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

Top News

Congratulations to the Georgia Bulldogs on winning the 2021 National Championship. I took the Caesar’s Sportsbook free $300 bet for registering now that sports gambling is legal in New York and put it all on Alabama.

The Tide lost wide receiver Jameson Williams to a brutal knee injury during the title game and it’s been confirmed he tore his ACL. Imagine back in the day if Notre Dame lost Golden Tate to a knee injury in the biggest game of the season then Michael Floyd tore up his knee in the National Championship?

According to multiple reports, Notre Dame is set to hire Chansi Stuckey as wide receivers coach. Stuckey is a former Clemson player who had a cup of coffee in the NFL before heading back to Clemson as grad assistant prior to his one year in Waco.

College Football Playoff leaders met on Monday to iron out something for expansion and couldn’t come to a consensus. As expected with these fools, they’re going to make this as painful of a process as possible. There’s plenty of talk that the ACC are trying to use some leverage over Notre Dame and that’ll probably go poorly for them.

Andrew Luck highlights the newest announced class for the College Football Hall of Fame. Former Notre Dame defensive tackle Bryant Young was a finalist but didn’t get the call this year.

Uniform of the Week

Kansas hasn’t had much going for it for years upon years. In order to compensate they’ve gone through some uniform changes and debuted plenty of alternates, especially helmets. This year during their homecoming they absolutely nailed things.

These colors are amazing. The royal blue mixed with the powder blue is among my favorite looks, and the subtle red trim adds a nice touch. Red is my least favorite color but I’d even admit even a little more on this uniform would work well. We can’t forget that “K” bowtie logo on the helmet from 1929, nice!

Recruiting

Deion Sanders did it again by signing Missouri receiver Kevin Coleman (0.9787) to Jackson State.

Edge rusher Cyrus Moss (0.9742) committed to Miami.

Once an Irish target, defensive tackle Hero Kanu (0.9562) signed with Ohio State.

As expected, C.J. Williams (0.9679) signed with USC.

Georgia picked up interior offensive lineman Earnest Greene (0.9805).

Check out Clark Lea pulling linebacker Daniel Martin (0.9164) out of Georgia.

Former UCF receiver Titus Mokiao-Atimalala has transferred to UCLA.

USC quarterback Jaxson Dart is leaving the Trojans with Caleb Williams coming off recent visits to USC and UCLA.

Penn State running back Noah Cain is in the Portal.

YouTube Channel

This past summer I went into an art deep dive with a focus on many of the classics. At first, I lined up some of the more famous books full of colorful pages only to spend a ton of time going through various YouTube channels (and there’s an overwhelming amount of terrific art content to consume) before landing on Great Art Explained, a channel started in the summer of 2020 during the pandemic by art historian James Payne.

This video of the Arnolfini Portrait from 1434 by Jan van Eyck is maybe my favorite of the bunch. I came in with low expectations (I always thought this painting looked silly) and came away believing this could be the greatest painting of all-time. If you’re even modestly into art please check out some of Payne’s videos, he drops 1 or 2 per month and there’s about 25 so far. They are extremely well done.

Tunes

I wanted to feature Ed Sheeran this week for a couple reasons. One, my oldest daughter (4.5 years old) absolutely loves the song “Bad Habits” and is in the process of working with me on her own playlist on Apple Music. I’ve been waiting so long to be able to do this with my kids, it’s adorable.

The other reason was to point out that Sheeran’s previous album ÷ and its associated tour saw 8.7 million people buy tickets. This dude toured for 29 months and saw nearly 1.6 million more people attend his shows than the next biggest tour ever, U2’s 360° Tour. Thanks to their outdoor venues, that U2 tour has the highest-ever inflation adjusted gross of $847.2 million while Sheeran’s is 2nd with $785.6 million. That’s a lot of money.

Trivia (answers at the bottom of the article)

Which college football program is the last to win the National Championship for the first time in their history?

The Other Football

In the transfer window, fullback Kieran Trippier is back in England following a $16.5 million transfer from Atleti to Newcastle. The Magpies desperation to not get relegated (19th place currently) following their recent totally-not-the-Saudi-Arabian-Wealth-Fund (wink, wink) takeover meant they paid a shocking $33 million release clause for Burnley striker Chris Wood who is 30 years old.

Coutinho’s post-Liverpool career continues to amaze as he’s also back in England following a loan deal to Aston Villa from Barcelona.

The Africa Cup of Nations kicked off this past Sunday, and as per usual, it has been full of craziness including a rogue referee whistling full-time twice before it was actually time.

The Big 5 Check-In:

EPL – The magic of the FA Cup knocked Arsenal, Newcastle, and Burnley out of the tournament this past weekend. Meanwhile, Spurs were swiftly dropped out of the EFL Cup by Chelsea and Liverpool/Arsenal square off in the other semi-final tonight.

La Liga – Barcelona dropped points yet again with a 1-1 draw versus Granada.

Serie A – Juventus overcame a 3-1 deficit to Roma with goals in the 70th, 72nd, and 77th minute to take the win. Roma manager Jose Mourinho was not happy afterward as that tire fire continues.

Bundesliga – Borussia Monchengladbach upset Bayern Munich 1-0 and the lead atop the table shrinks to 6 points.

Ligue 1 – Marseille (3rd place) and Nice (2nd) each won while PSG (1st) only drew Lyon 1-1.

Streaming

Has anyone watched this Joe Montana documentary on Peacock yet? I’ve yet to dive in and I’m curious to hear from anyone who has watched it already. This is an absolutely terrible promo video!

I feel bad for Montana. When I was small he was in his prime and by the time he retired he was the unquestioned GOAT at quarterback. Now, Tom Brady has blown that status out of the water and the proliferation of passing records in the last 20 years have further demoted Montana’s iconic status. Am I wrong in perceiving Montana to be far less of a big deal these days than in say, 1997?

Maybe my perception is colored by the fact that Montana has never really been much of a presence on Notre Dame’s campus? The school has spent decades with a National Championship winning alum quarterback who many people still consider the greatest and he’s seemingly never in South Bend.

It makes me feel like they should take the $60 million or however much they’re raising to expand the Gug and instead build a stand-alone Notre Dame Football Hall of Fame so we can bathe in the glory of people like Montana to give them somewhere to reign supreme on visits.

A Look Back

Yes, it’s the only ranked victory of the Charlie Weis era! I don’t have a lot to say about this game other than it’s up there as some of the best memories of the era. There was all the excitement for playing Penn State for the first time since 1992 and to make it even better it was an absolutely gorgeous day. So beautiful in fact, that it kind of makes me miss the way the natural grass looked.*

We were all a little uneasy after that tough opener in Atlanta against Georgia Tech and when the Irish offense came out firing on all cylinders back home it was a super fun time. It didn’t last long because the following week was utterly terrible.

*Pretty much only in these early season games with good weather, though. Any other time, nah I’m good.

18S Paddock Club

2022 Regulation Changes (Part 1 of 4, Overview & Power Units) – F1 prepares for its biggest ever regulation changes as they enter the 73rd season of competition this March. The cost cap falls by $5 million to $140 million covering car design, development, component manufacture, testing, and race operations. Not covered by the cap includes engine deals, marketing, hospitality, travel, driver wages, and the top 3 team personnel salaries. The token system–meant to slow down development for 2020-21 during the pandemic in anticipation of 2022’s massive changes–has now been removed.

Wind tunnel (40 runs/week) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (30 teraflops/week) testing rules have been altered for 2022. Testing has been increased for the 10th place team, remained the same for 9th place, and reduced for all other 8 teams from the 2021 rules:

#1 Mercedes 70%
#2 Red Bull 75%
#3 Ferrari 80%
#4 McLaren 85%
#5 Alpine 90%
#6 AlphaTauri 95%
#7 Aston Martin 100%
#8 Williams 105%
#9 Alfa Romeo 110%
#10 Haas 115%

Wind tunnel and CFD testing rules will re-set on June 30th (following the 9th race in Montreal) based on the constructor championship standings and remain in place through the rest of 2022.

The 2021 grid staring at 1 of 2 concept cars for 2022 built by F1.

All new car designs for 2022 will take more advantage of ground effect, with less reliance on wings, as testing shows the improved aerodynamics make the cars less turbulent with more up-wash of air over following cars to allow for more close driving and overtakes. The 2,000mm car width remains (since 2017) while a new 3,600mm wheelbase maximum means several teams (including Mercedes) will need to make adjustments. Weight is increasing by nearly 6% to 796kg, mainly due to larger wheel rims and increased safety measures. The bargeboards and their associated elaborate aero bits–which dominated car design in recent years–are now banned. Select car parts will be covered in a thin rubber membrane to limit shattering and reduce track debris.

Power units are frozen until 2026 (when more big regulation changes are anticipated) as the 1.6 liter V6 turbo engines remain in place. However, the ethanol fuel mix has been increased from 5.75% to 10% for 2022 and is rumored to be forcing teams to redesign their combustion chambers to overcome the loss of 20 or more horsepower. With a record 23 races in just 35 weeks, power unit reliability will be more important than ever with the engine part allotment remaining the same. Each team is allowed the following: Internal Combustion Engine (3), Turbo Charger (3), Motor Generating Unit-Heat (3), Motor Generating Unit-Kinetic (3), Energy Store (2), Control Electronics (2), and Exhaust (6).

Scuderia Ferrari (3rd place, 323.5 points)

Ferrari bounced back from a dreadful 2020 by signing Carlos Sainz and further developing Charles Leclerc but still experienced some rough up and down moments in 2021. For his part, Leclerc edged out Sainz in qualifying 12 to 10 and generally was faster with a higher ceiling. However, Leclerc had the infamous DNS at Monaco and an unlucky DNF at Hungary with just 1 podium all season. Sainz, meanwhile, remained consistent coming into 4 podiums and overachieving all the way to 5th in the driver’s standings ahead of Leclerc’s disappointing 7th place finish.

People are expecting Ferrari to surprise this year. Again. It’s important to point out they haven’t won a race with a legal engine since Spa 2018 and were still miles away from Red Bull for 2nd place in 2021. Some expect rising tensions for the No. 1 driver role at Maranello but I doubt it. Maybe in 2023 or beyond. This year, it’s a really high-ceiling duo with good vibes. Ferrari deployed their new ERS upgrade to the engine late last year in an attempt to get ahead with their 2022 engine and it allowed them an extra boost to sail past McLaren for 3rd place. Now, the pressure builds for Ferrari to nail the new aero regulations.

Ferrari is dropping Mission Winnow as their main sponsor and we’ll await to see if they ditch the gradient car livery colors and/or bring back a shinier red for 2022.

Trivia Answers:

Florida, 1996