Oh my God, you can't believe
It's happening again...
Dateline: Merzouga, Morocco
And that brought to the fore many existential thoughts for this new Berber warrior.
But also like coach Riley and his feelings toward Notre Dame, he wasn't sure he wanted to be back -- as a mode of transportation goes, Steve was not the most comfortable of rides and Jerrence was beginning to tire of the monochromatic palate of the desert.
Finally, even if Morocco was considered, relatively speaking, 'Muslim Lite', it was still Muslim and he hadn't seen a Gin & Tonic for the past 300 miles.
That wouldn't be a sustainable dynamic.
Still, "Jerrence of Arabia" had a nice ring to it. And with his screenwriter pal Jerry's help, maybe there could be a reboot of the iconic Peter O'Toole - Alec Guinness film... instead of fighting the Ottoman Empire, they'd have to find a new super villain.
And with the USC game only a day away, the Trojans and Riley would normally be a viable candidate. Except no one would believe they'd be even remotely threatening outside of the Pacific Time Zone.
Quote of the Month
"Unbelievable..."
Todd Blackledge
Even before Mr. Blackledge uttered that surely spontaneous remark after seeing Lincoln Riley call a pass play on 4th and inches in the 4th quarter, deep in ND territory with a game not entirely out of hand (stranger finishes have happened).. I was thinking how much I liked him as an announcer -- in general and specifically of ND games.
He's objective, balanced and knowledgeable. There's a reason why he's a part of NBC's Big 10 announcing 'A' team.
And the aforementioned utterance is a perfect example of that: he was clearly incredulous about the poor play call -- not Riley's first stupid decision by that point -- yet he didn't belabor the point.
I think that one word said it all. Boy, I hope we see him again -- maybe for a playoff game?
Word of the Month
From almost Day 1 of his hire, this seemed an inevitability.
For a program that held itself to a much higher standard, not only were the team's mediocre on-field results worthy of a 'regime change', the reports of the coach's lack of off-the-field commitment surely placed the final nail in his professional coffin.
LSU head football coach job was not a 'turn key' sinecure ... certainly not when you're being paid almost $100M to win in the cutthroat SEC where "if you aren't cheatin', you aren't tryin'."
And if you're not playing for a natty by Year 3, you should calling your agent to understand how ironclad the guarantees are on your contract.
Did the coach not understand these 'stakes of the game' or did he just not care, Jerrence wondered.
With the coach being only 64 years old, Jerrence supposed the $50M+ that was still coming to him made that question pretty much moot.
Game 7 Thoughts
A lot of people won't get no supper tonight
Justice tonight......
With the benefit of hindsight, the outcome to the USC game always seemed pre-ordained. Practically speaking, the Trojans just do not travel well beyond one time zone. And then there was the karmic variable, with their coach doing everything to say outwardly 'sure we want to play the Irish' but sending a more subliminal message of 'we can't afford losing to you like we have 6 out of the last 7 times' (soon to be 7 out of 8).
So yeah, it was a case of 'Justice Tonight...'
---------------------------------
Here's also what else came to mind watching the game, with the benefit of a week's distance and some sleep (in no particular order):
1. CJ Every game is a new referendum on the first time QB. Personally, other than the one egregious decision, I thought he was pretty mediocre but not awful (like many have described).
He still hung tough after that awful mistake. I didn't hear many people talking how perfect his TD pass to Pauling was.
He was off. It happens. He'l probably have other less than perfect games. He'll play better.
2. Zone defense One man's opinion: we're terrible at it. Maybe having Leonard Moore cover Makai Lemon everywhere (a seemingly super logical move) screwed everyone else up but I'd be playing man almost exclusively the rest of the way.
3. Kicking. Oh boy. Recognizing kickers are a different breed... not our clan's finest moment last Saturday night. What should've been, minimally, a 38-24 game felt a lot sketchier and frankly demoralizing when the O does its job and gets nothing when you blow easy kicks.
Coach Biagi is gonna earn his salary this week.
And 2) as unquestionably elite as J-Love is, it's becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate Price's skill set from Jeremiyah's.
They're both really freaking good.
Let's hope the bye week gave him suitable time to heal. 'Cause no one's throwing at Leonard Moore so I guess one can expect those throws still to be coming his way...
Buddy's Buddy
Prior blogs have already addressed how Buddy often looked beyond the obvious for the less flashy attributes a person might have.
And sure, if you had a treat in your hand, you could be a serial killer and he'd have given you a tour of our house.
But that only underscores the human frailties that he shared with all of us.
Bringing us to this week's Bud. It's not like there wasn't a plethora of candidates, from the drop dead obvious guys like Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price... to the less obvious, clutch performers like punter James Rendell. Or even Mr. Gray.
On top of that, getting hurt, going off and COMING BACK before finally having to call it quits.
Welcome to the club, Billy Schrauth, this week's Bud.
Warrior.
You love the thunder and you love the rain
What you see revealed within the anger is worth the pain
RE-PETE (A shameless, illegal lift of Pete Sampson's weekly mail-bag)
Okay, so we survived the October schedule and the USC game...
Now, if one believes the national punditry, we should coast to 10-2 and a playoff bid.
Probably wise to be a little less assumptive. But with 7 games under our belts, also worth seeing if one could make some intelligent observations about where the team is.
Intelligent? Certainly not by me. That's why I plagiarize Mr. Sampson's column each week!
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Is Notre Dame’s run defense for real?
Lost in the tumult of that messy start under first-year defensive coordinator Chris Ash is the fact Notre Dame’s run defense might actually be better than last season. Despite losing the spine of the defense, the run defense is allowing a half-yard less per carry and has cut out explosive plays on the ground to almost nothing. The Irish gave up 17 runs of at least 20 yards last season. This year, they’ve allowed just four.
The defensive line has been good, but the linebacker play might be better. Rotating five players, relying on Drayk Bowen and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa but also getting the best out of Jaylen Sneed, the group rates among Notre Dame’s most improved positions from opening night at Miami.
Boston College might be down leading rusher Turbo Johnson Richard, which could set Notre Dame’s defense up for another strong performance on the ground. And if the Irish defense can’t be cracked in the run game, the odds of Notre Dame winning out go way up.
Credit Ash for building out Notre Dame’s run defense over the past two months, but Freeman believes the success story starts with the roster itself.
“I don’t want to say it’s not tactical,” he said. “We’ve done some things tactically to help us improve, but again, it’s still about the execution of what we’re doing tactically.”
Source: The Athletic
October 31, 2025
Cocktail of the Month
A little backstory: Before the Corrigans met up in Morocco, we chose a thematic book to read and discuss... call it an 'on the road' book club.
The book we chose was "The Caliph's House: A Year In Casablanca" by Tahir Shah. The story, ostensibly a true one, is about a guy who moves his family to Morocco, harkening back to his youth growing up there, and the hijinx that ensue when he tries to renovate an old palatial estate that's fallen on hard times.
Why was it in disrepair? Mostly due to the widespread belief that the house was inhabited by Jinns -- mischievous, occasionally malevolent, spirits -- which the citizenry, especially in the home building industry, take seriously. The book / cocktail below therefore makes perfect thematic sense.
As an aside, when the family gathered to discuss the book, mine was the highest grade within the group. Which suggests had I gone into the teaching world -- Professor Jerrence -- I'd have been VERY popular.
I'd like you all to take a minute and consider that particular alternative universe. You're a sophomore at ND and you need to -- you don't want to -- take an English Lit course and you see "Introduction to Historical Fiction" taught by... me. The mind reels, oui?
WET AND WYLDING HALL
(Wylding Hall)
by Elizabeth Hand (2015)
Things do not go as planned.
If you're ready for a slow-creeping dread that crawls up your spine, then settle in with this novella and a delicious drink.
Yield: 1 serving
-- 2 oz. light rum
-- ½ oz. raspberry syrup (store-bought syrup or make your own by combining equal parts sugar, water, and fresh raspberries)
-- ½ oz. curaçao
-- ¾ oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
-- orange slice or twist, for garnish
-- raspberry or cherry, for garnish
-----------------------------
1. Add ice cubes to a cocktail shaker to chill the ingredients.
2. Add the light rum, raspberry syrup, and curaçao into the shaker.
3. Squeeze lime juice into the shaker.
4. Shake the ingredients vigorously for about :10 to :15.
5. Strain the contents of the shaker into a rocks glass or a coupe glass filled with ice.
6. Garnish with the orange slice or twist on the rim of the glass with the raspberry or cherry on top of the drink.
Source: The Turn of the Screwdriver
50 Dark & Twisted Literary Cocktails
By Iphigenia Jones
Schedule 202
August
31 @Miami L
September
13 Texas A&M L
20 Purdue W Corrigan brother reunion!
27 @Arkansas W Soooiiieeee!
October
4 Boise St. W Alumni Hall Reunion weekend, Union Pier MI
11 NC State W
18 USC W "Lincoln, We Hardly Knew Ye" (wussy)
November
1 @BC
9 Navy
16 @Pitt
23 Syracuse
29 @Stanford
December
19-20 PLAYOFF GAME!
Wager 2025
Now 5-2 with arguably only two tricky games left -- Navy (losing Saturday night, at home, on NBC I don't think so) and at Pitt (maybe but a freshman QB who's good but unlikely to be the Second Coming Of Dan Marino)...
...and understanding that these are kids, anything is possible, still feeling pretty good about the 10 win possibilities...
Wins | ND Equivalence | Domer |
12  The Joker | "Do I really look like a guy with a plan?" ----- Ledger's Joker is mercurial, charismatic and a complete psychopath. Utterly unforgettable. Just as a Notre Dame undefeated, on-their-way-to-a-national championship-season would be. |
|
11  Otto | "Don't call me stupid!" ----- Ex-CIA operative Otto lives at the intersection of dangerous and moronic. An 'Otto season' for ND would be a rollercoaster -- a lot of fun with youth at some key positions, and likely more than it's fair share of 'that wasn't very clever' moments. | Gutsch , Sloane Daryl Jim S. Peter Tim TedBill Jim B Pat B George Alex, Feif Garrett Spit the Elder |
10  | "That's a bingo!" ----- Jew hunter Landa -- equal parts chillingly pathological and pragmatic, this character would probably represent a 10-win regular season that might make you sick to your stomach but ultimately pretty satisfied. | Jerrence, Mike C, Tim C. Mark U. Jerry P. Jerry C. Mike B. Brian W. Jim T. Mike G, Bose Jerry W Lini, Randy Greg Kyle W. |
9  RP McMurphy | "I'm a goddamn marvel of modern science." ----- What's the residual emotion from Cuckoo's Nest? Sadness. RP, a guy who sees things clearly but can't get out of his own way. When it doesn't end well, one is left thinking what could've been. Like a 9-win season.
| |
8  | "I don't know who I am. Or where I'm going. None of it." ------ An apt summary of an 8-win ND season. A lot of difficult questions ultimately unanswered. Still, the Bourne trilogy rocks and JB is The Man. | |
7  | "I'm thinking I'm back..." ----- For many, ND winning only 7 games would be akin to someone shooting their dog -- and requiring appropriate payback. And like with John Wick, rationale requiring very few words of explanation. | |
6  | "Are you not entertained!" ------Probably not, if ND only won six games... but that's not the point here: it probably says a lot about me that the final ranked character is the most moral, selfless one of the bunch. | |
Sports Imitating Art.
The Art of Conversation, by René Magritte, 1963
Fun fact: The Castellini's took the Corrigan's to a private Magritte exhibit at The Art Instiitute* several years ago so don't tell me Our Man Lini is not a Man of Culture.
* Okay, Judy probably invited us.
Schadenfreude of the Week.
I think it's been well documented -- almost entirely by me -- that I don't know jack sh*t about football and mostly what you get from me is something I read somewhere else, ergo NOT AN ORIGINAL THOUGHT (something I haven't had since 1977 when, as Secretary / Treasurer of Grace Hall I boldly suggested, in order to combat the rampant elevator vandalism problem, that we de-stack the Grace tower and create a ranch style dorm in the green space between the dorm and the library...
Of course I was roundly mocked for such ahead-of-the-curve thinking. Innovation is almost always misunderstood by the less evolved. And immature young males can be so cruel.
Cretins.
But I digress.
The point is this: I have no idea any more who to root for that advantages ND's chances of making the 12-team BCS Playoff. I think if they they just win out they out to be fine but...
...whatever. Let's talk in mid-November.
-----------------------------------------------
1. USC. First of all, I'm so happy for my SoCal 'friends and family': my brother Mike and Jay / Dave M., Joe S... I know how much the rivalry matters to each side's alumni / fans -- so f*ck you, Lincoln and Jenn Cohen for wussying out on this.
That said...
"Same as it ever was..."
2. LSU. With Kelly's dismissal, consider this an exorcism. The next time LSU makes this section, hopefully, it's when they lose a meaningful game that actually matters to Notre Dame's fortunes.
3. Oklahoma & Missouri. These two, on the other hand, do still have some practical relevance for ND's path to the playoff. If only for another week or so.
It's beginning to look a lot last last year
Where you just can't close.
Take a look at your games ahead
You're basically walking dead...
Think what you will of the SEC conference, the guys who create the SEC Shorts content are undeniably REALLY clever.
Terry's Tools.
 |
| New and improved (?) |
Technology advances at an exponential rate, pity that human intelligence, decision making, good taste and common sense are not following at an equal pace.
One man's opinion: idiots still abound.
And I think this blog section shows empirical evidence to support that claim.
-------------------------------------------------
1) Officiating . It's easy to be generous when one ultimately wins these games but this is, at least, the 4th home game (WTF?!) where there have been some ridiculously egregious calls (or non-calls). One assumes that Bevacqua sends these into... where?... each week.
 |
| That's not a a hold -- it's a text book tackle! And how is that not PI -- the DB isn't even looking! |
But this gotten beyond concerning...
Well, as Kay Corrigan was always fond of saying, "God doesn't close a door that He doesn't open a window..." Or something like that.
While the museum's officials subsequently announced a $100m update on their security system -- me thinks a little late -- check out this ad from an 'involved' participant. In America, you'd probably lose your job for this cheekiness but I LOVE it.
Who says the Germans don't have a sense of humor... lets hope the French do too.
3) Jeff Landry. This week ,Lousiana's governor said, " I can tell you right now, (LSU athletics director) Scott Woodward is not selecting the coach. Hell, I'll let Donald Trump select it before I let him do it."
 |
| "I didn't get a harrumph out of you..." |
Opined ND beat writer, Tim Prister: Oh really. How are you going to make sure the coach is successful? You have ability to intuitively perceive and guarantee you're going to pick the right coach? And you're going to make sure you don't get fleeced like Texas A&M and LSU did? Wow. He should then be able to bottle that and sell it to other schools competina for national championships.
How exactly does that work?
Governor Landry, putting the 'small' in small government.
Name of the Week
Nature or nurture?
Does one make the name or does the name drive a person to live up to their moniker?
This week's candidate challenges that question -- once again coming from the roster of our upcoming opponent, Boston College, and should be a name that one hears called with relative frequency on Saturday.
Turbo Richard
The dictionary defines a "turbo" as a device that uses exhaust gases to force more air into an engine, increasing its power and efficiency.
Given how awful the Eagle's offense is, he might be the only thing that represents a threat: 431 yds riushing on 88 carries, a near 5 yds/carry average.
Turbo indeed. Look for #2 on Saturday.
Trivia
Q. Who wrote a song that was a worldwide ecumenical movement, starting out as a pagan folk tune, then becoming a Christian children's hymn, only to end up as a hit for America's most famous Muslim singer?
A) Snoop Dog
B) Cat Stevens
C) SZA
D) Dua Lipa
------
Everybody's talkin' at me
I don't hear a word they're sayin'...
Final Thoughts
You leave the country for a couple weeks and come back to find...
-- Dave Marcel on the cover of ND Magazine
-- Kevin Maher featured in a Walgreen's Viagra knockoff article
Uh?
True dat.
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