Good morning, readers.  As the football team reports to campus for the start of summer classes, Rakes of Mallow reports back to duty.  While the summer months of yesteryear used to be full of free time for blogging and merriment, the crippling depression of post-graduate life and a general dry-spell of Notre Dame news has caused this once booming site to atrohpy.  But no more!  Rakes is back, and we'll start to cover all the exciting fun-time action as we wind down to kickoff versus Nevada (a scant two months away).

The biggest news around the Irish program over the weekend was the transfer of tight end Joseph Fauria, who I am going to assume is a victim of ResLife's draconian policies regarding everything.  Now, it's very possible Fauria did some terrible stuff and deserved the suspension, but I'd say the odds are about 3% for that and 97% that the University is attempting to make some kind of example out of him.  It's always sad to see somebody transfer (Oh, Konrad...), because you spend so much time thinking about how this high school player, known only through creepy old man stalking and grainy YouTube videos, is going to fit into the Irish system and justify the hours spent following his every dropped hint.  We obviously wish Fauria the best, and he leaves with some nice quotes regarding everything about the team and University save for ResLife, which I'd say is how most students feel upon their departure from South Bend:

"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."

"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."

Emphasis mine because holy crap, ResLife you are the worst.  I will always have the utmost respect for Kyle McAlarney for coming back to Notre Dame after they totally overreacted for the most minor of minor violations.  Here is my question, for those of you more familiar with NCAA regulations: If Fauria had been suspended for the semester but not played, could he have redshirted, or would he have had to waste a year of eligibility?  Regardless, best of luck to him.  An unfortunate situation that could have probably been avoided with some common sense and a reasonable discussion, something the Powers That Be aren't exactly known for.

*

Speaking of Kyle McAlarney, he, Luke Zeller and Rob Kurz will all be participating in the NBA summer league this July.  K-Mac will be running and gunning with the Clippers, Zeller trying to make it onto the Bulls so Aaron Gray has someone to go to the movies with and Kurz is taking another crack at starting the season on the Warriors' roster.  Have I mentioned lately how happy I am that Harangody is coming back?  I don't think so, so let me repeat it: I'm very happy Luke Harangody is coming back for his senior season.

* 

One of the highlights of every summer is when the kids get their new numbers, and this year is no exception.  The best news is that if you invested in an Armando Allen jersey, it's now doubly awesome, with Manti Te'o also donning the cinco.  Shaquelle Evans takes David Grimes' number eleven (both wide receivers, but of slightly different body dimensions).  

*

We've established many times over Blue Gray Sky is the class of the Notre Dame internet (their latest contribution is the Polo Grounds, a messageboard discussing college football that doesn't make you want to murder someone, which I didn't even think was possible).  One of their recent posts looks at the oft-cited stat regarding offensive line starts (oft-cited in the Irish blogosphere because Notre Dame has a whole whole bunch and we like to talk ourselves into things), but then turns it around and looks at the number of starts on the defensive line. 

BGS's conclusion?  There are not a lot of experienced defensive lines facing the Irish this season, thereby making it even more important for everyone (players, coaches, sanity of fans) that the offensive line make considerable progress from the dark periods of the last few years.  I would need to look at other teams, but having sixty-plus starts sure seems likes a lot for a position where there's a lot of rotation and freshmen seldom contribute right away.  If you weren't already concerned about the Stanford game (with Toby Gerhart, the added pressure of being the regular season finale with a shiny bowl potentially waiting, Jim Harbaugh's shouty craftiness, PAC-10 replay officials), this is just another reason to worry a bit, as the Cardinal lead Irish opponents with 67 starts on the defensive line.

*

The Good Doctor Saturday makes the case that Notre Dame's schedule is not as bad as many would have you believe.  While there are not a lot of top-tier teams facing the Irish this season, there are a bunch that should be qualifying for bowls and fielding perfectly competitive squads (this is a lot different than say, playing a pair of D-II teams and some MAC bottom feeder).  The Irish schedule is certainly not tough, but do me a favor and randomly select another BCS school's schedule to look at (say, one in the Big Ten not named Ohio State).  Not many are going to jump out at you as a death march.  With the eight home games and no reason not to schedule four absolute cupcakes to get yourself two-thirds of the way towards a bowl berth, you just won't find many super competitive slates.  Southern Cal, Oklahoma and Ohio State are generally some of the better programs at scheduling at least one big-time opponent out of conference, but even they play San Jose State, Idaho State and New Mexico State (respectively) this fall. 

So while Notre Dame's is not as tough as some previous years, it's not any worse than any other schedule you'd randomly stop and look at while flipping through Phil Steele.  Go ahead and try it.

*

One of our SBN Rock M Nation brethren takes a look at Nevada.  In the coming days, I'll be looking specifically at Wolfpack QB Colin Kaepernick, our first Profile of Fear of 2009.  Early returns?  Be afraid.  Be very, very afraid.