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

3 News Stories

#1 Newcomers

ESPN has a recent piece on the top newcomers in the Big Ten and decided to include Notre Dame in the content for some reason. I was going to write about their submission for USC as an upcoming opponent and then I remembered. Among Notre Dame’s actual opponents they included UConn transfer running back Cam Edwards (Michigan State), Penn transfer wide receiver Bisi Owens (Purdue), and Old Dominion transfer quarterback Colton Joseph (Wisconsin).

For the Irish, they picked 2026 true freshman safety Joey O’Brien:

It’s unfair to compare a college freshman to an NFL All-Pro, but it’s impossible not to mention former Irish safety Kyle Hamilton when discussing O’Brien’s trajectory in South Bend. They share an uncommon blend of physical and mental traits at safety. O’Brien will be difficult to keep off the field. The 6-foot-5, 203-pounder was a 2025 Under Armour All-American and the fifth-ranked safety in the 2026 ESPN 300. He has elite ball-hawking instincts and impressive range. O’Brien’s rare size-speed combination makes him a particularly intriguing prospect who can match up in man-to-man over quicker slots and slide down into the box and take on blocks, similar to a linebacker. He has the scheme versatility to make an immediate impact in Chris Ash’s defense, which has consistently leaned on versatile, intelligent safeties who can handle multiple responsibilities at all levels of the defense and hold up physically versus the run.

#2 Injury Update

Marcus Freeman met with the media on Wednesday following another spring practice in South Bend. Among the updates were a pair of new injuries.

Defensive tackle Jason Onye had surgery to put a pin in his wrist and won’t be out long-term. Freeman really didn’t elaborate on if he’d miss the rest of spring practice, although it would seem likely at this point.

A more troubling injury came for true freshman cornerback Nick Reddish who had surgery to repair a torn labrum this past Thursday. He was in the mix at nickelback so far this spring and will now have a hard road of recovery ahead of him to get ready for the 2026 season.

#3 Could Be Better

Things haven’t been going great for Notre Dame men’s basketball. Head coach Micah Shrewsberry wasn’t fired following his 3rd season in South Bend despite a .328 winning percentage in ACC play with the Irish.

It was going to be difficult to keep the roster intact and on Thursday the transfer of guard Jalen Haralson was reported. The former top 20 national recruit spent his true freshman season at Notre Dame averaging 16.2 points, 2.6 assists, and 4.0 rebounds per game.

Uniform of the Week

I saw a video recently that ranked North Carolina with the best uniforms in college football. I did not expect that to happen when watching. Is there anyone among our readers who will stan for the Tar Heels being even a top 10 uniform in college? I think that’s a better debate, there’s no way people think they have the number one spot. Although, I do love their colors. Recently, I was checking out their past uniforms when their giant Tar Heel foot helmet appeared on the scene in 2012. They had been wearing the same Carolina blue helmet (with small changes to trim) for a quarter century before this alternate was created.

Carolina blue-tinted chrome.

There’s something so goofy and endearing about having a giant cartoon foot on your head. That first helmet was chrome with the Carolina blue inside the foot. In 2014, they switched the foot to chrome on the inside with a chrome facemask. In 2019, they went with a dark blue helmet with a Carolina blue foot for a couple games, never to be seen again. In 2022, UNC wore the chrome version again for two more games, featuring a tint of Carolina blue in the chrome. It’s hard to make out the logo on the helmet once the sun goes down, as seen above with Drake Maye.

Media

I finally buckled and let my kids have the responsibility of using my XBox and bought them Lego Jurassic World to play together. It’s a fun game, equal parts tapping into the sillier child fun but with just enough challenging gameplay to ask me for help. It’s been a highlight moment for me watching them coordinate their little hands on the controllers. It’s sucking me back into the awesomeness that was the first Jurassic Park movie, too.

The Lego game came out in support of the Jurassic World film in 2015, a movie I’ve never seen. I’m checking out the list and there’s 6 movies total in this franchise and I don’t remember ever watching the last four ones. They all have pretty bad ratings, except the pristine first movie. You can’t touch that one and never will. To me, what they turned these movies into looks a lot like the Transformers films and that is definitely not a compliment.

Tunes

So, Lenny Kravitz is now considered classic rock. I heard “Fly Away” on the radio recently and it made me think about Kravitz’ legacy in the music world. I’ve always liked him, but from a distance. I haven’t listened to any of his albums or thought about him much except the video he did for Architectural Digest where he gave a tour of his massively sprawling ranch in Brazil pops into my head once and a while. I might have added that in a past Rambler, I can’t remember. He recently just did another video where he gave a tour of his extravagant home in Paris, too.

Lenny is way more successful and wealthy than I believed. A quick Google search shows a net worth of $90 million. He’s touring too, and has been steadily coming out with music every 2-3 years for his entire career. I might have to reevaluate where he stands in rock history. I’ve been sleeping on Lenny Kravitz. Although, according to his Wikipedia page he won Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for 4 years in a row from 1999 to 2002. That doesn’t seem right.

One More Thing

I have 3 related car takes this week.

Are we supposed to heat up our cars before driving or not? I’ve heard more than one mechanic say it’s not needed with modern cars (and it’s bad for the environment burning fuel, etc.) and a quick internet search (no one lies on the internet) says not to do it anymore.

I bought a new car in the spring of 2025 and it has the worst defrosting situation.  If it’s under 25 degrees it’s not possible to defrost all of the ice off the wiper blades. It may be a small engine issue (Chevy Trax) but they also put the wiper fluid holes about 10 inches away from the windshield and those are frozen solid in the winter.

Remote start turning off after 15 minutes has been the norm in cars for many years. Sometimes I don’t love it, but I’m used to it. My car also turns off while idling for a similar amount of time even if it’s not a remote start. I figured this out while snow blowing. I’d turn the car on, crank up the heat, and hope to come back to it after finishing half the driveway to get those damn wiper blades cleared off. But, the car would be turned off.