At this point, you’ve accepted the colder temperatures but it typically isn’t snowing. College football regular season action is starting to peak. Once you get past October and into November life just seems easier for the rest of the year.

#6 January

This is my birthday month so I’m biased. January usually is at or near the bottom of many lists. Nonsense! While not a big fan of New Year’s celebrations I like a fresh start. If the calendar works out right (like in 2026) there’s still a lot of time off work. Throw in a couple snow days off work. It’s January 22nd and I’ve worked 10 days this month. College football and the NFL are giving us the most-watched playoff games of the year, too.

#5 September

This month is like warm-weather January to me. Sort of an inverse month. Schools are back in session, we’re finding a new rhythm, but it’s still warm outside. Football has everyone excited. We’re trying to make the most of everything before the cold weather comes.

#4 April

The spring break month. The Masters month. It may not be that warm yet but you’ll start to get some quality days and outdoor activities can start to commence again. It’s the first real month that you can put winter behind you, even if it’s a little rainy, muddy, and cold.

#3 December

We work like half the month and Christmas comes towards the end. Come on.

#2 August

It’s so nice outside, although maybe a little too hot. The excitement of fall camp for college football permeates August. It’s fair to say just being in summer carries August quite a bit. Not a lot is going on but that’s why you make tons of plans.

#1 July

This is the only true summer month for everyone because some insane school districts in the country like to start school in August. Family vacations, lazy days outside. School is so far away. Sports-wise it’s not great but for me Le Tour saves the month. It’s peak outdoor activity month.