Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden has signed a new 4-year contract to stay in South Bend through the 2027 season. The Irish also promoted Max Bullough to linebackers coach, cornerback coach Mike Mickens to defensive back coach, and running backs coach Deland McCullough to associate head coach.
Jac Collinsworth is no longer the Notre Dame on NBC play-by-play man and will be replaced by Dan Hicks.
The College Football Playoff has officially voted in the new 5+7 format effective for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Now there will be only 5 automatic qualifier spots for conference champions with the collapse of the Pac-12.
Also, a 14-team playoff for 2026 was discussed this week at CFP meetings. According to Ross Dellenger from Yahoo Sports, the SEC and Big Ten are pushing for a larger pool of automatic qualifiers in a 14-team field that would preserve 1 AQ spot for the Group of 5, with possibly as many as 12 AQ slots overall, and byes to the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country. Reportedly, the Big Ten and SEC want 4 AQ spots EACH and are lobbying for this to happen.
The Pac-12 has fired commissioner George Kliavkoff. The presidents of Oregon State and Washington State have appointed Teresa Gould as the new commissioner.
Alabama has hired Nick Sheridan as offensive coordinator with JaMarcus Shepard as co-offensive coordinator.
Notre Dame has officially announced the program will be in the upcoming NCAA Football 25 video game this summer. Additionally, more details have come out about the game including:
- Players who opt in to the game will receive $600 and a free copy
- NIL will be a part of the game in dynasty and Road to Glory modes
- The transfer portal will be included
- All 134 FBS teams, the 12-team playoff, and all bowl games will be present
- Conference customization will be included in some form
- Players will not be allowed to create an athlete who does not opt in to being in the game
- FCS will not be included for this year but is a focus for future games
- Real-life coaches will not be in the game, but could be in the future
- Playbooks based on each school’s identity will be in the game
- All 2024 uniforms, plus alternates will be included
Statement from University VP and AD Jack Swarbrick on EA Sports College Football video game series and continued support of our student-athletes and NIL https://t.co/vOLotEq0hT pic.twitter.com/q576dwFnCx
— Notre Dame Football PR Team (@NDFootballPR) February 20, 2024
Desiree Reed-Francois is moving from Missouri to Arizona as their new athletic director.
Steve Sarkisian’s raise with Texas has been passed and he’ll be making $10.3 million per year.
Uniform of the Week
I was watching some college hoops this past weekend and caught the end of the Ohio State upset over Purdue. During that game they were showing some highlights of USF caught my attention. They ended up beating no. 24 FAU by 4 at home but I was drawn to their uniforms, of course. Check out this shade of green!
I poked around their social media and apparently they are calling this color ‘slime’ and they’ve used a few different iterations of this shade over the past several years. I think it looks pretty interesting with the black trim. Of course this reminds everyone of the old Notre Dame shamrock shake basketball uniforms. Will they ever be brought back?
Recruiting
Notre Dame picked up a commitment from Ohio wide receiver Shaun Terry (0.8750) on Sunday. A couple days later, Connecticut offensive lineman Matty Augustine (0.8859) also committed to the Irish.
Running back Deondrae Riden (0.9237) committed to Texas A&M.
Interior offensive lineman Peyton Joseph (0.9485) gave a verbal to Florida.
YouTube Channel
Jaromir Jagr turned 52 years old this month and is only experiencing his 6th season without NHL hockey. Recently, the Pittsburgh Penguins retired his no. 68 and sent it to the rafters at the PPG Paints Arena to join Mario Lemieux and Michel Briere. Of course, Jagr played his entire career with Pittsburgh at the old Civic Center aka “The Igloo.” He ended his NHL career with an eye-watering 1,921 points and 766 goals. What’s even more fun, is that Jagr is still playing professional hockey to this day.
Back in his native Czech Republic, he’s still suiting up for his local Kladno Knights and played in 15 games so far in 2023-24, or roughly half of the games. So far, he’s been held without a goal and has picked up 4 assists. Jagr clearly isn’t married, although he is currently dating someone. Can anyone get him to finally hang up the skates? Will it ever happen?
Tunes
I’ve been checking out as many NPR Tiny Desk concerts as I can while surfing YouTube and the British rock band Idles popped up recently. Is anyone a big fan of the group? This performance below from the summer of 2019 was pretty fun. Lead singer Joe Talbot seems like quite an interesting front man. He’s had a really challenging life but packs such a great rock voice with this band.
Idles released their 5th studio album Tangk just a few days ago and are making the rounds across the United States to promote it. I like their sounds in small doses but overall wouldn’t enjoy listening to a full album I don’t think. I do like the vibes of the band, though. I feel like the world needs more musicians and groups that write and perform songs like this. Just to get the juices flowing once and a while.
Trivia
What were the names of the brothers who wrote the Notre Dame “Victory March”?
The Other Football
The top 4 in the Premier League all won this past weekend with Liverpool then holding a slim 1-point advantage over Manchester City for the top spot. Spurs lost to Wolves and are just 3 points ahead of Manchester United for 5th place. Liverpool won Wednesday 4-1 against Luton Town and push their 1st place lead back to 4 points.
In the Champions League round of 16, a late stunner by Porto saw them past Arsenal 1-0 during the 1st leg. In other action, Barcelona and Napoli drew 1-1.
Liverpool foward Diogo Jota is out several months with a leg injury.
USWNT winger Mia Fishel has torn her ACL. The Americans opened up the Gold Cup on Tuesday with a dominant 5-0 win over the Dominican Republic.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s deal for a controlling stake in Manchester United has finally gone through.
TV & Movies
I finished Full Speed on Netflix last week and immersed myself in the NASCAR culture with some college football overlap thanks to reporter Marty Smith to make me feel comfortable. I enjoyed the documentary and randomly lucked into seeing the end of the rain-delayed Daytona 500 on Monday night, won by former sim racer William Byron. As I watched the show, I felt like NASCAR was trying to achieve two things to project to a wider audience.
One, they wanted to make the drivers seem cool and personable. That’s pretty normal and I think they did an okay job with that angle. The second part is that the documentary seemed like one long infomercial trying to explain the sport’s complicated playoff format. Denny Hamlin really took center stage as they juxtaposed all of his race wins but without a championship title to his name.
A Look Back
The 1992 season came up in this week’s edition of the Best Decisions in Notre Dame Football History as the movie Rudy was filmed using gameday footage from a couple home games that year. That led me to search out some 1992 stuff. I found this season recap video and I do believe that’s Tom Hammond voicing everything. The announcer GOAT had just taken over the play-calling duties on NBC for 1992 only (at first) but as we know he would come back to the booth in the coming years.
This season was so loaded at the top. Would Notre Dame have been a championship option if they hadn’t tied Michigan? That loss to Stanford certainly will sting forever. Alabama went undefeated for the title, Florida State lost only once with an Orange Bowl win over Nebraska, Miami beat Florida State but lost to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, Michigan never lost but tied 3(!) times, and Texas A&M didn’t lose until meeting Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl.
18S Paddock Club
Alert! We have cars on track as Formula 1 testing began in the wee hours (American time) Wednesday morning and will continue through Friday afternoon. Next weekend the 75th season of F1 officially begins with the Bahrain Grand Prix, held 1 day earlier (Saturday) due to Ramadan coming up soon. The upcoming Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will also be on a Saturday, too.
Now for some 2024 predictions…
2024 Driver Champion – Max Verstappen
Red Bull have introduced some impressive and aggressive upgrades to their 2024 car so far and while it’s bold and potentially a leap that could backfire it’s also likely the car remains well above the rest of the field. With Verstappen behind the wheel–and looking awfully comfortable so far during testing–it seems super unlikely anyone will stop him from becoming the 4th driver to win 4 F1 championships in a row.
2nd Place Constructor – McLaren
I’m basing this on a few things. One, the trajectory that McLaren showed in the 2nd half of 2023. Two, their driving duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri is young and super talented with comfortable long-term contracts. Three, they might benefit from the driver drama at Ferrari and Mercedes who need to find someone for their seats in 2025.
Last Place Constructor – Haas
This is not a serious F1 team.
The Red Bull RB20 looks like yet another beast from the team.
Biggest Improve in Points Per Race from 2023 – Yuki Tsunoda
I would pick Danny Ricciardo here but it would be cheating since he didn’t get a full season last year. Either way, the revamped Visa Cashapp RB team will probably be the most improved car on the grid and I think both Ricciardo and Tsunoda are going to be a pain in the butt for other midfield drivers.
Driver Move that Won’t Go Away – Fernando Alonso
He’s going to spend this entire season stoking the flames that he’s an option to move to Mercedes.
If There’s a Mid-Season Driver Firing – Guanyu Zhou
Logan Sargeant having a 2nd season at Williams and then being tossed is the too easy pick here. I’ll predict Kick Sauber cave under the pressure from a very underwhelming 3rd season by Zhou and decided to promote promising 20 year-old French driver Theo Pourchaire who just won F2 last year and still doesn’t have a seat in F1.
Most Anticipated Race – China
This race hasn’t been held since April 2019! I’m not even sure what the Covid situation is like currently in Shanghai or if this race will take place again but it’s only a couple months away.
The Next Circuit Cut from the Calendar – Imola
Currently, there are no circuit contracts up after 2024 following the signing of a new deal at Silverstone in England which was a foregone conclusion. However, a few are up after 2025 and the Imola track in Italy is definitely first on the chopping block to get removed as F1 seeks to expand the calendar to other places of the world.
Trivia Answer:
Michael and John Shea.
According to Nicole Auerback of The Athletic is reporting the NCAA is expected to move Early Signing Day before the opening of the Transfer Portal, which occured this year on Dec 3 perhaps by two to three weeks.
From another Athletic article, one hundred and forty Quarterbacks transferred so far with the Spring portal still to go. The total number of QB transfers were 136 last year and 130 the previous year. Strap in for the last two weeks of April transfers.
Angel Reese of the national champions LSU womens basketball team denied trademark for her nickname “Bayou Barbie”.
Caitlin Clark, after setting the college women’s basketball all time scoring record, has became the Fanatics’ top-selling college athlete in the NIL Era last week passing the previous high seller, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders. In less than twenty-four hours after she broke the scoring record, more Clark-branded merchandise was sold than any other individual men’s or women’s NIL college athlete across all sports has sold since 2022 when NIL merchandise began. Represented by Excel Sports Management, she has inked NIL brand deals with State Farm, Gatorade, Hy-Vee and Nike. One of the top sellers of Nike apparel is with the phrase, “You break it, you own it”, referring to her record-setting achievement. On3 estimates the total value of those partnerships at $818,000. As a pro in the WNBA, the maximum salary she could earn is $250,000.
A couple weeks ago there was speculation the CFP would move second round playoff games to home venues and I said there was no way sec/big 10 would concede that for the 2nd place teams and as long as ND was on equal footing with the second place sec/big 10 team nd was still in great shape. Well i’m right the big 2 conferences were not conceding anything, but 4 AQ per conference seems like it would be bad for nd and nd would no longer be on equal footing as sec/big 10 number 2
Yeah, not great it would seem. Using the good teams from last year (but in their new conferences):
BIG: Michigan, Washington, Ohio State, Oregon all AQ
SEC: Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri all AQ
ACC: Florida State AQ
Big 12: Arizona AQ
G5: Liberty AQ
Who gets the 12th AQ slot? The next highest ranked P5 team? Penn State AQ.
I would hope a provision is built in where ND gets an AQ slot if ranked top X somewhere?
I guess the only major issue is if the SEC and B1G really start beating up on each other (clearly they are worried about this!) they are getting lots of teams in no matter what.
Dellenger’s article also mentioned the AQ status would come from conference standings. So theoretically in the SEC:
1st Georgia 10-3
2nd Alabama 9-4
3rd Texas 8-4
4th Florida 8-4
I can see a lot of problems with how those teams with AQ status are seeded versus a 10-2 Notre Dame.
It’s darkly funny watching people start to realize what a bad postseason model this is, and that it was always a fig leaf for a power grab by ESPN, the SEC, and the B1G.
The “good” news, such as it is, is that I don’t think this model will last more than about 4-5 seasons. Maybe less.
It’s exactly why I didn’t want a playoff. Before there was a playoff, the answer to how to win the title was almost always easy: Be in a power 6 conference – Big East still existed, remember – and win all your games. (Sorry Auburn 2004, but when there are 3 unbeatens and you’re the only one to not play anyone good out of conference, you get bounced.) Maybe it was weird and crazy, but all the big boys were being treated more or less equally and even the Purdues of the world had a chance if everything broke right.
Now we have a system that effectively ensures the current elites will never miss a playoff again, none of the underlings will ever have a chance to win it all because even a perfect run of good luck will end with them having to beat at least 3 more great teams in a row at the end (including probably at least 1 of the teams it already beat), 2 of the conferences are taking it over and trying to shut everyone else out (including ND, if needed), and the selection committee can make whatever decisions it wants and answer to no one.
Give me back the BCS.
Completely agree and always have.
I disagree with the last statement. Think of ND in the first week’s games as playing their thirteenth game similar to the conference championship teams. Iowa, Oregon, Georgia, Louisville, and Oklahoma State would have played their thirteenth as would the conference champions. Third place teams like Ohio State would really have an advantage last year with that week off similar to ND.
As losers their rankings would have dropped perhaps below ND’s, if they had been ranked above. ND would have had two weeks off before their next game and possibly at home vs a neutral site, while those second place conference teams would have had a one week turnaround with an extra game.
With the BIG (and SEC) more competitive this year and without divisions, we could well see their champion emerge with two losses, especially if the SEC move to nine conference games. Both conferences may start lightening their non-conference games further. Does Michigan, Wisconsin, USC, or Penn State, or others want to play ND in non-conference games? Fans and media contractors may want to see us play A&M, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, or Georgia. National rankings with losses to ND would disadvantage them.
Indies- that first song grabbed my ear, the 2nd, nah that’s enough, small doses indeed.
Pat Haden, Tom Hammond.
Idles
Oops, thanks. …..BTW…Not a big fan of Dan Hicks’ schtick.
Isn’t Dan Hicks fairly milquetoast? He’s the other Olympic swimmer guy, right?
Hicks was ND’s play-by-play announcer from 2013-2016, between Hammond and Tirico.
I thought he was fine. Certainly more knowledgeable than Hammond or Collinsworth, but not nearly as good as Tirico.
He’s better at golf.
‘Fine’ and ‘milquetoast’ are great descriptors of Hicks.
I’d rather have had Burmeister.
Hannah pulled some strings ?
Tirico was obviously the best we have ever had or will ever have in the booth, but we knew in real time it wasn’t to last – he was biding his time until Al Michaels left SNF, which is why he signed with NBC in the first place.
Dan Hicks is such a massive upgrade over Jac – and I agree milquetoast is a reasonably fair description; way better than Jac – that I’m not going to critique the choice.
Imagine a Jac/Flutie booth. Terrible to even contemplate.
The homers like Finebaum and Friedlander (ACC) are dusting off their “ND will have to join a conference now” articles. leaning now towards ND in the ACC since our other sports are there.
Applying an ACC type schedule hypothetically to our 2023 it would be eight conference games, a G5 (N. Illinois or Miami (O)) and a FCS game (Army). Add USC and Navy for our last two games to complete the schedule. Yuck.
Or like Clemson, FSU, Louisville, Georgia Tech, etc. we have an annual rivalry game – USC – and Navy is our substitute FCS (or G5) game so that we could include Purdue and A&M. Not a lot of flexibility and less watchability. I really don’t think Navy gets dropped nor do I care much if Clemson plays SC State or NC plays NC A&T. At least we have home-and-homes with Navy and travel to Dublin, San Diego, Jacksonville, etc rather than a no contest buy-in game.
Ah, 1992. I was at the Penn State game, seats on the 10 yard line, felt like the TD and the 2 point conversion were coming right at me. Pretty cool memories for a 16 year old kid.
What’s an associate Head Coach? And how is it not one of the OC’s? Like, what if associate head coach McCullough wants the offense to do one thing, and actual OC Denbrock wants something else? Whatever, if it keeps McCullough here I’m fine with it.
Oh my yes, 1992. Thanks for the memories, Eric and fightin_eyerash. That was a hell of a team, super loaded, and if there was a 12 team playoff I am convinced we would have gone all the way. I was in the Pentagon still working for GEN Powell, we had won the war, he liked football and let me back for three games
— Penn State, loved the snow and how great to beat Joe Pa,
— Michigan, same end zone as you f_e for Penn State, and Reggie Brooks came right at me on the TD and I could hear the hit that knocked him out, my 2 year old (first game) said Daddy is Reggie all right;
— Stanford oh lord what pain. Bill Walsh was for sure a great coach, but… that game was what got me starting to worry about the crowd. Hot day, absolutely zero enthusiasm, flat as hell, which heterodyned with the team.
It was sweet to beat the Aggies.
In reality, an associate head coach is nothing other than an excuse to pay more money to a guy you don’t want to leave, but FWIW, multiple colleges enumerate the duties of an associate HC such that they basically assist the HC with administrative matters.
Jagr also played for the Capitals, Rangers and Panthers toward the end of his career in the NHL as he was collecting dollars.
The rumor when he was here in DC was that he had to keep playing because he liked to gamble too much and was not particularly good at it.
We saw him when he was here, season ticket holder, and he was pretty much done at that point, but I think he spent two more years with Florida. He was still a good shot, but lacked the speed and power that made him a great player in Pittsburgh.
We are seeing that with Ovechkin now. Some of the shots he is taking would have been goals three or four years ago, but now are not fast enough and the goalie can react. Kind of sad, but what is probably worse is that he is still the third best goal scorer on the team. However, this will be the first year since he was a rookie that he will not lead, or tie for the lead, in goals on the team.
Jagr played 12 more seasons in the NHL after he left the Capitals, unless you’re saying that you saw him when he was with the Devils, only 3 seasons after that.
He’s now in his 36th professional season, and 6 seasons out of the NHL as part owner/player with Klando, who have variable advertising rates for games that Jagr plays vs all other games. Absolutely crazy career and life.
Only saw him with or against the Caps. Knew I should have looked it up.
On Ovi, You can’t discount Backstrom being out. Jagr had a stint in Boston too. Had lost some speed but was still a load with the puck.
When it comes to their overall catalog, Idles is really hit and miss for me, but I really like a handful of their songs, especially live versions. This version of Danny Nedelko at Glastonbury back in 2019 was from when they first broke fairly big, which is hard as hell for a punk band, and in front of a lot of their people since it was close to home for them, and ended up being a really emotional performance. Def one I rewatch a lot
https://youtu.be/Sc63fTPttEQ?si=zxw_xM9Imp2WJDP0
After the coaching changes in college in 2023, buyouts will cost schools at leasts $200 million. The extensions like Sarkisian’s and in previous years like with Kelly, Jimbo and Lincoln Riley are fully guaranteed. Firing of multiple assistant coaches as at LSU and USC for instance add to the buyout costs to those schools.
Arkansas’s AD had a creative way to address HC Sam Pittman’s possible buyout and saving on a buyout that may limit the school’s obligations. Pittman is rated #2 on the Hot Seat site and is currently due $16 million. Their AD inserted a clause that reduces Pittman’s buyout to 50 percent of the money owed if his overall record — excluding the shortened season in 2020 — ever dipped below .500. Otherwise, he would be owed 75% of the remaining guaranteed money. Pittman is 20-18 after a 4-8 season. Ten of those wins have been against FSC and G5 teams.
To sweeten the deal, the contract is extended a year if he has seven wins in a year which he did one year. That added about $4 million. Plus there were the performance and retention bonuses Pittman could win. Mitigation clauses requiring a fired coach to pursue coaching positions with a salary at a new school decreasing buyouts by subtracting the new salary.
This type of contract may work for schools that hire first time HCs or G5 coaches who want to step up. Will we see more hirings like Curt Cignetti at Indiana or Willie Fritz at Houston?