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, especially if your hosts just had their hearts ripped out of them one final time.

Even that episode didn’t end as planned. In the “post-credit” picks, Eddie delivered breaking news that delivered the final, and fitting, kick to the sports-junk we needed to say goodbye.

Jokes aside, this is a bittersweet end for me, personally. My HLS tenure has lasted just a bit longer than my relationship with my wife and, in an all-time upset, didn’t end it. Truth be told, she’s the one to thank for how long this run went. All those times I’ve tried to quit or take a reduced role here–yeah, she’s the one that gave me the “go get ’em” to keep me coming back.

This time around, she couldn’t talk me out of it. Frankly, this time around, I’m not sure she tried too hard either!

It’s definitely time to say goodbye and saying goodbye to something that’s taken up over a quarter of your life is a real weird thing, especially when you still enjoy doing it. However, what I quickly began to enjoy far less was worrying about my kids getting to sleep so I could run down and podcast/stream, how I could fit my Extra Life efforts into football season, what I would need to do to catch up on football when my kids had weekend events/birthday parties, trying to find the time to date my own wife during football season, how I balance everything with my job, etc.

Couple all that with the fact that, in order to be truly successful in this racket, you have to work your ass off to optimize SEO, find advertising partners, market the hell out of your stuff, and have a solid social media plan. That game has absolutely passed me by. When you realize the game has passed you by, it’s time to hang ’em up.

I still love writing and creating content. I’m really excited to see what I can do with my Patreon (which only costs a measly $1/month to sign up for) now that the constraints of a football schedule or super-focused content are gone. I’m also excited to see the heights that I can take Gamin’ 4 Aven with a more sustainable streaming schedule and focus to keep building my Twitch community and hitting my $20K fundraising goal this year.

I love the community that we’ve built. I want to keep building it through these efforts. That’s why the HLS Discord isn’t going anywhere. In fact, my dream is to have all my community efforts combine into one happy family. I’ve spent way too long and tried far too hard to separate all my various efforts. That won’t be happening any more because the truth of the matter is that the HLS community is the foundation that I’ve built both my Patreon and Extra Life efforts on.

As long as I can pay the bills, this site will stay up to serve as an archive of all our work as it’s quite the time capsule of the Weis and BK eras. I’m looking forward to other sites and podcasts bringing in the content for the Freeman era and I’m beyond excited to consume it as just a fan.

I want to thank MQ and Biscuit for reaching out back in what seems another lifetime ago to write for HLS. And when MQ stepped down, I want to thank Biscuit for trusting me with the reigns of the thing that he and MQ built.

I want to thank everyone that contributed to HLS in any way, shape or form–even Poot. We got to develop our own unique style and brand and went through countless iterations of what we wanted HLS to be and grow into. Every single person that came through here turned HLS into it’s final form that we say goodbye to today and I can’t thank y’all enough.

I want to thank my family, especially my wonderful wife for encouraging me on this whole journey. I said it before, but everyone owes Mrs. Tex all the thanks in the world. She is my rock and helped me push forward when I thought I was done on more than one occasion. I’ve had family members listen to this show and then somehow spread the word to people. Even my kids were proud of what I did despite having very little idea of what I actually did when they were asleep–probably for the best, honestly.

And, of course, I want to thank each and every person that read, watched, or listened to anything that we did here. Without you, we’re screaming into the void. When NDN decided to stop linking us, it could’ve (and probably should’ve) killed us right then and there. Instead, we doubled-down and focused on you, the Loyal Readers. It was the best decision we ever made and I’m walking away from HLS more proud than I was when we had over one million pageviews. We got to finish this thing out on our own terms because of you.

It’s been an amazing ride, but I’m ready to get off. I can’t wait to have drinks with y’all at tailgates in the future–even the awful drinks that your donations to charity provide.

See you, Space Cowboy…

The post Epilogue appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

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 possible.

Enjoy our final show!

Podcast

The post HLS Podcast Finale appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

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 NCAA ’14 themselves) so I figured it was worth a season to experiment.

The next thing I knew, the sim created a string of running inside jokes and we had people that legitimately made the sim appointment live viewing. Even though there were days I came to the stream completely exhausted and/or fighting a severe bout of depression, the sim always kicked me out of it. Something unbelievably stupid and hilarious would happen without fail–multiple times.

Whether you watched live, on demand, or listened to the podcast, I can’t thank you enough for making this a thing. The joy and laughter you heard was always geniune…as was my utter disgust when virtual Notre Dame lost.

The Fiesta Bowl sim was a perfect send off. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I hope you enjoy the final entry as well.

Five Wide. DRINK!

Podcast

Twitch VoD

In HLS tradition, yep, there was a technical issue. The music didn’t come through at all and the first drop didn’t as well. OOPS!

The post The Final Fiesta: Notre Dame vs Oklahoma State NCAA ’14 Sim appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

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 tried!

But like Notre Dame getting a good draw with Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl, it’d be silly for us to lose a bunch now. So come enjoy your last large batch of winners!

#HAILGAMBLOR

Podcast

The post Penultimate Picks Pod appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

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 during the show as pictured below:

#HAILGAMBLOR

Podcast

The post 2021 Bowl Picks: Week 2 appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

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 because you will hear Eddie and I try to figure out some confusing reference material only to find out…well, you will have to listen for yourself.

#HAILGAMBLOR

Podcast

The post 2021 Bowl Picks: Week 1 appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

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: they were real bad!

#HAILGAMBLOR

Podcast

The post Army/Navy & 2021 Futures Reviews appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

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 though we won’t be here to cover it in the uh…unique…way that we do. It’s great to see the Irish face turn and we are ready for it to start with a victory in 2022.

Podcast

The post Freeman Fiesta appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

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 Dame won’t! It’s important!

SEC

They could have two teams in the playoffs if Alabama pulls of the upset against Georgia. Just another show of strength from this powerhouse conference including:

• Georgia 56 – Charleston Southern 7
• Alabama 48 – Mercer 14

Honorable mention to Alabama’s 59-3 victory over New Mexico State as well. This is the kind of power you expect a legitimate two-loss playoff contender to have.

Big 12

Oklahoma State has already jumped Notre Dame and conference loving pundits would love for the committee to have a champion hop over Notre Dame as well. It’s easy to see with these victories:

• Baylor 66 – Texas Southern 7
• Oklahoma State 23 – Missouri State 16 (lol)

I, for one, am shocked Oklahoma and Texas are leaving a conference scheduling this kind of powerhouse out-of-conference on the regular.

*looks at above section*

Ah, so nothing has changed.

Big Ten

Kudos to you, Big Ten. No jokes here as you refuse to let your teams schedule FCS opponents. Well done.

Allow us to celebrate the extensive lists of all of Iowa’s ranked victories as that is something continuously held against the Irish: <null>

And of course, the massive amount of wins for Michigan: Ohio State…who was beaten by Oregon who was beaten by Stanford. In short, Michigan beat Stanford.

At least when these teams lost, it wasn’t to a team that went undefeated later on!

American

A group of 5 in the playoff?! It’s more likely than you think!

Yes, Cincy has beaten us, and remained undefeated to boot! But let’s not forget these great wins that they and Houston put together:

• Cincinnati 42 – Murray State 7
• Houston 45 – Grambling 0

Best of luck, conference gladiators! Thank you, and your conferences for showing us the light of a 13th data point, that isn’t an absolute money grab. If only Notre Dame was as brave and put together such incredible resumes as scheduling nine power five teams simply isn’t enough!

The post HLS Proudly Presents: The 13th Data Point appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

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. Sure, it helps, but when something truly gut-wrenching happens in college football (e.g. Nebraska becoming the first team in history to lose nine games by a single possession), you not only stop and laugh, but take the effort to tune in to the train wreck.

Notre Dame consistently finds themselves cast in a recurring role. Since their breakthrough 4-8 performance in 2016, they’ve been nothing but boring and consistently good for the nationwide audience. They only tuned in to the big games in hopes of an Irish collapse and too often, we obliged, returning to the periphery until the next big national moment.

Then, with Notre Dame prepping for their next cameo, on the verge of potentially snagging another playoff appearance, Brian Kelly shoved the Irish into center stage for all the wrong reasons. There was much laughter–save for LSU fans furiously deleting every BK joke and “he killed a kid” tweet from their feeds. The Irish were pantsed in the same fashion as Oklahoma. Blue-bloods don’t have their full ass exposed in this manner, much less two in the same coaching cycle (or seven day stretch for that matter).

My response was pure shock. I wasn’t mad. I wasn’t sad. In fact, I was more at least convincing myself that I was at peace in our instant reaction emergency pod. Not more than 24 hours later, the college football playoff committee mentioned that not having a head coach could be used against any team.

Switch immediately flipped.

In blogging college football, you often find yourself defending assholes. College football head coaches are, by in large, overpaid sociopathic assholes with gigantic egos. The thing is, they are your asshole. As long as they trip over the low bar the rest of college football has placed in front of them, and so long as they bring the wins, you will defend your asshole. Fail to win and you make sure the natives are restless by reminding them how much an asshole he is.

I no longer have to defend the asshole that is Brian Kelly.

I could forgive the attempted Irish goodbye to his team. I could forgive him deciding to immediately walking that decision back and saying goodbye for under four minutes. I could understand leaving a job suddenly for a big ‘ol bag of cash and refusing to give your current employer a chance to match. I could even form the logic that, while Kelly certainly didn’t do anything to help or prevent some truly awful situations that happened under his watch, they were bigger signs of complete failure across the entire university and not just the guy hired to win football games.

The evidence of BK as a supreme asshole was, is, and forever will be massive. After 2016, BK 2.0 made it easier to forget because the wins happened. The players were bought in to what Notre Dame stood for more than ever. While they were great on the field, they’ve been great humans off of it as well. Scandals ceased. Things were fine.

Then Brian Kelly reminded us that you can polish a human turd, but they will still remain a human turd.

I don’t care about what the “real reason” was for BK leaving. Hated ND’s restrictions and had enough? Fine. Hated the Gug? Whatever. Wanted the big ‘ol bag of money? Sure. Got tired of working for Jack Swarbrick? I’ve hated bosses too.

However, BK couldn’t turn off the ego. He was still the hero of this story, proclaiming his “limitless love” to his players:

I’m not sure what reaction he thought he’d receive. He was greeted and bid farewell with nothing but silence. His players immediately went to Twitter focusing on Marcus Freeman as his replacement and getting Tommy Rees a raise. Once the news broke, it was greeted with jubilation and notes that the family was intact as assistant after assistant confirmed they weren’t going anywhere.

He left on the verge of another playoff berth. The players weren’t done. His staff wasn’t done. He was. A son of a politician should manage to read the room better than this.

We couldn’t have picked a better season to call it quits at HLS. I certainly didn’t expect it to come at the same time the BK-era ended, but I’ll take it, especially since I’m convinced this team will come out with more fire and passion no matter what postseason game they find themselves selected to play on Sunday. It’s a hell of a way to go out and pass the baton on to everyone else.

After all, Marcus Freeman is younger than I am. I feel like the blogger shouldn’t be younger than the head coach unless I’m making my living doing this. Plus, at this very moment, we have no asshole evidence against him.

If we leave this space, and Notre Dame, without having to defend an asshole, I couldn’t ask for a better ending.

The post We’re Free, Man appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.