Irish Sports Daily first broke the story that Gunner Kiel would transfer from the Irish and later the Observer had sources confirm that Kiel had cleaned out his locker. At this time, there is no official word from Notre Dame or the athletic department. There also is no word on where Kiel plans on transferring to as well.

Honestly, this is isn’t at all surprising. Since the 2012 season, many Irish fans have discussed if one of the current Irish QBs would do just this. With Golson seemingly having the starting job locked down, veterans Rees and Hendrix as backups, and top recruit Malik Zaire enrolled early, there is quite a crowd fighting for playing time at QB. Add on the fact that Golson also has three years of eligibility left and Kiel is starting at the possibility of having only one year to start at QB barring an injury or serious decline by Golson.

While I would’ve loved a dream scenario of being able to transition from Golson to Kiel and then to Zaire, I can’t blame Kiel for wanting a shot at better playing time. Thankfully, Kiel’s departure doesn’t cripple the Irish and makes Kelly strategy of going after a QB in every recruiting class seem all the wiser. Needless to say, I’m not exactly terrified at the potential of three more years of Golson followed by two years of Zaire.

Best of luck to Gunner in the future, where ever that may be. Unlike Les Miles, we here at HLS definitely think you have the chest to handle the reins of a top program.

The post Gunner Kiel to Transfer from Notre Dame 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.

He may have filmed the 16 most boring minutes on YouTube, but he gave us college football fans and gamers some golden offseason fodder to argue about. Starting with the overall team ratings, Notre Dame is given a 97 overall (WOWsers!), with a 94 offense rating, 95 defense rating and 6 star prestige. I would love to say I agree with this number…but it seems high to me. For context, 97 ties ND for the 6^th highest rating behind Wisconsin, Texas, LSU, Oregon and USC who each are rated 99 overall. Tied with the Irish at 97 overall are Florida State, Georgia, Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Michigan. Other Irish opponent ratings include: Navy (77), Purdue (87), Michigan State (93), Miami (91), Stanford (93), BYU (89), Pittsburgh (85), Boston College (85) and Wake Forest (81). Considering the real life talent differential between teams like USC and LSU compared to Boston College and Wake Forest, there certainly doesn’t seem to be much ratings disparity built into this year’s version of the game.

Grantland-X is going to appreciate the Notre Dame QB rankings, which are as follows:

With Rees having far more experience under his belt than any of the other 3 scholarship QB’s, we can’t be shocked that the guys over at EA Sports took the safe route and rated him slightly higher than Hendrix and Golson. Tommy’s speed rating is surprising, as I would have expected it to be in the mid-to-low 60s. The fact that Hendrix’s strength is a 53 and break tackle is a 67 is ludicrous – each should be much higher. I would probably lower the awareness rating for both Hendrix and Rees as well. Throwing power and throwing accuracy ratings are not yet available, but based on Tommy’s inferior athletic ratings coupled with the fact his overall rating is the highest, you would expect him to show the strongest numbers in those categories. Of course, whether or not you agree with those ratings is an entirely different story.

Moving on to the running backs:

I love speedy RBs when playing this game, and the Irish backfield stable does not disappoint. For those of you that plan on playing in Dynasty Mode, the Carlisle/Atkinson combination is going to be one of the strongest in the country when you enter your 3^rd season and they are each seniors. Here’s to hoping that the on the field product turns out similarly.

And now the entire EA Sports ND roster (note: their 70 man roster is mostly made up of current players and early enrollee freshmen. For the few freshmen enrolling in the fall that appeared on the roster, I generally didn’t try to guess who the game was referring to.)

The Top 10 ND Players:

***Update: Manti Te’o is tied with Matt Barkley and Montee Ball as the highest rated player in the game. Tyler Eifert is in a tie for 4th with Marcus Lattimore. The Irish coming in with two of the top 5 players in the game? Not too shabby….

Questions/Comments:

Players ranked 11 through 30:

Questions/Comments:

Players ranked 31 through 70:

Questions/Comments:

How do you feel about the team rankings and the individual player rankings? Would you have made any significant changes if you were running the show at EA?

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