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

Top News

Michael Mayer has been named a semifinalist for the Walter Camp Player of the Year award.

Jerry Tillery was waived by the Chargers this week but 8 teams put in a claim and he is set to move to Las Vegas with the Raiders.

Isaac Rochell was also recently waived by the Cleveland Browns. He has since signed back to the Browns practice squad.

Autry Denson was fired by Charleston Southern after less than 4 seasons with the program.

Cal have fired their offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave.

Tragic news out of Charlottesville where a former Virginia football player has killed 3 other football players and wounded 2 others. As a result, Virginia has cancelled their game this weekend against Coastal Carolina.

Oregon State has extended head coach Jonathan Smith through the 2029 season.

Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman said he will test his luck in the NFL and will not be returning to college for a 6th season. Cam Rising at Utah has also said he will not return, either.

Notre Dame was NOT included in the Joe Moore Award finalists group.

Tough luck for USC as starting running back (and former Oregon Duck) Travis Dye is out for the rest of the season after suffering a knee injury in their game last week.

Georgia Tech quarterback Jeff Sims is being shut down for the season with an injury. Their backup Zach Pyron is also out for the season.

Charlotte has hired Michigan associate head coach Biff Poggi as their next head coach.

West Virginia has fired athletic director Shane Lyons.

Gloria Nevarez has been named the new Mountain West commissioner after serving in the same role for the West Coast Conference. She will take over in January.

Double the cheese. The Citrus Bowl is now sponsored by Cheez-It which gives us the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and the Cheez-It Bowl, both played in Orlando.

Uniform of the Week

So, I was looking through some college football photos recently and I noticed Kansas wore this uniform combination a couple weeks ago. Instantly, it caught my attention. For whatever reason, it just screams “Kansas football colors” to me. Then, I started thinking more about these things and I believe this may be one of the most unusual uniform combinations in the country. At first I thought no way, Kansas colors are red, white, and blue, surely plenty of other teams in FBS have worn a blue-blue-red combination before, right?

I can’t find anyone in FBS, and I don’t think anyone in the NFL has worn this either. Maybe the Houston Texans (with a darker blue, of course) but I couldn’t find photographic evidence. There is a promotional shot of the Arizona Wildcats wearing this combination. I think they kept it in the studio and have not worn it during a game, though.

Recruiting

Quarterback Kenny Minchey (0.9123) has decommitted from Pitt and will be taking an official visit to Notre Dame this weekend for the Boston College game. You know where this is headed, folks.

Quarterback Jaden Rashada (0.9747) flipped his commitment from Miami to Florida.

Linebacker Jayvant Brown (0.8950) gave a verbal to Michigan State.

Mater Dei wide receiver Jeremiah McClure (0.9106) has committed to UCLA.

YouTube Channel

I have thoughts about McDonald’s. My local branch has gone through several remodels through the years. When I was small, it was that dark brick color with a dark roof and the white stick things scattered on top. Then, sometime in the 1990’s it got the update with white walls, red roof, and white stick things on top. It stayed that way for a long time, and kept the outdoor playground too. We used to have birthday parties at this McDonald’s and running around on that playground–with the skin ripping turf–was heaven as a kid. Today, I’d be horrified to take my kids to a McDonald’s playground. Times change.

Sometime in the 2000’s, they remodeled again and added a huge indoor play area with this really strange looking but vibrant bronze colored roof. It seemed so confusing to use that color. In recent years, they remodeled once more to the really spartan-looking building that is shown throughout the above video and is first seen at 0:15 seconds. The playgrounds is gone, too. Since Covid, it doesn’t seem like anyone actually enters the building anymore, either. It’s all so drab and a bit sad. However, since we’re exclusively using the drive-thru the digital ordering menus make it seem a lot less of a bummer.

Tunes

I was listening to the Four Tops song “Reach Out I’ll Be There” and I’d probably say it’s my favorite record to ever come out of Motown. I’ve always been fascinated by session musicians and their role in making hit music. In this case, the drummer in this songs always reminds me of The Swampers but of course being Motown it was the Funk Brothers who backed the Four Tops on “Reach Out I’ll Be There.” One of the main areas to pick out a Funk Brothers tune is the bass played by the incredible James Jamerson. I’ve grabbed the song with just the singing and bass:

This was recorded in early 1966 and Jamerson’s bass is absolutely killing it. This is a great example of how he influenced Paul McCartney and truly affected the course of The Beatles and their sound in the coming years. The key change (minor in the verses and major in the chorus) was also an excellent move by writers Holland-Dozier-Holland. They put this song vocally at the highest range for lead singer Levi Stubbs and he turned in one of the best performances of the 1960’s.

Trivia

Which quarterback has the most rushing yards in 2022?

The Other Football

In case you missed it, the World Cup starts on Sunday. You can read a preview of the United States HERE and a preview of the wider tournament HERE.

Nike has dropped their World Cup advertisement:

The tournament hasn’t even started yet and Qatar has already had to apologize for security officials interrupting a Danish film crew doing a live spot in Doha and threatening to break their cameras.

Streaming

In a past Rambler I talked about not watching much CBS as a kid and how that extended into adulthood. However, I recently caught a couple episodes of the new show So Help Me Todd and I have to say it’s been delightful so far. I’ve poked around the internet and see that the show is getting mixed reviews. Whatever, you can’t win them all.

The actor Skylar Astin (who looks like a dead ringer for a young Dane Cook) is pretty talented in the show as a “talented but directionless private investigator, who is also the black sheep of his family and is working at his mother’s law firm.” The latest episode from season 1 drew me in and I ended up watching the entire thing. I think it’s a show worth checking out.

A Look Back

So, we have Boston College coming up this weekend. It’ll be the 27th meeting with Notre Dame and the 14th visit for the Eagles to South Bend. Although, this will be only the 2nd game at Notre Dame in this series since 2011. Last time here, BC was trying to be dudes, and got their doors blown off 40-17 a few years ago. Today, I picked up the home game from 2000 which has the notoriety of being the last win in the series for the Irish before that awful losing streak began.

This was an early Senior Day (they’d finish the regular season with road games at Rutgers and USC) and it always seems so weird to me to see a Bob Davie team this highly ranked, especially in November! If you’d like, watch the video and be enthralled by quarterback Matt LoVecchio throwing 12 passes. Or better yet, watch running back Tony Fisher (one of the most underrated players of this era?) dominate with 196 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns.

18S Paddock Club

Scattered rain showers during the Brazil weekend saw drivers switching from inters to softs throughout qualifying on a drying track during Q1 and they’d stay on the slicks during all of Q2 as the precipitation looked to be moving away. For Q3, rain began to threaten as the grid raced out for one hot lap on softs. With just over 8 minutes remaining, George Russell beached his Mercedes and the rain began to fall. No lap times could be improved which meant…

Kevin Magnussen in a Haas on pole!

Unfortunately, K-Mag was swallowed up quickly during the sprint race and would eventually finish 8th (he was also knocked out of Sunday’s race in a collision with Ricciardo on the opening lap). Verstappen would take the lead but a rare weekend of struggles began as his medium tires degraded allowing George Russell, Carlos Sainz, and Lewis Hamilton to pass for the podium spots. Sainz would start the grand prix in 7th with an engine penalty which brought us a Mercedes front row lockout on Sunday.

Russell had a beautiful get-away in the grand prix but the Ricciardo-Magnussen collision triggered an early Safety Car. Shortly after a re-start, Verstappen and Hamilton collided breaking the former’s front wing and effectively taking the champion out of a chance for a win with a 5-second time penalty. Just a bit later, Norris clipped Leclerc sending the Ferrari driver into the wall and breaking his front wing.

3 collisions and the first career win for George Russell. 

Norris picked up a 5-second time penalty and after a lull in action with pit strategy not mixing things up too much, Norris would retire with gearbox problems on lap 52 and eventually trigger a Safety Car. On the re-start, Perez in the Red Bull was the only car near the top on medium tires and would eventually get swallowed up, dropping down to 7th from 3rd place. He’d be passed by teammate Verstappen but the Dutchman couldn’t catch Alonso or Leclerc in 5th and 4th place respectively, and finished the race disobeying team orders to let Perez back in front for 6th place.

At the front, Russell was in command and held off Hamilton with Sainz finishing in P3. It was a joyous first career grand prix win for Russell and the first win of the season for Mercedes who suddenly look like their car is capable of competing at every track now. If only there was more than 1 race remaining!

Abu Dhabi Preview: We are back at the site of last year’s ridiculously controversial championship deciding race, an event so dramatic that it’s still affecting F1 to this day. As the 2022 grid approaches this weekend for the final race of the season, there is far less drama.

But not zero drama, come on it’s F1 we’re talking about.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Yas Marina Circuit
FP1 – Nov. 18th – 5:00 AM ET
FP2 – Nov. 18th – 8:00 AM ET
FP3 – Nov. 19th – 6:00 AM ET
Qualifying – Nov. 19th – 9:00 AM ET
Race – Nov. 20th – 8:00 AM ET

Once seen as a very blah and boring track, the changes made to the Yas Marina Circuit layout last year proved very effective. The chicane at the end of sector 1 was removed and the hairpin turn (scene of Verstappen’s championship-winning overtake in 2021) just past that was widened significantly. The chicane at the start of sector 3 is also gone in favor of a faster, long sweeping left-hand turn.

The track worked very well last year, and could be even better for racing in 2022.

3 Questions for Abu Dhabi:

1) Can Mercedes repeat and end 2022 on a high-note?

The Silver Arrows are already pumping the brakes on their car being as strong this weekend as last. Although Mercedes’ seems to be inching closer to the Red Bull we can chalk last weekend up to poor setup during a sprint weekend and tire graining not usually present for Verstappen or Perez.

Mercedes can still end 2022 with a bang, and it should be remembered they are only 19 points behind Ferrari for 2nd place. They’d need at least 1 Ferrari to DNF this weekend for that to be likely, but the fact that they are this close when the W13 car was as much as 1 second per lap slower in the spring is a testament to their car development.*

2) Is all well in Red Bull land?

I wouldn’t go as far to say that Verstappen has ever been likable. After he refused to let Perez pass him in Brazil (with no downside and tons of upside for a crowned champion!) the poop hit the fan.

Time to drive underneath a hotel. 

The media has gone wild with rumors (Max held a grudge from Monaco and Perez crashing during qualifying preventing a pole for Max, maybe worse!) but for now it seems Red Bull has at least closed ranks.

3) Can Vettel lift Aston Martin to 6th place in his last race?

Thirty-five year old Sebastian Vettel makes his 300th entry into a grand prix this weekend, and it’ll be his last before retirement. His exit in the sport will highlight the final points race for 2022:

  • Aston Martin trails Alfa Romeo by 5 points for 6th place
  • AlphaTauri trails Haas by 2 points for 8th place
  • McLaren trails Alpine by 19 points for 4th place
  • We mentioned Mercedes chasing Ferrari above
  • Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc are tied for 2nd place (the focus of the most drama this weekend)
  • Lewis Hamilton needs a win plus fastest lap with no points from Russell to pass his teammate
  • Carlos Sainz is 6 points behind Hamilton
  • Teammates Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso are separated by 5 points
  • Daniel Ricciardo (in possibly his final race) trails Vettel by 1 point
  • Pierre Gasly trails Kevin Magnussen by 2 points
  • Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda both trail Lance Stroll by 2 points

*Plus, Ferrari’s disasterclass strategy and poor development.

Trivia Answer:

John Rhys Plumlee, UCF, 708 yards