Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
In the News
The game against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field has been rescheduled for the opener in 2026.
Alabama extended this plucky up and coming coach Nick Saban to a deal through 2028 so hooray we have at least 8 more years of this. But, the games against Alabama that have been scheduled against the Irish have been pushed back to 2029 and 2030, respectively.
As college football brokers get ready to map out the future of the post-season, the CFP is proposing a 12-team playoff model with byes as the favored new system. We’ll have more on this on Monday.
Turns out, maybe Bo Schembechler wasn’t a great guy.
The Virginia Tech football player arrested for murder last week told investigators he punched and stomped on the victim after finding out he was a man posing as a woman on Tinder.
The SEC changed its mind now and will allow transfers within their own league without penalty.
From the Archive
HERE is a ranking of the best defensive performances from Notre Dame in the 2010-17 window.
The Portal
Notre Dame won a fierce head-to-head battle with Florida State for Marshall transfer Cain Madden who will likely slot in at one of the guard spots for the Fighting Irish. However, the Irish lost redshirt freshman receiver Jay Brunelle who is leaving South Bend.
Colorado’s starting quarterback last year Sam Noyer has entered the transfer market.
Luke McCaffrey left Nebraska earlier this off-season, apparently stayed at Louisville for a bit, and said peace out nope. He’s back in the Portal.
USC transfer defensive tackle Jay Toia isn’t moving far and picked UCLA.
Kansas had a freshman All-American in corner Karon Prunty and he’s now leaving Lawrence.
Texas picked up the commitment of Alabama transfer running back Keilan Robinson. The Tide also lost running back Kyle Edwards to the Portal this week, too.
Missouri wideout Jalen Knox has over 1,000 yards in his career and is now on the market.
Ole Miss’ leading tackler last year Jacques Jones is moving to Kentucky.
A&M corner Elijah blades was a starter in 2019, opted out last year, and is leaving College Station.
Helmet Talk
There are 2 irrefutable facts when it comes to the helmets worn by the United States Naval Academy. One, their standard helmet is among the worst in all of college football. Two, every single alternate, throwback, or special one-off helmets are a massive improvement.
For years it was silly that Notre Dame and Navy shared basically the same helmet with only a blue facemask for the Middies differentiating the two teams. If Navy persists on wearing their plain gold helmets for most of their games the least they can do is throwback to their blue anchor logo. What a world of difference.
Recruiting
Pittsburgh defensive tackle Donovan Hinish (.879) is following his brother to Notre Dame. You can read our commit post HERE.
Chicagoland receiver Kaleb Brown (0.973) committed to Ohio State.
Baton Rouge running back Le’veon Moss (0.959) gave a verbal to Alabama.
Linebacker Torren Wright (0.901) committed to NC State.
I’m including defensive lineman Sir Mells (.856) committing to Oregon based on his name.
House of the Week
This is the most recent upload from Architectural Digest and as soon as I saw Frank Lloyd Wright’s name I had to feature the video this week. Today’s home sits in northeast Phoenix on the southern edge of the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. The house sold for $1.7 million less than 2 years ago and is back on the market again for $8 million. As always, the valuation on these homes are ridiculous although I’m convinced less than $2 million is a steal based on the FLW name alone and a pretty great location.
Just 3,100 square feet is small for the typical AD video, to be sure. But, a lot of the charm and benefit of this house (a carport, huge pool, literally built into a mountain) comes from the outdoors and surroundings.
I’m smitten with that den. I love a nice, cozy den myself. The rest of the home, particularly the kitchen, dining, and living quarters gives off a cruise ship feel to me. It’s very unique of course but also quite strange. It’s a tough situation to try and modernize the interior decorating but something just doesn’t seem right with the transition.
Tunes
I’m far from a Springsteen fan, although a few of his songs I truly love. However, his stage act bugs the ever living crap out of me. Thousands of people (millions?) swear by his live performances and I just do not get it. Here’s a clip from David Letterman’s tiny studio back in 2002 where we have TEN people on stage. I’m pretty sure during his large tours I’ve seen nearly 20 people on stage.
Max Weinberg’s playing style on drums is so annoying (look how high he raises his right hand on the hi-hat calm down dude!) and we have 4 guitar players on stage, plus a bassist tucked in the back, without getting much of a guitar sound. This probably bugs me the most, here we have ostensibly a rock band with all these guitars and you can basically hear one pounding rhythm guitar and that’s it. The Boss in these live sets is just a bunch of people horsing around and playing bad wedding music in the cheesiest way to me.
On This Day in Sports
Michael Chang became the youngest male winner of a Grand Slam on this day in 1989 when he defeated Stefan Edberg in the French Open. Chang still holds that mark at 17 years and 110 days old. It would be his lone major tournament victory over a career with 34 overall titles.
At the Cinema
I first saw Boondock Saints at a friend’s house circa 2002 or somewhere thereabouts that summer. It then seemed like every friend at every house or dorm room had this DVD and played it on a loop. The film definitely makes the list of the Top 10 movies to get shunned from theaters (the Wiki page explains clearly about the politics involved with production which led to a limited release and just $30,471 made in theaters) but ended up making over 8 times its $6 million budget in home video sales.
So, they made their money in the end even if the movie didn’t really ever hit the mainstream instead it became a cult classic months and months down the road. It’s really a terribly fun movie led by William Dafoe’s outrageous performance that steals the show.
Hot Take
I would never wear a visor, wouldn’t suggest anyone should wear one, but I now think the Brian Kelly visor outfit is a beloved look. What’s wrong with me? I may look into breaking down all of BK’s headwear decisions at Notre Dame.
Trivia
Who led Notre Dame in punt return yardage in 2020?
Matt Salerno?
I am in total agreement with you on the Navy helmet — they should make the anchor the regular helmet logo.
Wasn’t the first but I’m also guessing Matt Salerno. The name came to mind even before I scrolled down and saw spider-man’s comment…I swear!
This could be kinda a trick question if he’s going to include the punt blocked yardage as “return” yardage. I think that’s technically how it’s classified on the stat sheet. If so, Salerno isn’t the answer. But if we’re sticking with the true “guy catches a punt and starts running it back” then it should be him.
Oh nice call. So, who blocked the punts this last year? Was it Foskey?
I’m trying to be tricky, of course.
Had to make the Salerno guess. Figured there was some trickeration going on but maybe it was the double trick you were going for where the answer was seemingly so obvious that nobody wanted to guess it.
I cheated and looked it up since I too thought Salerno but then also “hey wait, that’s way too easy, that can’t actually be the right answer”….Foskey did block a punt, but it actually wasn’t the longest, so if it’s trickery then you’re 0 for 2 🙂
I never would have guessed which player it was, so don’t feel that bad..
I really don’t even have another guess so I’m just going to stop at 0 for 2, lol.
The old classic 18S trick within a trick question…It’ll getcha every time!
Wasn’t it Botelho who returned that block punt last year?
TRIVIA ANSWER:
Osita Ekwonu
Kelly’s visor isn’t quite as bad as Kirby Smart looking like a mushroom on the sidelines, but it’s still not good.
Holy moly, Michigan. It really says something when Schembechler was a worse person than even I expected.
I’ve wondered for awhile how it is that a college football player , especially at this level, would passively accept being sexually abused. Why wouldn’t the player just deck the doctor? That would be the end of that, I would think.
As someone who works in mental health, a few thoughts:
-One of the individuals was 10 when it occurred.
-Physicians carry a lot of power and frequently their job entails accessing one’s body in personal ways. It can often take time to realize something wrong occurs.
-It is really easy to arm chair what you would do in these events. We love to believe we’d feel anger and stop it. Typically we are flooded with emotion, and it’s often fear, confusion, or even we can freeze. The fight-flight-freeze response is intense, and we don’t get to pick which one we have.
-Your question is understandable, but frankly, your phrasing angered me. Using phrasing like “passively accept” to describe survivors of sexual assault helps no one.
Don’t these predators become quite good at sizing up their victims?
There isn’t a lot of good research on predators, but the short answer seems to be yes. There appears to be a somewhat rare class of predators (e.g., Nassar) who are very skilled and careful. They size up individuals but also organizations where they can act. Again, rare but clearly a thing.
By sizing up, I mean finding the most vulnerable.
Yes, individuals and also sizing up organizations.
Not even going to mention what that house looks like from above? FLW must have designed it in 8th grade.
Looks more of the Lance Armstrong variety, tbh.
We got any chance at Blades or the KU frosh AA?
Maybe! Akayleb Evans chose Missouri today so darn.
Jacque Jones played OF for the Twins for quite some time and then bounced around a few other teams for a few years
I really messed that one up.
I took a criminology class at ND. One of the only things I remember is that the professor was a former professional musician, and he told us that Springsteen is widely considered a fraud in the industry, meaning nothing like the persona he puts on. I might be misremembering this. Has anyone else ever heard this?
In terms of his real life I think he’s pretty genuine?
If he was talking about musicianship in terms of ability to play instruments, etc. I would agree. Although, I don’t think people really hold Springsteen all that high as a guitar player anyway? Little Stevie basically plays beginner level power chords during 95% of their concerts which is so absurd, though.
I don’t listen to much Springsteen anymore. I saw him once and it was a great show but, once was enough. That said, there’s nothing “fraudulent” about his lyrics.
Springsteen is a storyteller and a rock star. One of the best ever at both of those skills. His music is straightforward and accessible, but not at all complex. No one on that stage is a virtuoso. He has never broken any barriers musically. But he is one of the greatest storytellers in music history. Definitely not a fraud.