Yeah, they say it’s still on. But it will never again be the same glorious event it’s been for 40 years.
Once again the University has dipped its hands into small, tradition-laden, dorm-centric life, and ripped the soul right out of it.
Expect similar, “new”, watered-the-f-down versions of the Alumni (sucks) Wake and the Keenan Revue. I’m sure those things are on the way.
This is not a comment designed to be disparaging to the Dillonites that are working hard on putting together a great rally. I’m sure it’s going to be great. It’s just not going to be the same. Because once the Admin gets its hands in there, and once it becomes about ‘the greater University community’ rather than Dillon and the studients, it’s just not the same. Can’t be, won’t be.
Along with SYR’s, another great ND tradition dies.
I cannot tell you how very sad it is. Someday we’ll all wake up and find that every single thing on campus has ADMIN painted right across it, and we’ll wonder just what happened to the school we all remember.
Well, Now. That Certainly Didn’t Take Long: RichRod Busted.
The Biscuit
By his own players.
Now, which is worse? That RichRod cheats? Or that some of his players (up to 10, including starters!!!!) turn on him? I’m not sure. But either way 2 things come to mind immediately.
1) I looooooove RR as the coach at Michigan (sucks!)
2) If I were Skunkbear fan, I would want him gone. Now.
RichRod and his staff forced excessive workout hours. Sometimes 3X the daily limit, and well over the weekly limit
The staff lied to the players about this, saying these hours were sanctioned by the NCAA
The staff forced the kids to sign NCAA waivers, under threat of ‘repercussions’
The staff supervised summer time, ‘voluntary’ workouts. Only training staff is allowed to be there, but coaches were
Michigan (sucks) players hate their coach so much, they called him out – to a newspaper
This seems pretty cut and dry. Players themselves – 6 went on record with details and another 4 didn’t dispute the accounts – reported these violations in public. They can easily be confirmed. These are major violations, and there should be pretty significant NCAA penalties, and RR should be gone, if UM (sucks) has even a shred of the integrity they claim to have.
Worst thing about it? Even with all this extra training, extra practice, extra workout time that other teams don’t get, Michigan (sucks) sucked so bad last year they went 3-9!
“Double the practice, half the wins!”
RR didn’t like ‘those who stay will be champions’, so I think he’s going with this new slogan instead. Awesome.
NCAA? Bury the skunkbears. It’s obvious, it was planned, and it can be proven. Do it.
Typically my season-beginning pep rally is the night before the first game. But since I’ll be on a flight to Chi-town on my way to the game, it’s happening tonight this year.
That means all the classic ingredients.
Firing up the iPod with all the classic Notre Dame songs.
Baking the victory cake.
Chugging Guinness.
Running the stairs (with the Guinness in hand and the dog in tow, of course)
And, the annual viewing of Rudy.
I am so freaking fired up. What do you do to get ready for kickoff???
@schadjoe You have the story wrong. DJones went deer-in-headlights. Evan took over. JC mopped up. It wasn't a "plan" to use 3. Keep up. in reply to schadjoe#
@schadjoe I agree with you that 3 or 4 is too many, but the plan was never to use 3 or 4. It was to find 1. But then the OL was all-suck. in reply to schadjoe#
@schadjoe Which is why I can' t love RichRod's plan any more than I do. Though I doubt their OL will suck and nearly kill all 3. Bummer. in reply to schadjoe#
Fellow ND Twerps (fans, bloggers, jurnos): I propose we favor the #NDFB tag over #NotreDame or #NotreDameFootball. Do it for the characters. #
RT @NunesMagician: If I read another "making Paulus the starter is just a publicity stunt" article I'm gonna shiv someone. <– Shenanigans? #
Quick: Someone show me something on FanBase.com RE: #NDFB that I can't find via Google (sans FanBase results, natch). #
Hawaii may drop its extremely masculine, totally hetero pre-game dance.: http://bit.ly/3yvFLs Seriously, that would be a real shame. #
RT @CoachDanMullen: great turnout so far for student tickets. <– Don't want to live in a world where students need encouragement to show. #
RT @joeovies RT @richarddeitsch Inside Edition asked for credentials for NCSU-USC game Sept. 3 to cover E. Andrews. They got rejected. #
RT @hansensouthbend: Freshman Nick Tausch now listed as starter at both place kicker and kickoffs. … Unseating Walker & Burkhart. #
RT @BCH_ChiTrib: C.Weis on LBs Darius Fleming and Steve Filer in nickel pkgs: "We could have that Chicago connection coming off the edge." #
What say you, Twerps? If A. Allen comes out of the game, will Hughes really not replace him? Will Weis really go wtih a soph/frosh? #NDFB#
RT @PeteCarroll: just started reading "inner game of stress"… great book <– You have time to read? 2 weeks before the season? How? #
RT @TriceraPops: There's some sort of buzz around j.gray,he looked good last year. #NDFB <– Wonder if Weis trusts his ball protection tho. #
@OneFootDown I actually think this is more in response to the youngsters impressing, and Hughes picking "be big, play small." #NDFB#
Use #NDFB for Notre Dame Football tweets! Save them characters for content! Spread it! #
Wow, apparently I don't follow any Miami Twerps because I didn't see this: Just 2 QBs on roster now: http://bit.ly/14LwQn#
RT @schadjoe: Let's have a BC vs ND game here at Fenway! <-You'd have to tell Boston that ND's playing the Pats for BC "fans" 2 show #NDFB#
Much very deserved blame has been laid at the feet of the feeble Notre Dame offensive line over the last 2 years for the Irish’s pathetic running game. Coming in at #100 in rushing offense in 2008, it’s not hard to see why. At the same time, some grumblings have been heard regarding the Irish RB stable’s ability to break a big play. After all, teams that are patient with the run aren’t really seeking to only gain 3 or 4 yards on each carry. The entire reason for being patient with the running game is that it should eventually pay dividends in a big play here or there on top of consistent gains. In 2008, any patience the Irish displayed with the running game (and that amount is debatable) was never rewarded. The longest rush by any Irish RB in 2008 was 21 yards by Armando Allen against Purdue. And if you’ll recall, that run was against a defense that had essentially run out of linebackers to put on the field. Meanwhile, the best Aldridge or Hughes could scrounge up on a single play in 2008 was 19 and 18 yards respectively.
That’s pretty obviously pathetic. But just how pathetic, really? Here’s a list of players on the rosters of 2009 Irish opponents who all managed to gain a better season-high mark in 2008. Note: This is just something I was able to clap together with a quick scan. I probably missed some.
That’s 26 players that ND will face this year who’ve all shown a better ability to break a big running play in the last year than any Irish RB did in the same time. Hell, Washington and WSU each have multiple guys on their roster who accomplished the feat, and those two programs had to play one another just so one of them could have a win in ‘08. Nevada has 2 guys who’ve got ‘08-bests that triple the best of Armando Allen. And Nevada joins SoCal as teams that have 5 guys on the ‘09 roster with better ‘08-bests than any Irish runner. The only team on ND’s schedule that doesn’t have a runner with a better ‘08-best than any Irish runner is, somewhat surprisingly, Pitt. But that team lost their 3 best runners after last season, and all of those guys would have been on this list if they were on the ‘09 roster. Even without any representation from Pitt, there are 14 guys on that list who had a 2008 best that is at least twice as long as Allen’s best.
So much has been made of the outright talent advantage ND should have over just about everyone on the ‘09 schedule, but, frankly, until I see a little more running to daylight and a little less of this…
That’s not to say that I’ve completed reading a lot of books. I’m usually reading 3 or 4 books at a time, and typically only complete one if any. I’m a MTV generation kid. I was born with a remote control in my hand. And I own an impressive library of partially read books. My wife both marvels and shakes her head at my reading habits. All at once, I learn a great deal from my readings while often failing to get a complete picture of whatever story is being told. And that’s why she took notice when I was on the final page of Resurrection: The Miracle Season that Saved Notre Dame by Jim Dent.
My wife, holding a full appreciation for my habits, asked if I was just skipping to the end to see how it all turned out, but of course, given the subject matter, I already knew how the story of the 1964 Notre Dame Football season turned out. What I didn’t know was how the story unfolded, and that’s what Mr. Dent managed to illustrate in such a way that I stopped reading the words and began experiencing the story as though I were actually there. Thanks to Dent’s meticulous work, I may possess a clearer understanding of what happened around the Notre Dame football program in 1964 than I do of the circumstances surrounding the program during my years on campus from 1996 to 2000. And if nothing else, I found my experience of Dent’s book far more enjoyable. There are moments in the story where you absolutely can’t believe things that actually happened could have happened, and other moments that sound so exciting that you get lost in them and forget that you weren’t there.
I didn’t just finish reading Dent’s retelling of this story. Unlike so many books I read, I’ve fully absorbed this one. I’ve bookmarked, highlighted, notated, and recollected Resurrection. In the last week, I’ve shared passages during discussions about the Notre Dame of then versus the Notre Dame of now. And while I remain firmly convinced that the Era of Ara was a far different one from the Massive Media/Internet/Business Conglomeration of College Football Era, I can’t agree more with Dent’s encouragement, within his own notes in the appendix, that anyone with an interest in seeing Notre Dame overcome this current state of mediocrity should read this story. There are too many lessons to be learned and too many coincidences and similarities between now and 1963 to be ignored. If you’re a fan of Notre Dame Football, pick up a copy of Resurrection when it’s released next week. You’ll be a better, more informed fan as a result, and it’ll help pass the time of the final week of the off-season in a very entertaining way.
Jim Dent’s book, Resurrection: The Miracle Season that Saved Notre Dame will be released on September 1, 2009 and is published by Thomas Dunne Books. You can reserve a copy on Amazon.com today.
(Thanks to Thomas Dunne Books for sending us an advance copy. We really enjoyed it.)
Ultimately, no matter what sort of offense you run, the QB will be running your show, so I figure I can’t wait much longer to draft a QB or I might not have a lot of confidence in any plays I want to call. And that’s why I took Colin Kaepernick, QB, Nevada.
Career: Colin set the Nevada Football world on fire when he took over the offense in the 5th game of his redshirt sophomore season (2007). That year, playing in just 9 games, Colin threw for 2,175 yards with 19 touchdowns and 3 INTs. He also rushed for 6 more TDs. In 2008, Colin threw for 2849 yards with a 13.7 yards-per-attempt average. He also threw for 22 TDs against 7 INTs with a 54% completion rate. Kid can sling the ball, and when he connects, it’s usually for a big gain. But he may miss a few here and there as well. He makes up for that rushing. Last year, he made up for that 54% with 1130 yards rushing.
Why Him Instead of a Domer: I needed a starting QB, JC wasn’t available, and frankly this kid can do an awful lot of damage on his own.
Career Vs. Notre Dame: Colin has never played against the University of Notre Dame.
Prediction for 2009: Actually, we expect Colin’s stats to either level off or possibly even shrink. Yes, the kid has a boatload of talent, but in 2008 he also had a NFL-caliber WR to throw to against WAC-level competition in Marko Mitchell. With those Marko gone, one has to wonder if the 2-dimensional threat of the Nevada defense will remain. After all, they now only have one WR in Nevada with more than one career catch. Also, he opens his season with ND. At 6-6, 220, I’m wondering what might happen to him vs. a Jon Tenuta defense with this sort of speed and talent. He could get pretty dinged up.
“They Must All Just be THAT Good” and Other Theories on RR’s Latest
The Biscuit
So, have you heard? It’s quite exciting! The University of Michigan (sucks!) Skunkbears (that suck!) are going to play all three quarterbacks against the alm0st-DII Western Michigan (sucks) Sucketeers! Wow, what grand strategy! What awesome planning! What amazing skill and cunning!
I love RichRod. He’s the pervy uncle you loved to cringe at and run away from as a kid. He’s perfect for UM (sucks).
So on his latest move, I tried to wrap my mind around what could motivate such a strategy. First, I tried diving into RR’s mind. After weaving through thoughts of undergrad cheerleader pregnancies, the current market price of Snake Oil and how I might push more kids to leave my program, I got a bit scared and backed off swimming for the surface as quickly as I could to get out of the cesspool that is RichRod’s brain. So then I just pondered a bit, and came up with a few thoughts of my own, safely in my own head. Here are the three theories I postulated around his 3 QB Rotation ‘plan’.
1) They Must all Just be THAT Good.
This one popped into my head for a second and was gone just as quickly. Why? Well, first, Nick Sheridan is one of the 3. Did you see him last year? I’ve seen 7th graders with 3 missing fingers on their throwing arm be more accurate. Noodle Arms is a frosh that’s been around for all of 6 months, and the kid looks like an ill-timed wind might snap his arm off at the shoulder. And Robinson, the most talented of the 3 I’d guess, has been on campus for like 8 minutes. So this theory doesn’t hold.
2) Michigan (sucks) thinks Western Michigan (sucks) is so bad that they can just experiment with the QBs to learn some things, without risk of loss.
This one is equally improbable. Why? Ummmm, Appalachian State? Or, better yet, ALL LAST SEASON. No, can’t be it.
3) RR has no clue what he’s doing, the QBs all look like shite, and he figured “F it, let’s throw them in there and see what happens, because I don’t know what else to do”.
DING DING DING. We have a winn-ah!
“Maybe we’ll have three starting quarterbacks,” Rodriguez said. “That would be neat.”
Ha! That’s a real quote from him. Hilarious. Just another sign that all is right in Skunkbearland, and that my bet with DTK is all but a lock.
I had set out to title this post, “Lou Holtz is Wrong.” I got home after a very busy Saturday (even had time to hit Bed Bath & Beyond!) and discovered the internets asploded all over my desk over this prediction:
Now, for those of you who scored poorly on the comprehension bits of various standardized tests, let me point out: Lou isn’t arguing that ND IS, currently, one of the 2 best teams in the country. Lou isn’t saying that ND will be 1 of the 2 best college football playing teams in the country through the year. And Lou isn’t saying that if ND played anybody this year, they could and would beat anybody. What Lou’s actually said is that, given the 2009 ND football schedule, there is very little reason to expect fewer than 11 or 12 wins for the Irish. That is, of course, highly debatable, but I digress.
As I mentioned before, I wanted to title this post, “Lou Holtz is Wrong.” And in the early stages of my prep-work for this post, I felt confident I could do so. I felt confident because of one simple fact. Currently, Notre Dame is ranked #23 in both the preseason AP and Coaches Polls. And, important for the purposes of this post due to referencability*: ND is ranked 19th in the preliminary Stassen Preseason Consensus Rankings – a consensus built from a large variety of preseason polls and publications. And I was quite confident that no program had ever climbed the BCS ladders far enough to qualify for the BCS Championship Game after such a low preseason ranking. For all National Championship intents and purposes, Notre Dame’s season essentially ended after these preseason prognostications were made. Or so I thought.
Below is a listing of every team that has played in the 10 BCS Championship Games to date. Alongside each program’s name is their preseason consensus ranking according to Stassen.
First, the bad news: Of all the teams that have played in a BCS Championship Game, on average, they only managed to move about 4 spots from their preseason consensus rankings to get into either the #1 or #2 slots. Even if we only account for teams that actually had to improve from their preseason consensus ranking, those teams only had to move, on average, about 7 spots. If ND’s preliminary consensus ranking of 19 holds (and we don’t see it moving this close to the season – most everyone’s predictions and polls are out), ND will need to manage an improvement of 17 places in the rankings.
But here’s the glimmer of hope and the reason I can’t title this post “Lou Holtz is Wrong,” (a title sure to generate lots of hits and links): Because one team has actually already done it. In fact, they did more than what ND would need to do this year. Oklahoma, in 2000, moved from a preseason consensus ranking of 21 all the way to the BCS Championship Game and a championship title. Still, the 2nd closest leap was an improvement of 12 positions by LSU in 2003 – 7 fewer slots than Oklahoma in 2000. In order for ND to allow Lou to save face, they’ll need to make the 2nd largest leap up the rankings in BCS history.
And yeah, going back to Lou’s explanation, we understand that a big part of his argument is predicated on the notion that IF ND goes undefeated, there’s no way they’ll be kept out of the national championship game. Perhaps. Perhaps as many as 4 BCS conference teams manage an undefeated season this year. What then? But further, there’s a very real chance that the wisdom of the college football predicting crowds foretells a non-undefeated season for ND. Perhaps a consensus of 19 means the world expects ND to lose at least 1 and maybe even more. There’s probably a very good reason only one team has done anything like what ND would need to do this year.
Actually, one reason Oklahoma managed to make such a leap was because they went undefeated (duh) against very strong competition. According to Sagarin, their strength of schedule was 14th toughest in the country that year. Meanwhile, before we even get started, ND AD Jack Swarbrick is left propping up the 2009 Irish schedule. The voices Mr. Swarbrick will be battling will get louder with every Irish win this season – a season of opponents and venues his predecessor essentially “crafted for a championship run.” Pretty funny considering the average SOS of teams in any BCS championship game has been around 20. No. Nobody could have guessed back when this schedule was first being created that the entire state of Washington would become incapable of playing football, or that BC would become a sea of tumult, or that Michigan would suck even more than it usually does. But we highly doubt that during its crafting, Dr. White was seeking to shape this schedule into top-20 material. Note: The absolute worst SOS of any team that needed to move in the BCS era was Ohio State’s in 2007 at 53. And note to Mr. Swarbrick: I think I prefer SoCal’s “crafting” of a championship schedule. In the years they’ve appeared in the BCS Championship Game, their SOS has been 7th and 8th. And the year they didn’t play in the game but split the polls, their SOS was 19th.
We love Lou, of course. And we fully understand that much of his own prognosticating is, like his counterpart May, based on entertainment value. And whether or not we agree with him is another matter, separate from the numbers above, and for another post in about a week.
*Oddly, finding archives of the preseason coaches polls before 2002 is proving difficult, so I elected to go with Stassen. Stassen’s preseason consensus poll tends to track quite closely with the preseason APs and Coaches.
RT @hansensouthbend: Clausen out of am practice because of illness. Te'o and Rudolph also not at practice. Weis will address media @ 11:45. #
RT @BCH_ChiTrib: Weis on frosh K Nick Tausch, and PK and kickoff : "There's a potential that kid could end up doing both in the first game." #
RT @BCH_ChiTrib: C. Weis: Clausen has fever. Rudolph, Te'o, D.Walls, A.Allen have "different levels" of hamstring issues. Rudy, Te'o not srs #
RT @smartfootball: New post: : The zone-read, gun triple-option . . . and the quadruple-option? http://bit.ly/2iTwh#
RT @schadjoe: Looks like 25 yr old BC QB Dave Shinskie (baseball) in lead to start <— Excellent. #
@kankasports In base, T'eo at WILL, B Smith slid to MIKE. So really it was T Smith who was replaced, based on depth chart from last week. in reply to kankasports#
RT @edsbs: Seriously, nice things couched in snark about ND. http://tinyurl.com/llevok <– You just want to see it fall like communism! #
@kankasports It may well be that T'eo was in because it was "give the 2s a chance" day. At least, it seemed like it. Lots of dinged up 1s. in reply to kankasports#
B4 each pre-game CFB handshake, I'll leave for the kitchen, pretending to look for beer until the awkwardness passes. What's your plan? #
I hope when I'm Favre's age, I'll be so fit that I'll think I can still play with kids. #
RT @cgb_blog: NCAA 10 is the worst fucking edition of the game in 6+ years. <– Included a Brian Butler feature? #
@edsbs C-bus essentials: Cheese in a can and nugget-style jerky. Make for good chum or countermeasures depending on the circumstances. in reply to edsbs#
A picture because we’re feeling picture-lite on the site.
Mother Nature, you coy little thing. You’re working with Fate today, aren’t you? Casting that blue-gray sky over my head as I find myself needing hot coffee while I peruse the morning’s college football news. Making sure it smells like football. Real football. Not South Carolina two-a-days football, but crisp-air, orange leaf, bratwurst cookin’ in the morning light football. Reminding me that the season is oh so close and summer is fleeting.
The Roundup:
Why don’t I think Kiffykins will be a success at Tennessee? You mean aside from the doughy, boyish exterior? Maybe his total lack of sense will suffice as an explanation.
Okay. Sit down. Sitting? Good. Because this is a link to a MGoBlog post. Yes. I know. I know! But look! Stevie Brown is going to play the strong-side LB position! STEVIE. BROWN. Yes! THAT STEVIE! AT SAM! I KNOW! Someone go ask if Weis is currently working on running plays where they just hand the ball to Golden Tate and have him run in Stevie’s direction while everyone else stands around. “Death Backer?” More like “Dead Backer.” Snap!
Bet this kid is glad he doesn’t play for George O’Leary.
Weis always made it awkward for Boston fans. He was a big part of their success back in the day, but he’s also a Yankees fan. I’m sure the hatred Cubs fans will feel will be less conflicted.
Louisianna-Lafayette laissez les bons temps rouler! (HT: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Headlinin-Did-an-NFL-player-accidentally-put-B?urn=ncaaf,184362#remaining-content)
Scheduling Note: We don’t really expect a Friday Roundup next week. We’ll be a bit busy. The plan, for now, is to create an “open links post” where you, the readers, can throw some links of interest up. Remember, we’re all counting on you.
Here’s the press release. Below are things we find notable, and thus we take note here and add the flourishing touch of commentary.
“Rally on the Green,” a hospitality village located on Irish Green (adjacent to the south side of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center), will be in operation from 3 to 6:30 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to one-half hour before kickoff for each home game. Access to the area will be free of charge and open to the public. It will feature entertainment on a main stage (including bands and speakers), plus roaming “kid-friendly” entertainment throughout the grounds. Food and beverages (including alcohol) will be available for purchase, and Follett’s and other vendors will be on site.
Hrm. Thus far it sounds like “improved football weekend experience” translates to “increased revenue generation.”
* The hospitality village will close in time for the pep rallies, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. on Friday evenings. Due to the renovation of the Joyce Center, pep rallies will be held in several locations, as follows:
Sept. 4 (Friday), Nevada – on the South Quad as part of the annual Dillon Hall rally
Sept. 10 (Thursday), Michigan – an on-campus event at the Stepan Center for the Sept. 12 road game at Ann Arbor
Nov. 20 (Friday), Connecticut – in Purcell Pavilion in the Joyce Center
Alright, while I’m not tremendously stoked about the Dillon Pep Rally being moved to Friday and, in all likelihood, undergoing more editing and political correctness checks than your typical State of the Union Address, it is sort of cool that the boys of Dillon get their pep rally and students get to sort of “own” the first pep rally of the season. I’m sure Crackhead is eagerly awaiting an invitation to make an appearance. That said, A) the pep rallies, like the English, are too many. There should only be 2 pep rallies with a schedule like this. One to start the season and one to appropriately recognize the SoCal game weekend. Not only are all of the home games getting a pep rally this year, but the freaking Michigan (sucks!) game is getting a pep rally. What? B) Pep rallies outside after the calendar hits November? At 6:30 pm? Nothing like the raucous sound of a few thousand pairs of mittens clapping.
A corps of Notre Dame guest service representatives, identifiable by green blazers, will be stationed around the campus beginning at 9 a.m. on game days to answer questions, offer maps and lists of activities and otherwise be of assistance to fans.
…and watch you. All of you. Don’t try anything.
The University has created a sportsmanship document that outlines ND Game-Day Courtesy Guidelines, including the rights and responsibilities of all fans. Additional signage will be available in parking lots and at Notre Dame Stadium gates to encourage positive fan behavior.
“No standing. No loud behavior. No breathing too loudly. No anything that might offend the geriatric crowd or cause the guy-sitting-next-to-you-who-took-his-bored-8-year-old-daughter’s daughter to complain that your volume level is hurting her ears. But please feel free to get up from a sitting position if and only if you need to go buy more concessions at any point in the game. Like now. Yeah. Now. We don’t care that there are 2 minutes left, the opposition’s got the ball at ND’s 30, and it’s 3rd and 2. Sit down and be quiet. Unless you want to buy something.” In all seriousness, we absolutely can’t wait to see this thing. We’re sure it’ll be online at the new website mentioned in the release, but that new website isn’t up yet. We love the idea though, sort of like we love the idea of the Pontiac Aztek; An idea so obviously bad that it just had to be allowed to grow and spin out of control.
In an effort to encourage appropriate behavior, fans will be able to utilize a new text messaging system to report any instances of unruly or disruptive behavior in conjunction with home games, including inside Notre Dame Stadium. The system will be in place beginning at 8 a.m. on Saturdays. Fans can simply text 41513 and type into the message the word “Irish” followed by a space, followed by a brief description of the issue and its location. Ushers, public safety personnel and/or University officials will respond as needed.
Yeah. THAT wont get abused either by overzealous soccer moms who only came to the game because their husbands promised them a trip to Tiffany’s in Chicago the next day or by drunk dudes looking to just randomly send the brute squad on wild goose chases. I wonder if we could flash-mob the entire thing and have the Southern Cal visitor section of the stadium vacated by halftime. Oh, and this is all predicated on actually having cell phone reception inside the stadium? During a game?
The University will continue to work with its community partners to provide the safest and most welcoming and enjoyable environment possible on game days – including a newly designed integrated command center in Notre Dame Stadium to respond to any issues.
Hey, look at that, all that glossiness! It’s so glossy! I haven’t seen anything glossed over like that since I stopped working in that nail salon. I was paying the bills! Don’t criticize me for working and contributing to the GDP!
Ahem.
Anyway, even if this press release promised all that we could possibly want to read and more, there’s no telling how things will actually work until the football season starts, so we wont really pick on what’s said in this thing too much. Perhaps ND finally formulated a partnership with state and local law enforcement to ensure that horror stories of visitors who may or may not have had too much to drink are not getting roughed up, or that alums aren’t being milked for every penny that they might have otherwise fed into the local economy. Who knows? I just have a feeling I’ll be glad that I’m not going to see version 1.0 of these new policies in action. After all, Bill Kirk is still part of all of this.
My first year at ND, I took a fun Econ course. One of the few classes with more than 60-70 kids in it for my entire time at ND, it was a big survey course with 100+ in Debart. It was also awesome. No attendance, and the prof gave out a summary of the lesson before class. Come in, grab a set of notes, sit for 10 minutes, take a ‘bathroom break’ and never return. Cram, get an A, call it a day.
I sure hope Jack Swarbrick took that class, because we sure as hell know that Kevin White did not.
ND is facing the potential for its first non-sell-out game since 1973. Why? A bunch of factors, but in the end it’s simple economics – decreased demand and increased supply.
Demand is down for a bunch of reasons. ND’s mediocre performance over 2 years? Check. Crappy economy and limited budgets? Check. Of course, we can blame the first one on White since he hired Davieham and helped drive the program into the crapper. We can’t really blame the 2nd on White, though it’d be great too – why’d you have to go out and buy a house you couldn’t afford Kevin???? And give out all those 0% loans to unqualified buyers as well? And trade all those credit default swaps and short the market you #$&*(#&$(*&*(#?!?!?!?!?!?
I digress. Anyway, demand is down. Hopefully, the first part is being fixed by Weis this year (and I believe it is) and so demand will be pushed back up by that lever. The second part? Well, I hope it gets figured out and let’s leave it at that.
The flip side is true as well. As White shifted to the 7-4-1 (which will, I kid you not, look like 7-2-3 by 2016) we got more home games. Great, yay! More money for us, more TV exposure, more control. Great right? Nope. Why? Why is this bad? Primary reason: brand erosion. Look, I love ND football. I will never get enough of it. But I freaking live halfway across the country. If there are 15 home games, I can still only go to 1. And I’m not going to leave my awesome couch and flat screen on a snowy day in November to see UCONN even if I’m just down the street. I’d rather crack a beer and catch the action from the comfort of my own home. There are a ton of reasons why people can’t/won’t go to games, and that means that adding more and more home games, at some point, no longer works. Even for Notre Dame football, you can saturate the market. Now if ND was playing some really intriguing matchups? That’d help. If ND was winning Nat’l Championships? That’d help too. But right now, with what’s going on, it just don’t work.
And more importantly, regardless of those things, scarcity is a good thing. The difficulty of getting an ND game ticket MAKES them more desirable. It adds to the mystique. It adds to that special feeling of snagging a ticket and getting into a game. So hopefully all the levers get pulled and we get back to 1) Winning 2) Playing decent opponents 3) ACTUALLY playing home and homes and maxing out at 6 home games + 1 neutral and 4) the economy gets fixed. Super tall order, but not at all unachievable.
Because that will ensure sell-outs. That will keep the Notre Dame mystique, the dream, and the economics that support it, alive and kicking.
Of course, ND will come up with a way to keep the sell-out streak going – they’ll sell tix to local charities for a penny or something – but if Swarbrick doesn’t fix some of what’s broken, they can only keep those charades up so long.
Join the 2009 HLS College Football Pick’Em Tournament!
domer.mq
Regular readers may recall that in the past we liked to run a little “Expert Picks” tournament among the founding loyal sons of HLS during the season. As time has passed, we just get busier, and administering our own game is just too daunting a task. Plus, we’d like our readers to be able to participate. So we’ve created a Pick’Em tournament over at Yahoo, and we’d like to invite and any all readers to join.
Round: 6 Pick: 33 Player: Brian Smith School: The University of Notre Dame Position: LB
Finally, a Domer!
I almost couldn’t believe that Brian Smith was still available this late in the draft. I suppose that’s a testament to the strength of the overall talent pool in this draft at the linebacker position. At least, I hope so, because the Irish are going to depend a lot on Mr. Smith this season.
Career: Became a sensation and one of a very few bright spots in the 2007 season with his intense play that earned him a starting spot at OLB by the end of the year. He even offered a glimmer of hope to the Irish’s season, at least for an hour or so, in the BC game when he returned an interception for a TD. At that point, we here at HLS were still formulating ways for the Irish to become bowl-eligible. In 2008, Brian was moved to the interior and frankly seemed a bit uncomfortable there. He recorded just 4 tackles for a loss in 2008, the same total he managed in 2007 with far less playing time. Also recorded just 54 tackles even though the defense was supposed to be spoon-feeding them to Brian. Still, we continue to love the “spark” he adds with his enthusiasm and intense play.
Prediction for 2009: More hope than prediction – Brian will find a more comfortable and natural place on the linebacker corps in 2009 that will allow his knack for big, disruptive plays to take over. Frankly we think his value to the team would be much higher if he’s concerned with accumulating TFL stats rather than accumulating regular tackle stats. (Since writing the previous few lines, we’ve been to the open practice. Brian looks like he’ll be the #1 MIKE. Hopefully last year’s experience will pay big dividends.)
Just a few guys loving the same woman and talking Irish Football. (HerLoyalSons.com is in no way affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the University of Notre Dame)
Loading ...