Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6 FEBRUARY 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED HIGHLY TOWT-ED Congratulations to the Irish basket- ball coaching staff for recruiting Car- son Towt. Exactly what we need to be competitive. Go Irish! Tom Mudd Class of '61 Mr. Mudd, there is no doubt that Towt has made a significant and immediate impact on the Notre Dame men's basket- ball program as a graduate transfer, pri- marily as a high-energy, elite rebounder and a defensive anchor. He set an Irish debut record with 19 rebounds in his first game, and hasn't let up since. Last year's NCAA rebound- ing leader, Towt became the first Irish player in the conference era (1995-pres- ent) to start the season with six straight games with double-digit rebounds. He was still averaging 10.1 boards per game as of Jan. 2, which was third in the ACC and 17th nationally. "He's energy personified," Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry said of Towt. "There have been a ton of transfers that transferred up, and their scoring output doesn't necessarily follow. Re- bounding translates at every level. It's heart and it's effort. That's what he does. "Carson is just max effort, man. He just plays really hard. His effort on the glass on both ends, his physicality. He's a big brother to these dudes. He's feeding their belief because of the energy and the confidence that he gives them." SUPER SENIORS May I take a moment of your time to ask a question? What do you make of all these fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and even a couple eighth-year seniors in college ball? I had a game on while back that had a 25-year-old out there playing. To me, this is just ridiculous. Go Irish! Jeff Klein Colorado Mr. Klein, the phenomenon you're ref- erencing is that of "super seniors." Since FAN FORUM BE HEARD! Send your letters to: steve.downey@on3.com or mail to: Blue & Gold Illustrated, P. O. Box 2331, Durham, NC 27702 On Dec. 22, Notre Dame announced a home- and-home series with BYU, with games being played in Provo, Utah, in 2026 and South Bend in 2027. That scheduling agreement was a di- rect response to Notre Dame's negotiations with Southern Cal falling apart. The Fighting Irish and Trojans will not face each other next season, and is on pause for the imme- diate future. The earliest the historic rivalry could resume is the 2030 season. The rivalry, which has been played almost annually since 1926, will go on a multi-year pause starting in the 2026 season. The only previous interruptions were a three-year period during World War II and the COVID-19-impacted season in 2020. Here is sample of what Notre Dame fans had to say about that development on our message board at BlueandGold.com. Tebbe89: What an embarrassment for the sport that rivalries are dying off because of preserving their win-loss record to make the playoff. Tell us you're chicken**** and scared without coming right out and saying it. RORO520: The committee should decide to never let USC into the playoffs for being cowards. HC92: BYU is a good series. I like to see new opponents, and they'll have a good record every year in the crappy Big 12. Losing USC for at least the next 4 seasons obviously sucks. Nolnacs: Loser mentality from a loser program, what about the opportunity to bolster your play- off résumé? Vonteego: Terrific news. Playing USC in LA as the last game of the season would have been the biggest challenge to ND being undefeated and a loss would have given the fraudulent committee some reason to screw the Irish again. It's going to work out just fine for ND. Headless: Funny that USC is B12 soft, so we add a better program from the B12 the last few years to replace them. Have fun playing games east of the Rockies, Lincoln [Riley]. apegambino: Exactly, I hate losing USC but their demands were ridiculous. They only wanted to play at ND in September when we have future huge September games on the schedule with SEC teams and we were supposed to sandwich them in right between them. They are chicken**** with Riley as the head coach now and didn't really want to continue the series. The only way they were willing to continue it is if ND agreed to every single one of their scheduling demands. So glad ND told them to **** off. This game should be played on rivalry weekend every year since it is (was) one of the biggest rivalries. But of course, we can't come to South Bend in late November, lol. Riley is going to run as far from competition as he can, so I'm not actually the least bit surprised this fell through. mikeymac71: I am surprised some of you are happy to see USC depart the schedule (and I understand the difference between happy to see them leave the ND schedule versus calling them out for being afraid to lose late in the season). I dislike USC as well, but that is why it had been great owning them recently. To me, the ND-USC game is one of the highlights of the season. BoCeJ62: Basically it reads: USC is too afraid to lose to ND in November and miss the CFP. roasted in the end! Good for BYU & ND. TurtleBK: We're on a three-game win streak. Look at Riley run. What a wimp mentality. No- body wants us right now. Too scared of the L. 2581: The bottom line: Southern Cal is afraid to play ND. Toe Fuzz: Funny thing is I think our schedule just got tougher as a result. ND beat USC by double digits the last three matchups. USC may as well stand for University of Scared Crybabies. sim_kev: Good riddance. USC cowards. MrND: University of Soft Chumps. They pur- posely ducked us to avoid a late season loss. Pathetic. FROM THE WEB .com .com JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT BLUEANDGOLD.COM! Forward Carson Towt, a graduate transfer from Northern Arizona, became the first Notre Dame player in the conference era (1995-present) to start the season with six straight games with double-digit rebounds. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS