The Week In News: Sanctions, Court Dates and Countdowns

Let's jump right into this one. Starting elsewhere and ending in South Bend.

I started to go through the process of actually linking stories about the Penn State sanctions and quickly decided that I was sick of thinking about the whole affair. Instead of a bunch of links I'll just give you a mini-recap. The statue came down, the NCAA levied sanctions, the B1G piled on, other coaches started recruiting current Penn State players, and Black Shoe Diaries got like a million hits. Oh yeah, and word leaked that had PSU not "agreed" to the sanctions that the NCAA would have dropped a 4 year death penalty on them. That pretty much sums it up. Moving On.

The Insight Bowl is now called the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. Hot BBQ!

USC Defensive End Devon Kennard tore a pectoral muscle in the weight room this week. That is a big loss for a Trojan defense that doesn't have a lot of depth on the defensive line.

Randy Shannon resurfaced this week as the new Linebackers Coach at TCU. An official announcement from the school is still pending. I think this is a curious hire as Patterson runs a relatively unique 4-2-5 defense.

Elsewhere on the Horned Frog front the former TCU players that were pinched in a February drug sting were sentenced to probation. There was a lot of legal activity around the country this week.

More after the jump.

Three SMU football players were allegedly robbed by the prostitute that they failed to pay and left alone in their house while they attended a football banquet. Genius.

Michigan got into the legal action this week as well. Running back Fitzgerald Toussaint was arrested on DUI charges and suspended from the team indefinitely. Defensive End Frank Clark was also suspended for stealing a laptop out of a dorm room.

In other Wolverine news the program unveiled some new uniforms that they plan to bust out for their opener against Alabama. The game, which will be played at Jerryworld is now being called the "Cowboy Classic."

Nebraska is also now jumping into the "special uniform" game and rolled out a really heinous uniform that they plan to wear against Wisconsin this year.

Aside from the giant "N" those uniforms look like something that Texas Tech would wear. Whatever, I suppose if Nebraska is going to roll out a one time uniform this year the game against Wisconsin would be the time to do it. When they played last season it looked like an intrasquad scrimmage on the field.

Enough on everyone else. Let's talk about our Fighting Irish.

The guys over at Maize N' Brew rolled out their Notre Dame preview this week. They predict that the Irish will go 8-4.

Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees slipped in and out of court this week and walked away with 330 days probation and 50 hours of community service. Who knows, maybe this little dustup with the law will prompt Rees to bear down and make a very positive jump this fall that keeps Goldrix on the sidelines.

In other Notre Dame quarterback news Eric Hansen wrote a really good piece on Andrew Hendrix. Given the rumors about Hendrix and his nerves the last couple of lines caught my eye.

"Ever since high school, there were some people who didn't like the way I played then, probably still don't now," he said. "So ever since then, I've just kind of blocked it out. I think if you get caught up in that, you're not going to progress as well on the field.

"I think the next step for me is to show the guys that I'm that leader. They don't want someone who's tentative, shaky, looking over at the coaches like they don't know what they're doing. They want to see someone they can trust. I want to be that guy."

Former Notre Dame and current Ball State Defensive Tackle Brandon Newman weighed in on several topics this week over the course of two articles in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. In the process he took shots at the ND coaching staff, a few of his former teammates, the MAC and a smattering of other people. He also presented some convenient excuses for his lack of PT while at Notre Dame. I don't think Newman intended to come off the way that he did in the articles but many of his comments definitely fall into the "don't go there" category. Over at HLS ND Tex has a great post about Newman's comments.

The Athletic Department put this video up on YouTube this week. It's a little corny but the message is a good reminder for all of us

Notre Dame started promoting the July 31st blogger Google+ hangout with Jack Swarbrick this week. Our own Eric Murtaugh will be participating in the hangout and took a minute to answer a couple of questions for und.com. We will post a link to the hangout with Swarbrick on Tuesday.

Murtaugh is also one of the panelists participating in Keith Arnold's "Counting down the Irish" series that is currently running over at Inside the Irish. Links to the first three installments are below.

Counting down the Irish: 25-21

Counting down the Irish: 20-16

Counting down the Irish: 15-11

The comment of the week is brought to you by OFD regular commenter TGGS who went all Harry Potter under Murtaugh's post on Bo Schembechler.

You're giving them too much credit, Jim

Michigan is more like Bellatrix Lestrange — they thrive on dominating the weak but run and hide like cowards when faced with a serious challenge.

USC is Voldemort — feared, powerful and recruits wizards by all manner of dishonesty, empty promises or outright brainwashing. They have millions of fans in good times, and none during bad.

Boston College is Dudley.

Navy is Neville Longbottom — while they may not be the strongest, they still bring 100% all the time and don’t back down from anyone ever.

Stanford is Cho Chang — coveted from afar by Notre Dame during the Monk Malloy years, but we’ve since changed course and are aspiring to greater.

by The Guys Get Shirts! on Jul 26, 2012 7:00 AM PDT up reply actions 5 recs

Have a great weekend!