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

3 News Stories

#1 Assistant Shuffle

With the loss of linebackers coach Max Bullough to Michigan State, Marcus Freeman was left with a decision to make on the coaching staff. He didn’t wait long to move Al Washington from the defensive line to linebackers. Still just 41 years old, Washington has basically coached the line or linebackers for the majority of his career (a 3-year gap as running backs coach at Boston College is an exception) and last held that title at Ohio State prior to coming to South Bend.

Perhaps one of the most confusing assistants in recent memory for Notre Dame, Washington has shuttled between “is this guy any good?” to “he’s doing a great job!” throughout his time with the Irish.

In steps Charlie Partridge as the new defensive line coach. He just turned 52 years old this past Wednesday and comes to Notre Dame after 2 seasons in that same job with the Colts. The former head coach at FAU (2014-16), Partridge spent 2 long stints with Pittsburgh (2003-07 & 2017-23) with jobs at Wisconsin and Arkansas thrown in for good measure. Seems like a good hire?

#2 Quarterbacks Commanding $$$

As expected, the national quarterback carousel in this transfer window is bonkers. As of this writing, some of the top quarterbacks to switch schools include:

Arizona State – Cutter Boley (Kentucky)
Auburn – Byrum Brown (USF)
Florida – Aaron Philo (Georgia Tech)
Florida State – Ashton Daniels (Auburn)
Illinois – Katin Houser (ECU)
Indiana – Josh Hoover (TCU)
Kentucky – Kenny Minchey (Notre Dame)
Louisville – Lincoln Kienholz (Ohio State)
Missouri – Austin Simmons (Ole Miss)
Nebraska – Anthony Colandrea (UNLV)
Oklahoma State – Drew Mestemaker (North Texas)
North Carolina – Billy Edwards (Wisconsin)
Northwestern – Aidan Chiles (Michigan State)
Penn State – Rocco Becht (Iowa State)
Rutgers – Dylan Lonergan (Boston College)
TCU – Jaden Craig (Harvard)
Texas Tech – Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati)
UNLV – Jackson Arnold (Auburn)
Virginia Tech – Ethan Grunkemeyer (Penn State)
Wake Forest – Gio Lopez (North Carolina)
Wisconsin – Colton Joseph (Old Dominion)

Some of the other top names still waiting to find a home are:

Sam Leavitt – Arizona State
Demond Williams – Washington
Dylan Raiola – Nebraska
DJ Lagway – Florida
Deuce Knight- Auburn
Eli Holstein – Pitt
Jadyn Davis – Michigan

We’ll start with Leavitt who is considered the top quarterback transfer on the market. He was reported to be choosing Kentucky as of a few days ago, which seemed like an odd landing spot. Then word broke he wasn’t actually signing with the Wildcats, which then prompted our old friend Kenny Minchey (who hadn’t formally signed yet) to ditch Nebraska for the blue and white checkerboard.

Is he even that good!??

Attached to the drama is Washington’s Demond Williams who reportedly signed a new deal with the Huskies (worth $4.5 million!) which included contractual language that he could not enter the transfer portal. Just a couple days later, he decided what the hell let’s enter the portal anyway. He’s now being linked to LSU, which is also a place Leavitt has visited recently (he’s also checking out Tennessee). For their part, Washington isn’t backing down and won’t agree to a Williams transfer–but surely he won’t play for the Huskies anymore. What happens next and who decides?? It’s college football in 2026, baby.

Notre Dame looks clear of this drama although the program has hosted a visit from Mercer quarterback Braden Atkinson who is coming off a true freshman season in which he totaled 3,611 passing yards, 34 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. I would note, he led Mercer to an undefeated season within the Southern Conference but did throw 6 of his picks in his final 2 games against Auburn and South Dakota. I would think it’s highly unlikely he transfers to Notre Dame. As of this writing, he’s on a visit to Syracuse.

#3 Recruiting Help

While we wait for the transfers to come to Notre Dame (they are coming right????) the Irish have added to their recruiting and scouting department with further raids of Penn State staff. Kenny Sanders is coming over from the Nittany Lions to be assistant GM while D.J. Bryant is coming in a yet-to-be determined off field role. Sanders had been Penn State’s Director of Player Personnel and Bryant was their Coordinator for Personnel and Recruitment.

It wouldn’t seem like the purse strings are that tight for Notre Dame if they continue to grow the recruiting staff to this degree. Long gone are the days of Vinny Cerrato being recruiting coordinator while also juggling an assistant coaching position at the same time.

Uniform of the Week

I caught some highlights of Trinidad Chambliss prior to his time with Ole Miss back when he was a National Championship winning quarterback at Ferris State. That’s a school in Grand Rapids, Michigan that I’m more familiar with their D-1 hockey program, but their football team plays at the D-2 level. Their road white uniform immediately caught my attention. They remind of Mission Viejo high school, except with reversed helmet colors. The white jersey with black shoulders and the red helmet with the yellow Bulldog logo is unique.

Ferris State coming strong.

Their other uniforms are a lot more bold. The all-red looks pretty good, too. The all-yellow is tough to pull off and they almost get there if it wasn’t for that insane shoulder piping that comes off the shoulder and across the chest. Under Armour almost landed the plane but crashed into a ditch with those alternate jerseys.

Media

I am both scared to death of the deep sea and utterly fascinated by all of the men, women, and little kids(!!) who sailed around the world hundreds of years ago. I came across this detailed video about the HMS Victory and was one of the rare times I finished the whole thing without distraction. If you’re into 18th century naval warfare and haven’t seen this, it’s a must. A handful of points:

  • The ships are bigger than you think, right? But the amount of people on these things is outrageous. Over 800 people! The only show a couple places to use the bathroom!
  • As a uniform nerd, the use of 14 different flags on the ship, to be arranged in various order, is interesting. Up to 340 different messages could be conveyed. Go vexillology!
  • The sleeping quarters where half the crew slept at a time had to smell SO BAD. The stench is something surely didn’t bother people in the Royal Navy after a while.
  • The crew eating pretty damn well for the time while on the ship is a cool wrinkle. The massive amount of weight in food, gun powder, and iron ballast at the bottom of the ship is ridiculous. The technology used in keeping the Grand Magazine with 35 tons of gun powder safe was some smart work.
  • I ended up watching another video afterward and it discussed how the doctor on these ships typically weren’t even medically trained. They were just rough men who were able to withstand the horrors of cutting limbs off and dealing with screams while still doing their job. That is some grim stuff!

Tunes

I’ve been going through the Grateful Dead catalog recently and it reminds me how the psychedelic label for the band has never really made a ton of sense to me. Their Wiki page calls them “an American rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, and world music with psychedelia, the band is famous for improvisation during their live performances, and for their devoted fan base, known as “Deadheads”. “

Eclectic, most definitely. What kind of genre would you consider their 1970 song “Ripple” to be?

Typically it gets a folk or folk rock label. I think this is an example of the Grateful Dead at some of their best work. Subtle but layered instrumentation, good harmonies, and elite lyricism. The band’s lyricist Robert Hunter wrote this one day while in London earlier in the year before they released the album American Beauty. He also wrote 2 other songs that day, crazy.

One More Thing

Here’s something I pondered recently. We’re going to see more and more college football players who transfer and become so synonymous with their final school that we forget where their career began. Of course it’s a shorter timeframe in college compared to the pros. The one player in the NFL that amazed me was Marshall Faulk. A bunch of stories about him popped up on my timeline and I completely forgot he played for the Colts.

Nope, don’t remember this.

He played 5 years in Indianapolis, 3 of them as a Pro Bowler! I know I’m getting old (turning 44 soon) but to me Faulk played his entire career with the Rams. That’s how I remember it.

I remember it that way because of Faulk’s initial 3-year run with the Rams from 1999 through 2001. That included 4,122 rushing yards, 2,643 receiving yards, and 59 total touchdowns. I’d say that’s worthy of his MVP award, plus two other 2nd place finishes.