I’m leaving on a jet plan and I don’t know if I’ll be back again (flying back home out of Philly).  In my rush to pack, I’d nearly forgotten to post today, but then I saw what will now be the feature item: Penn State going all Felonious.

The Roundup:

• First, check out the news from the Dear Leader of Sports.
• Next, observe Penn State’s mercurial rise in the Fulmer Cup points.  This one may already be over folks.  Kinda like the Cubs’ chances.
• Then, check out the eventual fallout at BSD.

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Or something like that.  I don’t text.  There are borders that I will never cross, just ask any Bahamian customs official, and texting is one of them.

Anyway, all those clever texts from Ron Zook or Urban Meyer will soon be heading to the big cell phone in the sky as the NCAA has banned the texting of recruits by collegiate athletic programs.   2 bd 4 u zk suxor!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111

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You can send my award for “Most Obscure And Probably Incorrect Pop Culture Reference From a 1980s Sitcom Used In A Blog Post Headline” now.

Anyway, the title’s about the best way I can think to describe this truly awesome collection of photos of this past weekend’s Blue Gold game by intrepid Her Loyal Sons Special Correspondent “Orenchuck.”  Not sure, but I think the name is a reference to a Kubrick film.

Anyway, here’s one of the 200+ photos…

And here’s a link to all the others.  Seriously, just watch this collection on “slide show,” while popping open a container of ethanol under a slow-blowing fan, and your mind will start to trick you into believing that you are at the Blue and Gold Game.

Hey, anyone else see that purple donkey singing “Danger Zone” on the screen?

Many thanks to “Orenchuck.”

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Ya know, sometimes you can see someone in this world and just know that they shouldn’t be allowed to procreate – Dennis Dodd, Pacman Jones, Ohio State Alumni, etc…

Here we have a great example of what happens when bad parents and football mix.  Unfortunately for his offspring, the parent’s own failures in the Darwin Cup may well lead to their children’s elimination from the race.

I do, however, applaud the CSU receiver who was clearly trying to make sure the little tike was ok before succumbing to his own concussion.

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ND landed top rated California Tight End Joseph Fauria over the Blue-Gold weekend as well.  Fauria joins a corps of unparalleled talent at the Tight End position, with Charlie hauling in top guys over the past 3 years. 

Fauria checks in at 6′7″, 247 and hails from Encino, California.  Just in Poodle Pete’s backyard.  I bet he just LOVES all of these top CA athletes heading to South Bend and Charlie’s Irish.

An early 4-star recruit on Scout.com, Fauria caught 22 passes for 339 yards and 4 touchdowns as a Junior.  He is also a standout HS basketball player, and those hands and footwork skills should come in handy in Charlie’s pass-to-the-tight-end-happy Offense.

Another ND recruit with bloodlines, Joe’s Uncle Christian Fauria plays Tight End in the NFL for none other than the Patriots.  Joe celebrated the Patriots’ success with his Uncle a few years back:

Is this a crazy coincidence? Doubtful.  You know Charlie pulled those strings in the process.  Good work Chuck my boy.

Welcome to the ND Family, Joe!

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No, I don’t mean it in that ‘we are scrimmaging ourselves and so we have to win’ joke kind of way.  Okay, maybe partially.

But after the Blue-Gold game on a beautiful 75 degree day in sunny South Bend, it’s hard not to walk away with that kind of a headline.  ND won in almost every way today.  Special thanks to our on-the-street field guy the K-Man of Cleveland, OH for the reporting.

First, attendance.  The game is getting to be a huge annual event, and this year shattered the previous attendance record with just shy of 52,000 people attending.  52,000!!! That’s 50,000 more than an Illinois Spring Game draws.  That’s over 25 times more than an Illini game draws.  If you had 26 Illinois Spring Games, you would just barely match the attendance of one ND Spring Game. That’s badass. I love the Irish faithful and I love Charlie for transforming this game into a bigger event and therefore a bigger draw.  That kind of attendance is a big win for the university and the program.

ND also won in recruiting today.  With one stellar commitment in Darius Fleming (see below) and a “who’s who of High School All-Americans” on-hand, according to Tom Lemming, it’s tough to say this wasn’t a great day for recruiting.  Top players from across the country attended a scrimmage that drew 52,000 fans, on a warm and sunny spring day when ND’s campus is at its best.  With all the hype and the recent commits on both sides of the ball, this was a great day for the future of Irish football.

The play, from all reports, was conservative, which was expected.  Each QB only threw a few passes, there were a lot of sacks, and a ton of running plays.  There were 2 trick-plays thrown in there, one a halfback pass that was dropped and a little flea flicker action that was batted down by a CB (yay defense!). 

Our reporter K-man’s opinion was that Jimmy Clausen looked the most comfortable under center, and that Demetrius and Frazer looked decidedly uncomfortable.  Take one man’s opinion on ‘comfort level’ with a grain of salt, but it’s pretty telling that he felt the other two big QB recruits didn’t even look comfortable let alone efficient or good.  Jimmy has a lot of hype around him, but at the least we know he’s one of the best prepared freshmen to enter a competition like this in a while with all of his personal training, etc. It will be great to get more information on the details of his play, but it sounds like he’s the leading candidate.

Junior Jabbie was reportedly a workhorse today, and may have opened some eyes to his potential in the backfield as well.  Other than that, reports are that the Irish didn’t show much at all, but given Charlie’s love of secrecy, that’s not surprising.  Since no secrets were revealed, I’d say the Irish won here too!  Yay, we win!

The only not-so-great note on the day was John Sullivan’s apparent knee injury during play.  We have no idea how serious it was, or if it was definitely the knee, but it’s not a good sign when a guy goes down in a scrimmage.  And especially when it’s your most experienced player on a line that is relatively inexperienced and has almost no depth. We’re hoping that it’s nothing big and that John makes a full recovery in time for summer conditioning.

Overall, the B-G Game sounds like it was a great success in terms of hype, attendance, recruiting and secrecy.  We’ll need to wait and see how the QB’s develop, and what the result is from Charlie’s point of view in terms of the play. 

Go Irish.

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(get it, that rhymed with the headline Offense U, my last post.  i am witty and hilarious.  no more rhyming and i mean it…)

Super Stud Defensive End/Linebacker prospect Darius Fleming committed to Charlie’s rapidly-growing and huge-by-this-time-of-year-standards recruiting class of 2008 this weekend at the Blue-Gold game in South Bend.  Apparently Darius had made up his mind a few weeks back, but kept it a secret until this weekend.

Interestingly, Darius is a student at St. Rita’s in the south side of Chicago, the very same school where little Ronny Zook and his cute little Illini team had their spring game with a record-breaking attendance of 2,000.  So much for the ‘invasion’ working, as Darius clearly did not come away all that impressed.

Darius weighs in at 6′3″, 230 with a nice big frame.  With a few more years of conditioning and adding a little bulk, he could be a great pass-rushing DE, or if he stays a bit leaner, he’ll be that perfect tweaner size for the 3-4 OLB position.  (more rhyming, ugh)  He was all-everything as a Junior, when he recorded 105 tackles with 15 for a loss.  9 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, 3 recoveries, 6 tipped passes and a partridge in a pear tree. 

Scout has Darius as a 4-Star recruit, and I’m sure he’ll have a high rating in the other services as well.  ND beat out Michigan and USC for the athletic defensive prospect.   Isn’t that just nice?  I think so.

Welcome to the family Darius! 

Anybody want a peanut?

Note:  I can’t for the life of me find a picture of this kid.  If anyone has a link, post it in the comments.  I am lazy. Thanks loyal reader.

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C-Dub and ND landed another very-top recruit today in California’s Dayne Crist.  The LA Times is reporting the pending commitment (press conference tonight) here: 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-hsreport19apr19,1,3605717.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Though recruiting rankings are still not yet published, it would be hard to believe that the top QB in talent-rich California wouldn’t be somewhere near the top of those lists.

We started calling ND Tight End U the other day because of our great hauls at the Tight End position over the past few seasons.  Now, screw it, we should just start calling it Offense U because for the second straight year we’ve landed the best QB out of California.  Charlie is seriously building an army, and he’s stealing recruits right out of his rivals’ back yards.  If Corwin Brown can have half the success Charlie is having, this will be one solid team talent-wise in a few short years.  And once that talent gap is narrowed, or reversed, things will get ugly for Irish opponents. I like it.

Crist, from Sherman Oaks’ Notre Dame HS and a teammate of stud LB Anthony MacDonald who committed to ND on the 11th of this very same month, is a prototypical Pro Style QB with great arm strength. 

What’s also extremely nice, satisfying, good-chills-creating and all that kind of stuff is that Crist was the only QB offered a scholarship thus far this year by USC.  And Michigan.  (Thanks to www.NDNation.com for that tidbit). 

Take that you posers.

Weis is building a stable of talent at his key positions.  And he’s winning a lot of these battles based on his proven success, great product and his ability to develop talent.  He’s proven what he can do with a player with talent by turning ho-hum players (2 years ago) into All-Americans and potential NFL stars (Quinn, Samardjiza, Stovall, Mcknight, etc…)

HS Players see that success and want the same thing.  And soon, the bowl victories will follow, as will the Return to Glory we’ve all been craving.

Congrats on a great decision, Dayne, and welcome to the Notre Dame family!

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The D-I “management council”, whatever that is, recommended an all-out ban to text message use in the College Football recruiting wars today.  ESPN has a little writeup on it if you’re interested:  http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/news/story?id=2841603

I’d say that overall this is a good thing.  Think about how many messages those top recruits must get.  Even if a school doesn’t have a shot, it wouldn’t hurt to text right?  Wouldn’t you just LOVE getting texts from powerhouses like Indiana (PA) and Kent State?  And if your parents didn’t have the prescience to get you an unlimited texting plan that bill could add up right quick.   And really, who wants to deal with messages like these:

“Hey there big fella.  Come on out here to Southern California and play for us.  You’ll get to live in a slum, learn to cheat with the best of them (I can hook you up with Reggie Bush in a conference call like THAT), and hang out with Snoop.  It’s cool - all that weed was medicinal.  Nothing bad, seriously. Just sign on the dotted line baby!  – Petey”

“I have never, ever seen an arm like yours.  Seriously, not once in my life.  I will build my offense around you, you will be my star.  I will build my life around you.  You can have my kid’s room and live with me, I will adopt you and make you my son!  Have you heard about how we have the best graduation rate in the universe?  No?  Oh…well, ignore the stories that I’m recruiting 7 other quarterbacks, it’s all about YOU my boy.  Come be a Gator.”

“I have $10,000 reasons why you should come to Illinois.  Just stop by and I will tell you all about them.  Better yet, I’ll leave them all in an unmarked briefcase resting in the third garbage can on the right as you drive on to campus.”

“Honestly, you’ll live through the home games because you’re a player.  The only things in danger at our games are visiting fans, cars and couches.  That’s all they burn.  OSU is great!”

Overall, it should be a good move for the kids, and work in ND’s favor as well.  Charlie has a presence, and that can lead to results more and more when the phone and in-person recruiting becomes more important.  Plus, works as hard as or harder than the other guys to bring in the talent out there.  Of course, enforcement can be a problem, but the honor system, education and the occasional threat is all you have to monitor the other rules on phone calls, visits and emails as well.

And some will try to work around it.  In fact, there are rumors that crazy deposed MSU Coach John L. Smith is starting a new carrier pigeon business based on the news.  “These babies will fly any message you want straight to whichever recruit you’re targeting.  Seriously, they know where they are.  And they never crumble under pressure. Never.”

  +    =    ???  

Only time will tell. 

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Today is DomerMQ’s birthday. If you know him and see him, punch him. If not, feel free to wish him well in the comments. Happy birthday, you ornery old curmudgeon.

Yes, that is a real cake.

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106 is the key number here.  I don’t mean to say it’s the exact number, but it makes the point.  The source is sketchy, but I can guarantee he’s not off by more than 50.  And even then it’d still be embarrassing for those little midwestern nuts. 

106 it is.  Hehe, funny.  To us.  Sad for OSU fans and Troy Smith.

What’s the number 106?  It’s the number of projected draft spots that separate Brady Quinn’s current mock draft position from Troy Smith’s.

BQ sits at #7 in Todd McShay’s latest mock draft.  Troy Smith?  #113.  Quinn could go as high as # 1, and is quite obviously a First Round pick and definitely Top 11 (with 11 being worst case scenario).  Smith could drop as low as the 120’s or 130’s, making him a solid Round 4 or Round 5 pick.  Ah, the greatest college football player in the land…wait, what???

After all the ballyhoo and the debate, it’s a pretty telling fact.  (I mean, this is coming from McShay, who I consider 85% dumb.  Even he couldn’t screw this one up.) 

Here’s the thing – how can the greatest college football player in the land be the 113th or the 120th or the 99th best player (at best!) in the draft?  Or even if you go by position, heck, Mr. Smith should start running routes – because becoming a WR in the NFL will be his best shot at seeing the playing field.  It’s because Smith wasn’t the best player in the land.  He was just on a good team that had a solid run in a so-so conference.  Oh, and he had the hype.  That too. 

Now, I’m not going to say that BQ had a better season than Troy.  He didn’t.  I won’t say that BQ deserved the Heisman.  But of course, neither did Troy. 

And clearly NFL scouts, coaches and owners know more about talent than the Heisman voting committee.  How many of those old Heisman-vote-having goats would you want running your favorite NFL team’s sideline?  None?  Right.  And that 106 spots makes it pretty obvious that one of those groups is REALLY wrong.    Can you guess which?  I’ll give you odds…maybe 106-1?   Uh yeah, I’ll take the NFL guys.

What I will say is that Brady Quinn is clearly a better player, with more talent, than Troy Smith.  All those NFL guys are dead on with where these guys fall out compared to one another, based on talent:  it’s not even close.  People (OSU fans and the delusional) will say that the NFL draft is irrelevant – a ton of time has passed, workouts have happened, people forget, people remember, blah blah blah.  But that doesn’t hold water.  It’s not like Troy was a consensus Top 10 pick and then dropped based on his combine performances and/or film reviews by the coaches and scouts.  He was ALWAYS a late pick.  He was never even considered to be a potential pick in the first TWO WHOLE ROUNDS.  So don’t bring that up here – doesn’t work.  And worse, none of those workouts or interviews moved him up in the draft at all. 

“Hello there Mr. NFL Scout. Check out my Heisman Trophy.  Oh, you’re not interested?  You just want someone that can play?  Okay then, thanks for your time.  Unless you want to see me run a few slant patterns…”

Which brings up the sad state of the Heisman process.  It’s not about the best player in the country anymore.  It’s about the best player…that also got hyped early on, that also has a good team around him, that also won a bunch of games.  Brady benefitted from some of these things, but was penalized severely for others.  Other players weren’t even looked at because they were never, and could never, be hyped.  Or their teams lost. 

Whatever the case, things aren’t right in the Heisman process if they somehow end up choosing a “Greatest Player” that gets picked in Round 4 of the draft.  At the very worst, whoever wins the Heisman should go in one of the first two rounds.  Barring any Rudy-esque season-long magic.  Something needs fixed, or soon enough the award will become one big joke.  And that would be sad for college football.

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So there have been a few articles today about Illi-bringthe-Nois’ Spring Game.  A few are linked over there on the right of our page here.  I find these articles funny.  Let’s break it down shall we?

Point 1:  After stealing a few of our recruits this past February (and by stealing, I’m still not sure if I mean it figuratively or literally), Illinois came to Chicago to hold their Spring Game at St. Rita’s, which is in a traditionally Irish neighborhood. This is somehow supposed to be a challenge to Notre Dame in some way, shape or form.

Why this is lame:  First, it’s Illinois’ Spring Game.  Does ANYONE care?   Second, yes it’s located in the heart of the South Side Chicago Catholic League and yeah, ND recruits there.  But it’s not like this has been some bastion of ND recruiting over the past 15 years.  We get guys from South Side Chicago, and it’s an important area.  But we’re not pulling 10 of 20 from the entire city, let alone one 5-block radius.  Give me a break, fellas.  ND’s stronghold is the MIDWEST, not a single state or city, let alone a neighborhood.

Point 2:  This shows that Crook Zook is putting the “…fight back in the Fighting Illini”. 

Why this is lame:  Ummm, no it doesn’t put any fight in anything.  It shows that Zook knew no one would show up for a Spring Game on Illinois’ campus.  Not fans, not players, maybe not even the coaches.  It would just be that boring.  Only Purdue’s game would be a smaller draw.  And with that big ole drum, it might even surpass U of I.

Point 3:  2,000 fans showed up because they were so excited to see the team play.  Even though it wasn’t that nice of a day out.

Why this is lame:  2,000?  2,000?  More people than that show up to the Dillon Hall Pep Rally each year to see Crackhead smash plates on his forehead. 

I mean, if anything, that’s just depressing.  And that’s after moving the game to Chicago, where 99.9% of all U of I attendees grew up, and went back to upon graduation.  The ND Blue-Gold game is projecting well North of 30,000 fans this year.  Verdict?  U of I = lame.

Given this, I can’t imagine how any of this could make a recruit excited about playing for the school.  You can head to ND, where 30,000+ people want to see you practice, or you can go to a school where you have to drive 2 hours plus to get a crowd, and it results in 2,000 people showing up.  Makes that Illinois program seem big and important, don’t it?

I’d like to see ND bring the Blue-Gold game to Chicago next year.  Just to show Zooker who runs football in the Midwest and in the city.  Problem is, I don’t know if the Bears would let the team play on Soldier Field, the only venue large enough to handle a game of such magnitude. 

Now THAT would be an invasion.

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…named HerLoyalSons.com?
Yeah?

Well, here’s your chance!

The situation: None of the Loyal Sons can make it to the Blue and Gold Game this weekend. Some of us have weddings to attend, some of us have demanding jobs, and some of us have really embarrassing cold sores. As such, we need at least one, but not more than 20 enthusiastic, Notre Dame loving, HLS reading people to go to the Blue and Gold game in our stead, take careful note of what’s going on, hopefully snap a few pictures of it all, and then submit the entire experience (to: her loyal sons at gmail dot com) in a well written, witty piece of “journalism.” Extra important: Some details/facts and little wit are way better than lots of wit and very little details/facts, unless, like me, you are extra awesome at wit (and if so, why aren’t you already blogging?).
The risk: We guarantee that we’ll post anything you submit to us. Anything*. Those of you with ill-conceived MySpace photos floating on the web-o-sphere should really consider this. We may even attach it to your real name if you don’t also provide us with a funny enough handle. In fact, if you don’t give us a handle, we’ll also assign you the name “Flounder,” because we still think that joke’s funny. We also still quote The Big Lebowski.
The reward: The admiration of men and woman everywhere. And the best submission (chosen either by all the Loyal Sons or by myself b/c I’m too lazy to organize a vote) may even win some free ND thing if A) I still have it and B) My wife didn’t toss it out while she was “Spring Cleaning.” That’s a lot of “ifs,” but the reward could, I repeat could, be pretty sweet.
Special Note: If you do decide you’d like to be a “Her Loyal Son for a Day,” (we’re looking at you, ladies!) please notify us via e-mail at the address over to the right and up a bit (hint: “her loyal sons at gmail dot com”). We’d just like some sense of how many people are going to contribute. We may need to buy extra server space for all of your helpfulness.

*Unless, of course, it could get us in trouble with ND, the “authorities,” our mothers/wives, or God.

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Yesterday was Friday the 13th. Which, naturally, explains why the Friday Roundup had to wait until now. As such, no further explanation need be given.

The Roundup:

• The UN NCAA is going to look into solutions to the Middle East peace problem recruiting craze that is being accelerated due to technology.
• Tyrone Willingham hopes to see more balls and body parts flying in different directions this year.
• UCF is dropping the “Golden” part of their name in favor of just “Knights” to, of course, avoid offending people of Golden heritage.

Finally, one editorial note: Some “talent” from ESPN has been feeding their audience complete and utter BS about the state of the Notre Dame QB race. I think the guy’s name is Joe Schaad, or Joe Scab, or Dip Shit. Something or other. Anyway, ignore the guy. He knows what’s going on inside the Notre Dame program about as well as Anna Nicole Smith knows the inner working of calculus. (Present tense used intentionally.)

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Anthony McDonald, California’s top linebacker and a student of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, has committed to ND!

Looks good on ya!

Welcome to the family, Anthony!

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