Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Construction at the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium means the Florida-Georgia rivalry could be played on campus for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
Ohio State has added a home game against Marshall for 2024. YouSureAboutThat.gif 🙂
Nebraska quarterback Casey Thompson left Lincoln recently and is transferring to FAU.
Fresno State is adding a $250 million athletic upgrades that will include renovations to their football stadium.
Nobody panic!
Notre Dame may be in line for a new apparel sponsor.
The Irish’s exclusive negotiating window with Under Armour has expired, sources tell @SINow, thrusting arguably college football’s most valuable brand into the open markethttps://t.co/hXdq2uUH1h
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) May 11, 2023
The Division of Criminal Investigations is looking into sports wagering violations at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.
The father of former Dawgs offensive lineman Devin Willock is suing the Georgia athletic association for $2 million in a wrongful death suit over his son’s fatal car crash earlier this year.
Uniform of the Week
Tennessee State comes to Notre Dame this week and I was recently looking over their uniforms. Just last year, they debuted a new helmet logo with the “TSU” on one side and the player number on the other. This coincided with their switch to Under Armour–imagine the branding opportunities for these schools in South Bend later this fall! With Nike, the Tigers had a weird “sTu” styled helmet which looked like a poor man’s version of Texas A&M.
Let me guess which color combinations Tennessee State will wear against Notre Dame. I will say they’ll go with something weird like a black helmet, white jersey, and blue pants. And if not that, my second guess is all-white which gives off some Kansas vibes. Maybe they will try to find some favor with the pope on this visit.
Recruiting
Top safety Jordan Pride (0.9560) has committed to Texas A&M.
Oregon picked up a verbal from cornerback Ify Obidegwu (0.9517).
Defensive lineman Kellen Lindstrom (0.9178) has joined Tennessee’s class.
Wide receiver Izaiah Williams (0.9014) committed to Florida.
Interior offensive lineman Paki Finau (0.9108) committed to Washington.
YouTube Channel
I first heard of the game GeoGuessr via students from my wife’s math class. If you haven’t played it, here’s how it works: You’re basically dropped into a Google Street View of somewhere in the world and you have to guess your exact location. There are a variety of different games to play but for the most part you get more points for the closer your guess is to your actual location.
It’s pretty difficult to play, of course. As such, I actually find more enjoyment watching other people play who are really smart with world surroundings. There’s even a difficult level where you can’t move the Google Street View camera at all. No looking to the left or right, or behind you, and no zooming in. The folks who are champions of this game may be the best people to take with you on a world adventure. They simply can never get lost. At least you would hope.
Tunes
I saw there is a fresh New York Times profile of Elizabeth Holmes before she heads to prison for her role as CEO in the Theranos scandal. I only bring this up because it was mentioned in the piece that she was home with her young son and new baby while listening to Ace of Base’s “All That She Wants.” Funny enough, I had just heard this song for the first time in forever.
This song is a certified banger. I can remember Ace of Base absolutely blowing up internationally in late 1993 based off their other hit single “The Sign” a song which they recorded for their debut North American album under the same name. The album has sold over 21 million copies! I’ve always liked “All That She Wants” for the random “She lives a lonely life” stand alone phrase to start the song, plus that sweet, sweet and catchy saxophone riff.
Trivia
What is the lowest attended non-Covid season (2020) football game Notre Dame has played in since 2019?
The Other Football
Two thunderbolt strikes allowed Manchester City and Real Madrid to draw 1-1 in the semifinals of the Champions League. Two early goals by Inter Milan allowed them to breeze past AC Milan in the other semi-final game.
The NWSL is currently at 12 teams, plans to expand to 14 teams next season, and announced new plans to expand to 16 teams for the 2026 season.
Sergio Busquets is leaving Barcelona after 15 years with the first team when his contract winds down this summer.
One of the most incredible streaks in professional sports came to an end recently as the Barcelona women drew Sevilla 1-1 on Wednesday. Their 62-game winning streak in La Liga F is finished, although they haven’t been beaten since June 2021.
Streaming
Count me among those who watched Arrested Development a few years too late. In fact, I never would’ve guessed the show debuted in 2003(!) with how much of a lasting impact it’s had on the culture, and I only have a vague memory of it being broadcast on Fox. At a much later date, I bought the 3-season DVD collection and poured through the series. Today, I have nowhere to play DVD’s in the house and the collection was likely bought in a yard sale.
The eccentricity of gags is an excellent summation of the Arrested Development framework of comedy. I would have to put the Tobias Fünke character in the pantheon of comedic delivery in sitcom history. The whole performance from David Cross in this series was a masterpiece. He’s also a pretty decent standup comedian, as well.
A Look Back
I was looking over some NFL Draft coverage and noticed that BYU quarterback Jaren Hall was picked in the 5th round (164th overall) by the Vikings. I guess I didn’t do enough pre-draft research because I did not see that coming from a 6’0″ tall quarterback who was a 2016 recruit and never displayed great arm strength. If you recall, we mentioned Hall was in the same recruiting class as Ian Book, and like Book, got selected way ahead of forecasts in the draft.
So, Drew Pyne out-dueled a NFL Draft pick in last year’s Shamrock Series game. This was an excuse to post the highlights from that game. BYU would lose their next 3 after this game, as well. But they did finish 8-5. Looking back, Hall did not play very well and I think there was some injury issue he was dealing with throughout, too.
18S Paddock Club
Lady Luck was smiling on Sergio Perez who came into this past weekend just 6 points off the lead for the F1 world championship. During the Miami GP qualifying his teammate Max Verstappen lost it just enough to shut down his first run in Q3 and a late red flag crash from Charles Leclerc gave Perez pole for Sunday’s race. Verstappen’s time from Q2 would’ve been good enough for pole but he ended up starting from P9.
Perez was able to get a good start to the race and build a comfortable lead over Fernando Alonso, but the lead would prove to be too small. By lap 14, Verstappen had moved into 3rd and passed Alonso on the next lap. Even on hard tires, Verstappen was readying to pass Perez before the latter took to the pit lane for new hard tires of his own. Although he quickly moved back to 2nd, Perez couldn’t chip away at Verstappen’s lead nearly enough.
When Verstappen finally came into pit for medium tires on lap 46, Perez barely re-took the lead with the Dutchman coming out on fresh tires right behind him. On the start of lap 48, Verstappen passed Perez through turn 1 for good and would go on for the victory.
Absolutely savage from Verstappen.
It was a statement win for Verstappen, and maybe one of the best of his career. The hard tires did not degrades nearly enough once again and Verstappen took full advantage. It looked like Perez may head into the week off with the championship lead but instead his deficit grows to 14 points in the tight battle between the Red Bull drivers. Other notes from the race:
- Alonso picked up his 4th podium of the season while in contrast teammate Lance Stroll didn’t get out of Q1 or finish in the points. Yikes!
- Lewis Hamilton rose from P13 to P6 while George Russell had a solid P4 finish. At times, things looked rough for Mercedes but they bag 20 points and look poised to eventually take over 2nd place in the Constructor’s Championship.
- Chaos happens again for Ferrari who saw Carlos Sainz stuck in the mud falling from P3 to finish P5. Even worse, Charles Leclerc crashed in practice and qualifying then looked dreadful in the race finishing P7.
- Kevin Magnussen started in P4 but finished P10 in a scrappy Haas. Pierre Gasly started P5 but was passed later in the race by Russell, Hamilton, and Leclerc to finish P8.
- One race after showing some signs of life, the McLaren cars finished P17 and P19, with Oscar Piastri getting lapped. In their defense, both cars dealt with mechanical issues.
- Yuki Tsunoda’s perfect record in qualifying against teammate Nyck de Vries came to an end but the latter struggled mightily in the race again (braking into Norris at turn 1 of the race start) and there are whispers of discontent about his place in AlphaTauri’s number 2 seat.
F1 is off this weekend and will come back for the first of a triple header at Imola in Italy.
Trivia Answer:
Stanford, 2021, 31,571 attending
Trivia: At Stanford, 2021? Terrible Stanford team, Stanford has no fans, and bad weather IIRC (although I may be mixing that up with the 2019 game).
Got itttttt.
No way was attendance that high either, that stadium was a ghost town
2 of the last 3 ND games I’ve been to:
2019 Stanford in palo alto (shitty rain storm no one there, we murdered them), that game HAD to have had like 200 people?
2022 Boston college in the blizzard, which may be the most fun I’ve ever had at a ND game ever. Ben morrisons 3rd pick pretty much caused the place to erupt, all not many thousands of us.
I do enjoy horrible weather ND beatdown of teams I despise. Hopefully we schedule marshall in a hurricane, as that was game 3
I’m surprised there wasn’t more freaking out about the Dellenger note. I didn’t make much of it, but Tom Loy talking about Nike being a likely leader at this point had me perk up. Would be pretty big, just hope it’s not the Jumpman brand.
I’m not getting my hopes up, but also LFG.
It’s going to be New Balance, isn’t it?
New balance for shoes, Hanes for undergarments, Riddell for helmets, Champion for sports garments…. they are going to squeeze every penny they can out of the new uniforms. They are going to be getting more money from uniform sponsorship than the BIG does for TV rights.
I definitely worry still that we’ll let exclusive negotiating windows expire in order to solicit competing proposals to paper the final decision, which will be to stay with our excellent current partners with whom we have a history of operational successes. I’ve seen a lot, and participated in some, basically fake RFP processes where the decision was made in advance.
I think the hole in this theory is “have a history of operational successes” — Under Armour is a falling star and based on cutting their UCLA contract, arguably pivoting out of the college sports realm completely. Based on falling stock price, I don’t think it could be considered much of a success for ND or UA.
One area that would be very interesting and the chance to be a leader, as Andy Staples wrote in The Athletic, is have the school do a deal for apparel (which then could bring in non-shoe companies to the table to sponsor jerseys) and leave the shoe deals out there for the players to make money individually by bringing their own deals on. Not sure how lucrative that would be for them but a good way to have Notre Dame’s intended NIL for endorsements instead of inducements.
I think it’s going to be Target’s in-house brand, All in Motion. And I will be racking up muy 5% RedCard discounts.
Down to 81, even carrying over the two walk on scholarships from last year.
I think it’s 81 counting all three of Salerno, Vinson, and Sherwood. So hopefully we’re hot on the trail finding some pieces to strengthen our two deep, because it seems like we’ll have a bit of space.
Correct. At this point I am assuming certainly Milk and Salerno are just going to get scholarships for next year no matter what, likely Sherwood too even though ideally he probably should be like 86 instead of 81. But as usual, plenty of room to add at some positions where they’re light.
ISD saying he’s going to med school. Good for him.
That may explain why he never broke out on the field. Pre-med is no joke if your serious about going to med-school after, takes a ton of focus.
If ND isn’t going to change in regards to accepting undergrad transfers, looks like the recruiting classes will be getting even bigger in order to stay close to 85
Agree, can probably easily plan to shoot for 25+ each year, especially in the near-future with the extra COVID eligibility logjam about to clear up.
Sitting at 81 with:
-15 graduate students this year, almost all of which I assume either can’t be back for 2024 or won’t want to return
-10 more players in the senior class where only a handful of them might be back at this point.
-Add in a few more inevitable under-classman defections
Math doesn’t get hard to track towards 30 being feasible to take in 2024, if they can and assuming they don’t get too many transfers with extra eligibility like the Rhode Island kid they’re chasing. Class is at 15 commits currently. Maybe makes it make sense why they can take a few flyers on lower end developmental kids with their numbers being thin.
“Maybe makes it make sense why they can take a few flyers on lower end developmental kids with their numbers being thin.”
Looks like they just got a commitment from one of them…
Yep, exactly what I had in mind. If you’re pushing out to 26 or 27+ on a regular basis, you have to fill with quantity at some point. I’m sure they’ll take all the top 200-300 quality guys that they can convince to come, but they gotta find extra numbers somewhere too.
And, hey, at least those guys are probably less likely to leave 1-2 years in, right? (Though I suppose Jay Brunelle in those same shoes leaving after one year might point to the reality that in this day and age no one is ever truly safe from being a portal possibility).
Arrested Development story: as a gringo from the edge of Amish Country in Northern Indiana (mmm, could go for a nice pie from the Come and Dine in Wakarusa right now) I randomly ended up fluent in Spanish. Also, I have two sons.
So of course whenever I’m looking for one of them and I find his brother instead, I always say “I’m looking for the one they call ‘hermano'” in my best. G.O.B. voice. One day they’re going to see that clip and finally realize what I’ve been telling them all these years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZeReWlE6ak
ANUSTART
Notes on three former ND players chances of making NFL rosters this year
— Jack Coan impressed at jets minicamp. HC Robert Saleh said. “I thought he did a really nice job, really impressed everybody. I know we’re going to go back, watch his tape real quick just to see if there’s more of a discussion to be had.” Coan is at Seattle’s minicamp this weekend.
— Jarrett Patterson is in an excellent position with the Texans, who need improvement at the Center position. Texans starter at center last year, Scott Quessenberry was ranked 36th of 36 Centers by PFF. Some have speculated that he may see more playing time at Center than their second round pick, Juice Scruggs, out of Penn State.
— Joshua Lugg, who signed a contract with Chicago after their minicamp, has a decent chance to make their roster. His versatility is attractive as the Bears refashion their Offensive Line. Currently, he is the third string RG behind backup Dieter Eiselen, an UDFA signed in 2020 who spent most of last year on the Practice Squad.
In PFF”S ranking of the top 10 college offensive coordinators, Alabama’s Tommy Rees is ranked tenth.
That’s because Rees is wearing Bama apparel now — enjoying a bump in the rankings by being associated with Saban
I think we all know who the real “sTu” is:
Loved that movie as a kid.