The release of the South Bend Tribune’s ND Insider Notre Dame Football Preview is to Notre Dame football fans what the swallows’ return to Capistrano or the migration of wildebeests across the Mara is to naturalists. This year, we here at HerLoyalSons were privileged to review the Preview’s digital version. Thanks to the Tribune’s Tyler James, we did so for free.
Since we’r
e talking digital stuff, you should know that you will need iOS 6.0 or later if you’re going to read the Preview on an Apple product. That right there is my biggest criticism. I know that technology moves on and that Apple’s decision to deny upgrades to its older platforms cannot be imputed to ND Insider, but nothing in the digital version screams, to me, that it needed a late-model, as it were, operating system. If they could make the app work with iOS 5.0, they’d open the offering to many more users. Such as old people like me.
That aside, the digital version trades the visceral experience you get from the magazine for a good amount of linked videos, audio clips, photo galleries, and player interviews. These, alone, make the $4.99 purchase price a steal. You can hear KeiVarae Russell talk about his journey back, or listen to twenty questions with Coach Kelly. You can watch Tyler James or Al Lesar interview players like Justin Yoon, Brandon Wimbush, Mike McGlinchey and Corey Robinson in person or by Skype. Seeing the size discrepancy, alone, between Tyler and Corey, for example, makes the $4.99 purchase price a steal.
The Preview is broken up into Features, articles about individual players or topics, Analyses, positional guides, and Extras, breakdowns of coaches, freshman, stats, opponents, and the roster. Laced throughout are really slick photos that tie everything together nicely. You swipe left or right to navigate and the whole thing just works intuitively. Pressing on the page will open up a scroll bar, allowing you to zip wherever you want to go. Arrow and camera icons are clear, but unobtrusive, and serve as your gateway to the extra content mentioned above.
The writing throughout runs from good to very good. Hurricane Zaire is a phenomenal interview and examination of Malik Zaire and gets deep into his thinking and background. While Zaire’s confidence may come across as arrogance, the quotes from his high school principal really tempered him in my mind and added depth to a player existing, to me, on a series of screens. Eric Hansen’s take on the state of Irish D-line and the importance of the rush in college football, In A Rush, is comprehensive.
Tyler James’ piece on the Notre Dame experiences of five-star recruits, Star Struck, was the best of all, to me. Using interviews with players like Dayne Crist, Tyler takes on the careers of the fifteen five-stars recruited to Notre Dame since Rivals.com rolled out its ranking system in 2002. Great takes from recruiting gurus add substance and context.
Having the Preview on your phone or tablet will definitely improve your in-game experience. Unless you’re in the stadium, in which case you should put your phone away and just enjoy everything, okay? At home or at the local game watch, the digital version is a convenient way to check stats and records and answer the age-old question posed by casual and die-hard Irish fans forever: “who made that play?”
You can order he Preview from Google Play here or from the App Store here.
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.
- Finding Flaws in a Diamond: Clemson’s Rushing Offense - December 17, 2018
- Why Nobody Will Cotton to Notre Dame - December 3, 2018
- Irish Finish Regular Season Perfect 12-0 - November 26, 2018
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