Your #HLSRecapMadness Final Four

We are just days away from crowning Her Loyal Sons’ favorite Notre Dame football-related tweet of the year. We’re extremely grateful for the passion of our contestants and our readers, who have made these match-ups exciting to watch.

We reached out to the four remaining contestants in an effort to get to know them a bit better. Please enjoy these profiles – and don’t forget to vote at the bottom of the page! Voting closes at 11:59:59 p.m. on Saturday.

@bridgetgoirish, winner of the Puns/WTF Region
Hometown: No one will know where it is so I will just say, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania- home of Yuengling beer and the birthplace of Muffet McGraw.
Current City: Nashville, TN
Preferred Smartphone/Twitter application: the generic twitter app, but I’m open to suggestions!
Started tweeting: I Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-ed that season and the months that followed, so I don’t remember a lot. Also, as you can see from my tweet, I like to drink.

@CBusIrish, winner of the Pics/GIFs Region
Hometown: Columbus Oh
Current City: Currently suntanning at resort in Antigua
Preferred Smartphone/Twitter application: iPhone – default Twitter app.
Started tweeting: sometime around the Lennay Kekua fiasco I think. I’m 80% sure about that.

@DoctahDean, winner of the Sick Burns Region
Hometown: One of Baltimore’s ruralest suburbs
Current City: Baltimore
Preferred Smartphone/Twitter application: iPhone Twitter app
Started tweeting: May 2012

@SupermanTDJesus, winner of the Hubris/#NDFBIsDeterminedToKillMe Region
Hometown: Lubbock, Texas
Current City: Weston, FL
Preferred Smartphone/Twitter application: Twitter for iOS
Started tweeting: in 2011

At what point in the season did you write your tweet?

BGI: It was during the UMass game. I’d been wanting to do something with the Victory March for quite some time, and it came to me like a blessing from Heaven.

CBI: That specific tweet was sent the day of the Georgia Tech game, although it had origins the night after the Virginia game when we were all scrambling to make Kizer puns for the first time. (I included some earlier versions along the same lines)

DD: SC gameday

STDJ: As noted in the bracket, the tweet was during the horrid game against Boston College. It was the game that made me flat out the angriest all year.

Where were you, and what were the circumstances/feelings surrounding your tweet?

BGI: Everyone was touting it an “easy game” and I honestly would worry if my office put together a pickup team and played Notre Dame. I can’t remember the exact circumstances, except Notre Dame, Notre Damed.

CBI: This was definitely a collaborative effort, because the Kaiser Wilhelm (last German emperor & King of Prussia) jokes were out there, I just happened to be able to photoshop Deshone’s head on his body and it got some attention. An earlier version of Deshone as Wilhelm was featured on Mediumhappy.com and Barstool Sports. It even got re-tweeted by Joe Schmidt and Deshone Kizer. That all happened early in the week following the dramatic Virginia win. So the day of the Georgia Tech game, I was at Cedar Point with my family. I was standing in line for a roller coaster, and I got a tweet from @okerland asking if I could photoshop Will Fuller in there too. I’ve got this app called Enlight on my phone which has a photo mixer feature. I ran it through there and sent it back to him. Easy peezy lemon squeezy.

DD: My feelings were that I don’t like Southern Cal or wife-killing fiends.

STDJ: I was sitting on my couch watching the curse of the green jersey run afoul on the Irish and was getting sick of Kizer turning the ball over. One rage (Kizer) led to another (turnovers) in my head and the first this I though of was an asshole baker in the streets of Boston shouting “GET YAH FREE TURNOVAHS HEAH! F NOTAH DAME!”

What would this #HLSRecapMadness victory mean to you?

BGI: The only thing that would mean more would be never hearing a Manti Teo joke ever again.

CBI: It would mean that I’m on Twitter too much (according to my wife).

DD: Pretty sure I won’t stay single much longer if I win this sucker.

STDJ: It would mean I am a better tweeter than Mike Brey is a basketball coach? No, but seriously: It would mean all the snark was worth it.

Katie Nolan

Who helped you along the way to Twitter greatness?

BGI: You are my biggest supporter, Jude. [Ed. note: It’s cause you’re funny!] When I miss football season I read old HLS recaps and they still crack me up in my cube. And what are you supposed to say to that? “Oh sorry, just laughing at a joke from when ND played Stanford in 2013?”

CBI: This tweet had input from @miamivice95 and @irishroo12, as well as @okerland for the idea to include Will Fuller.

DD: Shoutout to my Twitter pal Katie Nolan, without whom I would have lost in round one by a single vote.

STDJ: I would like to give a shout out to my first Twitter role model, @TheSubwayDomer. I can’t say enough about what his influence did for me in my internetting and overall comedy careers.

How does Twitter enhance your gameday experience (or does it)?

BGI: Because I married someone who couldn’t care less about sports in general, my family who does care is far away from me, and going to a sports bar is out of the question because I live in SEC Country, Twitter is my lifeline during football season. I don’t know how I ever survived without it!

CBI: It keeps me laughing when the breaks are beating the boys. I try not to take it too seriously when teenagers are losing a game I didn’t play, and for a school I didn’t attend.

DD: College Football Saturday Twitter is the best Twitter.

STDJ: It allows me to shout at people without getting yelled at or in trouble. And it allows me to put some of my best-timed witticisms out as quickly as they come to me. It’s like writing down new material and storing it for later, only everyone gets to judge it in real time!

Growing up, when did you first realize you wanted to be #HLSRecapMadness Champion?

BGI: I can’t remember a time I didn’t want to be #HLSRecapMadness Champion. I think that’s what I said I wanted to be when I grew up at Kindergarten graduation.

CBI: I’ve always been a champion, I don’t understand the question.

Notre Dame Mike Brey, left, and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski chat. (AP Photo/Joe Raymond)

DD: When I wasn’t selected in the NFL draft.

STDJ: I would say it first hit me as a dream when I was…how old was I yesterday? That age. Man, growing up is hard.

Where do you find your inspiration?

BGI: @PDXIrish is the funniest person on twitter. I fan girl on her hard. I told her when my tweet was up against hers in a previous round that I felt like Coach Brey playing Coach K.

CBI: Star Wars, my son Lil CBus & nerd culture.

DD: Like Tolstoy, I like to write in the village square in Moscow. The faces inspire me.

STDJ: In the depths of my pained and tormented ND fan soul. The despair can be pretty enlightening if you embrace it 🙂

Alison Brie

Aside from the remaining finalists, who would you consider your Twitter nemesis?

BGI: I recently got a tweet from a Tennessee fan I never met, telling me to get back to the kitchen.

CBI: People that tweet at recruits.

DD: Alison Brie seems to be giving me the cold shoulder.

STDJ: Oh fun, time to start Twitter beef! Honestly I’m not sure, but I’ll gladly pick someone blindly! From this day forward, @1stdownmoses will be my Twitter nemesis! Go and follow him and witness our epic 140-character cat fights!

Where do you go from here? Will you turn professional?

BGI: I am thinking we all need a reality show, perhaps “A Season With #NDTwitter.”

CBI: I’m going to finish this Long Island Iced Tea, and put some more sunscreen on. Beyond that, who knows… I’m on vacation.

DD: I went professional in something other than sports tweeting.

STDJ: Bitch, I AM a professional.

Anything else?

BGI: I invited Brian Kelly to my wedding. He couldn’t make it, but did RSVP rather quickly.

CBI: My wife hates Twitter and especially hates that I’ve typed this whole response on my phone at the pool.

DD: Do you think Alison Brie will read this?

STDJ: EVERYTHING ELSE, OMG LEMME TELL YOU ABOUT THIS SHOE DEAL I SAW AT DSW. No, I think we’re good.

NATIONAL SEMI-FINAL #1

Southern Cal fans hold up two fingers during their fight song because that's how many people OJ killed

— Brian Dean (@DoctahDean) October 17, 2015

Kizer should open a bakery in Boston. He's already got the whole "Kizer Rolls" name going, and now he's giving away free turnovers

— HLS_SupermanTDJesus (@SupermanTDJesus) November 22, 2015

Which tweet advances?

NATIONAL SEMI-FINAL #2

What though the odds be great or small, we're gonna need some hard alcohol.

— bridget (@bridgetgoirish) September 26, 2015

Kizer…Will…Helm -cc @okerland pic.twitter.com/yl1IqGtVOH

— Boba Bettis (@CBusIrish) September 19, 2015