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

Top News

Notre Dame unveiled its Shamrock Series uniforms for 2022. Full breakdown HERE. 

Former Notre Dame lineman Nick Martin has signed a 1-year deal with the Saints.

Chris Tyree, Blake Grupe, Brandon Joseph, Isaiah Foskey, Jarrett Patterson, Josh Lugg, JD Bertrand, and Michael Mayer were all added to pre-season award watch lists this week.

The NCAA found 18 violations during the Jeremy Pruitt era at Tennessee. The Vols have been cooperating and have self-imposed already so are hoping to avoid major punishment.

Deland McCullough II, son of Notre Dame’s current running backs coach, is medically retiring from football at Indiana.

Several players have started the process of formalizing a Big Ten Student-Athlete Advisory Committee to improve benefits for themselves. However, they have stopped short of calling this a unionizing process.

Former Alabama wideout and current Houston Texans rookie John Metchie III has been diagnosed with leukemia.

The MAC Championship Game will stay at Ford Field through the 2024 season.

Coastal Carolina quarterback Grayson McCall has signed a NIL deal with Darlington Raceway in North Carolina.

The Fargo Dome is allowing beer sales at North Dakota State football game starting this year.

Uniform of the Week

Everything about Murray State reminds me of Ja Morant and that won’t change for a very long time, maybe ever. As the summer of FCS continues I came across their football program uniforms in this fun picture. It kind of looks like Les Miles is taking the team out of the tunnel. It’s actually Dean Hood who enters his 3rd season at Murray in 2022. I’ve also learned they use a racehorse named Racer One who does a lap with a jockey around the track of the football field after every touchdown. I love it, this is so American, unlike USC’s attempt at playing around with a white horse.

Murray State often has checkerboard pattern on their helmet stripe. In this picture, it’s something completely different. It’s hard to make out unless you see their main school logo of a jockey riding a horse through their “M.” On this helmet stripe, it’s a zoomed in look at the horses face and then on the top of the crown is the jockey’s head.

Recruiting

The nation’s top safety Caleb Down (0.9945) committed to Alabama. The Tide also dipped into the New England prep school ranks for interior lineman Olaus Alinen (0.9435) who is originally from Finland.

New Jersey tackle Chase Bisontis (0.9706) committed to Texas A&M.

Miami picked up a verbal from Orlando linebacker Malik Bryant (0.9717).

Georgia’s defense continues to get better with the addition of safety Joenel Aguero (0.9832).

Florida gained the commitment of corner Ja’Keem Jackson (0.9309).

One of the nation’s top tight ends Walker Lyons (0.9592) committed to Stanford.

Check out UCF picking up defensive lineman John Walker (0.9522).

Washington state corner Jasiah Wagoner (0.9197) committed to Oklahoma. The Sooners also picked up defensive lineman Derrick LeBlanc (0.9522).

YouTube Channel

A while back I featured a video on the comically insane vastness of the universe. In recent weeks, we saw the first images from the Webb Space Telescope which was launched into orbit back on Christmas Day from French Guiana. It’s now well over 1.5 million km from earth and relayed back some insanely beautiful pictures. The most interesting for scientists being an image showing some of the earliest galaxies. That doesn’t seem like a big deal but what is amazing is how this telescope allows us to see these galaxies as they were roughly 13 billion years ago. As a recent article wrote, “Anytime we look away from the Earth, we’re looking back in time to how things once were.”

I love how space makes me feel like a little kid still learning things for the first time. We’re looking back to the beginning of the universe! But as we learned even though that was 13.8 billion years ago the light from those earliest galaxies are stupidly far away from us. All of this makes you wonder where humans are headed in space if we can’t figure out faster than light communication. We can look at super old stuff but can’t get places quickly enough to expand more than the tiniest of slices away from earth. The same goes for possibly other civilizations looking at us!

Tunes

What band sounds like Rage Against the Machine? I love bands that have a unique sound that makes them instantly recognizable. Their rhythm section is so underrated and also why I enjoyed bits of Audioslave in the past, too. But, you need the whole shebang with Rage including Zach’s vocals and Tom’s guitar playing. What a sound these guys created!

Rage really brought a lot of people together in the 1990’s. They were liked by rock and metal fans but also reached into the hip hop crowd, as well. They were a go-to band to blast in our locker rooms in that decade providing some of the best pump-up music possible. I’ve always thought “Down Rodeo” really encapsulated the uniqueness of their sound. I could argue for this album as the best of 1996, and maybe the late 1990’s a whole.

Trivia

Who led the country in rushing yards in 2021?

The Other Football

In front of 80,000 fans inside Lambeau Field, we saw Manchester City get past Bayern Munich 1-0 with new Cityzen striker Erling Haaland scoring the later winner. I guess we’re all going to have to get used to this now.

Arsenal defeated Chelsea 4-0 in an American tour friendly recently. Peaking too early?

England is in the Women’s Euro Final thanks to a 4-0 drubbing of Sweden, including this fantastic backheel nutmeg goal by Alessia Russo. They will face Germany for the championship on Sunday. Is it coming home?

No big deal as a Harry Kane brace put Tottenham past Rangers 2-1 to win the Walter Tull Memorial Cup.

Barcelona are signing defender Joules Kounde from Sevilla for $55 million.

American defender Chris Richards is moving from Bayern Munich to Crystal Palace for $13.2 million.

Streaming

Who has watched the original Ocean’s 11 from 1960? With the recent Shamrock Series uniforms and game coming up in Vegas it made me think about the old Vegas, the original Vegas. I caught this film on cable several years ago and it had a certain charm. It’s funny watching the original versus the newer series of these films, the old one might as well have been set in 1860 in comparison. The 1960 version plans heists at the Sahara, Riviera, Desert Inn, Sands, and Flamingo casinos.

One of the big things about old Las Vegas that’s hard to find nowadays is how low they built the ceilings, particularly on the casino floors. Now, you go to these casinos and they are palatial in their vastness. But, there are some scenes in this film where you can’t tell if they are in the Sands or a Greyhound Bus station. So much of that early Vegas was decidedly not glamourous at all, compared to what we think today. On my last visit to Vegas we came in through the back of Harrah’s from the MGM tram line and that was a great example of the past where they’d put some carpet down with slot machines in a regular room and call it a day.

A Look Back

There was the 2016 loss in which Navy Navy’d more than they’ve ever Navy’d before, but today’s 2011 game featured below really turned the page in this series and the Irish have yet to look back, except once. Notre Dame came in as 20.5 point favorites and you can read my preview over a decade ago HERE in which I thought it’d be a good day for the offense but only a 14-point victory. This Navy defense was super bad and about to be ripped apart by Tommy Rees.

It’s really too bad this team couldn’t beat USC at home during this season. That was sandwiched in between two major butt whooping’s of Air Force and Navy in which the Irish offense was out there having some fun with a combined 115 points. In classic fashion, Notre Dame didn’t get the ball until 7:06 remaining in the 1st quarter after a missed Navy field goal. The Irish would lose a fumble and toss an interception but scored touchdowns on all other 8 offensive drives. It was cathartic.

18S Paddock Club

Just when you thought things couldn’t get more painful for Charles Leclerc. Ferrari came into last weekend with an engine penalty for Carlos Sainz but teammate Leclerc put together a fantastic qualifying to take pole in the French Grand Prix. He even kept the lead early in the race with reports that Max Verstappen’s Red Bull might have stronger race pace.

After some tense battling, Verstappen dropped back by nearly 2 seconds and decided to pit on lap 16 from medium to hard tires while trying to win through strategy. Perhaps feeling the pressure to complete a quick in lap and prevent an undercut, Leclerc would tragically spin off in turn 11 on lap 18 and get his car stuck in the barriers for yet another DNF while leading a race.

In the ensuing safety car it got worse for Ferrari as Sainz picked up a 5-second time penalty for an un-safe release into Williams’ Alex Albon. However, Sainz would begin cutting his way through the field after starting 19th only for Ferrari strategy to let him down yet again. They would wait until Sainz passed Sergio Perez for 3rd place with 11 laps to go, then brought him in for new tires. Sainz would drop down to 9th and ultimately finish just 5th, although with the fastest lap point in hand.

The race would finish with a late virtual safety car with 5 laps remaining and didn’t bring much drama except an error message from the FIA confused drivers, particularly Perez who got beat by Mercedes’ George Russell on the re-start for 3rd place.

Verstappen was never challenged after the Leclerc crash and won his 7th race of the season while nursing a healthy (and maybe insurmountable) 63-point lead in the championship. Mercedes’ season of picking up free real estate continues with Lewis Hamilton finishing in 2nd along with Russell on the podium.

Hungary Preview – The last F1 race before the summer break takes us to beautiful Budapest with a less-than-beautiful government (we race as one!) on a tight and twisty track that is difficult to pass on and should be one of the biggest tests for the new 2022 car regulations where people have been able to follow closely but are having some issues passing without DRS help.

Hungarian Grand Prix
Hungaroring
FP1 7/29 8:00 AM ET
FP2 7/29 11:00 AM ET
FP2 7/30 7:00 AM ET
Qualifying 7/30 10:00 AM ET
Race 7/31 9:00 AM

Rain is expected to shake things up on Saturday for qualifying so that’s something to watch this weekend. Last year, a wet race provided an absolutely bonkers Sunday featuring a hectic start where several cars were damaged into turn 1 and through the chaos Esteban Ocon would take his lone Formula 1 victory to date.

Can we get something crazy again to send us into the 3-week break?

3 Questions for Hungary:

1) Will Ferrari mess this up?

This might be Red Bull’s least competitive track of the season. The main straight isn’t very long, there are only a few other shorter straight sections, and Ferrari should thrive in the slower grippy corners. This should be a 44-point haul of points for Ferrari unless things go wrong again. Will a wet qualifying find one of them stuck behind a competitor on Sunday?

2) What was up with that Mercedes race pace?

For the first time in 2022, a Red Bull (driven by Perez) did not show better race pace than a Mercedes. Was there an issue with Perez? The Mexican drifted back from Hamilton in 2nd in France and eventually got passed by Russell for 3rd. This could be a new development this season. Prior to last Sunday the Mercs were not expecting to race well and they surprised a lot of people with great pace.

3) Where does Aston Martin go now?

On Thursday morning, 35-year old 4-time world champion Sebastian Vettel announced he would be retiring at the end of the season. It’s the first domino to fall in the grid for next year and remains a tricky situation for Aston Martin. They have a growing financial backing through Aramco but a currently poor car and weird relationship with owner Lawrence Stroll and driver son Lance Stroll. Which driver wants to walk into this team?

Trivia Answer:

Lew Nichols III, Central Michigan, 1,848 yards