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

Top News

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel has signed a contract extension that will see him paid $9 million per year through the 2028 season. The Vols have also given athletic director Danny White (son of former Notre Dame AD Kevin White) a new 6-year deal worth $2.2 million per season.

Ed Reed is done as the head coach at Bethune-Cookman after just a few weeks following failed negotiations between the parties on a full contract.

Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien is headed back to the New England Patriots to run their offense in the NFL.

Georgia receiver AD Mitchell has transferred to Texas.

Michigan has fired co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss.

Washington State head coach Jake Dickert has signed a contract extension through 2027.

Toledo head coach Jason Candle has signed an extension through 2026.

According to an audit, LSU overpaid Brian Kelly $1 million in 2022. Whoops.

Former Notre Dame player Maurice Crum has been hired by SMU to coach their linebackers.

Florida quarterback Jaden Rashada has been released from his Letter of Intent.

Uniform of the Week

The Under Armour All-American Game has been played since 2008 when the likes of Deion Walker, Jamoris Slaughter, and Braxston Cave took part in the inaugural all-star event televised by ESPN. Back then it was the ugly step-child of all-star games. In those early years, Under Armour really leaned into a heavy black and red color scheme for the uniforms. For 2014, they did an abrupt change introducing volt yellow into the red/black scheme for one team and dressing the other squad in volt, red, and gray. Ever since, the Under Armour games have given us some adventurous uniforms.

This past season I noticed the players were wearing very loud and busy uniforms during the practice sessions but didn’t wear these same sets during the actual game. I’m not sure if that’s happened in the past but it’s the first time I noticed it. A few weeks ago, the teams wore much more stripped down volt/black/white uniforms which used to be more associated with the rival U.S. Army All-American Bowl which is no longer sponsored by the military and simply called the All-American Bowl.

Recruiting

Princeton linebacker/edge rusher Cole Aubrey will walk-on at Notre Dame for the 2023 season after spending 4 seasons with the Tigers.

The nation’s top corner for the 2023 cycle Cormani McClain (0.9926) has signed with Colorado after spurning Miami.

The top offensive tackle for 2024 Kam Pringle (0.9736) is staying in state and gave a verbal to South Carolina. The Gamecocks also got a commit from tight end Michael Smith (0.9412) this week.

YouTube Channel

I didn’t have a really nice, modern wide screen television until 2012. Since then, I’m on my 2nd Vizio in our living room and the speakers are just terrible. We used to have a soundbar sitting in front of the TV but got rid of it after our rugrats were intent on destroying it. We’ve since built an addition and second living room where we put a monstrous-sized Samsung up on the wall. Those speakers are a little better. For me, I’m usually putting subtitles on for programs because the speakers aren’t great or I don’t want to listen at a really high volume.

I’m not a huge headphones guy at home (kids, again) but at work (one Bluetooth in the ear) or outside the house (both Bluetooth ear’d up) I’m not using subtitles. The only exception would be with shows that are a little more on the quiet side or not speaking clear English. For a lot of Netflix shows, I tend to have subtitles on and keep them on for the most part.

Tunes

In 7th grade I convinced my brother that we should sign up for the Columbia House music club because there were a few CD’s I needed. One of those was Band of Gypsys from 1970, aka the last album from Jimi Hendrix. It was recorded live at the Fillmore East on New Year’s Day 1970 and Hendrix would be dead 260 days later in a London hotel room. I remember being absolutely drawn to the album cover, as seen in the YouTube video below. I also remember being a little confused by the songs, as well.

For sure, the album is a lot more subdued and going in a different direction for Hendrix. Eventually, I would constantly listen to the 2nd track “Machine Gun” and then move on to something else. This song is a damn masterclass. Quite possibly Hendrix’ best guitar performance (live, no less) and right up there with the best work in the history of music. The album really suffers from the absence of drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding but in a way without them Hendrix’ guitar is able to take center stage more, if that’s even possible.

Trivia

What is the only school over the last 7 seasons to average more than 600 yards of offense per game?

The Other Football

Everton have sacked manager Frank Lampard. There are also reports that the club is currently up for sale and can be had for $500 million.

Arsenal’s late winner from Edward Nketiah took the Gunners past Manchester United 3-2 over the weekend while they inch closer to the Premier League title.

Harry Kane’s goal in a 1-0 win over Fulham on Monday tied the club-record for most goals (266) set by Jimmy Greaves back in 1970.

Manchester United (3-0 over Nottingham Forest) and Newcastle (1-0 over Southampton) won the 1st legs of the EFL Cup semi-finals this week.

According to the FIFA Global Transfer Report, there were 20,209 transfers in international men’s football during 2022. The top 100 players were responsible for 50% of that money with the English Premier League topping $2 billion ($2.2 billion to be exact) for the first time in a calendar year.

Streaming

This past Sunday I decided I was going to feature a Tom Hanks movie from earlier in his career and decided on Big from 1988, a film definitely in the top 10 most watched in my life. On Monday morning, I refreshed the Apple podcasts app and voila Big was the new feature on the Ringer’s Rewatchables feed. This was definitely meant to be! As brought up in the podcast, this movie was seemingly on HBO every day for about a 3-year period into the early 1990’s. Any time I was home sick from school, it was time to watch Big, maybe a little Price is Right, with plenty of hours on the Sega Genesis.

The best part of the movie for me was dreaming about an apartment like Josh’s with all the toys. You know the Pepsi machine was the ultimate sign of kid luxury. The actual apartment is in Soho on Grand Street between Greene and Wooster Streets. It was recently sold by former GM President Dan Ammann for $9.75 million to television producer Casey Patterson.

A Look Back

Travel back to the first Sunday of the college football season. As Notre Dame fans, we were licking our wounds from the loss at Ohio State. We had 24 hours to rebound and get ready to watch the debut of Brian Kelly at LSU. I was able to catch the very beginning and the end of this game, which turned out to be one of the craziest of a very crazy season. The Athletic ranked this as the 10th most memorable game of the 2022 season.

Notre Dame made that list 3 times (Ohio State 32nd, Marshall 15th, and Clemson 12th) so hooray for the Irish. Even in losses it’s good to be on those lists, right!?? I thought it was interesting to look back at this game because in the moment it was funny to laugh at BK and LSU. Turns out, both programs really had good seasons going a combined 20-7 with final rankings in 11th (FSU) and 16th (LSU) in the AP Poll.

18S Paddock Club

Previewing each team on the grid for the 2023 season…

Team: Mercedes
Founded: 2010
2022 Result: 3rd
Base: Brackley, England
Owners: Mercedes-Benz Group/Toto Wolff/INEOS
Power Unit: Mercedes
Team Principal: Toto Wolff
Drivers: Lewis Hamilton (17th season) & George Russell (5th season)

The Good: No one came close to challenging Mercedes for 3rd place and they had a nice run of nearly chasing down Ferrari for 2nd in the constructors race. George Russell had a fantastic season getting to grips with a difficult Mercedes car in the first year with the team, including his first pole in Hungary and first career win in Brazil.

The Bad: It was a disaster season for a team that had won 8 straight constructor titles. Their zero sidepod car didn’t work that well and the Silver Arrows struggled with the ground effect bouncing as bad as anyone on the grid. After the media thought they’d easily overcome Red Bull following the animosity of 2021, they were embarrassed in that competition. They also wasted a year of Lewis Hamilton’s career, more or less.

2023 Hope: No team is more prepared to make up for mistakes than Mercedes. They are reportedly sticking with the zero sidepods for 2023 and surely will bring a car that is faster, eats the tires less, and isn’t bouncing anymore. The gap was still pretty big to Red Bull at the conclusion of 2022, but with the difference in wind tunnel/CFD testing time that surely will close up some more this season. Even the Red Bull leadership seem to worry more about Mercedes than Ferrari.

Trivia Answer:

Trick question…Kent State (606.5 yards) with only 4 games played in the 2020 Covid season.