Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Tops News
Former Notre Dame defensive lineman Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa is joining Brian Kelly and the LSU staff as a defensive line graduate assistant.
Three former college football players, including Vikings rookie Khyree Jackson, were killed in a car crash on Saturday morning.
Baylor has announced upgrades to their 10-year old McLane Stadium.
Mike Gundy’s coaching staff at Oklahoma State have received raises and extensions.
Nebraska secondary coach Evan Cooper resigned.
Texas quarterback Arch Manning has decided to be in the new College Football 25 video game after initially opting out.
Uniform of the Week
In 1996, BYU became the first college football team in the modern era to play 15 games in a season. They pulled it off by scheduling a week 0 kickoff game which didn’t count against their total, plus they traveled to Hawaii later in the season which also didn’t count against them. The Cougars would go undefeated in WAC play, won the conference title game in overtime against Wyoming, and would also beat Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl. Fifteen games.
The quarterback for that BYU team was none other than current Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian. This was by far the best late era team from LaVell Edwards. The Cougars finished no. 5 overall in the AP Poll with a 14-1 record behind National Champions Florida, then Ohio State, Florida State, and Arizona State. Recently, BYU released these sharp 1996 throwbacks to be worn against Kansas State. Curiously, BYU wore blue in their Cotton Bowl game against the Wildcats but are going with the road white version at home for this game.
Recruiting
Notre Dame added safety Jadon Blair (0.9348) this past Friday. Sadly, the Irish lost safety Ivan Taylor (0.9715) who decided to commit to Michigan instead.
The blue-chip national commits for the week:
Wide receiver Chris Lawson (0.9125) – Washington
Defensive lineman Kamauryn Morgan (0.9227) – Baylor
Cornerback Shamari Earls (0.9508) – Georgia
Cornerback Kade Phillips (0.9244) – Texas
Offensive tackle Lamont Rogers (0.9719) – Missouri
Linebacker Riley Pettijohn (0.9837) – Ohio State
Cornerback Dawayne Galloway (0.9388) – Purdue
Tight end Andrew Olesh (0.9468) – Michigan
Edge rusher Damien Shanklin (0.9498) – LSU
Wide receiver Donovan Olugbode (0.9557) – Missouri
Defensive lineman Brandon Brown (0.9001) – LSU
Interior offensive lineman Seuseu Alofaituli (0.9593) – Miami
Athlete Micah Matthews (0.9143) – Virginia Tech
Interior offensive lineman Alai Kalaniuvalu (0.9285) – Oregon
YouTube Channel
Only 2 more seasons until the Buffalo Bills move into their new football stadium. The stadium is on a familiar route for me and it’s amazing to see how much dirt they’ve moved to dig the foundation across the street from the current stadium. This video says it’s the most controversial new stadium, which might be a little dramatic. Based on Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London (everyone’s favorite Premier League team) there are a lot of awesome features the Bills and their fans will use starting in 2026.
New York State has a budget of roughly $237 billion while this stadium costs $1.7 billion. Tax payers are eating a total of $850 million which is never going to be popular given a billionaire owner with ties to the Western New York. But the Pegula family had the Buffalo fanbase by the balls on this–no way were they going to pay full price for the stadium, like Spurs did over in England. It sucks but so it goes.
Tunes
Billie Eilish released her 3rd studio album towards the end of May titled Hit Me Hard and Soft in collaboration with her brother producer Finneas. Later in the fall, Eilish will be going out on tour to support the new album. The most recent single is “Birds of a Feather” which is a neat song combining a slightly upbeat rhythm with Eilish’s signature sincere but kind of dark lyrics.
The first single “Lunch” is…quite a bit different. Eilish came out as bisexual late in 2023 and reaffirmed this in an interview leading up to the release of this single. In this song, she’s really not holding anything back with her attraction to women! Nothing subtle about his at all. It’s a catchy song, though.
Trivia
Which team did Notre Dame first face in 1992 and recently played 3 consecutively home games against plus a neutral site game?
The Other Football
United States’ men’s manager Gregg Berhalter has been axed. In his 2nd stint with the program the U.S. won 7 out of their 14 games and became the first team to host the Copa America and not progress past the group stages.
The Euro Final is all set as Spain beat France 2-1 recently and England got past Netherlands by the same score this week. Spain and England will face each other this Sunday from Berlin. The Brits are looking for their first Euro title while Spain is seeking their 4th championship in Europe.
We’ll also see the Copa America Final contested this Sunday from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. Argentina are through after beating Canada 2-0 and Colombia upset Uruguay 1-0 while down to 10 men, as well. Argentina is looking to extend their record 9 Copa titles while Colombia has only one it once (2001) in their history.
TV & Movies
There’s no way this new Robert Zemeckis film Here will be just okay. It’s coming out on November 15th later this year and will star Tom Hanks and Robin Wright teaming up again like they did in Forrest Gump 30 years ago. At first, when I saw the clip for this movie I thought it was a re-imagining of Forrest Gump where Jenny ends up living and spending the rest of her life with Forrest. But, no.
Here is taken from a 6-page(!) graphic novel of the same name and that was the basis of the screenplay. As you can clearly see in the trailer above, the movie is set with one still camera showing events over a long period of time. It’ll be ambitious for sure.
A Look Back
I’m back in 1996 taking a look at Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity” song. What’s the first thing that pops into your head? The award-winning video, right? That, and probably lead singer Jay Kay big puffy hats that he wore all the time throughout the decade. Does this song make it big without the music video? The YouTube video below gets into how Jamiroquai’s sound was really complex and their acid/funk jazz hadn’t brought them much fame until 1996 and their album Travelling Without Moving came out.
I loved the music video when it came out and thought the song was super cool. Re-watching it almost 30 years later it seems less impressive. The video is a lot more bare bones than I remembered and there’s something about the taping where it seems too obvious that Kay is miming the lyrics. I noticed their logo on the front of Travelling Without Moving looks like the Ferrari logo and sure enough, Kay is a huge supercar and auto racing fan. It was intentional.
18S Paddock Club
Sir Lewis Hamilton. The most decorated F1 driver of all-time had been dealing with a terrible winning drought that was well into its 3rd season. He doesn’t have to wait any longer after winning the British Grand Prix on his home turf for a record 9th time this past weekend. More notes from Silverstone:
*Mercedes took a 1-2 in qualifying and their car looked really strong in the cooler temps. George Russell took pole although he would later DNF with an engine issue during the race.
*McLaren’s pace looked excellent and even included Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri easily passing Max Verstappen for P3 and P4 early in the race. However, McLaren’s strategy was terrible. They didn’t double stack when rain came, screwing Piastri who lost a boat load of time instead of just a little, and later would forego medium tires late in the race in favor of softs for Norris who couldn’t contend for the win.
*Hamilton switched to softs late and it would be just enough to hold off a charging Verstappen. This is the 1st time since the 10th and 11th races of 2022 that Verstappen has gone 2 straight races without a victory. It was Hamilton’s 104th career F1 victory.
*Ferrari’s upgrades haven’t worked and the Prancing Horse cars are in no-man’s land right now. Sainz finished a solid P5 but Leclerc has gone 2 straight races without points.
*This is the best Haas has looked over consecutive races in years. Nick Hulkenberg finished P6 and Haas are comfortably P7 in the constructor standings as we move closer to summer break.
*Another weekend and another abysmal performance for Sergio Perez. The 2nd Red Bull driver qualified P19 and finished P17. Despite just signing a 2-year contract extension I’m not sure he’s long for this seat!
Trivia Answer:
BYU.
Hadn’t seen that “Here” movie, but wow that is probably going to be amazing or super disappointing and very little room for any in-between.
He must be a fan of the Goon Squad.
Sorry to hear about all that public money for the Bills stadium. In St. Louis, we are getting over losing the Rams by trying to figure out how to spend the millions of dollars from Stan Kroenke settlement.
After that lesson in corruption, the voters in Kansas City (which remember is in Missouri) told the owners of the Chiefs and Royals that if they wanted to replace Arrowhead and Kaufman, they would have to pay for it. The vote was 59% against public funding.
Now the owners are trying to BS us that Kansas wants to make a play for one or both of them, and want a SECOND vote. Corruption again. Easy to pay off a few legislators to get something back on the ballot when there are hundreds of millions on the line.
Potential solution: allow municipalities to share in the profits. I don’t actually object to cities investing in stadiums, but I think it’s silly that they’re asked to do it under the presumption of profit.
I think the rule should be that if you get a publicly-financed stadium, it is a minimialist concrete donut with no luxury boxes, bleachers instead of seats, and troughs in the bathroom. The concession stands sell beer and hot dogs at cost.
Meanwhile in Chicago/Arlington Heights, the McCaskeys are going around with their hands out to every governmental agency they can find and getting shut down.
Went to KC to watch the USMNT Copa America game vs Uruguay. Man, the entire Truman Sports Complex is dog crap. Parking lot after parking lot with two stadiums plopped in the middle. The Hunts and who ever owns the Royals should be thrilled that they have captive audiences and consumers at TSC. No Ball Park Village or Wrigleyville to siphon off pre/post game drinks, no way in or out unless you pay for parking. The absolute pinnacle of billionaire greed to think that they need new stadiums because they only have one level of Suites. (Also, how about one more damn speaker in Arrowhead – the hell is up with the one giant speaker on the top of the east end??)
Yes, but very representative of Kansas City [sic]