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

Top News

The 2023 pre-season Coaches Poll has been released led by Georgia, Michigan, and Alabama. The Fighting Irish start at no. 13 nationally.

The Notre Dame and Miami football game scheduled for 2024 has been moved to 2026. The Irish now have 1 spot open on next year’s schedule.

On Sunday, Notre Dame and Navy released ‘Irish Collection’ alternate uniforms and apparel for the upcoming season opener in Dublin.

Shortly after last week’s Rambler, both Oregon and Washington officially joined the Big Ten for 2024 while Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah joined the Big 12.

According to reports, the ACC is in talks to add Stanford, California, and even SMU to the league after last week’s implosion of the Pac-12–although it looks like it’ll be difficult for them to overcome the roadblocks in place. Additionally, the Mountain West and AAC are set to meet to discuss the possibility of adding the remaining Pac-12 teams.

The Big Ten will be looking to shift a couple of league championship games away from Indianapolis and to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Stanford Steve is the new betting analyst for ESPN GameDay, replacing Chris “Bear” Fallicia who left last year for Fox.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith announced this will be his last year before retirement.

Uniform of the Week

The NFL’s new second helmet rule and loosened regulations around uniforms are bringing us a bunch of alternate and throwback looks for 2023. Teams such as Tampa, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Tennessee, Minnesota, Detroit, Indianapolis, Denver, and the Jets are bringing something new (or if it’s a throwback, old). However, don’t sleep on the Seattle Seahawks bringing back their original 1976-2001 home uniform this fall.

Seattle has gone through 2 separate uniform redesigns since moving on from these originals. I also just learned that in 2002 the franchise let fans vote on keeping the silver helmet or switch to their new blue one. The blue won in a landslide, but the Seahawks petitioned the NFL to wear gray on the road and blue at home. The No Fun League said no. For me, these originals are among the most underrated uniforms in all of sports. They suffered from atrocious lighting in the pre-HD era of the Kingdome, never had many star players wear them, and never found much team success. However, these uniforms coming back look phenomenal.

Recruiting

Elite safety Peyton Woodyard (0.9586) flipped from Georgia to Alabama.

The nation’s top edge rusher Colin Simmons (0.9962) committed to Texas.

The nation’s top safety KJ Bolden (0.9963) committed to Florida State.

Georgia added Mater Dei running back Nate Frazier (0.9715).

Crazy fast wideout Gatlin Bair (0.9789) is staying in-state and committed to Boise State.

Wide receiver Jelani Watkins (0.9302) committed to LSU. The Tigers also added running back Caden Durham (0.9524).

Corner prospect Dakoda Fields (0.9582) committed to Oregon.

NC State picked up a verbal from wide receiver Jonathan Paylor (0.9408).

Running back Frankie Arthur (0.9105) committed to UCF. The program also added corner Jaylen Heyward (0.9593).

YouTube Channel

Do you ever grow up anti-something and it doesn’t really make sense? I was that way with cruises. I always viewed them as trashy and something your typical Florida Man and his 3rd wife would go on with expectations that the boats were cramped, boring, and smelly. I still haven’t gone on a cruise to this day, although family members all vouch for their fun and entertainment value. I’m waiting to go on the Viking cruises in Europe.

In recent months Royal Caribbean has been performing sea trials for their new behemoth cruise ship called Icon of the Seas set to debut early in 2024. It will be the largest cruise ship in the world at 250,800 gross tonnage which Google tells me is an eye-watering 561.7 million pounds. It’ll have 20 decks, hold 7,600 passengers at max capacity, hold 2,300+ crew, with 7 swimming pools, 6 water slides, a waterfall, and a suspended infinity pool. Sounds pretty crazy. What will cruise ships look like in 100 years?

Tunes

I’m speaking in the past tense but the Allman Brothers were such an amazing band for so many years and think about what could’ve happened if Duane Allman didn’t die in the fall of 1971. Some people argue he was a top 3 guitarist of all-time (I’m not sure I would go that far) and if he was able to live through the next decade we might talk about the Allman Brothers as the unquestioned top American rock band ever. Even in his absence, they have a strong case to be made.

I saw them live back in the late 2000’s when they were without Dickie Betts on guitar and were several years into their run with the (then) young Derek Trucks. Today’s song “One Way Out” was featured on their February 1972 album Eat a Peach that was released after Duane Allman’s death. However, they used the live version recorded from the At Fillmore East sessions so both Duane and Betts are featured on guitar. You hear that boogie guitar in the beginning from Betts and then Allman’s classic slide coming in later. I’m always surprised that the band used this song for years as an encore when to me it’s the quintessential opening song for a concert.

Trivia

I am a Power 5 program that has met Notre Dame on the field just twice in history. Once, in 1925 against Knute Rockne and then over 70 years later during the Bob Davie era. Name that team.

The Other Football

Turns out if you don’t score goals it’s really difficult to progress through the World Cup. So it ends for the United States Women who were dropped out in the round of 16 by Sweden through a penalty shootout. The Swedes will be joined by Japan, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, France, England, and Colombia in the quarterfinals this weekend. Just 4 goals in 4 World Cup matches for the US is really troubling.

American midfielder Tyler Adams is headed to Chelsea as the club has triggered his $25 million buyout clause with Leeds United.

The top American goalkeeper Matt Turner is headed from Arsenal to Nottingham Forest for $13 million.

Spurs have signed defender Micky van de Ven from Wolfsburg for $40 million but as of this writing it looks like record goal scorer Harry Kane is headed to Bayern Munich for $100 million and change. It’s an end of an era.

West Ham are reportedly set to sign defender Harry Maguire for nearly $40 million from Manchester United.

Real Madrid goalie Thibaut Courtois has torn his ACL and may be targeting David de Gea for a replacement.

Virgil Van Dijk is the new captain at Liverpool.

TV & Movies

Sure, I am biased but The Beatles 1965 movie Help! has always been pure delight and one of my favorite films of all-time. Their first film A Hard Day’s Night has always been more revered and received more acclaim then and now, which is fine. As a kid, it was difficult not to love the difference from black and white to color that Help! provided. Yes, the story is pure silliness and a bit too much of a James Bond ripoff but there are so many wonderful scenes featuring the best band in the world.

As a 12-year old watching this for the first time I thought their apartment (filmed at 5, 7, 9, and 11 Ailsa Avenue in Twickenham, West London) was something to aspire towards. We have the open concept, the “rooms” colored for each band member, the vending machines, Paul’s glowing organ, and of course the best part being John’s sunken bed. He also has his own book all over the place, cheeky.

A Look Back

I brought it up last week and here it is folks, the complete replay of the 2007 Notre Dame vs. UCLA game available to watch on YouTube. Mind you, I don’t recommend watching this, or at least in its entirety. Clausen did come out looking sharp early, but the Irish couldn’t run the ball and things never really got much better throughout the afternoon in Pasadena. Clausen would finish with 17 completions (yay!) for just 84 yards (boo!) and Notre Dame mustered just 140 total yards.

Hey, a win is a win though. Vaunted UCLA quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson only completed 12 passes to 4 interceptions helping the Irish cause. At 1:33:00 of this video you can see the David Bruton interception and at 1:39:25 you can see the sack fumble brought back for a touchdown that essentially sealed Notre Dame’s first win of 2007. A win to be cherished as there weren’t many more to come.

18S Paddock Club

With Formula 1 on summer break it’s time to hand out grades to the teams from the first half of the season. We’ll break down half of the grid today, the other half coming up next week, before a preview of the Dutch Grand Prix.

Mercedes – 2nd (247 points)
Grade: B

It’s been a bit better than last year when Mercedes clearly missed on the new regulations and they’ve been trying to claw back lap time ever since. So far in 2023, they have been the most consistent team behind Red Bull, have 5 podium finishes, a pair of 2nd place finishes, and Lewis Hamilton surprised the grid with pole at Hungary.

Their car seems fundamentally uneasy as some tracks just don’t suit them at all. Still, the tracks that do suit them they are in the running for big points and they have proven to be the best non-Red Bull team at collecting points even when they are showing signs of struggling.

Ferrari – 4th (191 points)
Grade: C-

I’m being nice with this grade. One year ago at the summer break the Ferrari was competing hard for 1st place and looked to be “back” at least most weekends. Fast forward to today and they have fallen off the pace and can’t figure out how to solve their car’s troubles. The new era of their team principal hasn’t gone super great, although the classic Ferrari strategy and pit problems have improved. So far, Carlos Sainz hasn’t even made a podium in 2023!

Alpine – 6th (57 points)
Grade: D-

If not for Esteban Ocon’s P3 finish at Monaco and Pierre Gasly’s P3 in the Belgian Grand Prix Sprint this very well could be a grade of F for Alpine. Their biggest rival on the grid McLaren has begun to improve and they are also 139 points behind Aston Martin who have zoomed past them and may be already out of reach for 2023. Alpine have also fired tons of people, including their team principal after the last race. It’s been a really dreadful season for the French team.

Haas – 8th place (11 points)
Grade: C-

So Ferrari goes, so goes Haas. The Prancing Horse has slid backwards this year and the Haas car running almost all Ferrari parts has been on the same trajectory. Their qualifying pace has been decent to good at times but their tires are getting eaten up during races. After a quality 2022, Kevin Magnussen only has 2 points and the team as a whole only has 3 points over the last 7 races.

AlphaTauri – 10th place (3 points)
Grade: D+

Firing a driver after 10 races says enough about AlphaTauri’s season thus far. Although to be fair, Yuki Tsunoda has been dragging this tractor of a car to some decent results, including 12th or better in 7 races in 2023. He may only have 3 points but his season has been far better than those numbers suggest. Maybe Danny Ricciardo can inject more life into the car over the 2nd half of the season but things look kind of grim so far.

Trivia Answer:

Baylor.