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

3 News Stories

#1 Targeting Updates

As previously mentioned on a recent Rambler, the rules surrounding targeting penalties will be changing in 2026. The Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee now decided that a player disqualified for targeting for the first time in the season can participate in the following game, regardless of which half the targeting occurs. HOWEVER, A player who draws his second targeting penalty of the season will be required to sit out the first half of the next game and a player who draws his third targeting of the season must sit out the full following game.

No players were penalized for three targeting calls in the 2025 season. I am guessing we will see a lot of appeals on any 2nd target penalties with a fair share of overturns. These rule changes feel like a step in the right direction but the process of actually calling and enforcing targeting penalties remains controversial and difficult.

#2 Pro Day

Notre Dame held its Pro Day on campus this past Tuesday. This has been a godforsaken slow news month and this event for the Irish didn’t really help things out as the players who were invited to the NFL Combine either didn’t participate at this Pro Day or did hardly anything at all. Here are the results:

I’m not sure much jumps out except Will Pauling showing some good numbers across the board. He’s pretty small and is an extreme long shot to be drafted of course. Like many Notre Dame players on the periphery of a pro career, he’s an interesting camp invite. And it’s not like Pauling didn’t do some damage in college. He caught 155 passes at 3 different schools.

#3 Another Harrison

First it was Marvin Harrison creating a Pro Football Hall of Fame career with the Colts, then it was Marvin Harrison, Jr. who was an All-American at Ohio State and has made 103 catches through 2 seasons with the Cardinals. Now, another son is coming.

Jett Harrison is a 2028 wideout from Philadelphia’s St. Joseph’s Prep and was just named the no. 1 player in the Rivals 300 rankings just released this week. In the Composite he is a 5-star and the no. 4 overall player, although he trails Florida wideout Brysen Wright as the top player at their position.

Notre Dame extended a scholarship offer to Harrison on Wednesday.

Uniform of the Week

I’m going to praise the uniforms for the Ohio Bobcats, a sentence I thought I’ve never say in my life. To me, Ohio has been one of the most featureless teams in the country. At first, I couldn’t remember what their helmet looked like so I had to dig in and some research. I could’ve sworn they had their bobcat logo on the helmet at some point but this has never happened–in recent times only a bobcat paw alternate helmet. That paw was standard for them in the 1970’s stretching into the 1990’s, as well.

For the last 30 years, Ohio used a very simple block green “OHIO” script on a white helmet, not real exciting. Black and green helmets have been used a lot in recent years, and I could be wrong but does the script look fatter and chunkier than in the past? Their black uniforms with a green helmet give off Hawaii vibes and I love it. I also like the state outline helmet, that’s a solid alternate to wear more often.

Media

Where I live has some of the worst public water situations in the country. I expect us to end up on the national news some day as the next Flint, Michigan. Okay, I pray it won’t be that bad but we have a failing reservoir, severely aging water infrastructure, numerous issues at the treatment plant, and people don’t want to buy water from the neighboring city and be tied to their municipality despite being right next door to a giant freaking fresh water lake. Naturally, this Practical Engineering video caught my eye recently discussing the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

So much of this reminds me of Chinatown, a movie we covered in a past Rambler article. The audaciousness of this project is wild, like the YouTube title states. The distance of this aqueduct would be like New York City building infrastructure all the way to Pittsburgh for their water needs. I did the math. The environmental and social consequences of such a massive project aren’t great though. Are there any Los Angeles natives with more information on their history with the water in California?

Tunes

It’s never a good sign when an artist waits a while to release new work and the debut single for the world is pretty underwhelming. You spent all that time working on a project and that’s how you want the world to digest your new music? So it’s happened for Harry Styles and his new album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally* out earlier this month. This is Styles’ 4th album and the first in 3.5 years. I covered Harry’s House from 2022 and that album was extremely good. This one, not so much.

*Also, stupid titles and bad album covers are huge warning signs of bad music IMO. 

Today’s song “Aperture” has gone no. 1 in the United States, which is basically a testament to his popularity more than anything. In the music/Hollywood business he has just about as high of an approval rating as anyone and hasn’t been turned on (yet). However, this new album is a turn toward electronic music and doesn’t stand out at all. I listened to it this week in anticipation of a review and found it really quite boring, not interesting, nor memorable. I think we’ll need a quick follow up album to get over this one.

One More Thing

They say the dominance of Tadej Pogacar is boring. The 27 year old cyclist has 110 victories and has won nearly everything in the sport, including 4 out of the last 6 Tour de France races and back-to-back World Championships. One race eluded him for several years though, Milano-Sanremo, a long slog of a ride from northwest Italy down to the Mediterranean coast.

185 miles in total but its mostly flat and the chaotic finale features two climbs that are neither long or steep enough for Pogacar to blast away from the peloton like he can in the mountains. Last year he tried on the penultimate climb but was followed by 2 riders, ultimately losing a sprint while finishing 3rd. This year, the plan was the same. Except, Pogacar crashed right before the fateful climb.

For most riders, with 20 miles to go in the race and just a couple miles to the penultimate climb, it’s race over.

A pair of lieutenant’s paced Pogacar back to the main group, from there American hero Brandon McNulty led Pogacar through the peloton on the lower slopes of the climb before blasting off in front of the group. Rising Mexican superstar did one short pull and Pogacar, with a tattered skinsuit, attacked similar to last year. Again, two riders were able to follow.

Defending champion Mathieu van der Poel had a bike hit his arm and hands and on the last climb wasn’t himself–shockingly he was dropped. That left Pogacar with British demon descender Tom Pidcock. Despite unfavorable wind conditions to last year, Pogacar broke the climbing records on both hills.

But, the peloton was charging and catching up to the two exhausted lightweight climbers. Pogacar had been here before multiple times, and while he was bleeding through the white world championship kit, this was his best chance ever to finally cross one of cycling Monument’s off his list of victories.

He did it, by half a bike wheel. Six hours and 35 minutes of racing, culminating in some of the most dramatic cycling moments in recent memory.