Did That Just Happen?

When we look back on this college football season, I think the above is the best way to describe it.  Had Hollywood submitted a script containing events that have transpired in the past couple of months, no one would've bought it as even the grandest of fictions.  Well, that is also assuming someone could have sat down and actually predict any of this.

As we entered the bowl season, the biggest story was about Notre Dame firing Weis and hunting down a head coach.  Remember when we all thought that was crazy?  I mean there was all kinds of "turmoil" around (the Internet) regarding rumors that Stoops would be our next head coach.  Of course he continually denied said rumors, and somehow, many a Notre Dame was shocked and a small section downright appalled that Notre Dame could no longer land a "big name" coach and we had to "settle" for Brian Kelly.

All that "drama" became child's play as college football (and blog writers) were soon given a Christmas keep that has kept on giving: everyone went batshit crazy.  It was one of those things in which you remember exactly where you were and how you first heard the news that everything you once thought was stable in college football would be turned upside down for no reason.

Personally, I was out with my family about an hour outside of Auburn, awaiting a tour of some Christmas lights that my sister had known about.  While we were waiting, I decided on a whim to check Twitter to see if anything was going on.  And then I saw a tweet I was sure was a joke: Urban Meyer is resigning for health reasons.  Yeah, sure...no wait...everyone on ESPN and SI is tweeting this...now there's an official statement...

And then I started to burst out laughing uncontrollably and then my sister followed when I relayed the news.

But oh no, let's not stop there.  The Gators had a "spirited" practice and Urban Meyer had a change of heart and wanted an indefinite leave of absence.  Oh, and Mr. I'm-doing-this-for-my-family, made sure that they were the last to know; in fact, his wife went on record to say there was no way her dear husband would change his mind.  Then a few hours later she's sitting in a presser hearing her husband change his mind yet again, saying he expects to coach next fall.

As if that whole situation wasn't crazy enough, that same week, the Pirate Captain of Lubbock decided to lock a concussed Adam James in an equipment shed (or "garage" -- semantics) during a practice.  To make sure Leach got his point across to James, he then locked him in the visitor's media room.

And how did this come to light?  Well, it seems ESPN analyst Craig James wasn't able to sleep at night knowing that he has only aided in destroying one school's football program so he went for another one and when public.  So armed with his kid's story and some apparent video proof from his son, a shot was fired directly into the hull of Leach's happy little pirate ship, starting shit-slinging the likes of which I can't remember ever seeing.

Texas Tech then went to immediately investigate the issue and suspended Leach indefinitely.  Leach, who is also a lawyer as well as a pirate, sued Tech's ass and sought for the courts, yes the courts, to allow him to coach in the Alamo Bowl.  As the two sides met for their court date, Tech found a loophole to Leach's loophole and fired him "with cause".

The dust storms of Lubbock quickly turned into a shit storm of epic proportions.  Leach went on ESPN and scorched the earth saying Tech lied and even stated the training staff and doctors said he did no harm, a flood of emails came in supporting Leach, and news came out that questioned Adam's attitude as well as his father's motivations.  But oh no, it doesn't stop there, soon a handful of players went on the record saying they were glad the pirate walked the plank and the training staff and doctors that Leach said supported him signed affidavits saying Leach went off the deep end and used language that would've made Charlie Weis blush.

Somehow in the midst of all of this Tech won the Alamo Bowl with interim coach Ruffin McNeill putting on one hell of a Leach impersonation, making it seem as if both quarterbacks and head coaches can be inserted into the Leach system at will.  However, Ruffin must have done too good of a job reminding the Tech administration of Leach because they decided to hire the offensive genius of....Tommy Tuberville?  However, Tommy tried to put Red Raider nation at ease though, saying he could retain the "Air Raid" offense.  To prove this, he fired six assistant coaches, including the offensive coordinator, and then hired another one from Troy.  I seem to remember what happened the last time Tubs tried this...he had to fire him after just seven games.

And to think, just one year ago, Texas Tech was in national title talks and on the verge of a BCS birth.

Of course, there was football still to be played and that had it's own humor to it.  I've already made my thoughts on this season's bowl offerings known, but the national title game had it's own special brand of failure.

You see the BCS runs on one thing, and that one thing has continued to keep it alive: hype.  That's why you have the "every week is playoff" line being tossed out constantly, it hypes every single game to ridiculous proportions.  Of course, a championship of a system completely built on hype equates to a game that has been over-analyzed and over-hyped every which way for well over a month (because crowning a champion after both teams haven't played a down in over a month makes so much sense).

Of course none of that hype or analysis ever once considered a game in which Colt McCoy gets a pinched nerve in his throwing arm and knocks him out of the game (on one of the weakest hits ever).  So in comes a true freshmen getting his first real snaps on the biggest stage possible.  Predictably, he is a deer in the headlights and despite Alabama's best initial efforts to hand Texas early points, the Texas offense was only able to amass 6 and the Alabama started actually playing a bit, as well as benefiting from a pick-six off a shovel pass to go into halftime with a 24-6 lead.  Saban then went ultra-conservative in the second half and the Tide did a whole lot of nothing (including seeing Heisman winner Ingram get sidelined with an injury for a bit).

All of this resulted in nearly three full quarters of the most unwatchable football that I've ever seen.  Yes, the biggest game of the year became a running punchline for most of the night.  The BCS fat cats were saved in the end though, as Texas was actually able to pull off a comeback thanks to Saban completely hitting the brakes for who knows what reason.  However, they will still not escape the fact that their most competitive and compelling BCS game featured two non-BCS schools.

As as the final whistle blew, we all thought it was time to kick back, relax and bid farewell to one crazy season.  However, it seems a handful of people around Southern Cal decided to shake things up just a bit and make everything that happened during the bowl season look like child's play.

That story however will take a whole other blog post to cover.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment which will include NCAA violations, crappy NFL teams, near riots, idiotic ADs, the worst press conference of all time, and of course:

How the Bowl System is Ruining College Football

I'm not sure what it is about this bowl season, but for one reason or another, I have simply finally had it with the current way that college football is being run.  I'm not even talking about the need for a playoff system (which make no mistake, I'm for), but even as things stand now, the bowl system is becoming a joke and a shell of itself.

I've always been at least moderately interested in the bowl season, and especially the BCS.  Let's be honest here, if you give me good football on the field, I will tune in and be happy.  Sure, I'll complain about the lack of a clear champion and playoff system, but I will at least be moderately satisfied even if I don't have a dog in the fight.

This year however, I haven't really been entertained in the least save for a handful of games.  On top of that, I haven't exactly been to thrilled with the prospect of many of the matchups I have to choose from.  By doing a quick analysis, it isn't hard to see why this year's bowl season has fallen completely flat, and many of the bowls struggled to sell tickets.

Only nine of the thirty-three bowl games have featured matchups that pit two top-25 teams against each other.  Of course, five of these games are BCS bowls, meaning only four other bowl games got what would be a high-profile game.

But of course, rankings only mean so much, competitive football can still be compelling as we all know.  However, even putting that litmus test on this year's bowl offerings still doesn't help the bowl system's cause.  Only 13 of the 33 games played thus far have been decided by a difference of a single possession (8 points or less).  That means only 39.3% of the games have even been what could be considered compelling football that goes down to the wire.  Even worse, what should be considered high-profile matchups have fallen flat on their faces too.  Of the 8 bowl games played so far that pitted two top-25 teams against each other, only 3 of those games have been decided by a difference of a single possession.  That would be a grand total of only 37.5% of those "big-time" bowl games being competitive.

Well what of our marque bowl games of the BCS?  Well, the only game decided by a single possession was the Fiesta Bowl.  That's right, thus far the only game that has given us a game down to the wire came courtesy of two non-BCS teams.

And our title game? Very few people are even giving Texas a chance to hold a candle to Alabama (even though the line on the game is sitting at 4.5 in favor of the Tide).  Even if this game stays competitive though, that is only 2 of 5 (40%) of BCS games that would be considered highly competitive.

All of these percentages would be awesome for batting averages; however, when you are trying to put together a compelling postseason, as well as try to claim it is more compelling than a playoff, it is simply awful.

So why is this happening?  Simple, this style of postseason is easy to take advantage of and damn near anyone can get in.  The BCS loves to say playoffs are awful because of what they call "bracket creep".  Basically, "bracket creep" is the theory that once you start making playoffs, you allow more teams to creep into the bracket.  Their favorite scapegoat is the NCAA Basketball tourney that features 65 teams.  They very rightly show how the tourney started much smaller and then grew to what it is now, and further point out that there are some that would like to see it grow further.

However, this slippery-slope theory is highly misguided.  There are 347 Division I Basketball teams that have a shot to make the tournament.  Only 65 of those teams will make the Big Dance, equating to only 18.7% of the teams making it.  The cream of the crop is definitely the only ones able to make postseason play.  However, Division I Basketball does have their own "lesser bowl" in the NIT tournament, which invites 32 teams annually.  So that combines for a total of 97 teams making it to some form of postseason play, equating to just under 28% of all Division I Basketball.  Even with the extra tourney involved, you are still getting the even less than the upper third of all teams involved.

But what of football?  Well, if you consider the BCS the cream-of-the-crop "Big Dance" type system, only 10 teams make that.  Considering there are 120 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, that means 8.3% of all FBS teams make the big time.  Pretty elite there.  However, what happens when we throw the other bowl games into the picture?  This year, 34 bowl games will be played, meaning we had 68 teams involved in postseason play.  That means 56.7% of all FBS teams made postseason play.  Yes, over half of all FBS teams were able to take part in the "prestige and tradition" that is the bowl season.

While the BCS talking heads love to talk of "bracket creep", we have quickly been slammed with "bowl creep".  If NCAA hoops were to take this approach to their postseason play, both the Big Dance and NIT would need to combine to allow 172 teams into their postseason, equating to a first round of around 86 games.  That would mean the NCAA postseason would easily eclipse 100 games...in just two rounds of play... Oh, and doing that would put in just under half off all Division I teams, football would still have more teams in postseason play percentage-wise.

Not only that, two more bowl games have been announced for college football in 2010.  That means 36 games will be played and 72 teams will play, meaning, in 2010, 60% of all FBS teams will be involved in postseason play.

Simply put, the bowl system has completely over-saturated college football's postseason.  While the BCS is creating competition for the upper 10% of college football, beyond that everyone else is just looking to become bowl eligible.  The regular season then becomes a race to six wins for anyone not in the BCS or title picture, and one of those wins can be against a FCS (formerly Division I-AA) school.  All this does is lead to cupcake non-conference schedules in the regular season that "should be like a playoff" according to anyone in support of the bowl system.

When teams like Wyoming can make a bowl (and win...where did that come from?) and Notre Dame can even have the option to decline after going 6-6, something is very, very wrong.

These bowls used to mean something.  January 1st was college football day.  If you played in a New Year's Day bowl, you have arrived.  With more bowl games, we were still fine, New Year's Day was still special, and even served as a cutoff date between the crappy bowl games and the awesome ones.

Now the GMAC Bowl is played a day before the BCS Championship.  Someone restrain my excitement.

If college football is going to be so stubborn as to refuse to have a playoff, can we at least have a bowl postseason that's worth a damn?  I don't want to shift through games that involve teams that are .500 or barely over it.  Conference pissing matches don't entertain me either.  Congrats, your conference won a couple more crappy bowl games than another conference, it doesn't mean squat.

I don't want to hear another BCS/Bowl System talking head talk about the "history and prestige" of this system when the majority of these bowls are rather recent developments.  You want to sell me on history and prestige, let's make these suckers mean something to get into again.  I want to see no more than the upper third of FBS teams duking it out.  That would be 40 teams, and 20 bowl games.  To be honest that would still likely be too many; however, it would cut the majority of the suck out of the bowl season.  By cutting down the number of teams you take it, you will likely not be able to have a magic number of wins as a cutoff.

And that changes everything.

Getting 6, 7 and likely even 8 wins means nothing.  There will be far more than 40 teams around the 7 or 8 win mark.  Then bowl games have to look at the better teams to pick, and how do you do that? Strength of schedule.  Now playing those cupcake teams starts to really sting when even 8 wins fails to secure a bowl bid, forcing teams to schedule tougher opponents and avoiding the dodging of teams like TCU and Boise State.  This would make the regular season even more intriguing and create several more solid non-conference games than we have seen in a long time.

However, as it stands now, expect to see much of the same: top tier teams that see no reason to schedule tough non-conference opponents and lesser tier teams doing whatever they can to schedule their way into becoming bowl eligible.

Thank God we aren't bothering with an awful playoff system, this is much better...

The Romo Friendly Offense: Week 16 @ Washington

Cowboys fans, we all got a very nice Christmas present from our ‘Boys in the form of a sweep of the Redskins, a shutout, and, most importantly, a playoff berth.  While we can’t be quite sure exactly where the Cowboys will eventually settle in the post-season picture, one thing is for certain: this series has been given an extra week of life!

All kidding aside, while a 17-0 score looks very nice, it was quite misleading.  After the game was over, I couldn’t help but feel like the offense played an awful game and the Cowboys were fortunate to cash in on an amazing defensive effort.

Was the cynical December Cowboys fan creeping up in me or do the numbers actually back up my initial reaction?  It’s time to break down the offense once again to find out.

...continue reading at DallasProSports.com

The "Romo Friendly" Offense: Week 15 @ New Orleans

I sure many Cowboys fans are asking what I have been ever since I saw the clock hit 0:00 Saturday night: “Where has THAT been all season?!”

This game was completely unlike any other we’ve seen all season.  The Cowboys not only scored on their first drive for the first time this season, but also their second drive as well as their opening drive of the second half.  Make no mistake about it, the offense put on one of their most dominate performances all season.

So what was different this time around and what has been missing the past couple of weeks?  It’s time to break this offensive performance down and find out why.

...continue reading at DallasProSports.com

Romo Friendly Offense: Week 14 vs San Diego

Cowboy fans, I hope every last one of you have braced yourselves and taken cover for the wonderful storm that has hit us all.  Another December game, another December loss and now the Cowboys can do no better than 2-2 this month, and that would mean knocking off undefeated New Orleans this Saturday.

Things do not look good.

Last week, the Cowboys feel victim to everything else besides the play by the offensive.  This game, however, the offense was most definitely a major culprit and there was simply no doubt about it.  While, yes, there were other things that went wrong in the game, it is my job to focus on what went wrong with the offense.  Sadly, I have a lot of bullets to spread around this week, so let’s get started.

...continue reading at DallasProSports.com

Wake for Weis

As Notre Dame is appears to be nearing the end of their search for a new head coach, it is time to take a look back on the Weis era.  While it is quite easy to point out the multitude of faults that Weis' tenure was plagued with, it would be a complete disservice to the man to not point out what he has done for Notre Dame's football program.  Make no mistake about it, without Weis, the football program could very well be where Kurt Herbstreit is convinced it already is: irrelevant.

Rewind back to 2004.  Ty has just been fired, Meyer snubbed Notre Dame for the Florida job, day by day it seemed another coach told us "thanks, but no thanks", and ESPN, as well as other national talking heads, were attempting to nail Notre Dame to a cross, calling our firing of Ty unjust and borderline racist.  To say things looked bleak would be a gross understatement.

For me personally, this period of time was my first real chance at working football practices as a manager.  Up to this point, I had only worked one practice (under Ty), and only one football game (vs Pitt).  After Ty's departure, working bowl practices was not too high on anyone's list.  Finals were just around the corner, some students decided the manager program wasn't for them and quit, and some folks in general were just apathetic about working a practice in general.

What I saw in those practices shouldn't come as a shock to anyone.  The team was completely apathetic in general.  Practices were sloppy, players were undisciplined, and interim coach Kent Baer wasn't exactly Mr. Intensity.

In midst of this darkness, Notre Dame hired Charlie Weis, former Notre Dame alum and offensive coordinator for the Patriots.  Weis took the podium, and, full of bravado, said the words all Notre Dame fans wanted to hear: the now infamous "6-5 is not good enough" speech.  It was a shot of life into a program that seemed to be hanging by a thread.

After a disappointing showing at the Insight Bowl, people were still wondering if Weis would be able to resurrect this program; however, Weis still managed to create a buzz around campus.

He did all of the right things before a single practice ever started.  He visited several dorms to have a personal Q&A session with the students.  He spoke to Notre Dame fans at a women's basketball game, and soon after spoke directly to the student section at a men's basketball game.  This was a refreshing change from Ty, whom we would only hear speak at pep rallies.  Weis "got it".  He was one of us, part of the ND family, and he was determined to let us know things would be different this time around.

Spring practices really weren't all too intense much to my surprise; however, in hindsight it makes more sense.  Weis was still trying to get to know the team, figure out what he had, and then figure out where to go in the 2005 season.  Still knowing though that he needed to continue to get the fan base excited for next season, Weis decided to bring in a cavalcade of Irish football legends to the Blue/Gold game.  Tim Brown, Joe Montana, and Joe Theismann were just a few of those big names.

Despite some of the worst weather I've ever seen for a spring exhibition, I was taken aback by just how many people were in Notre Dame Stadium.  At best, I had only seen a little left than half the lower bowl of the stadium full.  This time around, the lower bowl was packed, and there was a decent showing in the second tier as well.  The buzz had definitely taken hold.

Once Fall Camp came for the team, the tone completely changed.  The intensity shot through the roof.  The mentality of the team completely changed from a team that didn't care to a team ready to start kicking ass and taking names.

Then the 2005 season started.  ND destroyed Pitt in their opener, upset Michigan at the Big House, were a Bush Push away from beating USC, and landed a Fiesta Bowl bid.  While the BCS game against Ohio State resulted in a loss, it was hard to be disappointed with this turnaround.  We went from near obscurity, to preseason top 5 media darlings in no time flat.

Weis continued his drive for more, placing a sign of "9-3 is not good enough" on the locker room at the Gug.  Fans, as well as the media, were not counting out the chance that ND could very well play for the National Title.  While title dreams were quickly crushed after a Michigan loss at home, the Irish still managed to finish the season 10-3 with a Sugar Bowl loss.  Again, despite the BCS bowl loss, hopes were still high for the team, and recruiting was picking up in supreme fashion as we claimed the prize of the top QB recruit in all the nation away from USC: Jimmy Clausen.

We were back--or so we thought...2007 happened.

3-9 was a shock to the system that no one, not even the biggest ND pessimist, would've ever expected.  Knowledgeable fans knew that this would likely be a down year thanks to recruiting holes left by Ty, but the end result of the season was simply sickening.  Despite the God-awful season though, Weis was still able to bring in top recruits once again, most notably Michael Floyd.

2008 didn't exactly give us anything to write home about either.  6-6, plus some embarrassing losses to the likes of Syracuse put Weis on the hot seat.  However, yet another top recruiting class, that included yanking away Hawaiian stud Mantei Te'o away from USC, and ending ND's bowl losing streak (in blowout fashion no less), still gave Irish fans some hope.

2009, however, ended all of that.

After a fantastic start, the Irish feel to Navy for the second time in the Weis era and started a free fall that gave us our second straight 6-6 season.  After the Pitt game, everyone, including the players knew Weis' fate was likely sealed.

The UCONN game started Weis' funeral procession--literally.  With tears on his face, and walking out arm in arm with the seniors, it was clear Weis knew this was it for him.  As the game progressed, there was no more talk of "can Weis save his job", but rather "who's going to replace him?"

As if our season, and now a lame duck coach, wasn't enough to depress ND fans, all hell broke loose.  Jimmy was punched in the face outside of C.J.'s Pub.  Weis cut off all media access to the team.  Jimmy was dubbed "Darth Vader" in practice as he donned the same dark tinted visors Weis called "too Hollywood" for ND.  And oh yeah, there was a game to prepare for against Stanford.  However, the Stanford game ended in what was a perfect picture of the entire season: powerful offense, coupled with a piss-poor defensive effort.

The Weis era then ended in the exact opposite fashion as it started.  Weis' initial bravado was replaced by radio silence as he declined to meet with the media.  Nothing more was heard from Weis still, even after Jack Swarbrick officially announced his firing the following Monday.

Weis finally broke his silence this past Saturday in a small sit down interview with five members of the media.  I highly suggest you read the entire thing as it does show that Weis is now, and forever will be a Notre Dame man.

You can say whatever you want to about Weis and his shortcomings on Saturdays, but there is no doubt that he has handled the whole situation with class and did the best he could to try to minimize the circus atmosphere that erupted around the team.  He could've easily run off and burn every last bridge connecting himself to ND, but he didn't.  Instead, Weis spoke to the team at the football banquet, contacted recruits and encouraged them to stay committed to ND, and even sat in support for Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate as they announced their departure to the NFL.

While his win-loss recorded lacked something to be desired, Weis left the program in better shape than he found it.  He destroyed the notion that Notre Dame simply couldn't recruit with the big boys in college football anymore with several top-flight recruiting classes.  He proved that Notre Dame could indeed stay competitive in the BCS picture.  He ignited a fire and buzz into Notre Dame Nation that had been sorely missing.  And, most importantly, he was able to do all of this while not compromising the academic and moral integrity of the University.

The keys to success are in the ignition and now Notre Dame just needs to find the proper driver.

Coach Weis, I want to personally thank you for all of your hard work.  You gave me not only amazing memories and stories from the 2005 in which I was able to work for you and the team, but you've also restored my faith that this program can succeed and will do so once again.  Thanks for adding legendary stories like "Pass Right" that will forever stay in ND lore.  Thank you for laying down the foundation and framework that, without a doubt in my mind, saved our football program.

"Romo Friendly" Offense Catch Up, and a Quick Thanks

I haven't been doing a very good job on updating the blog for when my articles have been going up on DallasProSports.com.  Apologies for that.  However, if you feel like reviewing the last few weeks, feel free:

Week 9 @ Philly

Week 10 @ Green Bay

Week 11 vs Washington

Week 12 (Thanksgiving) vs Oakland

However, if you'd like to skip straight to the most current article, here is a preview and link for that as well:

Grading the Romo Friendly Offense – Week 13 Loss Against the G-Men

Sunday’s game is easily the most confusing and frustrating game that I have broken down all season.  Throughout the year, it has been fairly easy to point out the offensive shortcomings that have caused this team to fail in their losses.  However, as we all will soon see in this week’s breakdown, the story is not so clear at all.  The theories, axioms, and recipes for success that I have hung my hat on all season have been shaken to the core.

...Continue reading at DallasProSports.com

Also, I want to take the time to thank everyone that has been reading both my work at DallasProSports.com and here.

This month, I have had more visitors come across my site than ever before...and the number isn't even close to previous months.  The majority of visits this month have come from Liverpool fans across the Globe checking out my Open Letter to Tom Hicks.  However, visits to my regular work have also spiked beyond my wildest expectations as well.

As far as my work at DallasProSports.com goes, that also has surpassed any expectations of visitors.  Today I saw a tweet from Daniel, who runs the site, saying that quite a lot of people were visiting my bio page that was just recently posted.  He then later informed me that my page was in fact the 7th most visited page on the entire site in the past 30 days.

Both of those pieces of news have made my eyes pop out of my head, and I still can't believe it.  So thanks to everyone that regularly visits here, drops by here from my links on Facebook and/or Twitter, and also to those that spread my work around via email/forums/retweets/word of mouth.  Y'all rock and I appreciate all of the support and hope you continue to enjoy my work.

The BCS Does It Again...

I think Tostitos needs to step down from their sponsorship of the Fiesta Bowl this season as it clearly doesn't reflect the atmosphere of this year's selection.  The Chik-fil-a Chickenshit Bowl (or Pilgrim's Pride can step in, since Chik-fil-a has the Peach Bowl), U.S.D.A. Bullshit Bowl, or a dual sponsorship Tropicana/Absolut Screw Job Bowl would be far more appropriate.

Once again, the BCS never ceases to amaze to just how low they will sink to protect their horrendous system from the obvious elephant-in-the-room controversy that pops up year after year.  Let's be frank here, the BCS is in no danger of leaving any time soon thanks to money tied up in contracts, conferences, and university presidents.  However, there is no doubt the BCS is a self-serving entity and the less negative press they get, the better the chances are for a longer contract.

This year though, all hell nearly broke loose.  Texas barely escaped an monumental upset at the hands of Nebraska, Cincinnati had a massive comeback against Pitt, and Alabama just a week prior barely escaped an Iron Bowl upset themselves.  Think about that for just a little while.  We could quite easily be in a situation in which Alabama, Florida, Texas and Cincinnati would all have a loss--leaving only TCU and Boise State as the only undefeated teams in college football.  Even if just the Nebraska upset had worked out, the BCS still would've had a nightmare (ratings-wise) had Texas been the only upset to go through as that would give us an Alabama/Cincinnati title game.

However, as even their propaganda spewing Twitter account will tell you, the BCS is only worried about matching #1 and #2 together for the title game.  They are the white knight bringing order to a once chaotic landscape of an antiquated system of bowl tie-ins and media votes they say.  Without them, how else could we crown a definitive champion?!  If we went into a playoff system, the #4 team in the country could win the title and then we could have bracket creep and have #12 eventually win!

Well...so they say.

This season definitely proves where their "we always are able to put #1 v #2 together" breaks down.  Unless Texas is able to put one hell of a game plan together, their Big XII Title "performance" points to an absolute curb-stomping by the Tide.  And with three other undefeated teams left in the mix (two of which aren't in non-BCS conferences), it begs the question, "who is really #2?"

So if you are the BCS, what do you do in this situation to stack the deck back into your favor?  If TCU, Boise, and Cincinnati all win their BCS games, remain undefeated and Texas gets killed, that is obviously the worse case scenario and is unacceptable.

However, you are the BCS and you are able to use your own system in your favor.

Just a refresher of these rules:

BCS Championship: #1 BCS vs. #2 BCS
Rose Bowl: Big Ten Champ vs. Pac 10 Champ
Fiesta Bowl: Big 12 Champ vs. At-large
Orange Bowl: ACC Champ vs. At-large
Sugar Bowl: SEC Champ vs. At-large

Rules for At-large: Big East champ, must be taken in one of the at-large spots.  Also, if a non-BCS conference team is ranked #12 or higher in the BCS, they also gain one of the at-large bids -- only one team may receive such an automatic bid.

The only other rules to keep in mind is that if a bowl loses their conference tie in to the BCS title game, they will have the first pick at a replacement team -- trying to stay to tradition they will try to stay in the same conference, but if they can't, they will pick an at-large team.  Furthermore, only two teams max from the same conference can be selected to the BCS (there are exceptions, but they won't happen this season).  Finally there is a set selection order to fill in the remaining at large bids.  This year it will be in the order of: Orange, Fiesta, and then Sugar.

So you have your BCS title game set automatically, as well as the Rose Bowl.  Now you have the following at-large order for picks: Sugar (they lose #1 Alabama to title), Fiesta (they lose #2 Texas to title), then Orange, Fiesta, and Sugar to end.

Now granted, what follows is guess work as the Bowls don't reveal their selections pick by pick, just the end results.  However, the reasoning I will give does make sense considering the way things played out.

Bowls always do their best to keep their conference tie-ins.  So with the first pick, the Sugar immediately looks to the SEC and to no shock, selects Florida.  The Fiesta Bowl then looks to the Big XII, and finds there are no suitable candidates for the game.  Now they know a non-BCS team must be taken, and TCU makes sense as a regional pick, so they take them being the higher of the two non-BCS teams.

Now things really get interesting/funny/simply awful.

The Orange Bowl is next.  They have their ACC champ, Georgia Tech, already in place.  Left to pick are Big East Champs, undefeated, and #3 BCS ranked Cincinnati, undefeated and #6 BCS ranked Boise and at-large, two-loss, and #10 BCS ranked Iowa.  So of course, the clear, logical choice to pick here is...Iowa.  Yes, the same Iowa that during their undefeated streak continued to squeak out wins and were exposed by their two losses, one of which was Northwestern.

What's the reason for this pick? You'll hear from Orange Bowl reps that Iowa will travel better out of the remaining schools.  Although, it seems to make more sense to me that you would take the Big East Champ for the East-coast bowl game, especially since they won a BCS conference without losing a single game, but that just must be me and my silly logic!

So now with the Orange Bowl making the laughable pick, the Fiesta Bowl is next.  Left to them again are the Big East Champs and the second BCS buster.  Again, the clear choice is made...Boise State.  Why? I'm sure the Fiesta Bowl reps will say it makes more regional sense for Boise to be in the Fiesta Bowl rather than East-coast Cincinnati.  However, this still only seems to offend my crazy logic.

Finally, the Sugar Bowl is then required to pick up the "scraps" on the table as the Big East Champ is still without a BCS game and takes Cincinnati to finalize the selection process.  Keep in mind this is the same Cincinnati team that would be playing in the title game if Texas had lost; however, somehow they are magically the final team to be selected in the entire process.

Of course, I am sure a BCS rep would come in and tell me that; in fact, the Sugar Bowl took the Big East Champs as their first pick.  That argument makes no sense though.  Are you seriously going to sell me that the Orange Bowl was so high on Iowa that they would forgo a pick of in-state Florida?  I don't think so.

The intent by the BCS couldn't be more clear.  Place Cincinnati in easily the hardest of of all possible games, and have the two non-BCS schools sit at the kid's table and play amongst themselves.  The worst case result here would be that Cincinnati beats Florida--it doesn't matter what happens in the Fiesta Bowl, it is just two non-BCS schools fighting it out amongst themselves and the BCS knows no one in the media will legitimately make a case for either TCU or Boise as a #2 school with that win as the retort will be "well, who did those two schools actually beat?"  Even with a Cincinnati win, you have the argument that Florida was exposed in the SEC Championship game and clearly wasn't as good as we thought they were--I mean, Cincinnati is ranked above them in the BCS standings!

Of course though, you have the best case scenario: no one cares about the Fiesta Bowl result, and Cincinnati loses to Florida.  The arguments of course are even easier for this case.

Either way, the BCS "gets it right" and college football and its fans get screwed.

TCU and Boise will probably be a great game, but having the two play themselves play each other is a slap in the face to both schools.  Non-BCS schools don't fight just to get in a BCS Bowl, they fight to make a splash against a "big name" team.  They won't get that chance at all.  It's a joke and a sham.

Here is how the selection should have gone:

Sugar: Florida (BCS replacement) vs. Boise State (final at-large pick)
Fiesta: TCU (BCS replacement) vs. Iowa (2nd at-large pick)
Orange: Georgia Tech (ACC Champ) vs. Cincinnati (1st at-large pick)

I dare you to tell me that isn't a damn good slate of games or makes "regional" sense for traveling.  Cincinnati gets the BCS Bowl closest to them, Fiesta gets Iowa, whom "travels better" than Boise, and the Sugar gets the remaining scraps because they pick last--though luck.

But no, as much as the BCS claims that their system clearly selects #1 v #2, that every week of the season matters, and that the most skilled teams will reap the greatest rewards, we have a situation more analogous to when "J", played by Will Smith, joins the Men in Black:

J: All right, I'm in. 'Cause there's some next level shit going on and I'm OK with that. But before y'all go beaming me up there's one thing you gotta remember: You chose me... so you recognized the skills, so I don't want nobody calling me son or kid or sport or nothing like that, cool?

K: Cool, whatever you say, slick, but I need to tell you something about all your skills. As of right now, they mean precisely... dick.

Of course, it is easy for me to poke holes in the current system.  Do I have a better solution? You bet I do, I came up with it last year and it makes just as much sense then as it does now.

Instead, I'm left with an Orange Bowl that couldn't be more unappealing, Rose Bowl game that will likely be a blow out, a Fiesta Bowl that means nothing, a Sugar Bowl that will barely mean much more, and a BCS Title game that will likely be another blow out.

FANTASTIC SYSTEM!

Here We Go Again, Take a Deep Breath

It's funny how quickly things can change.

Yesterday, I compiled a few days worth of investigation into the Stoops rumor, and I finally took the plunge myself personally and thought it was only a matter of time that Big Game Bob would be Irish.

About an hour later, Stoops took my "smoking gun" and turned it on me.  Stoops' proclamation, however, didn't stop the Irish faithful from hanging on the audio of his interview and making us think we still had a chance to land Stoops.  Even ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that his sources confirmed Stoops would be Irish within the week.

I may or may not have this hanging in my cube.

There was still hope, still a chance.  If NFL insiders were saying it was only a matter of time, it must be true!!!

Well, until said rumors were shot down once again.

Of course, at this point, all Irish eyes immediately shot to Cincinnati and more South Bend realtors sent Brain Kelly business cards.  However, we were quite quickly met with disappointment as it seemed that Kelly (and Dungy) was off ND's radar, and there is even talk of Kelly inking an extension (scroll a little way down for the "Cincinnati" section on that link).

Armed with this information, I started to put together a post on how I felt TCU's Gary Patterson should be the Irish's new top target, but he inked an extension with the Horn Frogs, effectively taking him out of the running.

Yes, I am having flashbacks to 2004; however, after this initial whirlwind of news and rumors, I have now come to the following conclusions.

Notre Dame Won't Tip Their Hand

Swarbrick has been steadfast about not letting anything out.  While third parties may have been likely involved in the Stoops rumors that were flying about, beyond that we literally have nothing.  Ironically enough, this has caused even more panic, panic of which even I have fallen victim to.

However, we should've seen this coming.

After the Pitt game, as I mentioned before, Swarbrick blocked public flight tracking on the ND jet.  Anything else we hear, can't be readily confirmed by anything other than the usual "sources" and even the media hasn't given us anything more substantial than that as well.  Swarbrick and Jenkins were also at a luncheon on campus today, so they sure don't seem to be in panic mode in the least jet-setting about the nation today.

Unlike 2004, we aren't going to be able to watch us bounce around from coach to coach and every other day see someone else tell us no.  Sure, we've had some potential candidates exit the search rather early, but if that was the case, the chances of them actually going ND were slim to none to begin with.  We aren't in a comedy of errors.  Both Stoops and ND have outright denied any offer being made.

There have been no embarrassing rejections, simply eliminations of coaches that are not on the market.

Potential Candidates Won't Tip Their Hands

Our obvious targets are going to be coaches that currently have contracts and jobs.  We are going to get a slew of wavering "I can't confirm or deny" comments from anyone that we set our sights on.

Brian Kelly is turning into a classic example of this. While there are "talks" of an extension being signed, that is all they are, just talks.  In the meantime, Kelly is also trying to coach his team to a Big East title, BCS Bowl birth, and still needs to focus on current recruits for his program.  As of now, his loyalties are to Cincinnati, not us. Period.

The fact is, until Kelly or any other coach signs the dotted line and becomes the Irish head coach, they have to play the coach-speak game.  Imagine the embarrassment and huge blow that would happen to Cincinnati if Kelly were to say, "yeah, I'm talking with Notre Dame right now", and then contract negotiations feel through soon after.  Kelly could kiss any potential Cincinnati extension goodbye, have some recruits bolt, and then have to turn and coach some young men that would be very angry their coach cared more about another job than their success this season.

Any potential candidate we seek will look out for themselves and their families first.  While we all want to scream from the rooftops what a wonderful job and place Notre Dame is, we tend to forget that we are talking about someone's livelihood.

Names might float out there; however, we shouldn't be shocked when they try to ignore the rumors.

Remember when Nick Saban was definitely coming back to coach the Dolphins? Yeah I do too...

We Don't Know Squat

We can read tea-leaves all we want, but the fact remains that we don't know a damn thing about this search.  Unless we personally have a line to Jenkins or Swarbrick, we likely won't ever know a damn thing until we see the man standing at the podium.

Re-read the titles of the two previous sections just to drive this home.  If neither ND or potential candidates are going to tip their hands until the deal is nearly done, how in the world are we going to know any different?

As of right now, anything that has been rumored has been proven completely false and considering that the rumor mill has completely stopped churning today, I have a feeling that all of our favorite "sources" are going to be dead wrong this time around.

So until we have a new head coach, I'm not going to try to pull my hair out digging for rumors or trying to read into coaches comments.  Any coach that is currently worth their salt to have a Notre Dame is still heavily entrenched in their team's season and it would be outright classless for any of them to publicly commit to or negotiate with Notre Dame until, at the very least, the regular season is over.

Take a deep breath.  I know we all want this coaching situation resolved quickly, but we need to be realistic in our timeline here.  We need to make sure Notre Dame makes the right hire, and that can't be done hastily.  If the right hire can't talk for another two weeks, we damn well better wait two weeks.  If Swarbrick wants to interview multiple coaches for a month let him.

Let's all focus on what really needs to be done: getting it right this time.

Breaking Down the Stoops to ND Rumors

I get a call Wednesday afternoon from a friend of mine.  She was at the Phoenix airport and heading my way in just a couple of hours.  The words she was about to utter were not of Thanksgiving flight delays, pick up times from DFW, or gate assignments, but this:

"I just got a text message from [name redacted] that said: 'Holy shit, Bob Stoops to be announced as Notre Dame's next head coach either Tuesday or Wedensday.'"

Now before you laugh at me doing a "name redacted" (P.S. always wanted to do that, but in all seriousness, not sure my buddy would love his name being pasted all over the internet), realize that I too was quite skeptical of this rumor.  However, this friend wasn't one to jump on any little rumor that is posted on an Internet message board, so I decided to go ahead and publicize it, and start some research of my own.

While we were waiting for my buddy to let us know his sources for this, I hit my favorite investigative tool, Google, to see if this was just another Internet-made rumor.  What I found shocked me.

I expected to find a post or two from either a ND or OU forum talking about this rumor; however, there were none to be found on such boards, beyond reports that every ND fan had heard at that point: Stoops would potentially listen to ND.  However, once I told Google to let me see the most recent results on "Stoops Notre Dame", I did finally find my smoking gun forum post.

From a UT message board of all things:

I don't know if it is rumor but I just hear from ND source that Bob Stoops has already made a verbal agreement to coach at Notre Dame.

If that happens, then who the hell will we be facing for years to come?????

My interest all of a sudden piqued.  This seemed like just a random UT fan that wasn't even aware if there was such a rumor out at the time at all.  As far as the source he heard this from and the time frame:

He works at Notre Dame. Apparently, Stoops will be signing the dotted line on Sunday.

We'll see if it is bs by Monday. Stay tuned.

The timeline seemed somewhat off according to what I heard; however, in thinking about it, I could see Stoops making a de-facto agreement before Swarbrick's Tuesday meeting with Weis and then Stoops being announced officially soon after.

Further adding fuel to the fire was tracing the sources my friend had heard the rumor from: it got traced back to someone "working at the University".

I was still quite skeptical about the whole situation as I woke up on Friday; however, my eyes about popped out of my head when I saw a South Bend Tribune report confirming that Swarbrick's top option was indeed Big Game Bob:

A university source (I know I hate that, but I have to) has Oklahoma's Bob Stoops at the very top of ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick's wish list.

Again, yet another inside ND source being cited that Stoops was the main target, but this time, an actual media outlet was reporting it.  There was no mention of Stoops actually signing a contract with ND, but this was the first sign of smoke of the fire that was the Stoops rumor.

As I woke up Saturday, I found out that Sports Illustrated was also running with the rumor.  This time though, another interesting wrinkle was added:

The South Bend Tribune, citing a ''university source,'' reported Friday that Stoops is the first choice of ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick, who is looking for an experienced college coach with winning on his resume. There is speculation Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, whom Stoops likes, might be on the move to Michigan.

Pieces were starting to come together into a more solid picture, one that painted this whole Stoops to ND situation as quite likely: Stoops receiving backlash from OU fans for this season, sees not only that ND wants him to coach the Irish, but at the same time, he sees that his AD might be heading for greener pastures himself as well.  Making a move in such a situation really doesn't seem too far fetched at all.

Then finally, the Internet machine that is fan forums finally got cranking.

I had another friend of mine send me an email late Saturday night.  He linked a rumor posted on a Notre Dame forum; however, this wasn't just a "I heard from a source" post, a Oklahoma radio station actually reported that an offer was going to be made the next morning:

According to Oklahoma radio @ www.thesportsanimal.com. Deal is 8 years, $24 million.

No way Stoops takes a pay cut to go to ND! That's a slap in the face.

Later on in the thread, the poster says that the information on the flight was confirmed on the radio; however, the numbers on the deal came from a thread on a premium message board that he was subscribed to.  He continued to relay information saying that the numbers were conflicting as well:

I was just posting what I saw on the thread at the time. I just checked the thread again, and the numbers are conflicting. Someone else posted in that same thread that they heard $50 MILLION over 10 YEARS, with all kinds of bonuses. If that's the case then Stoops may well listen. It's also conflicting as to whether the plane is there tomorrow or is already coming tonight. Surely not tonight. But, ND is definitely flying to Norman by tomorrow, that was confirmed on WWLS the sports animal in OKC.

Disclaimer: I am a Sooner fan, didn't make that clear in original post.

...

This was from a reliable poster on OUinsider on the incentives, quoting a post he saw on one of the ND forums...not sure which one.

"I found this on a ND board, Im still looking for some more info.
Quote:
According to one of the Board of Trustees and a source inside the Athletic Department, Swarbrick and Jenkins have put a package together to lure Bob Stoops to South Bend. Here are the main details that are on the table as of yesterday:

1.) A 10-year $50,000,000 base salary, which doesn't include endorsement and university incentivies.
2.) 3 "special player projects" a year, which may include JUCO transfers.
3.) A contract with Nike (football only)
4.) Additional incentives:
(a) $550,000 for Top 10 Finish
(b) $750,000 for BCS Bowl appearence
(c) $1.2 million for BCS National Championship
(d) $400,000 for 90% or better graduation rate"

His base deal becomes worth more than $7 million a year in years that he gets to the BCS championship and graduates over 90%. This isn't even including sponsorships, etc. This would be tough to turn down, especially from a powerhouse like ND.

Again, the numbers may be all over and citing the usual "inside sources" (and the incentives package he posted was actually attributed to Urban Meyer a week prior); however, he made it quite clear the radio was supremely confident that ND would land in Norman to at least talk to Stoops.

Needless to say, the smoke seemed to be revealing an actual fire.  Regardless of the contract information, despite Swarbrick and Stoops denials, the two parties were definitely talking to each other in some capacity.

And then finally, the smoking gun seemed to fire.  A thread appeared early Sunday morning citing that "rmolek" posted on Rivals that the deal was indeed done.  For reference, "rmolek" is a highly respected poster on Rivals whom tends not only be on the frontlines of such college football rumors, but also seems to be correct on them with freighting accuracy.  A poster with a rivals premium subscription went to see just what was posted and reported was "rmolek" had heard:

Huge congratulations are going to be in order very shortly. I can't mention but many of you already know I'm told. Barring something unforeseen you will have some dynamite news in the next 4-5 days. As an IL fan I am now very worried that Prater and Cooper will be Irish as well. No news obviously on their front as they don't know who the HC will be yet but Zook, Carroll, and Stoops no, not that one ; ) will have a hard time beating out this man. I really can't believe this is about to go down. It will be a transition similar to Zook-Meyer at UF. Your program really is in good shape...

Btw I heard gripes about me being wrong on SH. Well the situation with Weis is the reason he isn't committed to ND. If ND was able to field a defense or win the close ones the last two years they would be a top 10 team Weis' job would be secure and SH would be your LT next year. Should be interesting to see if a relationship can quickly blossom between he and the new hire. The SOONER this man gets in South Bend the better ND's class will be...

Bold emphasis is mine for the smoking gun.

So now, with all the pieces coming together, it finally seems like this whole Stoops to ND rumor actually does have some legitimate legs and is worth paying attention too.

It does seem that ND is in a hurry to ship Weis out the door as well as I have seen several different reporters on Twitter report that Swarbrick will be meeting with the players today around 2pm (which also reportedly includes a bowl game vote) and that he will also meet with the coaching staff today as well.  Weis could very well be out the door today, meaning the original timeline I heard on Stoops being announced as ND's new head coach (Tuesday or Wednesday) seems to be right on schedule.

As far as my opinion on all of this...call me Fox Mulder.  I want to believe.

An Open Letter to Tom Hicks

Yes, in the midst of Notre Dame's coaching turmoil and their season on the brink, I have baseball on the mind.  Some news has recently come to light that Tom Hicks wishes to buy the Texas Rangers...again.  This causes some ever so slight concerns from me, so what do I do when I have said concerns?

Write an open letter to the man that he will never read.

Dear Mr. Thomas Hicks,

I have recently heard that you wish to still maintain ownership of the Texas Rangers.  In fact, you managed to get some big local names involved in this mix as well: Roger Staubach and Nolan Ryan.  Now I'm sure you are quite happy with these big local names that are legends in the Dallas area.  How can Rangers fans not be happy knowing that the most famous Cowboy and most famous Ranger now own the Rangers?

Simple, you are still a part of it.

Mr. Hicks, this thin veil you have created will only serve to mask your true intentions and will only further harm this franchise.  What you see is just another opportunity to profit.  This past season, the Rangers have created a buzz that is even bigger than the 90's when they won the AL West three times.  That buzz translates to more fans in the empty seats that you've been starting at ever since the turn of the millennium.  Finally, the club which has done nothing but pile on debt (which must not be affecting you too much, you just had a huge party at your place for Brett Hull), can actually make you money.

Here's the problem with your vision that you are seeing through your greedy-green glasses: we've seen this dance before, you aren't in this for a title, you are in it for the money.  Even if MLB approves this re-buy of the team, you will be beyond fiscally conservative and the fallout will do nothing but hurt this franchise...again.

We are already seeing evidence of this.  Marlon Bryd, one of the gigantic catalysts on the club with both his bat and glove seems all but gone.  You will also need to extend Josh Hamilton in the near future as his contract is coming to an end.  Your young guns, Elvis Andrus, Derek Holland, Neftali Feliz, and Julio Borbon will be looking for their big payday in just a couple of seasons when they become arbitration eligible.  Somewhere along this supposed run to postseason glory you will likely need to add either a solid veteran arm in the rotation and likely another solid bat as well.

Are you really fiscally prepared to be able to do this?

Your window is running short.  You simply cannot cross your fingers and hope 2010 can be a season that puts you back in the black and be able to make some moves to take a run at 2011.  We were promised 2010, not 2011, stick to it.  With last seasons' success coupled with the promise at a bright future, this offseason is the best chance we have to wrestle away a big name or two from the other clubs that constantly outbid us for their services.  The thing is though, our offers need to be on par with everyone else.

You and I both know that you can't do it.  History has shown since A-Rod, you won't do it.

Mr. Hicks, I speak for a large section of Rangers fans in saying we are sick of it.  Leave the Rangers in solid financial hands and be done with it.  You have two other sports franchises to take care of in the Dallas Stars and Liverpool F.C.  Stop spreading yourself and your pocketbook so thin.

Fans don't care about your business savvy.  I'm quite confident that you could indeed turn a profit within a year or two if you do indeed re-buy the club.  You didn't get rich by accident.  However, fans are interested in wins and losses--not restructuring debt, finding additional investors, number crunching, selling more ads, or whatever else you have planned.

Ranger fans have suffered long enough.  We are so close to being a legit contender for years down the road, but we need the cash.  Ranger fans deserve an owner like Mark Cuban or Jerry Jones.  While we may be upset with decisions they make or the way they act, fans of the Mavs and Cowboys know that money will not be an issue when making personal decisions.  They have never had to ask the NBA or NFL for money to make payroll--you have.

Mr. Hicks, I appreciate the effort you put into the club, but it is time to let someone else come in to finish the job.  You have helped the club in the front office with John Daniels and Nolan Ryan.  In return, they have delivered us coaches like Mike Maddox.  The result in 2009 was a solid, young club that is one or two pieces away from being a force to be reckoned with.

Now we need the money to complete this journey.  Mr. Hicks, please allow this club to be placed in the hands of someone that has the money now and is willing to spend it.  Don't do it for your bottom line (without the Rangers, you will still be in good shape I'm sure), do it for the sake of Ranger fans and the future of this franchise.

Sincerely,


Ryan Ritter

Reexamining the Bowl Picture

A couple weeks ago, I took some time to take my first stab at the bowl picture, and where ND would land.  Now that things seem quite a bit more clear, it is time to take yet another look at things.

First it is time to take a look at the BCS picture so we can properly find out where the Irish may fall:

BCS Championship: Texas vs. Florida
Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs. Oregon
Sugar Bowl: Alabama vs. Pittsburgh
Fiesta Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Boise State
Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. TCU

This is somewhat similar to what I had last time around.  Major changes this time though is that we now know Ohio State has clinched the Big Ten championship and will be Rose Bowl bound.  Also, the Big Ten at large bid seems to have fallen apart that I initially gave to Penn State and I have now given their spot to Pittsburgh.

The way I see it, Pitt is flat out playing too well to ignore.  While Penn State is an obvious bigger draw for tickets, how in the world can you take Joe Pa's crew when they are on the edge of BCS at-large eligibility (#14) while Pitt is in the top ten.  In the mix though is Oklahoma State, and the Fiesta may just try to take them in to replace Texas if they play continue to play well.

The games that will affect these new projections will be: Penn State vs. Michigan State this week, Pitt vs. Cincinnati next week, and OK State vs OU next week.

The PSU/MSU game has all the makings of a trap game.  MSU is at home and they haven't been playing half bad all season.  Regardless though, I don't see PSU making a big enough statement to boost their ranking much higher, and this is there last chance to do so.  Unless PSU can blowout MSU, they are likely out of the mix.

If OK State were to beat OU, their ranking will likely get a boost up; however, if they were to fall they will fall out of the running completely.  Right now, I can't see OU losing that game at all, meaning OK State will likely fall out of the running.

Pitt/Cincinnati is an interesting case.  I could very well see both of these teams making the BCS regardless of the outcome; however, things would get dicey if OK State manages to beat OU.  In that case, I can't see two Big East teams going BCS bound as the Fiesta will likely tow the Big XII conference line.  However, if OU does indeed win, neither team is going to take a very big hit in their rankings.  Except both teams to be BCS bound this season.

Now what does this mean for the Irish?

Well, initially I felt the Gator Bowl was all but lost for the Irish after falling to Pitt, and if you remember I projected that if the Irish feel out of the Gator Bowl, the Cotton Bowl would snatch the Irish up over an SEC team as this is the last year they can do so until new contracts are made.

Now that chaos has completely shaken up the BCS top 10 though, the Gator will likely not be taking the second best Big East team, but the third best since two Big East teams are likely BCS bound.  In this case, that means the choice the Gator has is between West Virginia and Notre Dame and Notre Dame will win that battle.

Although that is completely dependent on ND winning a game.  West Virginia will likely end 8-4, and I can't see ND being taken if drop their last two games, falling to 6-6 (oh dear God not again...).  The Irish can still likely edge out West Virginia at 7-5.

Of course, if the BCS doesn't take two Big East teams, that will mean the Gator will take either Pitt or Cincy, and there is no way you could justify the Irish going over either even if they win out and finish 8-4.  If that happens, ND could very well be Cotton Bowl bound.  However, they have to be good enough to replace Ole Miss who will likely finish out at 8-4.  Unlike the Gator, I'm not completely confident that the Cotton would replace ND over Ole Miss if the Irish finish 7-5.  It isn't out of the realm of the possibility, but not as definite a selection for sure.

With all that being said, since my current projections this week have two Big East teams in the BCS, and the fact I think ND will still win one out of their last two, I project the following for ND:

Gator Bowl: Miami vs ND

I'll revisit the bowl picture once again next week as I'm sure everything will be turned completely on its head once again.

ND, Weis Era Fall to Pitt

What a difference a few years can make.

I remember working my last preseason practice as a manager in 2005 before ND traveled to Pitt.  It was a scrimmage inside Notre Dame stadium, and one I will always remember for two reasons.  Firstly, I was on the wrong end of Weis' infamous "You have one fucking job to do" tirade (thank you chain gang refs for giving me the wrong down to start the drill).  Secondly though, I remember Weis' speech after practice.  He gathered the team up, had them take a knee, talked about all the work they had just been through, all the doubt that had been cast upon them in the media, and that no one was giving them a shot.  Then he said in a very matter-of-fact tone:

But come Saturday night, after the game is over, the whole nation is going to wake up and say: "Holy shit, Notre Dame is good."

I believed it, the other managers believed it, and so did the team.  For those behind the scenes, we all saw practice and we all knew that this team wasn't the same team we saw in 2004.  It wasn't overconfidence or false bravado by Weis.  He was stating what we all believed as truth.  When the Irish took the field against Pitt, they played like it.  It wasn't just a win, it was a beating and everyone was caught by surprise.

Five years later, and on the heels of an embarrassing loss to Navy, the exact opposite occurred.  The Irish came out completely flat, and even though the score board showed a five point loss, I felt we were trailing by fifty.  People at my game watch were taking "Fire Weis" shots, discussion quickly shifted to who will coach next year for us.  We all knew it, and every Notre Dame fan knows it.

Weis is done.

As I was contemplating the game Sunday, my mind went back to 2004, the first game I worked as a manager.  Ironically enough, the game was against Pitt.  I had been able to work a few football practices here and there, and I felt had a somewhat decent feel for Ty's "coaching" abilities beyond what I saw from the stands.  I wasn't on the "Fire Ty" bandwagon yet, but once I got back to my dorm room, the first thing I did was update my AIM away message (Facebook did not yet have status updates): "That's it, I've had it -- end the agony" and linked to (the now non-existent) FireTyWillingham.com.

What I saw that game was a horrendous lack of effort, awful officiating, and a coaching staff with Ty at the helm that didn't have any idea how to fix it.  The team in general had given up.  Sure you had a few players here and there that refused to give in, but overall from just looking at the overall demeanor of the team, I couldn't help but shake the feeling we wouldn't win.  ND tried to make a game of it, and the effort of a few nearly propelled a 4th quarter comeback, but the Irish fell 41-38 on a last second field goal.

Fast forward to 2009, and we saw a horrendous lack of effort overall, an inexplicable ruling on a "fumble" by Clausen from the replay booth, and Weis seemed to have no answer for how to get us back in the game.  Golden Tate did his damnedest to will us to victory, but our 4th quarter comeback feel short.  I felt the whole time we wouldn't win, and I was right.

I realized I was in 2004 all over again -- our coach is done.

I still believe that we would be taking a huge risk by firing Weis, but it is just so overwhelmingly obvious now that he is done and Notre Dame simply can't keep the charade up any longer.  The players and recruits alike all likely see the writing on the wall and there is no sense in trying to hide it.  Even the biggest of Weis defenders know this is the case.

So the questions now are who, when, and will the buyout keep Weis here?

The last two are easy to answer.  ND's Athletic Director, Jack Swarbrick, has made two things abundantly clear: the buyout is a non-issue and a final decision won't be made until after Stanford.  Much like 2008, Swarbrick will likely sit down with Weis after the final game on the West Coast (this time Stanford instead of USC), and until then, he won't say a word about it.

The who though is the big question.  We can likely rule Gruden out immediately since ESPN has extended his contract and quite literally said he will not look for any coaching jobs in the foreseeable future.  Brian Kelly is of course, the hot name at the moment as it was last year; however, I feel quite nervous about hiring a hot-shot Big East coach to replace the guy we feel just isn't cutting it anymore -- I think I've seen that scenario play out somewhere before.  The Chicago Sun Times reported that Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz and Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops could be possible replacements for Weis.  And before you laugh at the possibility of Stoops going Irish (as I initially did), you may want to do a bit of reading because it may not be as far fetched as we all think.

And no, I'm not even going to mention Urban Meyer, cut it out, he isn't coming here and I refuse to entertain that thought any longer than this sentence.

I've had several different people throughout the last couple of days ask me (even via Twitter) who I think Weis replacement will be.  Folks, your guess is as good as mine at this point.  I don't even know where to begin because the rumors are coming up left and right and it is enough to make anyone's head spin.  Much like trying to project bowls, the picture isn't going to get much clearer until the season nears its end.

However, one thing I do know is that Notre Dame should most definitely be making some phone calls or visits right now to potential targets and get interest gauged immediately before what appears to be the eventual canning of Weis.  We got major egg on our face after we fired Ty, not just because he didn't deserve it, but because we didn't get our first choice, Urban Meyer, and then we kept going down the list having several people say "thanks, but no thanks" until we settled on Weis.

We cannot afford to settle this time around.  This program needs a gigantic shakeup and if we are going to do it properly is needs to be with our top choice, not the top choice that is leftover when the dust settles.

Whether or not Notre Dame is indeed getting a head start this time around is going to be impossible to tell.  Hell, this year they even blocked public tracking of the private jet Swarbrick uses, so don't expect that to help out this time around.  I am hopeful though that this little maneuver means that ND is actually making plans to reach out to coaches before seasons end.  It would make sense, keeping the public eye away from what you are doing, allowing a decision to be made after the Stanford game instead of ND fans assuming it is made, causing more havoc.

But again, your guess is as good as mine on that one.  Brace yourself, we are about to be in for one hell of a whirlwind to end the season.

Take Cover -- Navy Fallout Continues

Just when I thought it was safe to start thinking about Saturday night's primetime showdown against Pitt (you know the one that will likely determine our bowl game and our last chance to beat a ranked opponent this season), it seems that I must remain on Navy for at least another post.

You would think there would be more than enough to worry about around Notre Dame Nation.  The hot topic of course has been Weis' job security (or lack thereof) and wanting to know if Kelly would jump ship to coach the Irish or if John Gruden would job us some friendly hints during Monday Night Football broadcasts.  It's a topic that has spawned more blog posts and articles than I care to even try and link.

However, now we have another issue.  Yesterday, Corwin Brown decided to blast the ever living hell out of Navy calling their head coach classless and accusing them of playing dirty.  Yes, he fired a verbal missile at future Naval officers and the man coaching them -- on Veteran's Day.  You can't even really claim folks are taking his comments out of context, there's video of this and it does not make anything he says look any better in context.

So much for the annual game that is supposed to be a rather friendly affair.

Clearly Navy was under Brown's skin:

I thought it was very disappointing, what the Navy coach said after the game.  He didn't want something to be misconstrued, but then he said it, regarding how we prepared and what we prepared to do. I'm going to tell you this - we came out in the second half, minus one mess-up, they don't get anything.

Whether you think it's the right thing to say or not, in this profession, with all the classy guys that I've watched and played under and studied, they would never say a thing like that.  To say that we didn't prepare well or we didn't have a good game plan, that's crazy.

Was Brown watching the same game I was?  The one "mess up" was the only shot Navy took at ND to score and guess what, they got it.  Beyond that, Navy did exactly what a triple option team should do when they have the lead: bleed the ever living hell out of the clock.  ND still couldn't stop that.  That was not an adjustment, the defense was still failing miserably.

But hey, he didn't stop there:

What I think is crazy is a lack of imagination for what they do. I don't ever get up here and talk about the illegal cut blocks. They hit (Brian Smith) illegally last year and put him out.  They hit (Robert Blanton) on one of the most malicious plays I've ever seen since I've been playing. And I called him about it. And I told him I thought it was very poor. He probably thought I called because we lost; I was going to say something to him before the game but I didn't. Very malicious. And in this game, which we're supposed to be playing for our kids, you don't let your players do something like that.

In his defense, the hit against Blanton was rather vicious:

Video courtesy of Her Loyal Sons.

Now, yes that hit was an awful, dirty, and horribly undisciplined hit; however, emotions run high during games and players get out of hand on occasion (ask Brandon Spikes and LaGarrette Blount).  The penalty was called and while we could all claim ND would be roasted at the stake for doing the same thing, if we were, we'd most definitely respond: "the penalty was called, this is a dead issue."  And that's exactly what it is.

As far as making the claim that Navy constantly employs a method of cheap cut blocks, Andy Staples of SI.com puts the comment in better perspective:

Brown, Notre Dame's co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach, ripped Navy's cut blocking, calling it "malicious." He may very well be correct on that front, because option teams often tread a fine line between legal blocking and outright kneecapping. Brown called Niumatalolo this week to tell him just that, and hopefully the conversation was productive.

You have to keep in mind, this is not only an option offense, but one that is also undersized.  When you have a severe height and weight disadvantage, you are going to cut block and walk that thin line -- end of story.

And if all that wasn't enough, Brown tops it off with this wonderful analysis:

Now, coach (Charlie) Weis, and (defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta) do a great job getting us prepare on offense and defense. And I don't care what foxhole they're in, I'm jumping in the foxhole with them every time. We had a damn good game plan. And that's all I got to say.

SBNation has the best analysis of this comment:

Yes, they had a good game plan. A lofty game plan. A losing game plan. Brown, if you wanna make it out of Notre Dame with all your limbs, you’ll dig your own foxhole about one click away from Charlie’s. [Insert joke here about the enormity of Weis’ foxhole.]

Although I disagree with SBNation and Brown on one point.  He isn't jumping in the foxhole with Weis.  Brown just jumped on a live grenade.

The worst part of this team has by far been the defense and heads are going to roll because of it -- either Weis or one of his assistants.

I wonder which head is firmly pressed on the chopping block right now...

Navy Sinks Notre Dame, BCS Hopes, and...Weis?

As I enter what will now be my 100th post to this blog, I seem to be back right back where I started when I launched NDTex.com.  My first real post of substance followed the debacle that was last year's ND/BC game in which the Irish were blanked by the Eagles.  I tried to take a step back and figure out just what direction this program was taking.  Of course that also meant taking a hard look at Weis, which followed soon after my initial post.

Now here I am once again, on the heels of yet another embarrassing loss, this time to Navy, and wondering once again just what to do with Weis.

It isn't hard to figure out why the Irish dropped this game at all.  Notre Dame turned the ball over constantly, with three of them coming in the red zone.  We missed two field goals, and our defense at times looked as if they have never seen the triple option offense.  You cannot win games playing in such a sloppy manner and that is exactly how upsets happen.

We left 6 points on the field without a doubt with the missed field goals.  If you can assume at least a field goal on our three red zone turnovers, that is another 9 points, meaning a total of at least 15 points.  Now let's go on the other end of the spectrum and say we kick a FG instead of going for it 4th and goal, Clausen doesn't fumble, and we don't have an INT off Floyd's back.  Let's give the Irish 2 TDs and the FG there, add on the two missed FG and you have 23 points left on the board.

Put those points on the board and you have something between either a scary win or a near blowout.

So now I'm left trying to play the blame game and needing to figure out where exactly I should be pointing the finger.  Weis has definitely provided more than enough ammo to justify his removal and there is simply no doubt about it:

• 2 losses to Navy
• Loss to Air Force
• Loss to Syracuse
• All said embarrassing losses were at home
  
• 0-5 against USC
• 2007, the 3-9 season
• 2008 season
• Current defensive woes
• No true "signature" win

The evidence has become overwhelming, especially when Navy's head coach and one of Weis' own players both took his "decided schematic advantage" and said this about it:

“I really hope this doesn't come across wrong,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said, “but I think the thing that helped us this year was last year, because we knew they'd line up the same way.”

Translation: Notre Dame employed the same type of defense it did in last year's 27-21 victory, and Navy was expecting it.

“They out-schemed us,” Irish nose tackle Ian Williams said, “and I think they just played harder.”

Yeah, that's not good no matter how you slice it.  I couldn't spin that in a positive light for Weis even if I wanted to.

But even with the defensive miscues, as I pointed out above, ND simply threw away tons of points.  Even with the subpar defensive play, those points could've meant a victory.  And even without those points, we still had a chance to pull out another last minute victory.

So the question becomes: was this just simply a bad game or is this all just a further indictment of Weis' current failures?  And if ND doesn't fall on their face, are we even really talking about Weis' job security in the earnest that the majority of ND nation is right now?

The problem is, I'm not even sure how to answer that question.  If we win out, you can look back at the season and say we lost three games because of one bad drive against Michigan, a slip against USC, and a complete brain fart against Navy.  In this scenario, how bad does a 10-4 season with a Gator Bowl win against a solid ACC team really look?  It's far from ideal for sure, but it would be far easier to make an argument in that case that our last two seasons have built off of each other and ND is on the right track.

However, on the other end of that spectrum, if we drop one or two of our remaining games, a 8-4 or 7-5 regular season record doesn't look so hot, regardless of the bowl result.  The reason is, you look back on the season in that case and you go the other direction, looking at all the games we won and seeing just how close we were to not even being bowl eligible.  In this scenario, ND looks like nothing more than a stagnant and mediocre program.

And now you have a wrinkle that no one was initially thinking about: Clausen and Tate possibly leaving early.  There is no doubt in my mind, a Weis firing means they are gone.  Clausen is already likely going to be hard to convince to come back as it is, and Tate's stock seems to be rising every week.  It's going to be near impossible to keep them around on a coaching change.

Then you have to worry about the state of the current recruiting class.  Chris Martin, the key defensive centerpiece in the class has already said he is keeping his options open should a coaching change hit ND.  Should Martin leave, who follows after?

With the likely combination of Clausen and Tate leaving early, and with recruiting likely getting shot right in the foot, there is no doubt: firing Weis is a complete reset button to this program.

We now end up in a catch 22 situation that is our worst nightmare.  Do we give Weis yet another chance and hope that we are indeed going the right direction or do we blow it all up, risk possible repeats of 2007/2008 or another horrid coaching era ala Willingham?  In other words, should we deal with the devil we know, or some unknown devil we don't?

Every time I think of this, I can't help but think of Auburn who was in a similar situation to us.  Tubberville was doing decent, but he wasn't producing the results that everyone was hoping for.  The result: fire Tommy, hire a coach that could barely win at Iowa State, and now Auburn is struggling to find their identity.  They have an offense that can't make up it's mind on whether it is the best thing since sliced bread or the biggest comedy of errors and their defense, once always feared and constant, is now a joke.  There is absolutely no telling where Auburn is going from here because of their coaching change.

That is the same grim reality that faces Notre Dame.

I look at the usual suspects of supposed replacements for Weis and on each name I come to same conclusion each time: there is no logical hire that would be an improvement over Weis.  For some, I can't see them leaving their current jobs to the pressure cooker that is ND.  Take Brian Kelly.  Why leave Cinnci when it looks like you can dominate a week Big East and are toast of the town?  There is no guarantee Kelly can repeat the same results for the Irish in the least, so why would he take a risk when he has no ND ties.  John Gruden won't be coming because ND is a step down, and I can't see him not going for a NFL job.  How is trying to fix the ND situation more appealing than another shot at NFL glory (especially when many heads will be rolling this year in the NFL)?  We could hire another Holtz, but I'm not sure that name will travel that well from East Carolina.  Tubberville is available, but I'm not even sure if he's seeking coaching jobs, much less one like ND.

Simply put, firing Weis will open up a hole that I do not believe we can adequately fill.  Despite all he has done to justify his removal, I still believe it would cause more harm than good for ND's future.  I don't want to see ND try to recover from a gigantic recruiting gap after we have worked so hard to fill it.  Fortunately for Weis, and unfortunately the rest of our sanity, the recruiting and talent angle is still too much to ignore.  I'm not sure how he is doing it, but Weis is still stocking ND full of talent all across the roster and this must continue no matter who is coaching at ND.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Weis is definitely the man for the job; however, I don't think a better man for the job is available for us right now.  Just because firing Weis would be justified, doesn't mean it is what is best for the program.  What good does it do to fire Weis and hire in some sub-par replacement that makes us wish we had Weis back?  Answer: None.

So until Brian Kelly starts mentioning that ND is his dream job or Gruden starts dropping constant ND references on Monday Night Football, I'm going to stick with the devil I know patrolling the ND sidelines.

Even if it drives me insane.

Yankees Win the World Series

I would like to congratulate the Yankees on their World Series win, and give a big pat on the back to all Yankee fans.  I mean it's been 9 long years since you won your 26th World Series.  You poor, poor bastards.  And I know your team has been trying their little hearts out, I mean just look at the payrolls from your last World Series win (2000) to now:

2000 - $92,938,260
2001 - $112,287,143
2002 - $125,928,583
2003 - $152,174,814
2004 - $184,193,950
2005 - $208,306,817
2006 - $194,663,079
2007 - $189,639,045
2008 - $209,081,577
2009 - $201,449,189

Total - Over $1.67 Billion

Source: USA Today

I just don't know how you can possibly stick with a team that has struggled for so long.  Your team has spent more money than any other club in baseball consistently since 2000.  I mean, for crying out loud in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2009 you spent well over $50 million more than the 2nd highest paid team in the league.

I'm not sure how y'all stuck through that kind of pain.  Y'all are truly a shining example for baseball fans throughout the world.

So congrats to the Yankees and all Yankee fans, you've earned bought it (finally).

Notre Dame Goes Cougar Hunting, St. Michael Returns, Initial Bowling

It has been quite a nice stretch of few days for Irish fans to say the least.  For the first time since the home opener against Nevada, Notre Dame finally beat the living hell out of someone.

Now yes, Washington State is awful.  I know this and I have no illusions that this will translate to a BCS victory or something crazy like that.  But the Irish came in to a game that was being touted as some kind of psuedo-bowl game.  Not only that, a game in which you have everyone just knows you are going to crush the Cougars.  It was the classic setup for the Irish to come out completely flat and leave us all wondering "why in the world is this game so close?!"

However, the exact opposite happened.  Notre Dame put on a display of their superior talent and never let up on the Cougars.  It is the exact kind of effort you want to see and expect to see in this kind of lopsided match-up.

Now there really isn't much to say about the game in all honesty, but there were three big things that stood out to me in Saturday's matchup.  The first two are Weis' two plays of the game:



Let's start with Golden Tate's amazing catch.  First off, this guy is playing in some other universe right now.  Remember back when we could complain about Tate dropping passes?  Ever since Floyd went down, that has been a distant memory.  Tate has been nothing less than a vacuum as of late.  Just take a look at that play and try to break down the insanity you just saw.  He goes up for a jump ball against not one, not two, but three defenders.  He then is able to out-leap all of them and get his hands on the ball.  Then he is able to come down with the pass while all three defenders are trying their damnedest to rip it away.  They fail, Tate succeeds, and my mind is blown.

Then you have Ragone's play on the blocked extra point.  In the big scheme of things, does this play really matter?  Probably not.  It would be very easy for everyone on the Irish FG squad to jog the play out and think "so what...two points won't matter for them."  And that could be a play in which Washington State gets a huge momentum swing, rallies the troops and gives everyone their sidelines the single thought of "we can do this!"

But no, Ragone flew down the field and saved the two points.  Not only that, Ragone got up excited after the play and the rest of the team came out to congratulate him as well.  What this shows me is that the entire team was fired up and ready to stomp on the Cougars.

The final thing that stood out was Weis literally chewing out his entire team after they were comfortably in the lead.  Seems he saw the edge that was demonstrated by Ragone's hustle play was quickly fading and I'm sure he very eloquently reminded them that the game was far from over.  That is definitely the kind of attitude you want from the head coach.  Sure it is great you are destroying your opponent, but you can't let heads grow too big before the final whistle.

Just take a look at the ND/USC game.  USC was destroying us.  Now, I don't want to take anything away from our boys in the least, but there is no doubt USC aided us in our comeback: soft play, lack of effort, and complete lack of discipline helped spur a near upset.

Weis saw the edge slipping, and went to get it back.  He didn't want a win, he wanted to continue stepping on Washington State's throat until the final whistle.  Kudos to him.

Now shifting gears ever so slightly, Charlie Weis had a lot of news on the injury front from his press conference today.  There was lots of good news, but also a little bit of bad news as well, so let's get that out of the way first.

Dayne Crist is now out for the season with a torn ACL.  It is a rough break for Crist to only get to see a little playing time and then get injured on what was more or less a freak accident.  Thankfully though, we still have a reliable backup in Evan Sharpley, so it isn't like the cupboard is bare.  Also, WR John Goodman has now been moved into #3 on the depth chart at QB as an emergency plan (he played QB in high school).  So yes, the news is not good, but folks, this is why you continue to recruit QBs like we have -- you never know what will happen.

Now for the good--no not good, great news: Michael Floyd has been cleared to play against Navy this weekend.  Now Weis later went on to say in his presser that Floyd would not be "in every play", but I'm sure very few Irish fans really care (I sure don't).  Floyd is not a requirement for the Irish to beat Navy, but it sure won't hurt and would serve as a great game to ease him in because we will definitely want to be full strength for the game against Pitt.

To wrap up Irish injury news, Weis also said Robby Paris will return this Saturday; however, Allen is still day-to-day.  If you want to check out Weis' presser, you can do so over at und.com.

To close, with the Irish becoming bowl elidgible with this win, and with the overall BCS picture becoming slightly more clear, it is time to start making some predictions of where the Irish will end up this season.

First off, I'm going to make this statement right now: get the BCS out of your head.  I'm not joking, get it out of your mind right now.

As a recap of our current contract with the BCS, the Irish must be in the top eight of the BCS in order to receive and automatic bid, and folks, with our week schedule, and our only possible signature win being a possible defeat of Pitt, things don't look good for us.  Currently, we sit #22 in the BCS, #19 in the AP poll, and #21 in the coaches poll.  It will be very hard for the Irish to climb up into not just the top 8 for the automatic bid, but even the top 14 to be considered at-large eligible.  We will not only need to win out, but also receive some help from the teams above us to have a shot.

Let's be realistic here, the Irish do not have a good shot.

In order to better figure out where the Irish can land though, I will need to actually project the BCS bowls as the bowl selection system works on conference tie-ins and crazy selection orders.  So with that said, here are the usual BCS bowls and their conference tie-ins:

BCS Championship: #1 BCS vs. #2 BCS
Rose Bowl: Big Ten Champ vs. Pac 10 Champ
Fiesta Bowl: Big 12 Champ vs. At-large
Orange Bowl: ACC Champ vs. At-large
Sugar Bowl: SEC Champ vs. At-large

Rules for At-large: Big East champ, must be taken in one of the at-large spots.  Also, if a non-BCS conference team is ranked #12 or higher in the BCS, they also gain one of the at-large bids -- only one team may receive such an automatic bid.

The only other rules to keep in mind is that if a bowl loses their conference tie in to the BCS title game, they will have the first pick at a replacement team -- trying to stay to tradition they will try to stay in the same conference, but if they can't, they will pick an at-large team.  Furthermore, only two teams max from the same conference can be selected to the BCS (there are exceptions, but they won't happen this season).  Finally there is a set selection order to fill in the remaining at large bids.  This year it will be in the order of: Orange, Fiesta, and then Sugar.

Now looking at this season, two of the at-large spots will be taken by the Big East champ and a BCS-buster as both TCU and Boise State are both comfortably in the top 12 of the BCS and at least one will definitely remain there.  Now, looking at the remaining schedules, I project the following:

BCS Title Game: #1 Florida vs. #2 Texas

This means the Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl lose their conference tie-ins and will be able to select replacements.  However, the ACC champion will remain as well as the Big 10 and Pac 10 champs.  This means the Orange bowl has a team locked and the Rose Bowl is locked.  The remaining slots will then be filled in the following order: Sugar (BCS #1 replacement), Fiesta (BCS #2 replacement), Orange (at-large), Fiesta (at-large), and Sugar (at-large).  So if you were able to follow that mess, hopefully you can follow my logic in projecting the following:

Sugar: Alabama vs. Penn State
Fiesta: Cincinnati vs. Boise State
Orange: Georgia Tech vs. TCU
Rose: Iowa vs. Oregon

My shakiest selection is Penn State, as who knows what is going on with the Big Ten week-to-week, so I could see a different at-large being taken.  I selected both BCS-busters of TCU and Boise State because one must be selected automatically and the other will finish far too high in the BCS to ignore over other marginal one and two loss teams much further down.

So with that mess out of the way, where does that put ND?

Most ND fans know that the Gator Bowl as a tie in with the Irish if they aren't playing in the BCS.  Some may even be aware that this is the final year that the Gator Bowl can select ND as their contract will move to a SEC/Big 10 match-up next season.  The Gator's usual tie in is ACC vs. Big 12/Big East/ND; however, according to their website, since this is the last year of the contact they will select a Big East team or ND.

But here comes the other wrinkle: the Cotton Bowl, a match-up that pits the Big 12 runner up vs. a SEC team, has the right to select ND over a SEC team once within the next three years.  Should the Irish go 10-2 or 9-3, they definitely would be an attractive selection over what would be the fourth best SEC team at best (the Capital One bowl gets the next best SEC team after the BCS, Cotton gets the next best SEC-West team).

However, while the Cotton Bowl would likely love to bring ND down to Dallas, and as much as I would love to see a ND bowl game in my backyard, if the Irish win out, I don't see it happening.  From my understanding of this crazy system, the Gator Bowl has the first pick of Big East teams or a non-BCS-bound ND before the Cotton Bowl selects their SEC representative that ND can replace.  So the Gator has to look at whether or not to take ND or select a non-BCS-bound Big East team over them.

The only team that could even likely replace ND would be Pitt, whom we play in just a couple of weeks.
Should ND fall to Pitt, the Gator would likely take Pitt team over ND as they will be a higher rank and have a head-to-head edge on us.  In that case, ND would likely fall to the Cotton Bowl so they can cash in their ND replacement clause while they still can.

So if we are to assume ND can win out their schedule, I project ND to play in the Gator Bowl come January; however, should ND fall to Pitt, I will project them for the Cotton Bowl -- it all hinges on that game.  I will continue to monitor the bowl picture as the season progresses from here on out, and hopefully now that we got the complicated matters out of the way, I won't have to write nearly as much!

See you soon for a ND/Navy preview.

GO IRISH!

The "Romo Friendly" Offense: Week 8 vs. Seattle

As promised, I am going to keep readers of this blog in the loop on my writings on DallasProSports.com.  Also, I wanted to pop in and let everyone know that I am actually committed to regular schedule now there (shocking I know).  Every Tuesday morning, my "Romo Friendly" Offense article will appear and every Friday morning my contributions to the fantasy panel will be posted.  Each morning, I will also post a quick preview and link here as well to ensure it is well advertised.

So without further ado:

Another week has passed and has brought us yet another successful victory for the Cowboys.  The ‘Boys completely dominated on the offensive side of the ball once again and Romo seemed to have his way with the Seahawks.  Last week, I attributed similar success primarily to the great play of Romo.  So was this yet another week when the “Romo Friendly” offense became the “Romo Driven” offense?

...Continue reading at DallasProSports.com

Playing a Little Catch-Up

Folks, it is that time again to do a general catch-up post!  I figured now would be a good time to do this because to be honest, I really don't have much to say about ND's game this past Saturday against Boston College, nor do I really have much to say on a preview against Washington State to justify an entire post.  However, if that is what you came here for, feel free to skip down to the end of the post for a ND quick-hit.

There are several other things to catch up on that are of interest to me.  The Cowboys played surprisingly well this week, the Stars season is well underway, the Mavs have kicked off their season, the Evil Empire is in the World Series against the City of Brotherly Shove, and Microsoft released a little something called Windows 7.  That's quite a bit to run through, so let's just get to it.

Dallas Cowboys

You may (or likely may not) remember that I have been writing for DallasProSports.com on both a fantasy panel as well as doing a weekly article on the "Romo Friendly" offense.

Save for Twitter, I have been doing a really awful job at promoting my work. I assure you though, that I have indeed been writing my opinions on the offense.  So you can check out all my opinions on the offense there; in fact, writing those articles has been the reason I haven't bothered to say much on the 'Boys in this space.  I will be sure to actually remember to post here when my articles go up.

Beyond the offense though, I will say the defense is, thankfully, improving from the looks of things.  Ware finally seems to be getting back into the swing of things, and the secondary looked like it could actually defend something as well last week.  This trend must continue because what we all should have learned from the past couple of years is that a Cowboys team 100% reliant on Romo and the offense to bail the team out flat out doesn't work.

Dallas Mavericks

I went from being extremely excited about the new pickups of Shawn Marion and Drew Gooden to being extremely concerned after their defeat to Washington in the first game of the season.  The main reason being that I saw absolutely nothing different from the Mavs in that game than I did last season.

It was the same old, same old: play small and jack up threes when we trail.  Also, defense is optional.

I'm hoping that won't be the same story for the whole season.  I do believe the Mavs have improved their team this year, but until our overall attitude of how to play changes (i.e. DRIVE THE FREAKIN' LANE!), we will continue to struggle.

Dallas Stars

Well, what a difference a coach does make.  While I'm not going to say we are Cup bound, Stars hockey is a hell of a lot more fun to watch this season.  We have a lot of young kids and a very wide open style of play, meaning far more scoring than I can ever remember seeing.

I wish I could actually give more hockey insight than that, but beyond knowing the rules of the game, I am pretty much only able to give "Hockey for Dummies" type commentary.

One thing to watch this season though is the play of Marty Turco.  Last season he took a lot of abuse from fans and media about his play severely declining.  I do believe Marty is one of the better goaltenders in the NHL, but the season he had last year simply can't be repeated if we want to be a solid playoff team -- you need your goalie to be a wall.

Last year Turco turned in 2.83 GAA (goals against average), and thus far he is sitting at 2.26 GAA (just as a reference, two seasons ago, Marty finished at 2.32 GAA).  Much better to say the least thus far.  Hopefully last season will prove to be the exception and not the first warning of a declining Turco.

World Series

I'm going to be very quick on this one: I hate the Yankees.  I can't believe A-Rod is actually hitting clutch in October.  Seeing Teixiera playing in the World Series is making me sick.

Go Phillies!

Windows 7

Hey, remember those few times I actually wrote about technology in here?  Yeah me too.  It's really been a while.  Mostly that is due to the fact it is football season and it takes far too much of my attention span as far as writing goes.

However, I must say at least a little something on Windows 7 (as I'm not sure if I'll actually spin out a full-blown post during football season).  First off, it is nothing like Vista.

Let me repeat that another way: We have a new Windows Operating System that doesn't completely suck like Vista.

The first thing that popped out to me was the amount of resources the system was using at idle.  Vista was very infamous for sucking the life out of RAM (memory) and processor power by just having the so-called "great" Vista features active like Aero and Index Searching.  Windows 7 has removed whatever was severely bloating Vista as very little strain is being placed on the system in comparison.

So what does that mean?  In short, quicker performance for just about anything that you want to do.  Initial startups are quicker, opening programs takes far less time, etc.

The other great touches that I've encountered so far are the, dare I say, intuitive additions to Windows 7.  The new taskbar helps decrease what is usually extreme clutter on the desktop and allows you to get to you want even quicker than alt-tabbing.  Programs/windows open, now group to an icon on the desktop.  Say you have five Word documents open and three Windows Explorer windows open, along with whatever you are looking at on the web.  Well, simply hovering over say the Word icon will open up a small window dubbed "Aero Peek" that will show small window previews of all five documents along with their titles, allowing you to quickly and easily select the one you want to view instead of jamming on alt+tab until you finally highlight the right document you want, or trying to remember the exact window/document name from the old taskbar groupings in XP/Vista.

There are even shortcuts that use window positioning to automatically maximize, minimize, and compare windows.  Want to compare two open windows?  Drag one to the left side of the screen and it pops into place, filling the left side.  Then drag the other window to the right side of the screen, and it fills the other remaining 50% of the screen.  Want to minimize all the junk on your screen and just focus on one window?  Shake the window you want and away goes everything else.

I'm not used to Windows working like this at all -- it is almost as if they stole some Apple programmers.

Granted, I haven't had too much time to really run into many problems yet, but it is something I am keeping an eye on.  Compared to Vista though, this is a freakin' walk in the park.

Notre Dame Football

Now for the ND football talk!

The game against Boston College was just more typical Irish football this season: play to the level of your opponent and decide the game at the end.  Also, give all of ND Nation a freakin' heart attack while doing so.

Clausen and the offense played very well.  BC's game plan was the same as last season: cover the deep play, give up the short passes.  This time around, Clausen did a superb job taking exactly what BC would give him and not force the ball downfield needlessly.  While it made for a very low scoring game, it was the right way to attack them.  Credit both Clausen and Weis for this one folks.

Defense though -- oh dear Lord...what has happened?  Getting a lot of tunrovers was very nice, as was actually hitting the opposing QB for a change, but the secondary still looks awful.  Harrison Smith looked lost anytime he was dropped back as a safety, and even had coverage issues when he was lined up at LB.  The rest of the secondary (save for McCarthy) isn't exactly making major plays on a consistent basis either.

However, the best positive note on defense: Mantei Te'o -- see ball, see player with ball, hit player with ball, wash, rinse, repeat.

Final note on BC: can we punt?  Seriously, I don't think we got a punt past 35 yards.  That is flat out AWFUL, especially since this punters are on scholarship.  This isn't like Mike Leech pulled someone out of the stands after a punting competition.  Yeesh.

Now to preview the Washington State game...

...

...uh...yeah I got nothing.  Honestly, I don't even care if they are trying to dip into the ND kryptonite and starting a freshmen QB.  They are awful -- end of story.  This game shouldn't be close.  Crist should be starting in the second half and Sharpley should be the QB as time winds down.

Now will this likely happen?  Your idea is as good as mine.

Seriously, how in the world do I preview games for a team that seems to take a sick pleasure in torturing its loyal fans?  It boggles the mind.

This game should be an obvious blowout on paper.  Therefore, let's expect the game to go down the wire yet again right?

However, I will not be watching this game live.  It will sitting at home on my DVR as I will be attending a wedding of a good friend of mine (PS: you know you are a great friend if I go to your wedding on a day I had tickets to go watch ND play -- in Texas no less!).  So Saturday night, I will be throwing myself into a black hole (that may or may not include an open bar) and pretending my phone and the Internet do not exist as I want to experience the heart attack first-hand.

So if you were looking forward to any commentary via Twitter on the game, apologies, there will be none.  Nor will there be a prompt post on my postgame thoughts as well.

...oh man, prompt posts in this blog...that's a good one...

GO IRISH! BEAT COUGARS!

ND/USC Aftermath: Vengeance Falls Short

Make that eight straight rubies that have been adorned on the Jeweled Shillelagh.

The seven year famine of ND victories continued this past Saturday in South Bend.  The game was much like many of the games we've seen all season from the Fighting Irish: fall behind, have a comeback, and have the game decided on the last play.  This time however, Clausen and company fell just short of upsetting USC -- literally.  Kamara slipped on his quick out route and Clausen's pass was right where it should've been; however, Kamara was not and USC stormed the field in victory...for the second time.

And that's probably the most painful thing about this game.  It had all the makings of perfect and appropriate revenge for the 2005 "Bush Push" game.  USC storms the field in victory, the clock reads 0:00 and the Trojans have the lead, until further review that is.  Carroll stood at midfield (as he pretty much did the entire game...) and stared down the Pac 10 official awaiting the final ruling from the Big East replay officials -- the very same officials he requested to not use in 2005.  And the final verdict was announced, answering the crowd's chant of "one".

Our greatest wish had seemingly come true. Despite being down by 20 just a quarter prior, we now had a chance to let USC feel our pain from 2005, and watch as they posted pictures of a scoreboard showing them as the victors for years to come.  We could literally take a victory they thought they had.

Weis called the perfect play, Clausen made the perfect pre-snap read, and Kamara made the perfect cut to ensure his defender had no chance to make any play...it was just coming out of that break when issues began.  As Jimmy's ball fell to the grass that ate up Kamara, USC escaped a possible monumental upset (or if you want to listen to Carroll they "beat ND twice"...like I needed another reason to hate you...), and ND Nation doubled over in agony of yet another gut-punch delivered by our rivals from Southern Cal.

No one wanted to claim a moral victory: not the fans, not the players, and not Weis, who now is 0-5 against the Trojans.  The Irish did indeed avoid yet another embarrassing blowout, an outcome that looked all but certain at the start of the fourth quarter.  They fought valiantly.  Clausen proved that his Heisman hype was indeed legit.  Even the woeful defense stepped up and got a turnover.  However, in the end it was all still the same as the last seven years had been -- USC wins, ND loses.

And now, some Irish fans are lighting the torches and grabbing their pitchforks to echo a familiar chorus from last season: "Fire Weis."

However, much like last season, I highly disagree with that opinion at this point.  Sure, no one is happy with an Irish loss, no matter how close or how respectable the game might have been and I don't even want to suggest that.  To be back where all of ND Nation wants to see the Irish again, these are the kind of games we have to end up winning.  There is simply no doubt about that.

However, here are the facts: Weis has taken a team, comprised now completely from his recruits, out of the ashes of a horrendous 3-9 season and a mediocre 7-6 season, and is now staring at a very strong possibility of ending this season 10-2 and going to the third BCS bowl of his tenure.  He has shown yet again, that he does know what he is doing with the offense.  What was an utter joke in 2007, and inconsistent in 2008, is now one of the most feared offensive attacks in the whole nation -- one that even USC's top ranked defense could not stop.  And let's also not forget, Clausen has gone from potential bust to potential Heisman candidate.

This doesn't happen by accident folks.  Credit has to be given to Weis for this, there is simply no way around it.

Now while that is all in Weis' defense, here are the facts that still loom over his head, and could potentially spell his doom (yes, even in this season): our defense is ranked in the bottom of the nation and seems to have no direction.  We've gone from 4-3 to 3-4 and now to come hybrid of the two from the looks of things this season.  We've changed defensive coordinators/philosophies a total of three times in Weis five years.  Minter was fired and Corwin Brown was brought in to implement a 3-4 scheme.  Then later, Tenuta was hired to bring in his blitz happy package and this year was named co-defensive coordinator (however, he does indeed call the plays).  Despite all this change though, the defense is getting worse and what we are doing now clearly is not working.

We can just take a look at the USC game for the most recent examples.  We were unable to rattle the second true freshmen QB we faced, and not only that, we had our blitzes backfire in big ways three times.  Twice we were burned on the same play: a third and one play action pass to a USC TE, and both times those huge gains set up easy USC TDs.  Then we gave up a TD on a corner blitz...which completely backfired as the corner that blitzed was then able to turn around and watch his receiver running all the way to the endzone on a screen play.

Our blitzes seem to surprise no one and the counter-punches are delivered far too easily.  While Weis has kept his focus on the offense, he is still responsible for both sides of the ball.  Continuing to allow such disasters to continue is not acceptable by any means.

Then we have another big issue that Weis has faced the last two seasons: falling flat against teams we should beat continuously at season's end.  I'm going to be brutally honest here, if we have a repeat of last season's end in the next few games, Weis should indeed be fired.  From this team, I expect nothing less than a 9-3 season at worst with a very respectable bowl bid.  Falling short of that is absolutely unacceptable with the talent we have on the field and the schedule we have remaining.

Weis has far from failed this season, and winning out, plus winning a bowl game would go a long way in securing his job and such an end to this season would be a great success.

The fact of the mater is that ND's season is far from over and Weis has not done enough this season to merit losing his job.  Yes, it flat out sucks that we've lost to those Southern Cal bastards eight times in a row and Weis is responsible for 5 of them.  I understand the frustration, but frustration doesn't merit knee-jerk reactions.  Ask Auburn how their coaching change has treated them right now: they have a higher scoring, yet still inconsistent offense and now their defense, their strong backbone for years is now is a shell of its former self.

Weis had two years of awful Willingham recruiting to recover from and he has done that.  He is still managing to bring in said recruits, and hopefully this recruiting class will see the defensive studs that we badly need.  The cupboard is stocked and soon could have a surplus at this rate.  You flat out don't fire someone that is able to recruit like that and put together what could very well be a 10-2 season on top of that.

Now if we come out completely flat against BC next week, I may be singing a different tune; however, we don't need to jump off that bridge until we arrive there.

Preparing for the Fall of Troy

I'll be honest, I have seriously attempted to sit down and write a breakdown of the Washington game, but I couldn't.  The only thing on my mind as soon as the Irish walked off the field in victory was: "Beat SC."  I attempted to try to write a usual entry of statistical analysis and a logical preview of the game this Saturday, but I failed miserably.  Any time I have sat down and tried to write this post, I have been blinded by pure utter hatred and contempt for the institution that is the University of Southern California.

It is a different hate than I have for Michigan for sure.  While a loss to Michigan infuriates me like none other, a win against them honestly doesn't mean as much as taking down our rivals from the West Coast.  There is nothing sweeter for me as a ND fan to take out the Trojans -- however, I have never had that feeling since I set foot on campus and became one of the millions that pledge their undying loyalty to the Golden Dome.

It's been seven years, seven long years, since Troy has fallen at the hands of the Irish (and to Bob Davie no less), and I've never been able to enjoy such a victory as a true ND fan.  The annual game against USC has been like falling to the Dark Side of the Force: frustration leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.

Yes, I can squeeze a Stars Wars reference into anything.

So to hell with the usual post and logical thinking.  I'll give what I see as keys to the game at the end of this post, but the majority of this will be me speaking as a fan, a fan that can't stand USC and is sick of losing to them.  The blue and gold colored glasses are on for this post folks.  If you are going to the game, I want you to read this, get riled up, get pissed, and get loud from 3:30pm EST until Troy falls.  If you aren't going to the game, I want to read this, get riled up, pass this around to folks that are going to the game, and where ever you will be watching this I hope you are loud as all hell too -- in fact, I hope it is within the vicinity of a Trojan fan.

Let's take a stroll through a primer of why I (and you) should hate USC:

Tommy Trojan

My hate for USC will need no assistance, but Tommy Trojan will ensure that I will have the urge to punch anyone saying "Fight On" in my vicinity square in the mouth once he stabs the 50 yard line with his sword.  Seriously, I cannot think of a more worthless mascot in all of college sports.  His sole purpose is to come out with the band with leftover props from Gladiator, stab the field, ride a horse around, and face the band and USC fans with his sword in one hand and the "Fight On"/peace sign being wielded by the other.

For me, seeing him stab the field is even worse than the Michigan State flag planting.  It screams arrogance of "we own you" before the freakin' coin toss even happens.  It's our field, jackass, come take it from us first.

If that isn't enough, this is all accompanied by that damned band...speaking of...

This Is the Only Song We Know...It's the Only Song We Know....

Holy dear friggin' Christ-on-a-crutch does the "Spirit of Troy" make me want to take Tommy Trojan's sword and slice both my ears off.  If getting beat by USC isn't bad enough, their damned band will never shut up, and if that wasn't enough they do nothing but play the same damned two songs over and over and over again.  And of course, you have all their fans just acting like mindless zombies following in-beat with the "Fight On"/peace sign symbol (see Tommy Trojan in the picture above) in rhythmic loyalty.

I really wonder what the requirement sheet for the band says if you show up to try out.  I have a feeling it is something like this:

Try Out for the Spirit of Troy!

Requirements:

• Must enjoy wearing ridiculous head gear
• Must have the ability to learn two songs
• Must also be able to play these songs non-stop without having your our ears bleed or be reduced to vomiting all season long

I'm pretty sure I got it dead on.

I'm not even joking about the two song thing.  While on defense they will play the same song after just about every single play (sing along with the "This is the only song we know" line) and then on offense, you will hear their God-awful fight song.  This will repeat until halftime, in which the only highlight will really be the Song Girls coming out front and center, and then they will go back to the cycle of horrible until the game ends.

Every note that comes out of a USC instrument just makes my blood boil.

The Fans

You know, I never really had an issue with USC fans until I decided to go watch and game in their house my senior year.  Now before I go on, I will say, I can't really make this an indictment of the student body because I learned one thing rather quickly: the majority of the fans appeared to pissed off former Los Angeles Rams fans that want a pro football team, don't want to be Raider or 49er fans, so they cheer for USC.

Now I know we got our fair share of non-Domer fans, aka Subway Alumni, but our fans have, well class more often than not.  I mean you know you are doing something wrong when Pat Forde actually calls you out.

I kid you not, at this game, I had the following situation happen: ND fans were behind me and said a certain call was (and excuse the French) bullshit.  A USC fan, father with a small boy around 8 or so, turned around and chastised the fan, and me and my family did the same, saying ND has more class than to use such language around a child.  They apologized and the game went on as normal...until USC scored, and then Mr. Watch-Your-Mouth-In-Front-Of-My-Boy, stood up and violently screamed at two female Irish fans with a slew of F-bombs and other four-letter delights: "YEAH! THAT'S FUCKIN' RIGHT! GET YOUR SHIT TEAM OUTTA OUR HOUSE! WE ARE ABOUT TO KICK YOUR FUCKIN' ASSES ALL NIGHT LONG!"

The funny part, that is the abridged version, dude seriously went on a 3-minute tirade on these poor women.

I think my sister said it best at halftime: "you know, this is just a stadium full of annoying 'whoop-de-wooing' jerks that are wearing colors that resemble Ronald McDonald vomit."

Also if that isn't enough to show how classy they are, how about this what this one fan decided to do to Weis:

Charlie Weis keeps a hat in his office that is emblazoned with the words, "USC owns Notre Dame."

A Trojans fan mailed him the hat a few years ago, along with a letter containing disparaging remarks about his daughter, Hannah, who is developmentally disabled. Weis won't divulge what the letter writer said, but he keeps the hat as a reminder.

"When we've won a game (against USC), that cap won't be around anymore," Weis said.

Bravo, jackass.


2005 - The "Bush Push" Game



Yes, it is that game.  The one game that you will likely ever see me not viciously strike down arguments that ND was completely screwed by the refs.  Yes, ND did have a chance to stop a 4th and 9, a pass that somehow managed to fit into the smallest window ever as Ambrose Wooden had perfect position on the pass; however, the defense stepped up after said play once again, but those efforts feel short due to some...uh beyond questionable reffing.

Fast forward to the end of the video to play along folks, I had the best seat in the house for this debacle, on the USC sideline just a few yards away (in fact, if you can make out a guy wearing a blue shirt and kakhi shorts on the sideline, that would be me).  Once Leinart, fumbled the ball out of bounds, I immediately saw the refs blow the clock dead; however, their good calls stopped there.  As I saw (and you can see in the video), the immediate reaction on the sidelines was to attempt to call a timeout -- one they didn't have, that would be a penalty.  The refs also gave USC a more than beneficial spot on the ball.  They actually marked it where Leinart's body went down on the field and not where the ball went out on the fumble.  USC should've been a couple yards back -- an area where you can't QB sneak/Bush Push it in.  And of course, the Bush Push play happened, which is again, a penalty (yet somehow made ESPN's top college plays of all time at 23).  Now I can see how that wasn't called as you never see a flag thrown on that, but the more and more I see the push, the more and more it just sticks out like a sore thumb -- it was such an obvious violation.

And if that all isn't enough, the reaction from USC fans was even better.  On my aforementioned road trip, I saw more than one person wearing the following shirt: "Flight to South Bend: $300, Tickets to the Game: $200, Watching Irish Fans Charge the Field When They Didn't Win: Priceless."

Yeah, eff off:

Pete Carroll

Programs always tend to take on the character of the man leading the charge.  If you ever wonder why USC seems to resemble a gigantic collection of cocky douchebags, look no further than head douche--I mean coach, Pete Carroll.

I mean this is same guy that sends this whopper to press boxes before the Trojans take the field:

O is for obsolete, which is what USC considers the moniker "Southern Cal" to be. In its weekly game notes each week, there is a friendly warning not to use that reference. Accepted names are: USC, Southern California, So. California, Troy and Trojans.

I mean really?!

This is also the same guy that decided to "prank" his team -- I'm sure you've all seen in that wonderful "Lean on Me" video, has his O-linemen play a touch football game during Friday walkthroughs, allowed Will Ferrell to disrupt a practice, and also did a swimming exhibition against the famed USC alum.

That alone isn't as annoying as the constant fellating that ESPN performs on his goofy antics.  "Man, he knows how to keep his team loose" -- no he knows how to make them a bunch of cocky, arrogant douchebags that have consistently shown they have a case of overconfidence when some bottom-of-the-barrel Pac 10 team upsets them every year.

Speaking of, how is USC preparing for the Irish this week?  Well, they are slip and sliding down the sidelines.  You just can't make this stuff up.

Perhaps the best example of Carroll's arrogance came in the 2005 game.  After USC stole the game from the Irish, Carroll had the nerve to point to his national championship ring as he left the field.  Yes, Pete, we are fully aware bending the rules can bring about championships.

Now go die in a fire.

Keys to the Game

OK, that's enough of the anti-USC tirade for now.  Here is what I see as the important keys to Saturday's tilt against Southern Cal:

• Clausen vs. USC Defense: Yeah, yeah ND hasn't faced a "defense like USC", well guess what, USC hasn't faced an offense like ND or a QB like Clausen whom leads the nation in passing efficiency.  This is the marquee matchup for sure.  Clausen needs to stay efficient and ensure he doesn't turn the ball over.  Of course, a Heisman-like performance will also do wonders in helping the Irish topple Troy.
  

• ND Blitzing vs. Barkley: Hello true freshmen QB! Welcome to your first big rivalry game on the road and let me introduce you to Tenuta's mad-professor blitzing packages.  Let's be frank, ND's defense has not been good save for Nevada.  USC doesn't quite have the same offense they used to, but they are still dangerous.  Getting in Barkley's face and rattling him early can force USC to be run dependent and allow us to completely sell out on it.  A Barkley turnover could very well be the difference maker in the game.
  

• ND Rushing Defense vs. USC's Backfield: Going along with the above, we have to make sure that we actually can stop USC's rushing offense; otherwise, I'm sure USC will be happy to hand the ball off all day long.
  

• The X-Factor: It is all on ND's side.  Seven years of pain, constant taunting of players saying "should've picked SC", a slew of the best recruits in the nation on hand, Clausen has something to prove, the weather will be freezing for the California boys, etc, etc.  There is a reason this blog entry was written the way it was: this is the most important factor going into the game.  On paper USC should beat us; in fact, it shouldn't be close.  But that doesn't matter, we should've been killed in 2005 and we should have won that game.  ND is out for revenge, out for blood, and out to prove to all the nay-sayers that ND is indeed coming back.
  
  This team has a confidence and swagger that is different from the 2005 team, they showed me against Washington at the end of the 4th and in OT that they, as a collective unit, refused to lose that game.  What followed was multiple goal line stands, Clausen leading yet another clutch drive and then a game winner, Tate flew through the air, and the defense laid out a Washington receiver to end the game with a hit I have never seen ND deliver in recent memory.  They are playing with fire and resemble the "nasty" team that Weis promised us years ago.

Bring it on Southern Cal, we are ready.  It's time to put another emerald on the Jeweled Shillelagh.

GO IRISH! BEAT TROJANS!

Important Info if You Attended the Stars Home Opener

First off, apologies I have been dark.  I am aware I have a ND game/heart attack to write about, as well as catch up on the Cowboys, but this last weekend was a whirlwind and to make things even better, I got stick at the tail end of it.

So yeah, blogging not at the top of the list of things to do right now...

Anyways, there is one piece of news I want to make sure is out there.  I'll have a more in depth article about this later and as more information comes out, but the fact is, if you had a ticket to the Stars home opener, you have a free ticket coming your way.

Long story short, Razor guaranteed a Stars win and put his money where his mouth is.  If the Stars lost, everyone gets a free ticket on him.  Well, the Stars fell in a shootout and Razor will keep to his word.

This was originally announced on the Ticket and blogged about as well by Razor.  I'm not sure how well publicized this was beyond that, so here you go.  If you didn't know, you are welcome, now go spread the word to anyone else that was at the game.

The Fat Lady Has Sung

The Rangers are now officially playing meaningless baseball -- this season though, we got to stick along for the ride until the end of September.  While bittersweet, especially considering what was no less than a complete collapse a couple of weeks ago, it has been a very long time since I've been able to stay to involved and wrapped up in Rangers baseball for so long into the season.

We've gotten to see the debut of several young stars: Elvis Andrus, Derek Holland, Neftali Feliz, Julio Borbon, and Tommy Hunter, among others.  We got to see Scott Feldman pitch like a staff ace for most of the season, winning an impressive 17 games.  We even got to see a completely different Kevin Millwood for most of the season.

We were able to welcome back Pudge to Texas, and have the treat of watching Omar Visquel play in a Rangers uniform.

Kinsler had only the second 30/30 season by a second baseman in MLB history.  On that note, Washington, please put Kinsler in the middle of the lineup next season.

Michael Young was again a model of hitting consistency and Marlon Bryd had a breakout season.

Most importantly, we saw this team lead the AL West for the first time in years and we watched them do so over a span of months and not days.

It was definitely one hell of a ride:

Thanks for one hell of season boys, see you in 2010.

Initial ND/Purdue Post Game Reactions

I'm going to be straight with everyone right now, I'm extremely conflicted about this win.  Now I really don't want to be one of those fans that does his damnedest to try to find every single little thing wrong with the team.  I'm not trying to be a downer on the whole situation in the least.  It is just that I see some glaring issues right now with what has been out on the field week after week.

I don't want to take anything away from Jimmy, who made an incredible clutch drive of epic proportions, even if it was against a team we were favored to beat by a TD.  The team was crippled with injuries and had major weapons simply watching the game.  Yet we still won (albeit, with a little aid from an awful timeout call).

We even got a glimpse of some old-school, smashmouth football when Crist first came into the game.  We saw Weis throw the kitchen sink at Purdue as well in that stretch, running a spread option, wildcat, lining Tate up at RB, and simply running right at Purdue and they couldn't handle it.

But there is still something bugging the ever-living hell out of me.  It isn't so much the fact that ND is failing to put teams away, but yet, why we are failing to do so.  The fact of the matter is that in these past three weeks, we seem to put together a solid quarter or solid first half and all seems well.  Then, our opposition makes adjustments, and we seem to do nothing but stick to the gameplan.

For instance, Crist isn't exactly some option QB.  He was one of the top passing QB prospects in the nation.  Yet for some reason, Weis refused to take the training wheels off of him and stuck to his "package" of running plays and short passes.  There was one pass Crist got to throw deep and he overthrew it -- ok, it happens, let him do it again.  Purdue was selling out on the run and Tate easily burned his man downfield.

For some reason, Weis was set in having Clausen be the only QB that would be throwing any passes that involved any risks and it was irritating the hell out of me.  We had Purdue hooked for any play action pass we wanted to throw with Crist, yet we only did it once.  Everything else was a short dump route or drag pattern for him -- or a screen.

Now, let me take a moment on the screen play.  I love the screen play.  It is the ultimate equalizer for biting an over-aggressive blitz square in the ass if you call it at the right time.  However, I am getting absolutely fed up with seeing Weis continue to call screens on third and long.  I know to look for it third and long and so does any other team.  We dig into that well far, far too often.

But again, there lies the problem of adjustment.  Weis has that pretty little play chart, and he will only call plays inside that pretty little play chart for certain situations and it comes back to haunt us week after week.

You want to know why the running attack worked so well?  It is because Purdue had no freaking clue what hit them.  Clausen goes out, and so does ND's biggest offensive weapon -- one that they practiced for again and again.  Then out of nowhere Crist is acting like Tim Tebow, Tate is lined up as a running back, we are making perfect wildcat reads and Purdue didn't know which way was up.  Then Purdue got to the half, took a look at things, and settled down and were able to have success against the run.  Finally, they realized that Weis was refusing to open up the field with Crist so they started selling out for the run with no consequence.

A win is a win, but if we continue to fall into these predictable patterns week after week and refuse to adjust, we will be facing several losses to close this season.

One more thing, while I'm airing my issues with ND out.  If our defense does not pull their head out and learn how to tackle, I'm going to lose it completely.  That effort in the second half was absolutely inexcusable.  What made it even more infuriating was that it looked like our defense had finally gotten it together and was causing Purdue all kinds of havoc in the backfield.  Although that meant absolutely nothing after a while, as I sat and watched blown up plays in the backfield turn into 10+ yard gains.

This kind of effort will not win us football games with any consistency.  Washington is no slouch (ask USC), and then we have USC just around the bend.  If we want that three week stretch to be any kind of productive, what I have seen out there for the last three weeks needs to change or we will be in for more heart attacks like this one -- except this time they might just turn into heartbreaks.

MSU Breakdown/Purdue Preview

I know, I know, I'm behind.  Hey, we got a night game tonight and it is going to be a long journey through crappy Big Ten games airing today until we finally get our very own crappy Big Ten opponent.  So let's take a journey through the last week or so for the Irish before tonight's game at West Lafayette and breakdown the ND/MSU game and preview tonight's matchup.

Uh, Defense?

After a very impressive outing against Nevada, the defense has more or less just flat out fallen on their faces.  The Irish have given up a combined 68 points in their past two games.  Our passing defense has gotten worse too, against Nevada the Irish gave up 154 yards, against Michigan: 240 yards, and last week against Michigan State: 354 yards.  As a reference, last season we gave up 195.7 yards/game through the air.

Now, I do believe our secondary is far better than the numbers show; however, our problem starts up front with QB pressure.  As I said in the beginning of the season, when you decide to be blitz-happy like Tenuta, the key is having those blitzes hit home.  If you continue to place your corners on an island with single coverage, and the QB still has all day, you will have major issues no matter how good your secondary is.

So where are the hitting home results?  Against Nevada and Michigan: 2 sacks.  Against the Spartans: 0.  Now you might want to make an argument here saying "but hey, how many times did that rush Cousins and/or he was hit as he threw?"  Unfortunately, it doesn't matter in this case.  Last week, the Spartans had a 65% completion percentage.  They weren't rushed in the passing game at all.

Well, until that is, the last drive of the game.  As the Spartans were driving to deliver what looked to be an all to familiar comeback win in South Bend, a blitz finally hit home in a big way.  Cousins was flushed from the pocket, panicked, and threw off balance to avoid a sack.  The result was a lame duck floating into the arms of McCarthy to ice the game for the Irish and barely escaped with a win.

A weak defense caused us far more problems than it should have this past Saturday.

The Officiating Saga Continues

I'm far more prone to complain about the zebras after a win, and some of last week was comical.  Once again Big Ten refs came into a ND game and left with some fans wanting to tear them from limb from limb.  Once again, the Irish saw a TD inexplicably taken away from them, and this time, it wasn't only the Big Ten to blame, but "our own" Big East refs in the both that we have every home game.

Of course, I am referring to the catch that ended Floyd's season.  The call on the field was an incomplete pass, and the call in the booth upheld it.  Later on in the broadcast, we were informed that the ruling from the booth was that Floyd did not "have full control of the catch all the way to the ground."  Which really boggles my mind...that ruling is brought into play for passes in which the receiver is immediately shoved out of bounds, and barely gets a foot in.  Let's do our own further review:



Now, as the commentary shows, in bounds isn't an issue at all.  What we are focusing on here is having full control of the ball.  Watch the replay again and watch the MSU defender, as he is the one that "disrupts the catch".  Floyd has full control of the ball as he puts both feet in bounds, the defender is even able to try to rip the ball out until after Floyd has taken the extra step that usually is more than enough evidence to signify the catch.  Once Floyd's back hits the ground then the ball is finally ripped out by the MSU defender.  How this is not full possession is beyond me.

Thankfully, it did not affect the game in the end; however, the fact that Floyd went down on this play and didn't even get credit for his catch is infuriating to say the least.

There were some other questionable calls throughout the game as well; however, one fact does remain and that is the Irish are getting penalized far too much.  You can place blame on the refs for throwing laundry around all you want, but somewhere along the line the Irish need to stop giving them any excuses to throw flags.

Golden Shower

Once Floyd went down, Tate needed to step up.  While he again gave Irish fans a heart attack by dropping some passes, he completely redeemed himself with the winning TD and best celebration ever.



How we got away with that I will never know, but I'll be damned if it wasn't the funniest thing I've ever seen. 

I know Tate claimed he thought it was ND's band, but I have a feeling he is full of it.  Go back and find a highlight reel of him and watch him taunt nearly every receiver he burns by turning around and pointing the ball back at them.  He likes to taunt, he just happens to get away with it.

By the way Spartans, we are now even for the flag planting of 2005.

M*A*S*H Unit

Ok enough of the Spartans, time to turn our attention to the pressing issues facing tonight's game.  The first of which are the injuries.

Clausen should be good to go, despite his turf toe.  It sure wasn't all too much of an issue during the MSU game when it happened, and I would like to assume it got better and not worse.  However, it is something to keep an eye on.  If he starts hobbling and struggling, I would expect to see Crist in tonight.

Allen, at best is questionable with his ankle.  Weis hasn't completely confirmed that he is out, but from all news that's I've read out of South Bend, he will have a limited role at best.  Expect to see much more of Jonas Gray and Robert Hughes tonight.

Floyd, of course, is out for the season, and Aldridge is still slated to be out for this game as well.

Keys to the Game

For Weis, he simply wants to avoid a shootout.  He's got good reason for that.  The Irish are 28-5 when holding opponents to 29 points or less.  They are also undefeated when they win the ground game and out-rush their opponents.

The Irish are facing a rather potent offense in Purdue that has racked up 440.3 yards/game, with 229.7 yards/game through the air and 210.6 yards/game on the ground.  As stated earlier, the Irish defense must step up in a big way.  If they aren't able to disrupt Purdue in the backfield, we could have another heart attack of a game on our hands.

On the flipside of the ball, Purdue has given up 434.3 yards/game, with 253.3 yards/game coming through the air and 181.0 yards/game on the ground.  Those are some big holes the Irish should be able to punch through all game long, especially on the ground.  With Floyd out, that is going to be a major factor in this game.  Tate will likely get much more attention than usual, so airing it out may not be the best plan of attack this time around.

Look for the Irish to establish a strong ground game first and then try to throw over the top once Purdue crashes the box -- which will be the complete opposite of last week when ND attempted to air the ball out early and often and allow that to open up huge holes for Allen.

I'm not really sure how to peg this Purdue team.  They've beaten lowly Toledo, lost to an Oregon team that isn't what it was last season on the road, and lost to the powerhouse that is Northern Iowa at home.  While I'd love to have supreme confidence with that resume, I can't help but forget MSU lost to Central Michigan before facing off against the Irish.  The only thing I do feel some what confident in saying though is that ND will have no problem moving the ball against Purdue. 

The key for a ND win is going to be the defense.  If the defense shows up, it'll be game over for Purdue in a big way.  The Irish have some bouncing back to do of their own and I expect to see it happen for a solid win.

Final Prediction: ND over Purdue 34-24

Some Shameless Self-Promotion: Part II

The article that I mentioned earlier today about the "Romo Friendly" offense will be split into two parts this week.  Part 1, covering week 1 against Tampa Bay, is up now.  Part 2, which will cover the disaster that was the Cowboys home opener, will be up tomorrow.

Some Shameless Self-Promotion

If you remember, recently I made a post about being a part of a fantasy football panel on DallasProSports.com, which has now gone to a weekly appearance.  Starting this week, I will be writing yet another weekly article for them as well.  My focus will be a week-by-week breakdown of the so-called "Romo Friendly" offense.  I'll be looking at the play call balance as well as how effective it seems to be working for the Cowboys and Romo.

I don't have the exact days that I will be published there as of yet; however, I will be sure to update with a link here (possibly with a more in-depth breakdown of other Cowboy happenings if I have the time).

On that same note, if you have Twitter, you can follow DallasProSports.com and get their feed of website updates (which will include my articles and fantasy panel updates) and other sports news from the Dallas area.  You can also follow my Twitter feed to get updates for this blog as well as other random things that I find amusing (as well as random commentary, especially during ND/Cowboy games).

Hopefully in some near future I will soon be able to overhaul this site and make it a little bit better than it currently stands now.  I've got a bunch of ideas; however, the free time is lacking as of now.  Considering I'm already behind on actual blog entries, I wouldn't expect to see any major changes anytime soon; however, I might have the time to plug some things in here and there.

So there you go, my shameless self-promotion for the day.  Now time to get back to work on things you might care a little bit more about like breaking down the ND/MSU game and previewing the ND/Purdue game.  Being behind is fun!

A Quick Word on the Texas Rangers

I'm going to take a break from football for a second and throw some Ranger talk your way.  No, I haven't forgotten about the team; in fact, I've still be religiously watching/listening to the games.  I've found that football tends to be easier to keep a schedule to write about as you have a clear week to week progression.  For someone that doesn't have all the time in the world to write, it is perfect for me.  So if you are wondering where I've been on the Rangers, believe me, I'm tuned in, just not blogging religiously about it.

Jamey Newberg I am not.

When I do write, it is because something rather big has happened, the team makes some big moves, or I feel like something simply needs to be said about the team.  Today is one of those days where the latter comes into play.

Yes, we are on a horrible stretch of baseball right now.  We are in all likelihood not going to make the playoffs; in fact, after this weekend, all doubt could be removed from that situation.  This weekend we face off against the Angels, whom we are now 6 games behind (6.5 behind Boston in the Wild Card).  We have 7 games left against the Angels, so all hope isn't quite lost yet.  We have owned them this season and we could very well make up the ground if we step up in a huge way.

However, if it doesn't happen, we shouldn't be jumping off a bridge by any means.

I'm a big fan of throwing stats around, especially for baseball.  Today though, I only want to give you one: 80-65.  That would be the Rangers' current win-loss record.  That is 15 games over .500.  That is something we all would've died for at the beginning of the season.

Bottom line: We've seen some damned good baseball in 2009.

Tuesday night, I was asked by a friend of mine, after I complained about the current state of the Rangers game on at the bar: "Why do the Rangers suck now?"  The short answer is that they really don't so much "suck" as it just looks like they've hit a wall.

The Rangers have had quite a few obstacles to overcome this season.  They've been hit hard financially for one.  While I don't believe that affected a trade for Halladay (I don't think we wanted to pay the price as far as actual players go), it has stopped us from doing a couple of other things: picking anyone up at the trading deadline of worth, not being able to afford claiming Scott Khazmir off of waivers, and not being able to sign our top draft pick.  Our biggest move was bringing Pudge back, and while I like the move, it was bargain basement.

This team has also been dependent on tons of young players.  Take a look up and down the roster and start looking for real experience, there isn't a whole lot.  Mike Bacsik on the Ticket's Diamond Talk made a great point after last night's game.  These young players have been brought up out of necessity for the most part and not because they have proven themselves.  Tommy Hunter might be an exception to this rule, as he was an afterthought, but due to how well he did in his spot start and in AAA, he was brought back up.  Holland was the golden boy and we were looking for an excuse to bring him up, despite having even little minor league experience.  Feliz was much of the same.  Elvis Andrus got tossed straight into the fire.  I could go on and on.

Young players will almost always struggle.  Just look at Chris Davis.  He was easily our first basemen of the future last season and this season people wanted him to never see the big league roster ever again this season.  Holland is having all kinds of issues now as well.  That isn't to say these players won't be great in another year or two, but the growing pains happen.

You also have to throw on top of everything that the Rangers have been playing great ball and they've been seeing two things.  The first is that the two teams ahead of them just refuse to lose.  The second is that the crowds have been absolutely lackluster despite the quality of baseball being played.  Now, I know there are several reasons for the crowd: the economy sucks, people hate Tom Hicks, the Ballpark is in freakin' Arlington, and the games are starting at 7pm instead of the usual 7:30pm.  And of course, football has started too and this is most definitely a football town.

So you throw all that together, add in the fact that Millwood has been awful as of late and the offense can't seem to score at all, and you are going to see a losing streak.  However, this is not "oh the Rangers suck again" or "here we go again, we can't hold it together" in the least.  This has been one of the best seasons of baseball we've seen in a long time, and not only that, this time around it was fueled by pitching and defense.  Plus it was fueled by young players that will be the future of this franchise.

If you want to place any kind of worry on the Rangers, place it on the financial side.  MLB basically owns us right now and is handcuffing our ability to do anything.  That is the real shame -- and no MLB isn't to blame, it is Hicks for getting himself in this much financial trouble.  If this team doesn't sell to someone soon, we could see all kinds of awful fallout like not being able to resign Byrd and even team president Nolan Ryan whose contributions to the Rangers have been nothing short of amazing.  If there is anything that "sucks" with the Rangers, look no further than the bottom line.

This team though deserves all the credit in the world for what they did this year, and they could still pull on last rabbit out of the hat before the season is over.  So don't get down on them.  Continue the support, make it out to the games if you can (believe me, I'm personally in the boat of can't afford/can't make the drive with my schedule, I know it isn't easy), and keep your heads up about the results of the season.

It ain't over 'till it's over.

Beat L.A.

Post Mortem: ND/Michigan

While the picture is somewhat in jest, it more or less describes my thoughts as soon as I saw Clausen throw to Tate and then later throw to Evans. It was one of those things that just gave me a sinking feeling that somehow those two over-aggressive calls would come back and bite us.

And bite us they did.

However, that is not the only reason the Irish lost Saturday's game. There were several miscues by the whole team, questionable coaching decisions (outside of the final drive), and a few other odds and ends that make me worry about this team a bit. Notice, I said nothing about the referees (and yes, I, like Weis, do believe it was simply awful). As I said before, great teams don't worry about miscues from the referee, they find ways to overcome them.

Before I go much further, as this post isn't going to be very bright and sunshiny, let's get one more point very clear. This is only the second game of the season. While this loss is a huge gut-punch/kick to the nether region, the Irish still have a very favorable schedule remaining, including the all-important showdown with USC. It is not out of the question for this team to rebound and, with this schedule, go 10-2 or 11-1.

With all that being said, it is time to break this mess of a game down, lay it to rest, and get ready to beat the tar out of Michigan State.

The Force is Strong with This One

What? Don't look at me like that, it isn't like I'm the only one making up ridiculous puns with Forcier's name.

Anyways, you simply can't break this game down without giving Forcier some major recognition for the work he did against Notre Dame: 23-33, 240 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT as well as 70 rushing yards on 13 attempts and a rushing TD. And of course one of those rushes includes a 4th down conversion that went for 31 yards and a TD.

To say the kid was good is an understatement.

One of my biggest wonders was why the defense continually did not respect his running ability. It seemed (especially on the aforementioned 4th down play) that we never had a true "spy" on him the whole game. Even if we did have someone ready to tackle him, it looked like no one was prepared for him to have any juking ability at all as well.

ND definitely did not respect Forcier at all in this one and it cost them big.

More Reasons for Running the Ball

I promise I won't dwell on the "why in the hell are we passing now" aspect of the end of the game for too long. One of the things I neglected to mention in my previous post though was that ND had 155 yards rushing in the game and Allen had 139 of those yards on 21 carries -- that would be 6.6 yards/carry.

In fact on the first play of the now infamous drive, Allen had a run for 13 yards, then was pulled, and Hughes came in and went nowhere fast on his only carry of the game. Then came the passing attempts.

Now, I'm sure the 13 yard run didn't completely gas Allen...so why were we not running him again? If they are selling out in the box, throw a pitch, have Allen stretch the play as far to the sideline as he can and kill some clock and make Michigan use timeouts. Even if you can't get the first down, you kill about 10 seconds and make Michigan use both timeouts.

Those 10 seconds would've been huge considering Michigan scored with 11 seconds left...I'm pretty sure a field goal would've been attempted in that time instead.

Special Issues

As if the ending drive didn't have awful play calling, Maust sure didn't help issues with his 28 yard punt. His previous three punts all go for 40+ and in the most crucial part of the game you choke and shank the one that really matters. Simply awful.

But it doesn't stop there. After Allen's TD got overturned and the Irish come out of the drive with a FG, the kickoff coverage, which was the best in the nation last year, completely broke down and gives up a TD return. That entire sequence was an 11 point swing in about a minute. Those are the kind of mistakes that come back and bite you square in the rear.

Tausch also got a case of the freshmen jitters in his first FG attempt as well. While at the time it was easy to shake off, those 3 points sure would've helped late in the game.


No Focus?

Probably the most disturbing thing that came out of this game though occurred via post-game comments by Eric Olsen:

Center Eric Olsen said he saw problems as early as last Tuesday, and told the team that after the game.

“I told them, ‘Reflect back on practice.’ We had a little bit of a sloppy practice on Tuesday and even on Wednesday. I think that translates into the game. We had a bunch of penalties that really hurt us in key moments. I think it just goes right back to early practice,” he said.

The team wasn’t focused enough at practice last week, Olsen said.

“I think guys kind of ease their mind, trying to survive practice, just get through it. It’s just another practice. But we’ve got to use every rep in practice as a way to get better. Obviously it translates directly into the game,” he said. “It’s painful because we know what we can do this year.”

Which really begs two questions: First, was everyone getting big heads and a bad case of overconfidence? And second, why in the world does no team leader step up and say something before the game and instead light a fire under everyone during practice?

I would like to think such a problem would be readily noticeable to the team leaders, but apparently that wasn't the case at all. To extend on this point, where were the coaches crawling all over the team when focus wasn't being had?

There are times getting a slice of humble pie can be good for a team, but there are also times when you can very much avoid ever having a slice served to you. From Olsen's quotes, it seems like this issue could've been readily avoided.

The lack of focus most definitely showed throughout the game though. 18 penalties for 150 yards is absolutely inexcusable no matter how bad you think the refs are (just as reference Michigan had 10 for 90 yards, they were getting flagged as well). Mental lapses like that is what causes you to lose a football game in which you win the time of possession and overall yardage battles.

Seeing ND's first turnover in their first drive in the second half wasn't such a great sight either. That shoots yourself completely in the foot and the Irish seemed to have loads of trouble recovering as the third quarter was simply awful.

Tate also seemed to leave his hands on the sidelines on quite a few crucial passes as well.

Some Bright Spots

I need to attempt to end this entry on a somewhat positive note as there were some things that the Irish did very well.

First off, let's start with the O-Line. Another solid performance allowing ND to have their first 100 yard rushing game by a RB since the Duke game in 2007. They also allowed zero sacks.

While the defense didn't have their best performance in the world, they still managed to get two sacks in the game. Despite the fact Michigan adjusted well to Tenuta's schemes in the second half, at least we are actually seeing blitzes hit home unlike last season. I have a feeling that against more traditional offenses, we will see much better results.

Even though Clausen had a couple of passes here and there that were awful decisions (often in the face of a blitz), he still passed for over 300 yards and had 3 TDs. He is far from perfect, but the progression is definitely there. If he can continue to make smart decisions with the football, he will still be a major force to recon with this season.

Looking Ahead

While my preview for the ND/MSU game will come in another day or so, I do think one point needs to be made. The Irish must use this game to rebound and rebound big. MSU has had far too much success when playing at ND and that needs to stop -- especially since they are coming off of a loss to freakin' Central Michigan. Of course if this past week isn't enough motivation for ND to destroy MSU, this should be:

It Needs to Be Said

I'm already seeing a lot of excuses flying around via Twitter and Facebook -- mainly those focused on referees. I've also seen a few comments that despite the loss, ND still had a good showing. With these two thoughts in mind, the following needs to be said:

The difference between a good/decent team and a great team is that the great teams overcome the adversities laid before them, whether it be a blown call, a bad bounce, or a hostile crowd. Attempting to blame this loss on a missing two seconds or an early overturned TD is a fruitless exercise.

I could do all the analysis in the world on this game, but in the end, it all boils down to the simple fact that ND was in the position that any team would want to be in during a game: in the lead and possession of the ball with very little time on the clock. You are in full control of the game at that point.

I can even understand the reason for wanting to pass in said situation. The defense is clearly expecting a run and will sell out for it and a pass can easily seal the deal. That is, if it is the right kind of pass.

You don't throw a jump ball in the air to show this aggression. You run a play fake, make the defense bite and look for the open man, if he isn't there, the QB runs or takes the sack. More important than the result of the play is the fact that the clock keeps running. The jump ball is not a "safe pass that we've been hitting all day" as Weis said in the presser. It is a gamble, and one that doesn't need to be taken that late in the game no matter how many times you've "hit" it.

You don't throw passes twice in a row either, much less again, something like a timing route with a true freshmen. Weis may like to claim it "was just a little bit off", but that little bit off was a bigger difference in the game than the missing two seconds.

There are several other aspects of the game I could bring up in which the Irish blew their chances (and where Weis had awful play calling), but all that matters is how you finish sometimes. You must force your opponent's hand when you can, not give them gifts of what amount to either a full minute or two timeouts saved.

I have defended Weis several times before, but I absolutely cannot here. The way we lost the game is easily a fireable offense. Moreover, going into a presser and then saying when your gamble backfired on second down and being faced with a third and long is a matter of deciding "whether or not you are trying to win the game or play it safe" and using that as justification for the poor third down call is even worse. Weis, I don't know what planet you are on right now, but what I saw was neither trying to win the game nor playing it safe.

Simply put we handed the game away.

Anyone remember us coming back on MSU in the fourth quarter because they decided to try to "win the game" and pass? Guess what, we are on the other end now because of the same thing. We were laughing at MSU then, and guess what Michigan is doing now.

This was not a good showing by the team. The defense had a chance to close the game down several times. The offense executed poorly in several areas of the game. The coaching by Weis was simply awful.

This is not a good day to be Irish.

ND/Michigan Preview

Before I start on this preview, I wouldn't feel right completing this blog entry today without at least giving a short bit of space to the victims and heroes of 9/11. It is hard to believe that the Towers fell eight years ago. Every time this date rolls around, my memory jogs back like it was yesterday -- I indeed will never forget.

Now I go from somber remembrance, to insulting Michigan and previewing the game...what a switch to say the least.

I often get asked by friends not associated with ND which rival is the biggest. The answer is always USC -- if we can take them down, it can redeem even the worst season; however, despite my hatred for SC, there is still a slight amount of respect for what they can do on the field. There is a level of respect between the two to a point and both teams realize the historical impact of the game.

Michigan, however, gains nothing but intense hatred from me. There is a good reason I own only a single shirt that has the colors of Maize and Blue -- with the words Muck Fichigan proudly displayed on the front. There is a reason losing to them infuriates me more than a loss to USC. I can't stand Michigan -- period. The Blue-Gray Sky probably has the best run down of why:

Interestingly enough, despite the proximity -- Ann Arbor is just a scant 175 miles from South Bend -- Notre Dame and Michigan aren't really the dominant rivals in each other's worldview. Notre Dame has its traditional, and longer-running rivalry with Southern Cal, and Michigan's stalking horse has always been Ohio State. That's not to say ND-Michigan is taken any more lightly by its fans; on the contrary, the emotions run just as high. But the matchup is special: I would say that Michigan and Notre Dame are less rivals and more Enemies. Bitter, bitter enemies.

...

A quick look at the history books reminds us why the Skunkbears have a wing unto themselves in our Hall of Shame. Shortly after the halcyon days of 1887, when players shared the game in a collegial competition, you tried to kill us. Once Notre Dame beat Fielding Yost's "point-a-minute" champions (after 8 consecutive losses to the Wolverines), Yost took the fledgling Irish program off Michigan's schedule. The humiliation ran deep; as if simply dropping the Irish wasn't enough, Yost fought tooth and nail to keep the burgeoning ND program out of the powerful Western Conference, worried that the upstart immigrant school would damage the reputation of what is now the Big Ten. Yost blackballed us, and encouraged others to do the same; for 34 years, his cowardice was enshrined in UM's schedule for all to see. Like a deranged, Munchausen-by-proxy mother (look it up), you tried to smother us in the crib when our program was in its infancy. Fear of Notre Dame was a powerful talisman, institutionalized by Yost, and the cowardice and consternation towards Notre Dame oozes out of Ann Arbor even to this day.

Yost was but the first in a litany of men of low character to hold the reins at UM. Fritz Crisler's "bias" (ahem) toward ND is well-known, and, like his predecessor, again dropped the Irish from his schedule for thirty years after a loss. Bo Schembechler sat idly by, for years, as three different Irish coaches won National Championships, while he was busy losing Rose Bowls; Bo was driven crazy with the notion that ND might enter the Big 10 and end his biannual trips to Pasadena. Gary Moeller was frustrated that he couldn't pick Notre Dame up, drink it, and then drive into a ditch. These also-rans were over-shadowed by true coaching legends just down the road from them: legends like Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian, and Holtz, who racked up championship upon championship as Ann Arbor stewed.

In the end, perhaps we do owe the Skunkbears a few more tokens of thanks. If Yost hadn't taken his ball and gone home, perhaps we would now be in the Big Ten, and our idea of football excellence would entail two or three losses per year and a trip to the Rose Bowl twice a decade. But instead, you blackballed us, and tried to choke us out of existence. You should have finished the job. We survived, and because too many teams were under Michigan's villainous spell in the Midwest, we were forced to look elsewhere to find quality opponents. And we did. We scheduled and played the nationwide champions of the day: Army, Southern Cal, Georgia Tech, Stanford, and many others. We criss-crossed the country, we were Rockne's Ramblers, taking on all comers, what tho' the odds. In doing so, we won national acclaim, respect, and the hearts of countless Americans. It was Michigan's attempt to stamp out a budding rival that created the nation's most popular and successful football program, the University of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish.

This is why we don't approach the Michigan game with the same tradition-laden respect, the pomp and circumstance, or the "contest of equals" honor reserved for the Southern Cal game. Rather, like Inigo Montoya closing in on the six-fingered man, we come with a singular focus. We are Notre Dame Football. You tried to kill us. Prepare to die.

And it isn't like that line of thought has died either. Michigan and most of its fans seem to have this idea that ND needs Michigan more than Michigan needs us (neither school "needs" either). They wonder why we play them season after season, and try to make loads of excuses for how they should "better" their schedule by playing someone else. It even got to the point were a Michigan fan, at the ND/USC game -- in full Michigan gear no less (I have NO idea why), said the following in an argument to a ND fan when academics and a woeful graduation rate of the Michigan football team was brought up (especially amongst African-Americans, it hasn't gotten much better either): "I have no idea what you are talking about. Michigan is by far a tougher institution to get into than Notre Dame."

Nope, I was not drunk and I didn't mishear it. It was actually the one time that I agreed with a USC fan as he popped off immediately afterward that the Michigan fan had clearly lost his mind. Now I know Michigan is far from an academic slouch for the normal student, but to say being admitted to ND is easier just blows my mind (and that of a USC fan too).

The point is, finding respect around Ann Arbor or Michigan fans for ND is like finding a needle in a haystack. Irish fans have traveled to the Big House to be greeted with such original taunts as "F*#k the Irish", "Shove those Lucky Charms up your ass", and "Rudy sucks" (the last of which I responded to a Michigan fan "That's the point you idiot" and got the most priceless look on his face in response). I also can't fail to mention having friends being bombarded with empty beer bottles while tailgating peacefully in Ann Arbor as well.

Classy folk, lemme tell ya -- there is a good reason I sing a ever so slightly edited version of "Hail to the Victors" whenever I hear their fight song played.

So why bring this all up in a preview for tomorrow's game? Because if you don't think both teams bring said chip on their collective shoulders, you are missing a major aspect of this game. The very nature of the hatred between the two teams has led to some rather unpredictable outcomes. Despite a woeful season in 2004, the Irish, fueled by a 38-0 loss to Michigan in 2003, upset the Skunkbears in South Bend. Likewise, in 2006, Michigan put to rest any talks of a national title by coming into South Bend and beating the crap out of the heavily favored Irish.

You never know what will happen in this game, and that is the most important thing that should come out of any preview of this early-season grudge match.

However, it seems Michigan is rather confident that their beating of Western Michigan has them well prepared for the Irish:

So Warren's day was… interesting. Argh Michael Floyd?

Short of being totally awesome in all ways I thought Warren's day was as encouraging as it could be given the three penalties and a couple plays that came at his expense. His game looked like that montage in a superhero movie where the hero performs a slapstick routine of smashing cars, punching through walls, and burning innocent pedestrians to death before he gets a handle on his newfound powers. Warren was hyper-aggressive in his first game free from bone chip soup in his ankle; the results were mixed-to-encouraging.

Plays marked "Warren" above:

• Busts up long route with bump; has better position than the receiver.
• Good position on a third and four slant that was fired too high and hard.
• Thumps ball loose on a hitch. (Or, at least, helps a receiver who was already dropping the ball finish dropping the ball.)
• Leaves two hitches open on Michigan's soft pre-half drive.
• Immediate tackle on hitch.
• Running a guy's route for him and going to be in position to intercept when receiver trips him (not in a penalty sort of way).
• Running almost inside a guy's jersey and gets called for interference, which I think is a crappy call.
• Gets deserved PI on a slant he was too aggressive on.

So… yeah, Warren had a couple incidents where Michigan gave up yards but the bulk of his day was running Juan Nunez's routes for him. Sometimes this got flagged and once he got tripped. But I'll take that sort of aggressive clamp-down coverage any day when the opponent is Michael Floyd. If Warren ends up a yard in front of Floyd the three to thirty times Notre Dame attempts to hit him deep, Michigan's going to be in good shape.

What happens when Notre Dame goes to three-wide?

Nothing. Michigan spent the entire day its base set and has no corner depth. They do have guys on the edge who can cover Robby "That's Racist" Parris or whoever; it's not like Notre Dame's backup WRs are speed demons.

...

What does it mean for Notre Dame?

I've sort of gone from thinking this is a bad matchup for Michigan to thinking it's an okay one or even good. Stick Warren on Floyd and Cissoko on Tate, give them deep halves help, spare the blitzing and let Michigan's diverse and sundry rushers attack the Notre Dame defensive line… I can see this working out. The prospect of a max-protect bomb still worries given what happened against Western, but if Warren's as ready to live up to the five-star hype—and he looked far more likely to in the Western game than any other to date—and Michigan can get away with shifting the coverage over to Tate and pulling up a safety into a robber zone to bracket Rudolph, I like Michigan's chances to hold Notre Dame into that 20-24 point range where victory seems a strong possibility. Notre Dame's run game has always been a finesse sort of thing heavy on screens and draws, which plays into the hypothetical strengths of Michigan's slimfast defense

I watched the Nevada game and a lot of ND's first half production was based on exploiting Nevada's "explosive pass rushers" at defensive end, which rushers also happened to be completely irresponsible. Graham isn't likely to be as exploitable, but Roh or Herron might be. I'd line up Graham on the strongside, which might induce ND to have Rudolph stay in to block, as they're going to double him lots anyway.

The key will be the safeties. Woolfolk is going to have to think deep first and not get caught flat-footed like he did on the Western touchdown; if Michigan loses to Notre Dame because of ND's ground game, well… that will be a surprise.

(Note: Bold emphasis is not mine, it is that of the original author)

I post that little breakdown because I find it rather humorous that Michigan staying in a base set will be sufficient to cover our passing attack, no less by saying that a young corner should be able to shutdown Floyd based on his Western Michigan performance (which, honestly didn't seem that great from the breakdown). It isn't like Floyd proved he could preform against pretty much every secondary he faced last year, nope, not at all. Also humorous is that the author here is so confident in Warren's play that he can easily see Warren taking Floyd on by himself, a safety being used to cover Rudolph, slide double coverage to Tate, and still stay in the base formation and have a LB cover Karma/Parris.

I sure hope Rich Rod believes this as well because I can't for the life of me see that working at all. Even if Michigan must stay in their base defense, Michigan will be dependent on strong safety play to contain the Irish passing attack. Tate burned their secondary last year on a couple different occasions and Floyd, is...well just Floyd and is in some other world right now.

I also have issue with the view of the running game. While we do employ draws and screens, I saw a lot more of a straight up running attack against Nevada and I can't see why we'd abandon that against Michigan. While I agree that ND won't be able to beat Michigan on the run alone, I don't think it should be as easily shaken off as in years past. I will say though that I do fear the Michigan front seven much more than Nevada, so the running game will indeed have to step up, especially considering Hughes is now taking over for an injured Aldridge and playing FB for the first time in his career.

Enough about the offensive side of the Irish, what about the defense?

First off, we are facing a similar style of offense as we did against Nevada, and this time with much more speed. Rich Rod's teams have a habit of clicking in his second season, and it looks like that may indeed be happening again. Simply put, this isn't the pistol offense we saw last week nor is it the spread option we saw last year.

If there was one weakness in the Irish defense last week, it was on the ground. While there weren't any huge plays given up by the Irish, I do have some concern of what Michigan will be able to do with an offense that I believe has more speed than Nevada overall. Blitzes are going to have to hit home hard and quick or said blitzers may soon see the back of a Michigan jersey going the other way.

The Irish need a big road win, something that really hasn't happened since the Irish last won in the Big House in 2005. This game will set the pace for the season, and the Irish simply cannot afford to lose this game as I think the deflation could end up being catastrophic for the season. The Irish still need to pay the Skunkbears back for the trashing they got in the Big House in 2007 -- the win in 2008 was nice, but let's be honest, Michigan handed the Irish that game on a silver platter. This is a game where the Irish need to make a statement.

In the end, I think Michigan's weak secondary will eventually be their undoing. The seemingly improved ND O-Line should be able to hold off the initial pass rush, and I think Jimmy finally has the presence of mind to find the hot route on any blitzes Michigan may through at him. While Michigan will score against the Irish defense, I just can't see it being enough. While the Skunkbears' offense might be improved, it is still a young offense that has not yet faced a good defense, and make no doubt, ND proved their defense does indeed have something these season after blanking Nevada.

Final Prediction: ND 28 - Michigan 20

Go Irish! Beat Michigan!

Dallas Cowboys Season Preview

This time last year, Hard Knocks was showing the Cowboys off to the world, complete with the attitude and thought that the Cowboys had a one-way ticket to the Super Bowl, and Valley Ranch was making arrangements for the shipment of their 6th Lombardy Trophy. Then just a couple months later, Pacman got into a fight, T.O. was yelling at everyone on and off the field, Romo broke his pinkie, and the Cowboys started their downfall that would leave them out of the playoff picture.

Funny how humbling a NFL season can make you.

Now on the heels of a draft that was called "dead" by Todd Archer today on the Ticket's "Ranch Report" (and for good reason, the biggest impact will be a kicker...ouch), the Cowboys go into this season trying to pick up the pieces of 2008. There are no Super Bowl projections at the Ranch this time around; in fact, things have been rather quiet all around...well save for the $1.2 billion dollar stadium that is now the Cowboys home...

So what will this season have in store for the 'Boys this time around? Will they, like Notre Dame last season, break their postseason winless streak? Or will we have yet another season of failed execution, excuses, and yet another miserable December swoon? I'll attempt to hit some of the keys for the Cowboys season as well as try to make a season prediction. And then, come January, I can link this post in another entry we can all laugh as I am dead wrong on everything.

The Circus Has Left Town

The biggest change this season has been the attitude of the team, and no, I don't mean Wade going up to the podium like an idiot, trying to be a hard-ass and saying "It's time for football!"

No, this time around Jerry has decided to remove any player that either was, or had the potential to be, a major problem and distraction for the team. Gone now are T.O. Owens, Adam "Pacman" Jones, Tank Johnson, Roy Williams (the safety), and Greg Ellis. The first three are rather obvious for either dividing the locker room (T.O.) or off the field issues (Pacman and Tank). With Williams and Ellis though, the issue was slightly different. In Williams case, not only were the Cowboys tired of seeing him about 10 yards behind a receiver, but also his blasting the media for pointing it out. Ellis has been a contract negotiating nightmare recently as he couldn't quite handle having a diminishing role with the Cowboys and made it known quite often (enjoy the Raiders buddy, also, try to avoid being pancake blocked by a QB in the future).

The message delivered this offseason has been rather simple: if you have any potential of being a headache, be one for another NFL team (or in Pacman's case CFL, or well, any league/team crazy enough to take that mess on).

While this has done wonders for training camp and the preseason not being filled with tons of ridiculous stories or questions about T.O.'s bike riding habits, the removal of potential distractions will not equal an automatic cure for the team. Mike Rhyner of the Ticket's Hardline has it right. Getting rid of distractions such as T.O. is only about 50% of what's wrong with this thing. There is something to be said for Romo being able to have an easier time commanding the huddle without the shadow of T.O. looming, as well as not needing to worry week to week whether or not Pacman will make it rain at a local strip club.

The chemistry of the team will definitely have a marked improvement; however, there are a couple of other more important keys to this season's success.

For the Love of God, BLOCK SOMEBODY

Someone needs to explain how we have a single Pro Bowl player on this line. I went into looking into some of the reasons for the infamous "December Swoon" of recent years. Romo tends to take much of the blame for this, but let's take a look at the sack numbers (with Romo in as QB) month by month:

Month	2006	2007	2008
September	DNP	6	3
October	4	5	4
November	4	5	1
December	13	8	12

Those ever so slight increases in sacks in December may just be a little bit of the problem. While 2007 wasn't as bad, you may also remember that year the 'Boys didn't do so bad themselves going 2-2. As I said before, I think I'm noticing a pattern here. It is hard to win games when your best player is on his back half the game. Keep in mind these are only the numbers of how often Romo was sacked and not how often he was hit as well.

If the Cowboys are to improve in 2009, it all starts up front. Romo has been getting sacked far too often and our running game hasn't been exactly what I'd call stellar recently either. If the line continues to be Swiss cheese, expect yet another December Swoon.

The Romo Friendly Offense

A lot has been made about there being a Romo friendly offense this time around. What does that mean exactly? Balance. Again let's use the past three years (the start of the current Phillips/Garrett era) and check out the spread of play calling in comparison to the rest of the NFL:

Year	Rushing Attempts (NFL Rank)	Passing Attempts (NFL Rank)	Percent Pass Plays Run
2006	472 (12)	506 (20)	51.7%
2007	419 (21)	531 (18)	55.9%
2008	401 (25)	547 (8)	57.7%

Saying that this team has been relying on the pass increasingly year after year is an understatement. The offense has been leaning on Romo to score points. The running game must not only improve this season, but become a more prominent part of the offense.

The term "Romo Friendly" to me is two fold. First, the offense is not dependent on Romo to try to create/force pass plays and have more balance. Second, Romo isn't forced to try to feed T.O. the ball in attempts to shut him up week after week. Like I said before, T.O. is 50% of the issue. With a more balanced offense, Romo should have a much better season as balance will keep a constant pass rush off of him and discourage teams from sitting on pass all game long.

A balanced offense is even more crucial this season now with the departure of T.O. As much as I love to bash him, he was a TD machine and major deep threat, and now he is gone. Of course Roy Williams is supposed to fill in, but he has yet to show he can be the kind of threat that T.O. was. Plus, if Williams is doubled this season, what happens to the passing offense then? It will be just like when T.O. failed to escape the double coverage himself, leaving Witten as Romo's main option. While Witten is a great option to have, as great as he is, he won't exactly be burning the defense on a deep route very often.

The rushing attack must step up and Marion Barber and Felix Jones must have big seasons for the Cowboys to have any shot at the playoffs.

The Predictions

So with all that being said, what do I see as the end result of this season? In looking at the schedule I can see either a 9-7 or 10-6 season. At best, the Cowboys will be looking to fight for a wild card spot once again this season as I simply can't see them topping the Giants (even if they did lose Plaxico Burress) in the East with that record.

If they do make the playoffs though, I do believe this will be the year the playoff winless streak does end; however, that is all that will happen. This team is only good enough this season to take a first round victory. Beyond that, there are just simply too many teams in the NFC that will be able to beat them. Ending the streak will be enough to drive the one needed win, but after that, reality will quickly set in.

As far as this week's game against Tampa Bay goes, I am looking for the Cowboys to win. The Bucs are simply in shambles right now. When you fire your offensive coordinator before week 1, you have issues. The Cowboys are already the better team on paper -- there is literally no excuse to lose in week one.

Nevada's Pistol Shoots Blanks in Irish Shutout

I figure it would be wise to breakdown the Irish's home opener sometime before they travel to the Big House to take on the over-practicing Wolverines. Somewhere in there I may want to preview the Dallas Cowboys season too before they kick off against Tampa this Sunday...

Anyways, I digress, back to the Irish and their 35-0 shutout of Nevada, and now their subsequent ranking as the #18 team in the nation. While a win is a win and the fact I'm definitely happy with their performance, what exactly have we learned about the Irish?

Obviously Nevada isn't exactly one of the stronger teams in the nation, nor one of the strongest teams in the schedule. I'm sure every Irish fan attempted to have a ND basher remind us that "it was just Nevada" despite the fact that there were definitely quite a few people around the nation thinking an upset wasn't out of the question. However, Nevada isn't exactly a 1-AA pushover. They still boasted quite a potent offense as they ranked #3 in rushing offense last season -- and I don't care who you play, that is damned impressive (and they managed to rip off 153 yards against ND).

Point is, they were the type of team I saw that could most definitely score on the Irish. In fact, it was something I was expecting. I figured this would be a game in which the Irish would simply prove to be too hard for Nevada's 119th ranked pass defense to defend in a potential shootout. I'm not sure what the over/under was for this game, but I would've definitely been quite confident somewhere between 50-60 points would've been put up by both teams. To say I was shocked by the defense pitching a shutout is an understatement.

And that's probably the first thing I can say we learned about the Irish: the defense looks good.

The Irish simply gave up no big plays, and put good pressure on Nevada in the backfield. The Irish were able to rack up two sacks, and hopefully seeing blitzes hit home more often like this will be the norm this season. The Irish also caused three turnovers...well really, I'll say the two INTs were their doing, the one fumble was one of the worst option pitches I've ever seen, but kudos to the defense for hopping all over the ball.

On the other side of the ball, things are a little bit more cloudy. I really don't know how ready I am to say the offense will be consistently good for us. Oh sure, Clausen had an outstanding game going 15-18 for and having that translate into video game numbers of 315 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INT (again, that's on just 15 completions!) and the Irish had 178 yards on the ground, but this happened against one of the worst defenses we will likely see all season.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to take away what the Irish did on the offensive side of the ball at all. My main point here is that I'm not exactly sure how these numbers and performances will translate over to some of our tougher defensive opponents. What I will say though is this: the Irish did what was expected, taking care of business and blowing out an inferior opponent and for that you have to give them all the credit in the world.

Clausen looked much improved. His three incompletions were never in danger of being picks. His passes were only where his receivers could get them as well, and not only that, he often had them in spots where they could continue running.

The offensive line made me very happy. Clausen had all day in the pocket and they opened up some fairly decent holes for the running game. When every run seems to be about 4-6 yards, it is hard to complain and that is something I've been dying to see. If you are the superior line, you have to throw your weight around and let the other team know it. Failing to run the ball and relying on the pass against sub-par teams is just asking for trouble more often than not.

To close on the offensive side of the ball, I just have to say Michael Floyd is simply the man. When you can win a jump ball, take a hit, stay in bounds, and then torch everyone on your way to the endzone, you are simply on another level than the rest of the field. I can't believe this kid is only a sophomore.

On the note of young players, Mantei T'eo seemed to be ever so anxious to play. I have not seen a ND player hit someone so hard in a long time. His biggest hit may have been on a failed screen play late in the game, but it sent a message to everyone, fans included. The second string defense in at the time fed off of it the rest of the game, the fans were buzzing about it, and Nevada's poor running back was probably wondering were he was. If Weis wants a "nasty" football team still (and I hope he does), T'eo should be the poster child with the intensity he brought to the field.

All around it was a great open to the season and I cannot wait for the Irish to face off against Michigan this weekend.

So to close this little recap off: Go Irish, Michigan Sucks.

Hail to the Violations?

Well it sure appears like Rich Rodriguez is working hard in Michigan...or, to be more accurate, it seems he is making his players put in that work. Of course he has adamantly denied mandating his team to go over the 20 hour/week NCAA practice limits, even to the point of tears. The assault hasn't stopped there either, as he has also apparently been involved with a banned Clemson booster, which has led to a nice lawsuit for Rich Rod.

Not really a good time to be a Michigan fan right now.

I kid you not, this story was covered on my local sports station which really only focuses on Dallas sports (e.g. not ESPN national coverage). This has really blown up big across the nation.

With everything coming out in bunches right now against Rich Rod, one fact seems clear: there are some important people that want him out and want him out now. I guess a 3-9 season can do that to a fan base and folks with thick wallets; however, it is good to know that fan bases like Notre Dame would never stoop to such lows to try and show discontent for a coach (more on that mess in a future post).

While the news about the lawsuit and involvement with the banned booster seem to be a bit of a nice smear campaign to help shove Rich Rod out the door, the potential practice hour violations may actually be of some concern to Michigan. This doesn't seem to be something that will simply be brushed off as "well, yeah, everyone does it" -- which to a certain degree is true. Heck even Ohio State alum, Kurt Herbstreit, and the current Ohio State team is sticking up for Michigan.

Back in my time as a manager, ND had similar "optional" workouts that were basically required; in fact, "optional-mandatory" was the term Weis used for them. Basically, they were extra workout/lifting sessions for the team. I never saw any of these workouts personally, so I cannot say for certain whether coaches were or were not in attendance; however, I can say this: I am positive that in some way, shape, or form Weis knew who was there and who wasn't and it would be naive to believe otherwise or to believe that this doesn't happen at pretty much every school in the nation. That being said, I do believe that Weis was smart enough to not ever let some of the following things happen:

In the past two off-seasons, players said, the Wolverines were expected to spend two to three times more than the eight hours allowed for required workouts each week. Players are free to exceed the limit, but it must be truly voluntary.

The players said the off-season work was clearly required. Several of them said players who failed to do all the strength and conditioning were forced to come back to finish or were punished with additional work.

“It was mandatory,” one player said. “They’d tell you it wasn’t, but it really was. If you didn’t show up, there was punishment. I just felt for the guys that did miss a workout and had to go through the personal hell they would go through.”

In addition, the players cited these practices within the program:

• Players spent at least nine hours on football activities on Sundays after games last fall. NCAA rules mandate a daily 4-hour limit. The Wolverines also exceeded the weekly limit of 20 hours, the athletes said.

• Players said members of Rodriguez’s quality-control staff often watched seven-on-seven off-season scrimmages. The noncontact drills, in which an offense runs plays against a defense, are supposed to be voluntary and player-run. They are held at U-M’s football facilities. NCAA rules allow only training staff — not quality-control staffers — to attend as a safety precaution. Quality-control staffers provide administrative and other support for the coaches but are not allowed to interact directly with players during games, practices or workouts.

...

Several players said that on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the past two off-seasons, they were expected to be in the weight room for three to four hours, followed by a run of 45 minutes to an hour.

Players said that on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they were expected to spend two to three hours working on speed and agility. That brings the total time commitment to 15-21 hours a week — more than the NCAA’s [offseason] weekly 8-hour limit, which includes time spent watching film.

On top of the strength and conditioning, many players are expected to participate in seven-on-seven scrimmages five days a week, for about 45 minutes a day, during much of the off-season.

...

Several players said the off-season hours contributed to the program’s high attrition rate — more than 20 players have left the program early since Rodriguez was hired. They said that Michigan coaches have a saying: “Workouts aren’t mandatory, but neither is playing time.”

...

Under Carr, off-season seven-on-seven drills were run by players, without coaches or staff members present, players said. The only staffer there would be a trainer, in case anybody got injured, as allowed under NCAA rules.

Several players said Rodriguez’s coaches were more likely to insist they participate in seven-on-seven scrimmages, which have become more frequent. They also said that members of the program’s quality-control staff frequently watched seven-on-sevens.

“They usually just watched and would write down who wasn’t there,” one player on the 2008 team said.

Another said graduate assistants would track them down.

“The phone would ring: ‘Where you at? … You gotta come.’ ‘I’m in class.’ ”

Quality-control staffers are not allowed to attend voluntary drills, according to the NCAA.

Players also said members of the coaching staff sometimes lingered nearby to watch seven-on-seven scrimmages. Players said the coaches were not physically coaching them, but their presence made it apparent that attendance was being noted and their performances were being evaluated. NCAA rules require such scrimmages to be voluntary.

...

The 2008 Wolverines were shocked by how much Rodriguez required on fall Sundays.

Rodriguez required his players to arrive at Schembechler Hall by noon the day after games. They would then go through a full weight-lifting session, followed by individual position meetings and a full-team meeting. Then, at night, they would hold a full practice. Often, they would not leave the practice facility until after 10 p.m.

In September 2008, three weeks into Rodriguez’s first season, senior defensive tackle Terrance Taylor talked about his previous Sunday.

“It was, like, 10 hours,” Taylor said. “Everybody was like, ‘Where were you at?’ ‘I was at practice all day.’ My parents were still here. They were like, ‘Where were you at?’ I was like, ‘I was at the building all day.’ ”

The NCAA limit is 4 hours a day for required activities.

“The Sundays were miserable,” one player said. “I could never get healthy. You’d go through a game and then go through a hard workout. Sundays would just kill you.”

The NCAA also limits teams to 20 hours a week, and Rodriguez apparently exceeded that limit as well.

Yeah...just a tad bit more than a few "optional-mandatory" lifts to say the least.

As much time as I spent working around the team and around the Gug, I can safely say ND never even came close to toeing the line that Michigan has apparently crossed. We worked long hours and were used for just about everything the football team needed in regards to practice and yes, even offseason workouts; however, even we weren't allowed to be in those lifting sessions (hell, we couldn't even go in the weight room). Sundays we'd be recording final player times, checking for holes in uniforms, and general laundry duties, and players would be coming in and out throughout the day taking care of things on their own. Definitely nothing at all like what some of these players have been describing.

Again, let's be clear, no one is doubting that teams go over the NCAA limits. The main issue at hand here is how it seems Rich Rod was actually recording these events, punishing players for failing to show up, and having the extra hours as a set routine for the team.

And that's probably one of the most damning things about the whole situation: it's the players ratting Rich Rod out. Sure you could say these are disgruntled former players, but it is a little hard to ignore when the freshmen on the team confirm it without knowing any better:

At the school’s news media day, the Free Press asked freshman Brandin Hawthorne what winter conditioning was like. Hawthorne, a linebacker from Pahokee, Fla., enrolled in January.

“It’s crazy,” said Hawthorne, who was not complaining about his coaches and was apparently unaware of the time-limit rules. “I work out at 8. We’ll work out from, like, 8 to 10:30. We come back later, have one-on-ones, seven-on-sevens, a little passing. Then I’ll go watch a little film.”

The Free Press also asked freshman receiver Je’Ron Stokes about Michigan’s off-season program. Stokes, from Philadelphia, arrived at the Ann Arbor campus in June.

“Hooooo!” Stokes said. “A typical week is working from 8 a.m. in the morning to 6 or 7 at night, Monday through Saturday.”

And that was starting in June?

“Yes, sir,” Stokes said. “We do the weight room at least three times a week, and seven-on-sevens and one-on-ones. Speed and agility on the other days. Every day we have something new to get ready for the season. The coaches have done a great job of stressing the importance of getting us ready for the big season that we’re about to have.”

To play devil's advocate for a second, the two freshmen did not say anything in the article about coaches being around or attendance being taken. However, what they did confirm was that the crazy hours former players were talking about do not seem to be so far fetched and gives credibility to their stories.

Perhaps the most disturbing fact and, well, laughable fact about the whole situation is where this has gotten Michigan: loads of players leaving the program and a 3-9 record in 2008. If these allegations end up being true, how awful and shameful is it for Michigan to not only get slapped with NCAA sanctions (for the first time ever I believe), but that they literally got nothing out of it. It would be like a baseball player getting caught juicing and not hitting a single homerun.

Time will tell whether or not these allegations are actually true, but things do not seem to be going so well for Michigan or Rich Rod right now. This is definitely not the way you'd like to enter the football season, especially trying to rebound from an awful season. I wonder how many Michigan fans are wishing Lloyd Carr was still around right about now?

Notre Dame Football: Season Preview

Apologies for the lack of posting recently. I've been recently moving into my new place and work has picked up a bit. This is a post I wanted to make a while ago, but hey things happen. This is why I call myself an "infrequent blogger" -- thankfully I don't have a set schedule for this thing. Anyways, onto the post and thanks to everyone that has been and still is reading and dropping by here!

It is nearly that time once again. In just under two weeks the college football season will kick off, and the Irish will set out to back up their current AP and Coach's Poll rankings of #23 in the nation. It seems that it isn't just ND fans that believe ND will be having a good season based on that -- although some may be projecting a little bit too much positive mojo and making some uh...let's say "gutsy" predictions (I'm looking at you Lou Holtz).

Overall though I am in the same camp. I do indeed believe that Notre Dame will be good. I'll be honest, this post won't be the "usual" for me. I'm not a big fan of trying to read the tea leaves and figure out just how good we will be. I'm a bigger fan of grabbing stats and using them to back up my points. However, stats from last year don't have all too much bearing on this season. Players grow, freshmen make impacts, and even coaches can make strides.

Before I put on the Blue and Gold glasses and take a look at this season--and yes, this post is indeed a "why ND will re(-re-re-re)turn to glory (well, maybe not that, but why they will be much better season)--let me say one thing and get it out of the way right this second because it will be the pink elephant in the room if I don't. This is the season the excuses for Weis end. I have defended him before, but these season those same reasons to not apply. His recruits are no longer kids, the O-Line is now a veteran line, he now has not one, but two of his QBs to run his offense, under-performing assistant coaches have been fired, and finally this time around another loosing season will put him well behind the win/loss records of Davie and Willingham even if you take away the "mulligan" 3-9 year.

Again, let's be clear: If ND screws the pooch again this year, it is definitely 100% justified to start pointing the finger at Weis and looking for another coach.

Got it? Good.

Now I'm going to tell you why we won't even have to worry about that this season.

Scheduling Fail

Let's just be 100% brutally honest: our schedule is crap. We are playing one preseason top 25 team in USC and that's it. Special thanks to Dr. White for putting us in this 7-4-1 scheduling disaster and making us such good friends with the Big (L)East instead of oh I don't know, not trying to shoe horn a neutral site game in every year and scheduling some classic powerhouse programs instead of Big (L)East fodder. Now I'm sure our schedule could end up being slightly tougher than it originally seems, but in all honesty it is quite subpar for the course.

Good for us.

There is one good point that Lou made in his crazy BCS title bound prediction and that is that this schedule is freakin' tailor made for an undefeated run. If you can beat USC, who else on that schedule actually scares you? Michigan is still rebuilding, Michigan State lost Ringer, and beyond that what else is left? This year's schedule screams "go take care of business" to say the least.

On paper alone, it is quite an easy road. Even if you want to not be happy about playing a subpar schedule, it is hard to deny that you won't be at least a little bit happy to see ND rack up the wins.

The Junior Effect

Let's take a look a Brady Quinn's sophomore stats (yes...I did manage to find a way to shoehorn stats into this...):

Completions: 191
Attempts: 353
Completion %: 54.1%
Yards: 2586
TD: 17
INT: 10
QB Rating: 125.87

And now Clausen last year:


Completions: 268
Attempts: 440
Completion %: 60.9%
Yards: 3127
TD: 25
INT: 17
QB Rating: 132.49

While Clausen may have more TDs and yards (Weis was obviously a lot more pass happy with Clausen than Ty was Quinn's Sophomore year), if you look at completion percentage and QB rating, we are more or less talking about the same QB. Both of them had a lot of talent and both of them didn't quite have everything click. While you can credit Weis from being able to make the offense better for Quinn or being a better coach for him, you still can't discredit the fact that Quinn was still a Sophomre, starting his first full season, still trying to adjust to the college game.

So with Weis' offense and another year of experience under his belt, Quinn came back and did the following his Junior year:

Completions: 292
Attempts: 450
Completion %: 64.9%
Yards: 3919
TD: 32
INT: 7
QB Rating: 158.40

INT down, TD, Completion %, and QB Rating all significantly up.

Clausen had many moments last season where it still looked like he just didn't "get it" quite yet. During the Hawaii game though, we finally saw a flash of the QB we all heard he was supposed to be. Finally for once he was doing what he was supposed to be: lighting up inferior defenses and making smart passes. If Clausen is able to progress like Quinn did his Junior year, I would expect an even bigger season than Quinn had in 2005, especially if you take into account that the schedule isn't so strong.

Furthermore, unlike Quinn, Clausen has Dayne Crist breathing down his neck as the next hotshot Weis QB recruit ready to light the world on fire. People wanted to burn Crist's redshirt several times last year and Weis held out, well, that is definitely not an issue now. Weis' neck is on the line, and you can bet he'd be more than ready to throw Crist into the fire if needed.

So you mix in a now experienced QB, ready to prove he is the man for the job, and you should get the result of a solid year behind center.

The Big Uglies Are Bigger

One of the biggest complaints I've always had a bout Ty is that he absolutely failed to recruit in two vital areas: O-Line and D-Line. While the D-Line will be able to come off of life support this year boasting Sophomores and Juniors at the helm (more on the defense in general later), the O-Line, which has been a gigantic problem for ND lately is now one of the most experienced that ND has seen in a long time. Even better, if one happens to go down this year, there will be Seniors and Juniors to fill in instead of Freshmen and Sophomores.

Furthermore, this O-Line has experience and lots of it: 82 starts on the whole line. As Blue-Gray Sky points out, for once, ND is the most experienced O-Line in our entire schedule.

Think back to when Quinn and Co. exploded in 2005 and 2006. The O-Line then was a group of experienced veterans, with only Sam Young being the exception to the rule in 2006. It is no surprise that when said group graduated in 2007, leaving the line horribly young and inexperienced, ND had their 3-9 season. The line still hadn't gelled last season either -- our lackluster run game and Clausen still getting lit up far too often demonstrated that perfectly.

This year though, no more. Now we boast a line averaging over 300lbs/player with an unbelievable amount of playing time and a new O-Line coach to boot.

If this line can't dominate against this schedule, there is something seriously wrong.

Holy Blitz Packages, Batman!

Awesome picture, shamelessly stolen from one of my friends

The Irish defense has been one of the bright spots for the most part. They've kept ND in many games that they should not have been in.

I've already mentioned earlier that the D-Line has gotten a little bit bigger and older, but the most important thing that will happen to the defense this year is that this will be the second full season of Tenuta's scheme of "if you are playing full coverage, you are mixing it up". Blitzes are all about timing -- you have to hit the gap at the right time and you have to hit the QB before he has a chance to dump the throw off to a wide open receiver. Add on to that, Tenuta's blitzes aren't exactly simple either.

With another fall camp of getting used to Tenuta wanting the QB to die a horrible death, the Irish should be finding their blitzes hitting home far more often, which will in turn hopefully lead to several more turnovers for ND to capitalize on.

The Band is Back Together

This little section will be simple. We are bringing just a handful of playmakers back on the offense: all of them. Instead of asking "who do we have coming back this year?", we should be asking "who exactly did we lose again?" (Answer: Schwapp and Grimes)

So yeah, the offense shouldn't have any problems "clicking" anywhere. The only major change was moving Aldridge to FB, which really made that position a whole lot better, in my opinion, as he can actually catch and not cough up the ball ever other carry.

Special Teams Not So "Special" This Year (I Hope...)

It's 4th and 6, ND is on the 30 yard line. Without blinking Weis goes for it on 4th down. Why? Because he doesn't want to have a heart attack every time Walker is out there to kick.

Again to be perfectly blunt: Walker sucked. Kickoffs were awful and FG attempts were awful.

If it weren't for Mike Anello, there would be no special teams upside for the most part last season.

That will hopefully change as Freshmen (and fellow Dallas Jesuit alum) Nick Tausch will be the starting kicker for ND this season. Along with FG duties, Tausch is currently slated to be the kickoff specialist as well.

I am just absolutely praying that this means I don't have to start praying during 30 yard FG attempts this season and that Weis is able be able to say "hey, let's take the points" during 4th downs.

All else fails though, Anello is back for a 5th year to make everyone happy.

Also, we have a punter that can out bench many NFL prospects...

Something to Prove

With all I can say about the experience, weak schedule, and likely progression of the Irish there is still one huge looming fact: they all have something to prove.

Weis wants to prove that his insanely large contract is justified. Clausen wants to prove he isn't all hype. Anyone involved with the running game is tired of hearing that they are a punchline. The defense wants to prove the switch to the 3-4 and a blitz happy package was the right move.

And anyone involved with ND is ready to bury the non-major bowl loss streak and the losing streak to USC. Stop the talk that ND continues to get bowl bids they don't deserve to be in as well as that their glory days are just simply a past chapter in college football. Tired of hearing, before a single snap has been played, that they are once again "overrated".

Everyone knows that the talk and the bravado with no results that has defined the Irish the last couple of seasons is old and tired. They are ready to put up or shut up:

Weis is a jelly bean jar of different moods and personalities, but the one constant has been his belief, both spoken and unspoken, that he's smarter than you. (Remember his introductory news conference about outscheming his opponents?) The trait is his strength and his weakness.

But the new and improved Weis is keeping his mouth shut for now. He speaks, but there are no predictions attached. When you have the worst two-year total of losses (15) in Notre Dame football history, you learn the power of choosing your words carefully.

"Show me, right?" Weis said. "OK, that's what we're going to do. We intend to show you."

I'm definitely ready for them to show me and silence the critics...

10 days...

Texas Rangers Weekend Recap

This past weekend for the Texas Rangers was busier beyond belief. In a football town that will see the Dallas Cowboys kickoff the preseason this week, all the talk on The Ticket this morning was about the Rangers. The increased coverage wasn't just because the Rangers won yet another series against the Angels, making them 9-3 against the Halos this season nor because the Rangers are now tied with the Red Sox for the AL Wild Card. While the on-field performance was very news worthy (especially one certain pitching performance), the majority of the headlines came from off the field actions.

Rangers Bid Farewell to the Nicaraguan Headhunter

While the Rangers were just a few hours away from starting what was easily the biggest series of the year, they decided to make a major roster move. That move was designating Vicente Padilla for assignment, and announcing that Dustin Nippert would replace him in the rotation.

Quick aside on the term "designate for assignment" (DFA) as it can be quite confusion since you have likely heard all or some of the following: the Rangers have effectively released Padilla, the Rangers can trade Padilla, or Padilla could be placed on waivers. So which is it? The answer in short, is all of the above. The Rangers have removed Padilla from their 40-man roster, has been placed on waivers and as of Friday afternoon, they have 10 days to decide which action to take with him.

What this means is that a team can claim Padilla on waivers and pick up the $3 million he is owed for the remainder of his contract. According to the waiver rules, the Rangers could decide at that point to work out a trade with the claiming team, or simply allow the team with highest waiver priority to have him. The Rangers cannot put Padilla back on the 40-man roster after a DFA as it is a different move than just placing him on waivers as they did earlier in the season (and then later placed him back on the active roster). If none of the above occurs in the 10 day period, the Rangers must either send him to the minors (which they have said they won't) or release him and pay off the remainder of his contract.

So as far as Padilla goes, come Monday, August 17, he will be without a team.

Why is this? Well simply put, the Rangers have made it quite clear they want nothing to do with Padilla. He has been put on waivers once and has gotten a wonderful bad teammate label. Just take a look at this quote from Marlon Byrd:

After the game, OF Marlon Byrd said it had become “redundant” to talk about Padilla’s penchant for hitting batters. On Friday, he said Rangers management did their part to back up the rest of the team.

“It’s about time,” Byrd said. “When a player disrupts a team, eventually there is going to come a time when management has enough. They have seen enough. We are fighting for a playoff spot. The last thing we need in the clubhouse is a distraction like that. There are 25 guys in this clubhouse who are behind management on this. They showed that they are serious. They did their job. That just serves as assurance that they are doing the right thing here.”

If that doesn't send a clear message to the rest of baseball the Rangers don't want him, I don't know what else does. You don't trade for, nor claim off of waivers and pick up a tab for a guy a team clearly doesn't want. You let the Rangers eat the $3 million and try to get Padilla for a better bargain if you want him.

Padilla was "disappointed" by the move. He also flat out denied that he never had any issues with the club or that he was laughing at Michael Young getting pegged in retaliation for yet another bean ball he threw:

"If they say that, they are saying something I am not," Padilla said. "Why don't players say it to my face if I'm a bad teammate. We'll talk about it."

...

"I was laughing at Michael?" Padilla said. "That's crazy. I was in the clubhouse."

...

"They know I throw inside," Padilla said. "If I throw inside they have to move. It's natural. It doesn't matter who it is. You have to throw second or third hitters inside if it's Sammy Sosa or Barry Bonds."

...

"I had a good time," Padilla said. "The fans treated me well. I don't know what has happened this year. I never had a problem with them. I had three years with the organization. I'm going to keep training. I can pitch if I get the opportunity. They want to wash their hands of me? That's fine."

I'm convinced from these quotes Padilla has completely lost it.

Tiexeira has told the media that he complained about Padilla's headhunting before, as he was the favorite retaliation target when he was a Ranger. I have heard both Hamilton and Kinsler go on record (via radio interviews) that they have done the same thing as well.

He also must have a body double, as the TV clearly showed him laughing (EDIT: updated with link of video) when Young got pegged, and I'm not the only one that saw it:

In Padilla's last start he lost to the Oakland A's, in the first inning he surrendered a home run to Scott Hairston, two batters later he hit Kurt Suzuki.

Two innings later, the A's retaliated by plunking Michael Young. Immediately after that the TV cameras caught Padilla, sitting in the dugout, smiling a smirk face. When asked about it later, he denied laughing at Michael saying he was in the clubhouse.

Yeah I watched the game, I saw exactly what was said, right after Young was hit he was smiling in the dugout, not the clubhouse.

Denial is fun.

As far as his "throwing inside" excuse, it is laughable. Nolan Ryan threw inside and backed people off the plate and he never reached a number like 49 hit batters in less than three seasons. That just doesn't happen by accident. Throwing inside means you brush someone back and more often than not, they can get away, or they get an occasional smack on the arm, jersey or back if you really misfire. But no, Padilla throws at people, throws it where they can't avoid it and he consistently does this to people he doesn't like (see: Mark Tiexeira) or people that have good success against him (see: Kurt Suzuki).

I love how he is wondering why the fans and the organization turned on him. I mean, I isn't like there was a huge backlash for him assuring the Rangers had no chance in the Yankees game when he mentally gave up and plunked Tiexeira twice because he felt like it. It wasn't like the Rangers sent him a clear message by placing him on waivers either.

Good riddance.

Hamilton: Sober Since 2005, If You Forget About January, 2009

Oh boy, I'm sure Josh's wife loves the fact that these are floating around the internet.

Josh had to answer some hard questions about what went down in Arizona before spring training was underway. It appears that he had just a *slight* relapse into his alcoholism:

“I’m embarrassed about it, personally, for the Rangers, for my wife, my children and my family,” Hamilton said at his locker with a handful of his teammates joining the crowd of media that had formed. “It reinforces one of the things that I can’t have is alcohol. It’s unfortunate that it happened. I was out there getting ready for the season and took my focus off the number one factor in my recovery - my relationship with Christ. I hate that this happened. I am human.”

...

“I wasn’t mentally fit or spiritually fit,” he said. “It just crossed my mind ‘Can I have a drink?’ Obviously, I can’t. One drink leads to two and two drink leads to 10 or 12. When I was in AA, one saying I heard was one drink is too many and 1,000 is never enough. Alcohol just doesn’t mix well with me.”

The photos show Hamilton dancing with girls, licking whipped cream off one, and having whipped cream licked off him in another. According to the report on Deadspin, which cited unnamed sources, Hamilton asked where he could also purchase some cocaine. Hamilton said details of the night remain foggy, but wouldn’t be surprised if he asked the question. He is, however, tested three times a week for recreational drugs, including cocaine and has apparently passed every test. Before the January incident, Hamilton had been sober October 2005 after being suspended on multiple occasions by MLB for failed drug tests. Alcohol, however, is not on the list of substances for which Hamilton is tested.

“When I drink, it always tends to lean that way,” said Hamilton, whose drink of choice in the past was Scotch. “As far as I know, I don’t believe I [took drugs].”

Given the frequency of his MLB-mandated testing program, its unlikely that Hamilton would have passed a test he says he took no later than two days after the incident if he had cocaine in his system.

Though Hamilton’s mentor and Rangers coach Johnny Narron accompanied him to Arizona, Hamilton said Narron did not accompany him to dinner on the night in question. He went out on his own.

“When you get some time under your belt, you start to take things for granted,” Hamilton said. “Obviously, I didn’t have enough time under my belt. ”

Hamilton said, however, that he spoke with everyone in his “support staff” immediately after the night to make them aware of the situation and to apologize. That support staff, includes the Rangers front office, After Care counselors who work with MLB’s Drug Abuse prevention program and his family. Hamilton and Daniels both said they were aware the story might eventually find its way to the public, but opted not to be proactive in addressing it.

Now, let me get a couple of things out of the way before I continue on with my thoughts on this. First off, I don't believe he took drugs that night as he is tested like crazy by baseball. I also think it is commendable that he informed the Rangers and his family about his slip up. I also am not faulting him for making a mistake because, and make no mistake about it, he is a recovering addict, and recovery at times does includes moments of weaknesses and taking a few steps back on occasion.

That being said, there are a couple things that concern me about this situation.

The main issue I have is that, post-January, he had been said nothing publicly about this incident until the photos came out. I fully believe he told the Rangers and his family about this, but I am wondering why we didn't hear anything until these photos were leaked to Deadspin. Now it isn't like I want Josh to keep me updated for everything in his life, but as public as he has been on the issue (he wrote a book about it for crying out loud) and how much people look up to him, wouldn't it have been prudent to at least mention this?

Having a slip-up is one thing, but hiding something like this hurts his credibility and that isn't something that can be explained away as easily as a few drinks and some compromising photos. Considering just how much he has been public about his struggles the potential for strong backlash and cries of hypocrisy are quite high, which is just simply sad and unfortunate. Not only did he hide this from the public, but he didn't tell Johnny Narron, the man he credits to keeping him sober, about his fall of the wagon either, which is also extremely concerning as well.

I'm glad he addressed this when he did and took full responsibility for it, but it seems to me like this was a dark cloud hanging over his head all season. While he claims that this incident has not affected his season, I find it interesting that he seems to be playing a lot better after he learned about the photos:

Hamilton said there is no connection between the relapse and his subpar offensive season. He blamed injuries for the lack of offensive production. Ironically, just as he learned of the photos Friday, he went 2-for-5 with a three-run homer on Friday.

Considering that he was 4-for-13 (.307) with 2 runs scored and 3 RBI, which is a far cry from how he has been batting lately, I seem to think a weight has been lifted off his shoulders that he doesn't realize.

I could very well be reading too much into this as far as his performance, but I do hope he can move on. He still has the support of his teammates which I'm sure will go a long way. The day after he went public, C.J. Wilson backed him via Twitter:

I'll only say this once about Josh so listen up- he's a bigger man than anyone I know. Who else can admit EVERY mistake they've ever made?

However, when the Rangers come to him for contract talk, I have a feeling the offer my not be as generous thanks to this incident.

Mr. Holland's Opus

Let's close with something bright and happy shall we?

Derek Holland closed out the series by composing quite a masterpiece of a start, going the distance for his first complete game (and a shutout at that) giving up only 3 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 8. He did so by throwing only 96 pitches, 73 of which were strikes. He also threw 5.2 innings of no-hit ball.

Superb doesn't even begin to describe that start...dominate might though.

When folks ask why I didn't want to risk trading Holland in a deal for Roy Halladay should hopefully now have their answer. Why would I want to rent Halladay for two years and big money when the Rangers can have Holland for far cheaper and far longer?

It should be obviously clear that he not only has the tools to succeed in the bigs, but he has the tools to be the stud everyone has projected him to be.

Hopefully Feliz will be able to come along in the same way very soon. Just imagine a future rotation front-loaded with Holland and Feliz and try not to have a big smile on your face about that.

Countdown to ND Kickoff

Well, I had a bit of time on my hands and decided to try my hand at some flash to see if I could make a countdown timer. Thanks to Google and a lot of trail and error, I was able to create the nice little addition to the top-right corner. That timer is counting down to ND's home opener.

Get excited, college football is nearly here.

GO IRISH!

Neftali!

AL West, meet your unmaker...complete with a Dora the Explorer backpack.

Now, I'm not going to write and harp on C.J.'s blown save from last night. I believe the radio said that the Rangers were 50-0 when leading after 8 innings, so I mean, it's baseball, blown saves are going to happen every now and then. When you've been lights out for that long, you are allowed to have a setback here and there.

No, last night belonged to Neftali Feliz and even a hard loss isn't going to take away his electric debut.

With 30 pitches, 21 of which were strikes, Neftali started his career with two perfect innings. Not only did he pitch lights out, he struck out the first four batters he faced. Two of those strikeouts came via his splitter/changeup, clocked at 90 and 91. He hit triple digits three times, topping out at 101.

He throws hard.

There is zero doubt he has the potential to be a truly dominate power pitcher for the Rangers. While his future will be as a starter, I am going to be glued to Ranger games in the middle innings to see if he will get to come in the game.

I know Holland has been touted as the better prospect in rankings, but even as much as I like watching Holland pitch, there is nothing more electric than watching someone walk up to the mound and throw 100+ like it is nothing.

To hell with the Angels playing out of their minds and the fact that we blew a win last night. These are still damned good baseball times in Texas.

Quick Hit on Ian Kinsler

Ian Kinsler, on his weekly show on 1310 The Ticket's (KCTK) BaD Radio, he admitted and wanted it to be known "on the record" that every time he swings the bat, he swings for the fences. The hosts even tried to clarify (and give Ian a chance to back off) by asking if he simply meant that he tries to hit the ball as hard as he can. His response was no, he tries to hit the ball as high and as far as he possibly can.

News flash Ian: That mentality can be forgivable if you are in the middle of the order, not in the leadoff spot. Your job is to get on base every AB, not to trot around them. Games are not equivalent to the HR Derby.

Note to Wash: I would hope you knew Ian had this mentality before, and if you didn't, you sure as hell better know now. Put him in a different spot in the order and let someone like David Murphy or Elvis Andrus lead off -- hell even Michael Young would be a better fit. Make sure you get someone up there that will be ducks on the pond for your big sticks, and if you consider Ian one of those big sticks, put him in the middle of the order.

I appreciate Ian's honesty, but I'd also appreciate it if he would realize his role in the order and would at least attempt to hit accordingly and not try to hit the first pitch out of the park every time he steps up to the plate.

Texas Rangers Midseason Report Card

Now that the All Star break is upon us, I want to take a look and evaluate how well the club is performing thus far. Please note though, that I am "grading" on the performance of the Rangers in general and not grading in comparison to the expectations we started 2009 with. There is no doubt this team has performed leaps and bounds beyond anyone's expectations at this point. However, if I am going to take an honest look at the club, I have to put that aside for the time being; otherwise, this post really becomes nothing more than a complete homer post.

Anyways, I will be grading the following categories: Starting Pitching, Bullpen, Offense, Defense, Mental Game, and Coaching. At the end, I will give an overall grade of the team, but please note that said final grade won't be an overall exact average. Grading subjectively is fun.

On to the grades!

Starting Pitching: B+

There has been no doubt that the starting pitching has been one of the strongest aspects of this team. While their team ERA for starters may not be in the top half of MLB (4.47 ERA, ranked 16th), the Rangers starting staff still boasts quite a bit of impressive stats. They are ranked 10th in innings pitched (521.2) and tied for 3rd with 5 CG, echoing the Nolan Ryan mantra of making starters go deep into games. They are also ranked 10th in walks allowed (190 BB) and less free bases are always a good thing. But perhaps the most impressive stat is the 35 wins that the Rangers staff has put together (ranked 8th).

The Rangers obtain their high grade though for being able to put together these stats in a hitter's park that is their home field. We've been told to never expect solid pitching because of this, yet here is a staff (and a very young one at that), that has been able to do it. The Rangers have also been able to fight through the injuries of their rotation as well, and still be able to hold these numbers together. Usually, if a starter went down for Texas, chaos would follow, but that hasn't been the case this year.

The main thing keeping the Rangers from a higher mark is the lack of strikeouts thrown by the starters. While you can't expect all 5 of your starters to be power pitchers and strike out machines, you surely don't want to stay ranked 27th out of 30 teams in Ks (303 Ks). The top staffs in the Bigs will strike batters out a much more consistent basis to say the least.

Of course, improving some of the other stats listed above would also boost the grade as well.

Bullpen: B

This was probably one of the harder components of the team to grade. While the bullpen isn't so hot in several statistical categories like ERA (4.09 ERA, 20th rank), BAA (Batting Average Against, .254, 19th rank), but something definitely needs to be said for the Rangers converting 24 of 31 saves (that rating is 2nd in the majors) as well as a MLB 11th best 1.37 WHIP.

Outside of O'Day, Wilson, and Francisco, the bullpen can get a bit scary -- and even those pitchers have proven to be vulnerable throughout the season here and there.

But really the grade is there for this simple reason: Once you get to the bullpen, more often than not you feel like your lead will be safe. The blowups clearly don't happen as much as the solid outings do. Plus, once you get to the 9th, you more or less feel like it is game over for the Rangers' opponent.

Offense: C-

Now here is where I see some glaring issues. The power does seem to somewhat be there though with a SLG of .454 which is 2nd best behind the Yankees. Texas is tied for 1st with 132 HR and round out the top-10 in RBI with 409.

However, these numbers are also accompanied by some very disturbing ones: .255 BA (22th), .317 OBP (25th), 263 BB (27th), 690 Ks (3rd worst...thank you Davis and Salty), and probably the most disturbing is the BA with RISP (runners in scoring position) at .257 (21st). Ouch.

In short, if the Rangers have a power outage in a game, don't expect too much in the way of producing runs. Those stats are just straight rally-killers to say the least. You can't win by constantly relying on the long-ball to be your offense. It is as simple as that.

This also speaks to the larger issue of how the Rangers seem to be approaching the plate. Kinsler can't seem to figure out what it is to be a leadoff hitter as his .250/.327/.816 and 20 HR are hardly the numbers you look for out of that slot. Maybe from your 5 or 6, but not the leadoff. Hamilton has also stuttered with a .243/.298/.726 and 6 HR -- again, hardly what you are looking for out of him.

And who are the .300 hitters on the team right now? Michael Young. Yep that's it.

This grade is more than fitting for a very below average offense with only its power pop saving it from being completely horrible.

Defense: B+

.984 is the current fielding percentage of the Rangers, which ranks 16th and their 52 errors is right in the middle of all of baseball. While these are fairly pedestrian numbers, the fact of the matter is that the Rangers have been able to quite literally steal away what used to be hits from opposing players.

Look no further than Elvis Andrus for the best example of this. The SS position for the Rangers have got more total chances than any other club in baseball (466) and Elvis is a large reason why (385 chances are his, only trailing Marco Scutaro). His range is much better than Young's by far and his arm allows him to convert those tough plays/potential hits into outs -- his SS league-leading 5.34 RF (range factor -- [putouts+assists]/games played) also attests to this. Also, you have to consider the 58 double plays he has helped to turn (tied 3rd best).

Ian Kinsler is also a major piece of this defensive improvement, watching his errors drop to only 6 (he had 18 last year), and also leading the majors (tied with Aaron Hill) with 66 double play turns. His RF of 5.32 (4th best among all 2B), sure doesn't hurt either. He also happens to lead all 2B in total chances with 453.

The improved and solid defense is a large part of the reason why the pitching has been so good. The two more often than not will always go hand-in-hand, especially if your staff is not striking out a whole lot of batters.

Baserunning: A

73 SB, with a success rating of 84% (tops in the majors). Baserunning mistakes have also been at a minimum as well. You really can't ask for much more than this. Unlike last year, the Rangers are not running themselves out of innings and they've been able to do this while being far more aggressive on the bases.

Mental Game: C+

Like Yogi said: "Baseball is 80% mental, and the other half is physical." This rating of course is completely subjective, but in my opinion has a large impact on how a team preforms.

Overall, the Rangers have been decent with the mental game. Stupid baserunning mistakes are way down from last year and that has been the biggest source of improvement; however, there are still a lot of mental blowups and short-comings that have plagued this season.

Padilla started the "wtf are you thinking!?" moments with his complete meltdown against the Yankees. Never has it been more obvious that a pitcher had simply given up and was just waiting to be taken out of the game...and then plunking Teixeira twice for the hell of it was just baffling. Although since that game, he has been much more like an actual #2 starter...seems the "we'll put your tail on waivers without blinking" message was received rather well.

Chris Davis was another problem this season. You don't just strike out over 100 times in less than half a season because your swing is bad. He clearly got in his own head during his strikeout fest. Somewhere along the line you have to make the adjustments that are needed and not press. If his swing was really that bad, he wouldn't have made it past AA ball.

Hamilton even feel victim to the same issue, just in a different way. He saw his numbers decline, and started pressing to get them up. So what does he do? Swings at the first pitch he sees nearly every single time. Granted, this has gotten better since he has arrived back from the DL, but he had a very long stretch of swinging at the first pitch more than 70% of the time. And I have just a slight feeling you don't throw an easy to hit pitch to the #3 slot over 70% of the time on the first pitch.

Ian Kinsler as mentioned before has had several issues figuring out how to hit like a leadoff man. He continuously swings for the fences and that just makes no sense to me at all. Also, although the baserunning mistakes have been few and far between, the culprit more often than not has been Ian.

There have been several positives though, and the majority of them have been the poise of most of the young guns that have been thrown into the fire this season. Folks like Holland, Hunter, and Andrus have been doing a fantastic job thus far in the season.

Overall though, there is room to improve.

Coaching: B

When positive things happen to the club, you have to give the manager a lot of credit. Washington has done a solid job with the Rangers and to not give him said credit would be simply wrong. However, he has still had many moments were I believe he has left some pitchers in too long (namely Milwood), and pulled other people far too fast (namely Holland). You can't really put too much of a blame on him for the losses the club has had though. Overall the ratio of dumb decisions compared to really good ones have been quite solid.

Mike Maddox also deserves loads of credit for transforming this pitching staff to looking like...well an actual pitching staff. He is probably the best off-season transaction this team has had in years.

And we get to Rudy Jaramillo...

Now I really can't wrap my head around this guy. He is lauded by pretty much all of baseball as one of the best hitting coaches ever, but within the past couple of years I watch Ranger batter after Ranger batter take horrible approaches to the plate. The trend of hitting purely for power and not to the situation is also very disturbing. While you can blame a lot on the hitter, if these problems come up season after season, you have to start pointing the finger at the man in charge of coaching the swings as well.

Frankly, the coaching would be an easy "A" if it weren't for the perplexing performance of the Rangers' hitting.

Overall: B-

The Rangers, while definitely performing very well in several aspects of the game, still have a lot of work to do, namely in the hitting and mental game. This team definitely has what it takes to compete with the upper-tier of MLB; however, to say they are on the level of the elite is pressing it. They will definitely be able to make a lot of noise in the West at this rate and, if the offense makes some solid strides (with the pitching holding of course) might even be able to make a post-season appearance.

--------------------------------------

Some other notes to close:

Halladay I don't think will be traded. According to St. Louis beat writer Joe Strauss (via his Twitter):

Asked about the price tag for Halladay, a club source said: "Give Ricciardi [ED: GM of the Blue Jays] all our minor-league rosters and let him circle any 5 names."

Yeah...pass on that. I'm pretty sure most of baseball will feel the same.

For those so sure that we needed to call Smoak up to replace Chris Davis, here are their AAA numbers so far:

Justin Smoak: 26 AB, .115/.281/.512, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 6 K
Chris Davis: 23 AB, .348/.407/1.060, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 6 K

Which do you think is more major league ready? This is why you don't make crazy roster moves (especially ones that affect your 40-man roster) for someone that is only doing well in AA. Smoak still has a long way to go before he is considered ready for a call-up.

Davis though is looking like he might just be getting some of his confidence back. Hopefully this pace can keep up so he can find his way back into the Rangers lineup and be a solid contributor once again. Having his glove back at 1B would be a nice addition as well.

ND Football Lottery Results Are In

For those ND alumni that happen to pass by this blog, here is yet, another notice on the web that your football ticket lottery results are in.

If you don't happen to know your ID number, here is how you can get it (credit to Blue-Gray Sky):

1. Log into Irish Online
2. Click "Update My Profile"
3. Click "Edit Notre Dame Information and Other Educational Information"
4. Click the arrow on "Notre Dame Information"
5. Your ID number should be in the first box (that can't be updated)
6. If that ID number for some reason isn't working (or won't fit), take of leading zeros (I had to take two off for it to work)

Hope everyone is happy with their results. Get excited, football is just around the corner.

Trade Rumors and Oklahoma First Basemen

First off, let me start off by thanking Kevin Milwood for having the worst start of 2009 right after I decide to rant about him getting passed over in the All Star game. Giving up 9 runs sure showed everyone!

For the record, I still believe Milwood should've been taken over Wakefield. One bad start does not destruct what he has put together all season.

Next, I want to take a quick moment to address the Roy Halladay "rumor" that seems to be floating about. Fox sports mentions the Rangers as a "possibility"...well let me use his words:

Here's an early handicap of the Halladay sweepstakes. Warning! While I'm basing this list on some initial conversations with major-league executives, it is largely speculative. To my knowledge, none of the names mentioned below have even been discussed yet.

...

Rangers. Oh, they've got the pieces; their farm system is the best in baseball, according to Baseball America.

Problem is, the Rangers' payroll flexibility is extremely limited because of the financial troubles of owner Tom Hicks. And pitchers do not waive no-trade clauses to work at the hitter-friendly Ballpark at Arlington.

Somehow this little blurb gets a mention on the Dallas Morning News Ranger's blog and then a friend emails me the story as he read it from another baseball blog.

The internet is fun.

I'm shocked this even has the wheels (if you even want to say that) that it does right now. I can't see this happening at all. Such a move would definitely require at least one of our huge prospects being shipped over to Canada (I'm thinking names like Smoak, Holland, Feliz, Beavan). This is reminding me of when we sent over Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez over to the Padres -- you know that trade where we now have nothing on our end from that deal.

There is too much risk and not enough reward for the Rangers here. Best case senario here is that Halladay helps get us into the playoffs and we make a semi-decent run. There is no doubt though, that even in the best case, this team is not championship caliber. Making a move for a big arm like Halladay really doesn't do anything more than delay the inevitable.

Plus you have to remember that Hallady is going to cost big. Sure it is a "deal" in a sense as you have to pay a prorated $14 million followed by $15 million in 2010, but this team is already having enough financial trouble as it is. Keep in mind we are still wanting to ink our two big draft picks, and they are going to be asking for top-dollar (which is the reason other teams passed on them). On top of that, the Rangers are still wanting to make sure they can work out a new contract with Hamilton and they will still likely try to sign Ben Sheets when he is finally healthy as well. The numbers just don't add up.

Basically, you'd be risking the teams health in both prospects and payroll for more than just the 1.5 years Halladay would be contracted as a Ranger. And for what payoff? Hallady is going to make the Rangers a championship contender? I don't think so. This team isn't a "one player away" club by any means. This team becomes a contender when the young guns finally develop.

Finally, you have that whole no-trade clause Halladay would need to wave to go to the friendly hitting confines of the Ballpark in Arlington -- I'm sure he'd also love the climate change on top of that.

In short (too late I know), don't count on this.

Before I finish up here for the day, I want to comment a bit on the moves at first base the Rangers have done over the Fourth of July weekend. First, Justin Smoak was promoted to AAA and then a day later, Chris Davis was recalled to AAA.

Both moves aren't too shocking, but really I feel this is the best possible situation for the two of them. Smoak needs to prove he can preform at the next level and Davis needs to get his head right once again. With both of them being on the same roster, they should (hopefully) be able to push each other. I would have a feeling that they will both be playing almost daily with one at 1B and one at DH.

Now for everyone thinking that it is only a matter of time before Smoak is called up to the big leagues, once again, tap the brakes on that. Smoak is still not on the 40-man roster so he cannot be called up unless the Rangers wave someone or they place someone on the 60-day DL to make room for Smoak.

Also, I want everyone to remember what happened just one year ago. The Rangers promoted a hot-shot first baseman to AAA Oklahoma as he was destroying AA pitching. A few weeks later, he was called up to the major leagues and was hailed as the "1B of the future." Now, everyone thinks he is worthless trash as he was on pace to crush the MLB strikeout and batting a sub-200 for the season.

It's funny how quickly Davis' fortune changed from this time last year to now. Don't automatically think that Smoak is going to come in as our savior at first base or that Davis is done. Baseball is all about players and teams making adjustments over long periods of time (read: years not months).

Nothing is set in stone yet, so don't continue to try to read tea leaves on how things will be. As with the Halladay rumors, just take everything in stride. The All Star break is just around the corner and the Rangers are just one game out of first as of today and there is no one that thought they would be at this point.

Enjoy it.

WTF Mate: All-Star Edition

I'm just going to leave this little stat comparison here:

Milwood: 8-5, 2.80 ERA, 119 IP, 37 ER, 1.24 WHIP
Wakefield: 10-3, 4.30 ERA, 102.2 IP, 49 ER, 1.35 WHIP

So let me get this straight...the 5th best ERA in the AL (done in what has always been known as a hitter's park by the way) backed by a workhorse load of the 3rd most IP in the AL, gets snubbed for the All Star pitching staff for Wakefield?

Seriously?!

I want to know what Joe Maddon is smoking here. If this game supposedly "matters" why in the hell are you selecting a pitcher that gives up more runs in less innings pitched?

I don't even want to hear about Wakefield having 10 wins. If that's the criteria we are going to use why isn't Kevin Slowey on the roster? Oh I donno maybe his 4.86 ERA has something to do with it, although the funny part about Slowey is that he's given up the same amount of earned runs as Wakefield (49), albeit pitching 12 less innings.

Milwood should be rewarded for the season he is having and not get the shaft because he's been a hard luck loser a few too many times. I thought the reason the manager got to set the rotation and not the fans was so that things like this don't happen -- after all, "baseball fans" voted for Josh Hamilton to start the game even though he has played about as much as Manny and with worse numbers.

It's moments like this that really make me want to see MLB drop the whole stupid "this game matters" crap. The original purpose was to increase interest in the game and to get people to actually route for their own league a little bit more.

Now I'm going to be watching the game hoping Wakefield gets lit up like a Christmas tree. If that happens and the AL loses by 10 because of it, I won't care.

Rangers Still Hold 1st, Despite Offesnive Struggles

Figured it would be good to toss in another quick Rangers post before I run out of town with no real internet access for a week.

Well, thank God the Astros came into town. The Angels have put together a rather impressive 6 game winning streak, and with the Rangers reeling after two tough series against the Blue Jays and Dodgers, they definitely to win this next series.

Although fun fact, this is the first series in about a month, I believe, that the Rangers have actually faced the possibility of losing the lead in the AL West. Despite that though, the Rangers will again see their lead hold in the West as they have taken the first two games from the Astros, clinching the oh so "important" Sliver Boot for the "Lone Star" Series that no one really gives two craps about.

Just to clarify though, I don't hate inter-league play in the least. It is fun to get to see teams that you don't often get the chance to as a fan. I just think MLB tried a little too hard on the idea forcing the "inter-state rivalries" that don't really exist. Even our president Nolan Ryan owns a minor league team in the Astros system, so I highly doubt he had a huge party when the Boot was clinched.

Anyways, back to actual Rangers substance.

Let's start with Mr. Davis once again, as it seems to continue to be something talked about non-stop across talk radio and in post game shows. Calls for Justin Smoak to be promoted still continue as well (even though these same fans probably don't realize he just came of the 7-day DL for Frisco). Yes, I know he is killing rallies, and yes, he still is striking out a ton (41 in his last 82 ABs...every other at bat...big ouch...). However, he isn't the only one.

If we are going to start throwing darts at the Rangers' offense, let's hit all the targets while we are at it. In reality, thanks to Davis' Mendoza-line production the following as probably gone unnoticed by fans -- take a look at the stats over the past 30 days for these Rangers:

Salty: .219/.275/.645, 73 AB, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 34 K
Young: .276/.325/.706, 105 AB, 1 HR, 8 RBI
Kinsler: .210/.294/.723, 105 AB, 6 HR, 15 RBI

Of course Davis is no better really: .159/.216/.509, 82 AB, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 41 K

And Jones has crashed back to reality: .184/.212/.620, 49 AB, 3 HR, 6 RBI

Point is though, we can spread these bullets around.

Davis is right where he belongs in the lineup, at the bottom. Sure you don't want a power position having an OBPS at .509 over 30 days by any means, but in the same vein we sure as hell should have a leadoff hitter with a sub .300 OBP, and a friggin' .210 AVG over the same stretch! On top of that, I can't even remember the last time Young went sub-.300 over a month.

Right below Davis, Salty is having strikeout issues of his own as highlighted above. I know a K every 2 AB for Davis is not good, but then again neither is a K for every 2.14 AB for Salty over the past month; however, I don't seem to hear the screaming for Salty to be benched, even though we have Talor Teagarden on the Rangers' Bench, whom, in the past 30 days, has 20 AB in which he has gone .300/.333/.783 with 5 RBI and only 6 K. So why not make that swap? Where is all the screaming for Salty's head?

While fans may not like to admit it, the excuses they'd likely give are the exact same as the ones that should be given for Davis. Teagarden is too young, don't throw him into the fire yet, let him ease into it, etc. How we are tossing these same reasons aside for a AA player that isn't even on the 40-man roster (and yes, I mean Smoak) is beyond me.

Now, I'm not excusing Davis' performance because it is only one thing right now: piss poor. But his glove is just as valuable in the lineup as Salty's, and last I checked, the whole offense is struggling and the wins we have gotten have been via pitching and defense. And no, 6 and 5 run performances against the Astros does not count as the offense "turning it around" at the moment.

Look at Davis for what he is right now, a solid glove that is batting horribly and thus sits at the bottom of the order. Just as Salty has been solid behind the dish; however, batting just as bad -- and he sits just behind Davis in the order.

The thing is, we all know the entire Rangers lineup can, and very likely will, hit better. We've seen the potential that Davis has. We know Young and Kinsler are solid offensive threats. However, they need to obviously work things out.

Despite all that, look at the big picture: 2 games ahead of the Angels in the West, above .500 baseball, and oh, by the way, we weren't supposed to see this kind of ball until 2010. Also we haven't seen this kind of baseball ever. I don't mean the wins, but the way they are winning. You never came into Texas telling your team that you have to make your ABs count and manufacture runs -- no you told them, the Rangers' pitching staff is a joke and the Ballpark in Arlington is a launching pad for home runs and the Ragners' can hope to do is out-slug you. That isn't the case now, the Rangers, more often than not, will throw solid starting pitching at you along with stellar defense. If you happen to blow us out now, you caught one of our guys on a really bad start, it hasn't happened much at all this season.

Enjoy the ride for what it is, and let's see if people like Davis can't pull it together before season's end. If not, bring up Smoak next season and let him take a hack at it. There is just no sense in making a hasty roster move that will likely cost you a player (unless, God forbid, someone else finds a home on the 60 day DL). If that's the reason we miss the playoffs, I personally could care less as it isn't like this team is going to be deconstructed completely next season.

To close, some observations on our young pitchers. I was actually able to make my way out to the Temple this season and I got to see Holland pitch...and I got to see what he is like when he has nothing. He struggled mightily. He's command was erratic to say the least and wasn't striking people out as he normally was as well. Facing the hottest team in the majors (L.A. Dodgers) didn't help either. However, he still gutted it out, went 5 innings, and kept the Rangers in the ball game. It was far from spectacular, but you can't ask for anything more than that when you don't have anything resembling your best stuff.

Neftali Feliz is still trucking along in AAA. Via the Newberg Report:

Neftali Feliz’s walk rate and innings per start, by month:
April: 19%, 3.7
May: 11%, 4.7
June: 1.5%, 5.8

That’s what I call correlation (and causation)! Feliz didn’t issue a free pass and struck out three in six innings. Unfortunately, he also allowed eight hits, and four would score. Feliz has been pretty ordinary, statistically speaking, as he fine tunes his fastball command and develops his offspeed stuff.

I would say it is safe to wager that Feliz will be called up come September (at the latest, it might be sooner) and will find a role in the bullpen. Next year, I would bet he lands as the 4 or 5 starter in the rotation. My biggest concern with him (as it usually is for any young pitcher) is the control, BB/inning, K/BB ratio, etc. It takes time to learn how to get major league hitters out (see Holland and his starts) and really, that just takes experience and time. However, ensuring that you don't give hitters free bases is a whole other matter.

Needless to say, with the walks continuing to take a nose-dive, his time is most definitely coming.

As far as Blake Beavan goes, he got his first start in AA the other day -- via the Newberg Report once again:

Blake Beavan offered some good with some bad in his AA debut. In 5.1 innings and 93 pitches, he struck out six and walked none, but he allowed six runs (five earned) on eight hits. Beavan actually gave up only one hit with runners in scoring position. Other runs scored on a wild pitch, an error, a groundout, and a double of reliever Thomas Diamond.

Again, take a look at the control here. No free passes, and an impressive 6 Ks to boot. The hits will happen, just as they are for Feliz and it will likely take a year or two for Beavan to figure things out at the AA level as well as the AAA level (which I think he will land next season, possibly with a 40-man spot and a spring training invite as well).

Again, next time you want to rage on Davis, Salty or the Ranger bats in general. Take a step back, look at the big picture.

The future is bright and enjoy this current ride we are on.

More Ranger Ramblings

First off, I want to give a quick plug to where I get the majority of the information that will be in this post. There is no way that I'd be able to keep track of the Rangers draft as well as our minor league prospects if it weren't for the Newberg Report. If you consider yourself a die-hard or even slightly serious Rangers fan, I would highly suggest signing your e-mail up for these daily reports. You'll get updates from the minor leagues as well as some Ranger insights from Jamey Newberg. Jamey is the ultimate Rangers homer as well and he will find reasons to try to keep you positive about the club.

Anyways onto the reasons for this post. There has been a lot of news from the Rangers since my last post, some of which made me feel like I did a nice solid jinx on the whole team.

An hour or two after my last post, the Rangers extended the contract of skipper Ron Washington. So I thought, "Hey, I finally stop being lazy and write a post and then we get some great news out of Arlington, go me!" Well, that thought lasted all of five minutes because in the very same press conference the team announced that Josh Hamilton will need surgery on what has been officially diagnosed as a sports hernia, and then announced that Brandon McCarthy is heading to the DL yet again, this time with a stress fracture in his throwing shoulder. If that news wasn't enough, I then proceeded to watch the Rangers drop two games in a row.

Yeah, go me right?

Thankfully though, the Rangers snapped out of their two game skid behind a gem from Kevin Millwood, who went 7.2 giving up only 5 hits and 0 runs. He may have only stuck out one, but he also did not walk anybody. You can't ask for much more out of your ace than that, especially when your struggling offense can only get you a single run the entire game.

Darren O'Day and C.J. Wilson followed to close out the game, giving O'Day his 6th hold and C.J. his 6th save. You'll notice there is no mention of Frankie Fransico who is still "day-to-day" and was unavailable for the entire Toronto series. The Rangers have seemed hopeful he won't need another DL stint; however, considering he has been unavailable for quite a while now it isn't too positive though to say the least.

So with that win, I fell safe enough to come out of blog hiding and hoping that I don't further jinx this team in their upcoming series with the L.A. Dodgers who currently hold the best record in baseball.

Keyword = hoping.

The majority of Rangers news though has been off the field as they have been quite busy with the draft, a big minor league promotion and making a rather interesting free agent signing. While it is hard to get too overly excited about draft picks in baseball, as most of the time you don't see them crack the big league roster for a few years, it does seem that the Rangers made two solid picks in their first two rounds, grabbing two top pitching prospects in Matt Purke and Tanner Scheppers.

Some info on Purke (via the Newberg Report):

As a sophomore at Klein (which also produced big leaguers David Murphy, Josh Barfield, and Chris George), Purke went 5-3, 1.43 in 49 innings, punching out 66 hitters as he scattered 38 hits and 16 walks. As a junior, he started the season firing two straight no-hitters, finishing the year with a 12-1, 0.37 record, fanning 147 in 76.2 innings and giving up 18 hits and 17 walks. As a senior, he posted a 4-2, 1.18 mark, setting 91 hitters down on strikes in 47.1 innings while permitting only 18 hits and seven walks. The reason for the relatively low inning count in 2009, according to Purke, was not any physical issue but instead the result of a number of Bearcat games getting rained out early in the spring. Good.

Purke has extensive experience on a big stage, having pitched for Team USA during the summers preceding his sophomore, junior, and senior years. He made six appearances in those three seasons (1-1, 3.68), striking out 27 and issuing six walks in 22 innings, including a complete-game, four-hit shutout over Mexico last summer (11 strikeouts, no walks). He also pitched a scoreless inning last summer in the Aflac All-American Game at Dodger Stadium. Purke has been exposed to a high level of competition and succeeded, and the Rangers love his makeup and competitiveness.

And some info on Scheppers:

Scheppers’s overpowering fastball, which sits in the mid-90s and touches 98 with life (reportedly lighting the gun up once at 101 in his final Saints start before the draft), was considered second only to Strasburg in this year’s draft class. He mixes in a power curve and a change, and is mechanically sound (perhaps more so than Strasburg). A former shortstop who didn’t begin pitching until his high school senior season (registering 93 on the radar gun and showing enough to prompt Baltimore to use its 29^th-round draft pick on him in 2005), he’s athletic with a classic pitcher’s build.

In his breakout junior year at Fresno State in 2008, Scheppers went 8-2, 2.93 with a save in 11 starts and one relief appearance, permitting 54 hits (.202 opponents’ average) and 34 walks in 70.2 innings while setting 109 down on strikes. Four hitters took him deep.

Color me excited. Considering the amount of solid, young arms we already have in the farm, adding these two would be simply amazing.

Now the big question in the MLB draft is always, "well can you sign these guys?" Unlike the NFL or NBA draft, the kids you end up signing there, while they come with a hefty price tag at times, will end up on your pro roster more or less immediately. It is a much quicker return on your money than baseball, in which you can pay millions and then possibly see your pick never make it out of the minors. A lot of teams aren't willing to pony up the $4-6 million that some of these kids end up asking for and that is the reason why.

However, you can say what you want about the Rangers not being willing to spend big on free agents as of late, but John Daniels and Nolan Ryan have made it abundantly clear that if they are going to spend, they will be more willing to do it in a draft. Just take a look at the Justin Smoak situation from last season. Many teams passed on him simply because they didn't want to spend the money to sign him and he ended up falling square into the Rangers' lap. While it took a while for the deal to get done, the Rangers did indeed get it done, and now Smoak is making huge noise in AA right now. "Steal" doesn't even begin describe this situation.

So the Rangers once again found themselves in the spot of being able to select two players whom people are too scared to try and sign. Purke scared teams off because of the money he wanted to command in order for him to forgo college and Scheppers because of an injury to his arm he suffered last year. And so far, news is nothing but positive in the signablity of these guys. While it may go down to the wire, there is little doubt from all that I've been reading that the Rangers will be able to close the deal and buff up their already top-ranked farm system.

Needless to say the future looks even brighter.

Also, one final quick-hit on the draft, the Rangers took Ruben Sierra as one of their final picks...yes that would be the son of former Rangers' all-star RF Ruben Sierra. I grew up watching his dad, so that was surreal to see to say the least.

Following along with draft news, the Rangers have promoted their first round draft pick in 2007, P Blake Beavan, to AA Frisco. Beavan has spent this past season in High-A Bakersfield, and has put together what seems to be a pretty solid season. Nearly every start he had this year, he was listed as one of the stars in the Newberg Farm report.

This is great news for the Rangers on several counts. First off, he will join the first round pick of 2008, Justin Smoak in AA, so it seems the Rangers scouts are indeed doing a solid job as these two haven't been gigantic busts. Second, there were huge concerns with Beavan's mechanics as he entered the Rangers' farm system. He struggled a bit last year with these changes; however, he has bounced back quite quickly it seems with the promotion. Finally, it is great news for the future of the rotation. While nothing is set in stone yet, if Beavan continues this progress, we could very well see a rotation containing very solid young arms. How does a rotation of Feldman, Harrison, Holland, Feliz, and Beavan sound in say 2011 or 2012?

The Rangers also added another arm to their minor league system...Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez. While I am completely ready to file this in the "wtf are you doing Texas?" category, I can't say the move is completely insane. First off, this isn't a 40-man signing, so we aren't having to get rid of anyone as of yet. Secondly, what is it going to hurt the Rangers if he fizzles out in AAA? If he happens to bring back a little bit of his old magic back, it would definitely be a huge payoff for the Rangers down the stretch this season.

Although it still concerns me slightly that the Rangers don't even know his exact age. I'm not even kidding on this, I've been hearing reports on the radio the past couple days saying he "may be between 39-44 years old."

I'd like to close with some Chris Davis/Justin Smoak talk once again, as it seems that the rumors are picking up steam, even in the world of fantasy baseball:

Prospecting

Justin Smoak, Tex, 1B – While Smoak currently resides on the seven-day disabled list (oblique) for Double-A Frisco, I think he’s a pertinent topic in this forum, nonetheless. Rangers first baseman Chris Davis(notes) has managed to cloud every memory of his dynamic ’08 debut in a feverish desire to provide air conditioning for the fans in attendance at Rangers games – his 88 strikeouts puts him on a season pace of 255, which would shatter the major league record set a year ago by Mark Reynolds(notes) (205). Davis also has the second-lowest BB/K ratio in the league (0.14), is hitting at the Mendoza Line (.202) and has gone homerless in his past 12 games. This brings us back to Smoak, a former high school teammate of Matt Wieters(notes) who was Texas’ top draft choice a year ago. Baseball America draws comparisons with Mark Teixeira(notes) because he’s a switch hitter with a nice blend of power and patience. Speaking of Baseball America, one of their analysts, Jim Callis, recently had this to say about the possibility of Smoak seeing time in Arlington this season: “If you’d have asked me this at the beginning of the year as a hypothetical question, I’d have said it wouldn’t matter because there was no reason not to let Davis work through his struggles, and no reason to rush Smoak. But with the Rangers contending, they’re going to have to look seriously at calling up Smoak if things don’t change by the All-Star break. Smoak is tough enough to handle the promotion, and while ideally you’d like to give him more minor league ABs, the Rangers can’t take a sub-.700 OPS at first base when they’re trying to win.” The 22-year-old Smoak would have immediate cachet in mixed leagues if/when he arrives in Texas.

Yes, Davis is still having some issues, but I still just can't see this having too much of a chance right now. Ironically, Davis reached base every single AB and did not strike out, and actually doubled in the game. He is far from tearing up the league, but these short bursts of "hey, he isn't completely screwing up now!" is going to keep him on the MLB roster. Moving Smoak up would be an act of desperation more than anything, and even if it looks as if Davis shouldn't be on the MLB roster, he will get moved down to AAA to work and Blalock or Jones will likely take his spot, and possibly have someone like Max Ramirez called up, not Smoak. I can't see Smoak making a crack at the Rangers roster until next season at the earliest.

Final Note: Yeah, I know I lied, but as I was finishing this post, I saw the Rangers have signed one of their draft picks. Ruben Sierra is now the first of the Rangers 2009 draft class to be signed, sealed and delivered. Hopefully, the rest of our signings will be this easy!

First Place Texas Rangers

I find myself in the month of June still shockingly optimistic about baseball for the first time in years. At the time of this entry, the Rangers hold a 4.5 lead over the Angels in the AL West and are tied with the New York Yankees for the best record in the American League; in fact, only two teams in all of Major League Baseball have a better record: last year's World Champs, the Philadelphia Phillies (Rangers are 0.5 GB), and the L.A. Dodgers (Rangers are well behind). This is a situation I am not used to seeing.

Not only that, this streak of solid baseball has been anchored by solid pitching and defense. If anything, the offense has been the most suspect this season. Millwood finally looks like an ace this season boasting a 2.96 ERA (yes a Ranger pitcher with a sub-3.00 ERA), 1.26 WHIP, 1.78 K/BB ratio, and 2 CG as well. Needless to say his 5-4 record has not done him justice at all.

Even young pitchers like Harrison (whom is currently on the DL though) and McCarhty have notched CG shutouts this season as well as put together some solid stats. The Nolan Ryan mantra of getting the starters in better shape and going deep into games is ringing loud and clear. The main concern of course, is how long will this be able to last? The dog days of summer are nearly upon the Ballpark and that will be the true test too see just how much longer the Ranger arms will last.

Rookie Derek Holland has also cracked this rotation as well, and it should be noted that it seems the Rangers are being very cautious with his arm. Thankfully it seems that the Nolan Ryan school of thought is leaned far more heavily on the veterans like Millwood than young kids like Holland. While his stats are far from impressive right now, one thing that does jump out is just how often he is striking batters out. Not only is his K/BB ratio an amazing 2.4, his K/9 is 6.82 -- a number that is light years ahead of any other Ranger starter. He definitely has the stuff, but right now he'll have to take a few lumps on the head while learning to pitch in the bigs. The future definitely looks bright for this kid.

The bullpen, while not incredibly deep, has been solid as well. C.J. Wilson seems to be turning things around, but the two that stand out the most right now is early season pickup Darren O'Day and closer Frank Francisco. In 15 innings of work, O'Day has given up only 8 hits and 2 runs, leading to a 1.20 ERA and a 0.87 WHIP. Francisco has been perfect converting all 12 of his save opportunities and has allowed only one run all season in his 19.2 innings of work. Right now the only concern for him though is his health as he seems to be put onto the shelf far too often.

Even though the offense has been the "worst" part of this team, there are some definite standouts thus far.

Ian Kinsler is currently hitting .274/.357/.905 (AVG/OBP/OBPS) with 15 HR and 44 RBI and has been the catalyst for the Rangers offense most of the season. Nelson Cruz has seemed to shake off the "AAAA" label hitting .292/.356/.969 with 17 HR and 42 RBI. Even Andruw Jones has shocked pretty much everyone (including myself) going a respectable .272/.400/.933 with 5 HR and 15 RBI, making him a solid contributor, and dare I say it, a solid gamble by the Rangers.

As far as defense goes, I would wager the Rangers have the best infield in all of MLB. Ian Kinsler has become more solid at 2B, and Davis has proven to be an amazing defensive 1B; however, the biggest change is on the left side of the infield. Rookie Elvis Andrus is proving to be a stud. He has made plays that I have seen no Ranger ever make at SS. The call to promote him to the bigs has been a genius move, and sliding Michael Young to 3B has make the left side of the infield simply amazing. It is no coincidence that with this improved defense, the pitching has also gotten a lot better as well. Pitchers are watching more hits get stolen from the opposition, giving them far more confidence in pitching to contact -- this is further exemplified by the fact that the Rangers are dead last as a pitching staff in Ks, yet still having solid pitching all season.

While on the subject of Elvis Andrus, it should be noted that he has been an offensive force as well this season. He has hit .275/.326/.732 with 3 HR, 12 RBI, and 9 SB. Rookie of the year honors are definitely within his grasp.

If there is any "hot topic" thus far, it has been the bat of Chris Davis. Davis thus far has only put together .202/.326/.685, albeit with 12 HR and 27 RBI. The biggest number though is his strikeouts as he easily leads all of MLB with 84 (that would be a strikeout every 2.23 AB, ouch). Leading of course to people calling for his removal from the lineup as he has become the ultimate all-or-nothing batter.

Personally, I am still with Wash in letting Davis have more time at the dish to fix his issues (and in this last road trip, things did indeed look a lot better). I'm not a big fan of our other 1B options. Blalock and Jones can play at 1B, but Davis easily has the better glove.

But what about Justin Smoak? He seems to be the "easy" choice to replace Davis. I mean why not, he is going an absurd .325/.444/.947 with 6 HR and 25 RBI, so why not toss him in? Well first off, people need to tap the breaks. He is doing this in AA. The difference between AA pitching and MLB pitching is night and day. Hell, even AAA pitching is a completely different animal than what he is facing.

Also, people need to realize that Smoak isn't even on the 40-man roster right now. For those that don't understand what I just said, this means that Smoak can't even be called up into the bigs right now, as you can only do that for guys that are on your 40-man roster. During the season, making a move on that roster isn't exactly as simple as swapping people. In order to make room on the 40-man roster, you have to outright release a player, and I don't think the Rangers are going to be willing to do that on a gamble from someone that is doing well in just AA.

Basically, it makes far more sense to allow for Davis to try to work through his issues. As I said before, there have been signs of improvement. With him in the lineup, you still have a solid glove as well, so it isn't like he is single-handedly crippling the Rangers. However, I am sure if he continues to slide downward during the month of June, he could find himself in AAA once again and Blalock/Jones will cover 1B.

The long of the short of it though is that everyone needs to realize just what is happening right now and that is the Rangers are a year ahead of themselves. 2010 was the projected year to make a run for the AL West and now the Rangers have a very comfortable lead. Think about this, for the last few series, the Rangers have entered knowing that even if they get swept and the Angels sweep their series, they will still be in first. That is simply awesome.

There is still an abundance of young talent in the farm system as well as the current roster. Cruz is going to be a force, Andrus is looking like a stud right now, Murphy's bat is coming around, and Holland could just be an ace-in-waiting. And that isn't even taking into account you still have talent like Neftali Feliz and Justin Smoak waiting in the wings for seasons to come.

This is the start of something big. For the first time in ages, the Rangers finally have things set up right and we will definitely have many more seasons of solid baseball in Texas to come.

A Relfection on MLB's "Steroid Era"

Well, I wanted to make a Rangers post, but Manny decided to be Manny, and it seems that means Manny's been juicing. Now this put me in a state of baseball depression, despite the Rangers currently being in first place in May for what seems like forever. Was it because I was a huge Manny fan? No not really, he amused me and I always thought of him as one of the all-time greatest batters in the game, but that's it. Despite the fact Manny was nowhere on my radar as far as PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) go, this just reinforced something that continues to be hammered into my head:

All my memories of great and historic baseball moments I have witnessed as a fan are completely tainted.

Every time another big name hits the ever growing list, Jose Canseco probably laughs his ass off, Pete Rose likely wants to call Bud Selig and say "I sure as hell don't look like a bad Hall of Fame option now do I?", and another happy baseball memory of mine dies.

Bill Simmons probably says it best and I highly suggest reading it all. He writes a fictional story, set 5 years into the future when he takes his son to his first Red Sox game; however, he then finds his worst nightmare comes true when he shows his son the championship banners:

We settle into our seats. I point toward the championship banners over the first-base side. They go in order: 1903, 1904, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 2004, 2007. Ever since Boston won the World Series 10 years ago, I always imagined pointing to that 2004 banner and telling my little boy, "That's the team that changed everything."

So that's what I do. I point at the banner and tell him, "That's the team that changed everything."

"Isn't that the team that cheated?" he asks.

Just like that, the symbol of THE championship for Red Sox Nation, the one that broke the Curse of the Bambino, now becomes nothing more than a tarnished symbol that now spawns hundreds of questions, leaving fans to do their damnedest to try to explain them away. Simmons and his father attempt to do this to the young Simmons in the story, and the sharp 'Lil Sports Guy comes up with counterpoint after counterpoint. The back-and-forth continues, and it slowly eats away at Simmons until the following happens:

"You don't understand what it was like to follow baseball before you were born. There was a strike in 1994, and the World Series was canceled. Everyone hated baseball. Then Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa started hitting homers, and the balls started flying out of the park, and it was so much fun that everyone looked the other way. We didn't care that these guys were practically busting out of their skin or growing second foreheads. We really didn't. All the cheating made baseball more fun to watch. We were in denial. It was weird.

"Then, Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in a season, and that was like the turning point. We realized that things had gone too far. We blamed him for cheating and looked the other way with dozens of other guys who might have been doing the same thing. Brady Anderson hit 50 homers in 1996; we didn't care. Bret Boone had 141 RBIs in a season; we didn't care. Big Papi went from 10 homers to 41 in four seasons; we didn't care. Roger Clemens was washed up, but suddenly he could throw 98 miles per hour and win Cy Youngs again; we didn't care. Eric Gagne saved 84 straight games and threw 120 miles an hour; we didn't care. Good players started blowing out tendons nobody had ever heard of; we didn't care. Pitchers blew out elbow tendons and shoulder ligaments routinely; we didn't care. This was the deal. They cheated; we pretended they didn't. It's really hard to explain unless you were there."

My son tries to soak everything in. That's lot to process for a 6-year-old.

Finally ...

"So when the Red Sox won in 2004, did you know some of the guys might have been cheating?" he asks.

"At the time?" I answer. "No. Either we were in total denial, or we just didn't care."

"I'd do it again!" my dad yells happily, getting another withering glare from me.

"You have to understand," I say. "EVERYONE cheated back then. You know how I drive 80 on the highway even though all the signs say to go 55? That's how everyone thought back then -- the signs said one thing, but everyone did the other. There were so many people cheating that, competitively, you almost had to cheat to keep up with everyone else."

"So why didn't the people in charge get everyone to stop cheating?" my son asks.

"I wish I knew. The players' union didn't care, the commissioner's office didn't care, nobody cared. Until it was too late."

This excerpt is more or less of what I feel I am left with regarding several baseball memories. I was mesmerized by the McGwire/Sosa HR chase, floored when the Red Sox came back down 0-3 in the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees, thrilled when Palmeiro stroked his 500th HR, and inspired when I was able to listen to a resurgent Clemens go on a huge tirade on steroid use during a ND baseball banquet in 2005. All of these memories, once great shining moments I held as a huge baseball fan, are now completely tarnished. You start to wonder just how baseball got to that point.

I'll never forget having a talk with some baseball teammates and one of our coaches our senior year of high school (2003). Canseco hadn't burst baseball's bubble yet, but the steroid allegations were starting to fly at a rapid pace. We wondered if our coach, a former minor-leaguer, had ever used or saw people use. His response: "Well, I won't say anything specific, but when you are trying to claw your way into the big leagues, and you see another guy getting the edge on you, even in ways he isn't supposed to -- you know you have to do something to keep up or you are gone." Back then, I thought he was talking about one or two guys here and there (and most likely himself); however, never could I have imagined then what I know now. He more or less told us "everyone is doing it, you have no idea how bad it is". Like Simmons says, you had to cheat to create a level playing field.

A local radio personality said yesterday afternoon that he felt like he wasted 20 years of his life as a baseball fan by spending so much time being in awe of McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, A-Rod, Clemens, Manny, and other now confirmed steroid users and completely forgetting about people like Griffey and Maddux who seemed to have done it clean. He then said immediately after that he wouldn't be surprised to pick up a paper and see that they too were confirmed steroid users.

Instead of making steroid allegations at a couple players here and there, we are all now just wondering who is next, which future Hall of Famer is about to watch the doors slam in his face, and which cherished baseball memory could soon find it's way into an uncomfortable place like the 2004 Red Sox championship banner now does for Simmons.

Right now though, all I can hope for is that MLB is finally trying to clean up its act. The power numbers seem to suggest it is happening, but I'm sure we will still see more failed tests in the future. Hey, at least I can say Josh Hamilton is clean -- ironic that his previous drug abuse ensures that he is tested constantly for everything...well, at least I can say that for now...

As I wonder how I, MLB, fans, and sports writers will end up viewing this "Steroid Era", I can't help but think it will go like the end of Simmon's article:

We look at the 2004 banner again. I always thought that, for the rest of my life, I would look at that banner and think only good thoughts. Now, there's a mental asterisk that won't go away. I wish I could take a pill to shake it from my brain. I see 2004 and 2007, and think of Manny and Papi first and foremost. The modern-day Ruth and Gehrig. One of the great one-two punches in sports history. Were they cheating the whole time? Was Pedro cheating, too? That 2004 banner makes me think of these things now. I wish it didn't, but it does. This makes me sad. This makes me profoundly sad.

My son can read it in my face. I am sad. He can see it.

"That's OK, Dad," he says, rubbing my shoulder. "Everyone cheated back then."

ND Women's Golf

Yes, now it is time for something completely different after this blog has been on hiatus for far too long. The topic though isn't completely as random as you might initially think. Back in my manager days at Notre Dame, I was assigned Men's and Women's Golf for my senior year sport. I still keep track of both teams and am still rather fortunate to have a good relationship with the current coaches and golfers on the women's side of the camp. So I figure I should brag on them a little bit here.

Last week the Lady Irish golfers set out to defend their Big East title in Dade City, FL. The Lady Irish went sub-300 combined in all three rounds shooting 295-298-294. The final two rounds were the tournament low for their respective days; however, it was not enough to catch up from Louisville's initial 279 round in the first, causing the Lady Irish to fall 11 strokes short of a back-to-back team title.

However, the Irish were not to leave the tournament empty handed. Senior Lisa Maunu, on her birthday no less, finished her final Big East tourney with a bang, winning the tournament outright as an individual. The Canadian lefty shot 74-71-70 to finish -1 for the tournament, besting Sara-Maude Juneau of Louisville by 3 strokes. Maunu's 71 and 70 final two rounds were daily tournament lows, with her final round including an amazing charge on the back nine with included five birdies to seal her victory. Maunu's victory gave the Irish back-to-back individual Big East titles (current Junior, Annie Brophy, won last year's individual title).

Maunu chips from a bunker in the 2007 Big East Tournament

The Irish individual honors did not stop with Maunu. Sophomore So-Hyun Park and Junior Annie Brophy both finished the tournament +8 and tied for ninth place overall in the tournament and gave both girls All-Big East honors. For Park, this is her second consecutive All-Big East award and for Brophy, it is her third straight. Yes, you read that right, both girls have received All-Big East honors every year they have been at Notre Dame.

Annie Brophy (Left) and Julie Kim (right) tee off in the 2007 Big East Tournament

Freshman Becca Huffer finished the tournament 11th with a +9 showing and Junior Kristen Wetzel rounded out the Irish effort with a +19, earning her 23rd place. With these final showings, the Irish were able to place all of their golfers in the top-25 individually. This was most definitely an unbelievable effort on the part of the whole team.

Kristen Wetzel lines up a putt in the 2007 Big East Tournament

The Lady Irish season, however, does not stop at the Big East tournament. The Lady Irish will head to "the" Ohio State for the NCAA Central Regional May 7-9. The Irish will once again have another shot at Louisville along with the following teams: UCLA, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Wake Forest, Kent State, Michigan State, Ohio State, Stanford, New Mexico, Georgia State, North Carolina State, Washington, Kentucky, Chattanooga, Michigan, Murray State, Illinois State, Harvard, and Fairleigh Dickerson.

The top five finishers in this field will advance to the NCAA Finals. Notre Dame is still looking for its first ever trip to the final tournament.

The Lady Irish will be lead by current Big East Champ and Senior Captain Lisa Maunu, along with last year's Big East Champ, Junior Annie Brophy, Junior Julie Kim, Sophomore So-Hyun Park and Freshman Becca Huffer.

If you wish to track this event, www.golfstat.com will have live scoring of this and all NCAA Regional Tournaments.

Best of luck to you girls! GO IRISH!

Breaking News: College Football Hall of Fame to Possibly Move to Dallas

Norm Hitzges, radio personality from 1310 the Ticket in Dallas, reported this morning that there will be a conference this morning in Dallas to discuss a bid to move the College Football Hall of Fame from South Bend to Downtown Dallas. Norm reported that the facility would be funded completely by private investors and would serve to honor all amateur football (so I would assume a high school wing would be added).

Norm's sources have reported to him that Dallas is currently the front-runner for this move. On the radio he said it was a deal that could easily be done if "all the T's are crossed and I's dotted." There are several Dallas connections on the college football board that runs the Hall of Fame as well -- the biggest being the president of the board, whom is a current Dallas resident.

Norm concluded that a decision on the matter will be publicly announced on November. From the sounds of his report as well, the Hall of Fame will definitely be moved somewhere.

This news rather floored me. The Hall of Fame was one thing that I didn't get an opportunity to visit while I was in South Bend. Looks like I should definitely take the time to stop by this next football season. Being in Dallas, this does excite me; however, I must say I always thought it was cool that the Hall of Fame was centered in South Bend. With the Hall being there, it felt like just another huge slice of college football tradition that was attached to ND.

As a final note, this wasn't a story that I could find a news release on. However, I easily trust the word of Norm on this matter. He is a sports radio legend around here and his sources and reporting are beyond reproach. I have no doubt at all of this story's validity.

Random Ramblings

Lot of news to catch up on, so I'm just going to bypass some form of witty (or not) introduction and just get to it.

Weis Drops Bombshells in Presser

Charlie Weis made two major announcements in his last spring ball presser.

The first of which was that Weis is petitioning the NCAA to give Brady Quinn and extra year of eligibility. This news comes somewhat on the heels of Cincinnati head coach, Brian Kelly, getting a sixth year of eligibility for DB Drew Frey and petitioned for USC transfer Vidal Hazelton to have the usual "sit out year" waved. This news, it seems, was the catalyst for this rather bold and slightly insane move by Weis:

"Well, you see the reasoning is really two fold," Weis responded, "First of, I figure that if Kelly can make up the rules as he goes along why can't I? Seems the NCAA doesn't have too much of an issue with it, so why not. Secondly, it seems there was a rather large contingent that wanted Kelly to be sitting in this chair rather than myself. So I took at look at the two of us. What does he do differently than I do? I am simply giving the fans what they want."

"Also think about it. Imagine Quinn throwing downfield to Floyd and Tate all day long. We will be unstoppable and get the National Title everyone wants to desperately."

When asked if Weis would be willing to sacrifice the integrity of the school in order to pull of such a maneuver he simply replied, "The hell is wrong with you? Do you read what people write out on NDNation.com? No one cares about academics or head coaches that keep their noses clean -- they only care about titles and that is what I am doing."

As if that wasn't enough, Weis then, in a very unprecedented move, announced the pep rally speaker for this years ND/USC game:

"I know we usually don't do this, but I feel it would be an important boost for our fans and our team for this year's game against USC. The pep rally for that game should needs to be something that can help put or team over the top because we are all sick of losing to USC. Therefore, we have invited President Barack Obama to speak at the USC weekend pep rally, which will be held in Notre Dame Stadium and he has accepted."

When asked what business Obama had at the pep rally of a Catholic institution, Weis responded, "Well, he clearly has some ideas for the BCS and there will be a Congress investigation into it, so firstly, we need to make sure we protect ND's interests in the matter. Secondly, I've been reading the Viewpoint in the past few weeks -- let me tell you, this man hasn't even said a word on campus yet and more people are calling for his head than yous guys were calling for mine after the Syracuse game. This should be a great way for everyone to completely ignore any of my faults on the football field while at the same time, getting our fans so riled up and pissed off that I can guarantee they will take it out on USC at the game."

With a smirk he concluded, "I'm killing three birds with one stone. It is a schematic advantage."

I'm not sure if Weis has completely lost his mind or if he is a complete genius. All I know is that I'm going to find it very funny as people write into the Viewpoint saying they will no longer go to a ND football game again in their lives and the 2009 season will still see a full stadium for every home game.

Brey Attempts to Explain ND's NIT Loss, Fails Miserably

Mr. No-Tie was back at it again in his post game press conference, desperately making excuses for his team that failed to show up in a horrid loss that more or less summed up the ND B-Ball season in a single game.

"Well you know, when we were seeded #2 in the NIT tournament, I thought to myself, are we really the #2 seed? I mean, take a look at the bracket we were in, we easily had the toughest possible bracket schedule in the NIT and I just knew it would be a tough road. In fact, on the plane to New York, I called my wife as we were boarding and told her '0-1', I'll be home Wednesday."

When pressed on how in God's green earth that would cause the Irish to have the worst scoring first half in Brey's tenure, he replied "Well, I mean that's what happens with a tough schedule. It finally gets to you and wears you down. Our guys just hit the limit."

Brey was also questioned about how he handled the comeback attempt -- most notably why he didn't have the Irish try to draw fouls when in the bonus with over 5 minutes to go in the game and why he called his last timeout with over a minute left and only 8 seconds on the shot clock (which turned into a shot clock violation). Brey answered "Well, we were down by 6 once we finally hit the bonus I think. At that point the answer was simple -- two threes and we are tied up. Why drive the lane? You can only get two points on those free throws if you draw the fouls. I'd clearly want to try for that extra point no matter what every time down the court. As far as the timeout goes -- we needed to take the time to plan a three point shot. We were obviously going to press a bad shot inside the arc at that point and I couldn't allow that."

...uh yeah, no real comment here.

Texas Ranger's GM John Daniels to Make "Major Changes"

Upon hearing time and time again on how the Texas Rangers by far have the best farm system in baseball, John Daniels feels now is the time to make some "major changes" that will "define his GM tenure."

"As I look at all the young talent we have in our system, I think to myself -- why are we keeping that all to ourselves?" Daniels asked. "We clearly have a lot of room to make a lot of trades here. I know we have been saying we were rebuilding for 2010, but seriously, why should we wait any longer? I am confident we can make some major changes to get solid veteran talent in here to make a pennant run this year! These trades will definitely be something that will define my GM tenure as the man that was able to turn this franchise around."

Rumored top interests of Daniels are Chan Ho Park, Reuben Sierra, Ricky Henderson, Kenny Lofton, and Byung-Hung Kim.

If anyone wonders why I feel so tortured as a Rangers fan -- well, there you go...

Jerry Jones Receives Naming Rights Offers for New Stadium

It looks like Jones' struggles for selling naming rights to the new Cowboy's Stadium may soon be at an end. From a recent report:

Sources within the Cowboys organization have said that Jerry Jones is now considering a few different offers for the naming rights of his new stadiums. The top bidders appear to be Tampax, Midol, and Kleenex. The front-runner right now seems to be Kleenex as they have even put together a few different ads for the stadium. We were able to get our hands on one of the proposed ads:

Oh boy can't wait...

To the Garden We Go

I feel like I'm going slightly schizophrenic switching back and forth between the Obama thing and ND Basketball, but I digress.

Once again, the Irish manage to play a game in which I was not near a TV or a radio in which to watch/listen, and I am rather disappointed because this seemed like one of the best victories of the year for the Irish. ND pounded the Wildcats of Kentucky 77 - 67, and even more impressive, they never trailed the game. Even more impressive than THAT was the fact the Wildcats shot 50% FG and 3-Pt and the Irish still easily won (and only shot 45% FG and 48% 3-Pt).

The major differences in the stats were only in Turnovers and the number of 3-Pts made. The Irish led the turnover battle 10-6, and made 12 3-Pts to Kentucky's 7. Rebounds were practically even with a slight Wildcat advantage 28-27.

Luke Harangody dominated the game with a solid double-double of 30 points and 11 boards. Jackson, McAlarney, and Ayers all recorded double digit scoring in the game as well.

When the biggest story post-game for Kentucky is whether or not your head coach is going to get canned, you definitely know you dominated completely. Kentucky's major scoring threat Jodie Meeks was non-existant for most of the game, and his 21 points were not enough for Kentucky (19 of which came from the second half).

Solid game for the Irish. While being in the NIT is never something I've been too excited about, the Irish putting together this little run has been a refreshing change from most of the season's results. Now that we have made it to the semis, I definitely want to see the Irish win the whole thing.

The semifinal game will be Tuesday, March 31 against Penn State at Madison Square Garden (and yes, I have it right this time). Tip-off is scheduled for 9pm EDT/8pm CDT on ESPN2. Thankfully, this should a game I can actually watch!

The other NIT semifinal game features Baylor against San Deigo State, whom just knocked out NCAA Tournament-snubbed St. Mary's just a little while ago. The game will also be on Tuesday and will be before the Irish's game at 7pm EDT/6pm EDT on ESPN2.

Go Irish. Beat Lions.

NIT Quarterfinals Correction.

Back to the realm of sports.

The Irish will take on Kentucky tomorrow night, 7pm EDT/6pm CDT. In my basketball previous post I had said that the game would be at Madison Square Garden, and it seems I was mistaken. Looks like I can't read the NIT bracket worth anything... Anyways, the game will be at the JACC tomorrow night.

Go Irish. Beat Wildcats.

Irish Hold Off Lobos

I wasn't able to catch the game, but I think I'm glad I didn't because I likely would've suffered a heart attack.

The Irish at one point in the first half had a 14-point lead and at the half's conclusion lead the Lobos 34-24. Then the Irish nearly completely blow the game in the second half and gave up a 21-9 run.

With just over two minutes left to go in the game, ND trailed the Lobos 66-60. A 3-point play from Harangody and a buzzer-beater from Tory Jackson completed the ND final rush to win 70-68.

Looking at the box-score, this is one of those games the Irish are lucky they didn't flat out lose. The Lobos were horrible from the free throw line (15-25, 60%) and that alone could've spelled doom for ND. The hot hands of the Irish also cooled down from last game (FG - 39%, 3PT - 22%), and I'd take a good wager that during that 21-9 Lobo run everyone was ice cold.

One encouraging stat however was that the Irish outrebounded the Lobos 37-31. Thankfully, it wasn't just Luke crashing the boards either. Harangody led the Irish with 11 boards, followed by Ayers with 8 and Jackson with 6. Good to see that wasn't a one-man show this time around.

This was a pretty scary game for the Irish to say the least. Thankfully this wasn't their last stand this season as blowing a 14-point lead to get bounced from the NIT would just be...well, actually come to think of it, it would've been rather fitting considering how this season has gone.

The Irish will now head to Madison Square Garden for the NIT Quarterfinals and play on March 25. The game will be on ESPN2 at either 7pm or 9pm EDT and their opponents will be the winner of tonight's Creighton/Kentucky game.

Also, little trivia I heard on the radio today: Which team has the most NCAA tournament appearances without winning a title?

Answer: Notre Dame with 29.

Ouch.

Brandon McCarthy

Somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming. Brandon McCarthy, a near permanent fixture on our DL roster, has not only pitched two back-to-back starts without hurting himself (a small miracle in itself), but he has had back-to-back 4 inning shutout starts.

Now, I understand it is still Spring Training ball, but this does still excite me a bit. I don't care what point of the season you are in, but when you face only one batter over the minimum as McCarthy did yesterday, that seems to signal something may have finally clicked. Maybe, just maybe, he can finally stay healthy and be a servicing #3 man in the Rangers rotation.

Still though, it is kind of hard to get over the fact that we have McCarthy instead of John Danks, whom is doing quite well thus far with the White Sox. Hopefully a decent 2009 campaign can take some of the sting out of that trade.

Ranger Ramblings

I haven't said much about the Rangers or baseball for that matter since December. To be honest, I'm rather surprised I haven't. This time of year is always exciting for me. Baseball has always been my favorite sport (and one that I personally played from T-Ball through High School) and despite being a fan of the Texas Rangers, I always watch/listen/attend the game no matter what. Even though I know the season will likely end in disaster.

This season, however, is different. For the first time in a long time, I'm actually positive about this season and expecting some great things. Y! Sports has a good article that sums it up and I figured some commentary on it would be a good kickoff to my baseball musings.

First off, you have to start with the pain...the absolute horrible pain that is being a Ranger fan:

To be a fan of the Texas Rangers is to live in your own peculiar sports hell.

It’s not just that the people in charge have made some horrible decisions over the years. It’s not just that they’ve made some bad trades or fired some good people. It’s not that the Rangers have had some really bad owners and general managers. Hey, every franchise has had its bad moments.

The thing that separates the Rangers from pretty much every other MLB franchise is that they keep making bad decisions. Year after year. Generation after generation.

Even the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays and Florida Marlins have had their day in the sun. The Rangers never really have had one.

It is sports hell. The above is a reason I would always become furious at fans of the Cubs and previously the Red Sox that would always whine about their "curses". You see, our franchise doesn't have the luxury of falling back on a damn goat or Babe Ruth to blame our trouble on. We are just bad. Give me the "curse" of going to the playoffs with some form of regularity any day. Actually, let me put it this way -- pop quiz: how many playoff games have the Rangers won?

One. That's it. We won the first one and we have gotten our asses handed to us anytime we peeked our heads into the playoffs. If a Ranger fan talks about "the glory days", this is all we get to remember:

In 37 years, the Rangers have won just one playoff game. That was their very first one—on Oct. 1, 1996. That was the beginning of a nice run. Under general manager Doug Melvin and manager Johnny Oates, the Rangers made the playoff three times in four years.

Those were the great years.

So to sum up, our playoff record is 1-9. We have played 10 playoff games total. Those were good times. Name me a franchise that has such a playoff record in the past 37 years, let alone are able to call such a record "the great years". In the past 37 years, the Royals have won a series, the Cubs have actually won a playoff series, and the Marlins have won not one, but TWO world titles (the second coming after they blew their first team up). Hell, even the Montreal Expos have won a playoff series before they moved to Washington!

I even went through and checked the books on this one. Unless I am blind, I cannot find a franchise that has been worse off than us with postseason wins. As far as the Rangers franchise goes, you have to crawl back to the Washington Senator days to find any postseason success -- World Champs in 1924 and a total of 4 playoff wins in the 1925 and 1933 World Series.

By the way, those wins occurred when the only playoffs were the world series...just ouch.

Sure the Cubs may have the longest current drought in between World Series wins, but at least they have actually won playoff series and made several playoff appearances (and won a handful of games too) since their last title.

The ineptitude of the Rangers is simply one of a kind.

Next, you have the horrible, HORRIBLE trades and personnel decisions that we have suffered through:

That is, unless you count the time owner Brad Corbett mistakenly traded one of his best players, Oscar Gamble.

Corbett was a charming, aggressive owner. He fancied himself a George Steinbrenner. Problem is, he didn’t have Steinbrenner’s money or his judgment. So, he got confused on the waiver-wire rules and ended up being forced to trade Gamble.

In the 37-year history of the Texas Rangers, that mistake might not even rank in the top 10. Yes, it has been that bad.

There was a general manager named Eddie Robinson, who once traded for an aging outfielder named Lee Mazzilli. To get Lee Mazzilli, he traded away the organization’s best two young pitchers—Walt Terrell and Ron Darling. Robinson wanted Mazzilli to play left field. Mazzilli called left field “an idiot’s position.” Mazzilli played 58 games for Texas before Robinson was forced to unload him. Meanwhile, Darling and Terrell combined to win 247 major league games, none of them for the Rangers.

The Rangers have fired some managers over the years. Whitey Herzog once was fired by the Rangers. He went on to establish himself as one of the most respected baseball people ever. Herzog could have worked for almost any franchise. Except the Rangers.

Billy Martin once managed the Rangers. So did Eddie Stanky—for one game. Yes, he managed one game and then hit the ground running. Smart man, that Eddie Stanky.

...

Anyway, when Tom Hicks bought the club and decided he could do better than Oates and Melvin, the salad days were over. In the long, distinguished history of bad owners, Hicks might be at the top of the class.

The Rangers have had just one winning season since Hicks bought the club. He hired a general manager named John Hart. Bad move. He hired a manager named Buck Showalter. Worse move. Hicks bid $252 million for Alex Rodriguez when no one else was bidding more than $100 million. (Wouldn’t you like to play poker with Hicks?)

Agent Scott Boras convinced Hicks that Chan Ho Park would be a nice addition to the Rangers. He convinced him that $65 million over five years would be a good price. Hicks got himself a 22-game winner for that $65 million. Unfortunately, those 22 victories were spread over four years.

Someone hold me.

And those are just the "hi-lites" of our trading stupidity. For instance, San Diego Padre fans, you're welcome. Glad you are enjoying Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez -- especially considering every last person we traded for now no longer plays for us or ever made any significant impact like those two.

We also signed Sammy Sosa...again...after he was on his last legs.

And even this year you could point to the minor league contract of Andruw Jones as a bad signing; however, despite that, there is actually room to be optimistic this year:

When Hicks realized he couldn’t buy a pennant, he tore down the franchise and started over.

The Rangers now have a bright young general manager in Jon Daniels and a farm system loaded with prospects. For the first time since the Rangers had Pudge Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez in the pipeline, there is plenty of optimism that the bad times are over.

The Rangers have a great offensive player in Josh Hamilton and a rock-solid clubhouse guy in Michael Young. They have a 20-year-old shortstop named Elvis Andrus. They have got a healthy Kevin Millwood and Vicente Padilla at the front of the rotation.

There are also a slew of other young, talented players on the roster as well (Chris Davis, Marlon Byrd, C.J. Wilson, Neftali Feliz, etc). Our farm system is now rated as one of the best in baseball. And the best part about all this, is that the Rangers are actually sticking to the plan this time.

In 2007, everyone moaned and groaned when we heard, yet again, the plan was to rebuild from the ground up. The goal: Championship Competitive by 2010. Now we had all heard this before and watched the management screw it up royally by trading away young talent for aging "stars" and signing people way past their prime for obscene money. All of a sudden, competitive by 2010 seems more than possible.

The Rangers won't win the West and they may not even be able to grab a Wild Card playoff spot, but there is no doubt this team will be fun to watch. Young minor league talent will start to surface this year and some will be on the roster opening day. The Rangers actually do have an overabundance of talent as some positions and could even become prime sellers come trade deadline. Even better, such trades for once won't completely cripple our farm system depth as it had in the past.

Things, for once, are indeed finally looking up. Maybe just maybe, our "curse" will finally end.

ND Defeats UAB -- No one sees it

I really don't have too much to say about the game (was only able to catch the first half), but the Irish did indeed pull out the win against UAB 70-64. Luke played well and the jump shot was falling (41% FG, 40% 3-Pt). Those things usually lead to an Irish victory more often than not. ND even did rather well on the boards as well slightly out-rebounding UAB 36-35.

So overall, a solid victory -- but the real story was what was in the stands...or rather, what wasn't. ESPN reported that the attendance was an all-time ND home NIT low:

The announced attendance was 2,039, the lowest attendance for a Notre Dame NIT game since at least 1992.

If you saw the game on TV (or were one of the few there), you are likely balking at that number as well -- if there were 1,000 actually there I'd be shocked. The whole upper tier of bleachers were empty. The lower bowl was barely filled with only the lower area of the student section really being "full" sections.

It was embarrassing to see that on ESPN, but I can't blame the Irish fans. I'm sure no one expected a NCAA Championship, but the NIT was hardly something we were expecting with this team. If given the choice between St. Patty's drinking and watching the game in a bar and actually attending the game with no booze for sale, I have a feeling I know which one I'm choosing if I'm in South Bend.

The Irish will now play New Mexico at the JACC Thursday night at 7pm EDT/6pm CDT. Hopefully it will be a decent night-cap to a day filled with March Madness.

Go Irish. Beat Lobos.

To the NIT We Go

Well, I'm sure this did not come as a huge shock, but ND did not make the dance after their second round exit to West Virgina in the Big East tourney. Instead, they will make their run at the NIT starting 9pm EDT/8pm CDT at the JACC against UAB on St. Patty's Day (televised on ESPN2).

All I can really say is thanks for that selection at least for the date because if (God-forbid) we get bounced in the first round, at least the majority of ND fans will be too hammered to care.

Go Irish. Beat Blazers.

ND Basketball: No Dancing Allowed

Every time that I have sat down to think about just how to put this post together it seems another disappointing ND loss immediately follows. It got to the point to where I didn't even want to touch the subject (mostly out of rage). I figured anything I might say would throw fuel on the fire for a season that wasn't quite over yet.

Well that line of thinking went right out the window recently.

Just what in the hell happened? This was a team ranked in the top 10 preseason. We had Big East Player of the Year, Luke Harangody, on the roster along with the amazing three-point wizardry of Kyle McAlarney and young players like Ryan Ayers ready to step up and take the team to the next level.

As the season went on, it became painfully obvious that all we really have is Harangody and if he's on, McAlarney and a bunch of young players still learning. All lead by a coach that still doesn't seem to know how to manage the clock and how to use timeouts.

Now I have never publicly written on Mike Brey, so let me be clear on my stance on him. He drives me absolutely nuts. My biggest issue with him has always been the management of the clock and use of timeouts. During my time at ND, I would be fuming from the stands as we would call our last timeout with 2 or 3 minutes still left to play. We'd refuse to call timeouts to stop huge runs by opponents, and we'd inexplicably at times call timeouts during our own runs if the opposing side scored.

Oh no! Our run is now 12-4 instead of 12-0! Hit the breaks! Time out! Something is CLEARLY wrong.

Then there is that whole rebounding thing that we never really seem to get right as a team. From the games I've been able to watch, it is almost like either Luke is going to be going for the ball or it has to fall in someone else's lap. For a team that relies so much on the outside jumper for scoring, how we don't try to have at least more people fighting for an offensive board is beyond me. Even more confusing is why this attitude transfers to the other side of the court as well.

I'm no basketball expert, but when I constantly watch games were our oppenents are grabbing offensive boards left and right, something is seriously wrong!

Most games, we only have one consistent scoring threat and that is Harangody. After that, we rely on our perimeter game. You live on the jumper, you die by it. You need more than one person trying to score from paint. This whole thought of having one guy to pound it in while everyone else fires threes just doesn't work. It hasn't worked long-term for us. Period.

Let me tell you, that kind of basketball is painful to watch when it fails. I watched the Mavericks try to make playoff runs on that mentality. The Suns have tried it too recently. The same thing ends up happening year in and year out, those teams don't win the big one. There must be a strong balance, something to fall back on if your shooters are cold. We fall back only on Luke and then teams swarm him and dare us to fire outside shots in the meantime.

However, I'm saying this about a coach that has been with us for nearly a decade, so I am clearly just spewing venom right? Well thanks to this post at the Rakes of Mallow, it seems like my Brey-hating isn't completely unjustified; however, it seems that it really should be for reasons that I didn't see coming:

"You probably can come to the middle on the last three years," Brey said. "That would be my opinion. You're 11th and ninth in preseason poll (the last two seasons) and rocket up there. Given what we were going to play and who we were really this year -- were you really seventh in the country? Were you really? I don't ever want to take away from our guys... I don't quite know about that.

"When you look at the last couple teams, you're kind of in middle with where we were and who we really were. The last two groups came together at a good time, drew a very strategic league schedule. Now, we delivered. But we drew a very strategic league schedule. There were some teams in the league this year that drew a very strategic league schedule – I don't think you can say we were one of them."

When the league conducted a straw poll in June -- once the test-the-waters guys were either gone to the NBA or coming back -- the Irish were picked to finish fourth. With Big East Player of the Year Luke Harangody returning, they were thus thrust into the top-shelf television schedule.

All of which had Brey examining his team's league gauntlet the day after Christmas, then turning to his wife, Tish, and saying this: 9-9.

"Where do I sign on Dec. 26?" Brey said. "I don't want to sell us short, but I've been through the cycle of the league nine years now. You thrive when you can, then when rotate up into that (difficult schedule), can you survive?"

WHAT?! I have never, ever heard a coach talk like this. So let me get this straight, he takes a look at the preseason rankings and thinks to himself "Wow, are we really that good?" and then says "Nah, we can't be, got lucky last year with the scheduling." Then, come Christmas time, he looks at this seasons schedule, chuckles at the June prediction of 4th in the Big East, turns to his wife after Christmas and says ND will go .500, and finally to cap it all off he publicly states all these wonderful thoughts and asks everyone in the nation how they could expect poor little 'ol ND to survive the big, bad schedule of the Big East.

What in the hell is this? Dumb and stupid doesn't even begin to describe what Brey said. The fact that he even thinks this is bad enough, saying it in a freakin' news conference for the whole world to heard and then subsequently laugh at! What a great voice for ND Basketball to motivate!

The University must feel the same way because the press conference is still clearly being hosted at UND.com -- oh wait, no it isn't.

No wonder this team came out constantly flat in big games, lost leads, folded at the end of big games, and couldn't take care of the easy teams they were supposed to pound. You got a coach taking a look at things and saying "Hey guys, don't worry, just the schedule do what you can."

Harangody clearly deviates from his coach. I love his attitude even though at times I think it hurts his game. He often tries to take too much control of the game and attempts to take on double and triple teams that he shouldn't as well as believing he can surpass obvious height mismatches (see UConn). Now I see why he does it though. Someone has to light the fire under the team, and by God, he's taken it upon himself to do it.

However, that only goes so far when even your own coach sees that attitude and then benches you at the end of the Villanova game when you are getting beat:

"He was so wired emotionally right there," Brey said. "I didn't want him swinging or elbowing anybody at the end of the game. He wanted it so bad. I didn't want him doing anything crazy. His motor runs at a very high level. I told him, that engine is great, and we want that thing revved up high, but directed at the right things. An elbow or a confrontation, we didn't need that."

Wait, wait...so because he wants the game so bad, you are convinced that he will elbow someone and start a fight? Seriously? This statement just boggles my mind. So what if he lands an elbow at that point? Unless Luke is judge a rampaging maniac throwing elbows and punches at every turn, why in the hell are you putting out the biggest fire on the team, Brey? If you don't have enough trust in your star player to be able to refrain from starting a fight, you have bigger issues.

So in all of this pissed-off posting, what does this all mean for ND Basketball? Well for one, start chanting NIT because that is the best case scenario right now, barring some miracle run in the Big East tourney. A season with so much promise and hope is now ultimately doomed to failure.

But I'm sure Brey has a plan to turn this ship around for next season right?

One solution to mitigate the Big East grind that has mashed the Irish into pulp this year: Going to divisions with 16 teams. It's an idea Brey clearly wants to put on the table.

"We are the only league that will do the straw poll and then repeat the top teams for TV purposes," Brey said. "Everyone else, (the league schedule is) projected out already. Could we go to divisions? I think we have to talk about it. There's a movement and an open mind to discuss it in Jacksonville (at the league meetings) this year. Could we get a rhythm to a schedule? But that's easy for me to sit here and say."

Just great Brey, just great.

Here's hoping to a stronger end to the season, and the Irish play with some fire and pride for the games that remain.

Jerry Jones Cleans House: T.O., Williams Cut

Well the past 24 hours have been more than interesting for the Cowboys to say the least. While I'm being a complete baseball nerd and enjoying a bit of MLB: The Show 2009, I got the following text from my sister:

"We just got rid of T.O.!"

I couldn't believe it. I flew to ESPN to see if it was true. The irony of the opening sentence was quite delicious:

The Dallas Cowboys have released controversial wide receiver Terrell Owens, sources told ESPN's Michael Smith late Wednesday.

Oh yeah, more anonymous sources! For all the Cowboys spin of trying to claim such sources were only full of lies about problems with T.O. and the Cowboys, it is once again said "mysterious" sources that break the news of T.O.'s forced farewell. How fitting.

One of my friends (an Eagles fan too at that) pointed out that three years ago, I was happy with the signing of T.O. In thinking about that, I realized that there are really eight steps a fan goes through when T.O. gets involved:

1. While not on your team, you make fun of him and take pleasure in the horrible things that happen to him.
2. Your team shocks you by signing him. You don't know if you should be cheering or be pissed.
3. You begin to think: "Wait a second, this might just work!"
4. Season 1 you are singing his praises, have your popcorn ready, and you sit and think that your team found that magic "make T.O." happy formula. You are loving it!
5. Season 2 some drama creeps up. But hey, no big deal. That is just T.O.'s competitive spirit and people just can't see that right....RIGHT?!?!
6. Season 3 you see the writing on the wall. You start going back to step #1, but then you still try to mix in #4 when things actually go well.
7. Step #6 drives you mad. You want T.O.'s head on a platter and off your team's roster.
8. Once cut, you revert to step #1 in earnest and prepare to laugh your ass off at the poor bastards that will be stuck with T.O. next and watch them follow all these steps like you did.

Here's my proof of said eight steps:



A picture really is worth a thousand words.

Now, of course I am happy, but I do realize that there is a good chunk of offense walking out the door. However, despite the fact that Roy Williams may not be able to completely "replace" the production at the #1 WR receiver slot, the Cowboys have just gotten rid of the biggest crutch for failure that they have been leaning on for the past two years.

When you have the kind of drama T.O. brings, it clouds the whole situation. Why aren't things clicking? Is Romo just not a good QB? Is Garret a horrible coordinator? Is Wade Phillips just an awful coach? Do we simply just not have the talent to win? The drama T.O. stirred up made these issues secondary. Problem is, these issues are the heart of the problem and you can't win unless you fix him. On the same side of the coin, you can't look at them unless you are focused on them.

With the source of distraction gone, it is time to focus on these issues. Releasing T.O. won't be a cure-all, but we will sure as hell know what we actually have.

The excuses end today for the Cowboys offense. It is put up or shut up time for all of them.

However, if I encourage those screaming "great, now we have no WR" to look at the bigger picture. We have three supremely talented RB ready to roll for next year in Barber, Jones, and Choice. There is no reason in the world we shouldn't be running this three headed monster down everyone's throats next season. We don't have to worry about T.O. getting his touches now, time to game plan like we did in the Green Bay game last season: run their ass over and launch it over their heads when they sell out on the run.

Also keep in mind, we have one of the best TE in the NFL in Witten. He will definitely command more attention this year, but I still think he will be able to handle it. Witten is Romo's security blanket. Teams not respecting that connection will get burned.

As for Roy Williams, if he actually has some kind of a breakout, that completely spreads the ball out. Defenses won't key on him -- they will focus on Witten or the run. He'll have fimiliarity with the playbook this time around and he should have room to work. It is now or never for him to prove he is not deserving of the "bust" label he currently holds.

Worst case senario though is the Cowboys have a bad season. If that does happen though, we should have a clear picture of where we go from that point to rebuild this team. I'd rather have a crappy season and make some actual progress in fixing this thing than to deal with another T.O. drama-infested year and feel like we took 10 steps back once again.

In other Cowboys news, the other Roy Williams (the Safety), has also gotten the ax. I don't think there should be any surprises there. He wanted out and he hasn't done anything of worth for years.

The way I see it, Jerry got rid of two anchors weighing this team down and also seemed to reclaim his balls by making tough decisions, especially in the case of T.O.

Today won't fix everything, but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

ND Football Offseason Recap - The Long Overdue Edition

Alright time to get the train back on the tracks.

The Irish have made a lot of coaching moves, made some recruiting noise, and also thrown out enough titles for themselves to make heads spin. So I'll hit all the recent (and maybe not-so recent) news from the Gug.

Coaching Shuffle Finally Ends

Or at least I'm pretty sure it has... I figured heads would continue to roll (and remember, I'm current still up to the Jappy Oliver firing in this blog) and the next victim I was looking at was Latina. And he ended up "resigning" and then was replaced damn near immediately by Frank Verducci.

I really don't have too much to say on this move. It is nice we have someone with some NFL skins on the wall, but considering the last team he coached was the Cleveland Browns, excuse me if I'm not jumping up and down. He was also with the Cowboys in 2002. Anyone remember that superb running attack and offensive line? That's right, I don't either. However, considering how bad our line was before, I am going to go on the stance that the only place we can go from here is up. Basically, Verducci will just have to show what he can do as far as I am concerned.

Next up in the coaching carousel is new RB coach Tony Alford. Again, I was consumed by an overwhelming meh. Sure, his produced seven 1,000+ yard RBs, but that doesn't mean it'll happen here. And then one of my friends, as well as Blue-Gray Sky, brought something quite compelling to my attention:

Whenever there is a fumble in practice, the whole running backs unit pays the price in drills. When the ball popped out of sophomore Matthias Wilson's hands during Tuesday's practice, Alford was all over it. All seven healthy backs stayed behind to get down on the ground and perform rigorous balancing techniques while moving up and down the field. The "punishment" drills force the players to hold the ball with both hands all the time. Hurst approves.

"Anytime the ball comes out, the whole group has to do one of those, no matter who did it," Hurst said. "Honestly, I am wondering why [the coaches] haven't done it before. It's very tiring, so you'll get it in your head that you will not commit a fumble because you don't want to do that drill."

Under Alford last year, the Iowa State running backs had zero fumbles all season while ranking 17th in the nation in rushing. It was all part of an amazing Iowa State turnaround that saw the Cyclones go from a 4-7 team in 1999 to 9-3 and an Insight.com Bowl victory in 2000.

...

That's one heck of a quote there at the end on the importance of not fumbling. The players must have bought in because ISU running backs lost a total of 13 fumbles in the 8 years Alford coached there. As a point of comparison, ND backs lost 12 fumbles the past two seasons.

I don't care who you are, but if you can get your players to hold on to the ball like that, I am thrilled you will be on the ND sidelines.

Finally, the last coaching vacancy was filled by new defensive line coach Randy Hart. I haven't been able to look into him too much as this has just come down recently, but according to Yahoo! Sports, the job was first offered to Romeo Crenell. However, Washington held onto Hart for 21 years, so he has to have at least a little something -- even if Washington isn't exactly a national powerhouse, being able to hold onto your job for 21 years is damned impressive. Again, nothing too big that has me jumping up and down.

But wait, I didn't say who our new Offensive Coordinator is did I? Well, he is already on the staff. Ladies and gents, Charlie Weis is your new offensive coordinator. Color me surprised...

In reality though, I'm glad he made this move. The offensive side of the football is Weis' specialty, and it seems trying to hand the reigns over to Haywood didn't work out as well as he liked. Whether or not you are sold on his offensive style or "schematic advantage" is a whole other story, but I am personally of the opinion that if you are going to do something, lean towards your strength. I sure as hell know Weis' strength is not the defensive side of the ball, so this move makes all the sense in the world.

And if you are on the fire Weis bandwagon, here's a viewpoint for you: If you are going to go down, go into flames doing what you think is best. If Weis is the offensive guru he claims to be, he is in prime position to be just that. If it doesn't pan out, he has no one to blame but himself.

However, the coordinator shuffle didn't end there. Corwin Brown was named the new assistant head coach and at the same time, Jon Tenuta was named the new defensive play caller although technically both him and Brown are co-defensive coordinators. This whole slightly confusing title shuffle was actually Brown's idea according to Weis:

Moving from defensive coordinator to associate head coach may be a move up in titles. But was Corwin Brown demoted from defensive coordinator when Charlie Weis named Jon Tenuta the defensive play caller beginning this spring?

Not at all, said Weis. In fact, it was Brown who suggested the change.

“He’s the one who brought the situation up,” said Weis following Friday’s press teleconference, which included interviews with new assistant coaches Tony Alford and Frank Verducci, as well as graduate assistant Bryant Young, Tenuta and offensive assistant head coach Rob Ianello.

“(Brown) and I have been talking about this and he brought this combination up to me before the season was over.”

Weis has renamed himself the offensive coordinator, which will take him away from his involvement with the defense and special teams. That meant that Weis needed someone to help bridge the gap. Brown was the logical choice.

“His feeling was that if this was the way it was going to end up going, the three of us were going to have to wear more hats,” Weis said. “It’s not a demotion. (Coordinating the defense) is a collaboration between those two guys anyway.”

Weis said the last thing he would do is make a move that would lead to Brown’s disgruntlement at Notre Dame.

“We’ve had extensive talks about this,” Weis said. “As you know, he’s my guy. I never would have done this without being on the same page with him.”

Even though the whole title shuffle is a little odd, it does end up making a lot of sense. Weis isn't going to be something he's not, so his focus is back on the offense and you need give someone the power on the other side of the ball. At least the roles though are clearly defined so we won't have any second-guessing or rumors of power struggles that don't exist. Everyone seems to be happy and on the same page at least for now.

However, winning the title of "Best Hire That Will Completely Fly Under the Radar" is that of Bryant Young to graduate assistant. This hire is brilliant in my opinion. Young brings to the team the one major thing that Weis has always lacked: actual playing experience. And not only does Young have the playing experience, but that of playing at both ND and the NFL. He can relate to the players in ways Weis and other members of the coaching staff simply can't. That is an invaluable asset to have going.

Not to mention, Young can also call and field calls from recruits. Considering recruiting on the defensive line has been less than amazing recently, I'm sure having Young will be a nice extra punch for that recruiting pitch.

Irish Recruiting

I'll be honest, I know little about the whole recruiting scene. If you want more educated details, I suggest going elsewhere for a good breakdown.

However, I was quite excited about these recruiting results and can sum it up in two words: Manti Te'o.

I was for sure Te'o would be heading to USC, but somehow we managed to pull out a huge upset here. Considering the fact he wants to go on his Mormon mission after his freshmen year, he would be gone for two years, but not lose any eligibility (I believe). Meaning a very scary 21 year old "true" sophomore would be lining up for the Irish. That is indeed awesome.

Also we managed to wrangle away one of his teammates from UCLA. Two Hawaiians joining the Irish...I never thought I'd see the day.

Schwapp Out

Blue-Gray Sky noticed that Schwapp was not on the spring roster. There has been no official announcement, but I think it is safe to say Schwapp will be heading to the NFL draft and not ND next year. Best of luck to Schwapp in the draft and his future. Time for someone else to step up as the next beast of a man for the Irish.

------------------------

That should catch me up on the offseason moves for the Irish. Again, I really don't have too much to add to the news as it is hard to read the tea leaves of how all of this will pan out. Hopefully Spring ball will be able to shed more light on these changes.

The Deconstruction of the Cowboys

Well this post has been a long time coming...as well as trying to come up with a way to write it without four-letter words being scattered across it as well. Frustrating doesn't even begin to describe this past season for the Cowboys. There also isn't just one single problem on the team either -- the whole situation has become such a big joke and circus right now. Even worse, it seems like most of the problem pieces in this puzzle won't be going anywhere.

So what just what in the hell is wrong with this thing? Well, it starts up at the top...

Jerry Jones

We have been going through the same cycle since the Jimmy Johnson era: strong-minded coach comes in, wants to have his hand in the GM side to get his guys, builds a team and then Jerry tries to take it all over and do it himself and fails. In Johnson's case, he was fired and Switzer came in and won a Super Bowl with Johnson's team, which in hindsight has been the worst thing to ever happen to the 'Boys as Jerry can always delude himself into thinking he "did it himself".

What we have currently is a skeleton crew of Parcells' players. He built a team up, and once T.O. was thrown into the mix (and it is my opinion Jerry overruled the Big Tuna on that signing) he left town. Now we may not have won a playoff game with Parcells at the helm; however, he took a franchise with literally no direction and identity and built them back up.

So Parcells leaves and Jerry hires a "player's coach" in Wade Phillips. He then looks at his T.O. experiment and thinks "hey this worked out rather well" and in come Tank Johnson and Pacman Jones to the mix. You also have several dangerous decisions with current personel and our draft picks. With a rather unproven Romo, the decision is made in the 2007 draft to pass on Brady Quinn and trade that pick to the Browns. While this alone could be called a calculated risk, saying that Brad freakin' Johnson is a suitable backup in case all hell breaks loose is just inexcusable. I can't predict how good Quinn will be, but I guarantee you that I would've taken him over Johnson as a backup in a heartbeat. Finally, you have the trade for Detroit WR Roy Williams and give up, yet more draft picks. Now this is obviously a move for the future, but that future is sure in doubt as the biggest impact Williams has had is bitching along with T.O. and the other WR in the locker room.

So now you have left yourself somewhat handcuffed on draft possibilities, little cap room, and Jerry himself claims that he has suffered "the most embarrassing" moments this year as a Cowboys owner. So the response? Everything will likely stay in place.

Are you kidding me?

To quote Peanut (via comedian-ventriloquist, Jeff Dunham) "you can polish a turd and it's still a turd!" Where in this mess is the solution to the problem? Where is the move that will jar life into the team? It hasn't been anywhere. Jerry gave his vote of confidence to his coaching staff, which includes a coach that very few (if any) in the area think has the stones to be head coach and an offensive coordinator that two of the worst teams in the NFL don't want any part of. But hey, we fired our defensive coordinator, so everything is good there right?

There is only one other team in the NFL that has had a longer span with no playoff wins -- the Detroit Lions. Last I checked, that GM is no longer employed. If the Cowboys are serious about Super Bowls and post-season wins being the goal, every season without a playoff win is just like a 0-16 season -- inexcusable. Yet our front office stubbornly stays in place.

To end this section, here is a where are they now for the Cowboys: Bill Parcells (run out by Jerry and the T.O. move) rebuilds the Dolphins in one year (taking many former Cowboys' players and coaches with him) and they make the playoffs, Tony Sparano is one of the former Cowboys' coaches now employed by Parcells (and is a solid coach of the year candidate), and Todd Haley whom was fired as our WR coach will be on the sidelines this Sunday at the Super Bowl as the OC for the Arizona Cardinals.

Great moves Jerry!

Wade Phillips

Two words should tell you all you need to know about why Wade is currently in a failing situation in Dallas: "Camp Cupcake". Yes, in those crucial moments of training camp, you know the time in which the team really works on become together, everything is a joke. There are very few practices with pads, zero discipline of note by the head coach, and that tone carries into the season to no one's surprise.

Here is another telling situation: last game of the season, Cowboys fail a 3rd down conversion and end up with 4th and short. Wade decides to punt -- Tony Romo clearly doesn't agree. So what happens here usually? The QB points and gestures we should go for it, coach rolls his eyes and tells him to sit down right? Well not here. Romo stands on the fields, tells the offense to huddle and waves the punt team to the sidelines as Wade stands dumbfounded and jaw hanging.

He has zero respect from the players. I don't care who you are, coaches just do not allow their players to override their decisions. You can't command respect in the room if you let this pass, yet he did.

Wade simply can't control the egos on the Cowboys and he now commands a group of individuals that do their own thing. At season's end, there was no pride, no sense of loss -- just complete numbness.

But it is OK, Wade is going to change! Really? So when Wade turns over that first table in the locker room, how many players are going to start dying out laughing? You are what you are, and Wade can't flip a switch and expect his players to respect the "new" coach in the room.

But hey, Jerry gave him his vote of confidence...before coaches like Shannahon and Gruden were fired...neither of those could possibly be better than what we have now right?

Jason Garrett

I'm not going to spend much time here. I'd just like to point out that the wonder-boy was turned down by the Detroit Lions, Denver Broncos, and St. Louis Rams. Two of those teams are the bottom feeders in the NFL. They said no to our "coach-in-waiting".

I'm not sure what Garret is doing, but it isn't working. Ray Lewis said before the BAL/DAL game that we have "the simplest offense in the league" and I'll be damned if Lewis wasn't sitting there pointing exactly where the ball was going to go and watching BAL knock the crap out of us for the majority of the game.

Also Garret was one of the biggest supporters of Brad Johnson as the QB backup as well. Great eye for talent Jason, seriously.

The "Team" Dynamic

Before I start getting into individual players, let's just take a snapshot of this team. Again, let's head to the Philly game at season's end because that is easily the lowest point of the Cowboys and true character comes out in the lowest moments.

So everything is starting to go right down the tubes. So we have people up and down the sidelines rallying the troops together right? Nope.

Romo is pouting on the bench by himself after a fumble. T.O, Williams, and Crayton are talking to each other off to the side. Offense and defense are completely separated. Tank Johnson is also letting everyone know that he is now a free agent. The coaches are doing God knows what as well on the sidelines as they are just letting this all happen.

Calling the Cowboys a "team" is a disgrace to the term and the idea.

Take this situation from the movie Miracle when Herb Brooks selects his roster for the eventual "Marcile on Ice" Team USA:

Herb Brooks: Take a look at this.
Craig Patrick: What's this?
Herb Brooks: Twenty-six names.
[pause]
Herb Brooks: The tough part will be getting it down to twenty before the opening ceremonies.
Craig Patrick: This is the final roster? You're kidding me, right? This is our first day, Herb. We've got a week of this. What about the advisory staff? Aren't they supposed to have a say in this?
Herb Brooks: Not technically.
Craig Patrick: You're missing some of the best players.
Herb Brooks: I'm not looking for the best players, Craig. I'm looking for the right ones.
Craig Patrick: You have Jim Craig to back up Janisack?
Herb Brooks: Other way around.
Craig Patrick: Other way around? I'm sorry didn't Janisack just win you a national championship?
Herb Brooks: Janny is a solid goal tender, but we're not playing for the national championship here, Craig.
Craig Patrick: You know people I speak to say that Craig's game has been off since his mom died.
Herb Brooks: They ever see him when his game's on?

Before he ever selects the team:

Herb Brooks: All-star teams fail because they rely solely on the individual's talent. The Soviets win because they take that talent and use it inside a system that's designed for the betterment of the team. My goal is to beat 'em at their own game.

So when I look at the Cowboys, I see nothing more than a glorified All-Star team. A bunch of talent that is supposed to beat the hell out of everyone on paper, but just can't bring it together as a unit when it counts.

When the going gets tough, they complain and point fingers. T.O. is the best teammate in the world--when the Cowboys are winning. If not, the problem is clear: "I'm not getting the ball." Williams and Crayton have taken T.O.'s wonderful example and are quickly falling in line against Romo and Garret.

The situation in the locker room gets so bad that "sources" start to tell reporters just how horrible everything is. The Cowboys can try to spin it that the media is lying, but I'm sorry there is no avoiding the fact these unnamed sources are telling the truth. When there is no concept of team and unity, the rule of "what is said here stays here" goes right out the window -- why be a teammate to people that obviously don't care.

The stories have been numerous and have been flooding out of Valley Ranch. Carter flights are late to away games due to players being late (although the Cowboys swear it was due to mechanical issues). Players are corincally late for meetings. Romo laughs during a film session when T.O. attempts to point out when he is open. And they go on and on and on.

You can have the best talent in the world, but this "team" that such talent has created just won't cut it. They will always fall apart in the clutch because they can't come together as a unit. And it will continue to happen until the personnel is more suited for a team.

The solution? As far as the players go, either the ones I list below need to go or pull their heads out and try to lead this team.

Tony Romo

Holy crap! I'm not starting with T.O. I must be losing my mind right?

I started this post by pointing out the problems at the top. As far as the players on this team goes, Romo is the top of the food chain. We all know T.O. is a pain in the ass already and his current behavior is not surprising; however, as far as Romo goes there has been a transformation that is going the exact opposite direction of what this team needs.

Now obviously Romo isn't going anywhere, but his attitude needs to change as far as leadership goes. Sitting on the bench and hanging your head is not leadership, one-upping your coach is not leadership, pointing fingers publicly at your OC is not leadership, going to Mexico before a playoff game is not leadership, and saying publicly that losing isn't the worst thing that can happen to you is not leadership.

Look, I know you are doing fine. You have your superstar blond girlfriend, big contract, huge house, etc. However, you don't publicly ever say such things. Parcells said it many times in his commandments for QBs, "Don't be a celebrity QB." Romo is failing miserably in this.

What is worse is that there are rumors surfacing that Romo doesn't practice well and that Romo has also claimed he doesn't know where any of his WR will be on a given play.

This needs to stop and fast. Even if your WR are the biggest jerks in the world, you need to communicate with them when things break down. If they are wrong, tell them, let them be the ones to dig their own graves. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away.

You can't point fingers in public. Spread them around in the locker room if you have to, but when the heat comes down you take it. A leader takes the heat and takes the blame on the public front. This shows your teammates you have their backs when the media starts firing and in return you better bust your ass because he just covered yours.

Parcells leaving was one of the worst things that could happen to Romo. He clearly needs a stronger hand guiding him on being the leader of a team. Wade's approach has failed and the only result so far seems to be that Romo has a case of big head.

It's time to buckle down, stop the jet-setting, and other assorted crap that has been allowing this team to be dragged further and further down. Attitude reflects leadership -- there currently is none and the QB should be the first one filling the void.

T.O.

Was this season really a surprise? Every Cowboys fan knew this could happen if things started to go sour, T.O. would be...well T.O.

The big issue this season was that, in the absence of vocal leaders, T.O. was being a voice. However, he knows only one way to do this: self-promotion. There is no doubt he practices and works out like a fiend; however, when he talks, the subject goes back to him. He can't avoid it, he doesn't know how to, and he can't keep his mouth shut to save his own skin.

So will cutting him solve all your problems? No, but it sure wouldn't hurt either. If you find yourself in the situation of well, the problem is either T.O. or Romo, T.O. is the easier cut without a doubt from any angle. However, I don't expect this to happen.

One way or another someone from inside the organization needs to sit down with T.O. and get things straight and stick to whatever is agreed on. Romo, obviously would be a good candidate here, but Garret should also consider doing so as well (as that relationship is becoming a problem as well). The message in such a meeting needs to be clear: get on the same page or get out. If this isn't done, expect the divide to grow further in the locker room.

DeMarcus Ware and Jason Witten

Wait WHAT? What have these two done wrong you ask? Well it isn't what they have done, but rather what they have not done.

What you have here are two EXTREMELY talented players that are far too soft spoken. Yeah, yeah, lead by example, but the problem is no one is watching right now. Someone needs to snap them back to attention on both sides of the football.

You cannot question the toughness of these two players. You can't question how hard they work and they do not cause problems (unless you believe the rumor Witten is unnamed source that started this mess). They do all the right things, but they need to take that next step and get in some faces when people start to mope on the sidelines.

While it is good to speak softly and carry a big stick, there are situations were you have to yell in someones face like a drill sergeant to wake them up.

The Media Circus

I'm not talking about beat writers and press conferences. I mean the Hard Knocks, T.O.'s new reality show, and Michael Irvin's new reality show (which will literally give some random guy a training camp invite). These need to go. All these do is serve to make a bigger joke of this organization when everything is said and done.

The focus needs to be on football and not cameras. You'll get your due attention if you win, there is no need to force the issue with these ridiculous endeavors.

------------

And there you have it, my long rambling of what is wrong with the Cowboys. I don't even have much of a conclusion...right now I am just hoping that something within the Cowboys changes, otherwise I think I will be looking to another frustrating and sickening season.

Jappy Oliver Out as ND D-Line Coach

It has become official, Jappy is out:

SOUTH BEND — The changes Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis promised in vague terms after a 7-6 season have begun to take shape.

Defensive line coach Jappy Oliver is out after four seasons under Weis, Notre Dame football spokesman Brian Hardin confirmed Thursday. Hardin said Oliver “resigned to pursue other career opportunities.”

Oliver is the second assistant to leave this offseason, with offensive coordinator Mike Haywood having become the head football coach at Miami of Ohio in late December. There may be more changes on the way in the coming days.

The 53-year-old Purdue graduate’s previous coaching stops include his alma mater, Eastern Michigan, Northeastern, Navy, Grand Valley State, Western Illinois, Vanderbilt, Air Force and South Carolina.

Jappy was another one of those coaches that I liked personally when I worked for the team, but the writing was definitely on the wall for him. I have little doubt Weis likely gave him the fire/resign options, but at least he is able to part on the best terms possible. Best of luck to you in the future Jappy.

It will be interesting to see if the same situation soon befalls Latina in the near future as he is another coach that has been in the crosshairs this season. I would also keep an eye on Powlus' job as well. The heat hasn't been big on him, but there is no doubt we've seen some issues with coaching young QB's and I can't believe that is going to be a completely acceptable situation for much longer.

My Solution for the BCS

On the eve of the National Title game, we will surely hear two things. First, we will hear the talking heads make cases for Texas, USC, and even Utah for the AP Poll National Title. Second, we will also likely hear "Well, the BCS got it right" in reference to either the teams playing in the game or the team that wins the title.

While watching the Fiesta Bowl, my dad and I were discussing both of these and the joke that the BCS has become. While talking, we went over some of the excuses as well the BCS likes to put forth year after year. The more and more I talk about this, the more and more I realize the BCS is becoming more of a sham and the excuses and reasons for not having one are falling well short.

So I came up with a solution. Before I get to the solution though, I first need to point out the premise it must follow. In other words, I have to take the common excuses against a playoff system and find a way around them.

The Anit-Playoff Excuses

A Playoff System Means More Games and Travel for Teams, Even a +1 Falls Under This

How this excuse still sees the light of day is beyond me. Let's rewind, say five years. The BCS has only four bowl games and we hear even then a +1 system isn't a valid solution. Yet here we stand with quite literally a +1 game added to the BCS on top of the four bowl games.

It sure seems to me that the BCS is more than flexible to adding more games to it's schedule and have been playing these games further and further into Janurary. The problem is the BCS still has 100% say in who gets to play in this +1 game and all it has done is given the BCS another way to fatten their coffers. Which leads to the next excuse...

The BCS and the Whole Bowl System Has Far too Much Money Tied into It for a Playoff

And this again doesn't make much sense to me. Who says we need to deconstruct the bowl system or the BCS just to have a playoff work? For something called a Bowl Championship Series everything sure seems to hinge on a single game.

There is no doubt the money is tied in tight to the bowls and the cities hosting them. Any solution will have to find a way to tie the bowl system in one way or another. However, saying that this is a reason to block a playoff is just off base. Look at March Madness. Four regional sites, that eventually merge into a single site for the Final Four. Yes, football is different, there are more fans and players involved and field conditions come into play as well. Point is though, you have a structure in place, you just have to learn how to use it.

The BCS System Allows Every Regular Season Game to be a Playoff

Really? That is interesting. I could've sworn a playoff game means lose and go home. Yet we see year after year one-loss teams ending up in the title game. Debates become centered around who's schedule is tougher, which conference is better, and "style points" in impressive wins. How is that indicative of a playoff situation?

This excuse needs to die and it needs to die fast.

If every game was really a playoff, Utah is a clear cut choice to be in the National Title game. They survived their schedule and if we are doing "lose and go home" mentality, they shouldn't have played in a lesser bowl. And if we are going to debate the AP Title now, Utah should be the only choice as well (hell they beat a team ranked #1 for most of the season). Now this obviously doesn't happen because they are in the Mountain West. This reason should not come into play in a playoff mentality.

The only time the playoff mentality holds is when a BCS team goes undefeated. Example: Ohio State in recent years -- now what has happened every time they have been in there? "They don't belong -- Big 10 is a weak conference and they play a weak out of conference schedule." Again, these shouldn't be reasons coming up in a playoff mentality.

Not to mention, strength of schedule is quite relative and hard to set up. I'm sure Utah thought Michigan sure looked like a strong Big 10 opponent when they opened the season against them. So much for that.

The Premise -- What Needs to Happen

So now that we have outlined the major excuses, we need to outline what must happen for this to work.

First, we clearly can't add in a bunch of games into the fray. Fans have to travel and we can't have the football season overlapping into finals (even though other sports do...) or going too far into January. In short, we can't create more excuses for the BCS to cling on to.

Second, we have to keep the current bowl system in place to a point. The bowls aren't going away because of the money. Instead of outright replacing them, we need to figure out a way to use them. The fat cats need to stay fat and fed or a playoff goes nowhere.

Finally, we have to make the BCS polls relavent somehow. We need to keep the regular season as "playoff-like" as possible. Yes the excuse is dumb, but it still makes college football unique and creates a lot of debate. The polls and regular season must matter.

Now on top of all of this two other problems come into play: the non-BCS conferences and teams that don't have to play conference title games. It is an unbalance that must be considered in any solution.

The Solution

So now that we have those standards set, how do we sort this mess out?

First, let's address the conferences and their title games. Personally, I think they should be wiped out, but that isn't feasible at all. Again the money comes into play, and those games won't be easily erased. So let's make things very, very simple. If you want to be BCS eligible you must be in a conference that plays for a title. Period. It needs to be all or none and none isn't going to happen.

Right now old-school ND fans are wanting to kill me after reading that. I'm sorry, I love ND being independent too, but it is time to move on. We can't have our cake and eat it too. If we as ND fans want to see a playoff, there is no way around this and keep the title games/bowls in place. However, we shouldn't be holding on to our Big East ties from other sports. Football is a totally different animal, and I would rather see us continue our usual rivalry games.

Placing ND in the Big 10 would place Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue easily on the conference schedule. Being able to schedule Ohio State and Penn State in that schedule isn't exactly a downside as well and is a hell of a lot more interesting than a Big East conference schedule. We would also still have room to schedule USC, BC (if we want), and Navy for out-of-conference every year as well. Yeah, the Big East will bitch, but I'm sorry we were never with you in football to begin with, deal with it.

Navy and Army are the only independents left after that. Since they are both on the East Coast, they could possibly slide into the Big East if they wish to be apart of the BCS picture in the future; otherwise, they could stay put. Again such alignments would be football only.

The next thing that needs to be done is to lower the team requirement for a title game to 10 or get rid of it entirely. It is a joke that the Big East can crown a champion with 8 teams and no title game. Everyone needs to be on the same field as far as games played.

While we are at it, let's get rid of the divisions in the conferences. I'm tired of watching the Big XII - North get spanked year in and year out. I want to see the best two teams from the conference play each other in the title game. How much better would this season have been if Texas got another shot at OU? That would've settle a lot of debate no? And hey...that is eerily similar to *gasp* A PLAYOFF GAME!

See there is a method to this madness. Making the top two teams from each conference play each other in a their title game is basically a conference playoff. You ensure you have the best from each conference and makes polling and decision making far easier. Also, those conference champs need to be ranked the highest in the BCS standings. Enough with the one conference is better than the other crap. Rank all coference champs at the top and decide from there.

Now that works for the BCS conferences, but what about a BCS buster? Let's use Utah as a prime example. If you are going to bust into this scene you need to be undefeated and have played BCS schools in your non-conference schedule. A minimum would likely need to be set. However, I would say to make things much easier, Boise State needs to move to the Mountain West conference and just add that as a BCS conference school, but that's just me. Either way, as an undefeated conference champ, they should be ranked above the 1 and 2-loss BCS conference teams that already had their shot. Basically, we shouldn't have a potential BCS buster remain undefeated and not at least get a shot at making some serious noise in the title picture -- this wouldn't happen in any other sport at any other level.

So now we have all our title games played, conference champions crowned, now what? For my solution, we get a +1 system underway. Take teams 1-4 in the BCS standings and the following week after the conference title games, two playoff games take place with 1 v 4, and 2 v 3. These games however, will be played at the schools , meaning 1 and 2 in the BCS get home field advantage (thus making the top two BCS seeds quite relevant still and allowing for that debate to continue).

The winners of those two games play against each other in the BCS National Title game (the +1 game that we have now) and fill out the rest of the BCS games as normal. The keeps the bowl system intact, keeps the conference affliations of the bowls intact, makes travel/planning as easy as possible for teams, only adds one more game for just four teams, and, most importantly, we have a playoff.

Let's apply my system to this year. Texas plays OU in their conference title game, settling that debate. All other coference champs would in my opinion stay intact. Since Utah went undefeated and beat BCS teams in non-conference play, they deserve a shot to bust the system as the 4 seed.

So you would have in this +1 system:

Utah at Texas/OU winner
USC at Florida -- (Alabama lost their title game, USC wins it, sorry 'Bama, you're out)

Is there any doubt from those four games we have a true champ? Maybe Penn State does some bitching and moaning, but hey, someone has to bitch since we want the debate to happen still. It seems if no one gets hosed college football doesn't have that unique debate. Plus you can finally use the playoff mentality here: "Sorry Penn State, you lost a game, Utah didn't. You go home, play your Rose Bowl and prove us wrong. We don't think you are better than USC, Florida or Texas/OU."

Also, this allows Utah to truely bust the BCS. They have their chance against the top team in the nation to prove they belong in the title mix; otherwise, they get their chance in a BCS bowl as they normally would.

Everyone wins. The fans get amazing games and their playoff. The schools, conferences, and the bowls get their exposure/money. Everyone gets plenty of debate material. Two schools win an extra home game for additional revenue. And I could go on.

Most importantly, this can work. I did very little to the current system in place. The changes that I did make placed everyone on as even of a playing field as possible as well. By doing this, the BCS can finally "get it right."

However, I will keep on dreaming. Me expecting the BCS, a system that thrives on complete choas, to arrive as such a logical solution is asking for far too much.

Addendum (1/9/2009): In thinking a bit further on this, the BCS would likely need to adjust their formula slightly. The only change that would be needed is stiffer penalties for losses. This will help to ensure a possible BCS buster that is undefeated will be able to land in the top 4. Of course, if you have a bunch of one loss teams, this will put everyone on equal footing as well.

Hawaii Bowl Aftermath

Well now that football season is now officially over for me (thanks Dallas...), it is time to finally start breaking down the last games of personal interest to me. And I'm going to start with the good news because a post about the Cowboys will involve too many four-letter words. So with that in mind, it is time to take a look on the Irish blowout over Hawaii this past week.

Keys to the Game - Results

If you scroll to the bottom of my ridiculously huge pre-game post, you will see the five keys that I felt would be important to Irish victory. Here are the results:

1. Protect Clausen - Wow, look what happens when we aren't getting our O-Line pushed back 5 yards every play. Clausen was only sacked once and had very little pressure on him for the majority of the game. When someone did apply pressure, it was light and Clausen was able to easily avoid it and not worry about rolling out into another defender. Clausen's TD pass to Grimes was a great example of this.
2. Win the Turnover Battle - Yeah, I know it is cliche to have this as a key, but for these two turnover-happy teams, this could've been a huge factor in the game. The Irish played a clean game and didn't turn the ball over once. Not shooting ourselves in the foot allowed the ND offense to continue to apply the pressure and stack up the points. Clausen was very smart and accurate with his throws and didn't force things (with one exception on a jump-ball to Floyd). If there is one thing I want to see carried over into 2009, this is it.
3. Blitzes Must Hit Home - This was simply huge for the Irish. Alexander was lit up all game long as the Irish totaled seven sacks (I could've sworn ESPN showed eight during the game though...in stats I only see seven...go figure) in the game. Alexander was never settled and that made life much, much easier for the Irish secondary. We finally for the first time saw our blitzing really pay off. Granted Hawaii has a weak line, but the Irish did exactly what they should do against such a line -- stay in the QB's face all game long.
4. Pray to St. Michael - OK, so I was off here a bit. Floyd did get the ball early, but really his two receptions for seventeen yards wasn't exactly a game breaking factor. However, his presence on the field took a lot of double coverage off of Tate whom I'm sure was thinking life was a lot easier trying to burn only one guy on field than two every play. The only thing that Floyd proved this game was that it is important he is, at the very least, on the field as he is no doubt a threat other teams respect. Also, on what I will call Clausen's only really bad pass all game, Floyd damn near made an impossible jump ball catch -- most imporantly though, he didn't allow the defender to grab the ball and kept an INT from showing up on the stat sheet. It must be nice to have that kind of trust in a receiver that just chucking the ball up for grabs will likely at worst be an incomplete pass.
   
5. Win the Hidden Yardage Battle - Wow, did the Irish ever pull this off. The Irish coverage held together for the most part, but the battle was completely over when Allen returned a kickoff for a TD. Had we not also roughed a punter, Tate would be showing off a punt return for a TD as well. ND also partially blocked a punt in the game as well and Walker wasn't even needed for a FG.

Other "Key" Notes

One of the biggest things that jumped out during the game was that the Irish running game was actually useful (even though the overall rushing average still ended up being horrid). Before Clausen went off, our first TD was on the ground from Hughes. Hawaii didn't have a choice but respect the fact that we would attempt to run on them at any time. This lead to the huge play action passes throughout the game that we really haven't been able to utilize.

The next big observation, was that it finally looked like we had the "nasty" football team out on the field that was promised to us years ago. ND/Hawaii isn't a rivalry of any kind yet there were several occasions in which trash talking and some post play shoving made an appearance. We finally looked like we had a chip on our shoulder about our performance and also had the attitude of "Can win? Screw that, we will be winning this game." I haven't seen an Irish team have that kind of swagger in quite a while.

That attitude definitely pissed some Hawaii players off as well throughout the game. Whoever #62 is on Hawaii will likely be constantly reminded that he cost his team 30 yards all on his own with two late hits. ND was able to avoid such penalties with the exception of one taunting penalty that made no sense at all. But hey, I guess gesturing to your own teammates is just totally out of line.

Doing this in the direction of your teammates = 15 yard penalty.

What's Your Name?

For the first time since 1987, the Irish had names on the back of their jerseys. At first I was rather taken back by this, and wasn't even aware that this was an Ara Parseghian tradition for bowl games. Just another one of those little nuances from Weis that proves, despite any faults he has as a head coach, that he does "get" the ND tradition. This was a much better idea of doing something special for the players than pulling out the green jerseys again as I was fully expecting. This marks the first season in the Weis era that the green stayed under lock and key and hopefully he begins to start saving the green for only rare ocassions.

Rewriting the ND Bowl Record Book

Records broken during the Hawaii Bowl:

1. Passing Yards - Jimmy Clausen, 401
2. Passing TD - Jimmy Clausen, 5
3. Completion Percentage - Jimmy Clausen, 84.6%
4. Receiving Yards - Golden Tate, 177
5. Longest Pass - Clausen to Tate, 69
6. Total Offense - 478
7. Points Scored - 49
8. Longest Kick Return - Armando Allen, 96

Coaching Up Top

Weis, for the first time since the pre-Tom Brady era in New England, was coaching from the booth. According to ESPN, Weis told them if he was able to walk/stand without pain he'd be on the sidelines, otherwise, he'd stay in the booth. It seems the knees were hurting bad enough to keep him off the field. I wonder if the offense happens to sputter next season if everyone will start to say he needs to coach from the box.

Probably the bigger part of this equation was that Haywood returned to the sidelines in place of Weis. Thanks to this, he was able to receive a Gatorade bath as a final farewell from his players. Quite a nice ending for a man that had quite a lot happen to him personally this year as well as the critism that he faced from the fans and media.

So What Do We Take from This?

It was predictable what was going to happen after this game. If we lost, it would be "Holy crap, ND is absolutely horrid -- they just lost to HAWAII!" If we won, it would (and has been) "This is nothing special, they beat a bad Hawaii team. They are now happy with mediocrity."

However, both of those thoughts should not have really entered the head of any Irish fan. Yes, Hawaii is not a good team at all. In comparison, we are a far better and more talented team on paper. However, what has that meant all season? This is the same team that went up against Syracuse and lost. Nothing was definite.

I was looking for two things this game. First, the Irish come in and treat this game for what it was, taking care of buisness and beating an inferior team. Second, it was time for that bowl losing streak to DIE.

The elation coming from Irish fans stems mostly from the later. It is sickening to hear about the bowl streak year, after year, after year. We are just glad it is done. Go ahead and say the win "doesn't count", we don't care. This win isn't the bar we have set for the future. It is simply a bright spot amongst two abysmal seasons.

The fact that the Irish came out and absolutely blew the Warriors out was something that no one but the most optimistic (and drunkest) Irish fans thought possible. We were expecting to blow out Navy and we didn't. We were expecting to blow out Syracuse and we didn't. Why expect a blow out for Hawaii?

The Irish were able to show that they do indeed know how to win. Something that I was seriously wondering if they believed. It was almost as if, after the UNC game, the line of thought was "Now what is going to happen to make us lose this one?" There wasn't even a hint of that in the Hawaii Bowl and for a very young team, that is very refreshing to see.

I hope that all fans and the team can appreciate the win for what it is this offseason. Once spring ball starts, I hope the team gets a mind set of going back to work for improvement and by the time fall camp opens, I hope all fans are ready to think about the future rather than our recent past.

The monkey is off our back now and is dead. For next season, it will be time to expect some other streaks to end. Losing to the top ten in the nation, horrible win/loss record against winning programs, not winning a January/BCS bowl game, losing to BC, losing to USC -- this is the fuel for next year's fire.

The win is nice. It is great to be similing going into 2009. However, 9-3 wasn't good enough in Weis' first year. When Weis came to ND, he clearly stated 6-6 wasn't good enough. 7-6, bowl win or not, isn't good enough. He knows it, the team knows it, and ND fans know it. Everyone will enjoy this, but everyone will be hungry for more.

This young team has landed its first jab in their fight. Now it is time to see if they have that knockout punch in them.

GO IRISH!

Merry Christmas, Irish Fans!!!

Clausen breaks three ND Bowl records (passing yards - 401, TDs - 5, completion percentage - 84.6%). Tate breaks a ND Bowl record (TD receptions - 3). ND scores the most points ever in a bowl game (49). And most importantly:

THE 15 YEAR BOWL LOSING STREAK IS DEAD!!!

A more detailed post on the game will come in the near future, but for now, 49-21, savor the victory!

Hawaii Bowl Game Day Super-Post

No, I haven't been avoiding ND football news. Everything went as I had hoped. Lots of ND news to be wrapped up in a nice Christmas Eve Game Day Package. I'll run down the latest headlines and give my pre-game thoughts and predictions for tonight's (today if you are sunbathing on the islands) Hawaii Bowl.

Weis Will Be Your Play Caller

Not that this was a shock, but Weis will be at the helm of the offense again. Now I'm sure the media was reading into all kinds of things with this. I'm sure whispers of Haywood getting canned were running rampant even though Weis stated quite matter of fact that the two were on the same page with the move.

And let's be honest, Weis has a control freak aspect to him. His play calling and offensive prowess have come very much under fire and I'm sure he is looking to prove a lot of folks wrong.

Then again maybe he knew something everyone else didn't know....

Haywood is Named Head Coach for Miami (OH)

This was probably the best news to come out of the Irish camp all year. Haywood will be the next man to step foot into the Cradle of Coaches in 2009. This is obviously a huge opportunity for Haywood and saved him from any possibility of needing to take a bullet for Weis and the offense this year.

I've always had a boatload of respect and admiration for Haywood. He is great with players (and was even great with the managers when I worked with the team), is an amazing recruiter, and I believe he has learned a lot being OC for ND. I was really worried that pressure for things to change in the coaching staff would possibly lead to his firing. I was definitely hoping he would land a HC job, so I couldn't be happier with the news.

This hiring also justifies exactly what we as ND fans have been saying every time Ty tries to drag us under the bus. New head coaching talent comes from the DC and OC positions and we were the only FBS school in the nation that had two black coordinators. Now look what happens, it landed Haywood a job while Ty sits in the unemployment line (which looks a lot like a golf course to him).

Haywood is a definite class act and I wish for nothing but the best for him. In fact, he may be able to save other Irish coaches that could be under fire like Latina and Oliver and give them possible coordinator positions isntead of Weis uncerimoniously firing them. It would be a definite win-win for everyone involved and it almost makes me wonder if Weis was hoping this would be the situation all along.

And if the hiring news wasn't good enough as is, Haywood came out and publically defended Weis:

“People have a misunderstanding of Coach Weis,” said Haywood, who will be announced as the next RedHawks head coach on Tuesday, Dec. 30. “I don’t think he’s been given the respect that he deserves as an offensive coordinator, as a head coach, and as a man.

“He’s one of the finest men in college football. He’s one of the true family men in college football, and he does a tremendous job of balancing football with his family.

“Notre Dame is on the rise, and I think Notre Dame will have a great season next year under the tutelage and direction of Coach Weis. I couldn’t ask for a better guy as a mentor. He has been an unbelievable mentor for me over the last four years and has been instrumental in me getting this job today.”

Haywood, who lost play-calling duties prior to the third-to-last regular season game, said there was no rift between him and Weis. Haywood said after his second cousin died, prompting his return home to Houston during Navy week, his first cousin died three weeks later.

While dealing with the family tragedies, Haywood was interviewing for the Washington, Syracuse and Miami jobs—in that order.

“Some may have thought there (was) some animosity between Coach Weis and I, and everybody was totally wrong,” Haywood said. “(Our relationship) couldn’t have been any better.”

And I tell you what, I feel a lot better with Haywood saying such things about our program than Weis. It seems the bigger picture involved with the playcalling shuffle was to not only help Haywood out with his family tragedy, but to allow him the time to focus on the HC opprotunities as much as he could. Weis has always been one to hold things close to the vest, he doesn't like anyone outside the Gug walls to know what is going on in his organization; in fact, I vividly remember my first experience with him in Fall Camp was a meeting in which he wanted to make sure football buisness wasn't leaked out unless he wanted it to be. This whole situation has that kind of feel to it.

Anyways, Mike, best of luck to you at Miami (OH).

Gary Gray Stays Home

Speaking of Weis keeping things close to the vest, it seems Gary Gray didn't make the trip with the Irish. In no surprise, Weis said very little on the matter:

One player who has not enjoyed Hawai’i is sophomore cornerback Gary Gray, who Weis said did not make the trip because of personal reasons.

“Personal reasons. Things like that really sometimes they’re made to be bigger than they are,” said Weis. “It’s personal, he had to go home and I’m going to leave it at that.”

Weis was non-committal on Gray’s future with the Irish.

“He’s home right now, so we have to wait and see what happens,” he said. “Right now I’m just trying to get through this game. I can’t be worrying about Gary, who is not here right now. I’ve got to worry about the guys that are here right now.”

So much of the same song and dance as usual. This could be anything from a death in the family to him wanting to transfer. Since Weis actually said that this could be "made to be bigger than they are", leads me to believe it is more of the former than the latter. Either way, I hope everything is well with Gary and the Gray household this holiday season.

Laying it Thick on Manti Te'o

While Weis can't directly talk about recruiting Te'o at this time, there is no doubt the Irish are hoping to woe the stud linebacker to South Bend during this trip -- especially considering his Syracuse visit was less than optimal. The Notre Dame captains did their part in their press conferences to sell Notre Dame to, I don't know...say any particular recruit that might pick up a Hawaii paper to read some news about a school he might be interested in:

“I think the biggest thing is the tradition that Notre Dame has,” said linebacker Maurice Crum. “And it goes back forever. I’ve been here for five years and I’m still in awe of some of the guys who come around the program. It’s a life experience that you can’t get anywhere else.”

“Once you get involved with Notre Dame, you’ll be involved for life,” said wide receiver David Grimes. “One thing Notre Dame is good for is taking care of its own.”

“These are great guys, high character,” safety David Bruton said. “They have their heads on straight. They have a goal. A lot of people at a young age don’t really have a goal or don’t really know what they want to do. Everyone who comes here wants to be great, has ambitions to do something great in the world; just do something that affects the world in a positive way.”

Total class from Crum, Grimes, and Bruton there. I love that the comments they specifically made are those that any ND alum would make trying to separate ND from the rest of the crowd. And of course, hopefully this will help sell the school to Te'o.

We are laying it on thick buddy. Trust me there is a Hawaii Club at ND and everything. Students even tried to get everyone lei'd in your honor too. Sign up man, I want to see you crushing USC players in the future.

There's That Whole 15 Year Losing Streak...Thing...

No Irish bowl game can go without mention of this. The 15-year bowl losing streak monkey on our backs has become a damned gorilla beating the crap out of ND at this point. However, I am hoping this can fuel some fire in the team. This isn't just a practice game, this is a chance to end 15 years of pain and for these seniors, it is their chance to leave some form of positive mark on the program after these past two disappointing years.

When asked what I wanted for Christmas, I half-jokingly said "a Hawaii Bowl victory". Seriously, not lying at all. The mention of the streak wears on me more and more every year. I'm sick of hearing it and I know other Irish fans are sick of hearing it. Ending it won't heal all the wounds of this season, but it sure will be a hell of a lot better than saying "Well, that makes 16 years."

Healthy and Full Speed

One of the best things that could have happened to us is many of our injured players returning to the field. While I'm not to particularly high on Lambert being healthy and starting, we are definitely getting some key players back in the form of Brain Smith and most Michael Floyd.

I really don't think it can be stated enough just how much Floyd means to this offense. With him out, Tate was having to work double-time just to sniff getting open. It is much easier to defend one playmaker on the field than two. This was a fact not lost on the Irish:

This was Tate's second touch. All game. The best answer Notre Dame had for a feral USC defense felt like he was running routes in a crowded bazaar, squeezed and smothered at every turn.

When Tate saw fellow receiver Michael Floyd on the bench against Navy, the freshman's leg swaddled in medical wrap, Tate shrugged. He thought he might see more of the ball. Only in the California gloaming did he understand.

"I didn't really realize it until the 'SC game, how much we really needed him," Tate said. "It was almost like I could do nothing. Whatever I did, they were there. It was all out of my hands."

...

"He makes plays on the ball instead of waiting for the ball to come down to him, or letting the defensive back make the play," Irish cornerback Robert Blanton said.

...

"He was kind of fearless when he went in," Irish linebacker Brian Smith said. "We talked before camp, and he said he never really has seen athletes on the opposing side. But he went in there, and you never could tell he talked like that."

Actually, it's completely believable. Floyd, publicly, is as effusive as a cardboard box.

Asked if the injury revealed just how crucial he is to the offense, Floyd squirmed. He looked like he wanted to melt into his auditorium chair.

"I don't say I'm really important to the team," Floyd said. "I just try to help in any way I can. I just try to do my job—that's catching the ball and running with it and scoring touchdowns as much as I can."

Yet Notre Dame dearly missed that and cannot afford to be without it in 2009, not if it wants even to feint toward a Bowl Championship Series berth.

Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen knows this, after staring into thickets of defenders that Floyd would have thinned out.

Clausen, in fact, had just discussed Floyd's playmaking abilities when the freshman wideout sneaked into a chair behind the sophomore quarterback and laughed. Hearing this, Clausen looked over his shoulder.

"Oh, there he is," Clausen said, only too happy to find Michael Floyd once again.

It will be interesting to see if the Irish can have an offensive resurgence with everyone healthy and ready to go and should be something to keep an eye on all game long.

Keys to the Game

Oh yeah, there is a game in the middle of all of this isn't there? I'm not going to dig in-depth and act like I know everything about Hawaii and how the Irish need to counter act exactly. From what I've read though and seen about Hawaii (and of course our Irish), here will be the keys to Irish victory:

1. Protect Clausen - Hawaii is ranked 11th in the nation in sacks and have some solid D-Linemen to cause havoc in the backfield. When Clausen has been under heavy pressure, things have not boded well for the Irish and we can't throw big bombs to Floyd/Tate if Clausen has little time to let the play develop.
2. Win the Turnover Battle - Hawaii likes to cough up the ball with 35 turnovers and only two teams in all of college football are worse. ND isn't that much better with 28 of their own, but even more alarming is that 22 have come on the road. All you have to do is remember the UNC game as to how turnovers can completely change the game. If the Irish lose the turnover battle, expect it to be a long day for the Irish.
3. Blitzes Must Hit Home - The Hawaii O-Line is the worst in the nation in sacks allowed, so our blitz-happy defense need to plant the Hawaii QB, Greg Alexander, on the turf early and often. Our secondary play has been suspect at times (*cough*Lambert*cough*), but it is hard to beat the secondary as an offense if your QB is getting hit at every angle and can't get a clean pass off. If we allow Alexander enough time, the pass-happy Warriors can and will eventually pick us apart.
4. Pray to St. Michael - The return of Floyd is the single biggest jolt that this offense could've gotten. There is no secret, he is the man on this offense. We need to get the ball in his hands as early as possible and have Hawaii attempt to focus on him as much as possible. Not only can Floyd likely break through the extra attention, but that opens up Tate to single coverage and huge seams for Rudolph (and other slot receivers like Grimes, Paris, and Karma) over the middle. Keeping Hawaii worried about the deep ball will help keep additional heat off Clausen and open up our running game. Again, it can't be said enough: GIVE FLOYD THE DAMN BALL!
5. Win the Hidden Yardage Battle - Special teams will be crucial. There is no quicker way to blow a game than to screw up kickoff/punt coverage. Hawaii is pass-heavy and leaving that kind of an offense a short field is asking for a quick score to happen. As far as FG, Walker has improved tremendously since the beginning of the season and that must continue. Leaving points on the board today is not a viable option.

Prediction

WhatIfSports.com ran their simulation of the Hawaii Bowl 1000 times and the Irish came out the winner 61% of the time with a score average of 26-20 (here is one such result). Running my own simulation of the game this morning, setting Hawaii as the home team (even though they are technically away and this is technically a neutral field...) and having both teams favor the pass, the Irish come out on top 45-18.

As far as my human mind, I do believe the 15 year losing streak ends tonight. The return of Floyd and the black cloud of the Weis being fired and Weis/Haywood supposedly fueding being lifted will spark an offensive resurgence. The defense plays very well for the most part, but will have lapses that allow two inexcusable TDs that will make this game closer than it should've been; however, they shut Hawaii down completely in the second half. The offense will also finally run on all cylinders in the second half and we will have a "where the hell was this all year" moment.

Irish defeats the Warriors 38-24.

Quarter Breakdown (ND Score-Hawaii Score, with total score in parenthesis)
1st: 7-7 (Tie)
2nd: 7-10 (14-17 Warriors Lead)
3rd: 14-7 (28-24 Irish Lead)
4th: 10-0 (38-24 Irish Lead)

Go Irish. Beat Warriors. End the Streak. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I'll leave you with a fantastic feel-good Christmas story courtesy of "Life of Riley" from ESPN the Magazine.

The Die-Hard Fan

In my morning routine before work, I always have a local sports station, 1310 The Ticket, on as I get ready. As a P1 of the station (in "Ticket-lingo", a P1 is a constant listener, and tiers down to P2 and P3), I often hear many different news stories that are beyond the usual headlines sports or otherwise.

This morning, such a bit of news was brought to my attention. Norm Hitzges, the usual 10am-12pm host, was subbing in for the morning drive show whom are on vacation. For the usual "Observation Deck" segment which is usually a segment done by morning show yuk-monkey (the comedic touch on a show), Gordon Keith, tends to highlight something random that he found on the Internet, a TV show, or even an email. This morning though, Norm found a rather interesting excerpt from a blog post written by fellow Ticket host, Bob Sturm, regarding the Die-Hard Fan.:

As I was leaving a frigid Texas Stadium after the game, I was walking right behind a Dad and his boy. The boy must have been 7 or 8 years old and was crying about the result. Some people might roll their eyes, but I knew how the boy felt. When you are young, and you love a sports team, you believe the games and the seasons will all have the happy endings of the Disney movies that you watch. Guess what, son, if you are going to pledge allegiance to a team as it appears you have with the Dallas Cowboys, I want to welcome you to the fellowship of the die-hards. Understand, that once you do, you are not allowed out of this commitment, and you should also understand that most seasons are going to end in tears. A favorite team is the only thing a male human feels the same about when he is 5 and when he is 45 and when he is 75. You will change your mind on everything else. Girls, money, hobbies. But, you will always still feel the adrenaline rush of a win, and the gutting sadness of a horrible loss. I didn’t say anything to the boy, as his Dad was handling it (and he might not have welcomed my advice) but I felt for him. Welcome to sports, young man. Someday, you may live to see a championship or five, but most years will end with your guts spilling onto the floor.

How true this is.

Being a die-hard fan is something very hard to describe to anyone on the outside looking in. We may not always have the sports cry like the young boy did, but the general emotion is the same. We turn to blogs, message boards, forums, Facebook status messages, and just about any form of public outlet that we can find if our guts have been spilled. Often times people wonder how we get so "worked up" and why we can't "get over it".

We can't just "get over it", such a stomach punch can ruin our day/night/week/month/year depending on the severity. As Sturm said, we can't turn our backs on it. We are committed. We never hopped on the bandwagon, we strapped ourselves down, padlocked ourselves and threw away the key from the beginning. There is no jumping off. If the wagon crash and burns, we all go down with it. Having our die-hard ties cut would be a hypocrisy equivalent to the Pope saying he is now an atheist (ok...maybe that analogy is slightly overboard).

Personally, I don't think I could ever cut my die hard ties. No matter how bad the ND season gets, I still tune in (and will do once again tomorrow night). The Rangers may perpetually suck and never win a playoff series before I die, but I will always be following them. The Cowboys may make me pull my hair out, but I am still glued to the game every week. The Mavericks broke my heart when they lost in the NBA finals, but I still cheer for them. The Stars might currently be one of the worst teams in the NHL, but I won't be turning my back on them. As a side note, in my sports mind, the Dallas Desperadoes do not exist (well, now they literally don't this year).

We can't help ourselves. We will bitch and moan, scream for the heads of coaches to roll, threaten to cease donations, etc, etc. However, in the end, when game time comes, we are still there in support in some way, shape or form -- always ready to have our guts spilled once again just for that glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, the bliss of victory is right around the corner.

Wait...a BASEBALL Post in December???

I warned you way back at the beginning that this blog would be quite random and I wasn't kidding.

I came across some Texas Rangers news actually got me very excited this morning. That doesn't just happen either, especially if the news centers around pitching, which this just so happens to be today.

You see, if any die-hard Ranger fan hears the words "pitching news" during the offseason, the next question tends to be: "Well who did we trade away this time and how soon are we going to regret it?" Pitching has always been the bane of the Rangers existence and it hasn't gotten better since Tom Hicks has owned the team. He apparently thought he could apply the hockey spending mentality he used with the Stars to baseball and shelled out tons of money for offensive prowess (see: Alex Rodriguez), overpaid for sub-par veterans (see: Chan-Ho Park), and if that wasn't enough we would trade away some of our better young pitchers in horrible, horrible trades (see: the Chris Young trade, we currently have zero of the people we traded for). To no one's surprise, it promptly backfired on him due to lack of young talent in the system and very little pitching talent.

The last year a hire was announced that created excitement and several questions: Nolan Ryan as team president. Everyone wondered if this was just a figure head hire in order to get butts in the empty seats at the ball park or would Ryan actually be able to have a say and an impact on how this franchise operates. Of course, with a pitching legend like Ryan coming back, the main hope was that somehow, someway our pitching would improve.

Well, this offseason, the answer is becoming crystal clear. Ryan is tired of the new trend of pitchers not completing their own games and managers yanking them as soon as the pitch count reaches 100. In short, he is going old school:

In his first year on the job as Texas’ president, Ryan has been struck by the limited expectations for pitchers. Six innings are fine. Throw no more than 100 pitches. Start every fifth game.

Ryan watched it first-hand this season. Texas had six complete games. That is as many complete games as Ryan had with the Rangers in 1989, at age 42.

It is enough to make Ryan decide to swim against the tide.

Ryan cannot undo past pitching mistakes by the Rangers, who gave away righthanders Justin Duchscherer of Oakland, Chris Young of San Diego, Armando Galarraga of Detroit and lefthander John Danks of the Chicago White Sox for the equivalent of a bag of batting-practice baseballs. They also had Cincinnati righthander Edinson Volquez, but did get All-Star center fielder Josh Hamilton from the Reds for him.

Ryan can make a difference in the future. Texas pitchers are about to step into the way-back machine, at his urging.

Ryan wants more complete games. He had 222 complete games in 773 career starts. There were 136 complete games, 10 by lefthander CC Sabathia, in the majors this season.

Ryan also dislikes the endless procession of relievers, which often leads to a team losing a game with its 12th-best pitcher on the mound. He prefers relievers who pitch to more than one hitter or more than one inning.

It all starts with stronger pitchers.

“To me, it’s a matter of physical conditioning, and then you get into the area of mental toughness,” Ryan said. “That’s what we’re trying to address now.”

Ryan wants Texas pitchers to learn the difference between being sore and being hurt.

Ryan suggested pitchers are too willing now to stop when they feel the tiniest of twinges. An examination invariably shows something wrong, because pitching is an unnatural act for the shoulder.

“Pitchers feel pain sometimes and think they’re hurt,” Ryan said. “A lot of times, they’re not. They have to learn to pitch through it.”

Texas pitchers have already had one conditioning camp, in which they learned that running will be a way of life. That’s running as in sprints, not leisurely jogs.

The workload will increase in spring training. If the plans hold, the Rangers could return to the four-man rotation, which has been out of favor for more than 30 years.

Some teams, such as Colorado in 2004, have tried a four-man rotation only to go back to the five-man arrangement. Kansas City, in 1995, is the last team to have used a four-man rotation for an extended period.

Ryan believes a pitcher’s command improves when he starts every fourth game. Given Ryan’s longevity and success (324 wins), who’s to argue?

I sure won't be arguing as I couldn't agree more. This is topic has been coming up every season between my dad and I without fail. Pitchers just don't go the distance anymore and a parade from the bullpen is the norm. It slows the game down, it takes the defense out of a rythym, and like the article said, you are depending on your lesser pitchers to hold the game together.

Having pitched before (a long time ago), I understand the need to protect arms, but things are getting ridiculous. These aren't 12 year old little leaguers, these are professionals. It is their job to keep their arms in as best shape as possible. Arms will get sore, but you just pitch through it. There is a big difference between being sore, having twinges and having an actual issue like a muscle tear. It is a fine line, but it can be walked, and it has been walked many times before.

I can't wait to see how this new attitude affects the rotation this season with the Rangers. We have a lot of young pitching talent and if they can get in the kind of shape Ryan was in during his career, we could have one hell of a rotation in Arlington in the very near future.

Goodbye Texas Stadium, Sorry for the Last Memory

I was close to making a Cowboy's post after their impressive win against the Giants a week ago and now I am glad that I didn't. I would've likely taken everything I said in that post and then come back this week and rip it to shreds.

Watching Saturday's game felt like watching a Notre Dame game. Flat offense, no sense of urgency, absent minded coaching, stupid penalties, horrible QB play, and a joke of an O-Line. Except this team was supposed to be the clear cut Super Bowl favorites when the season started and people were ready to put the crown back on their heads after last week as well. It is amazing how another week can give you such a different perspective.

The Cowboys said farewell to Texas Stadium by putting up an uninspired and lackluster performance in a 33-24 loss. Despite all the hoopla about the post-game closing ceremonies, Ray Lewis and Co. were able to dance around the sidelines with the last words as far as the game went. TV viewers were treated to such memorable quotes as "Turn the lights out, they done!" and my favorite "Close this bitch down!" after Jameel McCalin set a Texas Stadium record with a 82 yard rushing TD, the longest ever by a Cowboys opponent, which broke the previous record set minutes earlier by Willis McGahee's 77 yard TD run.

If that wasn't a big enough kick to the junk, anyone that actually remained to try and watch the historic closing ceremony was treated to the worst feed ever by The 33. The game was in high definition, but either the Cowboys or The 33 couldn't shell out the money/time/equipment for that to happen. Although that is forgivable, the audio feed wasn't. The 33 claimed they had no control over the piped-in stadium PA, so my ears were assaulted by constant feedback in the system, a barely audible Brad Sham, no crowd noise, a random flat-line beep in the middle of the ceremony, and also T.O.'s post game press conference for no reason. The 33 also lost the feed on several different occasions and everyone was treated to either a black screen or frozen image, accompanied sometimes with or without "sound". We were also "treated" to the worst camera angles imaginable and also got jumbotron images filling the entire screen of the wrong player that was being introduced.

Needless to say Saturday night was painful on all accounts. Despite it all, thanks to Tampa Bay failing against the San Diego Chargers (at home no less), the Cowboys' playoff hopes are still not only alive, but once again control of their playoff destiny is in their hands again. A win in Philly will send the Cowboys to the playoffs -- no more, no less.

However, despite such wonderful news, I can't help but be incredibly pessimistic about our playoff chances based on the Cowboys usual December Swoon. The NFL network managed to actually mention something useful last night, and that was that the Cowboys have the worst post-November record in the past few years since the Saint's of the 70s, whom, to put it bluntly, were just God awful. That is just horrid.

Nothing went right Saturday. Sure, certain individual pieces came together at different parts of the game, but as far as being able to put it all together, the Cowboys failed on all accounts. At the start of the game, Tony Romo throws a horrible lame-duck interception that would even make Brett Farve as Romo what in the hell was he thinking. Following that though, the defense (read: Demarcus Ware) bails him out, sacking Falco and recovering a fumble right by the endzone.

Then with solid defensive play for the reaminder of the half, the offense continued to sputter. Romo threw another awful INT, T.O. couldn't figure out where the ball was on another pass (and it ended up landing right in front of him), Romo missed a streaking and wide open Miles Austin on a pass that was easily a TD, and the O-Line couldn't buy any time for Romo in the pocket.

To compound issues, things just started getting beyond goofy. The defense forces a fumble, recovers it, and litterally hands the ball back off to Baltimore during the recovery. Then you have Baltimore easily fake a field goal soon after because the Cowboys load up one side of the line to block the kick which lead to a TD.

In the 4th quarter, the offense finally wakes up starts a comeback. Romo finally hits a big pass to Witten (finally) and later throws a TD pass to T.O. to bring the score to 19-17 with over three minutes left. Then the defense falls apart, failing to get the 3 and out and instead gives up the aforementioned 77 yard TD run immediately (and that was after the Ravens fumbled the kickoff return and Dallas failed to recover). Witten comes up big again with a nice TD catch, but again, the defense fails to hold the Ravens and again immediately give up a 85 yard TD run.

Words don't even do it justice, you can watch the awe-inspiring "highlights" for yourself if you missed it.

It just leads me to wonder just how a team can allow this to happen, and to do this no less with your playoff lives on the line. Our "high-powered" offense has just been horrible as of late. A line that was once called the best in the league was letting their QB get hit right and left and even, at one point, let him take a shot on a two man rush. Romo has been horribly inaccurate as well. If he connects earlier in the game, the Ravens aren't even in this game to begin with. I can't even begin to explain how our defense folds at literally the most important moment of the season as well, not once, but twice when all the Ravens are trying to do is get a first down.

There is no leadership on this team either. The only sliver that I saw was Roy Williams catching a simple 10 yard route for a first down and immediately getting up and trying to pump up the sidelines. When was the last time any player did that? Romo just trots to the sideline and says nothing. Witten is silent as well -- which I wish he wasn't, he is playing so banged up it boggles my mind how his teammates can't rally around his performance. T.O. is the only one that will yell on the sidelines, but most often that is because he doesn't feel he is getting enough passes his way.

What we have instead is a lot of individual talent just goes about their own personal business and checking their own stat sheet. There isn't anyone rallying the team together at all. It sure isn't coming from the head coach either, as he just stands there dumbfounded during the game and then makes every excuse in the book for his players come press conference time. Anyone that could be considered a potential leader on the team is far to silent to be the vocal kick in the ass that the team needs (people like Ware and Witten come to mind).

No instead we have a bunch of great individual talent that every now and then will go to the Pro Bowl (and we have one "Pro Bowl" center that can't even figure out when to snap the ball at the right time). Come crunch time this team eventually folds. They didn't rally together when Romo went down; instead, we finally had T.O. do an interview to complain that he wasn't being used well enough even though our O-Line was allowing our statue of a backup QB get throttled. Even with Romo playing hurt, there is no urgency in the O-Line to do whatever it takes to protect him. I really wish I could find a video of that two man rush in which 3 linemen just stand there as Romo takes a hit.

There is no discipline either. Flozell Adams simply can't go a game without having a false start penalty. We take a stupid late hit penalty. We have a delay of game during in hurry-up mode. Romo has been throwing the ball up for grabs far too often. And the list goes on and on and on.

Now you are left with a team hoping they can pull it together just one more time to sneak into the playoffs. Wade Phillips might not be worried about his job security, but I can assure you Jerry Jones will go with his "get butts in the seats" and/or "we should be winning a Super Bowl" mentality for his new stadium and fire him if he fails to get in the playoffs (and I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't extend to a playoff win).

Even if the Cowboys manage to win this Sunday, just how far is this "team" going in a playoff run? Unless everyone happens to have a good game, everyone is healthy, the wind is blowing from the East, and it is a full moon, this team just can't pull it together, especially late in the season. If they are hoping to make any kind of serious push, it is time to check the egos/superstar girlfriends/stats at the door and start playing like a team. They did it against the Giants and look what happened. If they don't do it again, they are simply destined for mediocrity and yet another fired head coach.

It Was Only a Matter of Time

Enjoy:



T-minus one week until the Hawaii Bowl. Go Irish.

Oh Charles

I haven't said anything about the Auburn hire over the weekend. Mostly it is because I didn't even know where to start with the dumbfounding thought that a 5-19 Iowa State head coach is the needed "improvement". Like I said before when Tuberville was canned (and also when Weis was on the border of it) that I just couldn't figure out who in the world you could get that was better.

Now I know Buffalo's Turner Gill was interviewed for the job and actually, I don't think he would've been a bad hire considering what is out there. Taking Buffalo from laughing stock of the NCAA to MAC champs isn't anything to thumb your nose at. Yes it is the MAC and not the SEC, so it is hard to say if that translation will carry over. At least when Urban Meyer made the non-BCS conference to BCS conference jump, he proved he can coach, and most importantly win against BCS level talent. So I can see how Auburn might be nervous to pull the trigger there.

However, not pulling the trigger and bringing back a losing head coach whom's claim to fame is that he is a good defensive coordinator at good programs is just laughable. Even if you didn't think Gill was the right fit, there had to have been someone else more qualified.

But hey, at least Sir Charles Barkley can give us the real reason:

"I think race was the No. 1 factor," said Barkley, who played basketball for three seasons at Auburn during the early 1980s. "You can say it's not about race, but you can't compare the two resumes and say [Chizik] deserved the job. Out of all the coaches they interviewed, Chizik probably had the worst resume."

Gill, a former Nebraska quarterback, took over one of the country's worst programs at Buffalo three years ago. He guided the Bulls to an 8-5 record and their first MAC championship this season, upsetting previously unbeaten Ball State 42-24 in the Dec. 5 conference championship game.

The Bulls won 10 games in their first seven seasons at the Division I-A level. Gill guided Buffalo to 13 victories during the last two seasons combined.

"I'm just very disappointed," Barkley said. "I just thought Turner Gill would be the perfect choice for two reasons: He's a terrific coach and we needed to make a splash. I thought we had to do something spectacular to bring attention to the program. Clearly, if we'd hired a black coach, it would have created a buzz."

...

"My biggest problem with the black coaches is they're not getting jobs and they're getting [expletive] jobs when they are hired," Barkley said. "They're not getting good jobs. They're not getting jobs where they can be successful. That's why I wanted Turner to get the Auburn job. He could win consistently at Auburn. You can't win consistently at New Mexico. You can't win consistently at Kansas State. He could have won at Auburn."

Only Barkley could take a good point (the two coaches resumes) and completely make it worthless by trying to drive the race card through everyone's heads. Gotta love it.

Ridiculous hack-sportscaster comments aside, I have a feeling Auburn is about to be in for a very rude awakening in the next couple of years.

ND Gets Lei'd

I know I'm slightly late on the news, but regardless it seems the reward for a 6-6 season will be a trip to paradise:

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - For just the second time in school history, Notre Dame will be playing a bowl game in Hawai'i.

The Fighting Irish (6-6) will face Hawai'i (7-6) in the seventh annual Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl on Dec. 24, the NCAA announced Sunday evening.

"We're very excited about heading out west to play in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl," head coach Charlie Weis said. "This is a great opportunity for our team to face a quality opponent in their backyard and we'll need to be ready.

"I know the extra practices this month will really benefit our team and we look forward to ending this season on a good note."

This will be the fourth trip to Hawai'i in the football program's history. The Irish lost to SMU in the 1984 Aloha Bowl, 27-20, and played at Hawai'i in the regular season finales in 1991 and 1997. Notre Dame won both previous meetings with the Warriors, 48-42 in 1991 and 23-22 in 1997.

Site of the game is 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawai'i. ESPN will nationally televise the game at 8:00 p.m. EST (3:00 p.m. HST in Honolulu).

Notre Dame will be making its 29th bowl appearance overall and its fourth in the past five seasons. The Irish played in the 2007 Allstate Sugar Bowl, the 2006 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and the 2004 Insight Bowl. Notre Dame is 13-15 in postseason play.

Hawai'i will be making its ninth bowl appearance since becoming a Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I) member in 1974. The Warriors are 5-3 all-time in bowl games and have received seven bowl berths in the last 10 years. Hawai'i played in last year's Sugar Bowl and has also played in the Aloha Bowl (1989), Holiday Bowl (1992), O'ahu Bowl (1999) and the Hawai'i Bowl (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006). The Warriors are 3-1 in previous Hawai'i Bowls, losing in 2002 (36-28 to Tulane) but winning the last three (54-48 in three overtimes vs. Houston in 2003, 59-40 vs. UAB in 2004, and 41-24 vs. Arizona State in 2006).

I must say that I am insanely jealous of all the current managers that will get to work this game (and even to those that just get the free ticket). For me (and I have a feeling a lot of Irish fans) will be making plans to watch this in front of a TV and hoping Santa brings me the end of the Irish bowl losing streak.

Go Irish. Beat Warriors. End the streak.

Sun Sets on Irish; More on Tuberville "Resignation"

Words I'd never thought I'd say this football season: "Well there goes the Sun Bowl."

Rutgers curb-stomped Louisville as expected so now the Irish will for sure not be traveling to El Paso for their bowl game. As discussed yesterday, the Irish have been predicted to be in a few different bowls including the Texas Bowl vs Rice (one I've seen most reported), Hawaii Bowl vs Hawaii, Poinsettia Bowl vs BYU, and today I have seen a report that the Irish could end up in the Motor City Bowl vs Ball State.

Also in that linked article is another interesting fact: Weis will address the media tonight before the football banquet. It'll be interesting to hear what he has to say about everything that has gone on and if he'll announce any of the "changes to the program" that Swarbrick referred to.

Moving to Auburn football, the Tommy Tuberville drama writes its next chapter:

Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville's job was not in jeopardy when he decided to step down and he declined several requests from his bosses to reconsider, athletic director Jay Jacobs said Thursday.

Jacobs said Tuberville's departure after 10 mostly successful seasons was "completely his decision" and that the coach would be leading the Tigers next season if he had not chosen to leave.

"To say the least, I was a little shocked," the AD said. "But after three times of asking him would he change his mind, he convinced me that the best thing for him and his family and for this football program was for him to possibly take a year off and take a step back.

"I asked him three times [to reconsider], and so did the president," he said.

A person familiar with the situation told ESPN's Joe Schad that Tuberville believed he did not have the support of certain members of the Auburn board of trustees -- and therefore the full support of the Auburn administration.

Jacobs said he and the president agreed to pay Tuberville the buyout price of $5.1 million -- even though it was not required since he wasn't fired -- because they felt it was "the right thing to do."

Just when I thought the whole situation couldn't get any more laughable, Auburn just took a direct turn into stupid with this spin. Look, lying about Tuberville resigning is one thing, but trying to convince us Auburn is going to pay Tuberville $5.1 million out of the kindness of their hearts is just laughable. Furthermore, if Tuberville really stepped down because it would be best for the program, in turn he should have refused the buyout so the University could save their money for the next coach.

Also, let's not forget this is the same guy that no more than a week ago was completely confident he was the guy for Auburn:

Tuberville then hit the road for recruiting and said he didn't know when he would meet with University President Jay Gogue and athletic director Jay Jacobs on his job status.

"I've got a contract here. I'm working," Tuberville said. "There's no doubt that we can get this thing turned back around. I didn't turn into a bad coach overnight. I know this program better than anybody.

"I know what it takes. I know the type of people that you can get to come in. I know our strengths and weaknesses. And I'm fully committed to doing it. I'm going out and selling that."

Going from that and then saying "I quit" in less than a week makes zero sense. The fact that Tuberville hasn't said a word about his resignation himself doesn't make this whole situation anymore believable.

This seems all way to fimilar as to what ND did to Lou when he "resigned".

Holy Crap I Agree with Forde

Hell must be getting the same cold front that is in Texas right now.

I don't hate Forde at all. In fact, I read his "Forde Yard Dash" rather regularly for some laughs. However, when he talks ND football I just tend to want to smack him in the mouth and I'm sure most ND fans are on board with that.

However, a true gem came to light when he gave out his Dashie Awards:

Nastiest Fans -- USC's, last Saturday for the Notre Dame game. There were churlish drivers by the dozens en route to the stadium. There was the surly elevator operator who tried to tell a woman (Irish fan) escorting her son in a wheelchair that she had to leave her two young daughters behind to wait for the next elevator. And there were the fans spewing penitentiary-worthy profanity at the Notre Dame players and coaches as they exited the field. That "SC" stands for Stay Classy, Trojans fans.

I'm sure the "Stay Classy" theme should also extend to LenDale White's wonderful cameo on the sidelines last week, looking into the camera saying "Notre Dame sucks! Yeah, I said it!" ...just a shame we don't have a comeback right now on the field.

Anyways, enjoy your Doucebags of the Year Award, USC. Fight on. You've earned it.

**Back to the Channel 4 News Room, Teleprompter Rolls**



Veronica Corningstone: Thanks for the report. For the entire Channel 4 News team, I'm Veronica Corningstone.






Ron Burgandy: And I'm Ron Burgandy. Go fuck yourself, Southern Cal.

Auburn Fires Up the BS Machine

So, it seems that Tuberville "resigned" and wasn't fired. Right...

At least I'm not the only one that thinks this makes zero sense:

Sure, Tuberville doomed this season to mediocrity the minute he hired that offensive coordinator, the high school guru who promised to install the spread offense. Turns out that knowledge-wise, the guy had outkicked his coverage. Tuberville fired him a month into the season, admitted his mistake, and tried to minimize the damage. He didn't pawn off the responsibility on anyone else. He took the blame and promised to fix the problem.

Yeah, those boosters, the ones who embarrassed you over Petrino, are still unhappy, but you're Auburn. You're bigger than that. No coach is going to win in the SEC every season. Tuberville has delivered for you for 10 years. Surely that engenders some loyalty from you to him.

Besides, you signed a contract that promised him $6 million if you let him go after the 2008 season. In these economic times, with people everywhere trying to hold on to their jobs and their mortgages, you surely aren't stupid enough to spend $6 million paying a guy not to coach. No one could be that insensitive to the message that would send. Talk about misplaced priorities.

What's that?

You let him go?

You're going to pay him $6 million not to coach?

And start over from scratch? Against Nick Saban?

You're kidding, right? Is there something about Tommy Tuberville that causes you to make agonizingly stupid decisions?

Forget I ever brought it up. Good luck finding a coach better than the one you just forced out.

And people say ND fans have unrealistic expectations...

I can't even see how anyone even tries to justify this move. Although I've seen some "knowledgeable" Auburn fans try.

"His recruiting is slipping." Really? Ok, so maybe he doesn't have a blue chip QB in the program right now, but Auburn did have the #5 class for next season before they let Tuberville go, and today it has dropped to #12. Have fun watching that continue to drop as I'm sure this move loses more recruits. Oh and by the way, previous recruiting rankings (Scouts.com only goes back to the class of 2002, which would be the 2001 season's recruiting):

2002: 11
2003: 16
2004: 31
2005: 22
2006: T-9
2007: 6
2008: 18

People are seriously going to bitch about recruiting? There is only one class in there outside the top 25 (oh and that was for the year Auburn was trying to give Tuberville the boot for the first time -- SHOCKING the recruiting suffered then) and two in the top ten. Just wow.

"7-9 in the SEC the last two seasons." Numbers are fun. Yeah let's lump in the bad season with this year from the 2nd place finish Auburn had in the SEC West last season. No seriously, it makes perfect sense and I'm not being sarcastic. No not at all.

What a joke. So Auburn, 5-3 in the SEC last year was inexcusable right? Losses that year by the way were to Mississippi State, @ then #4 LSU (oh look the champs for that season), and @ then #10 Georiga. The only "bad" loss there is Mississippi State, but then Auburn bounced back and upset a then #4 Florida team in the Swamp.

"14-11 overall last two seasons." Yay more fun with numbers. See there is this thing in statistics, in which if you see a major deviation from the mean you tend to toss out the result. This last season was Tommy's worst since his first season in 1999. Completely forget that from 2000-2007 he went 75-27 (48-18 SEC). Yep those eight seasons shouldn't buy him any loyalty at all. Hang him after the first bad one right?

"36-0 loss to Alabama this year." I absolutely cannot believe this is a reason. Auburn had the #1 team in the nation kick you while you were down this year. Like no one saw that coming. Welcome to reality (and one that ND fans have been living for a while). I also love how quickly everyone at Auburn seem to forget Tuberville went 7-3 against Alabama and you just ended an amazing 6 year winning streak on the Tide. In case anyone is having trouble reading in between the lines, that means you just forced one of the most successful Iron Bowl coaches in your school's history.

If anyone at Auburn seriously believes that starting from scratch is going to magically make Auburn beat a now fine-tuned Nick Saban machine in Alabama, I need to know what you are smoking. Good luck with that mess.

I have no idea who Auburn will hire. There seems to be this thought that Mike Leech will be coming and I don't know why. I have a feeling that if Texas Tech will actually finish a contract negotiation, he will stay in Lubbock. Even if he goes to Auburn, where is your QB to run his offense? Hell, I'll be surprised if that offense even works against the tougher SEC defenses. Not to mention, Leech isn't exactly a defensive guru. Auburn fans did watch the OU/Tech game right?

This just blows my mind. Can I move that Auburn's boosters, administration and AD are now more insane than ND could ever dream of being?

Tommy Tuberville Fired

So why am I posting about Auburn football? Well, my sister attends Auburn, so I have indeed become a fan of the team (as long as they don't play the Irish).

Anyways, it seems that Tommy Tuberville's 10 year tenure at Auburn is done.

I must say I am SHOCKED.

In his 10 years he led the Tigers to a 85-40 (52-30 in the SEC) record, won the SEC West 5 times, won the SEC Conference once, got hosed out of a national title in 2004 (Tigers went 13-0 winning the Sugar Bowl), a 7-3 record against rival Alabama (with a 6 game winning streak in there), had Auburn ranked in the top 25 6 seasons, was in the top 10 twice, and has a bowl record of 5-3 with a BCS win.

His sin? This last season going 5-7 (2-6) and snapping his 6 game win streak against Alabama, losing 38-0, which was his worst season since his first in 1999 going 5-6 (2-6). He attempted to start the season by moving to a spread option offense with a first year starting QB, Kodi Burns whom was quickly replaced by ex-Texas Tech Raider (and another first year starter) Chris Todd (sound familiar ND fans?), and abandoned that offensive plan firing his OC early in the season. Todd was later replaced by Kodi yet again and Auburn continued to see their offense struggle and their defense soon followed.

This is why I am against knee-jerk reactions to coach firings. In my opinion, Auburn has just highly hosed themselves and like I said about ND, I have no idea who in the hell they will replace him with. Auburn has one big problem and that is the lack of a solid QB. You don't fire the coach because of that. Especially one that consistantly beats your biggest rival year in and year out, plus has you at the top of your conference pretty much every year.

Just unreal...

Had ND not given Weis the vote of confidence, I'd be all for giving Tuberville a good look. As I said earlier, I hope Swarbrick does indeed talk to possible candidates as a contingency plan and if Tuberville is still jobless in 2009, as an Irish fan, I definitely want him to be getting a call to gauge his interest if the ND job happened to open up.

Random Addendum: Holy crap today was a busy day for college football news...three posts in one day by me...yeesh. Don't expect this kind of activity too often.

Let's Go Bowling Part Deux

Quick hit post as it seems tonight will help in determining where the Irish end up in the bowls. I stated previously that the Sun Bowl would be the likely destination for a 6-6 Irish. Well, it seems there are some goofy bowl rules that don't allow bowls with conference tie-ins take a 6-6 at large team if there is a conference team that has seven wins. If my explanation makes your head spin, maybe this will help.

In short, if Louisville beats Rutgers, the Irish could be Sun Bowl bound. If not, these are the other bowls we have been projected for:

Texas Bowl (Houston) vs. Rice
Hawaii Bowl vs. Hawaii
Poinsetta Bowl vs. BYU

It's Official: Weis Will Be Back

I wanted to hold off making a post until I actually saw the official news and it came down this morning.

Needless to say, I agree with the decision, and I have definitely made my thoughts well known on the matter. For next year, this is easily the best decision for ND football. While I do hope we have a great turnaround next year so we can all laugh that we had this moment of panic, I am quite realistic on the situation. Swarbrick must test the waters of other potential candidates during the offseason and through the 2009 season in my opinion. When we fired Ty, our plan was get Urban Meyer and when that we really didn't have a plan B. We should never find ourselves in that situation again.

I do honestly believe we wouldn't be able to find a better coach to fill Weis' shoes right now than Darth Sweathshirt himself. Believe me, I'm as outraged as anyone else with the last two years, but I don't think we would've made ourselves any better by firing Weis out of pure rage and then bringing in yet another mediocre coach.

Of course now, ESPN and anyone wanting to trash Notre Dame will likely be playing the race card very heavily. As sad as that old argument is, I'm going to hate hearing it no matter how off base it is. So brace yourself you know it is coming. My major counterpoints to the BS:

1. Look at his Washington tenure
2. Still cares more about his golf game (see point #1, pulled the same crap there)
3. He refuses to take responsibility for any mistakes (aka he's quite classless)

I seriously feel bad for anyone that tries to paint the ND/Ty situation as an example for unequal opprotunities within NCAA for minority head football coaches. He is a horrible example to hang that hat on.

Anyways, on the bright side, this will very likely ensure we retain our current verbal commits and lead us into yet another top ten recruiting class without a doubt. At the very least, Weis will have done one thing and that is stock us full of talented players, and that bodes well for anyone that is walking the ND sidelines in the near future.

It is time to move forward in any case. Personally, I feel like the song and dance Swarbrick put on went on for far too long. For now, I am hoping Weis can start the 2009 campaign on the right foot and end the bowl losing streak. I don't care who it is against, it needs to end, and it needs to end this year. Quite frankly, in terms of "Are we improving?" -- that question will continued to be answered in this year's bowl performance.

EDIT: Chin up, have some laughs.

6-6: Now What?

Watching in horror, I sat in front of the TV absolutely numb to yet another USC drumming of ND, seeing the all too familiar number 38 next to our opponents name (hey, at least we got 3 this time right?). As the game progressed, I knew what would be coming. There would be no good news for the next couple of weeks concerning ND football.

Pick your media poison -- they are all saying singing a similar chorus. How much is it going to cost ND to buy out Weis' contract? Will Weis be fired? Will Weis step down? Why hasn't Weis been fired yet?

It has been a whirlwind of despair to say the least. Knowing that your current head coach now holds a worse winning percentage than both Davie and Willingham isn't exactly the most encouraging stat in the world. Seeing ND get beaten for the seventh straight time against USC doesn't help. Finishing 6-6 against a weak schedule is depressing.

So now what?

Weis won't be having any type of meeting with AD Jack Swarbrick until next Monday and about the same time, we will find out our bowl fate as well. In the meantime, Weis is out recruiting in the West and Swarbrick will no doubt have every pissed off alum/administration member/donor/fan screaming in his ear to fire him.

Swarbrick, must to the anger of some it seems, has been standing fast on his stance that he will review the entire year and make the best decision for the program. It seems everyone is ready to say that the "best decision" is obviously to fire Weis. Folks on the fire Weis bandwagon also seem to not be too fond of hearing our AD mention things like GPA and graduation rates in Weis' review. I've seen more than one post in regards to this topic saying ND clearly doesn't have its priorities straight and should be focus far more on football than academic standards.

In my opinion we are currently at a very defining moment for ND football. Swarbrick, in his first year, has quite a large decision (no pun intended) in front of him. This decision isn't just simply, fire a coach, get another and move on. ND for the most part used to have either one of two things happen: the coach would have a long tenure and retire (Ara, Leahy), or retire/resign on their own (Devine, Faust).

Not since the departure of Leahy has ND seen the program get hit so hard. Even then, only one of those coaches was actually fired by ND (Terry Brennan). Joe Kuharich resigned following Brennan, and frighteningly enough, there are some scary parallels:

[Kuharich] took the head coaching position at the University of Notre Dame in 1959, realizing a longtime ambition to return to his alma mater. He had earlier been courted by Notre Dame after the 1956 season, after the Irish finished 2-8, but before he had a chance to accept an offer, Terry Brennan was given a reprieve. He brought a professional touch to Irish football, putting shamrocks on the players' helmets and shoulder stripes on their jerseys. Kuharich compiled a 17-23 record over four non-winning seasons and remains to this day the only coach ever to have an overall losing record at Notre Dame. Included was a school-record eight-game losing streak in 1960, a year in which the Irish would finish 2-8. It was one of the worst stretches in Notre Dame football history. The consensus opinion was that Kuharich never made the adjustment from pro football to college football, attempting to use complicated pro coaching techniques with collegiate players, and never adapted to the limited substitution rules in effect at the time, having big, immobile linemen playing both ways in an era where smaller, quicker players were preferred. He often said, "You win some and you lose some," and seemed perfectly content finishing 5-5 every year. This did not sit well with the Irish faithful, who expected Notre Dame to beat everybody. The team played listlessly, showing no emotion. When the pressure of winning became too much to bear, Kuharich resigned in the spring of 1963 and assumed the post of supervisor of NFL officials. Because it was so late in the spring, Hugh Devore was named interim head coach while the search for a permanent replacement was being conducted. Little did Joe know at the time that the players he had recruited would come to within 93 seconds of an undefeated season and a national championship in 1964 under first-year coach Ara Parseghian.

Now, a couple things that I want to point out here. Yes, we have some scary parallels with what is going on now. And most of the complaints in the wiki article (which from the tone, sounds like it was written by a pissed off Irish fan), seem to be the only echos that we have been able to wake up the past couple of years. However, I want to point out two very, very critical points.

1. ND Football has been bad, dreadful, God-awful, etc. before. This line of thinking that somehow the almighty program of ND doesn't hit a rough spot somewhere along the line is completely out of place.
2. Read the last bold excerpt. Ara nearly won a national title with the same players one of the worst coaches in ND history put together. I do wonder what would have happened had Kuharich coached another year (before anyone thinks I'm about to bash Ara, back off, I'm not, keep reading). Perhaps the results wouldn't have been as good as Ara, but then again, what would the results have been if Ara wasn't...well Ara.

And this comes back to my main point in my last post. I flat out don't see another Ara-like coach out there right now that isn't already employed. Weis is still putting together top-flight classes and laying down (and more importantly repairing) the foundation for ND football talent-wise. We are still a very young team for the most part and young teams don't just figure it out automatically. Of course, that leads to the argument of Weis just can't get production of the team and someone else can do better. Well oddly enough, let's follow the Kuharich/Ara senario:

After an undisclosed initial disagreement, Parseghian was hired as Notre Dame's 22nd head coach, inheriting a team that had finished 2-7 in 1963 and taking it to within 1:33 of an undefeated season and a national championship in 1964.

Ara's superior organizational skills had a lot to do with this rapid turnaround as well as his ability to put the right players in the right positions. He discovered underutilized talent in quarterback John Huarte and end Jack Snow. These two players went on to set numerous school passing and receiving records and Huarte wound up as the 1964 Heisman Trophy winner, the first non-monogram winner ever to do so.

2005 ringing any bells? Underutilized talent (Jeff Samardzija) and being able to put people in the right places (his play schemes, leading to Quinn exploding). Hell, you could even say Weis nearly made a run at a title (OT loss to Michigan State, "Bush Push" loss to USC).

Weis is still, believe it or not, placing people in the right spots. Golden Tate was converted from RB to a huge WR threat. Michael Floyd starts over Harold Kamara and David Grimes as a freshman (and you can't tell me not having him hasn't killed the offense lately). On the defensive side of the ball Robert Blanton has made a huge impact as a freshmen CB. Pat Kuntz went from being called a horrible fit for a 3-4 defense to an amazing NT. Hell, even walk-on Mike Anello turned into a special teams phenom for ND. You can't tell me that Weis hasn't been squeezing out as much talent as he can from his young squad.

If we really want to take a real long, hard look at what is wrong with the team, does it completely fall on Weis? As I look at ND right now, the two biggest problems performance-wise that I see are the O-Line and Clausen's regression.

Weis was able to scheme around O-Line problems in 2005 and 2006 by running a ton of screens, look routes and draw plays. Needless to say, other defenses have caught on. The problem is though, we can't just switch to running the ball down people's throats when we can't block. I've been critical of certain play calls seeming "too cute" on things like 3rd and 1, but you know what...can you look at our O-Line and say for certain "Oh yeah, they'll get that yard." It is hard to follow the K.I.S.S. principle here when your team can't perform the simple. So what happens next? You try to out-scheme and out-think easy situations to try to actually succeed.

So what does Weis need to do to remedy O-Line woes? Well, he sure as hell doesn't know the precise fundamentals of blocking in my opinion, but guess what, he doesn't teach them. The O-Line coach does. Clearly, Coach Latina has not been performing up to par. In Weis' current recruiting run, I sure hope he is able to give Swarbrick name of a damn good O-Line coach as a part of his job defense. We clearly need it. I don't care who the head coach is at ND -- if the O-Line can't do it's job, we will forever be one dimensional and continue to be a mediocre football team.

So now, what about Clausen, isn't Weis supposed to be the QB guru? Well, what if Clausen simply just isn't the "guy" for ND. He wouldn't be the first highly recruited QB to be a bust/mediocre player (see: his brothers). Now, I have no doubt he was the best choice to start this season, and remember, things didn't exactly "click" for Quinn until his junior year.

At the very least, Weis made (in my opinion) a very wise move to resist the temptation of burning Dayne Crist's red shirt year and throwing him into the fire. Best case scenario, Clausen goes through another bowl game and spring ball as well as fall camp with Crist competing for his job and comes out as the QB we all expected him to be. Worst case scenario, we find out Crist is the better player and he has four full years to work with.

There is no doubt in my mind if those two parts improve, this team comes out firing on all cylinders. The defense will improve not just from more experience, more talent and time with our new blitz-happy style, but also spending less time on the damned field. Improvement from the O-Line will make people at the very least respect our running game (and take a look a this year's games...when we ran well, we dominated) which will open up the passing game and take the pressure off of whoever our QB is. Let's be honest, how badly to you think defenses are really biting on play action passes when they know the D-Line is already in the backfield?

Is this all an entirely over-optimistic view of our current situation? Probably. Do I think I am too far off base in this analysis? Not really.

The fact of the matter is that Weis has indeed built a solid talent pool. Next year will be the first time in quite a while that we can look at the roster and see four consecutive top ten recruiting classes. And better yet, the transfers that most programs suffer from in getting such classes, doesn't really seem to be affecting us. Clearly, the players and current recruits still believe in Weis despite the troubles we've had.

Whether or not fans don't like to hear it, Weis has gotten the football team to have a 3.0+ GPA during his tenure and continued to hold a graduation rate above 95%. I don't know about everyone else, but I would prefer to not be like most of the other top-flight programs that can't graduate their players (and minority athletes, I'm looking at you Michigan). We seem to love to use this argument before on how we are "doing it right" and hearing that some people want to kick this to the curb is beyond me.

I've finally come to grips with the fact that ND currently is *gasp* rebuilding. This might be a dirty word for some ND fans, but is there any doubt that is what has been going on the past two years? Not everyone has an Alabama-like resurgence. Does anyone reading this think Michigan is going to recover from 3-9 to BCS/NC contender in one year? I sure don't (and they are losing players on top of that). I know people aren't happy with saying going 6-6 from 3-9 is improvement. I'm not either. However, if Clausen happens to hit a wide open receiver against Pitt and ND doesn't blow a lead against Syracuse, we are all of a sudden 8-4 and I have a feeling I don't even have to be writing this post.

There are so many variables going into next season that I believe it is impossible to say that firing Weis is going to be the cure-all for this situation. Make no mistake, I still believe this team underperformed and you do have to place some of the blame on Weis. And, should Weis keep his job, I fully expect nothing less than a 9 win season and winning a bowl game of worth -- actually, I would expect this with any coach next season with our talent and schedule.

We don't need to put another quarter in the coaching carousel this year. We don't need to be like every other program in the nation that freaks out after a couple of bad seasons. Davie got 5 seasons with a similar winning percentage, and before anyone says "Well Ty got 3 with a similar record!", I'm sick of hearing it. If there is any doubt that Ty can't cut it, I direct you to look at Washington and ask their fans how they feel about his abilities coaching and recruiting. We shouldn't be handcuffed by that decision. Given Weis' performance with recruiting and his seasons, I don't see why ND shouldn't at least give him the same time as Davie.

Since people love to toss out the winning percentages and such as arguments to fire Weis, I want to leave you with some numbers. Everyone seems to be comfortable saying that 2007 was more the result of Ty leaving us in a recruiting hole, so taking that 3-9 season away from Weis you get:

Bob Davie: 35-25, .583 win percentage
Ty Willingham: 21-15, .583 win percentage
Charlie Weis: 25-12, .675 win percentage

And just to play fair, taking the worst season away from all coaches:

Bob Davie: 30-18, .625 win percentage
Ty Willingham: 16-8, .667 win percentage
Charlie Weis: 25-12, .675 win percentage

Food for thought.

Orange Crush

Saturday I felt like I was in the middle of a dream. Syracuse 24 - ND 23. The Irish lose on Senior Day -- the one game on the schedule in which we beat the ever living hell out of the opposition and have every non-starting senior get their moment in the sun at Notre Dame Stadium. Instead, we had this:

Inexcusable. In a game that should have been nothing more than a glorified scrimmage and a celebration of seniors, we instead have senior David Bruton in tears over one of the worst losses in ND history.

As if the loss wasn't bad enough, Yahoo! Sports decides to write a nice hack article and spin it so that it appears as if the student section was so pissed off by the loss, they threw snowballs at their own team. I won't spend anymore time on that BS than this: If you qualify drunk college students throwing snowballs around in the first quarter as "pelting" their own team, you have lost your mind. Granted it shouldn't have been happening in any fashion, but there is no reason to spin the article in such a ridiculous fashion.

I am angry, furious, and completely pissed off. I've detailed before our issues and problems and the positives this season has shown us. I have also detailed my opinion on the current differences between Ty and Weis. However, despite any credit I have tried to give Weis and believing that this is just a young team, we found ourselves on the losing end of a Syracuse game in which we blew a 4th quarter lead and used all of our timeouts well before Syracuse's eventual game-winning drive.

Absolutely embarrassing.

Weis is now firmly planted on the hot seat. Past failures that were shaken off as building the program up are now huge glaring errors. His signature game is a loss to USC. His biggest win was against an overrated Michigan at the Big House in 2005. And in that time, he is 0-3 (and likely soon to be 0-4) against USC, had Michigan State plant their flag in our field, lost to Navy, lost to Air Force, and had the worst season in ND history at 3-9.

John Walters at NBC sports summed it up perfectly:

And, as Notre Dame heads out to USC for a game that will truly test its character next week, I leave you with these numbers:

Bob Davie, five seasons, 35-25 record.

Tyrone Willingham, three seasons, 21-15.

Charlie Weis, just under four seasons, 28-20.

What do each of the last three Notre Dame coaches have in common? As of today, the same exact winning percentage at Notre Dame: .583.

Simply unbelievable. We are now looking at the very real possibility of Weis being fired in the near future. And with USC currently being favored at 28.5 points at the writing of this article, we are starring a 6-6 regular season dead in the face. If all hell really breaks loose, we could also be looking at a Sun Bowl loss and ending the season with a 6-7 losing record and the bowl loss streak extended yet another year (hell we might not even make a bowl). Who would've thought things would be going this way after we started 4-1?

Ever since the Pitt loss, ND has looked to be in shambles. The fact though is that the problems that were being overshadowed are just now coming to light and everyone we played has figured it out. Our O-Line is still God awful. We can't get a rushing game going to save our lives. So now we pin all of our hopes on a sophomore QB to carry our offense -- oh and with that same horrid O-Line blocking for him and trying to give him "time" to pass. There is no doubt in my mind Clausen still doesn't completely have it figured out. He throws a pretty long ball, but if we need to throw that 10-15 yard route, he tries to throw it through the receiver's chest every time which more often results in inaccurate passes that our WR never have a prayer of making a play on. You flat out can't win like that.

Our offense was so bad against Syracuse that we managed to turn a blocked punt and what should have been an easy score into an eventual 3rd and 40 and then punt the ball right back. Syracuse wasn't in a position to ever win that game, but we sure as hell found every damned way to ensure that they stayed in it instead of being able to stomp on their throats and come out with an easy win.

This team isn't motivated to play. We can't seem to get it through the team's skulls that every other team we face is just ready to pounce on Notre Dame and beat us rival or not. Why? Because we are Notre Dame and if you don't love us, you hate us and you want that win -- you want to be the team to further shove ND into the ground.

What happened to that nasty football team mentality? What happened to proving the rest of the nation that WE ARE ND damnit? Where is the chip on our shoulder? What happened to proving everyone wrong and making Lee Corso and Mark May eat their words Sunday morning? And as Rakes of Mallow pointed out, what the hell happened to this:

"You are what you are, folks, and right now you're a 6-5 football team. And guess what, that's just not good enough. That's not good enough for you, and it's certainly not going to be good enough for me. So, if you think they hired me here to go .500, you've got the wrong guy." - Charlie Weis

I hope to hell that one of the reporters brings this quote up at his next press conference.

Just because we went 3-9 last year does NOT mean a current 6-5 record is anywhere near good enough. Why isn't Charlie coming out and saying this and making his team believe this?

Has Weis underperformed? Yes. Are the past two years fireable offenses for a ND coach? Yes. Will he be fired? No. Should he be fired? No.

Yes, you read that right. Despite the fact that I think Weis has completely failed the team the past two years, I can't see a good reason to fire him. This isn't another cry of "give him another year" and "things will get better just wait." We are more in a situation of "who in God's name would we hire in his place?" and "will we lose some of our top recruits in doing so?"

The fact of the matter is that there is no "Urban Meyer" on the scene to prompt a quick firing. There are openings at far too many programs right now and there are also come high profile jobs in the mix too. Tennessee is now looking for someone to rebuild their program much like ND for instance. Staying in the SEC, Auburn's head coach, Tommy Tubberville, has met with his AD and been told that he will be evaluated after the Alabama game. I don't know about you, but I read that as: "Beat Bama or Get Fired". I have a feeling that any top flight coach would rather take stabs at schools like that than to be yet another coach to fail at ND.

Firing Weis and then hiring yet another sub-par coach isn't the answer. We will cycle back to the Daviham era all over again if we scramble for a last minute coaching replacement. Right now, ND needs to start looking for possible replacements. Test out the waters, and find out who is interested, and most importantly, find a proven head coach. The time for experiments is over, ND isn't the place for on the job training. If you haven't proven yourself as a head coach, apply elsewhere.

Weis isn't dumb, he knows he is one solid head coaching candidate away from being canned. He also has the persona in which he would love for all of us to eat our words and proving us wrong. Unfortunately, I just can't see that in the cards right now. Weis has been a great recruiter, but he hasn't been coaching them and even more importantly motivating them like he should be.

I still want to believe, but reality is starting to set in. I am more and more convinced (much like many other fans) that the 2005 and 2006 seasons were a result of great players being great and having the Ty Willingham handcuffs removed. They motivated themselves, they wanted to prove everyone wrong, and they wanted to look at the rest of the nation and say "we told you so."

Saturday we face USC. Motivating a ND team to play USC should not be hard, especially on the heels of a horrid loss. ND should be foaming at the mouth to take out all the anger, frustration and pain of the Syracuse loss on SC. If we come out flat yet again, there isn't even a glimmer of hope for Weis. Weis has a chance to redeem himself and this team has a chance to make a statement to end the year.

As far as Weis goes, this is all the motivation he should need:

"9-3 isn't good enough. 10-3 isn't that much better. 3-9 is inexcusable. 6-5 wasn't good enough for you or ND when you got here. We are 6-5 now and it still isn't good enough. 6 straight losses to USC isn't good enough and it is time to turn all of this around RIGHT NOW. Your time is running out."

Go Irish. Beat Trojans. God help us.

Let's Go Bowling

I'm not sure how I completely forgot to mention the current talk of ND's possible bowl bids. I think I should rectify this mistake.

As the article mentions, the Irish have chances at the following bowls:

1. Cotton Bowl
2. Gator Bowl
3. Sun Bowl

Now, bowl rules are screwy, but I think I have them listed in order of priority. That is, Cotton gets first dibs, then Gator and then Sun. Again, this I am not 100% sure of.

What I do know is this, the Cotton Bowl, under the current BCS/Bowl contracts, can replace an SEC team with the Irish within a four year span -- and from what I understand, they have two more years (including this one) to do this. According to the article, a 7-5 Irish team would still hold the Cotton Bowl's interest (assuming Syracuse win and USC loss), even though they (as well as the Gator Bowl) have never given a five loss team a bid.

In order to get a clearer picture of this possibility, I think it is important to consider just who the Irish would be replacing, and that means we have to look at the whole BCS and national title picture. Those bowls are as follows:

National Title - #1 BCS v #2 BCS
Rose Bowl - Big Ten Champ v Pac 10 Champ
Fiest Bowl - Big XII Champ v At Large*
Orange Bowl - ACC Champ v At Large*
Sugar Bowl - SEC Champ v At Large*

One of the At Large spots must be the Big East Champ.

Now from here you can either choose to go based on my predictions or trust the folks at ESPN with theirs. I have a feeling we will match up close; however, I am not going to go into specific teams in here, but focus on the conference and at large picture.

With Penn State falling last week, it is quite clear in my opinion that the BCS Championship will be Big XII v SEC Champ. The reason I don't say Big XII champ is because I have a feeling that if Texas Tech loses either against OU (which I don't think will happen) or in the Big XII Championship game (I don't think that will happen either), there is a very good possibility that either Texas or OU will leapfrog Mizzou if they happen to win the conference title (which I don't think they will do against any Big XII South team). So in my opinion you are looking at a title game that will have Texas/Texas Tech v Alabama/Florida.

Now, since in ND terms, we are most concerned with the SEC, we will focus on that picture. Whoever does not appear in the title game will quickly get scooped up by another bowl (most likely the Sugar Bowl to keep a SEC team in). From here the Cotton Bowl will then either pick the next best SEC team or replace them with ND. That team will most likely be LSU in my opinion, but you may also see Georgia sneak in there.

So that is the question that faces the Cotton Bowl. Do we bring in ND over LSU/Georgia? Most likely not. The only way ND has a chance at the Cotton Bowl is if they beat USC or LSU/Georgia slip out. ND will, at best, be just inside the top 25 and LSU and Georiga will be in the top 20. You just can't snub them. As an Irish fan you don't really want the snub. ND would be playing either OU or Mizzou, both of which I believe can beat the Irish.

So then, we go to our old friends in the Gator Bowl. What are our chances there? Quite frankly, very damned good. The Gator Bowl is: ACC v Big Eat/Big XII/ND. So who is ND competing against here? Well it will be either the runner up for the laughable Big East Conference or the next best Big XII team available (the one the Cotton Bowl doesn't take basically). So the team pool we are looking at here competing for the ND bid is Mizzou/OK State/Pitt/WVU. Honestly, I can't see any of these teams getting the nod over ND. The Gator Bowl has a good habit of picking ND even if they can slightly justify it. So I think this will be our most likely spot.

So what about the Sun Bowl? Well don't expect us to go there unless disaster strikes and Syracuse pulls of a mircale. The Sun Bowl said they would love to take even a 6-6 Irish team. The Gator Bowl may want ND, but even they won't be taking us then. While this game would likely be the easiest match up for ND, I don't see it happening. You don't want to see this happening. The Irish in the Sun Bowl means ND royally screws up this week. Forget the Sun Bowl exists.

Seriously, forget it exists.

So start making those travel plans for Flordia if you want to get a jump on things. Or if you will hold out hope for the huge upset against USC, have two flights ready to go. Because if the Irish pull that off, they will be in the Cotton Bowl garanteed.

Party will be at my place.

Final Prediction: Gator Bowl Birth: ND v Maryland

GO IRISH! BEAT ORANGE!

Do the Coach Shuffle

I wasn't expecting to be writing about ND football again so fast. I mean honestly, we are playing one of the worst teams in college football this weekend -- not exactly much to get excited about. And even some of ND nation has calmed down to a point regarding Weis' job security as well, despite nearly blowing the Navy game.

However, I saw a couple of different articles today regarding ND coaching. First off, we turn to Mike Haywood, who will meet with the University of Washington for their head coaching job. This has been (beyond the unfortunate death in his family), the "personal reasons" that Weis has been supporting this week, and why he has not been at practice.

A few things to note here. First off, I would be really happy for Haywood if he got the job. During the time I worked with the team, Haywood was easily one of my favorite coaches. He is very likable, very knowledgeable, and also a damned good recruiter. I know he hasn't done the best job in the world calling plays; however, I think more often than not he got too cute with play calling and out thought himself. I chalk that up to inexperience though as it was the first time he had to do it -- and let's be honest, this is Weis' system not his. It is really hard to live up to that big of a shadow.

Second, he should strike while the iron is still hot. Even on the heels of a bad season, he still has two great years and one season of improvement on his resume. If the interest is there and he wants to be a head coach, he should definitely go for it.

Finally, this proves something that ND fans have been saying in response to the ESPN et al claims that ND was quick to let go of Ty because he was black. The fact of the matter is that ND, for the time being, is the only school with two black coordinators. Head coaching experience doesn't appear out of thin air, and you look to the offensive and defensive coordinators for that new head coaching talent. And here we go, lo and behold the "racist" school of ND might just be adding a new black head coach to the NCAA ranks. How dare we right?

Anyways, I wish nothing for the best for Haywood. Also knowing Weis, I'm sure he has a list of potential replacements should Haywood get the job. Just take a look at how fast Corwin Brown was hired after Rick Minter was fired for a good example of this.

Now, in the ridiculous category, someone on NDNation found an article saying Urban Meyer would be a great match for ND. Funny part is, this was written by someone from Florida. Funnier still, Meyer is clearly lying out of his ass (to put it bluntly).

So why didn't Meyer take the Fighting Irish job in 2004? Because the timing wasn't right. His authorized biography explains, "Florida's biggest advantage would turn out to be Urban's and Shelley's desire for a strong family life, because he could recruit closer to home."

At Notre Dame, you recruit nationally, which means flying around the country, away from home a lot more. At a state school like Florida, you can recruit a kid, or several kids, during the day, and still be home for dinner, or at one of your kid's practices, that night. With a young family, that mattered a lot. But even with that in play, turning down Notre Dame was very difficult, as Meyer notes in this passage in his biography:

"I wanted to go to Notre Dame," Meyer admitted, "but my family wanted to talk about going to Florida."

Shelley knew how tough the decision was for her husband because "he left his heart at Notre Dame when we left there last time -- he really, really, really loved Notre Dame."

That's "really" loved three times, if you're scoring at home.

Uh...we are keeping score here. Forget the fact that he wasn't happy that he wasn't going to get academic exceptions at ND and forget the fact that he targets ND recruits and bashes the school that holds his "dream job". Seriously is this some kind of sick joke?

Weis seems to be doing quite well with his family here at ND. His son is out on the sidelines every game. He has established "The Ranch" for his charity foundation, Hannah and Friends, in honor of his daughter in the area. Hell, Weis even said at a press conference that his family was "sick of seeing [him] so much." Damn, so hard to have a family life.

Facts are facts. Urban went to Florida because, in my opinion, he believed he had a better chance of winning there. He used the ND "dream job" line to leverage a sweet deal with UF, and I guarantee you he will use it again if given the chance. I can respect him to a point for his "win at all costs" thinking; however, when you have a practice of lying to recruits (hell, he told one recruit, Jevan Snead that he was recruiting Tim Tebow as a LINEBACKER) and you don't care who's toes you step on, I don't want you representing ND.

Thankfully, I personally feel this won't ever be an issue; however, seeing someone actually publish this opinion and believe it made me laugh out loud.

ND Avoids Shipwreck

Just a quick-hit post on the ND/Navy game.

1. We should never, ever, EVER again put in the second string when it is only the third quarter and you are only up by 20.  WAY too much time left.
2. ND had an abysmal first half.
3. The 3rd quarter (when the starters were in) reminded me of 2005 and 2006 seasons and the kind of offensive dominance we can show.
4. Clausen had a much better game, but still has room to improve.
5. The O-Line worries me...it takes a full half to wear down an undersized line?  Seriously?  And then they allowed Navy to cause two turnovers when they laid hits on Clausen.  I shudder to think what USC will do to Clausen if this isn't rectified fast.
6. Our turnover ratio is really sucking right now.
7. We clearly have never tried to recover an onside kick before.  ND just made a perfect "what not to do" video on onside kick coverage.
8. If you are a Big East referee, you see no issue with Navy using four timeouts.
9. How did we get beat deep by Navy's passing offense?  Especially considering we knew they were ready to throw bombs to the endzone every play.
10. Michael Floyd is out for the next two games -- ouch...
11. In the end, a win is a win.  Time for the Irish to go Bowling this year and end the 15 year drought.
12. The Irish now have a win against a winning program this season.
13. This post pretty much sums up my feelings of the ridiculous notion of firing Weis this season.
14. Dear Michigan, enjoy your 3-9 season.  There is no way in hell you will beat Ohio State.  Welcome to our world, Love ND.

Charlie Weis Is NOT Ty Willingham

While doing my usual ND Football blog run today an ESPN article was linked in which our new AD gave Charlie Weis his vote of confidence. The article itself isn't what I want to address, but the video attached to it in which Pat Forde and Gene Wojciechowski are asked to grade and evaluate Charlie Weis and said comments. And yet again, they choose to fuel the ridiculous fire that Ty was given a "raw deal" and Charlie Weis is being given "the benefit of the doubt" because we gave him a large contract and are tied down to him. They again wish to claim that if we held the two to the same standard that Weis should be fired.

How in the world people still spew out and buy into this line of thinking is beyond me.

Fine let's put the two to the same standard. Ty was fired for two reasons: continued declining performance on the field and lack of solid recruiting. Basically, we were convinced that he wasn't putting the program in the right direction, otherwise known as, he was driving ND into the damned ground.

So let's compare the two and see how they stack up on this standard. Below is a table comparing both win/loss records and the recruiting class rank that each was able to put together for the next year. We will use three years to hold the two to the standard ESPN wants us to.


Ty Willingham

2002: Record - 10-3, Gator Bowl Loss, 2003 Recruiting Class Rank - 12
2003: Record - 5-7, No Bowl Birth, 2004 Recruiting Class Rank - 32
2004*: Record - 6-5, Insight Bowl Birth, 2005 Recruiting Class Rank - 40

*Note: Ty was fired before the Insight Bowl loss, the Irish lost that game and finished 6-6. Weis also officially completed the recruiting class; however, these were the guys Ty went after. With this in mind, I will not give Ty the Insight Bowl loss and give him "credit" for the 2005 Recruiting Class.

Totals
Record: 21-15
Bowl Births: 2
Bowl Record: 0-1
BCS Births: 0
Avg Recruiting Rank: 28

Charlie Weis

2005: Record - 9-3, Fiesta Bowl Loss, 2006 Recruiting Class Rank - 8
2006: Record - 10-3, Sugar Bowl Loss, 2007 Recruiting Class Rank - 8
2007: Record - 3-9, No Bowl Birth, 2008 Recruiting Class Rank - 2

Totals
Record: 22-15
Bowl Births: 2
Bowl Record: 0-2
BCS Births: 2
Avg Recruiting Rank: 6

So based on this standard, which coach are you going to hold on to after three years? ESPN loves to say "Hey, look the win/loss records are similar!". What they, and everyone that wishes to continue to criticize ND for the Ty Situation fail to mention is the horrible recruiting Ty did. He had only one class in the top 25, and that was in his one good season with ND.

Also, you have to look at progression in both categories. Ty got worse every single year. Weis has only had one bad year in record, but despite that, he put together the best recruiting class that he has had to date. Furthermore, he hasn't had a single class outside of the top 10.

Now, I am not saying Weis doesn't deserve some heat. If you go 3-9 at Notre Dame, you better receive it, especially when you toted around "9-3 is not good enough" two seasons prior. Coming off the heels of two very disappointing losses with such a season still fresh in the memory of ND fans, you can bet that heat will pick up.

Let's get the notion of firing Weis out of our heads please for at least this season. There is no way that you are going to fire a coach that had one horrible season, improved the team's record immediately the following season (again, it is some improvement), and is still looking to put together another top 10 recruiting class (currently, ND is ranked 8 in the nation) despite everything.

Last season pushed Weis towards the hot-seat and this season has planted him firmly on it. Now, if we are in this same spot next season, mediocrity is NO excuse for Weis. Every last bit of next year's team will be Weis' recruits and our team will be filled with four consecutive top 10 ranked classes. Our young players will have gotten their experience. Clausen will be pushed by the now red-shirtless Dayne Crist -- there is a lot to be said for the intensitity you play with when you know you can easily be replaced in a heartbeat. The defense will have a year's experience with the blitz-happy tendancies of Tenuta. If ND can't get at the very least, a major bowl birth and consistently stay in the top 25, then it is obvious that Weis is a great recruiter, solid offensive mind, but not a good head coach.

Let's wait, however, until we get to that point.

ND Football: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I definitely wanted my first post to be about ND football. Every day I go through various ND Football blogs and keeping up as much as I can with the Fighting Irish, so it made sense (in my head at least) to toss out my opinions as well. However, I wasn't sure how to go about this post at first. I don't want to be yet another person preaching ND doom and gloom in my first post, but I also don't want to ignore the obvious problems the unranked 5-4 Irish have seen in the past two weeks.

So I figure the best way to go about this is do a general overview of what we have right in front of us. After 9 games, there is plenty of information that can allow us to see just exactly what this team is. As Lou Holtz said, "Things are not always as good as they seem and things are not always as bad as they seem." So with that perspective in mind, I bring you ND Football: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good

Well first off, if you had said that the Irish would be currently be 5-4 at the start of the season, most likely you would be quite happy considering the horrid 3-9 showing last year. That is one of the things any ND fan can hold on to -- this season is not nearly as bad as the last. ND should be able to beat both Navy and Syracuse (remember this is the "good" section, let me stay positive for a bit...), and then they travel to LA to very likely have USC beat us for the 7th straight time. This would leave the Irish at 7-5 and a lower tier bowl birth -- a perfect spot to snap that God-forsaken bowl game losing streak. So worse case senario you are looking at a 7-6 Irish, and possibly a 8-5 team if they pull out a bowl win. You can slice the record and tear it apart any way you like but the simple fact is that we are winning games that we couldn't last year and improvement is improvement.

Beyond the record though, we are seeing something for the first time in years: top-notch recruits that are turning into playmakers. And these guys aren't just turning into playmakers, they are doing it as true freshmen and sophomores.

For the best examples of this, look no further than the WR duo of Golden Tate and Michael Floyd. Tate, originally, a running back easily has some of the best hands on the team and simply has a knack for making big plays. He has the speed to be a deep threat and fights for the ball no matter where it is thrown.



And then you have Michael Floyd, a 6' 3" true freshman, that has probably the best potential for growth on the team. That's saying a lot, considering he already is one of, if not the best offensive weapon on the field. I liken him to Maurice Stovall -- a big target with good hands and a great jump ball/fade target. However, with Floyd you can take Stovall's qualities and then add more speed and a better ability to make something happen after the catch. And again, this kid is only a freshmen. I can only imagine the kind of strength and experience he will be able to gain in a couple of offseasons -- the number 3 is definitely in great hands with Floyd.

The talent doesn't stop in these recent classes either. Weis has still managed to bring in, and still continues to bring in Blue Chip talent. For example, we have QB Dayne Christ now sitting on the sidelines with a red shirt and also have highly touted RB Cierre Wood coming to us next season.

There is no doubt the talent is definitely (and finally) coming into this program. The future definitely looks bright for the Irish and there is definitely a light at the end of the dark tunnel Bob Davie and Tyronne Willingham had made for us.

The Bad

Again to chanell Lou: "Watch out for the light at the end of the tunnel. It might be an oncoming train." And the train has definitely hit the Irish this season.

Despite the noted improvement in the record, there is one slight problem. Try to guess the win-loss record of the Irish against winning teams this year. If you gave the Irish just one win, you would be dead wrong. The Irish are 0-4 against teams with a winning record. Ouch. You can't exactly build a winning program if you can't beat...well winning programs.

Yes beatining Michigan and Purdue was nice, but just take a look of the sad coniditions of those teams. And our other wins have come against a woeful San Diego State (that was beaten by Cal friggin' Poly), Standford (our highest "quality" win -- they are 5-5), and another team that Ty Willingham has driven square into the ground in Washington (who STILL hasn't won a game).

While the record has improved, it is extremely disheartening to see us have zero wins against teams that actually matter. Without a doubt the end goal for anyone involved with ND is one thing, a national title, and you don't get there consistently losing to teams that can actually play.

Despite the young talent, we are still defintiely suffering from inexperience. Clausen has some moments where everything seems to click, and then others were the wheels seem to just come flying off. It seems that if he throws one INT into double (or triple) coverage he is determined to make that same pass work later in the game for yet another INT. Saying Clausen forces the ball into small windows is a gross understatement. Which is funny, because this is a complete departure from last year when he seemed to be scared to take many risks at all. He still hasn't seemed to find that happy medium yet and learn when it is a good time to throw those bombs and when it would be better to dump it off or throw it away.

Clausen is probably the best example of on the field inexperience, but that inexperience also exists on the sidelines. Consider this post from The Blue-Gray Sky:

The past few years that I have done the pre-season position previews, I've been valuing veteran players more and more, at times over more highly-recruited rookies. Every year we get excited about the shiny new toys out on the field, but for the most part it is the guys who have been around who keep getting the job done. Certainly there are exceptions, but in college football there isn't much of a better teacher than experience. You make a mistake, you learn, you improve and move forward. Wash, rinse, repeat. And this isn't a week-by-week process, but rather a season-by-season one.

And that brings me to this. Notre Dame has the following on the sidelines:

* A defensive coordinator in his second year as a defensive coordinator.

* An offensive coordinator in his first year as an offensive coordinator.

* A head coach in only his fourth season as a head coach.

Putting aside every other issue for the moment (and there are plenty), Notre Dame should never ever again find itself in a position where the top three coaches for the football team have so little experience at their current position. Notre Dame football is not a place for on-the-job training.

People can debate all of the other issues back and forth all they want, but I firmly believe that experience is invaluable and irreplaceable. It all starts there.

Now I haven't yet fully hopped off the Weis bandwagon yet, but a great point is made here. We have a head coach that is still trying to transition from being a NFL offensive coordinator coaching professionals to a college Head Coach coaching kids. We also have an offensive coordinator taking the helm for the first time, although now that experiment seems to be over with Weis saying he will make the play calls against Navy. Someone, somewhere along the line has to have the know-how of what to do and when to do it. It is becoming abundantly clear that the players aren't the only ones going through a learning curve.

I do have some confidence that Weis is going to figure it out; however, knowing that this kind of inexperience is on the coaching staff is a definite worry. Recent history has not been kind to coaches trying to "figure it out" at ND and I'm sure the whole staff realizes that.

The Ugly

Alternate Title: ND vs. BC this past Saturday and a rant on that mess. If you want to have one standing example of the issues that we currently face watch that game again (if you can stomach it -- I sure can't). That game had it all, loss of composure and poor decisions by Clausen, horrible play calling from the staff, untimely breakdowns on defense, and some of the worst special teams I've ever seen.

First let's start with Clausen. His INTs were all results of bad decisions. The first one (the pick-six), was the result of Clausen trying to fit the ball in a very small window and not seeing the whole coverage. Clausen made only a half correct read. He saw that he needed to throw the ball high to have a chance to hit Rudolph on the play; however, he failed to either see the safety lurking behind his target or realize that the pass would be an easy pick if it sailed on him just a little. In short, he made the decision to make a pass with a tiny margin of error and the result was catastrophic.

He seemed to completely lose it as the game went on. He forced the ball into double and triple coverage, leading to more picks. He visably started to lose his cool on the field as well. This is supposed to be the leader of the offense and I sure as hell didn't see an ounce of leadership from him as the game went on. The wheels came off of him and I didn't see another player try to fill that void.

Moving on, I really want to figure out just what in the hell goes through the minds of the coaching staff when we continue to call passing plays on 3rd and short as well as 4th and short like they did against Pitt. What happened to the quick QB sneaks that we used to run with Brady? Do we really not think Alderidge can't bang out a yard? And more importantly, do they really think we are fooling anyone anymore since we do this all the time now?

The best example was one of the 3rd and 1's late in the game...in which Clausen took a shot at the endzone. That pass was clearly his first read. This means either one of two things: 1) That was the play called, 2) Clausen audibled to it. I'm leaning towards #1 since Clausen did not see his ass chewed out returning to the sidelines. How is that play called in this situation? The game was still (somewhat) close and there was no need to take that kind of risk. Get the first down, and keep the drive going.

And then the breakdowns on defense...well let's be more specific here...the breakdowns in coverage that keep occurring from Terrail Lambert. Now, I like this guy. He's from my old dorm, he made huge plays against Michigan State two years ago; however, it is becoming quite clear that he gets burned in coverage and gets burned often. It is like everytime I see a huge or clutch pass play from the opposition I see a #20 jersey two steps behind it. On BC's last TD of the game, Lambert never even looked to find the ball.

One interesting note with him is that he didn't play a single down during the overtime against Pitt from what I saw. There were no reports of him being hurt at all either. So basically we have the coaching staff making the call that he wasn't good enough to be in such a clutch situation (and incidentally, that is the best defense I've seen the Irish play), but yet he is good enough to start? Something isn't quite computing here.

Special teams --- where to even begin? Brandon Walker, thankfully, doesn't even seem to be a large issue (although he didn't exactly get any chances against BC). But yet we still find ways to completely botch the other elements of special teams in the punt game.

Golden Tate, whom I love, and know is a great playmaker needs to never be allowed to return a punt again this season. I'm all for finding ways to get the ball into his hands, but put someone else back on punts. He doesn't know when to fair catch as most times he gets the ball he is met with a helmet to the kisser, and then that culminates to him focusing too much on the other players around him and muffs a punt leading to yet another ND turnover. Put him back on kickoffs, but leave him out of punts. If we want to be serious about him returning, let's make him #1 in Spring ball so he can learn how to do it. We have enough people learning as they go, let's not increase that number when we don't need to.

Eric Maust also seemed to forget how to punt during the BC game. He takes far too long to actually get the punt off, leading to a blocked punt and he also shanked a couple of his six punts leading to a horrid 36.5 yard average. Charlie Weis always says he is huge on special teams yet we keep losing the battle here. In such a close game, field position is invaluable. You can't beat good teams or pull of upsets when your opponent is always on your side of the field and you are pinned to your own endzone at the start of every drive.

Clearly, there are several issues that the Irish need to work on. The future might be bright talent wise, but we definitely need to see some of the present problems fixed or ND will continue to find themselves hitting a wall.

Either way, Go Irish! Beat Midshipmen! Let's start another streak and turn this ship around.