I'll never forget attending the 2005 football banquet. I had just witnessed a total transformation in Notre Dame football: a near upset of USC, a BCS birth, and confidence from the entire team bursting through that 2006 was going to be a title run. It was quite a far cry from the team I had started working with under Ty to say the least. To add to my excitement, the guest speaker was none other than Lou Holtz. Lou preformed just as you would expect, fantastic, excited about ND football and ...
Friday Roundup: The “Let’s Just Ban Everything” Edition
Guess it's over, y'all, college football should be banned. I'm not even sure exactly where to start on the absurdity of this debate. Maybe it's because the arguments support of college football somehow devolved into calling upon patriotism ("college football is the Statue of Liberty") and using ad hominem attacks ("[this argument] is being argued by well-intentioned people who don't clearly understand the sport"). Maybe it's because the arguments for the banning were built entirely of ...
Friday Roundup: The “Cinco de Mayo” Edition
For those that know me rather well know that I am definitely true Texan, that is to say, Mexican. My mom's side of my family was in Texas while it was still Mexico and my oldest living relative on that side simply cannot remember a single soul not born on Texan soil. We didn't cross the border, it crossed us. For those that knew me very well during my time on Notre Dame's campus, know that this weekend will mark the anniversary of one of my all-time dumbest decisions ever: consuming an ...
Inside the Film Room: Blue/Gold Rushing
Although many eyes and much of the focus at the Blue/Gold game was fixed upon three QBs, our stable of running backs just about stole the show when they weren't fumbling the ball. In the first half, there were only two more passes (38) than runs (36). Granted, not all of these rushes were from the backfield, so taking away the QB runs, scrambles, Toma's reverse, and a kneel down, the backfield gained 172 yards on 21 carries in the first half. For this session of the Film Room, we will ...
Friday Roundup: The “Yes, It’s Really Back” Edition
While we here at HLS have been busy adding new staff and features, we decided to resurrect an old favorite, the Friday Roundup. Long-time readers know the drill, but for those unaware, every week I will present the big news around college football and suggest a good beer for you to partake in. This season, I'll be adding a bit of my own flair as I will highlight some games around college football that you should keep an eye on. Basically, this will end up being like the Pre-Snap Read piece ...
Inside the Film Room
Welcome to yet another new HLS staple. In this series, I will put aside the stats and take an in depth look at the game film. More often than not, I will be taking a look back at most recent game and highlight the plays that stand out to me--frustrating and spectacular alike. I hope you enjoyed the Blue/Gold game because, for the foreseeable future, this series will be heavy on that film until September. For this week though, I picked out two Irish TDs that stood out to me this past ...
Blue/Gold: The Drinking Game
As I thought about what to write about for this year's version of the Blue/Gold game, I wondered what exactly I should focus on. The QB Battle? The D-Line situation? Do we actually have enough WRs to field two teams? Do we have enough DBs to cover them? With these burning questions in running through my head, I saw this year's version of the scoring rules for the spring game and it hit me. There will only be one thing that this game will have in common with any game in the upcoming season: ...
Lynch to Leave ND
The seemingly never-ending saga of Aaron Lynch took yet another turn this morning. Just in case you have lost track, Aaron Lynch has: Committed to ND, committed to FSU, re-committed to ND, played an awesome freshmen season, rumors of homesickness, got into a fight with Tate Nichols during practice, left ND to deal with a family matter, returned to ND on Monday, and then this: #NotreDame DE Aaron Lynch has left the football team and will transfer to another school following the spring ...
Introducing: The Ref
From time to time, HLS will have a guest post from a contributor whom we will dub "The Ref". Think of it as the Mike Pereira of HLS. Without further ado, I give you our first offering from "The Ref": Greetings to my friends, fellow Blue and Gold fanatics, and to the gracious purveyors of the HLS universe! I am “The Ref†and the final installment of the exhaustingly underwhelming nation-wide search for new HLS blogging talent. You know a talent search is at its absolute last strings ...
The BCS: Finding New Ways to Butcher Common Sense
I don't mean to steal the spotlight from the effort the Lady Irish put forth last night, but the latest edition of BCS stupidity just can't go untouched today. In this moment of derp, the BCS announced some of the playoff options that they were looking at, one of which includes a fun little twist with the Rose Bowl: In the [Rose Bowl] plan, the four highest-ranked teams at the end of the regular season would meet in semifinals unless the Big Ten or Pac-12 champion, or both, were among the ...