This and that

News has been sparse the past week, but there are still a few noteworthy nuggets as the team ramps up for the annual Blue-Gold game. The official rosters for the spring game will be released later today, but until then, here is a sampler platter of the past week to catch you up to speed.

O Captain, My Captain

At his most recent press conference, Coach Weis announced the results of the team election for team captains. To the surprise of very few, Brady Quinn was selected as the captain of the offense and Tom Zbikowski was the choice for defensive captain. In a change from last year's rotating special teams captains, Weis decided to go with a permanent special teams captain and the team choice was Travis Thomas. From the scapegoat of the BYU game and permanent member of Ty's doghouse (dawghouse?) in 2004, it's great to see Thomas coming into his own and earning a leadership role on the team.

Weis also mentioned that also unlike last year, he's going to hold off on announcing the team's position specific leadership committee. Weis wants to see which players set up to the role during the player-supervised summer workouts.

Both Quinn and Zibby were named AP 3rd Team All-America players after last season. When is the last time ND returned All-Americans as offensive and defensive captains?

Stary Notre Dame bedzie wygrywac nad calym

I have no idea if that translates properly, but it's probably closer to the actual lyrics than Pete Duranko ever gets.

If you've ever heard the Notre Dame Victory March sung in Polish - you've met Pete Duranko. The problem is, Pete doesn't know Polish - he makes up the words! He's a great guy and a joker, with a tremendous sense of humor. Even more important he has given so much to ALS with his attitude and his strength in the face of the most difficult opponent of his life. We want to rally behind him and give him something to smile about.

The above is an excerpt from the press release for the "For the Love of Pete" tribute dinner being held after the Blue and Gold game this coming Saturday. For those not aware, Pete Duranko, the former Notre Dame All-America defensive lineman and NFL All-Pro, is currently battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or as it is better known Lou Gehrig's Disease. To help support Pete, many members of the 1966 National Championship team have organized together to host a banquet dinner in Pete's honor.

The list of former players coming back reads like a who's who of Irish legends including Johnny Lattner, Jim Lynch, Bob Kuechenberg, Jim Seymour, Kevin Hardy, Larry Conjar, George Goeddeke, and many others.

Coach Weis has already named Duranko an honorary captain for the Blue and Gold game and with the dinner coming after the game (and on the 40th anniversary of the 1966 National Championship), I highly recommend that people give serious thought to attending.

The dinner details are included on the above linked press release but for reservations, dinner tickets, and to make contributions, or for more information, contact Julie at the Notre Dame Monogram Club, 574-631-5450, or Email: Jdeschai@nd.edu.

The Man Who

Good news for estranged football player Travis Leitko as he was officially re-admitted to the University for the coming summer term. After missing the entire 2005 school year caring for his ailing parents while on academic suspension from the University, the first step in Leitko's quest to re-join the football team has been accomplished.

The best news out of all of this is that Leitko's parents both are on the road to recovery from cancer and hopefully will be able to sit in ND Stadium and watch their son run out of the tunnel once again this coming fall. But for now Travis still has to be fully re-admitted to the University for the fall semester and then earn his way back onto the team.

"I am about to send in my application for the fall, and that shouldn't be a problem -- but you never know," Leitko said Tuesday via cell phone from The Woodlands. "I've also talked to coach (Charlie) Weis, but nothing is in concrete. We've worked some things out, and if everything goes well, it'll give me an opportunity to play for the team next year."

Assuming he makes it back on to the team, it might be tough to see much playing time as Chris Frome, Ronald Talley, and Justin Brown all earned valuable experience last year and a year away from the program can't have helped Travis' development. Still, Leitko was a great special teams player as an underclassman and even if he only contributes there, it will be great to see him out there on the field again running around and smacking heads.

"These last few months have been so hard and have been such a blessing all at the same time," he said. "Part of you wishes it had never happened. Part of you knows you're much stronger for it having happened. It's one of those things you take it as it is.

"We'll see how this year turns out and how everything works. I appreciate the time I've had with my parents, and I love then both dearly. But it's time for me to get back and finish what I started, get everything back to the way it should be and finish everything up right."

Send in the Clowns

Internet rumors (and they're never wrong) claim that Kirk Herbstriet announced on his radio show that ESPN Gameday is already scheduled to be down in Atlanta for the Notre Dame/Georgia Tech season opener. If true, this will be the second straight year that the Irish open the season on the road with the Gameday crew on location. And like the Pitt game, the game against the Yellow Jackets will likely be an evening prime time game. Unlike the Pitt game, I don't think there will be any 0-5 predictions for the 2006 Irish.

Not So Fast My Friends

It seems some of our future schedule talk may have been a bit premature.

"The five places we've had the most conversations about and also had people from those sites wanting to talk to us have been Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Dallas and New Orleans." Heisler said. "I think when (athletic director) Kevin White has been talking about sites and years, he was talking philosophically. There are no deals in place yet. We've got some work to do."

Oh well, it was still fun to take guesses on how the Irish will play and I still hope ND is working on lining up some quality competition. Notice that Heisler mentioned Tampa as well. Assuming that Heisler wasn't speaking philosophically as well, a game at Raymond James Stadium would be fun. Of course, the likelhood of ND playing there some time in the future is already very high as Raymond James is the home field of the Big East member South Florida Bulls.

While I'm at It

The SBT article with the Heisler quote also mentions the uncertain future of the location of Blue/Gold game.

Work being done to the facility's infrastructure during the offseason over the next three years might necessitate some creative thinking when it comes to where to hold the annual spring game.

"It's going to be a year-to-year thing," ND senior associate athletic director John Heisler said. "It's certainly not going to be anything that jeopardizes games in the fall, but some of the questions are: where and when the work is going to be done and what's our ability to accommodate fans in the spring?"

During the stadium expansion in the 1990s, the spring games were played at Cartier Field, behind the Joyce Center. That's an option, but satisfying the demand for tickets would be a problem.

"There still may be some way that this can be timed and structured where we could still play at home," Heisler said. "But I guess at this point there's no guarantee. I think one consideration would be if there was work going on at one side of the stadium, would there be a way to seat people on the other side? I'm not sure we have any answers yet."

If a workaround in the stadium isn't feasible, I say go big. Rather than squeeze into Cartier Field again, pack up the team and head to Soldier Field. At least for 2007. It will be the first Blue-Gold game in five years where the starting QB job is up for grabs. Not to mention the other twelve starting spots that will be opened up by graduation. That alone should make it worthy of a trip to Chicago. Practical? Of course not. Worth looking into? Absolutely.

Weighing in

Lou Somogyi over at Blue and Gold has a roster update on the heights and weights of players as they headed into spring practice. The biggest change is that lineman Chris Stewart isn't listed at the 340 pounds written in his recruiting bio but rather 367 pounds. In other words, he's about two Kyle McCarthys. Not only is he the biggest lineman in ND history, he's also the only lineman this year over 300 pounds. And while some may think that he's gained weight since coming to campus, the truth is he's been dropping it. He was closer to 390 when he showed up in January.

Check out the article for the rest of the scoop on which guys got bigger (Victor Abiamiri, Anthony Vernaglia) and which guys got smaller (John Sullivan, Derrell Hand).

Rockne's Ramblers

At last weekend's Rockne Dinner in Chicago, between Charlie saying the only reason he'd leave ND is if he were fired, he died, or he retired, and Aaron Taylor's claim that he's leaving ABC Sports to become an elementary school teacher, the big news was Kevin White's announcement of some of the locations for future "neutral site" Notre Dame games.

There were discussions about adding a neutral site game back in September, but with definite locations being mentioned now, it seems the talks have moved from speculation to fact. Proposing that ND will move to a 7-4-1 type of schedule that consists of 7 home games, 4 away games, and 1 neutral site, Dr. White announced that the Irish will play in the following neutral site games:

2009 - Jacksonville
2010 - Orlando
2011 - New Orleans
2012 - Dallas

I think it's a great idea. Notre Dame will get a chance to play in front of fans and alumni in cities they don't normally visit, and I can't help but notice the games are in the talent rich states of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.

On the other hand, I hope that the games are quality matchups, and not just matchups against a proverbial sacrificial lamb; the actual opponents weren't announced.

White said that this scheduling philosophy hearkens back to Rockne's barnstorming days, when the Irish would play neutral site games all over the country. While a reference to Rockne is the quickest way to the heart of any diehard ND fan, I hope Dr. White realizes that Rockne didn't line up many patsies on these trips. Unfortunately, not many top programs are going to want to give up a home field advantage, so the quality opponents might be few and far between. And with lackluster programs like San Diego State (2008) and Nevada (2009) still officially on the docket, I truly hope the future schedules aren't watered down any further.

With the '08 Navy game being played in Baltimore and the '12 Navy game being played in Ireland, I'm guessing that the 2010 Orlando game might be against the Midshipmen. As for the games in 2009, 2010, and 2011, you can get a look at what the future schedules are supposed to look like here, but obviously the teams and dates will still be shifting around to some degree.

Let me take a stab in the dark: South Florida might be the matchup for the 2009 game in Jacksonville. The Big East agreement goes into effect for 2009, meaning the Irish play three Big East teams that year. A game against USF would cover one of those slots with the other two possibly going to Pittsburgh (away) and West Virginia (home). From a USF standpoint, the attraction is obvious: I'm sure the Bulls would love to make a more serious move on Florida recruits, and the promise of a game in Florida against Notre Dame would be a great selling point. By the way, that game sounds like a cakewalk now, but honestly, I think the Bulls have the chance to be a Top 25 team by the time 2009 rolls around (if they can steal a few Florida high school studs here and there).

If I may make another prediction for a future game -- well, more of a suggestion than a prediction -- Georgia just cancelled a 2011 game with Cincinnati and now is in need of an out of conference opponent. I seriously doubt that the Bulldogs would want to travel up to South Bend to play the Irish, but what would they say to a game in New Orleans, live on NBC? (Not sure on the NBC part, but that was the rumor back in September). The Irish and the Bulldogs have only met once, a 17-10 Irish loss in the 1981 Sugar Bowl, so it would be nice to get a chance to even up the series. Besides, Georgia doesn't play LSU that year so it wouldn't be a repeat trip to the Bayou for the Bulldogs. At least one of the four "neutral site" games ought to be against a traditional power from a BCS conference school, and Georgia sounds good to me.

Finally, the 2012 game, in Dallas. I'm not going to guess a possible opponent, but consider this: the schedule for 2012 already has the Irish matched up with a Rutgers away game, presumably at the Meadowlands per the Big East agreement. Add in the Navy game in Ireland and the proposed game in Dallas, and that leaves only two genuine road games for 2012. One will be in Los Angeles against Southern Cal. The other might be Michigan State, if we continue to play them (which we should). I realize other schools do similar scheduling tricks with extra home games and such, but a 7-home game, 3-neutral site, and only 2-road game schedule sounds like a bit too much gerrymandering to me. Ideally, ND will be in the middle of a nice run of seasons at that point and shouldn't really need the home cooking.

Lightnin' Hoskins

Ever since his impressive hurdle of a Washington Husky on a kickoff return, we've been waiting for Justin Hoskins to make an even bigger impact somewhere in the starting lineup for the Irish. But it seems that won't be happening now, as the former Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year has decided to transfer from Notre Dame.

"It just wasn't a good fit for me here," Hoskins said. "I didn't get a whole lot of playing time here and I had an option of leaving so that's what I'm doing."

Many fans expected Hoskins -- a terrific athlete -- to contribute as a speed back for the Irish or possibly as a split end or cornerback. However, the emergence of Darius Walker and various other setbacks kept Hoskins on the bench. He actually did start the Insight.com bowl his freshman year, but Bill Diedrick put him in to throw a trick-play, halfback pass and then pulled him. During the crucial spring practice session with new coach Charlie Weis, Hoskins was suspended for a violation of team rules. Honestly, I don't think he ever fully got out of Weis' doghouse after that. And on top of that, he injured his shoulder in the fall which required surgery from which he is still recovering.

With Hoskins missing a second straight spring practice, I'm sure James Aldridge had already passed him on the running backs depth chart. Meanwhile, George West, Terrail Lambert, and David Grimes continued to make headway as the early leaders for kickoff return, pushing Hoskins further down the ladder. In fact, Weis seemed to confirm this to Hoskins.

"He just wants to play," Brenda Hoskins said. "He's a very gifted, talented athlete. They told him his playing time was not going to be very good."

We wish Hoskins well wherever he ends up, but at the same time, I respect the honesty from the coaching staff. It's easy to try and placate guys who will end up sitting on the bench, making veiled promises of possible playing time, but at least our coaches were up-front with Justin. Now Hoskins will be able to find a situation where he can be a featured back, and ND will have another scholarship to use next year.

A few weeks ago I speculated that both Hoskins and Munir Prince wouldn't finish their ND career at tailback. But with Hoskins leaving, I think that's the deathblow to the fledgling "Prince to cornerback" theory seen floating around various message boards. Obviously a lot can change, but you have to think that Prince now assumes the speed back, change-of-pace mantle for the forseeable future.

Justin Hoskins is seventh player from this junior class to leave the football program. Out of an original seventeen only ten remain, including only three players on the offensive side of the ball (backup QB David Wolke, Darius Walker, and QB turned WR Darrin Bragg). Put another way, next season there will be 25 juniors and sophomores (combined) on the team, and 28 freshman. This lack of upperclass depth is really going to hit ND hard in the next couple of years -- unless the incoming freshmen (both this year's and next's) can step in and play right away. At some positions, they're going to have to.

A Man Named Easter

Last week was the 75th anniversary of Rockne's plane crash and death, and a group of domers and fans congregated on the plains of Kansas to pay tribute to the greatest coach in the history of college football. Ivan Maisel did a nice piece on the day's events, and our friend Chuck, who had visited the crash site several times in the past, was also there last week for the memorial. Here's what he sent us.

Amid a cloudless and windy Spring morning in Kansas’ Flint Hills, an additional purpose to the gathering was captured aptly by Bernie Kish. The former Director of the College Football Hall of Fame reminded us that, although eight people -- including football’s greatest coach -- died in the 1931 crash of a TransWestern Continental Fokker, another man needed to be honored. This ninth man happened to be alive and among those in the pasture that day.

Easter Heathman is the only surviving witness to the event which was commemorated by nearly 200 people near Bazaar, Kansas on Friday. For the past 75 years Heathman has taken hundreds of alumni and interested passersby to the site. As a 13-year old boy, he was not a Notre Dame fan, nor did he know who Rockne was when he came upon the wreckage in the fields. However, since witnessing the event, Heathman has respectfully accepted the role of chief tour guide to this tiny shrine. No one from the University asked him to do so; no one appointed him keeper of these hallowed grounds. Heathman merely assumed the responsibility he felt “needed doing”.

Through the years Heathman has grown to understand the attachment Notre Dame has for its cherished football tradition and its chief figure. In turn, many ND fans have come to know a decent and kind man who tirelessly welcomes people by giving them a first-hand account of a major event which rocked the nation.

It is not hard to imagine that, had it not been for Easter, the monument might have been overgrown with high grass and forgotten. It has endured, however, and the number of people coming to visit has grown over the years. The site, situated on a rancher’s property, has come to represent both a standing memorial to a sad and historic event and a respectful connection between a local man and a national fanbase.

It was my personal honor to have been among the first of the pilgrims whom Heathman hosted when I made my first trip to Bazaar in 1990. He personally drove two of us across the pasture to the monument, gave a lengthy account of the event, and even tossed some passes back and forth to us. After answering every question we could imagine asking, Easter also saw us off us hours later. Upon returning for my fourth visit on Friday -- accompanied by my 15 year-old son -- Easter welcomed me back, remembering me by name and recalling all our previous meetings.

“Well, folks, it's sure good to see you all here,” Heathman offered in a softened tone to those gathered on Friday.

Likewise...to say the very least, Easter.

Easter is 89 years young today. Happy Birthday, Easter.

We also received a couple of photos from the statue dedication that was held in Voss, Norway, Rockne's birthplace. Check them out here and here.

Finally, here's an older piece from ESPN Classic on the Rockne memorial that you'll enjoy.

Thanks again to Chuck for his report. More importantly, thanks Chuck for making the trip, and representing all of us at the memorial of the man who not only was an immense public figure and a giant in the world of college football, but also who probably had more of an impact in shaping Notre Dame than anyone since Father Sorin.

Caption Contest

The roundhouse karate kick is most effective when surrounded by enemies.

Roster rumblings

Spring practice is nearing the halfway point so let's take a minute and do a quick recap. As you can expect from mostly closed practices, information isn't exactly flowing out but from the online spring prospectus and the various media stories there are still some items worth noting.

Moving On

The big news every spring is attrition and this year the program has lost two players, in addition to tight end Joey Hiben. Defensive back Labrose Hedgemon has transfered from Notre Dame and will be playing football next fall at Jackson State. Former defensive back turned running back Junior Jabbie has also left the team, but at last official announcement is still enrolled at Notre Dame. Both players seemed buried a bit on the depth chart at positions seeing an influx of numbers and talent in the fall.

Number Games

Perhaps only interesting to me, there didn't seem to be any number changes this spring. Usually the younger players will grab the numbers once held by graduating seniors but for whatever reason, that didn't happen this year. Maybe no one wanted to change, but I also think that Weis held back certain numbers for incoming recruits (e.g. #21 for Barry Gallup) Again, not something that's terribly important, just something I noticed.

Picture This

The South Bend Tribune has a online photo gallery from the past few practices. Plenty of excellent pictures and, while I'm at it, kudos to the Trib for deciding to put out photo galleries from various Irish athletic events and keep them up for longer than a week.

Open practice

Weis opened up an entire practice to the media last weekend and some hints about the up-for-grabs right tackle and linebacker spots came out. Irish Eyes has a great free rundown on the practice and the first and second teams shown at practice, but we'll just focus on the aforementioned key position battles.

At right tackle, Paul Duncan got the starting nod with Brian Mattes on the first team at right guard. I wouldn't read too much into that as this battle won't likely be won until August. Mattes has the experience advantage while Duncan and Turkovich seem to offer a bit more size. Should be an interesting battle, especially once Sam Young gets thrown into the mix.

Linebacker seems to be shaping up a bit, but injuries are limiting some of the likely starters to only spot duty right now. For the media open practice, Maurice Crum and Joe Brockington sat out so the first team of linebackers was Steve Quinn at outside linebacker, Mitchell Thomas in the middle, and Anthony Vernaglia at Apache. The second team was outside backer Scott Smith Nick Borseti manning the middle, and Kevin Washington at Apache.

From the sounds of things, it sounds like Crum on the inside with Brockington and Vernaglia on the outside is the likely starting lineup in the fall. That's a really fast linebacking corp, but not much size. Then again, I'd rather have experience in the middle of the defense helping communication than the size that someone like incoming freshman Toryan Smith provides. (Feel free to clip, save, and throw this back in my face at some point in the season.)

Random bits

• It seems nearly everyone is getting a shot to try returning kicks. Terrail Lambert and George West seem to be getting plenty of reps, but I think the kick return positions are far from being filled. I imagine once the rest of the freshman show up they will all get a look too.

• Evan Sharpley just might be emerging as the backup to Quinn at QB. Practice reports have him getting the bulk of the snaps between the backups.

• Weis said in his most recent press conference that for last year's coaching clinic, over 600 high school coaches showed up for the weekend. This year's clinic, which will take place this weekend, has over 1000 coaches showing up. That can't hurt future recruiting.

Boxing Day

Tom Zbikowski beat his roommate Jeff Samardzija to the professional athlete punch last week by officially turning pro as a boxer. At a press conference in Madison Square Garden, Zbikowski was introduced to the press as the future undercard fighter for the June 10th Cotto/Malignaggi fight at the Garden. His opponent hasn't been announced yet, but it might be one of these guys.

To end any Irish fan worry, the fight has been cleared by the NCAA as long as Zbikowski doesn't endorse any products and Weis has added his support for the venture.

"I think with any of our kids here, when you're looking at each situation as its own separate entity, I think that you always have to make sure that you take care of Notre Dame first," Weis said. "But you've got to be realistic. And in this situation, which was a very unusual situation, to take this opportunity away from him would have been the wrong thing to do."

Once spring practice has ended, Zbikowski will begin training for his pro debut, as well as a charity boxing event at the Aragon Ballroom on May 20th. In addition to working out at Cris Carter's Fast Program in Florida, Tommy will spend two weeks in New York working with Muhammed Ali's former trainer, Angelo Dundee.

Another one of Zbikowski's trainers, Sam Colonna, thinks that if football doesn't work out, that TZ has a future in the ring.

He's got all the tools,'' Colonna said. ''He's got very fast hands, but I think he would have to fight cruiserweight instead of heavyweight. His body structure is not that big, and heavyweights now are going 6-5 and 240 pounds.

''As a cruiserweight, he would do well. He's quick and has power in each hand. And he's well-balanced. He's got what it takes to do something. He's built like Evander Holyfield, and he has a lot of experience despite the fact he hasn't been doing this full time.''

Still, football is the most likely career in the immediate future and Zbikowski has a message for those fans fretting about a boxing injury impacting his play on the football field.

"I'm not going to get hurt," Zbikowski said. "Just tell them to look at the size of my head. They can check my X-rays to see how thick my skull is. Nothing's going to happen."

As for that future football career, more quotes that came out of the boxing press conference further speculation that Zbikowski most likely won't be around South Bend after this season.

'If I'm going to be a first- or second-rounder [in the 2007 NFL draft], I'm definitely going to go towards football,'' said Zbikowski, who was introduced at the news conference while the ND fight song played in the background. ''But boxing has always been a part of me. If I can't play football, I'm going to do boxing.

According to Weis, TZ is on track to graduate with the rest of his senior class so it's looking like Zbikowski will put his name in the draft next year assuming he feels he will be drafted in the first few rounds. Obviously a lot can happen in a year's time, but right now the current thought is that the first few rounds are exactly where he will get drafted.

Two NFL scouts, speaking on the condition of anonymity, are optimistic about Zbikowski's future in the NFL.

''I've seen [Notre Dame] a lot, and I love that kid,'' one scout said. ''He's definitely in the first two rounds, because we'd never let him get by us in the second.''

Irish fans will get to watch Tommy in the ring on Pay-Per-View in June but I can't really imagine him boxing much more in the near future due to his potential NFL career. He'll probably try to find his way back into the ring after his pro football days are over, but years in the NFL take a toll on an athlete so I can't blame Zibby at all for taking the shot to fight professionally now. You can't pass up an opportunity like this. His dad said it best.

"For Tommy to be a crotchety old man sitting in the corner of the bar someday and be able to say he fought in the Garden is something special."

Recruit Update

Last year we told you about a new recruit from across the Atlantic, Finbar Tunney O'Hanlon, a Gaelic football player who was discovered and recruited by Rob Ianello. Since then, O'Hanlon has accepted an offer to play football at Notre Dame and was an early admit this semester along with Chris Stewart, James Aldridge and George West.

Scout.com finally updated their database; check out their page on this authentic Irish commit.