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

Top News

This past Saturday, Notre Dame wide receiver Kaleb Smith announced he was medically retiring. The 6th-year senior had transferred recently from Virginia Tech and didn’t complete spring practice.

Former Notre Dame men’s basketball coach Mike Brey is signing with the Atlanta Hawks as an assistant for 2023-24. Brey was an assistant at Duke when Hawks head coach Quin Snyder was a player for the Blue Devils.

Texas has named Quinn Ewers starting quarterback.

All-ACC cornerback Josh DeBerry has transferred from Boston College to Texas A&M.

Former Irish OC target Collin Klein has picked up a new contract and raise to $825,000 per year from Kansas State.

Michael Mayer was not one of the 17 players invited to attend the NFL 1st Round Draft next week.

Cincinnati starting quarterback from 2022 Ben Bryant has entered the transfer portal.

Penn State has proposed a $700 million renovation to Beaver Stadium.

Uniform of the Week

I saw a video recently where Adrian Peterson said that the reason he didn’t go to Texas was because Mack Brown wouldn’t commit to him competing to start as Cedric Benson was coming back for his senior season and the Horns were going to ride him in 2004. Funnily enough, Peterson would outrush Benson in 2004 but it’s weird to look back and see the latter going 4th overall in the NFL Draft when Peterson only went 7th overall. They both had fantastic college careers. Peterson would rush for nearly 9,000 more yards in the NFL, though.

For me, Peterson is one of the iconic looking college players. The black cleats and white socks. The slightly larger shoulder pads that you don’t see much anymore. His helmet looked cool on him (especially later when he used a dark visor). Obviously, Peterson was a grown man as a true freshman and he filled out the uniform really well.

Recruiting

The nation’s top tight end Landen Thomas (0.9877) committed to Florida State. He was previously committed to Florida State, left for Georgia’s class, and is now back with the Seminoles. Only 8 months until Signing Day!

Ohio State gained a verbal from tight end Max LeBlanc (0.9100).

Offensive tackle Blake Frazier (0.9226) committed to Michigan.

Bishop McDevitt receiver Rico Scott (0.8933) committed to Alabama.

Interior offensive lineman Donovan Harbour (0.9401) committed to Penn State.

South Carolina picked up a pair of commits in safety Kelvin Hunter (0.9235) and corner Braydon Lee (0.9177).

Cincinnati picked up a huge commit in linebacker Qua Birdsong (0.9288) out of Georgia.

YouTube Channel

Who wears cologne these days? Several years ago I worked in a school that had a zero-fragrance policy and I stopped putting on the occasional dabble before work and now rarely splash on any cologne unless it’s for a formal dinner or party. Or, if I know I’ll be around a lot of people and it’s going to be hot and sweaty. Half the time I can’t be bothered to remember anyway even if I do want a fragrance. This got me thinking, I haven’t bought a bottle of cologne for myself in at least 10 years, probably 15 if I’m honest.

Is there a graph that shows men buying cologne for themselves once they leave their 20’s and settling into a pattern of wearing the same fragrance or having someone like their significant other buy a new one for them? I’m going to try and log every cologne I’ve used in my life. I am sure I’m missing a few.

Old Spice – My dad had the old-school cream bottle with the ship logo on it. It was my first experience with cologne and I probably wasted way too much.

Brut – This was the cool “manly” cologne for elementary school me.

Drakkar Noir – At the time, I didn’t think a cologne could smell better. I have since grown up.

CK One – This was gifted to me courtesy of my older brother, and I splashed this on quite a bit.

Curve – The CK One was given to me because he got this extremely 90’s cologne in a gift set. But I used it, too.

Michael Jordan – Listen, MJ was just this big in the 1990’s.

Nautica Classic – I don’t remember this smell, only the look of the bottle.

Cool Water – The first cologne that was gifted to me. It was later stolen off my dorm room dresser.

Acqua di Gio – I don’t have a bottle of this anymore, but if I had to pick one to buy I might go back to this one again.

Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue – After the Cool Water was stolen, I was given this which I liked.

Ralph Lauren Polo Blue – I currently own 2 bottles of PL Blue and it’s the cologne I’ve worn more than any other. I’ve also briefly dabbled in original Polo and Polo Red and Orange.

Dolce & Gabbana – This has a different scent to it than I’m used to, but it’s a nice change of pace.

Versace Dylan Blue – My newest cologne received a couple Christmas’ ago from my brother. It’s strong and powerful with a really cool bottle. At my current rate of use, the bottle may outlive me.

Tunes

I’ve never cared that much about concerts. I always thought there’s a far better experience to be had listening to an album at your own pace with headphones on in a quiet room. Concerts are just something else altogether. Unless I am insanely in awe of a group in terms of stardom I typically prefer to look at a group’s gear and ponder how they sound in terms of production on stage. The one exception for me is Dave Matthews Band.

I will never forgive myself for missing their shows in the late 1990’s and into the 2000’s during their white hot prime. Carter Beauford is my second favorite drummer of all time, they were maybe the only artist that bridged the gap between all of my high school friend’s tastes, and I didn’t even bother seeing them live when they were the best band in the world. This week, while berating my kids for drinking the bath water I put on DMB as a lesson.

Trivia

Can you name the Notre Dame player with these career stats?

189 rushing attempts
1,100 rushing yards
12 rushing touchdowns
11 receptions
105 receiving yards

The Other Football

The Champions League semifinalists are set as Real Madrid beat Chelsea 2-0 (4-0 on aggregate) and Milan moves on (2-1 on aggregate) after a 1-1 draw with Napoli. Manchester City’s 1-1 draw saw them breeze past Bayern Munich 4-1 on aggregate and a 3-3 draw gave Inter a 5-3 aggregate victory over Benfica.

This sets up a Derby della Madonnia between Inter and AC Milan while City gets Real Madrid–the team that dropped the Cityzens out of the UCL last season.

The Europa League semifinals are set, as well. Sevilla will face Juventus and Roma will face Bayer Leverkusen. By the way, Juve had their 15-point penalty dropped and are now back to 3rd in the Serie A this year.

Bottle Watch™ is heating up as Arsenal drew West Ham 2-2 over the weekend to drop 4 points in their last 2 games. The Gunners lead atop the EPL table is now 4 points with Manchester City holding a game in hand.

It’s weird for Spurs to be 6 spots clear of Liverpool and 14 points ahead of Chelsea while feeling like the club is crumbling and in crisis. Chelsea did lose 2-1 to Brighton over the weekend while Tottenham gave up an extra time goal to lose 3-2 against Bournemouth.

A late goal in the 81st minute by Jesus Ferriera saw the United States draw Mexico 1-1 on Wednesday night in the friendliest of friendly matches.

The United States and Mexican soccer federations have put in a joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

Streaming

I’m not a huge film aficionado but did pretty well on this 1 frame movie quiz below. Maybe the best thing that you’ll see on that corner of the internet at ndnation.com is the one frame movie guess threads that pop up from time to time. I do know that this video contained way too many Star Wars movies. I’m not sure we needed damn near every major release from that series!

This gave me an idea. Would it be feasible to publish an article where we take one picture from a Notre Dame football game and it’s the readers job to figure out the exact game? Bonus points for the predicating the exact score? This could be gold!

A Look Back

Speaking of instantly memorable 1 frame photos from past games! It’s the David Grimes non-catch catch from 2007 Stanford. “It’s too much on it” is such a fun and memorable line from Don Criqui on the call. “Is it caught IT IS!” is even better.

In general, does it feel like receivers don’t dive for balls as much anymore? I feel like there are 1 or 2 passes every Notre Dame game where a nice leap could’ve resulted in a possible catch. Especially with how the amount of safety play ready to decapitate anyone has decreased, let’s get more diving going.

18S Paddock Club

During this spring break from F1 the discussion about the future of circuits and the calendar is heating up again. The sport continues to show no shame in appealing to the highest bidder, tradition be damned. Just recently, the F1 CEO mentioned that tradition isn’t enough to keep circuits on the calendar in another blatant attempt to extort more money out of people’s pockets.

If you’re curious, the MGM is offering tickets to the upcoming debut Las Vegas Grand Prix this November for $11,247 per person for the 3-day event. It’s absurd.

Here are the circuits with contracts running out in the next few years:

Red Bull Ring – Austria (2023)
Spa – Belgium (2023)
Baku – Azerbaijan (2024)
Suzuka – Japan (2024)
Silverstone – England (2024)
Interlagos – Brazil (2025)
Imola – Italy (2025)
Mexico City (2025)
Monaco (2025)
Monza – Italy (2025)
Shanghai – China (2025)
Zandvoort – Netherlands (2025)

The Red Bull Ring almost certainly is going to sign a long-term deal as long as Red Bull exists as a team. They continue to wait to announce anything, though. Perhaps they are playing hard ball with F1?

There’s been talk of moving to a new street track in Osaka but I can’t see that happening any time soon. Honda is rumored to be in negotiations with Aston Martin to supply their engines in 2026 and would have every reason to keep Suzuka alive for the sport.

Silverstone has been revamped and is too entrenched on the calendar, surely they won’t touch that circuit. Something big would have to happen to remove Interlagos or Monza but both circuits have their own logistical issues that aren’t being smiled upon very much these days.

Zandvoort is going nowhere with Verstappen on the grid.

This leaves Spa, Baku, Imola, Mexico City, Monaco, and Shanghai on the chopping block. It seems pretty likely that the calendar is going to get pushed to 25 races at some point in the next couple years. Personally, I’d keep Mexico City, Spa, and Monaco which gives F1 a 21-race calendar with the other guaranteed contracts in the mix.

Baku is coming up next weekend and I don’t understand why they’d extend that race. It’s far too remote, no one visits, there’s a lack of fans, and in general it may be the most boring race from an in-person spectacle.

It was odd to bring Imola back with a new contract when the calendar is getting so jam packed. It has tradition but most fans don’t like the track for the lack of overtaking chances. Italy should focus on upgrading Monza.

It doesn’t seem like F1 is in a hurry to go back to China, Covid concerns or not. I don’t know if they would be owed 6 races (skipping 2020-25 if it happens) with the contract but I’d free up the space now and think about a return to Asia somewhere else, like South Korea.

Trivia Answer:

Jonas Gray (2008-11)