This week’s show featured Fred Leahy, son of legendary Notre Dame head coach Frank Leahy.  Fred talked to us about the current state of the program and how it was when his dad roamed the sidelines.  We covered a lot of topics including the leadership of this years squad, the game day atmosphere in Notre Dame Stadium, what practices were like under Frank Leahy, and what it was like growing up with Frank Leahy as a father.

We also made our weekly picks.  This week Frank inched back into the race after his disastrous 0-6 performance two weeks ago with a solid 6-1 showing this past weekend.  Of the 8 games we picked this week, Frank and Jeff only had2 picks the same so things should shake out pretty well this week.  Our next broadcast will be Saturday evening after the Stanford game so join us then as we hopefully toast and Irish victory.

 

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This week’s show was just Jeff and Frank mixing it up. We started off the show an hour early this week so in case you missed the live show get the MP3 below. Please feel free to leave your comments to this post as well so that we can work to improve this show. Some of the topics included:

• Comments on Bob Keuchenberg’s rant on WFAN this week
• Our Air Force trip recap
• Where’s Golden Tate - we talked about getting Tate more involved in the offense (we’re sure Charlie was listening)
• The development of Jimmy Clausen - we discussed how he took a step forward last week
• Duke Preview - Frank’s official prediction: Notre Dame 41, Duke 24; Jeff’s Official Prediction: Notre Dame 34, Duke 17
• Weekly Picks - Frank sucked it up big time last week going an impressive 0-6.

NOTE: We are aware of the problems using the “play” feature for this week’s show.  For now, please just use the download MP3 button as that is working fine.  We used a new audio recording program this week and the encoding is causing compatibility issues with the flash player we usually use.  We will keep working on fixing the problem.

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Here is the mp3 version of the Randy Kinder interview. It is definitely worth listening for all Irish fans. Randy shared a lot of good stories about why he went to Notre Dame, Lou Holtz, some of his former teammates, the ‘93 USC and BC’s games, this past weekend’s Navy game, and the Irish struggles in 2008 among other things. Many thanks to Randy for being on the line with us for over and hour and then sticking it out in the chat and answering more questions from those in the room. This was easily the best segment of any of the shows we’ve done so far and we’d love to have Randy on again in the future.

Note: Sorry for the poor sound quality in the beginning. We’re looking into fixing that for future shows.

 

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Here is part 2 of this week’s episode. I broke it down into 2 separate files this week since the show ended up being 2 hours this week. If you haven’t checked out part 1 - the interview with Randy Kinder, do so right now because Randy was great on the show. Warning though, his stories about Lou may make you reminisce about the most recent glory days especially his story about how Lou got the team ready to play Florida State in 1993.

Anyway, in this part of the show, Jeff and I talked about some of the good things we saw against Navy and then broke down some of the differences between Navy and Air Force. Jeff and I both caught Air Force’s last game against Army on CSTV this week so we talked about what we saw Air Force do well based on how we defended Navy.

• Air Force Preview
  • Differences in their offense vs. Navy
  • Will the Irish change how they defend the option this week?
• Starting Quarterback Debate… Again
• Playing the under classmen vs. upper classmen over the last few weeks

 

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This week’s episode will have a very special guest - former Notre Dame running back Randy Kinder!  Join us at 10 PM ET on Wednesday to hear about Randy’s experience at Notre Dame and what he thinks about the current situation in South Bend as well us recapping the Navy game, previewing this weekend’s game, and discussing the starting quarterback position. Randy will be joining us in the UHND Chat Room during the show so be sure to login. NOTE - We have a new chat room this week which should eliminate some of the problems we’ve had in the past.

• An interview with Randy Kinder
• News and Notes
• Navy Recap
  • 4^th Downs – Fake FG, No FG, 4^th and 14
  • Play Calling – the 2 point Conversion
  • The significance of the streak
  • Who stood out - both for good and for bad
• Air Force Preview
  • Differences in their offense vs. Navy
  • Will the Irish change how they defend the option this week?
• Starting Quarterback Debate… Again
• Playing the under classmen vs. upper classmen over the last few weeks
• Weekly College Football Picks – Frank built on his lead on Jeff again this weekend.

Episode 2 of Spanning the Dome is now complete and uploaded.  You can listen by using the play below or using the download link.  This week’s show went a little long, but went pretty well.  Jakers, of UHND message board fame, was on the show this week and had some great comments to share with us so thanks to him for joining us.  We had some technical issues with the chat room again this week that we will work on for next week.  We also announced that we will have another special guest next week when former Notre Dame running back Randy Kinder will join us so be sure to tune in next week at 10 PM ET!

Our next show will be at half-time of the Navy game this week which we’ll follow up with a post game show as well.

This week we discussed the following topics among other things:

• How we spent the bye weekend
• Georgia’s excessive celebrations - how much does emotion play in the college game?
• Is Notre Dame Stadium too friendly to opposing fans?
• Navy Pre-Game Thoughts and Predictions
• Who should be starting - Clausen or Sharpley?
• Playoffs in College Football - Is the 2007 season likely to bring them about?
• A certain rule that makes no sense to Jeff, but doesn’t bother Frank at all
• Weekly college football picks and a recap of last week’s picks - Both Frank and Jeff nailed their upset picks, but were less than spectacular in their other picks.

 

 Spanning the Dome - Episode 2 [101:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Frank and Jeff debuted the UHND.com Podcast earlier tonight. If you missed it, you can check out the recorded version below, and be sure to tune in next wednesday at 10 PM EST! Join the chat room to interact with the hosts while they’re on the show. We’ll try to get a poster from the board on each week.

Here’s a rough outline for what was talked about:

• News/Press Conference Quotes - PTI Style discussion of the latest goings on regarding Notre Dame Football
  • Notre Dame’s Clausen hopes watching will help him improve - Yahoo
  • A Silver Lining- BGS
  • Quinn loses bet, wears USC jersey for interview - AP
  • Weis willing to change as season winds down - SBT
  • Justin Tuck a Pro Bowler? - Newsday
• USC Game – Quick Recap
• Throwbacks – Yeh or Ney?
• Young Players Who Are Going to Play More - Who we want to see
• Weis’s Play Calling
• Offensive Line/Running Game
• Recruiting Moving Forward/Scholarships Available
• Questions/Comments from the Chat room

 

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