Notre Dame Football

SOUTH BEND-- A member of the Notre Dame football team's administrative staff experienced a medical emergency on the team's charter flight home from Dublin, Ireland late Saturday night.. Ernest Jones, Notre Dame's director of player development and engagement for the football team, will remain overnight at Memorial Hospital of South Bend while undergoing further evaluation and treatment for dehydration, according to Notre Dame athletic department spokesman John Heisler. Jones is listed in stable condition.

SOUTH BEND - Brian Kelly kept his opening remarks about Saturday's University of Tulsa football matchup short and shocking. It took the first-year Notre Dame head football coach all of eight seconds Tuesday to launch into a favorable comparison between Golden Hurricane junior quarterback G.J. Kinne and NFL icon Brett Favre. And that was well down the list of the scariest things the Notre Dame defense is having to deal with this week, just days removed from giving up the most rushing yardage to Navy (367)

Results from the 2011 University of Notre Dame football ticket lottery are now available online. Ticket demand for the 2011 season is estimated to be twice as large as the previous season.   Nearly $2 million will be refunded this year to unsuccessful lottery participants. That $2 million figure is more than twice the refund amount from the 2010 lottery – even though the 2010 lottery featured seven games in Notre Dame Stadium compared to six in 2011. The Notre Dame ticket office will begin to mail those refunds the week of July 11. Both the USC game on Ocotber 22nd at Notre Dame Stadium and the September 10th Michigan game in Ann Arbor rank among the top 25 games all-time in terms of home and away ticket requests, according to Notre Dame.

SOUTH BEND - The highly-anticipated football weekend is here and if you were anywhere near campus on Friday you know it's crowded. And some people are cashing-in on all the out-of-town visitors. It's a simple way to make some quick cash, by helping out some serious Notre Dame fans. You always see people selling parking on their lawn on game day, but renting out a home takes money making to the next level. Renters say skip the hotel, a home is the only way to go. "Walking into a house is a lot better than walking into a hotel," said Mike McCormick, a house renter.

A late full-court press by Stanford in its recruitment of Blake Lueders paid off. Lueders' father, Dan Lueders, verified Sunday night that his son, Blake, has changed his commitment from Notre Dame to Stanford. Lueders, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound defensive end prospect from Zionsville, Ind., considered a four-star recruit, had been committed to the Irish since June. There were "multifactors," in the decision, Dan Lueders said. "There is no simple answer. " Blake Lueders was unavailable for comment.

SOUTH BEND — Taking the fifth is never as easy as it sounds at Notre Dame. The school announced Thursday afternoon that six senior football players have applied to become fifth-year seniors for the 2011 season, a process that won’t have a complete resolution until sometime in March or April. The six who can — and likely will — come back to suit up for the Irish for another season are kicker David Ruffer, cornerback Gary Gray, safety Harrison Smith and offensive tackle Taylor Dever — all starters — along with backup tight end Mike Ragone and utility offensive lineman Andrew Nuss.

SOUTH BEND — In one singular play Saturday, Notre Dame quarterback Dayne Crist may have run — on purpose — for more yardage than predecessor Jimmy Clausen did by design over his three-year anointment. This, no less, four months removed from reconstructive knee surgery that was thought to have as much as a six-month recovery window. And if it had been a little deeper than Day 2 into Notre Dame's NCAA-mandated 15 spring practice sessions and had that Halloween night ligament tear never happened, first-year head football coach Brian Kelly wouldn't have required rabid 6-foot-2, 250-pound linebacker Manti Te'o to so much as tap the brakes as he approached Crist.

Luke Massa has dreamed of playing for Notre Dame for a long time. That’s why the Cincinnati St. Xavier quarterback will officially visit Notre Dame this weekend as a prospect for the recruiting class of 2010. Massa, 6-foot-5, 205-pound three-star recruit, will be visiting Notre Dame along with three other uncommitted recruits. They include his teammate, offensive lineman Matt James, plus Jeremy Ioane, a safety from Honolulu, and athlete Danny Spond of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

SOUTH BEND - Chris Salvi broke through with a fleeting smile as he recalled Declan Sullivan’s sense of humor. “It’s just the attitude that he had and the energy that he brought,” the walk-on Notre Dame junior safety said of his fallen friend. “You could just see it. He was just a kind person. That’s what you noticed, so it’s not hard to miss somebody like that.” Salvi and Sullivan were football teammates at Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein, Ill. They remained friends when both matriculated to Notre Dame, Salvi taking the Rudy route to stay connected to football and Sullivan as a team videographer.