Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Notre Dame starting right guard Rocco Spindler will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury. Backup safety Luke Talich is also done for the year with a broken collarbone.
Irish left tackle Joe Alt is 1 of 4 semifinalists for the Lombardi and Outland Trophies.
Xavier Watts is a finalist for the Nagurski Award.
The Notre Dame offensive line is a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award.
Jimbo Fisher has been fired at Texas A&M and will be paid a record $76 million buyout.
Another axe fell in the SEC as Zach Arnett was fired at Mississippi State after just 11 games as head coach of the Bulldogs.
Boise State let go of head coach Andy Avalos.
San Diego State head coach Brady Hoke announced he will retire at the end of the season.
Northwestern has removed the interim tag from head coach David Braun.
Georgia has moved into the no. 1 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings ahead of Ohio State, Michigan, and Florida State. The Irish moved up to no. 19 this week.
Penn State has fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich.
Texas running back Jonathan Brooks has torn his ACL.
The University of Arizona is facing a $240 million shortage to their budget and taking aim at their athletic department with possible cuts to sports teams on the horizon.
The CFP commissioners have recommended to university presidents that the expanded 12-team playoff feature a 5 (automatic qualifying conference champions) + 7 (at-large bids) system which seems like it’ll definitely be happening with the collapse of the Pac-12.
A state of Washington judge has awarded Washington State and Oregon State sole control of the Pac-12 board of directors, for now.
The NCAA has denied requests for post-season waivers for James Madison and Jacksonville State. The programs will be able to play in bowl games if not enough teams win 6 games, but they cannot participate in championships or major bowls.
Uniform of the Week
Well, they did it. Ohio State promoted these all-gray uniforms back in the summer and decided to go through with this idea for a November game against Michigan State. The Buckeyes have worn all-gray in the past although it was primarily with black as the secondary color and as far as these things go it looked passable back then. OSU going with a more “traditional” look on gray jerseys looks all sorts of weird. This gave them some strong high school vibes.
The promo shots looked better because the uniforms were under bright studio lights. On the field, the gray looks darker and dirty. Normally it’s not as pronounced, but with the gray jerseys you notice how much different colored the helmets are in comparison. Two things would’ve saved this uniform a little bit. One, they could’ve added black outline to the numbers. The helmet, shoulders, and pants all keep this pattern but not the numbers. Or, they could’ve just used white numbers with black and red outline.
Recruiting
During the bye week, Notre Dame added 2025 edge/tight end/athlete Dominik Hulak (0.8759) from Elmhurst, Illinois.
Cornerback Wardell Mack (0.9432) committed to Texas.
Defensive lineman Nasir Johnson (0.9212) flipped from Florida to Georgia.
Edge rusher Jamonta Waller (0.9619) gave a verbal to Auburn.
Corner Jamari Howard (0.9446) committed to Florida State.
More from the 2025 class…
Edge rusher Zion Grady (0.9862) committed to Alabama.
Florida receiver Winston Watkins (0.9653) has left Colorado’s class.
Quarterback Carter Smith (0.9208) committed to Michigan.
YouTube Channel
I’m a weirdo who doesn’t wear glasses (yet) but has always wanted to and preferred the way they make others look more distinguished. During the Covid WFH life I tried out blue light glasses to be cool but they bothered my eyes, funny enough. I’m getting to the age where I would prefer to wear glasses, especially in the morning when I can look like a black bear waking up from a deep hibernation slumber.
I don’t think I could deal with contacts, ever. I’m big into sunglasses and usually rotate about 4 or 5 pairs throughout different vehicles in our family. The fashion around glasses is pretty fun, although those really big and awkward styles from the 1980’s that are making a comeback are so terrible. I’ve found it’s really difficult to tell someone they have really ugly glasses. That’s not an easy conversation.
Tunes
It’s 1991 and a peak MTV era for many people all over the world. That March, this band called Extreme pops up with this black and white music video with 2 guys singing a song in the middle of a room. It might be one of the best songs ever recorded. Yes, today we’re talking about “More Than Words” which became a complete anomaly for the band both in its success (it topped the Billboard Hot 100) and its unusual sound. I bought their album Pornograffitti expecting one thing and realizing the band were almost all heavy metal and sounded a lot like Poison or a group like that from this era.
I often think about people born in the wrong generation or meeting the wrong people because it definitely seemed like Nuno Bettencourt and Gary Cherone (the songwriters and performers of this song) should’ve written more songs like this. The music video–and the single that was played throughout 1991–had a shortened ending from the release on the album. I’ve included the longer version in the video above, check out that guitar work. From a metal band!
Trivia
From 1988 through 1993 Notre Dame went 14-5-1 against teams that would finish inside the AP Top 10. Can you name the year and teams for those 5 losses?
The Other Football
Emma Hayes has been hired as the manager of USWNT, coming after 11 seasons at the helm of the Chelsea women side. Once her season is over in the spring, Hayes will officially take over in the United States.
The conference semifinals are all set in the MLS with Houston/Salt Lake plus Seattle/LAFC facing off in the West. In the East, Cincinnati/Philadelphia plus Orlando/Columbus are set to kick off next week. To date, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Orlando have yet to win the MLS Cup.
An exciting 4-4 draw between Chelsea and Man City highlighted the EPL action this past Sunday. With 28 points, City still leads the league but just 3 points separate them from 5th place Aston Villa.
Manchester United CEO Richard Arnold is leaving the club as British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe arrives as a new minority owner of the club.
Union Berlin fired manager Urs Fischer on Wednesday and are set to appoint the Bundesliga’s first female coach in Maria-Louise Eta who will assist interim manager Marco Grote.
Megan Rapinoe was playing the last game of her club career as the OL Reign faced Gotham FC in the NWSL Championship only to tear her Achilles just 3 minutes into the match. Ouch.
TV & Movies
Marketing a movie is very important. I wasn’t a comic book kid but something about Dick Tracy resonated with me and my best friend when the movie came out in the summer of 1990. Cool suits, big guns, loud action scenes, some seductive Madonna, and some pretty cool gadgets made this a really fun time for a PG movie. How was this movie only PG??
As an adult, I look back and thought the movie was pretty silly and bombed with the critics. Apparently not! We wore the VHS tape the hell out when it came out in video stores. They sold this 2-pack set of watches that had built in 2-way radios in them so you could pretend to be just like Dick Tracy. Memories. Would that entertain a couple of 8-year olds today?
A Look Back
So, the odds aren’t terrible that in a few weeks Brian Kelly will be in New York City smiling as one of his quarterback’s accepts the Heisman Trophy. Imagine if that happens and Alabama wins a National Championship? Oh, dear! I don’t think Daniels can quite get there but an invite (and thus some Kelly screen time) is probably happening. Daniels is currently sitting with the 2nd best odds for the Heisman at most sportsbooks, although a finish of Georgia State and a coach-less Texas A&M isn’t going to provide him with enough punch to take home the trophy. You wouldn’t think, right? With 3 losses already on the resume?
Then again, Daniels currently leads the country in passer rating by a decent margin AND leads all quarterbacks in rushing by over 100 yards with an absurd 8.0 yards per carry. He’s basically a more explosive Johnny Manziel from 2012. Bo Nix leads the current odds (despite losing head-to-head against Michael Penix, Jr. who has the 3rd best odds) and perhaps the Pac-12 Championship will settle the ultimate winner of the award. I can’t get on board with Marvin Harrison, Jr. winning without an all-world type of season. We’ve seen a few quarterbacks win the award without being in the National Championship picture so maybe it will be Daniels?
18S Paddock Club
Not even 18 months ago our Slack group were debating the chances of a Las Vegas race for Formula 1 and not soon after news broke that the company had bought land adjacent to The Strip and were making plans for a 2023 grand prix. Fast forward to today and it has finally arrived.
The whole project has been audacious, dripping with excess, and disruptive to the inner core of Sin City. Will it possibly live up to the hype? As we look forward to the weekend here are numerous talking points surrounding what F1 hopes becomes a sporting event as big as any in the United States.
FOM (Formula One Management) has poured a ton of money into this project for a 10-year race deal. Estimates say they’ve spent close to $600 million, and that’s with Clark County in Nevada chipping in $40 million to help with the construction and resurfacing of the public roads. It’s a long-term bet but a lot of the focus so far has been on an immediate poor return to date, so people believe.
Attendance figures are projected to be…not good. Ticket prices and race packages from the casinos and F1 were initially out of this world expensive and due to demand they’ve come down to ‘normal’ rates. But will it be too little too late?
In order to appease the European crowd, the race will be starting at 10 PM local time, which means many on the East Coast (myself included) won’t be staying up through the middle of the night to watch. It’s been the weirdest element to this whole project intent on building the sport in America and artificially lowering the TV ratings in that country due to the start time.
Start times in EST:
11:30 PM FP1 (Thursday)
3:00 AM FP2 (Friday)
11:30 PM FP3 (Friday)
3:00 AM Qualifying (Saturday)
1:00 AM Grand Prix (Sunday)
Round 21 of 22
Las Vegas Grand Prix
Date: November 19th
Race: 1:00 AM ET
Location: Paradise, Nevada
Circuit: Las Vegas Strip Circuit
It’s also going to be cold! The coldest F1 race of all-time took place back in 1978 during the Canadian Grand Prix, also the 1st race of the then-new track on Notre Dame Island outside Montreal. The weather for race day this weekend is forecasting temperatures in the high 40’s to low 50’s which will make this among the coldest races in history. There’s also rain possible throughout the weekend.
We might have massive tire issues that could either bring a ton of entertainment or threaten to turn the weekend into a farce. With the low temperatures, Pirelli and the teams are hoping enough heat can be put into the tires to provide the necessary grip for competition but plenty of people are skeptical.
The track layout certainly won’t help the tire situation with very few high speed corners available to light up the rubber. The track might offer some interesting areas (turn 11 seems like an ideal overtaking spot after bombing down Las Vegas Blvd.) but in general it’s a really boring layout that looks like it’ll be relying almost exclusively on overtaking down the numerous straights.
Can F1 pull off a weekend that is actually cool and not too kitschy or embarrassing for Americans? The paddock area (built for a year-round F1 presence and a new de facto world home for F1) looks pretty awesome and should receive plenty of praise. There are certain sections of the track with really impressive and world-class type of seating areas scattered throughout the circuit. Visually, this should be one of the coolest sporting events in recent memory–F1 just needs a decent race and not many hiccups around the event.
Trivia Answer:
Miami 1989, Colorado 1990, Michigan 1991, Penn State 1991, and Stanford 1992.
The best thing about this is that Charlie Weis is nothing but a footnote in coaching change buyouts. The 19 million he received between 2009 and 2015, seems like it’d barely touch a high level Group of 5 / low level Power 5 in todays college coaching world.
aTm will be talked about for awhile, especially after making the mistake of extending Fisher’s contract and increasing his buyout after the COVID season where he went 9-1. To base his contract extension on that season where he barely beat a Florida Team, Alabama doubled up the Aggies offensive output and A&M beat a UNC team in a bowl that lost to ND by 14 and beat an over-rated Miami team. With all the on/off changes of the COVID season, the canceled games, the uncertainty of the whole season, players not at peak performance, etc. Fisher’s record for that season was not one to base a contract extension on, and is mind blowing that they did. One has to believe that emotion of the boosters entered into that discussion more than logic. There was nothing shown in the COVID season, that couldn’t be seen in the season’s before or after it.
Don’t sell Chuck short, sir!
It’s still wild in retrospect that Weis got that extension sitting at 5-2 overall, already with a loss to what would be a bad 5-6 Michigan State team.
I guess the moral of the story is: When the coaches agent comes to the school and says “my guy is doing good things, lets renegotiate the contract”, the school needs to say “We would like to renegotiate to, but lets wait a bit”.
With Jimbo’s buyout, shoot, time for him to become an analyst on the world wide network. aTm makes this list twice, with Sumlin and Fisher. Nice. Maybe there boosters do have more money than brains.
Looking at this list of coaches, i don’t feel to bad, we at least got one exciting season out of Weis.
Three of the top four coaches’ buyouts were represented by Jimmy Sexton – Fisher, Malzahn and Taggert. (He may represent others on the list) Sexton got 10% of everything – salaries while employed including extensions and then their buyouts.
After Jimbo left FSU, Sexton convinced them to hire Willie Taggert, another client. After Taggert’s firing, they hired Mike Norvell who is another Sexton client. Norvell was extended this past offseason through 2029.
Many of those other coaches on the list above may also be represented by Sexton, who may represent whomever A&M hires, if they replicate FSU’s behavior by turning to him again.
From RollBamaRoll:
Masterclass: Tommy Rees’ playcalling vs. LSU wonderfully turned an opponent’s strength against them
Concluding paragraph:
This week’s Bama game in Bryant-Denny Stadium is FCS Chattanooga, which has been paid $600K for the game. Notre Dame topped the payouts to FCS teams this year at $1 million to Tennessee State.
From a Tuscaloosa News article in 2009 on Chattanooga playing Alabama:
“Outside of athletics fees and those types of things, it’s the biggest single revenue item on our budget externally, said Rick Hart, UTC’s athletics director. One guarantee game (against a major-conference opponent) has become part of our budget. It’s something we know we’re going to do every year. It’s our preference to play a team in this area, either an SEC team or an (Atlantic Coast Conference) team.”…“It creates some excitement for our players and our fans. It’s something you can look forward to and get excited about. It’s something everybody doesn’t get to experience, to play on television in front of 90,000 fans. We’re looking forward to coming to Tuscaloosa.” Rick Hart has now been the AD at SMU since 2012.
One thing to remember is that young coaches can still learn and change. Notre Dame was Rees’ first OC job, and he appears to be learning lessons from mistakes.
Granted, it has taken a few years, and too bad he took his lumps at ND and then moved on before we could benefit fully from it…OTOH Parker already has been an OC and it wasn’t great.
Anyway, gives me hope that Freeman can do have the same learning curve.
Freeman’s instinct in going after Ludwig was exactly right, which gives me hope for the next OC search. His decision to go with Parker, however, was totally illogical, which does not give me so much hope.
I’m curious about all of the love for Ludwig. It seems to me when Utah wins, they do so with defense. I know they’ve had injuries this year, but they’ve scored 20 or fewer 4 times this year already. They’ve cleared 30 just 3 times (once against Weber St. and once against USC). I’ve only watched 2 of their games this year, so I haven’t seen a ton of what they do. But nothing about their statistical output or the two games I have seen have screamed Offensive Genius, so I’m curious as to what others who have watched more of their games have liked about his offense.
Ludwig’s not a high flying offensive guy, so not the most exciting, but he’s able to produce offenses at a school that wants to win with defense and doesn’t get great skill players. They’re not great this year, but he’s at least been able to get enough out of them to win games without a starting qb and enough injuries that a safety had to move to rb. So I’m pretty sure he would have be able to figure out some way to get ND to stop going three and out.
His offense would be a natural fit for ND’s talent on hand and a good match for what Freeman wants to do. It also has the added benefit of smashing SC on the regular.
The biggest thing to me is that Ludwig is very experienced and is the opposite of our OC hires going back to at least Chip Long.
But hey, why not save $2 million and hire the first time guy already on staff, only to fire him after a year and pay some other OC’s buyout.
(Technically Parker isn’t a first time OC, he was just really bad at it the first time he was an OC at West Virginia)
But hey he used to carpool with Marcus Freeman
I’m hopeful we get that experienced OC this offseason, but that will probably be offset by Golden leaving and Mickens becoming the DC.
Hopefully Golden sees how much talent is coming back on defense next year and agrees to hang around for one more season, to try to parlay that into one more major head coaching opportunity.
At least if Mickens gets a promotion, it is because the D has been good and would largely be an extension of MFs defense. As opposed to promoting the TE coach from an offense that finished 35th in OF+ the prior year and would largely be an extension of a 3 TE based offense.
I do wonder how much he was kept in the lines by Kelly. Although Saban had his issues when Kiffin was his OC on play calling, he does seem much more flexible in letting the OC experiment.
>Weis, the gift that keeps on giving
>The construction around LV for this F1 race has been a very big pain in the butt for locals
>I think I had that same experience — buying Extreme’s album because of More than words and then finding the other songs to be a very different style
lol michigan surrenders
Big win for all the people who predicted that nothing would come of this. A lousy three game suspension for Harbaugh, and the investigation is being dropped.
The NCAA investigation is still ongoing, right? That’s the one that actually would potentially have some teeth. (Though, as others have noted elsewhere, looking to the NCAA for doing the right thing or even doing a logical thing is optimistic.)
But, yeah, B1G very clearly wanted to look like they were doing something while doing very little.
If you were an OC looking for a HC job, which jobs would you take – A&M, UCLA or Michigan?
One of the criteria for Michigan to obtain a restraining order was that they prove that they have a reasonable chance of proving that the Big Ten is breaking its own rules and prevailing in their lawsuit. To justify that the Big Ten would need to provide evidence of wrongdoing to the court which also reveals what also the NCAA has found. Michigan may not have wanted that to come to light, and so put an end to the B10 case to live another day to contest the NCAA case in ’24. Michigan may try to negotiate terms of that.
If Haubawl leaves, the NCAA recently has been reticent to issue punishment that affects players and, in these days, their ability to earn income based on SC decisions.
A Michigan Law Professor recently published an article arguing that NCAA punishment for sign-stealing may violate anti-trust laws. Does Michigan want to pursue that and limit NCAA discipline in the future? That would leave disciplinary matters up to the conferences who could negotiate punishment without revealing what evidence they have collected.
F*ck Michigan
In the meantime, for your enjoyment from Eleven Warriors:
MICHIGAN COACH JIM HARBAUGH ACCEPTS THREE-GAME SUSPENSION FROM BIG TEN, WILL NOT COACH AGAINST MARYLAND OR OHIO STATE
“If you were an OC looking for a HC job, which jobs would you take – A&M, UCLA or Michigan?”
IMO it’s the one that just decided to pay a dude $76 million to not work. That job sounds awesome.
“Bo Nix has improved so much under this new offense. He’s focused. He’s having fun. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a dark horse for the Heisman.” – the internet spoke it into existence!
Also awife-of-pastor relative once bought Uncle Kracker’s album based on Follow Me. That song was not reflective of his typical style, which was not to her liking!
The eyeglass history was interesting…until they mentioned sunglasses being invented in the 2000s? That makes me not trust anything else in the video.
How come when quarterbacks play each other we compare them as if they literally played eachother? Nix didn’t really lose a head to head to penix. If some one beat Tom brady are they better than brady? This sounds obvious but it’s done on every sports media platform and I never understand why. It’s not a valid comparison
That was my only gripe. Otherwise pretty good read
Not untrue, but both played well in the matchup, both have played well and have similar numbers all season, but Oregon did lose head-to-head and Nix is still favored by a decent margin in the Heisman race.
It’s a bit curious.
Team winning means something, surely.
You give Heisman voters way too much credit