Ryan Ritter

I want to watch Cowboy Beebop now...oh hey, I have the time!

Epilogue

January 3, 2022 by Ryan Ritter

I've had multiple drafts and versions of this post permeating my brain for months. Ever since I announced the end of HLS, I've wondered how I would put a bow on my decade-plus long involvement in this site. Like most things HLS, the end didn't go as planned. I've already been called out on our Discord for wrapping up the podcast earlier than announced. It turns out when Notre Dame has a historical collapse, one last episode after recapping that mess doesn't make a whole lot of sense, ...

HLS Podcast Finale

January 2, 2022 by Ryan Ritter

Well, I thought about stretching this thing out until after the national title game, but considering how the Fiesta Bowl ended, it seemed like this would be a more fitting end to HLS. Shane & I hold one last therapy session in talking about what went wrong during the Fiesta Bowl and what hopes we have for the future. Be sure to stay around post-credits for Eddie and I to pick the national championship and send off the HLS podcast in quite literally the most fitting way ...

What, your copy of NCAA '14 looks different?

The Final Fiesta: Notre Dame vs Oklahoma State NCAA ’14 Sim

December 31, 2021 by Ryan Ritter

The HLS Sim was born from my desire to do something different. In the vast sea of Notre Dame podcasts, I wanted to do more than stand out. I wanted to do something fun but also avoid our show being seen as a parroting of more popular Irish podcasts. So I sent a message with a wild idea to Shane: let's go on Twitch and stream a CPU vs CPU matchup of the week's Notre Dame game using a decade-plus old video game as our "preview". To my knowledge, no one was doing this (at best, they were playing ...

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Penultimate Picks Pod

December 30, 2021 by Ryan Ritter

After this episode, there will be only one more game to pick with Eddie: the 2021 National Championship. It's hard to believe this crazy picks journey is coming to an end--even crazier, we are still doing a damn good job. Despite opt-outs and COVID cancellations, Eddie and I went 7-2 last week, bringing our bowl totals to 13-10 and 12-11 as I keep my one game edge. Overall, we are 112-80-4. Yes, this means that we've hit the point in which we couldn't even screw up going over .500 if we ...

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2021 Bowl Picks: Week 2

December 24, 2021 by Ryan Ritter

The only thing rougher than week one of bowl picks was whatever in the hell happened to me and my family before recording this show. There...was a lot. However, the show must go on despite my lack of research. With that in mind I came up with some, uh, "creative" methods to pick these games. I'm particularly proud of what I came up with for the multiple bowl games in baseball stadiums, personally. Oh, and we have some fun with bowl sponsors too, including me trying to chat with a bot ...

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2021 Bowl Picks: Week 1

December 16, 2021 by Ryan Ritter

It's the most wonderful time of the year: bowl season. After a ridiculously incredible regular season, Eddie and I are ready to ruin it all by throwing darts at bowl season. As we won't be recording until next Thursday, we have 14 bowl games to pick. More importantly, Eddie also has a list of bowl gifts ready to go. Even more importantly, we visit some of the websites to figure out what some of this stuff is and do we ever make some discoveries. Oh, and hang on past the closing song ...

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Army/Navy & 2021 Futures Reviews

December 9, 2021 by Ryan Ritter

Yeah, yeah, Eddie won the $200 Extra Life bet. I will pay up once I finish the FFXIV: Endwalker main story/marathon on Friday (I hope!). Make sure to join that on my personal twitch channel. Thankfully, I realized that I run this show. I changed some rules. Gotta keep this interesting. After all, this isn't about the money now. It's about walking off this thing with a W. After taking some liberties with the Army/Navy pick, I go over this year's tiebreaker: our 2021 futures. Spoiler alert: ...

Freeman Fiesta

December 6, 2021 by Ryan Ritter

College football's playoff and NY6 Selection Sunday came and went mostly as expected. Notre Dame has landed in the Fiesta Bowl and will face Oklahoma State. Shane and I do discuss our initial thoughts on this game, which has never happened before; however, the beginning of the podcast focuses on the wonder that is Marcus Freeman. Shane gives his thoughts on the hire for the first time on the digital airwaves. We are both very excited for the beginning of a new era for Notre Dame, even ...

Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com

HLS Proudly Presents: The 13th Data Point

December 3, 2021 by Ryan Ritter

Loyal Readers, today kicks off an all-important and totally-not-absolutely-overrated weekend of football: conference championships. It's the all important 13th data point. National pundits have blasted Notre Dame for failing to have one. With that in mind, I thought it was important that we highlight, not just this weekend's data point, but the other important data point that got these teams to this all important moment. After all, these teams have the chance to lose another game that Notre ...

We’re Free, Man

December 2, 2021 by Ryan Ritter

You never want your college football team to wind up as the main character of the sport. If you think that the main character of college football is the most dominant team or the champion, you haven't been paying attention. The life-blood of college football is pettiness and schadenfreude. There is no other sport in the world that derives more joy from the pain of others than this silly, stupid, and wonderful sport. Further, the main character doesn't need to be a hated rival for said joy. ...