Former Notre Dame Soccer Stars Help U.S. Win Gold!
Kate Markgraf and Shannon Boxx, of Notre Dame classes ’98 and ’99, respectively, have just won gold medals at the Olympics! Both soccer players were starters for the U.S. national team that defeated Brazil earlier this morning at the Olympic Soccer Final in Beijing, China. The game went into overtime, and although the Brazilian team pretty much dominated the show, the Carli Lloyd was able to land her sole overtime shot, which wound up being the only goal of the match. The U.S. won 1-0.
This is the third time in four Olympic games that the U.S. team has won gold. Shannon Boxx and Kate Markgraf know what it’s like to win on such a big stage, but this time, it was perhaps a tad bit sweeter, as the win came against one of their fiercest national team rivals, Brazil. Congratulations to Shannon and Kate for their brilliant performances. If you didn’t get up early enough to watch the game, you ought to check out the replay today or tonight, because it was a fantastic finish.
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Michigan State Spartans Preview
Yesterday we did the Michigan preview, and now the time has come to go over the second big test of the season for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, their matchup with the Michigan State Spartans.
While the Spartans are not expected to be as good as the Wolverines, the Michigan two-step will still be plenty tough. In the preseason AP, USA Today and ESPN Polls the Spartans receive votes, but are just outside of the Top 25. Last season the Spartans played well in the beginning of the year but fell asleep in the conference schedule, going 3-5 in the Big Ten, while finishing 7-6 overall. Still they were invited to the Champs Sports Bowl, so the season wasn’t a complete failure.
The Spartans absolutely clobbered the Irish in their matchup last season, so the Domers will probably be looking for some sweet revenge. Unfortunately, Michigan State will play Notre Dame at their home, so they’ll have the home town edge. The good thing for the Irish is that the Spartans are expected to be about as good or worse than last season, or so says most of the season previews for the team. The Spartans are without Devin Thomas, Kellen Davis, Jonal Saint-Dic, Ervin Baldwin and Travis Key this year.
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Looking at Michigan, Notre Dame’s First Big Test
Notre Dame will open up their upcoming football season at home against the San Diego State Aztecs, and although the first game of the year will inevitably be a little rough around the edges, the Irish are expected to win handily. The line on the game isn’t set yet, but it should wind up being double digits. The Domers’ first big test will come in their second game, a home battle with the Michigan Wolverines, one of their biggest rivals.
Last year Michigan lost that shocker to Appalachian State, but after that they looked pretty good. They finished 9-4, went to a Bowl game, and had a 6-2 conference record in the Big Ten. The Wolverines lost a few players to the draft, including the No. 1 overall, but they still have a solid base of talent on both offense and defense, and they always bring in great recruits. The Wolverines beat up the Irish last season in what was, then, a game between two teams without a win. Michigan had previously lost to Oregon as well as App St. But they wound up absolutely destroying the Irish 38-0. This year ought to be different, but clearly Notre Dame will have to come up with something good to get back at Michigan for the embarrassment last season.
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ESPN’s Graham Watson on Notre Dame Football
As the season gets closer to starting time there are all sports or new articles out there about Notre Dame. Given the immense popularity of the team, there’s going to be a lot of stories about the team. Everybody’s got an opinion, and they all seem to be very similar. This particular story by Graham Watson at ESPN is interesting because it mentions the offensive and defensive line more than most of the others. According to EPSN’s article about the program, Weis had this to say about the trenches next season:
“You know, I think that we wanted to make sure that the one thing we did was put ourselves in a position where we could compete physically on the interior parts of the offensive and defensive line. The one thing you have to do is let them play physical at the point of attack. … I’m interested to see how much the size and strength correlates to performance on the field.”
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McAlarney Continues Diary of Ireland Trip
Kyle McAlarney continues to write journal entries about his trip to Ireland with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball team. You can check out his entries fro the past two days, but a fair warning: don’t read them unless you want to be exceedingly jealous. As you might know, the Fighting Irish are in Ireland for the time being on a trip to promote a better basketball relationship with Ireland, and also to participate in some basketball camps. It’s training, but it’s also vacation.
Kyle’s Day Two is a lot better than the first day. You even get a picture of Kyle overlooking the famous cliffs. Boy it must be nice. The first day of their trip was mostly spent flying there and being really, really jet lagged. But Day Two seems to be much more chock-full of adventure and action.
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Notre Dame’s McAlarney Writes Journal of Ireland Trip
The University of Notre Dame basketball team is getting into the spirit of international competition these days. The Fighting Irish have traveled to Ireland to compete in exhibition games against some youth teams in Europe and to participate in some preseason camps. While the purpose of the trip is supposed to be basketball-related, the young men will defiantly benefit from having an experience like this outside of the country. There will be sightseeing, too.
Guard Kyle McAlarney has written a journal entry for his first day on the trip. Most of the first entry is about the plane ride to Ireland, which included an unscheduled maintenance stop in Boston for a few hours. Not surprisingly, the athletes were pretty jet lagged and tired after making the Atlantic voyage, so the first one isn’t very good. Of note: Kyle read “The Pistol,” a biography of Pistol Pete Marovich, on the way. Also, according to McAlarney, who has the perfect name for an Irish lad visiting Ireland, Ireland is very green.
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Clausen’s Scandalous Internet Photos
There’s no escaping the hype. Jimmy Clausen was photographed (or at least so it would seem) at a drinking game with some of his teammates, including Brian Smith and James Aldridge. Nobody knows who took the photos, when they were taken, or whether the boys were actually drinking, but that doesn’t seem to dissuade the internet from going crazy with a beer photo buzz about them.
The reason this is news at all is that Jimmy Clausen has already been in trouble for alcohol-related issues. He does not turn 21 for a few months. A year ago he was caught transporting alcohol for older friends of his, though he cited that he did not know the rules regarding the transportation of alcohol in the state of Indiana. Look- if you think that a college football player can completely avoid the culture of alcohol on a modern day college campus, you need a stiff shot of reality, buddy.
As yet, there’s no proof of anything other than that Jimmy was AT a party where alcohol was served. He isn’t even holding a Dixie cup. Seems like a lot of hullabaloo about nothing- but then, that’s the internet for you. As a blog, we couldn’t help but address the issue. But hopefully it goes away very quickly, as there’s really nothing here to be all that concerned about.
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Weis On The Running Back Situation
As you might know already, the Notre Dame Irish were not exactly the Arkansas Razorbacks last season. Although there was some talent in the backfield, the running game was a constant struggle, and the Irish definitely did not have two first round draft picks back there, like Arkansas. The Irish had the lowest average total offensive per game numbers last year, and a huge reason for that was that they were never able to establish a running game. So it should come as no surprise that the coaching staff expects that things will improve this year.
Take a look at what the Sports Xchange (via CBS Sports) has said about the situation. Charlie Weis gave a nice quote about his expectations, too. The Irish will likely split time in the backfield between James Aldridge, Armando Allen and Robert Hughes.
“I think all three of these running backs can play. I don’t think there’s any question that you can put any of those three guys out there and you’d have a chance of winning in the game.” —Coach Charlie Weis
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Notre Dame’s Mariel Zagunis Wins Gold No. 2
A number of days ago the Notre Dame Blog told you about all of the Olympic athletes who are, in some way or another, associated with the University of Notre Dame. Well, if you have been following the action in Beijing lately, then you know that Notre Dame’s own Mariel Zagunis won a gold medal at the Olympics. The Domer graduate was able to beat out a fellow American teammate, Sada Jacobson, in the final bout to take home her second gold medal at the Olympics. In 2004 she won the gold in the same event. Becca Ward, another American, finished third, giving the Americans a sweep of the women’s saber event.
Our hear-felt congratulations go out to Mariel, as well as Becca and Sada. Seeing three American flags go up amid the national anthem on Saturday was amazing. It was the first gold medal for the Americans at the Olympics. Although fencing is not a very popular sport, Mariel stated that she hoped that her win, as well as the performance of the silver and bronze medal winners, would help to raise awareness of the sport among American girls.
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Dive Right In
Notre Dame Football is moving towards the opening game of the season with a renewed lease on life, after a refreshing break from the disappointing season in 2007/2008 they are looking to start again fresh. Coach Charlie Weis presented the team with a new mantra for this 2008/2009 season “Dive Right In.” He wants to encourage his players to go for the win and give it everything they’ve got, and he is looking for his players to keep going no matter what.
They are starting out the year strong, with their 23 member recruiting class being ranked second in the nation by many. When he addressed the media today, Coach Weis stated that he and his team are looking to get off to a fast start to bring them in with a strong finish. The team is looking forward to this season as an opportunity to redeem themselves from their disappointing season last year, which started out at 0-5. Lets see what the Fighting Irish can give us this year, as they work hard towards giving their fans cause for celebration in the year ahead. Look on Stub Hub for tickets for the Notre Dame football games.