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
Trivia – BK. Now, I know it’s not true and he surely most have done it but I swear he denied us at least one fifty burger per year by letting way off the gas.
You know what’s crazy as I researched this?
ND only scored 50+ points in a game ONE TIME between 10/20/73 (62-3 win over Army) and 9/10/83 (52-6 win over Purdue).
11/5/77 Dan Devine’s only 50+ game when the Irish dropped a 69-burger to Georgia Tech’s 14. We haven’t scored that many since. So strange.
That makes some sense given the amount of running and way the game was more defensive in the past but still surprising to do it one time in a decade with I’m sure some cupcakes around
Did we ever hit 50 in the Davie/Willingham/Weis era? I’m pretty sure Weis never did, but I think Ty had a game or two where we scored 50 against terrible Stanford squads or something.
Without looking it up, I feel like ND destroyed Washington in ’04, maybe it was only 40something but it was a ton.
38-3, not even close.
Wait, Weis never did! I think I just assumed he had!??
BC 1997 and Stanford 2003 for Davie and Ty Willy. This week’s trivia was WRONG.
Weis, what a fraud.
I’ll give Weis a little credit here — in 2005, he actually was a step ahead of other college offenses schematically and nobody really shut us down that year.
But once GT and Michigan figured him out the following year, that was that, and his offense never really worked again.
Yea, Hugh Devore is listed as the answer but I don’t see any 50 point games from Weis. Lots of games in the 40s, including a couple of 49 point games, but no 50s that I can find
Edit: And just seconds before my post Eric has the same realization!
Davie got 52 in his 8th game & 48 twice.
Ty got the 57 against Stanford and only broke 40 one other time, 42-0 v Rutgers.
Weiss got 49 3 times, but no 50
The greatest scorer in NCAA Tournament history with a 41.3 career scoring average in seven tournament games is Notre Dame’s Austin Carr in an era that did not have the three point shot.
His single-game record 61-point effort against Ohio University in a first-round NCAA tournament game still stands. Carr has three of the five highest scoring games in tournament history – 61(1st), 52(4th, 5th) as well as a 47 point game (9th). None of the other players on the top ten highest scoring games have more than one. Carr scored 289 points in seven tournament games at a 52% clip from the field.
From four years ago:
Austin Carr’s accomplishments deserve 2nd look from Springfield
Carr’s Notre Dame records
At the time of his graduation, he held 33 different Notre Dame records for scoring and field goals, 25 of which still stand todayHe recorded 22 double-doubles during his career and scored 20 or more points in each game during his junior and senior seasons — 58 straight contests — and in 70 of 74 career gamesMadness
Jethro Tull should be in the Rock HOF
INSANE that they aren’t in yet.
But, Dolly Parton is .
I always loved the Aqualung album. That said, I understand the hatred people felt for Tull when they won the first Heavy Metal Grammy over Metallica. One of the most-insane decisions ever made.
Forgot to mention…
Chelsea vs. Celtic at ND Stadium on July 27th.
Up the greens
I guess I never thought of Dayne Crist as having an “era.” He started, what, maybe 9 or 10 games total?
Thanks for sharing that vid with the college plays — I forgot about some of those!
Fun video especially with michigan having 3 meltdowns to enjoy. Hate the bucks but always loved zeke’s 85 yard dagger through the heart of the south.
Flipping through the March madness games I caught some of the ncaa wrestling tourney. Always makes me wonder why ND hasn’t had mens AND womens wrestling squads. Seems like they are set up well geographically and financially to be very successful. Especially with women’s wrestling being one of the fastest growing sports (surprisingly true), that ND wouldn’t take advantage of spearheading that progress particularly with their success in most women’s sports already, is interesting
I frustratingly just realized that I will be out of the path of totality on 4/8. I had originally planned to reserve a campsite at a state park, spend Sunday night and be ready for it. But my alarm that I set for midnight didn’t go off, so when I woke up on the morning of 1/8, the sites were all gone. Well, ok, I thought, I’ll be able to see it just fine from our backyard. Nope. New Braunfels is just outside the margin, so we’ll get a 98.7% partial, but not the actual totality where it goes black and you can take off the shades.
So I guess I’ll have to drive somewhere nearby to see it. Traffic shouldn’t be an issue, right? {{/s}}