December 2009 Entries
Chances are I missed a few moments along the way, but here's a recap of most of the major Notre Dame sports moments of the past 10 years:
July 14, 2000: Delaware's Mike Brey hired as Notre Dame men's basketball coach, replacing Matt Doherty, who left for North Carolina after one season with the Irish.
Jan. 15, 2001: Third-ranked Notre Dame beats No. 1 Connecticut 92-76 at the sold-out Joyce Center and ascends to the top spot in the women's basketball poll a week later.
March 6, 2001: Notre Dame men's basketball player Troy Murphy shares the Big East Conference player of the...
It's halftime at Purcell Pavilion, with the Irish up by 4 over the Bruins. That matches Notre Dame's largest lead of the half. UCLA has been up by as many as 6, most recently at 26-20.
The bad news for Notre Dame is that its defense hasn't improved much since the last game. UCLA is shooting 57.7 percent from the field.
After starting 0 for 4 from the field, Luke Harangody made 5 of his last 7 shots and has 12 points to lead the Irish. Ben Hansbrough has 9 points — including a four-point play — as does Jonathan Peoples.
Michael Roll...
New Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly will be on "Mike and Mike in the Morning" on ESPN radio at 9:12 a.m. Tuesday and on "The Dan Patrick Show" at 9:35 a.m. Kelly will also be on WSBT radio's "Weekday Sportsbeat" show at 6:30 p.m. (That's 960 AM for the local readers.)
One other interesting note on the Kelly front: According to Notre Dame, Kelly's introductory press conference had been viewed 193,903 times on und.com as of 10:30 this morning.
Notre Dame receiver Golden Tate captured two first-place votes in Heisman Trophy balloting and finished 10th overall with 21 points. Tate also got three second-place votes and nine votes for third.
The complete breakdown (1st-2nd-3rd—Total; voting on a 3-2-1 basis):
Mark Ingram, Alabama 227-236-151—1304
Toby Gerhart, Stanford 222-225-160—1276
Colt McCoy, Texas 203-188-160—1145
Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska 161-105-122—815
Tim Tebow, Florida 43-70-121—390
C.J. Spiller, Clemson 26-31-83—223
Kellen Moore, Boise State 10-20-30—100
Case Keenum, Houston 2-9-13—37
Mardy Gilyard, Cincinnati 2-2-13—23
Golden Tate, Notre Dame 2-3-9—21
Jarred DuBois hit a 3-pointer from the left wing with 8 seconds to go to give Loyola Marymount a surprising 87-85 win over Notre Dame.
I'd say it was a shocking loss for the Irish, but no team that plays defense like Notre Dame did Saturday night should be shocked when it loses. LMU shot 52 percent from the field and was able to get to the basket time and time again.
Notre Dame had a chance to go ahead when Tory Jackson drove the lane in the final seconds, but Jackson's shot was off and the rebound came down to the...
It's halftime at Purcell Pavilion, where Notre Dame leads Loyola Marymount 45-44 in a fast-paced game, the second of the day here. (The Irish women's team trounced Valparaiso 88-47 earlier in the day.)
The Irish bolted to leads of 7-0 and 16-6, but LMU came back to take a 24-20 lead, its largest of the game so far. The teams were tied at 33-33 when Luke Harangody was called for a foul he disagreed with on the defensive end of the floor and then came back to throw down a one-handed slam on the other with 4:23 left in the half...
Golden Tate has been named to another All-America team, this one selected by the Football Writers Association of America.
The other receiver on the team was Bowling Green's Freddie Barnes.
To see the complete team, click here.
The story of the day at Notre Dame, obviously, was the hiring of Brian Kelly as football coach. (Just making sure everyone had heard the news.) But athletic director Jack Swarbrick took some general questions as well. Here are some of his comments:
• On the subject of the referees who work Notre Dame games, it didn’t sound as if changes were in the works.
“Administratively, you have to affiliate with some conference officiating group,” Swarbrick said. “You can’t be a la carte. You can’t go to the Big 12 one week and say, ‘Hey, can we have a crew?’ or the...
The training table is making a comeback at Notre Dame.
Athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Friday that proper nutrition for Irish players is “at the top of the list” of changes that must be made for the betterment of the program.
“We have to get that right,” Swarbrick said. “We track weight, and our weight loss on the defensive side of the ball during the year was, frankly, a little shocking. So we have to fix that.”
Swarbrick said defensive players lost, on average, 13 pounds during the course of the season.
“You can’t play football that way,” Swarbrick said.
Notre Dame asked dining...
Just as Spencer Calhoun was arriving at Grand Valley State University in 1991, the man who recruited him, Todd Monken, was...
Thursday — when Cincinnati holds its football banquet — promises to be a big day when it comes to the Notre Dame coaching search, but on Wednesday, the major name was Connecticut's Randy Edsall. ESPN reported that there was "mutual interest" between Edsall and Notre Dame, and the Chicago Tribune called Edsall the "backup plan" in case Cincinnati's Brian Kelly doesn't work out.
The question, of course, is whether Notre Dame's interest in Edsall is indeed sincere, or if this was leaked to indicate to Kelly that he's not the only one up for the job and shift the power in...
Notre Dame seemingly moved another day closer to the start of the Brian Kelly era on Tuesday. Here's a recap of the developments:
Kelly himself tweeted that he wasn't interviewing with Notre Dame on Tuesday, but according to the Chicago Tribune, Kelly actually met with Notre Dame officials last week — while he was preparing the Bearcats for their regular-season finale against Pittsburgh. The Tribune story also said Kelly could have the Notre Dame job as early as Friday.
Kelly, via text message, told the Cincinnati Enquirer he was still talking with Cincinnati about a contract extension. The Enquirer also quoted Dan...
Dick Vitale will call his first-ever women's college basketball game on Jan. 16 when Notre Dame, currently ranked third, plays at No. 1 Connecticut.
Vitale, who is in his 31st season at ESPN, will team with Dan Shulman and Doris Burke for the game.
ESPN's "College GameDay" crew of Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps and Hubert Davis will be at the game as well.
Former Notre Dame defensive tackle Chris Zorich was one of three players selected to the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
Former Clemson linebacker Jeff Davis and ex-Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward were also selected.
Zorich played in the 1990 and 1991 Orange Bowls and was named the defensive most valuable player in the 1991 game, his final collegiate game. The Irish played Colorado both years, winning 21-6 in 1990 and losing 10-9 in '91.
Zorich tallied four tackles in the 1990 Orange Bowl and recorded 10 tackles, including eight solo stops, two tackles for loss and one sack in 1991 to...
Wow, it's already been a week. So many memories ...
• Of course, the big news on Monday was Cincinnati's Brian Kelly confirming via Twitter that he will speak with Notre Dame about becoming its next head coach. My story can be found here, and here's a Cincinnati player's take on the situation. I don't pay much attention to coaching searches at other schools, but I can't remember another coach declaring on Twitter that he's interviewing for a new job. Combine this with Kelly's statement on Dan Patrick's radio show Monday that he couldn't guarantee he'd be coaching UC in the...
Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly announced on his Twitter feed a few minutes ago that "Notre Dame has contacted me and I will listen to what they have to say."
Click here
Former Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis was at today's press conference where Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate announced that they will enter the NFL draft. Weis was there in support of the players and did not take questions, but he did issue this statement:
"First of all, I'd like to offer my personal congratulations and best wishes to both Golden and Jimmy, considering the decisions they announced today. Based on all the information that's available, they've both put themselves in position to advance their football careers to the next level and have a great chance to be successful — and that's...
Not much to round up as the Notre Dame coaching search nears its one-week anniversary. I originally thought that if the search lasted much longer than a week, the Irish were in trouble. Now I'm not sure what to think.
• Cincinnati's Brian Kelly wasn't talking about jobs at a press conference about his Bearcats being picked to play in the Sugar Bowl, but now that their regular season is over, it'll be interesting to see if Notre Dame makes its move. Footballcoachscoop.com (I know, why do I bother?) says Kelly is now out of the running.
• The guy footballcoachscoop.com does...
It was a wacky day in rumorville as Notre Dame continued its search for a head coach. Here are the highlights:
• The Chicago Sun-Times began the day by reporting that Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops had yet to turn down the Irish, which prompted Stoops to issue a seemingly unequivocal statement, that read, in part, "I will not be the next coach at Notre Dame." Someone apparently saw some wiggle room in that statement, because Stoops' Wikipedia bio was briefly changed to say that he was the head coach at Notre Dame (it's since been changed back), and a Nashville TV...
Another slow day in Notre Dame's search for a new football coach.
• The Chicago Sun-Times reported that former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer would like to toss his hat into the ring, though it's likely that Notre Dame would be quick to tell Fulmer to go ahead and keep his hat on.
• Notre Dame special teams coordinator Brian Polian is a candidate for the head coaching job at Youngstown State, according to Irish Illustrated.
• And footballcoachscoop.com continued its uphill battle for relevancy, "reporting" that Wisconsin's Bret Bielema is a candidate for the Notre Dame gig. They were, it turns out, the...
Notre Dame All-American basketball player Luke Harangody will be honored Saturday night by his alma mater, Andrean High School in northwest Indiana.
Harangody's No. 40 jersey will be retired before Andrean's game against Gary Wallace.
Harangody's teams at Andrean went 67-29, winning two conference titles and three sectional championships. He was a two-time all-state and all-conference selection, finishing his career with 1,527 points and 850 rebounds in 81 games.
Former Irish coach Charlie Weis was on hand Friday night to present the awards and give a speech at Notre Dame's 89th annual football banquet, which was only open to players, coaches, staff members and their families.
Quarterback Jimmy Clausen and wide receiver Golden Tate shared the most valuable player award, selected in a vote by the team.
Kyle McCarthy won the Nick Pietrosante Award, which is given to the player who best exemplifies the courage, loyalty, teamwork, dedication and pride shown by the late Irish All-America fullback. That award was also voted on by the team.
Center Eric Olsen won the Guardian...
Not much action on the Notre Dame coaching search Thursday, which might mean that something actually got done. Or not. Nobody really knows much of anything. Anyway, here are the few developments:
• Irishcentral.com stuck by its story that Brian Kelly is the next Notre Dame coach. I like how this story talks about "ridiculous" speculation, as opposed to the supposed "fact" at the heart of the story — that Kelly has been hired by Notre Dame. Irishcentral, meanwhile, has been touting Kelly for a while, so it has an interest in seeing him hired.
• UConn's Randy Edsall didn't take any...
Day 2 was a little quieter on the Notre Dame coaching search front. Here's a look at Wednesday's developments:
• In response to a question from WEBN Radio's Dennis "Wildman" Walker, Cincinnati's Brian Kelly said, "I'm staying, man. I'm staying. Why would I go? It's always about staying, first and foremost." Kind of a strange answer — and one he didn't give in his formal press conference this week — but I guess you tell a guy named "Wildman" what he wants to hear. (Full disclosure: When I lived in Cincinnati, I listened to "Wildman" quite often.) Kelly was later asked...
A wrapup of Day 1 of the Notre Dame football coaching search:
• Cincinnati's Brian Kelly said he has had no contact with anyone from Notre Dame, and won't deal with that situation until after the Bearcats play at Pittsburgh Saturday for the Big East Conference title and a BCS berth. Until he signs a new contract at UC, I think Kelly is the favorite for the job, and probably the safest choice left on the board.
• ESPN's Adam Schefter went back on his tweet that Bob Stoops was in line to take over at Notre Dame, and Stoops again told...
Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen is one of 10 quarterbacks nominated for the Manning Award, which is given by the Sugar Bowl and takes into consideration the candidates' bowl performances.
The other nine nominees are:
Andy Dalton, TCU
Max Hall, BYU
Case Keenum, Houston
Dan LeFevour, Central Michigan
Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
Colt McCoy, Texas
Kellen Moore, Boise State
Tony Pike, Cincinnati
Tim Tebow, Florida