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

Top News

According to Football Scoop, Notre Dame will be announcing the 9-figure new football facility near the Gug and AIC including “an all-new cafeteria, nutrition center, coaches’ offices, team meeting spaces, media space and an enhanced weight room, among other amenities.”

Recently promoted Irish director of recruiting Dre Brown is leaving for Illinois where he played running back during his college career.

Notre Dame starting punter Bryce McFerson has entered the transfer portal.

Former Notre Dame corner Clarence Lewis has committed to Syracuse after a mid-spring transfer.

A slew of transfers into portal recently including: Texas A&M safety Jacoby Mathews, after a brief off-season stay at Louisville running back Peny Boone is back in the portal after leaving Toledo following 2023, Tennessee linebacker Elijah Herring, Miami running back Henry Parrish, Colorado corner Cormani McClain, and TCU defensive tackle Damonic Willams.

Michigan staffer and former quarterback Denard Robinson was arrested in Ann Arbor for DUI. The Wolverines also received a mighty slap on the wrist of 3 years probation for recruiting violations during Covid.

Oregon defensive back Daylen Austin has been arrested on suspicion of hit and run.

Uniform of the Week

As promised, it’s time to review the new New York Jets uniforms. Or should I say, “new” uniforms. They slightly tweaked and updated the “Sack Exchange” era logo that was on last year’s legacy uniform, including darkening the green color. They are sticking with the darker green helmets seen since 2019 and now have “NY” on the front nose bumper instead of “JETS.” They’ve kept last year’s all white throwback look and now will use green pants as an option, too.

The new green jersey is faithful to the original throwbacks just like the white jersey, except both have far too thick collars. I really like the green jerseys with the white pants (that screams NY Jets from my childhood the most) but the all-green look is aggressively terrible. Of course, they kept the all-black uniform set that also debuted back in 2019. Since the 2 helmet shell rule came into effect 2 seasons ago, they added the black helmet which also stays. The Jets have confirmed they’ll continue wearing the black pants with white jerseys, too.

Next week, we’ll look at the new Lions’ uniforms that dropped last night.

Recruiting

Quarterback Husan Longstreet (0.9774) committed to Texas A&M. The Aggies also added offensive tackle Marcus Garcia (0.8964).

Defensive lineman Darren Ikinnagbon (0.9369) committed to Georgia. The Dawgs also added quarterback Ryan Montgomery (0.9326).

Jadeon Harmon (0.9394) is a linebacker who gave a verbal to Alabama. The Tide added wide receiver Lotzeir Brooks (0.9087) this past weekend.

Tight end Nate Roberts (0.9430) committed to Ohio State.

Wide receiver Isaiah Mozee (0.9161) committed to Oregon.

Linebacker Elijah Barnes (0.9560) committed to Texas.

Tight end Brock Schott (0.9191) committed to Miami.

Wide receiver Raiden Vines-Bright (0.9004) committed to Washington.

Running back JT Lindsey (0.8952) committed to LSU.

YouTube Channel

Who doesn’t love the Masters? If you don’t, please explain why in the comment section! Especially if we’re talking strictly about visiting Augusta and watching the Masters in person. Is there any place in sports with a higher approval rating? Even some of the strict rules regarding spectators coming to Augusta are beloved. Plus, those concession prices are simply divine.

At 0:06 of this video that’s my cousin dressed in the caddy uniform with her husband Mackenzie Hughes and (then) 2nd child during the Par 3 contest. They met at Kent State where he was Doing Good Things™ before we learned he wanted to pursue a professional career. After 5 years as a pro, he got to the PGA Tour and won wire-to-wire in only his 5th tournament. He added another win in October 2022 and has carved out a really nice golfing career. You love to see it.

Tunes

Time for another edition of “I misheard this lyric my entire life.” I was looking back at the Cranberries discography and marveling at their first 3 albums. They were all big, big albums. Being of Irish descent I thought they were cool and of course “Zombie” was one of the biggest songs of 1994-95. Back on their first album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? they recorded a song whose chorus I have not heard correctly for over 30 years.

I always thought the chorus ended with “Do you have to let in anger” and even thought about this song sometimes when me or others have been upset over the years. Do you have to, do you have to, do you have to let in anger? The song is even called “Linger” and I missed it this whole time. I blame the Irish accent and the old days when song titles weren’t so easily visible on phones, cars, and computers.

Trivia

Against which opponent did Notre Dame score the most points in 2023?

The Other Football

In this week’s UCL quarterfinals we saw the following results:

PSG 4-1 Barcelona (PSG wins 6-4 on aggregate)
Dortmund 4-2 Atletico Madrid (Dortmund wins 5-4 on aggregate)
Bayern Munich 1-0 Arsenal (Munich wins 3-2 on aggregate)
Real Madrid 4-4 Man City (Madrid wins 4-3 on penalties)

City’s defense of the UCL title is now over.

In the EPL, Cole Palmer scored 4 goals and is co-leader in the league following Chelsea’s 6-0 thrashing of Everton. Both Liverpool (1-0 to Crystal Palace) and Arsenal (2-0 to Aston Villa) lost this past weekend, damaging their title runs. With Man City’s 5-1 win over Luton Town the Cityzens now lead the league by 2 points with 6 games to play.

This past weekend, Bayer Leverkusen clinched their first ever Bundesliga title in Germany and their were some glorious scenes in North-Rhine Westphalia:

We also have the quarterfinals completed in the Europa League:

Roma 2-1 AC Milan (Roma wins 3-1 on aggregate)
Liverpool 1-0 Atalanta (Atalanta wins 3-1 on aggregate)
Marseille 1-0 Benfica (Marseille win 4-2 on penalties)
Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 West Ham United (Leverkusen win 3-1 on aggregate)

Bayer “Neverlusen” have now extended their unbeaten streak this season to 44 games. They have 5 games left in the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal Final next month, and the Europa League semi-finals plus possible final to complete an unbeaten season.

Wrexham have clinched promotion from League 2 to League 1 for the 2024-25 season. Could the dream continue to see Wrexham in the Premier League in a couple more years?

TV & Movies

Has anyone read a biography of one of the great composers? What would be the best choice, Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven? Someone else perhaps? I have a Da Vinci biography lined up in my queue that I want to read soon but have been thinking about reading something about a composer first. While re-watching Amadeus recently I found myself wanting to read something more about Mozart.

True musical genius is a sight to behold. Hearing a piece of music once and automatically memorizing it doesn’t seem like it could be possible. Should I suppose this scene in the movie is based on a real-life moment with Mozart? The movie appears to be mostly fictitious. It’s a simple enough piano piece for a classical composer, so I’m assuming it could be done easily.

A Look Back

On a recent Irish Illustrated podcast they were talking about the Junior Jabbie spring game which people forget was the hyped up 2007 edition, which in hindsight, was brutally funny and very depressing. I searched for some content on the game from YouTube and it’s slim pickings. I think the University has done their best to black this out from our collective memories. However, there’s one piece of media to look at today.

Yes, a video with just pictures. Early YouTube style! I don’t have much to say besides I really did not enjoy this uniform era for the Irish. It looks like we’re watching K-Mart Notre Dame compared to the uniforms now. And folks, check out that grass! Long before big, bad Brian Kelly showed up and purposely killed the grass to promote field turf we had this beautiful spray painted gloriousness.

18S Paddock Club

After a 5-year absence things have settled down with Covid enough that China is allowing F1 back for a race. If you’re like me and you started watching during the banger 2021 season this circuit has really only existed in the F1 video game.

The track is awfully fun and traditionally brings a lot of overtaking. The first set of turns are unlike any other layout in the sport and lead to a really fast second sector where downforce will be crucial. But, the rear wings can’t be too large as Shanghai presents a massively long back straight which leads into another decently sized straight by the pit lane.

Some more China GP preview notes:

*F1 is hosting its first sprint weekend of the season which is bold. The track has been repaved since F1’s last visit and with just 1 practice session before sprint qualifying on Friday (Asian time) there could be a few teams really struggling to get their car dialed in.

*If there’s been a weakness for Red Bull, they’ve missed their ideal set up window in some of the past sprint weekends. It’s possible they could be on the backfoot until Saturday.

*However, this track should be ideal for Verstappen and the RB20. They might not be the quickest at the slowest parts at turns 10 and 14 but their straight line speed will be fearsome and likely make them impossible to overtake in the race.

*This is the long-awaited homecoming for Guanyu Zhou who grew up just outside Shanghai near this track but has lived in England since he was 14 years old.

Trivia Answer:

Pittsburgh, 58 points