While we may not have actual Notre Dame football this weekend, the HLS Sim, safe in its COVID-free virtual reality, is here to provide.

The 1-1 virtual Irish hits the road to take on 0-2 Wake Forest in an attempt to bounce back after an embarrassing home non-conference loss to USF.

Can ND get back on track? Or will the Sim troll us all and kill all virtual ACC Championship dreams in week 3?

The only thing that Eddie and can guarantee is that whether you love to ride or fade us, we have you covered. Also, our audio actually sounds great for a change?!

Sadly, we don't get to pick a Notre Dame game, but we do get to enjoy the SEC coming back to this glorious mess.

Here's to an unplanned double-bye in which everyone gets healthy, has no long-lasting COVID issues, and we can actually see some more football this season.

Oh, and #HAILGAMBLOR

That. Felt. GOOD.

Sure, not a soul on the active Notre Dame roster was around when South Florida kicked 2011 off into hell, but Brian Kelly, Tommy Rees, and all of us sure were. 52-0 heals a lot of wounds.

We reminisce about the Irish blowout and also discuss the Big Ten finding new "medical data", Navy finding their mojo, FSU finding COVID, Miami finding their swagger, and Phil Jurkovec finding his game.

Oh, and the ACC Sim came for blood, y'all. It was not messing around this week!

Fresh off a very successful week one of--well, whatever this season will be--Eddie and I head back to the altar of GAMBLOR to keep the hot hand going.

We have more ACC, more Big XII, and some kind of weird non-conference game for Notre Dame. It's the last week before the SEC joins the fray, so come get a taste of this weekend's dual power conference slate with us!

Notre Dame fans have been constantly told that the Irish should just join the conference and play real football. Well, ND did and we've yet to lose a conference game. Wear it.

Seriously, what's so hard about this? 

No, Big XII, you can sit down after getting trounced by the Sun Belt and the powerhouse that is *checks notes* Houston Baptist. FSU can take a seat as well after blessing us with a hilarious ACC opening loss to Georgia Tech.

Oh, we talk a bunch of ND football against Duke too. Actually, we spend the majority of this episode doing so (much less talk of other games this year, so I gotta keep throwing the jokes in where I can). 

Finally, we take a quick look into sim-land to see how the rest of our virtual ACC counterparts fared as well.

Oh, and enjoy the cold open where I talk about the audio issues that I create for myself.

As we mentioned earlier in the week, the 2020 HLS Sim season will be in its own universe. Fans are in the stands, Notre Dame Stadium still has grass, and Kevin Austin magically has no injuries to speak off.

Virtual Notre Dame begins their road to the virtual ACC title against Duke in an opening tilt in the rain.

Y'all know the drill by now and if you don't...well, prepare for an experience unlike anything else.

(Also, if you hear occasional pops/clipping on my audio, that isn't your speakers. Not sure what happened, but for whatever reason my recorded audio feed went to hell. Was able to mute/lessen it, but it's not the HLS podcast without some kind of issue.)

Honestly, if it weren't for the $100 gentlemen's wager, aka a donation to Extra Life to fight pediatric cancer, between Eddie and I, the picks might have gotten canned this year. In fact, the headaches began 24 hours before recording in which a game on our original slate got cancelled.

This is going to be fun...

Anyways, every week Eddie and I will attempt to bring you our "expert" opinions on Notre Dame's matchup, six games from around the country, and one bonus game picked by Eddie since he's been at my mercy of picking the games for years.

Let's get weird(er). #HAILGAMBLOR

Much like the ACC, SEC, and Big 12, the HLS podcast is charging ahead with the 2020 season. We have no idea what to expect, how to feel, and even how to schedule a podcast around this.

The only thing that we know for certain is that the sim will exist in its own separate, COVID-free world and we will freely talk about any and everything that is on our minds this season. Y'all know the drill at this point, and if you are new here, welcome aboard, stay a while, and hopefully we can provide you with some entertainment to complement whatever this 2020 season will be.

You can catch these podcasts live over on Twitch if you so choose, which is highly advised for the gong-show that is the HLS Sim on Thursday nights. But be sure to download the podcast too if for nothing else than to enjoy the cold open that accompanies most of our shows.

Just because the actual 2020 Notre Dame Blue-Gold game was cancelled doesn't mean we still can't enjoy spring football virtually. Enjoy our annual spring game sim...as only HLS can deliver...

(Seriously, we have a peanut gallery piped-in via Zoom, #LittleTex interrupts repeatedly, we have a technical meltdown right off the bat, the sim graced us with over 1,000 yards of offense, and the game came down to the wire!)