Ryan Ritter

See, it's funny because it's true. Credit: Angelica Ketcham & Joshua Cepeda

What Is Going on HERE?!

August 13, 2020 by Ryan Ritter

When I decided to devote time to writing about Notre Dame football, I never imaged that I'd write a post to cancel a season. I never imaged that, after a long layoff of no posting, my return would involve taking ND's president to task. I certainly didn't imagine that there would be two non-football posts as the bread to this shit sandwich. But HERE we are. Spending any time around social media this week has revealed some rather disturbing stories as to just how not-great the COVID response ...

Notre Dame, It’s Time to Lead: Cancel the Season

August 8, 2020 by Ryan Ritter

I hope everyone enjoyed the brief respite of our pandemic reality in Friday's post. The fun's over. The headline above isn't clickbait. It's my 100% God's-honest belief. I'm not looking to play the anti-Clay Travis for traffic (if we actually cared about pageviews in this climate, we would've posted more). It's time to cease beating around the bush or having this site remain silent while we make fleeting quips on Twitter about the season's impending doom. Yes, I've called out Fr. Jenkins ...

Full ACC Schedule via our conference with benefits.

Blind Optimism: Path to ACC Title Paved

August 7, 2020 by Ryan Ritter

While a perusal of the HLS Twitter feed (and my own for that matter), paints a rather bleak picture in regards to the confidence that the 2020 college football season will even happen. However, I decided that, on the heels of our conference with benefits releasing the 2020 ACC football schedule, I decided to save the doom and gloom for another post. So, in this post, and perhaps slightly podcast-drunk from the triumphant return of the Shutdown Fullcast, I'm going to pretend that the 2020 ...

Masks Are Back, Plus New Designs Benefiting Charity!

June 18, 2020 by Ryan Ritter

Some time ago, our merch vendor, TeePublic, added masks to all of our designs. Unfortunately, I became aware of this too late and their mask supply sold out. Thankfully, they are back in stock, which gives me a great excuse to debut two new designs that will see 100% of their proceeds go to charity. First we have "Go Irish, Beat COVID" which is fairly self explanatory, no? All proceeds will benefit my Extra Life campaign, benefiting the Children's Hospital Foundation of Oklahoma City. I do ...

A wonderful set of four slate coasters diagramming famous Notre Dame football plays from Playbook Products.

Notre Dame Father’s Day Gift Giveaway

June 3, 2020 by Ryan Ritter

It's safe to say that there are just a few things going on in the world right now. So, please forgive me as I get right to the point in lieu of an incredibly awkward intro and just get straight to the point. Our friends over at Playbook Products, who put up a set of their slate coasters as part of the HLS Pick 'Em grand prize this past year, are wanting to do a Father's Day giveaway. Up for grabs are two different prizes: a set of the slate coasters pictured above, and a coffee mug similar to ...

Fr. John Jenkins address the class of 2018 image via YouTube

Questionable Morality

May 27, 2020 by Ryan Ritter

Yesterday, Father John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, penned an article through the New York Times opinion page. You might have recognized it under its original title "Science Alone Could Not Tell Us Whether to Reopen Notre Dame" (which didn't even survive twelve hours). The article houses not just Notre Dame's plan for trying to safely reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the logic, or more specifically, the cited philosophical musings around the morality of education during said ...

Original image via @NDFootball

Podcast & Video: Notre Dame Virtual Blue-Gold Game 2020

April 19, 2020 by Ryan Ritter

Just because the actual 2020 Notre Dame Blue-Gold game was cancelled doesn't mean we still can't enjoy spring football virtually. Yes, that means Shane and I did what we do best: dusted off the XBox, fired up NCAA '14 and simmed ourselves a glorified practice for all to enjoy. However, knowing that this would be the only thing even close to a live football telecast and Notre Dame football experience this spring, we decided to go the extra mile. We had a Zoom chat up in the brackground to ...

The Reesus Doubleheader Created by Brendan (@verypiratey) of One Foot Down

Saturday Now a Tommy Rees Doubleheader Presented by HLS and One Foot Down

April 17, 2020 by Ryan Ritter

Loyal Readers, I'm happy to announce that our Blue-Gold Sim won't be the only Notre Dame football that you can take in this Saturday to chase away your quarantine blues. One Foot Down has been doing some Notre Dame re-watches the past few weeks and it will continue with Tommy Rees heading into my backyard in 2013 in the all-white Shamrock Series uniform glory at 2 PM ET over at YouTube. So once we wrap up, be sure to head over there to keep your Notre Dame football buzz (and potentially your ...

Original image via @NDFootball

Join Us for the Virtual Blue-Gold Game @ 12:30 PM EDT Saturday, April 18

April 15, 2020 by Ryan Ritter

As most of us are now in some form of COVID-19 quarantine, I must say the days are absolutely blending together. To make matters worse, the past three weeks I've had added focus on additional charity work, including #HLSMadness for Feeding America and Extra Life United (both of which raised over $2,000). With that, I totally forgot the original date of the now cancelled Blue-Gold game was supposed to take place this Saturday at 12:30 PM EDT. Loyal Readers and Viewers, have no fear, I did ...

HLS Sim Madness: #HAILGAMBLOR

March 23, 2020 by Ryan Ritter

Tomorrow, HLS will kick of a glorious virtual competition, featuring 68 of the best virtual football teams NCAA '14 has to offer. Today, we introduce something to help fill another void created by a lack of sports: degenerate gambling. Now, we aren't setting up an HLS bookie system. This is all virtual currency. We've joked about "Space Bucks" on the HLS pod and, well, now we've made it a reality. Last season, I activated a loyalty program within Streamlabs and, if you've watched any HLS ...