Don’t get me wrong, as you’ll see below, there is a lot worth talking about, including some really hilarious peak college football. Without Shane though, if I’m going to riff by myself, the written word seems like the better medium.

The Other Shoe Drops

While I don’t think that we will ever top last year’s dog-pissing Egg Bowl celebration, that fired two coaches and perhaps set off the butterfly effect of the shit-show that is 2020, college football blessed us all with a supremely stupid moment. Plus, in true beautiful and stupid fashion, this landmark moment in Florida Man history overshowed a whole host of other supremely stupid efforts by the Gators to jettison themselves from the playoff conversation.

Before we get to the other moments of Gator derp, we have to talk about THE MOMENT that was the 20-yard shoe toss that extended an LSU drive that would’ve been an LSU three-and-out, clearly too-big-moment for true freshman QB, Max Johnson. As soon as the play ended I saw Marco Wilson chuck something, and, when two flags came flying in shortly after, the old ECW “YOU FUCKED UP! YOU FUCKED UP!” chant was blaring in my head.

What I didn’t expect, was that the object was TE Kole Taylor’s shoe and that the officiating squad would determine that it was extremely important to let us know it travelled 20 yards downfield. This prompted a true moment of Twitter joy, in which my timeline was full of laughter and glee about the stupidity, inquires into what the yardage threshold of shoe flight triggers a penalty, and GIFs of George W. Bush dodging shoes while dueling GIFs of Austin Powers pondered the age-old question of “who throws a shoe, honestly?!”

LSU then drove down the field for what ended up being the game-winning FG, which you may forget was a 57-yard absolute BOMB, prompted LSU to posterize Florida on Twitter after the game. The Gators then responded with a short drive to attempt a 51-yard kick that sailed wide left. Game over, playoff hopes dead, and a whole host of people in College Station likely pissed their best win lost to a Bo Pelini defense that gave up over 600 yards while the third and Grantham meme died, actually holding LSU to only 8 conversions on 19 attempts.

But like I said, diagnosing their Achilles’ heel is no easy task as Florida happily shot themselves in the foot repeatedly even outside the shoe toss. Kyle Trask likely shooed himself out of Heisman contention as his two interceptions overshadowed his 474 yard, 2 TD effort. Prior to the shoe toss, a DPI delivered another swift kick to the third-down junk which led to a Tiger TD late in the fourth. Dan Mullen also tripped over himself to call a timeout before LSU’s game winning field goal attempt while the Tigers were scrambling to get their field goal unit out with no timeouts (and it looked like no holder to me). There was also a highly questionable series of play call choices in the fourth when Florida found themselves feet from their own endzone: three straight passes in as fog rolled continued to descend to field-level.

All credit to LSU for the win, but Florida absolutely snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

One more hilarious note, all day ESPN had been running a bottom line about the playoffs, with a note that Texas A&M and Florida were looking for their first playoff berth. Just a few minutes after the loss, Florida had already been edited out of that line.

Sarah Fuller Makes History, Again

Just a couple weeks after becoming the first woman to play in a Power Five football game, Sarah Fuller booted two extra points, making her the first woman ever to score in a Power Five football game. For anyone thinking this was some stunt that the team wasn’t on board with should check out footage of the team celebration (also, shout-out to the center judge for making sure the historic ball was handed to Fuller directly and not Vandy staff). Fuller also found herself taking photos with her opponents after the game as well.

Seems like the whole narrative over this being a stunt and a slap in the face of other players might just be a load of misogynistic garbage!

Of course, that won’t stop people from trying to shit on this really cool moment. Assholes will happily show you who they are by pointing out that Vandy was able to get another kicker on the roster this week to handle kickoffs and also attempted a 39 yard field goal, which was outside Fuller’s publicized 38-yard range.

The bottom line is that Vandy’s interim staff believed Sarah earned a chance to have her moment. It wasn’t her fault that Vandy got shut out, forcing her to attempt to write history via a squib kick. After taking loads of unwarranted armchair kicking from internet experts, she deserved a chance to get on the score sheet.

The only real disappointment here is Vandy didn’t get into her FG range to prove she could do even more. Trotting her out there for a 39-yard attempt would’ve put her in a position to fail and would’ve been horribly irresponsible by the coaching staff when they need to try to win a game. THAT would’ve been a PR stunt.

So good on everyone involved. This was a very cool moment in a year full of garbage. I genuinely feel sad for anyone spending the energy to drum up outrage over this.

In 2021, the senior will take a grad transfer a few minutes north of me to the University of North Texas to play goalie for the Mean Green. Here’s hoping she might get a chance at a couple more field goals as well.

Fire Gus Season

The annual “Duck Season! Rabbit Season!” is finally over out on the plains. Gus Malzahn’s hot seat reached the boiling point and Auburn has fired the maligned coach. Showing that, even during a pandemic, all Americans have things properly prioritized, Auburn announced they would pay Gus’ $21 million-plus buyout in full. Inspiring.

As I’ve described in pervious weeks on the pod, I felt this was coming. Bo Nix became yet another disappointing QB, failing to show any signs of developing under Gus. Auburn’s offense consistently became more inconsistent despite having some ridiculous weapons at their disposal and, this year, even the usually solid defense took a step back.

Auburn’s 6-4 record could easily be flipped. Two of those wins came thanks to some questionable officiating against Arkansas and Ole Miss, two teams Auburn should have outclassed rather easily.

Simply put, it was time. For whatever reason, things weren’t working out. Auburn will also probably rightly get what they deserve for their malcontent as I not-so-eagerly await for the galaxy brain hire of Hugh Freeze.

Start Up the Carousel

Gus wasn’t the only one to receive his walking papers this weekend. Arizona bid farewell to Kevin Sumlin after giving up a 70-burger to their in-state rival. Lovie Smith, who should’ve never shaved his beard, is gone from Illinois as well.

Huge shoutout to all these universities who will shell out millions for their next hire while complaining about athletic budget shortfalls due to COVID-19.

The Fog of War

The Amry/Navy game delivered a glorious rock fight that not only hit the under of 38 that was discussed on the picks podcast, but did do easily, staying under 20.

Much like LSU/Florida, fog was a player in this game, forcing a heavy use of skycam giving us the classic Madden view, which I’m on board with. When NBC announced their skycam experiment with ND, that is what I was hoping for. Find a way to put the yellow line on the screen and it’s perfect, in my opinion.

As for the game, Army dominated in a 17-0 win. Navy had a lone chance to really make a game of this, but stumbled over themselves after a pitch was swatted by Navy’s defense. Instead of getting a gift scoop and score, Navy failed to recover at all, allowing Army to keep the ball after it rolled out of bounds.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially since this was the first Army/Navy game that I’ve consumed in years due to typically doing my Extra Life marathons during this weekend.

Luck of the…Trojans?

Southern Cal did it once again, somehow winning in the last minute despite being dominated for the majority of the game. A 20-point fourth quarter, ending with a final drive that featured a 56-yard kickoff return, 35-yard pass (with a ridiculous Tyler Vaughns) catch, and a quick 8-yard TD strike to Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Every week it looks like SC will finally be pantsed, only for their talent to finally take over just long enough to secure a win. While it’d be nice to believe the luck will finally run out, there’s no guarantee Friday’s Pac-12 Championship tilt against Washington will take place due to COVID issues on the Husky side.

That would then leave the Rose Bowl, which may not be played in the Rose Bowl, and could likely feature Northwestern as their opponent. What a charmed season.

If anything, I think this means Clay Helton has secured a lifetime extension. Lock him up.

Mack Brown Still Hates Manny Diaz

Mack Brown fired Manny Diaz after he gave up 550 yards to BYU while at Texas. Mack apparently didn’t forget as he Tar Heels put up 554 rushing yards against the creator of the turnover chain. Just hate to see something like that to Da U.

A big shout out to Mack’s pettiness as the 62-26 victory made Notre Dame look like a million bucks. While it’ll be interesting to see what the playoff committee has to say tomorrow about specific scenarios, it’s hard to imagine anything put a complete blowout by Clemson to keep the Irish out of the playoffs at this rate.

Can You FedEx a Gift Suite?

In what I’m sure is going to be a potential trend this week, four power five teams have announced their intention to opt out of bowl season:

• Boston College
• Pitt
• Stanford
• Virginia

The reason is largely the same to this point: everyone is done with the heavily restrictive season. A trip to a bowl that will feature little, if any, of the fun events that make the trip worth it, on top of needing to stay away from family and friends, just isn’t worth it.

I can’t blame anyone for this. Honestly, outside of the New Year’s Six, I don’t see much of a point to any of the bowl games. I say this as someone that loves every single dumb bowl game with all his heart. These are typically great rewards for the players after a long season, but it just isn’t there this year. It’s more work. I’d want to go home too.

Dabo Still Sucks

Greg Stankey of the SEC was doing some playoff politicking and took some shots at the ACC for “protecting” Clemson and Notre Dame. Of course, Dabo was asked, and of course he showed his ass AND BROUGHT UP FLORIDA STATE AGAIN:

“I would’ve loved to play this past weekend,” Swinney said. “I had no problem with that. I didn’t make the decision. We wanted to play when we were down in Tallahassee and were about to get on a bus and go play. Things happen.”

Via ESPN

I’ve gone over this before, but Dabo’s game is so old. Politick for your teams. Fine. Stop bringing up the same old crap over and over again, you man-child.

And Right Before I Was Ready to Publish…

Vanderbilt and Clark Lea might just be happening.

Glad I took the week off. Gonna be drinking a lot, it seems.

The post HLS Recap (Text Edition): Soled Out appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Mike Vorel wrote the magazine’s cover story, “Avoiding A Split Decision,” on the quarterback competition between redshirt sophomore DeShone Kizer and redshirt senior Malik Zaire. Vorel interviewed former Texas head coach Mack Brown, former Notre Dame quarterbacks Joe Theismann and Brady Quinn and ESPN’s Austin Ward, who covered a similar competition at Ohio State last season. These experts have all previously endured summer-long speculation on who starts and who sits, and know how the student athletes will be evaluated, what intangibles will give one the lead over the other and importance of establishing an identity around the player ultimately chosen.

Brown’s probably got the most interesting tidbit, in explaining to Vorel how Vince Young got the starting nod at Texas in 2003.

Chance Mock was the No. 1 passing efficiency quarterback in the country, but we were really young up front and we couldn’t pass protect. … Chance wasn’t a great runner. So we put Vince Young in when we had the No. 1 passing efficiency quarterback in the country, because we needed to run the ball. We just couldn’t throw. Then we won 30 games and lost two. Was it fair to Chance? Probably not. But it was the best thing at that time for our football team.

Eric Hansen, the Tribune’s ND Football Insider, writes about middle linebacker Nyles Morgan, who was blocked from playing time by captain Joe Schmidt. Now that Schmidt has graduated, great things are expected of Morgan at the middle linebacker position. Morgan, from Crete, Ill., told Hansen:

Even though I was playing behind him, people assumed we had bad blood, but I loved Joe. If I had a question, Joe would answer it anytime.

I love Hansen’s writing style, especially when he described Morgan’s practice partner, Quenton Nelson, as a “garage with arms and a snarl.”

In a separate article, Shane Walton shares with Hansen what he sees from the current Notre Dame secondary. Walton, a 2002 graduate, is the Irish’s last All-American at cornerback. Will this be the year that senior Max Redfield consistently displays the talent that earned him five stars from recruiting services in high school?

Hansen also got an one-on-one interview with Coach Brian Kelly, including his insights on quarterback gurus, academic suspensions and playing the Shamrock Series overseas. Tyler James, the Tribune’s football recruiting expert, offers a piece on the risks and rewards of offering scholarships to three-star recruits. He also talks to three of the recruiting world’s most respected analysts about how Notre Dame can become a consistent top 10 powerhouse.

The magazine also includes smaller stories written by Vorel, Hansen, James and Tribune columnist Al Lesar about freshman quarterback Ian Book, senior running back Tarean Folston, sophomore wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown, nose-guard-turned-tight-end Jacob Matuska, junior offensive guard Alex Bars, junior defensive tackle Jay Hayes, sophomore linebacker Asmar Bilal, freshman safety Jalen Elliott, redshirt freshman cornerback Shaun Crawford and fifth-year senior long snapper Scott Daly. There’s also a preview of all 12 teams on Notre Dame’s 2016 schedule.

Lesar has a lead-off column that, frankly, befuddled me. He argued that, in light of a “dead heat,” that Kelly should pick Zaire because he is “brash,” the “biggest talker” and has “attitude” and “swagger.”

Trailing Michigan State by five with four minutes to play and the ball at the Irish 20, the Notre Dame offense won’t be able to look at a blueprint of how to mount a comeback. It’s going to take a unit determined to get the job done, led by a guy who defines the word moxie. He might not always have the most accurate passes or the most seamless execution, but Zaire isn’t timid about improvising his way to a successful outcome.

Perhaps Lesar missed last year’s Virginia and Temple games?

The digital edition contains audio and video segments that just can’t be included with the magazine. I’d definitely recommend paying the $4.99 for the digital version, although I’d do so only if you have an iPad or comparatively sized tablet. Even with a generous text size, it’s impossible to read the stories on an iPhone without zooming in, which in turn makes scrolling a hassle. If you’re old school, the magazine is available for $9.95 on local racks in the South Bend area. (It costs $12.95 for a mailed copy.) I’ll definitely be dog-earing my copy as the season progresses.

Buy the digital version (Android or Apple) and the hard copy here.

Disclosure: The South Bend Tribune provided Her Loyal Sons with a complimentary hard copy. I paid for the digital version.

The post HLS Review: The 2016 ND Insider Football Preview appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Oh, and we get to take a shot at Urban Meyer and Texas too!

So this happened last night on Jeopardy!:

Let’s break down this 1:20 of glory that was the “College Football Coaches” category. Let’s take the category for $200, Alex:

Knute Rockne lost just 12, but won one for The Gipper and 104 more at this school.

Amy got the solid $200 layup that was the Notre Dame answer. It was immediate, ingrained in her mind.

Off to a solid start, what could possibly go wrong?

This coach with a papal first name left Florida in 2010 and now coaches the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Not a single person had a clue who Ubran Meyer is. My heart grew about ten sizes as everyone just stared at Alex blankly.

Urban, your reaction?

Via SBNation

The next answer was a visual clue:

There it is folks, the supposed best and most recognizable helmet in not just college, but all of football. Surely, one of our three contestants will get this one…

NOPE.

I also love how Trebek makes the point that Michigan “still has those stripes” because after the “WTF is that?!” looks he got, it was apparently needed.

What is schadenfreude, Alex?

The eyes of this university are upon Mack Brown and have seen him win more than 150 games.

Bless your heart, Emily, for buzzing in and saying the first school you thought of with orange in their color scheme. After all, “War Eagle” is quite close to “The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You”.

This is why Charlie Strong is refusing to let his players throw up the hook ’em horns. Texas has gone from a household name powerhouse to Jeopardy! irrelevance.

Tom Osborne won 255 games at this university and three elections to congress from the state (you win 255 games and you’ll get elected, too).

Amy, buzzes in with the correct answer immediately and I’m convinced she is either a Nebraska fan (wearing red, COINCIDENCE?!), just trolled everyone, or is really into Nebraska politics.

Either way, of this sample of three very smart people, only Notre Dame and Nebraska rang a bell. Ohio State, Michigan, and Texas all drew blanks (and an Auburn outburst).

Finally, what gives, Clay? You sat on your hands the entire category. At least Emily tried to buzz in. Your college football apathy is disappointing*, sir.

*Except for ignoring Michigan. That shit’s hilarious.

The Roundup

Northwestern football finally won something. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Northwestern football players are, in fact, employees. I’ll have more to say on this later, but for now, might I suggest a very reasoned overview from a lawyer about what this is and isn’t.

Looks like someone pulled an O’Leary. Seriously, why would anyone try this stunt again?

The 2013 football season, brought to you by MSPaint. Reddit had a bit of fun and totally excluded Paint Like a Champion, but seeing Sparty remain bitter is always hilarious.

Other Notre Dame sports have been doing some awesome things lately. Catch up with them all.

And now your moment of Nix… What is schadenfreude in GIF form, Alex?

The Booze

Baseball season is about to kick off. In the case of my Texas Rangers, it’s more like limping into the season has about half the roster will start on the DL.

Anyways, my suggestion would be a brew that somehow, some way, reminds you of your favorite team or time at a ballpark in general.

For me, that’s going to be good ‘ol Shiner Bock. Feel free to let me know your brew (or cocktail) in the comments.

The post Friday Roundup: The “What is Michigan?” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

This year, before half of the bowl games were even finalized, people started floating around Nick Saban to Texas rumors. Actually, to be fair, this talk started at the beginning of the season because that’s a good time to make those choices. I guess if you’re going to try to stir the pot, you might as well go with the craziest rumor possible.

This past week, as some of the initial Saban rumors were laughed off, reports started coming out that it was all but certain that Mack Brown would be fired retire by the end of the week. This prompted Alabama to preemptively offer Nick Saban a raise, which he has still yet to sign. So of course, Saban to Texas was all but a certainty. Even Texas’ president, a Mack supporter, was under fire, but apparently got a reprieve.

One minor problem: Mack hasn’t quite given his retirement speech yet.

GO SOURCES!

Here’s the thing, Mack may still eventually leave Texas and Saban could replace him. I’ll never rule anything out, but to pretend that people know for certain exactly when these things will happen, probably isn’t the wisest course. Remember ND’s coaching search four years ago?

Now not every source is someone trying to pull a prank to expose rampant rumor-mongering. Some of these sources are definitely well connected people that have delivered solid leads to reporters before. However, each of these sources aren’t perfect people that just parrot the latest news. These are humans with agendas. When sources are this loose-lipped, it tends to scream of some kind of internal power struggle. It could be between the regents and Mack, a fight between the regents, regents and the university president, or even Rick Perry trying to through his weight around. Seriously.

So what’s the best course of action? Being thankful Notre Dame isn’t a part of this mess and enjoying the hilarity while every one else loses their damn minds, that’s what.

The Roundup

No one show this to the ND ushers. There’s already enough “down and front” business without official cards discouraging it.

SHOTS FIRED! Guess Mark Emmert was sick of Jay Bilas’ twitter fire.

Want to take a look at all the bowl swag? I must say, this list is rather impressive and it’s only part of what these players get.

Shamrock Series 2014 is almost set. It appears that Purdue and Lucas Oil Field may just be a reality.

And now your moment of zen… Remember when Louis Nix gave away an entire bag of gear to whoever grabbed it? Well, he went a step further and had a student body only contest called “The Chocolate Games”. The winner got a signed jersey and Nix continues to win Irish hearts:

Congrats to the winner of the #ChocolateGames @youngPatJung pic.twitter.com/chKQNKbAA6

— lOUIS NIX III (@1irishchocolate) December 12, 2013

Put These This Games on Your Radar

Yes, there is only one game this week, but I’m going to give a prediction because why not. Last week, I went 2-5 and completely killed my great streak in its tracks.

That brings me to 29-26 on the season, so at least I can’t completely screw it up this week.

[table “” not found /]

*Neutral Site

The Booze

Christmas time is here and that means it’s time for cheer – Shiner Cheer.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Gentlemen, Start Your Sources!” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

But then you look at the other side of the coin and you realize that Sparty’s offense is objectively one of the worst things to ever grace a football field. Ignoring Youngstown State (which you should because wins against FCS teams should never count), Michigan State has scored a grand total of two offensive touchdowns — one in each game to be specific.

Yes, the mighty Spartans could only muster a single touchdown against two 0-3 teams who have both lost to FCS teams (corollary to ignoring FCS wins: losses should never be ignored — see: Michigan/Appalachian State). Further, only one of those teams, South Florida, is actually in a BCS conference. Yes, The American is a weird shadow of it’s former Big East self that is basically now Louisville and whoever’s left, but I guess that still counts.

Needless to say, this isn’t exactly a version of the Spartans that I’m overly fearful of.

But on the other hand, Notre Dame isn’t exactly Xerxes’ feared Persian army in this story either. Our defensive line of Immortals aren’t exactly turning in the kind of performances that we all expected. Plus, that line could very well come into this game short-handed. To be fair though, the entire line isn’t solely to blame for the defensive woes as both the linebacking corps and secondary haven’t exactly stepped up in the absence of Manti Te’o and Zeke Motta.

The offense has had it’s own brand of struggles as well and shockingly enough Tommy Rees hasn’t been the cause, but the running game that we were so excited to see. Despite the five very talented backs and a veteran line, the rushing game still has yet to find it’s stride.

Despite the fact that Notre Dame walks into this game a favorite, but with some glaring issues. Still though, there should be no reason that the Irish will fall to a team who can’t mount any offense and simply relies on an impenetrable defense…

…wait, hold on a second…

/revisits history of Sparta

/remembers the Phalanx was a legitimately terrifying thing

Crap…

Well, uh…good news is that history says we eventually win!

…after quite a bit of pain and suffering.

Stock up on the booze.

The Roundup

I guess this makes Mack Brown a dead man coaching. I figured the Saban to Texas rumors would eventually start, but not this soon. But fear not ‘Bama fans, Saban is just too damn old to go anywhere else. His word is his bond, just ask LSU and the Miami Dolphins.

Bo Pelini wants to get fired. And not just for the two year old f-bomb tirade (NSFW audio within) aimed at the media and fans that Nebraska had to address, but getting into a war of words with Tommie Frazier. There’s a solid way to get the fanbase behind you — go after one of their all-time favorites!

A new form of Clemsoning? Uppercut sucker punches to the face.

The Irish will be facing one of their own. Transfer Chris Badger went to BYU to be with his sick mother after his Mormon mission. The NCAA granted his hardship waiver this week.

Remember, Notre Dame is a serious, historical rival of Michigan. Which is why the week after their thrilling victory against the Irish, Michigan athletics paid for a skywriter to put “GO BLUE” prominently in the sky…of East Lansing…right before the Spartans played Youngstown State.

Speaking of Michigan…while this actually happened at Grand Valley State, we have a new entry in the “Pure Michigan” category. Have fun unseeing this (videos within probably NSFW).

Welcome to the Frekbass Hall of Shame, Trojans. Embarrassing yourself on the football field clearly isn’t enough:

[youtube id=”5a3INbzhp00″]

Put These Games on Your Radar

Not going to lie, most of this week will be rather dull.

Utah State @ USC, 3:30pm ET, ABC/ESPN2/WatchESPN – Utah State is no slouch so feel free to hold out hope for another weekly dose of Trojan schadenfreude.

#23 Arizona State @ #5 Stanford, 7:00pm, FOX – This game should be a great measuring stick for both teams and give us a decent idea of what we are in for in the future.

Auburn @ #6 LSU, 7:45pm, ESPN/WatchESPN – Auburn isn’t that great, but their offense under Malzan might just make this game interesting enough to justify some attention.

Predictions

Irish Elvis is your winner once again giving him 2 points to my 1.

Note for this week: I was slammed at work and forgot to ask for predictions. I will edit in as I get them.

Tex

Much like ancient history, I have the sinking feeling the Irish will struggle far too much before finally pulling off the victory.

ND 17 – Sparty 10

Biscuit

Via:

There will be no flag-planting for MSU. With the loss of their entire offense (Bell) and the lack of a clear answer at QB, MSU will rely on a pretty legit defense (despite the loss of Gholston). So you’ll have 2 really solid defenses lining up, and 2 less-great offenses. But ND has an edge in defensive talent with the stellar front line, and an edge on offense due to skill positions and experience at QB. MSU always comes out gunning for the Irish, and this one is Home where, for some reason, the Spartans always play better. I think this will be a nail-biter, as we can’t always play great. ND eeks it out though….

ND Wins 17-14

 So up in the air. One Dancer. But we should win this game.

Bayou Irish

Notre Dame 20

Michigan State 12

Here’s how it happens: our lines show up. Not that they’ve been terrible, but Saturday they click. Where Sparty has pushed around the garbage it has faced to date, the Irish O-line rise to the occasion and hold their blocks just long enough to turn two yard runs into three and a half yard runs and, as the day drags on, to turn GAIII and CMcD loose altogether. Expect a lot of trickeration involving Amir and TJ, too.

On D, the Irish have spent this week getting right with Jesus. And by “Jesus,” I mean the coaching staff’s ass-kicking shoes. Sparty’s inexperienced QB is going to see the eyes of Nix and Shembo and Tuitt and he’s going to do something stupid and the crowd, yes, the fearsome Irish twelfth man, will get in his head to the tune of three turnovers and a shit ton of Macklemore on repeat.

Expect more competency from Tommy who will run his consecutive streak of 300 yard plus passing games to four. While I am comfortable with an Irish W tomorrow, I think the score could actually be a lot higher if my thoughts on the lines play out.

Twibby

Irish 20, Sparty 14

Irish Elvis

1st Quarter: Start Fast
Our opponents still do this better. ND trails 10-0 early.

2nd Quarter: Attention to Detail
RBs finally see the running lanes in front of them. ND leads 14-10 at half.

3rd Quarter: Effort & Enthusiasm
One hundred Internet points to any Irish player involving the MSU Band in TD celebrations.

4th Quarter: Finish Strong
ND defense still has lots of question marks, but Sparta puckers.

The Beer

This Saturday kicks off Oktoberfest so it’s time to bust out the Märzen-style brews.

My personal local favorite is the Shiner variety, but as I will be travelling up to South Bend this weekend, I am going to be on the lookout for Yuengling’s entry into the Oktoberfest market as I have heard nothing but good things about it to this point.

The post Friday Roundup: The “THIS IS…Sparta?” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.