#4 LSU at #10 Florida Where: The Swamp When: Saturday at 3:30pm Last time they met: LSU dominated Florida 41-11 en route to a perfect regular season record. We’re finally back after what was an incredibly embarrassing slate of week 5 games, with teams finally starting to play some legitimate matchups. Oh, so now teams are starting to schedule harder? Nope. Conference season is simply starting. It’s about time. 4 SEC teams ranked in the top 10 will be cannibalizing each other this ...
Irish a 4th Quarter Team?
While I stood biting my nails and continually looking at the clock to make sure it was running during the second half of the ND/Michigan game last weekend, I was so overwhelmed by the fear of Denard emotionally annihilating me once again that I nearly missed the offensive game plan the Irish employed during the second half. The 3rd and 4th quarter were such a blur that when I left the stadium to the tune of “December, 1963” the only ND offensive plays I could recall well were Tommy Rees’s stone ...
Marquee Matchup Week 4: #10 Clemson at #4 Florida State
#10 Clemson at #4 Florida State Where: Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, FL When: 8:00 PM ET, Saturday on ABC Last time they met: Clemson beat FSU 35-30 last year. Considering that I rated both of these teams’ early season schedules either as “Embarassing” or “Truly Pathetic,” this ACC matchup should not only give us a good idea of which team is the frontrunner for the conference title, but should also make it a little more clear which, if either, is deserving of a top 10 ...
Early Season Scheduling Proves to Be Pathetic Once Again
The Irish are 3-0 for the first time since 2002. That’s a long time to go without winning your first 3 games, especially for a program that has put together 7 winning seasons in that 9-year stretch. The reason it is really so shocking, though, that its been so long since the Irish started 3-0 is because fans are used to A LOT of teams being 3-0 each year. And no, its not because there are just so many teams out there that are always better than ND – it is because so many schools start their ...
Marquee Matchup Week 3: #2 USC at #21 Stanford
#2 USC vs. #21 Stanford Where: Stanford Stadium, Stanford, CA C3QQSSC3FB4V When: Saturday at 7:30 PM ET on FOX Last time they met: Stanford won 56-48 in triple overtime in 2011 It’s hard to believe, but thanks in no small part to a guy named Andrew Luck, Matt Barkley is 0-3 against Stanford in his career at Southern Cal. Last year, these teams competed in what was one of the best games of the season with Stanford pulling off an epic triple overtime victory. This year, with Luck out of the ...
Looking Back at East Lansing
Two of Notre Dame’s last three visits to East Lansing have come down to the last few minutes, with each team’s fan base having one chance to relish an extraordinary victory and one misfortune of experiencing soul-crushing defeat. In 2006, a week after Mario Manningham and the Michigan Wolverines effectively ended Notre Dame’s national championship hopes (it still stings), Brady Quinn and the Irish came out flat with Michigan State jumping to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter. With the Spartans ...
Perspective on ACC Move
As HLS noted earlier, Notre Dame announced that all sports outside of football and hockey will join the Atlantic Coast Conference, and that the football program will play 5 games per season against ACC competition. ...
Marquee Matchup Week 2: Georgia at Missouri
#7 Georgia vs. Missouri Where: Columbia, MO – oddly northwest for a Southeastern Conference school, don’t ya think? When: Saturday at 7:45 PM ET on ESPN2 Last time they met: Georgia won the only meeting between the two teams 14-0 in the 1960 Orange Bowl. With no week 2 matchups of two premier teams, eyes will turn to the SEC’s newest members – Missouri and Texas A&M – as they play their first games after leaving the Big 12. Aaron Murray and the seventh-ranked Georgia Bulldogs will make ...
Tuitt ND’s Newest Road Runner
Despite the departure of Aaron Lynch and some depth issues, Notre Dame’s defensive line was expected to be one of the team’s strongest position groups in 2012. While the Irish will not face personnel and option plays similar to Navy’s the rest of the season, it is hard not to be very pleased with the performance of Kapron Lewis-Moore, Louis Nix, Kona Schwenke, Stephon Tuitt and the rest of the D-line after shutting down the Midshipmen in Dublin. Outside of Tuitt’s touchdown (we’ll get to that ...
Marquee Matchup Week 1: Michigan vs. Alabama
I will kick off each football weekend this season with a summary and break down of the weekend's marquee game. The first installment in this series takes us down to Cowboy country for one of Notre Dame's biggest rivals and the defending national champs. #8 Michigan vs. #2 Alabama Where: Jerry’s World (Cowboy Stadium, Arlington, Texas) When: Saturday at 8:00 PM ET on ABC Last time they met: The 2000 Orange Bowl, which Michigan won 35-34 in OT #2 Alabama kicks off its national title ...