Several years ago, my brother in Orlando found this autographed picture in a garage sale and sent it to me. All I could think was, who would want to get rid of a treasure like this?
ND will have a Mass for Ara Sat, Fr. Jenkins will be the priest. Following a memorial ceremony in the Joyce Center where they will have speakers from his life, former players amongst them. Life goes on and so does fall camp. Listened to some podcasts and man are a lot of people praising Tony Jones at RB, Mike Frank said he was the best looking back on the squad while acknowledging that Josh Adams also looks good and will likely be the starter. Said Dexter Williams looks good as well. Some are perplexed by Kevin Stepherson is not running with the 1's and that it's some sort of punishment. But that he is clearly one of the 2 best WR's along with EQSB. Cam Smith the grad transfer from ASU is running with the 1's. Still no word on the Navy transfer as to can he play this season.
I first became an ND fan at the end of Ara's era. He's the gold standard by which all other coaches at ND are measured, IMHO. Incredibly, as stated previously here, he was an even better man. A life worth celebrating, indeed.
Ara <t>Ara was and is the standard that all Irish coaches should strive to be. Great coach, wonderful person.</t>
Some of you, maybe all of you, have read that the players this season will have "ARA" in the middle front of their helmets where the word "IRISH" normally is located.
Irish broke camp at Culver and will be back on campus today. Naturally nothing but good news coming out of camp, Kelly said yesterday that the defense is ahead of the offense for the first time in awhile. Website Guru's and many fans don't feel like we have anything in the middle of the defense, but Kelly is saying that we do. We shall see when they tee it up in a couple of weeks. Did any of you get a phone call from ND this week offering you tickets to the Temple game? I talked with a nice guy named Darren who called from Notre Dame with a ticket offer. With the widespread dissatisfaction with the program right now I have to wonder if this year will see the sellout streak end. One thing for sure though is it will be a sold out game for Georgia. Georgia fans are coming to South Bend in droves. It will be something like that infamous Nebraska game. But back then it took a covert and detailed plan for the Neb fans to get the tickets. But this year with ND having basically given up on trying to prevent ticket holders from scalping, have contracted with Vivid Seats so any UGa fan who wants a ticket can buy one online, at a higher than face value for sure. But it's all legal and above board. In the past if they found out you scalped your tickets you could have your ticket privileges revoked. No more.
I got an email a couple of days ago about tix for the Temple game. Usually it's the November games that have available tickets. Seems like just a few years ago that they did away with the senior alumni game because of lack of available tickets. At the same time the came up with new seats for new season tickets.
They called me again this morning, I let it go to voice mail. Lot's of unveiling of stuff this weekend, videos of the new locker room, the walk-on getting a scholarship, pictures of the new stadium, the video board and other stuff. The new video board will be the highest resolution board in College Football but not the biggest. The guy who will run it came from the Yankee's. Kizer had a nice outing last night for the Browns, granted it was against the 2nd and 3rd teams for the Saints. Good for him. Also we got a new WR in Kevin Austin, Jr. He was thought be a near sure thing to verbal to ND but then last week he told one of the Websites that his pick might shock some people. Of course that lead to a week of weeping and gnashing and bashing of the Irish effort to recruit him. Nice pickup for the Irish. Guru's are saying we need a speed receiver now and Amon-ra isn't that guy although he's one of the highest rated receivers out there. So we'll have to wait and see who the next WR will be.
ND <t>The Austin kid looks like a great get at the WR position. Had offers from Miami, USC, Mich, Ohio St etc</t>
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Well Mike Tirico is the new Irish Play by Play guy on the NBC broadcasts. He did a good job when he filled in for Dan Hicks last year.
Interesting announcement about NDs future schedule. ND will play Wisconsin. In 2020 at Lambeau field and in '21 they'll play at Soldier Field. I like the venues.
I like the match, I am not sure why it's not home/home. Certainly those staidums are iconic but so are the home fields of both teams. The one at Lambeau will be like a home game for the Badgers and the one at Soldier Field will be like a home game for the Irish. So I don't quite get it. But I'm glad we are scheduled to play.
The news out of camp is always upbeat at least in part, with some guys really impressing and some not being mentioned. Tony Jones Jr. seems to be having a fabulous camp and if it weren't for the presence of a very experienced and excellent back in Josh Adams he might be the starter. Dexter Williams gets good marks but not like Tony Jones Jr. The mystery of the camp is Kevin Stepherson who is so deep in the doghouse that last Sat during the scrimmage that writers were able to see he was playing Scout team DB. This is a guy who had an excellent freshman year, has a lot of speed, not Will Fuller speed, but fast. He also had good hands and ran good routes. A lot of people thought he'd be our best WR this year. But something has happened and he is not in the plans. The guy who is making a case for playing time is former walk-on and former teammate of Malik Zaire in HS, Chris Finke. Claypool is also making a case for playing time. Alize Mack seems to be battling injuries giving the freshmen duo of Wright and Kmet extra reps. One or both could play. But the freshman who seems to be the best is Robt Hainsey at LT, everybody is talking about him. Tommy Kraemer seems to have won the job at RT. The only really big question is at center where the backup has never played the position.