Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Sad news as former Notre Dame safety Sergio Brown was arrested re-entering the United States from Mexico in connection with the murder of his mother.
Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter could return to the lineup this Friday against Stanford.
Oklahoma’s leading receiver Andrel Anthony is out for the season.
Louisville was named the Cheez-It National Team of the Week, so that’s great.
The New York Post is reporting that Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT, TBS, Max) could be a player in the upcoming College Football Playoff media rights deal.
The Big Ten announced they will have 9 Friday night games on Fox for the 2024 season.
The Big 12 is interested in adding Gonzaga to their league, according to reports.
Washington has hired new athletic director Troy Dannen who held that position at Tulsa. The Huskies have also cancelled a 2028 game with San Jose State.
Uniform of the Week
I’m here once again to mention that USC has ugly uniforms and they’ve always had ugly uniforms. The Trojans will be coming to South Bend this weekend, presumably wearing their road white jerseys. That’s the better of their two looks if I had to pick. I know USC likes to cling to TRADITION as much as any other school but I’m really surprised they’ve come this far without an alternate uniform thrown into the mix. Try an all-yellow uniform, you cowards.
This photo of Caleb Williams is a good example of why ankle socks are terrible for football. He’s out here looking like a middle schooler on his way to private school in Chino Hills. And what’s that on their helmet? If you were new to the sport that’s just a yellow blob, you can’t make it out from this distance. Ronald McDonald-ass ketchup and mustard uniforms.
Recruiting
Previously committed to Georgia, wide receiver Ny Carr (0.9722) gave a verbal to Miami.
The nation’s top JUCO recruit and corner Sione Laulea (0.9000) has committed to Oregon.
Clark Lea picked up a 4-star recruit in tight end Witt Edwards (0.8919) who committed to Vanderbilt.
YouTube Channel
If you’re ever in Central or Western New York with kids you have to check out the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester. Heck, if you’re without kids it’s still an awesome place to visit. We recently went back for a 2nd visit with my crew after they expanded and remodeled (now featuring a hotel attached to the museum) with an abundance of things to see and do now. Bring your walking shoes and be prepared to stay for several hours. I believe the museum is now around 400,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor exhibits.
There’s a little something for everyone, from really little kids to older teens and adults. Part of the new renovation is this very large history of video games wing to the museum which was really well done, although it made me feel extremely old. It was like walking through every phase of my life from the Atari to the modern day consoles, computers, and phone games.
Tunes
Dr. Dre is a great example of how you don’t need to be an elite long lasting rapper to make it incredibly rich. I have never listened to his 2015 album Compton but it’s only the 3rd solo project he’s done, ever. You could argue as a rapper, Dre was only 3rd best among the N.W.A. lyricists. As a producer though, Dre has been on the Mount Rushmore and really has a claim to being one of the best music producers in any genre of music in history.
In early 1999 the first major album release for Eminem dropped and Dre got a ton of publicity out that for finding and creating such a landmark hip-hop debut. Then, later that year Dr. Dre came out with his 2nd solo album 2001, his first in 7 years, and if it’s not a top 5 rap album of all-time it has to be regarded as such in production value alone. Dre and his crew are hip-hop geniuses when it comes to crafting beats. Today, he’s worth $750 million, in part thanks to Apple buying his co-founding stake in the headphone company Beats. Today’s song, the lead single “Still D.R.E.” from 2001 had lyrics written by Jay-Z and immediately launched Dr. Dre back into superstardom.
Trivia
Notre Dame has run the ball on 3rd down and 1-3 yards to go on 21 attempts so far in 2023. How many of those attempts ended in a first down or touchdown?
The Other Football
We’re on an international break now for European soccer. This past weekend in the Premier League a late winner for Arsenal beat Man City 1-0 and despite being down to 10-men, Spurs beat Luton Town 1-0. The North London rivals are sitting atop the EPL table and are the only undefeated teams remaining through match week 8 this season.
Eden Hazard has retired from soccer at the age of 32. The former Chelsea winger made a move to Real Madrid in 2019 for 100 million but scored only 4 goals with the club over 3 injury-filled seasons.
Wayne Rooney is out as the manager at DC United and has crossed the pond to lead Birmingham City who are currently 6th in the Championship table.
TV & Movies
For a show based out of New York City the people at Saturday Night Live have always done a good job parodying the Boston accent and culture. As mentioned in a previous Rambler, I don’t drink coffee so I’m only going to the coffee shop to buy doughnuts and I’m a Tim Horton’s man anyway. We have just 1 Dunkin Donuts in my town and a trio of Timmy Ho’s within a 2-mile radius so it’s a bit unfair. I enjoy the bagels at Dunkin, though.
This sketch with Casey Afflec has lived in my head for years and it’s what I think about first when Dunkin Donuts comes up in conversation. The move of holding the cigarette out the door always kills me. Also, when he wins a free coffee and his phone screen is smashed to bits, it’s the little things sometimes with SNL and their writers. The coffee throw at the end crushing the car in the next spot over, classic.
A Look Back
Florida cornerback Jason Marshall was a 2021 recruit out of Miami who was a 5-star and the no. 29 overall recruit in the Composite rankings. He’s currently in his 3rd year of starting for the Gators and has been getting some buzz as a top pick in the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft. However, everyone is human. This past Saturday, Florida was nursing an early 7-0 lead when Vanderbilt dropped back for a sideline fade (of sorts).
There’s a weird glitch on the video as the ‘Dores quarterback throws the ball. Anyway, Marshall gets beat as the Vanderbilt receiver makes a tough catch. He does a good job staying in bounds but Marshall absolutely thinks the receiver is going to run or fall out of bounds. He does not. Marshall seemingly does an “aww man” and proceeds to jog lightly with little effort as he gives up a touchdown. Corners, man.
18S Paddock Club
There was too much going on this past weekend in the F1 world. I’ll try my best for a quick recap:
- It was hot as balls in Qatar, nearly 100 degrees at night.
- Pirelli found issues with the tires under microscope due to the loads on a few corners and the pyramid curbs that caused punctures in the 2021 race.
- Verstappen took pole easily on Friday.
- The FIA re-painted the track at turns 13 and 14 ahead of sprint qualifying to help with track limit penalties and keeping the tires off the sharp curbs.
- Oscar Piastri would take pole in the Saturday sprint qualifying and would go on to win the sprint race–his first official “win” in Formula One.
- Sergio Perez’s terrible form continued as he was in a crash during the sprint race, picked up penalties for building a new car, had to start from the pit lane, and only managed P10 in the grand prix.
- Due to Perez’ crash, that officially sealed Verstappen’s 3rd straight world championship following the sprint race. In the grand prix on Sunday, Verstappen took his 14th win of the season.
- Piastri and Norris finished P2 and P3 in the McLaren’s which look awfully quick nowadays.
- Teammates Hamilton and Russell made contact at the first corner with the former retiring with car damage after his Mercedes became beached.
- Sainz was not able to race on Sunday after Ferrari found a fuel leak on his car and didn’t have enough time to fix it. Just Ferrari things.
- Rookie driver Logan Sargeant suffered from heat stroke and had to retire. In the aftermath of the race, many drivers complained about the excessive temperatures and humidity with several receiving medical attention and barely finishing the race themselves.
F1 is off this weekend and returns soon to Austin, Texas for the United States Grand Prix.
Trivia Answer:
9 attempts.
Here’s a cool one:
Can we have the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics team up with the football team to determine whether to kick a 54 yd field goal on 4th and 4, or whether to run play action ever?
I was actually under the impression that was the reason we had a Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics.
/dot matrix printer screeching
it says to toss the ball backwards and sideways on 3rd & 1
Really wish we hadn’t done the initial hamstring testing on the wide receivers.
The goal off of Ake’s face was crazy. Also, that Brighton Liverpool match was fun to watch.
I imagine the B10 scheduler is like an air traffic controller. As far as B10 games on Friday night and their Jumbo jets, Michigan is outright refusing to play on Friday. Ohio State, Penn State, and Iowa have “logistical challenges that prevent them from hosting except in specific circumstances.” The “logistical challenges” is undoubtedly a message that they will not play any Friday away games, too.
None of the soon-to-be West Coast BIGs have expressed similar concerns for their athletes. Is there a clause in their membership contract that submits them to adhere to the scheduling decisions of the conference? And for how long? The price of admission for Fox putting up more money for Oregon and Washington to join. So Fridays may entail the Pacs and the minor Bigs. Certainly Fox could have signed a media contract with the Pac before the flights to other conferences and schedule them for the earlier slot.
What’s the point of getting the LA market, for instance, if a 7:30 Central game is 5;30 Pacific time? If Fox wants to capture that market on Saturdays, will USC and UCLA be exempted from Fridays, too? Would they really schedule a game on the West Coast at 5:30 Pacific time or will all the West Coast teams need to travel to the Midwest as away games for Fox’s time slot?
Every other member realizing that the B1G is run for the benefit of Michigan and Ohio State and the other schools are secondary thoughts at best.
Penn State gets basically everything they want too, but otherwise correct. Nebraska and UCLA are going to be playing a lot of Friday night games.
De facto relegation. It’s not like those minor BIG teams’ alumni and season ticket holders come from all over the country for a football weekend except maybe Northwestern. They can schedule high school recruiting visits on some Saturday. The BIG/Fox would have loved to schedule ND on Fridays.
Corners? More like DBs in general. I knew Xavier Watts had completed the transition to safety when a receiver he was defending straight up dropped a pass and he got all excited making the incomplete sign with his hands.
The only thing I sort of begrudgingly respect about SC is that they simply do not wear alternate uniforms ever. I wish we were the same.
I’ve had the same thought about Bama, Auburn and Penn State too. But tbh I hate basically all alternate uniforms if you are an established brand, so to say. The NFL is worse about it in that way
If we were going to do this, it would be cool to have the away be blue/gold and the home green/gold.
Old-ass whiners
https://youtu.be/5L9JJ8sDg6w?si=8EFlEPd4K8lkVdFY
The Sphere was an incredible experience last week (and fortunately it left me with something more important to do on Saturday night than watch the ND game). If anyone has a chance to go to it, it’s absolutely worth it. One of the best concert experiences of my life. This video is not mine, but it’s better quality than the one I took on my phone.
So cool.
Man, I see this and I think this was made for some of Pink Floyd’s concerts in the past.
My brother and I were talking about what other bands could make full use of the multimedia at the Sphere. Flaming Lips and Tool both came up as good ones.