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

Top News

Former Notre Dame running back C’Bo Flemister has transferred to Pitt.

Boston College guard Christian Mahogany, one of the top NFL prospects at his position for 2023, tore his ACL in a big blow to the Eagles offense.

Stanford and San Jose State have signed a new 4-game series for contests in 2025-26 plus 2028 and 2035.

Stephanie Rempe is the new athletic director for Nevada. She was previously the deputy AD at LSU and was heavily involved in the hiring of Brian Kelly.

Ohio State has trademarked the use of “THE” on school apparel.

Former NCAA career sack leader and Baltimore Ravens linebacker Jaylon Ferguson passed away on Tuesday. Also, former NFL veteran and sideline reporter Tony Siragusa died this week.

Uniform of the Week

The summer of FCS continues with the Stetson Hatters. How is this team not located in Texas!? I was not aware of their location and would’ve guessed Sweetwater, Texas or something. A rich hat guy donated a lot of money and they re-named the school in his honor back in 1889. A few years ago they updated their logo to incorporate a more subtle hat within their “S” and they moved away from a cowboy hat to something more similar to the hat Carmen Sandiego wears. So, it’s awesome. Look at these uniforms, too!

We have some 1998-2018 New York Jets vibes, for sure. I’m very pro-contrasting belt colors and that’s something the Jets didn’t do with their green pants during this era. On Stetson, it looks wonderful. The best part is their jersey with the unique shoulder numbers and the school logo on the top of the shoulders. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a set up like this, and I love how they went with white numbers outlined in green inside of that white shoulder pattern. This is totally unique and a great job by the person controlling their account with Nike.

Recruiting

Notre Dame picked up 2023 PWO placekicker Marcello Diomede from Glenbard West High School in Illinois this week.

Louisville made a statement this week as the nation’s top running back Reuben Owens (0.9902) committed on Tuesday.

Once a top target for Notre Dame, we saw receiver Carnell Tate (.9858) commit to Ohio State recently. The Buckeyes followed that up this week with Florida receiver Brandon Inniss (0.9897) and North Carolina wideout Noah Rogers (0.9769) as the rich get richer.

One of the nation’s top corners AJ Harris (0.9868) committed to the Georgia. The Bulldogs also picked up linebacker CJ Allen (0.9319), as well.

Local product IOL Wilkin Formby (0.9608) gave a verbal to Alabama.

Penn State reached into Alabama and got a commit from defensive lineman Tomarrion Parker (0.9627).

Edge defender Isaiah Nixon (0.9224) committed to Florida.

YouTube Channel

This video highlights Carmel, Indiana in the beginning with their 125+ roundabouts, more than any other city in the United States. My first heavy exposure to roundabouts was in the areas around Notre Dame, actually. At the time, there were only a handful of them in Western New York and nothing on any of my usual driving routes. About 5 years ago, the main intersection in my village passed a plan to build a roundabout and it was met with a ton of skepticism and anger. It didn’t help that it took forever to build and ruined easy access to the back of McDonald’s and Tim Horton’s when you’re coming from the west. Oh, the horror.

They also “finished” the roundabout and left it single lane as somewhat busy two-lane routes were zippering in and causing traffic jams. But, once they actually opened up the circle to 2 lanes it’s been a hundred times better than the stop lights in the past. In the morning, it used to take me 7 minutes to get from my house to the Thruway, now the roundabout saves me a couple minutes. And that time adds up. Except for the random person switching lanes inside the circle it’s been smooth sailing and a complete joy.

Tunes

The Police only released 5 albums over a 6-year period but left behind a mighty impressive catalog and influence on music. A quick Google search of Rolling Stones’ top artists of all-time has them 70th which I think isn’t high enough. Especially since they ticked so many boxes as a band with massive radio hits, some legendary albums, and a lasting famous front man in Sting who still has plenty of cultural relevance. You could argue they broke up right as the MTV era was taking off and that hurt them a lot in their legacy.

Their drummer Stewart Copeland is especially a favorite of mine. He’s one of the rare drummers, certainly in popular music, who can carry a song and have such a big impact on the rhythm simply with his hi-hat work. Take “Walking on the Moon” for example. He’s playing an intricate hit-hat pattern throughout with cross-stick on the snare drum. It seems simple but it’s so complex and is such a signature part of the song, even carrying it for most of the tune. I love the aggressive two notes on the snare at 3:12, the only time Copeland hits that drum this way in the whole song. He was always creative that way.

By the way, last week Cape Canaveral came up and this video is filmed at the Kennedy Space Center. It’s a really cool place, anyone should take the time to tour the grounds and museum.

Trivia

Name the player: I was a top 50 recruit out of Maryland as an athlete, won a BCS National Championship, a College Football Playoff National Championship, converted from receiver to corner, intercepted 7 passes, broke up 24 passes, became a 2nd round NFL pick, and I’m the last player in college to total 500 punt return yards in a single season.

The Other Football

We now have the 2026 World Cup host cities. It was anticipated that the United States would get 10 cities so that’s a bonus for us that they added one more. The Edmonton bid was rejected (sorry, Canada!) while Houston and Kansas City were two American cities thought to be on the fringes only to get bids anyway.

Speaking of the World Cup, current FIFA president Gianni Infantino said that soccer will be the biggest sport in North America by the time the tournament kicks off in 4 years. Okay, let’s calm down there Gianni.

Sadio Mane has moved from Liverpool to Bayern Munich for $45 million.

Arsenal have signed attacking midfielder Fabio Vieira from Porto for $40 million.

Liverpool have signed the top young player in the Scottish Premier League as 18-year old fullback Calvin Ramsay signs from Aberdeen.

American investor John Textor is now the majority shareholder for the French league’s Lyon team and wants to compete with PSG. Good luck!

Streaming

This Christmastime we will be approaching the 20th anniversary of Gangs of New York, the nearly 3-hour epic from Martin Scorsese that had me horrified about what people in this period, particularly the Irish, were living through in Manhattan. Turns out, the movie isn’t particularly historically accurate in many areas, the biggest one for me being dramatizing the level of poverty and violence. If you look at the photographs from this era there’s definitely some really poor areas and some dirty living conditions but the murder rate was actually pretty low and most people wore formal clothing and not the dirty rags so many people adorn themselves with in the movie.

I always wondered if my ancestors on my dad’s side came through New York and experienced anything of this 5 Points absurdity. It turns out, they probably did not. We’ve done extensive family tree work and the Murtaugh clan spent the latter parts of the 18th century and into the mid-19th centuries moving back and forth between western Ireland and the London metro area. Shortly after the Civil War they’d start moving over to the United States that first person from my family was close with another Irish family (Hart) and moved directly to the metro Buffalo area. 150 years later, some of us are still here.

A Look Back

I pulled up the first game back after the pandemic hit in a sparsely filled Notre Dame Stadium. I do not remember much from this season opener against Duke. I went back and re-read our game preview and the comment section was more focused on the removal of Doug Flutie for Tony Dungy as the color commentator. Looking back at the game review things were not pretty for Ian Book and the passing game with the Irish struggling early against the Blue Devils.

I don’t think we talked about it enough but Mike Elko was crazy to take this Duke job. Perhaps it’s even crazier that there’s a timeline where Marcus Freeman takes that job and Notre Dame is in a different place right now with someone like Luke Fickell. Back to Elko, I realize less than 15 years ago he’s coordinating the Hofstra defense and you never really know how much these guys believe in themselves. However, he was making $2.1 million to coordinate Texas A&M and how much is he making at Duke?

18S Paddock Club

Qualifying in the return to Montreal was highlighted by engine penalties and rain. For the former, Charles Leclerc and Yuki Tsunoda took a bevy of new elements that dropped them to the back of the grid for Sunday. For the latter, Sergio Perez crashed in Q2 causing a red flag, a late switch to slick tires caused George Russell to slide off the track, while a last corner wobble prevented Carlos Sainz from making the front row. Instead, Fernando Alonso put in a stunning lap to finish P2 while Max Verstappen remained head and shoulders above the field finishing on pole.

Verstappen got away cleanly at the start of the race and towards the end of lap 3 Sainz would easily pass Alonso as the veteran Spaniard would go on to have a tough day with ERS issues, terrible pit strategy, concluding with a 5-second penalty for weaving on the final lap. On lap 8, Sergio Perez would retire due to gearbox issues and a day of pit and tire strategy would begin. Verstappen would use the virtual safety car to pit from medium to hard tires, but Sainz would stay out. On lap 15, Verstappen would pass Alonso to move back into 2nd place.

Five laps later, Mick Schumacher retired causing another VCS which allowed Sainz a cheap stop, as well. That dropped Sainz back down to 3rd but he’d pass Alonso on lap 22 rather easily. Alonso would eventually go far too long on his original medium tires and get pushed down the grid once he finally took to the pits.

The race would settle down for a bit before Verstappen decided on a 2-stop strategy and put fresh hard tires on his car on lap 44. A fast charging Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes just got out in front of Verstappen although the Red Bull would make it past on the back straight just moments later. Fate would break for Sainz on lap 49 when Yuki Tsunoda spun out leaving the pits causing a full safety car. Sainz was able to get new hard tires on his car and retain 2nd place.

When the safety car ended we had 16 laps remaining where Verstappen and Sainz went toe-to-toe for the lead. However, the Red Bull proved just too quick down the straights and Sainz’ attempts to pass never came to fruition. On a few laps he came close but the grip for Verstappen out of the hairpin and final chicane was enough to hold off the Ferrari challenger.

It wasn’t a terrible week for Ferrari who, thanks to Perez’ retirement, closes the gap in the constructors as Charles Leclerc came all the way from 19th to finish with an important 10 points in 5th place. However, this was Verstappen’s 6th win of the season and he now leads the championship by 46 points. Amazingly, Leclerc hasn’t won a race since April 10th in Melbourne.

Elsewhere on the grid, the Mercedes’ finished 3rd/4th to continue their stranglehold on 3rd place overall. Alfa Romeo had a good day with Bottas and Zhou finishing 7th and 8th due to Alonso picking up that late penalty to finish 9th. Hometown hero Lance Stroll finished 10th while the pain at Haas continues with the Schumacher retirement and terrible pit strategy leaving Kevin Magnussen last among the 17 drivers to finish.

Fantasy – Your boy used his Mega Driver bonus on Verstappen this week and it paid off with a good showing from both Ferrari’s too. It’s my first weekly win totaling 250 points.

F1 is off this week and will come back to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix on July 3rd. It’ll be an important weekend with several teams bringing their final major upgrades of the season.

Trivia Answer:

Cyrus Jones, Alabama