School's out, at least for GrantlandX. For anyone who cares, I finished up my finals yesterday and headed on home. But have no fear, I will still be providing in-depth Notre Dame football analysis and coverage all summer, as always, from the student perspective.

Summer -- A fantastic time to leave schoolbooks alone

Speaking of summer, what is next for the Irish? Here is the summer schedule, and what to expect for each period:

Friday, May 11th - Sunday, June 3rd "Break" - The 11th officially ends Finals Week at Notre Dame, when everyone is free to take a deep breath, relax, and return home. For Notre Dame players, this is the only real time they get to go home and be with their families each year (though they do get a short Spring Break as well), considering they are still occupied with football activities through Fall, Thanksgiving, and even Winter breaks. So this is essentially the players' time to decompress from 11 months of absolutely brutal schedules.

That being said, this four week period is potentially the most significant time of the year for players to move themselves up or down the depth chart. For roughly four weeks, every player is out of the coaching staff's hands, and therefore each player is completely responsible for keeping in shape, continuing to learn the playbook, and working on their individual game. And certainly, all of the players handle these duties differently. This past week, I got to talk to many of the players on the team, and asked them what their time at home would entail as it relates to football, and predictably I received a wide array of answers. Some of the players that sensed they have a great opportunity (mainly eager younger players) ahead of them cited hiring personal trainers, or sticking to the exact regiment that they have during the school year, with the exception of resting instead of attending classes. Other guys talked about working out regularly, but using it more as a healing period for their body and instead focusing on getting their assignments and the playbook down when they don't have homework as a distraction. And then a few of the veterans on the team talked about staying away from football activities altogether -- that clearing their minds and relaxing was the most important thing for them, as it really allows them to refocus when they come back for summer workouts.

But the one thing that most of them acknowledged was that the summertime break is a huge make-or-break period. Some of them expressed interest in working out with each other to develop chemistry with and confidence in eachother, Jimmy Clausen Style. Personally, I am a big of this option.

Monday, June 4th - "Voluntary" Workouts Begin - Starting the first week of June, players can report back to campus for voluntary workouts. While they are completely voluntary, most of the team does report, because players who don't are almost sure to fall behind. The voluntary workouts are led by Notre Dame student-athletes with strength and conditioning exercises supervised by Notre Dame's staff.

Monday, June 18th - Summer Classes Start - By this point, very close to 100% of the team is back in South Bend. Most Notre Dame athletes take full schedules of summer classes, because it allows them to take a lighter course load during the in-season for their sport. This is the first chance that the new freshmen get to balance Notre Dame academics and workouts, although admittedly summer courses tend to be much easier and more relaxed. But it does serve as a good acclimation period.

Friday, August 3rd - Summer Courses End - From late June to early August, Notre Dame players have very few commitments. Typically, they go to two classes each day, followed by moderately intense voluntary workouts. Which leaves them with 18+ hours to do whatever they please. Because it is no secret that the summer is a huge party period for the team, here's to praying that everyone stays out of trouble this year.

**Note** While this is as good a time as ever to restate that I am not officially affiliated with the team, yours truly, GrantlandX, will also be taking summer courses, and will keep everyone up to date on workouts and such.

Monday, August 6th - Practice Officially Begins - This is what all fans salivate for during the summer: the first time that the coaching staff gets their hands on the team since the Blue-Gold Game. We hope to see that self-motivated hard work and dedication pays off for the players, and hope springs eternal for Notre Dame Football success. At this point, we can turn our heads toward the season. Counting down the days until practice already! (89 days from 5/10)

Love It/Hate It? Comment below or tweet me @GrantlandX (REALLY, tweet at me a bit, guys. It keeps me entertained)

The Notre Dame men’s track & field team cleaned up at the Big East Championships last weekend, running away from the field (pun intended) to win the conference title with 153 points, earning over 50 more than second place South Florida (100 points).

Among the many Notre Dame stars last weekend were the football team’s own twins George Atkinson III and Josh Atkinson. After George posted the second best 100 meter dash time in the prelims (10.36 seconds), Josh stepped up in the finals to edge out his brother for 4^th place overall with a time of 10.39 seconds – 7 tenths of a second faster than GAIII, who was 5th. You can see the race: here (Josh in lane 1 [far right], George in lane 4)

Brian Hardin kindly pointed out that GAIII’s preliminary time was the 4^th fastest 100 meter time by a college football player this year and the best time of any freshman college football player. Josh Atkinson’s preliminary time in the 200 meter dash of 21.20 seconds was the third best by any college football this year. Hardin also Tweeted yesterday that GAIII and Josh's times were 2nd and 3rd among ND football players behind the one-and-only Rocket Ismail, who ran a 10.34 in 1991 (if anyone knows what kind of timing system the NCAA was using 21 years ago, I'd love to hear it - any chance that time was affected by a stopwatch?).

Josh Atkinson is faster than every wide receiver he'll cover this year.

So what do we know? These guys are freakin’ quick. We also know that nobody is going to ever again argue that John Goodman has the fastest straight line speed on the team. We saw flashes of George’s brilliance with kickoff returns against MSU and USC, and saw what he could do in space at this year’s Blue/Gold game (now let’s just get him to hold on to the damn ball). Josh Atkinson and Lo Wood are still battling for the second cornerback position, but we shouldn’t expect to see Josh get beat deep too frequently which is comforting for those of us still recovering from “4^th and 9.”

For a little context, Florida’s Jeff Demps once ran a 10.01 (tied for the world junior record), but he also gave up a chance at the NFL to pursue the Olympic trials, weighs about 35 pounds less than GAIII, and can’t break tackles. For more detail about how the Atkinson bros stack up historically, check out this excellent peice by Keith Arnold at Inside the Irish.

It would be a disservice to not mention some of the other Irish standouts from the weekend:

Now, let’s just get bench press machine Ben Turk competing in shot put next year.

You can follow Twibby on Twitter: @HLS_Twibby

An old saw about leadership is that “with authority comes responsibility,” or words to that effect. As a young reserve officer candidate, some such phrase was beaten into my brain and, in later years, I did my best to remember it as I explained myself to my CO for the sins of a non-rate in my division. As you progress up the ranks, you gain more authority, but also more responsibility. This basic fact of leadership, to me, explains the now tortured path on which Tommy Rees walks and, perhaps, why the end of his road may differ from that of Michael Floyd,  or any of the tens of Notre Dame athletes who found themselves on the wrong side of the law and ResLife in the last two years.

Before I go any further, I want to be crystal clear on a few matters: first, nothing in this article should be construed as my professional opinion as an attorney on any of the legal issues presented by Tommy’s arrest or the underlying circumstances. Second, Tommy is entitled to the presumption of innocence afforded to all defendants in the criminal system. Third, Tommy Rees is not quite twenty years old and is entitled to the presumption of human fallibility and the redemptive process.

Tommy has been charged with four misdemeanors under Indiana law, specifically: 1.) underage drinking; 2.) fleeing from a police officer; 3.) “forcibly struggling” with said police officer; and 4.) “knowingly touch[-ing]” said police officer (Brandon Stec, for those of you scoring at home) “in a rude, angry or insolent manner resulting in bodily injury to Brandon Stec, to wit: pain and scrapes.” It’s the last two charges that really have me concerned for Tommy’s future participation in the football program and, perhaps, in the University as a whole.

According to du Lac “[t]he following actions and behaviors are clearly inconsistent with the University’s expectations for membership in this community [and] violations of these behavioral standards will call into question a student’s full participation in the University community: 1.) Violence, or the threat of violence against another person, or any action which causes injury to another. [. . .] 11.) Behavior which causes a serious disturbance of the University campus. [. . .] 12.) Actions which seemingly affect only the individual(s) involved but which have a negative disruptive impact on the University community and/or concern a student’s personal  [. . .] growth.” (emphasis added).

The thing about leadership is that it implicates equal measures of, among other traits, knowledge, judgment, dependability, tact and courage.  After Coach Kelly benched Dayne Crist for the Michigan game last season, he noted that both Dayne and Tommy “are capable of leading our football team.” Coach Kelly put Dayne Crist on ice because Dayne demonstrated he couldn’t get the job done on the field. Tommy, arguably, has shown he can’t get the job done off the field. Leadership does not stop, or start, at the touchline, or in the locker room.

Coach Kelly, to maintain his authority over the program and his place within the University community, is going to have to do exactly what he did with Michael Floyd early on: suspend him.  Then, Coach Kelly is going to have to let the legal and the University discipline processes play out, as he did with Michael Floyd. Only then, and only if Tommy stays at ND, can Tommy go about the task of completing what will have to be an arduous, transparent and verifiable program of “behavior modification and improved decision-making skills.” And frankly, I don’t know that there’s enough time between now and September 1 for Coach to credibly develop and implement such a program and for Tommy to complete it. I hate to say it, but I think Tommy took himself out of the quarterback competition for 2012.

If you're a regular reader, then you know all about the album "Forever Irish" by our friend Ken O'Malley. Ken released the album digitally back in the fall. It's a collection of songs that combine the tradition of Irish Pub tunes with Notre Dame lore. It's a great product, and we've been helping Ken promote.

And recently, Ken got great news - the product has been reviewed by The Bookstore and is on shelves today! In fact, our very own GrantlandX picked up one of the first copies sold the other day.

So swing by and pick up your copy next time you're on campus, or you can order from the ND Bookstore web site.

It's a must-have for ND Tailgaters and Partiers everywhere, and a portion of the profits benefit Kelly Cares and the General Scholarship Fund, so it's for a good cause as well. All songs are on iTunes and Amazon available for download as well.

If you haven't sampled it before, check out the YouTube Sampler:

Thanks for your great work, Ken. GO ARSH!

In addition to saying mass, hearing confessions, and being an all-around Sacrament Machine, I am also frequently called upon for inspirational words.  Remember, I was rallying the spirits of students well before Professor Rockne belted out his tall tale about that booze-hound George Gipp.  Now with final examinations about to descend on the campus like the Wrath of God, I shall give some stirring sentiments to all students presently in testing despair.

I will do this with a series of metaphors.  I find that drawing comparisons to football can be very useful, just as various campus statues take on greater meaning when given a football-related identity.  Who would appreciate Moses holding the Decalogue, were he not signaling first-and-ten?  Jesus may be summoning all to come unto him, but clearly he is also performing a dropkick.  With all of our Civil War veterans now passed on, Wild Bill Corby is much better remembered calling for a fair catch.  And “The Word of Life” is simply not a catchy title – though Touchdown Jesus is only moderately less unedifying.  Ted had plans for covering the other sides of the library with more giant mosaics.  An enormous BVM was supposed to face campus.  God only knows what gauche name the lads would have come up with for Her – Unsportsmanlike Conduct Mary?

At any rate, let’s consider finals like a football game.  You are in study days now.  That’s like tailgating.  Seriously, from what I can tell the only difference between reading days and pregame festivities is that you’re not drinking in the parking lots…as much.

When you arrive at your first test next week, that is the kickoff.  If you ace the exam, you will have run the ball back for a touchdown.  If you run out of time and can’t answer the last question, you have been tackled by the kicker.  If you misspell you name on the cover of the bluebook, you should immediately transfer to USC.

If you do terribly on one exam, that is merely a fumble or an interception – there is still plenty of game left to be played.  Get back in there and hold onto the answers this time.  If you do terribly on several exams, your only hope is for a catastrophic storm to blow through so you can make one last desperate attempt to get your act together in the second half.

If you pass a test with flying colors and then forget to hand it in to the professor, you have fumbled on the goal line.  Transfer to Kansas.

If you read all the wrong material and studied all the wrong notes, you have been blitzed.  If the professor told you there wouldn’t be certain material on the exam, and then he puts it on there anyway, you have been clipped.  If you are too dimwitted to remember in which classroom the test will be administered, you belong in East Lansing.

When you have taken half of your exams, but still have half to go, rededicate yourself to pushing twice as hard on the last two tests.  Listen to “American Pie” played by a brass band, if you think that helps.

When you are down to your very last exam, don’t become complacent and turn in a halfhearted effort at studying.  That would be like allowing the other team to kick a last-second field goal (God save us from the Jesuits).  Drive hard until the very last second of the very last test.  Run that pen out of ink.  Break that pencil.  Make the proctor wrest the bluebook away from you.  Give it your all!

Then, when victory is yours, your classmates can rush the field and carry you in triumph into summer vacation.  Soon enough, just as Fall brings a new football season, so too will it bring another academic semester, and you can face the drama, intensity, and madness all over again.  But the football season will be great.

Those are my words of inspiration for students preparing for final exams.  But what do I know – I never took a single exam at Notre Dame.  Hell, I never even graduated from the place.  So I suppose you can call my statue “The First Subway Alumnus.”  I’m not real clear on the concept of a subway, but it sounds better than an “Underground Alumnus,” so we’ll stick with it.

EFS CSC

Well, we get what we deserve. As fans, we always complain in the offseason that we don't get enough news. But as Notre Dame fans, a quiet offseason might be on our wish list pretty soon.

Anyways, last night, Tommy Rees was arrested. You can imagine how the GrantlandX phone was blowing up immediately, after my numerous Tommy Rees endorsements all offseason. But the story is simple:

A college party was being thrown right off of campus, to celebrate the end of classes (yesterday was the last day of classes for Notre Dame students before finals. Trust me, this is about the ONLY time Notre Dame students party on Wednesdays anymore. Embarrassing yet true) and several players were in attendance. The South Bend Police Department received a noise complaint about the party, and proceeded to the house to shut it down. When the police came knocking, several of the underage students, including Rees, tried to take off and run. The police then yelled for them to stop and stay put, at which point everyone but Tommy listened. Suffice to say, Tommy has never been known for his wheels, and was quickly corralled. Actually, he was running from the officer, and got away from him in the street, but he found his path blocked by a cabbie who heard the officer yelling for Tommy to stop. The cab driver restrained Tommy until SBPD caught up. Tommy was reportedly not cooperative, arguing with the cops, and even kneed one of them, knocking the wind out of him (it was also reported that he kicked one of them, although this hasn't been confirmed). UFC may or may not be in his future. Oh yeah, and then SBPD pepper sprayed him. Carlo Calabrese (also at the party, but who is 21) tried to intervene on Rees' behalf and attempt to persuade the police to leave Tommy alone, but was unsuccessful.

Carlo received a disorderly conduct charge, but managed to get off an awesome menacing statement before he left: "My people will get you", is reportedly what he told the police as he left the scene. So we'll see if the D-Line is doing a sack dance on the SBPD in the near future.

For the record, Rees reportedly had a BAC of .11 (.08 is the legal limit) while Calabrese registered a .12. Now, keeping in mind the weights of the two players, Rees was really falling behind anyway.

All jokes aside, here's bottom line: While Carlo is 21 and is getting off with a misdemeanor disorderly conduct, Tommy Rees is facing four charges, including battery to law enforcement, which is a felony.

Now, attending the University, I have a lot of feelings on this subject. Almost every single student has a run-in with SBPD at some point in their career, and that generally occurs after a busted house party. And what occurred at the incident above is pretty standard operating procedure. That is, they approach the house and tell everyone to stay calm, and not run. They ask what is going on, but then tell the house owners that the party has break up and go home. Way more often than not, if everyone is calm and cooperative, NOBODY gets in trouble. While it is extremely frustrating that South Bend has a lot of more serious crime that should be taken care of first, it is still the job of the police to respond to complaints such as the one they received last night. Look, everybody knows that college parties go on, and underage drinking is rampant across the country. And though everybody gets mad when the police come for a party bust, they really do allow most kids to leave unscathed, because they know that an arrest or even just a drinking ticket is a serious black mark to throw on a student's resume. But in the case of Tommy Rees, he panicked, wasn't cooperative, and really screwed up. He has nobody to blame but himself for how it turns out. And that is pretty much the consensus on campus: He was in a bad situation, sure, but if he handled himself properly, it is almost certain that this event never gets reported. While everyone hates the SBPD as a rule, it is pretty hard to defend the standard "drunken idiot" at a party. The biggest frustration from the students is that situations like this are bound to happen, because the on-campus party culture at Notre Dame is so restricted. Whereas an on-campus drinking incident could be handled by RAs, rectors, or even the dreaded ResLife, by naturally forcing partying and drinking off campus, Notre Dame is subjecting its own students to the city police. And this is what happens.

As for how this affects the quarterback race (yeah, the important stuff), we will have to wait and see. Obviously this isn't a good thing for Tommy, but Michael Floyd was suspended zero games last year for a DWI (which, it is important to note, is not a felony like battery). As the details become clearer, anything can happen. This could be a blip on the radar and nothing like Floyd's DWI last year (Tommy's first offense compared to Floyd's third), or be so incredibly dumb that we may be looking for a future dismissal. But as always, we hope for the best. A small note would also be that since the football team has no more events until the summer, both Carlo and Tommy will get their Brian Kelly scolding away from the rest of the team, so he won't be able to make a point to all of them, at least in person.

A very important note: Tommy Rees will be formally charged at 1 PM ET today. If the prosecution feels that the case is too weak, all charges could potentially be dropped. So that is definitely something to monitor.

UPDATE: Tommy Rees and Carlo Calabrese will not appear in court today (May 3rd). Calabrese is currently scheduled for May 17th, while Rees could appear in court as soon as tomorrow.

Another UPDATE: Tommy Rees is being charged with four misdemeanors, as the felony charge was dropped. He will be released on bail later today.

For constant updates, jokes, and ALWAYS the inside scoop, follow me @GrantlandX on Twitter

If you’ve been following the BCS developments over the past few weeks, you probably, like the conference commissioners and Jack Swarbrick, have no idea what is going on (though you probably haven’t enjoyed a free vacation to Florida). While the details are still being ironed out, it has become apparent that the current BCS model is no longer in consideration (hooray!).

The leading option, as reported by Mark Schlabach of ESPN, is to hold a four team playoff using the sites of the current BCS bowls as the sites of the national semifinals while putting the National Championship game up for auction (maybe ND can use some of that endowment cash to bring it to South Bend). Rather than choosing between the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange bowl sites before the season, the location for the semifinal games would be attached to the current conference affiliation of the bowls for the top two teams. For example, if an SEC team enters the postseason ranked #1 and a Pac-12 team entered the postseason at #2, the SEC team would host the #4 seed in New Orleans while the Pac-12 team would host the #3 seed at the Rose Bowl.

Let us all take another moment to rejoice that we will finally have some sort of playoff to decide the National Champion, and that all the ridiculous arguments about “missing extra days of class” are no longer being feigned in order to protect the BCS treasure chest.  However, there are some concerns about the proposal that is currently leading:

1) The #1 and #2 teams should host the semifinal games at their home stadiums. Could you imagine how electric the atmosphere would be? 1993 ND vs. FSU on steroids, anyone? Also, it is asking quite a lot of a fan base to travel across country twice in two weeks for the semifinals and championship, particularly without being able to plan the championship trip more than a week in advance. Non-title BCS game attendance has been declining as it is, and asking fans to travel even more could prove costly (and embarrassing) for the semifinals.

2) How do you pick the top 4 teams? There is no perfect way to rank teams at the end of the season, but there will still undoubtedly be complaints about why #4 was ranked ahead of #5.

3) Will the playoffs only be open to conference champs? If they are, how does this affect Notre Dame?

4) A playoff setup makes other bowl games like the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, the Tums Extra Strength Bowl and R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl inconsequential!! (Just kidding – and only one of those games was made up)

You can follow Twibby on Twitter: @HLS_Twibby

This is going to be one of the recurring features that I will be coming out with every few weeks in the fall. The premise is simple: What is the "temperature" of the football team in the eyes of the students? In other words, how is the student body feeling about the team's ability (to win) moving forward? I will be using my super-secret GrantlandX sleuthing skills to determine the campus' "temperature".

It is interesting taking the temperature before the season because you always assume that expectations are going to be sky high, particularly at Notre Dame. You have a clean slate ahead of you and the hype and promise around new players should already be starting to marinate. Championship predictions should be thrown out by students like confetti. But I really wouldn't say that is the case this year. While normally campus would be affected with Notre Dame Football Fever, it would be safe to currently classify the students as lukewarm at best.

The Post-Spring Football outlook may be a bit chilly

The most obvious reason for the lukewarm-ness right now is the lack of resolution at the QB spot. If there is one thing any sports fan fears, it is lack of direction for their team. And when your team can't point to any one guy at the quarterback position that is ready to take over and lead, you are certainly perceived as lacking direction. Deciding on a quarterback is the first step into raising win expectations among the fan base. And the truth is, it doesn't even matter who takes ownership of that spot. For example, I strongly endorse Tommy Rees for starting quarterback. But if he were not chosen to start, I would assume that is because another guy took his game to another level and is capable of playing better football than Tommy, plain and simple. Once a guy is decided upon, fans stop viewing his negatives (why another guy should start over him) and start focusing on what positives the starter can bring to the table.

But there is more to the tempered expectations this year than just an unresolved quarterback position, although that certainly carries tremendous weight. While this is a "good problem to have" in college football, Notre Dame just lost 8 players to the NFL (although most of them left after exhausting all of their eligibility). Notably, both starting corners, a first-round safety, and the tremendous, All-American Michael Floyd. These are tough losses to swallow, particularly Floyd when quarterback is one of your biggest question marks. The fact that we don't have a lot of heir apparents waiting in the wings at a lot of these positions (cough CB and WR cough cough) and will be relying on many inexperienced, young players really contributes to tempered expectations.

It doesn't help that Notre Dame is also playing a ridiculously hard schedule this year either. With true road games against USC (led by senior Matt Barkley) and Oklahoma (led by senior Landry Jones) as well as our typical not-so-easy run of games that includes Michigan (senior Denard Robinson...see a trend?), Michigan State, Pitt, BYU, Stanford, and more, the Irish would be tested no matter how good of a team they return.

Finally, the jury is still out on our Head Coach, Brian Kelly. Obviously, Notre Dame fans have been driven absolutely insane by the coaching carousel we have been subject to over the last 15 years. But at least with previous coaches, particularly Weis and Willingham, (sorry, sorry, I shouldn't have brought them up) Notre Dame got off to torrid starts that made the fan base buy in right away (although those bubbles burst ferociously later). With Kelly, that hasn't been the case. While it SEEMS like we have improved (the running game, establishing dominant offensive and defensive lines), the records haven't indicated that yet (8-5 in both of his first two seasons). Coach Kelly has also endured a pretty high number of de-commits and transfers out of the program, and also created a rift between his older and younger players last season. So the fans aren't sold on Brian Kelly yet. And when fans aren't sure if they believe in the guy leading the program, the temperature and expectations stay low.

Will the students warm up to the Irish closer to the season?

At least at this moment, the students and the general fan base probably have very similar feelings and expectations (which isn't always the case) for the Irish team this season. Most predictions around campus will center around 8-9 wins, due to all of the reasons listed above. However, I do fully expect expectations to rise once the starting quarterback is named prior to the season, and we start to get our hopes up as we approach everyone's favorite time of the year. I can't wait to Test the Temperature for you again in the fall.

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