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Thursday, November 28, 2024

Week 11: The Season Starts Now

Just a perfect day...


Dateline:  Flint Lake, IN

Full disclosure:  I have a tendency to project my insecurities and deficiencies (athletically / intellectually / psychologically) onto my sports affiliations.  Which often makes game viewership problematic.  Add to that my closeted belief in sports superstitions (hello, lucky underwear) and the psychoses really build, leading to a belief that my teams will almost never succeed because if you put me, personally, in that same situation, baby we are going down in flames

I like to think that's why I'm such an ardent proponent for self-medication during such occasions.

Well, not the only reason.  But, for sure, a strong driver.

Thus, I enter most ND sports viewing experiences with a 'hope for the best / plan on the worst' type mentality.

Obviously, quite often I have been pleasantly surprised with ND's success (drink up, Shriners!) -- only to have the periodic Northern Illinois Meltdown to send me spiraling back into The Abyss of Uncertainty.

Which brings me to last Saturday and the extraordinarily unique -- dare I say, singular --  experience of a near nirvana-like day, capped off by the ND-Army game which for all intents and purposes, was over after each team's first series.

Jerrence's time capsule:
That's Gaga's special medicine, Sloane
  • 10:30am.  Brunch w a 3-egg omelet, courtesy of Defarge's chickens who are FINALLY PUTTING OUT!
  • 10:45am.  Bloody Mary, made with Behren's infused vodka
  • 11:00am.  Ohio St. vs. Indiana kickoff, and I don't really care who wins as long as someone loses big.
  • 2:30pm.  Ole Miss also loses!
  • 5:00pm.  ND Women's B-ball spanks USC
    • JuJu, meet Hanna & Liv!
    • Get used to this outcome, Trojans. 
  • 6:00pm.  ND vs. Army
    • Martini Time!

"Ode to Blue Cheese Green Olives" - a haiku*

        Salty moldy cheese
        Meaty green hollowed out orb
        Sublime creamy bliss!
  • 10:00pm.   Alabama loses!  Roll this, bitches!

*crowd-sourced (thank you, Barb) 

A perfect day indeed.



Quote of the Week


"They have 22 Parade All-Americans, we have 22 guys who marched in a parade.
"
                                     Jeff Monken


Boy, did that self-deprecating remark by Army's head coach ever prove prescient.  


Word of the Week


Used in a sentence paragraph:  The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge once wrote, "Unusual and new-coined words are, doubtless, an evil..."

What a dick, Jerrence thought. 

Geez, ya write one mind-numbingly long poem 200 years ago about a sailer who had a bad hallucinatory experience at sea -- whom among us hasn't had a disappointing cruise-related party debacle? -- and suddenly you think you're E. B. White Mr. Elements of Style?

Jerrence begged to differ.

Words -- especially big, flowery words that frequently even he didn't understand -- made Jerrence's world go 'round.  And more pragmatically, he knew he'd have no blog if circumlocution was considered frowned upon, much less 'evil.'  (Unnecessary, maybe.  Self-indulgent?  Absolutely.) 

But never evil.  That the 1st Amendment (and Elon Musk) protected him of that, he was sure -- covering Every Man's Right to use as many big words as possible to say as little as possible as incoherently as possible.  

Jerrence thought Mr. Rime of The Ancient Mariner should've known that, given the amendment's ratification seven years before his overwrought poem had been written.

Game 11 Thoughts  


Ooo-whee, do it one more time for me!
Can't stop... stop that girl
There she goes again
I really really love to watch her
Watch her headbangin'...



Was anyone else struck by coach Freeman's response to the NBC sideline reporter's softball question -- what do you want to see from your team? -- before Saturday night's kickoff?

Messrs. Bullough, Denbrock, Biagi
"Violence."

Excuse me?!  What happened to mutual respect?!  

I did NOT have Marcus going full Clockwork Orange on my Bingo card.

Fair to say (and he might beg to differ), we've got a very different coach Freeman than we did in September -- reflecting an attitude of a guy who, at worse, might've thought he was coaching for his job but more realistically, knew every week his team was playing in a single elimination tournament:  one loss and you're done.

Now?  So close to Goal #1, making the playoffs.  And they sure don't look like a team that's going to be denied. Or let up.


1.  The Good.  
  • Understanding that Job #1 for the football team is always WIN THE GAME but I love that ND strives to give these guys a broader experience around wherever the Shamrock Series takes place.

  • Rylie Mills is finally playing great.  Hinish has been a revelation.  The young LB'ers have all grown up.  But one blogger's opinion:  it's the secondary that continues to drive the defense's bus.
    • And with the silly season starting -- portal defections, coaches being fired and others being (potentially) poached, and booster money seemingly coming out of the woodwork across the country... I sure hope ND is planning on ponying up whatever they need to keep Mike Mickens.

2.  The Bad.   
  • Red Zone.  Very weird play calling -- 4 plays running straight into the Army line, including Leonard trying (unsuccessfully) to launch himself over the goal line -- that resulted in ND turning over the ball on downs.
    • Apparently, coach Denbrock was trying to execute an homage to the legendary Four Horsemen in some way.  Um, coach, perhaps there are better ways to celebrate that particular centennial...
  • Jerseys.   I've seen worse ND uni's (see pants, white) and if the players (and recruits) like 'em then great!  But as TV viewer, the numbers were super difficult to read.  The NBC spotters surely had their work cut out for themselves.

3. The Ugly.   
  • Kicking.  Houston, we have a problem
    • And by 'problem' I mean, "does Joe Unis have any eligibility left?"  (Because my sciatica is acting up.)
  • And FWIW, apparently getting into Yankee Stadium was a nightmare.

4. Fun Facts..  
  • The Irish are now a nation's best 9-2 against the spread, 
  • Weirdly -- or perhaps not --   their opponents are a collective 0-9 one week after playing the Irish.
    • What's that say to me:  1) ND repesents each of these opponents' Super Bowl and 2) ND beats the sh*t out of 'em -- they leave feeling like they've been through a war.


5.  CFP Madness.

If this seeding holds, it would be really nice to jump Penn St (which'll likely require ND pasting USC)...




Buddy's Buddy

The older one gets, the more sensitive Jerrence is to not repeating himself, which invariably requires remembering what he actually said... 

And he says a lot of things.  

Posing a dilemma:  how can he possibly be held responsible for remembering everything that comes out of his mouth?! 

Which brings us to the blog -- one of his more endearing idiosyncrasies (one thinks) is his hating to repeat content, be it the blog's weekly Word, Song(s), and award winners.  

[The notable exception being in the Schadenfreude / Tools sections where repeat idiocy (and athletic loss is to be celebrated.]

But one digresses. For the Buddy Award, one tries to spread the wealth around... recognize the team, as it were.  But sometimes a stud is just a stud who stands that much taller than the rest.

It's a bird! It's a plane! 
Which brings us, again, to... Jeremiyah Love.

One could make a reasonable argument that he could be Bud's Bud every week (it'll be interesting to see if he ends up being team MVP), such has been his importance to the team, especially with an offense that took, oh, HALF THE SEASON, to find its groove.

His Army performance is a particularly curious metric of his impact:

He scored more points (18) than he actually had plays (14).

(That first ND play of the 2nd half was an especially brutal dagger for the Cadets.)

On the season, 7 yards per carry, 850 yards rushing and oh yeah, 11 straight games with a TD.  

That would seem... good.

And he's only a sophomore.  

I feel love... 



RE-PETE (A shameless, illegal lift of Pete Sampson's weekly mail-bag)



Readers may recognize that I occasionally reference The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name...

I am, of course, speaking of the unspoken bond between Man and Dog.  Pure, unconditional, often bordering on the unnatural and perhaps in some provincial geographies, illegal.

But what other utterances are there -- thoughts that we possess that we're feared of speaking, if not into existence, but in fact the opposite -- out of existence?

For example, the dreaded jinx. 

For that reason, I won't say what I'm thinking... truly believing...  about the present state of this Notre Dame team... but I'll let Pete Sampson do it!

-----------------------------------

Notre Dame might be playing the best football in the country. Your eyes don’t deceive you.

The Irish lead the nation in scoring margin. They’re No. 2 in scoring defense. They’re No. 6 in scoring offense. Nobody is beating down its schedule with more force than Marcus Freeman’s program. 

And yes, the schedule plays a part in that. Notre Dame’s schedule has been one of the weakest in recent history with four Group of 5 opponents, plus a down Florida State, Purdue and Stanford. 

Among the true College Football Playoff contenders, Notre Dame is downstream in schedule strength.

In The Athletic’s mock bracket, including those on the bubble, only Indiana (No. 68), Tulane (No. 85) and Boise State (No. 89) are worse than Notre Dame (No. 65) in the Sagarin schedule strength metric. But it’s not like other top teams haven’t played similarly so-so schedules. Oregon (No. 52), Tennessee (No. 57) Ohio State (No. 58), SMU (No. 59) and Miami (No. 61) aren’t exactly testing themselves every week.

Notre Dame’s schedule may not have been entertaining, but it’s worth acknowledging the Irish helped make it that way … by being really, really good.

Maybe there’s an argument Notre Dame’s schedule won’t prepare it for the CFP. But that applies to just about any team that’s not playing in a conference championship game.

Source: The Athletic
November 26, 2024

Cocktail of the Month

New York, New York.

A town so historically taken with itself that it needs to repeat its name, just so that we, lowly Midwestern hayseeds, fully grasp the magnitude... the grandeur...  of its metropolis and its citizenry.

Not that its necessarily undeserved -- the city is arguably Finance, Cultural, Sports capital of the country, if not the world.

So what does the talent of such a town drink?  Well, here's one man's go-to... 

Eugene O'Neill's
Gibson
1888-1953

Celebrated widely as America's Shakespeare, Nobel Laureate Eugene O'Neill approached his drinking as he did his writing:  with a heightened awareness of family tension, torturous commitment and an air of the dramatic.

[In other words, a Notre Dame fan.]  

O'Neill hailed from a family of roving addicts and alcoholics; his father, in particular, foisted upon him the difficult birthright of drinking to excess, visiting sex workers and generally raising hell.

[Hogwart's sorting hat...  Dillon Hall!]

He was even booted from Princeton University for chucking a bottlr through the university president's window after one particularly raucous evening.  (That president?  Woodrow Wilson.)  Through psychoanalysis, the dramatist who penned Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Iceman Cometh and Anna Christie eventually bested his familial influence and subsequent abuse of alcohol.

But -- before he did, O'Neill was known to linger over cocktails at New York dive bars.  And the Gibson, smacking of brine, salinity and the cool promise of forgetting, was rumored to be his drink of choice.

*  2 oz. gin
*  1/2 oz. dry vermouth
*  1/4 oz. brine from cocktail onion jar
*  3 cocktail pearl onions for garnishing

 -------------------

In a large mixing glass combine gin, vermouth and brine.  Add ice and stir until well chilled. 

Strain into a chilled coupe glass.  Garnish with the cocktail onions. 

Source:  How To Drink Like A Writer
Writing by Margaret Kaplan


Schedule 2024

August
31                @Texas A&M               W

September 

7                  Northern Illinois          L                                                    
14                @Purdue                       W                         
21                Miami (OH)                              
28                Louisville                      W

October  
                                                                                                     
12                Stanford                         W
19                @Georgia Tech                
26                Navy                               W

November 

 9                Florida State                  W
16               Virginia                           W
23               @Army                            W                      
30              @USC                                     

December

20-21             1st round playoff game at ND Stadium -- see you there? 


Wager 2024

One more game.



Wins

Director - ND Equivalence

Domer

12


Christopher Nolan




The Nick Saban of the film world - Nolan is Mr. Swing For The Fences Big Idea Guy, even if every effort isn't always a home run.


But they are undeniably ... epic.


Just like a 12-0 season. 



 

Kevin C,  Lini

Matt L., Brian M.

Jay, John L.

Ray, Blair

John P.




11


Martin McDonagh



Hello, he's Irish!  


Solidly predictable for always being really, really good.  And as  his reputation has been burnished, the star talent in his cast has followed.


Sound familiar?


Jerrence, Daryl
Jim S, Tim C.
Jerry C,  Mike C.
Greg R., Bob S.
George, Raz,
Ted, Bob J.
PeterTim S.,
Dave M 



10

David Fincher

 


Pretty much a stud in both film and TV formats.


Always interesting, albeit with palpably dark undertones... one is never sure how the story is going to end up. 


Much like a 10 win season will feel like.


 

Pat BMike B.

Bill, Jim B.

SloaneAlex

PhillipRandy

Mike G., Jerry P

Gutsch, Mark

Jim T., Brian W




9


Yorgos Lanthimos



Do I always understand what's going on his films?  Nope.


But the ride is pretty enjoyable even when you don't know where you're going or even how you got there.


Ultimately, you might end up appreciating it more than you thought at the time.


 

Alvin, Garrett


8


Richard Linklater



Perhaps the product of recency bias - I quite liked 'Hit Man' - Linklater's films fall for this blogger  into the "nice-fun-I see an interesting insight" category.  They just don't feel especially memorable.


Like we'd view an 8 win season. 


 

7


Wes Anderson



When does quirky/idiosyncratic become tiresome? When you feel like you're watching - again - an inside joke that you're not included in.


Anderson attracts an an all-star cast that no longer seems to add up to the sum of their parts.


In a word, disappointing


 

6


Lars Von Trier



Uncomfortable. Unpleasant. 


Disturbing.


Often off the rails, his films might be 'art' but it's tough to call it many people's definition of entertainment.



 



Schadenfreude of the Week.


Continuing on with last week's wine metaphor... 

As a rule, grapes are harvested, processed and get laid down for many years, until that quality bottle of wine ends up in Castellini's wine refrigerator... 

...where it'll ultimately get opened and, ironically, sit for another three hours in a decanter until troglodytes like myself and Gruley will consume it without nary a single sentence of the required pretension, where one extols the wine's ambitious-yet-unpretentious nature and its surprisingly mature, artisanal humility blah blah blah.

That's some good swill you got there, Jer...
Unfortunately for the diehard Schadenfreudist, we don't have a several years to wait for our sustenance.  And 'mature' has never been in our profile.

Immediate consumption is required, like a beaujolais nouveau -- or a Trader Joe's Three Buck Chuck -- is more our speed.  

And football is just the vehicle to provide it. 

And last week's games were an excellent amuse bouche to get the playoff party started. 

Pleasantly whimsical in their spontaneity.

------------------------------------


1) Indiana This one actually hurts -- we're Hoosier Strong! -- but in the spirit of 'taking one for the team,' one of you had to lose and one supposes, whomever gets beat, make it by a big margin.  And the Hoosiers did not disappoint, although if not for a nightmare flub by their punter right before the end of the 1st half, who knows?


2) Bama.   

Fun fact:  Maine scored 14 pts. against Oklahoma.  

You scored, um, 3.  

What exactly were rolling before the game, Tide?

3) Ole Miss.   "Lane, We Hardly Knew Ye."



Terry's Tools.


The few, the proud...
The Tool section -- like basically the rest of the blog -- has most always been a place to take the criticisms thrown out in a not too terribly serious vein.

Everybody screws up.  And frequently, it's fun to call most of them out.

But usually, there's nothing genuinely dystopian about the behavior.  (That's why we stay away from politics.)

This week, however, there might be a legitimatel scary Sign of the Apocalypse, as far it pertains to college sports and this 67 year old's ability to care about it anymore. 



SEC Media 
.   SEC Media spent two full weeks bashing Indiana only to see three top-15 SEC teams lose to 5-5 Florida, 5-5 Oklahoma and 4-6 Auburn. 

And shall we review their leading mouthpiece, Crimson Tide apologist, Paul Finebaum?  Who is, apparently, not a fan of Notre Dame.

And gee, Paul, where do the Irish sit now, after 11 games?

(Blogger checks notes.)

#5 in every poll.

Huh. 


Scam!
  Four California residents are facing a unique fraud charge. They're accused of wearing the pictured bear costume, crawling inside vehicles, and defacing the interior with the intent of falsely claiming a poor, innocent bear did it. According to the California Department of Insurance, the scam cost insurance companies around $140,000.

A biologist looked at videos of the alleged "bear" in a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes and concluded sit was clearly a human in a bear suit," the insurance department said. 

The suit includes metal hand claws that damaged the seats and the reputation of law-abiding bears everywhere.

In any other state - or maybe another California town -- they probably would've gotten shot.  One wonders if they thought about that...

And finally...

NIL
.    Find a billionaire - or his wife - and recruit them to fund obscene amounts of money toward helping you buy you a national championship roster.


Click here to watch the 3 minute clip of the Bryce Underwood-to-Michigan back story.  

The smug, craven self-satisfied bro attitude of  Dave Portnoy aka Mr. Barstool Sports and his "dude, we're gonna so do this, we've got the 5th wealthiest guy in the world bankrolling us, just watch us... multiple natties here we come" rhetoric -- honestly makes me sick to my stomach.  Yes, the fact that it's Michigan makes it so much worse but to think that a dozen other programs aren't planning to do the same would be naive.

And BTW, do I blame the athlete?  Not really -- it'd be tough to turn down some of these offers that probably feel like generational wealth (even if they're not).   Plenty of others to point the finger at (impotent NCAA, agents, Congress)...

But there's now no one I'm going to wish harder for failing or, sorry, suffering an injury.  (Hey, Bryce, you still get (most) of your money.)

And I hate that's what kind of fan NIL is turning me into.


Name of the Week


It's probably because names resemble words that I'm so fascinated by the idea of what a string of letters together suggest about a human being.

So when a parent places a label on a newborn, piece of unsculpted clay -- or perhaps a little later while still in its infancy, it probably says a lot about both parties: the parents and ultimately the kid dealing with.

Who remembers the Johnny Cash hit, "A Boy Named Sue"?

Occasionally, I am stopped in my tracks, not knowing what exactly to think.  And this week is one of those times.

Memorable Factor



Yes, this is his real name.  Yes, it's kinda fitting that he goes to Duke.   Academically a Junior, he plays LB for the Blue Devils after growing up in London, playing rugby (this is tracking so far), doesn't seem to play much if at all.

But he might be 1st Team, All Name.

Final Thought

USC week.  No time to get complacent.  I'm sure ND won't.  


I'm not throwing away my shot... 






Thursday, November 21, 2024

Week 10: Clown Time Is Over


Didn't think that you could get so much from a picture show
Man dies first reel, people ask, "What's the deal?
This ain't how it's supposed to be...



Dateline:  Notre Dame, IN


There was a point in last week's tailgate -- possibly the last one of the year -- where four Class of '79'ers were standing together, engaging in their usual witty banter... when they were made aware that 'the winningest QB in Notre Dame history' was now in attendance and would they like to meet him...

At some point in each of their lives, these men were all fanboys of someone ND-related (Jerrence would've been knocking octogenarians over if Austin Carr was there), but in this instance there was decided... apathy.

Thanks, we're good.

Um, perhaps he can come to us.

What would account for such disinterest?  Granted, and meaning no disrespect to Ian Book, this was a group who have seen tailgate attendees including Hall of Fame players, Supreme Court Justices, Fed officers, people who had Joint Chiefs of Staff chairmen on speed dial... 

Until next year (or month), oh magical elixir! 
Maybe it was the scintillating conversation that just couldn't be interrupted
.

Or... it was just mid-November and these Boomers were a little tired?  Now 10 games in, it had already been a fairly exhausting year.  Two months earlier, one could've shorted the sh*t out of the ND football stock.  Now, they were in the proverbial driver's seat for a BCS Playoff bid, if not yet an assured home game.

The path to this point wasn't how it was supposed to be.  

And yet, who's complaining now?  



Quote of the Week


"I need to see that dude flying into the stands on that first shot and the second shot ... and every shot thereafter!"
             Marcus Shrewsberry


What?  You thought this was a football reference?  This is our basketball coach.  Who, apparently, took issue with the team's lack of effort -- in an 17 pt. victory.

Football team, take note.

Word of the Week



Okay Used in a sentence paragraph
:  The thought had been on Jerrence's mind for a very long time:  In the new era of NIL and Transfer Portal, almost every team looks very different than they had the year before.

So when fully 1/3 to 1/2 your team is new, how can one expect them to immediately gel -- to reflect their true 'quality' immediately?  

You can't.

So, hey BCS Powers That Be, perhaps the month of September, performance-wise, good or bad, should be heavily discounted, if not thrown out entirely.

Nonetheless, watching ND on Saturday, the positive change in Notre Dame was so apparent to Jerrence. He knew they were demonstrably better than the first month bwhen they had both their best and worst games.  And he appreciated the coaching staff's esemplastic skills as the November version of the team -- far different than what they surely envisioned in March -- demonstrated their true abilities to 'plug and play' so many newbies and effectively blend a disparate group into a very unified, complementary team. 

So they've got that going for them.  Which is nice.

Game 10 Thoughts  


The night they drove ole Dixie down...



Q.  How often, in the post-Lou Holtz Era, has a 21 pt. victory felt a little disappointing?  Not a rhetorical question.

A.  Not often.

But such seemed to be the case last Saturday.

1.  The Good.  
  • I may have been hasty in not advocating for ND's defense as elite.  If they aren't, they're damn close.  The Army game is going to be an interesting test to that evaluation.
    • #1 pass efficiency in the nation
    • #1 in turnovers
    • #3 in scoring
    • #4 in yards per play
    • #4 red zone defense
    • #6 third down defense
  • The end of the 1st half were possibly the wackiest four minutes in recent memory but showed some serious ND creativity and speed.
    • two 70+ yd. TD's called back, including the best pass Riley Leonard has every thrown in his life.
    • Best. Punt Fake. Ever.   The best part was little Faison hiding behind the O-line.
  • Jack Kiser.  Setting a record that likely may never be broken - playing in a COVID-enhanced 63 games (and counting).  
Never to be broken... at least until college football fully commits to being a junior professional league and starts playing 15/16 games a year.

For a kid fairly, lightly regarded, coming out of a very small Indiana high school... becoming a captain and setting a record.  Pretty cool for Mr. Kiser.



2.  The Bad.   
  • Beaux Collins can't catch a cold.
  • KickingUgh.  There are those on this blog that understand hip problems better than I do... can Mitch Jeter get well, like, real soon?!

3. The Ugly.   
  • 1-12 on 3rd downs, many of which due to penalties that put them in huge yardage-to-gain holes. Going forward, that's not going to win many games.

 

4.  Payoff Bingo.  Jerrence was never the sharpest toddler in the play group -- so it's taken me a few weeks to understand how ND could rank fairly high in the Playoff poll but still be borderline to host a 1st round game. 

As a PSA, I'll clarify for those like me:  it's all due the playoff awarding 1st round bye's to the four conference winners -- SEC, Big10, Big12, ACC -- and two of those likely winners are ranked below ND (currently, Miami and Boise St.) and therefore jump them.

Hence, their #6 ranking becomes an 8th place in practicality.


Allow me to spin this scenario positively:

1)  Getting Alabama (or an Ole Miss) in 20F weather (at night?!) = Best Case Scenario.  Most of their players probably have never seen snow or own a winter coat.  Welcome to South Bend, bitches. 

2)  Getting Oregon, who won't have played for almost a month... rather then instead of later, when they've had a game under their belt. 


Buddy's Buddy

The older one gets, the more one strives not to take too many things, anything actually, for granted. Such as:

One's health.

One's family.

One's friends.

The overall good, 60+ year fortune that's led to one being able to actually care about something as trivial as a football game.

The recognition of this week's Buddy winner, Xavier Watts, attempts to practice what I preach -- calling out someone who's so consistently good, so consistently reliable, that it's easy to almost discount him entirely:

Recall young Mr. Watts' path to this point (if memory serves correctly):
  • Highly recruited out of Nebraska as a WR
    • And eschewing the Cornhusters
  • Never really sniffing the field as a Freshman or Sophomore
    • and NOT transferring (unheard of, now)
  • Bouncing back and forth between WR and DB
    • Almost never a recipe for success
  • Finally breaking into the starting line up sometime last year (I think)
  • Winning the Bronko Nagurski award for best defensive player in the country
  • Choosing to stay another year, ostensibly to get better
    • HAS gotten better 
  • Leads arguably the best secondary in the country, with a freshman / sophomore / transfer as his cohorts.

Thanks, X.

RE-PETE (A shameless, illegal lift of Pete Sampson's weekly mail-bag)



Fascinating -- and gratifying -- to see how the narrative of Notre Dame football has perked up over the last month.

I've always appreciated the weekly Pete Sampson -- Matt Fortuna analyses re the State of the Program.  As "Insiders," there has to be a centrifugal pull for them toward The Mother Ship ("please put on your rose colored glasses as you enter"), yet I've found them to very willing to be critical.

Three weeks left in the regular season, a couple things stand out to this blogger:  1) win out and ND will be playoff-bound and 2) no single person remains more important to that goal than our QB.  Thus, today's lift from a Sampson column earlier this week...
 
-----------------------------------

It’s probably time we grade graduate transfers with more nuance than “hit” or “miss” when it comes to evaluations. Jayden Harrison and Rod Heard are the perfect examples. 

They probably haven’t hit the heights they wanted in coming to Notre Dame. Harrison had All-America upside in the return game. He has returned seven kickoffs with a long of 34 yards. Heard felt like a utility knife at defensive back. He has been easy to miss in the box score. 

But both were outstanding against Virginia, the kind of performances that prove they’re value-adds to Notre Dame’s season. Harrison’s 78-yard touchdown was called back by a Pat Coogan penalty, but it was the kind of explosive play at wide receiver the Irish have lacked. 

Heard’s forced fumble in the first half helped break the game open. And Harrison’s coverage on Rendell’s 64-yard punt was textbook.

Whenever this season ends, the graduate transfer story will be Riley Leonard and Jordan Clark. But Harrison and Heard deserve a chapter, too.

Source: The Athletic
November 18, 2024

Cocktail of the Month

A shout out to the legendary Dr. Brooks who provided me with my first exposure to the author below - his book, "Little Failure: A Memoir" is a GREAT read.

Thank you, Mike.

What is about fellows named Mike who seem to lead me toward... martinis.

Not sure about what this Russian author likes to pair, food-wise, with the cocktail -- especially at breakfast -- but when in Rome, or NYC, as this week's game is.  

Just sayin'...

Gary Shteyngart's
Breakfast Martini
1872- 

The Soveit Union-born, New York-based novelist knows a thing or two about vodka -- toasts to good health, good days, bad times and anything in between are part and parcel of his Russian heritage.

Much to the chagrin of purists, his regular order is a vodka tonic.  But like many writers before him, he's known to enjoy a pre-noon martini.  And despite his affinity for the Soviet spirit, once in a while he'll spring for gin.  

His drink of choice at Manhattan's smoked fish and bagel emporium Russ & Daughters has enough protein from egg whites and sweetness from jam to soften the blow from the booze and keep the day open for storyboarding, teaching and writing countless blurbs for New York's literati.

*  Absinthe
*  1 egg white
*  1 oz. gin
*  1 oz. lemon juice, freshly squeezed
*  1 tspn. strawberry jam
*  1 tspn. simple syrup
*  1 dash angostura bitters, for garnishing

 -------------------

Rinse a chilled coupe glass with absinthe.  Shake egg white in an empty, chilled cocktail shaker until frothy.  Add gin, lemon juice, jam, simple syrup and ice.  Shake vigorously until combined. 

Strain into the absinthe-rinsed coupe glass.  Garnish with the bitters. 

Source:  How To Drink Like A Writer
Writing by Margaret Kaplan


Schedule 2024

August
31                @Texas A&M               W

September 

7                  Northern Illinois          L                                                    
14                @Purdue                       W                         
21                Miami (OH)                              
28                Louisville                      W

October  
                                                                                                     
12                Stanford                         W
19                @Georgia Tech                
26                Navy                               W

November 

 9                Florida State                  W
16               Virginia                           W
23               @Army  (Yankee Stadium)       McSorley's anyone?                        
30              @USC                                     

December

20             1st round playoff game at ND Stadium -- see you there? 


Wager 2024


Interesting that with only two games left, there's still three winning wager possibilities left.


Wins

Director - ND Equivalence

Domer

12


Christopher Nolan




The Nick Saban of the film world - Nolan is Mr. Swing For The Fences Big Idea Guy, even if every effort isn't always a home run.


But they are undeniably ... epic.


Just like a 12-0 season. 



 

Kevin C,  Lini

Matt L., Brian M.

Jay, John L.

Ray, Blair

John P.




11


Martin McDonagh



Hello, he's Irish!  


Solidly predictable for always being really, really good.  And as  his reputation has been burnished, the star talent in his cast has followed.


Sound familiar?


Jerrence, Daryl
Jim S, Tim C.
Jerry C,  Mike C.
Greg R., Bob S.
George, Raz,
Ted, Bob J.
PeterTim S.,
Dave M 



10

David Fincher

 


Pretty much a stud in both film and TV formats.


Always interesting, albeit with palpably dark undertones... one is never sure how the story is going to end up. 


Much like a 10 win season will feel like.


 

Pat BMike B.

Bill, Jim B.

SloaneAlex

PhillipRandy

Mike G., Jerry P

Gutsch, Mark

Jim T., Brian W




9


Yorgos Lanthimos



Do I always understand what's going on his films?  Nope.


But the ride is pretty enjoyable even when you don't know where you're going or even how you got there.


Ultimately, you might end up appreciating it more than you thought at the time.


 

Alvin, Garrett


8


Richard Linklater



Perhaps the product of recency bias - I quite liked 'Hit Man' - Linklater's films fall for this blogger  into the "nice-fun-I see an interesting insight" category.  They just don't feel especially memorable.


Like we'd view an 8 win season. 


 

7


Wes Anderson



When does quirky/idiosyncratic become tiresome? When you feel like you're watching - again - an inside joke that you're not included in.


Anderson attracts an an all-star cast that no longer seems to add up to the sum of their parts.


In a word, disappointing


 

6


Lars Von Trier



Uncomfortable. Unpleasant. 


Disturbing.


Often off the rails, his films might be 'art' but it's tough to call it many people's definition of entertainment.



 



Schadenfreude of the Week.


I'd like to consider this to be the beginning of Schadenfreude harvest season.  

Not unlike the making of a fine wine.

As so many of this blog's readership consider themselves pretentious wine aficionados, they'll surely appreciate this analogy, recognizing how important the harvesting process is... as it directly affects the quality and character of the final end product. 

Picked too early, it may be acidic and lacking in alcohol (eek!)... picking too late often leads to an unbalanced, jammy result (perish the thought). 

But we're right in the sweet spot for this offering.

------------------------------------

Enjoy Orlando and the Citrus Bowl...
1) Tennessee.  The Volunteers of late, are a team much like Penn State, which challengs one to consider, are they really any good?  (And unlike, PSU, they actually play quality teams that can provide an answer.)

So.  It turns out, they're not.  At least, not "really good."  Pretty good, yes.  Just not anything to feared.  Granted, getting spanked by Georgia, in Athens, is nothing to be ashamed of.  Also nothing you're ever gonna put on your BCS Playoff resume.  Which, this year, they don't have to worry about anymore.



2)  BYU.   In a near sign of some weird harmonic convergence, Jerrence saw the new Hugh Grant horrow flick, "Heretic" this week, involving a couple of young Mormon missionaries who pick the wrong house to try to convert.

Only a couple days after BYU gets upset by (checks notes)... Kansas.

Surprise!  Like anyone who goes door-to-door selling anything... sooner or later you're going to encounter difficulties.  In this case, serious ones.  Seems like an appropriate metaphor for what happened to the Cougars last weekend.


3) LSU.   How bad is it for Brian Kelly?  This week's loss -- the third in a row -- came at the hands of a team (Florida) with a coach whose season was going so bad he got the dreaded vote of confidence from his AD.

Dead UF Man Walking! 

Unfortunately for LSU, there's approximately 61 million reasons for not jettisoning coach Kelly after this season. 

And they've got (the now tough) Vandy and Oklahoma left on their schedule so it could get worse... which it apparently did, today, with Michigan flipping LSU's 5-star QB recruit. (Money does talk after all.)

Ouch.



4.  Chicago Bears.
So young to be so jaded.
  • I think the Bears are a significantly better team than their record suggests, head coach notwithstanding.
  • Even if I wasn't a Packer fan, it'd be nearly impossible for me to root for Caleb Williams.
  •  I'd lose my charter membership to the "Packer Fans Are People Too" secret society if I didn't cite the Bears' improbable loss to the Pack this week, in the most Bears-like way to blow it.  (Which is saying something after the Washington Hail Mary fiasco.)


Terry's Tools.


The few, the proud...
Tools are like shape shifters.  They come in many forms, some more familiar... recognizable (e.g., coach Prime Time)... than others.

But also, there's cunning often masked as -- or perhaps blended with -- stupidity.

That's trickier to divine even if the end result is still the same for the recipient:  drawing a reaction that spans the gamut from head-shaking to queasiness of stomach to weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, even the occasional rending of garments.

Or, in my case, "Defarge, fetch the poteen -- I'm getting the vapors!"


Surprised ND didn't get called for only 10 men on the field. 
Officiating 
.   As Pete Sampson alluded this week, fans too often see conspiracies in the officiating of their team's games.  

Sometimes -- and this year one could argue it's often -- it's just a matter of incompetence.

Or ignorance.

Hey ACC refs, know your rules.  

The stupidest part of this whole thing was attaching the 'penalty' to the jersey numbers of the O-line.

Why the number matters - ever - is beyond me.  

And the fact that they alerted the refs to this beforehand... disappointing. 


Brian Kelly.  How do you show someone you've lost your team without saying you've lost your team?




"Flipper! Flipper! Faster than lightning..."
Ivan Taylor
.    You might remember this lad - at one point he was one of ND's highest commits, a 4/5 star Safety, some of an former NFL player (a gene pool that the Irish have had uncommon success with attracting)...

And it's probably unfair to pick on young Mr. Taylor -- he's young and therefore almost invariably stupid -- but here's the deal:

I understand kids making a rash decision on a commitment - you fall in love w a place you visit before you may realize there are other, better options, better fits, out there.

I have less empathy for the multiple flipper.  Like Ivan, who, after having bailed on Notre Dame four months ago to immediately pledge Michigan, now has yet another change of heart. What's the adage?  "Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me."

Or maybe it's just a case of "Dude, what part of my "For Sale" sign didn't you understand?"

Now that the fact that Taylor has now reneged on the Wolverines ought to make him a Buddy candidate but sorry, character has to matter, (mom and dad).

Name of the Week


Name of the week in arguably The Game of the Week.

Get used to probably seeing this kid's name a lot -- possibly NFL bound at some point -- he's pretty good on a nationally recognized team.

Truth be told, it unclear whether this is his actual, God-given / what's the birth certificate say name...

But insofar that the young man is from Alabama, there's a non-zero chance that it could be.  In any event, I give you...

Squirrel White

A starting WR for the 10th ranked Tennessee Volunteers, Mr. White is a junior with a 118 receptions in his career -- so he's not just a pretty name.

How'd he get that name? Standing 5'10" it's not like he's sooo diminutive to get tagged with the moniker of a small and elusive furry woodland creature.

But having seen the lad play, it does kinda fit.


Okay, fact check (and isn't that refreshing):  Born Marquarius Malik White, his great-grandmother was holding him in her garden when a squirrel picked a tomato and moved away. White moved at the same time as the squirrel, so great garndma started calling him "Squirrel."

Frankly, a little disappointing -- I was hoping for something more dramatic -- but every week can't be home runs. 

Final Thought

Welcome, future SEC opponent. 

November 21, 2024.