Well, I thought about stretching this thing out until after the national title game, but considering how the Fiesta Bowl ended, it seemed like this would be a more fitting end to HLS. Shane & I hold one last therapy session in talking about what went wrong during the Fiesta Bowl and what hopes we have for the future. Be sure to stay around post-credits for Eddie and I to pick the national championship and send off the HLS podcast in quite literally the most fitting way possible. Enjoy our fi...
Jan 02, 2022•2 hr 1 min
The HLS Sim was born from my desire to do something different. In the vast sea of Notre Dame podcasts, I wanted to do more than stand out. I wanted to do something fun but also avoid our show being seen as a parroting of more popular Irish podcasts. So I sent a message with a wild idea to Shane: let's go on Twitch and stream a CPU vs CPU matchup of the week's Notre Dame game using a decade-plus old video game as our "preview". To my knowledge, no one was doing this (at best, they were playing NC...
Dec 31, 2021•1 hr 15 min
After this episode, there will be only one more game to pick with Eddie: the 2021 National Championship. It's hard to believe this crazy picks journey is coming to an end--even crazier, we are still doing a damn good job. Despite opt-outs and COVID cancellations, Eddie and I went 7-2 last week, bringing our bowl totals to 13-10 and 12-11 as I keep my one game edge. Overall, we are 112-80-4. Yes, this means that we've hit the point in which we couldn't even screw up going over .500 if we tried! B...
Dec 30, 2021•56 min
The only thing rougher than week one of bowl picks was whatever in the hell happened to me and my family before recording this show. There...was a lot. However, the show must go on despite my lack of research. With that in mind I came up with some, uh, "creative" methods to pick these games. I'm particularly proud of what I came up with for the multiple bowl games in baseball stadiums, personally. Oh, and we have some fun with bowl sponsors too, including me trying to chat with a bot during the ...
Dec 24, 2021•1 hr 14 min
It's the most wonderful time of the year: bowl season. After a ridiculously incredible regular season, Eddie and I are ready to ruin it all by throwing darts at bowl season. As we won't be recording until next Thursday, we have 14 bowl games to pick. More importantly, Eddie also has a list of bowl gifts ready to go. Even more importantly, we visit some of the websites to figure out what some of this stuff is and do we ever make some discoveries. Oh, and hang on past the closing song because you ...
Dec 16, 2021•1 hr 20 min
Yeah, yeah, Eddie won the $200 Extra Life bet. I will pay up once I finish the FFXIV: Endwalker main story/marathon on Friday (I hope!). Make sure to join that on my personal twitch channel. Thankfully, I realized that I run this show. I changed some rules. Gotta keep this interesting. After all, this isn't about the money now. It's about walking off this thing with a W. After taking some liberties with the Army/Navy pick, I go over this year's tiebreaker: our 2021 futures. Spoiler alert: they w...
Dec 09, 2021•47 min
College football's playoff and NY6 Selection Sunday came and went mostly as expected. Notre Dame has landed in the Fiesta Bowl and will face Oklahoma State. Shane and I do discuss our initial thoughts on this game, which has never happened before; however, the beginning of the podcast focuses on the wonder that is Marcus Freeman. Shane gives his thoughts on the hire for the first time on the digital airwaves. We are both very excited for the beginning of a new era for Notre Dame, even though we ...
Dec 06, 2021•52 min
Eddie and I were, understandably a little distracted by other things in this episode. We were ready to rant a lot about Brian Kelly abandoning the Irish, but we were blessed with news that was well with Marcus Freeman taking over the helm, along with several other assistants. Enjoy the picks, as well as me breaking in continuously to list of yet another assistant staying on board and not fleeing to Baton Rouge. I'm still three games behind Eddie in our annual Extra Life bet and I need to make up...
Dec 02, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Yep. Title says it all. Shane and I work through the most shocking news of college football in...well, forever. I'm not worried about SEO. This is all the description you are getting.
Nov 30, 2021•37 min
Another week, another victory recap episode in which there is very little to complain about for the Irish. The performance, especially in the first half, was as dominating as you will see in college football. Sadly, the no touchdown November streak died, Jack Coan had a bad interception, and the turf monster probably robbed us of a long TD or two. Despite all that, Notre Dame did what they needed to do to make their case to the playoff committee. Shane and I spend the second segment of the episo...
Nov 28, 2021•49 min
It's hard to believe this day has arrived, but this our final regular season sim in HLS history. Thankfully we have (at least) one more sim to go, but Shane and I put a bow on the 2021 Sim Notre Dame Season with a visit to Stanford. All I will say is that the sim (hopefully) managed to be the most accurate thing ever--all the way down to David Shaw doing some bullshit. Oh, and I hope you weren't expecting serious play-by-play the whole way through in this one because you won't get it. The second...
Nov 24, 2021•1 hr 18 min
It finally happened. I had a massive week and tied things up with Eddie in our $200 bet for Extra Life . This brings us both to 86-60-3 on the season. Talk about going out with a bang in the last year. In fact, I'm so proud of the record, that I did a bit a math at the beginning of the episode to let you know how much money we could've been making you this season. Granted, we have now tempted fate with the brag, plus picking games on a Tuesday morning, but GAMBLOR stops for nothing, including Th...
Nov 24, 2021•1 hr 4 min
Once again, Notre Dame has blessed us with a dominating performance that leaves little need for anything beyond gushing. Believe me, Shane and I are completely happy with how this is unfolding. Sure, gushing is fun, but we get to spend the majority podcast having ourselves a ball with a host of other topics. We talk preparing for a heel turn when the College Football Playoff Committee inevitably shoves ND into the top four and plan a literal marshmallow war for the senior section next season bec...
Nov 22, 2021•59 min
Apologies for the day delay on this one. Believe me, I was in no condition to even attempt the live broadcast on Thursday night. Thankfully, I feel better, even though I'm sure you can hear some fatigue in my voice. However, I had to push through to get the last home sim in the books in HLS history. It's been a long, crazy ride, and, hilariously, this felt like a football game. Don't worry, there are still wtf moments, but overall, the sim stayed sober for senior day. We have two (maybe three?!)...
Nov 20, 2021•1 hr 8 min
It's that time of year again, when teams across the nation run and hide behind some hilariously week games to prepare for their biggest games of the year. Thankfully, this year the concentrated FCS flood has been lessened than in previous years, giving us a rather solid slate of twelve games. Eddie still holds a two game lead over me in our Extra Life bet and he's still giving me hell for passing out during my 24 hour stream failure (and rightly so). I'm determined to catch up, but I'm running o...
Nov 18, 2021•56 min
Let's be honest, when a game is played so well, there is little more to do than gush over the performance. While fun, there is only so much gushing that can be done and still have an insightful show. Thankfully, Notre Dame was forced to play more of the depth chart than we've seen all season thanks to injuries and illness this week. With that look at the future of the Irish, Shane and I spend the second half of the pod talking about what we see as the big picture for this season and beyond. Oh, ...
Nov 14, 2021•1 hr 9 min
I know I say this every week, but I'm absolutely positive the sim, and all technology, knows that we are wrapping this thing up soon. Troll job doesn't even begin to descript this mess. There are more turnovers than third downs converted by both teams. This game might have set a record for combined sacks. Neither virtual coach seemed to care to manage the clock properly nor call anything resembling a coherent gameplan. And, to top it all off, Shane's audio dies right in the middle of the sim. I'...
Nov 12, 2021•1 hr 23 min
It's hard to believe that we are now halfway into the month of November. The season is quickly coming to a close and there are only a handful of regular season picks pods remaining. Eddie still has a two game lead on our Extra Life bet (which, by the way, I'm doing a 24-hour stream on Friday night starting between 6-6:30pm CST-- fun stuff is happening !). Both of us went 6-6 in the previous week and there is a solid slate of games, along with a couple true sicko matchups tossed in. There aren't ...
Nov 11, 2021•57 min
There's no fancy/funny title this week. This was very much a Notre Dame/Navy experience for the most part. Boring as hell to watch, ending (thankfully) was never in doubt. Yet there were still some incredible highlights, mostly centered around Navy not scoring a touchdown which might be one of the wilder things we've seen in this series in some time. Apparently this was driven by Marcus Freeman making sure the scout team made life hell for the defense, which is some next level coaching evil. The...
Nov 08, 2021•41 min
It's rare that I can say that a sim is a quick listen, but when virtual Navy comes into town, the clock bleeds at a glorious pace. Unrelated, my eyes may have also bled at the same pace by watching...well, whatever this was. It was a sim. It was a Navy game. It felt dirty even though it was a good result. Perhaps the sim found a way to capture Catholic guilt in video game form. We'll never know the sim's ways, but we will enjoy it while it lasts. After all, we've hit the last month of the regula...
Nov 05, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Never in my life did I imagine I would (1) have a college football podcast and (2) spend a considerable amount of time talking about a monkey, owned by a stripper, and have it actually relate to college football. What a stupid, wonderful sport we follow. Anyways, I gained yet another game on Eddie and look to close the gap for our $200 Extra Life bet in the home stretch of the season. (Sidenote: Friday night, November 12, my 24 hour marathon stream will begin--start time TBA!) We both remain wel...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Notre Dame defense certainly missed Kyle Hamilton in their tilt against North Carolina. The offense, on the other hand, missed nothing. Even with the knowledge that the Tar Heel defense is, well, garbage, Shane and I came away incredibly impressed with what the Irish did on the offensive side of the ball. We also fangirled over Kyren Williams' 91-yard touchdown run that looked like it came straight out of a video game. Even though the defense struggled, we don't have too much concern, especially...
Nov 01, 2021•46 min
The sim continues to surprise. Somehow this game managed to be everything all at once--a comforting nightmare. If your feelings about Notre Dame games hinge on the sim, I can only say that your feelings will be completely up to individual interpretation. I'm not sure I can explain it in any other way without giving too much away. Oh, and there's a very important discussion about people and chairs thanks to the Inside the Garage podcast. Very important.
Oct 29, 2021•1 hr 12 min
I promise, the title will make more sense when you hear Eddie and I make really stupid jokes at the beginning of the show. More accurately, it won't make a damn bit of sense, which is also far and expected for us. What is not expected, but certainly welcome in our last season, is just killing it with our picks. Both of us are well above .500 and I've managed to cut Eddie's five game lead down to three, as we continue to battle out who will drop a $200 donation to my Extra Life campaign, Gamin' 4...
Oct 28, 2021•1 hr 1 min
It's always a great day when Notre Dame beats Southern Cal. There's an entire graduating class that doesn't know what it's like to beat the Irish and, having been on the other side of that, I shed no tears. Overall the game was great, yet still contained a mix of things that have frustrated the hell out of us all season long. Shane and I air our grievances, but celebrate that all the headaches mattered not in a game that was never in doubt. We also discuss the stadium atmosphere and some of the ...
Oct 25, 2021•52 min
Every week, I feel like I write that the sim went peak sim. Yet every week, this video game simulation manages to exceed my wildest expectations. Unless you watched this live, there is no possible way you would come up with how this game unfolded. I'm sure you could get some pieces correct; however, I feel comfortable saying that no one would ever guess how this thing ended. I'm glad this happened in a rivalry game because it hits that much harder. Enjoy every bit of this stupid, bonkers sim of ...
Oct 22, 2021•1 hr 12 min
We are truly blessed that this week's slate isn't loaded with bangers. All focus can remain where it needs to be: hating those bastards from Southern Cal. But while we await (read: heavily drink before) kickoff, we have our usual twelve pack of picks to tide you over on College Football Saturday. We continue to hit this year strong and Eddie and I aren't about to stop now. #FSouthernCal #FUSC #HAILGAMBLOR
Oct 21, 2021•47 min
Loyal listeners, you are in for a special treat. With the bye week, Shane and I delivered our weekly national recap episode, which is typically behind the $1/month (or more!) Patreon paywall, for free. Shane called it, were-dick and all. Purdue took out Iowa and it wasn't even close. While that was the biggest upset that landed, others gave a valiant attempt while Notre Dame took a well-deserved week off. Other teams established their dominance. Fans of other teams *cough*Tennessee*cough* litter...
Oct 18, 2021•1 hr 27 min
If you know, you know. If you don't, well, be warned this pod is different. Jack Crosy from CBS Sports joins Eddie, Shane, and I on our annual foray into podcasting in the bye week. Topics go all over the place. We have picks scattered around. We talk video games. We talk wrestling. We talk about a whole lot of nothing. It's our favorite podcast every year and we hope you enjoy the last one under the HLS banner as well.
Oct 14, 2021•2 hr
Considering the way this season has unfolded, we should've never expected firm answers at quarterback. The twist this time: Tyler Buncher giving us all a tease that the future began Saturday night while Drew Pyne watched from the sideline. The additional twist: Jack Coan won the football game. We had the full range of emotions while the Irish escaped Blacksburg with a victory. BK apparently experienced some too as he came out firing in his post-game presser about the negative press of his starti...
Oct 11, 2021•1 hr 8 min
