the notre dame thread

[CubColtPacer]

ND will be takine the West Virgina rout to the BCS title game from now on.

 

They still play Michigan, USC, and at least a few decent to good teams other then that every year-not quite the WV model.

[Andy]

ND will be takine the West Virgina rout to the BCS title game from now on.

I think yearly games with Michigan, Purdue, USC, Michigan State (once they get rid of John L), plus the occasional tilts with Pitt, Florida State, Oklahoma (a series starting in 2011 I believe), Arizona State (starting in 2013), Rutgers (starting in 2010), etc. is a little better than "the West Virginia route".

[Transmogrified Tiger]

DJ Gallo angrily responds to Charlie Weis's BCS gripes

 

WARNING: If you like Notre Dame, you probably won't enjoy the article

[NewUserName]

DJ Gallo angrily responds to Charlie Weis's BCS gripes

 

WARNING: If you like Notre Dame, you probably won't enjoy the article

 

 

Wow is Charlie Weis a large man.

 

As you all know I am not to fond of ND football, but I have no problem with what Weis said. I would expect that any good coach would publicly lobby for his team. Yes sometimes it sounds whinny and dumb but coaches have to do it anyway.

[CubColtPacer]

DJ Gallo angrily responds to Charlie Weis's BCS gripes

 

WARNING: If you like Notre Dame, you probably won't enjoy the article

 

LOL..I enjoyed the article a great deal, but it's not very factual. That's part of what makes a satire (and this is a satire) but there are still some common misreperesentations in here. I am going to try to do my best to question some of the common myths:

 

How the head coach of Notre Dame, a program which has consistently been overrated and ranked higher than it deserved to be for more than a decade -- and for most of the past century -- has the audacity to complain about polls.

 

Yes, Notre Dame has had several years where they were in the polls at the beginning of the year where they then dropped out. There also have been several years in which ND was unranked to start the season and have climbed into the polls with a good year. This year will seem to throw the trend off: for the first time in a while, a team that started in the polls might finish there. So the pollsters are always off with ND, sometimes overrating them, sometimes underrating them.

 

Second paragraph-nothing really to complain about, although he is being sort of narrow with his definition of a good team-his definition excludes most schools of that "good" win. That's not a major thing though. Same thing with the third paragraph-no problem there.

 

Fourth paragraph-here comes another quote.

 

Oh, and you wonder why Tennessee jumped ahead of you? Beside the fact that they're better than you, it might have something to do with the fact that they beat Alabama -- a quality team in the best conference in college football and a longtime rival -- while you slipped past an average team from a bad conference.

 

This paragraph is laughable to me. There is nothing to suggest that Alabama is a better team than UCLA-absolutely nothing. Alabama is a team who has played almost everybody close-the good teams and the bad teams. To call them a quality team and UCLA a simply mediocre team is a little silly-neither team has really proved anything yet, and they are probably very evenly matched. The only part that makes sense is that UT-Alabama is a big rivalry, which makes games closer. That's it.

 

The next couple paragraphs-that's not what Weis was talking about. He didn't say that they should move them up based on a thrilling game-he said the pollsters should see that UT had a very similar game to ND, and that if ND was ahead of UT last week, they should be again this week.

 

Talking about ND's road before USC:

 

 

But wait … what's that I see at the end of your Division I-AA-esque stretch of games?

 

ND has to play many of its quality games in a tight span. Becuase of most teams conference schedules, that means ND will play most of its difficult games in September. Besides, this schedule coming up is no different than OSU's schedule has been for several weeks and Michigan's schedule will be for the next few weeks. I'm not going to sit here and say that ND has an absolutely brutal schedule-they don't. Their schedule isn't relatively easy either.

 

BTW, I'm not a big fan of Weis's comments-at all. While he technically is right (those teams shouldn't have passed ND just based on Saturday's games-not saying those teams shouldn't be ahead of ND, but if they were behind before Saturday's games did little to help the picture). That doesn't mean Weis should have come out and said this though. It may be true, but it's still whining when a coach does it like this. It's silly to whine like this, and I'm disappointed that he said it.

 

BTW, one more common myth. This year the BCS rules have changed, but most commentators have not realized it. I heard one analyst say that the ND win over UCLA was a 14-17 million dollar win, because that is the payout for a BCS bowl that ND would get to have all of. Instead though, ND no longer gets the full BCS bowl money. An ESPN.com story about the Weis comments quotes the number as 4.5 million, which sounds right. That's a big difference from 14-17 million.

[Andy]

I was hoping this would slip by.

 

I agree with Wilbon's opinion: Weis can and should campaign for his players, but in reality, he isn't correct. Tennessee and Florida should have been ahead of ND to begin with, though, and this issue shouldn't have had a chance to come up.

 

However, I don't see why Alabama is so good and UCLA sucks. There is a one-half game difference in their records, and while the SEC is the best conference, the Pac-10 has proven itself in recent weeks to be no slouch either.

 

I like DJ Gallo a lot less than I did before though. Usually he's a satirist, but that article looked to be written pretty seriously and it takes numerous unwarranted potshots at ND and severely underrates their competition this year (GT is a very good team and Purdue, PSU and UCLA may yet turn out to be good teams as well). It's the most venomous article I've read about ND since Alan Grant wrote the most racist piece of blathering crap I've ever read on ESPN.com shortly after Weis was hired.

[soccer10k]

I do agree that if ND was ranked ahead of Tennessee and Florida before last weekend then they should have been ranked ahead of them after last weekend. Well, I could see moving Florida up but Tennessee played the same type of game that ND did.

 

That being said, Notre Dame shouldn't have been ranked ahead of either of those two in the first place.

[CubColtPacer]

Notre Dame possibilites for the National Title game (nothing about what should happen, just what will happen)

 

Notre Dame needs:

An Ohio State loss-I thought I would be saying for weeks that a big Michigan loss would be the key. I say the other way though because of the computer rankings. Michigan is #1 in the computer rankings, and it's not even close. If they lose to Ohio State, they will only drop to #2 in those rankings.

 

Ohio State is #3 in most of those rankings, and a loss to Michigan will drop them behind ND in most to all of these rankings. I have ran through some projections in one of the computer rankings, and it confirms this. If Notre Dame can stay ahead of Ohio State in the computer rankings, they will be close enough in the polls to stay ahead of them overall.

 

#2-Florida losing to Arkansas in the SEC title game-Florida is going to be hard to catch in either the polls or the computer rankings-they have to lose a game somewhere.

 

Things that would be nice, but not always necessary:

 

1)Arkansas losing to LSU-it is not certain whatsoever that Arkansas will pass ND if they win out. They will likely not pass them in the computer rankings, and I doubt if both teams win out that they will pass ND enough in the polls to make the difference-ND should squeak past Arkansas if both win out.

 

2)USC beating Cal-obviously, ND needs the national exposure about beating a 1 loss USC team and the SOS rating in the computers-this would be a nice boost.

 

3)Rutgers losing to WV-it's possible that Rutgers will drop between ND and Arkansas in the computer rankings if they lose, which would be a nice buffer.

 

Of course, ND has to win their last two games, which is definitely not assured (is probably closer to 50/50)-but this is all meaningless if they lose, so I'll remain optimistic for now. It's certainly a much greater chance then it was a few weeks ago. I do hope the team gets to the national title game, but in one way I don't because I think the team only has a 25-30 percent chance of winning the title, while they would have a greater chance of winning one of the other BCS bowls. Since the objective is the title though, I still would like to see them get in any way they can.

[TruffleShuffle]

I do take some confort in knowing that even if ND makes the championship game, they'll get embarassed on the biggest stage in college sports. Kind of like how I felt when overrated Oklahoma played USC.

[EricG]

ND probably should probably be rooting for Michigan, Penn State and Purdue to finish strong. Which would help them more a MSU win or PSU win?

[Andy]

ND probably should probably be rooting for Michigan, Penn State and Purdue to finish strong. Which would help them more a MSU win or PSU win?

I think at this point, a USC win helps ND more than any other team on their schedule. Their schedule is ranked 21st in the country by Sagarin (pre-USC), so they'll be fine there.

 

I personally think Michigan will pretty well dominate Ohio State. They may not win by 26 because O$U has a good D in their own right, but I think they'll be in control throughout, and the pollsters will see that, with both teams sporting lopsided losses to Michigan, that ND's other 11 games are a total toss up with OSU.

 

ND's most impressive win right now WOULD be at USC, who will either win the Pac-10 (IMO, the Pac-10 is the 3rd-best major conference behind the SEC and Big 10). O$U's best win is a road win over Texas, also a 2-loss team, but in a conference that's probably worst of all the big six conferences. It's likely they too will win the conference, but I'll give a slight edge to ND should they win.

 

ND's 2nd-most impressive win (presuming the USC win) would be at Georgia Tech, who appears to have a good shot at winning the ACC. Ohio State beat Iowa on the road, dominating that game as well 38-17. I'll call it a slight edge to OSU based on the scores of those games.

 

ND's 3rd-most impressive win was the 41-17 beating of Penn State. Ohio State's 3rd-most impressive was a home game against Penn State that was a 1-possession game until Morelli threw two pick-sixes in about a minute's time. Big edge to ND here obviously.

 

4th-most impressive wins: ND over Purdue 35-21, OSU over MSU (on the road) 38-7 post-ND meltdown. Slight edge to OSU probably.

 

5th-most impressive wins: ND's is either of the comeback wins. It depends on whether you think MSU or UCLA is better. I'll call it MSU, since it was on the road. This is where OSU starts falling off big. Either IU or Minnesota (both home blowouts) would be their 5th-best win. Since IU crushed MSU, we'll give a big edge to OSU.

 

6th-most impressive: ND's was UCLA. Ohio State's was IU or Minnesota. Edge to ND.

 

From there on down:

 

7th-most impressive: Navy or Northwestern (both road, basically). Conveniently, Eastern Michigan played both, hanging with NW and getting creamed by Navy, so I'll give an edge to ND.

 

8th-most impressive: Air Force or Illinois (both road). Since both teams' best games were close games on the road against good teams (Tenn and Wisco respectively) and both teams' worst games were home losses to bowl-bound lower-tier teams (Navy and Ohio respectively), and ND played better than OSU in the respective game, I'll give a slight edge to ND.

 

9th-most impressive: Stanford or Cincinnati (both home). Clear edge for OSU here.

 

10th-most impressive: UNC or Northern Illinois. Edge to OSU again.

 

11th-most impressive: Army or Bowling Green. They're both awful, so call it a wash.

 

ND edges: 3 big, 2 slight.

OSU edges: 3 big, 2 slight.

Washes: 1

 

I mean, if OSU is to be blown out by Michigan, these two teams will almost have identical profiles.

[TruffleShuffle]

I mean, if OSU is to be blown out by Michigan, these two teams will almost have identical profiles.

 

except that O$U didn't get a gift victory over a bad team. Yeah ND won that game, but they wouldn't have without the help of Moo.

[Andy]

I mean, if OSU is to be blown out by Michigan, these two teams will almost have identical profiles.

 

except that O$U didn't get a gift victory over a bad team. Yeah ND won that game, but they wouldn't have without the help of Moo.

You can say that of any big comeback. If the victimized team played perfectly every time they took a big lead, there would of course never be a comeback to begin with.

 

I'd like to thank MSU, by the way, for once again playing, BY FAR, their best game of the season against ND, and then crapping the bed against everyone else. I'm rooting for whoever comes in to coach that team to do well because I'm sick and tired of MSU making ND's games with them look worse than they already were by playing miles below their talent level afterwards.

[CubColtPacer]

I mean, if OSU is to be blown out by Michigan, these two teams will almost have identical profiles.

 

except that O$U didn't get a gift victory over a bad team. Yeah ND won that game, but they wouldn't have without the help of Moo.

You can say that of any big comeback. If the victimized team played perfectly every time they took a big lead, there would of course never be a comeback to begin with.

 

I'd like to thank MSU, by the way, for once again playing, BY FAR, their best game of the season against ND, and then crapping the bed against everyone else. I'm rooting for whoever comes in to coach that team to do well because I'm sick and tired of MSU making ND's games with them look worse than they already were by playing miles below their talent level afterwards.

 

I can't stand that either-Michigan State always gets their good games out of the way before the ND game, plays well against ND, and then collapses. Either be good Michigan State or be bad-I don't really care. Please just be one or the other though! Don't be one team for the first 4-5 games (including ND every year) and then a completely different team in the second half of the season.

 

It's like if the NFL were rated like the BCS, and somebody had to play the Dolphins in the past 10-12 years (minus the last couple). You knew if you played them in September or October you'd look terrible as they'd get out to a 9-2 start, and then they'd lose their last 4-5 games every single year and nobody can understand how they played you tough.

[SouthSideRyan]

I do take some confort in knowing that even if ND makes the championship game, they'll get embarassed on the biggest stage in college sports. Kind of like how I felt when overrated Oklahoma played USC.

 

Depends on your definition of crushed, but I don't see ND getting crushed by either Michigan or OSU. I think they'd even make a game of it against Michigan.

[soccer10k]

I do take some confort in knowing that even if ND makes the championship game, they'll get embarassed on the biggest stage in college sports. Kind of like how I felt when overrated Oklahoma played USC.

 

Depends on your definition of crushed, but I don't see ND getting crushed by either Michigan or OSU. I think they'd even make a game of it against Michigan.

 

Problem is, ND was already crushed by Michigan this year and was crushed by OSU at the end of last year. Notre Dame is a horribly flawed team. Their defense isn't that good and they can't run the ball effectively to save their lives. I'm not saying ND would get crushed if they faced OSU or UM again but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they did.

[Andy]

I do take some confort in knowing that even if ND makes the championship game, they'll get embarassed on the biggest stage in college sports. Kind of like how I felt when overrated Oklahoma played USC.

 

Depends on your definition of crushed, but I don't see ND getting crushed by either Michigan or OSU. I think they'd even make a game of it against Michigan.

 

Problem is, ND was already crushed by Michigan this year and was crushed by OSU at the end of last year. Notre Dame is a horribly flawed team. Their defense isn't that good and they can't run the ball effectively to save their lives. I'm not saying ND would get crushed if they faced OSU or UM again but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they did.

OSU got like half their yards on four plays and spotty officiating on a fumble returned for a game-tying TD changed the whole game. Ohio State outplayed ND, but this "crushed" rhetoric needs to stop.

[soccer10k]

I do take some confort in knowing that even if ND makes the championship game, they'll get embarassed on the biggest stage in college sports. Kind of like how I felt when overrated Oklahoma played USC.

 

Depends on your definition of crushed, but I don't see ND getting crushed by either Michigan or OSU. I think they'd even make a game of it against Michigan.

 

Problem is, ND was already crushed by Michigan this year and was crushed by OSU at the end of last year. Notre Dame is a horribly flawed team. Their defense isn't that good and they can't run the ball effectively to save their lives. I'm not saying ND would get crushed if they faced OSU or UM again but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they did.

OSU got like half their yards on four plays and spotty officiating on a fumble returned for a game-tying TD changed the whole game. Ohio State outplayed ND, but this "crushed" rhetoric needs to stop.

 

I don't need to recite by how much OSU outgained ND and OSU also turned the ball over twice. If they didn't get "crushed", it was still a relatively easy and very decisive victory by OSU.

[SouthSideRyan]

I do take some confort in knowing that even if ND makes the championship game, they'll get embarassed on the biggest stage in college sports. Kind of like how I felt when overrated Oklahoma played USC.

 

Depends on your definition of crushed, but I don't see ND getting crushed by either Michigan or OSU. I think they'd even make a game of it against Michigan.

 

Problem is, ND was already crushed by Michigan this year and was crushed by OSU at the end of last year. Notre Dame is a horribly flawed team. Their defense isn't that good and they can't run the ball effectively to save their lives. I'm not saying ND would get crushed if they faced OSU or UM again but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they did.

 

ND lost by 14 points to OSU and the game wasn't over until there were 2 minutes left. They gave up a lot of yards, but they were not crushed.