Andy

Let's say the 6 BCS conference winners go. 2 spots left. Not a chance in horse hockey would the BE get one of the 2 remaining spots. That gives the SEC, Big 10 or 12 another team. Last year a 10-2 Rutgers or WV wouldn't have been seriously considered. The last 2 would have been either Michigan, Texas or LSU. Why, they travel. Or, it could've been that Michigan only had one loss and LSU played an absolutely murderous schedule. I'll give you Texas to some extent, that was mostly poll inertia.

WMU is supposed to be (for whatever it's worth) the best team in the MAC, so I'd expect them to put up a fight. Then again they lost to IU at home yesterday.

I'm impressed by both teams so far.

ND's juniors currently contributing: David Bruton - starting FS Paul Duncan - starting LT (you might recognize him as the guy who was committing holds and false starts all over the place last night) David Grimes - starting WR DJ Hord - backup WR Pat Kuntz - backup DT Kyle McCarthy - backup FS Asaph Schwapp - FB Michael Turkovich - G End of list. Charlie won with Ty's recruits - what was Ty's record with them again? His last two years, partly assembled with his classes, was 11-13 if you don't count the ass kicking in the Insight Bowl that he didn't coach. Darius Walker was not the featured back in 2004 because Ryan Grant was just so good. Jeff Samardzija caught like seven passes in two years under Willingham. Most of the decent players on the team now that Ty recruited never saw the field with him even though they were no worse than the idiots who were playing.

Games between ranked teams ----------------------------------- (1) USC at (14) Nebraska (8 pm, ABC) (22) Tennessee at (5) Florida (3:30 pm, CBS) (21) Boston College at (15) Georgia Tech (8 pm, ESPN2) Good Top 25 games ----------------------- (4) West Virginia at Maryland (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) (10) Ohio State at Washington (3:30 pm, ESPN) (16) Arkansas at Alabama (6:45 pm, ESPN) Fresno State at (19) Oregon (7 pm) (24) Hawaii at UNLV (9:30 pm) Top 25 mismatches ---------------------- Mid Tenn State at (2) LSU (8 pm) Utah State at (3) Oklahoma (3:30 pm) (6) Texas at C. Florida (3:30 pm, ESPN2) The Citadel at (7) Wisconsin (12 pm, Big 10) Louisiana Tech at (8) California (6:30 pm) (9) Louisville at Kentucky (6:30 pm, ESPN Classic) (11) UCLA at Utah (5 pm) Buffalo at (12) Penn State (12 pm, Big 10) Norfolk State at (13) Rutgers (3:30 pm) S.C. State at (17) South Carolina (7 pm) Ohio at (18) Virginia Tech (1:30 pm, ESPN360) Furman at (20) Clemson (1 pm) W. Carolina at (23) Georgia (1 pm) UL Monroe at (25) Texas A&M (7 pm) Other games of interest --------------------------- Pittsburgh at Michigan State (12 pm, ESPN) C. Michigan at Purdue (12 pm, ESPN2) Illinois at Syracuse (12 pm, ESPNU) Akron at Indiana (12 pm, Big 10) E. Michigan at N. Illinois (12 pm) Iowa at Iowa State (1:30 pm) W. Michigan at Missouri (2 pm) Notre Dame at Michigan (3:30 pm, ABC) Ball State at Navy (5 pm, CSTV) Ole Miss at Vanderbilt (7 pm) Toledo at Kansas (7 pm) Jacksonville State at Memphis (8 pm) Duke at Northwestern (8 pm, Big 10) Florida State at Colorado (10 pm, ESPN) N. Iowa at South Dakota State (8 pm) S. Illinois at S. Utah (8 pm) UC Davis at E. Washington (9 pm)

I suspect the genius's record will be close to the same as his predecessor's after three seasons. The difference is he will do it with flair and a couple of top 5 recuriting classes. Anyone even MENTION Ty Willingham and I'll punch them in the face. Do you know the extent of Notre Dame's senior class helping the team right now? Junior Jabbie - backup RB who's playing like 5 plays a game right now Joe Brockington - starting LB Maurice Crum - starting LB Ambrose Wooden - nickelback (who blows chunks BTW) Geoff Price - punter That's IT. Weis is working with a bunch of 20 year olds out there. The junior class is hardly any better. And that's because Willingham was too damn busy golfing to bother recruiting his last two offseasons as the coach. And his 2002 team was the luckiest in the history of sports as well as having a very good upperclassman group because Bob Davie actually didn't suck at recruiting. I swear, this is what I freaking hate about this crap. We start 0-2, get soundly beaten by two teams that should probably finish top 15 in the country, and everyone starts calling for the idiot coach who came before. This mess is still Ty's fault, and it will be until at least 2008. Derwood, Clausen's cockiness is a little thing called leadership. I don't know what you saw, but I don't remember seeing any mouth-running other than talking to his own team in the huddle. And yes, Charlie's playcalling was abysmal. We would have had a chance in the game if he'd taken the diapers off Jimmy sooner, because once he did was the only time we moved the ball all night. And Austin Scott was little but the beneficiary of a tired defense. What did ND's offense have, like, 6 three and outs in a row? They were beat by that time, and that's why Scott busted loose.

the prior story is not really a rarity. 2.40 ERA and 18 (should've been more) wins in his first full season is.

Ok, after watching the game and drinking my sorrows away: 1) Jimmy Clausen is LIGHT-YEARS ahead of where Quinn was as a freshman. I can't emphasize this enough. Once Charlie took the damn diapers off and let Jimmy actually throw (i.e. when it was too late), he looked incredible. He threw an absolutely perfect pass to Kamara in the endzone that he dropped, threw an amazing toss to Parris while being dragged down off his feet that Parris couldn't hold onto and didn't take even one risky chance. I've never seen a freshman look that good. 2) Other than Darrin Walls and possibly Tom Zbikowski, every other player on that team blew. God, that was embarrassing. The line was even worse than against GT, the running backs did less than nothing, the receivers couldn't catch a damn thing, etc. 3) I've never felt more pity in my life than I felt for that defense tonight. Once again, they kept coming up with big stops against PSU until the offense's absurd ineptitude took too much of a toll on them. 4) We'd better beat Michigan next week. Hard as it may be to believe, this team isn't THAT far from being good, and UM seems to have quit on the season.

That was thoroughly enjoyable - I'm headed to a friend's house to watch ND now. Go Irish.

We had better beat Michigan now. Has UM ever lost their first 2 home games of a season?

That was laughably bad defense. The statue of liberty play should've been stuffed in the backfield and the 4th and 2 play should have had no shot. Michigan looks dead out there, and so do the fans. :D

Here's the Big 10 so far today: OSU 3 Akron 2 - halftime Michigan St 14 Bowling Green 14 - 4 min left in half Nevada 14 Northwestern 7 - 4 min left in half Minnesota 14 Miami (OH) 9 - 4 min left in half Purdue 31 Crappy Div I-AA team 3 - 3 min left in half

3-2 Ohio State now, Akron ball at their own 20, 3:30 left in the half

How the hell are we in first?

that is an unbelievably easy choice. WE ARE ND!

It's still 2-0 early in the 2nd though the Buckeyes have the ball now. ETA: Akron just picked OSU deep in their own territory for the 2nd time in the game!

Marshall 13 WVU 6 at half Akron 2 Ohio State 0 6 minutes left 1st quarter, Akron ball :D

Holtz is an idiot because our defense is not the reason we will lose tomorrow, and May is an idiot because ND gave up all of 9 points on 4 red zone trips last week until Justin Brown decided to start headbutting people.

I didn't vote because I honestly don't know. I'd like to wait until after marriage, but financially, emotionally, etc. it seems to make more sense to do so.

I'm still holding out hope the Cubs can rip off a long win streak :wink:

Despite the likely outcome Saturday, I'm psyched to see Jimmy start his career as a starting QB. I'm sure he'll do fine even if the rest of the team doesn't.

Crap, I'm in the maximum number of groups

As predictable as Mulder's 6 ER's? As predictable as Maroth's 1.2 IP start? You mean the 1.2 IP start that you won? You mean the Mulder that's coming off a huge-ass layoff? Pitchers who get injured for a long time sometimes don't do well immediately? Huh, how about that. (Sorry for my tone, I'm in a bitter mood toward baseball at the moment)

I am, and for the record I picked Indy -6.5 tonight

How the hell are we in first? BTW, I won't be watching this game, I'm going to a movie instead. Maybe it'll change our luck.