Irish football is only a few weeks away with Aug 2 being Kelly's media conference and Aug 3rd he start of fall camp. They will be at Culver again, I guess Kelly likes the team building aspect of getting the players away from campus. On another front, the thing that is surprising to me is that Swarbrick has not replaced the Irish Baseball coach. We have been a mediocre program at the best under Aoki. But if he was going to do it, it would have been done by now. So he gets another year. I don't know the guy of course and he might be a great guy and high character guy, players may love him and all that...but his teams have not done well and he's had plenty of time to build "his" program. His best record was in 2015 when he tied for 2nd in the ACC Atlantic Division, other than that it's been 6th, 7th or 8th and no NCAA's. This year was the year that he should have been let go right after the season ended and a search begun for a replacement. Irish womens basketball still basking in the glow of their NCAA championship and well they should. The upcoming season should also be one where they are among the best and compete for a Final Four slot. Irish Mens' basketball is rebuilding, a lot of young players on the team and Brey's best teams are not young teams.
Didn't watch the whole ESPY's last night, did see Jim Kelly's moving speech and his video for the Jimmy V award. I might have had some dust get in my eye. I didn't see the Astros win the Best Team Award, and I didn't see Arike Ogunbuwale win the best play award for her Nat'l Championship game winning shot at the buzzer. I did however watch some Notre Dame football on Youtube. I watched the '73 USC/ND game. It was fun to watch Anthony Davis fumble in a critical situation and watch Pat Haden throw some pick and get sacked. I was reminded how things have changed. In 1973 the first game for ND was Sept 22 v Northwestern at home. The next home game was Mich State on Oct 6th and then the game vs USC Oct 27. Yet in spite of the light use of ND stadium that field was in just awful shape, it looked like there had been a Rodeo in a rain storm. I also watched the '73 Sugar Bowl. The play to Robin Weber to seal the game is of course legendary. But the 3rd down run with only a minute or so left in the game by Tom Clements to get a 1st down sealed it. Howard Cosell was doing the color and as Ara took the podium he commented how at 50 Ara had his first undefeated season. Back then if you would have told me that Ara would only coach one more season at Notre Dame I would have said you were an idiot. He was young enough to coach 10 more years, I wonder what they would have been like. No Dan Devine, what about Joe Montana? Saban is still going strong at 65, could Ara have gone that long. History sure would have been different.
That's classic EDSBS.. I think they even put this in on purpose knowing how many ND fans had a heart attack over getting rid of the sacred grass for turf!
We now have legalized sports betting in New Jersey. I was at Monmouth Park race track today and decided to take a leap of faith. I placed a $100 bet on Notre Dame to win the National Championship this year at 28:1. Go Irish !
Ahh yes, the momentum is gaining. The new season is coming up and excitement is in the air. BTW George, that's a good bet at those odds. The schedule is rough, but it might possibly pay off at the end of the road. It'll either make or break the team. I think this team goes as far as the defense carries it. Sure, Kelly loves to score the points but it's defense that wins titles.