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

Top News

Romeo Okwara has retired from the NFL.

The College Football Playoff and ESPN have agreed to a new 6-year $7.8 billion deal that will see the World Wide Network broadcast the playoffs through the 2031-32 season.

Clemson has filed suit against the ACC over exit fees. The ACC is now suing Clemson in response. What a conference!

The NCAA has issued a blanket waiver for the 2024 season to increase college football roster spots from 110 to 120 players. Walk-ons everywhere rejoice.

Former Alabama offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor is leaving Iowa after transferring to the Hawkeyes this off-season. He’s decided to transfer back to Alabama.

Washington athletic director Troy Dannen is leaving for Nebraska.

Michigan defensive line coach Greg Scruggs has resigned following a DUI arrest.

Uniform of the Week

The NCAA Tournament has tipped off this week and the Oregon Ducks snuck into March Madness as a no. 11 seed in the Midwest region against South Carolina on Thursday (4 PM ET start). After a really impressive run by head coach Dana Altman things have slid backwards a little bit for the hoopy ball team in Eugene. But not these uniforms!

Don’t they just make you want to go outside in the summer, ball with your bros, and have a crisp Sprite afterward? Of course, the football team gets most of the press with their uniforms but don’t sleep on Oregon’s other athletic teams. They all get equal treatment from Nike. If you really want to be impressed check out the Oregon hockey team. Sheesh.

Recruiting

Notre Dame landed Jerome Bettis, Jr. (0.8652) as a receiver, or maybe defender, in the 2025 class. The Irish also added 2026 recruit Dylan Faison (NR) the brother of current Notre Dame receiver Jordan Faison. Dylan is currently the no. 1 lacrosse recruit in the country according to Lacrosse Magazine.

Safety prospect Tae Harris (0.9312) committed to Clemson. He was previously committed to Georgia.

Offensive tackle Tyler Miller (0.9435) committed to LSU.

Another offensive tackle Tavaris Dice (0.9140) committed to Auburn.

Top-10 safety Tony Williams (0.8937) gave a verbal to UCF.

YouTube Channel

We’re just a couple weeks away from the total solar eclipse on April 8th making its way across a large swath of the United States. Do you live in the path of the black out? I’m sure many have already checked out if they are or not, but the video below is a quick way to check. According to this, the eclipse will hit all or parts of San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Toledo, Buffalo, and Rochester before peeling towards Maine.

The eclipse is wreaking havoc at work as the local governments have asked for minimal driving starting at Noon where I live. We’re being told to work from home on April 8th, too. Of course, most school districts aren’t in session and switched to conference days. I didn’t realize that if you’re standing just outside the lines in that video you basically don’t see the eclipse at all. I didn’t know it was that sudden of a loss. Pretty neat.

Tunes

Jethro Tull have been described as eccentric and it’s the most accurate thing ever said about a rock band. A flute within rock music, somehow they made it work. In 1969, they were opening for acts like Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin when a single was requested from the band. The result was their first big hit “Living in the Past.”

This clip is from a 1976 appearance on the British TV Show “Supersonic” so well after the single was released. Plenty of eccentric vibes included. The drummer in the yellow helmet in the beginning looks like he might be baked beyond recognition and as such wasn’t show by the producers for the rest of the song. Good times.

Trivia

Who was the last Notre Dame head coach to not score at least 50 points in one of their games with the Irish?

The Other Football

The groups were released for the upcoming Summer Olympics. The USWNT will be with Germany, Australia, and either Morocco or Zambia. The latter 2 teams have a 2-leg playoff next month. The USMNT (U-23 edition) drew a group with France, New Zealand, and the winner between the 4th place teams in Asia and Africa.

Manchester United took out Liverpool 4-3 in a thriller to advance in the FA Cup. Chelsea beat Leicester City 4-2 to advance. The semifinals will see Man City play Chelsea and United face Coventry United, the latter advancing after a late winner of Wolves.

A quiet weekend in the EPL saw West Ham and Aston Villa draw 1-1 and Fulham beat Spurs 3-0.

The German soccer federation is leaving Adidas and signing a new deal with Nike.

TV & Movies

I am almost done with selling or getting rid of all my DVD collection. I grew up taping things on VHS and renting from Blockbuster. When the 2000’s rolled around I was slow to start buying my own movies but one of the first I did purchase was Scarface, because doesn’t every male around a certain age do the same? To me, Scarface is the bath tub scene. It’s the funniest and most absurd scene from the 1980’s, I truly believe.

First, it’s an enormous room. Part bedroom but also part bathroom, all with giant pillars. Complete with an enormous circular tub right in the middle of the room. Was there a cover for that so no one fell in? Who doesn’t like to chill in the bath with their best friend pulled up in a chair next to them? Is Al Pacino naked? Check out the pillow and towel laid up for his head! Of course, Pacino’s greatest acting achievement is commenting on the flamingoes and calling them pelicans.

A Look Back

I was watching today’s video and feeling great about all of the pain inflicted on Michigan. I got to the end and was impressed Notre Dame was spared, but no. Out of nowhere, here comes Little Giants. The Dayne Crist era wasn’t fun and one of the weirdest times of the Brian Kelly’s coaching tenure. You could make the case another game from 2011 could’ve made this video but it’s okay that it wasn’t.

It’s greedy but I always wished that Appalachian State had scored a touchdown on the blocked field goal. Just for the exclamation point. You always have to watch the full highlight and the Mountaineer coming up short of the end zone sucks. I love the payback from Clowney against Michigan after the refs flat out were cheating. Ah, the good old times back before Harbaugh wasn’t coaching in Ann Arbor.

18S Paddock Club

The third round of the F1 season begins this weekend in Melbourne, Australia around the Albert Park Circuit. This used to be the traditional opening race of the season and now it’s stuck in a weird place after the Middle Eastern openers in a unfriendly time zone for Americans.

If you’re staying up for the 1 AM ET lights out action you’re better than me. Sadly, the off-track drama continues to engulf the sport as the action on track suffers from the dominance of Verstappen. This has been one of the more uneventful lead-ups to a race in a while.

*Carlos Sainz looks set to return from his appendix surgery after the 2-week break, although he’s left the door open to not feeling 100% and possibly missing Australia. If he can’t go, Oliver Bearman will be in town with F2 and ready to fill in again.

*With the controversy swirling around Red Bull and team principal Christian Horner, reports have made it seem like Verstappen could potentially leave the team. While meeting with the media in Australia this week, Verstappen pretty much shut down those claims.

*Last year’s race was wild. Both Mercedes drivers held leads early on with a red flag included. Another red flag late brought a standing start and yet another red flag after several crashes. Through the carnage, Verstappen would win. This is a fun track with improvements in recent years that have made racing a lot better. Teams with really strong DRS will have a lot of success in the 4(!) zones.

Trivia Answer:

Huge Devore, 1963