College Football - Week of 9/23

[Transmogrified Tiger]

 

By the way I have to nominate the MSU kick returner's kneel down at his own 12 as one of the strangest/dumbest plays I've seen.

 

Seriously, what the hell was that??

 

The only logical thing I heard is that it was the hands team on the field, so he was instructed to go down after he got as much as he could get, and then he screwed up and went down way too early.

[SouthSideRyan]

 

By the way I have to nominate the MSU kick returner's kneel down at his own 12 as one of the strangest/dumbest plays I've seen.

 

Seriously, what the hell was that??

 

The only logical thing I heard is that it was the hands team on the field, so he was instructed to go down after he got as much as he could get, and then he screwed up and went down way too early.

 

My guess was some sort of ignorance with regards to the new clock rules, but I guess your explanation would make some sense.

[Soriano12]

Congrats to the Irish!

 

Glad they pulled it out. A big shove it to all the ND haters out there.

[SouthSideRyan]

I've seen it written and said about how Smith botched things by going away form the passing game in the 2nd half. Stanton had 92 passing yards in the 1st half, it's not as if he was throwing at will against ND.

[Andy]

I've seen it written and said about how Smith botched things by going away form the passing game in the 2nd half. Stanton had 92 passing yards in the 1st half, it's not as if he was throwing at will against ND.

I think it's ludicrous that Mark May and Co. are blasting MSU for running too much. Three Spartans had more rushing yards than ND at one point. There was no reason at all to pass.

[adamb0719]

All I can say about tonights game is the ND did not win it. MSU lost it.

[soccer10k]

FWIW, I've enjoyed Iowa's return to football prominence, please beat the bloody crap out of O$U.

 

EDIT: Gameday is quickly becoming the Ohio State traveling sideshow. They may end up doing close to half their games.

 

I'm sure that will pretty much be the national consensus (everyone outside of OSU fans) which is very cool.

 

Yeah this will be the third time in four weeks they'll be at OSU's game, but really they haven't had much choice. They had to be at the Texas game and Iowa-OSU is the only matchup of ranked teams next weekend and the clear game of the week, plus Herbstreit will be there. I was surprised they were at Columbus today, but I guess the next best options were Notre Dame or Cal and Arizona State.

 

And you know as long as Michigan doesn't fall off the map, Gameday will be in Columbus on November 18.

[SouthSideRyan]

FWIW, I've enjoyed Iowa's return to football prominence, please beat the bloody crap out of O$U.

 

EDIT: Gameday is quickly becoming the Ohio State traveling sideshow. They may end up doing close to half their games.

 

I'm sure that will pretty much be the national consensus (everyone outside of OSU fans) which is very cool.

 

Yeah this will be the third time in four weeks they'll be at OSU's game, but really they haven't had much choice. They had to be at the Texas game and Iowa-OSU is the only matchup of ranked teams next weekend and the clear game of the week, plus Herbstreit will be there. I was surprised they were at Columbus today, but I guess the next best options were Notre Dame or Cal and Arizona State.

 

And you know as long as Michigan doesn't fall off the map, Gameday will be in Columbus on November 18.

 

I thought I heard they didn't plan on going to the same location twice. A quick look shows the only other ones that would make sense being Auburn/Alabama and Cal/USC.

[soccer10k]

I have to say that going back and reading all of the posts - especially the posts from early in the game - was quite entertaining.

 

From the impression I got from looking at the box score, some credit has to be given to Notre Dame for coming back. Anytime a team lets a 17 point lead get away, they choked at least little bit. Apparently Quinn went 2-8 for 6 yards in the first quarter meaning in the other 3 quarters he went 18-28 for 313 yards and 5 touchdowns. That's a solid 3 quarter performance for any quarterback. Then factoring in the rain as well as the fact that it was a road game, his performance becomes more impressive (I do realize he wasn't perfect though). What Notre Dame definitely has to do is shore up their defense. This team reeks of 2005 USC all over except with a less potent offense. And believe me, that is not a shot at Notre Dame at all rather a compliment to USC.

 

I'm really torn on whether or not Notre Dame should be encouraged by both the result of the game and their 3-1 record right now. It's always a good sign to see a team continue to fight to the end and pull out a victory like this, especially on the road, but Michigan State likely isn't a great team this year and a team with National Title aspirations should have done better. I do think all of the media hype inflated the expectations for Notre Dame this year and that isn't helping matters. But Notre Dame is going to climb in the polls as they get into the easy part of their schedule and other teams start beating each other in conference.

 

And for those who think the Brady Quinn Heisman campaign has been derailed, it hasn't and it will pick up in the next few weeks as he piles up stats. He will be in New York for the ceremony.

 

And as much as I hate to say it, congrats to Notre Dame on the victory.

[soccer10k]

FWIW, I've enjoyed Iowa's return to football prominence, please beat the bloody crap out of O$U.

 

EDIT: Gameday is quickly becoming the Ohio State traveling sideshow. They may end up doing close to half their games.

 

I'm sure that will pretty much be the national consensus (everyone outside of OSU fans) which is very cool.

 

Yeah this will be the third time in four weeks they'll be at OSU's game, but really they haven't had much choice. They had to be at the Texas game and Iowa-OSU is the only matchup of ranked teams next weekend and the clear game of the week, plus Herbstreit will be there. I was surprised they were at Columbus today, but I guess the next best options were Notre Dame or Cal and Arizona State.

 

And you know as long as Michigan doesn't fall off the map, Gameday will be in Columbus on November 18.

 

I thought I heard they didn't plan on going to the same location twice. A quick look shows the only other ones that would make sense being Auburn/Alabama and Cal/USC.

 

They could go to Cal/USC also. But that one depends on whether they go to USC for the Notre Dame game.

[Derwood]

what's that sound I hear? Why, I think it's the Brady-Quinn-for-Heisman Band Wagon starting up again!

[NewUserName]

Southside and NDstops, I agree that Stanton wasnt lighting it up in the first half but at least they were passing the ball. How many times did Stanton throw in the 2nd half until the final drive? I dont know but I am guessing you can count them on your hand. NONE of them were downfield. This is exactly what they did to blow the 4th quarter lead last year at ND and the game a couple years ago at Michigan. So yes the play calling was way to conservative. That coupled by some poor reads by Stanton really cost them the game. I dont know if MSU had anyone stretching the field when Landry had his pick6 but ND had 10 guys on the line of scrimmage that play. Stanton should have checked that to a deeper route.

[cubweiser03]

Man i am sure glad im not an MSU fan, that one would hurt. I can't believe how loses like that are becoming so typical for MSU. The loss was a combination of bad plays by MSU and some very good ones by ND. I didnt have a problem with MSU running the ball, ND couldnt stop #23 or #30. #30 was a beast. MSU blew it on the field with turnovers. Rhema had 2 great TDs for ND.

 

I'll go on record as saying Mario Manningham may not have all the hype surrounded him by Ted Ginn, but he is a better NFL receiving prospect. He so much better than I would of hoped for this early in his college career. Looks like Arrington is stepping up to his talents as well.

[tadowdaddy]

I'm gonna go tell myself that Mizzou is 4-0 and that 7 of the 12 teams immediately in front of them lost today.

 

Tell yourself that..... Although our Offense looked like complete poo, our D is back, and REALLY good.... I about made that comment last week, but wanted to watch the Louisville game before I said anything. Our D is looking like the KSU of old. I hope it keeps going like it did today. We will dominate Big 12 offenses if so. Plus, pinkel likes to not put a good plan out vs the Cats! I was definitely not upset with today's performance on D.... Our offense does blow though. I say play Freeman and lets see what the kid can do. He does have a cannon from what I saw today.

 

What was good about the defense today, the turnovers? I'm not trying to be argumentative, but looking at the boxscore(24 points, 400+ total yards, over 200 yards rushing, 69% completion percentage) it doesn't look like a terribly strong performance.

 

Tangentially, I think Mizzou moved into the #1 spot in defensive YPG after today. [insert comment about how Mizzou's opponents have been garbage here]

 

I'll tell you what's good about that. Holding the nation's #1 offense to 24 pts is one thing. They had 2 drives the entire game that were long drives. We shut them down, played fast, played aggressive, and tackled well. Hell, we even pressured them. The problem, and the reason for the 400 yards, is our pathetic offense. If the offense didn't make the d be on the field the entire game, and actually sustained a few drives, you would be shocked at how little offense the Louisville team gained. I'm quite happy with where our D is, but like I said, I'd play Freeman... .get the kid some PT since the redshirt is already burned, and prepare this team for the future. We'll definitely go to a bowl, so it can't hurt to get the kid game experience. The D will carry this team this year, they're going to be tough in the Big 12.

[E.J.]

Wow. How did MSU lose this game? :shock:

 

I stopped watching in the 4th quarter because I thought the game was over. Only MSU could choke away a 16 point lead in the 4th quarter. John L. Smith should be coaching some pee-wee league team somewhere, not a Big Ten football team.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

FWIW, I've enjoyed Iowa's return to football prominence, please beat the bloody crap out of O$U.

 

EDIT: Gameday is quickly becoming the Ohio State traveling sideshow. They may end up doing close to half their games.

 

I'm sure that will pretty much be the national consensus (everyone outside of OSU fans) which is very cool.

 

Yeah this will be the third time in four weeks they'll be at OSU's game, but really they haven't had much choice. They had to be at the Texas game and Iowa-OSU is the only matchup of ranked teams next weekend and the clear game of the week, plus Herbstreit will be there. I was surprised they were at Columbus today, but I guess the next best options were Notre Dame or Cal and Arizona State.

 

And you know as long as Michigan doesn't fall off the map, Gameday will be in Columbus on November 18.

 

I thought I heard they didn't plan on going to the same location twice. A quick look shows the only other ones that would make sense being Auburn/Alabama and Cal/USC.

 

My guess Auburn/Alabama. That's a huge game down there and the atmosphere will be raucous.

[snoodmonger]

I'm gonna go tell myself that Mizzou is 4-0 and that 7 of the 12 teams immediately in front of them lost today.

 

Tell yourself that..... Although our Offense looked like complete poo, our D is back, and REALLY good.... I about made that comment last week, but wanted to watch the Louisville game before I said anything. Our D is looking like the KSU of old. I hope it keeps going like it did today. We will dominate Big 12 offenses if so. Plus, pinkel likes to not put a good plan out vs the Cats! I was definitely not upset with today's performance on D.... Our offense does blow though. I say play Freeman and lets see what the kid can do. He does have a cannon from what I saw today.

 

What was good about the defense today, the turnovers? I'm not trying to be argumentative, but looking at the boxscore(24 points, 400+ total yards, over 200 yards rushing, 69% completion percentage) it doesn't look like a terribly strong performance.

 

Tangentially, I think Mizzou moved into the #1 spot in defensive YPG after today. [insert comment about how Mizzou's opponents have been garbage here]

 

I'll tell you what's good about that. Holding the nation's #1 offense to 24 pts is one thing. They had 2 drives the entire game that were long drives. We shut them down, played fast, played aggressive, and tackled well. Hell, we even pressured them. The problem, and the reason for the 400 yards, is our pathetic offense. If the offense didn't make the d be on the field the entire game, and actually sustained a few drives, you would be shocked at how little offense the Louisville team gained. I'm quite happy with where our D is, but like I said, I'd play Freeman... .get the kid some PT since the redshirt is already burned, and prepare this team for the future. We'll definitely go to a bowl, so it can't hurt to get the kid game experience. The D will carry this team this year, they're going to be tough in the Big 12.

 

Isn't UL missing its two best players, though? (QB and someone else?) I'm not saying KSU's D isn't solid, just curious.

 

Is our game at Lawrence or Manhatten this year, btw?

[adamb0719]

Did anyone see the pic of MSU guarding the 'S' on the 50 after the game, in case ND decided to show no class? I will try to find it and post it.

[Soriano12]

Did anyone see the pic of MSU guarding the 'S' on the 50 after the game, in case ND decided to show no class? I will try to find it and post it.

 

Ha....MSU = Biggest tools in colllege football.

[Andy]

Did anyone see the pic of MSU guarding the 'S' on the 50 after the game, in case ND decided to show no class? I will try to find it and post it.

Not surprising considering they somehow talked themselves into believing that ND stuck a flag into their turf in 2004 despite the fact that there are no pictures whatsoever and no eyewitnesses saw it.

 

And back to something that was addressed earlier in this thread...according to John Heisler, the assoc. athletic director at ND, the team never brings rivalry trophies to games, because they don't do postgame presentations of them, and (his words) they aren't all that important anyway because a rivalry is not determined by having a trophy. And that's why ND didn't have the Megaphone there last year, and they didn't have it in 2003 when MSU won it back in South Bend either, so they should have (and probably did) know. From the Blue-Gray Sky (quickly becoming my favorite Irish blog):

 

Chastened, some Spartans began to claim it [the flag-planting] was payback for the Irish planting their own flag at Spartan Stadium in 2004.

 

There's a small problem with the payback angle: it never happened. I have scoured the internet for photos, read Spartan message boards, checked postgame summaries from every newspaper...70,027 people were in Spartan Stadium, and no one has a picture of the Irish committing the alleged crime. (I came up with this post-game picture, but no flag is visible.) And keep in mind that in '04, ND was coached by Michigan State alum Ty Willingham. Was Ty going to allow his young protégés to stray from the path of upright and dignified manhood by taunting his alma mater?

 

Other Spartans went with the blame-the-new-kid routine. Said 2005 Michigan State captain Clifton Ryan:

 

"It was young guys who did it. I'm not sure what they were thinking; I guess they got caught up in the moment."

 

Bzzzz. Try again, Clifton. This video of the flag planting (it's at the end, around the 5:20 mark, and it includes a little Boston College-style turf tearing as well) shows that one of the two players who carried the flag out to midfield and planted it was safety Eric Smith, who not only was a senior, but was one of the four Spartan team captains along with Ryan (Ryan, by the way, was also the player who claimed prior to the game that Touchdown Jesus "wasn't all it's cracked up to be.") The other player who carried out the flag with Smith was Kaleb Thornhill, the Spartans' starting middle linebacker.

 

Meanwhile, the Spartans are also upset at the fact that when they beat Notre Dame last year, the "Megaphone" -- the trophy awarded to the winner of the ND-MSU game -- was not in the Stadium for the coaches and players to claim.

 

"I think they didn't plan on losing it, so they didn't bring it," Smith said Monday.

 

Said Stanton: "When they said that they didn't have it because they weren't expecting us to beat them, we were kind of shocked."

 

Yep, that's it, John L. We had the arrogance to disrespect such a long-standing tradition between our teams, and we did it out of pure hubris? Nevermind the fact that I can't remember a single game when ND paraded around the field with a rivalry game trophy. When MSU won at ND in 2003, I don't recall them bothering to look for the Megaphone or anyone making a stink about it not being in the stadium. Maybe if we had something cool, like Paul Bunyan's Axe, we might, but we don't. ND doesn't care much about trophies that don't say "National Champion" on them. Zibby said as much earlier this week.

 

Q. Before this week, had you ever heard of the megaphone trophy?

 

Tom Zbikowski: Yeah, from last year, I don't know. I don't know what type of trophy it is. We play for a megaphone, I guess.

 

Here's what Heisler had to say back in 2004 about how ND regards rivalry trophies.

 

"Does it require a shillelagh (USC and Purdue), a megaphone (Michigan State) or a crystal bowl (Stanford and Boston College) to make it a rivalry? Those traditional trophies historically have been more fodder for game notes and media guides than post-game, mid-field presentations."

 

Heisler re-visited those remarks this week, saying that "except for a trophy with Stanford, Notre Dame has never presented a rivalry trophy after a win." And I suspect they haven't bothered to make a big deal out of accepting one, either.

[adamb0719]

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a65/adamb0719/bilde.jpg

 

 

The incredible finish gave the Fighting Irish their third win over the Spartans in the last 10 meetings — all three in a row at Spartan Stadium. After the game, MSU players guarded midfield to ward off the Irish from planting a flag, in response to MSU’s much-publicized flag plant after last season’s overtime win in South Bend.

 

“We were just making sure,” MSU’s Javon Ringer said, “it didn’t happen to us.”

 

http://www.greenandwhite.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060924/GW01/309240001/1023/GW

[tadowdaddy]

I'm gonna go tell myself that Mizzou is 4-0 and that 7 of the 12 teams immediately in front of them lost today.

 

Tell yourself that..... Although our Offense looked like complete poo, our D is back, and REALLY good.... I about made that comment last week, but wanted to watch the Louisville game before I said anything. Our D is looking like the KSU of old. I hope it keeps going like it did today. We will dominate Big 12 offenses if so. Plus, pinkel likes to not put a good plan out vs the Cats! I was definitely not upset with today's performance on D.... Our offense does blow though. I say play Freeman and lets see what the kid can do. He does have a cannon from what I saw today.

 

What was good about the defense today, the turnovers? I'm not trying to be argumentative, but looking at the boxscore(24 points, 400+ total yards, over 200 yards rushing, 69% completion percentage) it doesn't look like a terribly strong performance.

 

Tangentially, I think Mizzou moved into the #1 spot in defensive YPG after today. [insert comment about how Mizzou's opponents have been garbage here]

 

I'll tell you what's good about that. Holding the nation's #1 offense to 24 pts is one thing. They had 2 drives the entire game that were long drives. We shut them down, played fast, played aggressive, and tackled well. Hell, we even pressured them. The problem, and the reason for the 400 yards, is our pathetic offense. If the offense didn't make the d be on the field the entire game, and actually sustained a few drives, you would be shocked at how little offense the Louisville team gained. I'm quite happy with where our D is, but like I said, I'd play Freeman... .get the kid some PT since the redshirt is already burned, and prepare this team for the future. We'll definitely go to a bowl, so it can't hurt to get the kid game experience. The D will carry this team this year, they're going to be tough in the Big 12.

 

Isn't UL missing its two best players, though? (QB and someone else?) I'm not saying KSU's D isn't solid, just curious.

 

Is our game at Lawrence or Manhatten this year, btw?

 

We play in Lawrence, but yes, they are missing their qb and rb... However, I don't think the rb hurts that much, as their backups are very good as well... Brohm being out did hurt, but they are a solid team all around, and the back up Cantwell, is a very servicable backup.

[SouthSideRyan]

Southside and NDstops, I agree that Stanton wasnt lighting it up in the first half but at least they were passing the ball. How many times did Stanton throw in the 2nd half until the final drive? I dont know but I am guessing you can count them on your hand. NONE of them were downfield. This is exactly what they did to blow the 4th quarter lead last year at ND and the game a couple years ago at Michigan. So yes the play calling was way to conservative. That coupled by some poor reads by Stanton really cost them the game. I dont know if MSU had anyone stretching the field when Landry had his pick6 but ND had 10 guys on the line of scrimmage that play. Stanton should have checked that to a deeper route.

 

By my quick count there were 7 passing plays, 16 running plays in the 2nd half until MSU's final drive.(That's including sacks and incomplete passes, I'm not sure how to account for plays where Stanton rushed the ball, I'm sure at least 1 of those was a scramble, but I just called them all runs. I really don't have much of a problem with a 2:1 ratio of runs to passes when up 3 possessions. Especially since it seemed MSU got at least 5 yards on every carry in the 1st half.

[Butterscup1679666578]

Mizzou is now ranked 25th in the AP Poll and t-27th in the Coaches Poll!

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Mizzou is now ranked 25th in the AP Poll and t-27th in the Coaches Poll!

 

WOOT!