Jimmy Clausen
Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame’s rising star QB, may have gotten himself in trouble this past weekend. While Jimmy is in every way an excellent player, there is some speculation as to whether the college is going to have to take some disciplinary actions since some photos have been released indicating that he and some fellow members of the team have been indulging in underage drinking. The photos were unearthed when someone anonymously sent them to the Big Lead website.
There are some incriminating aspects to the photos, one shows Jimmy and some of the other players standing around a table that has cups of what could be beer on it. The other shows Jimmy holding a cup with some unidentifiable liquid in it, but the actual liquid itself is not visible. There is no actual consumption of alcohol taking place in any of the photos. One doubts if either of the photos hold enough evidence for Clausen to be charged, however underage drinking is an offense that no college can take lightly. To see Jimmy Clausen playing QB for Notre Dame, look for your Notre Dame Football tickets at Stub Hub.
2008 Predictions for the Fighting Irish
The Fighting Irish are getting ready for the autumn, as they train for yet another season of football. With start of the season just a month away, fans are beginning to speculate on what they can expect from this year’s team. After last year’s predictions proved to be somewhat optimistic, fans are looking for more acheiveable predictions. They are opting for cautious optimism, rather than wildly hopeful expectations.
However, looking at this years playing schedule, there is a lot to be hopeful for. Notre Dame’s first game is scheduled against San Diego State on Saturday, September 6th, just one month away. Other games are against the teams from Michigan State, Purdue, Stanford and Boston College among others. Be sure to check out Stub Hubs for all your Notre Dame Tickets this year.
Notre Dame Assistant Joe Yonto Dies
83 year old Joe Yonto died early yesterday morning after having been a part of Notre Dame football, coaching, playing or simply representing the team for much of his life. His first association with the team was as a full back in 1945. He began his coaching career two years later as a senior after a leg injury made it impossible for him to play. After leaving college he went on to coach several high school teams. He returned to Notre Dame in ‘64 and stayed with the team in various assistant coaching capacities until his retirement in 1991. Even after retirement Yonto continued to represent the team at various events, most recently in an honorary coaching capacity in 2007.
Perhaps the passing of their beloved former assistant coach will spur the team on to even greater heights this year, in honor of his memory. Be sure to get your Notre Dame football tickets at Stub Hubs, and watch your favorite team, playing for the win.
Notre Dame’s Great!
Following the end of the academic year, the University of Notre Dame was named as the seventh best “All-Around” university in the nation when it comes to athletics programs. The list was compiled by Sports Illustrated, with UNC and Ohio State earning the number one and two rankings respectively. All NCAA sports were considered in the “All-Around” judgment, but football and basketball were given extra points in SI’s scoring process. Notre Dame scored a total of 165 points in the competition, largely because of the success of their tennis, basketball, hockey and football programs.
Though you might have though of this year as the year of the Gator, Florida was actually just one ahead of the Irish, finishing with 178 points and a ranking of sixth. The rankings are fine, but they do not take into consideration some very important things when it comes to a college’s athletics program, such as enrollment size, academic standards for athletes and athletic budget, all things that would skew the actual performance of the schools on the list.
You can get tickets to see the sixth best sports university by getting Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets at StubHub.com.
Notre Dame Much More Likeable Nowadays
Notre Dame is a much more likable program, now that they aren’t constantly winning bowl games and national championships. Well, that might or might not actually be true, but that’s basically the message that Mark Schalbach portrays in his column at ESPN. In “College Football Fans Love To Hate” the Irish come up quite a bit, but not for the reasons that you might think. Sure, the Michigan Wolverines and USC Trojans are supposed to hate Notre Dame (and they still do, of course), but it’s hard to sustain that kind of rivalry when Notre Dame has a bad season. As you are well aware, the Irish were 3-9 last year, and they didn’t put up much of a fight against either of their two biggest rivals. So how can you build a good feud when there isn’t competitiveness?
That’s not to say that the state of Notre Dame football can’t change in a hurry. In fact, if Notre Dame beats Michigan and/or USC next season (and they have a better chance of doing so than you might think) the rivalry will get a real jump start, and Notre Dame will be making columns like this for the old reasons that they used to- because they’re all just jealous.
To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Eight Notre Dame Athletes Headed to Beijing
There are eight athletes with ties to the University of Notre Dame who will head to Beijing to compete in the Olympic games. With the kind of overall athletic reputation that Notre Dame has, in all Olympic sports, this was not a particularly unexpected surprise, though it was pleasing to hear nonetheless. All the national teams have been selected, the rosters secure, and apparently UND will have a very large representation in Beijing in a couple of weeks.
Women’s soccer has four Notre Dame alumni playing in the games, fencing has three, and track and field has one—although not all of the athletes are playing for the U.S. team. In fact, it could work out that the American soccer players from Notre Dame play the Canadian soccer players. It will be a great Olympic games to watch for Notre Dame fans. We’ll make sure to keep you all good and posted about how these excellent Fighting Irish athletes do.
NOTRE DAME ATHLETES HEADED TO OLYMPICS
- Fencing Kelley Hurley (`10) U.S.A. - Fencing
- Gerek Meinhardt (`12) U.S.A. - Fencing
- Mariel Zagunis (’08) U.S.A. - Fencing
- Thomas Chamney (`07) Ireland - Track & Field - 800 meters
- Shannon Boxx (`99) U.S.A. - Women’s Soccer
- Kate Sobrero Markgraf (`98) U.S.A. - Women’s Soccer
- Candace Chapman (`06) Canada - Women’s Soccer
- Melissa Tancredi (`05) Canada - Women’s Soccer
To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Notre Dame Will Play Utah in 2010
If you have your decade-long wall and ceiling calendar out, or a computer calendar, mark down this date: November 13, 2010. It’s not the date that the Aztecs predicted that the end of time would come (that’s December 21, 2012), but it is the date that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team will play the Utah Utes. The two teams have never played before, so this is a once-in-a-universe kind of thing.
The bad thing or Utah will be that they will not play Utah State, their rivals, during the 2010 and 2011 seasons because of the showdown with the Irish. This is bad for local Utah football fans who love the state rivalry, but they will get to play on national television, and the offer was too good to pass up. Notre Dame will not have to travel to Utah the following year to play the Utes in an away game, as the Irish have enough clout in the college football world to get out of the usual home-and-away stipulations that other football programs typically have to make.
To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Jeff Samardzija Called Up!
Sorry Notre Dame fans, but we have let this story slip for too long. The Cubs called up Jeff Samardzija the other day, and he did a fine job pitching a couple of innings so far. As of right now he has pitched in two games as a closer, but he’s not exactly their go-to guy. It could be possible that Jeff Samardzija gets more playing time as the season progresses, and having some good relief pitchers becomes more important. The Cubs are one of the most likely teams to get to the playoffs, so we could be hearing a lot more from this guys sometime very soon.
As you Domer fans probably are well aware, Jeff Samardzija was a prolific wide receiver for the Irish just two seasons ago. He was also a terrific pitcher, but he was most famous when he was catching passes from Brady Quinn. There are certainly a lot of Notre Dame fans around the Chicago area, so he’s somewhat of a home town favorite. We’ll make sure to keep track of the situation as it develops.
To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Going Over the Domer Quarterback Situation
If you don’t have an “Insider” account at ESPN, you might want to get one, as this is the time of the year when getting the most in-depth knowledge of the college football world is most critical. There are all sorts of team previews and predictions and summer camp assessments out there, but the guys at ESPN really have their stuff nailed down, so it’s worth the investment. Besides, if you want good stuff from Rivals or other sports news conglomerates, you’re going to have to pay for it as well. But I digress. Here’s the link to the Notre Dame team page at ESPN. From there you can find the Insider preview for the team. This time it’s free. But from here on out, I wouldn’t count on it.
Some of the stuff you will learn if you get the account includes the projected quarterback depth chart. If you’ve been following the situation with the quarterbacks in South Bend, then you are probably well aware who is going to be behind the center for the first play from scrimmage. But who are the other names on the list of possible quarterbacks? Jimmy Clausen is the man for now, but if he goes down, the Irish can turn to veteran Evan Sharpley, who might just be as good of a baseball player as he is a quarterback. Then there’s freshman Dayne Crist, another southern California QB who was sought after by all the top programs.
To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Notre Dame Website No. 2 In the U.S.
Only one of the school in the whole country had more unique visitors and impressions (page views) than the Official University of Notre Dame Athletics Website, UND.com, a regular reference here at the Notre Dame Blog, was ranked second in a recent CBS Sports competition to see which school website got the most traffic. Apparently the North Carolina Tar Heels had more individual visitors and page views, but the Irish were out in front of everybody else, including USC, Penn State, Oklahoma and UCLA. This is a major accomplishment, and, of course, very blog worthy.
The Irish are, of course, the nation’s most popular football team, and their basketball program is nationally renowned as well. Every year the Irish have great rankings in other sports, like soccer, volleyball, baseball, cross country and track, as well as swimming and lacrosse. It would seem to follow that a well-rounded school with one super-popular sports team would rank high in internet traffic. I guess that’s the same for North Carolina, another well-rounded sports program with one super program, their men’s basketball team.
To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets, go to StubHub.com.