Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
In the News
Have you bought Arizona State football stock? You may look to sell as the Sun Devils are reportedly facing some serious allegations of recruiting violations.
Dan Wetzel goes hard after Bo Schembechler as an ugly situation at Michigan continues to grow uglier.
A pair of senators from Connecticut are not very happy with an expanded college football playoff without player’s receiving money from such an agreement.
The AP is reporting the expanded playoff TV deal could fetch as much as $1.9 billion with a 12-team field and 11 total games. The current deal runs through 2025 with ESPN for $470 million per year.
According to Pete Thamel, conferences may look into getting rid of their divisions.
Rod West (Notre Dame ’99) is now on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.
We are pleased to announce the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl to be played on December 18th.
Miami and Auburn have agreed to a home-and-home series for 2029 and 2030.
From the Archive
According to reports, Daelin Hayes is surprising in a big way during mini-camp with the Ravens. You can read my scouting report on him from earlier this year HERE.
The Portal
Notre Dame was chasing transfer corner Akayleb Evans but he decided to follow his old position coach and committed to Missouri.
LSU running back Tre Bradford has found a new home at Oklahoma.
Former 5-star defensive back from the 2018 class Tyreke Johnson is transferring to Nebraska from Ohio State.
Last week, Dylan McCaffrey left Louisville from Nebraska without ever enrolling it seems. Now, he’s headed to Rice.
Offensive lineman Stacey Wilkins is leaving Oklahoma.
USC picked up running back Darwin Barlow from TCU. He led the Horned Frogs’ running backs in yardage last year.
Former Irish running back target Tirek Murphy left Purdue and is headed to Rhode Island.
Helmet Talk
When you see Virginia Tech’s maroon helmet which player do you think about first? Michael Vick, right? I’ve always liked the traditional “VT” logo and don’t mind their standard uniforms overall. However, I’ve always thought the Hokies look better on the road when their maroon helmets offer contrast with their white jerseys.
When at home in their maroon jerseys, I like the Hokies in their white helmets. If you know me, you’ll understand how much I think white helps to offer contrast and let team colors breath more. This is so true for Virginia Tech’s maroon and orange. THIS looks really good!
Recruiting
Clay Helton and USC scored a win by plucking 5-star defensive lineman Mykel Williams (0.985) out of Columbus, Georgia.
Former Irish target receiver Addison Copeland (0.853) committed to Pitt.
Safety Sherrod Covil (0.921) has given a verbal pledge to Clemson.
Edge rusher Beau Atkinson (0.890) committed to North Carolina.
Bishop Alemany linebacker Junior Tuihalamaka (0.954) is set to announce on Saturday and should provide good news for Notre Dame. The word on the street is that there are as many as 3 more Irish commitments coming our way soon.
House of the Week
We’re back in New York again this time in East Hampton just north of highway 27 and the Atlantic Ocean. Right away, what the hell is going on with this presenter’s microphone? I can’t figure out where the sound is coming from and it’s like listening to someone through a garbage bin holding a 1970’s voice recorder. Someone needs to do a better job.
Wait, is it cool to have turtle shells? That does not seem cool. It feels illegal.
I have to say the outside of this house is nearly immaculate. Due to the location you wouldn’t be able to enjoy that for much longer than 6 months per year but wow that’s some amazing landscaping. The poor soul who visits this house only to step into the nightmare of the interior decoration. Yikes, this is maybe the worst home we’ve highlighted so far. This is a complete tear down on the inside, so lower that asking price.
Tunes
We’ll feature another live performance this week after the Bruce Springsteen stage debacle last Friday. This week, a much different group. Minimalist rock, in fact! I bring up today’s song for a couple reasons. One, I’m also fascinated in a squeamish way by aging rock stars and the shows they put on for the public. Granted, AC/DC are pretty good at what they do but it’s funny to juxtapose “Let There Be Rock” from their 2009 show in River Plate, Argentina with the original recording.
You can watch the original music video HERE. My favorite part of this song is drummer Phil Rudd’s manic, speed-driven, and precise beat. It’s so hard to keep that tempo for such a long song! And then, you look back to their 2009 show and Rudd has reduced the song to slower quarter notes, with golf gloves on, and a cigarette in his mouth. Truly old man drumming but keep cashing those checks!
On This Day in Sports
At the Polo Grounds on June 18, 1941 in the 13th of a 15-round fight, Joe Lewis dropped Billy Conn to defend his heavyweight title in one of the best boxing matches of all-time. The 169-pound(!) Conn gave up 35 pounds and was winning on the scorecards before being KO’d 2:58 into the 13th round.
At the Cinema
With the pandemic it’s been a long time since I’ve been to the movie theater. So long in fact, that I can’t exactly remember the last movie I watched outside of my home. I think it was one of the more recent Star Wars? Anyway, the last movie I actually do remember watching was La La Land.
Like Aziz’ character in this SNL skit, I thought it was fine. I didn’t much enjoy the musical bits but in general thought it was an intriguing and fun experience in the theater. My main squeeze did not like it much, which surprised me. Maybe it was the somewhat melancholy and sad ending?
Hot Take
Driving 10 miles per hour under the speed limit is more dangerous than driving 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. Who’s with me? My place of work is set in a valley in between two hills that are 3 miles long to get up and around. There’s one single-lane road that takes you out of town and on to the highway for about a 4-mile stretch.
Most of that stretch is 55 mph but there are so many people cruising along at 42 mph without a care in the world. I’m fascinated by bad drivers who don’t do anything technically illegal but make the road far less safe, as seen most dangerously with drivers that stay in the left passing lane below the speed limit. But, we don’t need psycho drivers either, let’s be cool.
Trivia
Which school moved up from 35th in 2019 to 1st in 2020 for yards per play on offense?
I remember walking out of the theater after seeing La La Land and telling my wife that I didn’t necessarily enjoy the movie, but I enjoyed watching the movie. I (accurately) predicted it would win the Oscar for Cinematography that year, without knowing what cinematography was/is.
Last movie I saw in the theater before lock-down was Onward on Friday, March 13th. Son had the day off of school so I stupidly also took the day off to spend some time together. We went to grab lunch then an afternoon showing. There were 4 total people in the theater – had to pick your seats at the time of purchase and the other two people chose seats RIGHT NEXT TO OURS. Absolute psychos.
YES, exactly! It was fun put together on screen but not something I’ve ever wanted to watch again, especially outside of the theater.
I would’ve just got up and left.
We moved down a few spots but I was CHEESED the entire movie (Also, Disney+ released it for free like 3 weeks later)
I like that description. La La Land was fine to watch. Don’t want my money back (I didn’t see it in theaters so not sure I paid anything), but wouldn’t watch it again. A little boring. EXTREMELY unoriginal, plot-wise. Just a bunch of Hollywood folks thinking Hollywood is the greatest thing in the world.
Emma Stone was pretty great. Ryan Gosling could absolutely not keep up with her.
Tricky trivia question. A few possibilities that come to mind are Buffalo with Jaret Patterson going crazy, or the Lane train at Ole Miss. But I’ll go with UNC, despite them getting utterly shut down by a certain team from Indiana. That game against Miami by itself might be enough to push them to the top of the list.
Close, they finished a distant 3rd though.
Bama?
Buffalo with Patterson was my guess.
(Sheepishly) the other first round Tech QB of that era, Jim Drunkenmiller. His NFL career did, um, not go well
When you started with ACDC I thought maybe you were going to the aging Axl Rose experience — sitting down and singing.
I did not know that Covil had committed already — at this rate, ND might have to start playing defense with LBs roaming the deep middle of the field and laying out receivers like the Waterboy. Speaking of the Waterboy, would he be ejected right away in today’s game for targeting?
FWIW the ND staff has a few other targets they like more than Covil. I think we’ll be fine at safety this cycle.
TRIVIA ANSWER:
BYU