I’m just now leaving from ND’s victory over Purdue and wanted to get some initial thoughts down before I celebrate too hard. Forgive the brevity as well since this is being composed completely via iPhone.

First off, a win is a win, but ND essentially handed 16 points away. Floyd’s fumble should have been an eventual TD. The safety was rather inexcusable as well. That safety also led to a poor free kick that set up Purdue’s TD. These mistakes made the final far closer than it should have been and ND cannot expect to continue to win making them.

Next on the list is Crist. Overall, I was happy with his performance, but a couple of things stood out. The main thing that jumped at me was how he acted against blitzes. Instead of finding the hot receiver, Crist’s first reaction was to run instead of taking a hit on a throw. His accuracy also needs a tad bit of work as the two overthrows to a fairly open Floyd in the endzone. I chalk most of this up to inexperience and trying to kick off some rust at the beginning of a season. It’ll be interesting to see the adjustments Kelly takes with his young QB.

The defense was the best surprise all game. They got constant pressure on the QB and had very few lapses. After watching the Tenuta blitz-happy defense fail to deliver on sacks, it was quite refreshing to see an opposing QB flat on his back most of the game. Granted, Purdue is far from an amazing offense, but they did their jobs well and I expected then to give up far more points than they did.

My main complaint is with T’eo. I love his aggressive nature, but he tried to land a knockout blow far too often, resulting in several missed tackles. It appeared that Kelly got a hold of him at one point (hard to tell which coach it was from my seat), but he did settle back in during crunch-time.

Darren Walls, holy crap. I see why he was named defensive captain now. Solid effort all around for him.

Kyle Rudolph is definitely going to be Crist’s security blanket. Some big time third down conversions from him.

Theo Riddick needs to work on his hands. I know he is adjusting to his new role, but a couple of his drops were inexcusable.

Cierre Wood is good at football. His first touches had Purdue reeling.

Special teams are finally not “special”. Well, save for the flea-flicker style punt that had my whole section WTF’ing.

Vegas always knows. ND was favored by 11. We won by 11. Hate you handicappers.

Oh yeah, Purdue still sucks and that big-ass drum is still stupid as hell.

Bring on the Skunkbears.

Yes, two football posts in the same day! Excitement is building for sure (or I’m just trying to get in all the ideas I’ve had for a while before I go on vacation).

As I mentioned in my last post, if you aren’t used to following me on Twitter during the football season, you might be in for a rather interesting surprise. In all honesty, when I tweet during a football game you are pretty much getting online what you would if you were sitting next to me in person: a drunken fan making way too many jokes and using far too much profanity.

While I’m sure that is pretty par for the Twitter course, there are also a handful of fun hashtags that I love to use as well. For those not up on the Twitter lingo, here’s the quick lesson: a hashtag is written like “#NDFB”, and that becomes a clickable search to see anyone else tweeting with said hashtag. Think of it as a quick community search. However, some of my creations and those of others aren’t too well known or are used for pure humor. To prevent head-scratching (and hopefully further use of these awesome hashtags), I figured this post would be a good primer (and I believe the NDAlumni account did something similar…with a lot less profanity and hate…so uh…mine is more fun!).

So without further ado, here is some of what you might see throughout this football season in no particular order:

#NDFB – AKA Norte Dame Football. Twitter needs character saving and this is only five and therefore it wins. I do believe HerLoyalSons attempted to push this last year and if they didn’t, I’ll say they did anyways. This will pretty much be on the end of all ND tweets in and out of the game. Love it, use it, band together ND Nation.

#Cannon – I can’t claim credit for this amazing nickname; however, NDEddieMac deserves to have his genius shared. Cannon is none other than Michael Floyd, whose explosive plays can be compared too…well, being shot out of a Cannon. With Tate gone this season, I expect to see this hashtag appear in jubilation with regularity throughout the season.

#Cannon4Heisman / #Floyd4Heisman – Both are self explanatory. Both are appropriate. Spread the word folks.

#DIAF – This one is more common for anger in general. Stands for “Die in a Fire”. Expect this to be used in the general direction of many referees, Lee Corso, and Mark May.

#Kiffykins – Nickname for the head son of a bitch coach at Southern Cal, Lane Kiffin. Often used in conjunction with his many secondary violations or other circus acts he is sure to preform this year.

#FUSC / #FSouthernCal – Should be self-explanatory. Suggested to use #FSouthernCal when possible as the Trojans seem to hate being called Southern Cal. I know that 140 character limit can be harsh, which is why #FUSC works as well. If at all possible, use both for maximum hatred. May also be used in conjunction with #DIAF and #Kiffykins to send hatred levels even higher.

#CheatOn / #CheatForever – “Fight On” and “Win Forever” are now replaced by these more appropriate slogans for Southern Cal.

#MuckFichigan – Self-explanatory if you are good with anagrams or dyslexic.

#NDFBIsDeterminedToKillMe – This one I can claim credit for creating. Since ND decided that every game past Nevada was going to be a damned heart attack until the end last season, this came into existence. In fact, it’s been extended to pretty much any sports team I follow. This better not ever become trending…

Non-ND Related Hashtags:

#WarEagle – I’m watching an Auburn game. Hey, my sister goes there, get off me.

#GigEm – I’m watching a Texas A&M game. That’s the Texas school that I’ll cheer for.

#SawEmOff – Anti-Longhorn hashtag. Likely will be used in conjunction with me calling Texas “TU” instead of “UT”. It’s an Aggie thing.

That’s what I can think off of the top of my head. I’m sure we will be creating some more fun hashtags of hilarity and hate throughout the season as well as making many ridiculous ones using the name of Dayne Crist. If I left something out or you have your own hashtag genius that you wish to share, play along in the comments section.

The first three football weekends I will be traveling (twice at the games, once on a vacation), so I’m not sure how many tweets I will squeeze in come gametime. However, believe me, I will indeed be very active on the Twitter-front!

Tweet like a champion today! #HolyCornyHellICantBelieveIJustSaidThat

Ok, video game nerd posts are done for the time being.  Time to switch gears to sports nerd.

Football officially starts tomorrow and the only football that matters starts this Saturday at 3:30pm EST as the Brian Kelly era kicks off in South Bend.  I hear they are even bringing in the largest drum in the world simply to herald his arrival.

For those new to this blog, and how I write Irish football, allow me to paint a quick picture of what you will see here.  Firstly, as we gear up for gameday, expect sarcastic and downright insulting comments to our opponents more often than not (especially for rivalry games).  Sure, I’ll toss in some actual analysis in the middle of it, but college football is no fun unless you get the masses riled up and piss off an opponent here and there.  Afterward, expect (most of) the sarcasm to stop as I’ll break down the game as best I can.  I’d like to think myself a decent voice of reason when it comes to ND and do attempt to back up my opinions as best I can in stats and what I see on the field.

If you are following me on Twitter for the first time this season, God help you.  There will be a whole other post dedicated to that (seriously).

Anyways, on to this little “rivalry” game in which a far inferior school in Indiana tries to take a stick trophy away from us.

Trying to do a pre-game analysis on this is a bit rough because, well…I have no idea what to expect.  Trying to read into spring games and practices can be a real fool’s errand.  This time around, even trying to read too much into last season’s matchup won’t help too much since we are running an entirely different offense, with an entirely different QB.  Even our defense is getting a shakeup as we are back to the 3-4 after running whatever-the-hell-that-hybrid-Tenuta-defense-that-sucked-so-much-ass was last season.

However, I do think there are a few things I think I can say with some confidence that we will see and should look for this weekend.

Firstly, the offense should be just fine, especially in this game.  Remember when Dayne Crist came into the game last season and lead a spread option attack all over Purdue?  Yep, I do too.  Granted he didn’t pass that much; however, we have a small glimpse of what we can see.  Unless Purude’s rushing defense did some major overhauling in the offseason this could end very, very badly for them.  Weis was no spread option master (see: 2007 and Detmetrius Jones); however, Kelly has made a living and got the ND job running this scheme.  If we don’t put up big numbers on Purdue, I will be shocked, and my liver will be in grave danger.

Next comes the offensive line.  Yes, I know it is a part of the offense, but considering that this has been a major issue for quite a while (read: we haven’t been able to run the ball worth a damn), it needs its own category.  Kelly started off his opening presser by talking about all kinds of workout stats and they were beyond impressive.  Thankfully, football is one of those games in which being bigger, stronger, and faster than the other guy usually equals success.  So if our new coaching staff has been able to teach our boys how to block without holding, we should be in phenomenal shape this time around and seriously be able to throw our weight around (finally).

Not only that, but ND has two big things helping the O-line this time around.  Firstly, Kelly’s running game relies on reads and misdirection.  If you remember back to the Weis era, this was how we actually were able to have any success in the running game.  Combine a ton of misdirection with a stronger and quicker O-line and a shitty run defense and good things should happen.  Secondly, we are going to run defenses, starting with Purdue, ragged with our offensive pace (and shorter commercial breaks /CueWorthlessBitchingFromEveryoneElse).  In the second half, I fully expect us to be the team in better shape to close out, and most importantly, not blow games (and hopefully not giving me any more damned heart attacks).

As for our defense, all I have are two words of solid analysis for you: MANTI T’EO.

Now for the opponent analysis: Robert Marve.  Good Lord, where do I begin here… Not that I doubt the kid has talent, but he is being thought of ever so highly as the QB that will be the savior of Purdue and lead them to glory.  Why do I laugh at this Miami transfer?  Well:

At Miami, Marve threw more interceptions than touchdowns and didn’t play in the bowl game because he was academically ineligible. But his strong arm and mobility stand out.

Then there’s that swagger.

Just let the bold sink into your head for a bit.  Purdue’s great hope is a guy that not only has a crappy TD/INT ratio, but also managed to make himself academically ineligible…at the U.  Really?

But hold on! He has that “swagger”.  The only thing that aggravates the piss out of more college football fans than ND being remotely mentioned in anything national (remember folks, we are irrelevant), it would be the “reemergence” of the “U swagger” (that is still non-existent and an insult to the thugs of their glory days).  Marve was part of said “swagger revival” by leading the U to a stunning 7-5 record only to screw himself out of the bowl game and then have his coaching staff decide he wasn’t good enough for U swagger, strating Jacoby Harris instead in 2009.

Where the hell is his so-called swagger coming from again?  Actually, the better question is why is Purdue so damn excited to catch a Hurricon reject?

Oh wait…Purdue went 5-7 and 4-8 the last two seasons.  I take that back, this is exactly the kind of glory Purdue has been waiting for.

Enjoy it Boilers!

Completely non-biased, non-homer Prediction that I didn’t pull out of my ass: Irish 38 – Purdue 20

Yeah, so I had this “brilliant” idea a few months back that pretty much blew up in my face.  As usual when I start writing something, it ends up as a much bigger project than I originally planned.  Excuses aside though, I hate leaving loose ends open.  Now, no I don’t have the full detailed posts finish for my little Final Fantasy countdown and honestly (and I’m not sure when I’ll complete them…), but I figured I could post the rest of my list and give some brief descriptions.

Why so brief? Well, football season starts this weekend and the Texas Rangers look poised for their first playoff run since 1999.  I might be a huge gaming nerd, but I’m an even bigger sports nerd.  I’m the most active on this site during football season and I love writing about ND Football more than anything (and most of my readers it seems).  So that’s where my focus will be.

Anyways, enough talking, here’s the remaining list.

6. Final Fantasy XII

One of the more adventurous entries in the series.  Square-Enix turned the usual battle system completely on its head and introduced the Gambit system and Active Dimension Battle, allowing for programmable AI control as well as full positioning control of the party in seamless battle.  The system was met with mixed reviews that spanned every part of the opinion spectrum.  Personally, I liked the system a lot, but wished the Gambit system had been just a bit more robust in its AI programming (blame it on the computer nerd in me).

As for the characters and story, it too took a different direction than the rest of the series.  The “main character”, Vaan, really had very little to do with the story.  He is merely telling the story of Ashe and the war she has been thrust in the middle of from his point of view.  Unlike other entries in the series, it is also hard to say who the “bad guy” is.  Although the main antagonist is Vayne, a group of god-like beings, the Occuria, are also revealed to be pulling the strings of humanity throughout history, including Ashe.  Thanks to a “hertic” Occuria, Venat, Vayne is able to obtain the power to fight against the Occuria’s plans; however, the cost of doing so would be a massive war the likes of which the world has never seen.  Eventually, Ashe and company find their own way to stop Vayne, stopping the Occuria’s control of man as well as a massive war.  My general opinion of the story was that it was decent, but short.  I liked that it was something different; however, I felt as if there were several other arcs that could’ve been discovered.

The game also featured a group of side-quests called Hunts that allowed for the player to fight some of the toughest monsters the game had to offer.  This system was a game within the game that unfortunately not too many players fully went into (myself included).  While a great system, the short story does not quite lend itself to any real desire of exploring these fights other to say you did it.

In the end, the game had some absolutely fantastic elements to it; however, the story really brought it down for me.  It wasn’t until the very end until I really felt like I got into it and for me, Final Fantasy games are primary story driven.  That is the main reason this game got drug down on this list.

5. Final Fantasy V

While the story wasn’t anything too special, it was far from horrible.  There were plenty of twists throughout that kept me very engaged in the game.  However, this game will be forever lauded for taking the job system of Final Fantasy III and damn near perfecting it.  Like Final Fantasy III, the player could always change jobs whenever they wished; however, abilities from jobs could be mixed and matched.

This concept alone still makes Final Fantasy V a joy to play and allows for players to take completely different approaches on multiple playthroughs as well as multiple different strategies on how to approach the game.  The system was also beyond simple to grasp, offering very little learning curve.  Not only that, the job system continues to blossom throughout the game, with more jobs unlocking throughout the story (including “hidden” jobs unlocked in side-quests).

With this revamped job system so well woven into a pretty decent story, Final Fantasy V stands the test of time and still stands out as one of the very best in the Final Fantasy series.

4. Final Fantasy VII

This game marked the birth of the “next-gen” or “modern” Final Fantasy game.  Despite this game often being slammed for honestly having nothing more than “rabid fanboys” screaming its praises, Final Fantasy VII took the Final Fantasy series to another level.

Of course, the biggest of these changes was largely visual.  Fans of the series were wowed by the CGI sequences used to tell the story.  The expansive city of Midgar, in which the game’s opening arc occurs, is only but part of a far larger world.  Weapons like Cloud’s massive Buster Sword, Barret’s machine gun arm, and Sephorith’s ridiculously long katana served as quite the eye-popping armament for the game’s cast.

The story itself also is one of my favorites.  Initially, the main protagonist Cloud is a mercenary hired by the small environmental group AVALANCE to help strike a blow to the Shinra Electric Company by blowing up one of their Mako reactors.  Mako, Shinra’s electric invention has caused the city of Midgar to prosper greatly, but the AVALANCE group sees the truth behind the new-found electrical source–it is killing the very life of the Planet itself.

As the game goes on, it becomes clear Shinra had their hands in a few other questionable technological practices.  Their elite fighting force, SOLDIER, were infused directly with Mako, and in some cases, subject to genetic experiments.  And thanks to finding the remains of an ancient being known as Jenova, they were able to create soldiers whose abilities were practically super-human.  Although this little practice eventually creates the main-antagonist, Sephorith, who, in events before the game, snaps once he finds out about the horrible experiments that created him and sought to destroy life on the planet with a meteor.  He believe if he placed himself at the center of this massive strike, the Lifestream, the true source of Mako energy, would attempt to heal the Planet and he would be able to merge with this power to become a god.

The combination of an iconic villain,  amazing graphics, some of the most memorable music in the series, actually killing off one of the main characters in the game (SPOILER: ARIES DIES), and a story that has spawned three additional games and a full-length movie help to place this as one of the best Final Fantasy in the series.  Several other additions such as the optional “Weapon” super-bosses, the virtual playground that was the Gold Saucer, and the Limit Break system helped to set this game apart as well.  Even the materia system was a simple, yet effective way to customize each character in a different fashion.

3. Final Fantasy X

If Final Fantasy VII defined the “modern” Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy X defined what a “next-gen” Final Fantasy should be.  With yet another graphical quality jump, Final Fantasy X was also the first Final Fantasy to feature full voice-over.  For the most part, the voice-overs were pretty good for a first attempt, even if it did create on of the most awkward scenes ever.

Final Fantasy X also took a big risk with its battle system.  The now traditional Active Time Battle reverted to a completely turn based battle, even to the point of being able to see the order of who would attack when (including enemies).  On top of that, the player was free to swap members in and out of the party at will in the middle of battle.  Much to my surprise, this system worked flawlessly and actually made me use more of the cast in battle than I usually ever do in a Final Fantasy game.

The story as well was very well done as well, despite the games major drawback of having one of the most annoying main characters ever (seriously, Tidus. Is. AWFUL.).  Tidus is trust into a strange world and seemingly is tossed back in time, going from being a blitzball superstar in the technology advanced Zanarkand, to being in a small beach village without a single machine in sight.  He finds himself in the middle of an epic struggle between a large monstrous entity known as Sin and the rest of the people of the world, Spira.  He learns that this struggle has gone on for several centuries, and the summoners of the land train and hope to defeat Sin to give the people of Spira a 20 year “Calm”.  However, this Calm is temporary as Sin returns yet again after each 20 year period.  Not only that, the defeat of Sin means a summoner must call their “Final Aeon” which, in turn, takes their life.

As the story progresses, Tidus falls in love with the summoner seemingly destined to bring about the next calm, Yuna.  Tidus not understanding the ways of this strange world tries to figure out a way in which he can save her, as well as returning home to Zanarkand, whom everyone keeps trying to tell him has long since been a wasteland.  The game’s climax hits once the party finally arrives at Zanarkand.  Tidus learns it was indeed destoryed, learning that he hasn’t been thrown back into the past, but rather the future.  Later on, he finds out the Zanarkand he knows was nothing more than a dream of the Fayth whom remembered the old days.

The surprises don’t end there.  Although Tidus knew for some time, thanks to another party member Auron, that Sin was his own hated father, Jecht, is was never clear how this happened.  As Yuna reaches the end of her pilgrimage, all is revealed.  She must choose someone to become her Final Aeon to destroy Sin; however, doing so would cause that person to become the monstrous beast in 20 years.  It is at this point, it becomes clear that the religion of Yu Yevon they all followed and sacrifices that all summoners had made was nothing more than a vicious cycle of control that had no point.  Yuna refuses to create her Final Aeon and chooses to find a different way to destroy Sin without sacrificing herself or her friends.

Eventually, the party goes directly inside of Sin, meeting up with Tidus’ father Jecht.  Father and son eventually reconcile; however, Jecht says that he still must be destroyed, otherwise, Sin will never die and he will eventually become Sin completely, soon having no memory of who he is.  With this knowledge, the party is then forced to face off against Jecht’s Final Aeon form.  His death cripples Sin internally and is destroyed; however, their work is still not done.  Upon Jecht’s death, the entity known as Yu Yevon begins possessing each of Yuna’s aeons one-by-one, forcing the party to destroy all of them.  With nowhere left to run, Yu Yevon finally appears in his true form and the party destroys it, ending Spira’s scourge forever.  Doing this however, destroys the dreaming Fayth, causing Tidus to disappear from his love for good (until Final Fantasy X-2 comes along and shits all over this ending).

Despite my legitimate annoyance for the game’s main protagonist, the story was still solid enough to have me enjoy it.  With a solid battle system, simple leveling system (even if you could eventually make clones out of everyone), and a rather fun take on the limit break system with overdrives, this game raised the bar once again for Final Fantasy titles.

2. Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII took a very modern approach to not only the game, but the stories, weapons, and settings were all very modern in nature.  To say it was moving away from settings and stories that felt very much not Final Fantasy was an understatement.  Therefore, with Final Fantasy IX it was time to go back to basics.  The crystal made it’s return into the story (and the game’s logo) after a two game (and arguably three game) absence.  The time setting was back to a more medieval age.  Non-human characters were trust back into the mix, including Vivi who was among a group of black mages that were an homage in style to the original Final Fantasy sprite.  The character’s themselves were not proportioned in any life-like way as they all looked very much like a 3-d versions of sprites.  Finally, all characters reverted back into traditional Final Fantasy jobs that could not be changed and the battle party was back to the more traditional four character setup.

The move worked, brilliantly–a modern Final Fantasy could indeed have that “old school feel”.

The battle system tossed in some of the old with some of the new.  The ATB battle system made its return yet again, with each character having separate special abilities depending on their static job.  The twist though was that abilities could be both equipped and learned.  As opposed to previous games in which you needed to hit a certain physical or job level to learn certain spells and abilities, in Final Fantasy IX, you simply needed the rest piece of equipment.  Said abilities could still be learned permanently by earning enough AP through battle; however, it was not required.  This allowed the player to still customize their characters in a very unique way: learning everything possible, learning only essential abilities, or learning nothing and changing equipment/abilities as they go.  The limit break system also made its return, this time bearing the new name of “Trance”, a transformation that allowed for powerful new abilities to be unlocked for a few rounds.

As usual with the games this far into the countdown, I’m a huge fan of the story.  The plot itself is fairly standard for the Final Fantasy realm: one person seeks to take over everything, we find out someone else is pulling the strings, and then said person seeks to rule/destroy the world himself.  There are of course a few twists specific to this game.  World domination is sought by Queen Brahne, adopted mother of the female lead, Garnet, who uses the classic summons (in this game called Eidolons) in order to literally wipe entire cities off the map.  It is thought that a “weapons dealer”, Kuja, is pulling the strings; however, in a surprising move, Brahne tries to eliminate Kuja to keep everything for herself and Kuja promptly destroys her.  Soon, the party learns that a man/android named Garland (hello again old Final Fantasy reference) from a strange world called Terra was giving orders to Kuja.  However, Garland turns on Kuja and abandons him, telling him he forgot his true purpose.

Once the party arrives on Terra, that purpose is explained.  Terra was dying, and the planet’s survival called for the assimilation of another planet, and that target was Gaia, the party’s home world.  Garland saw how Gaia continually warred so he created a species called Genomes to house the assimilated souls of the Gaian that the Terrans could take over.  However, war stopped, so he created another Genome to incite massive war on Gaia, Kuja.  However, he created Kuja as mortal, and created Zidane, the game’s main character to eventually replace Kuja.  Jealous of this, Kuja kidnapped Zidane and abandoned him on Gaia, one of several acts of rebellion that eventually caused Garland to turn on him.  Angered his creator betrayed him, Kuja mastered the power of trance and destroyed Garland and eventually Terra.  From the grave, Garland warned Kuja his plans of world domination were worthless as, unlike other Genomes, Kuja was created mortal, hence the need for someone like Zidane.  Tossed into a further rage, Kuja sought to destroy everything if he could not have eternal rule, seeking to destroy the center of all life in the universe, the crystal.

Zidane and company eventually track down Kuja and stop him; however, his death spawns a mysterious godlike-entity called Necron whom, witnessing Kuja’s desire to end all life determined that all life eventually seeks death.  Therefore, it was going to be so kind and stomp out all life in the universe to stop what it saw as a pointless cycle.  One of the toughest boss battles in any Final Fantasy series begins, and the party eventually defeats their last surprise foe.

Beyond just the basic plot, all the characters are rather well developed as well.  Zidane has his mysterious past as a Terran, as well as his love for Garnet.  Garnet struggles with her past as one of the last surviving summoners, as well as her responsibilities as a princess and later queen.  Vivi struggles with the meaning of his life and existence itself, seeing as he was one of many mass-produced black mages.  Those are just three of the major examples that stand out, and the game does a fantastic job in allowing the player to get into each character.

In the end, Final Fantasy IX did a fantastic job of paying homage to the classic games that came before it while creating a fantastic universe with a great story and fantastic characters.  The game play was extremely fun, allowing hardcore grinders and more causal players alike several different paths in which to play the game.  If you have a PS3/PSP and a PSN account, this game is available for $9.99.  If you haven’t played it, buy it now.  Seriously.

1. Final Fantasy VI

And now we finally hit the end of the countdown that lasted months instead of a couple of weeks with the game I consider the pinnacle of the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy VI.  The gameplay was simple, grab your party of four with each character having a unique ability.  Beyond that, you could further customize your characters by choosing which magic spells they could learn and enhance their stats for the first time ever through accessories.  The plotline itself was also very simple: there’s an evil empire hell-bent on world domination through the control of magic.  One psychopath in said empire completely upends it and his rule of terror must be stopped.

In this game though, the difference is in the characters.

Starting with the game’s villain, Kefka is unlike the other villains in the Final Fantasy series.  He doesn’t just seek god-like power, he obtains it.  He doesn’t try to destroy the world, the flat out does it.  He doesn’t dream of ruling the world, he does, and with an iron fist at that.  In the second half of a game, there is even a cult that worships him.  He kills people with no remorse, poisons an entire castle against direct orders and killing some of his own men in the process, burns another one for insulting him, kicks his own emperor off a floating island to his death with no hesitation, and with his god-like powers, he punishes any city he deems disobedient with his “Ray of Judgement” — yes he is his own personal Death Star.  Remember that line Alfred had in the Dark Knight that some men just want to see the world burn?  That’s Kefka.  On top of that, his laugh is easily the most memorable of all sounds in the serious — even with limited sound technology, you knew the guy sounded like a maniac.

As for the heroes, Final Fantasy VI had an ensemble cast of fourteen characters, two of which were “hidden” characters which was a first in the series.  For the first time in a Final Fantasy game, these players could be swapped in and out of the party.  In several points of the game, you needed to form three parties to safely traverse dungeons or survive certain battle events, another first in the series.

In the first half of the game, you meet each of these characters (save for the two hidden ones), and get a basic rundown of each one.  However, after Kefka sets fire to the world, the game moves away from its main protagonist, Terra, to Celes, whom is on a deserted island with her former colleague, Cid.  The second half is then broken down into a series of side quests that reunite the party.  Each of these quests dive deeper into each character as you learn about their pasts and deeper struggles that they don’t bother to mention during the first half.

For instance, Locke, is at first a seemingly carefree treasure hunter who appears to have quite the thing for Celes.  Later on you learn he became a treasure hunter in order to find a legendary treasure to revive his love, Rachel.  We come to learn that Locke attempted to prove his worth to her father by exploring a dangerous cave with her; however, a bridge started to collapse beneath them and Rachel shoved Locke out of the way, nearly falling to her death in the process.  Although Locke nursed her back to health, the fall caused a case of amnesia and she remembered no one.  Rachel’s father was furious and kicked Locke out of the village.  A short time later, and imperial attack destroyed the village and killed Rachel in the process.  It was for this reason Locke hated the Empire.  We also come to find that he initially saved and vowed to protect Celes earlier in the game because she reminded him so much of Rachel.

Locke’s back-story is just one of many that are explored and despite the sheer size of the cast, they are all done quite well.

The sheer depth and size of the game is flat out amazing, especially when you consider it was released in the SNES era.  Along with having a solid story and amazing character depth unparalleled in a Final Fantasy game, the game introduced the Coliseum, the first location created for the sole purpose of a consistent side-game.  “Desperation attacks”, a random, powerful attack unleashed when a character was at low health, was the birth of the Limit Break system and its spin-offs.  The game also featured multiple endings whose length would change depending on how many people to gathered together again in the second half of the game.  To top it all of the game contains some of my favorite and most memorable moments in any Final Fantasy game, most notably the scene at the Opera House (best video game scene of all time, prove me wrong), Kefka’s destruction of the world, and an epic gauntlet of a final battle forcing the player to take on three challenging bosses before finally facing off against Kefka.  This game holds the number one spot for a damn good reason.

Yesterday morning, I believe journalism hit a new all-time low.  As I took a look at my Twitter timeline, HerLoyalSons brought a rather disturbing occurrence to my attention.  It seems that Mr. Pete Fiutak at College Football News put out a preview for the 2010 Notre Dame football season.  It was your basic, generic, try-to-sound-smart preview article that contained just a few mistakes:

• [Fiutak] [p]icks the Navy game at Yankees Stadium as the most important game of the year for the Irish.
• Calls Nate Montana “Nick Montana.”
• Claims this “Nick Montana” transferred from Washington to Notre Dame.
• AND THEN PETE FIUTAK ACTUALLY WROTE THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH:
  

  New recruit Matt James might not be an elite prospect, but he was on everyone’s list of the best tackles of this year’s recruiting class with the size and frame to sit at one tackle spot for 4 years. At 6-7 and 291 pounds, the Cincinnati native followed Brian Kelly to South Bend and will get a long look at playing time right away on the outside. Even though he’s tall, he’s physical for the ground game and does a good job of shoving people around.

And of course, that would be the same Matt James that tragically feel to his death over his Spring Break.  The story was not only big around Notre Dame circles, but also widely discussed in national media outlets as it hit the hot topics of under-aged and binge drinking.  This isn’t exactly the kind of story you have to work really hard to hear about in some capacity…especially if you pay your bills by writing about college football.

Personally, I was rather shocked that Fiutak made any of the above listed errors, but pumping up a dead player is beyond mind boggling.  Even more shocking was the fact that everyone at CFN left the gross errors up for half the day.  But hey, why stop there?  When CFN actually bothered apologizing, it was done in one of the most back-handed ways I’ve seen in quite a while.  Even though no one had heard a peep out of Fiutak, one of his colleagues, Matt Zemek, “apologized” for Fiutak on his Twitter page:

I apologize to all Notre Dame fans and CFN readers for the big gaffe committed by my colleague, Mr. Fiutak. I’ve walked in his shoes, though

It will be easy to think that CFN has it in for Notre Dame. Just know that when it comes to game analysis, the backroom feelings get shelved

Yes, Dick Ebersol – he of the Notre Dame Broadcasting (and Enabling) Company – is one of the worst executives in all of sports. BUT….

When kickoff time arrives & the pigskin gets pitched around the park, the Irish get their due, good or bad, from CFN. Yes, even from me.

Fiutak & his esteemed colleague, Rich Cirminiello, are 2 of the hardest-working men in the realm of online CFB coverage. They put me 2 shame

Fiutak will wipe the rotten tomatoes from his face & kick tail tomorrow. He’ll listen to the post-Ole Miss Tebow speech from 2008! #GODBLESS

As the main CFN presence on Twitter alongside SEC specialist (and a damn good one) @BarrettSallee , I apologize to the family of Matt James.

Let’s break this down shall we?

First, the initial apology is accompanied with “hey I’ve walked in his shoes” as he starts his first attempt (and as we will see later, one of many) to downplay the inexcusable error made by Fiutak.  And then the next tweets from him immediately bash Notre Dame, confirming (and honestly without anyone asking) that there are “backroom feelings” that need to be “put aside” when discussing the Irish.  Then Zernek takes a rather unneeded pot-shot at Dick Ebersol because, you know, why not throw out a personal agenda and opinion when you are apologizing on a serious matter.  And if that isn’t enough, he then makes light of the situation, with the whole Tebow comment.

Oh, and yeah, by the way, sorry to the James family for forgetting your son was dead. Our bad, yo.  And oh by the way, let me promo another one of my CFN colleagues because he is just awesome at writing about the SEC!

Zernek wasn’t done either as he apparently felt that shoving one foot in his mouth was simply not enough.  Zernek is so wise, he knows that Notre Dame fans probably won’t be too receptive to this “apology”.  So of course, it’s analogy time!

To Notre Dame fans who won’t accept this apology, I understand. Allow me 2 offer a Catholic parallel in American Catholicism’s era of crisis

Fiutak-who pays his dues in the trenches-is the aging pastor who’s the only full-time priest in a parish w/ 3,000 families & 5 Sunday Masses

I’ll leave it @ that. This was an inexcusable error, but I remember once writing that Bobby Ross was Army’s coach in an earlybird 07 preview

We will do better at CFN. #TEBOWTALK Again, apologies to our readers, to the Notre Dame community, and to family & friends of Matt James -MZ

Yes, Fiutak was compared to an over-worked priest, and as I pointed out to Zernek, one that apparently can’t remember which of his parishioners are alive or dead.  The analogy is bad enough as is, but to say that we can’t really blame Fiutak for forgetting that someone’s son is dead just because he is working hard is laughable at best.

Of course, there is no better way to follow up a stupid analogy with another one, so Zernek then plays the “hey, I’ve made mistakes too” card.  In doing so, he compares getting the name of the Army coach wrong to forgetting that James is no longer among the living.  Fantastic work there again chief!

And to close, we have another stupid “Tebow talk” joke, accompanied by another “heart-felt apology.”

To say this reaction angered me would be a gross understatement.  Not only did Zernek make awful analogies and jokes about the situation, but two important things were missing on top of everything else: actually removing said errors from the article and an actual apology from the guy that did it.

Have no fear though, Fiutak eventually took down the erroneous information and had this to say to everyone:

Yes, Notre Dame fans, I am a moron. I put up the old version of the Irish Preview instead of the edited version. Changed now …TOTAL GAFFE

Yep, that’s all the “apology” we received from Fiutak.  While the article was changed (and I refuse to link it and give that site any more page views), there was no mention in the article, or anywhere else on CFN that Fiutak had screwed up royally and was sorry for it.  The only admission to his mistake is the above tweet, and even then, he never apologized to anyone and just admitted it was a “total gaffe”. (Note: I even tried to give Fiutak the benefit of the doubt that he needed time to write a formal apology, and re-checked CFN. 24 hours later and there is still no apology on the article, nor anything further on his Twitter account. I did have one of my Twitter followers say Fiutak emailed him personally; however, it was basically a restatement of his above tweet.)

Not only that, he made it seem like it was no big deal.  It’s as if he wants us to believe “hey guys, I swear, I had a correct article without awful errors, but I just forgot to upload the right version.”  Who does he think he is kidding?  Does he seriously want me to believe that he wrote a season preview in March before a single down was played in any spring game?  Not only that, does he expect me to believe that he corrected said article before-hand, yet kept the old one around?

You have to be kidding me.

All Fiutak’s statement did was prove to me that he doesn’t give a damn about making errors in his work nor does he bother to proofread it with any care.  Personally, when I write here, I am damn near OCD about getting my facts correct.  The last thing I want to do is write something as fact and be told later I was full of it.  I might not get paid for a single thing I write on this website, but I have enough pride in my work to check what I am spouting off as facts.

Writing is Fiutak’s job and I cannot believe he and anyone else at CFN wants us to play this off as just a simple mistake.  Let’s use an analogy since that is CFN’s favorite game here.  Part of my job is to install and/or troubleshoot private phone systems for businesses.  This requires me to go to massive amounts of training, learning the ins and outs of various servers, and putting in tons of time (and a good chunk of it after-hours) into insuring the customer has a functioning system.

Now if I go into a job or tell a tech on-site something that is completely false that brings the entire system down, I am not allowed to say “oh damn, my bad, I put in the old configuration in and not the edited one that was correct.”  None of my colleagues are going to say “hey man, take it easy on him, he put in a lot of hours into this job” either.  The customer doesn’t give a damn.  I took their whole phone system down, they are pissed, they want it fixed, and they want a damned good reason for why I was so stupid in the first place.

I would be expected to not only go in and fix the problem, but do everything in my power to smooth things over with the customer.  I would be writing emails in apology, detailing where I went wrong, to any and everyone that I upset.  Then, at the end of the day when all is “back to normal”, I can’t forget the problem ever happened; instead, I get to hope that my managers don’t bring the hammer down on me and fire my ass for being so careless in the first place.

Everyone at CFN has seemed to forget their professional responsibilities, and it isn’t a problem that is just limited to them either.  Just a few hours later, Joe Schad form ESPN tweeted this without checking his facts:

Incoming Vandy freshman James Kittredge said he chose his school over ND and Duke among others. “Nobody is considering leaving,” he said.

Which is quite interesting because Kittredge never got a scholarship offer from ND.  That must’ve been a real hard choice for him if he wanted to actually play football.

It upsets me that this lack of professional pride exists in journalism and the media in general.  There are far too many outlets like blogs and Twitter that can call out the least little mistakes faster than you can blink.  Huge whoppers like those of CFN today end up spreading like wildfire.  With this in mind, why everyone stumbles over themselves to get content out at the expense of the truth is beyond me.  People attempting to justify it as no big deal or just a part of the job flat out infuriates me.

Mistakes happen; however, in this situation, taking just a few seconds to do a Google search would’ve saved Fiutak and CFN a load of embarrassment.  Having a little bit of class and actually attempting a proper apology would’ve made the CFN staff look like a professional outfit instead of a collection of jackasses.

It finally happened.  Christmas came in June for Notre Dame fans, as well as any and all USC haters: the NCAA grew a pair and smacked Southern Cal with the heaviest sanctions since Alabama’s in 2002.  The NCAA exposed what we all had been complaining about for years: USC’s athletic program had been making a complete mockery of NCAA regulations for years and no one in the department seemed to give a damn.

The sins of Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo finally came back to haunt USC as their blatant violations prompted a NCAA investigation into the program.  The result: a damning 67-page report detailing the numerous violations of Bush, Mayo, and an unnamed woman’s tennis player that racked up over $7000 dollars in long distance calls on the USC corporate account.  If those details weren’t enough, the NCAA slammed the coaching staff and athletic department for “a lack of institutional control” that included a member of the agency representing Bush calling an assistant coach during the 2005 season (from the above linked press-release):

On January 8, 2006, one of the agency partners called the assistant football coach asking for assistance in convincing the former student-athlete to adhere to the agency agreement or reimburse the partners for the money and benefits they provided. The assistant football coach failed to alert the university compliance staff of this information and later provided false and misleading information to the enforcement staff regarding his knowledge of the violations. Based on these actions, the committee found the assistant football coach violated NCAA ethical conduct rules and violated NCAA legislation by failing to report knowledge of possible violations.

Based on their findings, the NCAA smacked USC’s football program with a two-year post-season ban (as Bush was ineligible for two of the post-season games he played in), the loss of 30 scholarships over three years, and the vacation of all wins from December 2004 through the end of the 2005 season.

That’s right, Notre Dame didn’t lose the “Bush Push” game in 2005…we didn’t win either, but a certain running back shouldn’t have been on the field to give Leinart a bit of illegal assistance.

However, that isn’t the whole story; in fact, it is barely half of it.  The reactions to these sanctions, mostly from the USC camp, have been a mix of shocking, arrogant, and well…some of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard in quite a while.

USC athletic director, Mike Garret, decided to fire back with what I’m sure he thought was an absolutely brilliant defense:

I’m not even joking, Garrett seriously went on record with this:

As I read the decision by the NCAA, all I could get out of all of this was … I read between the lines and there was nothing but a lot of envy, and they wish they all were Trojans.

Kiffykins even got in on the act:

We can still split a national championship if we win all our games…Regardless of what happens in [USC's future] appeal, we know this: SC is more powerful than anything else…The university, the football program, the basketball program — no matter what they try to do to us, it won’t matter.

Yep that’s right, the NCAA is supremely jealous Southern Cal and Kiffykins will still lead them to a national title despite the NCAA holding them back.  Don’t worry it gets better.  Cheat Pete Carroll had some rather interesting thoughts as well:

Carroll says the NCAA had no basis for unfair and “really, really harsh” sanctions on USC.

“There’s nothing there,” he said Tuesday of the investigation into his program’s knowledge of former Trojans running back Reggie Bush’s improper benefits and relationship with an agent.

“Now the word’s out. You can do this,” he said. “One person can do this, go after a university and a kid. And nothing has to be true. NOTHING has to be true. They just have to make claims, and then the investigations and all that are under way.

“I just hate the thought that that can take place and we can do nothing about it.”

I can only assume Pete doesn’t have a PDF reader installed and must have Yahoo! Sports blocked because there is most definitely something there.  However, Pete starts speaking out of both ends of his mouth at the end of that very same article:

“Unfortunately, it’s about awareness,” Carroll said. “This issue in particular is not like any of the other cases that’s come along. It is about one person in a community where a kid came from who decided to take advantage of his potential good fortune. And he found a way in to make that happen — outside of any of the university issues and setting and all that.

“They didn’t want anyone else to know. And we didn’t know.”

So now it seems he is admitting-without-admitting that there just might be something-even-though-there’s-nothing, but blame Bush because poor ‘ol Pete wasn’t aware Bush’s parents moved into a brand new house out of nowhere or that his star running back all of a sudden had a brand-new, pimped-out Impala.

What Pete, Kiffin, Garrett, some members of the media, and any USC apologist is missing is that the point of these sanctions isn’t solely the fact that Bush and Mayo had improper contact and benefits from an agent.  It isn’t even about the $7,000 worth of phone calls a tennis player made.  While I very much understand USC wants to appeal, and make no mistake they (and another other school facing similar situations) should as their job is to protect and have USC prosper, these sanctions are not too harsh, unjust, or punishing the wrong people.

USC as an institution cheated, not just three individuals.  USC chose to turn a blind eye to obvious violations and did nothing about it until the NCAA finally took interest.  At that point, self-sanctioning their basketball program was not enough.  That single act did not wash away the athletic department’s awful self-policing for the past few years.

Mike Garrett and Pete Carroll may not have been named in the report as offenders; however, the blame still falls on them.  Part of their job description is to ensure NCAA regulations are followed on their watch.  I’m not naive, things slip through the cracks, but these violations were far from minor oversights.  Make no mistake, Garrett and Carroll had to try quite hard to be as oblivious as they claimed to have been.  Plausible deniability is no small task to set up in an entire athletic department as well.  An assistant coach failing to report a freaking agent representing your school’s star running back to anyone is not a huge oversight or even a “derp” move.  It’s a deliberate action that stems from either a direct order or a long-standing practice to keep such things swept under the rug.

Yahoo! Sports uncovered the Reggie Bush violations and published their investigative report in September 2006.  USC did not bother to investigate claims against their athletic programs until late 2009, finally self-sanctioning themselves in January 2010, well over four years later.  Four years in which USC was hoping everything would simply go away.  Four years in which USC continued to violate and ignore NCAA regulations.  Four years in which they somehow failed to stop yet another major star, O.J. Mayo, from having improper contact with an agent.

USC’s conduct as an institution is simply inexcusable and unjustifiable.  How Garrett has not been fired is beyond me.  How USC fans and media aren’t calling for the heads of Garrett and everyone in USC’s compliance department is mind boggling.  How anyone can claim that the sanctions are not punishing the guilty parties has missed the point completely.

The NCAA hit the nail on the head perfectly in this situation.  USC should be thankful they didn’t get a TV ban and start cleaning house internally.  Instead, they continue to perpetuate the same arrogance and devil-may-care attitude that has landed them in this situation in the first place.

Cheat on, USC! Cheat forever!