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

3 News Stories

#1 Goodbye to Lou

Legendary Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz passed away this past Wednesday. I wrote some thoughts about him HERE.

What’s your favorite win from these victories over top 5 finishing teams?

Holtz was a college assistant for 8 years before taking the William & Mary head job in 1969. Incredibly, he was head coach of the New York Jets just 7 seasons later (with a stop at NC State for 3 years stuck in there). After one disastrous season with the Jets, he turned things around with an impressive run at Arkansas before leaving for Minnesota.

A mediocre run with the Gophers may have taken the shine off Holtz’ resume but he quickly turned Notre Dame around after arriving in 1986. An even 100 wins and a National Championship would follow with the Irish.

RIP, Lou.

#2 All Aboard

Care for some little bit of hype in early March? Over at ESPN, Bill Connelly is getting ready to publish his SP+ projection profiles this off-season but gives us a little taste with a breakdown of the pre-spring rankings of all the power quarterbacks. Your number one guy: CJ Carr. Connelly’s blurb on the Irish signal caller:

He sort of looked like a redshirt freshman against Miami in Week 1 of last season, but that was about it. He fell just short of leading a comeback win against the Hurricanes, then pretty much torched all other opposition. Sure, he had a spectacular run game at his disposal — Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price combined for 2,046 yards and 29 touchdowns (and are both gone now) — but Notre Dame ranked first nationally in third-and-long success rate (7 or more yards to go). When Carr had to make a throw, he did so.

Carr isn’t exactly your modern dual-threat guy; he doesn’t scramble much, and he’s not a threat to punish defenses for turning their backs on the QB in man coverage. But he also doesn’t take sacks, both because of quick decision-making and the fact that he might have the best offensive line in the country protecting him. He’s accurate, he has a big arm, and by the end of 2025 he was one of the most reliable passers in the sport.

While three of last year’s four main wideouts are gone, the return of Jordan Faison, plus 2024 playoff hero Jaden Greathouse (back from an injury redshirt) will help, as will the addition of two recent blue-chippers from Ohio State (Mylan Graham, Quincy Porter). Carr should have most of what he needs, and even if the run game regresses a bit, there’s no reason to think he won’t continue to come through on third down.

Julian Sayin (Ohio State), Trinidad Chambliss (Ole Miss), Arch Manning (Texas), Jayden Maiava (USC), Dante Moore (Oregon), Drew Mestemaker (Oklahoma State), Gunner Stockton (Georgia), Brendan Sorsby (Texas Tech), and Byrum Brown (Auburn) round out Connelly’s top 10 list.

#3 Redefine Bowl Games

It’s been a tough few years for the lower to mid bowl games that aren’t part of the college football playoff picture. Ratings did actually increase last year, but meaningful and excitement for these games in the wider world of the sport has never been lower. Now, it seems the stakeholders want to shake things up.

According to Yahoo Sports, there’s a plan circulating whereby 5 teams from each power conference all go into a pot together for a list of 10 bowl games that are ‘sold on the open market’ with the television rights controlled by the conferences and without thought to existing bowl tie-ins.

Most bowl game contracts are expiring and looking to sign a 1-year deal with ESPN before these changes could be implemented for the 2027 season, potentially.

What happens to the other ~20 bowl games may be determined by the growth of the playoff system. If that system hits 24 teams, we may see ESPN decide to walk away from the lower tier bowl games as they seek more inventory windows for the playoff. The lower tier bowl games may simply die or hit the open market and be played on other networks or streaming services.

Uniform of the Week

Sixteen years, 3 months, and 2 weeks ago UConn came into Notre Dame Stadium and defeated the Irish 33-30. Do you remember the uniforms UConn wore that day and specifically their helmets? That day will forever be seared into my brain. Those heinously large numbers on the ND jerseys. Charlie Weis’ oversized gray hoodie with the guitar pick logo. UConn in blue/white/blue uniforms with the early aughts piping. Yes, UConn wore their block “C” helmets that day and they still wear them today.

They could use some work.

Back in 2013, they debuted the new Husky logo and do you remember the football team wearing helmets for 2 full seasons with that logo crammed into a wide center stripe in the front? UConn has quietly had some of the worst helmets in college football history. Stretching back to the 1980’s they had some terrible script helmets. They still persist with the boring block “C” and while the newer Husky logo has grown on me over the years I’d recommend they stick to that but also add way more red into their uniforms.

Media

Jim Carrey recently resurfaced with a new plastic surgery enhanced face that made news headlines. The Ringer podcast Rewatchables also recently covered Ace Ventura: Pet Detective that kickstarted Carrey’s movie career leading to a dominant run in 1994 that also included The Mask and then Dumb and Dumber to round out the calendar year. There will never be a bigger and more unique year for a comedian in film history. I’d been riding with Carrey since his In Living Color stretching back to 1990 so his blowup was no surprise.

I’d never been more ready for a movie and for Carrey’s zaniness to make it on the big screen. To this day, his opening scene delivering the package at the apartment is one of my favorite to begin any movie. Having the elevator doors crash into the box slays me every time. The physical comedy, the faces, the way Ace speaks, it’s all on display immediately. No one was born to play this character better than Carrey. I thought Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls was going to be far less funny and even that sequel exceeded my expectations.

Tunes

I was listening to Soundgarden’s 1991 album Badmotorfinger and it was a lot more metal than I remembered in those very early days of grunge music. The band started to make a name for themselves with this album and the song “Outshined” was a standout. I honestly never would’ve guessed they’d make it big after listening to that album, though. Nice for its day but nothing special, really. Two and a half years later, things done changed.

Superunknown dropped in March 1994 (a month after Ace Ventura!) in what would be an absolutely loaded year for music. I think you could maaaybe talk yourself into Superunknown being a top 5 album of the year. Now, “Black Hole Sun” is definitely in the running for the best song of the year. I’m looking at a list right now and this person put it 3rd overall. I think it has to be that or “Chasing Waterfalls” by TLC or maybe “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys.

One More Thing

Who is still wearing a watch in 2026? I started a modest but nice little watch collection from about 1998 through 2016. If I left the house, I usually wore a watch unless I was going to play a sport. I’d wear one to the golf course, but put in my bag throughout the round. I switched to the Apple Watch sometime in 2017 or 2018 with the benefit of using Apple Music on runs without having to bring my phone with me. It was pretty much the reason why I wanted and used the Apple Watch. These days, I don’t run anymore and I’m barely wearing a watch except when I go into the office. And even then, sometimes I forget.

Mrs. Murt has an Apple Watch with a battery that’s been garbage for a couple years. She’s currently wrestling with switching to Garmin, although I think she’ll stick with Apple, because like me, the music aspect is crucial. I kind of want to switch to Garmin myself, I’m already immersed in the Garmin world with my cycling computer. What I’d really like is to use a Garmin watch for a wider range of life activities and sleep tracking but I cannot wear a watch to bed (does anyone pull this off??) and their sleep monitor is probably worse–who wants to wear a blood pressure strap in your upper arm all night??