2013 Ohio Athlete Jayme Thompson from Toldeo (OH) Central Catholic high school has narrowed his list down to three suitors for his services. Thompson is listed at 5'11 and weighs about 175 lbs ., and is expected to play defensive back at the collegiate level. The three finalists who made his list were: Michigan,Notre Dame, and West Virginia. West Virginia is the only one out of the three that has actually offered him, but Michigan and Notre Dame are waiting on his transcripts to make sure that he is capable of enrolling early next year. Thompson has been in meeting with his schools councelors to get everything in order to make that possible.

Jayme Thompson( Photo Courtesy of UnderArmour)

It's quite strange that a prospect would decide on a college this early in the recruiting process, but it's his choice. Thompson is officially going to announce his decision on New Year's Day. Chris Anderson, WVU recruiting analyst at  247sports said " When he intially reported an offer from Michigan, it seemed obvious that he was going to choose the Wolverines."

Thompson has visited Michigan twice in the past few months. He was on campus a couple weeks ago, and visited Michigan when the Wolverines took on the Boilermakers. None of the recruting sites have released a star ranking for Thompson, but he is expected to be a high three star/ low four star recruit come next year.

9.Notre Dame Stadium 

A highlight from last weeks USF vs ND game

I remember a short time ago when the Big House was outdated but now is a thing of beauty. At least the Big House had some sort of stats and video for replays before all the updates. Going to a game at Notre Dame Stadium is like going back in time to 1955 in Docs DeLorean. I think all the fans drive there wind up old model Ts to the Stadium every Saturday to tail gate. Don't even get me going on the turf and the mess that it is. Seems like every game I watch the turf is a giant mess. Grass flying everywhere. The score board is a thing of 1975 with giant bulbs for score. No replays or stats. I will give it this. It does have cool clip art(like hands clapping) that displays a long the bottom. That is pretty 1992. So if you wanna go back in time then check a game out at Notre Dame Stadium... Bring your top hat.

8.Notre Dame Weather

Ehh..2008

I swear to god when I click over to NBC to watch ND the weather is always awful. Its like South Bend has rain monsoons every Saturday. If Michigan has a secondary hating god then Nortre Dame has a shitty weather god. I think they give a rain poncho with every season ticket purchase.
7.The Irish Ginger Dancing Mascot guy... thing.
Every year I have to look at some new pimpled face kid jumping around on the side line. I would love to see this try out. Like a line of 19 year old gingers all lined up doing their best "who stole my lucky charms?" impression. It may get higher ratings then American Idol.

6.The Fan Base(besides the user Irish)
I have met a lot of you and anytime ND loses.. Its the Big Ten officials fault. Our coach sucks. We had dudes hurt. Blah Blah Blah. Armando Allen didn't step out of bounds... Oh yeah? I was there! Remember?

1.Brian Kelly
Hey I like tough coaches as much as the other but I would be embarrassed if I were a fan and the University. The dude is straight up belittling the player. How is this a teaching moment? I got a hold of a mouth reader and this what got out the clip.
KELLY: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?
KELLY: YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE! WHEN I GET YOU IN PRACTICE I WILL CUT OFF YOUR HEAD!
KELLY: I WILL PUNCH YOU RIGHT IN THE FACE! I DON'T CARE! YOU ARE DEAD TO ME! I WILL KICK YOUR DOG ON SUNDAY! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME PENIS BREATH!?
It was something like that. I mean come on. Like I said I know football is all about screaming but this is drunkin sailor yelling. I never liked you at GVSU and I don't like you now. I do think he can make it at ND but he has to be careful. The same kinds that hated on RR at Michigan will be doing the same at ND in no time if they haven't already. We saw what negativity can do to a program. It isn't pretty.

The University of Michigan is special in many, many ways. It is one of the top universities in the world, providing excellent undergraduate and graduate education and producing high level research in nearly every academic field. It has the winningest NCAA football and hockey programs of all time and a strong and vibrant athletic tradition that started well over a century ago. The Michigan football tradition in particular is quite distinguished. Here are some highlights spread over time:

 

MICH (1-0, 0-0) vs. Notre Dame (1-0)

Are you ready for a rivalry game? Well dudes I hope you are, because the “Season” kicks off for real this Saturday in South Bend. Michigan, who I might add, holds a 21-15-1 record vs. the Fighting Irish (whoa racist much?), makes the trip into the LoLoosier State looking to give RR that elusive second road win. Can it be done? Well some charts and graphs and pictures make everything all right.

Notre Dame Offense:

Can you say yikes? Our young secondary has the tough task this week of trying to cover Michael Floyd. If we had Charles Woodson playing corner for us, I would probably feel a little bit better about this matchup. Instead we have JT Floyd and James Rogers. This game will test how well these guys are ready for the big stage. Notre Dame is going to be able to throw the ball, make no mistake about it. Notre Dame’s run game comes in after turning a very good performance against Purdue. Armando Allen played well rushing 18 times for 93 yards. Cierre Woods also played well rushing 7 times for 58 yards.

Crist had some problems hitting his receivers down the field. All of the trademark Brian Kelly short stuff was executed well, but there were a couple of times that he went down the field to Floyd and came up empty. I know that ND will test the Michigan secondary this week, and will take plenty of shots down the field. This will be a HUGE challenge for them. If Michael Floyd finds holes in the zone 20 yards down field look out.

Passing Offense	Rushing Offense	Total Offense	Points Scored
205 yards	153 yards (4.3 ypc)	358 yards	23

Keys to stopping the Irish:

First of all we have to stop the run. Jordan Toddman ran the ball 20 times for 105 yards and a score against our D. We must do a better job against the Irish. If we can force ND to become one dimensional, this really improves our shot at winning. The second key is to put pressure on Crist. Whether it is by blitzing, or just with normal pass rush, this has to be done. We cannot afford to let him have all day in the pocket.

Notre Dames offense didn’t looked completely gelled against Purdue. While I have no doubt Brian Kelly is going to make ND a winner again, it takes time to install a new system and get your pieces in there. Here’s hoping the offense hits a bump in the road Saturday.

Notre Dame Defense:

Well the news is somewhat more optimistic when the Irish are on defense. Although Notre Dame racked up 4 sacks and a couple of interceptions in the win against Purdue, Purdue moved the ball pretty well. This included a 24 yard touchdown run by Robert Marve, and we know how fast Marve is (LOL). ND did put good pressure on the Boilermakers QB as I said earlier getting 4 sacks on the dude.

Purdue moved the ball well though, or at least through the air they moved the ball well. Marve finished the day 21/42 for 220 yards and 2 picks. If he doesn’t turn the ball over we probably have a very close ball game. Purdue’s ground attack wasn’t nearly as effective as the passing attack. They ran the ball 32 times for 102 yards. Not a great day was to be had by the Purdue running backs. What impressed me the most about the Irish defense was the tackling. They really seemed to wrap the ball carrier up well.

Rushing Yards Allowd	Passing Yards Allowed	Total Yards	Points Given Up	Turnovers forced
102 (3.2 YPC)	220 (5.2 YPA)	322	12	2

Keys for moving the ball on the Irish:

First key is to take some shots down the field. Notre Dame is going to put 8 guys in the box knowing what Denard Robinson can do. This means we are going to have some shots to go down the field. With all of the speed that Stonum has, we need to go over the top to him at least a couple of times. The second key is to do what we did against UConn, let Denard hum this offense right along. If he makes good decisions on the Zone Read, we should be able to gash Notre Dame for a lot of yards on the ground. The third and final key is to HOLD ON TO THE GODDAMN BALL!! Turnovers have killed us these past couple of years, so do that and we should be okay.

GRADES?

Position	MICH	ND	Advantage
QB	A-	B	I know its only one game, but Denard Robinson looked like a star in the making against UConn. Crist looked okay against Purdue, but MICH has the advantage here.
RB	B+	B+	Our Running backs played well. Sure they didn’t have a whole lot of yards, but when your QB is rushing for 200, you don’t need a lot. Allen and Woods both played well for ND, this is a push
WR/TE	A-	A	Can we stop Michael Floyd? Probably not, but stranger things have happened.
O Line	A	B+	Our line played so well against UConn, they smashed dudes in the mouth. ND played Purdue so I believe nothing about them. Plus with Wenger being out this hurts the Irish
D Line	B+	B	I’m going to give us a slight advantage here. We didn’t generate a lot of pressure on Frazer and these guys must do better against ND
Linebackers	B-	B+	Even though Mouton played well against UConn I still have some doubts about these guys. Hopefully they can continue the good play against ND.
Secondary	C+	B-	Well we didn’t get torched, that is a good thing, right? ND’s secondary didn’t look great against the BoiLOLermakers.
Special Teams	C	B+	We only punted once and it wasn’t a great kick but took a great bounce. Our Punt Return unit still needs to hold on to the ball, and or Kick Returners didn’t make a whole lot of noise against UConn, oh and the field goal unit wasn’t very good either.

 

Prediction:

Okay I’m gonna try and be fair about this as I can, even though I am a huge homer. I expect Michigan to win this game, but its gonna be close. Notre Dame will rack up some yards on us, but hopefully they find a way to score one less point then we do. MICH 38 ND 27

Every FBS school strives for excellence in both academics and football. And most of them will be successful to a degree with their academic or football programs. Few however, will attain an elite status in either, which makes sense because being elite, after all, implies that most other schools aren't. So it's interesting to take a look at the elite academic schools who play FBS football, as well as the elite football programs:

Well, the rumor floating around for the last day or so has come true. Night games are coming to Ann Arbor in 2011, with Michigan facing Notre Dame at 8 PM on September 10.
Link?
Link.

I cannot stress how much of a step forward this is for Michigan football. Michigan has finally joined the rest of the country in having night games, which are a completely different culture compared to day games.

As for the stadium update, there are no pictures this time, owing to the short time lapse between the last update and this one. The only note of importance is that S. Main St. has lost one lane and that the western side is now gaining its facade. Bricks will start to go up shortly.

Team: Notre Dame
Record: 8-11-7 (CCHA) 12-14-8 (Overall)
Time: Thursday February 25 and Saturday February 27, 7:35 PM EST (Thursday), 7:05 EST (Saturday)
Where: Yost Ice Arena (Thurs.), Joyce Center (South Bend, IN) (Saturday)
Television: FSD (Thursday), BTN (Saturday)

Well, this is the final regular season series for Michigan and it cannot come a better time. This season has been brutal to say the least, but not much of a better way to wrap it up than against a rival.

Notre Dame currently sits in 10th and Michigan currently sits in 7th. Michigan must sweep the series in order to have any hope of moving up in the standings and the highest they can move is 4th place, assuming Northern does not win both of its games against Lake Superior State. Alaska and UNO have both completed their CCHA seasons.

Notre Dame is backstopped by Mike Johnson, who has started the majority of games as a Freshman. Johnson sports a 2.48 GAA and a .919 save %. Look for him to start both games.

It is all but set in stone that Michigan must now win the CCHA tournament in order to make the NCAA tournament.

As a side note, Thursday's game is senior night at Yost, so look for some festivities involving the seniors on this team.

There will not be a review for Notre Dame, I apologize for the inconvenience. Check CCHA.com for the score of Saturday's game. Michigan won Thursday 4-0.