Searching for Bobby Taylor

A Notre Dame football blog

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RIP former Chicago Bear and Notre Dame great Dave Duerson.

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“In 21 years of being a head coach, most of the jobs I’ve had revolved around not just winning, but being exciting, being relevant, putting fans in the seats,” said the former coach of Grand Valley State and Central Michigan. “None of those things matter at Notre Dame. I don’t have to create an exciting offense, I just have to win football games, and defense goes hand in hand with winning.”

Notre Dame may make BCS after bowl win, top 10 recruiting class - Stewart Mandel - SI.com (via fourthandblog)

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Well, guess who's drinking the ND Kool-Aid?

Stewart Mandel wrote an article today on Notre Dame's new focus (hint: it involves the two 5-star defensive linemen pictured above) and why it might lead to a return to glory.

That's right, here come the Irish! Wake up the echoes! Irish eyes are smiling! And every other positive Notre Dame headline you can think of.

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Found this gem in a pack of old football cards today.

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I don't want to encourage anyone to be like me and pay money to follow Notre Dame football more closely than the average fan, but if you are that kind of fan, then it wouldn't be a bad idea to subscribe to Irish Sports Daily.

There is no one better at covering the Irish than Mike Frank and his site is fantastic. This great article on Chuck Martin's experiences recruiting this year is a perfect example of the kind of insight you get. (Not to mention recruiting scoop.)

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The invites to this year's scouting combine have been released and Armando Allen, Kyle Rudolph, and Ian Williams have all been invited. I'm a little surprised that Chris Stewart didn't receive an invite.

On second thought, not really.

I have all the respect in the world for the guy for going to law school while playing big time college football, but it would have been nice to see him play a little bit more physical. You know, because he was only pushing 360. If he was 330 then maybe I'd let it slide, but anything over 340 and I need an o-linemen to actually pancake some people on a regular basis.

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Fan reaction on signing day

My two personal favorite comments were the Urban Meyer analysis observation and the little person comment.

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Yes, I'm one of those dudes who belongs to a Notre Dame message board.

No, I don't post on there (at least not regularly). I'm what you call a lurker. (How creepy does that sound?) I go there for information. Mostly on recruiting. That's why I pay to subscribe to the site. (Yup, I'm also that guy.)

One of the sites I don't frequent is ND Nation and it's because it has the reputation of being overly negative and pessimistic when it involves anything to do with the football program.

Fortunately for me, someone posted on my message board some pics from an ND Nation post where a poster created his vision of a new Notre Dame stadium. Color me impressed. (Apparently I'm also the guy who says things like, "Color me impressed.")

Looks all good to me. And you're aren't seeing things,there's an actual jumbotron in Notre Dame stadium. In other technology news, we've landed on the moon!

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During the "dead period" for recruiting that lasts until signing day (Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday!) there hasn't been a lot of Notre Dame football news.

But Jack Swarbrick did talk to Tim Prister from Irish Illustrated about a bunch of different topics. He talked about a lot of interesting things but part III dealt almost exclusively with football.

I think Part I and II were more about Swarbrick's taste in music and favorite ice cream flavors so you can probably skip them.

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Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune interviewed Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick and asked him about a lot of interesting topics about the future of Notre Dame football.

They talked about topics like future scheduling, the possibility of a Notre Dame network, and the possibility of Notre Dame stadium finally getting a jumbotron.

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Snoop reppin' the the ND 3 (currently Michael Floyd)? That's pretty cool.

Snoop reppin' the O-line with Taylor Dever and Mike Golic Jr.? Legend...(wait for it)...dary.

Via @TDever75

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Today's Notre Dame related Twitter account to follow is Ian Williams (@IWilliams95). He's representing Notre Dame, and more importantly himself, this week at the Under Armour Senior Bowl. 

I missed the review of today's practice on NFL Network, but I did manage to find this little nugget from the height and weight meat market that is day 1 in Mobile. He was described like this:

“Fireplug who is thick and solid with bubble butt.”

If you didn't know they were describing a football player you would assume they were talking about Snooki.

Either way, support your boy as he prepares for the NFL Draft. 

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It's hard to believe that we are 222 days away from Notre Dame taking on South Florida in the 2011 opener.

Here's a slightly misleading reminder of what the 2010 season was like. 

Enjoy!

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This week’s player for Throwback Thursday is Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown.

Almost everyone on Notre Dame’s current roster wasn’t born when he took home the statue.

I don’t know why I mentioned a sad fact like that. It just came out. I’m sorry.

Michael Floyd is coming back to school though. There. Now you can be happy!

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Hidden benefit of coaching at ND: Get to spend January on road, away from SB, "recruiting."

From John Walters (@jdubs88)

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"Son... You have two options, you can join me, the fellow ND commits and the other coaches along with the whole Notre Dame family return to glory, or you can watch it on television... Its up to you son."

                                                                                 - Lou Holtz on recruiting.

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