Thankfully, Notre Dame was forced to play more of the depth chart than we’ve seen all season thanks to injuries and illness this week. With that look at the future of the Irish, Shane and I spend the second half of the pod talking about what we see as the big picture for this season and beyond.

Oh, and there’s a story about how I blacked out for charity and completely missed this game live.

Podcast

The post Notre Dame @ Virginia, Plus Big Picture Talk appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

There are more turnovers than third downs converted by both teams. This game might have set a record for combined sacks. Neither virtual coach seemed to care to manage the clock properly nor call anything resembling a coherent gameplan.

And, to top it all off, Shane’s audio dies right in the middle of the sim.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever laughed harder and had more despair than in any other sim. Enjoy the clusterfucks while they last.

Podcast

VoD

The post NCAA Sim ’14: Notre Dame @ Virginia appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

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.

I’d like to think that the Notre Dame defense really kick started the massive destruction in the second half against Virginia. The argument would probably be a little bit stronger with some better offensive execution, but I guess Irish fans can’t have everything that they want.

Come join Shane and I on this journey of blowouts, sacks, and Pat Fitzgerald struggling to figure out how math works.

Podcast

Twitch Broadcast

The post HLS Podcast: Week 5, Notre Dame/Virginia Recap appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

It turns out the fake band has a name, 300 Likes, which I discovered because their fake song, “Summertime Lover” released as a full-blown song last Friday.

I’ve been wanting to write about the most hated/loved commercial of this football season for some time now. However, I don’t want to talk about the band, the song, or the fact that the dude squatting in the lower-right corner doesn’t even bother moving his mouth. No, this Roundup is dedicated to my hero, my spirit animal, the clueless dad:

Clueless dad makes this commercial for me. Every. Damn. Time.

My kids are still incredibly young, but my oldest has already put me in some clueless dad situations. For instance, he will excitedly detail some random show I’ve never heard of, and I will desperately stumble around the conversation trying to remain interested, but more importantly, not called out on my bullshit that I don’t have a damn clue what he’s talking about.

Every parent ends up running into this at some level, which makes clueless dad the damn best. He’s put down his hard-earned American currency so his daughter be front-row for one of her favorite bands. He’s even wearing a freaking button featuring one of the guys to support his kid’s interests. In short, he’s ready to do everything he can to make sure this night ends up a favorite memory for his daughter.

But as soon as the show starts, disaster strikes. The band isn’t dancing, the screams turned into shocked silence, and clueless dad sees his poor daughter’s face flash a look of pure horror. So clueless dad does what any dad tries to do when shit 100% out of our control goes awry: attempts to fix it.

The success rate for all dads attempting to pull of this maneuver is 0.00%, rounded up. Clueless dad is no different. If the guys aren’t dancing, clearly it’s the job of the audience to get down, and by God, he’s going to make sure this party gets going and save the day.

Of course, he’s the only poor sap trying to salvage the disaster he’s walked into. Mere seconds after trying to get the dance party started, he’s greeted with the new horror that he’s made a fool of himself. The only saving grace is that his own kid is still too dumbstruck with disappointment to notice because, honestly, that’s the only opinion he cares about–to hell with everyone else.

The hard-earned American currency might as well have been lit on fire. The concert is an epic disaster. Regardless of what happens from here on out, the night is likely ruined for his kid, which is worse than the hit to the bank account.

But dammit, like fans of a certain football team that keeps breaking our hearts, we can’t help but to keep trying to salvage joy of a terrible situation. In a way, we’re all clueless dad.

You’re my hero, clueless dad. Never give up. Keep dancing.

The Roundup

Note: Some links require a subscription to the Athletic and are marked with ($). For 40% off your first year, please use our referral link.

Here’s an unexpected use of the new four-game redshirt rule. Houston’s star QB, D’Erik King, will sit out the rest of the season, along with senior WR, Keith Corbin. King’s father says it’s the first step of a transfer, but Houston’s official announcement has both King and Corbin stating they will remain in Houston.

NCAA says something dumb: part one million. Mark Emmert has called potential new image & likeness laws, aka allowing the Olympic model into college sports, an “existential threat”–which is a hell of a thing to say considering North Carolina literally tried to undermine the entire academic side of student-athlete and sexual abuse ran rampant at Penn State and Michigan State. But no, this is the bad thing. Got it.

Maybe don’t ask about internet rumors during a conference call. I mean sure, Gundy blew his stack a bit, but this was just a terrible idea.

Kinght’s Watch + Murder Smurfs. Coming in 2021 and 2023. Let’s. Get. Weird.

I think The Athletic owes us some #snacktalk royalties. This week, the CFB section of The Athletic was full of articles about the intersection of college football and food. My two favorites, a top 25 food ranking by Andy Staples ($) as well as a look on how the NCAA deregulation on food budget (hey they do so some good things on occasion!) has had a positive impact on programs and athletes ($).

Time for a daily dose of #sportsmath. The stop rate rankings ($) are back, which can be a fun read if you feel like you are feeling too confident about Notre Dame’s defense.

Look, Skycam wasn’t a failure. NBC wants to make sure you know that it’s sticking around and they will do better. Promise!

With Virginia coming into town, it’s a good time to remember Malik Zaire. After an injury that derailed his CFB career, Zaire is finding his stride over at CBS ($).

Opponent Watch

Remember the sad Virginia fan? Of course you do. Go catch up on what he’s up to.

How do you build a school like Virginia into a competitor? Well, hiring the right athletic director is a good start, especially one that knows her way around schools that know how to compete in football ($).

So Virginia has a bit of a streak going. Four weeks, four players named as ACC Players of the Week.

If you want a good primer on Virginia’s season so far, I would suggest this read. My two cents: sounds like a lot of ND teams that created constant heart attacks in every game, yet somehow put winning records together.

A Special Look at Michigan

It’s not just Notre Dame fans trying to dance on Skunkbear graves. The natives are starting to willingly dig them.

Any Michigan loss, brings out a good ‘ol Mike Valenti rant. His opening segment on Monday was art, calling them a regional program. He drove the dagger in even further on Wednesday wondering why in the world Michigan bothers to expect titles when they’ve never won them to begin with.

So who had “Urban Meyer has to address Michigan coaching rumors” on their bingo card? Yes, he actually had to say there is no way he’d come out of retirement to coach Michigan. How did this happen, oh just some beautiful degeneracy:

The post Friday Roundup: The Fake Boy Band Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

For the second week in a row, Notre Dame finds themselves in the game that features the two highest ranked teams. After a rough road trip against Georgia (both real and Sim-wise), the Irish return home to face the #18 Virginia Cavaliers.

Virginia may be for lovers, but the Sim has no love for anyone…especially when it goes on full drugs like it did this week.

I fear it’s all too damn realistic this time around.

Podcast

Twitch Broadcast

The post HLS Podcast: Notre Dame vs Virginia NCAA Sim appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

We discuss Malik Zaire’s injury and what it means for the Irish, just what happened with the defense, some other assorted thoughts about the Irish performance, and how the Irish will be able to take on Georgia Tech next week.

As always, the video is below and the podcast version is just below that.

The post HLS TV (Episode 17): Virginia Terror appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

My view from the area of the student section known as “The Hillside”

On a few occasions, I have made the journey into enemy territory to watch Notre Dame football. Typically, the locations are either incredibly hostile or full of fans that are certain that they would defeat the Irish. For reference, here is my away game history:

• 2004 @ Michigan State (ND win 31-24)
• 2005 @ Michigan (ND win 17-10)
• 2005 @ Stanford (ND win 38-31)
• 2006 @ Southern Cal (ND loss 24-44)
• 2012 @ Oklahoma (ND win 30-13)

Virginia fell into a whole other category. If there was any remote hope that Virginia would upset the Irish, it certainly wasn’t expressed publicly by any fan that we met before the game. In between southern hospitality, beers, ham sliders, fried chicken, and good-natured back-and-forth ribbing, almost every conversation with a Virginia fan ended with an early congrats for a future Irish win.

It wasn’t until our group wandered into the stadium that we encountered anything that would be considered hostility. Compared to abuse that has been launched my way at the Big House, Spartan fans, and some of SC’s finest, it felt like child’s play.

Our “seats” were in a general admission lawn area. This area, called “The Hillside” is a part of the student section at Scott Stadium. We were able to purchase these at $50/each as a student guest as we have a Domer friend attending the Darden School of Business for his MBA, making this the cheapest ticket I’ve ever bought for an Irish game.

There were no restrictions on how many he could buy and, clearly, we weren’t the only ones taking advantage of it. The green of the Irish faithful was far from a rare sight on the Hillside and somehow, a group of five Irish fans managed to secure front row tickets in the seated area of the student section. I have no idea how they pulled that off and I was shocked by how many Irish fans were in an area that is typically sacred ground for the home fans.

If there was barely any hope before this game, seeing multiple groups of Irish fans invading your own student section likely killed whatever was left.

Our group prepares to take ND/Virginia at the top of the Hillside.

****

Notre Dame appears to all but confirm the lack of hope many Virginia fans had about this game. Even when the first ND drive stalls, the Irish score on a fake field goal. It was as if Brian Kelly wanted to ensure that Virginia fans would associate any potential success with failure.

Unfortunately, the Irish decide to go for two via a Ty Willingham swinging gate tribute and return some of that snuffed-out momentum back. Kelly becomes the gambler that splits a twenty at a blackjack table. He looks like a genius when an ace lands on his first face card, but is brought back to earth when a six lands on the other.

However, Kelly’s risky gambles appear to have little consequence based on the performance of the Irish defense. Brian Van Gorder shows the Virginia crowd Texas was no fluke as the Irish force back-to-back three and outs to start the game.

Meanwhile, the offense still struggles to finish drives, but when the defense manages to hold the Hoos to only 28 yards of total offense in the first quarter, it doesn’t seem to matter. In fact, the only real positive offensive movement is a 16 yard pass to end the quarter. In comparison, the Irish have already tallied 164 yards of total offense.

Who cares if the Irish have zero TDs on offense to this point. Eventually Zaire and company will settle in and deliver the blowout win every Irish fan expects. This won’t be close.

****

If there is one lesson that I have failed to learn as an Irish fan, it is that I shouldn’t give in to hope. Too often, the end result is despair. The Irish will string a couple of good series together against a superior opponent and I begin to believe that the upset fantasy playing in my mind will become reality.

As the second quarter unfolds, Notre Dame is still sputtering along and Virginia is taking advantage, building a 14-12 lead at the half. Their fans, once resigned to a loss just a couple hours prior, are now buying into the hope that they may just pull off the gigantic upset.

While the orange-clad fans soak in their new-found, post-tailgate buzz, myself, and our entire group are strangely calm. We know the Irish are the superior team here. If the can just get of their own way, this will end up like Baylor/SMU from last week in which SMU teased an upset to only be blown out.

In fact, my internal hubris grows to the point in which I pity the Virginia fans giving into this upset delusion. I know the eventual kick in the shorts is coming as I have been there too many times before.

Notre Dame all but confirms the blowout is coming as Zaire and Fuller connect on a 59 yard touchdown bomb that just looks far to easy on their second drive of the half which lasts all of that one play. It’s a clear message that the Irish can do this whenever they want. The first half was nothing more than lulling Virginia into a false sense of security.

The Irish defense is back on track too. After dodging a bullet with a missed Virginia field goal, they string together three consecutive three & outs that total for 6 yards (and really, were it not for a stupid unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, it would’ve been four consecutive three & outs). The Hoos special teams don’t help the cause and put the Irish in plus territory. Zaire looks to kill any remaining hope in Chancellorsville opening with a 18 yard pass to Chris Brown to put the Irish on the Virginia 27. Zaire follows this with a three yard run.

And now he’s not getting up.

****

If there’s another lesson that I have failed to learn as an Irish fan, it is that expectations of an easy win is a fool’s errand. Not only do too many teams seem to magically have their best game of the season against Notre Dame, but the Irish schedule lends itself to the let-down-look-ahead sandwich far too often. After blowing out Texas and Zaire receiving Heisman hype for his incredible performance and with Georgia Tech, one of the toughest Irish opponents of the season, waiting in the wings, we should have seen this coming.

Now, on top of all of that, the “I hope we don’t see injuries like we did in 2014” thought now has 2015 laughing in its face. Our starting quarterback can’t walk off the field under his own power. Just last week our starting running back went down with a season-ending ACL injury. Before the damn season even started, a starting defensive lineman went down.

If that wasn’t enough, each of those positions saw transfers that already raiding the depth of each position (yes, I am aware Jones plays DT and DEs departed, but I’m comfortable in rolling with this). All of a sudden, Deshone Kizer, ND’s backup QB that did not get nearly enough reps in the spring thanks to Golson essentially wasting a roster spot before his transfer, is heading into the game with WR-turned-RB, C.J. Prosise.

This is the doomsday scenario for the season. I am sick to my stomach. Virginia fans smell blood in the water. Kizer hands the ball off to Prosise for a 24 yard TD run.

Doomsday may have to wait another week. The Irish are up 26-14 with a 0:54 left in the third quarter. All of a sudden, I see many orange shirts head for the exits.

I am absolutely dumbfounded.

****

The Hillside is not spared from this Cavalier exodus. A noticeable portion of the students on the Hillside trek up the hill and out of the stadium. My buddy had told us before the game this was a common practice, but usually when Virginia was on the wrong end of a beating. None of us can believe so many fans have waved the white flag in this one.

The Hoos are only down by two TDs. There’s over a full quarter left to play. The Irish are now down to their backup QB. Virginia has proven that they can indeed move the ball on the ND defense in the first half.

I know damn well this game is far from over, but it seems there are a fair amount of Virginia fans that disagree right now. Their hope has died. They do not wish for it to be reborn. Instead, they will take their chance to beat traffic or find solace through booze.

Matt Johns then proceeds to lead Virginia on a six play, 75 yard TD drive that takes only a little over two minutes. The drive is punctuated by a Johns TD scramble that should have been a sack, but a missed tackle in the backfield was all the opportunity Johns needed to resurrect hope within the stadium.

The Irish now lead 26-21 with almost the entirety of the fourth quarter to go.

Good call, departing fans.

****

Kizer takes the field to start his first drive as ND’s starting QB. Zaire has been carted off the field and my phone manages to finally get a data connection. It, fittingly, lasts just long enough for me to see his ankle bend in the most unnatural of ways. No official announcement has been made, but our group now knows “Deshone Kizer, ND starting QB” will be the likely reality for the remainder of 2015.

Sadly, his first drive doesn’t quite get on track after Prosise is stuffed on a 3rd and 1, adding to the maddening 0’fer the Irish have compiled all day on third down conversions. The gamblin’ man that was Brian Kelly earlier in the game is gone. The Irish punt on 4th and 1.

Thankfully, this conservative bet pays off as the Irish force their first turnover of the season. But that joy is short-lived.

Incomplete pass. Run for no gain. Kizer is sacked. Three & out. I worry Kizer may not be ready for this. He couldn’t read the progressions fast enough nor navigate the pocket during the Virginia pass rush.

Prayers start for the Irish defense to save the day. They fail to do so. Virginia is now up 27-26 with less than two minutes to go.

The Virginia fans on the Hillside that refused to join the previous exodus now decide to taunt the football gods. They have now moved to the bottom of the hill to prepare for a field rush. This is, without a doubt, the most bi-polar thing I have ever witnessed within a fan base.

Hope is more than just alive for them now. For them, victory is certain.

****

Hope is barely alive among our group. It has been mostly been replaced by anger.

Anger that we screwed around in the first quarter by going for two. Anger that we haven’t converted a third down all day. Anger that our running game looked great until it became short distance. Anger that the usually sure handed Irish receivers are dropping passes, including Will Fuller. Anger that the Irish secondary looks more confused than Gary Gray against Michigan in 2011. Anger that the entire team has played some of the sloppiest football possible and now we are reliant on our backup QB with no experience to lead the Irish down the field to hopefully give our freshman kicker a chance at his first game-winning FG on the road.

Kizer starts the drive 1-3, all to Will Fuller, and it’s now 4th and 2. Kelly calls a timeout. I feel like I need to vomit.

Kizer picks up the 4th on a planned QB run. Then hit hits his next two passes driving the Irish down to the Virginia 40. The Irish call another timeout. Kizer looks calm, confident. This could happen. Hope has returned and my heart is now beating out of my chest.

The Irish come out of the timeout with some form of a screen that makes no sense. To make matters worse the offense is scrambling to line up. Time is bleeding off the clock. Our group, and every Irish fan around us is screaming for the Irish to get on the ball.

As the clock clicks down, Kizer finally snaps the ball. I am expecting a quick out to get the Irish into field goal range. Kizer waits and I feel like I can read his mind. I know he’s going for the endzone. I may or may not have remembered to breathe at this point.

Kizer turns towards the corner of the endzone that we are facing and uncorks the most beautiful bomb. I look down to see Fuller beginning to create separation. I look back up and see the pass looks to be on target. Look back down, Fuller is completely behind the coverage and burned them. Look back up, ball is still in the air.

Time has slowed down to the point in which I feel like I could sprint from the Hillside and catch this pass.

I look back down and Fuller has extended his arms. He snags the pass. Touchdown.

Oh my!

Down 1, @NDFootball connects on this 39-yard TD pass to pull into the lead at Virginia with 12 seconds to go: http://t.co/sSJFYhGaY5

— ESPN (@espn) September 12, 2015

****

If you had compiled a list of football things for 2015, I can assure the following wouldn’t have been on it:

• Jumping up and down on the Virginia Hillside losing my mind because of a last-second winning TD
• Having a random, young Irish fan asking us to put her up for push-ups to celebrate because of a last-second winning TD
• Being able to laugh at Virginia fans for daring to taunt the football gods and prepping to rush the field with nearly two minutes left
• Having all of the above happen without our starting QB

Midway through doing push-ups, I realize I forget how many points the Irish have scored and have to check the scoreboard. After I check, I realize it was probably a very bad idea to attempt to aid in 34 push ups, completely out of shape and on an incline, no matter how light this young Irish fan was.

After we hoist our new Irish friend up for the 34th push up, I finally get a chance to take a deep breath. My heart has been on the verge of explosion ever since Fuller caught Kizer’s bomb. I am able to take a look at how stunned the Virginia faithful are. Some are still at the bottom of the Hillside still holding the surrender cobra pose. Others are making the trek back up the hill and out of the stadium in stunned disbelief. Others look frozen in place, waiting to wake up from a nightmare.

The end result of watching all your hope crushed. (Screen capture via EPSN)

****

Hope is the cruelest of all the cruel things in sports. Heartbreak doesn’t happen without hope. Virginia could have lost 45-0 and it wouldn’t feel nearly as bad for their fans as this does. The fans that exited the stadium before the 4th quarter are now the lucky ones. They abandoned this silly thing called hope a long time ago.

However, this cruel thing called hope has now come full circle. Now, Irish fans are the ones left with the sliver of hope that Deshone Kizer can find a way to lead the Irish to a playoff run. After all, Ohio State did it, albeit without also watching their starting RB fall in week 1, but still, precedent exists.

And wouldn’t a playoff run with a backup QB add yet another chapter in the storied lore of ND football? I mean, if a backup QB can come into a game and pull a Joe Montana his first meaningful minutes, wouldn’t it be logical that he could continue to win games as he gets more reps in practice and experience on the field?

This is what hope does. It starts small and then continues to build until the small ember becomes of a full-fledged fire.

As I listened to the ND post game show during my drive to the airport on Sunday, I listened to Jack Nolan do this very thing. At the start of the show, he was devastated with the loss of Zaire, stating that making a bowl game would be a realistic outcome. As the show continued, the hope within burned and Nolan began to pump himself up and began to see a potential path to the playoff. A rough path to be sure, but one that wasn’t completely impossible.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t buy-in just a little bit at certain points of the show; however, that could all die next week when Georgia Tech visits South Bend this Saturday. Until then, we will let that hope burn.

Because we never learn.

The post The Tragedy of Hope: A Tale from the Virginia Hillside appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

When the next Rudy is scripted, they may as well use yesterday’s game as the template for it played out with the cinematic highs and lows that would have been seen as implausible if they hadn’t played out on national television. When Malik Zaire broke his right ankle late in the third quarter, the game, which the Irish never put out-of-reach, swung in favor of the Virginia host, whose players and crowd brayed for literal Irish blood. When the Cavaliers took the lead, 27-26 on an Albert Reif run with 1:54 to go, hopes for a win and, to many, for the season, appeared shattered.

Fortunately, DeShone Kizer was not in that hopeless number. The literal “next man in,” Kizer connected with Will Fuller on a forty-plus yard pass. Kizer made the play possible by avoiding two Virginia pass-rushers and Fuller gave him a target by beating the coverage and staying on his feet to make a basket-catch at the near left pylon with :12 on the clock. Kizer then completed the two-point conversion with his feet to deflate the raucous crowd.

Fuller put on a clinic against the Cavaliers and his name is finally entering the national discussion. After torching Texas, he should have been more on the radar of the Cavalier defense but far too often, and fatally for them on the game’s penultimate scoring play, he was yards behind the nearest defender and his hands were too sure. His two touchdowns give him four on the season.

The Irish were double-digit favorites, coming off a near-perfect performance the week before against Texas. The Cavaliers were coming off a loss at UCLA and were without two starting offensive linemen so the ease with which the Irish offense moved the ball in the first half was not surprising, though they were unable to convert drives into touchdowns without resorting to chicanery. It was all Justin Yoon, who connected from 32 and 45 yards following a perfectly-design fake field goal  which saw holder DeShone Kizer flip the ball, technically a pass, to a streaking Durham Smythe who then rumbled unmolested into the end zone. Who said Tight End University was dead?

There was rot in the Irish game, though, as they failed to build on their 12 points and allowed Virginia to move the ball effectively and eventually take a 14-12 lead into the half. The Irish were awful on third down, going 0-10 for the game. On the defensive side of the ball, the Irish weren’t much better, as the Cavaliers went 6-15 on third down and 1-1 on fourth down conversions. As a whole, Brian VanGorder’s defense was a mess, looking far too confused and inept given its maturity, experience, and supposed familiarity with the system. They were abused by Virginia’s Canaan Severin and failed to get that kind of harassing pressure on quarterback Matt Johns they brought to bear against Texas. Whether his players were looking ahead to Georgia Tech or were basking in the glow of the win over Texas, Brian VanGorder needs to quickly right the ship.

On offense, for Zaire, it was a game of two halves. He was mostly ineffective in the first and showed little of the precision he did against Texas. In the second, he was better, connecting on a 59 yard pass to Will Fuller for a touchdown and running the ball himself for a superb 39 yard carry. He finished the game having gone 7-18 for 115 yards and a touchdown and a QBR of 56.9. Kizer went 8-12 for 92 yards and two touchdowns and a QBR of 75.1.

Losing Zaire may have dashed any realistic dreams for a National Championship. His loss begs several questions: how many more starters can the Irish lose for the season? How big is the leadership gap between Zaire and Kizer? Finding those answers will test Brian Kelly most of all, who now must develop a rapport with a new signal caller, modify the offense, and get the locker room to rally.

If there was a bright spot, it was the running game. Notre Dame finished with a total of 253 yards on 34 carries, half of which were by C.J. Prosise. Prosise certainly delivered on the promise and praise with which he had been slathered by the coaching staff in the off season, ending the day with 155 yards and one touchdown.

The Irish will need to coalesce around those bright spots in the coming days if they are to see through a schedule that is suddenly more fraught with peril. Leadership will get them there and, thankfully, Notre Dame has that in abundance. There is depth at most positions and there is experience, both among the players and the staff, such that close wins like yesterday’s may be more a sign of strength, à la 2012, than of weakness, à la, well, you pick the season.

The post Kizer You Say? Notre Dame Tops Virginia 34-27 appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

A funny scientific fact about Axe Body Spray: It combines with any and all scents around it to form a super scent that burns the nostrils and is a weapon-grade repellant.  Yes, about 5 minutes into the period following the application of Axe, all afflicted middle schoolers reach this conclusion. They slink a little lower in their chair and hope that their stank just blends in with a lot of similarly situated dude bros.

That’s how many a season goes as well. After the first game or two, the new season scent’s worn off, and you’re generally left hoping that your stink is just no worse than your opponents. While Brian Kelly’s Notre Dame teams have generally faired well in openers (STOP LOOKING AT ME, 2011 DID NOT HAPPEN), few have really felt like springboards to something better. Don’t get me wrong, the 2012 50-10 drubbing of Navy in Dublin was cool…but it was still Navy. Last year’s triumphant return of Everett Golson in a 48-17 victory over Rice was pleasing…but it was still Rice. While Texas may not be at the height of its power (and every member of FSU Twitter has tried to point that out this week), it was nearly impossible for anyone to say anything negative of the 38-3 smoking. It was a week that saw #22 Arizona give up 32 points to Texas San-Antonio, Stanford lose to Northwestern, Tennessee surrender 30 to Bowling Green, and maybe most shockingly #7 Oregon give up 42 points to Eastern Washington, a program from whom Oregon stole their starting quarterback.

For the first time in quite some time, the opening game of the season seemed to enhance expectations. It’s selfish and silly, but I’m just trying to hold onto that feeling a little longer of wondering whether Malik Zaire can complete 85% of his passes for the season and never turn the ball over. Since the game’s still coming, let’s take a quick look at the match-up we have to “look forward to” on Saturday.

The When/Where/What Time/Etc. 3:30 PM ET, Charlottesville, V-A, TV – ABC, Twitter- Always.

The Opposing Coach: Mike London joins other greats Bob Toledo, Houston Nutt, and Gary Pinkel as coaches whose name contains the name of a well known city. No, there’s no place call Pinkel (that I know of). But there is a little slice of heaven in Indiana named Gary. But I digress….

London started at Virginia the same year Kelly started at Notre Dame. Coming off a disastrous 2009 season under Al Groh that saw the Cavaliers go 3-9, London inherited as substantial a rebuild as Kelly with far fewer resources. By 2011, though, London had the Cavs above .500 as they finished 8-5 and went to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. He was receiving accolades of being a talented up and coming head coach/program builder. The problem for London is that 2012 saw the team back slide to 4-8. 2013 got even worse at 2-10. To the surprise of some, London survived a 5-7 season in 2014, but his seat is plenty warm.

London’s a better recruiter than he’s probably given credit for. 2014 saw the defense do well in scoring average. However, Virginia has been downright terrible offensively under London. In his 5 full seasons, the best they’ve done in scoring average came in his first season when they finished 75th nationally. Since 2010, The Cavaliers have finished no better than 86th in scoring average. In 2014 they were 88th averaging just 25.8 points per game. In his career, London has won just two games when the opponent scored 30 or more points. The last time he accomplished this was 2012 versus The U. Speaking of 30+ points by an opponent…

Virginia’s Last Game: Lost at UCLA 16-34. There’s no great shame in losing to a talented UCLA team. In fact, UCLA is a team with similar talent and expectations as the 2015 Irish team. UCLA’s true freshman wonder-qb Josh Rosen torched the UVA defense to the tune of 351 yards and 3 touchdowns while completing 28/35 attempts. The Bruins added another 152 yards on the ground finishing the game with close to 10 extra minutes of possession and nearly 170 more total yards. Like I said, no great shame in this result, but nothing coming out of the game that should concern Notre Dame either.

Team Talent:  I use a rough aggregate of recruiting points as assigned by 247 Sports Composite rankings to get a general idea of talent on the team. For those that shrug off recruiting services, I’d refer you to Matt Hinton’s excellent Grantland piece on reverse-engineering a national champion. He used the same rankings and same methodology of simply aggregating the points and found that the 12 highest totals from the 4 years between 2012 and 2015 represented every national title since 2002. Recruiting matters, and the wisdom of the crowd approach used by 247 Sports to award points is as good as any. With that as a lead-in, I took the 5 years between 2011 and 2015 to get a gauge on talent. I think many might be surprised that Virginia trails only USC, Texas, Clemson, and Stanford on this year’s opponent list. That said, there is a roughly 60 point per recruiting cycle gap between the Irish and Cavaliers with ND firmly ahead. 60 recruiting points last year was the difference between Alabama and Penn State. Like I said above, London’s an underrated recruiter, but that a guy who gets recruiting classes consistently ranked in the mid-30’s has  just one season above .500 is a pretty big condemnation on his talent as a head coach.

Trends/Thoughts/Stats: Virginia has just 1 win since October 4 of 2014 losing 5 of 6 to close last season and starting off this season equally as rough. Virginia was 96th nationally last season in yards per play (5.0) while Notre Dame was 32nd (5.9). The Virginia defense is more talented than they showed in the season opener, but I’m not sure how much so. At the same time, their offense might actually be worse than the 16 points they scored on UCLA. They’re a pass heavy team who can’t pass. The last 3 seasons, Virginia has ranked 101, 105, and 88 in rushing play percentage. Despite throwing the ball as much of the time as just about anyone, their passing yards per game ranks in those same seasons was 45, 83, and 54. There are few teams from Power 5 conferences that I think play more into the hands of Notre Dame than UVA. While some may still have questions about the Irish defense, those questions will need to wait until September 19 in all likelihood. Any sort of defensive struggle against the Cavaliers would not be a good sign for things to come.

As my title suggests, I’m not terribly worried about this game…which of course means it’ll be a train wreck because of the rain or something else ridiculous. Might have to pull out my Axe Body Spray after all.

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