April 17, 2008

Fraudriguez Offered Job to Dude that Might Be Racist. Or Might Not. Could Be Though!

This really is just a confusing story on ESPN.  I’m not really sure what the point is, and after reading it I think I only get about 50% of what’s going on.  I only post and comment on it to 1) point out again that DickRod somehow manages to get tangled up in messy stuff constantly.  It’s fun!   And 2)  to mess with our loyal scUM reader or 2 out there. 

It just seems that Fraudy McFrauderson tends to associate with shady people.   This will not serve him well over time. 

Richy, you should listen to my grandpa, who always said: ”Son, don’t leave your alma mater and cheerleader girlfriend behind in the dead of night, shred your papers, refuse to pay your buyout and then go offer jobs to people from WVU that are accused of being racist.  The last step is the one that will get ya.”  Or something like that. 

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February 16, 2008

How DID Michigan Get to SUCK!!! So Bad?

More specifically, how did they get to this point?  Don’t get me wrong, Michigan has always always always sucked.  But this is just getting ridiculous.   How’d they get here? Let’s review.

First, they hired a Dick.  Literally.  Just a big shady Dick that shreds his former program’s docs.  Just a huge scummy Dick that pays you back 37.5 cents when you lend him a buck.  A big ole Dick that cleaned house, firing the entire UM staff. 

So then what?  His players leave.  I mean, they all leave.

So what’s a Dick to do?  I mean, he did his best Urban impression, but still needs ‘athletes’ for his squad.  What does this Dick do?

He oh-so-desperately holds open tryouts.   19 year old tuba players are lining up for d-line.  Juniors that last played in middle school are sweet Running Back prospects. 

Sad.

So apparently, these are the “Champions of the West” taking the field next year:

 

Victors Valiant my ass.  The day #38 there hits the hole and powers through for a 4 yard gain is the day that Michigan football has truly made history. 

Awesome.  Dick gets what he deserves.

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November 1, 2007

Q&A with Pitch Right

One of the proudest traditions of Notre Dame Football is the annual game with Navy. Notre Dame and the United States Naval Academy share a unique bond, and, as much as anything, this game is a celebration of that bond. We’ve long held the opinion that, no matter what tinkering is done with the Notre Dame Football schedule, only 2 games are an absolute must, and one of them is with Navy. It’s also an absolute must-see for the fans. If you’ve never been to a Notre Dame/Navy game, you should get around to changing that real soon.

In preparation for this year’s Notre Dame/Navy match up, we got together with Pitch Right, a Navy blog (not to mention one of the best college football blogs around). We asked Pitch Right a few questions, the answers are below. You can also check out our answers to Pitch Right’s questions here.

1) At ND, as with most colleges, if you’re a football player, you tend to have far fewer problems attracting the ladies. Is that the case in Annapolis, or do the women just flock to the uniforms of the midshipmen anyway?

Considering the extensive scientific research done on the issue, I think it’s safe to say that while women generally flock to men in uniform, being a football player at the Academy certainly has its advantages. I’ve been around some of these guys both at and away from the stadium and I can assure you that the young women they roll with are very attractive.

2) Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of midshipmen doing push-ups. How many push-ups would you guess the average Navy football player has to do outside of football? Or is there some sort of exemption for PT for football players?

Well, last I checked there was no tackling test on the physical fitness test (although maybe there should be this year) so there really isn’t any kind of exemption. Pushups are a staple of military life though, so why don’t we just ballpark the figure at “a lot.”

3) If you were the Notre Dame Defensive Coordinator, how would you go about defending the Navy offense? Do you think ND’s current defense has the guys to work such a scheme? Do you see guys on the ND roster who might have some problems with the triple-option?

Notre Dame has struggled over the last few years with the triple option (271 rush yards allowed LY, 239 rush yards allowed in 2005), and despite getting an extra week to prepare for the option I don’t see the Irish having much success against Navy’s offense. To start out with Notre Dame is 93 rd in the country against the run, and most of that has come against more conventional style offenses. Factor in that this has been the most explosive offense under Paul Johnson, and you’ve got to give the match-up advantage to Navy.

If I was Corwin Brown, the one thing I would do is to tell my guys to take chances. Obviously the key to defending the option if to play disciplined, assignment football and all that stuff but that is a helluva lot harder than it sounds when you actually go against it full speed. Basically, you’re not going to stop Navy from what they do without creating turnovers, and considering how bad Navy’s defense is all you’re going to need is to get one big play to potentially put the Irish in the drivers seat. One thing people need to begin understand about this year’s Navy offense is that it is truly is one of the best in the country (currently ranked 16 th), and stopping it goes beyond having good players or even a good coach for that matter. The teams which have held Navy this year (Rutgers and Wake Forest) have each forced three turnovers. If Navy turns the ball over more than once, we lose; it’s as simple as that.

As much as I like him as a player, Tom Zbikowski was out of position and just looked lost against Navy last year. Maybe that’s because he got fat and had a bad shoulder, but he’s always looked slow reading his assignments to me. I’ve also seen some sloppy tackling out of the secondary players this season, and question if some of these younger linebackers and defensive lineman for the Irish have the ability to step in and play their assignments against Navy. We’ll have to see though. You guys probably know better than I as to how the Irish are going to line up on Saturday, and I think it’s a big mystery to everyone how a guy like Corwin Brown, coming from an NFL background no less, will handle an offense that he’s really never seen before.

4) A lot of programs are keeping an eye on Paul Johnson these days. Do you think a program like Nebraska might sweep in and take him away from Annapolis? If they did, how would you feel about it? Is Johnson as highly respected within the Navy circles as he seems to be around the country?

I get asked this question all the time, and to tell you truth I really have no idea. Aside from knowing next to nothing about the current state of affairs in Lincoln, getting a handle on Coach’s thoughts with regards to any future career move is not exactly a “consult the dictionary” type situation. There was a big stink over all of this last year and maybe we’ll start hearing a lot about it again in a month, but for the short term I think Johnson stays put. He renegotiated his contract last season and let’s face it the guy has a really good deal here, so unless he’s dead set on winning a National Championship tomorrow he’s not going to bolt.

Obviously if he left I’d be pissed, because to tell you the truth I don’t know if anyone else could continue to hold the program up at such a high level. The one thing about Coach Johnson is that he needs his staff, and if he ever did go his staff would likely go with him. Johnson is untouchable in Navy circles, as mere mortal fans like myself hold him to be the best college football coach in the country. Keep in mind, that’s the best, not one of the best. Basically, if you’re a Navy fan and you think the Mids could do better with someone not named Johnson you’re liable to be sent to Antarctica or some such.

5) As awesome as we think it is that the young men who play for Navy have made a commitment to their country, every once in a while we’re even more awed by the Navy player who could probably play for a lot of other D1 teams, if not start; A few fullbacks come to mind. Which guys on the 2007 squad could “play for anybody?”

Good question. I think to often we as fans assign all the credit to a system like the triple option, and have a tendency to sometimes gloss over the individual parts. I don’t know if anyone on this current Navy team could “play for anybody” but there are a number of guys who could probably see significant playing time at some very good schools around the country.

I think Reggie Campbell is one of those guys. Here was a dude who at 5′6 was told that he was too small to play Division I-A football, and came to the Naval Academy because it was his only option to do just that. While here, Reggie has shown that he’s an amazing athlete ( 4.39/40, unbelievable strength) and that has big play ability both as a runner, a receiver, and a return man. The guy is a straight up stud, which is basically what Steve Kragthorpe said last season when he was quoted in a press conference as saying Reggie could play for anyone in the country.

Eric Kettani is another guy who could play for a number of other teams, and actually has the physical tools to be a feature back in a conventional offense. He runs a 4.53/40 and benches 400 pounds, and has shown great vision and quickness this season. Kettani can cut and hit holes better than any other fullback who has been here, and is in my mind the best pro prospect on the team.

Fullback Adam Ballard and linebacker Irv Spencer are guys who have been visited by pro scouts in the off-season, while the underutilized WR Greg Sudderth was a highly sought after linebacker out of high school who was offered by most teams in the ACC. Both QBs Kaipo-Noa and Jarod Bryant had offers to play defensive back from BCS conference schools, but chose Navy because it gave them their only opportunity to play quarterback at the Division I-A level. Whether or not these guys could play for USC or Florida is highly doubtful, but more and more we’re starting to get away from the idea that in terms of talent, Navy has guys who could only play for Service Academies. That being said, in terms of pure talent Navy is probably in the Bottom 30 (some would argue much lower) of I-A teams.

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October 21, 2007

Time for a Breather?

Not only should the Bye Week help this team recover from a brutal 8 weeks, but the offense should, should, look much better now that they’re facing the 4 worst defenses ND has faced all year (with the exception of Purdue).

First 8 Opponents’ Total Defensive Ranks as of Today:

  • Georgia Tech: 9
  • Penn State: 7
  • Michigan: 34
  • Michigan State: 29
  • Purdue: 59
  • UCLA: 26
  • Boston College: 29
  • Southern Cal: 3

Final 4 Opponents’ Total Defensive Ranks as of Today:

  • Navy: 99
  • Air Force: 57
  • Duke: 98
  • Stanford: 102

So the first 8 opponents have averaged a 24.5 ranking. Granted, the first 8 opponents are bolstered by their games against ND, but let’s estimate a 10 place bonus having played ND, and that means their “normalized” average rank would be 34.5, so let’s call that 35. Our last 4 opponents are averaging out to a rank of 89th. That’s a massive, massive difference in quality of defense. Hell, make the “ND Bonus” 20 spots. It would still be a difference of almost 45 spots in the rankings. And ND actually made the Purdue defense look as bad as they really are, so there’s hope for these final 4 games. Nay, I’d dare say there’s an expectation, a very reasonable one, that the offense should finally start to “click” in these last 4 games and create some momentum for Spring practices.

By the way, ND reverted to its old ways on Saturday, giving up 5 sacks in the game (their average even after only giving up a couple in each of the last few games). The good news, is that Navy is ranked 119th in sacks, Air Force is ranked 72nd, Duke is 52nd, and Stanford is ranked a surprising 15th.

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October 12, 2007

Bulletin Board Material

Ahem. Uh, Coach Weis…




Source

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October 8, 2007

D’oh. It’s Purdue East Week.

With a national, independent schedule like Notre Dame’s, it’s interesting to see the mirror-images that present themselves in the form of opponents that seem just like each other. Michigan State always plays us tough, and then usually finds a way to melt down later in the season. Georgia Tech manages to do much the same thanks to something Orson calls “The Chan Gailey Equilibrium.” Purdue is the most excruciatingly boring college football program in the world, and they’re closely matched with Boston College. Also, both Purdue and BC think they’re rivals with Notre Dame. Heh.  At any rate, Purdue East week usually marks the 2nd most boring week in college football blogging.  It’s a great time for me to analyze kicking game numbers, I guess.
Like they say in the restaurant business, “Location, location, location!” And for Boston College, that’s really all they’ve got going for them. About a mile away from their campus, you can get the best lamb kebabs this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Yeah, they’re a highly ranked team, but they’re highly ranked in a year where that really doesn’t seem to much matter. Does anyone really believe this squad would give #1 LSU or even #9 Florida a good game? But at least after a BC game at Chestnut Hill, you can head into town for a good meal. What’s Purdue got to offer you? The Wendy’s on exit 8?

Pictured Here: Some guy you’ve never heard of, but he could probably tell you how to get to Mike’s bakery.

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October 4, 2007

An Open Letter to Notre Dame’s Offensive Line

Dear Notre Dame Offensive Line,

Ya done been called out.

“Jimmy Clausen is one of the better true freshman quarterbacks I’ve seen the whole time I’ve been here,” Davis said. “Unfortunately, his O-line is just falling apart. They can’t block a soul. That’s going to hurt your team. That’s going to hurt your offense. That’s going to get you to 0-5.”

Thanks,

Management

HerLoyalSons.com

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September 24, 2007

D’oh. It’s Purdue Week. Thank God Heroes is Back.

It’s bad enough that ND is 0-4 this season.  It’s even worse to know that this is Purdue week - The Most Boring Week In College Football Blogging.

If you guys hear anything that we should know and that we should let other ND fans know about Purdue, please feel free to e-mail us.  We’re digging.  We really are, but Purdue is simply the most boring college football program in the nation, and it’s hard to keep our attention on the task at hand.  I got distracted by some pre-Algebra homework problems earlier when I was trying to pull some facts together about whoever their coach might be.  I think he sells diabetes equipment or something.

This would be a vastly more interesting week if we’d dump Purdue from the schedule and take on a team like, say, ITT Technical Institute.  Do they have a football team?  I often wonder why kids go to play at Purdue.  What, hate the difficulty of playing for a team that people might actually look up in the Sunday papers?  Have a masochistic love of tedium?
Maybe we’ll do a “look back” on what’s happened in the last 4 weeks since, apparently, nothing much will be happening this week.

Whatever.

Hey, did you hear that a mime has died?

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