Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Today is the start of a new piece called The Weekly Rambler that was originally scheduled to debut many months ago when it looked like there may not be a Notre Dame football season. Luckily, we were able to experience a football season–and a pretty entertaining one at that–but today we thought why not release this new feature on the site during these dark, slow times of the college football off-season?
By the way, The Rambler was one of the finalists for this website’s name back in 2016 in homage of the early 1920’s Notre Dame football teams before the school officially adopted the Fighting Irish nickname. It kind of fits the roaming nature of this series.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
In the News
Carter Karels has a great article in the South Bend Tribune on incoming freshman quarterback Tyler Buchner and how he’s preparing for the next level at Notre Dame.
Matt Brown, formerly of SB Nation, has a really interesting and intriguing look at why the biggest city in the Midwest struggles so much to produce college football talent.
Did you hear that NBC will be shutting down its NBC Sports Network by the end of the year? They will reportedly be shifting most of their NHL, NASCAR, and EPL coverage to USA Network (but also yeah they are going to continue pimping their Peacock streaming service too). Rest in peace, Versus/NBCSN.
This week, Pete Sampson from the Athletic had a nice feature on the recruitment of recent Irish commit Tyson Ford which is worth the read.
The Senior Bowl practices have been going on this week and while some Notre Dame players are Doing Good Things out there, so are a lot of others from across the nation.
Tennessee recently hired Notre Dame alum and UCF athletic director Danny White to take over the same job in Knoxville and 6 days later White hired Josh Heupel to take over the Vols football program. So, Tennessee just took the AD and football coach from UCF. Kind of weird?
Despite being in a deal that lasted for 6 more seasons, Northwestern just renegotiated a new contract for Pat Fitzgerald that will run through 2030. What could ever go wrong with a 10-year contract?
The SEC released its full 2021 football schedule on Wednesday. Opening weekend gives us Alabama vs. Miami, Georgia vs. Clemson, and LSU at UCLA. Our boy Clark Lea debuts hosting East Tennessee State.
The ACC also released their schedule this week. North Carolina, Virginia, and Virginia Tech will all have bye weeks prior to facing Notre Dame.
Mel Kiper’s first NFL Draft Big Board features Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah at 18th overall to Miami.
Star NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson has asked for a trade from Houston. Ditto for Matthew Stafford in Detroit. Fox Sports’ Geoff Schwartz has a really good look at the current quarterback market.
Throwback Article
Our hoops writers are pretty sad these days (the Irish dropped to 5-9 this week and just 2-6 in the ACC), but how about a look back at some happier times with this All-Decade team for the 2010’s? Starters, backups, games of the decade, plus women’s starters are all included in this article from 2019 New Year’s Eve.
The Portal
One of the more strange transfers in recent memory has been Clemson’s Mike Jones, a linebacker for the Tigers with 2 years of starting under his belt. You may remember, Jones missed the first Notre Dame game this past year but was healthy for the ACC Championship Game rematch. You don’t usually see perfectly fine and productive players on really good teams transfer like this, but we live in strange times indeed.
Helmet Talk
I am ashamed to admit that I missed this glorious lid from this past season. Tulane has been no stranger to top-notch helmets and they wore these in a loss to UCF in 2020 with their all-baby blue uniforms.
A pelican riding a wave on a surfboard is maybe the greatest description in the history of college football helmets. As an aside, Tulane might have my favorite color scheme in all of sports. Add in small amounts of yellow and navy blue trim with the baby blue and green and this would be the colors I’d choose if I was starting a football team. Like, the New York Cosmos.
Recruiting
The top recruits to commit this week were northern Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton (0.986) to Georgia, San Diego running back Byron Cardwell (0.922) to Oregon, and Jersey City defensive tackle George Rooks (0.906) to Michigan.
House of the Week
Come with me as we drool over homes featured on the YouTube channel for Architectural Digest. Today, we’ll begin with the house that got me hooked on watching these videos. It’s the Chartwell Mansion nestled in the southeast corner of Bel Air, California which sold a little over a year ago to Lachlan Murdoch (son of Rupert) for a reported $150,000,000.
Only 6 bedrooms seems kind of ridiculous. The guest house has 5 bedrooms! How someone could pay so much for 25,000 square feet for a home with only 6 bedrooms is so funny to me. I know the place is built more for hosting dignitaries and not raising the Brady Bunch but come on.
All 5 kitchens are ugly. I know they were going with a French Chateau look but I don’t like anything inside the main house and it’s also odd that so little was shown, too.
The pool and pool house is amazing, top 3 feature for me. Especially in conjunction with the tunnels (I’ve always wanted tunnels in my home).
Oh, your home doesn’t need its own map of the grounds?
The barbecue area, while awesome, seems awfully far away from a comfortable place to eat. How does that work? Did we miss an outdoor kitchen area? I guess hired chefs would have to go-kart the food in from another part of the property.
A 40-car garage, no I’m sorry, gallery, on the property makes me dizzy thinking about all the oil changes. This place has a wine cellar larger than the average American home.
Something that piqued my interest was the vast amount of smooth and manicured dirt driveways and pathways all over the property. This is running heaven! Using my mapping skills it looks like one loop around the property is about a mile.
Obviously, this house is a bit much right? In order to maintain the grounds alone you’d need be spending tens of thousands of dollars at the drop of a hat. Plus, it’s reported that the home has a $1.3 million annual tax bill. Imagine paying $150 million and then knowing you’ll be dropping $32.5 million more if you owned the property for 25 years.
Tunes
I was a fan of David Bowie growing up and knew most of his hit songs. It wasn’t until I listened to his entire discography a few times through as an adult that I really came to appreciate his talent. One of my favorite Bowie albums is 1977’s Low recorded partly in northern France and then in Berlin where he’d complete his next 2 albums.
This whole album–especially the much better first side–is just an incredible vibe.
This was far from a commercially successful album for Bowie but my favorite song is one of the 2 singles released from it called “Sound and Vision.” There are no vocals until 45 seconds into the song, and no lyrics proper until 90 seconds. Like I said, it’s just a complete vibe and a song I always think about when Bowie comes to mind.
Ugly Apparel
I’ll be scouring the internet for the most ugly and tacky Notre Dame apparel I can find. Who want this hat available at Fanatics?
No surprise that this one is already marked down. The billboard patch is ridiculous and the navy blue colors inside don’t match the super dark navy blue hat. I’m not sure the braided cord across the front was ever a cool look and certainly not now.
On This Day in Sports
Edmonton Oilers right winger Jari Kurri eclipses the 100-point mark in just game number 39 of the 1984-85 season. His pace would slow considerably as he totaled just 35 points over his final 34 games.
Of course, a guy named Wayne Gretzky on Kurri’s team eclipsed the 100-point mark exactly one month earlier on December 29th, 1984 with a 1st period assist against the Detroit Red Wings. Gretzky would finish the season with 208 points and then decided to win a second straight Stanley Cup scoring a laughable 47 points in 18 playoff games, still a NHL record.
Book Nook
I was recently cleaning out a small bookshelf in the deep interior of my house as we prepare to update the room and I found a copy of Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men published back in 1946. It had been sitting there collecting dust for about 4 years. It’s one of the handful of books I’ve started in my life and just couldn’t finish, I may have stopped around 50 pages or so. Has anyone read this and is there something wrong with me?
Hot Take
Pixar’s recent offering Soul is kind of a bad movie. Here’s a quick synopsis: [Spoilers ahead]
Frustrated music teacher (Joe) breaks through with jazz quartet then falls in a manhole. He’s now a soul in the Great Beyond. He escapes to the Great Before. Mistaken for an instructor, man trains a cynical soul (22) to get her final spark to get to Earth while 22 agrees to give it back to Joe who doesn’t want to die. They cannot find a spark. They go to The Zone where a boat captain helps Joe escape back to Earth. But, Joe is now in a cat and 22 came with him and is Joe’s body. 22 enjoys Earth but they are caught by an accountant and taken back the Great Before where they discover 22 found her final spark, which she throws at Joe after fighting over who it belongs to now. Joe goes to Earth and 22 gets lost in the The Zone. Joe is not fulfilled by his jazz performances and goes back to find 22. He gives 22 the spark and she gets to go to Earth. A weird Great Before spirit thing lets Joe go back to Earth too.
Okay, my issues:
1) It’s a super weird movie. The jumping back and forth from Earth to the Great Beyond and Great Before are visually inspiring with some cool music and may be the only lasting legacy for the movie. I don’t think it’s well written and the story is kind of absurd. I don’t know how anyone could read the above synopsis and green light this project.
2) The ending was terrible. I kept thinking there would be something deeper coming–perhaps Joe realizing something about his father which never came up–but the movie just kind of ends with the epiphany to enjoy the little things in life, I guess? You won’t always find fulfillment realizing your goals so remember to stop and enjoy the smell of the trees? Well, alright.
3) Isn’t this a direct knock off from Coco? Pixar has been dealing with death and the afterlife quite a bit in recent years and Soul’s rough outline is far too close to Coco. I may be biased but Coco was one of the best movies of the 2010’s and nailed everything. In contrast, Soul felt like a hurried re-make with 5% of the interesting and compelling story from Pixar’s 2017 movie.
Trivia
Despite returning only 2 out of the 18 punt returns for the 2010 Fighting Irish, I still led the team in punt return yardage. Who am I?
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All The King’s Men is really one of the greatest books ever written. That said, I have done the same 50 pages and quit with any Dostoevsky book I have tried, plus Gravity’s Rainbow…so I know what you mean.
And speaking of the Ramblers, is it weird that the University completely ignores this history? I feel like they could at least play Zeppelin’s Ramble On (or even the Allman’s Ramblin’ Man) during games and either would have more meaning than hearing Crazy Train for the umpteenth time.
Also, this is a great addition to the site. Please keep it going, at least as long as the offseason lasts.
Thanks!
What did you enjoy about All the King’s Men? It seems like an *extremely literary persons book* which I certainly wouldn’t criticize. It just bored me to death.
It’s been over 10 years since I last read it, but I really loved how it framed human interaction in a different light…in a way that makes one alter the way one thinks about that interaction from that point forward. As an example, the whole analogy of how his girlfriend and he were able to build up this “bank” of goodwill and love that slowly got expended when they separated. I think that’s a great analogy for relationships in general. And it doesn’t blame people for what really was a struggle to keep a relationship going.
I also loved the analogy of politics being similar to a machine…the grift and bribes are just the inevitable “friction” and entropy within the system. I was more idealized for how I thought the world should work before I read the book. It helps frame the mindset to realize that corruption is just part of the game…you always want to keep your bearings to know what kinds of corruption are too great (which is why the Governor kept that terrible assistant with him-as a compass to know which way to avoid). But a certain degree of corruption is going to happen no matter how hard you try. I also loved that for as much as people say they want to avoid mud-slinging and terrible behaviors from their politicians…when the Governor had tried that approach, he failed miserably. Things are the way they are because no matter how much we may hate the idea, that’s what works.
There’s also a strong existential vibe with the Governor having done so much to help the doctor from behind the scenes, and then having that same doctor be such a problem later.
Yeah I love this!
anybody know why they chose fighting Irish for a French founded school in Midwestern America?
Wikipedia Just exactly where the moniker “Fighting Irish” came from is a matter of much debate and legend. One possibility is that the nickname is inherited from Irish immigrant soldiers who fought in the Civil War with the Union’s Irish Brigade. Notre Dame’s claim to the nickname would seem to come from the presence of Fr. William Corby, CSC, the third president of Notre Dame, who was at the Battle of Gettysburg. Fr. Corby served as chaplain of the Irish Brigade and granted general absolution to the troops in the midst of the battle. This is commemorated in the painting “Absolution Under Fire,” part of Notre Dame’s permanent art collection. A print of the painting “The Original Fighting Irish” by former Fighting Irish lacrosse player Revere La Noue is on permanent display at Notre Dame’s Arlotta Stadium. The print also hangs in the office of head Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly, who said that he had to have the work which captures the “swagger” and “toughness” of the football program after seeing it online.[4][5] The athletes and teams at Notre Dame, now known as the Fighting Irish, were known by many different unofficial nicknames throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During the Knute Rockne football era, Notre Dame had several unofficial nicknames, among them the “Rovers” and the “Ramblers”. These names reflected the teams’ propensity to travel the nation to play its football contests, long before such national travel became the collegiate norm. Later, Notre Dame was known unofficially as the “Terriers,” after the Irish breed of the dog, and for some years, an Irish Terrier would be found on the ND football sidelines. One theory traces back to the visit from Irish freedom fighter and later President of the Republic of Ireland, Éamon de Valera, who had been part of the 1916 Easter Rising and was imprisoned and sentenced to death. He was given amnesty, elected to Parliament and arrested by the authorities again. He escaped and slipped off to America to avoid recapture. Barnstorming the country, the future president of Ireland was welcomed as a hero at Notre Dame on October 15, 1919. Accounts in Scholastic, a student publication, indicate that his visit tilted campus opinion in favor of the “Fighting Irish” moniker — though not completely. De Valera planted a “tree of liberty” as a memorial of his visit — only to have it uprooted a week later and thrown in one of the campus lakes by a student “of Unionist persuasion.”[6] There are several other legends of how Notre Dame came to be the “Fighting Irish.” One story suggests the moniker was born in 1899 during a game between Notre Dame and Northwestern. The Fighting Irish were leading 5–0 at halftime when the Wildcat fans began to chant, “Kill the Fighting Irish, kill the Fighting Irish,” as the second half opened.[7] Another tale has the nickname originating at halftime of the Notre Dame-Michigan game in 1909. With his team trailing, one Notre Dame player yelled to his teammates —who had names like Dolan, Kelly, Donnelly, Glynn, Duffy, and Ryan— “What’s… Read more »
Thanks Tindma.
Funny that the original Fighting Irish painting was by a guy named Revere La Noue. Pretty cool name, and La Noue refers to a region in Normandy evidently.
so it all makes sense, dunnit?
2010: Michael Floyd
Completely agree on the Tulane gear. My wife went there so I got a bunch of stuff for Xmas from home field apparel and they had some dope stuff.
Article got a lot going on but appreciate you putting it together. Gonna be a long offseason
I looked at the 2010 roster and then guessed correctly who it was. But, I had to look at the roster first. It wasn’t Floyd.
Yep just looked it up. Completely forgot he was still on the roster in 2010. FWIW, if you leave the question the exact same and change it to 2011, Floyd becomes the correct answer. God bless John good man
ANSWER: Armando Allen
Actually, his 38-yard return in the ’10 opener alone gave him the most yards on the season.
I actually read All the Kings Men for a class at ND. Great story but it was one of those books like Tale of Two Cities or Moby Dick where profs have suggested skipping entire chapters due to pacing. There may be a suggestion online to skip the slower parts.
One has to be a subscriber to see the article by Sampson. Don’t all homes have a tennis court and swimming pool? I only saw one kitchen and it looked okay to me. Much nicer than mine.
If you can only have one, a pool or tennis court, which one is it?
Tennis court for me, easy call.
Neither….backyard rink.
I tried that once and I never want to try that again in my life.
why? Bumps and bruises, cost, invading neighbors, or…..?
Just curious.
The yard wasn’t flat enough, it never got cold enough that winter, ungodly amounts of water needed, etc.
A flat piece of land is a requirement. (cold weather too, who knew?) Put it on the tennis court???
What a wonderful cornucopia of various fun stuff! I look forward to it continuing, this was really creative and an awesome idea.
As far as merch goes, what about that new, trendy company (and now I forget the name, lol) that everyone loves? It’s starting to get licensed by a bunch of schools but no Notre Dame. Seems like they had some really cool concepts and designs, kinda the opposite of the crappy ones, but it would be great to see that for maybe a fun pick ‘o the week to balance out the ugly merch.
NHL contract with NBC is up after this season…Talk that like other sports they will split networks, probably with at least partially going back to ESPN, which they really just have to for exposure’s sake at this point being as ESPN doesn’t have a natural vested interest to care about hockey when they don’t have hockey on their networks.
I assume you mean homefield apparel. And you are correct Nd is not licensed with them. Mentioned dot above but have a couple really cool Tulane shirts from them
YES! Thank you for the assist, I didn’t recognize the name of the company from your comment. They have some sweet stuff, especially the vintage takes. Would be a natural for ND merchandise if they ever do get it.
I agree to a point on Soul. The animation is absolutely incredible, and the Great Before concept is neat, but the story doesn’t quite land like it did with Coco (and like it did with Pete Docter’s previous projects, Up and Inside Out). I think on the whole it’s still good, but it’s not top-tier Pixar.
Yeah, the story is weak. Joe is the first person to ever be excited about life and not want to die? [insert Jennifer Lawrence OK, thumbs up gif here]
I found Soul entertaining enough, but a solid tier 3 for Pixar. For me, Up is the best pixar ever and one of the biggest snubs ever for best picture. The Hurt Locker was a decent war movie, not even the best war movie nominated that year.
Pixar’s run from 1995 to 2010 (Toy Story 3) was truly incredible. I’ve never seen A Bug’s Life or Ratatouille, but every other movie in that stretch outside of probably Cars (still a great movie) has to be in the top 50 movies of the past 30 years, and all should have been nominated for best picture Oscars.
Since then it’s Coco, maybe Inside Out, and not much else worth even re-watching.
Murdoch, huh? Hope the place burns to the ground with him on the inside.
Agree about the Tulane helmets. Not sure I love mixing forest green and baby blue, generally speaking — prefer the latter with gold (UCLA), darker blue (Xavier) or maroon (Tug McGraw-era Phils) — but I’m definitely making an exception for our pelican friend.
Bowie!
I feel like that ND hat looks like about 97% of the Irish gear I see on-line. There is a lot of bad, objectively tacky stuff floating around out there.
I wouldn’t expect the kitchen to be particularly nice in a house like this. I’d be surprised if the owners have even seen it.
Good point. I always laugh when watching one of those real estate TV shows and someone who is buying a crazy huge $10 million dollar house complains about some minor detail in the kitchen like “well that stove looks a bit dated, that would have to be replaced” and I’m constantly thinking about how they don’t probably even know how to turn it on because they cook for themselves maybe a few times a year…
I feel like y’all used to do something similar to this back at OFD and I am very glad it is making its debut here
Matt Brown’s article on HS football in Chicago is a decent attempt, but I think he whiffs on the major underlying issue. Why is participation in youth football down? Because parents think it’s unsafe. The B1G’s money would be better spent developing technology and testing rule changes to make football safer, not buying Humboldt Park (“West Bucktown” in realtor) a new football field.
Also lol at the idea of the Bears spending money on anything.
I just read the Chicago article. IMO the author ignores the elephant in the room, which is the shooting and murder epidemic Chicago accepts as business as usual. Many of those shot and murdered are young people, mostly in their own neighborhoods.
In 2020, Chicago had 4,174 people shot, and 792 murdered, mostly on the south and west sides.
Thus far in January, through January 25, 196 have been shot, 68 more than the same period in January 2020.
Check out the growth in shootings since 2012, the grey lines on the graph. The number through Jan 25 in each year is shown in the boxes under the year.
Tracking Chicago shooting victims – Chicago Tribune
I would guess this puts a bit of a damper on football programs in those areas.
I spent a lot of time in Chicago during my ND years, back in the “60s. It was a great city, with brutal weather. Bone chilling cold in winter, hot and humid in summer. But still, a fun city, even for a college kid without a lot of money..
Now its weather still sucks, and its got totally corrupt and inept local government and police department. Daley and the cops were corrupt, but they were effective. The loons in charge now can’t get out of their own way. I don’t understand why the voters haven’t thrown successive mayors out of office and insisted on order being restored.
Throw in very high taxes, loss of jobs due to government policies, unfunded retirement assets, its no wonder people have been leaving in droves.
Here in Tucson, in a wealthy suburb, my many Chicago friends wish they could leave for good (they’re snowbirds, mostly) but have family or business interests that keep them rooted there. They all agree the city ain’t what it used to be. Most definitely in pandemic times, when most of the fun stuff is shut down.
Not sure why the author is so in love with it. Couldn’t pay me enough to live there.
Correction: Rest in peace, Versus/NBCSN/Outdoor Life Network. I was interviewed on OLN as a kid at some point in the late 90’s.
OLN, FTW.
I just watched Blake Fisher’s highlights and holy cow are they ridiculous. He actually throws one player into another player 5 yards away knocking them both down.
It may be the most dominant OL highlights I’ve ever seen. I went back and watched Q’s and then watched 3 minutes of JC Latham (this year’s top OT) and they don’t compare at all. It’s hard to explain. It’s more like watching a Bruce Lee movie than a football highlight tape. Fisher doesn’t even really block people, he just pushes them over while barely moving.
This is clearly because of level of competition, but it’s so fun watching him abuse these little kids. He knocks kids over so easily with his punch that the only time he manages the traditional pancake, is when he runs after them (because they flew 3 yards) and dives on top of them.
I couldn’t stop watching his highlights. I had to see what physically baffling feat he would do next. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get fired up about an incoming player.