Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Well, my time in South Bend will officially come to a close in an hour. I'm heading to Muncie to check out Nate Davis and the Ball State Cardinals. I'll also be blogging from there to give all you Mid-American fans your fix.
My time in South Bend was interesting. I didn't get to see much of the campus, but I'll be back for San Diego State and Michigan, so I'll get ample time to see the grotto and Touchdown Jesus.
A few things I learned while here:
• Offensive lineman Sam Young will not admit that his 20-pound weight gain has forced him to purchase new clothes, though he did laugh about comparisons between himself and his coach for like 5 minutes.
• Maurice Crum Jr. went on a trip to Ghana this summer to help bring an orphanage books and computers. I'll have a post on this later today.
• Corby's is apparently the coolest bar in town, though it's the only one I've been to in South Bend.
• Jimmy Johns rocks!
• About 900 "reporters" cover Notre Dame. Really, I think it's 50 reporters, 25 TV people, 75 sit-on-the-couch bloggers, and 750 alumni who all wear Notre Dame shirts and have questions about the team.
• I heard more stories about fans ripping journalists for negative stories than I've ever heard in my life. I thought Missouri was passionate, but I had no idea.
• New Athletics Director Jack Swarbrick seemed like a nice guy. He met personally with the media throughout the day. I spoke to him briefly. We shared a moment and a business card. It was awesome.
• I think I saw the third event of the Beer Olympics last night -- the beanbag toss. Throw a beanbag onto a platform and into a hole. Fascinating. Must be a midwestern thing.
• The campus of Notre Dame -- what I saw of it -- looked amazing. Beautiful buildings, very historic, amazing landscaping, but the stadium was just a stadium. I think I was expecting it to look like a cathedral. I do think (know) that's not representative of how it looks on gameday. I'll find out Sept. 6.
Until then, peace out South Bend, I'm heading to Muncie.
Watson joined ESPN.com in 2008 after four seasons covering the Missouri Tigers and the Big 12 Conference for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She also covered college football recruiting for the Dallas Morning News.
