We hope everyone had a great holiday.  Lots of Irish news across all fronts, so if you're just settling back in after a couple weeks of Chrismukkah and New Year's celebration, let's try to catch up.

Most importantly, five-star freshman standout Manti Te'o will be remaining at Notre Dame for at least his sophomore season, delaying his Mormon mission.  Obviously fantastic news as Teo brings a level of intensity, athleticism and ass-kickingness that this defense needs every play.  Imagine how good he'll be with Jon Tenuta gone.

As far as the coaching staff goes, things will round out quickly with Cincinnati's season ending.  Tony Alford, on a lot of Irish fan's wish list to stay on under Coach Kelly, is indeed sticking around as the only holdover from Weis' staff.  Rumored defensive coordinator Chuck Martin of Grand Valley State fame is coming to South Bend, but as a defensive backs coach, which seems like a bit of a coup to get a great winner and teacher like Martin in a somewhat reduced role.  As far as the rest of the staff, we'll probably see some announcements today, including Cincinnati defensive coordinator Bob Diaco in the same role and former Kansas offensive coordinator Ed Warriner as the offensive line coach.

(As an aside, I'm not too worried about the way Tim Tebow thrashed the Bearcats defense on New Years night.  If you were Bob Diaco, what exactly would you have run to slow down an offense that outgunned you at every position?  It wasn't pretty, but he's going to have a few more toys in the chest in South Bend.)

In terms of recruiting, there is a lot of rumbling about some potential commits and decommits, but the only official thing is Austin Collinsworth coming onboard a few weeks ago.  The son of former Bengal and current Sunday Night Football color man Cris Collinsworth and a three-star recruit.  As far accolades go, Collinsworth has won three straight state titles and was all-state at defensive back, wide receiver and running back.   At the very least, this experience will almost definitely go better than the good captain of the Red Raider offering Adam James and his jackass dad a chance to join the Texas Tech family.

On the basketball front, the Irish have started 1-1 in Big East play.  In their opener, they held court against Providence in South Bend, winning 93-78.  Jonathan Peoples turned into Vinnie Johnson off the bench, scoring 23 points on seven field goal attempts, aided by a perfect five for five mark from behind the arc.  Luke Harangody chipped in 19 and 13 while the backcourt of Tory Jackson and Ben Hansbrough combined for 17 assists. 

Despite a healthy margin for most of the game, Mike Brey basically only used a six man rotation (Carleton Scott played all of three minutes), and that lack of depth caught up with the Irish on Saturday.  Hanging around with Connecticut for most of the game, the Huskies blew the game open late (as they've done a few times this season) and won 82-70.  Stanley Robinson and Jerome Dyson had double-doubles while Gavin Edwards continued to cruelly torment Notre Dame.  If the rotation is only going to be six or maybe seven guys, Irish fans shouldn't expect much more than a NIT berth at this rate.  The next game is at South Florida before a run of very, very good squads (West Virginia, Cincy and Syracuse).

In brighter news, the women's squad continues to dominate, sitting at 10-0 and holding the rank of third in the country.  The ladies open up Big East play next Saturday against 10-2 Villanova.  Circle your calendars for January 16^th, as that will be the lone regular season meeting between the Irish and juggernaut Connecticut.