Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
News broke before last week’s game against UNLV that true freshman tight end Eli Raridon has torn his ACL for the second year in a row.
The NCAA published revised guidelines to NIL rules on Wednesday. Schools are not allowed to engaged in NIL negotiations on behalf of athletes. Also, they can only offer tangible benefits like lawyers or accountants if they are also available to non-athlete students.
Once one of the hottest G5 coach’s in the country, Will Healy has been fired at Charlotte.
Bowling Green has hired Derek van der Merwe as their new athletic director. He was formerly the deputy AD at Arizona.
The Big Ten has released its 2023 football schedule and will kick things off on Thursday, August 31st with Minnesota hosting Nebraska.
Georgia safety Dan Jackson is out out for the season after suffering a stress fracture in his foot.
Texas A&M has indefinitely suspended a trio of true freshmen in Denver Harris, Chris Marshall, and PJ Williams.
Uniform of the Week
Let’s talk about the University at Buffalo, aka UB, the academic gem of the SUNY system. When I was a kid, the Bulls were in rough shape competing in I-AA as an independent with one of the smallest and dingiest stadiums in the country. They were about as uncool as college football could get. Then they created a “Run to Division I” campaign, built a new stadium, eventually got accepted into the MAC, and here we are today with a program that is as healthy as its ever been leading their conference (and it doesn’t hurt to be running off fumes from the Buffalo Bills success, either).
This past weekend–during possibly a season-defining comeback against Toledo–the team wore these delightful throwback helmets with the human-like bull. This is a weird part of the country for football. It’s an area obsessed with the Bills, high school football is still pretty important, but college football just does not resonate for a program that is the only FBS school within 2 hours in any direction. The vast majority of fans root for Notre Dame, Syracuse, Penn State, Pittsburgh, or Ohio State leaving the local team in the dark.
Recruiting
Florida picked up interior offensive lineman Roderick Kearney (0.9455) on Monday.
Charlotte corner Chris Peal (0.9274) committed to Georgia.
Athlete Malachi Coleman (0.9627) has elected to stay in town and commit to Nebraska, even without a head coach.
Wide receiver Jonah Wilson (0.9130) gave a verbal to Houston.
YouTube Channel
I didn’t grow up with a swimming pool and I wasn’t exposed to a ton of water experiences until swim class in elementary school. So, I didn’t learn how to swim until I was 8 years old. Still, I’ve always been fascinated with surfing and have tried it out a few times in Florida. Swimming out with your board away from the beach is one of those situations where you end up giving yourself up to the ocean and praying nothing terrible happens. I worry more about rip tides than sharks, to be honest.
I cannot fathom wanting to or even trying riding a wave as big as in this video. They speak about how the Portuguese in the area forbid people from going in the water during these giant waves, and then in the early 2000’s surfers were like, “Eh, let’s give it a try.” Don’t get me wrong, I will put this place on a tourism list and be excited to watch the awesomeness of the waves from afar. You couldn’t pay me enough to be one of the jet ski riders helping out either, nope nope nope. That job is super dangerous with none of the payoff!
Tunes
I started out the music section for this week ready to discuss how I would’ve dropped Derek and the Dominoes’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, the Blind Faith’s self-titled album, and Eric Clapton’s first self-titled solo album if it meant we got 2-3 more years of the band Cream staying together. Well, I still feel that way. Of course, “Layla” gets all the attention from the Derek and the Dominoes but holy cow they also killed it with “Bell Bottom Blues.”
This is some of Clapton’s best guitar work which is saying…a lot. It’s amazing to me that this song only peaked at no. 91 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1971. The 1970’s were absolutely loaded but that feels so wrong. Written about Pattie Boyd (like “Layla”) this song is dripping in so much emotion that feels more raw and sincere than its more famous single “Layla.” It’s some of Clapton’s best singing too! He also played all of the guitar parts, it’s just a masterclass of song-writing and performing.
Trivia
Tough one this week, readers. Notre Dame has totaled at least 10 penalties in a single game on 4 separate occasions since the 2017 season but ended up winning 3 of those games. What was the lone defeat?
The Other Football
Unai Emery has been named the new manager at Aston Villa after the club paid the $6 million buyout fee from his former team Villarreal in Spain.
Arsenal finally dropped points in a draw against Southampton. Unfortunately, Spurs couldn’t take advantage and lost again in a 2-1 defeat at home to Newcastle. After a run of good form, Liverpool lost again 1-0 to Nottingham Forest. A couple of late goals from each side brought a 1-1 draw between Chelsea and Man United. Of course, City beat Brighton 3-1 with Haaland scoring 2 more goals. The machine has 17 league goals already–he’s going to sew up the EPL Golden Boot before Christmas when there’s a World Cup played for a month!
Juventus (shockingly 8th in Serie A, wyd?) were knocked out of the Champions League after a 4-3 defeat by Benfica. From other Tuesday action, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Man City, Dortmund, PSG and aforementioned Benfica have all qualified for the Round of 16.
In Wednesday’s action, Napoli, Liverpool, Club Brugge, Porto, Bayern Munich, and Inter punched their ticket through to the next round.
Bayern’s 3-0 win over Barcelona knocked the latter out of the Champions League. Atletico Madrid are also out after missing a late penalty with the rebound attempt going off the crossbar and another sure rebound goal knocked away. That’s a big oof.
Streaming
I don’t remember playing with Legos as a kid. I have vague memories of being really small and a friend having the Duplo Legos with that big red Duplo bunny zipper bag to hold the pieces. After a brief dalliance with Star Wars, He-Man, and Thundercats action figures I was a 1980’s kid outside playing sports as much as possible. I did have high expectations for seeing the 2014 The Lego Movie in theaters because the trailer was awesome. It did not disappoint, such a great movie. Although, the theater that day had some weird speaker issues and the sound was honest to God about 30% the normal level. I was excited to re-watch it once it was on Netflix. I missed a handful of jokes because laughter in the theater drowned bits of scenes.
How do we feel about Legos? I’ve really enjoyed putting some kits together with my girls and splurged on the Mercedes AMG Project One and W12 cars for myself which were a fun, mildly challenging brain relaxer. Then, a kid during a party grabbed one of the cars off our buffet and broke a dozen pieces off the back. My daughter Quinn’s Encanto house had parts fall off and there’s just no going back without starting over with these things with 300 to 500 pieces. I think Lego’s are awesome, but what do you do with them after a while?
A Look Back
A lot of people remember Alabama losing to Louisiana-Monroe in 2007 during Nick Saban’s first season with the Tide. The very next week was Saban’s first experience with the Iron Bowl. In the comment section of this video I learned Auburn fans went to ULM and bought out the whole damn bookstore to wear their gear inside Jordan-Hare for this rivalry game. You love to see the pettiness.
As so many of these aught’s game could be, this was a pure SEC rock fight. Neither quarterback finished over 50% completion percentage. Neither quarterback threw a touchdown pass. Alabama totaled only 225 yards. Each side converted only 3 first downs. It was just a tough stretch for Alabama’s offense finishing the regular season with 36 points over their final 3 games. Twenty-nine year old Major Applewhite was in his first year of OC and…he did not return for 2008.
18S Paddock Club
United States GP Review: We hoped for an action packed race this weekend with the WDC wrapped up, and boy did we get one! Qualifying saw a Sainz-Leclerc Ferrari 1-2 but the latter took engine penalties and started 12th. At turn 1, Russell in the Mercedes yeeted himself into Sainz damaging his radiator for a 2nd straight DNF. Verstappen had a rocket start anyway and drove off in 1st place, seemingly looking like another boring Red Bull victory.
By lap 18, Leclerc had moved up to 2nd going long on his medium tires while Verstappen and Hamilton had just pitted for hard tires. On this lap, Bottas spun off and brought out a Safety Car allowing Leclerc a cheap stop for new tires dropping him down to only 4th place. A few laps later we saw a scary accident as Alonso made contact with Stroll down the back straight causing another Safety Car. Stroll’s day was done but somehow Alonso continued despite going airborne and hitting the wall.
On lap 30, Leclerc chased down Perez for 3rd place while executing a beautiful overtake at the end of the back straight only for Verstappen to have a very slow pit stop on lap 36 which eventually allowed Hamilton to take the lead after the rest of the top cars took the pits. The former world champion needed just 15 laps to hold on for his first victory of the year!
Russell hits Sainz, Alonso/Stroll crash, Leclerc overtakes Perez & Max overtakes Hamilton.
That slow pit for Verstappen allowed Leclerc to move into 2nd place as a few laps later the 2 engaged in another back-and-forth battle which Verstappen eventually won. Hamilton would have a 4-second lead to defend but with 6 laps remaining he fought valiantly and couldn’t keep Verstappen from re-taking the lead.
Yes, another victory for the Dutchman (his 13th, tied for the most ever in a season) but this race featured the most overtakes of 2022 and some of the best wheel-to-wheel racing of the season. With a 1st and 4th place finish, Red Bull clinched the Constructor’s Championship. Somehow, Alonso brought his car back for a 7th place finish but a retroactive 10-second stop-and-go penalty converted into a 30-second penalty (his mirror broke off following his accident) pushed him out of the points. People are rightfully livid.
Mexico GP Preview: Off to Mexico City as the team’s collect their things and head south from Austin. Last year’s race was an epic party for Red Bull with Verstappen winning and Mexican Sergio Perez finishing 3rd in his home race. For 2022, this finish it to be expected.
Turns 4 through 6 in the start of sector 2 and the stadium complex in sector 3 are quite slow. But this is a full-on power track with a nearly mile-long main straight and plenty of other areas where horsepower is king.
Mexico City Grand Prix
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
FP1 – Oct. 28th – 2:00 PM ET
FP2 – Oct. 28th – 5:00 PM ET
FP3 – Oct. 29th – 1:00 PM ET
Qualifying – Oct. 29th – 4:00 PM ET
Race – Oct. 30th – 4:00 PM ET
In year’s past–even when Red Bull didn’t have the best straight line speed–they’ve been the team to beat in Mexico due to their Honda engine turbo handling the high altitude better than anyone else on the grid. Now, they have that straight line speed which allowed Verstappen to chase down both Leclerc and Hamilton down an even shorter straight in Austin last week.
3 Questions for Mexico:
1) Can we please get a Perez win?
Like last week, we’re debating how Perez can beat teammate Verstappen. Ferrari has shown incredible qualifying pace but this could be the weekend where both Red Bull’s are 0.2 to 0.3 seconds ahead of the field after Q3 with even stronger race pace backing that up. Perez is now 2 points behind Leclerc for 2nd place, too. The cynic says only a crash or engine failure will keep Verstappen from a win. Although it would be pretty cool if Red Bull cooked up a way for Perez to win on his home turf to show appreciation for him being a great no. 2 driver during Verstappen’s back-to-back titles.
The stadium section in Mexico City is iconic.Â
2) Will Aston Martin be the talk of the midfield by winter?
There was a time in the beginning of the season where Aston Martin’s car looked like the worst on the grid. Surprise, they are now just 1 point behind Alfa Romeo for 6th place. What an amazing turn around. This is the send off Sebastian Vettel deserves as he finishes up his F1 career. He’s scored points in the last 7 races in which his car didn’t DNF and several times has flirted with some serious points hauls, even leading the USA Grand Prix for a bit this past weekend. For their part, Alfa Romeo only has 1 point over the last 10 races.
3) Can Russell hold off Hamilton in their teammate battle?
The gap to Hamilton is now 20 points with 3 races to go, so Russell should win but weirder things have happened. Hamilton (and Mercedes) have mentioned numerous times the battle within the team doesn’t matter and Hamilton spent more time experimenting with new set ups and new parts in order to do what they crave: win races.
Still, Hamilton has been stronger in the second half of the season and has especially picked it up during qualifying. They may not care but a teammate beating Hamilton on points for just the 4th time in his illustrious career will be a long off-season talking point.
Trivia Answer:
2019 vs. Georgia (23-17 loss), 12 penalties for 85 yards.
That Georgia game had one of the most BS penalties ever. Okwara was flagged for a late hit on Fromm even though Fromm was still in bounds.
This was at a key time of the game IIRC.
I’m pretty sure that was in the 2017 game in south bend.
Actually got the trivia question right though. Tried thinking of losses over the last 5 years, and this game was absurd from the unpreparedness of nd for the crowd. The amount of false starts was so dumb. That was not a great georgia team and that game was there for the taking
Thanks, I recall that game now and you are absolutely correct. Both those games were there for the taking. That penalty in 2017 on Okwara was one of the worst “late hit” calls I have ever seen.
I agree with you about getting 2 or 3 more albums from Cream I’d trade other albums. Clapton is my favorite musician of all time (thanks dad!), and this album proves just how good he is. People criticized this album, it didn’t sell well, etc. at first because he was at that point in his career where everyone’s expectations were untenable. Today, we can see just how good he performs in this album. Like you said, the raw emotion in “Bell Bottom Blues” makes it… wow
Did you read Clapton’s autobiography from 2007?
I did, I really liked it. Many things a fan would already know, but it was nice to see him writing about his life, and not just reports of it. Put me in his shoes.
— ND Football, ’22
Same as everyone else. You keep the $1000’s of dollars of Legos, organized in large tackle boxes, in the closet until you have grandkids.
My son, who is autistic, went through a phase where he loved Lego. He would get a new kit, build it (sometimes asking me to help), and then immediately disassemble it, put the pieces is plastic baggies, and put it back in his closet. He did not understand my question when I wondered why he didn’t want to play with it after he had finished building it.
Disclaimer – I’m speaking wayyyyy out of my lane and with almost 100% ignorance and lumping a large group of people together. Are Legos a “perfect” toy for someone with autism (until a creation breaks/falls apart, but that’s true for any child)? Or, a more fair question, does your son enjoy putting them together a good amount?
Autism is a spectrum, not only in the severity of the condition, but in the particular presentation of an individual. Legos were right up my son’s alley, until they weren’t anymore. He also collects rocks and likes to mess with mechanical and electrical devices. He did enjoy putting them together, but also very much enjoyed the collection aspect of having the different sets. He didn’t “play” with them in the way that many children do. He’s 14 now so video games and being glued to his cell phone are more his interests these days.
Sure – there’s definitely a shelf-life of Lego interest. My son also enjoyed putting together sets, but then didn’t really do much else with them, though he did sometimes stray off the instructions and build his own stuff. Just very pleasing to go from A to B and have something to show for it at the end.
I’m pretty sure Mrs. Murt wants to get me the McLaren Technic Lego for XMas because I always hem and haw about it and she keeps asking more questions.
https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/mclaren-formula-1-race-car-42141
It’s over 2 feet long and I just don’t know where the heck I’m supposed to put something like that when I’m done.
Tiny garage, of course.
I’ve had similar questions with the Lego Saturn V rocket.
39 inches long, oof that’s tough.
Do we need a separate post just about Spurs’ game yesterday? And just soccer officiating in general? Still not 100% sure who was “offside” when for that
Knockout stage clinchergoal that almost made me scream in my cubicle at work was disallowed. Absolutely insane Conte got a Red for being, rightfully, upset at the overturning of the goal. Is soccer ruined if no one can comfortably celebrate a goal for at least 10 minutes after the goal crosses the line? Is that the purpose of VAR? Why didn’t Spurs play the first half the way they played the second half? Brian Gil, pick two: Chaos, Entertaining, Liability. Eric Dier, get a header, man.I’m just telling myself we’re getting the bad stuff out of the way now and coming back to win every game after the World Cup.
Idiot
City is the only big team Spurs do well against. We’re gonna catch ’em!!!*
*Arsenal will start to lose right????
Spurs gonna lose to City in Feb, will be the next EPL loss for Spurs.
Is that UB coach 5’1″?
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Tales of Brave Ulysses and Swalbr are two of the greatest songs ever written/recorded. That said, I’m just not a huge Clapton fan. He’s a little like Ozzy to me (I just covered my head in fear of being struck by lightning for putting that in writing). He had these moments in the early part of his career where the stuff he put out was almost inhuman – Ozzy is an absolute demon on Black Sabbath (by Black Sabbath…..on the album….Black Sabbath – got their money’s worth, there, I’d say). Similarly, Clapton’s tone on Swalbr is otherworldly. And it’s not just his equipment, it’s something in his hands. You could transport me to ’67, give me Clapton’s rig and guitar with the exact same settings and I could play Swalbr note-for-note and it still wouldn’t sound like him. Nowhere near. He had something in that moment that nobody else had or will ever have. Period. There are other examples, too. Both of them caught lightning in a bottle, for brief moments. And kudos to them; most never do. But, besides those moments, there’s a lot of sizzle and not a lot of steak, if you ask me. Don’t get me wrong – I love Bark at the Moon and Bell Bottom Blues as much as the next guy. But, after Sabbath, Ozzy was propped up by the likes of Randy, Tommy Aldridge, Bob Daisley, Jake E. Lee (good god Jake E. Lee!), Zach Wilde, etc. He would just hand pick who he wanted to play for him. To me, they made Ozzy, not other way around. And Clapton was kind of the same. Cream was a thing ….. an AMAZING thing. Then the world focused on Clapton a bit and suddenly he’s in Blind Faith with Steve Winwood (and Ginger, who doesn’t get enough credit, despite the amount of credit he gets). Through that supergroup he’s able to find Delany and Bonnie & Friends – total monsters in their own right, but fairly unknown – and then piggybacks on them and Steve Whitlock for Derek and the Dominoes…..which led to his collaboration with Duane Allman……I mean, it’s Duane EFFING Allman! (Counterpoint: Duane actually doesn’t play on Bell Bottom Blues…..but re-counter, oh my god if he had!). It’s not that Clapton isn’t great; it’s just that he gets more credit than he deserves, I think. Cream was great because of the amalgamation of its members – the band was greater than the sum of its parts. Derek and the Dominoes was Delaney and Bonnie & Friends with Eric Clapton pasted on top. Surfing: I live in New England and 2 years ago, at 45 years old, I took up surfing. 2 years later, having surfed a 1-3 times a week pretty much every week, I don’t know what I’d do without it. Last winter, I almost drowned when my leash broke and I had to swim in at a messy beach break. That day was 5-7 foot – the biggest I’ve… Read more »
For me, Clapton is several levels above Ozzy but I get your point.
Clapton’s solo stuff is really, really spotty. A lot of covers and a lot of co-written work. He can put together an all-time greatest hits compilation, but the actual musicianship on all the songs isn’t the same as some other solo legends.
I hear you on the Ozzy/Clapton thing, too. I was making more analogy than comparing them talent/musicianship-wise. Ozzy was kind of that one-talent athlete who, when he was young, was SO good at that one thing he does, that for a finite period of time and before he lost a step, he set himself apart. Kinda like Deontay Wilder as a pure puncher. Clapton was a much more complex and layered musician and artist. Clapton wasn’t just a bundle of crazy creativeness coming out raw and unedited (Ozzy kind of was); he’s spent years with Mayhall and others honing a type of style that the world hadn’t really seen before.
Clapton’s solo stuff is spotty for a few years, for sure. There were some true gems. (Marcy Levy’s harmony on Promises still gets me). Then it gets downright ugly, though. That whole 90’s attempt to be the old blues master was gross (Riding with the King might be the summit of that awful mountain). At that point, Clapton became a caricature. I have trouble with artists who go that route (looking at you Metallica)
“Promises” is a top 3 Clapton song for me, love it.
Great minds …….. 😉
That video about the surfing is fascinating, thanks for sharing! I took my first surfing lesson this summer, managing to stand up on a couple of 2-3 foot waves in the calm warm waters of Costa Rica. I can’t really wrap my head around what these people are doing. It is to regular surfing as F1 is to a golf cart
It seems like an incredibly difficult sport to improve at, too. The more you work at it the more dangerous it becomes, craziness.
That would seem to apply to other sports: diving, cliff diving, motocross, auto racing.
Yeah, maybe in some respects.
Add to that, you get minimal reps. Even in regular surfing, the hardest part is that most of us can’t just go do it any time we want. You need the ocean and waves. Even with waves, you only get a certain amount of time on your board. Most rides are a few seconds; most sessions you spend a total of a couple minutes surfing the wave.
Now multiply that issue times 100000. All of these big wave surfers are amazing regular surfers. But surfing these monsters is really a different beast. And big waves come once in a while, only at certain spots, and they’re all scattered throughout the world. So these guys/gals have to figure out how to ride big waves that can kill them……..while riding big waves that can kill them. It’s insane.
Mark Knopfler has done BBB with Clapton in another recording, though to my ear it’s difficult to hear MK’s style in places probably in deference. MK’s rendition of Poor Boy Blues is a personal favorite.
2022 may be a watershed moment for QB transfers. Four of the top ten QBs by passing yds per game are transfers. Six of the top 20 ranked teams are led by transfer QBs.
True story – my wife’s friend has a lego room in their house. They converted a large closet into a dedicated lego room with a table to do the legos and shelves to display completed pieces. Not sure I would go that far, even if I had the room, but it does keep everything contained.