I’m not sure who coined the term “Savvy Jack”, but I do remember the first time that I heard it. The same week that I resurrected the Friday Roundup, its previous author, co-founder of HLS, MQ, threw the phrase out on Twitter and accompanied it with one of my favorite Photoshops to date:

Credit to @IDtheMike (aka MQ)

Back then, the college football playoff was a certainly, but Notre Dame’s place at the table most certainly wasn’t. The deal with the ACC wasn’t in place and we still had Michigan on the schedule as a regular opponent. Yet in that Roundup, I stated that I wasn’t at all worried as were a good section of Irish fans.

At that point in time (April 2012), other sections of Irish fandom weren’t quite sold on my same confidence on Swarbrick. To be fair, at that point, especially in regards to football, a valid argument could be made that, while he had certainly made an impact on the athletic department as a whole, beyond the Brian Kelly hire (remember, this is pre-title run so the jury was still out for many), the list of things that he did for football was quite small.

That list, however, grew by leaps and bounds in 2012. He not only got ND a good spot at the table for the College Football Playoff, but also preserved Notre Dame’s independence along the way. He made a scheduling deal with the ACC that was far better than anything that we had with the Big East, including access to bowl games that weren’t terrible. He had the foresight to can the Michigan series so the Irish wouldn’t be saddled with a B1G/ACC schedule that offered no flexibility. He even helped Notre Dame weather a potentially disastrous PR storm when the Manti Te’o catfishing news came to light.

Swarbrick, however, has gone moved beyond “great AD” status to “troll master that you best not f**k around with” this season. Of course, we are all well aware of the masterful move of announcing the scheduling of Ohio State during the final Michigan week; however, somewhat lost in the shuffle of the Texas A&M announcement was this:

#NotreDame did confirm that the ND-Texas football games in 2019 and 2020 have been canceled. The 2015-16 games will be played.

— Eric Hansen (@EHansenNDI) September 25, 2014

So why does this new cancellation add to Swabrick’s trolling legend? Look no further than new Texas athletic director, Steve Patterson.

Back in 2013 while the dominoes of the new ACC deal were falling into place, it became clear that the original scheduled date for the Irish’s visit to Tempe simply wasn’t going to work. Therefore, Notre Dame reached out to Arizona State with a desire to cancel the game. Arizona State and Patterson was, understandably, upset with the sudden switch. Instead of taking up a contract dispute directly with Notre Dame though, Patterson decided to be a dick and let everyone willing to listen that he was SO MAD at Notre Dame:

“The school didn’t have the courtesy to have the athletic director (Jack Swarbrick) call the athletic director at ASU to discuss it,” Patterson said. “They had their PR guy call (ASU’s media relations office) to give us a message Friday afternoon while everybody was out of town at the Final Four.

“At least in the little Catholic town I grew up in — Beaver Dam, Wis. — the good nuns wouldn’t have thought that was a very appropriate way to honor your word.”

Thus far, ASU has not received anything in writing from Notre Dame about the potential scheduling change. That’s a required action for any change in the contract, which was signed in 2008, that also includes a game between the teams in South Bend in 2017. So as Patterson sees it, nothing has changed.

Quick note: the cancellation was not official at this point because, at the article stated, ASU had yet to receive anything in writing. This was supposed to be stage one of the discussion, but nooooooo, we gotta play this out in public.

“Our position is ‘Hey, we’ve got a contract,’ and we expect Notre Dame to live up to it,” Patterson said.

…

“What people don’t understand is you do this 18 months before a game,” Patterson said. “Virtually every other university in the country’s got their teams scheduled until 2014. So who do you get as a replacement even if you wanted to do it?

“If you act in a professional way and you want to talk about three years down the line or four years down the line where somebody’s got a chance to make an adjustment in their schedule, that’s a different thing, but when it’s 18 months out, everybody’s got their season booked.”

…

“Look, our position is we’re playing the game,” Patterson said. “On Oct. 25, Notre Dame is going to be here and we’re going to play football.”

Patterson knew his out of conference schedule would be total trash without ND (Weber State and New Mexico were their other OOC opponents this season). So with all his eggs in the South Bend basket, so he made this huge stick to ensure the Irish would still come to Tempe on October 25 November 8.

So when Patterson replaced Deloss Dodds at Texas, a man many considered to be a great friend and ally to Swarbrick, many wondered how Patterson’s relationship would be. With two Texas games cancelled and Texas A&M on the schedule, Jack more or less told Patterson: “Hey, remember that BS in 2013? You have a check on the way for $150k to cancel the games, that in the contract, I promise. You don’t have to go on radio this time. By the way, I’m scheduling a rival of yours that you no longer play because they crawled under your skin when they refused to kiss the Texas ring and went to the SEC. That’s right, I just messed with Texas. Have a nice day, asshole.”

I mean, I’m pretty much to the point in which I believe the conversion that I made up in my head between Dave Brandon and Jack actually happened.

The lesson here? Don’t screw with Jack. He will make you look a fool.

The Roundup

Speaking of looking like fools, HI MICHIGAN! Oh man, the dumpster fire in Ann Arbor is in full blaze. The ill-conceived Coke/ticket promotion wasn’t even the worst thing that happened to them this week. One of their biggest football alumni stars ripped them a new one on the radio. Someone also had to ask Mark Hammon of NCIS fame what he thought about Michigan football since his father’s number is now being worn by a potentially benched QB. This is Michigan football in 2014.

Want to laugh at Texas some more? Let’s look no further than Longhorn puppet Texas insider, Chip Brown. Chip, whose scoops are uniformly dead wrong, had an incredible whopper about Roger Goodell wanting to met with Texas because reasons. Like most of his BS, Chip had his scoop behind a paywall; however, he is now sticking to his story on a freely available piece because in just a few hours the “scoop” was shot to hell.

We still may have very little clue on how the playoff committee will make their decisions. However, Barry Alvarez decided to give us a peek behind the curtain on his methodology.

Uh, College GameDay, what are you doing? Seriously, how in the blue hell does this guest picker make any sense?

And now, your moment of Nix… Let’s laugh at Jim Delany, shall we?

Jim Delany said adding Rutgers & Maryland would expand the B1G's media footprint, but NC State has other ideas pic.twitter.com/GtqvV1Ext2

— Ramzy Nasrallah (@ramzy) September 26, 2014

The Booze

Much like Purdue week, we’re sticking with the obvious: Mimosas and Screwdrivers for everyone! For beer, I guess Shock Top and Blue Moon are some citrus-inspired choices that are rather easy to make; however, I am also sure that you can find much better beers if you try.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Moment for Jack” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

On November 1, 1913 Notre Dame established the forward pass as a legitimate offense in college football. Its purpose was to make the quarterback the most feared player on the field and propel the team to greatness.

They succeeded.

Today, the Navy calls him the guy that embarrasses them every year*. The Fighting Irish call him….

TOP QB

*2007, 2009, and 2010 didn’t exist…why the hell is everybody acting like they did?

—————————

Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix stand outside Brian Kelly’s office. Everett Golson walks out, in a cold sweat, clearly upset, and shaken-up…

Hendrix: “Golson?”

Golson: “Good luck, Tommy…”

Kelly: “MAVERICK! GOOSE! COME IN HERE!”

Rees: “The hell is going on?”

Hendrix: “I donno.”

Rees: “Shit…”

Rees and Hendrix enter Kelly’s office, his face is a dangerous shade of red — both QBs know purple isn’t too far away.

Kelly: “Maverick, you did an admirable job in 2012 — BUT YOU STILL THREW TOO MANY DAMNED INTERCEPTIONS!!!”

Rees: “Coach, seriously, what’s with the call signs? It’s freaking me out.”

Kelly: “Your arm is writing checks that your body can’t cash. Don’t even get me started on 2011–I can’t even count the number of interceptions that year and that disaster under the lights!!!”

Hendrix: [Trying to whisper to Tommy] “Which one? Michigan or Southern Cal?”

Kelly: [Glaring at Hendrix] “And you, asshole…you’re lucky to be here after tripping over yourself against Air Force!”

Hendrix: [snaps to attention] “Thank you, sir!”

Kelly: “And let’s not bullshit, Tommy. The mere sound of your name scares the hell out of everyone in the stands. You need to be doing it better, and cleaner than the other guy. Now what is it with you?”

Rees: “Just want to serve Our Lady’s University, sir. Be the best QB that I can be, sir.”

Kelly: “Don’t screw around with me, Tommy. You’re a hell of an instinctive QB. Maybe too good. I’d like to bust your butt but I can’t. I got another problem here. I gotta send somebody from this roster out on the field as the starting QB. I gotta do something here, I still can’t believe it. I gotta give you your dream shot! I’m gonna send you up against the best. You two characters…are moving up the depth chart. For 12 weeks you are going to go up against the toughest schedule in the nation. You were number two and three, Golson was number one. Golson cheated on a test and got kicked out of ND. YOU GUYS are one and two. [Glares at Tommy] You remember one thing…you screw up just this much…and your ass will be on the bench for the rest of your eligibility!”

Rees: “YES, SIR!”

Kelly: “That is all…”

—————————

The season progresses, but disaster strikes against Southern Cal. Tommy Rees is standing over a sink with a bag of ice on his neck as the team departs. Brain Kelly enters…

Kelly: “How ya doin’?”

Rees: “I’m okay.”

Kelly: [sighs] “Hendrix is dead.”

Rees: “What the hell, coach?! He had a horrible game, but you sound like someone with wishful thinking on my Twitter mentions.”

Kelly: “You play football long enough, games like this happen.”

Rees: “He was my backup, my responsibility. It should have never been that bad.”

Kelly: “Look, in my career, I’ve seen many QBs go down. First string goes down, next man in. But there will be others. You can count on that. You gotta let it go. You gotta let it go.”

—————————

Rees comes by Kelly’s office the following day for a heart-to-heart. He’s still sore and shaken up from the injury, concerned his interception-happy ways could return, and Malik “Iceman” Zaire could take his spot.

Kelly: “What’s on your mind?”

Rees: “My options, sir.”

Kelly: “Simple. First, you are healthy enough to be cleared to retake your QB1 spot, or you can quit. There’d be no disgrace. That hit was hell–and you’ve been through hell these past couple of years, it would’ve shook me up.”

Rees: “So you think I should quit?”

Kelly: “I didn’t say that. The simple fact is you feel responsible for every single bad thing that happens with this football program and you have a confidence problem. Now I’m not gonna sit here and blow sunshine up your ass, Tommy. A good QB is compelled to evaluate what’s happened, so he can apply what he’s learned. Out there, we gotta push it. That’s our job. It’s your option, Tommy. All yours.”

Rees: “Sorry to bother you on a Sunday, sir, but thank you very much for your time.”

Kelly: “No problem. Good luck.”

—————————

Tommy takes the field against Air Force. After a slow and shaky start, he comes alive and finishes with 284 yards and 5 TDs. A jubilant Notre Dame team celebrates in the locker room and Zaire gets Tommy’s attention…

Zaire: You…you are still dangerous…[flashes a smile at Tommy]…but you can be my backup any time.

Rees: Bullshit. You’re going to stay mine.

The Roundup

The NCAA has been busy this week. It’s clear that a major restructuring is in the works and based on Delany’s comments, there could be a clearer line between the have and have-nots. Along with this news also comes some new recruiting rules.

The Chip Brown rumor mill is back! Oh, Chip, we didn’t miss you (and if you forget him, he’s the conference realignment rumor-monger that got things so, so wrong), but we will still laugh at you and the wild accusations that you make/get fed with the Texas AD search. This week, Chip unveils Oliver Luck as the favorite, but also manages to toss Jack Swarbrick’s name into the hat. Trying to keep up, the Austin Statesmen pegged Ohio State AD, Gene Smith, as a candidate which he denied.

War Damn Filmgate. Bret Bielema is apparently oh so ready to make friends in the SEC by claiming Auburn doctored the film they sent him. The best part of his public accusation? Lack of a swinging gate on the film. Seriously.

Cierre Wood feels your pain, Carl Pelini. Even coaches aren’t immune to the allure of the sticky-icky.

Opponent injury watch: Stanford DE, Ben Gardner is now out for the season.

Quack, quack and f#*k you, Oregon fans. A former Oregon player writes a letter to the editor and says everything you’ve wanted to say to a crappy fan…well, minus the Spartacus references.

And now your moment of zen…

[youtube id=”VnG8eXIQBZU”]

Put These Games on Your Radar

Well last week was horribly mediocre as I went 3-3 with my picks against the spread. I would like to thank Vandy for failing to do anything with their 100 turnovers they forced and Mizzou just blowing their lead. Bastards.

Anyways, that moves me to 11-8 thus far. Let’s see if this week can be better.

As always, picks are in bold and have the spread listed next to them (Firefox is still buggy on the bold, unfortunately).

Predictions

Twibby narrowly edged ManCaveQB with his 45-14 prediction by a single point (ManCaveQB had 38-10, a 7 point miss). Here are your standings:

NDtex (@HLS_NDTex)

The weather sets up for all kinds of potential for this to be an ugly, sloppy game. However, Mav–I mean, Tommy and the Irish will be able to use it to their advantage in an easy win. Unrelated, the poor field will lose so very badly.

ND 41, Navy 13

Biscuit (@HLS_Biscuit)

Via:

2 weeks in a row of Option Ball! Well, couldn’t schedule it better, that’s for sure. ND will have 2 full weeks of option preparation before facing Navy this season, and it will help. Navy came on in ND’s down years and this became a game. Last season, things finally (FINALLY!) seemed back to normal with ND really enforcing their will on the men in the middle of the ship. Anchors may be away, but the Irish aren’t. They’re here, and ready to play. No love for the Navy offense this week as the Irish force multiple turnovers and hold Navy to less than 200 yards rushing for the only time all season. While Air Force gives ND a bit of a fit in the first half the week before, this one is in the bag by the time the band takes the field.

ND Wins 30 – 10

   3 Leprechauns! No more Navy heroics when it comes to the Irish. Save it for the battlefield fellas. (And thank you so much for your service, you guys rule)

Bayou Irish (@HLS_BayouIrish)

Navy is a team that makes me more nervous than any other on our schedule, because if you screw up against them, they’re like an anaconda. There should be a “Notre Dame” proviso under the Federal Tort Claims Act which would give all of us who watched a game like 2010 one fifty minute hour on the psychologist’s couch. I’m glad we played Air Force last week and (hopefully) addressed our issues with the option. I’d love it if we can hold Navy scoreless for more than just the second half. While they blew out the Delaware Blue Hens 51-7 in Week Two, their production plummeted against Western Kentucky and only broke 35 points in its October 19 loss to Toledo in double overtime. Like last year, I expect us to win going away. We should be without Big Lou in the middle – no “knee”-d to risk him against the blocking technique the Middies use. And if we use the DBs to seal the edge like we did, after some time, against USAF, we should be in business and get to see Tommy put up some more insane numbers. Expect big tackle numbers from Jaylon Smith, again, as Navy runs away from Tuitt.

ND 49, Navy 9

Twibby (@HLS_Twibby)

Irish 38, Navy 10. Another week of smooth sailing for ND.

Irish Elvis (@IrishElvis)

TBA

The Irish Twins (@HLS_IT1 & @HLS_Podcast)

Twin 2 (@HLS_Podcast):

Irish keep control in a mud bowl:  38 – 17

Twin 1 (@HLS_IT1): 34-27 Irish win

Blog Davie (@BlogDavie)

The Irish start slow but end up dropping anchor on the Midshipmen.  Notre Dame 40 – Navy 21

Steve in Iowa (@SteveInIowa1)

Alright. Again, I’m Mr. Bad Karma. I hate picking this one because when taking friends to a game in 2009 I picked Navy specifically hoping for an easy victory. What we got was an up close, live viewing Jimmy Clausen taking a crucial momentum killing safety in the north endzone. So while I want pick a ND to win 42-3, a whole lot of psychological pain has conditioned me to expect something ugly like 27-17. Those swabbies have grit. The want revenge for Ireland. And they are plating better than late, so I go with a close one.

ManCaveQB (@ManCaveQB)

SuperManTDJesus (@SuperManTDJesus)

It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be wet, and it’s gonna be ugly for Navy. Tommy Rees tosses 3 TDs and the RBs get 4 more. Navy musters 2 FGs and a garbage time TD. Give Brindza a 3 in there for a nice 52-13 final score.

The Beer Booze

I’m making an executive decision with this section. With Subway Domer, and the Anti-Preview, now gone and considering HLS has picked up the rest of the Subway Domer crew, I feel we are missing a serious alcohol void in the ND blogosphere. It’s as if millions of livers cried out in joy and are now kicking back and relaxing.

To hell with that.

So “The Beer” section is now “The Booze” because I’m going to be mixing it up from here on out. Craft beer suggestions will still find their way in here, but that won’t be the exclusive purpose.

For this week, considering playing Navy is a game in which the focus is on the basics, we are going to do that ourselves with this week’s beverage. Sometimes, a simple gameplan and be strong and potent when given enough time to work. With that in mind, open up your bar and find your favorite whiskey, Irish fans. Mix it, put it on the rocks, have it neat, or just chug from the bottle — it’s all acceptable.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Top QB” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

With the way Les Miles talks, you would think that LSU is home to nothing but the most elite quarterbacks in the land. Of course, watching LSU play any football at all last season with their terrible QB duo would shoot that ridiculous assumption down and watching the BCS title game last season would remove all doubt. Different breed of cat indeed.

Now, yes, I’m fully aware that I’m throwing a few stones around in our own QB glass house, but the overall point is that Les has moved from the likable Mad-Hatter coach that fails to understand the concept of clock management while eating a nice snack of grass to a sad, bitter, and rambling old man.

Les, the next time you have a thought about Gunner Kiel, just shut up, go into your office, close the door and let it all out:

(Hat tip to Mark Ennis for the inspiration)

The Roundup

Also needing to shut up: Chip Brown. Realignment guru Texas’ favorite puppet The Orangebloods.com writer has again stirred the pot regarding ND. His article isn’t worth linking, Swarbrick’s response though, is.

Will never talk again: The BCS. They are dead. They cannot read. This will not be read to them.

Probably should have used the right to remain silent. Ex-Southern Cal defensive back, Kevin Ellison, could have used a few Notre Dame theology classes because I’m pretty sure God doesn’t tell you commit arson.

Les Miles isn’t the only idiot at LSU. Somewhere at LSU, there was a meeting. Someone had an idea, an awful idea. No one told them to shut up because the idea was so dumb. Then this happened.

Don’t even think about it, Adidas. One Foot Down was having some fun. Put the phone down.

In the category of “please don’t ever shut up”: Louis Nix III and Chocolate News.

http://youtu.be/CqUtFGgrNPo

The Beer

Just shut up and drink some.

Since my area is about to break into the 100’s (managed to hold out until late June–rather impressed), I’ll personally be looking for the following Texas brew:

Think Blue Moon, but much better. Nothing like a nice refreshing brew during the hot summer months and Fireman’s 4 definitely hits the spot.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Seriously, Just Shut Up” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.