Rakes Report: A Notre Dame Podcast

Former Fighting Irish basketball player Brianna Turner joins to discuss the George Floyd protests, activism during her time at Notre Dame and what she's looking for in statements from college coaches.

Jessica Smetana and Paul Rigney join for a look at whether or not unidentified aerial phenomena might have been involved with the 2011 season opener and how that sighting fits into the United States' history with UFOs. Footage. HuffPost story. NYTimes on Pentagon videos. Chicago Tribune on O'Hare sighting. Washington Post on Roswell investigation. Wired on the Times reporting. Republic of Lies by Anna Merlan. Gerald Ford UFO papers. Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen.

A look back at a key turning point in Brian Kelly's tenure and a very special occasion: Tommy Rees' first career start.  Box score. Merch sale. All-BK-at-ND newsletter.

Our USC insider Nick Tresnowski joins along with two partisan guests to break down the points-laden evening featuring Will Fuller, Adoree Jackson, C.J. Prosise and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Full game. Box score. Newsletter.  

Jessica Smetana of Sports Illustrated drops by to review how Notre Dame fared in the 2020 NFL Draft. Sign up for the Rakes Report newsletter.

An emergency podcast with ESPN reporter Holly Rowe to discuss the surprise news: Two-time champion and Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw announcing her retirement from coaching after 33 years at the University of Notre Dame. Rowe also gives her thoughts on Muffet's replacement, two-time champ and Notre Dame alumna Niele Ivey.

A look back at perhaps the best Notre Dame win of the 21st century, including appreciating Manti Teo and Louis Nix, discussing a masterful night for Everett Golson, giving some love to the big-game stylings of Brent Musburger and a full travelogue of a weekend spent among the friendly and supremely overconfident denizens of central Oklahoma. Full replay. Box score.

Jessica Smetana and Mark Pesavento join to look back at the 2014 Michigan/Notre Dame game. Topics include: Shutouts, Everett Golson, Jaylon Smith, Dave Brandon, Brady Hoke, triangulating BVG's essence, the rivalry's roots and unnecessary unnecessary roughness penalties. The full game replay. Box score. Rate and review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe to the Rakes Report newsletter.

Michael Bryan of 18 Stripes and Sam Werner discuss the Free From Ty Willingham Bowl, where first-year head coach Steve Sarkisian brought the Huskies to South Bend for a battle between Jimmy Clausen and Jake Locker. Featuring overtime, 275 yards of offense from Golden Tate and a whole bunch of goal line stands. Full game (minus final play) on YouTube. Box score. Rate and review on Apple Podcasts.

We take a trip back to Notre Dame's first win of the 2007 season, prevailing in the Rose Bowl as 21-point underdogs thanks to an epic night from Mo Crum, Trevor Laws and the defense. Also some discussion of the Shark Attack that downed UCLA the prior year as we complete a tribute to Karl Dorrell. Follow Nina on Twitter. Full game link. Boxscore. Alan Sepinwall's 2007 review of Carpoolers.

Andrew Smith and Alex Herrmann of Notre Dame Our Blogger join for a rewatch of the 2005 regular season finale, where Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija and Darius Walker attempted to avoid an upset and clinch a BCS bid in Charlie Weis's first season. Note: When discussing his tough second half, we neglect to mention that D.J. Fitzpatrick was banged up after a roughing the punter the prior week. Important context! Full game on YouTube. Box score.

We're going to try something new with a shorter episode, this time covering a hypothetical question about your wishes for the 2020 season. Guests: Michael Bryan of 18 Stripes and Sam Werner.

Jamie Uyeyama of Irish Sports Daily joins to talk about the new coaching hires, roster churn, Notre Dame's recruiting ceiling and what to pay attention to during spring practice.

Sam Werner joins us to discuss adjustments to the All-BK-at-ND team following the 2019 campaign and then we tier up the best players of the last decade of Irish football.

Jessica Smetana of Sports Illustrated stops by to talk Tommy Rees's promotion, Phil Jurkovec's transfer, the Camping World victory and our favorite bowls of the 2019-20 postseason. Pete Sampson's article on the Rees promotion we quote from in this episode.

This is last year's Christmas Song Draft, which has been described as everything between "a holiday classic" and "rage-inducing." If you've got some holiday travel this weekend, this is some clean seasonal listening. Here's the link to the Spotify playlist of our selections. Original release date: December 20, 2018.

Jessica Smetana of Sports Illustrated and Andrew Smith & Alex Herrmann of Notre Dame Our Blogger join to discuss bowl games, the college football playoff, White Claw vs. Truly, Christmas music and much more. Please consider donating to the Center for the Homeless in South Bend here. NOTE: We unfortunately recorded this prior to the news of Chip Long's departure from Notre Dame's offensive coordinator position. We're sad about that, too.

Brian Fremeau (Football Outsiders, creator of FEI) and Michael Bryan (18 Stripes) join to break down what the numbers show about Notre Dame's 2019 season, how the Irish currently fit into the college football world and what you should expect from Iowa State in the bowl game. Please consider donating to the Center for the Homeless in South Bend here.

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to Christmas Giving so far but the fundraising drives rolls on. Our USC Insider Nick Tresnowski stops by to donate his Clay Helton Retention Misery to the cause. Along with a special guest, we also discuss USC's future, Notre Dame's place in the college football world and much more. Donate to the Center for the Homeless in South Bend here.

To launch the fourth annual Rakes Report Christmas Giving, we hand out a bunch of awards for the 2019 Notre Dame football season, from MVP to favorite play. There's also a special PSA from NotreDameOurBlogger.com. Donate to the Center for the Homeless here. Christmas Giving merch is available here.