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• By
  • Ethan Smith
The Tupac hologram at Coachella

The technology used to project a lifelike, virtual Tupac Shakur Sunday night at Coachella has existed since the Victorian era, and at least one illusion designer believes the effect was even more remarkable in its original form.

When “scientific showman” John Henry Pepper first unveiled the trick in London in 1862, the audience saw a three-dimensional actor apparently floating on stage, according to Jim Steinmeyer, a top creator of illusions for magicians and other entertainers and also a historian of the craft.

Contemporary instances of the effect, known as Pepper’s Ghost, display a two-dimensional image with no “dimensionality,” he adds.

“If that sounds like it’s less impressive today, the answer is yes, it is,” says Steinmeyer, who recounts the creation of Pepper’s Ghost in his 2003 book “Hiding the Elephant.”

The same principle that underlies the Pepper’s Ghost trick is used today in “heads-up” aviation displays, which make some cockpit instruments appear to hover in space in front of a pilot. It also is behind Teleprompters, and is used in parts of the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland, according to people who work in magic and visual effects. A Disneyland spokesman says the company doesn’t comment on how it creates the Haunted Mansion ghosts or other effects.

John Henry Pepper wasn’t the sole creator of the effect that bears his name, Steinmeyer says. A civil engineer named Henry Dircks proposed the effect to Pepper, who ran the Royal Polytechnic Institute, a kind of proto-science museum in London.

But according to Steinmeyer, Dircks’s proposal involved building a complex and expensive theater dedicated to the trick, using skylights to bring in sunlight that would be redirected in ways to illuminate the trick.

Pepper streamlined and perfected the trick, using newly invented, super-bright oxyhydrogen lamps—which would come to be known as lime lights—to illuminate the trick without requiring major new construction. The actor playing the ghost—powdered in white makeup—was hidden in a pit near where an orchestra would sit and reflected in an angled piece of glass on the stage.

The trick was especially popular in melodramas in the 1870s and 1880s. “You might see a vision at the end of the heroine ascending to heaven and surrounded by angels,” Steinmeyer says. “That was Pepper’s Ghost.”

A version of the trick is dramatized in the 2006 movie “The Illusionist,” in which Edward Norton’s character uses the trick in a magic show. Steinmeyer says the trick as shown is somewhat historically accurate, though most magicians of the era didn’t have the resources to stage such an elaborate illusion.

“Pepper’s Ghost was like a way of doing a whole stage setting to create an effect,” Steinmeyer says. “And magic shows were much more economical than that. Pepper’s Ghost was always a little bit beyond most magicians’ means.”

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• By
James Franco

There are high expectations for “Oz The Great and Powerful” when it hits theaters Friday, and a bevy of stars came out this week in New York to celebrate the film’s star, James Franco, at a special screening and after-party.

Guests included Billy Zane, Dylan McDermott and Padma Lakshmi at the event, hosted by Gucci & The Cinema Society. Franco looked sharp in a dark gray suit, while “Shameless” actress Emmy Rossum was fresh and ready for spring in a flowery Oscar de la Renta dress.

This wasn’t the only event Franco had that night. He split his time with another screening and after-party for HSN & Disney at the Crosby Hotel, as well as an entertaining appearance on “The Colbert Report.”

In the film, Franco plays Oz, a swindling circus magician from Kansas who is swept away to a colorful fantasy land that shares his name. There, he embarks on a mysterious journey to become the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz. This is his fourth film with director Sam Raimi, who also directed the “Spiderman” trilogy. Franco stars alongside the sparkling trio of Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis, who play three witches involved in a fiery battle over power of the Land of Oz. The cast also includes Zach Braff as a loveable flying-monkey sidekick who helps Oz navigate his wild journey.

After the screening, guests convened at the elegant new restaurant Harlow to discuss the film while snacking on ceviche, beef skewers, and salmon with Asian pear and sipping pink Grey Goose martinis. One question that was on guests’ minds was whether the new big-budget CGI movie did justice as a prequel to the classic, beloved “Wizard of Oz” film.

Actor Pablo Schreiber of “The Wire,” who caught the screening, approved, saying, “It shared a very common visual vocabulary, I felt, with the original film.”

Actor Stephen Baldwin said the film did a good job building on the original tale. “I really liked it a lot. I thought that it was smart to reinvent [the story] in the way that they did,” he said. “I’m a huge Sam Raimi fan.”

Amid the glamorous socialites at the scene, one young guest revealed that he got into the party by saying that he was a student in Franco’s UCLA film class. He didn’t get to chat up the man of the hour, however. “Yeah, I missed Franco,” he said of the actor, who left early after posing for photographers and being enveloped by other guests. “Maybe I’ll catch him another time.”

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Patrick Page stars as Comte De Guiche in the new Broadway production of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” and the actor showed Speakeasy some of his costumes and props in his dressing room, including his enormous, plumed hats, and his walking stick. Most important, however, is his 13-year-old Maltese, Sophie, who is with Page backstage every day.

Page comes to “Cyrano” from “Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark,” in which he played the Green Goblin to great acclaim. The actor discusses why “Cyrano” is his favorite play and his career in in both classical and pop-cultural theater.

After the jump, watch the videos from Page’s dressing room. Read More »


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Jun 24, 2013

(Special thanks to Second City for providing complimentary admission to this show)

Sometimes, there's a fine line that blurs reality and dreams, of wondering whether this is as good as it gets or does it get better.

It's with that preliminary question that Second City ETC's 37th revue, A Clown Car Named Desire, goes into full gear, delivering some great scenes and - well, let's face it, some easily-earned laughs.

From hipsters to mismatched friends, from a Tron-inspired dance routine to a sketch namechecking the Notre Dame football player "Mandy Patinkin", A Clown Car Named Desire is a very well-rounded, super-sharp show...in fact, this is one of the few times at Second City that I never thought, "Hmm, which one of these cast members is due for bigger and better things?"

(Only because the entire ensemble does such a great job throughout the evening, it's hard to pick out one person and say they have "that thing." Of course, had the tall blonde cast member pointed to me when she sang, "I'll make out with you after the show"...I might be writing a different kind of blog post. But it's safe to say - singling out one person out of a stellar cast is unfair and really unnecessary).

And you may wonder what the difference is between Second City and Second City ETC (which is where this revue is running). Rather than give you a long, lengthy explanation, let me point you to this brief snippet from their FAQ page).

It's rather difficult to find a Second City revue that doesn't hit on all cylinders - most of the time, a revue has much that works, and some sketches that don't. However, A Clown Car Named Desire manages to fire on all cylinders, providing a nice, lengthy ride full of laughs, and is much more enjoyable than a Cubs or Sox game.

And yes, there is the obligatory Tennessee Williams joke...but A Clown Car Named Desire is one of the highlights of Chicago theater, and well worth your time.

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February 06, 2012

I don't think civil war is the best way to describe a "clearly asymmetrical conflict".
[I'd tend to go for massacre or revolution, depending on how things turn out, assuming it doesn't develop to conventional forces on each side, which would be a civil war]

It's asymmetrical in terms of the balance of forces involved, but the Syrian rebels seem increasingly to be seizing ground and confronting the regime more or less head on. So in that sense I think the term holds.

I think civil war is about right, although it's in the grey zone. I'd settle for emerging civil war, but here's what the opposition looks like in Homs these days. Some of it at least.

"Secondly, we’re seeing a much more aggressive assertion of Beijing’s traditional non-intervention stance, something that may well play out beyond the region."

This is interesting. There's so much speculation on how China will change its foreign-policy orientation as it's economic/military clout grows, internal pressures and rising nationalism kicks in, etc. But I suppose the default entry option for a more assertive Chinese policy would simply be to enforce their traditional line more rigidly, now that they can, instead of trying to seek out a different role.

Given what NATO did with UNSC 1973 - which wasn't particularly baggy or permissive - vetoing Syria 1.0 is probably a very good thing.

This just makes me think that somebody somewhere is looking at reports on the state of Iraq and Afghanistan as the US leaves or prepares to leave, and thinking "Well, that went well, all things considered! What shall we do now?" The appetite for wars of aggression doesn't seem to have diminished at all.

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Regional Flag[Shadow] PvP SurvivabilitySource
Target Source
#0 - 2008/12/25 01:22:43 AM
Problem/Current situation:
Priests are currently struggling in PvP, especially against melee classes. I play a Shadowpriest, and therefore I will write this from a Shadowpriest POV.
We're just to squishy.
It doesn't matter if you're at 1000 resilience and 20.000 hp, you still die on less than 10 seconds when trying to put up a fight against melee classes. Our lack of crowd control and root or snare effects makes us very vurnable against certain classes. Our defense isn't that strong either.

Shadowpriests have 5 defensive spells.
This may sound many to you, but let's see what they really do;

  • The first one is shadowform, which reduces physical damage taken by 15%.
    This is an okay amount, but it's still not enough with the high burst damage melee classes have.
    However, I belive other changes could work this out, so changing this is not needed.

  • The second one is our fear, Psychic Scream. It's a 30 second (26 with talents) AoE fear which can be dispelled, trinketed or removed as an Undead with Will of the Forsaken.
    Having our only Crowd Control spell on such a long cooldown while it also can be dispelled or trinketed makes it a very weak CC.

  • The third one is our Power Word: Shield, absorbing somewhere around 3200 damage.
    This is probably our best defense we have, since it works against everyone, not just melee.
    The amount absorbed isn't that high though, and it can only be cast on you again once your Weakened sould debuff runs out.
    The debuff lasts for 15 seconds, or 13 with 4 parts of the gladiator gear.

  • The fourth is our Inner Fire, which increases our armor by 2440 and spellpower by 120.
    With improved inner fire in the Discipline tree, it improves our armor by 3538 and spellpower by 174, while also adding 12 more charges to the spell.
    This selfcast buff is actually ok, even if it's very annoying having charges on it.
    The thing I don't like with this spell though is that it takes up a global cooldown to cast if you have to cast it in the middle of a fight.

  • The fifth and final spell is Dispersion. It reduces damage taken by 90% for 6 seconds, while restoring 6% mana per second as well.
    This spell isn't good. It's that simple. I got the impression this spell were added for Shadowpriests to have PvP survivability, but it doesn't help at all.
    On beta this spell gave us 6% health back per second as well, but it got nerfed before WotLK hit the stores.

I have a few ideas of my own on how you could add new & change some of our spells to give us better PvP survivability.

  • The first one, and in my opinion, the most important, is to give us a root effect, like Frost Nova for Mages, or Entangling Roots for Druids.
    It's the melee classes we have the biggest problems with and this is a change that would affect them the most.
    This could also be used to counter Hunters who can be immune to our only CC, our fear.
    All other caster classes have atleast two or more crowd control or root/snare effects.
    Warlocks have their Fear, Death Coil and Pets to stun/silence their opponents.

  • The second change I suggest is that Fade should not only remove slowing effects on us, but also make us immune to them for X seconds too.
    Almost everyone, especially melee, have a slowing effect, and it can be really frustrating pressing your fade button just to have it applied instantly on you again.

  • The third change is a small, but in my eye still an important one. Remove the global cooldown for using Inner Fire.
    It's said that it has a cheap mana cost because it uses charges, but I still don't want to sacrifice a global cooldown to re-apply it.
    This could be the difference between life and eath in some cases.

  • My fourth suggestion is to do something useful with a currently useless 51-point talent.
    My suggestion here would be to make us cast while this effect lasts. Being silence in 6 seconds gives us nothing in PvP.
    We rely on someone else to save us by using our 51-point talent. When spending 50 other talents in this tree to get this ability, shouldn't it actually help us directly?
    Making us able to cast while Dispersion is active, and maybe lowering our damage caused by 20% would make Dispersion useful.
    Reducing our amount of damage taken to a less amount of what Dispersion currently have wouldn't be that bad either with these changes implented.

Priests can approach melee classes at a more fair state, while these changes would affect the caster classes by a much less amount.
Priest survivability would be in rank with other casters of this game.
Priests would be viable partners for arena-teams. As it is now, we're not being invited, certainly not as shadow atleast.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Holiday!

Blue Poster
Target Source
#122 - 2009/01/27 02:56:38 PM
We do not have much information we can share with you on this topic at this point in time, but we are working on improving the PvP survivability of Shadow Priests in patch 3.1. It is till a little too soon to announce any changes yet, but we will of course tell you more as soon as we are ready :-)

Blue Poster
Target Source
#173 - 2009/02/03 02:56:58 PM
Q u o t e:
How much longer do we have to wait for our buff? :_:

Currently, the only update we have for you on this is that we do have some changes with Shadow and PvP in mind which we hope to be announcing soon.


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Dr. Paul Hill, WV Higher Education Policy Commission Chancellor, Will Deliver Bluefield State College’s 2013 Commencement Address Monday, May 13 2013
BSC Student Teacher Introduces Students to New Techniques with Rewarding Results Monday, May 06 2013
BSC School of Education Hosts “Student Engagement in the Classroom” Presentation with Teresa Guill Monday, May 06 2013
BSC Model United Nations Club Visits U.N. Headquarters in NY Monday, May 06 2013
Frank Hart Announced 2013 McGraw Award Recipient Monday, May 06 2013
BSC’s Samuel Ouedraogo Selected to Participate in Afrobasket 2013, FIBA African Basketball Tournament Monday, May 06 2013
“Bonnie’s Bus” to Visit BSC School of Nursing’s Community Health Fair, May 4 at Mercer Mall Tuesday, April 23 2013
BSC Student Team Wins Regional Steel Bridge Competition and Qualifies for National Championship Tuesday, April 09 2013
BSC Student Team Named “Rookie of the Year” at Enactus Regional Championship Tuesday, April 09 2013
BSC Health Services Management Program Director Co-Authors Scholarly Paper Presented at Southwest Texas Academy of Management Annual Meeting Tuesday, April 09 2013
BSC Beckley Campus Life Span Development Class Hosts “Transforming Lives” Seminar Tuesday, April 09 2013
BSC Health Services Management Program Director to Lead Workshop at New Frontier in Aging Conference at WVU Tuesday, April 09 2013
BSC RASP Forges Relationship with Elizabeth City State University Counterpart Monday, April 08 2013
Dean Gillispie to Speak at BSC, November 5-6 Monday, April 08 2013
Psychology Careers Information Session to be Presented at Bluefield State College, May 2 Friday, April 05 2013
BSC Beckley Campus Coordinator’s Scholarly Article Published in the Virginia English Journal Thursday, April 04 2013
BSC Chapter of Phi Eta Sigma, National Honor Society for Freshmen, Inducts 29 Students & One Honorary Member Thursday, April 04 2013
25th Annual Spring Employment & Recruitment Fair at BSC Attracts 284 Job Seekers and 79 Employers Friday, March 29 2013
BSC “enactus” Student Organization to Present Job Readiness Workshop, April 5 Thursday, March 28 2013
BSC Contingent Participates in “Higher Education Day at the State Legislature” Tuesday, March 26 2013
BSC Receives Grant to Establish Transitional Studies Emporium Tuesday, March 12 2013
BSC Students Combine Lego Bricks with Technology in “Lunabotics” Workshop Monday, March 04 2013
25th Annual Spring Employment and Recruitment Fair at BSC, March 27 Monday, March 04 2013
BSC Students Present Biomedical Research at Annual Undergraduate Research Day at State Capitol Monday, March 04 2013
Getting to Know Your Smartphone — A Workshop for Beginners, March 12 Friday, March 01 2013

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Monday, April 30, 2007

Draft Day Detritus | by Jay

Here's the releases from on all the drafted and (undrafted) destinations:

  • Quinn to Cleveland (1st, 22)
  • Abiamiri to Philly (2nd, 57)
  • Harris to Denver (3rd, 70)
  • Landri to Jacksonville (5th, 166)
  • Richardson to New England (6th, 202)
  • Santucci to Cincy (7th, 230)
  • Ndukwe to Cincy (7th, 253)
Four Five Undrafted Free Agents who signed with teams:
  • Freeman & Leitko to Baltimore
  • McKnight to New Orleans
  • Walker & Frome to Chicago
Biggest surprise? Apart from Brady dropping to 22, it's probably Ndukwe getting drafted instead of McKnight or Walker. But if you view Ndukwe as a pretty good special teams guy, and the other two as mere projects at a starting position, it sort of makes sense.

Also: two pretty good reads on how Quinn ended up with the Browns, from USA Today and

Update: reader Andrew sends us this link to a Dolphin Fan's draft day timeline. Hysterical.

Update part deux: Rakes has a solid roundup of all the Irish pro hopefuls.

Update, fin: I was curious how 7 picks for ND stacked up against other schools. It turns out the Irish tied for third-most. Here are all the teams that placed 5 or more players in the draft, with their average overall selection spot in the final column:
No. Picks
Avg Spot
Ohio State
Notre Dame
Louisiana State
Florida State
Penn State
Southern Cal

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Free Fallin' | by Jay

Brady Quinn, for better or worse, will forever be the story of this draft. From the NYT:

Still, if Quinn was a little heartbroken when the Browns opted for left tackle Joe Thomas with the third overall pick, he concealed it well. He smiled and shrugged. He had said that he would not worry about sliding, because it only meant he would go to a better team with a chance to win sooner. But maybe Thomas had had the right idea. He declined the N.F.L.’s invitation to come to the green room, and went fishing with his father instead.

Then the picks went by quickly. Defensive end Gaines Adams to Tampa Bay. Offensive tackle Levi Brown to Arizona, to protect Leinart, who could have offered Quinn some words of wisdom. Leinart dropped to the 10th spot last year. The Redskins picked safety LaRon Landry, and Minnesota, which many believed might consider Quinn, went with running back Adrian Peterson.

That left Quinn alone in the green room. His number had not come yet. Atlanta picked defensive end Jamaal Anderson, then the Dolphins were on the clock.

The Dolphins’ fans at Radio City started chanting his name and the Quinn highlight reel was cued up on the big screens. But the Dolphins pulled off the first shocker of the draft, selecting receiver and kick returner Ted Ginn Jr.

Quinn’s face, captured at the moment of the announcement, tightened and turned grim. Commissioner Roger Goodell approached him. Perhaps, Goodell said to Quinn, you would like to sit in a private suite, away from the cameras, because you might not be picked for a while. A look at the draft order made that clear. Houston, San Francisco, Buffalo, St. Louis — none of them needed quarterbacks. The stunned Quinn agreed and went off to his exile. In Miami, fans booed the new coach, Cam Cameron.

“At a certain point, when you’re past those teams that you’ve built some sort of relationship with, you’re entering an unknown,” Quinn said later.

He stayed in exile for several excruciating hours. This had happened before to quarterbacks. Leinart’s slide was one of the most compelling stories of last year’s draft. In 2005, Aaron Rodgers sat in the green room until the Packers took him with the 24th pick. But Quinn’s wait was the worst. This ended up being the longest first round in the history of the draft — 6 hours 8 minutes.

While Quinn sat, there was a run on defensive players, with 13 of 16 picks in the middle part of the first round going to defense, including nine in a row. That included the Jets, who traded up to the 14th pick from the 25th to take cornerback Darrelle Revis, and the Giants, who took cornerback Aaron Ross at No. 20. Jacksonville, which had traded with Denver to get the 21st spot, picked safety Reggie Nelson.

Then Quinn’s phone rang. It was the Baltimore Ravens. They were working on a trade to get him. The Ravens’ interest perhaps indicated that the wait for Kyle Boller to become their quarterback of the future was nearing its end. During the day, Quinn had already begun to think that once he finally landed with a team, he would work to show the Browns what they missed. Perhaps he would do that for Baltimore. He hung up, and his cellphone rang again. This time it was the Browns. Dallas was on the clock with the 22nd pick.

“We made a trade, we are going to come get you right now,” Quinn said the Browns told him.

If it sounded a bit like a rescue, perhaps it was. As soon as Quinn started falling, the Browns began working the phones, calling teams as high as No. 12, hoping to find a trading partner. When Goodell finally called his name, Quinn looked to the heavens and exhaled heavily.

“I felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders,” he said.

General Manager Phil Savage is banking on Quinn to improve the Browns’ record immediately. He traded the team’s first-round pick next year to Dallas to get Quinn. “We didn’t expect Brady Quinn to fall as far as he did,” Savage said. “We had Brady rated very high on our board, just not top three.”

Weis had already called Quinn. Quinn told him that things had a funny way of working out.

“Well, it ended up working out how we wanted it to, not exactly, but how we wanted it to,” Quinn said Weis told him. “Go out and prove everyone wrong.”

I sat down at 11am yesterday to watch the draft, fully expecting to be out of there in about 45 minutes. Four hours and twenty-one picks later I was finally able to turn off the tube.

Some bleary-eyed, pre-coffee thoughts at 6:40am...

• First off, here's the Why (as in, "Why the hell did he fall so far?"):
  1. Only a few teams really needed a first-round quarterback this year badly enough to spend first-round cash: Oakland, Cleveland, a couple others.
  2. Oakland satisfied their need with Russell.
  3. Cleveland picked the best tackle in the draft. Understandable.
  4. Miami screwed up by not picking Quinn.
  5. Once Miami passed, Quinn dropped twelve more slots because none of those teams had a QB as a #1 priority.
  6. Cleveland made their deal where they could, moving up ahead of Kansas City, who also might have taken Quinn.
Hence, Brady Quinn was the twenty-second player taken overall.

• Regardless of your fan affiliation, how could you not feel for Quinn yesterday? After Cleveland passed on him, ESPN had him on the split-screen for a reaction during damn near every pick, regardless of whether that team needed a quarterback or not. It was like a bizarro Academy Awards, when they have a camera on everyone and show the losers' reactions -- but with Brady as the lone, jilted nominee in every single category. Painful.

• When he was finally selected, there was a shot of Brady emerging from behind the screen, shaking his head, and exclaiming a long, audible, "Whew." When interviewed, he seemed miffed at the Dolphins (as miffed as Brady Quinn could seem), but he tried to put a good face on it. At one point Sanders asked him about "losing all that money", and Quinn pointed out the obvious: "Hey, I never had that money in the first place, so how could I lose it?"

• The Browns got lucky, and anybody who tries to say that this was part of their "master plan" is kidding themselves. I realize Cleveland is now claiming that they were trying to get back in ahead of Miami to select Quinn, but that doesn't pass the smell test. When Miami goofed, that opened the door. Lucky for Cleveland.

• That the Browns traded two picks, including their 1st rounder next year, could be significant. Brady, if he starts for the Browns, is controlling his own value -- but inversely so. The better the Browns do with Brady at the helm, the lower their first round pick next year, and the cheaper the cost of acquiring Brady in the first place. Weird.

• It was a perfect storm for Jamarcus. What other team in this draft would have taken him #1 overall? If the Raiders hadn't been picking first, Russell could have been the one "green-roomed" yesterday instead of Quinn.

[Update, 4/30: I stand corrected on this point. Based on a USA Today article today, Phil Savage, GM of the Browns, confirmed they would have taken Jamarcus #1 overall as well.]

• The reaction in Miami to the Teddy Ginn pick was hilarious. The knives are out for Cam Cameron and the Dolphins brain trust. You have to check out this video, a live reaction of Cameron trying to calm the masses while they gather the torches and pitchforks.

• The NFL Network's coverage was far superior to ESPN's. Just straight picks and commentary, as opposed to ESPN's cheese-packed circus with Boomer sputtering nonsense, Kiper's beady eyes, Suzy Kolber whispering sweet nothings to Brady Quinn whilst reclining on a lounge sofa, and those silly war room "reenactments". (I won't even mention Mark May.) Every time I flipped back over to ESPN, I caught that lame actor in the black and white "footage" exhorting his staff to "LISTEN UP! We're ON THE CLOCK!" I suppose it was better than last year's fashion show theme, but not by much. Listen up, ESPN: everything you touch turns to gouda. For unfiltered, underproduced, and just plain smart commentary (including some surprising prescience by our old friend Adam Schefter, who had nearly every pick confirmed by sources long before Goodell stepped up to the podium each time), NFL Network was the place to be yesterday.

• For Charlie's part, he's not exactly backing off his comparisons of Quinn to Manning and Brady:
"I don't think this is a guy who has to go to a program and be groomed for a year," said Weis in a conference call. "I think if ever there was a quarterback that was ready to go walking in the door - he got hammered for the last two years by me and can take it from just about anybody - he certainly would fit that description."

Weis, the former Patriots offensive coordinator who won three Super Bowls with Tom Brady, said Quinn already has two head starts on Brady, who was a thin, 185-pounder when the Patriots drafted him in the sixth-round.

"No. 1, physically, [Quinn] is a man amongst boys at the quarterback position," said Weis. "No. 2, he's already gone through those first two years of mental preparation. Not too many guys are going to be as good as Tommy Brady, but Brady Quinn has a big head start both physically and mentally."

Weis, who spent most of his career coaching with Browns coach Romeo Crennel, told his good friend that he lucked out by landing Quinn with the No. 22 pick.

"I told him, 'You got a starting left tackle [Joe Thomas] and a quarterback that can come in and challenge as a rookie,' " said Weis. " 'It doesn't get any better than that. You just brought in two dynamic football players. I don't know how many teams are as happy as the Browns right now.' "

Weis reiterated his bold pre-draft statement that Quinn is a combination of Brady and Peyton Manning.

"I look at the two top-line QBs in the league, Tommy and Peyton," said Weis. "In the not too distant future, you're going to be talking about [Quinn] in that pack of guys pushing up to that No. 3 spot."

He said he's confident Quinn will be able to handle the strong personalities of Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow Jr. - something Charlie Frye was unable to do last season but vowed to improve on.

"[Quinn's] been weathered by the head coach at Notre Dame," said Weis. "As a rookie you have to earn the respect of the players, but when those guys see that the ball is being delivered in their hands, the kid knows how to read coverages and he has a presence about him in the huddle, they'll naturally attract to him."

Weis scoffed at reports that Quinn is inaccurate. He completed about 63 percent of his passes over his final two seasons, with 69 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.

"I've said to [critics], 'I didn't realize you're the ones calling the plays and you know where the receivers are supposed to be,' " Weis said. "Almost anybody in the NFL would say, 'Please sign me up for those numbers right now.' "

Quinn, a four-year starter, agrees he can start right away.

"I'm very confident of that, and I think that's why a team would draft me in the first round and do what the Browns did," said Quinn. "It's my desire to step in and start."

Neither Browns General Manager Phil Savage nor Crennel made any promises about Quinn starting right away. He'll compete in camp with Frye and Derek Anderson, neither of whom could be reached for comment.

"The addition of [offensive coordinator] Rob Chudzinski and with Rip Scherer being the quarterbacks coach, I think we'll handle him the correct way," said Savage. "If Brady Quinn is the third-stringer this year, so be it. If he's our starter this year, so be it."

Weis gave Brady a little pep talk after he tumbled to No. 22.

"I said, 'You can be disappointed at the number you went, but you should be delighted that you're going to the Browns,' " said Weis. " 'This is a dream come true. You grew up a Browns fans, you love Ohio, and this is the place you wanted to be all along. Even though it didn't go according to script, you're where you wanted to be. So go into Cleveland with a little chip on your shoulder -- and prove to all the people in the Browns' organization and the team and to the fans that they're going to be extremely happy to have [you].' "
• Charlie's right. All Brady has to do to wash this day away is to strap it on and kick some ass. Time to walk the walk.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Everything is Illuminated | by Jay

The alpha. From the SBT, September 28, 2003. Remember when...?

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Grass-stained but not as green as when he arrived, Brady Quinn walked off the field at Ross-Ade Stadium wiser for the experience. What exactly he learned in a 23-10 loss to Purdue will emerge over time.

"A lot of things," Quinn said. "Probably too many to even pinpoint right now."

Notre Dame learned a lot about Quinn too, most notably that he belongs in the position he assumed Saturday under forbidding circumstances. A freshman starting his first game at quarterback for Notre Dame, he acted his age at times and played beyond his years at others. Against a Boilermaker defense committed to denying the run and a hostile crowd feeding on every Irish failure, Quinn persevered...

He passed, and passed, and passed. Fifty-nine attempts, to be exact, the second most in Irish history to Terry Hanratty's 63 in 1967. Completing 29 passes for 297 yards and a touchdown, Quinn proved he reads defenses above grade-level.

Four interceptions served as a reminder that he's not immune to an aggressive pass rush and the inevitable head rush a freshman feels. Everything still happens too fast to process it all.

"I feel like it's progressively getting slower," Quinn said, "but obviously it's not at the pace I'd like it to be."

How quickly Quinn learns will determine Notre Dame's offensive direction. Any forward progress evident against Purdue can be credited to him because the redundant problems of a poor offensive line and a running game still learning to walk continued.

Quinn finished as Notre Dame's leading rusher with 25 yards on eight carries, a statistic that maligns the line and the backs more than it extols the quarterback. It's more evidence of how much responsibility he accepted.

Through freshman mistakes that threatened his confidence, through errors beyond his control that tested his composure, he displayed characteristics of leadership the offense otherwise lacks. It's in his demeanor, in the way he interacts with older teammates and in the way they respond to him. As much as his strong arm and proficient football mind, that prompted his promotion over Carlyle Holiday...

Even when he failed Saturday, that feeling never faded. Quinn contributed to the loss as much as anyone else with turnovers and errant throws that prevented potential gains, but he also provided more reason for optimism, if only in his resilience...

Barring injury, Quinn should be playing from first snap to last for the foreseeable future.

A brief apprenticeship was the prudent course for a freshman, but after three losses, it's next season at Notre Dame for all intents and purposes. In his development, Quinn's already well on his way there.

"He just really knows the game, physically and mentally," offensive tackle Dan Stevenson said. "He's got a great arm and he's got great awareness. That's huge as a quarterback."

Those attributes meant nothing to Quinn in the aftermath of a loss. Only the errors replayed in his mind, plenty of them to occupy his time for two long weeks before Notre Dame's next game. Interceptions. Inconsistency. His objective, like 30 of his passes, incomplete.

"I'm disappointed in myself," Quinn said, "because I really feel like I let the team down today."

In truth, he provided a lift that lightened the letdown of another loss.

For a freshman quarterback, it's a start.

And the omega. Two years of spectacular highlights in seven minutes:

And today, the cycle begins again: not just for Brady Quinn, who ascends to the next level, but also for Notre Dame football, and the fledgling signal caller who will be starting his very first game come this Fall...

Friday, April 27, 2007

Predicting a Draft | by Jay

You might remember we held a contest a few months ago calling for BGS readers to submit an original post. We posted the first winning entry, by Stephen Kelley, a heartfelt tribute to Notre Dame fandom. The other winner was Michael Bangert, but we decided to hold his entry until now, especially since Mike's post deals with college football awards and how they relate to the NFL Draft. Enjoy!

Hardware Hopefuls

by Michael Bangert, '99

So as I was sitting at a bar watching the National College Football Awards show, waiting to watch the Notre Dame hoops team upset #5 ranked Alabama, and I thought to myself, “Do these awards predict where a guy will go in the NFL draft?” Then I remembered the Blue-Gray Sky’s posting contest and decided to do some work to figure it out in the hopes of winning the box set. Would Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith be the number one draft pick? Will it be Brady Quinn, winner of Maxwell Award? Or will someone else go first?

There are plenty of mock drafts floating around the internet attempting to predict what will happen at the end of April, but instead of just reading those, I decided that it might be fun to go back about 25 years to wade through NFL draft history and college football award winners, and to see how those awards relate to the NFL draft.

Methodology. To determine if winning an award accurately predicts becoming a top draft choice, I looked at how well each year’s award recipient did in the following year’s NFL draft.

• I analyzed the following awards: the Heisman Memorial Trophy, the Maxwell Player of the Year, the Walter Camp Player of the Year, the Dick Butkus Outstanding Linebacker, the Outland Interior Lineman, the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback, the Johnny Unites Senior Quarterback, the Fred Biletnikoff Outstanding Receiver, the Jim Thorpe Outstanding Defensive Back, the John Mackey Tight End, the Rimmington Trophy for Outstanding Center, the Hendix Defensive End, the Vince Lombardi Lineman and the Walker Running Back awards.

• For the player of the year awards (Heisman, Maxwell and Walter Camp), I looked to see if the winner became the overall #1 draft pick.

• For the position awards, I looked to see if the winner became the top draft choice at his position or related positions. For example, the Jim Thorpe award goes to the most outstanding defensive back, which includes cornerbacks, strong safeties, and free safeties. So, if a strong safety won the award, but a free safety was drafted ahead of him, I concluded that the award winner was not the top draft choice.

• Of course a couple a couple of other things could happen to an award winner, the most obvious being that he returns to play another year of college football (like Heisman winner Matt Leinart did two years ago). In this case and in other cases when a player did not appear in the NFL draft (like Charlie Ward, a Heisman winner who opted for basketball instead) I recorded that the player did not go to the draft, and I just ignored that year in the analysis. In addition, in the early 1980s, three Heisman Trophy winners -- Hershal Walker, Mike Rozier, and Doug Flutie -- opted to play in the USFL instead of the NFL; and in 1991 Raghib Ismail, who won the 1990 Camp Award, chose to play in the CFL. I ignored those years in the analysis as well.

• To determine how often winning an award accurately predicts becoming a top draft choice, I divided the number of times the award winner went first by the total number of players considered (ignoring the times that something else happened).

• I took my data primarily from three sources: NFL draft information from 1982-2006 is available at, College Football award information is available at, and in the cases where what ultimately happened to an award winner was not obvious I relied heavily on Wikipedia and other internet sources.

• Some of the awards, like the Heisman, are long-standing, and thus have the full 25 years of winners to support the analysis. Others, like the Hendricks Award for Best Defensive End (first given in 2002), have a very small sample size.

Here are the numbers.

Heisman Trophy 25 yrs

Walker RB 16 yrs
Biletnikoff Receiver 12 yrs
Drafted #1 Overall 3
Drafted First at Position 3
Drafted First at Position 3
Drafted 15
Drafted 12
Drafted 6
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 7
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 1
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 3
Correct Predictions % 17%
Correct Predictions % 20%
Correct Predictions % 33%

Maxwell Player of Year 25 yrs
Outland Interior Line 25 yrs
Lombardi Lineman 25 yrs
Drafted #1 Overall 3
Drafted First at Position 9
Drafted First at Position 8
Drafted 16
Drafted 13
Drafted 16
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 6
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 3
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 1
Correct Predictions % 16%
Correct Predictions % 41%
Correct Predictions % 33%

Camp Player of Year 25 yrs
Mackey Tight End
6 yrs
Rimington Center 6 yrs
Drafted #1 Overall 2
Drafted First at Position 3
Drafted First at Position 2
Drafted 17
Drafted 2
Drafted 4
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 6
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 1
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 0
Correct Predictions % 11%
Correct Predictions % 60%
Correct Predictions % 33%

O'Brien Quarterback 25 yrs
Butkus Linebacker 21 yrs
Thorpe DB 20 yrs
Drafted First at Position 4
Drafted First at Position 5
Drafted First at Position 8
Drafted 14
Drafted 13
Drafted 12
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 7
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 3
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 0
Correct Predictions % 22%
Correct Predictions % 28%
Correct Predictions % 40%

Unitas Senior QB 19 yrs
Hendricks DE 4 yrs

Drafted First at Position 4
Drafted First at Position 1

Drafted 13
Drafted 2

Undrafted/Didn't Enter 2
Undrafted/Didn't Enter 1

Correct Predictions % 24%
Correct Predictions % 33%

Analysis. The first thing that jumped out at me was how poorly the three national player of the year awards did at predicting the #1 draft pick – 17% for the Heisman, 16% for the Maxwell, and 11% for the Camp. Since the 1982 draft (25 years ago), only three players who have won the Heisman Trophy have gone on to become the #1 draft choice – Bo Jackson*, Vinny Testaverde, and Carson Palmer. Winning the Heisman Trophy correctly predicts becoming the #1 draft choice only about 17% of the time. Sadly for Brady Quinn, the Maxwell Award does a slightly worse job of predicting the #1 draft choice – correctly predicting it about 16% of the time. Why do these Player of the Year awards do such a poor job at determining the top pick in the draft?

For starters, there is an obvious degree of misalignment between the objectives of the College Football awards and the NFL general managers. The voters for the College Football awards are trying to reward the most outstanding players of they year, while each NFL team is trying to select the best player for that team in the draft. This certainly explains some of the effect, but the fact that a disproportionate number Heisman Trophy winners have either lackluster or nonexistent NFL careers is certainly odd.

Another statistic that offers little encouragement to hardware winners is that over the past twenty five years, 52% of first round draft picks did not win any national award at all, let alone the Heisman or Maxwell awards. It almost makes one wonder what the fuss about the Heisman is all about.

On the position awards, the voters tend to do a better job predicting the top draft choice at a particular position, although the range varies significantly:

The Mackey tight end award, which predicts the top tight end chosen in the draft 60% of the time, is the only award to actually give the winner a greater than 50% chance of being the top player drafted. Most of the other awards predict the top draft choice at their position about a third of the time. Some of this variance could result from strong collegiate tight ends having a higher tendency to become strong professional tight ends while strong collegiate quarterbacks and running backs have a lower tendency to become strong in the professional game. Or it could be simply that the small sample size has given us a very skewed look at tight ends.

Interestingly, over the past 25 years the winner of the Vince Lombardi Lineman award has gone on to become the overall number one draft pick four times -- as compared to just three times for the Heisman and Maxwell awards and twice for the Camp award. The Lombardi winners who went on to become number one draft picks are Kenneth Sims, Tony Casillas, and Steve Emtman, and Orlando Pace. Do the Lombardi voters see something in their winners that the Heisman and Maxwell voters do not see in theirs? Or are good lineman simply easier to identify (or perhaps less subject to individual bias)?

The two Quarterback Awards provide an interesting comparison. On the surface, they seem nearly identical in their predictive qualities, with each of them placing the #1 quarterback in the draft four times apiece. But among those four, only top quarterback Peyton Manning in 1997 was selected for both awards in the same year.

Year O'Brien Award Unitas Award
2005 Vince Young, Texas Matt Leinart, USC
2004 Jason White, Oklahoma Jason White, Oklahoma
2003 Jason White, Oklahoma Eli Manning, Ole Miss
2002 Brad Banks, Iowa Carson Palmer, USC
2001 Eric Crouch, Nebraska David Carr, Fresno State
2000 Chris Weinke, Florida State Chris Weinke, Florida State
1999 Joe Hamilton, Georgia Tech Chris Redman, Louisville
1998 Michael Bishop, Kansas State Cade McNown, UCLA
1997 Peyton Manning, Tennessee Peyton Manning, Tennessee
1996 Danny Wuerffel, Florida Danny Wuerffel, Florida
1995 Danny Wuerffel, Florida Tommie Frazier, Nebraska
1994 Kerry Collins, Penn State Jay Barker, Alabama
1993 Charlie Ward, Florida State Charlie Ward, Florida State
1992 Gino Torretta, Miami Gino Torretta, Miami
1991 Ty Detmer, BYU Casey Weldon, Florida State
1990 Ty Detmer, BYU Craig Erickson, Miami
1989 Andre Ware, Houston Tony Rice, Notre Dame
1988 Troy Aikman, UCLA Rodney Peete, USC
1987 Don McPherson, Syracuse Don McPherson, Syracuse
1986 Vinny Testaverde, Miami
1985 Chuck Long, Iowa
1984 Doug Flutie, Boston College
1983 Steve Young, BYU
1982 Todd Blackledge, Penn State
1981 Jim McMahon, BYU
(Highlight indicates top quarterback taken in draft that year)

The Unitas Award is constrained by having to pick a Senior quarterback, but the only case I see where that would have made a difference was last year.

Another interesting effect that may be skewing these numbers is that in the first few years of an award’s existence, the recipients tended to be less heralded players. For example the first two recipients of the Doak Walker running back award, Greg Lewis and Trevor Cobb, were not drafted highly and did not have particularly strong NFL careers. Both of these players did not have Wikipedia pages so I have no idea what eventually happened to them.

I am sure other conclusions could be drawn from the data. One obvious one that comes to mind: how many of these award winners end up as successful players in the NFL ("successes" perhaps measured by length of career, or Pro Bowl appearances, or another measuring stick)? But that is a project for another day.

* Tampa Bay drafted Bo Jackson first in the 1986 draft, but he never signed with the team due to his desire to play baseball. The next year, Jackson returned to the draft where the Raiders drafted him in the seventh round. The NFL archives actually leave the top draft choice off their official records for the 1986 season, but I deemed Jackson one of the three cases where the Heisman predicted the number one draft choice because Tampa Bay did draft Jackson first.

Ed. note: with Mike's post in mind, keep an eye on these 2006 award winners and see when (or in some cases, if) they are selected:
Troy Smith, Ohio State
Brady Quinn, Notre Dame
Walter Camp
Troy Smith, Ohio State
O'Brien Quarterback
Troy Smith, Ohio State
Unitas Senior Quarterback
Brady Quinn, Notre Dame
Butkus Linebacker
Patrick Willis, Ole Miss
Outland Interior Lineman
Joe Thomas, Wisconsin
Walker Running Back
Darren McFadden, Arkansas
Biletnikoff Wide Receiver
Calvin Johnson, Georgia Tech
Thorpe Defensive Back
Aaron Ross, Texas
Mackey Tight End
Matt Spaeth, Minnesota
Hendricks Defensive End
LaMarr Woodley, Michigan
Rimington Center
Dan Mozes, West Virginia
Lombardi Lineman
LaMarr Woodley, Michigan

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Besides Brady... | by Jay

Overlooked among TV appearances and EAS endorsements and throwing footballs in the streets are the other guys who might get called up to the podium this weekend. In fact, along with Brady, ND's got an outside chance to place more guys in the NFL draft since the '94 draft. We had 10 in '94, and the most since then has been 7 in '99 and '03.

(A little trivia. Since '94, we've had two years where we had just one guy drafted. What were the years, and who were the players? Answers, and a complete rundown of Notre Dame players in the NFL draft are here.)

As for this year's Irish hopefuls, Blue & Gold has some nice capsules, with some handicapping from Scott Wright of NFL Countdown. Hansen in the SBT has got some quotes from Frank Coyle of Draft Insiders. And UHND put out a good rundown of draft prospects for this year (way back in Spring of '06! Fun to read.)

Right now this seems to be the consensus:

sure-fire draftees:
Quinn - 1st round
Abiamiri - late 1st, early 2nd
Harris - 3rd or 4th
Walker - 3rd or 4th
McKnight - 4th or 5th
Santucci - 4th or 5th
Landri - 6th or 7th

on the bubble:
As for the Brady Quinn odds, here's what the BGS Sports Book & Casino is showing:
Cleveland 3/2
Oakland 6/1
Tampa Bay 12/1
Miami 12/1
Detroit 15/1
Minnesota 25/1
Carolina 50/1
Chicago 100/1

Routes About | by Jay

Came across this diagram on a literature site called, appropriately, Diagram.

From How to Watch Pro Football on TV, by Y.A. Tittle, 1966, The Benjamin Co., New York.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

BGS Blue & Gold Gallery | by Pat

As promised, here is our photo gallery slideshow of the recent Blue & Gold weekend. Thanks so much to Joseph S., Michael S., Eddie F., Gerald K., Brian T., John M. (who sent in the above photo), Ryan V, and Mike B. for sending in the pictures. There really are some fantastic shots in there so make sure to check them out. There are even more photos in a bit less organized manner on the main BGS flickr page if you're looking for even more shots of Jimmy Clausen, by far the most popular photo subject.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Blue-Gold Bonanza | by Pat

(With the dramatic increase of online information about Notre Dame football, we here at BGS took to the task of updating our multimedia capabilities in the form of the newly constructed Jerome Green Memorial BGS Media Lab *. There are of course some bugs in the system -- we blew one of our internet tubes during a trial run -- but the lab passed its big first test this weekend with flying colors. Now we can easily present all of the relevant media links -- video, photo, or otherwise -- from the recent Blue-Gold weekend. Enjoy.)

Your first stop this morning should be the Lou Holtz video feature on ESPN. It's vintage Holtz: cajoling the refs, explaining why he never threw to the tight end, and offering both lectures and lessons in being a winner to the players. It's fantastic.

The next must-see is the highlight video of the scrimmage found on You can also find some individual plays popping up on youtube, although most of them are covered in greater resolution on the clip. The interviews of Coach Weis and Lou and Ara are up and great to watch. If you don't have the time, here are the transcripts of both Charlie and the two Irish coaching legends. Charlie's presser is a good read, as always, as he discusses the plans for deciding the QB depth chart and why he's looking to emphasize a power running attack with the ND offense next season.

Photo-wise, the South Bend Tribune has a very nice photo gallery. The AP wire has a string of photos from the weekend while Irish Eyes and Irish Illustrated also have some great galleries for members only. The BGS photo gallery is almost done, but I'm going to wait another day or so to let more people get their shots in. We already have some fantastic action shots, but if you want to send in your pics of the weekend festivities, feel free.

Getting into the print stories, the official stat sheet and game play-by-play is up on, but really there isn't too much to glean from the numbers. The SBT has stories on Clausen, Lou, Ara, offensive MVP Junior Jabbie, and defensive MVP David Bruton, while the Observer covers the only real big news from the game, John Sullivan's ankle injury.

That should just about cover most of the major news items from this weekend. If there is anything else you think we missed, feel free to leave a link in the comments.

*Jerome Green is the Notre Dame professor who in 1899 constructed a tower outside of the Basilica and transmitted a signal down the road to Saint Mary's. That transmission was the very first wireless transmission sent in North America. The message read, "I need a date for the Sorin SYR. Any takers?"

Monday, April 23, 2007

Recruiting Double Dip | by Pat

During their trip to campus for the Blue-Gold game weekend, a pair of "F"s decided it was time to make a public commitment and join the ND Class of 2008. Chicago linebacker Darius Fleming committed first thing in the morning, and California tight end Joseph Fauria committed later in the day after talking things over with his family and Coach Weis. Fleming has been a regular visitor to spring practices and his commitment was hardly a surprise. Fauria, on the other hand, wasn't expected to make such a quick decision. Expected or not, the result was the same, and ND picked up its 9th and 10th members of the Class of 2008.

The commitment by Darius Fleming continues a strong Midwestern recruiting push by ND and also adds another player from the talent rich Chicago area. At 6'3", 230 pounds, Fleming plays mainly defensive end for his high school but will be an outside linebacker once he arrives at ND.

"I know the defense isn't the strong part of the team right now, but I feel the recruits that are coming in and coach Brown coming in, that he's going to be very successful teaching us the new style of defense that he's bringing."
Fleming is now the third linebacker recruit already this year, and of the three, Fleming comes in with the most recruiting fanfare. A 1st team All-Conference and Honorable Mention All-State selection at defensive end, Fleming picked ND over offers from Southern Cal, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Wisconsin and a handful of other schools. Scout lists Fleming as a 4-star recruit, rated the 49th overall recruit in the nation, and along with Dayne Crist and Anthony McDonald, Fleming is ND's third straight recruit listed on Scout's Top 100 list. Rivals still hasn't listed any rankings yet, but includes Fleming on their Top 100 "pre-evaulation" list. lists him as the 146th overall prospect on their initial Top 150 list.

(Fleming also rides horses and competes in rodeos, but no rodeo recruit rankings could be found. If they exist, I'm sure Fleming is a 5-star rodeo recruit).

You can watch Fleming's football highlights here. With Anthony McDonald and David Posluszny tentatively penciled in as inside linebackers and Fleming slotted for the outside, ND has plenty of flexibility for filling a fourth linebacker spot. At this point ND can hold out for talented linebacker targets like Chicago's Steven Filer, the first junior offered by Notre Dame, or someone like Arthur Brown, the nation's #1 rated player by at least one recruiting service. It's possible that the Irish will take five linebackers if more than one top recruit decide to join Corwin Brown's defense.

The other Blue-Gold weekend commit, Joesph Fauria, continues ND's run on talented tight ends and California natives. Listed at 6'8" and 240 pounds, he'll be the tallest player on the roster when he arrives on campus.

If the name Fauria seems familiar, it's because his uncle Christian Fauria is an 12-year NFL veteran who played tight end for Coach Weis in New England for three years and won two Super Bowls. And as you might suspect, his nephew took a lot of notes in watching how a pro tight end should play.
“I try to emulate a lot of tight ends, like Joe Newton (Oregon State) and Matt Spaeth (Minnesota). I would watch them the whole time. And of course, when I watch the NFL I watch my uncle. I’ll call him a day after the game and mess with him and tell him all the stuff he did wrong. I love watching the tight end block on runs and passes. I love how they’re used. I want to go to a school that uses their tight end a lot.”
Fauria, who grew up a Notre Dame fan, picked the Irish over offers from LSU, Nebraska, Colorado, Stanford, and UCLA. On Scout he's listed as a 4-star player while Rivals has him as part of their intial Top 250 list. You can check out his highlight videos here.

It's pretty impressive how ND is scooping up the top tight ends. In this class alone, 6'8" Fauria joins 6'7" Kyle Rudolph, now listed as a 5-star recruit on and the 25th overall recruit in the nation. That's a lot of height at the tight end position that will pay dividends in the run game and in the red zone. At the recent L.A. Nike Camp, Fauria impressed the recruitniks with his ability to catch the football and was listed as the top tight end at the camp. Rudolph, Fauria and Mike Ragone will give ND a potent combination of tight ends to succeed John Carlson, Konrad Reuland, and Will Yeatman.

Charlie Weis has left campus for his monthly trip around the country re-visiting current commits and dropping in on future prospects. Six of the ten current public commits are on the offensive side of the ball while four are on the defensive side. Expect that number to balance out as ND looks to solidify the defensive side. ND will ultimately wind up with between 20 to 23 players in this class, so the Irish are already about halfway home, and the class of 2008 is already looking very strong across the board.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

I went to South Bend... | by Mike

...and all I got was this hellacious sunburn.

Actually, that's not all I got, but I don't think I saw enough to draw any real substantive conclusions regarding the 2007 edition of the Fighting Irish. It was enjoyable to see Junior Jabbie garner offensive MVP honors following his 87 rushing yards on 13 carries, and we certainly hope Jabbie has a great season. However, Charles Stafford and Chris Olsen have demonstrated that a strong spring game performance does not necessarily portend fall stardom.

Given my limited expectations from a football standpoint, I was drawn to a weekend in the Bend by the surrounding revelry - and in these respects I was not let down. The weather was as good as it gets in South Bend. The cloudless sky, mid-70s temperature, and slight breeze combined to produce perfect tailgating weather. After a long winter, it was nice to be reminded of the simple joy of simultaneously soaking up sun and spirits.

As the morning passed, it became apparent that we could expect a Blue & Gold attendance record. The rapidly filling tailgating lots were a testament to the considerable buzz generated by the wide open QB race, the unveiling of Corwin Brown's new defense, and the return of the legendary Ara and Lou. Yet even after witnessing the multitudes outside, the number of people inside the stadium still surprised me. For starters, it was hard just finding an accessible section. At section entrance after section entrance, the ushers turned our merry band of late-arriving tailgaters away, telling us their section was full. When we finally reached the stands, I was amazed at how many people were in the upper level. This was due in part to the decision to close off some of the sections in the tunnel endzone, but the crowd still dwarfed any I had seen at a Blue & Gold game.

The announced attendance was indeed a Blue & Gold record: 51,800. I was actually expecting a slightly higher figure and would be interested to know how the students were counted, since they simply had to flash their IDs. While this figure is significantly below the totals at the Alabama and Ohio State spring games, the Notre Dame fanbase is far less provincial than that of schools whose student body is overwhelmingly composed of in-state residents. In light of the geographic dispersion of ND Nation, getting almost 52,000 to travel to a game designed to reveal little of substance speaks volumes about the excitement surrounding Irish football these days.

The real stars of the game were Ara and Lou. I was talking to my father before the game, and he was pretty fired up about Ara's return. When I found out that yesterday's game was Ara's first time through the tunnel since my father was a student, I once again thanked Charlie Weis for his efforts to bring the family together. Holtz really seemed to enjoy the game, and when a yelling Holtz ran out on the field at one point, the crowd responded with an enthusiastic "Louuuuuuu!"

I hope the experience made quite an impression on the visiting recruits, and the early returns indicate that this is the case.

Crist crosses country; chooses Charlie | by Pat

We're catching up with an avalanche of ND football news. More on the Blue-Gold weekend and the two newest commits in a bit. But for now, here's the word on ND's newest quarterback, Dayne Crist.

The second Notre Dame High School football player to commit to Notre Dame in as many weeks, California QB Dayne Crist announced on Thursday evening that he will be attending the University of Notre Dame as the 8th member of the Class of 2008.

"I am absolutely thrilled. I couldn't be happier. Ultimately, it was between USC and Notre Dame, and it was a real difficult choice. It was a tough decision, and it took a lot of thought. I have a lot of respect for USC... but Notre Dame just felt right,"
Crist is a fantastic QB prospect and chose the Irish over offers from Southern Cal, LSU, Michigan, Nebraska, and Stanford. At 6'5" 220 pounds, Crist is a big quarterback with a strong arm and a great prospect according to his high school coach.
“He completed a lot of deep balls and throws the deep ball very well,” said Notre Dame High coach Kevin Rooney said. “He had the highest yards-per-completion average that we’ve ever had here. He sees the field very well, too, and finds people when they are open, and that isn’t easy for a lot of people.” has him listed with 4 stars and the #66 overall recruit in the nation while has him listed as the 47th overall prospect. Recently he attended the Nike Camp combine in L.A. and walked away with the Camp QB MVP award. All are very good honors for a quarterback who threw for over 1,200 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions last year despite missing five games with an injury. Now, high school stats are usually pretty irrelevant when predicting college success, but a very lopsided TD/INT ratio, like Crist's 17/3 mark, is always a good sign of solid decision making. Crist also rushed for 400 some yards and is a member of his school's track program, which is a clue that he's also not a motionless statue when back in the pocket.

With the current QB depth chart full of talented quarterbacks with plenty of eligibility, some might wonder if taking on another quarterback now is a wise move. The simple answer is yes. Great programs don't get to the top by taking one top player and then taking a few years off. They consistently land great players in order to keep the depth chart full and foster a competitive atmosphere on the squad. It is true that Notre Dame currently has four good quarterbacks on the roster now, but you never know how attrition, whether via injury or transfer, will change that situation. The recent past of ND fielding tight ends and walk-ons at QB should be enough to remind Irish fans of how quickly a QB depth chart can change. Crist doesn't seem to be scared off by the current depth chart though and is well aware of what it will take to see the field.
“I’m a very competitive person by nature,” Crist said. “I knew wherever I went I would have to battle and be as competitive as possible. That was going to come anyway. Winning a spot in college is not easy at all. You have got to go in there and be ready for the most competitive situation. That I knew going in, so then I looked for other things. That was a given going into the whole recruiting process.”
It's the second straight year that ND landed the top quarterback in California, which is a great sign that the Irish are making even more inroads into the talent rich west coast state largely dominated by the Southern Cal Trojans. Crist, who went to middle school with Jimmy Clausen, is now looking to help ND bring in even more talented recruits.
"I'm going to do everything I can to help the team I pick get the top recruits," he said. "I want to win, and I want to win big. I wouldn't have it any other way."

Saturday, April 21, 2007

T. Nice | by Jay

A little bit on the other Blue-Gold captain. I was a freshman in 1988, and for me, Tony Rice simply defined Notre Dame football at the time.

Was there ever a better fit between coach and quarterback than Tony Rice and Lou Holtz? It was a near-perfect melding of coach, scheme, and skills, with Rice as the motor that powered Holtz's vaunted option attack. In this era of aerial assaults by ND quarterbacks, it's funny to think that in Rice's time, fifteen passes a game were considered a lot. (In the Fiesta Bowl win for the National Championship, for example, Rice was 7-11 for 213 yards and two touchdowns). But any great quarterback, whether option- or pro-style, is above all a great decision maker, and Rice was one of the very best at knowing when to pitch it and when to tuck it and run. When the Irish got inside the 30 yard line, there was simply no doubt they would score, and it was largely due to Rice. He'd hand it off to AJ or Culver up the middle, or stretch it to the sideline and pitch it to Watters or Brooks or Green, or sprint off tackle and take it in himself, or fake the option, pull back, and lob one to Derek Brown at the back of the end zone. He was so much fun to watch.

The image “” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.His 65-yard keeper for a score against Southern Cal in 1988 (highlight above) was perhaps the quintessential Tony Rice play: #1 versus #2 in the Coliseum, last game of the regular season, a National Championship season on the line. Rice takes the snap and dashes left on the option. Mark Green is the pitch man, mirroring Rice step for step on the outside. The USC defensive back comes flying up, and for a fleeting moment there's a perfect triangle between the quarterback, the running back, and the defender. Rice does a subtle shoulder dip -- is he about to pitch it? -- and then he's gone, the Trojan defender having bitten on the fake, and Rice sprintng sixty-five yards down the sideline for the score. Beautiful.

A few random facts from the '90 media guide on the other Blue-Gold captain today, Tony Rice:

• His three year record as a starter at ND was 28-3. (And those three losses are more than he ever lost in high school. During his four years at Woodruff high, he lost only two games - both in the state championship.)
• He engineered a 23-game win streak as a starter, which included wins over seven Top 10 teams and twelve bowl teams. That's the longest win streak for a quarterback in Irish history.
• During his tenure he beat:

'87 Alabama (#10)
'88 Michigan (#9)
'88 Miami (#1)
'88 Southern Cal (#2) -- ND ranked #1
'88 West Virginia (#3) -- ND ranked #1
'89 Michigan (#2) -- ND ranked #1
'89 Air Force (#17)
'89 Southern Cal (#9)
'89 Pitt (#7)
'89 Penn State (#17)
'89 Colorado (#1)
(From the end of 88 to the beginning of 89, Rice and the Irish beat #2, #3 and #2 in a stretch of 4 games. Crazy.)

• Won the Johnny Unitas "Golden Arm" Award in 1989 (which is sort of funny, if you think about it)
• Finished 4th in the Heisman voting in 1989
• Holds the record for season rushing yards by a QB (884 in 1989) and career rushing yards by a QB (1,921)
• Won a National Championship in 1988, beating West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl.

Rice's career at ND was birthed in controversy; he was the first ND athlete to fall victim to Proposition 48, and had to sit out his freshman year due to poor testing grades. But he worked overtime in summer school to gain his eligibility back, and eventually graduated Notre Dame with a degree in psychology.

The option, of course, was his bread and butter, and nobody ran it with better instincts and talent than Rice. He was the first QB to lead Notre Dame in rushing since Paul Hornung did it in his Heisman year of 1956. But despite dazzling with the option, Rice always had a little trouble in the passing game, although he improved remarkably during his time as a signal caller. On his very first snap in college, coming in for the injured Terry Andrysiak midway through a game against Pitt, he lined up over the guard instead of the center. He completed only 42% of his passes his sophomore year. Holtz had him throw darts in between starts to improve his accuracy, and he got that completion rate up to 50% his junior year. But he seemed to hit the big pass when he needed it: long passes against Miami in '88 to set up touchdowns; a bomb to the Rocket from his own end zone against USC in '88; going 7-11 in the Fiesta Bowl against West Virginia.
"He proved it when he had to, in prime time," said flanker Ricky Watters, who grabbed a 57-yard bomb from Rice to set up an Irish touchdown. "Bottom line, he's a winner."

"I'm glad we didn't have to play against Tony Rice," Irish safety George Streeter said. "That would be a really big challenge."

Rice had his best statistical performance in a Notre Dame uniform. He hit 7 of 11 throws for 213 yards and two touchdowns. He also had an interception. The 21-year-old junior from South Carolina also ran for a game- high 75 yards. [Major] Harris, by comparison, hit 13 of 26 for 166 yards and a touchdown and ran for 42 yards. He also had an interception.

In the process, Rice made a believer out of coach Lou Holtz, who had doubted Rice's passing ability all fall. "He's just gotten better and better," Holtz said. "I did say (last week) that he's throwing the ball better this week than I've ever seen him."

Rice's biggest pass was a 47-yard strike over the middle to freshman tight end Derek Brown, who was caught from behind at the Mountaineer 5-yard line. The Irish had worked all week on exploiting that weakness in the heart of the West Virginia defense. Notre Dame scored on the next play to take a 16- point lead and deflate the No. 3 Mountaineers. "Our offensive team can score against anybody," Rice said.

The main reason was Rice. He was deadly on the option, as he had been all season. But his passing was a vast improvement over his 5 for 20 in the season's first two games.
Going into his senior season Rice was a legitimate Heisman candidate; even Bo Schembechler called him "the most dangerous quarterback in the country." From a Chicago Tribune article at the time:
This year, Rice not only finds himself to be a highly regarded candidate for the Heisman but he's also found peace of mind. "Last year, he had something to prove. This year, he wants to get better," says Holtz. "I see a more mature Tony Rice, a more confident Tony Rice. His knowledge of football has improved as much as any individual I have ever seen. We've really come to appreciate him as an exceptionally fine quarterback."

Rice was keenly aware of his critics last year and is clearly tired of them now. "I don't have anything to prove to anybody," he says with a characteristic wide smile that takes the sting out of the message. "There's always going to be so many people out there who say I can't pass. "I can't do what they are going to say I can't do. Let it be like that. I'll go and prove things to myself and just have fun on the field and do what counts for the team. "If I pass five times and we win, that's fine with me. "
Rice finished out his career at ND in fine form; the Irish went 11-1, with only a heartbreaking loss in Miami preventing the Irish from capturing their second consectuive National Championship. Rice placed fourth in the Heisman voting. ND went on to play #1 Colorado in the Orange Bowl, beating them 21-6.

A couple other BGSers were in school while Rice was there...

Jeff: I knew Rice fairly well (all of the South Carolina kids knew each other). One of the reasons I'm really looking forward to the BG game this weekend is to say hello.

He was really known for his leadership and his demeanor. He used to crack jokes in the huddle to lighten the mood during tense situations. After the '88 Miami game, he laughed that he had to come to the sideline to wipe off "a big gob of spit of my forehead" and none of it seemed to faze him. Holtz also tells a story of Rice on the sidelines after an opponent had rallied back to take the lead late in the game. Before putting on his helmet to take the field, Rice smiled at Holtz and said, "Good game, huh coach?"

Sean: So many great T. Rice moments.

1988, Miami game. One of the best shots of the day was Tony Rice calmly raising his arms in victory after taking the knee to run out the clock.

The image “” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.1988, USC game. I remember sitting in the upper reaches of one of the end zones at the Coliseum. Irish ball on their own 35 yard line at the far end of the field, and Tony Rice takes the snap, breaks to the outside. He's into the secondary, and -- HOLY SHIT, he's coming right at us! He... could... go... all... well, you get the idea.

1989, USC game. ND down 24-21 with only a few minutes left. Undeafeted season on the line. Tony Rice calmly marches the team down the field, culminating with an option left from about 15 yards out where he crossed the goal line with a USC defender hanging onto his ankle for the last three yards.

Three (!) Sports Illustrated covers in about a ten week span in 1988 (post-Miami, post-USC, post-Fiesta Bowl). Has anyone (not named Jordan) ever done that?

Off the field, Rice was quite simply the definition of the BMOC, only without all of the ego that usually goes along with that "title". In the few times I was around him, he was the same charismatic, upbeat guy whether he was hanging out with his teammates or whether he was hanging out with other students. Just a really good guy. On a campus that he shared with many future NFL draft picks and even a few NBA draft picks, Tony Rice was, undoubtedly, THE MAN. If you don't believe it, just ask any of the football and basketball players who were there the same time as him.

And in a little known fact that you won't find on Wikipedia or any Notre Dame history books, Tony Rice bought me the shot that put me down for the count on my 21st birthday. CJ's Pub, January 1990. I'm sure he had no idea who I was, just some soon-to-be-deathly-ill loser who was standing in a booth at CJ's. I like to think he did it out of the goodness of his heart. That was Tony Rice: always better instincts and judgment than anyone else on the field.


text:
Game No. 62

Posted Feb 27, 2012 by Shawn Mitchell

Rick Nash scored a shorthanded goal in what may have been his last game for the Blue Jackets today in the Consol Energy Center. That was one of two or three highlights for the Jackets, who were otherwise throttled by Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins. The final score was 4-2. There were 18,602 in the building, and it was a lively bunch. This is what it is like when a team is good, and it wins. There is a bond.

Afterwards, in the visitors’ dressing room, a throng of media (including a camera crew from Toronto) waited for Nash.
The whole hockey world understands that he is the biggest name, and most talented player, available as the NHL trade deadline looms. The deadline is Monday at 3 p.m.
Nash was asked whether the specter of it had any impact on the team.
“We’ve got such a tight group of guys in here, a good bunch of guys, but everyone realizes there is a business side to this,” he said. “There have been so many rumors, so much speculation.”
Saturday, Nash’s agent, Joe Resnick, tried to nudge forward negotiations for a deal involving Nash by saying, essentially, that the Jackets would be doing themselves no favors by waiting.
“We're hopeful a deal can get done prior to the trade deadline that is fair and equitable for the Blue Jackets,” Resnick told TSN. “However, if a deal is not reached, then the list of acceptable teams will not change at a later date.”
Nash was asked whether he agreed with his agent’s assertion that it would be better if he were moved before the deadline. “No comment,” Nash said.
He went on to say, “It has been a great time living in Columbus. I’m a Blue Jacket today and I’m doing everything I can to move forward with this team. Like I’ve said before, the fans deserve a winning game, they deserve a winning team, and they’re the ones who have been most patient.”
The Penguins jumped the Jackets in the first period. They had the puck continuously and launched shots from every angle on goaltender Curtis Sanford, who was returning from a back injury. Sanford stood on his head as he stopped 15 shots in the period.
Nash staked the Jackets to a 1-0 lead when he scored on a shorthanded breakaway at 9:49 of the second period. He beat Penguins goalie Brad Thiessen, who was making his NHL debut, with a wrist shot inside the left post.
Malkin scored a power-play goal with a nasty, nasty wrist shot with 48 seconds remaining in the second period. Pascal Dupuis, Kris Letang and Joe Vitale scored in succession for the Pens in the third period. They also had a goal waved off. Vinny Prospal scored a meaningless goal for the Jackets later in the period.
In sum, this game was much more lopsided than the final score indicates. The Penguins outshot the Jackets by a count of 40-24.
Side dishes
-- Among the players that can be had in trade today are R.J. Umberger, Derick Brassard, Sammy Pahlsson and Steve Mason. “We all go into the trade dealing wanting it to be over with,” Umberger said. “It has been a long two weeks.”
-- Jack Johnson, acquired with a first-round pick from Los Angeles in the Jeff Carter trade last week, made his Jackets debut. He was paired with James Wisniewski. “That was a blast playing with him,” Johnson said. “I was really anxious to get out there on the ice with these guys.”
--Thiessen played because of an undisclosed injury to backup Brent Johnson and the Penguins’ desire to rest starter Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury had started 32 of the previous 34 games.
--Blue Jackets rookie Cam Atkinson played his seventh game and tallied his first NHL assist on Prospal’s goal. Atkinson, recalled from Springfield on Friday, has one goal, scored on Oct. 10 against Vancouver.
--The Penguins have the Eastern Conference’s best record against the Western Conference. Pittsburgh is 9-2-3 against the West this season.
--Malkin leads the NHL with 78 points.
--The Blue Jackets fell to 7-20-4 on the road. They’ve been outscored 115-69 away from Nationwide Arena.
--Nash’s shorthanded goal was his first since scoring shorthanded goals in back-to-back games on Oct. 17 and 20, 2009, a span of 205 games.
--The Blue Jackets are scheduled to practice at 11 a.m. Monday. General manager Scott Howson will address the media after the 3 p.m. trade deadline at a time to be determined.
--Michael Arace


text:
Game 60: Short-handed Dagger

Posted Mar 1, 2014 by Aaron Portzline

The Blue Jackets scored six goals tonight -- three on the power play, two into an empty net and one short-handed. It was the last one, a short-handed beauty by center Artem Anisimov, that was the game-changer.

Anisimov's goal game with 10 seconds left in the second period and gave the Blue Jackets a 4-3 lead and finally allowed them to shake the Florida Panthers from their pantlegs. Empty-net goals by Nick Foligno (1:01 to play) and Matt Calvert (37.0) provided the final score of 6-3 before a crowd of 15,441 in Nationwide Arena.

The Blue Jackets snapped a three-game losing streak. They sorely needed the points and the morale boost after a disjointed, ugly loss in New Jersey on Thursday.

"We've said it so many times, that points are so valuable this time of year," Blue Jackets center Brandon Dubinsky said. "It was perfect. We can learn from the mistakes we made tonight, and we can definitely play better. But we did a lot of good things, and we had guys step up.

"Arty definitely stepped up. That's a huge goal from him, not just how it was scored, but when it was scored, the situation of the game. We need everybody contributing, and it was his turn to come up big."

R.J. Umberger, Cam Atkinson, David Savard scored power play goals for the Blue Jackets, matching a season high with three man-up goals. But it was not a happy 3-3 tie for the Blue Jackets, who seemed on the verge of blowing out the Panthers in the first 12 minutes of the game.

Umberger scored off a James Wisniewski shot at 7:42 to make it 1-0. Atkinson redirected a Savard wrister at 11:04 to make it 2-0. The Blue Jackets led the Panthers 11-1 on the shot clock, and it looked like an early afternoon start might be over early.

Not so.

Wisniewski had two garish turnovers on one shift, the second of which ended up on the stick of Florida's Shawn Matthias high in the Blue Jackets' zone. Matthias skated wide of Wisniewski and beat Bobrovsky to make it 2-1 at 13:50 of the first, while Wisniewsk contemplated shattering his stick on the back of the net. (He thought better of it, thankfully.)

The lead was gone at 6:54 of the second when rookie Ryan Murray made a rare mis-read and was caught pinching up the ice. Florida's Nick Bjugstad roared around Murray and embarked on a 2-on-1 that had to thrill Bobrovsky.

Wisniewski covered his man to prevent Bjugstad from passing, but that left Bjugstad alone in front of Bobrovsky long enough to whistle Dixie and make a ham sandwich. He fired the puck past Bobrovsky after working him into a pretzel.

That made it 2-2.

Another power play goal, this time by Savard, put the Blue Jackets up 3-2. Savard took advantage of an overload on the opposite side of the ice and skated the puck through a massive hole at the right circle. He made a nifty move off his backhand, and was helped by the puck deflecting off a Panthers stick before it sailed past goaltender Scott Clemmensen to make it 3-2.

Again, the Panthers remained undaunted. This time, Sean Bergenheim redirected a shot by Tom Gilbert past Bobrovsky at 11:30 -- only 40 seconds after Savard's goal -- to make it 3-3 and bring a collective groan from the crowd.

Maybe the Arnold would be more fun that this?

Anisimov said he took a quick glance at the scoreboard as he came over the boards for his final shift of the second period, noting that there were 30 seconds and counting. If the Panthers were content to run out the clock, Anisimov was not.

"I just follow the puck," Anisimov said sheepishly after the game. "I just follow it and keep going."

Florida's Jonathan Huberdeau pinned the puck against the wall in the corner and appeared content to let the clock run. Panthers center Drew Shore stood near him, and they appeared unsure how to proceed.

Anisimov pried the puck from Huberdeau, then turned and found a clear path to the net. He scored off Clemmensen's right pad and into the far corner of the net for a 4-3 lead, screaming and pumping his arms when he saw the goal light illuminate.

“That was a huge play for us,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “Arty made a great individual play. I didn’t realize it was such a great individual play until I was able to look at the replay (after the game).

“That got the energy back for us. It probably would have been a little disheartening for us to go into the third period tied.”

The Blue Jackets held Florida to only six shots on goal in the third. Coach Peter Horachek questioned his club's heart, desire and intelligence after the game.

“It’s not good,” Panthers coach Peter Horachek said. “To give up a short-handed goal in that situation … there has to be some approach to the game that has more fortitude to it. It was lax, it was sloppy.

“We usually have the fortitude and gumption to get back into games. There are individuals that really let us down.”

Slap shots

-- Johnson matched a season high with three assists, all of the secondary variety. He has one goal and 10 assists in his past nine home games.

-- Mark Letestu had a plus-3 rating, matching a career high.

-- The Panthers entered the game with NHL’s worst penalty kill and power play (9.18 percent). They were 0 of 4 on the power play today and are flirting with the worst single-season conversion rate in NHL history (9.35 percent, 1997-98 Tampa Bay Lightning).

-- Ohio State will close a weekend series against Michigan at 1 p.m. today in Nationwide Arena. A regulation win would vault the Buckeyes over the Wolverines and into third place in the Big Ten.

-- The Blue Jackets honored the 2001 Ohio AAA Blue Jackets before the opening faceoff. That team won the Quebec International Pee Wee Tournament last weekend.

-- Umberger was icing his right index finger after the game. He said he suffered the injury when Wisniewski’s initial shot hit him there before he gathered the puck and scored. It is not broken, he said.

-- The Jackets’ six goals matched a season high. They did it twice before, both 6-3 decisions (Dec. 21 vs. Philadelphia, Jan. 11 at Winnipeg). The three power-play goals also matched a season high. They scored on three of five opportunities in a 4-1 win at Ottawa on Nov. 17.

-- Aaron Portzline

twitter: @aportzline

-- Shawn Mitchell

twitter: @smitchcd


text:
Top Definition
A Kiss ass is commonly known as a person who will go to many lengths to look impressive, good, and worthy towards another person or group of higher social standing.

This is usually due to their need to ascend in the ranks of their workplace, school, or society in general.

In their quest for higher status and privilege, they will become unguarded and their peers will begin to notice how fake and transparent their attempts are.

A Kiss ass will most definetly seem fake due to the fact they don't actually give a shit when people watch how fake they are.
Ted's co-workers knew he was a Kiss ass because he never went to TGIF with them, and instead went out with the boss.

"It's obvious Ted is a Kiss ass, look at how he ignores the rest of us"
লিখেছেন- jacht 8 de ফেব্রুয়ারি de 2010
suck up
Shut up you kiss ass!
লিখেছেন- Blair 13 de ফেব্রুয়ারি de 2003
Someone whose head is so far up his/her superior's ass, they could wear him as a hat.
Colin Powell, anyone in the Corporate world, and that asshole on "Inside the Actor's Studio to name a few...
লিখেছেন- Skeptic One 23 de জুলাই de 2003
Like a Suck-Up. Some one who kisses the teacher or coaches ass to get on their good side.
Damn Kelsey is such a kissass during practice, I love her when she's not at sports but when she is she is way to serious.
লিখেছেন- Cangelosi 15 de মার্চ de 2005
1. brownnose
3.candy ass
4.a sandy
লিখেছেন- Anonymous 15 de সেপ্টেমবার de 2003
Somebody who deliberately ingratiates themselves to authority figures in such a way as to be annoying to their peers.
Man, that girl is such a kissass. She totally just wrote thank you notes to her teachers about everything she learned this year and made the rest of the class look bad.
লিখেছেন- trueamericanpatriot 20 de মার্চ de 2011
(n)a person who sucks up to people

(v)to suck up to people
jenny:(to jackie)look, there comes Jill. she's such a kiss ass
jill (to boss) may i help you?
jackie:wow. you're right!
লিখেছেন- miss cool astro lady 23 de মে de 2010

ফ্রী দৈনিক ই-মেইল

ফ্রী Urban প্রতিদিনের নির্বাচিত শব্দ পেতে নিচে আপনার ই-মেইল ঠিকানা লিখুন! থেকে ই-মেইল পাঠানো হয়ে। আমারা আপনাকে কখনো স্প্যাম করব না।


text:
Top Definition
A type of extra terrestrial being (alien). Usually the most common amongst alleged abductees. Also the type most commonly connoted with the Rosswell, New Mexico crash site.

Some believe Greys are of the same species of alien as Reptilian. This is debatable.
The Rosswell, NM crash site yielded several aliens. They were all Greys.
লিখেছেন- MikeGDeez 30 de এপ্রিল de 2006
The race of aliens said to be commonly seen by people who claim to have seen or been abducted.
There are a number of theories of who they are:
.Some say they are dolphins in the future or past (inhabitants of Atlantis)
.They are our future selves coming back to save us from catastrophe or to get sperm and ovules to mix their race with ours because they are all clones.
.Some say they are co-operating with the US government to trade advanced technology for usage of humans for experimentation. eg. B2-bomber , Stealth Bomber. They just sprung up from nowhere.
The Greys made the stealth bomber.

I got abducted by the greys and they stole my sperm.

The Greys are from Atlantis.
লিখেছেন- Stevie-C 24 de জুন de 2005
Grey is a word to describe a man who is kind, romantic, fun to be with, a fierce protector and southern gentleman.
Wow, that Grey is a fine man!
লিখেছেন- Lynn Stock 4 de ফেব্রুয়ারি de 2010
A special sweet friend who will find happiness and contentedness with friends he's known forever. Though those around him may push him in different directions to do what they want, he will eventually do what he wants, which is to lead a simple, quiet life. A Grey usually has friends for life and since childhood. He takes no sides and is loyal to himself and his ideas alone.
I've known that Grey forever!
লিখেছেন- Greys1friend 2 de ডিসেম্বার de 2011
the shades between black and white. especially between what is right and wrong. the grey area between what is good and bad.
is talking to a guy I have a crush on behind my boyfriends back considered cheating?

i'm not sure. it's the grey of cheating. it's between right and wrong.
লিখেছেন- w8iknowthis1 26 de অক্টোবার de 2012
Short for the TV show Grey's Anatomy'.
"Did you watch Grey's last night?'
লিখেছেন- ?..? 3 de অগাস্ট de 2007
The greys are a gang of hardcore potheads located extensively across Southside. They are characterized by the color grey, an original initiation ceremony, and their gang sign known as "the shocker". They are also known for extravagant outings to "Mickey's".
Grey 1: Man, I just got initiated to the greys, I can't move.
Grey 2: Throw up the shocker!
লিখেছেন- Greyboss420 27 de নভেম্বার de 2009

ফ্রী দৈনিক ই-মেইল

ফ্রী Urban প্রতিদিনের নির্বাচিত শব্দ পেতে নিচে আপনার ই-মেইল ঠিকানা লিখুন! থেকে ই-মেইল পাঠানো হয়ে। আমারা আপনাকে কখনো স্প্যাম করব না।


text:
Friday, March 06, 2009

Logical Error Redux

A while back I posted something that combined the two loves in my life: politics and common errors in logical reasoning.

Today's XKCD neatly sums up the point:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is the point of this post? This is kind of stupid. The LSAT is over.

3/06/2009 2:14 PM
Blogger Armen said...

Seriously Toney. Your cartoon mocking hypercritical/anal tendencies is not satisfying the hypercritical/anal tendencies of the audience.

3/06/2009 2:16 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...

2:14 here. Ha, I wouldn't say that I'm anal (although, let's face it, I AM a law student), but this post, like many recent posts does not lend itself to response. I just don't get the point of this random musing. For what it's worth, I've never criticized this blog before now, and I have enjoyed reading it over the years.

3/06/2009 2:39 PM
Blogger Toney said...

Hi 2:14,

My goal with this wasn't to spur an onslaught of multi-faceted conversation. The original post I linked to was, however, and there were some great points made. This was quite literally a random musing; there's nothing more to read into it. It was related to something I had posted earlier, it made me laugh, so I thought "hmm, I'll share this".

If you don't want to talk about something, or don't think it merits discussion, then just don't say anything at all. Had I not posted this at all, it also wouldn't have lent itself to a response. So we're in the same boat either way right?

Go have a scotch or something... this definitely isn't worth getting upset about.

3/06/2009 2:51 PM
Blogger Matt said...

"Your blog post didn't blow my mind and change my life, so please refrain from posting such insignificant blather in the future."

Seriously. If that's what you expect out of every blog post you read - or any blog post you read, for that matter - you should go hang yourself.

3/06/2009 2:56 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Where did that quote come from?

3/06/2009 4:32 PM
Blogger Dan said...

The future!

3/06/2009 5:31 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...

He just said he didn't like the post. That seems like legitimate criticism to me. I don't think he needs to go have a drink to get over it. It sounds more like Toney needs the drink.

3/06/2009 5:32 PM
Blogger Matt said...

The quote is a generalized, fictional exaggeration of approximately half of the anonymous comments posted on this blog.

3/06/2009 5:39 PM
Blogger Matt said...

Or, as Dan said, the future.

3/06/2009 5:40 PM
Blogger Toney said...

"... but this post, like many recent posts does not lend itself to response."

That seems to me as though there is something beyond a simple dislike for a post. In which case, people need to realize that this isn't the NY Times. It's a blog. We don't OWE anyone anything. I'll post a picture of a dancing raccoon if I want to.

Anyone that goes to the effort to post "hey, i don't like this", does need a drink, because there are more important things to worry about. Such as how you anonymous posters can be wrong so often... is that even mathematically possible? This could be a sign that the universe is unraveling. In which case, a round of scotches, for all of us, on me.

3/06/2009 5:41 PM
Blogger Armen said...

Raccoon you say?

3/06/2009 5:58 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Toney, I'm totally taking you up on that offer to pick up a round of scotches.

3/07/2009 12:39 AM
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I, for one, found this post delightful. Keep 'em coming!

3/07/2009 12:44 AM
Blogger Mike said...

Tony's cartoon reminded me of the
made by various cable news talking heads that the stock markets have dropped because of Obama's economic policies.

I wonder what percentage of people think that argument makes sense. I fear it might be too high.

3/07/2009 8:52 AM
Blogger Dan said...

Yeah, the anonymous seem to be on a bit of a kick lately. I don't really get it. I mean, sure, this blog is a place for the occasional opinion column. But does it lose anything by also having short, one-off, interesting soundbytes? "Stories from the fruits and nuts" of boalt hall! That's as close to a mission statement as we have around here. So really, if you don't like a post, move down to the next one. Only takes a second.

3/07/2009 11:54 AM
Anonymous Alexander Kirilov said...

Hey Armen, I am wondering why "the future" didn't warn me about that f'ing raccoon.

3/09/2009 12:06 AM

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Conversation Between Dave and Princess of Promise

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  1. Princess of Promise
    01-08-2012 07:08 PM
    Princess of Promise
    Happy Birthday

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The Ross-on-Wye Boardgamers

Beer and Boardgames at the White Lion. "It's not F-ing Monopoly, alright?!"
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Friday August 3rd - Round and Round we go

Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
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Oi! Hands off...
There was indeed something of a racing-in-circles approach tonight as all the B's congregated - Ben, Becky, Boddle, Benedict and a welcome return for Brian, who looks to have caught the bug!

Becky and I, first to arrive as always, kicked off with our game-of-the-moment, the luscious All Creatures Big & Small, which is rapidly crawling up our 2-player list. I didn't make the mistake of not going after animals early this time, and my 3-board farm was enough not only for the win, but for a 'house best' of 49 points. I greet with scepticism reports of people who claim to be scoring 50+ on a regular basis.

A pleasingly prompt Boydell arrived in the closing rounds, and was closely followed by Brian, whom we decided to break in gently by teaching him King of Tokyo. I have an undefeated record at this since purchase, despite it being largely random, and proved my dominance again by using a Jets card to good effect, flitting Cyber Bunny (graaaahh! Fear the Cyber Bunny!) in and out of Japan without damage.

Benedict's presence nearly always leads to a game of Balderdash, a situation with which I have very few complaints, and five is the perfect number. As always, Boddle and I took it FAR too seriously and some tactical shenanigans were had by my opposition. It came down to the pair of us, two squares from the end, and Boddle reading. Somehow he managed to elude not just me, but I was let down by my fellow gamers as well, conceding the game by a single point. But I'd still never say no to another game.

Definition of the night - the man who legally changed his name to Elvis McPresley ("that's McPresley!"), although I retain a lingering fondness for it being illegal to fall asleep in Florida while swimming with alligators.

With Brian taking his leave, we embarked upon Becky's special birthday edition of Steeplechase (it's not actually her birthday, but the real story is somewhat complicated). This is the new release from the twisted mind that brought us Cubiko, a rather devilish mixture of bluff and racing. Benedict proved to be in his element and left the field in his wake, crossing the line while the rest of us were still muttering about what a nasty little game (strictly in the positive sense) it was.

To close out, we had Transamerica, a game which we hadn't played for yonks, or at least so it felt. Benedict failed comprehensively to get to grips with the basic geometry of the situation, but still managed to cling on for three rounds, by which point I had a rather too comfortable 5 point cushion. I'd also managed to draw Memphis and Salt Lake City three times, which is testing the bounds of probability somewhat.

I'm burying my games snob credentials by upgrading Balderdash to a 10 today. Other than the perenially great Agricola, it is the only game in my collection that has never failed to deliver. The fact that I have a range of regular playing partners who also love it is the icing on the cake. Let's be hoping there's a new edition once I run out of cards.
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