Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
In the News
Mike Elston is now Notre Dame’s recruiting coordinator (again) and they’ve created the title of defensive run game coordinator for him. Special teams coach Brian Polian loses the recruiting coordinator tag but picks up the associate head coach responsibility from Elston.
Notre Dame will soon be offering an over-the-top streaming service that can be downloaded from the app store to your Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, or Android device.
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah would be headed to the team with the No. 1 pick in Daniel Jeremiah’s latest NFL mock draft. Danny Kelly from the Ringer’s latest Mock Draft has JOK going to the Washington Football Team. Kelly also has JOK as his No. 8 overall prospect on his Big Board.
BGI takes a look at the other 19 Power 5 quarterbacks who grad transferred to another Power 5 school and what it means for Jack Coan at Notre Dame.
Gus Malzahn was hired by UCF on Monday, solidifying the school’s reputation as one of the best G5 programs in the country.
Notre Dame’s game in Ireland was cancelled this past season and now Illinois vs. Nebraska in Dublin has been moved to Champaign.
Trevor Lawrence looked pretty, pretty, pretty good at his individual Pro Day before he has surgery to take care of an issue in his non-throwing shoulder.
The AFCA is once again asking the NCAA to address college football players faking injuries. Good luck finding a solution.
Throwback Article
Trevor Lawrence is going to go No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft soon. Why not take a look back to the time we scouted him prior to facing the (then) true freshman in the playoffs?
The Portal
Oregon QB Tyler Shough who started all of their games in 2020 is transferring.
Ben Davis was once a 5-star recruit and the No. 10 overall player in his class. He leaves Alabama basically making no impact and will try a 6th year at another school in 2021.
Boston College running back David Bailey has gained exactly 1,600 yards in his career and will be playing elsewhere in 2021.
Michigan quarterback Joe Milton is entering the Portal and will not be staying in Ann Arbor to be a champion.
Helmet Talk
Indulge me for a minute, is the LSU helmet overrated?
I should note that I do like the LSU helmet. It’s just…do we think they should either go with just the letters or just the tiger logo? This has become a bigger issue for me with the modern helmets as you can see the vents interrupt the lettering. I’d love to see just the tiger logo enlarged without the lettering.
Recruiting
5-star quarterback Maalik Murphy (0.984) out of Junipero Serra in California committed to Texas. Steve Sarkisian with a nice pull using his California connections.
One of the nation’s top linebackers in Anthony Johnson (0.934) committed to Rutgers. Will he stick?
The NCAA extended the recruiting dead period through May 31st. That’ll make it 14 months minimum without official in-person recruiting.
Don’t forget to read our 2021 recruiting class reviews to date:
Full Class Review
Offensive Backfield + Kicker
Wide Receiver
House of the Week
Today we take a look at Scottie Pippen’s home in Highland Park just north of Chicago. My research shows that the former Bulls all-star has been trying to sell this house off-and-on for several years. He reportedly wants $2.1 million for it and lives primarily in Los Angeles now.
The interior of the house seems to be very cookie-cutter mansion, which is to be expected for a celebrity who doesn’t stay there very often.
I’m a sucker for a quality outdoor TV, especially next to a hot tub. Fantastic pool set up for Pippen who, it is safe to assume, never comes to this home in the cold Chicago winter.
Rich people love their wine cellars, home movie theaters, and indoor gyms. He checks all the boxes.
Tunes
The weird thing about Nirvana is that I personally associate them so much with my 7th and 8th grade years even though they blew up 3 years prior with Nevermind. Which is crazy because the band had released all 3 of their studio albums prior to my 7th grade, and Cobain’s death in April 1994 (tail end of 6th grade for me) really seemed to solidify Nirvana as the coolest group around.
When they released MTV Unplugged in New York it blew my mind. To this day, it’s probably in my top 10 favorite albums and such a dark, masterful listen from start to finish. One of my favorite tracks is “Lake of Fire” one of the Meat Puppets’ songs they covered that evening. What a voice from Cobain, sheesh.
Ugly Apparel
I may have mentioned this during the 2020 season–I don’t like the Rally. patch. I found THIS hat in the Fanatics store and I think it’s awful. This looks like a hat worn by the annoying guy at the bar who watches 2 Notre Dame games a year and thinks he’s an expert.
The rectangular patch just kills me. And the period! Why is the Under Armour logo in silver? If you click the link you’ll see a ND logo on the other side of the hat in an apparently different color blue than the Rally. patch.
On This Day in Sports
Two years ago on this day, free agent infielder Manny Machado signed a North American sports record deal for $300 million over 10 years. Since then, Machado’s contract has been surpassed by the Yankees Garett Cole, the Phillies Bryce Harper, the Dodgers Mookie Betts, boxer Canelo Alvarez, the Angels Mike Trout, and the Chiefs Patrick Mahomes. And of course, the Padres Fernando Tatis, Jr. who just agreed to a new 14-year deal worth $340 million.
At the Cinema
I won’t argue today that Tim Burton’s Batman is the best movie in the franchise (on another day I would argue such a thing) but I will say that it remains one of my greatest cinematic memories from my pre-teen years.
I was 7.5 years old when this movie came out and my goodness the feeling of watching this in the theater was mind-blowing. To me, it felt like it changed the game. The only other movie that compares for me was Jurassic Park released 4 years later. I was more of a sporty kid who didn’t play a ton with action figures but my best friend and I got months and months of mileage out of Batman.
Hot Take
The recent McDonald’s redesign has been getting lukewarm reviews in the graphics community (especially set against Burger King’s own redesign a month earlier) but while I like BK going back to their old logo it’s fair to say I’m lovin’ it (had to do it) with McDonald’s new look.
It’s being described as “playful” which makes sense and fits perfectly for me as my kids start experiencing the wonders of Happy Meals and chicken nuggets. I like this simplistic illustration-led re-brand more so than Burger King who largely relies on giant groovy lettering plastered over everything.
Trivia
Which team under Brian Kelly at Notre Dame has the best and worst turnover differential for a season?
I’m assuming the 2010 season where we started -10 in turnovers after 2 games has to be the worst?
Those early BK teams were maddening in that regard, but my money is on 2014; everett golson against ASU comes to mind, plus a brian van gorder defense that confused literally anyone with a gold helmet… except navy.
Best T/O differential… toss up between 2012 and 2018? I’ll go 2018
2014 was only -3 on the season (surprisingly I know) only 4th worst of the Kelly era.
2018 was the 4th best season.
Samsonite, I was way off! 4th worst and 4th best, basically I found the most middle of the road T/O years for kelly.
Do not forget: Brian Van Gorder shut out Michigan.
Right track, just wrong year.
2010 was kind of all over the place with 9 games of at least -2 or +2 turnovers.
I googled Tulsa instead of USF. I confused those two horrible games.
2011 was the year we had 10 turnovers in 2 games. It makes me shudder just thinking about it.
Without looking it up, 2012 and 2018 seem too obvious for the ‘best’. My gut says 2017.
I get maybe the fit isn’t there for a guy with 3 years of eligibility left, but Shough would have been a much preferable pickup compared to Coan. I could perhaps be talked into taking a flyer on Milton that he might improve outside of Michigan a bit and be a better option.
And, if Buchner is more Wimbush or Jurkovec than program-changing force, it might have been a saving grace to have a Shogh in the program to play going forward too instead of being up the creek in 2022.
Doesn’t seem like anyone at Oregon is all bent out of shape to see Shough leaving, though. Multiple years left + west coast guy + really poor end to 2020 and I don’t see Shough as someone worth targeting.
I’d still take a poor ending to a 2020 sample with a 9.3 Y/A over last playing in 2019 (with a 8.0 Y/A) though.
The years in play and geography have what you say make a ton of sense, and Coan certainly seems to be a nice fit culture-wise and in his timing…Just would have rather gotten a better player. But perhaps my outlook on him is too sour, we shall see.
He’s going to Texas Tech.
I’m not sure there’s any evidence that Shough is better than Coan. The Pac-12 played, what, 5 games last season? It’s a much smaller sample than Coan’s stat line. There’s a big difference between that offense and what Wisconsin runs, as well.
The fact that Oregon doesn’t seem bothered by Shough’s departure seems like a red flag, even if they like the kid waiting in the wings.
Is it weird to think that UCF ended up with a better coaching outcome than Tennessee?
Yeah, I know funny how that worked out.
Also, I have always loved that Nirvana unplugged album — my favorite from them
Yesss.
Several artists I otherwise really like did those MTV unplugged albums, and those turned out to be perhaps my favorite of all they did! Nirvana’s Unplugged is excellent, and Eric Clapton’s is as well.
Cobain sure had some talent
Why hasn’t the ACC tried to add UCF? I understand that it would give unbalanced divisions in football, but they don’t seem to care about that for basketball. They’re an enormous school, in a prime college sports state, but in a location that doesn’t exactly overlap with Miami and FSU.
Really good question.
Add UCF and Memphis together.
Wouldn’t Miami and FSU block that move? I have a feeling that they would at least try.
Me and Murtaugh talking about how The Dark Knight is very clearly superior
Speaking of Ramblers, if you want to hop on the bandwagon of the Loyola Ramblers basketball team, now is the time. #9 in KenPom, #1 in our hearts.
My heart, anyway.
Must have been the hot word in the Chicago area in the 1920’s. Both the ND football and Loyola Univ. started using the nickname around the same time.
I’ll go best differential 2019, ton of fumbles and fumble luck combined with book having minimal turnovers. Worst I guess I’ll go 2013. You’ve got peak tommy turnover with a defense that didn’t have many playmakers.
Ahh looked it up. Should have gone with the obvious answer for worst turnover diff
Nailed the best!
Trivia Answers
Best Turnover Diff.
2019
Fumbles Gained: 19
INT Gained: 9
Total Gained: 28
Fumbles Lost: 5
INT Lost: 6
Total Lost: 11
Difference: +17
Worst Turnover Diff.
2011
Fumbles Gained: 6
INT Gained: 8
Total Gained: 14
Fumbles Lost: 12
INT Lost: 17
Total Lost: 29
Difference: -15
-15 hurts my soul… and the breakdown of each is insane; 17 doggone picks? And we didnt even have Jameis Winston! It’s hard to believe that was a decade ago.
Request for a series: much like the 2009 season breakdown, I’d be hecking stoked to revisit that puzzling 2011 season within this community, aka my favorite notre dame group.
You dare open the sarcophagus that is 2011!???!??
Good point haha, I suppose I’m just a glutton for punishment.
Maybe best to just leave that dead horse in the ground