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

Top News

Notre Dame running back Logan Diggs was dealing with a shoulder injury during the spring, banged it up at the Blue-Gold Game, and recently had surgery. He could be out for a while.

Former Notre Dame receiver Chris Finke was claimed on waivers by the Chicago Bears.

A task force of university administrators are expected to present new guidelines on NIL rules soon, including recommending enforcement of booster-led recruiting for anything over the past 10 months. The commissioners of the SEC and Pac-12 were in Washington yesterday to lobby for federal legislation surrounding NIL rules.

Maryland has signed head coach Mike Locksley to an extension through 2026.

Scott Frost at Nebraska has been given a one-year show cause and 5-day suspension for illegal use of a special teams analyst. He may be suspended by the university.

Ohio State and Boston College have signed a home-and-home series for 2035 and 2036.

Due to a conflict with the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the National Championship is being moved to Atlanta for 2025.

Uniform of the Week

Which college football is this? I’m sure I didn’t fool anyone this time although I’d bet there was at least one person who briefly thought this was a weird Green Bay Packers throwback. Folks, today we are headed up north to the land of Larz in the Canadian Football League. Specifically, today’s team is the Edmonton Eskimos who were re-branded the Edmonton Elks last June. My first thought was doesn’t ‘Elk’ sound better than ‘Elks’ and more grammatically correct? Sounds like naming a team the Kamloops Deers.

I picked this alternate uniform for Edmonton since their standard uniforms are pretty traditional and really do look quite similar to the Packers. The giant “EE” on the chest looks so damn weird, doesn’t it? As Michigan proved years ago, removing the number on the front for something else is never going to look right.

Recruiting

Former Notre Dame safety KJ Wallace has transferred to Georgia Tech.

Wide receiver Jordan Addison (2,259 yards in 2 seasons) is leaving Pittsburgh with rumors of a NIL-backed commitment to USC with maybe Alabama lurking.

Pittsburgh picked up a commitment from quarterback Kenny Minchey (0.8923). Kenny good luck charm?

California wide receiver Jurrion Dickey (0.9425) committed to Oregon.

Interior offensive lineman Austin Siereveld (0.8911) gave a verbal to Ohio State after having Notre Dame in his final 3 schools.

Texas Tech has a verbal from running back LJ Martin (0.9038).

Former Texas and USC wide receiver Bru McCoy is transferring to Tennessee.

Former Florida quarterback Emory Jones is headed to Arizona State.

YouTube Channel

On my last visit to Las Vegas we decided to rent a car for a day and travel around some spots outside of Paradise, including the short trip to see Hoover Dam. It wasn’t something I really cared about visiting, at the time I thought about the scene where Fresh Prince mocks Carlton because they had to see the dam soon. We ended up parking up on the Arizona side and walking down across the river to the visiting center. Full disclosure, I am an absolute wimp in major heat and that walk had me unnecessarily sweaty and tired. You feel all of that concrete baking in the sun.

Thank goodness the visitor center had air conditioning. Hoover Dam is awesome! In terms of expectations versus what we experienced it was one of my favorite visits to a national icon. At the time, the visitor center was a little outdated and cramped. My issue was that I didn’t really know what to expect, but the sheer awesomeness of the structure, the intake turbines, and how they built this in the early-t0-mid 1930’s was awesome to witness. I was just reading the water levels in Lake Mead are at their lowest levels since 1971 which is sad.

Tunes

I have mixed feelings about Imagine Dragons. When they burst on to the scene in 2012 I found them super annoying. Their second album in 2015 made me feel the same. I wouldn’t classify it as bad music, just that their sound and style was very monotonous in a way that is grating when their songs are featured so heavily across media, especially as promotional vehicles.

This is straight from their Wiki page: The band’s music has been criticized for its repetitive lyrics, “overblown” arena rock production, overemphasis on reverberation effects, sticking to formulas, and genre-hopping. I mean, fair.

My opinion turned a little bit in 2017 with “Thunder” and “Believer” which I thought were still very Imagine Dragons-y but their best work yet. Recently, the group released a single “Enemy” for the Netflix series Arcane and I actually like this one, too. Forgive me.

Trivia

Who are the top 5 career receiving yards leaders in Notre Dame history?

The Other Football

Liverpool (up 2-0 from the 1st leg) had a moment of panic as Villarreal scored 2 first half goals in the 2nd leg of the Champions League semifinals this Tuesday. However, Liverpool answered with 3 goals in the 2nd half to reach their 10th UCL Finals and 3rd in the last 5 seasons.

Wednesday night’s Real Madrid vs. City game was absurdly entertaining. Trailing 5-3 in the 90th minute, Real scored in the 90th and 91st minutes to force extra time then sealed the UCL semifinal victory with a 95th minute penalty by Karim Benzema.

Liverpool and Real Madrid face off on May 28th for the Champions League title.

Rangers came from behind to beat Leipzig 3-2 and will face Frankfurt in the Europa League Final after the German-side beat West Ham 3-1 on aggregate.

Roma got past Leicester 2-1 and Feyenoord kept their 3-2 lead over Marseille in the Europa Conference League. The two teams will battle for the title on May 25th.

We have major league champions who have clinched trophies. Bayern Munich have won their 10th straight Bundesliga title, Real Madrid have won their record 35th La Liga title, and PSG have won their 10th Ligue 1 title, god bless Mauricio Pochettino that beautiful man.

According to FIFA, there have been 23.5 million requests for tickets to the World Cup taking place this fall in Qatar.

UEFA has banned Russia from hosting the Euro’s in 2028 or 2032. What a spine!

Super agent Mino Raiola passed away on April 30th at just 54 years old.

Bayern Munich and Manchester City will play an exhibition at Lambeau Field this July.

Streaming

I am so excited this compilation video was put on YouTube by Netflix. I know I Think You Should Leave has been a big hit in Notre Dame corners. They’ve yet to renew for a 3rd season which is concerning. Maybe Tim Robinson is ready to move on to different things but at least give us one more season!

I was excited about this upload because of the first episode from the 2nd season that opens up this video. In total, probably one of the least funny skits from the season. However, the ending: “Whose bag’s this? [foot tapping on the bag with vomit on it] I almost tripped on it” with the quick cut had me cackling out loud when I first watched it. Absolute classic ITYSL delivery.

A Look Back

I’ve written over the years that I generally watch most Notre Dame games at home by myself, with an occasional friend or small party. Now that I’m usually juggling our Slack and Twitter responsibilities I’m almost always alone grinding out these games. Long before we were tied down on this internet machine for gameday I have sweet, sweet memories of the 2008 Michigan game during a spontaneous day-drinking party at a friend’s house.

Does euphoric describe this game aptly? In hindsight, it wasn’t pretty (6 Michigan turnovers, Clausen throwing for just 147 yards) but in the moment this game felt so, so good. I have this vivid memory of the party starting to ignore the game during the second half (remember all the rain!) and I was just sitting there drinking and thinking, “I’m dialed in and enjoying this so damn much.”

18S Paddock Club

Despite the hype of the recent Las Vegas GP announcement to come starting next year we have the inaugural Miami GP welcoming itself to the F1 world this weekend. Being in the works since 2018, it’s been an arduous 5-year journey to get here featuring the need to ditch the original circuit plans in downtown Miami shifting to the perimeter around Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

It’s a parking lot race!

Miami Grand Prix
Miami International Autodrome
FP1 5/6 2:30 PM ET
FP2 5/6 5:30 PM ET
FP3 5/7 1:00 PM ET
Qualifying 5/7 4:00 PM ET
Race 5/8 3:30 PM ET

Most American fans have been like “do we have to?” for this race while the rest of the world has harbored stronger negative feelings to this track receiving a 10-year deal to host races. As a brand new track the teams will be collecting data feverishly throughout practice especially with race temperatures expected to be in the high 80’s and some of the hottest on the F1 calendar.

The track itself, doesn’t seem too bad.

With 3 full throttle straights it’s an extremely fast circuit. Turn 1 will offer a heavy braking zone down into 2nd gear while the long left-hander at turn 7 will see some down-shifting into the long back straight. Turn 11 will be another heavy braking zone and begins the most technical part of the track as the next 6 corners all come quickly within 15 seconds. Turn 17 is the last braking zone after the longest straight before it’s full throttle down through the main straight.

Whether this turns into a good race remains to be seen but this weekend will be the first litmus test for Formula 1 attempting to turn this into a “Super Bowl-like” event. They’ve coordinated, promoted, and set up the race, are charging exorbitant ticket prices, and have surrounded the track with a dizzying array of party areas, including pulling in a row of yachts in a fake dock (featuring plastic covering meant to mimic water) for the visual effect. Trashy Monaco!

The potential for a huge success for F1 or a huge embarrassment are both equally in play–classic Florida right? Although, I think generally this will get very good reviews for the glamour and celebrities on hand with more criticism aimed at the inaccessibility for the common folks of America.

The new track surface was built to provide high tire degradation and with the high temperatures and possibility of rain on Sunday it’s likely a few drivers really struggle getting their cars into the right set up windows on the track. The season is quickly devolving into a battle between Leclerc (+125) and Verstappen (+100) for every win and both have enormously heavy odds compared to 3rd place in either teammate Sainz (+1200) or Perez (+1200). Some teams (like Mercedes) are using this weekend to ramp up their upgrades and we’ll see someone outside of Red Bull or Ferrari can mix it up at the top, but I doubt it.

During the last couple races in Australia and Imola the perceived favorite didn’t win. If Red Bull can stay within a couple tenths of Ferrari in that technical section their power in the straights should make them tough to beat. But, it’s Ferrari’s turn to bring some updates (a new rear wing and floor are supposedly coming, plus rumors of Leclerc breaking out his 2nd power unit) and I think Charles wins for the first race ever in Miami.

1st – Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
2nd – Max Verstappen, Red Bull
3rd – Sergio Perez, Red Bull

Trivia Answer:

1) Michael Floyd, 2) Golden Tate, 3) Jeff Samardzija, t-4) Derrick Mayes, t-4) Will Fuller