Notre Dame

- Notre Dame wide receiver Golden Tate has turned some heads here, at least after Sunday's performance in the 40-yard dash. Tate ran a 4.36 and a 4.37 in his two attempts, which might persuade someone to take a chance on him in the first round. Even Tate predicted in his interview that he would probably run somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.5. He didn't do quite as well in the pass-catching drills - dropping several balls - but most teams seem comfortable with his hands. Percy Harvin , one of the players Tate thinks he compares favorably with, ran a 4.40 at the combine and a 4.32 at his pro day. Tate was a running back in high school but made the transition to wide receiver fairly quickly.

If you believe Kevin Ridgway, the presence of the Notre Dame men's lacrosse team in the final four for the first time since 2001 shouldn't be a surprise. According to Ridgway, it's expected. "We've always looked for this goal," said Ridgway, a Kensington native who is a junior defenseman for the Fighting Irish. "We've expected to be in the final four the last couple of years. We were close two years ago [when the team lost, 11-9, to eventual champion Syracuse in the quarterfinals]

A man will lead Notre Dame of Maryland University for the first time in its 116-year history, after the board of trustees announced Thursday its unanimous choice of James Conneely as the institution's next president. "It's a boy!" said board chairwoman Patricia J. Mitchell, drawing giggles from a crowd of students, professors and alumni who had gathered on campus to hear the decision. Mitchell, a Notre Dame graduate, said she went into the search assuming that the next president would be a woman.

Maryland and Notre Dame have agreed to meet in football at FedEx Field in 2011 in what Maryland's athletic director calls "a statement game." It will be just the second football game between the schools. The Terps, then ranked No. 21, lost, 22-0, to the Fighting Irish at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., to open the 2002 season - Ralph Friedgen's second as coach in College Park. Maryland will not have to sacrifice a home game, even though FedEx Field - the Landover home of the Washington Redskins - is only about 12 miles from campus.

Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow confirmed Wednesday night that the school is in negotiations with Notre Dame for a 2011 game at FedEx Field in Landover. "We are in discussions with them," Yow wrote in an e-mail to The Baltimore Sun. "I really can't say more without compromising the negotiations." It would mark only the second time the football programs have met. The Terps, then ranked No. 21, lost, 22-0, to the Fighting Irish at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., to open the 2002 season - Ralph Friedgen's second in College Park and Tyrone Willingham's first in South Bend, Ind. Friedgen will be going into his 10th season in 2010 while Notre Dame recently hired Brian Kelly away from Cincinnati to replace Charlie Weis.

An open house for prospective students and their parents will be from noon to 3 p.m. Nov 4 at the Institute of Notre Dame, 901 Aisquith St. Tours and presentations are planned. Call 522-7800.

Notre Dame football 7:30 p.m. [MASN] First, it's Inside Notre Dame Football, in which Charlie Weis (right) explains what happened against Pittsburgh. That is followed by a replay of the Irish-Panthers game, in which you can measure Weis' explanations against what you see.

As part of the College of Notre Dame's centennial celebration, the school's art department has organized "100 Years of Art at the College of Notre Dame: A Faculty Retrospective" at the college's Gormley Gallery. The show of two dozen works contains art by R. McGill Mackall, Jane Schwarz, Gladys Goldstein, Olin Russum and Rufino Tamayo, among others. Also included is Hans Schuler Sr.'s "Pheidippides," a bronze sculpture of the ancient Greek runner who carried the news of the Greek victory in the battle of Marathon to Athens.