John Carlson, Notre Dame Tight End and, apparently, a favorite of Notre Dame co-eds based on the nickname they’ve given him, “Hercules,” has been named a finalist for the Mackey Award, given to the best Tight End in College Football.

Despite missing 2 games.

And I keep reading that, “despite missing nearly a quarter of the season.”

At first, I just assumed it was more anti-ND bias by the media, but then I realized it’s more of a pat on the back for Carlson, intentional or not. Just look at the stats.

And then you realize, wait, the other 2 finalists apparently didn’t miss significant playing time. And despite that, Carlson still put up bigger numbers. Note the 13.5 yards/catch average. Pretty sweet. That’s gonna translate into a lot of NFL fun-money.

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• Ralph Friedgen Gives Chase To Ron Zook in Bob Davie’s Dunce Cone Classic…

Bo Schembechler has written a book on leadership that will be published in the fall of 2007.

Titled “Bo’s Lasting Lessons: A Legendary Coach Teaches The Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership,” the book is sure to make a huge splash at the Ann Arbor Barnes and Noble, who is putting in a massive order with the book’s publisher.  Industry analysts expect about 300,000 copies of the book to be sold in Michigan where the copies will serve as temporary table legs, paper weights, and kindling.

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“Nice Butt Kicking.”  Actually, that’s a pretty G-rated phrase for Charlie…

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The University of Miami has accepted an invitation to play in the MPC Computer Bowl in sunny Boise, Idaho.

The matchup has developed so much excitement in the college football world that it has left pundits speechless to the point of having absolutely no opinion on the game.

The MPC Computer Bowl’s highly advanced website, which was most definitely not created by an intern using Microsoft Frontpage ‘98, is already touting this exciting game.

In playing the MPC Computer Bowl, Miami joins a long list of previous bowl participants known for their dominance in the sport including: Boston College, Tulsa, and UTEP.

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• An Open Letter to Kevin White, University of Notre Dame Athletic Department
• “Is This Hell?” “No. It’s Idaho.”

One of the leaders in the “Brady Quinn Lottery” if the word “lottery” meant “Finding Out Who Sucks The Most Right Now,” just demoted their offensive coordinator. We’re still praying, for the sake of Quinn and the world’s children, that the Raiders don’t draft Quinn. Problem is, if they don’t, then either Detroit or Houston will. Essentially Brady’s unwillingly playing Russian Roulette with a Glock 9mm. The only way to win is not to play.

W.H.O.P.P.E.R Cannot find any way that the 2007 NFL Draft ends well for Quinn.

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Phoenix, AZ - Bob Davie, former head coach of football at the University of Notre Dame and current analyst for ABC on ESPN or ESPN on ABC or EASBPCN, as the cool kids like to call it, set a world record today when he withdrew his name from consideration for a record-setting number of collegiate football head coaching positions.

Observers were stunned as Davie withdrew himself from consideration for 8 jobs in under 15 seconds. Oddly, nobody had asked him if he was interested in the jobs, but Davie found a sports journalist from Arizona Republic walking into a Walmart in Phoenix, and before the journalist could place his hands over his ears in an “earmuff” fashion and start humming the theme song to The Smurfs, Bob Davie withdrew himself from consideration for the following jobs:

• University of Miami
• Michigan State
• North Carolina
• North Carolina State
• Arizona State
• Iowa State
• Alabama
• Washington

Oddly, the Michigan State, North Carolina, and Iowa State jobs had already been filled before Bob Davie withdrew his name from consideration. Also of note, despite it being completely understandable if it were to occur, the current Head Coach of Football at Washington, has not been fired. When HLS asked Washington’s coach, Ty Willingham, what he thought of Bob Davie removing his name from consideration for the Head Coaching job at Washington, Willingham missed an easy 2-footer and then asked, “Why? What have you heard?”

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I meant to point this out yesterday, but I got a bit sidetracked by the latest episode of Heroes and then Studio 60 was actually sort of funny, like when Saturday Night Live remembers they suck and bring back Baldwin for the 50th time to host so that someone, somewhere, might laugh.

So, yeah, I got a little sidetracked.

Anyway, so yeah, we got hammered on Saturday night.  “Blown out” as anyone who isn’t a Notre Dame fan likes to say (though I beg you to look at the stats (which are for losers) before you start throwing around the term “blowout.”  We lived thru Tyrone Willingham, we know a “blowout” when we see one, and this really ain’t the same brand of sausage.).

I digress.

Searching for answers, the boys at IRT did an excellent analysis of the perceived talent gap between Notre Dame and Southern Cal.  What they found was that Notre Dame is made up of a lot of very good talent.  If they were a corporation, they’d probably be Microsoft, even.  A lot of very good talent.  And Southern Cal?  They’re farking Google.

The talent differences are significant.  Notre Dame’s talent is good enough to beat the teams that Notre Dame should beat.  It’s also good enought that, on occasion, they should either beat an elite team or at least give an elite team a run for its money (see USC, 2005).  Charlie needs some gamebreakers, though.  Home-run hitting runningbacks, nasty defensive linemen, etc…  And it sounds like he’s gonna get them soon.  Hold on, world.  Choo-choo Charlie’s a’comin’.

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It struck me today how absurd some of the bowl games are…there are 32 in all.  Did you know that?  32?  That’s freaking insane.  I am a HUGE college football fan and I would guess that I’d catch 10.  Who is watching the other 22?  Madness. 

Anyway, I thought I’d put up a fun little game here to test your knowledge of the bowl games.  And don’t cheat.  Just pick which Game in each row is the real bowl game.  Then look for your answers in the comments section.  If you’re REALLY cool (and incredibly bored at work) you’ll post how many you got right.  If you’re actually busy, unlike me, you’ll skip right past this and surf for something “more important” for “work”.  Enjoy.

 Bowl Games:

a) Honda Crocodile Bowl   b)  Toyota Gator Bowl

a) MPC Computers Bowl  b)  MAC Computers Bowl

a)  El Pollo Loco Bowl   b)  Chick-fil-A Bowl

a) Gettysburg Bowl   b)  Alamo Bowl

a) QuickLube Car Care Bowl    b) Meineke Car Care Bowl

a)  Gaylords Hotels Music City Bowl   b)  Focker’s Hotels Music City Bowl

a)  Mississippi Bowl   b)  Texas Bowl

a)  PetroSun Independence Bowl  b)  Not gonna give an option here.  Just gonna comment on the irony of having the Independence Bowl sponsored by an Oil company that most likely gets their oil from the Middle East.  And if they don’t, yay! But don’t look it up and make me look stupid, just play along.

a)  Diamond Bowl   b)  Emerald Bowl

a)  Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl   b)  Boeing Jets Armed Forces Bowl

a)  PizzaHut.com  Bowl  b)  PapaJohns.com Bowl

a)  T&A Grabbers New Orleans Bowl  b)  R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

a)  Samsung LCD Las Vegas Bowl  b)  Pioneer Purevision Las Vegas Bowl

a) San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl    b)  San Jose County Credit Union Mistle Toe Bowl

a)  BS Championship   b)  BCS Championship

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