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

3 News Stories

#1 Notre Dame alum and former Irish associate athletic director Bubba Cunningham signed an extension with North Carolina as their AD through July 2029. But, it’s not that simple. The Tar Heels also announced the signing of Steve Newmark, the president of Rousch Fenway Keselowski Racing, to be Cunningham’s successor.

Next summer, Newmark will take over the North Carolina AD role while Cunningham will shift to a senior advisor role to see out the remaining 3 years of his contract. One of the more well-known AD’s in the country, Cunningham has been in his role with the Tar Heels since 2011 when he left Tulsa.

#2 BYU starting quarterback Jake Retzlaff is leaving the school. He was recently accused of rape but the civil lawsuit was dismissed according to reports on the case in the state of Utah. Despite that, Retzlaff was facing a lengthy 7-game suspension for breaking the BYU honor code due to premarital sex. Instead, he’ll leave the program and school behind.

Retzlaff turned 22 earlier this year and spent 2 seasons at the JUCO level before moving to BYU for 2023-24. He was 0-4 as a starter in 2023 but turned things around with 11 wins last year.

#3 Notre Dame’s 2026 schedule is coming into focus. On Thursday, the school announced a home date against the mighty Rice Owls. This will be the 6th meeting all-time between the schools with the Irish holding a commanding 5-0-0 lead in the series. It gets worse for Rice as Notre Dame leads the series in scoring by a 195-33 margin. Yikes. If you wanted to check, Rice is currently in the American Conference and have been so since 2023.

Right now, the 2026 schedule looks like this:

September 6 vs. Wisconsin [Lambeau Field]

September 12 vs. Rice

September 19 vs. Michigan State

September 26 at Purdue

October 3 at North Carolina

*Open slot*

*Open slot*

*Open slot*

*Open slot*

October 31 vs. Navy [Gillette Stadium]

*Open slot*

*Open slot*

*Open slot*

November 28 at USC

From the ACC we have to move in home dates against Miami and SMU plus road games against Florida State and Syracuse. Presumably, a game against Stanford will also be in there to complete the campaign.

Recruiting

Notre Dame added the 2nd player to the 2027 class reaching into Mobile, Alabama for linebacker Ellis McGaskin (0.9251).

Alabama added top edge rusher Xavier Griffin (0.9851), plus wide receiver Cederian Morgan (0.9916), a key in-state gem.

Georgia got a commit from defensive lineman James Johnson (0.9657).

Defensive lineman Keshawn Stancil (0.9322) is headed to Clemson.

Brian Kelly and LSU added edge rusher Trenton Henderson (0.9608) this week.

Edge rusher Carter Meadows (0.9649) committed to Michigan. They also added offensive tackle Malakai Lee (0.9395) out of Hawaii and edge rusher Julian Walker (0.9237).

SMU picked up a verbal from offensive tackle Evan Goodwin (0.9143).

Georgia product defensive end Earnest Rankins (0.9468) committed to Florida State.

Linebacker TJ White (0.9490) committed to Tennessee.

Edge rusher Kendall Guervil (0.9363) committed to the Gators.

Texas A&M picked up linebacker DaQuives Beck (0.9241).

The top player in Idaho offensive tackle Kelvin Obot (0.9406) verballed to Utah.

Interior offensive lineman Tommy Tofi (0.9402) committed to Oregon. The Ducks also added safety Devin Jackson (0.9196) and 5-star offensive lineman Immanuel Iheanacho (0.9963).

North Carolina added wide receiver Keeyun Chapman (0.9295).

Uniform of the Week

Vanderbilt, I mean Central Florida, released new uniforms recently. They are fine. They went to great lengths to describe throw-back drop shadow numbers and they make a return to TV numbers on the shoulders, too. They put the Pegasus wing logo thing on the shoulders but in colors that make it difficult to see. They have tiny Polaris stars inside the numbers which you need a microscope to see. Although I will say the 3 Polaris stars on the pants is a nice touch with a bit of character not seen in college football.

I’d call this too boring, but it’s probably true that UCF will continue wearing so many different alternate uniforms anyway. A brief look last year and they basically wore a different helmet for every single game. Will they go back to wearing this more traditional color scheme for most games? I’d argue UCF’s branding overall stinks. The Knights has never been a huge part of their look, the helmet logo is pretty poor, plus they have the Pegasus and Citronaut logos as part of the university branding sitting right there. If it were my choice I’d switch them over to the Citronauts and wear baby blue (the color they keep wearing with their space uniforms) and orange (for all that citrus-y stuff). I’m not kidding. That feels more Orlando than what they have been doing for years.

TV & Movies

The 2019 South Korean thriller Parasite is streaming on HBO Max and I settled in to watch it for the first time this week. Over half a decade and I’d avoided all spoilers with the film. What a really wonderful slow burn! If I had to nitpick, I think the first half before the drama kicks in is quite a bit too long. As an American I enjoy these Asian city movies, with the juxtaposition between rich and poor, and Parasite in particular is filmed so beautifully. I know the story is purposefully slow but I would’ve sped things up a bit.

The movie as a whole is definitely worth a re-watch. I’m already heading down a few rabbit holes reading reviews and all the hidden clues throughout the film. Some of the these hit you over the head with a hammer with the symbolism but some are really clever. After about 20 minutes I was wondering how good the movie would be but by the end I saw the masterpiece in full. I can understand why it won the Oscar for Best Picture. So anyway, that’s me reviewing what many consider the best movie of the best several decades.

Tunes

Drake has not been having a good time as of late. Several months ago, he released a collaborative album with PartyNextDoor called Some Sexy Songs 4 U that is his first major music release since the beef with Kendrick Lamar. Still, the album went to no. 1 (the 14th of his career!) even if Drake has never been less cool than right now. Today’s song is “Nokia” one of the 2 singles released from the collaboration.

I’m not a huge fan of the song, and it sounds a lot like late-era Kanye West when the wheels started coming off his music career amid a crumbling personal life. The music video has a brief cameo from reigning MVP and NBA Champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, probably because he’s Canadian like Drake, I guess? There are some catchy phrases, and I know that because my little 3 year old son has been walking around lately saying, “BABYYY GGUUURRRRRRL” so that’s great.