Wow! Not only did the Olympic Gymnastics judges screw Jordon Chiles out her medal, it looks like they did it to Simone Biles. Amazing how these useless judge’s aren’t fined and then FIRED.

Please lmk if you have one to sell. sgibbons123456@gmail.com. thanks.

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden met with local media Tuesday night after practice ahead of Saturday's home game against Miami (Ohio). Here's everything Golden said during his session with print reporters.

Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.

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Release from Fighting Irish Media:

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame football program will again partner with Under Armour in 2024 for the ‘Cleats For A Cause’ initiative to support five local organizations.

Each football student-athlete will wear special-edition Under Armour Slip Speed shoes during the team’s walk from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart to Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 21, 2024 for the Miami-Ohio gameday. An online auction will run prior to and after the game for the shoes. In addition, custom game-worn cleats inspired by select Notre Dame football student-athletes will also be up for auction.

Student-athletes who will have custom cleats up for auction include: defensive lineman Jordan Botelho, wide receiver Beaux Collins, defensive lineman Howard Cross III, tight end Mitchell Evans, linebacker Jack Kiser, quarterback Riley Leonard, running back Jeremiyah Love, defensive lineman Rylie Mills, cornerback Benjamin Morrison, running back Jadarian Price and linebacker Jaylen Sneed.

“Our team is passionate about this initiative, and throughout the offseason and years prior, we have built deep relationships with these charities,” said graduate linebacker Jack Kiser, the initiative’s player committee chairman. “After the success of Cleats For a Cause in 2022, it means a lot to us to use our platform to bring awareness and financial support to these organizations doing important work in the community.”

‘Cleats For A Cause’ will support the South Bend Center for the Homeless, the Boys & Girls Club of the Northern Indiana Corridor, the Casie Center (Child Abuse Services Investigation & Education), Cultivate Food Rescue and the Logan Center. Proceeds from the auction will be distributed equally between the five charities, and the five charities will each be represented on an equal number of shoes spread across the roster.

Notre Dame Football student-athletes have spent substantial time volunteering and collaborating with each of the five local charities included in the initiative throughout the offseason.

Each pair of shoes and cleats was painted by Jerry Barca ‘28, a current Notre Dame freshman.

The auction can be accessed at: https://givegrove.com/cleats4acause24/

Cleats for a Cause Partners

“Cleats for a Cause aligns holistically with Under Armour’s core brand values. At UA, we envision a world in which everyone has access and opportunity to participate in sports. Sports are so much more than wins and losses; they teach us to be teammates and leaders, to bounce back, to never back down, and to push our limits. We’re thrilled to partner with Notre Dame, and all of these incredible organizations, to strive towards this vision.” – Catherine Marquette, Director, Collegiate Partnerships Marketing with Under Armour.

“We are honored to partner with Under Armour and The University of Notre Dame to bring awareness of the LOGAN mission through the ‘Cleats For A Cause’ initiative. The Notre Dame student athletes have provided many memorable experiences for the children and adults served by LOGAN. This initiative allows us to promote the acceptance of people of all abilities and create a community where kindness and dignity enrich the lives of everyone.” – Matt Harrington, President & CEO, LOGAN Community Resources, Inc.

“As we celebrate our 50th year as an organization, we are thrilled to be serving more youth than ever – 3,200 across a five-county region. This is not possible without community support, and we are so grateful for this opportunity through Cleats for a Cause. For our Club kids to see this organization they are part of - the doors they walk through every day - highlighted by Notre Dame Football, is a powerful reminder that they are seen and that there is an entire community investing in their success.” – Jacqueline Kronk, Chief Executive Officer, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Northern Indiana Corridor

“The CASIE Center is honored to be part of this year’s “Cleats for a Cause”. It is a privilege that members of the football team recognized and support our work investigating, protecting and preventing child abuse. We are excited to partner with the Notre Dame football team to tackle child abuse in our community.” – Carolyn Hahn Kremer, Executive Director of The CASIE Center

“Cleats for a Cause is a great opportunity for these wonderful agencies to partner with the great student athletes at Notre Dame to make a huge impact in our community. While we work to break the cycle of homelessness, we know they have our backs and support us in so many ways. They are making a difference both on and off the field!” – Steve Camilleri, Executive Director, Center for the Homeless

“Cultivate is honored to be a part of the Cleats For a Cause initiative and incredibly fortunate to have the support of the Notre Dame football team and the University, as a whole. Notre Dame Football has an elevated platform that affords us the opportunity to share our work with a broader community. The football players come in several times a year to make meals for our backpack program. They are inspiring as both athletes and dedicated members of the community, sharing in our vision of No Neighbor Hungry, No Food Wasted.” – Jim Conklin, Executive Director, Cultivate

Duke Cannon, a men's grooming product line, featured Notre Dame OL Rocco Spindler in a recently released video. Sharing the description and video below:
...

Offensive line is always about others, never self. For Notre Dame guard Rocco Spindler, that meant telling his late grandfather George he was going to get his dying wish of seeing his grandson commit to Notre Dame, before Rocco knew he was going to play there. It makes sense that a selfless act sent Rocco to South Bend, because offensive line at Notre Dame is all about being and staying together.

Rocco Spindler is a man of the land, and Episode 2 of O-Line includes bonfires, tractors, and even a little fishing at the family farm.

We visit Rocco’s high school in Clarkston, and learn what it’s like to be raised as an offensive lineman when your father was a NFL defensive lineman. And while it’s rare for the o-line to get the glory, we explore the anatomy of the perfect “pancake block,” the o-line equivalent of dunking on your opponent.

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Notre Dame offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Mike Denbrock met with the media after practice on Tuesday as the 17th-ranked Irish continue their prep for for Saturday's home game with Miami (Ohio).

Here's everything Denbrock had to say. Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.

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The four-star tight end from Center Valley (Pa.) Southern Lehigh committed to Michigan in July but he has a whole round of visits coming up.

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The University of Notre Dame hockey team will host a "Rally for Rudy" car wash on Sunday, Sept. 22 from 11am-1pm outside Compton Family Ice Arena (loading dock) with all proceeds going to benefit honorary team member Rudy Chapman in his battle against bone cancer.

Chapman, a witty, sports loving, Notre Dame hockey enthusiast, was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2018 at the age of 5. He has been in and out of the hospital and endured many biopsies, surgeries, rounds of chemotherapy and stays in the hospital. Chapman recently relapsed and is currently undergoing chemotherapy and transfusions.

Throughout his time as a member of the ND hockey community he has made a lasting impact on the men of Notre Dame Hockey who in turn rally for Rudy any chance they get. All proceeds from the car wash will go to Rudy and his family to offset his medical expenses.

Yes, you can submit your questions early. No, if you submit them here I won't likely see them. Yes, please do include your name and hometown with your question(s). Yes, use the link before as a shortcut to the question queue or to join in live on Wednesday. Yes, as usual, there will be a transcript Wednesday afternoon.

https://live.jotcast.com/chat/notre-dame-football-live-chat-sept-18-2024-19188.html

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From Fighting Irish Media:

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Dick Corbett Head Football Coach Marcus Freeman and graduate student linebacker Jack Kiser have been selected to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, which recognizes college football athletes and an honorary coach each season for their unwavering commitment to community service and their “good works” off the field. Kiser has also been named an Allstate Wuerffel Trophy semifinalist.

Each season, one honorary head coach is selected to the AFCA Good Works Team; Freeman’s selection marks the first time that a Notre Dame head coach has earned the honor.

Kiser is one of 11 FBS players to be selected to the AFCA Good Works Team; all 11 student-athletes comprise the semifinalist group for the prestigious Wuerffel Trophy.

Notre Dame players have been named to the AFCA Good Works Team on nine previous occasions: defensive lineman Grant Irons (1999), linebacker Courtney Watson (2003), linebacker Derek Curry (2004), offensive lineman Bob Morton (2006), safety Tom Zbikowski (2007), quarterback Dayne Crist (2011), offensive lineman Mike Golic Jr. (2012), tight end Nic Weishar (2018) and linebacker JD Bertrand (2022). Weishar was selected as the Team Captain of the 2018 Good Works Team.

The Allstate Wuerffel Trophy, college football’s premier award for community service, is presented to one of the 11 FBS players elected to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team who best combines exemplary community service with leadership and performance on and off the field. The Wuerffel Trophy finalists and recipient will be selected by a national voting committee, including a fan vote component. The 2024 recipient will also be recognized as the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team captain.

Freeman is an avid, consistent supporter of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Michiana, an organization which helps patients and their families during extended hospital stays. Each Friday before home games during the season, Freeman visits the patients and their families, bringing along student-athletes who would like to join him. The group delivers lunches and brings Notre Dame gifts and games to the patients. However, the most important part of the visit is the time spent with each patient, getting to know them and playing games.

Freeman has also taken part in numerous charitable engagements, including visiting local schools such as St. Adalbert Catholic School in South Bend, where he surprised students with tickets to the spring football game, and speaking at philanthropic events, such as Erin’s House for Grieving Children, which supports families who have experienced a death.

Kiser has participated in several community-facing initiatives during his time at Notre Dame. He has twice served as the player committee chairman for the program’s Cleats For a Cause initiative, which uses custom footwear to raise awareness for local nonprofits, then auctioning off the shoes with the proceeds benefiting the organizations. In his role, Kiser chairs the player committee, which selects the charities that will be featured in the initiative, communicates directly with the charities and makes appearances, and works with the designer of the shoes. Throughout the months leading up to the initiative this season, he has organized players to volunteer at and support charities that will benefit from the initiative.

He served as the Fighting Irish Fight for Life football team lead for the past three years, from Fall 2020-Spring 2023, a program which pairs a local pediatric patient with Notre Dame Athletics teams to become a true teammate.

Additionally, Kiser worked with local low-income families to perform tax returns this past spring on a weekly basis leading up to Tax Day. He has also made an impact in his home community, as he visited his former youth football team to surprise local kids from his area, spend time with the team, and give them tickets to a Notre Dame Football game.

Kiser has also been involved in the Notre Dame chapter of Uplifting Athletes, supporting the local rare disease community and their families, and would also regularly visit patients and families at the Ronald McDonald House with Freeman. He earned selection to the 2024 National Football Foundation Honor Society, and in 2023 was awarded the Dean’s Graduate Business Award and the Tom Frecka Academic Achievement Award, recognizing the top GPA in the Master’s of Science in Accountancy program at Notre Dame.

ND would be 3-0 had he started all three games.

I joined WSBT sports director Pete Byrne to share takeaways from Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman's Monday press conference, looking back on Notre Dame's win over Purdue, injuries that will impact the Irish and the replacements tasked with replacing them, young players who impressed against Purdue and looking ahead at Saturday's game against Miami (Ohio).

Inside ND Sports is partnering with WSBT to provide even more coverage of the Notre Dame football season. Pete and I will record a video every Monday following a Freeman press conference.

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Meet the first five-stars

Initial 2027 top 100

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Billy Schrauth will also be out for multiple weeks with an ankle injury.

Join us Monday at 7 p.m. EDT on YouTube as @Eric Hansen and I go live for the next weekly edition of "Football Never Sleeps."

We'll discuss what should carry over from Notre Dame's 66-7 win over Purdue, what we learned from head coach Marcus Freeman's Monday press conference and how the Irish should prepare for Miami (Ohio). We'll answer questions live from viewers, too.

We hope you join us live with questions or submit some ahead of time. Hit the bell to set a reminder to get notified when we go live.

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If you'd like to submit questions, make sure you click through so you're watching on YouTube's site or in the YouTube app if you're on mobile. You can do so by clicking the headline at the top of the embedded video above. So where it says "Football Never Sleeps: ..." Or there should be spot that says "Watch on YouTube" in the bottom left.

Then to submit questions, there's a chat box to the right of the video on desktop or below the video on mobile.

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This is the top five schools Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng has been focusing on for a while, but now it's an official top five: Notre Dame, Michigan, USC, Ohio State and Florida.


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1. Did not expect that, it was nice to see the team bounce back, honestly it makes last weeks performance even more baffling, but oh well. Again I will be interested to see how we come out at home next week. Big swings of emotion the first 3 games.

2. Leonard/ oline injuries… Going forward the Leonard offense will beat Miami Ohio/ Army types easily. I do not expect to win the Louisville game at this time. He still can’t complete passes downfield. Brohm will clog up our running game, and will be able to score enough on our D. I hope I am wrong.

3. For me the big picture is again our QB development, and the lack of cohesion. I don’t know why this program had a crush on Riley Leonard ( great kid) from the moment he was injured last year. I still think Angeli gives us the best shot against the Louisville , Ga Tech and USC going forward… Idk maybe I’m wrong and this could be a turning point for Leonard, but in 2 weeks I fully expect a frustrating performance against Louisville.

Online it says Ross Ade Stadium has a cold weather Bermuda and they're the only team to install a Bermuda in the Big 10 as it's typically a warm season grass.

Bermuda is a very dense growth self repairing grass with stolons and rhizomes where as typical grass fields in the north are Kentucky blue grass which has some repairing abilities overseeded with Rye.

I just noticed how well the grass held up in middle September and had to look up what they were using.

I wonder if South Bend is too far north to give this a shot.