November 26, 2008

Friday Roundup: The “We All Just Pretend To Like Turkey” Edition

domer.mq

It’s not really Friday unless you’re just getting around to reading this on Friday in which case I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving dinner.

Personally, I’m angry with the pilgrims. Why the heck did they start this whole turkey thing? Turkey’s okay, but for my money I’d much rather have a goose. First of all, the meat on a goose is far superior to that of a turkey. And for another thing, have you ever made french fries the day after you make a goose, using the goose-fat for the frying? No? Then you haven’t lived. West coast of Maui, the Grotto on a quiet, snowy night, and goose-fat fries. What do they all have in common? They all make my list of 3 most spiritually awesome experiences ever.

The Roundup:

That’s about it for the short week. This week’s Beer of the Week is Shipyard’s “Imperial Porter.” It’s from Maine. I’ll be in Maine for the holiday visiting family. This beer has 7.1% ABV and Warrior, English Fuggles, and East Kent Goldings Hops. Want.


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Irish Blogger Gathering: The “Subway Domer’s So Cute When He’s Angry” Edition

domer.mq

Subway started this whole Irish Gathering thing and now he’s ending it - assuming the world ends after this week. Otherwise I don’t see much reason we can’t do it all again next year.

  1. Regardless of what you may have heard and what may happen, what do you think should be the fate of Charlie Weis? Please give an explanation in detail along with a possible replacement if you said… FIRED. No Urban Meyer bullshit here. He’s not coming. Get over it.
    Not to continue the rather insane comparisons I keep seeing to Faust, but it would be a thing of beauty if he’d step down. I’m convinced the guy loves ND. I want ND to love him back. Weis has done the program a tremendous service in both upping the quality of recruiting for the Irish and in putting the Irish in the BCS twice in the last 3 years. Let’s not forget that the Irish hadn’t seen the inside of a BCS bowl since Bob Davie until Weis got here. I think there are major steps to rebuilding the Irish program that Weis has already taken, and somebody, be it him or his replacement, will get to enjoy some serious fruits from all of that tireless labor. So in a perfect world, according to script, Weis should step aside. Then we could have him at the bookstore all the time for autograph signings as well! If he doesn’t step down, which I don’t expect him to do, then I think he’ll get one more year to show off what he can do with his harvest of all that talent. And really, I’ll be cheering for him because I’ll be cheering for the Irish. I want the guy to succeed, and if he’s here in 2009, I’d give him a 50/50 shot of doing so.
  2. Recruiting. Colin Cowherd has been murdering the recruiting services and Notre Dame. He thinks that the recruiting services rank Irish recruits higher than what they should be because of a marketing plan. Everyone else on the outside is falling in line with this thought. What are your opinions? Please explain and provide a solution.
    Colin Cowherd wouldn’t know a well expressed thought if it beat him over the head with a brick and left him in a desert to die, but wouldn’t you love to see it anyway? I digress. Coherd’s contentions may have been true at one point, but now it’s just as easy to look up who else is actually recruiting these kids as it is to look up their star rating. I think if Urban Meyer is doing all he can to “poach” many of our commitments, or Poodle Pete is visiting our commitments as often as he can, then it’s a safe bet these guys have talent - lots of talent. Also, this had better be the last time I ever have to even give a moment’s thought about what Cowherd says or someone’s going to lose a knee cap.
  3. I made a comparison in a poorly written post about this team mirroring the 2004 team. I generally don’t like doing comparisons to other years, but I felt it was valid. What is your take? Is the 2008 version of ND like the 2004 team, and do you think the 2009 team could have similar results to the team in 2005?
    Well, I seem to recall that everyone “knew” that in 2004 Darius Walker should be the starting tailback over Ryan Grant. Why I bring this up is that even though Armando Allen seems to have broken out as the #1A tailback for this edition of the Irish, I’m not sure “everyone” would come to a real consensus as to whether or not that’s the best course of action for the Irish. So when you try to extrapolate that into what we might be able to expect from the 2009 edition, I have to pause and wonder what it means that we still don’t have a tailback who makes me go “wow.” I see 3 tailbacks with plenty of potential for such wow-ness, but I’ve yet to actually be wowed this year. If 2009 wants to look like 2005, then 2009 will need someone to fit the Darius Walker mold: Almost super-human vision, ability to move a pile, awesome pass protection blocking, excellent pass catching ability, great ability to run screens, and more endurance than an Iron Man contestant.
  4. Is Michael Floyd the Notre Dame team MVP? Why? If not, who then? House Rock Built’s recent post on the “progress” of the Irish offense would certainly seem to indicate so, but I’m going to give the honor to everyone’s favorite special teams specialist, Mike Anello. The guy’s so amazing that I’m sure there’s a movie producer wondering if they can name a movie “Mike.” Could be a tough sell, but for the Irish, this kid has made some tremendous plays to help either keep momentum in the Irish’s hands or swing it back their way. This isn’t meant to take anything away from Mike Floyd, of course. I just think Floyd will have the opportunity to win MVP multiple times in the future, so let’s give it to Anello for now. That said, I’ve been mystified why so many of Anello’s tremendous plays haven’t helped fuel a “fire” in this Irish squad. Either something else on the sidelines is dousing the flames, or there’s something really wrong with the players’ ability to feed off of his inspiration. Momentum for this Irish squad never seems to snowball in their favor. It might swing in their favor, but it never just takes over in favor of the Irish. And that’s really, really strange for a college football team.
  5. What is Notre Dame’s biggest problem schematically and mentally?
    The offensive line. I figure there must be 2 problems here: 1) The players on the OL still seem quite confused about which bodies they’re supposed to be blocking. For example, nobody ever seemed to even notice Syracuse’s nose tackle last weekend. 2) The attitude I’d been hoping to see from the Irish OL this year has been nearly non-existent except when they face vastly inferior squads like Michigan (sucks!) or Purdue. Then they just sort of behave like bullies. But as soon as they go up against anyone competent, they also behave like your typical bully and curl up in a fetal position until it’s all over. Also, the entire squad seems to get lazy as soon as the offense gets anywhere near the opposition’s 20 yards line, or, as I like to call it, “Krypton.” Maybe the shadow of the goal-posts, lurking so near, blocks out enough of Earth’s yellow sun to render the OL powerless. It also apparently renders them highly susceptible to unbelievably stupid penalties.
  6. Notre Dame is a 30 point underdog to U$C. It’s safe to say that none of us thought that ND would ever be that big of an underdog in this rivalry game. Your thoughts and please include a prediction for the game.
    Honestly, I’m just surprised SoCal wasn’t favored by at least that much last year, but I guess they were going through various QB questions and if I recall correctly, they’d just lost to Stanford 2 weeks prior. And they were ranked #14 versus their current #5 ranking, so they probably weren’t really worried about “style points” to get back into National Championship contention. I think Vegas odds-makers figure if SoCal can take control of this game, they’ll do all the “campaigning” they can in the form of scoring. Still, I expect ND to play like a hungry team. I expect them to be prepared. I expect them to make plays. I expect them to win 30-28 after a last-second 45 yard field goal by Walker because wouldn’t that be a freaking great way to end the season for this kid?

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November 25, 2008

You’re So Predictable: Loser Mentalities

domer.mq

F it. We’re bring this “Very Special, Man Up Edition” of You’re So Predictable because we just can’t stand the cloud of pathetic from which so many Irish fans seem to be taking hits. You sissies! The Irish are going to win this damn game or my name isn’t domer.mq!

Who’s with me?


The Irish Will Win on Saturday

  • No. (54%, 123 Votes)
  • Hell Yes. (38%, 86 Votes)
  • Yes. (8%, 17 Votes)
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November 24, 2008

You’re So Predictable: Southern Cal’s Need For A “Big Win”

domer.mq

Last week we asked you if Notre Dame’s Margin of Victory over Syracuse would be greater than the total points scored between Michigan (sucks!) and Ohio State. Only 1 of you guessed that Notre Dame would be outscored 14-0 in the 4th quarter to lose to a team that had previously been outscored 94-20 in the 4th quarter.

This week, the Irish face Southern Cal in their one and only rivalry game. While ND was busy losing to Syracuse - SYRACUSE! - Southern Cal had last weekend off so they could prepare for whatever unholy event awaits us this weekend. I hope the area hospitals have stocked up on whatever blood-type Clausen will need.

With that thought, we ask…


Will Notre Dame Gain More Yards Per Carry against SoCal than Rey Maualuga gets in sacks against ND?

  • No, and Clausen will be knocked out of the game. (37%, 78 Votes)
  • No, but Clausen will NOT be knocked out of the game. (26%, 56 Votes)
  • Yes, and Clausen will NOT be knocked out of the game. (26%, 55 Votes)
  • Yes, but Clausen will be knocked out of the game. (11%, 23 Votes)
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Yeah, But It Gets Worse…

domer.mq

House Rock Built came out of cryo-freeze to point out some astonishing facts about the 2008 Irish as compared to the 2007 Irish:

I guess the bottom line is that the offensive statistics indicate that the 2008 Irish are the 2007 Irish with one exceptional player thrown into the mix. Pretend the rushing game is the “control group”, which is to say it had no talent added to it from last year and only a year of coaching and maturing to improve. The result? No statistically significant change.

Go read the post. It’s good work that’ll send your “case of the Mondays” into a “case that can only be treated with pills and expensive therapy.” And then chew on this: The schedule for 2008 is nowhere near as difficult as the 2007 schedule was. And consider the fact that the passing game is much, much improved and the running game still can’t find any way to statistically improve.


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November 23, 2008

What Couldn’t Happen Has Happened, And So We Know What Must Occur

domer.mq

The debate is finished.

Understand that this, Notre Dame Football, is important to real life - my real life, anyway. I was raised by iconoclasts to be an iconoclast. I could hardly manage to complete readings of Beowulf due to all of the eye rolling. I met my first screening of Hoosiers with smirks. One of my personal favorite insults is “hero-maker.” But Notre Dame withstood my proclivities. Notre Dame, despite all the rot and fear in this world, has overcome my own inclinations toward skepticism, and the most public facing element of Notre Dame, for better or worse, is the football program. You cannot believe in Notre Dame and all it stands for while accepting a mediocre football program. It’s not that all other elements of Notre Dame should take a back seat to the performance of the football program. It’s that the football program must seek excellence with the same urgency as all other elements of Notre Dame. Back when Ty Willingham, Kevin White, and Monk Malloy were doing their best to kill off the football program, many argued that it was akin to eliminating one of the pillars of Notre Dame. Really, a mediocre football program is more akin to a massive crack in the foundation of the institution. And so we must demand better. We must demand excellence. We must demand that the program be lead by those who are capable of excellence. Charlie Weis does not meet that criteria.

I will not vilify Charlie Weis. He’s a fellow Notre Dame alum. He probably works as hard as any other head coach in the nation. And, frankly, I kind of like the guy. So if you’re here to read about how awful a person Charlie Weis happens to be, or how I can’t stand his arrogance, or my recount of various Charlie Weis quotations that look so naive in hindsight, then you’ll be disappointed. I’ll leave that sort of thing to the cognitively weak among us while they pock sentences with all-caps words and multiple question marks. It doesn’t serve any purpose. Charlie Weis’ own record says all that needs to be said. Weis’ loss to a 2-8 Syracuse and a fired coach with a career .200 winning record was simply the gratuitous exclamation mark on a simple premise: Charlie Weis is not a good enough college football coach to head the Notre Dame football program.

Regular readers of HLS already know that I’m pretty bummed right now, and not just because Notre Dame lost to the hapless Orange. I’m bummed because I really wanted Weis to succeed. Never before - and hopefully never again - have I found a head coach of Notre Dame so relatable, and so my faith and hope in Weis was really built upon that probably unavoidable belief that, given the right set of circumstances and all the right breaks, I too could have been the head coach of Notre Dame one day. Charlie Weis is the manifestation of daydreams that most of “us” have all the time. The problem is that the daydreams become a nightmare when applied to the real world. The results we’ve gotten with Weis at the helm of the Irish aren’t all that different than what we’d get if you or I were in Weis’ position, and that’s just not good enough.

Notre Dame’s goal is not to be “great” someday. Notre Dame’s goal, every year, reasonable or not, is to win a National Championship. And in today’s landscape, given the realpolitik of college football, nothing but a perfect, undefeated season will suffice to garner the Irish that achievement. The Irish will not get a 1-loss national championship like certain SEC teams. And so the Irish can’t have that hard-to-explain loss on their resume. Today’s loss to Syracuse is similar to hard-to-explain losses Weis has suffered every season he’s been in charge - even in his “good” seasons. It’s time to eliminate those hard-to-explain losses, and unfortunately Weis is all out of answers.

Admirably, Weis painted himself in a corner with his biggest success since taking the job at Notre Dame: recruiting. Right up to the day Weis was introduced as Head Coach of Football at Notre Dame, pundits tried to dismiss the Irish as has-beens simply by virtue of the “fact” that the Irish couldn’t put together top-flight recruiting classes. Weis, despite all of his faults on the field, has shut those pundits up. So much so that today a loss to a 2-8 Syracuse with a roster of guys that Notre Dame probably wouldn’t have even bothered to recruit is simply inexcusable. Thanks to Weis, the Notre Dame job is far more attractive than it ever was after Davie or Willingham. Any competent potential replacement will be able to see that not only can Notre Dame compete in recruiting, they can outright dominate recruiting, particularly if they succeed on the field of play as well. Any competent observer can already see that Notre Dame is far too talented to be playing as they do.

Any time I see the movie Crimson Tide on the television, I’ll stop and watch. Not only is it a great film because of the acting (nobody plays Gene Hackman better than Gene Hackman, and only four or five people can pull off a good Denzel Washington), but the moral of the story is equal parts troubling and fascinating. Despite all the work and all the best efforts of extremely smart, disciplined people, things can still go horribly wrong. I believe that’s what’s happened with Weis at Notre Dame. I believe he’s really as smart as so many people accuse him of believing himself to be. I know for a fact that he works harder than most. I believe he loves his alma mater. I don’t doubt that he’s given this job his best shot. And I know that it’s all gone awry. Sometimes the best intentions coupled with the best efforts still fail. That doesn’t mean that the goals are unachievable by anyone. It just means the goals are unachievable by those currently undertaking them. When that happens, questions must be asked, and assessments must be done. Changes must be made. Otherwise you run the risk of stagnating and dying while standing still.

The devil we know is not better than the devil we don’t. There is little evidence to cause belief that the Notre Dame administration will succeed in “hitting a home run” with another coaching search and hiring process, but there’s also little evidence to indicate that any result of such a process would result in worse than what we already have. As stated before, Weis has already done the university a tremendous service in making the job more attractive than it was when he arrived on campus. If nothing else, even a moderately capable athletic department and school administration would succeed in attracting a coach who has a track record of doing “more with less” at another program. That said, the goal should be to hit that home run. No name should fail consideration unless that name has too much moral ambiguity attached. Today’s best collegiate coaches read as a list of who-wasn’ts-back-when. Pete Carrol got the job at Southern Cal largely because nobody else wanted it and he happened to not be doing anything at the time. Bob Stoops had no track record of success as a HC because he was a coordinator at Florida when he was hired. But these coaching success stories were only struck upon because the programs were willing to make changes. Notre Dame must continue the search for their own success and then guard that success jealously.

As Lou Holtz has stated this evening, there is no reason Notre Dame cannot compete for a national championship. Even accepting that “parity” in college football is here to stay, the university holds many advantages over almost every other program in the country. Particularly if parity really does exist, then no other program will ever be able to garner a history or tradition to rival Notre Dame. Notre Dame already gained these advantages before many programs even became “serious” about football. And while the current landscape may present a greater challenge to winning a national championship than in eras past, it is that history and that tradition of Notre Dame that should make this institution relish meeting and beating these greater challenges.

Fear of attrition by ND’s student-athletes should not even enter into the equation when deciding upon a coaching change. ND’s student-athletes, unlike at many programs, actually are a real part of the student body, and as such have more at stake than their “football lives.” Once we all stop looking a the worst-case scenario, we realize that while some on the current roster may decide that the new coaching regime doesn’t meet their particular tastes, simply keeping the current regime and allowing all that talent on the roster to continue to flounder serves as a bigger threat to the long-term health of the program.

You cannot lose to a 2-8 Syracuse as 20 point home favorites and be a success at Notre Dame. You cannot lose more games in 2 seasons than any other Notre Dame team in history. You cannot lose 3 games in which you held double-digit leads, no matter the youth of your depth chart. You cannot gain just 41 yards on the 108th ranked rushing defense in the country while giving up 12 tackles to Arthur Jones, a defensive tackle with only 39 tackles on the season, and hope to retain the faith of the faithful. You cannot try to answer big-picture questions with minutiae. The evidence has mounted and the scales have been tipped.

Last weekend, Kirk Herbstreit paid Notre Dame perhaps the ultimate insult when he rhetorically asked, “what’s the big deal” in reference to the Irish’s struggles. He pointed out that over the last decade or so, Notre Dame averaged only 7 wins per season, and so Irish fans should not be “frustrated” by “more of the same.” It’s not surprising that such a loser-mentality should be the sentiment held by an outsider, but I fear that such sentiment may leak into the Notre Dame fanbase as well. Previous failures are no reason to accept future failures. Previous failures exist only to motivate future success. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. But for God’s sake, try something new.


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November 22, 2008

What to do with all this rage

Father Birdonnell

I’ve had this problem a lot this year.  What do I do with all this rage?  How can I make my life feel better after giving up yet another large lead in the fourth quarter to an inferior opponent?  And this time losing?  Mother fucking god dammit.

I say mother fucking god dammit with the matter-of-factness of a 30-year veteran bailiff, which I am not, because I want to pound my fingers through someone’s skull, but I don’t know whose.  I want to break something, but I don’t know what.  I want to break into someone’s home and take a dump in an inappropriate place, but I don’t know whose house and whether to lay chocolate sausage in their fireplace or on their kitchen counter.

I just don’t know.

What do I do with all this rage?

This season, I have attempted the following:

  • Exercised feverishly, gone for a run and done push-ups.  Result: short-term release, rest of weekend still ruined.
  • Put on some Indigo Girls and ironed shirts.  Result:  even more angry and now slightly gender-confused
  • Kicked a laundry basket down stairs and punched some pillows.  Result:  short-term release, and the futile sight of a laundry basket rolling down stairs just saddening.
  • Slapped the hell out of a wall and pounded my foot.  Result:  A strange  awakening to my own insanity.  Appendage throbbing.

What is wrong with me?

What is wrong with them?

What do you do when you’re your own worst enemy?  Syracuse sucks.  I don’t care that they won, that they didn’t give up, bleh…  Leave the polite talk to the coaches and players after the game.  Syracuse is garbage, and Notre Dame should have won by four touchdowns.  The offense squandered great defensive and special teams plays.  And then, as if to get back at the offense in some passive-aggressive hissy fit, the defense had their inevitable collapse in the closing minutes.
Rant, rant, rant.  I’ll apologize for the rambling.
But I will continue to not call for Weis’s head.  I will continue to think, “Remember last year.  Remember last year.”   This team will be great in two years.  I firmly believe that.  And if they aren’t, I’ll be the one with the whet stone, front and center.  I’ll get those axes so sharp… you’ll be, like, “Damn… my axe so sharp…damn…”  And I’ll say, “You’re welcome.”
So what do I do?  What do you do?  What do we do?  How do we save marriages, professions, and front bumpers with all this rage?
Suppress it, bottle it, and go beat the shit of USC next week.  Fuck it.  It’s our last chance of the season to look forward to next week.  Go Irish!


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November 21, 2008

NCAA: “We Are Sofa King Dumb.”

domer.mq

Everyone already knows this, but I wanted to post it for posterity. The NCAA has officially nixed the idea of Notre Dame STUDENTS handing out 8,000 leis to Notre Dame STUDENTS in honor of Hawaiian linebacker prospect Mant’i Teo’s visit to ND this weekend. Reason? It might be construed as Notre Dame the institution publicizing Teo’s visit.

Ah, the NCAA: Powerless when players are being paid by agents during their years of eligibility, but they sure know how to stand up with an iron-clad spine when it comes to students having a little fun.

My wife occasionally gets upset that, in times like these, pro athletes get paid millions to play a game, but at least those people, you know, actually do something. What’s Myles Brand ever done in his entire pathetic stint at the NCAA?


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Friday Roundup: The “There Are No Baby Viruses” Edition

domer.mq

Whew. If your kid comes home from daycare or school with a “low-grade fever and minor vomiting,” lock them in a room, plug your ears, and just hide your sorry butt from that “baby virus” because if it enters your body it skips “adult virus” altogether and enters “HULK SMASH VIRUS KILL DEATH TOILET CRY” territory in about 24 hours and will camp out in your blood stream for 5 days.

The Roundup:

And this week’s Beer of the Week is Three Floyds Dreadnaught IPA because this weekend I’ll get to drink beer for the first time in weeks, and this is what my taste buds want.


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November 20, 2008

Know about Interhall* Football?

The Biscuit

*Legendary, One-of-A-Kind, Very Cool ND Interhall Football

Now you do, in a cool article from the WWL’s Page 2.


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Cotton Bowl, Gator Bowl Interested in the Irish

The Biscuit

F.

They’re serious and that means we’re looking less and less likely to fall to the Sun Bowl and whatever mediocre opponent it draws.  That is, unless we somehow figure out a way to lose to Syracuse (not unpossible this year), and fall to 6-6 and the Sun Bowl for sure.  But, that’d be unacceptable to me and therefore it will not happen.  So yeah, 7-5 looks very likely (and who called that WAY back in the summer?  yep, that’s right boy-eeeeee!) and therefore the Cotton and Gator remain interested.

“At 7-5, they’re still Notre Dame. We’ve never taken a five-loss team in our history, so there would be a lot of discussion,” Catlett [the Gator Bowl dude] said. “But I think with a victory over Syracuse this week Notre Dame is still very high on our list.”

F. 

Why “F”? 

I don’t want to play a tougher bowl game than is absolutely necessary. 

Is that weak?  Probably.  But screw it.

I don’t care.  I want that freaking monkey off our collective backs.  I want the 9-game bowl losing streak to be GONE.  Just so no one can freaking bring it up anymore!  Sick of hearing about it, sick of people whining about it. 

“But you should expect more from Notre Dame Football!  Why are your expectations so low?????”  They’re not low forever.  They’re tempered THIS season, because I know the abyss from whence this team is crawling, and I know we’re not there yet.  Many (especially delusional ND fans that spend their time picking our replacements for Weis when HE’S NOT GOING ANYWHERE) think we should be winning NC’s now.  I’m not one of those unrealistic people.  This is realism folks, straight up the gut.

The main reason that ND is 0-fer in the last nine bowl games is that in recent history (~last 5-6 appearances) ND has been placed in super high profile bowls not because of the quality of the team, but because of the draw.  Now, I can’t complain about getting into the bowls.  They provide experience and exposure for the kids and the program, and dollars for our students.  But, in the end, we end up getting out-matched because of the team’s draw - ND fans are rabid and they come in droves to fill hotels and buy beers and merchandise and all that. I get it, but it screws us when it comes to getting ‘fair’ match-ups.  It’s extremely rare that ND ends up in a bowl game against a team that they simply look like they’ll beat up on paper.  OSU and LSU in the last 2 BCS games are prime examples of this.  On paper, we were way out-matched.  On the scoreboard, this proved to be the case.

This year, I want to be under-matched.  I want to play the lowest level of acceptable competition and get a W.  Again, I admit this is a “weak” stance, but I’d prefer to just get that streak ended.  It’s not noble, it’s not inspiring, but it’s incredibly pragmatic.  And in a year where we’ve been up and down and all over, where we’ll end up 6-6 worst and 8-4 best (with a miracle) and are likely 7-5, I am fine with a nice, acceptable W from the Sun Bowl over a loss in some ‘better’ bowl game.  I don’t need the streak to end in a fancy BCS or New Year’s Day bowl. I don’t need it to end in dramatic fashion for a NC in 2 years.  It can end in a bowl held in March for all I care, I just want it to end.  MAC competition?  Awesome.  MWC?  Fine with me.  But the Cotton and Gator will bring stiffer competition, and with the ups and downs of the Irish offense this year, you never know what you’re gonna get (ain’t that right Forrest?).

Yep!

And that makes a higher tier game, even against a weak ACC opponent in the Gator, dangerous.  Let’s just take the Sun, get up against a mediocre opponent (which is a perfect matchup for a sometimes-great-looking sometimes-sad-looking ND team which = mediocre), and get a notch in the W column for the first time in 10 bowl games, eh?   Who’s with me?

Anyone?

cricket.


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You’re So Predictable: Blowouts That Are Gonna Happen Somewhere…

domer.mq

Last week, we asked you to predict the rushing yardage for Navy, and the vast majority of you had no idea that Corwin Brown had been studying up how to defend the option since the last Navy game. Now ya know.

This week, ND faces Syracuse. Syracuse just fired their head coach. We’re guessing Syracuse is just looking to end the season, but we could be wrong. Also this week, the Michigan (sucks!)/Ohio State game is scheduled to begin grinding, and we mean grinding, at 12 ET on Saturday. Given that UM(s!) has thrown in the towel and RichRod wants us all to think more on the economy than on football, and given that Ohio State plays Tressel Ball, and given that Syracuse has (hopefully) folded up shop, and given ND’s inability to put a game away, we ask…


Will the Irish’s Margin of Victory over SU be greater than the total points scored in the UM(s!)/OSU Game?

  • No. (69%, 55 Votes)
  • Yes. (30%, 24 Votes)
  • What MOV? ND’s Gonna Lose! (1%, 1 Votes)
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November 18, 2008

Michigan (sucks!), Rich Rod, Losing More Games Than The Program Has Ever Lost In One Season Deemed Insufferable

domer.mq

Yeah, I know I said I was going to “do better” with the blogging, and the life, and the dietary habits… Well, sometimes you have to skip out on the diet when the right cookie is sitting in front of you, and right now, there’s one hell of a cookie being plated by Brian Cook.

There will be significant attrition this offseason. The first to fall:

In today’s weekly Big Ten teleconference, Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said sophomore Zion Babb was no longer with the team. Rodriguez said the wide receiver hasn’t been with the team since Sunday.

So… yeah. I was sitting on this until I had some outside confirmation and this serves as outside confirmation since three guys were mentioned as a group of players who had already made their decisions. The other two who have told the coaches they are out: sophomore LB/S Artis Chambers and Sam McGuffie.

EVERYBODY PANIC.

This, of course, is excellent news for ND, as I had just awarded McGuffie the inaugural HLS Paul Reiser Award a couple of months ago for being a giant PITA against the Irish run defense.


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Ouch

The Biscuit

Literally and figuratively.

Michael Floyd and Brian Smith, two of ND’s biggest playmakers, are out for the rest of the regular season.  A really tough game against USC just got a bit tougher.

Smith has been a leader on defense for the Irish, despite being just a Sophomore.  He’s displayed great instincts, and great athletic ability, and probably most importantly has been an emotional leader for the unit.  Junior Toryan Smith filled in for Brian early against Navy and performed admirably, but this D will certainly miss Brian’s presence in the coming weeks.

I don’t need to even mention how important Floyd has been to the Irish offense.  With Floyd out, opposing defenses will be able to key in on Tate to try to shut him down.  That will limit the offensive package options, and will force Clausen into more of his down reads - throwing more to the TE and RBs out of the backfield.  This really shortens the field for the Irish, and takes away one of our key threats.  Unless Parris can step in and really fill in for Floyd, we’ll be looking at an Irish offense that lacks one of its major threats.


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Gaining Experience Almost Costs the Game?

The Biscuit

Wrong.

Navy didn’t almost pull off a ridiculous comeback Saturday because Charlie Weis decided to get his backups some experience.  It’s because the entire team, the players, took this move to mean that the game was over.  “No need to really try, this game is over.”

The same folks that are criticizing Weis for getting his 2nd and 3rd string guys some reps are the folks that bashed Weis after Quinn’s last year for not getting the backups in enough.  “Why would you leave your starters in when you’re up by over 20 points with 5 minutes remaining?” they asked when ND left Quinn and Company on the field in the waning minutes of ND-Navy circa 2006.  “Classless.”  “Stupid.” and other such sentiments were echoed across the media.

Now that Charlie has tried to get his kids some experience? Bashing him for that.  The guy can’t win either way.  Literally damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t.

Listen folks, that comeback didn’t almost-happen because of the 2nd stringers being in there.  In fact, a lot of those ‘2nd stringers’ have been key players for ND this year.  Eric Hansen, ever the somewhat-clueless ‘expert’ calls out Ethan Johnson as a ‘no name’ player.  Hey Eric, do you even KNOW how much Johnson has played this year?  He’s one of our more regular guys on the DL!  Same thing with Paddy Mullen, who’s a veteran on the team, and has played a decent amount this year.

Hansen says you can’t blame the players for checking out when you see backups in the game. I call BS on this. The PLAYERS have a responsibility to PLAY.  Especially if you’re a 2nd stringer or 3rd stringer getting some reps and trying to move up the depth chart.  Sometimes, players just have to take it on themselves to GO GET IT. 

Example:  The second onside kick.  NOBODY went after that ball.  The players just stood there and watched it bounce by, with Hughes barely even making a stab at it. And those were the first team Hands guys out there.  You have to GO GET THE FREAKING BALL.  Weis isn’t perfect, I know.  But players have to take it on themselves to be aggressive - to make plays without being afraid of making an error.  In the final 3 minutes Saturday, I saw Irish players afraid of losing, rather than trying to win.  That, and only that, is what led to the almost-comeback.  You can chastise Weis all you want for getting some players experience, but it was the right move.  It’s up to the players to play.  And they didn’t.

Luckily, the Irish escaped with a much-needed win.  But clearly, there has to be a mental shift on this team. A shift to where every single play of every single game is played with intensity and aggressiveness.   We know they CAN do it - we’ve seen it at times in games throughout the year. It needs to become automatic, consistent, and non-stop - there can be NO letting off the pedal.  If anything, this is ND’s biggest weakness this year.  And while the coach can’t get in and make the plays, he does need to instill this instinct.  This attitude.  If it doesn’t happen, this team will be decent in 2009 and 2010, but will never be a contender.  This shift to a true killer instinct, a strong and unending desire to flat out destroy opponents, will be crucial to ND’s success in the future.  All the talent in the world doesn’t mean squat if the entire team, from starters to the water boy, doesn’t want it.

You gotta want it.


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