Sad Day -Fauria Leaving the Fold!!!

Apparently, something happened at one of the campus residence halls leading to a major disagreement between Joseph Fauria and ND administration!! I'm sure it was nothing worse than I did back in my Campus days.....

Notre Dame football:

Fauria's Notre Dame dream over

Tight End expects to transfer to a Pac-10 team.

By ERIC HANSEN
Tribune Staff Writer

The teardrops pocked the release papers as Joseph Fauria signed away his dream.

"When I committed to Notre Dame, there were tears too," the now former Irish tight end said Friday afternoon. "There was joy. It was all great. Now it's tears of sadness.

"I never lost my love for Notre Dame, and I never will. But my lifelong dream is over. It's time to move on and get a fresh start somewhere else."

Fauria asked for his release from the school Wednesday, the same day Notre Dame announced in a somewhat cryptic, two-sentence statement that the 6-foot-7, 245-pound sophomore from Encino, Calif., was not enrolled in summer school and would not be enrolled in the fall for football season "for personal reasons."

In actuality, Fauria said, he was suspended by the university's Office of Residence Life and is not even allowed back on campus to so much as visit until after Christmas.

ND head coach Charlie Weis, hamstrung from expounding on the subject by a quagmire of privacy laws and strict university policy, signed off on the transfer Friday afternoon and wished Fauria well.

"(Weis) didn't want me to leave, and I didn't want to leave, but I felt I had to," said Fauria via cell phone from California as he was driving to the beach to ponder his future.

"I didn't want to go back there (to ND) and have to be under the microscope and not be myself. I wanted to have a fresh start.

"I can't say enough about coach Weis, tight ends coach Bernie Parmalee, the guy who recruited me — coach Brian Polian — and the players, too.

"I know coach Weis can't come out and support me publicly because of protocol, but I know how he feels, and that's all that is important. It was an honor to be coached by him. I love him. I'll miss him. I still consider him a part of my family. It's sad to leave everyone, but I feel I was mistreated by the school and that the punishment didn't fit the crime."

Fauria declined to delineate publicly just what he was punished for.

"The people who are close to me know what it is, and they couldn't believe this is happening," he said. "I'm a good guy, a fun-loving guy. I have a 3.0 GPA. My team won Bookstore Basketball. I had moved up to No. 2 tight end. I was on Cloud 9. And then it all came apart."

Fauria said he was not allowed to appeal the suspension to the Office of Residence Life.

"They punished me without knowing who I am," he said. "And then when they said, 'No appeal.' Wow, even murderers get to appeal."

Fauria said he'll likely end up at a Pac-10 school but will have to sit out the 2009 season to satisfy NCAA transfer requirements. He'll have three years of eligibility, beginning in 2010.

Fauria was one of the biggest pleasant surprises of spring practice, jumping to No. 2 on the tight end depth chart behind incumbent starter Kyle Rudolph.

He played in three games in 2008, logging roughly 21 minutes of playing time with one special teams appearance. He caught two passes for 17 yards in the April Blue-Gold Game.

He was pressed into action, as a lithe freshman, late in the 2008 season when injuries and suspensions depleted the tight end corps.

"I got to live the dream for a short time," he said. "And I'm going to cheer Notre Dame on this year and hope they do well. And I'm telling you right now, they're going to do very well."

ND Football - Looking Ahead!!

Been listening to a lot of talk radio...not a lot of respect for our schedule this season...Big Ten not what it used to be etc...

Only USC is on the Rivals Preseason Top 20....coming at 3 since they are overhauling their D

Here is how I break down the Sked....

Must Wins (If we can't win these we get zero respect)
Nevada
Purdue
Washington
Washington State
Navy
UConn
Stanford

Up for Grabs
Michigan
Michigan State
Boston College
Pittsburgh

Most Likely Will Lose
USC

Obviously, it all hangs on the "Up for Grabs" category. If we get knocked off by underdog team, we have to atone by beating USC (ODDDS)

If we win half of those..its at least a 9 win season......worst case scenario would be 7 wins (Cya Charlie)

10-2 does not seem all that impossible...Will have a better feel after the first game....Last years opener spoke volumes......

Am I drinking the Kool Aid?

Question, Comments?

"Angels and Demons"

If I had to sum up my feeling about this flick into one word, I would say "Lukewarm".

I really felt like I was watching a super catholic retread of an Indiana Jones plot with the Hero rushing around ancient churches and catacombs in an attemp to put together clues in time to catch a bad guy in a race against the clock!

I will give it an "A" in terms of suspense and it also has a lot of twists and turns during the grand conclusion. Tom Hanks also puts in a great performance as usual.

I didn't really walk away from the big screen thinking I saw anything special.

Just another in long line of cliffhanging suspense thrillers!!

Captains Log

1. Took another step forward in saving our local Kroger Store from suffering a consumer revolt due to not honoring a gift card that I bought for a now distraught friend. Hillary Clinton should hire me to negotiate her tougher issues..such as North Korea.

2. Big sports night as the Wings win the series with an Overtime goal! On to the Stanley Cup!!!

3. Managed to sneak about an hour workout in between periods of the Hockey Game. Still alternating exercises between all machines. I actually do dumbbell workouts while working
out of my home workouts.

4. The History Channel really went in the crapper the last few years. Now it all about Monsters, Mysteries and The Apocalypse. Whatever happened to all that great history stuff the channel was named for!! Thank God the Military Channel came along to take up the slack.

5. Hats off to KFC for their Grilled Chicken. Its about time someone thought of that!!

6. The great Sleep Apnea Solution Competition rages on! Cpap machine and Tap 3 Dental Device are part of my personal sleep off. Did Cpap last night and woke up an hour early sweating profusely. The Tap 3 Dental Device much more comfy. Plus I sleep like a rock when I use it!!

Tap 3 starting to pull away.

Turbulence Training - Kevin Style!!

I think I've been very consistent with my exercise lately which has paid off with a few more pounds lost.

I'm done with the futility of counting calories and obsessing about fat grams. I know which foods are bad and which are good. Decided to be super consistent with my work outs (Minimum of 1 hour a day with big party days off) and try to only eat when I am legitimately hungry.

Dumped Ballys and joined up with Urban Active. I really love having cable TV on all of the equipment, especially with the Red Wings in the Playoffs.

My latest thing is to alternate between the running track, Treadmill with Incline, Elliptical and a killer new stair climber thing. Seems to really help with any boredom issues. Also, having an IPhone with serious tunes really helps me with intensity!!

Wish Maumee Urban Active had the small hoops court and steam room like Toledo UA has.

Also plenty of "Eyeball Liberty" available for Ex-Sailors at the Maumee location. Not to mention great sugar free smoothies.

No fake sugar either!!!

Charlie Wilson's War

Came home early with a beer buzz, so I thought I would check out "Charley Wilson's War" that I got from Netflix!

Absolutely loved it!!

Phillip Seymour Hoffman was a screech as the bottom line CIA guy with cheap dress shirts and ties that were too short. Footage of Afghanistan and Pakistan were very interesting as I visited Karachi with the Navy back in the fabulous 80's.

Hard to believe a hard partying congressman can have such a big effect in the way of the world.

Movie ended with Mujahadeen giving the boot to the Soviets and Charlie asking for even more money to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan and getting none.

We all know what happened after that.