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

Top News

Notre Dame debuts at no. 7 in the pre-season AP Poll.

Notre Dame’s “Irish Wear Green” game will be against Louisville.

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah signed a 3-year contract extension worth $39 million with the Cleveland Browns.

Jack Kiser was added to the pre-season Butkus Award list. Riley Leonard was added to the Johnny Unitas list. Howard Cross, Xavier Wattis, and Benjamin Morris have been added to the Bednarik list.

Howard Cross was named a 1st-team pre-season All-American by USA Today with Benjamin Morrison, Xavier Watts, and Jayden Harrison being named to the 2nd team.

The University of Notre Dame has moved the upcoming academic calendar so that final exams end on December 19th with the College Football Playoff first round beginning on December 20-21.

The debut episode of Here Come the Irish is coming to Peacock on August 29th.

Former Notre Dame running back Cierre Wood was sentenced to life in prison with parole an option down the road.

Notre Dame has suspended the entire men’s swimming program for the 2024-25 academic year following allegations of gambling and other cultural issues.

Notre Dame hockey will face Penn State at Wrigley Field as part of a multi-game “Frozen Confines” series with the Big Ten.

Tyler Van Dyke has been named the starting quarterback at Wisconsin.

Texas A&M running back Rueben Owens is out for the season following a knee injury suffered in a practice scrimmage.

Maryland has extended athletic director Damon Evans through the 2028-29 season.

Uniform of the Week

Oh, Illinois you did it. Some teams try throwbacks and can’t commit to it. Others barely try and go with a fauxback attempt. Remember the 2017 Rockne Heritage game against Navy where Notre Dame wore some cooked up blue jerseys with no design link to the past and then finished it off with a lame attempt at an old leather helmet? Illinois said this is how you do a real throwback:

That helmet is amazing. I’ve never seen leather recreated and produced like that on a modern helmet. Major props to the people that did this for Illinois. They could’ve gone with a goofy uniform, but no way. A strict 1924 Red Grange look and I love it. I would petition that this become Illinois’ standard home uniform now. They can’t stop themselves from looking like Syracuse or Virginia now anyway. Be bold and look to your past.

Recruiting

Notre Dame added safety prospect Brandon Logan (0.8739) last weekend.

The blue chip commits for the past week:

OT Josh Petty (0.9817) – Georgia Tech
ATH Messiah Delhomme (0.9263) – Maryland
CB Jontae Gilbert (0.9406) – Georgia
CB Jayden Sanders (0.9012) – Michigan
WR Isaiah Mozee (0.9124) – Nebraska
OT Aaron Dunn (0.9261) – Utah
S Kendarius Reddick (0.9429) – USC

Also, for the 2026 class over the last few weeks:

DE Hezekiah Harris (0.9819) – Auburn
QB Faizon Brandon (0.9832) – Tennessee
LB Xavier Griffin (0.9846) – USC
OT Kodi Green (0.9773) – Oregon
RB Tradarian Ball (0.9798) – Oregon
QB Jonas Williams (0.9548) – Oregon
S Aiden Hall (0.9705) – LSU
CB Dominick Kelly (0.9288) – Georgia

YouTube Channel

College Football 25 has been out for about a month now and the reviews are mixed. I haven’t played it yet but will be lining up a purchase in early September once the first major offline patch is put through on XBox. The online patch came through recently and took care of some things that were pretty large issues but also made some of the gameplay more difficult. For example, offensive line blocking (which had some issues prior) has been much more broken now according to reviews.

Were we just naive years ago? Did we not notice problems as much when internet communities weren’t around to complain about every small detail in these games. Is EA Sports just really this bad? Maybe! Many people are enjoying it to be fair. And I plan on getting some good mileage out of it, too. But, it does seem like most modern games suffer so many issues and it doesn’t make a ton of sense given how much money they devote to producing them.

Tunes

Who is the greatest and the most influential artist that 99% of people couldn’t think of 2 or more of their songs? It got me thinking about Joni Mitchell and her career. She is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She has won an incredible 11 Grammy Awards. Her approval rating in her prime during the late 1960’s and 1970’s all the way to now has to be among the highest in the music community. Many musicians of the era, particularly the men, were positively obsessed with her.

I wanted to see the most streamed songs for Mitchell on Spotify and the top one is 1970’s “Big Yellow Taxi” which I think almost everyone has heard in their life. The second most streamed song was “Both Sides, Now” from a year earlier and I’m less sure this is as well known. According to the Wiki page, Rolling Stone ranked this the no. 170 best song of all-time back in 2004. If she wasn’t super commercially successful, everyone should admire how crazy artistic Joni Mitchell was during her career as she approaches 81 this year!

Trivia

I led Notre Dame in receiving for both 2016 and 2017, who am I?

The Other Football

The United States women won the Olympic gold medal with a 1-0 win over Brazil. In the bronze medal game, Germany took home 3rd place with a 1-0 win over Spain. It was America’s first gold medal since the 2012 Games.

Former Tottenham, PSG, and Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino is rumored to be taking the USMNT job.

Liverpool midfielder Caravalho is headed to Brentford on a $35 million deal.

Shaqiri and Chicago Fire have agreed to a contract termination.

Kevin Durant has bought a small stake in PSG, look who got caught up in the magic of the Paris Olympics!

Not to be outdone, Ed Sheeran has bought a minority stake in Ipswich Town as they make their return to the Premier League.

TV & Movies

I checked out the new trailer for Snow White that’s coming out in March 2025. I showed it to my 7-year old and 5-year old and they were immediately out. Didn’t finish watching and have no desire to watch this one down the road. Ouch! The Brothers Grimm are rolling over in their graves right now. I guess a really old German fairy tale and nearly 90 year old movie aren’t going to necessarily bring in the young audience in 2025. Or, maybe my kids are weird. I think the trailer is too dark and that’s usually a big turn off for them.

The choice of Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen looks like a winner, though. I don’t know her filmography particularly well, but is this the first role where she’s a villain? Maybe this movie will be a slow burn and my kids will come around. I’ll predict an afternoon viewing much later on Disney+ months down the road in the summer of 2025 and they’ll be all in on those weird looking dwarves.

A Look Back

Streaming in the modern era hasn’t always been easy but Peacock has been getting a ton of positive reviews over their coverage of the Paris Olympics that just wrapped up this summer. Will it be a turning point? Perhaps this will be a good omen for Notre Dame as we’ve seen above they are trying to increase their presence on Peacock in the coming months. With a success this summer, Peacock could really be in the drivers seat as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics comes up next. I look forward to primetime events at 8 PM, 9 PM, and 10 PM in the Eastern time zone.

Some of the announced venues for Los Angeles include:

1928 Pool, Exposition Park – Diving
Crypto.com Arena – Gymnastics
Intuit Dome – Basketball
Long Beach Arena – Handball
Belmont Shore – Sailing
LA Convention Center – Taekwondo, Wrestling, Table Tennis, Judo, Fencing
Long Beach Convention Center – Artistic Swimming, Water Polo
Temecula Center – Equestrian
Carson Fields – Field Hockey
LA Coliseum – Track & Field
Marine Stadium – Rowing and Canoe Sport
Riviera Country Club – Golf
Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area – BMX, Skateboarding, Archery
Dignity Health Sports Park – Rugby Sevens/Tennis
SoFi Stadium – Swimming
LA Live Theater – Weightlifting
Galen Center – Badminton
Carson Velodrome – Track Cycling
Long Beach Waterfront – Triathlon

They are also doing softball and canoe slalom in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Your boy is particularly interested to see where they place the men’s and women’s road race for cycling, plus the individual time trial.

18S Paddock Club

We’re going through our 2024 F1 mid-season driver rankings today:

Max Verstappen (A)
Lando Norris (A-)
Oscar Piastri (B++)
Charles Leclerc (B+)
Lewis Hamilton (B)
Carlos Sainz (B)
George Russell (B)
Niko Hulkenberg (B-)
Yuki Tsunoda (B-)
Fernando Alonso (B–)
Alex Albon (C++)
Esteban Ocon (C+)
Pierre Gasly (C+)
Sergio Perez (C-)
Lance Stroll (C-)
Daniel Ricciardo (C-)
Kevin Magnussen (D+)
Valtteri Bottas (D)
Zhou Guanyu (D)
Logan Sargeant (D-)

If this were Verstappen’s first charge to a championship there’d be no doubt he would deserve an A+ grade. Norris has been right there continuously since race 3 and even more present in the title challenge over the last few months. If he could only improve his race starts! Piastri is not-so-quietly having a breakout season, still just 23 and 1.5 seasons into his F1 career. The teammate battle between him and Norris will be fascinating.

Ferrari has fallen off since a strong start to the season. Not much has separated Leclerc and Sainz, although the former continues to be a touch better in consistency and a couple notches better in qualifying.

Hamilton and Russell are trending up and could pass Ferrari at the season’s end.

Either Hulkenberg or Tsunoda has been the best midfield driver this season.

Does the grade fit for Perez?

Not coincidentally, all 5 of our bottom grades could or have already lost their seat for 2025.

Trivia Answer:

Equanimeous St. Brown