I remember being a ninth grader the last time Notre Dame won the National Championship. Back then, I thought his would happen regularly. Time and adulthood has proved otherwise, but still we press on.

It is funny how our fandom evolves or even ebbs and flows. I buy “The Shirt” every spring, for starters. I think it is a good cause, but more importantly it is a sign post leading to the start of the season.

For years, I was a buyer of the Blue and Gold preview Notre Dame preview magazine; however, I stopped buying after a particularly disappointing season and I thought the magazine had become “too optimistic”. I’m happy to say I’m back now; in fact, I’ve already pre-ordered this season’s edition.

In a summer that has been slow (as always no news is good news), I was heartened last week when Kirk Herbstreit took to twitter to sing the praises of Brandon Wimbush.

All about how much the Irish Defense can improve with new DC. Offense with Wimbush will be nasty! Brandon is gonna have a HUGE year! https://t.co/sHPiYwrZwY

— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) June 22, 2017

Over the years, Herbstreit and his buddies at Gameday typically don’t fill the role of avid Notre Dame believers. Yet, here we are and with a simple tweet, we find some hope in the air!

Via Flicker, Credit: Nick Kenrick.

I equate this time to waiting on the phone back in the pre-cell phone era. I feel like I’m back in high school waiting for my buddies to call, anticipating the endless possibilities of roaming the mean streets of suburbia on a Saturday Night! Or, even better, waiting patiently on a girl who I’m sure is going to call…yes possibilities.

But right now, is 4-8 far enough in the rear view mirror?

An inexperienced quarterback, zero collegiate starts…blah who cares about that.

Difficult early test versus Georgia (a dreaded SEC team) at home, no problem! See 2014 Music City Bowl vs. LSU.

What about all the coaching changes? Is that a problem? Nope…I see my beer glass more than half full on that one, especially given the chaos that ensued last year. Things on the coaching front simply have to be better, right?!

Trips to Michigan State, Miami, and Stanford…difficult but doable!

Yes, summer affords us the possibilities of Greer Martini morphing into Thor and turning in a Butkus Award caliber season. Drue Tranquill matches football IQ with enormous potential and makes plays all over the field on defense. The offensive line finds a consistency and dominance that eluded them too often last season, allowing Josh Adams to punch giant holes in opposing defenses.

If nothing else, summer is a time that rekindles my hope and rejuvenates my Notre Dame football spirit. The perceived and apparent blemishes our team may have can be carefully covered up by hope. At the end of last season, I thought that, given all the change, 7-5 was realistic, but the hope of summer has me thinking bigger!

Please, phone, ring soon!!!

The post Waiting for the Phone to Ring appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

So with that in mind, I decided that there was a need for a co-host on the show. Shane, aka SuperManTDJesus, aka the one that brings you awesome videos here on HLS, had mentioned that he had some interest in appearing on the podcast here and there. So I took that, ran with it, and asked him to join me as co-host.

EddieMac will still join for picks as always, but there will be no more segments (unless my work schedule hoses me) in which I’m just sitting around and talking to myself. I’m hoping this will create a much more entertaining product going forward. I know it was sure as hell a lot more fun to record than usual.

Before we hit the Roundup links, HLS Podcasts are now on Stitcher! I believe this puts us out on practically every podcast app now. If I’m missing your favorite, and the RSS feed won’t work, let me know.

The Roundup

CFB Law & Order has some updates. Two should be filed under “not great”. The first, Southern Cal’s Osa Masina, being charged with rape and two counts of forceable sodomy in Utah is by far the worst. Penn State is still determined to stupidly honor Joe Pa and ignore all the victims that he could’ve helped. Thankfully, the NCAA provided a bit of levity in finding Stanford’s Devon Cajuste guilty of violations that no one really cares about.

Urban Meyer’s past got some more clarity. He ran a win-at-all-costs program at Florida and then inexplicably ran away only to return a year later to Ohio State. It turns out he was battling a major enemy: his own mind.

In case you didn’t realize, Deshone Kizer is really good at sports. Like, really, REALLY good.

#NDFBIsDeterninedToKillMe. And we now have #SportsMath proof of this. Thankfully, things have been better in the BK era.

It’s easy to overlook Alabama. Especially coming off a season in which you lost yet another coach, hired the interim, have proven nothing, and believe that makes you unbeatable–right, Southern Cal?

You can now enjoy Kirk Herbstreit’s meet. I’m not joking.

Harbaugh believes that publicly sharing a depth chart is wrong. Because of this, Colorado decided to have a little bit of fun and hide their own depth chart in the best and most creative way possible.

There’s also a football game happening. No real links to share here, but be sure to stick around after the news roundup to hear our thoughts on Notre Dame taking on Michigan state.

The post Friday Roundup: The “No More Talking to Myself” Episode appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.