Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Former Notre Dame long snapper J.J. Jansen has signed another 1-year deal with the Carolina Panthers and will enter year 16 in the NFL. If he stays healthy, he’ll pass kicker Craig Hentrich this upcoming season for the 3rd most career NFL games by an Irish alum.
There are proposed rules changes for college football to help speed up game times, including:
- No consecutive timeouts.
- The 1st or 3rd quarter no longer extended for an untimed down if there’s a penalty.
- The clock will run after a 1st down except with under 2 minutes remaining in the game.
- The clock will run after an incomplete pass once the ball is spotted for play.
LSU special teams extraordinaire coach Brian Polian is transitioning into an off-field GM role as Brian Kelly needs a new assistant coach now down in Baton Rouge.
NC State head coach Dave Doeren received a 1-year contract extension through the 2027 season.
Cincinnati offensive coordinator Tom Manning had been hired for 6 weeks but is headed to the Indianapolis Colts to be their tight ends coach. The Bearcats are hiring Virginia Tech assistant Brad Glenn as their new offensive coordinator.
Troy is hiring Cincinnati outside linebackers coach Greg Gasparato as their new defensive coordinator.
Boston College defensive coordinator Tem Lukabu is leaving Chestnut Hill to coach outside linebackers with the Carolina Panthers.
Michigan has bumped up offensive line coach Sherrone Moore from co-offensive coordinator to full offensive coordinator for 2023.
UCLA is set to hire the Baltimore Ravens’ safeties coach D’Anton Lynn as their next defensive coordinator.
Former college coach Willie Taggart is headed to the NFL to coach running backs for the Baltimore Ravens.
Former Wisconsin defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard interviewed with the Philadelphia Eagles recently but will not be joining the NFL. Instead, he will be having hip surgery and focus on his recovery this year.
The Pac-12 looks set to add San Diego State and SMU to their conference as their struggling television and media rights search continues.
Uniform of the Week
Today we have another edition of a program that has lost a lot of its character in uniform terms. Temple now uses a lot of these diamond patterns which make them look somewhat different but overall their uniforms are pretty bland and generic. That’s even with a ton of different helmets used in recent years. Since 2013, the Owls have worn an amazing 51 different helmets. Think of all the future arthritis from the student managers taking off and adding those stickers!
I’m a big fan of this late 1990’s/early 2000’s look for Temple. The flying owl logo was unique and worked really well for their sports teams. The script on the jersey and pants is fantastic, too. We are in a weird situation with uniforms these days. Teams will go wild with striping or patterns but the script is typically so boring. Especially in college football, programs need to embrace different fonts on their jerseys. Instead, Temple uses a more boring Gotham Bold font on their jerseys today. Boo.
Recruiting
Athlete Roger Gradney (0.9169) committed to Nebraska.
247 has ranked 63 players in the 2025 class (rising juniors) and from that group we have the following commits so far:
WR Winston Watkins (0.9926) – Colorado
WR Ryan Williams (0.9865) – Alabama
LB Jadon Perlotte (0.9843) – Georgia
DL Justus Terry (0.9821) – Georgia
CB Chris Ewald (0.9805) – Michigan
OT Micah Debose (0.9757) – Georgia
OT Jaelyne Matthews (0.9675) – Penn State
If you were curious, Notre Dame has offered 24 players from the 2025 class already.
YouTube Channel
I’ve been trying to think of the most incredible moment I’ve witnessed in person. I’ve written about the Clint Malarchuk neck injury at a Sabres game although I didn’t actually witness that live and was in a locker room at the rink at the time. I’ve had some close encounters with lightning on two separate occasions, which is not fun. Maybe the most amazing thing I saw was during a lacrosse game in my senior year of high school.
It was a super windy day and our lacrosse field sat directly next to a thick set of woods. The benches for each team were no more than 10-15 feet away from the edge of the woods. When players and staff came down to the field they’d walk around the edge of the field near the side of campus and right towards these woods. Just after warmups were completed on this day, an absolutely massive tree fell almost perfectly towards us and its top landed right near the edge of the field. Luckily, no one was hurt. Just a few minutes earlier, there were a lot of people walking and warming up right where it fell. I can still hear that cracking noise and fear of screams as the tree came down, pretty chilling. So we played a lacrosse game with this massive tree just chilling out of bounds.
Tunes
Things have started to modernize and change a little bit with Super Bowl halftime shows. It seemed like 15 straight years where the musical act signed to this opportunity were always well past their prime culminating in that run of Paul McCartney-The Rolling Stones-Prince-Tom Petty-Bruce Springsteen-The Who into the 2010 Super Bowl. It got me thinking, The Weeknd is one of the few artists in history to perform at the Super Bowl while in their artistic prime. Beyonce, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, and maybe Maroon 5 are the only other acts to do it in recent times. Even Rhianna’s impressive show this past year comes 7 years after her last album. Isn’t that shocking, Rhianna hasn’t made an album in that long?
I know the Weeknd isn’t for everyone but you have to respect his run over the last 9 or 10 years since his debut as a major artist. You could definitely make the case that he’s in the running for the top musical artist since he released Beauty Behind the Madness in 2015. I particularly liked his switch to new wave a few years ago (at times really leaning into a Michael Jackson-type of sound and singing) with “Save Your Tears” being my favorite song in his catalog.
Trivia
In January 1997, this single became the first debut from a British musical act to top the Billboard Hot 100 since the Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in 1964. Name the group and song.
The Other Football
MLS commissioner Dan Garber says the top cities for league expansion are San Diego and Las Vegas.
The United States defeated Brazil 2-1 on Wednesday to win the SheBelieves Cup for the 4th straight year.
The UK government has released a report confirming its attempt to appoint an independent regulator over English football clubs. Per ESPN: “Once made law, the government says the independent regulator would have statutory powers to license and sanction clubs, oversee the financial sustainability of the game and prevent unscrupulous owners buying clubs.”
The other side of the Champions League 1st legs of the Round of 16 finished up this week:
Inter 1-0 Porto
City 1-1 Leipzig
Napoli 2-0 Frankfurt
Real Madrid 5-2 Liverpool
That’s an oof for Liverpool who took an early 2-0, by the way. Napoli continue to have a dream season. The Little Donkeys have a 15-point in Serie A which would be their first Italian championship since 1989-90.
Streaming
The strangest thing happened to me earlier this week. I have never watched a full episode of Tru Blood nor could I tell you anything about the show other than it’s about vampires and blood. Years ago, I must have caught the beginning of an episode on HBO and then moved on with my life. Recently, I was watching the NBA All-Star weekend and the dunk contest. Immediately after Matt McClung dominated the proceedings, an episode of Tru Blood came on TNT.
As luck would have it, I watched the beginning of the same exact episode. I’ve watched 10 minutes of Tru Blood and it’s the same 5 minutes of 1 episode. Actually, if my research is correct it’s 5 minutes of the same opening episode to the first season. Warner Brothers just syndicated Tru Blood and it debuted on TNT this past weekend.
A Look Back
Iowa, man. What a program. Kirk Ferentz has been head coach here since 1999 and hasn’t won the Big Ten in any of the last 18 seasons. Nearly 2 decades without a league title at a big Midwest school and he just keeps on surviving with no end in sight to his tenure. The Hawkeyes did win the Big Ten West in 2021, though! However, last year was a whole new recipe for the inept offensive era in Iowa history. Truly a football masterclass on how not to score points. I don’t know how anyone involved with any skill position on offense wants to go to this place.
I checked and Iowa didn’t sign a single nationally ranked (top 900 or so) skill player on offense in 2023, which makes total sense. This past season, Iowa treated us to this real special opener against South Dakota State in Iowa City. Neither team could average even 2 yards per carry on the ground. A total of 30 incompletions were thrown. No touchdowns were scored. Iowa scored not one but two safeties. The funniest part, to me at least, is this masterpiece took 3 hours and 32 minutes to complete–the 3rd longest of the season for Iowa which includes their severely weather delayed game a few weeks later against Nevada.
18S Paddock Club
F1 started their 3-day testing this Thursday and we’ll have a preview of the Bahrain Grand Prix next week. Before the season officially kicks off it’s time to discuss the regulation and rule changes for 2023.
Top 12 Changes to F1 2023
- The China Grand Prix has been cancelled and will not be replaced. That means there will be a near month-long break in April.
- The minimum car weight was supposed to be reduced by 2 kg but due to extra sensors and re-formulated tires (see below) the FIA has kept the same weight as last year.
- There’s a mandatory 7th camera “helmet cam” on each car.
- Sprint weekends will be increased from 3 to 6 this year at the races in Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Qatar, Austin, and Brazil.
- Team will get an increase from $150,000 to $400,000 in budget cap deductions for each sprint weekend. However, the flat $100,000 fee for car damage has been removed.
- During 2 yet-to-be-determined races there will be a revised qualifying format where drivers need to use hard tires during Q3, medium tires during Q2, and soft tires during Q3.
- The outer edges of the floor have been raised by 15 mm and less flexible to combat porpoising from last year.
- Rear-view mirrors are now 50 mm larger.
- Tire blanket temperatures are remaining at 70 degrees Celsius but use is reduced from 3 hours to 2 hours.
- Pirelli is introducing a new tire compound to make it 6 to choose from overall. A new C1 compound will be grippier while the old C1 from last year is now being called C0.
- Pirelli is also introducing a new formulated rubber to improve bite in the front tires and reduce the amount of understeer from 2022. They also will introduce a new wet weather tire from the Imola GP that will help reduce spray and will not require tire blankets.
- Cooler fuel is now allowed. Fuel cannot be more than 10 degrees Celsius below ambient temperature but the fuel temp can be as low as 10 degrees Celsius at any time (reduced from 20 degrees Celsius).
Trivia Answer:
“Wannabe” by the Spice Girls
I was talking to a cousin of mine over Christmas who is an Iowa alum and I asked them what, exactly, is the point of being an Iowa fan. He was flabbergasted by the question, as though I was talking crazy. I then stated that it’s not realistic that Iowa is going to win a national championship or be in contention for a national championship and a season is somewhere from 8-10 wins. He said a successful season is winning the Big 10 West. I told him that sucks and walked away.
so it’s reality for like 90% of programs?
Well, the alternative is 21st Century Nebraska, where you melt down about 9-3 not being good enough and end up burning your program to the ground.
I have no love for Iowa or its fans, but if anything, they are realistic.
It’s also not particularly realistic to think that Notre Dame is going to win a national championship in the foreseeable future.
Yeah, we have to wait all the way until next January 8th.
To at least be in the discussion for the playoffs should be the expectation most years, though, yes? Thus, a conceivable path to the NC.
We have a ~sub-2% chance of winning a national championship going into a season, and probably have less than a 10% chance of winning the playoff conditional on us making it. So, yes, technically there is a chance, but as a championship-contending program in most meaningful ways we’re closer to Iowa than Alabama.
If you set the over/under for ND national championships in the next 50 years at .5, do you think odds would favor the over or under? I strongly suspect the latter.
50 years is too long with the changes that I think are coming in college football. Next 10-20 years? Under, easy.
I’ll take the over. Lots of crazy shit can happen with more teams entering the conversation.
In the next 10 years, how many 12-team playoff appearances does ND make? How many for Iowa?
12-team playoff means ND is *less* likely to win a national championship, not more. To answer your question, I’d imagine the o/u line on ND appearances from 2024-2033 would be like 3.5 and Iowa’s would be .5, but the o/u on ND’s national semifinal appearances would be .5 and unless recruiting improves fairly significantly one should not expect ND to make any national championship game appearances, much less win one.
ND will have 8 available spots to make the playoff, versus 4 now. Sure, they’ll have to win 4 games instead of 2 to do it, but it also increases the likelihood of an upset or two somewhere in the bracket (and, unfortunately, injuries). It will also provide less prep time for the upper echelon teams, which is probably a huge factor in so many CFP blowouts thus far. Will I be at all shocked if the next 10 playoff champions are from 3-4 schools? Not at all. Does it seem likely that there will be 8 different schools winning it in the next 10 years? No, but it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. I don’t see a team who can barely muster 250 yds/game getting to a successful place anytime soon.
Agreed, and it amazes me how many people this escapes. For almost everyone not named Bama/Georgia/Ohio State, the best chance of actually winning a NC is a BCS-style one-off where you play out of your minds in one game and pull the upset. Running a gauntlet of 3 or 4 straight games against top 20 teams is the opposite of that.
A lot of people equate making the playoff with winning a national title, and I’m really not sure why.
Except in the current 4 team model, you’re guaranteed to have to play two top 4 teams to win the National Championship. In a 12 team model, that’s not at all true. It’s probable, but it’s not certain. I’d like the odds of ND getting a #5 and then having to beat #12 & #4 & #8 & #6 with some upset luck versus getting a #4 seed in the 4 team playoff and having to beat #1 and #2/#3. Again, my point is, this is a discussion that ND fans can realistically have, whereas an Iowa fan can’t.
Iowa almost made the CFP and Michigan State did in their place. Iowa would have made it that year in an eight team playoff. Iowa is definitely a step behind Notre Dame but basically only one – hope you get an upset win against a B1G title opponent or, with an expanded playoff, keep it close. And viola you’re in the same “well we COULD get lucky if everyone who actually sucks wins” model for Notre Dame’s playoff hopes
I dunno, man. ND has not been good at beating those kinds of teams for a very, very long time, much less beating multiple of them in the same season, much less beating multiple of them in a row. I’m not sure we’re a whole lot different from Iowa on that front.
It’s also possible that we’d go 12-0 and lose to a team like Tulane, whereas if we go 12-0 now we only need to win two games to win the natty, one of which could be against a fake-top-4 team like a 13-0 Michigan State or something.
There is no way that ND is more likely to win a national championship as the playoff expands. That favors the Alabamas of the world, who can now lose two regular season games and still be a top-3 likely team to win a natty.
Yes, in the worst case scenario versus the best case scenario, I also like the best case scenario. But also, ND could go 11-1 and miss the 4 team playoff entirely, or go 11-1, get a 7 seed and win the National Championship. Yes, if the 12 team goes chalk, a #5 seed would have to beat #12, #4, #1 & #2 and that seems nearly impossible, but, it’s going to be harder for everyone, not just ND.
Not having to 100% go through 2 of the top 4 teams in the country (and usually the drop-off from 1-4 to 5-12 is pretty steep) is the reason it’s a better deal (plus more decent college football matchups).
Oh sure, from the perspective of a college football fan the 12-team playoff rules. It’s a way better product than what they have going on now.
But, from the perspective of somebody who would like to see ND win a national championship at some point in my life, I think it’s pretty clearly bad.
It’s an extra step and hurdle and potential to trip. Certainly doesn’t help.
If we’re getting real honest, if ND’s sole focus was winning a national title, they should join the Big 10. Would make way money that will be needed for investments and gain a chance at a bye. That doesn’t guarantee anything and would be risky, but has the bigger upside.
The new CFP preserves ND bowl access. I’m sure there was a lot of push from conferences to deny ND access because they did not play in a conference.
One of their arguments was that every other team that would be in the new Playoff would have played thirteen games. Should ND play in the eight team level, they will play the thirteenth. But the second place team from a conference that makes the first level will be playing their fourteenth.(I’ll assume the second conference team is the loser of the conference championship.)
Should a ND team advance to the semis, they would play a team who has won their conference and with the bye plays thirteen games.
Who would have been opponents that is second last year? Alabama or LSU from the SEC? Ohio State or Purdue? Alabama or Ohio State, or others would also have been playing their thirteenth. Losers of the conference championship games like Purdue or LSU would be playing their fourteenth.
Should a team that is second in their conference (or the fifth of the P5 that has won their conference championship) and plays in the first week wins the NC, they will have played sixteen games. That’s one more than ND if the Irish win the NC.
Loaded divisions are the Big 10 East and SEC West. What the chances for Penn St to get into the eight teams? Or if ND were to be in either of those?
We get a week off with its rest in conference champ week vs a Georgia who as conference champions gets a week off after the game.
This is just a strong argument for ND to join a conference. The only way the playoff format is a Swarbrick masterstroke is if he is secretly trying to get ND to join the Big Ten or something (which, to hooks’s point, may be the case!)
No school that has joined the Big 10 has seen its football performance or outcomes materially improve.
It was a super weird moment when somehow some ND people and beat writers convinced themselves that the 12-team playoff format where ND can’t get a bye was some masterstroke of Swarbrick’s when it probably disadvantaged ND more relative to every other major program in the country.
We got the worst of both worlds there. 40% of the schedule is against bad, boring ACC teams that no one cares about, but in exchange for that, we can never get a bye!
Yeah. In retrospect the ACC deal has turned out to be pretty bad, but at least it looked good in real time. The 12-team playoff was clearly bad for ND from the start. It was fascinating to see how people would still bend over backwards to give Swarbrick credit for it for [reasoning unclear].
But we have to keep pretending Swarbrick is still good at the job to keep access or own ND Nation or whatever.
I don’t even think he’s bad at his job! The Kelly hire and Kelly non-fire in 2016, by themselves, basically keep his legacy from being viewed negatively at least as of now, plus he hired Link Jarrett/did the smooth transition from Muffet McGraw/has kept Corrigan happy enough to stay etc.
But, some of the “savvy” deals he cut ended up being really not-good:
(1) ACC deal
(2) Under Armour deal
(3) 12-team playoff
Not to mention he kept Brey around for three seasons too long.
Overall, a mixed bag, and whether his tenure was very good, good, or meh/mediocre will turn on how Freeman does, because ultimately the football matters most.
Maybe perception-wise, Swarbrick gets too much credit. But at least he was there and got a system with maximum at-large bids. He’s one man standing in the way of the Big10 + SEC, they could have just as easily pretended he didn’t matter, pushed him to the side and did what they were going to do anyways.
I don’t give Jack a lot of credit for the 12-team format, but it’s not a bum deal for Notre Dame either. I think he did well to position them as continually important and relevant as a partner at the table. That’s really about all that can be honestly asked. The other conferences naturally aren’t going to setup a format favorable to one independent team and not themselves.
In the next 10 years, you think it is more likely than not that ND will win a national title?
The O/U was .5.
No, the posit was 50 years. I think they’ll be a playoff mainstay for the next 10 years.
Bigger question is if CFB will still exist in 50 years due to the demographic bust colleges are looking at.
You gotta give credit to the announcers on that Iowa broadcast. They made the game sound pretty exciting and had positive things to say. The Iowa SDSU game had legitimately better announcers than ND.
As an Iowa resident, this is still one of the more entertaining things we’ve got going on. Shit, we’re famous for waving at a building.
What about the Lumber Yard!?!?
We usually call it Menards.
Will the Pac-12 break up? Where each team would go if league disintegrates over media rights deal
In other football news, ND women’s soccer had an outstanding season – 17-3-3 record, a No 1 seed in the NC Tournament, almost two months without losing, and three players drafted or signing a pro contract. Four players are transferring to ND through the portal.
Korbin Albert, MF signed with the iconic Paris Saint-Germain women’s team. (The men’s team’s forwards includes Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar). Albert, a sophmore, was a finalist for the Herman trophy for the best woman soccer player this year (think Heisman). Olivia Wingate, F was drafted #6 by the NC Courage and Brianna Martinez, D, was drafted #17 by Racing Louisville.
The NWSL is expanding. Boston and San Francisco groups are paying $50 million to the NWSL to join next year. More opportunities for ND Women’s soccer players.
Kate Markgraf (’98 soccer) ,who led ND to their first of three NCs and was on the National team that won the World Cup, received the NCAA’s prestigous Silver Anniversary award. The class included Peyton Manning. Markgraf was elected to Soccer’s Hall of Fame at the same time. Markgraf assumed the Presidency of ND’s Monogram Club in April for a term of two years. (bio included)
Women’s Soccer among ND teams since 1990 has won more NCs (3) than any other ND team except fencing and has been in the finals eight times. Their three NCs are second nationally only to North Carolina’s.
From link above for Albert’s signing with PS-G:
Top Drawer Soccer chose Albert as the collegiate Player of the Year.
Just a bit more on Markgraf’s career:
USWNT GENERAL MANAGER, NATIONAL TEAM GREAT AND NOTRE DAME ALL-AMERICAN KATE MARKGRAF NAMED RECIPIENT OF NCAA SILVER ANNIVERSARY AWARD (Dec 5, 2022)
reading recruiting class of 2025 made my head spin a little
those guys going into college as i graduate
Those guys are going into college as I continue to be 41 years old
Yeah those kids were likely all born the year I graduated college.
Though to Tiger’s point, it is a weird sensation for the players you root for switching to being all younger than you.
an almost weirder sensation is players like Tommy Rees and Collin Klein who I very distinctly remember watching and stuff become big time coordinators and what not
I can feel the 1:30 p.m. hangover that Chonky Blond Iowa Fan is suffering through.
I really, really enioyed The Weeknd’s half time show. It was easily one of the most visually interesting, probably because with covid, they couldn’t just run out 75 people on to the field. Necessity is the mother of invention…
The best part of Uncut Gems was when he beats up the Weekend.
Hey, that’s Iowa defeating the national champs! Respect!
Also wasn’t that the same weekend as UNC/App St? Talk about a contrast in games!
Would be interested in a deeper dive on the XFL rules. The new kickoff and the onside kick rule seem to make a lot of sense, for instance.
I absolutely love both of these rules. I’ve been a huge proponent of the “4th and 15” setup for onside kicks. I hadn’t seen the XFL’s standard kickoff until now, but it looks excellent. If College Football truly is trying to implement some new rules for player safety, these two would be great options that would still keep excitement in kickoffs.
What are these rules you speak off???? They sound interesting.
Instead of an onside kick, in the 4th quarter after a score a team can elect to take a 4th and 15 from their own 25. St. Louis converted one of these on their way back from erasing a two score deficit in the last two minutes.
For kickoffs, looks like the teams have to line up 10 yards apart (30 and 40 yard lines?) and no one can move except the receiver until the ball crosses the 20. Much slower speed collisions.
Sounds fun. I love trying new things.
I also like their PAT approach. More strategy!
While I suppose you could fairly say that Prince was “well past his prime” when he did the super bowl, you could also fairly say that he had the best halftime show of all time.
Edit: tried to link a youtube of the show, but stupid NFL won’t let you embed the video. Go look it up. It’s great.
His antics behind the screen were hilarious.
Makes me unreasonably upset for how dumb that change is. All the rest make sense, even though it’s a shame it makes the college game more identical to the NFL rules.
Yeah, I assume there is an exception for spikes near the end of the half?
Yeah, instead of fixing the actual issues with game length which stem from bad replay set up, poor officiating, and too many tv timeouts the plan is to have less actual gameplay. So we’ll have fewer plays per game but at least we can still have the refs go to the booth for 10 minutes to figure out what down it is (hey there Navy game) in between having the same goddamn Dr. Pepper commercial shoved down our throats. That’s the important part.
It’s not great, but something has to change. The main FOX game starting the broadcast at 11:00, kicking off at 11:20, and finishing at 3:00 is just awful.