Sports Illustrated has been an absolute staple of sports media since even before I took my first breath in this world. My parents purchased and SI Kids subscription. I had an SI subscription until I had had kids myself and ran out of time to read it like I once did. Despite that, SI never lost it’s spot in my heart.

Then, on Thursday, news broke that 50% of all SI staff would find themselves laid off. Not only that, but this layoff was delayed because paperwork wasn’t quite final. All the SI staff took a Hail Mary attempt to #SaveSI via petition, but they still found themselves Thanos’d at the end of the day.

Why did this happen? Simply put, Sports Illustrated was bought out. That company has a wing called “The Maven” which has been reaching out to bloggers and writers with the following offer:

Having been in this space for some time, let me translate the above for you. Sports Illustrated’s parent company sold out. The new parent company has something similar to a blogger wing and have staffed that with independent contractors that are paid less than the SI staff is today. So they cut the expensive staff, and suckered in the new folks at a lower pay-grade to save a few bucks and boost their bottom line.

TL;DR: the new parent company is taking this Maven bullshit, and trying to use the value of the Sports Illustrated brand to build it into a more profitable entity that is cheaper to run.

This is particularly head-scratching because the Meredith Company, the parent of Sports Illustrated, owns the Fansided network, an SBNation-like content farm consisting of a flagship site and individual team blog sites that could absolutely serve this purpose. The only different between Maven and FanSided is that Maven looks to have slightly more recognizable names from beats and recruiting services.

Full disclosure: I used to write for the Fansided mothership. A high school buddy of mine said they were looking for someone to write about the WWE (pro wrestling) and I took up the call. I ended up writing for Jack Crosby who has appeared on our podcast multiple times. I enjoyed it, but ultimately, it was too much work along with HLS, my day job, and starting a new family. So I tapped out.

I got paid. It was decent. There’s no sour grapes.

Even further disclosure, FanSided nearly acquired HLS a few years ago. It didn’t work out, but it was an offer that was absolutely considered until hitting a couple show-stoppers in negotiations. Again, no hard feelings there. Everything was 100% amicable.

I say all of this, because The Maven is trying to be some kind of “higher tier” content farm. Full stop. That’s what FanSided was. I fully recognized it before I hoped on board.

So when I saw a certain well-known ND premium site beat writer made the jump to Maven to cover the Irish, I checked it out. Immediately after, I wondered what in the hell kind of value it brought to the SI brand over the FansSided sites. I saw little difference.

And that’s what Sports Illustrated is now reduced to by their new overlords: a potential referral farm for cheaper labor. Lost now is any semblance of caring about actual journalism. They are a line item on a spreadsheet.

I thought about going through every laid off writers work and highlighting stuff that they wrote. However, I’m not doing it. I can’t ask you to click a link and feed ad impressions for a parent company that only cares about funneling SI traffic into their pet profit project. Not only that, I feel weird asking you to click on work created by people that will no longer get compensated for their efforts.

I’m honestly not even sure how to fully handle this situation. Friend of HLS and multiple-time guest of the podcast, Jess Smetana, still holds a job at SI. I certainly hope you continue to support her work, like this piece on ND’s leprechauns, even if it still lines the pockets of shitty overlords. There are still people around SI like Jess that have loads of talent that should be supported over the click-farm that is whatever the hell the Maven is.

At the end of the day, this entire situation has me thinking about the sports media landscape as a whole and the role that blogs like HLS have played in it.

There have absolutely been periods of time in which HLS has “played reporter” for lack of a better term. It’s not that we couldn’t do it, but when we did, that voice was one of many voices saying the same damn thing. It’s part of why we took a step back here and tried to get back to the “blog roots” of the site. For us, it’s just a lot more fun to be fans, react like fans, and, quite frankly, do sillier, off-the-wall things to provide a completely different kind of coverage to the team you love.

I fear that too many corporate overlords see hobbyist and part-timers like us and think “hey, that’s a cheap source of labor!” and can provide content that people will find “good enough” to click on and make some profit. No hate to the people that take this challenge on, absolutely get yours if you can. I know damn well it’s a grind and if you profit off the hustle, more power to you.

But from where I sit, blogs play best when we can give an alternative voice. We are a complementary part of the journalism ecosystem, not the primary cog. The more that we are shoved into the spotlight, the worse it is for everyone.

Pieces like the Friday Roundup exist because I can highlight a bit of everything: the beat, hard-hitting journalism, and the blogs.

But the Maven is actively trying to cut one of the legs off that stool. It’s an absolute shame. The entire business plan is foolish and short-sighted. It will effectively kill what SI has been for decades.

I can’t support such a maneuver. Apologies to anyone employed by that outlet, but I will never click or link to your work. I refuse to support a predatory practice that is looking to max/min their spreadsheets and pretend that people’s livelihoods are like a piece of virtual video game gear to be discarded at the first sign of sup-optimal growth.

Further, I refuse to link anything this week in the Roundup. While I have a feeling that I’m preaching to the choir, pieces like the Roundup and sites like HLS don’t exist without the professionals doing their thing. I know my place in this sports media circle of life and I’m not going to pretend that I can supersede it.

This is a glimpse of the sports media landscape that you could be living in if you don’t see the value of supporting publications busting their asses 24/7 instead of chumps like me doing this for the fun of it.

Support your local beat. Support the national beat. Pay for work that has value.

It doesn’t just support the people that are doing the sports media thing for a living, but it also helps sites like HLS.

There can be no alternative voice without a primary voice.

The post Friday Roundup: The Sports Illustrated Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

It turns out the fake band has a name, 300 Likes, which I discovered because their fake song, “Summertime Lover” released as a full-blown song last Friday.

I’ve been wanting to write about the most hated/loved commercial of this football season for some time now. However, I don’t want to talk about the band, the song, or the fact that the dude squatting in the lower-right corner doesn’t even bother moving his mouth. No, this Roundup is dedicated to my hero, my spirit animal, the clueless dad:

Clueless dad makes this commercial for me. Every. Damn. Time.

My kids are still incredibly young, but my oldest has already put me in some clueless dad situations. For instance, he will excitedly detail some random show I’ve never heard of, and I will desperately stumble around the conversation trying to remain interested, but more importantly, not called out on my bullshit that I don’t have a damn clue what he’s talking about.

Every parent ends up running into this at some level, which makes clueless dad the damn best. He’s put down his hard-earned American currency so his daughter be front-row for one of her favorite bands. He’s even wearing a freaking button featuring one of the guys to support his kid’s interests. In short, he’s ready to do everything he can to make sure this night ends up a favorite memory for his daughter.

But as soon as the show starts, disaster strikes. The band isn’t dancing, the screams turned into shocked silence, and clueless dad sees his poor daughter’s face flash a look of pure horror. So clueless dad does what any dad tries to do when shit 100% out of our control goes awry: attempts to fix it.

The success rate for all dads attempting to pull of this maneuver is 0.00%, rounded up. Clueless dad is no different. If the guys aren’t dancing, clearly it’s the job of the audience to get down, and by God, he’s going to make sure this party gets going and save the day.

Of course, he’s the only poor sap trying to salvage the disaster he’s walked into. Mere seconds after trying to get the dance party started, he’s greeted with the new horror that he’s made a fool of himself. The only saving grace is that his own kid is still too dumbstruck with disappointment to notice because, honestly, that’s the only opinion he cares about–to hell with everyone else.

The hard-earned American currency might as well have been lit on fire. The concert is an epic disaster. Regardless of what happens from here on out, the night is likely ruined for his kid, which is worse than the hit to the bank account.

But dammit, like fans of a certain football team that keeps breaking our hearts, we can’t help but to keep trying to salvage joy of a terrible situation. In a way, we’re all clueless dad.

You’re my hero, clueless dad. Never give up. Keep dancing.

The Roundup

Note: Some links require a subscription to the Athletic and are marked with ($). For 40% off your first year, please use our referral link.

Here’s an unexpected use of the new four-game redshirt rule. Houston’s star QB, D’Erik King, will sit out the rest of the season, along with senior WR, Keith Corbin. King’s father says it’s the first step of a transfer, but Houston’s official announcement has both King and Corbin stating they will remain in Houston.

NCAA says something dumb: part one million. Mark Emmert has called potential new image & likeness laws, aka allowing the Olympic model into college sports, an “existential threat”–which is a hell of a thing to say considering North Carolina literally tried to undermine the entire academic side of student-athlete and sexual abuse ran rampant at Penn State and Michigan State. But no, this is the bad thing. Got it.

Maybe don’t ask about internet rumors during a conference call. I mean sure, Gundy blew his stack a bit, but this was just a terrible idea.

Kinght’s Watch + Murder Smurfs. Coming in 2021 and 2023. Let’s. Get. Weird.

I think The Athletic owes us some #snacktalk royalties. This week, the CFB section of The Athletic was full of articles about the intersection of college football and food. My two favorites, a top 25 food ranking by Andy Staples ($) as well as a look on how the NCAA deregulation on food budget (hey they do so some good things on occasion!) has had a positive impact on programs and athletes ($).

Time for a daily dose of #sportsmath. The stop rate rankings ($) are back, which can be a fun read if you feel like you are feeling too confident about Notre Dame’s defense.

Look, Skycam wasn’t a failure. NBC wants to make sure you know that it’s sticking around and they will do better. Promise!

With Virginia coming into town, it’s a good time to remember Malik Zaire. After an injury that derailed his CFB career, Zaire is finding his stride over at CBS ($).

Opponent Watch

Remember the sad Virginia fan? Of course you do. Go catch up on what he’s up to.

How do you build a school like Virginia into a competitor? Well, hiring the right athletic director is a good start, especially one that knows her way around schools that know how to compete in football ($).

So Virginia has a bit of a streak going. Four weeks, four players named as ACC Players of the Week.

If you want a good primer on Virginia’s season so far, I would suggest this read. My two cents: sounds like a lot of ND teams that created constant heart attacks in every game, yet somehow put winning records together.

A Special Look at Michigan

It’s not just Notre Dame fans trying to dance on Skunkbear graves. The natives are starting to willingly dig them.

Any Michigan loss, brings out a good ‘ol Mike Valenti rant. His opening segment on Monday was art, calling them a regional program. He drove the dagger in even further on Wednesday wondering why in the world Michigan bothers to expect titles when they’ve never won them to begin with.

So who had “Urban Meyer has to address Michigan coaching rumors” on their bingo card? Yes, he actually had to say there is no way he’d come out of retirement to coach Michigan. How did this happen, oh just some beautiful degeneracy:

The post Friday Roundup: The Fake Boy Band Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Sometimes though, Notre Dame is the center of that universe. Notre Dame at Georgia is the lone CBS prime-time game this season. ESPN’s College Gameday is in town. It’s a top-ten battle with more playoff implications than anything this young season has seen.

Plus, let’s just be honest, there’s not a chance in hell I’m focused on anything else this week.

So the Roundup will focus solely on Notre Dame and Georgia, but don’t expect a normal batch of news links. Because when ND ends up in games like this, the takes start coming and they don’t stop coming, not just from the usual all stars, but damn near anyone.

That’s the downside to the Irish winning one of the “big ones” in recent memory. To be fair, I’m used to it, but somehow, before even the first month of the season has closed, we’ve veered off into a practical burial of Notre Dame. If you dropped an alien into Athens, they would wonder why this game was even being played, much less one that requires a stadium expansion and plans for a crowd outside the stadium to equal the one inside it.

It’s quite amazing to watch this going down at such a break-neck pace considering that just four games ago, Georgia was a double-digit favorite in a little game called the Sugar Bowl and found themselves down 20-7 at the half and ultimately lost 28-21. Not only did this happen after their players decided to talk shit via Twitter during the playoffs (after failing to beat Bama themselves, AGAIN), but it happened after every single person under the fucking sun picked them to win.

So, should Bulldog history repeat itself, said receipts are below. Enjoy.

The Roundup Receipts

Let’s start with Paul f’n Finebaum. Mr. SEC hot-take popped off well before this week that Notre Dame should ever be in the playoff again. This week, he said Notre Dame would get destroyed and then doubled down calling ND a paper tiger that would get their lights punched out. Really hoping his Sunday morning is basically a repeat of this glorious moment in which he was called on his bullshit.

Moving on to Pat Forde. When it comes to Notre Dame and Georgia, only Notre Dame needs to prove themselves worthy. Guess Georgia gets a pass because reasons. Anyways, now’s a good time to remind you that this genius already tried to “expose” Notre Dame once after firing Ty Willingham. That aged well.

There is no hope in here. The headline and lede make you think that an argument would be presented with “well, ND may just have a chance”, but instead we get an article that has none of it. Middle school English teachers would scold you for submitting nothing but a fluff for word count, but I guess it’s good enough for Forbes.

I don’t hate the computers. But they absolutely don’t like ND.

I do hate lazy articles written with the same tired arguments, talking points, and meandering bullshit. Exhibit A is the AJC, whom our friends at Notre Dame Our Blogger did a fantastic job ripping to shreds. It was good to see the Georgia bloggers get into it to, listing reasons for hating Notre Dame, which include being mad that Notre Dame ended up in the playoff & BCS title game over Georgia after they failed to beat Alabama (twice), saying Rudy was offsides, and claiming Manti Te’o actually concocted the whole Lennay Kekua thing himself to push ND into the 2012 BCS title game. Pretty sure between those two, we got the saddest bingo ever.

When you are convinced Irish Spring supports ND, you apparently pull the soap off your shelf. Or something. It’s all really dumb. I guess Gerogia fans would rather smell than pretend to support the Irish? Should Meijer respond by yanking dog food off their shelves? Eh, whatever, pat yourselves on the back grocery store whose name I will promptly forget on Sunday.

There were quite a few Georgia fans that called this game over in the middle of week 1. While watching ND beat Louisville, Bulldog Twitter had some thoughts.

Not to be outdone, former Bulldogs are all in on their own. I mean, I guess I can’t blame them for being confident in their former team, but some of the quotes show that no one learned nothing from the Sugar Bowl disaster.

Hey, assholes, ND making Heisman contenders in big games is our bit. Back off.

Finally, let’s close with another blowhard. Tim Brando, play us out:

The post Friday Roundup: The Collecting Receipts Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Coach O didn’t stop there though. He said Texas pulled the same stunt on Louisiana Tech. In fact, he called them to scout the conditions and brought extra blower fans to combat the under-handed tactic.

Problem is that Skip Holtz, head coach of Louisiana Tech, said that Coach O never called him and he had no recollection that Texas attempted to stoop so low.

Texas of course denied all the allegations and athletic director, Chris Del Conte, launched–and I can’t believe I’m about to write this–an internal investigation on their HVAC functionality. The report came back stating the A/C was working just fine and–I also can’t believe I’m about to write this–those records were FOIA’d:

But don’t worry, y’all, we can get dumber. Because our Austin correspondent and fellow degenerate game picker, NDEddieMac, received third-party confirmation from…*checks notes*…a BBQ vendor:

Friendly reminder, LSU won this game.

For some reason though, Coach O decided to go down this fabricated rabbit hole. Why? I honestly have no clue. It was originally triggered by questions about his players cramping on the field, which, you know happens in upper-90-degree Texas heat. He didn’t even have to mention this insanity at all.

But nope, here we are, complete with spreadsheets and BBQ joints calling bullshit.

Never change, college football. Ever.

The Roundup

Note: Some links are from The Athletic and require a subscription to read. These are denoted with ($). If you are considering a subscription, please use our discount!

Friendly reminder if you are looking for ND/SC tickets: HLS is doing a charity silent auction for a pair. Details are here.

Winning is hard, but losing is harder. And losing so badly that it’s clear the season is done after just a couple of weeks? That’s a whole other level ($).

California passed a bill that would allow players to profit of their image and likeness. So, naturally, the NCAA responded to this first domino of the Olympic model falling by calling the thing unconstitutional and threatening to kick all California schools out of the NCAA. Makes sense.

Tennessee finally got a win. In response to the news that a Florida boy found himself bullied because he made his own Tennessee shirt since he had none, Tennessee not only sent him a care package of swag, but are now selling the very shirt the boy designed to benefit anti-bullying groups. They are selling like hotcakes with over 16,000 sold as of Tuesday.

Mark Richt has lost control of giving a single, solitary fuck:

Want to read a story entirely about an epic punting performance? You know you do ($).

RIP, T. Boone Pickens. While many know him for his contributions to Oklahoma State, it’s well worth reading more about one hell of a full life that includes him going to the grave with a promise that 90% of his wealth will go to charity.

Opponent Watch

Regardless if he’s on the sidelines or not, this weekend is about Bob Davie. While his tenure at Notre Dame absolutely went south, the coaching staff that he had here was nothing short of incredible ($) and all the more maddening that it never worked. While I’m happy to hear he’s recovering from his undisclosed health issues, it is worth bringing up his rather rocky legacy that includes unceremoniously firing Joe Moore and orchestrating a spying operation.

And always remember, now and forever, the hot dog machine incident.

The post Friday Roundup: The HVAC Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Despite the title, I’m not here to gush about it. It’s good. I miss it. I downloaded the app to be notified when it’s back.

I’m more amazed about how this damn thing took off. A combination of social media, mainstream media coverage, and word of mouth watched a fast food debut item turn into this:

Popeyes, a chicken joint whose regulars know there is a better than zero chance they will be out of fried chicken when you step up to the counter, is now rethinking how they are supplying the whole thing to prevent future shortages. The irony is delicious (and spicy).

I had this thing twice in it’s limited initial run. The first time, I was the only one in line. The second, just two days later, was a 30 minute wait.

As much as I love this piece of fried chicken heaven, let’s be real here: it’s just a properly cooked chicken breast with spicy mayo. It’s simple, but it’s perfect.

Opening weekend of college football is like chicken sandwich mania to me. Millions upon millions flock to it. Consume it like it could disappear at any moment. They will scream at their cable providers if the ACC Network, a thing never in existence a few months ago, isn’t available because they couldn’t see Clemson dismantle Georgia Tech live.

Two nights of games–the majority of which would barely move the needle in the middle of the season? The wait is well worth it for the small morsels of marquee matchups or insane moments college football is known for.

The craze will dwindle, but the addicts will return, front and center, ready for more regardless if the main event is missing. There’s still more delicious grub on the menu to consume and we are more than happy to gorge on it like it’s going out of style.

The Roundup

Speaking of food, Notre Dame Stadium is going to have a whole new menu. My only complaint about the concession revamp is that the “versus dog” bit doesn’t go far enough during New Mexico week–it should be complete with a cutout of Bob Davie screaming at the hot dog machine.

Also doing food things, Kentucky. I mean, they are doing a thing and that’s about all I’ll say.

The NCAA once again fell on its face. Inconsistent rulings and applications of bylaws are pretty standard at this point, but when the NCAA seems to grant immediate eligibility waivers to everyone under the sun save for a kid who transferred to care for his terminally ill mother. The biggest kicker in this thing:

The NCAA surprised Brian Hoffman again when they came back with another line of questioning — why didn’t Stephanie Hoffman, 50, retire (after her diagnosis and surgery) from her job as a teacher?
“We have almost a million dollars of medical bills,” Brian Hoffman said. “She’s a teacher and doesn’t have enough years to get full pay from her pension. We simply couldn’t afford it.”

Bill Connelly’s #sportsmath has returned! The S&P+, excuse me SP+, has returned.

Shane, Rakes, and I had fun kicking Oregon State in the junk on the pod. But a Loyal Reader brought the saddest season preview ever to our attention and welp, let’s just bury that beaver a little deeper.

I always love features on lesser known cogs in the coaching staff machine. Folks like Jake Flint (Atheltic sub required, grab 40% off one on us) are vital parts of the staff that don’t often get their moment in the sun. Fantastic read here by Pete Sampson.

It’s always fun to see how a detached third party sees the Irish. Pro Football Focus had their own preseason rankings and the Irish are…um…up there. Then they went and wrote a thing that definitely did some things to me.

Opponent Headlines

If your curious how Louisville’s beat sees the team, I’d suggest checking out this game-by-game preview.

Your opposing QB has an all-time name. If you aren’t starting a guy named “Pass” at QB, are you even trying?

Heading to the game? Enjoy getting drunk early.

If you have two QBs, you don’t have one. If you have three QBs, you’re a damn mess. If you have four QBs, you’re Bob fuckin’ Davie.

The post Friday Roundup: The Ode to a Sandwich Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

For those unfamiliar with this little feature, it’s a time in which we move our focus from Notre Dame and look outward to the rest of college football. While Shane and I do this in the HLS Podcast, we can only cover so many stories before we lose everyone with a two-plus hour episode. The Roundup will house those stories, plus those that really don’t need more than a quick link and mention.

As is tradition, the Roundup will also have a cold open of sorts. It may or may not have anything to do with college football (teaser for next week: it’s a recent drink trend). Bucking tradition, I am going to retire The Beer/The Booze section.

Let’s face it, maybe about 80% of my suggests were half-assed, nor overly interesting. That got worse when I had kids.

Added in its place will be an opponent watch of sorts. While Irish Elvis will hold down the fort on the strength of schedule side, I’ll drop in some relevant news about our future opponent for your perusal.

Oh, and because so many awesome stories are in The Athletic these days, those links will be denoted with ($). If you don’t have a sub, and would like support HLS, we can get your 40% off your first year.

So that’s the 411 on this little feature. Let’s get to the news so I can close some tabs on my browser…

The Roundup

Oh hey, here’s a shocker, Jim Harbaugh might be a dick. Remember when Harubaugh went on the radio and said, because of current transfer rules, kids might make up a mental health disorder? Well, it turns out he may have just had a specific athlete in mind ($) when he said that and the picture isn’t a pretty one. None too pleased with his portrayal in this tale, Harbaugh decided to fire back at Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell, who then fired back at Harbaugh once again.

Secretly in the bad guy category: Dabo Swinney. It seems that Kelly Bryant not getting a ring triggered this post, but there is no better collection and details of Dabo’s troublesome takes an actions. Dabo “aw shucks” it and isn’t robotic like Saban so too often he gets a free pass. So if you ever wonder why folks like me are sour on him, here ya go.

THE dumbest trademark application ever. If this goes through, I’m going to put up merch with “THE” on it in our store, just to see what Ohio State’s cease and desist looks like.

Mike Leach, forever weird. Stories about Wyoming, having a freshmen make him a specific kind of coffee, dipping, getting his players to dip, and demanding one of his players write “fuck” on a whiteboard because he left out the word in his notes while quoting Leach: all just a part of a perfectly normal QB meeting with the pirate ($).

I still want the sponsor to be Popeyes. But I’m happy the Bahamas Bowl has brought in some solid ROI for a *checks notes* Chicago suburb.

Stupid academic eligibility rulings, not just for the NCAA. The Michigan High School Athletic Association saw a Northwestern commit took too many classes before he entered high school so they took away his final year of eligibility. Seriously.

In case you haven’t noticed, college football is celebrating 150 years. This past week, that’s brought out loads of “all time” rankings and retrospectives. Both Sports Illustrated and ESPN named their top programs of all time. SI also ranked the best CFB games of all time. Finally, new ESPN employee, Bill Connelly, listed his rankings based on 150 years of #sportsmath. Spoiler alert, here’s your #1:

Excited about that new QB that transferred to your favorite team? Don’t be ($).

Opponent News

So was Bobby Petrino trying to light Louisville on fire? Because it sure seems that way based on what their new head coach had to say. Also, I would highly recommend hearing that post read aloud by Rakes on his recent podcast who joined up with Notre Dame Our Blogger to break down the entire schedule.

It seems like Virginia Tech has some issues as well. Attrition certainly is a word you could use to describe Justin Fuente’s struggles with the Hokies last season. One of the things that healed the wounds: turkey bacon. *blinks repeatedly*

A look a where Notre Dame stands in the world of college football. Pro Football focus ranked all 130 FBS QBs and The Athletic took a special focus on the top draft-eligible offensive tackles coming into the season ($).

The post (Re)Introducing the Friday Roundup appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

When Biscuit and I set out to come back this week, I think we both meant to do a post a day, and I think we’ve both been reminded that it’s damned hard to do that. Kudos to Ryan, Bayou, and Co in keepin’ on keepin’ on. It’s a labor of love, and I appreciate these folks continuing what we started. And thanks for letting us old guys have a little fun.

The Roundup:

• Rubbing the Rock, not a euphemism, but a Clemson blog, take a look at ND with ND blog Slap the Sign.
• Shane Walton, a blast from a past and a guy I knew seemingly a lifetime ago, has a lot of love for Julian Love.
• Dabo Swiney contends that Clemson is no Bama, but they’re FAR closer to being Bama than any of the rest of us.
• And this is nearly a week old, but Reckers – a campus restaurant at ND – is being replaced by a new Pizza Joint THAT WILL SERVE ALCOHOL. I could go on a rant about how amazing the food and dining options on campus have become since the dark days when Reckers first arrived on campus my junior (sophomore?) year, but there aren’t enough bits of memory on the internet to store it, so I won’t. But man, I could. Do you have any idea how much Burger King was consumed? Do you even know how many different kinds of Hot Pockets exist? Because I do. I. DO.

The Beer:

Juleøl by Elder Pine Brewing and Blending

I had a small holiday gathering with friends last weekend, and most of the guys in the group are pretty into trying new and unusual beers. I went looking for something unique to try with the gang and stumbled on this stuff. It’s brewed with juniper berries which immediately made me think there’s no way it can be good, but I was wrong. It’s actually highly drinkable. And with the holidays upon us, it’s nice to have something different that is easy to drink, isn’t cloyingly sweet, isn’t obsessed with cherries, and won’t leave you with a hop headache.

The post Friday Roundup: That Was Fast Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Plus, we take a look at some interviews given by Jack Swarbrick and Brian Kelly in recent weeks. A lot of time is spent on BK’s rather um…sudden change of heart and philosophy in this episode. In fact, this episode completely focuses on Notre Dame football this week. There’s a lot to talk about and unpack in this episode and we waste no time in getting to it.

Until we talked about tacos which was serious f’n business.

In this episode:

• BK’s opening presser
• ND’s official video of the first practice
• BGI’s practice video:

• BK’s post-practice presser
• Jack Swarbrick’s two part exclusive with the Indy Star
• BK’s exclusive with Sports Illustrated
• The best damn tacos I’ve had in ages:

Go to Chico’s Tacos in El Paso, seriosuly

The post Friday Roundup: The “Spring Tacos” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Plus, the Notre Dame coaching staff puts in some final pieces and we talk about how the Irish are looking heading in to the final stretch before signing day. Perhaps we will talk you off a ledge. Perhaps we will shove you off. Tune in and find out!

One final note before we get to the audio and a couple of links: we will be taking a little bit of a break. The show will likely pick back up the week of signing day unless something crazy happens that needs to be covered (note to ND: please don’t make us cover anything, we beg you).

The Roundup

Million dollar fail. Could also be called a million dollar flail because even Tim Tebow has no idea what this is:

This guy had a shot at winning $1 million. The pressure clearly got to him https://t.co/JPAKejC0Jq

— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) January 9, 2017

#CollegeKicker gets final laugh. The mic drop of all mic drops from Iowa State kicker, Cole Netten:

Y'all made me work harder. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/GhcijBwBm7

— Cole (swollnetts) (@swollnetten) January 11, 2017

During the show, I mentioned that a study showed home field advantage was shown in officiating. Here’s the gist of what I referenced.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Down Goes Bama” Episode appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Normally, this post is full of links of what is discussed; however, this post will bypass that usual practice for two reasons: (1) the day job kicked my ass and I absolutely won’t have time to do and (2) we talked a lot of actual football so there aren’t a whole lot of links anyways.

With that all said, enjoy the final week of football and be sure to tune back in next week as we say our final farewell to the 2016 season.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Don’t Miss the Bus” Episode appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.