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

3 News Stories

#1 Warde Off a Firing

Well, a dark era in Michigan athletics history is about to close. But not quite yet. Warde Manuel, who has been athletic director at Michigan since 2016, will be stepping down at the end of the calendar year. While overseeing one of the most scandalous athletic departments in recent history, Manuel was defiant recently that he’d be keeping his job. But alas.

In true Michigan fashion, they tried their best to gloss over issues with Manuel’s leadership while at the same time readying to shoo him out of the door. From the $12 million investigation:

“Neither the investigation nor the culture review found that misconduct was widespread throughout the department. The culture review found that weaknesses in accountability, organizational structure, oversight, and reporting created conditions in which misconduct was not always addressed consistently, promptly, or in accordance with University expectations.”

That sounds an awful lot like a school not willing to take much responsibility for its actions and what it let occur on their watch. We will wait to see who they’ll turn to once Manuel is finally gone.

#2 New NIL Market

A French Canadian running back has just reset the NIL market for recruiting moving forward. David Gabriel Georges has been playing high school football at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee and was down to Ohio State and the in-state Volunteers recently. This past Wednesday, Georges stuck with the more local team and committed to Tennessee.

The news aspect to the commitment was that Ohio State reportedly offered $1 million in NIL money. However, the Vols reportedly countered with a massive 3-year NIL deal worth $6 million total. The price of a tailback is going up! Georges was the last remaining 5-star yet to be committed. We are still 5 months away from Early Signing Day.

#3 Texas TRO

It’s happened quickly as a judge in Texas granted a temporary restraining order against the NCAA in the age-based eligibility case requested by former (or maybe not!) Texas Longhorns offensive lineman Cole Hutson. The TRO now allows Hutson to return to college football and use a fifth year after playing his first 4 seasons in Austin.

Hutson went undrafted and picked up an invite to the Cowboys minicamp and it’s not been reported yet if he will actually return to Texas, or college football somewhere for that matter.

Uniform of the Week

Just a couple months ago in this here spot, I remarked that Rice quietly had some nice football uniforms and that Adidas finally found something that worked well for a program that, let’s be honest, exudes extremely boring vibes. Well, Rice made an off-season switch to Nike and their uniforms are changing again. We’ll see them up close on September 12th in South Bend.

The most visible change is moving the stripes up to the shoulders and the TV numbers from the shoulders down to the arm. It’s a downgrade for me because so few teams can own the UCLA shoulder stripes and it always looks too generic to me. I think the number font is new, but Nike didn’t really change anything else with this new look.

Media

The concept of Very Important People is straightforward. They bring a celebrity to the show, put extensive makeup on them without them seeing or knowing the direction it’s taking, and when it’s done they get a few minutes to look at themselves before being interviewed in their character. It’s weird and goofy. But the best part is how often we get to see both the guests and host Vic Michaelis crack and break up while trying to complete the interview. I mean, this is pretty much what the show is providing us for entertainment.

Comedian Zac Oyama being dressed up as a freak weightlifter (the tiny hands!) always cracks me up. Watch the above video from 2:50 when he pours the protein powder over Vic’s face. Isn’t that better? Don’t you feel better? Don’t you feel a lot better now? I think about the dry delivery every time I make my protein shake for lunch. Also, comedian Lisa Gilroy has been on this show a couple times and she’s one of the funniest people in the world right now. She’s been rising in popularity but hasn’t quite broke through to superstardom yet.

Tunes

Katseye hit my house like a freight train this past spring. At first, I thought they were a YouTuber or maybe it was some sort of new fidget toy or squishy that suddenly becomes all the rage. No, they are a new-ish girl group that formed from the Dream Academy reality show competition. They have members from 4 different countries and kind of stylize themselves in K-Pop commercialization a little bit, although they aren’t really a K-Pop group in any real sense.

My kids love them, it’s the first time I’ve really been pushed to get concert tickets and yes they are way, way too young to be going to a show from Katseye. I present to you today, their single “Gnarly” that they performed at the Grammy’s. You may also know there most popular song “Gabriela.” That song moved the group into the mainstream, I heard it many times, but didn’t know until later that it was Katseye. I went months thinking they were singing, “Hands up Gabriela” when it was “Hands off Gabriela.”

One More Thing

People are always doing ranking lists online and I think the hardest one to do is Little Debbie snacks. It’s the ultimate compliment because Little Debbie does not mess around. McKee Foods who makes the snacks has been batting at an incredibly high average for over 90 years. I have decided to rank the top 10 best snacks Debbie has to offer.

Of course, the most controversial take may be what doesn’t make my list!

#10 Honey Bun 

I don’t actively seek this out (I’m not really eating Little Debbie much at all anymore to be fair) but it’s an OG that deserves a spot. I feel like other companies make better options for this type of desert.

#9 Fudge Rounds

Maybe a little much chocolate to make this a snack that should be higher up in the rankings. Many of Little Debbie snacks I could eat so many in a row, but not really with the Fudge Round.

#8 Cosmic Brownie

Here’s one I didn’t eat as a kid, but for many others it was a staple. This has been a go-to for endurance cycling as an adult, though. It’s relatively small and packs 43 grams of carbohydrates in just a few bites.

#7 Peanut Butter Crunch Bars

This was easily a top 3 for me as a kid, maybe the one snack from the lineup I ate the most consistently. Nowadays, I don’t like them quite that much. It seems like there are a million chocolate and peanut butter options from other companies that are amazing too.

#6 Zebra Cakes

This could be higher but Little Debbie makes things similar to it so there is some crossover going on. The Christmas Tree Cakes could go in this spot, too. They aren’t terribly different tasting.

#5 Swiss Rolls

When I think of Little Debbie, this is the first food that pops into my head with their white boxes. The only complaint I have is that temperature seems to affect these a little bit. Sometimes the chocolate shell can get brittle or melted and it becomes a different eating experience.

New York knows.

#4 Nutty Butty

Some people don’t like wafer snacks and I respect that. My wife is one of those people. For me, the Nutty Butty never disappoints.

#3 Fancy Cakes

There are some days when I think the Fancy Cake should be number one. I love white/yellow cakes and this is like crack to someone with that kind of specific sweet tooth.

#2 Donut Sticks

Seemingly a breakfast food only but yet also delicious at any time of day. Also, maybe the most consistent Little Debbie food, you’re always going to get a quality snack.

#1 Oatmeal Creme Pie

Just ask Nick Saban, he knows. This is the GOAT snack from Little Debbie.