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

Top News

I am pleased to announce that Ian Book is headed to Super Bowl LVII.

According to reports, Tommy Rees has emerged as the leading candidate to become the new offensive coordinator at Alabama and is on campus this Thursday speaking with Nick Saban about the job.

Brandon Joseph, Michael Mayer, Jarrett Patterson, and Isaiah Foskey have been invited to the NFL Combine which begins on February 26th later this month.

The 2023 ACC football schedule was released on Monday. Each of NC State (UConn), Duke (UConn), Louisville (NC State), Pitt (Wake Forest), Clemson (NC State), and Wake Forest (NC State) do not have a bye prior to facing Notre Dame.

Syracuse and Pitt announced their November matchup will be played at Yankee Stadium on the 100-year anniversary of their first meeting in the Bronx.

The Big 12 announced their 2023 football schedule as a new (but brief!) 14-team conference, including new members BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF.

James Laurinaitis has left Notre Dame to return to Ohio State as a defensive graduate assistant.

Miami has fired offensive coordinator Josh Gattis.

North Carolina has bumped the pay of Mack Brown to $5 million per year and extended the current 71-year old through the 2027 season.

NBC has officially announced Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge, and Kathryn Tappen for their Big Ten television broadcast team.

Several reports from across the country are claiming the NCAA is beefing up its enforcement staff and that NIL penalties are coming in the future. This will include a new “burden of proof” in which schools will need to prove certain allegations are not true, which sounds like it’ll be a disaster in true NCAA form.

Uniform of the Week

Today’s uniform popped up on my Twitter timeline over the weekend. I had never seen these before and if you haven’t either, please sit down if you’re not already before scrolling further. I present you the 2015 Eastern Michigan Eagles “Alarm Clock” uniforms from 2015. As far as I’m aware EMU only wore these once in a game against Old Dominion and never again.

The left side of the helmet has a silver alarm clock style number and the right side (you can just barely see the beginning of it) has a feather coming off the back of their “E” logo. The jersey is a disaster of epic proportions. The piping is decades old out of touch. Then we have the yellow arm pits and shoulder area. The number and script on the front is so jarring, especially in those tight and stretchy Adidas uniforms. Look how distorted the Adidas logo is on the upper right chest! Then, we have random numbers on the pants that don’t match the alarm clock style on the rest of the uniform.

Recruiting

Notre Dame target edge rusher Jaxson Jones (0.8604) committed to Oregon on Sunday.

Linebacker Adarius Hayes (0.9660) committed to Florida with an Irish offer in hand.

Safety Noah Dixon (0.9236) committed to Clemson. The Tigers also picked up defensive lineman Champ Thompson (0.9137).

Running back Dwight Phillips (0.9617) is headed to Georgia. The Dawgs also picked up the nation’s top corner as Ellis Robinson IV (0.9930) is headed to Athens.

Linebacker Wendell Gregory (0.9419) gave a verbal to South Carolina.

Wisconsin picked up a verbal from tight end Grant Stec (0.9192).

The old National Signing Day passed this past Wednesday for the 2023 class. Freak athlete Nyckoles Harbor (0.9901) committed to South Carolina. Also, the Jaden Rashada (0.9623) saga appears to be over as the quarterback lands at Arizona State to face off against Drew Pyne.

YouTube Channel

I live in a small village in New York which like any place has its positives and negatives. One thing we struggle with is our water because many pipes around town are old and in the process of being replaced. So a few times per year there’s either construction or something breaks and the water may get a little discolored and/or need to be boiled. Whatever, it’s fine.

At times like that, I often think about how water on earth is old and just recycled and how weird it is that we clean all of this disgustingly dirty water to use again. Some water being older than the earth itself is another mind blowing fact. What does everyone’s water consumption look like? I try to drink a full 32 ounce Nalgene of filtered water every day to stay hydrated. Beyond that, we buy Hint water for home.

Tunes

I never liked Linkin Park in a way that made me want to buy their music or seek them out any more than what I’d hear on the radio or elsewhere. For a period of 4 years in the early 2000’s it seemed like LP were everywhere, and credit to them, they wrote a bunch of hit songs in those early albums. They also were such a defining part of the first part of the new century of music and fashion that is starting to feel strangely old and much too long ago.

I know it’s not a fair comparison because Linkin Park were a million times more musically mature and talented but I can’t separate them from other nu metal bands like Limp Bizkit or Papa Roach. All of this music takes me back to a very, very, very specific period in time. I had a roommate in college who liked these bands and it reminds me of our late night booze-filled battles playing NHL Hitz 2002 on Playstation 2 with the music blaring through computer speakers. We were so cool.

Trivia

How many times has Nick Saban-led Alabama finished outside the top 10 in the AP Poll?

The Other Football

It was deadline day on Tuesday as the winter transfer slammed shut this week. A quick recap of the deals since the last Rambler:

Right back Joao Cancelo moves from City to Bayern Munich on loan with a $70 million option to buy this summer.

American midfielder Weston McKennie moves from Juventus to Leeds on loan with an option to purchase at the end of this season.

Arsenal have signed Chelsea midfielder Jorginho for $12 million.

Chelsea’s spending spree concluded with the $131 million acquisition of Benfica midfielder Enzo Fernandez which set the new record for a transfer fee in Premier League history.

Spurs signed fullback Pedro Porro on loan from Sporting for a $5 million fee with an obligation to buy for $40 million this summer.

Bayern Munich midfielder Marcel Sabitzer is headed to Man United on loan until the end of the season.

Southampton have signed Rennes winger Kamaldeen Sulemana for $25 million.

Streaming

Folks, I was hyped when I learned Oliver Stone was making a movie about Alexander the Great. Early in high school I read several books on his conquests and roughly 8 years later this movie came out in the theater. I was so damn excited. I recently received this huge Smithsonian world history by maps coffee table book and it does an amazing job showing how insane the amount of land and empires Alexander conquered in such a short period of time.

Too bad this movie sucked. I remember being sad about it in the theater but have never gone back to re-watch it. Someone bought me the DVD later in the 2000’s and I never even opened it. I’m a huge Colin Farrell fan and I don’t think he fit well playing the role of Alexander. The film was also heinously long and showed how difficult it can be to sum up someone’s life in a movie. Alexander is so much better in the books.

A Look Back

The 2011 season and into that off-season prior to the uNDefeated campaign was a big one for our old blog on SB Nation. Our community was growing quickly and it was a very busy and chaotic time in the world of Notre Dame. When I think back to the Champs Sports Bowl that concluded 2011, it takes me back to those days when we were pumping out a lot of content and no one knew where the Brian Kelly era was headed. This was also, somewhat quietly, one of those games that was so incredibly winnable that the Irish completely blew in such frustrating fashion. I think everyone was so done with the 2011 season at this point, so it has escaped a bit of the wrath normally associated with tough losses.

I remember this game for Michael Floyd returning a punt–and being really good at it! Andrew Hendrix played some quarterback, throwing 8 passes for 24 yards with an interception. Notre Dame led 14-3 and never scored again. Of course, who can forget those sandstorm beige pants from this season? However, more than anything I remember the Tommy Rees throw at 13:04 in this video. The ball is at the 28-yard line of Florida State, 1 & 20, with just under 3 minutes remaining, and Notre Dame trails by 4 points.

I will NEVER understand the decision to throw this ball to a blanketed John Goodman with deep safety help over the top. This is in the running as the worst throw in Notre Dame history. Everything about it is just so sad.

18S Paddock Club

Previewing each team on the grid for the 2023 season…

Team: Scuderia Ferrari
Founded: 1929
2022 Result: 2nd
Base: Maranello, Italy
Owners: Ferrari S.p.A.
Power Unit: Ferrari
Team Principal: Fred Vasseur
Drivers: Charles Leclerc (6th season) & Carlos Sainz Jr. (9th season)

The Good: Ferrari won 4 races in 2022, their most since 2018. The F1-75 car was a beast during qualifying picking up 9 poles from Leclerc and 3 from Sainz. Their 2nd place finish was also their best since 2019 and completed a bit of a resurgence in a post-Sebastian Vettel era.

The Bad: The engine reliability was in shambles for the first quarter to first half of the season. The team was plagued by numerous strategy errors which left a ton of points on the table. Internally, all was not well as new Ferrari chairman John Elkann was not a huge fan of team principal Mattia Binotto and ousted the leader from the team heading into 2023.

2023 Hope: There have been positive, although rather ambitious and suspect, reports about Ferrari’s new 2023 car and how it’s performing in the simulator, plus additional information trickling out about improved horsepower and reliability. All aboard the hype train! However, there are concerns about jettisoning Binotto and how the team will deal with that change to new boss Fred Vasseur from Alfa Romeo. Still, if they can improve reliability and make fewer strategic mistakes this could be an exciting season. The car should be good enough to push closer towards 1st place.

Trivia Answer:

Once (2007)