Spring has arrived at Notre Dame...well, spring football at least. Much like signing day, it is a period of (mostly) unbridled optimism for the program. This spring is no exception and doubly so with the return of Everett Golson to the Irish and knowing that there is no backup QB named Tommy Rees. Hey, no offense to Tommy. I will always appreciate what he did for this program; however, I am not going to miss "TOMMY NO!" being in the back of my mind. The fact is that Everett Golson was ...
Nick Saban
Friday Roundup: The “What’s in a Logo?” Edition
So what can make Notre Dame football fans freak out more than rumors of field turf or a jumbotron? A tweet like this: https://twitter.com/UniWatch/statuses/412716193955340289 CLICK CLACK! START PANICKING! I'm not even sure what causes such hair pulling or, quite frankly, why there is even a preference among fans as to whether Adidas, Nike, or Under Armor is the one to put their logo on Notre Dame's uniform. After all, Notre Dame has been pretty consistent with their uniform practices ...
Friday Roundup: The “Gentlemen, Start Your Sources!” Edition
College football's coaching carousel is like Black Friday shopping. Every year, it gets more absurd and manages to start even earlier than the year prior. This year, before half of the bowl games were even finalized, people started floating around Nick Saban to Texas rumors. Actually, to be fair, this talk started at the beginning of the season because that's a good time to make those choices. I guess if you're going to try to stir the pot, you might as well go with the craziest rumor ...
Friday Roundup: The “Embracing a Heart Attack” Edition
Let's take a look at the last decade of Notre Dame/Pitt: Save for Weis making quite the debut against a very unprepared Pitt led by Dave Wannstedt, the ND/Pitt series has been defined by a single possession contest as of late. To be honest, it's really hard to explain why. For the most part, Pitt has been a medicore team that Notre Dame is usually better than. Last year's game was probably the best example of this: an undefeated Irish squad hanging on for dear life against a team that ...
Friday Roundup: The “run cmd” Edition
Well, Cam McDaniel has become quite the internet sensation this week. I feel though we are only focusing on one aspect of Cam McDaniel right now. There is clearly so much more that this Texas native delivers. Back when we detailed Cam's amazing run through a backwards gauntlet, one loyal reader had the ingenious idea of nicknaming Cam "run cmd". Being a computer nerd myself, I've run with this. With that in mind, let's take a journey through some of Cam's greatest hits this season via run cmd ...
Friday Roundup: The “THIS IS…Sparta?” Edition
Michigan State will enter Notre Dame as the #1 defense in the nation. Sure, their schedule has been an absolute cakewalk thus far (Western Michigan, South Florida, and Youngstown State), but, despite that, holding opponents to only 177 yards/game is impressive no matter who you are playing. But then you look at the other side of the coin and you realize that Sparty's offense is objectively one of the worst things to ever grace a football field. Ignoring Youngstown State (which you should ...
Friday Roundup: The “Who Gives a Hoot?” Edition
Let's be perfectly honest here, Temple sucks. Picking on them falls somewhere between grabbing the low hanging fruit or simply being plain mean. Bayou tried to find something positive about the Owls in his preview, but he simply couldn't find much. And it isn't like this current incarnation of Temple football is any better than Temple's overall history. This is a program with a 430-555-3 (.440) all time record that has led them to only 4 total bowl games and 8 total weeks appearing in the AP ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: OnlyHere
I still don’t entirely understand this elaborate process called “recruiting.” To me, it looks like Thai shadow puppetry, the way coaches and players chase each other around behind a screen until our new drop-everything-holiday, National Signing Day. Of course, people frequently remind me that what I used to call recruiting would now be classified as conscription at best, kidnapping at worst (get a lad to visit your Northern Indiana outpost, and then pretend the trains quit running because of ...
A Season Considered: Talking the NCG, Coach Kelly and Manti Te’o with Kevin McDougal and Oscar McBride
I am an unabashed Class of 1994 homer. For us, our senior season came out of nowhere. The Golden Boy 2.0 felled by injury. Untried and untested Kevin McDougal ('94) stepping under center and into the limelight. A daunting schedule. If it weren't for an unimaginable loss to Boston College, we, too, would have been undefeated. To compare Kevin McDougal to Everett Golson is perhaps too facile and superficial, but here goes: mobile quarterbacks from the South, consistently good enough in their ...
It’s Official: Notre Dame and Alabama in BCS Title Game
In perhaps EPSN's most anti-climatic BCS reveal show ever, Notre Dame and Alabama received their official invites to the BCS National Title game. At HLS, this now means we start the process of breaking down as much Alabama information as possible for the next month as well as bracing for some newfound SEC visitors that happen to stumble upon us. For now though, less enjoy some reactions from Brian Kelly and the players in celebration of this great moment. ...