Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
*Big inhale, we’ve got A LOT of news to cover this week. College football needs to slow down.
A slew of transfers have been announced out of Notre Dame including WR Tobias Merriweather, WR Chris Tyree, WR Braylon James, OC Zeke Correll, DE Nana Osafo-Mensah, DT Aidan Keanaaina, and S Ramon Henderson.
Duke quarterback Riley Leonard has entered the transfer portal and is expected to pick Notre Dame.
UCLA quarterback Dante Moore is in the transfer portal after 1 season with the Bruins. Oregon State quarterback DJU is also transferring after 1 season with the Beavers. Florida quarterback Graham Mertz is coming back for his 6th season.
Former All-American Notre Dame linebacker Michael Stonebreaker was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Thursday.
Georgia, Michigan, Washington, and Florida State round out of the top 4 in the newest College Football Playoff rankings. The Fighting Irish finished the regular season ranked 17th overall.
Michigan State has hired Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith who will be bringing offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren with him to East Lansing. The Beavers have promoted defensive coordinator Trent Bray to head coach.
Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby is set to become the new head coach at Mississippi State.
Syracuse is hiring Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown as their new head coach.
Mark Stoops was linked to the Texas A&M job over the weekend but will be staying at Kentucky. Instead, the Aggies have hired Mike Elko away from Duke.
Indiana head coach Tom Allen has been fired with the school negotiating a buyout down to $15.5 million. The Hoosiers are hiring James Madison coach Curt Cignetti.
Houston has fired Dana Holgorsen after 5 years at the helm.
Pittsburgh has fired offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti.
Dana Dimel has been fired as head coach at UTEP.
Middle Tennessee State fired head coach Rick Stockstill.
New Mexico let go of head coach Danny Gonzales.
SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee has received a multi-year contract extension as the Mustangs get ready for the AAC Championship Game and transition to the ACC next year.
Penn State is hiring Andy Kotelnicki from Kansas as their new offensive coordinator.
Baylor has hired California’s Jake Spavital as their offensive coordinator.
Bobby Petrino is back at Arkansas as their new offensive coordinator.
Colorado demoted OC Sean Lewis a few weeks ago and he is the new head coach now at San Diego State.
Quarterback Max Johnson is transferring from Texas A&M to North Carolina.
The MAC is scrapping their 2 division format and will be using these 3-team pods starting in 2024:
Pod 1: Buffalo, Akron, Kent State
Pod 2: Ohio, Miami, Ball State
Pod 3: Toledo, Bowling Green, NIU
Pod 4: EMU, CMU, WMU
Fox Big Noon Kickoff beat ESPN GameDay in ratings for the first time with both programs broadcasting from the Michigan-Ohio State game last Saturday.
Deion Sanders was named the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.
Uniform of the Week
I will die on this hill that LSU’s purple jerseys are among the best in the country and look far better than their standard home white jerseys. The purple looks fantastic paired with a yellow helmet, white helmet, yellow pants, or white pants. To my knowledge, the Tigers have never worn purple pants at any point, except in practice or for recruiting photos. In general, it pains me that LSU rarely wears their purple jerseys. It’s such a shame.
Now, this all-white look as worn this past weekend has got me feeling stuff. I think this look debuted about a decade ago and has been worn a handful of times, but not too often. I like the nice touch of the “L” on the front right hip of the pants, something that isn’t on their standard yellow pants. It’s just all fresh, I have no complaints and wouldn’t change a thing. Maybe this is what they will wear in the bowl game against Notre Dame, if that’s the announced matchup?
Recruiting
Defensive lineman Justin Scott (0.9951) flipped from Ohio State to Miami.
Colorado picked up a commitment from athlete Kamron Mikell (0.9493). However, the Buffaloes lost quarterback commit Danny O’Neil (0.8786) out of Cathedral High School in Indiana.
Nebraska added a big commit in Iowa offensive tackle Grant Brix (0.9589).
One of the nation’s top JUCO defensive lineman Shone Washington (0.8611) is headed to LSU.
Illinois added interior offensive lineman Andrew Dennis (0.8952) recently.
In the 2025 class…
Colorado lost their prized quarterback Antwann Hill (0.9678) this past Sunday as well as 4-star wide receiver Winston Watkins (0.9543) a couple weeks ago and running back Jamarice Wilder (0.8600) this week. Do these recruits not read SI?
YouTube Channel
I think kids are naturally drawn to arcades. I grew up playing hockey in a million different rinks across the northeastern U.S. and Ontario with plenty of arcade games to keep us entertained before and after games or practices. As such, I enjoyed a trip down memory lane from this 1980’s arcade video. Although, there are plenty of these that I didn’t know existed or have ever heard of before. The ones I do remember:
#23 Paperboy – This was a top 5 video game for me in terms of overall surprise and playability based on initial belief. Great memories.
#21 Pole Position – A pretty basic racing game with awesome advertising boards, predating the F1 boom!
#20 Rampage – I never found this game very entertaining but occasionally remember throwing some quarters at it.
#17 Donkey Kong – This was too basic for me.
#15 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – A truly awesome game on arcade and one I have incredible memories playing on the huge and brightly colored machine, more on the TMNT below.
#13 Double Dragon – Decent game, never lived up to the hype.
#1 Pacman – The true OG.
Tunes
When I was little the vapors of “disco sucks!” were really a thing. For a long time I really subscribed to it. Rock and roll, baby! Then I got older and wondered, wait what are we supposed to dislike about disco? Compared to today disco sounds raw as hell at times. Let’s take my favorite Bee Gees song “Night Fever” for example:
Scratchy guitars. That familiar disco drum beat. A bouncing bass. Some strings. Electric piano. Plus, the Gibb brothers wrote the songs themselves. Today, we would be dying for more artists like this! Of course, this song went to No. 1 for the group. I’ve always been a big fan of this drumming and the drum fills as heard at 0:48 and 2:11. Great stuff.
Trivia
Via a Brett McMurphy tweet, name the 7 programs to be placed at no. 1 in any of the 59 College Football Playoff rankings to date.
The Other Football
The latest Champions League scores from this week:
Man United 3-3 Galatasaray
Bayern Munich 0-0 Copenhagen
PSV 3-2 Sevilla
Arsenal 6-0 Lens
Braga 1-1 Union Berlin
Real Madrid 4-2 Napoli
Benfica 3-3 Inter Milan
Real Sociedad 0-0 Salzburg
Lazio 2-0 Celtic
Atletico 3-1 Feyenoord
BVB 3-1 AC Milan
PSG 1-1 Newcastle
Man City 3-2 RB Leipzig
Young Boys 2-0 Red Star Belgrade
Shakhtar 1-0 Royal Antwerp
Barcelona 2-1 Porto
Man United may have tied this week in the UCL but oh my goodness 19-year old Spanish winger Alejandro Garnacho scored maybe the goal of the year in the Premier League this past weekend:
ONE OF THE GREATEST BICYCLE KICKS YOU WILL EVER SEE 🚲
(via @NBCSportsSoccer)pic.twitter.com/LsKARMaWwQ
— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 26, 2023
Spurs are an injured mess, have lost 3 straight, Arsenal tops the league, and I really don’t want to talk about it.
The conference finals are set in the MLS after Houston beat Salt Lake 1-0 and LAFC beat Seattle 1-0 out west. In the east, Cincinnati is through after a 1-0 win over Philadelphia and they’ll meet Columbus who beat Orlando City 2-0.
TV & Movies
In doing some research, it looks like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really took off around 1988 after success from the original comic books a few years earlier followed up by a line of action figures that brought in over a billion dollars. The animated series came around this time and was also a big hit. So when the 1990 movie was released it was probably the best example of comic book–>action figures–>cartoon–>movie combo in history. I know I was hooked on TMNT at the time.
I always thought the turtle costumes were amazing and sure enough they were created by Jim Henson shortly before his death. Even as a kid, coming in expecting the silly vibes because of the cartoon, I loved the darkness from this movie. I thought the balance was really well done. It even says it in the movie tagline, “Hey dude, this is no cartoon.”
A Look Back
If Audric Estime doesn’t play in the bowl game and declares for the NFL Draft as expected, his career numbers for the Irish will finish as follows: 373 carries, 2,321 yards, 6.2 yards per rush, 29 touchdowns with 26 receptions for 277 yards and 1 more touchdown. At times, Estime had his struggles and didn’t seem to be as nimble or light on his feet while running with his large frame. Other times, he looked as athletic as anyone in the country for his size. For example, look at the cut against Ohio State around the 7:00 minute mark in this video. That’s wicked impressive.
Where does Estime rank against the other top Irish running backs in recent memory like Kyren Williams and Josh Adams? I would assume these would be the top 3 but in what order? I think I’m still partial to Adams and would give him the edge based on explosiveness. Yet, I think there’s a great debate that any of the 3 could be considered the best of the bunch. It’s been a great run for those players especially as they weren’t elite can’t-miss recruits.
18S Paddock Club
The 74th edition of Formula 1 is now complete. Most of the suspense was settled long ago with Max Verstappen securing the driver’s championship well before fall hit the northern hemisphere. Of course, as the sport gathered in the United Arab Emirates for the last race of the season, Verstappen took pole and won the final grand prix of the season.
His list of records are eye-watering and firmly plant his season as perhaps the best ever in F1 history:
- Most wins (19) in a season
- Highest winning percentage (86.4%) in a season
- The first driver to lead 1,000 laps in a season
- Led a new record 75.7% of all laps in 2023
- Most overall points (575) and percentage of available points (92.7%)
- Most consecutive (10) wins
- Most podium (21) finishes
- Most consecutive points (1,004 and counting) scored
- Most wins (12) from pole position in a season
- Most hat tricks (6 times claiming pole, win, and fastest lap)
- Largest gap (290 points) to P2 in the championship
There are so many more insane stats from this past year but those are the big ones.
Even Verstappen’s burnout was perfect.
To close out the season, Mercedes held on to 2nd place behind Red Bull ultimately holding off Ferrari by just 3 points. That’s more money for Mercedes but more tunnel time for Ferrari. The rest of the teams finished in this order: McLaren (302 points), Aston Martin (280), Alpine (120), Williams (28), AlphaTauri (25), Alfa Romeo (16) and Haas (12).
In the end, Checo Perez secured P2 comfortably by 41 points over Lewis Hamilton. Based on highest single result, Fernando Alonso finished 4th ahead of Charles Leclerc although they tied on points with 206. Resurgent McLaren driver Lando Norris finished just 1 point back in 6th with Carlos Sainz (200), George Russell (175), Oscar Piastri (97), and Lance Stroll (74) rounding out the top 10.
Trivia Answer:
Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State, LSU, Miss State, and Tennessee.
Eric please do not forget the king of northeastern hockey rink gaming: bubble hockey. The fact they are commercially available at a reasonable price now would blow my 10 year old mind.
Those TMNT movies hold up nicely. “Ya, a little too Raph”.
I personally put Kyren at the top of those three. The OL he had in 2021 was rough, especially compared to the Joe Moore winning 2017 line that Adams had. Seemed like Adams had giant lanes to run through whereas Kyren was doing UNC 91 yard run things.
You know bubble hockey was always #1 back then.
I count the time a good friend debuted his home bubble hockey machine one of the greatest weekends of my life.
Bubble hockey was absolutely the best game of the 80s. The fact that it was US/USSR just gave it that extra cold war je ne sais quoi
Congratulations to #42 Mike Stonebreaker. Such a great player.
For MACtion people, it really seems like Ball State and NIU are the only teams getting really screwed in this pod system. Hopefully they get that one protected through some other mechanism. It would have been better to just give every team two protected games than go with pods.
What do you mean? Miami is Ball State’s main rival…or am i missing some other point?
Right, Miami is the only one of those pods that has two real rivals, so if you had given each team two protected games pods 2 and 3 would go something like:
Seems better especially for Ball State and NIU, but also a bit better for Ohio and BGSU and would further encourage more geographic secondary rivalries. The other pods would keep their podmates as their two protected games.
Ok, gotcha, you mean two rivals for each school. /facepalm should’ve been obvious to me, thanks for the explanation.
It’s Oregon and USC in a quiet bidding war for Dante Moore, right?
Surprised it took Justin Scott this long to flip to Miami. That kid seemed want NIL money and warm weather schools, so ND never had a chance.
In retrospect, so glad that he did not pick ND earlier this year
As far as the Pac 12 teams QBs, we’ll see lots of changes. Of the remaining two, both starters (DJ Uiagalelei) and Cam Ward) have entered the portal. I have to wonder if they each move in-state. Oregon, Washington and USC will see theirs move to the NFL. Patu at Stanford and Moore at UCLA are transferring. Arizona State loses Trenton Bourguet and will be looking for a one year QB or roll with Jaden Rashada.
Cal and Arizona have had successful Freshman QBs. Cam Rising is returning to Utah. Shedeur Colorado is a given.
We could see eight of the twelve Pac 12 teams with new starters. Possibly seven Big teams may look for starters from the Portal – plus all four of the ex-Pacs..
We still have to lose about another 10 guys to even get to the limit before we can start taking transfers, yes? They’ve got to come from somewhere. I’ll be glad when all the COVID extra years are done…
If we’re losing WR, this would be the year to pick up a running QB transfer like Leonard and pair him with Love and Price and Payne. Just need a couple of good receivers to keep the D honest, along with Evans (hopefully) and Raridon. Wonder if Leonard coming in and the increased likelihood of that kind of offense is scaring off the outside WR guys.
23 Verbals/Freshmen
23 Sophomores after losing Braylon James
19 Juniors after losing Merriweather
11 Seniors losing Estime and Alt to the NFL (not announced)
That’s 76 before grad students and transfers.
Grad student guesstimate:
That’d put us at 83 counting grad students (85 with Estime and Alt still in the count).
It projects grad students Hart (NFL), Bertrand (NFL), Kiser, Baker, Kristofic, Bauman, Ford, and Carmody as the other grad students with eligibility not returning.
Including all those grad students with eligibility and Estime and Alt gives us 93 scholarships pending future official announcements.
Some speculation that Carter might transfer again. TBD.
Also it’s been reported that they didn’t invite NaNa back. If they did that and invite back Clarence Lewis, man, that’s weird.
If they keep CL, it might be that they think they need him for nickel
When Carter came in it seemed like he knew that it was a two-year project for him to make the jump up in competition, then contribute in year two. If the staff doesn’t think he’s making the jump, then by all means let him go, but it’d be weird if he wanted to leave because of lack of playing time.
MSU could be the destination for Dante if the price is right. As far as MSU scholarships available, a quick look at their 247 chart has twenty-two Seniors (probably including RSs). I imagine they hit the Portal heavily. QB is a prime priority.
By my count, Colorado without further losses in transfers or decommitments, they sit at 69 scholarship players counting 2024 current commits (9). Only six of those 69 originally signed with Colorado.
Sounds like Liufau accepted an invitation to the senior bowl. He gone.
I don’t think that eliminates you anymore….could be wrong.
Also why would Liafau and Hart play in the Senior bowl and not the bowl game ? More Scouts ?
I saw somewhere they were maybe thinking of taking 7 transfers (currently).
Nice little Justin Scott/Dante Moore bits here about guys we all now realize absolutely never would have made it three years at ND.
Yeah, there are certain five star prospects that maybe you don’t chase (as Texas A&M found out)
Man are you bringing me back with TMNT and 80s arcade games! I remember strongly when those movies came out. Was it the first one or the second one that featured Vanilla Ice and “go ninja go ninja go!”? The turtles arcade game was also incredible, and a marked disappointment when the NES game was a disaster to play, instead of just a port of the arcade cabinet.
On the football front, there seems to be smoke around the idea that Flores is unhappy and leaning towards transfer as well. He was apparently very close to Stuckey and unhappy about the way that went down. Hope spring eternal though, as I hear rumors of 4D chess plans to bring in Brian Hartline or Jamarcus Shepard as WR/OC. The most wonderful time of the year, indeed…
Flores and Staes….gone.
I believe Vanilla Ice was in the 2nd TMNT movie.
So … what is going on here in the WR room? There has to be something happening other than just looking for a new opportunity, right?
They took Physics? We need more lacrosse players.
Two more portal casualties today. Now at:
Remaining scholarship receivers:
KK Smith will be playing in the bowl game. He might get a stat before next year!
Is Colzie even going to be healthy for the bowl game? He was probably a guy that would typically leave but maybe he’s seeing he’s among the last few left and will stay?
At this point KK Smith might just play but he might start!
Colzie got his knee scoped the week of September 25th and they were hoping to have him back for the end of the regular season, but he didn’t make it back that quickly. Seems like he could be available, but I haven’t heard an update.
All of Colzie’s 16 receptions of them have been successful plays, the 15 most recent catches have either gone for a first down or touchdown:
The guy makes plays. Going into next season he’ll have just turned 21 with two years of eligibility remaining. I’m very much hoping he’ll still be on the team.
Thought was he’d stay out to save a year,,no?
Maybe a combination of the two, but recovery was definitely slower than the original aggressive timeline.
I understand most of the losses except that I do not agree with the transfers of NaNa and Rico. I know that Nana was not asked back, but why not? At a minimum he would be great depth along the d-line. And Rico — lots of playing time and catches during his freshman year. But apparently he was attached to the hip to his position coach
Deion Sanders was named the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.
Please tell me how he deserved this.
“Night Fever” was a great song. I remember the disco era well. I was not a disco fan and much preferred rock but did like songs by the BeeGees, Donna, Summer and
“I Will Survive” and others. Many people chose to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I looked at each song individually. Some radio stations had bonfires to burn disco records.
I hear he’s going to be in the swimsuit issue too.
In SI’s defense, LLMs are bad at reacting to recent events, so of course it’s using outdated information!
Zing!