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DeutschPedro Hat-Trick Lifts Chelsea Into Premier League Top Five
The Brazilian forward's treke, completed in the 64th minute, moved Chelsea above Liverpool in the standings. Elsewhere, Fulham lost 1-0 to West Ham, with Crysencio Summerville scoring the winner.
Pedro now has 14 league goals this season and could feature in Brazil's World Cup squad. West Ham remains below the relegation zone with nine games remaining.
Lou Holtz's best quotes: The 8 most memorable soundbites from legendary coaching and broadcasting career
For more than 50 years, Holtz blessed the college football world both on and off the field. Here are the most memorable quotes from his life as a coach and broadcaster.
Brandon Aubrey: Cowboys' contract offer is "not the ideal"
The Cowboys are willing to make Brandon Aubrey the highest-paid kicker in the NFL, but they have stopped far short of the $10 million annual average he wants.
Aubrey and the Cowboys have discussed a contract extension for the kicker for months without an agreement. Last week, the Cowboys leaked that Aubrey was asking for $10 million per season.
Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News reported that the Cowboys had offered Aubrey $7.5 million, but later corrected his report. The number actually is less than $7 million, but more than the $6.4 million annual average of the league's highest-paid kicker, Kansas City's Harrison Butker.
The Cowboys will place a second-round tender on Aubrey, which would pay him $5.81 million, but it will allow him to seek a better deal. Dallas will hold a right-of-first refusal, receiving a second-round draft choice if it declines to match the offer.
“Obviously the tender is what the Cowboys have talked about, and it’s a good problem to have,” Aubrey said Wednesday, via Joseph Hoyt of the Dallas Morning News. “It’s a good amount of money, and it’s a big pay raise from before, but it’s not the ideal for any player. We’ll see what happens. I’m excited to be in this position. It’s an opportunity for me . . . so I’m thankful for that.”
Aubrey, 30, has made the Pro Bowl in all three of his seasons and has an NFL-record six field goals from 60 yards or longer. He has a career-long of 65 yards. He missed seven field goals in 2024 and six in 2025, with all but four of the misses coming from 50-plus yards.
He said he has thought about potentially leaving the Cowboys if he gets an offer the team won't match.
“When you hit that restricted free agency, if you’re not testing the market, then you’re not doing what’s right for you and your family,” Aubrey said. “So you have to do that, if that’s what it comes to.”
Arsenal Move Seven Points Clear After Brighton Win
Arsenal secured a crucial three points at the Amex Stadium in a challenging encounter against Brighton. The Gunners were focused purely on the result, demonstrating their determination in the title race. Bukayo Saka's goal proved decisive as they navigated a difficult test on the road.
The victory sees Arsenal consolidate their position at the top of the table, though with the caveat that they have played one more game than their nearest rivals. The atmosphere lifted significantly when traveling supporters learned of Nottingham Forest's equalizer at Manchester City, sparking celebrations of past title glories as their own championship wait nears its end.
How Lou Holtz rekindled the magic of Notre Dame football
SOUTH BEND ― Nobody carried as large of a presence on the Notre Dame campus than the little man with the pipe.
He spoke with a lisp, but when he spoke, you listened. It was the Gospel According to Lou.
During the 11 football seasons (1986-96) he coached at Notre Dame, it was the Golden Dome, Hesburgh Library and Louis Leo Holtz when it came to the biggest Notre Dame icons. Not always in that order. Certainly not in 1988.
If you asked a campus visitor where they would like to go first, be it The Grotto, the Basilica or Holtz's front parking spot out front of the old Joyce Center when Juniper Road ran through campus, the parking spot where he steered his Buick would be the first stop.
That’s where Lou parks.
There was something about the man and his presence that was pure magic. He put a spell on all he touched at Notre Dame, and he touched it all.
Lou Holtz was one of one. He owns a permanent place on the Mount Rushmore of Notre Dame football coaches. Rockne and Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz. No one else need apply. For now.
There wasn’t anyone like Holtz before he arrived in a flurry of force and focus from the University of Minnesota in November 1985 to provide Irish football with a sense of purpose and direction. He was the man with the plan and for 11 seasons, for 100 victories, for one national championship (1988), Holtz carried out that plan until the day he walked away from the only coaching job he ever wanted.
Maybe the only one he ever loved.
On Wednesday, March 4, at age 89 after a brief stay in hospice in Florida where he moved after his coaching days ended in 2004 after six seasons as South Carolina, Holtz died. Many knew this day was closing quickly. Still, in the end, it was a shock.
The Notre Dame campus that Holtz so loved will feel a little more empty without him. Go to certain spots, take a minute and you can still see the man with the tan khakis, the blue ND windbreaker and ball cap, the black shoes and white athletic socks playing his part as head coach.
Stalking the back practice fields, zipping out the blue-tarped gate in his golf cart, taking Notre Dame to places it had longed to again revisit, nobody on the campus stood taller, except for maybe Father Hesburgh, but a man of the cloth never devised a gameplan good enough to beat USC. Or Michigan.
☘☘☘
College football was different during the Holtz years. It was a time when reporters had to be at every single practice during the week. Not for a five-minute viewing window. Not for the first handful of practice periods. You were there for stretch; you were there for pass skel. You were there for special teams. You were there when Holtz would blow his whistle and gather his guys at midfield, after which he would hop on the waiting golf cart and speed into the waiting darkness of another Northern Indiana night.
Sometimes, he would stop at that blue-tarped main gate, stay seated in the driver’s seat, pack the pipe and fire it up while he fielded questions. He would look at you, consider your query for a beat or two and answer. The pause would feel like an eternity. Nobody so small could strike more fear into a young reporter’s heart.
You grew up in a hurry on the beat covering Holtz. You had to.
Standing on those back practice fields day after day, week after week, month after month was like attending a graduate class in Coaching 101. From 20 yards, Holtz could tell that the right guard’s hand placement was not proper. It was a few inches off. He’d tell the guard to fix the hand. The hand would be fixed. The play would be aligned properly.
Practice would continue, but not before the right guard would be asked a yes (nod) or no (head shake) question by Holtz where the answer was always no.
“Don’t shake your head,” Holtz would bellow, “I can hear it rattle!”
Laugher around, then a whistle from Holtz. Right back to work.
Chaos was a constant companion of his football program. He’d suddenly dart from staff meetings promising to return but never would. He’d head for his Granger home for a nap, or a golf course in Elkhart County. He'd eventually circle back, finish the meeting and the game plan and then watch the Irish put it all together on Saturday afternoon.
Even offseasons were not safe from insanity. Sitting with former defensive coordinator Bob Davie in a conference room reserved for the Notre Dame defense, a reporter could hear a commotion on the other side of the door. It was Holtz, stalking the interior hallway in search of assistant coach Charlie Strong.
You can still hear that voice.
“Charlie Strong! Charlie Strong! Where the hell is Charlie Strong!”
The door swung open. Holtz shot a stare at the reporter. He sized up defensive coordinator Bob Davie. Neither were Charlie Strong. The quest continued. Holtz was gone as quickly as he had arrived. He didn’t bother to shut the door.
Davie got up from his chair, closed the door, offered a smile and a shrug as he returned to his seat. That was life with Lou.
That’s the best way to remember Holtz, as the tortured genius/perfectionist. Not the caricature he became late in life with those Dr. Lou segments on ESPN and petty fights picked with Ohio State’s Ryan Day. Holtz wasn’t the same after Notre Dame.
☘☘☘
Home games under Holtz were happenings. At the end of the third quarter, the Notre Dame marching band would perform the 1812 Overture. It was tradition. So was the student body seated there in the left-hand corner of Notre Dame Stadium to the side of the Irish bench. Up there, they would make Ls with their thumbs and index fingers and chant in unison with the 1812.
“Lou! Lou! Lou!”
No Notre Dame coach since has been as beloved as Holtz. Marcus Freeman has a chance, as long as he delivers what Holtz did ― a national championship.
In 1996, Holtz, into his 11th year now but looking like the job had aged him 31, wanted to be loved by the administration. When the love wasn’t offered, when no one told Holtz he was still needed and wanted, Holtz was done. On a cold, gray day, after a 62-0 victory over Rutgers, Holtz stepped into a tent outside the construction of Notre Dame Stadium for his final home game press conference. By then, everyone knew he was done.
When he left that tent in tears, you knew Notre Dame football would soon never be the same.
For decades, it wasn’t.
Notre Dame cycled through its share of head coaches post-Holtz. Bob Davie didn’t work. George O’Leary never worked. Tyrone Willingham didn’t work. Charlie Weis didn’t work. Brian Kelly won more games than anyone in program history. His biggest criticism?
He wasn’t Holtz.
Each time a job search commenced, many longed for Holtz to return and pull Notre Dame back to relevance. He never did. His time at Notre Dame had come and gone.
Now he’s gone. No more visits to Armando’s for haircuts or to the stadium for reunions. Memories of all those 11 seasons and all he did for the university he loved live on. All those stories, hundreds of them, will be retold forever. Each will end the same.
Laughter. Head shake. Comment.
That guy was one of one.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Lou Holtz revived Notre Dame football to national championship