Rivals.com is reporting 5-star CB recruit Gary Gray has committed to Notre Dame. Gray’s godfather and assistant football coach had this to say on the subject (via PalmettoSports):

“He felt like that was the right place for him,” Wages said. “He had it in his mind a week or so back.” Wages says the Notre Dame coaching staff made a big impression on Gray. “A major reason was his relationship with his would be position coach,” he said. “And coach Weis has done a great job recruiting him. And he was real impressed with the kind of guys he’ll be surrounded by.”

This is EXCELLENT news…this guy is a stud (ranked 14th overall in ESPN’s Top 150 and 26th in Rivals.com’s Top 100) and will provide some much needed speed in our future defensvive backfield. All I have to say is: If Charlie can recruit like that on a gameday weekend like we just experienced I can’t wait to see what the future holds (hmm maybe the blue-Gray sky is the limit).

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• Support One Of The Family
• PSU Fans To Wear White, Regret All Those Extra Labor Day Hamburgers
• 18,000 Dead Birds Later, Boise State’s Blue Turf Turns 20.

I know there are tons of these ND Football highlights set to -INSERT RANDOM POP SONG HERE- video montages (and Oldie has this category pretty much wrapped) but this one is decent. I especially like the slow motion clips of the campus/stadium/crowd as the video starts. Amazingly the Eminem song used, Lose Yourself, fits the Irish’s pursuit of the national title pretty darn good.  Hopefully this gets everyone PUMPED for tomorrows game…

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• ND/Purdue Highlight Reel
• Happy Pills - In Video Form
• 4th of July Roundup: The “We Already Did a Friday Roundup” Edition

So we all know Charlie Weis was an NFL coaching machine (or Genius Robot maybe?) before becoming our fearless leader…but what happened in the years leading up to this? Well NBCSports.com trys to fill the blanks in a decent 3-part video series. Required viewing for all the hardcore ND Football fans:

Part 1 - Weis Begins Coaching Career
Part 2 - Weis Learns Football As Assistant
Part 3 - Weis Finally a Head Coach

One thing the series overlooks is the fact that Charlie spent 4 seasons coaching at the University South Carolina while obtaining his master’s degree in education (occured before he started head coaching at Franklin Township High in 1989).

Little known Weis facts:

• Charlie’s first head coaching job wasn’t as a football coach but was as a basketball coach.
• Apparently before becoming an assistant coach under mentor John Chironna, Charlie’s coaching knowledge could be “put on a pinhead”.

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• “It’s just impossible to beat.” Matt Romine is Irish.
• ESPN Says Charlie Weis Was ‘Offended’ by Roast Remarks
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ESPN.com has an excellent article chronicling the history of the “Play Like a Champion” sign that players slap while running out to the field. Although the signs origin is unknown (I think it came from heaven) former ND coach, Lou Holtz found it in a picture of it in a book while researching ND Football history. This inspired Lou and in 1986 he revived the sign and commissioned stadium painter Laurie Wenger to paint it.

UND.com also has some great quotes on Lou’s belief behind the sign:

“Regardless of the won-loss record, regardless of the problems you have, when you walk out on that field you have an obligation to your teammates and the fans to play to the best of your ability - to play like a champion and to think like a champion,” Holtz says.

“But, I also asked my players that every time they hit that sign, to think about all the sacrifices your family has made; your teammates made in high school; the sacrifices your teachers have made; and you also think of the thousands of people who would love to be in your position. Just think about how fortunate we are.

“All of these thoughts should go through your mind when you hit that sign - `Play Like A Champion Today’.”

Thank you Lou…now please practice what you preach and

“Smack Mark May Like a Champion Today“.

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• Henne’s Out
• A Profile In Courage: Lamar Thomas
• Book Review: “Sideline: Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore Collection”

Well after stomping all over PSU I sort of like the cuddly little lions now. I’m sure this will fade over time (ok it’s faded)…but they do get one thing right:

Hey Michigan, it’s 10:19 here and guess what…you still suck.

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• News!
• What to do with all this rage
• Friday Roundup

The boys over at Blue Gray Sky have found that NBC is offering archived streaming video of all Notre Dame home games on their website. Not much to say but that rules. Go to the NBCsports.com player here, and select the “Notre Dame” tab.

BONUS — All the boring parts of been edited out…just the meat remains.

Now all you ND fans in Daglfing, Yokohama, and Mulgrave can watch those games.

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• MSU Gameday Chat
• (Again) Michael Floyd is a Stud
• Happy Birthday to the Founder of the Feast!

Do you like college football blogs (of course)…do you like sports talk radio (check)…do you like Fighting Irish Football (hell yeah)??? Well my friend then your going to love this…the HLS team has created an aggregated feed for the top college football podcast (heavy on Irish Football of course). Here’s the deal, there are quite a few don’t miss CFB podcasts out there but you need to go around and subscribe individually to each one. Harnessing the power of Odeo the HLS team has created a single podcast feed that brings the best of the best together into one spot. Right now the following podcasts are included:

• Irish Eyes Power Hour - Notre Dame Football talk with Mike Frank
• Friday Night Lites - The House Rock Built’s weekly podcast. Interviews of college football bloggers and some good old fashioned trash talking to help you out through the season.
• Rivals.com Radio - The best in college sports radio

We also intend to include the EDSBS podcast but are having trouble locating the url for the RSS feed.

Have no clue what podcasting is??…check the Wikipedia entry. Don’t want to download and install anything…listen right on the Odeo site. Anything else we should add??…tell us in the comments.

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• Friday Roundup: The “Crap. Taste Is Here.” Edition
• Army All American Game Dominated By Irish - On and Off the Field
• “WHEN SC beats Notre Dame Next Weekend.”

SI on Campus has an excellent article which lists many don’t miss things to do while up in South Bend. Just like last week’s “Notre Dame Glossary” we at HLS are suckers for this nostalgic Domer stuff. And now for a “man this is gonna date me” observation…it appears Heartland has been renamed to the even lamer Club Fever. Man, I sure hope Fat Shirley’s has retained it’s name.

You know the drill…feel free to leave your own “Best Place to” additions in the comments section. Thanks to Marco over at NDCHOOCHOO for the find.

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• Weis Speaks at the White House
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• This is Why We are ND

Well the Floridian winner (Andrew Kim French) who left a racially charged phone message for former ND head coach Tyrone Willingham pleaded guilty today. The judge slapped him with a $2000 fine and placed him on probation for another year. My favorite piece of all this is his “defense”:

“French has said he was drunk, under peer pressure and not using good judgment when he made the 3 a.m. call and left a message for Willingham…

… His attorney, Robert Truitt, said French had matured a great deal as he participated in a pretrial diversion program.”

Hmmm that “I was drunk” excuse ALWAYS works. I wonder if the 96 ND students who were ticketed for underage drinking this past weekend tried that one…”we were drunk, under peer pressure and not using good judgement…please don’t arrest us Mr. Excise Officer”. I’m also amused French has “matured a great deal” since the incident…now he is just your run of the mill a-hole.

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• Ty Willingham is a Good Ol’ Boy
• Fun Schadenfreude Fact of the Day
• Oh, You Mean His Throwing Arm?

It really is too easy to keep taking pot shots at ol’ Joe Pa but I’ll be damned if we don’t keep finding good stuff. It’s almost as this blog is writing itself. I’m now officially convinced this guy doesn’t dress himself in the morning.

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• ND/Purdue Highlight Reel
• The Difference Between Notre Dame and Duke?
• The Snow Bowl

Finally got around to listening to Charlie Weis’s Sunday post-game press conference. The conference in and of itself is a very interesting listen and I highly recommend that any hardcore ND Football fan not miss it. It gives great insight into why the team did some of the things it did (and some funny tidbits, like Charlie’s wife telling doubting onlookers her husband was “going for it” on the final 4th down).

One of Charlie’s first points was the fact, weather permitting, he wanted to hold the PSU Pep Rally in the stadium:

“On a side note, not related to last night’s game, but weather permitting, this week, due to obviously this is the first time I’ll ever be able to say anything about Penn State now that Georgia Tech is done, but weather permitting, we’re going to try to have this pep rally in the stadium on Friday night so we don’t turn anyone away. Just like the game last year, the USC game, where so many people wanted to go, weather permitting we’ll try to do that. As long as the weather holds out, no one will get turned away.

John and I talked about it. We figured, let’s get that out there now so people know what our intent is now as long as the weather holds up.”

Props to Charlie for opening the stadium up to fans…the HLS team will be sure to post details as soon as they are released.

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• ESPN Says Charlie Weis Was ‘Offended’ by Roast Remarks
• People, Please Leave Charlie Alone
• Charlie Weis: This Loss is On You

So I fired up the Tivo and watched the game for a second time (MUCH more enjoyable not having smelly Tech fans around) and one thing really stuck out in my mind. - How great is it to have Rhema McKnight healthy and playing again this season!! I mean I knew he was coming back…I knew it would rock but the reality didn’t hit me until now. Saturday he caught eight balls for 109 yards, including a 44-yard reception down the sideline. With Rhema back on the attack now teams can’t just overload coverage on Samardzija (see shutdown Calvin Johnson 101). Well welcome back Rhema…

Yes Rhema we are excited you are back also!

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• No related posts

It may have been ugly at times…but we won! I may have a sunburn and smell…but we won! I may have have gotten jeered by Tech fans on the long walk back to the car…but we won!

GO IRISH!!

Glad to see we were able to pull a defense together in the off season. It was this defense that held the Yellow Jackets to 259 total yards…they also won us this game. Now off to bed…good night to all the Irish faithful.

Looks like someone got some D in the offseason.

Tech students show everyone it’s always classy to throw garbage on the field when you don’t like a call.

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• Notre Dame/Duke Prediction
• ESPN Just Makes Things Up
• Taking a Pass at the Irish Defense

Just got back from checking out ESPN College Gameday live and have uploaded some photos to Flickr. Here are a few random shots, you can view the whole photoset here.

Now that’s what I call lunch.

Coming up on the Gameday crowd.

The boys broadcasting our favorite show.

There were plenty of ND fans in the crowd also.

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• I’m So Not Live-Blogging. I Swear…
• ESPN College Gameday details
• GT’s Loss is ND’s Gain… In Volume and NSFW Language

After scouring the web I finally found some details on the location of ESPN Gameday tomorrow, I mean would it be too much to ask for ESPN to have some decent information on the Gameday website?! This information came right from the Georgia Tech athletic site so I assume it is pretty reliable:

WHAT: Georgia Tech will be the center of the college football world as the popular ESPN College Gameday program, featuring Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Chris Fowler, airs live from the Tech campus when the Yellow Jackets host second-ranked Notre Dame.

WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 2. Students and fans are asked to arrive by 8:30 a.m. The Gameday crew will shoot live segments for ESPN Sportscenter from 9-10 a.m. Then ESPN College Gameday airs live from 10 a.m. until 12 noon.

WHERE: Yellow Jacket Park, adjacent to the Georgia Tech Campanile

Basically we need lots of Irish fans to get their butts up early and cheer louder than the Tech fans, I know my wife and I will be there. For those of you wondering where the heck Yellow Jacket Park is (I had no clue), just follow this link to a Goolge Map of it all. Don’t worry that it appears I mapped a leveled building….Yellow Jacket Park stands on an old crackhouse the old HightowerTextile Engineering building (those textile engineers get no respect I tell you).

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• ESPN College Gameday To Attend Notre Dame/Southern Cal Game.
• No Gameday Chat this Weekend
• HLS Live-Blogging: ND vs GaTech Pre-game