Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Tyler Buchner was officially named the starting quarterback for Notre Dame this past Saturday.
Notre Dame veteran receiver Avery Davis came back for his 6th season only to tear his ACL yet again. He’ll be out for the entire 2022 season, it’s such a bummer. However, Notre Dame does expect Joe Wilkins (foot) to be ready for the Ohio State opener.
Notre Dame’s top recruit for 2023 Keon Keeley (0.9955) left the class on Wednesday evening as rumors have swirled for weeks about joining Alabama. That one hurts a lot.
Marcus Freeman held a presser on Thursday with a lot of key information:
- Jarrett Patterson has a foot sprain and is questionable for Ohio State
- Andrew Krisotifc and Rocco Spindler rotated in at left guard in Patterson’s absence
- Xavier Watts is playing both safety and wide receiver
- Jayden Thomas has a grade 1 hamstring strain, he’s expected back soon
- Logan Diggs will be full go next week
- Blake Gruppe has won the kicking job, punter still to be determined
- Brandon Joseph would be the punt returner, if they played today
The AP Poll came out this week and Notre Dame come in 5th behind Alabama at the top followed by Ohio State, Georgia, and Clemson.
The new Big Ten television rights package was announced on Thursday for 7 years and $7 billion, beginning next year. The Big Ten primetime games on NBC will move when Notre Dame has a home night game, per sources.
Ohio State running back Evan Pryor is out for 2022 after suffering a knee injury during fall camp.
Clemson defensive end Xavier Thomas is out for 6 weeks with a foot injury.
LSU quarterback Myles Brennan is quitting football. The Tigers starting job now comes down to 2021 top 100 recruit Garrett Nussmeier or Arizona State transfer Jayden Daniels.
Former Alabama and current Texas receiver Agiye Hall has been suspended indefinitely after an arrest for criminal mischief.
The next 4 College Football Playoff Championship venues are set as Atlanta (2024) and Miami (2025) have been added with Los Angeles this year and Houston next year.
The city of Tuscaloosa has voted to approve alcohol sales at Alabama home football games.
Oregon has extended AD Rob Mullens for 5 more years.
The University of California Office of the President came out with a report stating the loss of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten could cost each Pac-12 school $13 million per year in media rights.
Uniform of the Week
The summer of FCS is nearly done and in my search for a new uniform this week I came across Alabama State. My first thought was how many people (even in the state of Alabama) confuse these guys with playing at the Alabama? There have to be so many stories, late night at bars, where people are confused and thinking this is a Crimson Tide player, surely? Also, check out these helmets!
If you had a helmet to match Notre Dame’s mustard pants we’ve found it. I kind of like the way that contrasts with these all-black uniforms, although their complete set is looking awfully early 2010’s Adidas collection. They actually have an alternate helmet with a hornet on one side and player number on the other and oh no oh no oh no they used the old Jacksonville Jaguars fading colors template. Kill it with fire.
Recruiting
Athlete Ronan Hanafin (0.9059) ended up picking Clemson, as expected.
Athlete Jacobe Johnson (0.9600) is staying in-state with Oklahoma.
Defensive lineman Will Norman (0.9388) from IMG Academy committed to Florida. The Gators also picked up more DL in Kelby Collins (0.9664) and Kamran James (0.9192) over the weekend, too.
LSU gained a verbal from Zachary High safety Kylin Jackson (0.9320) and athlete Khai Prean (0.9109).
Tennessee picked up Louisiana corner Jordan Matthews (0.9392).
We haven’t checked in on 2024 in a while. Here are some of the big commits this summer:
Florida – LB Myles Graham (0.9712)
Georgia – RB Tovani Mizell (0.9489), TE Landon Thomas (0.9859), WR Ny Carr (0.9728)
Louisville – RB Isaac Brown (0.9353)
Texas A&M – DL Dealyn Evans (0.9220)
Michigan State – WR Nick Marsh (0.9586)
Auburn – QB Adrian Posse (0.9271), CB A’Mon Lane (0.9197)
Alabama – CB Jaylen Mbakwe (0.9816), ATH Martavious Collins (0.9492), WR Perry Thompson (0.9318)
LSU – TE Tayvion Galloway (0.9422), ATH Joseph Stone (0.9467), LB Maurice Williams (0.9569)
Tennessee – ATH Jonathan Echols (0.9868)
Miami – S Antione Jackson (0.9601)
Michigan – LB Mason Curtis (0.9251)
YouTube Channel
Early in this video Ja’Marr Chase says, “If we’re being honest I didn’t really want to go to school and I don’t think no athlete do. I went there (LSU) and I used to say ‘I’m only here for football’ sometimes. So that was my main goal to make it to the NFL.” Well, that’s nice. If you think that’s bad the first thing Chase talks about buying was a Maserati for $65,000 for his mom. I’m sorry, did you buy your mom a used car after signing a huge NFL contract, sir? Only $15,000 for each family member? I hate to judge but, man.
Yes, but he bought a $300,000 Rolls-Royce! The rest of the $1 million he saved so there’s a saving grace (get it) to this video. It is a good reminder of how truly awful you have to be to be making this kind of money in the NFL and lose it quickly. Like it’s really difficult to do with just spending it on clothes, jewelry, shoes, tattoos, and even cars. Once you start making bad business deals and investing poorly it can all evaporate very quickly, though.
Tunes
Recently on the 4th season of Stranger Things the 1985 song “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush was featured which led to a resurgence in the song and it’s since topped the UK charts and risen all the way to no. 3 in the United States. Now, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of music history. If I do have a blind spot it’s definitely parts of the 1980’s and definitely with some of these British acts from that decade. Prior to a few months ago I had never heard of Kate Bush. Am I alone?
This song is definitely weird and different. I kind of like it. Her voice is pretty distinctive, especially in this song where she’s going to some interesting places. I decided to look up the rest of her hit songs, and again, not even a hint of knowing anything from her catalog. I don’t think I’ve ever been so confused by a musical artist in my life.
Trivia
Who scored more total touchdowns in their career while at Notre Dame, Jerome Bettis or Julius Jones?
The Other Football
Well, the Premier League has already heated up in match week 2. We’ll lead things off with Manchester United losing 4-0 to Brentford in embarrassing fashion. Just a couple weeks into Erik ten Hag’s appointment and he’s on the hot seat.
Reports out of England are that Christian Pulisic wants out of Chelsea and is open to a loan to this mess at Manchester United. The Red Devils are also looking to offload Cristiano Ronaldo but it’s proving difficult with his nearly $32 million salary.
Chelsea thought they had a London Derby win sewn up but a last-second Harry Kane header at Stamford Bridge salvaged a point for Spurs. Absolute scenes ensued, including a couple of amazing dustups between the 2 manages of each side.
Liverpool could only manage a 1-1 draw versus Crystal Palace which drops the Reds down to 12th place and without a win so far. The only perfect teams so far remain Manchester City and Arsenal (barf).
Streaming
I was watching the Ben Fong-Torres documentary on Netflix recently which briefly touched upon his portrayal in the film Almost Famous back from 2000. It’s a great movie, maybe one of the best for my generation. Nevertheless, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s work in this movie as legendary rock critic Lester Bangs has always bothered me. This was around the time when I’d seriously (as serious as you can be at 18, I suppose) read rock criticism. I even subscribed to Rolling Stone and got in the mail and everything. Old school, baby. Bangs died in 1982 but I’ve gone back and read some of his work.
Lester Bangs was trash. You get the deep cynicism and loathing from him in Almost Famous, except PSH delivers it with so much charm and humor. He’s so great in the movie. However, when I go back and read Bangs’ actual work it’s exactly what I hate about rock criticism–it’s full of end-of-times woe with the current scene (unless it’s punk and punk definitely sucks) and is hyper-critical that is so off-putting and weird. In general, I’m not too fond of being that critical of music. And yes, the barb about The Doors in the movie cuts me deeply.
A Look Back
We’re headed back to Evanston in 2018 for Notre Dame’s only visit to Northwestern since 1978. If I recall, there was a little bit of a national watch for an upset for this night game on ESPN in front of what was supposed to be a frenzied Wildcats crowd (it would not be frenzied). I went back and checked, I predicted a 14-point win and the Irish would end up winning by 10 points right on the line set by Vegas.
My review of THIS game has one of my favorite header photos from this website. Did you remember Northwestern had zero penalties in this game? It wasn’t a great special teams game for the good guys and while they dominated statistically it was that cool Ian Book read option where he kept it and scampered down the left sideline to seal the win. Poor guy there, Pat Fitzgerald.
18S Paddock Club
***The Future of the Circuits***
F1 is in a pickle with their scheduling. The 8th Concorde Agreement signed through 2025 stipulates a maximum of 24 races per season while F1 President Stefano Domenicali has stated the upcoming 2023 calendar will be 23 races, the same amount they tried for in this current 2022 season before the Russian GP was shot into space, cancelled, and never replaced.
We know with about 99% certainty that the following tracks will be on the 2023 schedule due to their current long-term contracts:
Europe (6): Netherlands, Great Britain, Italy (Monza), Italy (Imola), Spain, Hungary.
Americas (6): Mexico, United States (Miami), United States (Austin), United States (Las Vegas), Canada, Brazil.
Middle East (5): Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan*
Asia/Oceania (3): Japan, Singapore, Australia
*Do you consider Azerbaijan as part of the Middle East, Europe, or Asia? It fits into the calendar during the European swing but I’ve put it in our Middle East list.
The American flavor gets really strong in 2023 with the first Vegas race and Miami coming into its 2nd race. Also, Qatar will jump back into the mix following a break for 2022 due to the World Cup.
That’s 20 tracks. Who will get the other 3 spots next year?
Monaco – F1 has been flirting with removing this race (it’s a complicated history) for years but it’s expected a deal will get hammered out again, even if for just one more season.
Belgium – The Spa track (4th most F1 races all-time and considered a legendary circuit) really looks to be on the chopping block–despite growing rage from fans. Even with some circuit improvements, F1 isn’t happy with its remote location, difficult transportation access, and smaller capacity. It probably stays on for 2023 but it possibly dependent on the status of other tracks and their contracts.
France – By all accounts, the French GP at Paul Ricard is done. Sacrebleu!
Austria – The home track for Red Bull certainly will be signing a long-term contract and stay on the 2023 calendar. It’s a little weird that they aren’t announcing things yet.
China – The situation at the Shanghai circuit still seems tenuous with the Covid laws. F1 may try to move the 2023 race into the fall and hope the Chinese government gives the all-clear for a race, the first since 2019. It certainly seems like they will wait another year, which should allow Spa to remain for 2023.
Other options for the future…
South Africa – Within the last few months F1 has been determined to work out a return to the Kyalami circuit outside Johannesburg, even as soon as 2023. President Cyril Ramaphosa is a big racing fan and has been pushing for the race’s return, although his political future is cloudy as is the money situation to get a grand prix back to the continent of Africa.
France – Rumors of a street track in Nice or even Paris have been bandied about as replacement for the Paul Ricard track. Nothing seems ready to happen and France looks to be without a grand prix for several years.
Colombia – There is nothing imminent but a Caribbean Grand Prix has been floated as a potential idea for F1. There’s only one racing circuit in Colombia and that is in Bagota while a beach-circuit of some sort 1,000 km away in Barranquilla has been rumored.
Korea – Rumors are that F1 not only wants to return to China but even add a second race there. If not, a return to Korea has been talked about as an option.
Trivia Answer:
Jerome Bettis (33 TD vs. 29 TD for Julius Jones).
My favorite Julius Jones memory is his senior season Bob Davie was the color guy for the Pittsburgh game (I believe) and Jones was having a great game. Jones had been Davie’s most successful recruit and so Bob is in the box yelling “The double deuce is on the loose” every time he had a decent run sounding quite like a lunatic who was correctly let go from his previous job.
Anyway, I thought it’d be a trick question because of what I remember as a good senior year, but JJ apparently only had 10 touchdowns that year.
Where would Bob Davie fit in an NBC booth color guy ranking?
Right above hot dog macheens, and just below footbaw.
The Keeley loss is tough. Figured it would happen when he took the long unofficial but always hurts to see him actually announce he’s out. Can’t really blame him, if I was a 5-star edge rusher, it would be tough to turn down for Bama and Saban, just makes too much sense for what the program is very likely to do for those guys. Sucks when they can swoop in and basically have the pick of who they want and erase all Notre Dame’s hard work and well-earned win.
Really stuns the optimism, turns out it’s going to be baby steps for Freeman, not an instant giant leap to change the whole landscape of college football. I think we’re all guilty (myself included) of thinking Freeman’s effort and force of personality would simply turn everything around automatically. Guess it won’t be that easy. Still, Kelly never recruited CB’s like this, there’s some progress to take heart in, but it would have been nice to not see a reminder from Saban about where ND stands in the food chain.
I think this is exactly why Kelly went to LSU.
He better hope Saban retires soon if he has a shot at the natty he’s chasing. Very tough neighborhood he moved to.
Could well be, though if Riley turned down USC and they went for Kelly with a big offer (which seemed like their backup plan) I bet he would have made that change too. Guess it was the right time for all parties to try something new.
I was told Kelly went to LSU because of the food.
We all better hope Saban retires soon. The man is 70, so it’s got to be soon, right? RIGHT????
I worry that Kirby may be the next Saban, and he’s much younger than Saban was when he got to Bama I think.
Oh yeah, much younger.
Saban turned 56 during his first year at Alabama and Kirby turned 41 late in his first year at Georgia.
Kelly is probably calling the SEC commissioner daily to make sure he’s still working on that 12 team playoff.
Probably like Jack is, right?
The good news is that, in order to lose commits to Bama, you have to have commits that Bama wants. It sucks, but it says a lot about where we are now vs. a year ago.
Freeman’s effort and force of personality have turned recruiting around immediately, this loss notwithstanding. He has made Kelly’s excuses about recruiting at ND look stupid and disingenuous.
I don’t get your logic. The net result is we don’t get the guy and that’s supposed to prove Kelly was wrong?
Good news? The results are the same, 5 stars to Bama but, I’ll leave Kelly out of it.
Well, the true net result is Freeman got two top-150 CBs (Kelly never did) and three good WRs (Kelly did once I believe) and keeps adding front 7 defense as well. Freeman lost Keeley but is making other tangible steps to improve the talent level in areas Kelly never could/did.
LSU currently has two top 50 WRs, 2 top 100 DL, and 1 top 150 CB. They sit 3 spots behind ND in 247’s rankings and 1 spot behind in On3s.
They are also leading (by On3’s predictor, so take that for what it’s worth) for a top 50 OL, top 50 CB, and top 10 ATH. There is a very good chance that they finish ahead of us in the recruiting rankings.
All true, guess I needed to add I was referring specifically for what Kelly did at his time at Notre Dame. Kelly isn’t getting all those great recruits because of something new or different he is doing, LSU is getting those players, like they always do. Kelly would have 0 of those players committed to him had he stayed at ND.
My focus on Freeman vs. Kelly is only relevant for what they can do or did do at Notre Dame. Freeman has already shown promising signs of improving upon what Kelly did.
Keeley, D. Bowen, and Vernon all committed under BK. His last class was #7 and had an 86% blue chip ratio. It is reasonable to assume if BK stayed at ND, this would have been his best class since 2013 (assuming he still fired Del and hired a recruiting first WR coach, something everyone assumed he would).
MF is unquestionably a better recruiter than BK, and the factor driving the recruiting improvement. But Freeman was on BK’s staff. So these things were already improving under BK. They weren’t because of BK’s recruiting, but they were and are because of him.
There is no doubt the recruiting ceiling is higher under MF. But even if he is significantly better, that doesn’t mean he will be Saban good. And sadly, we are still competing against Saban and now BK.
I do not like BK as a person, and believe he reached his ceiling at ND. So I am glad he is gone, especially since we have a dynamic young coach. But maybe he wasn’t as bad a recruiter (at a program level) as ND fans love to make him out to be.
Would those three top recruits have committed to BK is Freeman wasn’t on staff? I doubt it. Kelly decided to go into a comfortable groove of taking low four stars from ND feeder schools and spend time on the golf course rather than chase the five stars.
Also, since when does Kelly fire underperforming assistant coaches unless he’s forced to in order to keep his job? If anything, he waits out contracts and tries to shove them off to “promotions”, which Del sure as shit wasn’t going to get.
Oh, I forgot Kelly actually fired Chip Long, but that was because he couldn’t work with Kelly’s buddy Jeff Quinn (speaking of underperforming coaches).
So I’m guessing you don’t like Kelly.
I’ll never forgive him for screwing up Golson, but he did a hell of a job here from where we started. I’d credit Jack too.
I do like Kelly but these are fair criticisms of him.
It is true that Kelly focused recruiting on 4-star guys who “fit” ND comfortably and all but gave up trying to get 5-stars to campus. As I’ve said before, it’s understandable why he did that, but his recent suggestions that ND simply cannot sign 5-stars are false. Freeman has proved that.
It is also true that Kelly sometimes displayed bad judgment in hiring and retaining assistants. One of those cases of bad judgment, BVG, nearly got Kelly fired.
Freeman is putting much more effort into recruiting than Kelly did and is getting better results because of it. Can Freeman run the entire program as well as Kelly? I don’t know, we’ll find out.
Not everything is binary. There is a lot more going on in this program than FREEMAN GOOD KELLY BAD or vice versa.
I don’t know the quote your referring to but, if Kelly meant that there are a handful of schools out there that are going to bring in significantly more five stars than Notre Dame, I don’t think he’s been proven wrong yet.
It’s not a quote. It is — like I said — a suggestion that he made multiple times during interviews this past spring and summer. That suggestion is that ND cannot recruit at an elite, top-5 level because of institutional limitations. Some of the institutional limitations Kelly cited were a national recruiting base, and old practice facility, and no dedicated chef for the football team. That is what Freeman has proven wrong.
The suggestion is not that other schools can and will bring in more 5-stars than ND. It is unsurprising that that would be the case with Alabama, the most successful dynasty in college football history.
But… how much better is the recruiting this year compared to the past when push comes to shove? If we stacked four straight of this year’s class, we’re still a program that basically has no reasonable expectation of winning playoff games after that.
Point being: the idea that Marcus Freeman has disproved that Notre Dame can’t recruit at a national championship level is not in evidence right now (to use a triple negative). He is doing *better* than Kelly, but Kelly’s implicit point about not being able to recruit at the truly elite level remains, as of right now, rather valid, and the Keeley news is all kind of case-in-point for that.
Yea, I think that’s probably right. Even given landing Love and a couple of other decent recruits to get to a 290ish score — that would put ND mostly in the 5-7 range but once in a while in the 3-5 range. Maybe if that was coupled with continual 5 star QBs that would be enough to win a NC but it’d be close and I wouldn’t want to bet on it.
It certainly would be a pretty big improvement over Kelly though whose best class is the 284 score we currently have and often dropped into the teens during his tenure (sometimes low-teens).
So stacking the 290ish type classes might put us just a shade under the NC level that the other elite programs. Though comparing it to Kelly would seem to indicate that it would be much easier to break through and win a playoff game and in the right year with the right QB for us and the right matchup we could win a NC against a slightly more talented team (but not nearly so far more talented that it has been in the playoffs for us).
For sure the dust hasn’t settled as far as where this class will be ranked come next Feb.
Of course. I was giving credit for 290 which is above the current 284. It would be pretty impressive/surprising if we finished above the 290 mark. It would require at least a couple more top 100 players (more than Love I mean).
It’s just a work in progress. Freeman is recruiting CB better than Kelly. He’s got a 5-star QB in the fold, which Kelly didn’t do much of.
It’s not going to be an immediate entrance into recruiting inner circle like the top 4-5 programs are already hitting.
But while Freeman hasn’t caught ND up, it’s very early and he’s already showing actual improvement and gains too, even though he’s still in catch up mode.
No, Kelly’s implicit point is not valid. Freeman is, in all likelihood, going to sign a better class than Kelly ever did in 12 years at ND, and Freeman is going to do that on his first try, with no record as a head coach, and nothing to sell but the school and his personality. What that suggests is that recruiting to ND is largely a function of effort. Freeman has put in that effort; Kelly did not. And to reach into our own distant past as students, Weis put in that effort too. Kelly’s immediate predecessor and successor show that his view of what is possible in recruiting at ND is wrong.
Take a look at recruiting rankings. They will answer this question for you numerically.
Huh? I don’t really know what this means, but it doesn’t matter, because Freeman hasn’t had the opportunity to recruit for four years.
Finally, one player switching his commitment to Alabama doesn’t prove Kelly right. I am honestly surprised anyone is even making this argument.
What part of “better” was unclear. Things are better on the recruiting trail! If your view is Kelly believed things could not get better, that has been disproven. If your view is Kelly believed that ND couldn’t recruit at a championship level, that very much has not been disproven yet and is looking more true in the wake of the Keeley news. Again, four classes like this is basically meaningless toward that championship end in a 4-team playoff era. Ultimately without Keeley and Dante Moore, it’s hard to argue that it’s a special class at least as of now. (To be fair, I think in a 12-team era the improvement is meaningful in the sense that it does increase the odds of getting to the semifinals.)
The point that Rome wasn’t built in a day is fair and valid, but also true is that things can go bad fast. Part of my excitement with Freeman six months ago is he appeared to be recruiting at a level where he could suffer through a year of coaching growing pains, have some leakage based off that, and still have an elite class. Now that seems unlikely before any first-year growing pains even kicked in.
“Finally, one player switching his commitment to Alabama doesn’t prove Kelly right. I am honestly surprised anyone is even making this argument.”
Someone actually said this ? or was it used as a piece of evidence to make their point. Personally I could care less what Kelly did or has said. As I watch this years recruiting play out, I see us lagging behind Bama and others. We do have a habit of sliding in the rankings as signing day gets nearer.
Yes, this is what nd09hls12 said:
Also, literally everyone lags behind Alabama.
Oh he did some good things, but also a lot of infuriating ones. I basically wanted him fired after 2013/2014 when it didn’t seem like he was able to capitalize on the 2012 season, then he hired BVG and kept him on until the bottom fell out, ruined Brandon Wimbush, settled for starting someone like Ian Book at qb for years, and was basically about the run the program into the ground before he left, all the while complaining about how hard it was to recruit, like a rich man’s Bob Davie. The biggest red flag is the the defense (BVG years exempted) had been better than the offense for basically the entire Kelly era, after he came in with the air of an offense guru. Turns out after 2009 everyone else can use the spread too, and it’s not that great if you hire meh OCs, thrive on 3 star qbs, and can’t recruit any WRs, regardless of star ranking.
The instant jump is by far the hardest pill to swallow here. For a minute it looked like nd had 2 top 10 overall guys at qb and wde, pretty much most important positions plus 3-4ish more top 50 guys. Now bowen is a question mark, jason moore went elsewhere , and some of nd top 50 guys dropped. It’s still a really good class but no where’re near the transcendent class that seemed possible.
Also I haven’t done the math or looked but i’m guessing LSU will end up in front of ND. I hate that so much
An excellent observation. With the top recruits picking fewer schools, a leap forward without many big recruting wins is going feel bad.
Next year is going to be the year, for the 9th straight year
I think we still have two great edge defenders in Vernon and Traore, plus Drayk Bowen at LB. that’s talent, that we haven’t landed much in the past. Also, Keeley isn’t fully gone yet, he could still decide for ND, I can’t believe that the coaching staff has given up on him. He can go be a body among other 5 stars or come to ND where he gets developed as a whole person.
Pretty sure Keeley was the only real guy that was expected to end up on the edge. Those other guys seem destined for somewhere on the inside or at a kind of strongside end – rather than pure edge rusher like Keeley.
Yep, the other guys are not the pure edge rushers and more strong side DE or DT bound. Still good players, but Keeley at 6’6, 240 or whatever has that freaky length and build to be something different that doesn’t come along every day.
I don’t know, Bryce Young and Will Anderson seem to be doing OK as “whole persons”. DeVante Smith, Najee Harris, Mac Jones, Jaylen Waddle, Tua, Hurts. All are intelligent, well spoken, clearly solid character guys.
Seems you can go “be a body among other 5 stars” and do quite well.
Saban says iron sharpens iron. He’s right.
Reports are ND is out of the Keely chase. Feelins are whatever he was “told” ND won’t match.
By that, you mean $$$$?
Am I unrealistically optimistic in thinking that Keeley decommitted so that he could take his official visits to Bama and UGA and get them paid for, but then recommit to ND on signing day?
My understanding is that Freeman won’t allow committed recruits to take officials elsewhere. And I remember a commenter talking about how hyped Keeley and his mom were about ND when they were here for the Blue-Gold Game.
Yes, I think that is unrealistically optimistic.
Rumblings seem to be that Bama is in the lead now and that ND is no longer in contention.
Obviously crazier things have happened (than something like Keeley recommitting to ND) but it seems that is a real long-shot (to be generous).
Blech. That’s a bummer.
Unfortunately I would have to agree with IC*, I think that’s too optimistic – but who am I to step on wishful thinking? Nothing’s over ’til it’s over I guess, but….it’s an extreme longshot as of now.
Tim Prister at II phrased it as Notre Dame asked Keeley to decommit if that’s where this was headed (presumably, wanting/hoping that he would shut down talking to others and be committed to ND….Or just go ahead and become publicly uncommitted if he wanted to continue the recruiting process so that ND could also go in different directions…Though Prister did not say all of that and I am inferring this).
Either way, I don’t know about this one. I know Tuitt came back after retracting his verbal, but that was before NIL and Tuitt wasn’t being pursued by Saban either…
(*Not that it’s necessarily unfortunate to agree with IC, but for what it means in this case, of course)
funny quip at the end 🙂
If we find any solace in this, I think it’s that ND hasn’t been a 5 * recruit away from winning the NC they’ve been needing the 5* QBs and WRs. Tough loss but they’ve developed DEs well at ND the past few years
The tailgating scene at that Northwestern game was a hoot. Just total anarchy — claim as many parking spots as you want, commandeer porta potties if you want, waltz into the stadium with a case of beer because there’s no security.
I don’t know if this came across on TV, but Fitz was pretty loony that night. He wanted that one bad.
Did you make it to dinner in a reasonable time that night though?
Having grown up during the first Kate Bush experience, I can tell you what I remember about those stranger things. Kate Bush fans were 90% females and tended also to be into Siouxsie and the Banshees, Dead Can Dance, Jesus and Mary Chain, PJ Harvey, the Smiths…basically “alternative” before there was the term alternative. They would at one point in their lives have worn a black choker, a rosary as clothing accessory, black (or very dark) lipstick, long skirts, and/or have unshaven pits. 10 years later, they went to Lilith Fair’s tour. They also tended to be the majority of people I hung out with, but I personally never got into Kate Bush.
I think the one exception to the rule was Big Boi, apparently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSdHgq3oBD8
Who doesn’t like arm pit hair?
Siouxsie>Kate
Wuthering Heights>>>RUTH
Yes you’re alone @Eric
Good timing w/r/t Lester Bangs. Creem magazine is coming back after 30 years.
Pulled this quote from 49ers Jed York. Just kind of interesting to see some of the developing data on this matter. “That might cost a little more than having turf, but our player health and safety is way, way too important to me to mess around and go to turf. If you just look at the data, and my dad, he’s the head of the Health and Safety Committee, you’re saving at least one major ACL/Achilles-type injury every year that you have grass versus turf. And that’s worth it to me.”
How old is that quote? I know the old turf fields were injuries waiting to happen and that the new field turf fields are far safer. Are they safer than grass? I don’t know.
It’s from yesterday.
The cynic in me believes that most colleges would accept one injury per year given the other benefits of turf, but it’s a good discussion!
Yea it’s hard to disagree with that – that most places would accept one injury per year given the benefits.
I don’t have a particularly strong feeling one way or another. Like I don’t believe the soul of college football is in grass. Obviously saving money is important but for institutions this big it seems like drops in the buckey
For ND, remember the very technical discussions about the real problems we have with grass inside the Stadium. Something to do with drainage, pipes, etc etc. underneath the field.
I personally would like to see grass again, just for the memories, and if there’s evidence it might save at least one major injury a year that would be another argument. But that seems like a very tricky data set to work with, especially given the various kind of artificial turf and the various levels of quality of grass fields (eg, Soldier Field).
This is all to say that I think this is a really hard area to judge.
Good point – not all grass fields are equal.
Yeah. This is the big thing. Would grass in ND’s stadium prevent injuries? Much different than saying that a professional football team’s grass in the bay area could prevent injuries.
I think the big push for turf in the first place is that our field was crap by mid-season.
Also, presumably to really prevent injuries, we’d need grass on both the practice and stadium fields. Would love to see natural grass, assuming we could maintain it properly, but highly doubt we would spend the money to maintain multiple fields.
why not just make it a dome? I mean if you’re going artificial just go all in
A gold dome with a Mary statue on top, perhaps?
I think you should sell this as 18 Stripes’ first NFT
Alcohol at Bryant Denny and a home game with Auburn this year. What could go wrong? LSU fans set a high bar.
https://www.bardown.com/you-won-t-believe-the-number-of-beers-lsu-fans-drank-at-a-game-this-year-to-set-the-school-record-1.1425337