Week 1 of a historic 2024 college football kicks off from the home of the 12th Man as Texas A&M debuts new head coach Mike Elko in an early-season test against Notre Dame on Saturday.

Elko steps in for Jimbo Fisher, and while he suffered notable losses to the transfer portal, he also had some notable gains, especially reigning Big Ten sacks leader Nic Scourton, who will help anchor what should be a strong front seven alignment going forward.

Notre Dame lost its two key blockers, and then a third to injury, something to watch as dual-threat transfer quarterback Riley Leonard steps under center coming off an injury of his own, but loaded with potential to lead this offense if he can stay upright and unharmed.

What can we make of the game? For that, let’s turn to the SP+ prediction model to forecast what will happen as Texas A&M hosts Notre Dame on Saturday night.

The simulations favor a very close game, one currently in favor of the visitors to win.

SP+ predicts that Notre Dame will defeat Texas A&M by a projected score of 29 to 27 and to win the game by an expected 1.8 points.

The model gives Notre Dame a close 54 percent chance of outright victory in the game.

SP+ is a “tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency” that attempts to predict game outcomes by measuring “the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football.”

Texas A&M is a 2.5 point favorite against Notre Dame, according to the lines at FanDuel Sportsbook, which set the total at 46.5 points for the game.

FanDuel set the moneyline odds for Texas A&M at -150 and for Notre Dame at +125.

If you’re using this projection to bet on the game, you should take…

Other analytic tools are expecting Notre Dame to pull out the win against Texas A&M.

That includes College Football Power Index, a computer prediction model that uses data points from both teams to simulate games 20,000 times to pick winners.

The model expects Notre Dame to win the game in 58.7 percent of its simulations, while Texas A&M comes out as the projected winner in the other 41.3 percent of sims.

The index calculates that Notre Dame will be just 5.4 points better than Texas A&M on any field.

When: Sat., Aug. 31
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET, 6:30 p.m. CT
TV: ABC network

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.

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Fireside Pies in Grapevine closes after dinner on Aug. 31, 2024. The Grapevine location was the last remaining restaurant in this series of pizza shops that had expanded over 20 years from Dallas’ Henderson Avenue to many parts of North Texas, including Plano, Fort Worth and Grapevine.

Owner Golden Tree Restaurants, which also operates Golden Chick, Jalapeno Tree and Texadelphia restaurants, said Fireside Pies never recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“While we worked tirelessly to maintain our standard of excellence and serve high-quality fare, foot traffic never rebounded to pre-pandemic levels,” reads a statement from the company.

Fireside Pies was founded in 2004 by Tristan Simon, one of the restaurateurs who reinvigorated Dallas’ Henderson Avenue with chef Nick Badovinus. The original Fireside had a tiny interior with a roaring hot pizza oven. The patio was spacious, save for the tree it was built around. People would line up outside, near the bustling Henderson Avenue, to wait for a table on busy evenings.

Golden Tree acquired Fireside in 2018. Mark Parmerlee, president of Richardson-based Golden Tree, said at the time he was “tickled to have it.”

Indeed, Fireside Pies was one of North Texas’ beloved pizza joints. It made our Best in DFW: Pizza list, and The Dallas Morning News wrote in 2012 that Fireside found “the secret to a perfect pie: crisp, chewy crusts, made-from-scratch sauces and quality ingredients from local purveyors.”

Fireside Pies made pizza seem sophisticated, which was rare in Dallas, another Dallas Morning News critic said in 2007.

The restaurant went through plenty of changes over the years, with restaurants opening and closing and menus getting overhauled. In late 2020, chef Stephan Pyles collaborated with the brand to add 10 new items to the menu, like smoked tomato gazpacho and shrimp ceviche. He was not a founder; he was hired some 16 years later as a consultant, to give the brand a jolt.

In the past few years, the restaurant locations slimmed even more. The original Fireside closed in late 2023.

A spokeswoman for Golden Tree confirmed that the Fireside Pies brand is not being sold.

It’s possible that the restaurant could reopen, but “we do not have any current plans to open in the near future,” the spokeswoman said.

“We want to thank the community for their support and loyalty over the past 6 years,” the company statement said. “The decision was made with a heavy heart and was based upon business needs and the state of our brand.”

Fireside Pies is at 1285 S. Main St., Grapevine. Its last day in business is Aug. 31, 2024.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on X at @sblaskovich.

AUSTIN – For the first time, a free weekend-long retreat is now open to Dallas-Fort Worth-area public school teachers.  

The retreat is organized by a non-profit called the Holdsworth Center in Austin, which aims to celebrate and honor public educators by giving them some rest and relaxation.  

“This is very uncommon,” said Mark Rogers, a fifth-grade teacher.

This is the fourth retreat and teachers who’ve attended before said it’s a pivotal weekend that has changed how they step into their classrooms.  

“I feel like we were treated like the royalty that we are always told we are, that teachers, oh you are superheroes, I don’t know how you do it,” said Leigh Burnell, a fifth-grade teacher.

The haven is packed with gourmet food, exercise, animals and world-class workshops.

“When I’m feeling recharged and ready to get in there, my kids feel that,” said Burnell. “They are getting the best of me.”

For 150 randomly selected recipients, they’ll get the encouragement to head back to the books.

“It’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve been to in my life,” said Gregory Jacob, a business management teacher. “I was able to relax and rejuvenate and be on vacation mode in the middle of the school year. That doesn’t happen often, so when you have the opportunity, please go, jump at it, and make the most of it.”  

To nominate your favorite teacher, head to teacherretreat.org.

The application is simple and anyone can nominate their favorite educator.

The weekend is scheduled for Oct. 18-20, and for teachers who are selected, organizers will let them know by Sept. 6. 

The final day to submit is Friday, Aug. 30.