Today, we profile 3 men who lead by example, but what sort of example?

Name: Joe Paterno
Position: Head Coach, Football, Penn State University
Example of his Leadership: Recently, “Joe Pa,” was featured along with his football program, the one he’s been in charge of since before the dawn of the digital game clock, on an episode of ESPN’s Outside the Lines. In the expose, it was revealed that 17 PSU football players were charged with crimes since, wait for it, January 1, 2007. Not 1997. Not even 2005. 2007. This includes assault charges against 2 PSU players in connection with a campus fight. 9 of the charges have resulted in convictions. Joe Pa’s response to the expose? Well, apparently he said, “You Got a Good Looking Witch Hunt Here, Don’t You?” He also allegedly pressured school administrators to use a light touch in punishing his players. And you can bet Joe Pa knows a which hunt when he sees one, since he was present for the ones in Salem back in the day. Anyway, in an interesting example of “timing,” Joe Pa has booted one of the players charged in the previously mentioned fight along with another player who was involved in a previous fight. The question about the timing is, does this move come after the expose, or before more bad news?

Name: Kirk Ferentz
Position of Leadership: Head Coach, Football, University of Iowa
Example of his Leadership: Thanks largely to ESPN’s coverage of Penn State, the Hawkeye HC may be breathing a little easier knowing that the college football world’s attention has been distracted from allegations that he and Iowa leadership were, essentially, involved in a cover-up of a sexual assault perpetrated by Iowa football players upon an Iowa student on Iowa’s campus. Oh, yeah, I forgot the extra “allegedly”s in there, didn’t I? Well, here, have an allegedly as I remind you that 18 Iowa football players, past and present, have been arrested since April 2007 for stuff they allegedly did.

Name: Randy Shannon
Position of Leadership: Head Coach, Football, University of Miami
Example of his Leadership: When Coach Shannon was hired before last season, it was pretty clear that the university had hoped that he could bring a new level of honor to a program that was sorely lacking in it. Shannon was a no-nonsense sort of guy who took over the program with a firm hand and did unheard of things like demand his players not carry weapons and sign a “code of conduct.” And despite a 5-7 season last year, things were looking up for Shannon and the Hurricanes as Miami signed 33 recruits in a top-5 class this past winter. 33. A number that is a full 8 units of whatever you’re measuring above the NCAA allowed 25. So how did Shannon make them all fit in the class? Well, he just let the excess fall off. And why not, considering the “excess” happen to be relatively low-rated talents that Miami wont really miss all that much anyway. It was just nice having them as insurance just in case the “VHT”s, as Phil Steel might call them, didn’t manage to show up for the start of practice.

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• Michigan Leadership: Back Off Professors!
• Schembechler Writes Book, Surprisingly Not Ghost Written.
• Young Leadership

If you’d like to know all there is to know about THLSTNHT25-PE, click here, then click here to read about those teams that didn’t quite make the cut, then click here to learn about our #25-#16 teams, and here to learn about teams #15-#6.

And once you’ve finished with all that, please move forward, and learn all there is to know about THLSTNHT25-PE: #5-#1, in which we secretly harbor the belief that the Irish really could beat everyone on this list, what though the ods…

• #5 Southern Cal: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 3. Average rank among all ballots: 5.33. A team with so much talent that the fact they return 4 starters on offense and 7 of defense just, well, doesn’t seem to matter. During the Pete Carroll era, the Trojans have redefined “reloading.” Still, with all that talent, Southern Cal has managed some really strange results, including losing to Stanford last year and an inept UCLA the year before. Teams that, at the time, had no business giving an elite program any problems. This season, they start Mark Sanchez at Quarterback, and if his abuse of the Notre Dame secondary in 2007 is any indication of ability (good question), then for about the umpteenth consecutive season, the Trojans will have excellent QB play. Unlike Palmer, Leinart, or Booty before him, Sanchez can and will at times run to give Southern Cal just what it’s been sorely lacking: another weapon. Pete Carroll also likes to gush about Joe McKnight, using Reggie Bush as the bar against which to measure Joe. All their talent at the skill positions could flounder, however, if Southern Cal has a hard time replacing all but 1 starting offensive lineman. And, somewhat interestingly, offensive line is the one area Carroll has had relative difficulty recruiting. Emphasis on “relative.” Still, in what can only be described as a bit of serendipity for the Trojans, there are 5 players on th the OL who have some sort of starting experience due to the huge number of injuries across 2007’s starting line. The defensive unit is chock full o’talent, but it seems like each sub-unit took a hit in the form of players moving on to the NFL. Last year we said SoCal’s defense could well be one of the best ever. This year, not so much, but the step down in potential from best ever would still mean they’re sitting pretty. Southern Cal opens the season at Virginia and follow that up 2 weeks later with Ohio State in LA. They get their top Pac-10 competition at home as well as Notre Dame. Ultimately, while their scheduling is to be applauded, it also works out for a nice ride the the championship game (and deservedly so) if they go undefeated. In other words, it’s not likely any other teams could squeeze them out of a MNC shot.
• #4 Georgia: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 3. Average rank among all ballots: 5. Running back Knowshon Moreno is arguably the most talented back in the country, and surrounding him is the largest number of returning starters in the SEC. Knowshon ran for 1300+ yards last season and he wasn’t even a starter for the first 3 games. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs must play Florida, Auburn, LSU, and South Carolina on the road, but Mark Richt’s away-game winning percentage is 86%. Plus, they’ve got a very good QB in Matt Stafford, a defense stacked with talent that could match up against anyone in the country, and, thanks to HC Mark Richt’s own commitment to Special Teams excellence, one of the most consistently excellent special teams units in the country. Also of note, before the last game of 2006 (against GT) Richt turned over play calling duties to young (and apparently fertile) OC Mike Bobo. Why? Because Richt felt that calling plays was hurting his ability to emotionally lead his team from the sidelines. The result? A jump of 7+ points per game, 50 yards rushing/game, and 10+ in turnover margin while Richt lead his team to 7 wins in a row to finish the season. Could this bode well for Weis and his decision to relinquish play-calling duties?
• #3 Texas: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 2. Average rank among all ballots: 4. We’re always fascinated when we talk to a Texas fan or resident and hear that the relationship between HC Mack Brown and Horns fans is tenuous. How can that be the case for a guy that’s won a NC? Well, maybe it’s just that the fans realize that in a state as talent-rich as Texas, any decent coach should be able to win a NC, particularly when your QB is an unstoppable force of nature. As for Texas’ fortunes this year, the 2 things we really like are the capability of QB Colt McCoy when he’s not getting his spine checked out and what should be one of the top-5 offensive lines in the country. What we don’t like is that QB and OL practically make up the entirety of the returning starters on Brown’s roster. However, all of the first 5 weeks of the season lay out nicely for Texas as they take on Florida Atlantic, UTEP, Arkansas, and Rice before getting a bye week just before their first (probably) real test out of Colorado. That’s a full month and more to work out the kinks with new starters before their season really even begins. And given Mack Brown’s “new” coaching philosophy, he’ll probably have the Horns firing on all cylinders by October (so long as he really sticks to his new philosophy).
• #3 Florida: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 1. Average rank among all ballots: 4. Can a single man put a team in contention for a national championship? Yes, if that man is Tim Tebow. Get to know Mr. Tebow now, because he’s clearly setting himself up for a run at some high level government office many years from now after giving it a go in the pros as a linebacker. The most perfect athlete in all the land for Urban Meyer’s Pop-Warner-on-HGH system, Tim will run over, around, and through defenses this year, delivering body-blow after body-blow until it’s just the right time for a devastating hook in the form of Percy Harvin Jr. (so long as his ankle holds up). Oh sure, the Gators won the MNC 2 years ago, but Urban’s true “genius” is only now just peaking as the Florida offense produced 42.5 points per game in 2007, up nearly 2 touchdowns from 2006 when the Florida-Jump-Hook-Pass play still looked awkward even for the Florida-Jump-Hook-Pass play. Now Tebow is running that and many other bizarre looking plays that create a fragile alliance between eligible receiver rules and the laws of physics to perfection. And now they’ll be running the system in a “hurry up” mode to make opposing defenses feel like they might simply die from exhaustion before the game is decided. Tim Tebow Fever, catch it! Hey, speaking of hot things like fevers, has the Florida defense stopped applying aloe to their rears after the Capital One game? Nice way to send Carr out, fellas. That’s okay, according to Phil Steele, 48% of the starts last year were made by freshman and sophomore Gators. They’ve got lots of time to learn how to defend the pass.
• #1 Oklahoma: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 1. Average rank among all ballots: 2.33. I’m sort of proud of this pick by HLS. It’s not, as far as I can tell, the sexy pick. Seems like Georgia fits that bill this summer. But there are elements to the Sooners this year that are tough for us to ignore. For starters, their QB (Sam Bradford) does not miss when he throws the ball. He completed 69.5% of his passes last year. And it’s not like he just threw 10-12 passes a game. The Sooners averaged 258 yards passing last year. And to protect the QB, Mike Stoops can line up the best offensive line in the country (there will be no argument about this until someone can prove it wrong with actual game play). In between all the hanging out in the pocket, completing passes for nice yardage, the Sooners like to mix it up here and there with a rushing game that averaged 191 yards/gm in 2007. And now, because of the new clock rules, Oklahoma will be running the offense in “no-huddle” mode. So the offense that averaged 42.3 yards points per game last year could very well average even more this year, particularly as they ravage the first 6 weeks of the season in preparation for the 2nd half of the season. If ever there was a schedule designed to help win a MNC, this is it. You get to play a historical power in Washington while they’re under the weight of Willingham, then really debut your finely-tuned team against Texas on national television to really kick off your campaign. Then you play the 2nd half of the season against competition just good enough to force the media to pay attention even if you aren’t playing in the “game of the week.” There are of course, things that give us pause about the Sooners. First, they 2 regular season losses last year didn’t happen against a Texas. They happened against unranked Colorado and Texas Tech. However, the Colorado loss came before the Texas game (a Sooner win) and the TT loss came a week ahead of the win over Oklahoma State. Look ahead to rivalry games much, Sooner players? Still, we suspect those losses will serve as excellent coach-speak lessons learned as Bob Stoops no doubt harps on some variation of the “one game at a time” mantra on the way to a potential MNC season.

Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? Thank god for the invention of the Top 25, otherwise we’d have had much less to write about in June and July. We’d also have had less motivation to slog thru the 8pt font of Phil Steele late at night while the wife wasn’t watching. Our eyes are tired, but our souls are better for it.

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• And So It’s Down To Ten…
• The HLS Totally Non-Homer Top 25 - Week 1
• The HLS Totally Non-Homer Top 25 - Preseason Edition 2008

The annual Notre Dame preview magazine, “Here Come the Irish,” is now available.

We’re mentioning it because, along with Phil Steele’s annual opus (can you have an annual opus?), this publication has become one of the best pre-season reads for ND fans, and we prefer our fanbases to be well educated. You know, not like a Michigan (sucks!) fanbase. It’s got contributions from the guys at BGS, House that Rock Built (you mean that site is still up?), and SMQ (who, while I think is brilliant, I also think harbors a bit of resentment for the Irish). It’s also published by an ND alum.

Oddly, HLS did not contribute to the book. Given that I was busy moving this spring, Biscuit was busy buying large companies, BK was busy not writing about football, and Father was busy lurking in cavernous labyrinths, I guess we just tossed the request for irreverent, topical content out with all those no-hassle offers from Capital One. Strange. This keeps happening with job offers, requests for contributions to publications, and nominations to best-blog awards. I’m starting to suspect the work of gnomes.

So if you want to be one of the better educated ND fans out there, pick up a copy and we can trade notes over beer.

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• Army All American Game Dominated By Irish - On and Off the Field
• “WHEN SC beats Notre Dame Next Weekend.”
• “Little Poz” a Big Get For Irish

This is somewhat random, but what the hell right?  Right?  No?  Whatever, this is my blog and I’ll post it if I want to. (post it if I want to, post it if I want to.  You would post too if it happened to youuuuuu. Duh-du-du-dun-dun…)

I’ve run down my Top 5 Non-ND teams that I want to see do well this year.  Various reasons, somewhat outlined below.  Yes, again, random. I know. At the least, this shows you who out there I don’t outright hate (well, that’s not really true - I hate #5.)  Don’t get me wrong, Notre Dame stands alone in my view of the College Football World, but I do have respect for some programs, and there are some good storylines out there that make me want teams to succeed this season.   Here are a few of them.

 Almost Made the List:  G. Tech (cuz I like Coach Johnson and Tech tends to operate above the frey a bit), V. Tech (cuz they had a rough year last year with the shootings and all that), Cal (because they’re always THIS close to being good, and they’re not USC), Stanford (bc I kinda like Harbaugh and they do things the right way - they didn’t make it because their band mocked my Pope.  So suck it Cardinal.)

Top 5:

#5)  Michigan State

Okay, the only reason I put MSU on here is that I have a bet with my UM nemesis DTK about MSU beating UM.  I clearly want ND to trounce MSU, especially after the flag-planting garbage and all that El Smith stood for (Yes, MSU will forever be linked to John “The El Train” Smith for me, regardless of who is coaching. Deal.)  Frankly, I want MSU to lose every game all year, except for when they play Michigan (sucks!).  Because then I win the bet.  And, in the end, a loss for Michigan is a win for all that’s good in the world.

#4)  Duke

Okay, this is a sad place to put my hope.  It really is.  It’s just not gonna happen (at least not this year) and we all know it.  But Duke tries to do things the right way, and Cutliffe is a good guy.  So, I’m hoping that the Blue Devils can at least pull out a few W’s this year. 

#3)  Navy/Air Force/Army

I always root for the Academies when they’re not playing ND.  These guys have much bigger things to worry about, and they’re doing us a great service.  Plus, they do 200 push-ups and then go to class and then do more push-ups and then work their day job and then have practice and then do more push-ups and then study and then sleep (and do push-ups in their sleep).  They deserve some Wins.  Go USA!

#2)  Youngstown State/Ohio/Troy

It’d be nice to see one of these teams knock Ohio State off early in the year.   Teach these ‘title contenders’ to schedule teams like this to sneak into a NC game.  Just ain’t right.

#1)  West Virginia

WVU got crapped on by their coach, who stole his entire staff and tried to steal $4M and some recruits when he left.  And then this nice guy Bill stepped in as the head coach.  Is Bill ‘qualified’ (in the traditional sense of the word) to take over this squad?  Probably not.  But I think Bill is a good guy, with a lot of belief in his team and his program (and West By God Virginia!) and so I hope he does well.  With Pat White and Noel Devine in the backfield in the vastly improved by still fairly weak Big East, he’s got a good shot at it.  Added bonus in that WVU winning makes RichDick look like an even bigger tool while he struggles to .500 in a weak Big Televen.

Who else out there deserves non-hatred? 

*at least once

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• Simply, Lou Was Awesome
• Happy New Year to All of You Out There in CFB World!
• Wow, the SEC Really IS just Dominant!

If it does, and by “look weird,” I mean, “the logo is all screwed up, with a white or gray background, and everything is misaligned,” then it’s time to upgrade your browser.

We’re not going to radically change the look and feel of the site, but we’re going to evolve a few things. The more modern browsers will let us do things that the older browsers (read: IE 6) wont. The slight changes to the look and feel of HLS this weekend will serve as a good litmus test for you to determine if your browser is “old.”

If, indeed, your browser is old, then go get a new one. Might I highly recommend Firefox 3?

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• Change is Afoot at HLS as Well
• Why is this the first I’m hearing about this site?
• It’s Not Our Fault!

If you’d like to know all there is to know about THLSTNHT25-PE, click here, then click here to read about those teams that didn’t quite make the cut, then click here to learn about our #25-#16 teams.

And once you’ve finished with all that, please move forward, and learn all there is to know we had time to write down about THLSTNHT25-PE: #15-#6, in which we hurry through so that we may get on with talking about our projected #1-#5:

• #15 Arizona State: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 11. Average rank among all ballots: 16.66. Returning the highest number of starters in the Pac-10, a team that started out 8-0 last season during what most expected to be a “rebuilding year,” now may have their sights set on contending for a national championship. Coach Dennis Erickson gave Sun Devil fans a whiplash of joy in his first year at the helm in Tempe, and there’s little reason to expect momentum to fall off in 2008, particularly with veteran signal-caller and potential-Pac-10-career-passing-yardage-record-holder Rudy Carpenter.
• #14 Michigan State: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 9. Average rank among all ballots: 15.66. A vote for MSU seems to be a vote of confidence in 2nd year coach Mark Dantonio. After all, the Spartans did end up going 7-6 in 2007 after starting off 4-0. And, as Kirk Herbstreit so famously said, “That’s why they’re Michigan State.” But gone, now, are the days of John “The” Smith. Hopefully a nice, balanced purge of some old personalities while returning 7 offensive starters and 6 defensive starters will allow the Spartans to have a nice, balanced season sans El Smith Tailspin. MSU did only suffer one real head-scratcher of a loss against Northwestern. 4 of their other 5 losses occurred against teams ranked in the top 15 at game time.
• #14 BYU: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 9. Average rank among all ballots: 15.66. After leading the Cougars to an 11-2 season that nearly managed to really screw with the BCS system in 2007, Bronco Mendenhall must replace 8 starters on defense. Luckily, they need to replace just 1 starter on offense. Besides, using a system best described as “The Winged-T of Defense,” it’s not hard to imagine that the adjustments being made by opposing offenses will help mask some of the Cougars’ defensive holes. And oh, by the way, they still get to play in the MWC no matter who starts on defense.
• #12 Wisconsin: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 6. Average rank among all ballots: 15.33. The Badgers have to like the way things are looking in the Big 10. Michigan is set up for a down/rebuilding year during a season when Wisconsin must match up against the Skunkbears and Ohio State in consecutive weeks. What probably looked like a brutal 3 weeks of games against Michigan, OSU, and PSU now seems like a time of real possibility to take command in the Big Televen, particularly since the badgers have nearly their entire team back from a 9 win, 2007 season. And while we get this gut feeling that HC Bret Bielema is probably areal S.O.B., we know for a fact that he’s a clever S.O.B.
• #11 Virginia Tech: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 8. Average rank among all ballots: 12. This team went 11-3 in 2007 with losses to a #2 LSU (and eventual MNC), #2 BC, and #8 Kansas. They lose a bunch of guys in 2008, particularly on the defense, and HC Beamer is already talking about how there will be no QB controversy, which, as we all know, guarantees a QB controversy. Oh yeah, and they also lost leading tailback Branden Ore to a dismissal, their #2 tailback to an injury, and their #3 tailback to, what, destiny? (No. It was also injury.) So, um, what are they doing up here at #11 in the HLSTNHT25-PE? No idea. We’re very busy people and sometimes people make mistakes. Besides, you wont remember any of these rankings in January anyway, and when the Hokies win 9+ this year, we’ll be sure to tell you we told you so.
• #10 Ohio State: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 2. Average rank among all ballots: 11.33. Ohio State looked mighty good last year right up until they collided with the buzzsaw that was LSU in the MNC game. Then they looked as bad as they looked in their previous MNC game. But hey, at least they were invited to the dance, right? This year, the Bucknuts look forward to replacing whoever was trying to replace Troy Smith at QB with all-everything, first-year-frosh Terrelle Pryor. We have to admit, it does sort of feel like OSU is up here in the top 10 simply by virtue of being king of the Big Televen hill until someone out there knocks them off. It does help a lot that they get to figure out their QB/passing-game while probable Heisman contender Beanie Wells runs over everything in his path. How many college football players are so loved as to earn their own fan-site?
• #9 Auburn: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 9. Average rank among all ballots: 11. What we like about Auburn is that, despite new offensive and defensive coordinators, and, a “new” offensive scheme, the Tigers return 15 very savvy starters - so savvy that we are forced to place “new” in “quotation marks,” because we saw what these guys can do with that “new” scheme and about a week of practice in the form of a season-high 423 yards of offense against Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. (Excuse me: Mmmmmmm…. Chick-fil-A……) We’ll take that as a solid preview of things to come in 2008 after a full Spring and Fall-camp. So long as they can overcome Tommy Tuberville’s annual mental-meltdown over the difficulty of SEC competition, the Tigers could well sneak up on an unsuspecting, lacking-in-current-game-film SEC. We’re not the only ones who think so.
• #8 Missouri: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 5. Average rank among all ballots: 9.66. Having gone 12-2 last year and garnering a lot of attention for a program usually better known for almost beating Nebraska, these Tigers look to build on that momentum by returning 10 starters on defense and 2007 Heisman finalist Chase Daniel (sans ’s’, Bob Davie) behind center. They’ve got a prime-time game against Illinois to start the season August 30th and then take all of September off while practicing against the likes of SE Missouri St., Nevada, and Buffalo before providing a litmus test for Nebraska. Still, with the exception of Texas at the Midway point, and Kansas to end the season, there’s little reason to think that 2008 wont look a lot like 2007.
• #7 Clemson: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 4. Average rank among all ballots: 9.33. This has to be the year for Clemson, right? Bid Daddy Bowden and FSU are down, which is good for the Tigers (notice we have 3 Tigers in a row?), since Clemson hasn’t won the ACC since 1991 - 1 year before Pappa Bumfuzzled and the Seminoles invaded the ACC. This all rests on the capable (?) shoulders of Tommy Bowden and the often-dazzling backfield of James Davis and CJ Spiller. And while we don’t know if T. Bowden’s seat is warm this year, if they can’t win the league this year, why not make the Bowden turnover a two-fer special? What probably keeps Tommy up at night, aside from the idea that his father just might out-last him in the ACC, is that they’ve got real personnel problems on the offensive line.
• #6 LSU: Highest Position in a voter’s ballot: 1. Average rank among all ballots: 6. After Notre Dame played LSU in the 2007 Sugar Bowl, a lot of Irish fans thought the Tigers (seriously people, how about some creativity?) might be the best squad in the land, although we figured LSU would take a hit while trying to use a new QB in 2007. But it turned out we were only partly right. They didn’t have any trouble with a new QB at all. This year, after losing Flynn to graduation and Perilloux to the ATF or some other federal agency, the Tigers must again use an unknown quantity at QB, and they have to replace most of their oh-my-God-cover-the-baby’s-eyes-scary defense. And we still haven’t mentioned that the architect of all that defensive pain left to HC Nebraska. Still, you don’t win the MNC the previous year, exist in one of the most talent-rich areas of the country, and then get knocked out of many pre-season top-10s, so here they are at #6.

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• And So It’s Down To Ten…
• The HLS Totally Non-Homer Top 25 - Week 1
• The HLS Totally Non-Homer Top 25 - Preseason Edition 2008

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Friday Roundup to bring you a very special ACC Primer Roundup to help you, the college football fan, get the skinny on what’s up in that big college football world out there.

The ACC Roundup:

• Boston College: 4 Year Backup QB Crane finally gets to play actual, meaningful football (maybe). Insofar as football can actually have meaning.
• Clemson: Doesn’t it seem like people have been saying “this is the year” for Clemson since the Reagan administration?
• Florida State: All kidding aside, Bobby Bowden really is old.
• Maryland: This is probably the first thing I’ve read about Maryland in 10 months.
• NC State: Apparently only fluff pieces are being written about the pack.
• Wake Forest: All that rhetoric must smell awful.
• Duke: Duke Football, the state of North Carolina. State of North Carolina, Duke Football.
• Georgia Tech: So, uh, wait. Y’all aren’t gonna run the triple-option?
• Miami: That’s a good question.
• UNC: Butch, like the rest of the country, likes what he’s seeing from his team.
• Virginia: Looking to play more “Matt Schaub-like” this year. No. I don’t know what that means.
• Virginia Tech: First, really? Second, I’ll believe it when I see it.

And finally, as a tribute to the ACC, our beer of the week is the Loose Cannon Hop 3 Ale by Clipper City Brewing Co. We’ve not had it yet, but we’re intrigued, and if someone knows where I can get a 6-er of it in Chicago, I’d appreciate directions in the comments. Hops cubed? Count me in! Besides, Clipper City is in Baltimore, and what’s more ACC than the mid-Atlantic?

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• Friday Roundup: The “SEC Primer” Edition
• Friday Roundup: The “Pac 10 Primer” Edition
• Friday Roundup: The “That’s About Sums It Up” Edition

Whoooooooooo-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!  I am the Costenbader!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let’s go get druuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just turned 2o-freaking-1 and now I can legally drink woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I been dranking for 18 years already but what the hell, let’s get wasteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedddddddddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got my cat wasteeeeeed cuz I’m twenty-one wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

C’mon guys, let’s go over to campus yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh boyyyyyyyyeeeeeee!!!!!

Let’s trash the Penn State football locker room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

…

cricket.  cricket.                                                                    cricket.

…

Really!  C’mon! 

 …

No?  Come ooooooooooonnn.  It’ll be the best.  C’monC’monC’monC’monnnnnnnnnnnn. 

No?

Okay…I’ll go by myself.  But I’ll really trash it.  I will.

I will.

I will!

I WILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! I will TRASH THAT LOCKER ROOM IN MY FREAKING BOXERS THEN PASS OUT IN THE FREAKING BATHROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  CUZ I’m 20-freaking-1 and LEGAL BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

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• Happy Birthday to the Founder of the Feast!
• Friday Roundup: The Big Misunderstanding Edition
• Paterno, The Early Years…

The fanbase of the Washington Wizards Huskies took a sigh of relief so large that it created a weather pattern over Seattle when Ty Willingham’s recruiting efforts finally resulted in a verbal commitment from California’s Keith Price (QB). We believe that, until now, Washington was the only BCS conference football program without a single verbal commitment from the class of 2009. We know that the Huskies were (and are) the only Pac-10 team without not 1, not 2, not 3, but at least four verbals.

Price reportedly received offers from other Pac-10 teams Utah and Nevada.

When informed about Price’s verbal, Willingham was thrilled… about his drive.

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• Llloyd Carr is a Quitter
• Fighting Irish to Play for National Championship!!!
• Martez Wilson Confuses Illinois with National College Football Program

Per the SBT, there’s a bunch of things happening this summer in terms of facilities for ND athletics.  Looks like Kevin White got some things moving before he bounced to the Dukies.

The big changes afoot:

• Two new artificial turf practice fields and 1 new natural surface field for football and other varsity squads.  Lighted for night practices. 
• New lacrosse stadium.
• New track and field facility.
• Old softball stadium to be re-purposed as a soccer practice field.
• New construction will begin in September on Purcell Pavilion, which will be a 60,000-square-foot expansion at the southern end of the JACC.   New entry way, atrium and corporate entertainment areas will be included in the expansion.  In May of ‘09 the interior of the JACC, including seating, will be renovated.

My thoughts:  A lot of this is good.  A lot of this is great. 

But the JACC stuff sounds a bit ‘meh’.  I like the idea of the new entrance and adding some square footage and new facilities.  That part is great.  My concern comes in at part II:  If the renovation of the basketball and hockey arenas isn’t SERIOUSLY SWEET, I will be very disappointed.   New seats are great, but the whole place needs upgraded - and I’m not talking slapping some paint on the walls.  We need upgraded everything - new scoreboard, new seating, new aisles and walk-ways, new vendor stations…  And don’t even get me started on the travesty that is the hockey arena.   I used to help PUT UP and TAKE DOWN that thing as a job when I was an undergrad.  That’s right, it’s freaking portable!  It needs fixed, and it needs to be permanent.

So, I hope when they say renovation, they mean ‘complete re-do just keeping the foundation, walls and ceiling (which will all be made to look nice at the least)’.

Enter:  Jack.

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• News!
• NC State Wants Johnson
• ESPN Insider

Good article on Rivals about the #1 Running Back in the nation. 

Love Mr. Wood’s confidence, swagger and his disposition in general.  I plan to go check him out in person this Fall, for sure.

On choosing ND:

“I honestly believe that I made the best decision for me,” he said. “I think I fit in real well there, especially with the scheme they run. It’s something very similar to what we run at my high school. Plus, I can be a good receiver out of the backfield and catch the ball, too. Like I said, it’s a good fit and situation for me, and it’s a place where I feel real comfortable.

“We are going to be good and Notre Dame football will be back. And I guarantee that we will beat USC the next three years.”

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• Friday Roundup: The “Cabin Fever” Edition
• Did Urban Meyer Violate a Recruiting Rule?
• Trap Gameux?

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Zach Martin, OT stud, is Irish.

“I spoke to coach (Ianello) today, and and I was waiting to speak with coach Weis. I just got off the phone with coach Weis and told him I was committing,” Martin said. “He was pumped. I was pumped. I’m just really excited right now.”

He picked the Irish over Michigan (sucks!), which seems to be a trend lately.   (love the web site plugged in the pic above):

The Bishop Chatard high school star was planning to take one last visit to Michigan before deciding, but he said that visit wasn’t necessary as he knew where he wanted to attend college already.

“I just knew I was going to Notre Dame and I didn’t want to lead anyone on anymore,” Martin said when asked why he chose the Irish without taking the scheduled Michigan visit. ” “I just knew where I wanted to go, so I thought I shouldn’t drag it on any longer.”

Fan-freaking-tastic.  With Xavier Nixon and Anthony Lalota still in the mix, this could be ND’s best OL haul in….forever. 

Now, on to the DL.  Let’s do it.

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• Poodle Pete Says He’s Looking for a 3-Technique DT. Men Everywhere Nod Knowingly.
• Ian Williams, All American
• The Price is Right, Bitch

As mentioned in a comment earlier this week, I spent some time with a USC/Pac-10 fan the other day, and it was somewhat brutal.  Not really brutal because hanging with USC/Pac-10 fans is brutal, but because this particular fan just didn’t know anything.  Yet, he made strong arguments that were pro-USC/Pac-10 and anti-ND, with no data.

Ignorance is bliss for some people, but it’s painful for us Irish Fans.  Mostly because we spend half our time defending our school/program to people that have no idea what the facts are, and then ignore them when you provide them.  It’s kinda like when you were in 7th grade and you questioned something a teacher said (and you were right) and the teacher pulled the ‘I’m the teacher, so I have to be right’ thing on you.  What do you do with that? 

Things like knowing a teams SOS (or what it means), knowing roster depth and how old/young certain players/positions are, who a team played and if/where they were ranked should be standard fare when you’re trashing a program.  But no, we fight stuff like “ND only plays service academies, who are terrible” and “ND’s TV contract makes it easier for them to recruit, but they’ve been bad for 10 years anyway”.  

Here’s a reco to all the haters:  Read First, Hate Later.

• This author is not ignorant about beating a metaphor to death like a dead horse repeatedly and unceasingly
• LSU players STILL don’t know the rules
• Either the watch list folks don’t know about our o-line woes last year, or they just really like Jimmy
• Randy Shannon apparently knows about sharing.  I bet he grew up with brothers and sisters
• BGS will teach you all about the sack, in case you didn’t watch last year
• And finally, ND don’t know Victoria’s Secret (HT: EDSBS)

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• Friday Roundup: The Biscuit Edition
• Friday Roundup: The “Nobody’s In The Office” Edition
• Friday Roundup: The “It’s All About Bob” Edition

Just a quick shout out to give formal public congratulations to a good friend who recently welcomed a baby domer into the world.  I don’t know his feelings about going public with the news so I’m keeping it anonymous.  But he’s a good friend to us, and a good friend to Notre Dame.   Congrats on the Mad one!

- Biscuit and the HLS Family

Gonna have to buy tons of these pal.  And start saving that tuition now.

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• Weekly Hoops Post
• Jamoris Slaughter Joins Notre Dame, Renews Faith In My “Name Theory.”
• Golden Tate Joins Notre Dame, HLS Prepares Bad Puns for Future Use

Those were the words that the ND security guard used to greet Mr. Jack Swarbrick at the campus gate on the day that Jack’s appointment as the 12th ND AD was made official.

I link to the WWL article, mostly because it has some great quotes that show that Jack ‘gets it’.  These include:

“I believe that I accept this job on the threshold of extraordinary change in intercollegiate athletics in America,” Swarbrick said. “I have my theories on what that change may entail and where the industry is headed, but I think they’ll be enormous. There’s much about this industry that you won’t recognize in 10 years. We must be at the forefront in that. We must participate in dictating that change. Notre Dame cannot have that dictated to it. And I love the challenge of accepting that responsibility.”

Fantastic.  ND will dictate.  ND will lead.  Things Kevin White did not want to do, or could not do.

“Jack is a Notre Dame person,” said [CEO Mark] Miles, who has known Swarbrick since 1985. “He kind of walks the walk and talks the talk. He believes in the university.

“He’s very bright and competent. He does not care about having the limelight. He’s not the kind of person who comes into the room and expects everyone to take notice and yet he is a great leader. People respect not just his integrity but his confidence and his intellect right away.”

Clearly a quality guy by Mr. Miles’ estimate.  And the repeated mentions of integrity when describing Jack screams ND to me.

“You have to approach a job like this knowing that you have to want this more than anything else. And I do that. I do that because I love challenges,” Swarbrick said. “The challenges here are significant and I would argue they are even bigger than those. The challenges are not of problems, not of shortcoming but of great strides and high goals. “

Understands that ND is a unique challenge, and a unique entity.  Soul Management.

“Notre Dame has given me so much in my life, I can’t wait to give more back to it.”

Gets it. Gets it. Gets it.

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• Trojan Given Most Appropriate Nickname Ever
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• And Outta Nowhere, it’s Swarbrick!