Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Former Notre Dame assistant Brian Polian was named athletic director at John Carroll University, his alma mater.
Alabama has surpassed Miami and set a new record with 15 straight years of at least one 1st round draft pick by the NFL.
The expanded playoffs for college football in 2024-25 will see the semifinals played on Thursday and Friday ahead of NFL Wildcard games on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. The first round will see one game on Friday and 3 games played on Saturday. Here’s a look at the schedule:
2024 SEASON
First round (at campus sites): Fri., Dec. 20 (1 game); Sat., Dec. 21 (3)
Quarterfinals: Tue., Dec. 31 (Fiesta Bowl); Wed., Jan. 1, 2025 (Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl)
Semifinals: Thu., Jan. 9 (Orange Bowl); Fri., Jan. 10 (Cotton Bowl)
Championship: Mon., Jan. 20 in Atlanta
2025 SEASON
First round (at campus sites): Fri., Dec. 19; Sat., Dec. 20
Quarterfinals: Wed., Dec. 31 (Cotton Bowl); Thu., Jan. 1, 2026 (Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl)
Semifinals: Thu., Jan. 8 (Fiesta Bowl); Fri., Jan. 9 (Peach Bowl)
Championship: Mon., Jan. 19 in Miam
Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne and wide receiver Keon Coleman entered the portal.
Fresno State offensive lineman Dontae Bull was taken first overall in the CFL Draft. More on Fresno below.
Uniform of the Week
When I think about Fresno State I always picture quarterback David Carr from the late 1990’s. Back then, they had these really cool collars, a huge WAC patch on their chest, big drop shadow numbers, and I’m pretty sure they were one of the first college teams to really embrace the monochrome when they’d wear all-red consistently back in that era.
Fresno is heading into their 4th season of a 6-year deal with Adidas and things aren’t looking too great on the uniform front. If you look at the picture above they might as well be named College Team. They’ve used the script on the helmet for a long time, but it never looks as good as their bulldog. Check out the tiny and unimpressive chest script. There’s also no striping, and the blue is barely noticeable on the uniform. It’s just really sad. The quarterback’s bulldog chin strap is cool, though.
Recruiting
Defensive lineman Bryce Young (0.9005), safety Kennedy Urlacher (0.8778), and wide receiver Micah Gilbert (0.9116) all committed to Notre Dame since our last update.
Wide receiver Xavier Jordan (0.9484) committed to USC.
Running back Corey Smith (0.9204) committed to Penn State.
YouTube Channel
Am I a psycho because I don’t drink coffee? Let me explain myself! As I’ve mentioned before, I went off to a New England prep school at 16 years old and this is a formative time for kids to learn how to drink coffee. I had basically no access to the beans and as a result never bothered picking up the habit. In total, I’ve probably tried 4 cups of coffee in my life. I think I’m doing okay without it.
I’m not bothering to start now. For one, I loathe adding extra time to my morning routine and don’t have the patience to make myself a cup or stop somewhere on the way to work. But also, I’m like Nate Bargatze in that I can’t bother with all the directions and ingredients that go into coffee and all the stress of ordering in person. I also won’t buy anyone a coffee because that can be a nightmare of epic proportions. What’s even worse, I had a 4th grade teacher with the worst coffee-induced halitosis breath that scarred me for life.
Tunes
Macca Hive assemble! If Paul McCartney’s solo career had ended after 1975’s Venus and Mars album I think most would’ve said it was one heck of a run. It would’ve been 6 total albums (2 solo and 4 with Wings) that put an imprint on music. Instead, the 1976 offering of Wings at the Speed of Sound took things to an entirely different level and cemented McCartney as the most successful solo Beatle.
Wings at the Speed of Sound went to no. 1 as an album, “Silly Love Songs” spent 7 non-consecutive weeks at no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, it spawned the Wings over the World tour which saw McCartney play in the United States for the first time since 1966, which later spawned the live album Wings Over America, and it was the first time that McCartney played Beatles songs on tour since the band had broken up–thus informing his solo tours for the next 45 years and counting. Say what you want about “Silly Love Songs” but the bass is absolutely banging.
Trivia
According to Forbes in April 2023, who is the richest person in the world?
The Other Football
Arsenal easily beat Chelsea 3-1 on Tuesday night to keep their title hopes alive. Chelsea haven’t won in any of their last 9 games in all competitions.
Manchester City beat West Ham 3-0 on Wednesday to move back to the top of the EPL, still with 1 game in hand on Arsenal. Striker Erling Haaland scored to break the Premier League record for goals in a season with 35. He still has 5 more league games to pad his record.
Richarlison finally scored his first goal of the season in league play to complete a massive comeback against Liverpool, no wait, Spurs gave up the winning goal just seconds later to lose at Anfield once again.
Leo Messi has been suspended 2 weeks by PSG for an unauthorized trip to Saudi Arabia. The team gave Messi permission to take the day off of training if PSG beat or tied Lorient–but they lost. And Messi went on his trip anyway. We now have rumors again that Messi will leave PSG this summer for…Saudi Arabia.
Streaming
I’m a little over half way through with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery on Netflix. I went into this knowing it was really well received. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 92% score in both categories. That’s the same audience score as the first movie Knives Out, which I thought was one of the top films of 2019. Right now, I’m at the point where Andi is killed and from what I know without spoiling it there are many plot twists to come.
So far, the movie feels like it’s trying way too hard. The plot is outlandish with some dangerous hydrogen fuel and we’re on this exotic island at this ridiculous compound. The first movie had this really cool vibe in Massachusetts and this second stand alone movie seems downright silly in comparison. I tend not to like Edward Norton very much, so he colors a lot for me. I would’ve liked to see someone else in that role. I hope I like the end.
A Look Back
Today we take a trip back to West Lafayette on September 14, 2013 when Irish receiver DaVaris Daniels went OFF on the Purdue Boilermakers. I remember this was one of those sleepy games and it played out like, “Wait, we’re not really going to lose to this Purdue team are we?” type of atmosphere. Not on Tommy Rees and Daniels’ watch! We definitely had some hangover stuff happening after the tough loss to Michigan because this was a really poor 1-11 Purdue team in the end.
Daniels is an interesting figure in Notre Dame history. He had quite a bit of hype (the top player in Illinois and a top 100 recruit overall) and when he didn’t play as a freshman there was plenty of disappointment. Yet, he had a sizable role in the 2012 undefeated season and blossomed pretty well as a redshirt sophomore. It was surprising to see him turn pro after 2 years on the field and ultimately went undrafted. Still, he caught 80 passes in 2 years with the Irish and has 314 receptions, 4,570 yards, and 30 touchdowns in a pretty fruitful CFL career. Maybe he should’ve been a NFL Draft pick after all.
18S Paddock Club
Charles Leclerc found his form again this past weekend in Azerbaijan taking pole by nearly two-tenths over Max Verstappen and following that up with pole over Sergio Perez in the sprint shootout on Saturday morning. During the sprint race, Perez would eventually pass Leclerc but Verstappen would be slowed after contact from George Russell on the opening lap damaged the Dutchman’s sidepod. Perez would take home the win and 8 points while Leclerc settled for 7 points and Verstappen 6 points to round out the podium.
In the grand prix, Leclerc maintained his lead until DRS was opened on lap 3 and Verstappen took over 1st place. Two laps later, Perez followed with a late pass into turn 1 for 2nd place. Perez crucially kept contact with Verstappen (who was uncharacteristically struggling with his tires) and was within DRS range when AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries broke his steering and retired. Verstappen came in for hard tires but was hard done as the Safety Car was called just after he left the pit lane. The top of the grid would follow suit for new tires under the SC and Verstappen dropped down to 3rd place.
Media and FIA personnel were nearly run over in the pit lane.
After the re-start, Verstappen passed Leclerc but the race would turn into a dull affair for the next hour. Perez lived up to his nickname as the “king of the streets” as he kept his teammate out of DRS range ultimately winning by over 3 seconds.
More post-Azerbaijan GP notes:
- It’s a 33-point weekend for Perez who moved just 6 points behind Verstappen for the world championship lead. Can he possibly keep this up?
- George Russell stopped late with a huge gap to 9th place and stole the fastest lap point.
- This was Leclerc’s first podium of the season, and the first time Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso didn’t make the podium.
- The FIA reduced the main straight DRS by 100 meters and made it really difficult overtake. Alonso got close to Leclerc and Hamilton close to Sainz, but neither could make the pass.
- Sneaky good weekend from Lando Norris who picked up 2 points from 9th place and did pretty well in both qualifying sessions.
- Alpine are in shambles after Gasly’s car caught fire in practice and he crashed during qualifying. Ocon tried a late 1-stop strategy and ended up finishing 15th, one spot behind Gasly.
- This race may be remembered most for the FIA allowing media and others into the pit lane at the start of the last lap before Ocon had come in for his pit stop, nearly running over several people.
***
The 2nd edition of the Miami Grand Prix kicks off this weekend after a very mixed reaction to the debut race in 2022. For many of the spectators it was far too expensive, way too hot, a poor racing crowd, and not enough fun to justify the cost. It’s a race in a football stadium parking lot in Florida, what could go wrong!??
F1 intends on making this work with a contract running through 2031, so I guess we have to get used to it. Or maybe they’ll move the race to somewhere else in Miami.
Round 5 of 23
Miami Grand Prix
Date: May 7th
Race: 3:30 PM ET
TV: ESPN/F1TV
Location: Miami Gardens, Florida
Circuit: Miami International Autodrome
Laps: 57
Tire Compounds: C2, C3, C4
Track Evolution: 5 out of 5
Asphalt Abrasion: 2 out of 5
After the drivers complained of poor grip during last year’s race the entire track has been resurfaced and jet-washed in an attempt to make the circuit a little more abrasive. Pirelli has their rating at 2 out of 5 and with the high temperatures it’s possible things don’t go quite as expected.
We could also see some rain on Sunday during the race.
Last year’s race saw a front row Ferrari lock out but the back straight was too powerful for Verstappen and Red Bull who picked up the win. I’m sure DRS in that section will be another big talking point this weekend as the sport grapples with dirty air issues again and lack of overtaking.
Trivia Answer:
Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, $240 billion net worth.
Knives Out 2 is the kind of movie that is somewhat enjoyable in real time but then you think about it for two minutes and it completely falls apart. Without hopefully spoiling much, unlike the first one the whole setup is kind of fraudulent to the viewer.
Knives Out 2 is the kind of movie where you think “That’s kind of an over the top satire of oligarchs” and then Elon Musk 2022-present and then you’re like “Whoa, how did they see that coming?”
I meant that more in the “who knows what”/hiding-the-ball kind of way rather than the specifics of the plot. But also yes who the bad guy is was also extremely predictable.
Coffee haters unite! People always ask me how I function on days where I’m sleep deprived, and the answer is iced tea is a delicious source of caffeine.
Me:
I also have managed to avoid coffee most of my life. At this point, what goes for “coffee” is really just liquid dessert. Pure calories without the enjoyment of having eaten something memorable. Plus, thousands of dollars each year wasted through thinking, “it’s just a coffee. I can afford it.”
Paul has always been the Beatle I have hated the most. Team Ringo as a child (thanks, Caveman), Team John as a teenager, and then Team George for most of my adult life. That said, as I have gotten older I have learned a grudging respect for Paul. He is probably the one member who made the Beatles successful. And even though I always have thought of him as a money-chasing sellout, he really had at least as much musical talent as anyone else in the group AND had the firmest grip on musical trends. The stuff he wrote has also held up the best, intergenerationally…old people enjoy it, kids enjoy it. Basically everyone but Yoko Ono.
I was about to fight you over that first sentence of the second paragraph!
I don’t think it’s an unusual impression of Paul. He’s usually portrayed as the villain. In the Scorsese biopic on Harrison, the main footage he put in of Paul was George ridiculing him as a hypocrite to his face. Something like “is that leather jacket vegetarian friendly?” Paul was definitely the most materialistic of the Beatles. But him wanting to be successful was what pushed everyone else into actually producing great stuff instead of just getting high and forgetting to press record while playing music. And ultimately they all hated him for being such a slave-driver, but he’s the one they should have thanked for making them rich. Paul made the Beatles THE Beatles (with Brian Epstein and George Martin’s help).
Admittedly, I’ve always been pro-Paul since Day 1 but this has always been wild to me.
I think it’s easy to argue he was the most important Beatle when it comes to musicianship, leadership, ideas, etc. It was Paul pushing the avant garde boundaries more than the others.
He was the cool one, living in St. John’s Wood near Abbey Road, while the others were out in the suburbs in big mansions. He didn’t have a complicated marriage or was an absent father (like John). He was the least addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.
I think they could all be prickly, but Paul was always the most mature in the media (at least vs. John & George) and had the balls to release McCartney I after John quit the band. Paul was proven right about Allen Klein as their business manager–which colored him as the bad guy but looks kind of ridiculous with hindsight.
To me, the villain stuff is largely attributed to Paul caring too much about the band (leading to a whole host of overbearing behavior or accusations) and that he was too successful in his “granny” way (like taking his family on tour) while the others (mostly John & George) got labeled as the more “serious” and “sincere” and “real” people when they were arguably far more complicated, hypocritical, and a lot less stable.
That’s a really hacky, early ’00’s stand-up comedian/Dennis Leary take on coffee. You can just get a cup of coffee/Americano/Flat White and move along with your day and not have anyone else’s order affect your life in any way. And just make it at home and it’s not thousands of dollars.
I’d like to see any data on the split between men vs. women. I’ve got a lot of Tim Horton’s evidence that there could be a massive gap between basic coffee and the more sugary kinds.
As a counter-point, I’d like to provide my wife’s and daughters’ coffee receipts…tons of non-coffee flavorings and not cheap. And we have a Ninja at home. I would say they are not an unusual case. Someone’s gotta support Starbucks if you can find one on every single corner.
I wasn’t arguing other people don’t order frappicinos, I’m just pointing out that shouldn’t preclude you from enjoying a nice cup of coffee.
For the first 35+ years of my life I was with you on no coffee. Only in the last year or so have I started to drink it a few times a week. And, I don’t know, I think it’s just OK, which is admittedly an unusual take considering 99% of the population seemingly loves coffee and 1% is vocal about not liking it at all. Good enough in the morning but I don’t feel like it gives much a boost or changes much.
I just get it plain but my work installed a new fancy machine and it makes a french vanilla flavor that is a little sweet and actually very good. Not the excess of some of those crazy store bought drinks but a nice treat.
I also started at 35+. I got a Nespresso machine for my wedding, despite the fact neither myself or my wife drank espresso, and randomly tried a chai latte somewhere and loved it. So I drink a dirty chai every morning and sometimes a cappuccino in the afternoon. Regular coffee is still way too bitter and I cannot drink it without tons of sugar, so I don’t.
As far as the cost goes, fortunately (ironically fortunately?), the chai latte you buy has soooo much sugar, so I make my own masala chai, and once in a while sweeten it with maple syrup, but mostly just let the earthy flavors do the talking. Keeps the cost and the sugar way down.
I do get excited when I travel to find local coffee shops and order a dirty chai. Some are great, some are just sweet. It’s always crazy to me that a small is usually $7-8, while I spend about $1.50-2.00 making it at home. That still adds up over the year, but it is sooooo worth it.
Wow, it looks like we have an 18 Stripes “started drinking coffee after 35” club. My wife got me started in recent years after decades of me avoiding coffee. My go-to is simply iced coffee black
Do I change my ways to get into the club??
I’ve drank coffee on and off over the years, in the Navy, similar to More Noise’s story below, and the cappuccino’s in Italy, but was never hooked. Then my wife saw a You Tube video of a woman discussing her morning routine, and how she had quiet time in the morning with a cup of coffee. My wife being who she is went out and bought a coffee pot to emulate this influencer. I being who I am, could not let half a pot of coffee got to waste, so i started drinking it. Now it is two to three cups a day. Whatever it takes to finish the pot off. So i could be in that 35+ club as an honorary member.
You’re in! I didn’t realize we would have such strength in numbers
After a year in the XFL, Jack Coan has been invited to the Jets minicamp this weekend and to the Seahawks’ minicamp next weekend. Neither team drafted a QB. Drew Lock and Zach Wilson are their backups. Wilson has over $20 mill left on the two years left on his contract. Lock is a free agent next year after signing a one year contract of $4 million with only a $!.7 million dead cap hit. Coan started seven games for San Antonio.
After the latest rounds of transfers, Colorado has sixty-six players on scholarship. Colorado has 349 offers out for the Class of 2024. Half of the twenty-six players who transferred out after the spring game were from their Class of 2022. Of those 2022 twenty-five enrollees, only five remain. Colorado has seen 34 players transfers in, another twenty from their 2023 recruiting class, the five from 2022 and the remaining seven are from other Colorado recruiting classes.
There’s certainly a scholarship available for this former Buff player – if he chooses to.
Football: Chance Main exploring options for next season, could return to CU Buffs
That is a whole lot of pulling the band aid off quickly instead of slowly. This is certainly a very entertaining path. I wonder if it will be emulated if he is even moderately successful – or if it even can be copied.
I have to imagine that plan was discussed during the hiring talks and that the barrier to firing is pretty high for the first couple of years. I would think that the AD staff might still be a little shell shocked about the scope. Only 66 scholarship players is great for Athletic Department profits though.
I dont know what the average % loss of players due to injury is per season…call it 10%. If they lose those 6-7 players, they are in the 50s and I would guess that the amount of players injured might be higher due to more players playing more roles.
I feel for the guys who signed on through the portal. Did they truly understand what they were getting into?
Will we see a similar rush (in or out) when we see Coach Prime’s results on the field?
Wait, won’t just fill back up to 85 from the portal again? So they won’t be short bodies to start the season in all likelihood.
My guess is that this season will be a disaster for Colorado — like 1-11 or 0-12. Wouldn’t surprise me if they have to declare “open tryouts” midseason and run some hopeless walk-ons out there.
I think all Prime needs to do is go like 6-6/7-5 at some point within the next 3-4 seasons. Both he and ESPN will hail it as the greatest coaching performance in the history of sports, and someone will take a flyer on him with a huge contract, and he’ll be off to his next grift. Oh, and it’ll be nice that his kids will have graduated from Colorado around then too.
Dude is just vile. He describes players as “furniture.” I am rooting for him to fail.
I think he probably has to go 5-7/6-6 in his 2nd year to keep this thing going especially if it is another 1-11 or worse in his first year. And then keep improving. Otherwise the whole thing may implode. It’s hard not to imagine that players would stop wanting to come try to play there if they think they might just get run off very easily (easier it seems than at other programs anyway).
Their schedule is pretty tough by P5 standards with OOC meetings @TCU, Nebraska, Colorado State. And they got most of the tougher PAC teams too, USC, Oregon, Utah.
I saw an over-under at 4.5. I might still go under.
Good points. It’s an extreme example of the Transfer Portal impacts. He skimmed off the best players from Jacksonville State, which moves to FBS this year. Three of the seven upper classmen at Colorado are starters. The Covid year may prolong the time this year’s transfers stay.
The scholarship chart shows six of eleven WRs are from the ’23 class. At running back, he only recruited Dylan Edwards. They are favored to land Houston’s RB, who ran for almost 1000 yds last year. The domino effect would probably drive out the current second string RB who ranked as the last player in the ’22 class. Could that transfer drive the transfer currently at first string out too? He was probably transferred from Kentucky with the idea he would start. At QB, four or five from the previous roster left.
Some players who moved on said the coaching staff mostly ignored them, concentrating on “their” players. Prime said players had to earn their jersey, which probably translated to scholarship. Those were awarded after the spring game.
I imagine transfers this year might slow if they think they cannot compete for a starting position. How long can they keep Sean Lewis?
How’s that Mel Tucker extension looking?
That contract is starting to look like the worst in college football history. The only competition I can think of is our own Charles J. Weis.
Weis got paid like $15M in buyout money. It was a lot then, but teams pay more than double that now to run off good coaches (Gus Malzahn), let alone bad ones.
Well, I meant more in the sense of handing a head coach a huge (for the time), 100% guaranteed contract based on nothing other than a surprisingly good performance against a rival.
Mel & Charlie, quoting the IRA –
“We only have to get lucky once”
All other coaches should send him a Christmas card for raising the bar on their own salaries.
A small part of me is convinced Brian Kelly was settling into contentment to coach a few more years at ND and ride off into the sunset but then saw the deals that guys like Tucker and Franklin were getting as was like “whoa, whoa, whoa, those guys aren’t even that good, I can make HOW much for how long?”
I’m pretty sure someone asked him in 2021 how much it would take for him to leave, and he said $100 million…which is about what he and Tucker got.
Man that whole thing is so weird in retrospect.
Try having a second child. I was on the 4 cups in a lifetime plan until we had the boy. Now I have many.
Or, come to France… before I came, American coffee truly repulsed me. Either :
1, sort of brown colored heated water with not a very good taste that left coffee breath (this was before Starbucks and all those weird flavors came to the US);
2, or the absolutely vile brew that my operations sergeant would make in the TOC out in the field which I would drink to get a jolt of caffeine in urgent need (this was before energy drinks).
Here, everyone daily drank — and still does drink bless their little French hearts — a couple or three small cups of expresso, or a slightly larger cup of slightly less string coffee, or in the morning that with cream (actual cream).
None of the weirdness and all the bennies!
So another reason to pack the family and come over, Eric.
Speaking seriously of reasons, the ND women’s BB team is opening against South Carolina here in Paris in November.
Plus, it’s not Paris, but I did get tickets for ND-Navy in Dublin, and have two I could reserve for 18 Stripes colleagues, per my previous messages months ago!