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

Top News

According to reports, Fox is determined to block Oklahoma and Texas’ early move to the SEC. The Big 12 commissioner reiterated this week that both schools will remain in the league until 2025.

We also have confirmation that the Big 12 will go without divisions next year when they welcome UCF, Cincinnati, BYU, and Houston. Reports are that the Big 12 is set to sign a new TV deal with Fox and ESPN sometime in the next week or two.

Georgia Tech has hired J Batt to be their new athletic director. Yes, his first name is “J” and he was the executive deputy athletic director, CEO, and chief revenue officer at Alabama prior to taking this position.

News from The First State is that Delaware is interested in making the move up from FCS to FBS.

USC receiver Jordan Addison is day-to-day after suffering an injury last week at Utah.

According to Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, the Ducks will be building a new $250 million practice facility.

The NFL is beginning a Black Friday game starting in 2023 exclusively on Amazon that will go head-to-head with college football rivalry games.

Uniform of the Week

Youngstown State had been in a rut lately. They started 2-0 but lost 3 straight games to some very good competition in Kentucky, North Dakota State, and then North Dakota. Finally, they realized a shake up was needed and it was time for something different. Yes, it was time to unleash the powers of Pete the Penguin. And wouldn’t you know it, Youngstown ended up beating Indiana State by 6 points this past weekend featuring Pete on their helmets.

Unless you are a blueblood, most NCAA teams should be warmly embracing these wonderful mascot logos. For example, BYU has been using THIS cougar logo on a lot of their apparel, even on the sidelines gear. I thought they might go with this against Notre Dame. Then, a week later they wore a special helmet, with a cougar on it, but it wasn’t this logo. I love how Pete wears a beanie and scarf and yet somehow is the most ornery looking penguin you’ll ever see. 1-0, baby.

Recruiting

St. Louis running back Jeremiyah Love (0.9692) committed to Notre Dame on his visit to campus prior to the Stanford game. You can read our commit post HERE.

Wharton School safety Dijon Johnson (0.9555) committed to Florida.

St. John Bosco safety R.J. Jones (0.8925) committed to UCLA.

Tampa area interior offensive lineman Clay Wedin (0.8928) committed to Auburn after leaving Michigan State’s class 4 days prior.

Clemson picked up offensive tackle Zechariah Owens (0.9251) on Tuesday.

In the 2024 class, Avon Old Farms quarterback Ryan Puglisi (0.9181) committed to Georgia.

YouTube Channel

Not being able to understand people who speak English is one heck of an experience. I was trying to think of native speakers from the United States that I’ve struggled understanding and can’t think of anything too bad. The occasional funny word aside, or single pronunciation, I’ve been okay with some brief exceptions in the southern Pennsylvania and West Virginia area. Things can get a little dicey in those neck of the woods. When it comes to England, we’re playing an different game. I can’t even discuss Welsh, because is that English anyway?

There were a couple of basketball players that came to my high school from overseas who spoke what I’d consider multicultural London English from the video above. That would be tough to understand at times with lots of unfamiliar slang words especially. However, I once dated a girl where half of her family were straight from Glasgow. It was truly embarrassing how much of these conversations I could not understand, full of smiling and shaking my head like I agreed with everything. It still bothers me.

Tunes

Tame Impala sounds way cooler than Trevor Parker, so credit where credit is due. There is something majestic about one person being able to put together every bit of music on an album, especially as layered and cosmic (as Tame Impala’s music is often cited as being) as this can be. I wasn’t cool enough to have TI on my radar until his 2015 album Currents blew up and put him much more in the American conscience.

I’ve listened to his 2020 and latest album The Slow Rush a couple times and it doesn’t quite do it for me. It’s nice but I’d recommend other work. As a solo act, it makes you wonder where his creativity is going in the coming years. Today’s tune “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” is from his 2012 album Lonerism and perfectly encapsulates Tame Impala’s popular psychedelic pop/rock sound.

Trivia

Who threw more career touchdowns at Notre Dame, Jimmy Clausen or Ron Powlus?

The Other Football

Thirty-four year old Real Madrid and French striker Karim Benzema won the Ballon D’or award as the best men’s player of the year. Barcelona midfielder Gavi won the Kopa trophy for the best under-21 player while Barcelona midfielder Alexia Putellas became the first woman to win the Ballon D’or Feminin twice winning it back-to-back for 2021-22.

That’s quite the week for Benzema who scored in Real Madrid’s 3-1 win in El Classico over Barcelona this past weekend.

Liverpool looked like the team of old in a surprising dominating 1-0 win over Manchester City last weekend. That was City’s first defeat of the season. In mid-week action United beat Spurs 2-0, Chelsea tied Brentford 0-0, and Liverpool took out West Ham 1-0.

French and Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante will be out for 4 months with a hamstring injury, which means missing the World Cup.

Streaming

This upcoming March will mark the 10-year anniversary of the British television show Broadchurch airing its first episode. When you talk about a case of whodunit this is up there with one of the best in modern television. It was also a perfectly British I-can’t-take-my-eyes-away super depressing show in a southern England coastal town which is a credit to the writing and photography from the crew. I hated it and loved it at the same time!

I remember the unveiling of the killer surprising the hell out of me. What about anyone else who watched the show? I’m looking at reviews and it seems like series 2 and 3 did really well. But, someone told me they weren’t as good and I never went back to watch them.

A Look Back

The 1996 Fighting Irish have always been one of those teams where with a few bounces and some better luck they were probably in the National Championship discussion. Can you imagine that team sending Lou Holtz off with a natty? But also in reality, can you imagine the season starting off with a loss at Vanderbilt–because it nearly happened!

This ’96 Vanderbilt team was wild. They hired Cleveland Browns quarterback coach Rod Dowhower (also coached the Colts in the 1980’s) in 1995 and he’d be fired after this season with only 4 total wins. But, the Commodores nearly upset Notre Dame in the opener, played Alabama and Georgia really tough, and lost to highly ranked Florida and Tennessee teams by one score apiece. They were blown out and shutout in 3 other games, so it wasn’t all tough luck out there. There must be a ton of guys from this 2-9 team drinking together talking about “what if” during that crazy season.

18S Paddock Club

Well, howdy partner! We’re back for the United States Grand Prix (how long it holds on to this title remains to be seen, more below) in southwest Austin, Texas in a bit of an anticlimactic race after Max Verstappen won the 2022 championship last time out in Japan. Things would’ve been SO much better for Verstappen to win it in sunny American in a more primetime slot instead of in rainy Japan during the middle of the night for us.

It doesn’t mean we still can’t have fun! Last year’s race was an outstanding strategy mind game during a heated championship battle. Verstappen qualified on pole but was beaten to turn 1 by Lewis Hamilton and spent a while chasing the Mercedes. However, Red Bull executed 2 perfect undercuts on hard tires and Verstappen held off Hamilton for the win.

United States Grand Prix
Circuit of the Americas
FP1 – Oct. 21st – 3:00 PM ET
FP2 – Oct. 21st – 6:00 PM ET
FP3 – Oct. 22nd – 3:00 PM ET
Qualifying – Oct. 22nd – 6:00 PM ET
Race – Oct. 23rd – 3:00 PM ET

The purpose-built track remains among the best on the calendar for racing. The climb up the hill to a tight turn 1 is among the best in F1 while the twisty sector 1 and power sector 2 set up incredible opportunities into a twisty and fast sector 3.

The 2021 race flying up the hill to the turn 1 left hander.

We’ll see which teams continue to develop their cars over the remaining 4 races. In the driver’s standings, Leclerc and Perez are separated by 1 point for 2nd place, and Russell and Sainz are separated by 5 points for 4th place.

In the constructor’s race, Red Bull will be looking to clinch their 5th title, Alpine and McLaren are separated by 13 points for 4th place, while 18 points separate 6th place Alfa Romeo and 9th place Alfa Tauri. The difference between finishing 9th or 6th could mean an extra $15 million to a team.

3 Questions for Austin:

1) Can COTA secure a long-term future with Formula 1?

Last year’s race hosted over 400,000 fans during the weekend and averaged 1.2 million viewers on ABC in a triumph of Formula 1’s explosive popularity in the United States. Since then, the Miami race has infiltrated the American market (breaking the record for the most viewed F1 telecast in the US) in 2022, while next year a permanent American-based home and grand prix is coming to Las Vegas.

Will COTA survive on the calendar?

We’re gonna need more geologists!

The grand prix is signed through 2026 and the Austin area is well-regarded by the drivers and teams as the track is suited nicely for racing and accommodating large crowds. However, the sandy soil continues to plague the circuit and necessitate costly repairs while making it an unpopular track in terms of bumps. It’s entirely possible COTA may be forced to go through with an extensive makeover or risk losing its spot in the future.

2) Will Red Bull put extra focus on Checo Perez?

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has already publicly stated they are focusing on closing out strong with Perez, so let’s start there. Nothing about the Red Bull DNA suggests Perez will get favorable treatment over Verstappen although it would be interesting to see the roles reversed in order for the Mexican to secure 2nd place in the standings.

Out of the remaining 4 races, this will probably be Ferrari’s strongest track so a big pile of points for Perez could be crucial. He was also super strong at COTA last year in qualifying finishing a razor thin margin behind Hamilton for 2nd.

3) What is Haas planning for their home race?

Officially, there are only 2 open seats for 2023 with Williams’ Latifi exiting the team and Haas being non-committal about renewing Mick Schumacher’s contract.

Rumors are swirling about an announcement this weekend on American soil. Haas have scheduled a press conference but have kept mum about the details. Some argue it will be the unveiling of their reported major 2023 sponsor. While others believe former F1 veteran Niko Hulkenberg (who will be attending the grand prix hmm!) is set to be announced as the new driver for next year.

Trivia Answer:

Jimmy Clausen (60) vs. Ron Powlus (52).