Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.

3 News Stories

#1 For a while the mid-major Boise State was wandering in the wilderness but after a successful playoff campaign in 2024 their head coach Spencer Danielson was given a new 5-year contract extension. The new deal takes him through the 2029 season and will pay him approximately $2.2 million per season. Not bad.

Still just 36 years old, this now moves Danielson firmly into the young coaches Doing Good Things bucket, although we have to admit it’s pretty early in his career with only 18 games in his career.

#2 There wasn’t any other way this was going to end but extremely weird for Bill Belichick and his time at North Carolina. Back in March, Axios reported that Belichick’s girlfriend Jordon Hudson, still just 24 years old and graduated high school in 2019, was being cc’d on external affair emails with Tar Heels football which was then followed up by the Athletic reporting Hudson has the title “Chief Operating Officer of Belichick Productions” a seemingly made up title for a non-existent company or entity.

Things got a little more national with the relationship when Belichick did a spot on 60 Minutes, and according to reports, was interrupted several times during the interview by a seemingly controlling Hudson.

It should be noted Belichick is doing a bit of a press tour for his first book The Art of Winning and that’s what led to the 60 Minutes interview. Whatever happens in his relationship with Hudson it’ll be interesting to see how her influence over North Carolina football evolves because it’s not off to a great start!

#3 Ross Dellenger is reporting once again and we seem to be moving slowly towards grandfathering in current rostered players. As a plan begins to formulate the questions remain such as: Will schools be mandated to grandfather in roster positions or will it be voluntary? How do you treat players who have transferred out after being told they don’t have a roster spot (but could again in the future) or signed elsewhere because their commitment wasn’t honored due to a lack of space?

The concerns make me think this won’t be mandatory. Many schools have already allocated budgets for the upcoming season and being forced to change course and reallocate money (to say nothing of trying to bring back athletes who have left) feels like it’ll be putting toothpaste back in the tube. We’ll know more for next week’s Rambler as there’s a filing deadline next Wednesday for the judge overseeing the case.

Recruiting

Notre Dame added lanky safety Ayden Pouncey (0.9382) out of Winter Park, Florida last week. His brother Ethan was a corner at Florida and Georgia Southern recently and his other brother Jordan played at Texas and Florida. Ayden is also cousins with the Pouncey twins of Florida Gators and NFL fame.

The Irish have started given out more scholarship offers:

RB Paris Melvin (0.9050), class of 2026
DE Rion Jackson (0.8985), class of 2027
LB Jake Godfree (0.8826), class of 2027
LB Max Brown (0.9302), class of 2027
LB Omarii Sanders (0.9693), class of 2027
CB Jaden Carey (0.8907), class of 2027
CB Zayden Gamble (0.9373), class of 2027
CB Tavares Harrington (0.9314), class of 2027
RB Micah Rhodes (NR), class of 2028

In industry news, On3 has reached an agreement with Yahoo! to acquire Rivals. From the press release this past Wednesday it says: “On3 and Rivals subscribers will gain access to premium content across both platforms—dramatically increasing the value of each subscription and elevating the fan experience. As part of the transaction, Yahoo Sports will take an ownership stake in the On3 parent company. Yahoo Sports will have a seat on the On3 parent company board and leverage its unique scale to help On3 and Rivals grow their content and subscription businesses.”

California quarterback Brady Smigiel (0.9611) committed to Michigan.

Shout out to Clark Lea and Vanderbilt for keeping elite cornerback Caden Harris (0.9603) for now, at least.

Sierra Canyon corner Havon Finney (0.9722) committed to LSU.

Edge rusher from Georgia Cam Brooks (0.9313) has given a verbal to California.

USC grabbed elite offensive tackle Keenyi Pepe (0.9665) who is headed to Los Angeles.

Uniform of the Week

Indulge me for a minute as we gander over to Europe on the pro cycling circuit where Uno-X recently wore 7-Eleven throwback kits during the Belgian one-day race Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The context doesn’t really matter (or make a ton of sense) but I’ll provide it anyway. The 7-Eleven cycling team began in 1981 from the United States, gained a cult following, and later morphed into the Motorola team (where a one Mr. Lance Armstrong debuted as a pro in 1992). The Uno-X team today, based out of Norway, has someone within their organization who rode for the old 7-Eleven team (and unbeknownst to me) apparently the store is quietly very popular in several Scandinavian countries!?

So, we got this fire kit last weekend:

Hell yes.

This leads me to my question: Where are all the red and green sports teams???

I don’t think there are any at the FBS level of college football and the only team below that which jumps to mind is Mississippi Valley State. Unless I’m missing someone there are no teams in the NBA, MLB, or NFL while the NHL has the Minnesota Wild. Even the Wild don’t really mix the colors properly–it’s either heavily green or heavily red and there’s not enough white contrast.

Do we have a weird issue with the Christmas association in the United States?

TV & Movies

In Netflix’s attempt to cover every sport imaginable it’s now horse racing’s turn for their documentary series. I’m 2 episodes into the Race for the Crown series and it’s been fairly entertaining so far. Early on, there is some focus on the jockeys but the series looks to be zeroing in on the ownership/training side of things with a handful of protagonists:

Michael Iavarone – An overly tan and flamboyant owner who admittedly swoops in late on winning horses to offer money and a chance to have a Kentucky Derby winner.

Mike Repole – A brash New Yorker and co-founder of Glaceau who seems incredibly annoying but also a decent family man.

John Stewart – A former private equity manager who is the new blood “Moneyball” type trying to buy his way to success with a high volume approach to purchasing horses.

I know next to nothing about horse racing and the business side of things looks quite intriguing. Also, I’ve never ridden a horse or really cared too much about horses but I do enjoy watching the stables take care and train them. I hope they spend more time on that side of things as the episodes progress. Although, talking about a horse’s ability to train probably isn’t as enthralling as watching a 60-year old pan popping champagne bottles in a Miami club.

Tunes

I like Lady Gaga and I’m a big fan of Bruno Mars. The latter hasn’t done a ton of work since settling into a Las Vegas residency at MGM Grand since his last studio album 24K Magic back in 2016. Remember the rumors that Mars was $50 million in debt with MGM following gambling losses, that reportedly weren’t true? He hasn’t done a solo album in almost a decade (although the collaboration with Anderson .Paak as Silk Sonic was great back in 2021). Sometimes it feels like modern entertainers feel like they’re going to be recording and super famous for 50 years so why hurry, and I don’t really blame them. Last year, Gaga went to visit Mars in the studio and she mentioned she was blown away by Mars’ songwriting and that day they created what became “Die With A Smile.”

I know Mars just waiting to unleash this song on his anticipated collaboration. Their signing on the tune is about as good as it gets for a pop song. Released last summer (and still charting extremely well at no. 2 on the Billboard), I don’t need to blather on about its success. Here’s from the Wiki page:

The song saw substantial commercial success, becoming the longest-reigning daily number-one song in Spotify history, as well as one of the longest-reigning number-one songs in Billboard Global 200 chart history with seventeen weeks on top. It also became the fastest song to reach one and two billion streams on Spotify. By the start of 2025, it had topped the official charts in more than 25 countries, and peaked at the top ten in over 20 additional countries. It earned multiple diamond and platinum certifications in France and fourteen additional countries. “Die with a Smile” was nominated for Song of the Year and won for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.

My point today is that for a massive no. 1 hit I am amazed and in love with how loud and involved the drumming is on the song. According to the production notes the drums were done by producer and co-writer D’Mile, so well done to him. For a song with 1970’s soft ballad bones I wouldn’t have blamed them for choosing something quieter and simpler with the drums. But not D’Mile!