"My name is Manti Te'o, and I know a thing or two about catfish, which is why I eat at..." Sometimes, the jokes, and commercials, write themselves. That the erstwhile captain of the 2012 season is now signed to a two-year deal in New Orleans, where catfish is something of a thing, speaks to the larger dark humor that pervades football at all levels. The Saints announced Tuesday that the former San Diego Charger is a Saint. People don't want Manti to succeed. I don't mean people in New ...
Manti Te'o
Morning Roundup: Feb. 25, 2015
Good morning! Here are your headlines: PODCASTS Irish Sports Talk: DaVaris at NFL Combine & Notre Dame scholarship at 82 - Feb 23 IST153 (46:45) Irish Illustrated: Insider Podcast #166 - Turnover margins (44:55) VIDEO StudentSports: GoPro: Manti Te'o - Hawaii linebacker coach (2:06) WatchND: Tire Wars (0:42) CURRENT TEAM Irish Illustrated: Spring questions: Defensive line (Jarron Jones, Isaac Rochell, Romeo Okwara, Andrew Trumbetti, Grant Blankenship, Jhonny ...
Notre Dame Football Back On Track in 2014
Notre Dame Football: 2013 Edition will go down as a no-man's land of seasons. The year that was in between Manti Te'o's departure and Everett Golson's re-arrival. It was a disappointing season. At 9-4 with after a mediocre bowl win against a laughable opponent, Irish fans were left with a sour, bittersweet taste in their mouths. No one really celebrated. No one really bemoaned the year. It just...was. And no we're sort of re-convincing ourselves that this year is going to be the year that ...
Defending the Option: Who Takes Over for Te’o?
Before the Irish started their 2012 season against Navy, I had a detailed post describing how Bob Diaco runs Notre Dame's defense against an option attack. In short, Diaco throws the 3-4 away for such games and switches to a more traditional 4-3 look. The catch though, was that Diaco had another wrinkle in the assignment football that you usually see in the option: Manti Te'o. To refresh, here's how ND started to assign players to defend the option after the 2010 disaster in the ...
Friday Roundup: The “Get Excited About Purdue” Edition
Look, I know we here at HLS always give Purdue a solid, swift kick to nuts every time they play them. We're all familiar with the bit by now. Purdue sucks, they are boring zzzzzzzzzzz and all that. This week though, you should be excited. I'm serious here, stay with me on this. Look, I know Purdue is a horrible football team. And yes, they have a safety that played with two broken hands only to break his leg. Their leading receiver is out too, so that doesn't help matters for ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: Scandal Us
At this time in July, as families travel across the country, grade-school children catalog their new experiences so they can write those all-important “what I did on my summer vacation” essays. At this very same time, across America, sports journalists are sloughing off the blackened husks that used to be their integrity and are skimming the sewers of half-truths and scurrilous gossip, as they prepare to smear Notre Dame in the style of angry chimpanzees with handfuls of their own filth. This ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: Last Hurrah
Send three volleys of cheers on high for our Seniors! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hooray! As final exams end today, so begins your last week at Notre Dame. Be proud. Be gracious. Be generous. Be humble. But above all, be happy! For you have achieved something great. And you have achieved it together. When you arrived here as a herd of freshmen in 2009, did you think that in your Senior year you would see your classmates lead your football team to an undefeated season and a #1 ranking? Probably not. ...
Drafted: How Notre Dame’s Class of 2013 Fared in the NFL Player Selection Meeting
The 2013 NFL Player Selection Meeting a/k/a "The Draft" took place from last Thursday, and The University of Notre Dame did well. Six players were drafted over the course of seven rounds, with TE Tyler Eifert going first as the 21st pick overall and S Zeke Motta going "last" as the 244th pick overall. This was a very good draft for Notre Dame, the most since 2007 when a total of seven Irish got the coveted call. Here's how it shook out: First Round: Tyler Eifert was a lock to go in the first ...
Friday Roundup: The “Sliding” Edition
Last night marked the start of the 2013 NFL Draft. From the Notre Dame perspective, all eyes were on Manti Te'o and Tyler Eifert. The Cincinnati Bengals took Eifert with their pick, 21st overall. Te'o, however, slide out of the first round completely. This shocked quite a few Irish fans, especially after Minnesota traded up to the 29th pick, their third pick in the first round. The seemingly ever growing home for NFL Domers decided to take Tennessee WR, Cordarrelle Patterson, ...
Blue-Gold Game Photo Journal
It just so happened that Notre Dame's spring football game took place the same weekend that I needed to make a trip up to campus to do some final work on my upcoming book on Notre Dame football (Echoes After the Whistle: The Men We Became). Funny how that worked out, now isn't it? Here is my photo journal of my weekend back on campus! My weekend started out on Thursday with a day of research in Notre Dame Archives sifting through decades of Notre Dame football photographs. It was a lovely ...