Andy

10-7 Panthers. Stewart and Williams spearheading that drive nicely.

Delhomme not sucking so far today. 3-0 Panthers. Richard Marshall intercepted Matt Ryan, but the Falcons just blocked a Carolina punt.

Yeah, PSU/Iowa and ND/Purdue were always the 8 pm games. PSU gets the ABC slot basically because they're the highest-ranked team of the four.

Top 25 games --------------------------- (1) Florida at Kentucky (6 pm, ESPN2) UTEP at (2) Texas (3:30 pm, FSN/CSN) Arkansas at (3) Alabama (3:30 pm, CBS) (4) Ole Miss at South Carolina (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) Iowa at (5) Penn State (8 pm, ABC) (6) California at Oregon (3:30 pm, ABC - Regional) (7) LSU at Mississippi State (12 pm, SEC Network) (8) Boise State at Bowling Green (7 pm, ESPN 360) (9) Miami at (11) Virginia Tech (3:30 pm, ABC – Regional) Washington State at (12) USC (10:15 pm, FSN/CSN) Illinois at (13) Ohio State (3:30 pm, ABC - Regional) Fresno State at (14) Cincinnati (12 pm, SNY) (15) TCU at Clemson (3:30 pm, ESPN 360) Grambling at (16) Oklahoma State (7 pm) Texas Tech at (17) Houston (9:15 pm, ESPN2) South Florida at (18) Florida State (12 pm, ESPNU) Colorado State at (19) BYU (6 pm, The Mountain) Southern Miss at (20) Kansas (12 pm, FSN/CSN) Arizona State at (21) Georgia (7 pm, ESPNU) (22) North Carolina at Georgia Tech (12 pm, Raycom Sports) Indiana at (23) Michigan (12 pm, ESPN2) (24) Washington at Stanford (9 pm, FCS Pacific) UL Lafayette at (25) Nebraska (7 pm, FSN PPV) Games of interest ---------------------------- Missouri at Nevada (9 pm Friday, ESPN) Minnesota at Northwestern (12 pm, BTN) Michigan State at Wisconsin (12 pm, ESPN) Idaho at Northern Illinois (3:30 pm, CSN Chicago) UL Monroe at Florida Atlantic (4 pm) Ohio at Tennessee (7 pm, ESPN 360) North Carolina Central at Duke (7 pm) Northwestern State at Baylor (7 pm) Army at Iowa State (7 pm) Hofstra at Western Michigan (7 pm) Louisville at Utah (7:30 pm, CBS College) Ball State at Auburn (7:30 pm, CSN South) Notre Dame at Purdue (8 pm, ESPN) Other nationally available games ------------------------------------------ Rhode Island at UConn (12 pm, ESPN 360) Buffalo at Temple (12 pm, ESPN 360) Wake Forest at Boston College (2 pm, ESPN 360) San Diego State at Air Force (2 pm, The Mountain) Akron at Central Michigan (3:30 pm, ESPN 360) Rutgers at Maryland (3:30 pm, ESPN 360) Pittsburgh at NC State (3:30 pm, ESPNU) Western Kentucky at Navy (3:30 pm, CBS College) Troy at Arkansas State (4:30 pm, ESPN 360) Arizona at Oregon State (7:30 pm, Versus) New Mexico State at New Mexico (10 pm, The Mountain) Non I-A games of interest --------------------------------- Northern Iowa at Missouri State (2 pm) North Dakota State at Southern Illinois (7 pm) Western Oregon at UC Davis (9 pm) Nationally available games outside I-A ------------------------------------------------- Wingate at Tusculum (8 pm Thursday, CBS College) Cornell at Yale (12 pm, Versus)

Notre Dame actually lost about half their votes. Guess the AP doesn't think much of MSU either.

1 Florida (55) 3-0 1488 2 Texas (2) 3-0 1428 3 Alabama (3) 3-0 1390 4 Mississippi 2-0 1213 5 Penn State 3-0 1212 6 California 3-0 1169 7 LSU 3-0 1120 8 Boise State 3-0 1038 9 Miami (FL) 2-0 920 10 Oklahoma 2-1 862 11 Virginia Tech 2-1 852 12 USC 2-1 825 13 Ohio State 2-1 810 14 Cincinnati 3-0 739 15 TCU 2-0 674 16 Oklahoma State 2-1 478 17 Houston 2-0 455 18 Florida State 2-1 363 19 Brigham Young 2-1 349 20 Kansas 3-0 347 21 Georgia 2-1 318 22 North Carolina 3-0 271 23 Michigan 3-0 247 24 Washington 2-1 194 25 Nebraska 2-1 132

I'm thoroughly embarrassed that I completely missed putting the VT/Nebraska game on this week's schedule. This sort of thing will not happen again. :)

Twice yesterday he was sacked, but yes, the O-line's done a fantastic job. I said when Jimmy was limping around that the line better do a good job blocking because he wasn't going to be able to run, and they did - he took one or two hits but other than that had time.

Why non ND fans hate ND. Michigan freaking State!! I hate to mention this but the only thing that ND has in their resume from the last 10 yrs that makes them better than MSU is 2 BCS appearances that they would have not received if they were not ND(and MSU beat them one of those years). I should be upset that our terrible defense gave up so much to Notre freaking Dame. You blame the recent bad streak on bad ND coaching without even looking at who MSU had coaching since Sabean left. Here is the truth...Notre Dame is at the same competitive level as MSU and has been for at least 10 years. and yes, Jimmy Clausen is real good "Michigan freaking State" lost to Central Michigan. That's why I called them that. They don't have a QB (the old adage about if you have 2 QB's...). And regarding 'the streak', I know full well MSU's been coached by idiots in that time. Shockingly, I'm more concerned with posting about my own team and their situation than I am about MSU, though. This gives me something in common with EVERY SINGLE COLLEGE FOOTBALL FAN IN AMERICA. But somehow it makes me the smug ND fan and the reason non-ND fans hate us - because I dare to pay attention to them more than the other 119 teams.

Michigan State's defense, such as it is, is still better than any defense McCoy or Tebow has faced so far except Tennessee (and Tebow didn't put up very good numbers against them at all), so I don't see your point.

I would say there was a very little chance of a BCS bowl before the season started. Their offense has looked extremely impressive. The defense though, not so much. I'm hesitant to use the H-word (especially because the media has preordained it a two-man race between McCoy and Tebow), but Jimmy Clausen has been absolutely phenomenal this season. Over 900 yards, nine touchdowns, no picks, and 22/31 today marks his worst completion percentage of the year.

So I didn't realize ND's defense was just reverting to "completely crappy" after the Nevada game. Jon Tenuta should be fired immediately for giving up 450+ to Michigan freaking State. That was an awesome ending and a "thank-God" win to get the stupid streak off our backs, but with Floyd out, very little chance of getting to a BCS game unless ND can gut out wins over all their non-USC opponents until he gets back. Hopefully Jimmy is ok, he was limping around the last 2 1/2 quarters of the game and is getting x-rays on his foot this week. Golden Tate can stop dropping the ball any time now. Glad he got it together in time to catch the game winning TD.

The easiest prediction of the week is a team that lost to a MAC team last week beating a team that's rolled up nearly 1,000 yards of offense in two games? At their place? If it weren't for this ridiculous streak, which can almost completely be blamed on Davie and Willingham (the only good ND team MSU has beaten in this streak was 2005), no one would be giving Michigan State a chance.

Of course he will.

Who's spot-starting today?

I don't think Va Tech should be a top 20 team in any poll for the record. That's why I said that - they were dominated by Bama even if the score didn't reflect it. I don't understand how Miami could possibly be ranked 8th when their only game so far was a 4-point win over a team that should've lost to freaking Jacksonville State. There is no way to justify that.

I disagree. At least that's actually based on the results on the field, and not some imaginary level of competency assigned to a team in the preseason. If on-field results lead you to believe that Virginia Tech or Missouri are top 20 teams right now, then your system is wrong. If on-field results lead to Miami being a top 10 team, the system is wrong.

I finally won a damn game thread start. Now that that's done, I expect the Cubs to lose today. It's this poser http://www.rightfieldbleachers.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/looper1.jpg and this guy http://espn-ak.starwave.com/media/videogames/photo/2007/0320/mlb2k7_harden.jpg Why not keep winning?

I'm not focusing on it just because it went against us, and I don't think it cost us the game (surely not any more than giving up a kickoff return for a score and an unforced fumble in our own territory did). I posted it because no one in the supposedly pro-ND media is running with the story and otherwise no one else would know about it, and also to emphasize how shady refs have been and continue to be at UM (for no reason I can think of, ND/UM is the only contract I know of in college football where the home team gets to pick the refs).

MSU lost to CMU. Although Central is probably the best team in the MAC, that ain't saying much. I think ND will crush them. If there is one thing Michigan State has proven beyond reasonable doubt, it's that their performances against other teams have nothing to do with their performance against Notre Dame. Hell, in 2005 they were terrible, but played like world-beaters in South Bend. In 2006 they weren't much better but played like world-beaters for two and a half quarters. I fully expect they will play well above their heads like usual. (ND should still beat them. But they 'should' beat them a lot of times.)

Posting without comment. I wouldn't even post this - I hate coming off like I'm pissing and moaning about the refs, especially when we had every opportunity to make this call not matter - but it doesn't look like any major media outlets are going to pick it up. Big East says Allen TD reversal was wrong call Picture of best angle ABC's cameras had. About as close as it gets. http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y270/goirishss9/AAfootinbounds.jpg

Over/Under installed at 4.5 on Jake Delhomme turnovers this week

Perhaps because Andy and Garfield cartoonist Jim Davis both went to Ball State.Pretty much. Found one of him with a baseball bat so I figured what the hell.

This dude http://www.blogcdn.com/mlb.fanhouse.com/media/2008/11/yovani-gallardo-nlds-180.jpg vs This dude http://www.largefeet.com/images/famous_faces/carlos_zambrano_family.jpg Just playin' out the string...

I don't hate the Pats like most people do, but I really wish I rooted for a team that was that [expletive] lucky. They seem to get crap like that all the time.