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

Top News

Notre Dame left tackle Charles Jagusah is out for 2024 after tearing his pectoral muscle.

Georgia is atop the pre-season Coaches Poll with Notre Dame coming in at no. 7 nationally.

The Division I Board of Directors voted on Tuesday to introduce a Women’s Basketball Equal Conference Fund and Women’s Basketball Performance Fund that if approved would begin with the 2025 championship season. The proposal would build up over three years to $25 million, and units earned by participating teams in the Division I women’s tournament would be paid out to schools’ respective conference offices starting in 2026 on a rolling three-year basis.

Singer and international superstar Pitbull has purchased the naming right’s to FIU’s football stadium for $1.2 million over the next 5 years.

Miami quarterback Cam Ward has been named the ACC pre-season player of the year.

Texas running back CJ Baxter is out for 2024 with a knee injury.

Nebraska starting left tackle Teddy Prochazka is out for the season following a knee injury.

Tennessee defensive back Jourdan Thomas is out for 2024 after suffering a knee injury.

A notice of allegations has been sent alleging Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore violated NCAA rules. Death penalty? In his Chargers press conference, Jim Harbaugh claimed he was not aware of any violations, isn’t that great?

In related news, Jim Harbaugh received a 4-year show cause penalty for recruiting violations.

Kentucky football and swimming were put on probation for NCAA violations.

August 1st saw all of the moving teams officially enter their new conferences across the country.

Gary Patterson has left his analyst role at Baylor.

Steve Addazio has been hired as a college football analyst by ESPN.

Uniform of the Week

I don’t think Louisiana-Monroe is wearing new uniforms this year. They are moving on from the Terry Bowden era and might be one of the most forgettable teams in FBS football. If you look closely though, ULM has some pretty sharp uniforms. They’ve been using yellow pants really well recently and it looks good. About a week ago, the school took things to another level with a new helmet.

There is a tested method at work and we know football helmets and airplanes are a winning combination. When you bring the iconic P-40 Warhawk to the table it’s outrageously cool. I’ve checked the science and this helmet is worth 2 more wins for the team in 2024. You can’t say no.

Recruiting

Our blue-chip commits for the week:

WR Kaliq Lockett (0.9890) – Texas
Edge Jared Smith (0.9705) – Auburn
DL DJ Sanders (0.9546) – Texas A&M
IOL Jaylen Gilchrist (0.9520) – Maryland
WR Jayvan Boggs (0.9233) – UCF (decommit from Missouri)
S Trey McNutt (0.9892) – Oregon
OT Damola Adidahun (0.9175) – Georgia Tech
WR Koby Howard (0.8955) – Penn State
WR Dillon Alfred (0.8953) – Ole Miss
OT Juan Gaston (0.9348) – Georgia
S Kendall Daniels (0.9000) – South Carolina
OT Carde Smith (0.9068) – USC

YouTube Channel

The Olympics recently showcased one of the closest 100 meter sprint events for the men in the history of the competition. Or, closest ever for a 100 meter race period. Luckily, American Noah Lyles had a better lean and became the gold medal winner following an insane photo finish. But, would he have won by more if he wore Nike instead of Adidas? I kid, I kid. Okay, maybe I partially believe that.

As a critic of Under Armour, I’ve repeatedly stated that their inability to break into the sneaker game was something that doomed them for the long-term. Especially in the last 3 to 5 years, running shoes are blowing up as everyday people realize the insane amount of comfort and lightness that can be achieved from a quality pair of these sneakers. We’ve seen the likes of Brooks, Asics, Puma, Saucony, Adidas, New Balance, Hoke, and Asics all killing it with running footwear options. Under Armour, not so much. Be prepared to pay a lot, but the comfort is worth it.

Tunes

I find it interesting when songs sound good from a production standpoint in headphones or in a more personal way, like in a car. Then there are songs that really struggle to project well to a larger crowd, or especially through television. The newer song “Million Dollar Baby” by Tommy Richman is a good example of this with his falsetto voice throughout the tune. That’s not a great way to rock a crowd in front of you when music is blasting over your singing. The biggest example of this was Jack Harlow’s 2023 hit song “Lovin On Me.” Do you remember the halftime show of the Lions-Packers Thanksgiving game HERE that he performed last year? The NFL blocks everything from displaying on websites so click on that link to watch.

The full music video is above for contrast. The halftime show is brutal to watch! Brutal set design, weird outfits, and the song plays so terribly in a live setting like this. Harlow doesn’t sing or rap enough throughout and there’s too much empty space. I can’t deny the success of this song, though. It’s been out for 9 months and is still being played all over the place. As of this writing, “Lovin On Me” was still 39th on the Billboard Hot 100 after peaking at no. 1 in the country.

Trivia

Which team in 2020 was the last non-SEC team to be no. 1 in the pre-season Coaches Poll?

The Other Football

The U23 American squad was knocked out of the Olympics last week. In a rather ugly affair, Morocco dropped the United States 4-0 in the quarterfinals. Not great.

Spain would defeat Morocco 2-1 in the semifinals. That will make it a Spain-France gold medal game this Friday after the host country defeated Egypt 3-1.

A 95th minute Sophia Smith goal gave the US women a 1-0 win over Germany in the Olympics semifinals. They will face Brazil in the gold medal game on Saturday following their 4-2 victory over Spain.

Manchester United has announced plans to build a newer and larger football ground to replace Old Trafford. New shirt sponsor Snapdragon (who just signed a massive 3-year deal worth $230 million) is interested in the naming rights for the new stadium.

Manchester City striker Juan Alvarez is headed to Atletico Madrid for a cool $104 million.

19-year old midfielder Joao Neves has signed with PSG from Benfica for $65 million.

West Ham have signed striker Niclus Fullkrug for $35 million from Dortmund.

TV & Movies

For the first time since I was a little kid I am watching Conan the Barbarian currently streaming on Netflix. I must have been super young when I saw the movie (it came out the year I was born so) and don’t remember that much from it. I do recall Conan being in the cultural zeitgeist and one of the major sets of action figures in the 1980’s. Ten years after the first movie came out they made a Conan the Adventurer cartoon which didn’t last very long and was somewhat related to the world of Conan the Barbarian.

At least on Netflix the movie looks stunning visually. They did a really good job with the clothes and some of the set pieces. In no way does it feel or look like a movie filmed in the early 1980’s, hooray for technology and restoration processes. I did find the movie pretty boring and way too slow. There’s not enough brutal fighting (compared to things we’d see today from this type of movie) and I just think the most memorable part is that Arnold punches a camel right in the face.

A Look Back

This group of guys pop up on my social media from time to time. They like to guess the stadium from one picture and a bunch of stuff blanked out. I always thought I’d kill it at this but it turns out I was deeply mistaken. Here are my thoughts as I played along with them:

Stadium 1 – This is a big stadium and with the colors and whited out end zone it has to be Missouri? 1 for 1.

Stadium 2 – With the colors and what looks like a pretty new build is this Tulane? Those hills in the background make me doubt my pick. I was way off.

Stadium 3 – This is a weird angle but is it Virginia Tech? Or is this way too small? Okay, I’m 1 for 3 so far.

Stadium 4 – Okay, this is Virginia Tech! 1 for 4.

Stadium 5 – I think this is the renovated Duke stadium? 2 for 5, baby.

Stadium 6 – This is screaming southeast United States. Is it South Carolina? 2 for 6 this is not good.

Stadium 7 – This looks like a MAC stadium to me. I’m going to say…Central Michigan? Terribly wrong again, 2 for 7.

Stadium 8 – Okay, this is a MAC school and it’s Toledo. No, I guessed the wrong MAC program. 2 for 8.

Stadium 9 – As soon as I saw it I thought UConn. Nope, 2 for 9.

Stadium 10 – We’re on the Plains somewhere, is it Oklahoma State? I had the Orange! 2 for 10.

Stadium 11 – Right away I called Memphis. Damn, these are hard, 2 for 11.

18S Paddock Club

F1 is on summer break and the next race won’t take place until August 25th in the Netherlands. This week, we’ll go over the driver market for 2025 and the future of the seats in the sport. Right now, we have the following seats open for 2025:

Mercedes 

RB

Alpine

Kick Sauber

Red Bull recently backed Sergio Perez for the remainder of 2024 although Carlos Sainz also signing with Williams recently shows he probably wasn’t headed back to his former team next year either way. Sainz was also trying for the Mercedes seat but that looks heavily likely to go to soon-to-be 18-year old Andrea Kimi Antonelli from their driver academy. He’s currently 6th in F2 and many are calling him the next Max Verstappen.

RB won’t commit to Daniel Ricciardo for next year, at least not yet. His career could be heading in many different directions. Will he replace Perez next year? Leave the sport? RB committed to Yuki Tsunoda this year but show plans of promoting him to the seat beside Verstappen. It’s been understood that academy product Liam Lawson will get his shot eventually and it’s probably happening next year.

Alpine are likely promoting academy driver Jack Doohan and have been signaling that much ever since no one else really wants to race for this team as they go through major reorganization issues and questions about the team’s future.

Kick Sauber is in an interesting situation with major reorganization happening to themselves, as well. In a couple years this will be the Audi team and they’ve already signed German driver Niko Hulkenberg from Haas. Will they stick with Valterri Bottas? Or pair Hulk with someone much younger?

Trivia Answer:

Clemson