Tracer Bullet

this is ridiculous.

Clausen re-injured his toe, lost our best lineman, and maybe Dayne Crist. DAMNIT

took a couple warm-ups, but Crist has a cannon. Looking forward to many Crist to Goodman TDs in the next 2-3 years. Oh, and ND is playing WSU in Texas b/c Kevin White (last AD) entered into a contract with NBC that gave them the right to broadcast 8 games, including 1 neutral site game, for the next several years.

so big ten teams all get worse as the season goes on? Well, apparently Michigan does in 2009. Seems predictable when your QB is a teenager, weighs 170 pounds, and takes a beating in the spread every game. After 5 games, getting hit 25 times a game by guys that weigh between 30 and 150 pounds more than you do would take its toll.

I think you have to go TCU, Cincy, Boise State, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, MSU, UNI then Iowa.

I don't think anyone hates Iowa. We're just trying to point out that your team has many cracks in the armor and would probably get beat handily by a team like Alabama, Florida, or Texas. Id say you guys are pissing and moaning more about rankings. No one is denying that there are "cracks in the armor" - but the other top 3 teams all have flaws as well. Florida just hasnt been exposed yet, and Texas is not that much better than Iowa. Alabama is the only team I would put above Iowa, and I still say we could beat them on gameday. Id say winning by 18 points when you lost Richardson, Robinson, and Sandeman last week aint bad. Iowa has become very familiar with the term "next man in line" this year, and keeps winning. The only people that think Iowa is better than any of those teams is a certain percentage of the Hawkeye fanbase. I put out this question last week, but rank these 4 unbeaten teams: Iowa TCU Cinci Boise State. The only real reason Iowa is ranked ahead of any of them is because they come from a major conference. Are you kidding? Why do you think Texas is #3 right now?

one might have been right on the corner and one was just off, but still a tough AB.

Utley just took 5 balls and struck out looking. Not easy to do.

It's not an all the time thing. Most of the time my back button works fine. Unfortunately I don't know of an elegant way to recreate the issue consistently. I use firefox and I have this issue. It happens every time I click the "view new posts" little orange flag thing next to a topic, then during the course of reading that topic, I click on the "Next page" button. Once I get to that next page, I can't go back to the forum unless I go back to the "Board index" link. click the drop down arrow on your back button and go back 2 pages. the problem is that the orange flag takes you to the first unread topic, you then go to the next page to finish the posts, but if you try going back to the first unread topic, there aren't any. The orange flag isn't taking you to a page, but to a post. right, but this is a very recent development. I just wondered if it was the same problem Banedon was having or even related. And I have a mouse with a clickable roller, so I push the roller back to go back on the browser.

It's not an all the time thing. Most of the time my back button works fine. Unfortunately I don't know of an elegant way to recreate the issue consistently. I use firefox and I have this issue. It happens every time I click the "view new posts" little orange flag thing next to a topic, then during the course of reading that topic, I click on the "Next page" button. Once I get to that next page, I can't go back to the forum unless I go back to the "Board index" link.

ND really needs to beat Pitt and have Pitt win all its other games (Cincy and WVU, really). There are enough match-ups among top 25 teams left that a 10-win ND team will be in the top 15 or so of the BCS, especially with a road win against a then-top-15 Pitt team and a road win against a bowl-bound Stanford team to end the year.

who is the fastest guy in the draft? Noel Devine could be a top 5 pick after all. CJ Spiller? Guys fast as eff and runs like Chris Johnson. Clausen has made some nice strinds but if he came out i dont see him cracking the top 10. He still needs work. on what?

Halloween night game against Washington State. jeez, I'm glad I'm not in college. It would be so hard to decide whether to go out to the parties with all the slutty _______ costumes or stay home and watch that thriller.

Proof the system is seriously screwed up. No offense, but Iowa should not be ranked any higher than 4 on any polls and anyone giving them a #1 vote probably should not be allowed to vote at this point in the season. voting Iowa #1 isn't the worst vote that was cast this year or even this week. Iowa's not the best team in the country, but they might have the best resume so far. They went to Happy Valley, Camp Randall, and EL and walked away with Ws in each game - the last 2 in consecutive weeks. They aren't pretty games and they're far from perfect, but that's impressive. If Iowa were to win out, including another road win at OSU, I think you'd be hard pressed to keep them out of the title game against the presumed undefeated winner of the SEC.

Or the fact that Bama should have lost.

Well, he did have a TD dropped by Parris in the corner of the end zone. 2nd straight game with a dropped TD pass by Parris. The only obvious mistake he made was rolling out away from pressure again. There were a couple of times where the step-up was there but he got anxious and faded back and to the left. Of course, on one of those plays, he hit Tate for a big gain on 3rd down. His throw to Rudolph that would have been a TD had he thrown it to the outside shoulder was the one really bad throw I can think of. Otherwise, he did exactly what he had to - took the check downs and dropped it off all the way down the field. I'm a little annoyed that 1 solid game earned Hughes the #2 job again. He went down easy on every run and though I can't really blame him for the 4th and 1, since he got his bell rung pretty good, I'd like to think that the 235 lb RB is going to win the battle with the CB when he needs 6 inches to score a TD. Especially since Hughes was miffed that he got taken out the last time he failed to punch in a TD. The next 2 games should be easy and hopefully Clausen doesn't have to play the whole game either time. But that Pitt game is going to be a real tough match-up. Hopefully the defense keeps improving and can figure out how to get someone within 10 feet of the QB fewer than 25 seconds after the snap.

You don't think that was the right call? 4th and goal from inside the 1 with ND's offense. That's a great call and I hope, when faced with the same situation again, Weis goes for it again. I just hope he doesn't have Robert Hughes, who must be about the 10th best offensive player on the team, taking the direct snap. BTW - if he doesn't get drilled in the head, he might have the sense to hold the ball over the line. But he was pretty woozy after that hit.

that's insane

john stockton's camel toe thinks your post is ridiculous. http://hardwoodhoudini.com/files/2009/08/john-stockton-300b0518.jpg

I completely agree that the difference in production should be looked at more in depth - and I think most, if not all, teams will - but they're likely to play a factor, just like Bradford's injury this season will even if it is fully healed by the combine. Production shouldn't be the most important factor, but it will be a factor. Sure it'll be a factor and it's probably the single biggest reason Clausen could return in '10. But I doubt it, since he's likely to be one of the first 2 QBs taken and a top 5 pick. But I have trouble with the idea that production as a freshman on a crap team has the same importance as 2 injuries, one requiring significant surgery, to the throwing shoulder of a QB. Seems that has a much bigger impact on draft status, or should, imo.

Bradford has the measureables too, but I guess Clausen does have the stronger arm. Playing in a pro-style offense definitely helps Clausen, but the numbers are vastly on Bradford's side. I'll agree that this is all dependent on health, though. Both Bradford and Pike could fall a bit if they don't get healthy by or before the combine. Put Clausen on OU's team in '07 and Bradford on ND's team in '07 and see who has the better numbers. Clausen was starting with a ton of freshman behind a crap OL. Tate in '07 isn't anything like Tate is in '09. Bradford might be the better overall NFL QB, I don't think so, but he might be. If a team makes that pick based on Clausen's #s in '07 (or even '08), they're idiots.

Utah is a solid program. As a MSU fan I accept your apology for ragging on MSU about their sheduling. Also you should check out the ND scheduling during the Holtz years. They played some very good teams, but there was plenty of Army Navy and other crap sprinkled in Navy is always going to be on the schedule. If Navy is the worst team you play, you're doing just fine in scheduling strength.

Good point. Michigan State would beat 2/3 of the SEC and they are the 6th best team in the big ten. Why is Michigan State good now? A month ago everyone said they were crap. You're the one that kept saying they were not good. ND should be ashamed that the game was so close, blah blah. Of course Illinois and Northwestern on back to back weekends sure does help with the overall perception. I didn't say they were horrible, I said ND should beat them soundly, and if they were a really good team they would have, because MSU's talent level is not on our own. But it's been borne out that a) ND isn't really very good, and b) Weis is completely incapable of blowing a team out unless they're a bottom-feeder (Nevada this year, Washington last year). come on andy, you're killing me. you don't like people ragging on nd, but you rag on them as much as anyone. deep breaths.

If his numbers reflected a guy who played 162 games, against righties and lefties, I would agree. But he's a platoon player, and his numbers are propped up, to some extent, by very limited playing times against lefties. Thats' a lot of money for a platoon player who is going to be playing RF again. I don't know exactly how fangraphs calculates value, but they seem to think his value has been pretty close to his salary. Even if Kosuke is overpaid by a million or two, I'll take that over what Hendry might do with that salary.

yeah missed that one... looks like the line is about even. i will probably pick iowa because they apparently cannot lose. Indiana at Northwestern isn't a game of note (relative to this board)? maybe i should have said "games of note to me" because i sure as hell do not care about the dregs of the big ten. like illinois and purdue [just giving you a hard time]