As Mardi Gras begins its slow roll into Ash Wednesday, let me wish you and yours a joyeux Mardi Gras and a very thoughtful Lenten season. Here at the Irish compound, we’re back from the parades and warmed and dry from a day along St. Charles Avenue. Despite the weather, we enjoyed the frivolity (and coconuts) of Zulu and the thoughtful, float-specific throws of Rex. So, now, as the youngsters and the insane descend upon Bourbon Street, I want to put 1’s to 0’s and talk about something that everyone but The Answer wants to talk about: practice.

On Lundi Gras, Monday to the rest of you, the Irish completed the first of fifteen practices, culminating in the 85th Blue Gold Game. Due to the lunar cycle, exam schedules, and Pope Gregory XIII, the Blue Gold Game will be held April 12, seemingly fifty-nine weeks from now. All of your terrific NDFIDM daily coverage will be found here, to include Monday’s already-in-the-can session.

If you haven’t yet watched Coach BK’s post-practice presser, take a peek:

To my eye and ear, Coach Kelly is excited about four things this Spring: Everett Golson, Coach VanGorder, Mike McGlinchey, and Everett Golson. Yesterday, WhiskyPoet hit, and well, the high notes from Monday’s practice. One name, though, that went under his radar was Mike McGlinchey. Since Mike’s name came up from both sides of the mic, he bears mentioning here. First things first, @BigGlinch68 is, in fact, that. He’s 6’8″ and 300 pounds. He’s Matt Ryan’s first-cousin, but since that’s only of interest to Alabama newlyweds and Falcons fans, I’d like to focus on the fact that he’s slotted at right tackle with the first team O-line AND that Coach Kelly mentioned that he might have two shirts per game: one as a lineman and one as a tight end. Whether he fills the end spot as a blocking end or as a receiving end (stop it), the notion that opposing D-coordinators will have to account for a kid who’s got 35 pounds on Jimmy Graham is fun to entertain.

And speaking of Defensive Coordinators, Coach VanGorder has the guys definitively outside of their comfort zones and BK loves that. Something Irish fans will love are more scenes from Monday, repeated on Saturdays, of players like Jaylon Smith getting vertical and grabbing pick-sixes.

But all the words Monday were devoted to Everett and his return. You can’t help but love the way the kid looks. And everyone’s been effusive about the way he showed up. Some are calling the quarterback battle over already. I think that would be a huge mistake, if only from a player-development standpoint, as Malik Zaire has enormous talent and should get a good amount of snaps on Saturday if everything breaks right for our boys. That said, with all that we went through in 2013, wouldn’t it be great to have the QB position one of plaudit and hyperbole rather than pathos and hyperventilation?

Watch this and tell me you’re not excited:

Had enough? No? Buy your BG Game tickets here.

Had enough yet? No? Well, here’s a NOPD officer doing The Wobble:

http://youtu.be/C3xWW4DZL24

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Bayou Irish

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Hating Hurricanes Since 1990.

Bayou Irish is a Jersey boy and Double Domer who fell under New Orleans' spell in 1995. He's been through Katrina and fourteen years in the Coast Guard, so we cut him some slack, mostly in the form of HLS-subsidized sazeracs. But, when he's not face down on the bar and communing with the ghosts of Faulkner and Capote at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone, he's our man in SEC-land, doing his best to convince everyone around him that Graduation Success Rate is a better indicator of success than the number of MNC's won in the last five years.

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