ND Tidbits

A few interesting items in the news regarding Notre Dame football over the past few weeks.

• Chris Zorich returns to ND in an Athletic Department role. He was a poster child of the Lou Holtz era, and is very popular around the Chicago area. Always good news.


• Not only is yours truly drinking the Kool-aid, thinking the Irish will have a good 2008 - so is one Irish assistant coach (Bernie Parmalee, pictured). His comments are vague, but entertaining for me to hear. Look for the Irish record to improve slightly, while their competitiveness and intensity improve dramatically.


• Notre Dame football team's cumulative GPA was once again over 3.0, for an unprecedented 6th straight semester. I've been an athlete at Notre Dame, and I know: there are no joke majors. There is tons of support and study sessions that athletes are required to attend, however. Even though I was a 4.0 high school student, I had to attend counseling sessions, study halls, and all other sorts of meetings to make sure that I was in fact succeeding academically. Kudos to Weis and the Athletic Academic staff and support team for doing it the right way.


• Very very quiet on the search for an Athletic Director. Impressively quiet. There have been some names floating around, in particular Steve Orsini (pictured) of SMU, who is reportedly a qualified and interested candidate. In addition, Bubba Cunningham and Joe Castiglione, AD's currently at Tulsa and Oklahoma, have been mentioned as possible candidates. We really don't know who, if anyone, has officially been contacted. And we don't have a timetable for a decision. I would assume in the next month, but who knows.


• Freshman arrived on campus this past Monday for summer school and essentially the beginning of their tenure as Irish freshman. The #2 ranked recruiting class in the country will be very important to the next few seasons, so hopefully they get started on the right foot. They have all been assigned numbers, covered in this article where the history of every number is mentioned. Pretty cool stuff. My favorite is that there will be 2 freshman wearing the #9, Tommy Zbikowski's old number. Both Kyle Rudolph (Freshman, speedy tight end from Cinncinnati) as well as Ethan Johnson (pictured, Freshman, absolute stud defensive end from Oregon) will be donning the great #9. Those 2 are easily 2 of our top 5 recruits signed last year, if not our top 2. Also interestingly, is that California QB Dayne Crist will be wearing good ole #10, last worn by this guy . . .
  
  


• Interesting take on Notre Dame and the BCS, conference situation in the Orlando newspaper. I agree, ND needs to win to maintain the power that it has at the table. More importantly, we need an Athletic Director that will continue to lead in a way that is best for ND and our independence, as well as meshing with current college football conferences.