We Now Have Four Smiths in Our Linebacking Corps, All We Need Now is a Morrissey

I came home from school one day in tears with a bloody nose. See, the local bully had demanded my lunch money, and upon refusal to fork over the goods, he clocked me right in the mug and swiped my cash while I was writhing on the ground. After patching me up and drying away my tears, my old man looked me in the eye and told me to suck it up. Real men don't cry when they get bullied around, they pick themselves up, march back onto the playground, and find an even smaller kid and beat the hell out of him and take his lunch money.

A couple days later the police raided our house and took him back to jail after a frantic 48 hour manhunt.

But look at me getting all nostalgic. Anyway, the point of this story is that when Urban Meyer comes into your house and pushes you around, Charlie Weis took it like a man and went nextdoor to Iowa to steal one of their best defensive recruits. Notre Dame scored a verbal commitment from linebacker Brian Smith, who backed out of his prior commitment to the University of Iowa to play ball with the Irish. Smith is a legacy (his father, Chris, was a fullback for Notre Dame back in the day) who apparently has wanted to go to ND since day one, but was just now offered a scholarship. He's got some good natural talent and will add depth to a linebacker position that can use all the talent we can find.

This brings the grand total of Smiths on our defense to four, with linebackers Scott Smith and Toryan Smith on the roster, plus incoming freshman Harrison Smith slated to come next fall. Suffice to say, we're going to have to make an exception to the "Strip naked and sing Neil Diamond" tradition for announcing a new recruit and fire up some Morrissey.

Please, please, please let us get a Defensive Lineman. Lord knows, it would be the first time.

UPDATE: Morrissey-philes, you might find my latest post on The Fanhouse to be right in your wheelhouse.

Pre-Holiday Wrapup

I'm heading out to the airport in a few hours to brave the frozen tundra of Denver, which apparently is buried underneath nine feet of snow right now. Wish me luck. Last time there was a blizzard in Denver I had to slice open my cab driver and sleep in his entrails for warmth.

And I thought they smelled bad on the outside.

So in case you missed it:

The Irish landed Harrison Smith, a big, fast, white safety who has drawn comparisons to John Lynch, Tom Zbikowski, and a bigger, faster, more athletic, football-playing Eminem.


• I think it's a conflict of interest that Urban Meyer gets to sponsor a bowl game:
  
  
  
  
• I'll be out and about for the holiday season. I'm not strictly sure when I'll be able to post again, but I'll most likely be offline until the days leading up to the Sugar Bowl. Turn off the computer and have a mug of my family's secret recipe for egg nog (with lots of brandy and no eggs).