Columns

Why We Mourn

I only met him once.  But as many would tell you, once was enough. Some years back, I was asked to serve on a committee to organize a charity dinner in Chicago for Lou Holtz, Charlie Weis, and Ara Parseghian.  The thought was outreach via NDN could fill a couple tables, and I was happy…

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Notre Dame Football Fall Primer

As I’ve written before, Notre Dame is coming off a season of systematic failure. Strength and conditioning, defensive coaching, offensive coaching, special teams coaching, nutrition, team leadership and recruiting were all in various stages of dysfunction. In retrospect, 4-8 shouldn’t have surprised anyone, what should have surprised everyone is how such a storied program slid…

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A Chart to Show the Way

As Brian Kelly enters his eighth season, trying to extricate himself from the doldrums of 4-8, Irish fans wonder how he’s going to do it and who’s going to help him. The answers to those questions and much much more can be found in the South Bend Trib’s annual football preview issue. Meet the new…

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The 11th NDNation Probability Poll (we’re old)

The 11th NDNation Probability Poll is underway. In theory, the probability concept puts a little more thought around predictions than just “ND is favored over X!” We ask every fan to estimate the probability of the Irish winning each game and use that to calculate expectations. In 2015, the optimists won out (and this was…

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How Sweet It Is

It took longer than I thought to come up with a title for this article … an article I’ve waited a very very long time to write.  Hell Yes seemed too trite.  About Damn Time too crotchety.  Happy in Pants?  Too unprofessional.  So I settled on Jackie Gleason’s favorite, because it seems the most fitting….

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