Irish v. Tar Heels OR Boilers v. Buckeyes? WTF?

One of the great weekly rituals for Notre Dame fans around the country whenever the Irish are on the road playing a game that is owned by ABC is the search for the "coverage map" that shows which games will be aired in which regions on ABC and ESPN. Lucky Irish fans will find that their region is getting the game for free on one of those two channels. Unlucky fans get the bad news that the game will not be aired in their region. Here's the bad news for Irish fans in Orange County this week.

But all is not lost! Those unlucky fans have a couple of choices. They can shell out $21.95 to get the game of their choice, PLUS a bunch of other games that they likely have zero interest in, by subscribing to ESPN Game Plan for the week through their cable company. Woo Hoo! Or they can go to a Notre Dame "game watch" event hosted by their local Notre Dame club, much like the events sponsored the Notre Dame Club of Orange County.

I'm going to bite the bullet and go with the ESPN Game Plan, but first I wanted to check the program guide on my TV to make sure the coverage maps and my cable company (Cox) are on the same page. 12:30 p.m., ESPN HD channel 715, and there it is! "Notre Dame vs. North Carolina OR Ohio State vs. Purdue." WTF?

So which is it? Am I getting the Irish for free on ESPN HD, or am I getting OSU blowing up Purdue? A quick call to Cox will surely clear this up. Nope. My friendly Cox customer service representative tells me that even THEY don't know which game they're getting from ABC until game time. So I can order the game plan (non refundable!) now and maybe find out I've wasted $21.95 at 12:30, or I can wait until Ohio State v. Purdue is getting pumped into my house and jump on the phone, wait on hold, order the game, and wait for it to load and probably start watching the Irish halfway through the first quarter. Great.

Yeah, I ordered the game. So if ABC/ESPN pumps the Irish into the OC despite what the "coverage map" says I'm totally screwed. By the way, if I get the game for free on ESPN HD I get to watch it in Hi-Def. But if I have to watch the pay-per-view game on Game Plan, it won't be a Hi-Def signal! Pay more for a crappier product! What a bargain.

There has to be a better way to do this.

I blame Mark May.

Irish at Tar Heels: The "Most Improved" Bowl

Well, it's Friday and I'm way behind schedule here at OC Domer, with no sign of improvement in the next couple of days. It was my week to host the "Irish Bloggers Gathering," which was a lot of fun to do, but it pretty much ate up the time I would have used to write a Stanford recap. Today, I took off work because it's Homecoming at the OC Kids' high school, and the OC Daughter is on the Homecoming Court. Which means I have the honor of escorting her in the halftime show when she'll find out if she is Homecoming Queen (or not). Big night at OC Domer headquarters! I didn't want to deal with Friday afternoon traffic trying to get to the game by the appointed 5:00 hour, so I got an early start to the weekend today. I was hoping to use some of the time today to clear up the OC Domer back-blog, but in a sequence of events that is still a bit hazy to me the OC Domer Chief Operating Officer (aka, Mrs. Domer) was able to fill what I thought would be quality blog time with a whole list of stuff that had to be done today before the football game. Apparently we're helping put on a tailgater for approximately 500 of our kids' closest friends, and we're in charge of the food!

So, time is short, but I wanted to throw out a couple of thoughts on the Stanford and North Carolina games.

Stanford Recap. In my preview of the game against the Cardinal I summed it up as follows:

The Irish have become a team that can defeat credible, mid-level BCS conference opponents if they show up prepared, if they play with energy, and if they keep the mistakes to a minimum. I think this young team likes the taste of victory in their mouths, and I expect them to show up excited to play in front of the Irish faithful again this week. But if they don't take care of the ball and finish drives, Stanford is more than capable of handing Notre Dame a devastating home loss as they prepare to play three of their next four games on the road.

I expect to be feeling as good Saturday night as I did last Saturday night. Stanford's offense, while steady, is not particularly explosive. I expect our defense to largely contain the Cardinal and force a couple of turnovers leading to quick Irish scores. On the other side of the ball, Stanford's secondary has shown some vulnerability and I see real potential for another big game for Air Clausen.

The Irish did show up prepared, at least on offense. The defense got gashed early, particularly by the Stanford rushing attack. But they were fortunate that Jim Harbaugh made some coaching mistakes (i.e., going away from a running game that was working quite well) and Tavita Pritchard made some quarterbacking mistakes that led to very timely turnovers that bailed the Irish defense out of some early jams. After those shaky early drives, the defense made the necessary adjustments and the defense did largely contain the Stanford "O" when it counted.

The whole team played with a lot of energy and emotion, which led to a high tempo for the team on both sides of the ball. But it wasn't all roses for Notre Dame on Saturday. The Irish had 8 penalties for 75 yards. The team missed both very makeable field goal attempts, and was just 2 of 4 in the Red Zone. Despite forcing 4 Stanford turnovers (3 interceptions and a late fumble that iced the game), the Irish only managed to convert one of them into points (on a very nifty 9 play 80 yard TD drive after the first interception by OC Domer 2007 Player of the Year David Bruton). The team managed only 83 net rushing yards, with 23 of those yards coming a really sweet fake punt run by Harrison Smith, who normally plays safety for the Irish. At some point, Notre Dame is going to have to be able to run the football, and our inability to do so is going to bite us.

It didn't take a genius to predict that the Cardinal's vulnerability in the secondary could lead to a big day for Clausen. Clearly the the Irish passing game is presenting serious match up problems to opposing defenses. Michael Floyd and Golden Tate on the outside can really stretch the field both vertically and horizontally, leaving Senior Captain David Grimes and Freshman tight end Kyle Rudolph to work the resulting voids underneath and in the middle of the field. An opponent might be able to cover one or even two of those threats, but very few teams are going to be able to cover all of them if Jimmy Clausen has time to throw the ball. I'll admit I've been giddy watching the new big play ability of this team - a quick strike threat that Notre Dame didn't have even with Brady Quinn at the helm.

Notre Dame did not play a perfect game on Saturday. But they won the turnover battle 4-0, won the field position battle (Average Starting Field Position: ND 35, STAN 29), and put on an explosive aerial display that was able to outscore a mistake-prone Cardinal team despite the fact that we could not control the game on the ground. So I'll take the positive view and say that the team took a step forward against Stanford by winning a game against a very credible opponent despite NOT playing as well as they did the previous week against Purdue. The fact that the team could pull out the win despite a few glaring miscues (i.e, the missed field goals) and the near total lack of a running game is encouraging. Not to mention 347 passing yards and 3 passing TDs.

North Carolina Preview. The win at home against Stanford was really nice. The team played with fire and really enjoyed the victory in front of the Irish faithful in Notre Dame Stadium. But this week they take their show on the road, heading south to Tobacco Road to take on the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina. Notre Dame's only previous road game this season was at Michigan State, where they lost 23-7 on a day where the offense was largely ineffective and the defense could not get Sparty off the field. Notre Dame turned the ball over three times (two INTs and 1 fumble), was 0-2 in the Red Zone, and lost the field position battle.

Michigan State is ranked 24th by Jeff Sagarin (Using the "predictor" ranking), 30 spots higher than Stanford (#54). The Tar Heels are rated by Sagarin at #16, eight spots higher than Sparty, and checked in this week at #22 in the Associated Press poll.

The bottom line is that a very young Notre Dame team who has gained some real confidence playing in front of the home crowd has to go into hostile territory tomorrow and play by far the best team they have seen this season.

In my 2008 Notre Dame Football Pre-Season Spectacular I didn't give UNC much credit. When I wrote that, the Tar Heels had just used a second half comeback to hold off Div. 1-AA McNeese State, at home, 35-27. But since then Carolina has largely taken care of business, including nice wins against Rutgers, Miami, and U-Conn. More recently I am on the record as saying I don't expect Notre Dame to win this game. Not that they can't win, or won't win. But I will be happily surprised if they pull it out, and disappointed but not surprised if they fall in Chapel Hill. The one nugget of information that causes me to doubt my own uncharacteristic pessimism is that UNC has lost their starting QB to a broken ankle. The backup, Cam Sexton, is a bit of a drop-off for the Tar Heels, but he was the starting QB for five games in 2006 and is 2-0 as the starter so far in 2008 with a big game against Miami (11 of 19, 242 yds, 2 TD) and a so-so go against U-Conn (9 of 16, 117 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT). So he's been around the program for a while and has some experience. But I think the drop-off from the starting QB to the back-up might be the break the Irish need to get it done on Saturday.

Tidbit of the day: Tomorrow's game pits the #1-ranked Fighting Irish against the #2-ranked Tar Heels from Phil Steele's pre-season list of "Most Improved Teams" for 2008. Pretty good call by Mr. Steele on both counts.

Go Irish! Beat Tar Heels!

Irish Blogger Gathering: Heart of Darkness Edition

It's our turn to host the Irish Blogger gathering here at OC Domer. To catch you up, Subway Domer had the idea of establishing a group of bloggers who would post their answers/thoughts each week in response to a common set of questions posed by a member of the Gathering. Subway Domer was first to pose the questions. That inaugural edition of the Gathering can be found at this link. My own responses from last week can be found here. I must admit that thinking up what are hopefully thought-provoking questions is harder than coming up with pithy/snarky answers!

I'm not sure if we ever set a definite rule on the format, but Subway went with five questions last week, and I think that set a good precedent, so I'll go with it.

Why the Heart of Darkness? If you've read the original book by Joseph Conrad, or at least the Wikipedia entry for it (like me), you know that Conrad explores the depths of the human subconscious and psyche, and depicts what happens when man crosses the line of civility and gives in to his baser instincts. In this gathering we're going to explore the deep recesses of our Blue & Gold Domer souls. If you haven't read the book, you may have seen the 1979 movie, Apocalypse Now, starring Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz. The Horror! The Horror!

Here are this week's questions:

1. Who was your first Notre Dame hero?

Notre Dame quarterback Tom Clements. As a kid I became hooked on Notre Dame while watching the Sunday morning Notre Dame highlights shows, with Lindsey Nelson. "After an exchange of punts, Notre Dame has the ball at their own 24 yard line, first and 10." The quarterback back then was #2, Tom Clements, and I thought he was terrific. Clements was a three year starter for the Irish, leading the team to the National Championship in 1973 and being voted first team All-American in 1974. His name has popped up as a potential candidate the past couple of time Notre Dame has been searching for a coach, and I always thought he'd be a great fit, with his connections back to the winning era under coach Ara Parseghian.


2. When was the first time the Fighting Irish broke your heart?

In 1974. Notre Dame was leading the USC Trojans 24-0 as the first half was coming to a close, a great day to be an Irish fan watching the game on TV. USC scored with just seconds remaining in the half, to make it 24-7. USC's Anthony Davis (Booooo! Boooooo!) returned the second half kick-off for a TD, and the Trojans scored a total of 35 points in the 3rd quarter on the way to scoring 55 straight points in less than 17 minutes of playing time. USC beat the Irish that day 55-24, breaking my ten year old Irish heart and making me cry. I know it isn't completely rational, but it's because of that day that I still hate the Trojans. Hate 'em. I should probably get help.


3. Let's suppose for just a moment that for whatever reasons the Notre Dame football program begins to slide into what looks like long term mediocrity, or even long term suckitude:

• NBC doesn't renew the television deal, and the package offered by the Versus network makes it clear that remaining independent will mean a lot less $$$ than joining a conference and sharing in their TV deal. Should the Irish join a conference? If so, which? Why that one?

If remaining Independent means significantly less $$$ in the General Fund, I believe the University would have no choice but to join a conference. The University needs the football program to generate as much revenue as reasonably possible to support the rest of the athletic department and to fund other priorities of the University. The obvious choices are the Big Televen or the Big East, and maybe the ACC. The Big Televen has a lot of attraction based upon geography, but I don't think it's the best fit. Those schools are all enormous public schools, while ND is a smaller private school. The next best fit geographically would be the Big East, but those are still mostly large public universities. Although not as obvious geographically, I'd go with the ACC. The presence of Boston College, Duke, Miami, and Wake Forest would put Notre Dame with more schools that have a lot in common with the University as a whole. Also, as a conference it would provide a pretty exciting football schedule and make for some terrific new and renewed rivalries.

• Over time, Notre Dame becomes the football peer of Duke and Syracuse, lucky to win four games a year, rarely posting a winning season. What should the University do? Drop football? Join a conference (or a lesser conference)? Drop down to Div-IA (the FCS Division)? Schedule 12 cupcakes each season?

If, for whatever reason, Notre Dame found that it could not find enough talented student athletes (real STUDENT athletes) to field a truly competitive football team, I would explore joining the Ivy League or an equivalent so that the program could retain it's integrity as an academic institution and compete against other schools with similar philosophies about the relationship between academics and athletics.

• The Indiana legislature has been taken over by a coalition of tee totalling, non-violent religious groups that outlaw both beer and football, and the University is forced to end the football program. To which college football team do you switch your allegiance, and why?

Wow! Who came up with that question? I don't think I could ever be nearly as loyal to another team as I am to the Irish. Of course, rooting for USC or UCLA (the local teams here in SoCal) is out of the question. If either of my kids were attending a college with a football team, they would probably become my #1. I used to really like Penn State and their adherence to tradition, but I don't like the direction the program has headed with off the field problems in recent years. Right now, the team I really pull for after Notre Dame is the Fresno State Bulldogs. They'll play any team, any time, any where. They play in the Central Valley in California, and my wife has a cousin on the coaching staff there. Go Bulldogs! (Coach Danny Brown is the defensive coordinator there and has been fighting brain cancer. If you can think of him and maybe light a candle at the Grotto for him it would be much appreciated).


4. While on campus on a football Saturday you stop by the Knights of Columbus building to get your traditional steak and gristle sandwich. You also take the opportunity to pop inside the building to use the restroom before following the band over to the stadium. While waiting in line for the bathroom and watching the endlessly running Rudy on the K of C television you make the acquaintance of an older gentleman with a beard. He's rather short, but very energetic for his obviously advanced age. You allow him to cut in line in front of you. When he comes out of the restroom, obviously relieved, he thanks you and and then steps in really close to you and whispers in your ear. "I'll grant you two wishes. The first - Notre Dame will beat any team you choose for the next ten seasons. The second, the Irish will also lose for ten straight years to any team you name. Quick now, what two teams will they be?!" You blurt out your two answers, and he disappears into the crowd. What two teams did you pick, and why?

If I get to pick, we beat the USC Trojans every year (see my answer to #2, above).

If we have to lose to one team for ten years (that Leprechaun has a wry sense of humor about him) I would pick the University of Texas Longhorns. In my Gathering answers last week I picked Texas as the team with whom I would like to create a rivalry. I can't stomach losing to our traditional rivals for 10 years (USC, Michigan, Michigan State, Boston College). I don't want to be owned by a weak sister (Purdue, Stanford, Duke, Navy, etc...). If we have to lose, let's lose to a classy program with some tradition. Losing to Texas shouldn't kill our recruiting in any of our big recruiting regions, but playing Texas each year should help our exposure in the South even if we're not winning. Also, losing to a good team won't kill us in the polls, especially if we're beating USC.

5. I'm a terrible predictor. I'm pretty good at analysis, but I'm no good picking games because I almost always pick the Irish. But we need to get on the record here. Notre Dame has games left against North Carolina, Washington, Pitt, Boston College, Navy, Syracuse, and USC. Pick the winner of each of those seven games. Assign each pick points based upon your level of confidence in the pick. Most confident pick gets a 7, least confident pick gets a 1. Each value 1 through 7 must be used once. A perfect score of all picks correct would be worth a total of 28 points. The member of the Irish Blogger Gathering with the highest point total wins a prize of my choosing at the end of the regular season. In case of a tie, the tiebreaker is the member who has the best overall season based on quantity and quality of posts to their blog from now through the end of the season, as voted by the members of the Gathering.

Okay, from lowest confidence to highest (1 to 7):

1. Irish lose to UNC this weekend. Butch Davis is a good coach, the Tar Heels will be sky high, and they are the best team we've seen this year.
2. Irish beat Boston College.
3. Irish beat Pitt. (They hate when you call them Pitt).
4. Irish beat Navy, starting another streak.
5. Notre Dame loses to USC. Unlike the Michigan game, we're not closing this 38-point gap in one season.
6. Irish beat the Washington Huskies as part of the Ty Willingham Farewell Tour.
7. Irish beat woeful Syracuse.

That's it! Members of the Irish Blogger's Gathering, post your replies to this week's questions on your blogs, and put the link to your post in the comments section to this post so everyone can find them. And, if there are any other Notre Dame bloggers who would like to participate, contact Subway Domer and he'll work it out for you.


Note: To make it easier for others to access the other Bloggers' posts, I'm pasting them here with links as I get them.

Charlies Nasties post is here.

Frankie V's post from the UHND Blog is here.

Subway Domer's post is here.

Answers from the Bad Trade blog are here.

"Her Loyal Sons" is in the house.

More Home Cooking: Stanford

So the Irish are sitting at 3-1 and feeling pretty good about themselves after playing their best overall game in nearly two full years, and here come the Stanford Cardinal. Make no mistake, the Irish should defeat Stanford in much the same manner as they beat Purdue.

And they will.

But only if they show up to play and take care of business.

Stanford is 3-2 on the year, with both losses coming on the road to pretty good teams (Arizona State and TCU).

You might assume that Stanford's win over San Jose State (23-10) is no big deal. But San Jose State is no slouch. The SJSU Spartans beat San Diego State (remember them?) 35-10, and also have a 20-17 road win over Hawaii to their credit. SJSU's only loss besides the Stanford game was on the road at Nebraska (12-35).

Stanford opened the year with a win against the Oregon State Beavers (36-28), who have made a little noise in the college football world lately, and they come to South Bend fresh off a road win over a somewhat hapless Washington Huskies squad.

The Irish get something of a break playing Stanford in Notre Dame Stadium, and also because Stanford is playing its second road game in as many weeks. They're likely to be just a little tired. But they won't be intimidated. Second year head coach Jim Harbaugh has made it clear that the Cardinal will not bow down to anyone. He proved it by beating USC in the Los Angeles Coliseum almost exactly one year ago (October 6th, 2007), and the Irish experienced it last year in Palo Alto when Stanford's players demonstrated a chippiness that hasn't been seen on the Farm for quite some time.

I think I speak for Notre Dame fans everywhere when I say that I hope the game we see on Saturday bears absolutely no similarities to the game in Palo Alto last season, except for the part where the Irish win and Stanford gets their heart ripped out of their chest and stomped on. Last year's game has to rank as one of the ugliest college football games of all time. The Irish lost 3 fumbles, threw 1 interception, turned the ball over on downs once, converted just 4 of 13 third-downs, and gave up 5 sacks. Stanford converted just 6 of 17 times on third down, and missed four field goal attempts. In the final 30 seconds, Stanford receivers dropped TWO touchdown passes that would have tied the game and sent it to overtime (assuming the PAT) or won the game (if they made a 2-pt conversion). The field conditions that day were an abomination, and the game officials were atrocious.

The point of the recap is that we beat Stanford last year mostly because we out-gutted and out-lasted them, not because we outplayed them. The stats from the game were pretty darn even. The Cardinal outgained ND 327-313 yards, although ND had one more first down (19-18). Notre Dame had better Average Starting Field Position (ASFP) by just two yards (35 to 33).

Much like last week's game against Purdue, the Irish and their opponent are very evenly matched. In this week's Jeff Sagarin rankings, Notre Dame is #47 while Stanford is #52 (using the "predictor" column). (By the way, the Irish are up 11 spots from #58 last week!). In a game between evenly matched opponents, the team that takes care of the little things, like the football, usually wins. Notre Dame failed to do that against Michigan State, and they succeeded against Purdue. Saturday's game will be determined by which version of the 2008 Fighting Irish show up.

The Irish have become a team that can defeat credible, mid-level BCS conference opponents if they show up prepared, if they play with energy, and if they keep the mistakes to a minimum. I think this young team likes the taste of victory in their mouths, and I expect them to show up excited to play in front of the Irish faithful again this week. But if they don't take care of the ball and finish drives, Stanford is more than capable of handing Notre Dame a devastating home loss as they prepare to play three of their next four games on the road.

I expect to be feeling as good Saturday night as I did last Saturday night. Stanford's offense, while steady, is not particularly explosive. I expect our defense to largely contain the Cardinal and force a couple of turnovers leading to quick Irish scores. On the other side of the ball, Stanford's secondary has shown some vulnerability and I see real potential for another big game for Air Clausen.

Playmakers. Final Thoughts on the Purdue Game.

Before we move on to Stanford, I wanted to lay out very quickly my impressions following Saturday's very encouraging win against Purdue. I haven't gone back to dig out the stats to prove this point (I really need an intern here at OC Domer), but the game seemed to me to be the most balanced, complete overall game played by the Irish since playing Army on November 18, 2006. You may need to go back farther than that if you factor in the overall quality of the opponent, since Purdue in 2008 is better than Army of 2006.

The Irish had a terrific run/pass mix (40 rush, 39 pass) and was impressively effective in both modes (5 yards per rush, 7.9 yards per pass attempt, 13.8 yards per pass completion). Notre Dame did not turn the ball over via fumble or interception, only allowed one QB sack, and went 3 of 4 in the Red Zone. The Irish outplayed Purdue in both the punting game (net yards per punt: ND 42, PU 39.2) and the kicking game (net yards per kickoff: ND 51, PU 38.8) and won the field position battle with an Average Starting Field Position (ASFP) of the 29 yard line compared to Purdue's ASFP of the 21 yard line. The defense did give up some yards and a few points, but they held Purdue's pass-happy attack to fewer total yards than the Irish (462 vs. 476) and scored a defensive touchdown on a Robert Blanton 47 yard interception return for a TD.

All in all it was a very good day to be Irish.

There were four themes that popped into my head as I thought about the Purdue game: Playmakers, Youth, Respect, and Maturity. I'll hit briefly on each one.

Playmakers. Notre Dame has playmakers again. We had none last year, and frankly even the Brady Quinn led Irish lacked many real playmakers. By playmakers I'm talking about guys who scare the other team. Players who are essentially walking touchdowns. Guys who on THIS PLAY RIGHT NOW will take it to the house if you make a mistake and your foot slips in coverage or you miss a tackle. I'm talking about guys like Tim Brown and the Rocket. If Notre Dame is going to return to the highest levels of college football, we have to have playmakers. You need playmakers to keep up with the USCs and LSUs of the world. It is very exciting to see that type of talent wearing the gold helmets. Kudos to Charlie Weis for convincing those young men to come play at Notre Dame.

Youth. The guys making plays are YOUNG. From quarterback Jimmy Clausen to running back Armando Allen, to receivers Golden Tate, Michael Floyd, and Kyle Rudolph, they are young. Guys in the O-line, on the D-line, at linebacker and in the secondary are YOUNG. And the point is not that they are on the field, but that they are playing at a high level and they are making plays. The fact that these guys are #1 on the depth chart as freshman and sophomores tells us that they are very talented, and that the coaching staff is doing an excellent job getting guys ready to play. Those who were calling for Charlie Weis' head should take note. These kids represent a level of ability that we have not seen at Notre Dame since the Lou Holtz era. And more help is on the way. Sure, there is still a lot of growing to do, but the future is bright.

Respect. Purdue showed us something that we haven't seen from a Notre Dame opponent in a long time: RESPECT. Because the offensive line has vastly improved in pass protection, because we have true speed on the outside and are getting good play from the quarterback, Purdue was forced to respect the vertical threat from our passing game. They had to keep their secondary players back in coverage to help out their overmatched corners. And when they didn't respect our vertical threat, David Grimes took them deep straight down the middle of the field for a TD. That respect is what opened up the running game. No more loading the box and daring the Irish to throw. Purdue's corners were giving Irish wide receivers a 12-yard cushion. When was the last time you saw a Notre Dame receiver get a 12-yard cushion? RESPECT.

Maturity. These players are young, but they are growing up fast. As I recounted above, no turnovers, one sack allowed, excellent special teams play, win the field position game. All signs of maturity. But there were signs on an individual level as well. Clearly the light bulb has gone on for Armando Allen. He was finding big running lanes and he no longer hits the ground on first contact. Kyle Rudolph has gone from a young tight end with great potential as a receiver who was a real project as a blocker to a complete player in just about a month's time. Many of the key runs on Saturday featured excellent seal blocks from Rudolph. He still isn't going to punish a bull-rushing defensive end in pass protection, but his improvement is impressive. And Jimmy Clausen is starting to figure it out. He is running the team, recognizing defenses, changing the play at the line into better plays. And he is seeing the field better. One of the biggest knocks on JC to date has been that he locks onto a receiver early and leads the defensive back right to his target, resulting in an INT. I haven't gone back to look for more examples, but I saw two plays from Clausen in particular that were very encouraging. One example that was highlighted on the broadcast included JC looking to his right for a receiver, then at the last moment looking left and completing the pass to another target. He is actually looking off the safety! On another play Jimmy was in the pocket looking, looking, looking for a receiver, then he finally checked down and dumped the ball off to Armando Allen for a decent gain. He is going through his progression and hitting the check-down when nothing is open! He's on his way to being very, very good. Maturity.

Free the Colfax 37!

First of all, I was just checking out the Dome cam and it is an absolutely gorgeous day on campus, so I captured the picture and posted it here for the benefit of those of you who live in Northern Nevada and only read OC Domer at night. Looks like they took the scaffolding down off the Basilica.

I wrote ten days ago about the ridiculous police raid of an off-campus party resulting in the arrest (as reported at the time) of 37 Notre Dame students for underage drinking. Subsequent reporting has revealed that the raid was even more pointless than I first thought. It turns out that there were no neighbor complaints that brought SUDS Task Force to bear. What really happened was that the task force was all geared up on a Saturday night to raid local bars and restaurants who were serving alcohol to minors. Unfortunately, no bars and restaurants were found to be doing so! There was nobody to raid! What to do then with all these law enforcement officers undoubtedly clocking overtime on a Saturday night? Send them home? That would clearly be a waste.

Instead, officers started trolling the residential areas near the Notre Dame campus until one of the officers spotted "signs of underage drinking" at one house. Apparently the officer saw a lot of people, some beer bottles and empty cups. What he saw was a party. How he made the logical leap from "a party" to "signs of underage drinking" isn't entirely clear. At any rate the task force was called in, the students were terrorized, and the rest of the story is still to be written.

That raid set off a discussion throughout the on-line community of how the University has gotten to the point where any alcohol consumption in connection with game day festivities at Notre Dame is seen, and dealt with, as an imminent threat to the health and safety of the public. Rather than focusing on the small number of alcohol abusers who are in fact posing a public nuisance, the University is treating all alcohol as a public nuisance and all who are drinking as criminals (or at the very least suspects). Many alumni, myself included, are asking what has wrought this change? What happened to the University I attended? What happened to the fellowship and the camaraderie that the student body used to derive from having a greasy burger and a cheap beer at their dorm tailgater before the game? You can deride it, you can discount it if you want, but that was an important part of what made Notre Dame special.

I hope that the University administration is using these recent incidents as a jumping off point to seriously reconsider a set of policies that have gone off the tracks. "Moderation in all things" is sound advice. Moderation in alcohol usage, and moderation in the alcohol enforcement policy. I also hope that organizations like the Notre Dame Alumni Association, the Sorin Society, and the Notre Dame Clubs around the country will engage the Administration in shaping a policy that preserves the traditional homecoming atmosphere of game day at Notre Dame, while dealing appropriately with those who behave irresponsibly.

As a contribution to that discussion I am providing links to two excellent blog posts that came onto my radar today (thanks to Google alerts!) and that responsibly address these issues.

The first concerns the critical importance of common sense and discretion in those who enforce the law.

The second represents a thoughtful example of how one might respectfully engage the University on these topics.

Irish Blogger Gathering: The Rivalry Edition

Subway Domer had an idea that a few of us Notre Dame bloggers might start a regular feature where we each tackle a list of five questions in our own unique styles and throw the results out there to hopefully stimulate some discussion among the Notre Dame fanatics. Plus, it's a great way to generate content for our blogs!

Since it was his idea, Subway got first shot at making up the questions, but that privilege will rotate amongst the group week-to-week. This week's questions are all about rivalries. Here's my take. (Questions cut & pasted verbatim from Subway's blog):

1. This is Notre Dame. Notre Dame is the game circled on just about every opposing teams schedule. They hate us and want to destroy us. So, it is safe to say that if ND plays a team every year, that game will become a big game for ND and an even bigger game for the opponent. So, pick any team that ND does not currently play and make that team a rival and create a rivalry trophy to go along with your rival of choice.

Subway Domer went with Penn State on this one, and it's not a bad choice. When I was a student at Notre Dame, the Penn State games were easily among the best games I saw. But ultimately Penn State doesn't work for me because they screwed up and joined the Big Televen. Notre Dame's schedule is already crammed full of Big Televen teams, so we don't need another team from that conference. I also think if we're going to create a big-time rivalry we need to go outside of the midwest. We play lots of teams from the midwest, we play several teams from the west coast. There are no worthy rivalry opponents in the east that we don't already play. We play Boston College, and that works as an okay rivalry.

But we don't have it going on in the South. We need to establish a big time rivalry with a worthy program from south of the Mason-Dixon line. We need to give our fans in that region a little love, and we need to increase our exposure there to help with recruiting. And we ultimately need to beat some teams from down there to put an end to all the talk about how Notre Dame doesn't have the speed to compete with teams from the South.

I rule out all the Florida schools. I hate 'em all, I don't want to lend any legitimacy to their programs by appearing on their schedules. Academically they are a collective embarrassment. They're all newcomers to Big Time football compared to Notre Dame, and I don't want to go to Florida to see the Irish play. So Florida, Florida State, Miami are all out.

I quickly narowed it down to two schools, each rich in football tradition and each with some history playing Notre Dame: Alabama and Texas.

Alabma has played the Irish six times (the first two times were the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl games following the 1973 and 1974 seasons, both games won by the Irish). The Irish are 5-1 against the Tide, the only loss in 1986 when an unranked Lou Holtz team lost to #2 ranked 'Bama in Birmingham. If you run into a 'Bama fan in a bar and he starts getting all fired up about the Crimson Tide and Bear Bryant being the greatest coach ever, blah, blah, blah, be sure and ask him how the Bear did against Notre Dame in his career. (He was 0-fer). So the Tide have a lot going for them.

But in the end I chose the Texas Longhorns. Texas' football pedigree is beyond question, and they are also a very strong school academically. Notre Dame has played the Longhorns ten times starting all the way back in 1913, winning 8 of them. Three of those games include the Cotton Bowl games following the 1969, 1970, and 1977 seasons (ND lost the first of those three, won the other two). Notre Dame has a lot of alumni in Texas who would love to come see the Irish play, and Texas is a great region for ND to try to pry loose some quality recruits, like Heisman trophy winner Tim Brown who came to Notre Dame from Dallas, I believe. But the icing on the cake of this rivalry is that Austin, Texas is perennially rated one of the top college towns in America. Unlike any city you can name in Alabama, I would actually love to go to Austin for a weekend to see the Irish play UT. The campus is supposed to be fantastic, and downtown Austin is renowned for terrific food and music. Bring on the Longhorns!

What would the rivalry trophy look like? Man, I hated art projects in school. Let's go with a shillelagh like the Leprechaun carries around, with a set of steer horns mounted on the top. The winner each year paints the horns orange or blue & gold. Or you could have this for your trophy:



2. What current rival of ND (Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Boston College, Stanford, Southern California- all trophy games) would you take off of the schedule and never play again?

Michigan State. Drop 'em right now. They annoy me. We already play the premiere football team in Michigan, why do we need to play the runner up as well? What, exactly do they bring to the table? If we win, nobody gives a damn because it's just Sparty. If we lose, it's a big aggravated upset headache and we get a green flag planted on our field. There's no upside to playing these guys. Plus, MSU is a lousy road trip to a bad stadium on a mediocre campus. The other possibility was Purdue, but they are less annoying than Sparty, and we really should play the in-state rival, even if it's not very exciting.

Subway wants to drop Stanford. But Stanford is an elite academic institution that takes the concept of the student-athlete seriously. We should encourage schools that share that philosophy, and the best way to encourage them is to put them on our schedule and therefore on TV and get them a big payday. Plus, it pits the Irish against another Pac-10 opponent instead of another Big Televen team, and it get the Irish out to the west coast in odd-numbered years so I can go see them play. Tickets to Stanford games are easy to get, and we can't play Michigan, USC and Texas every week.

3. What entertainment rival (whether it be TV, movies, or celebrity) would you compare to ND and one of its current rivals?

Clearly Notre Dame is Bugs Bunny to Boston College's Daffy Duck. An interesting article about the Bugs/Daffy phenomenon in politics can be found here.




4. List your top 5 historical college football rivalries. After that, list your top 5 college football rivalries as of 2008.

Man, I gotta make a list? Two lists? Alright. Top 5 Historical college football rivalries:

1. Army vs. Navy (How come it's never Navy vs. Army?)
2. Auburn vs. Alabama (If you haven't ever visited Alabama, I can't explain it to you).
3. Texas vs. Texas A & M (The Bonfire and the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas tradition)(I know it's just a movie)
4. Notre Dame vs. USC
5. Caltech vs. MIT (I know they don't play each other in football, but some of the greatest pranks of all time involved these two schools and college football games. Look it up.).

Top 5 college football rivalries as of 2008:

1. Michigan vs. Ohio State
2. Oklahoma vs. Texas
3. Auburn vs. Alabama
4. Notre Dame vs. USC
5. Florida vs. Florida State

5. There are a lot of rivalry games out there. What is a great rivalry game that may not be as well known as the ones in your top 5 and explain why it so fantastic.

The game that gets overlooked every year is the "Battle of the Land Grants" between the Michigan State Spartans and the Nittany Lions of Penn State. This game has been played every year in an unbroken string going all the way back in 1993. These two proud land grant universities play for the venerable Land Grant Trophy, which was personally designed by former Michigan State head football coach George Perles. No, really. For a nice article mercilessly mocking this great rivalry and the trophy that goes with it, click here.

Pummel Purdue!

Purdue. Harumph. I have to admit, as a die-hard Notre Dame fanatic I have trouble mustering a lot of emotion for the Purdue Boilermakers. Traditionally being Notre Dame's third Big Televen opponent each season, they tend to get short shrift, passion wise. Michigan is first, and the passion, the intensity, the gravitas of those games is palpable. Michigan State is second, and the disdain and disrespect and active dislike is manifest. Purdue is third. Yawn. Despite the historic nature of the series between these two teams, nobody (at least nobody on the Notre Dame side) cares that much about it. As an "in state rivalry" it's pretty tame. The series has been lopsided (Notre Dame is 51-26-2 in the previous 79 games against PU), and the game rarely matches two highly ranked opponents. It's almost always the scrappy underdog Purdue Pete trying to derail the lofty ambitions of the favored Fighting Irish. Coupled with Big Televen fatigue, this game often feels like playing basketball in the driveway against your younger brother. You play to win, and if you're paying attention and focus a little bit you almost always do win. But every once in a while you get lazy and he beats you, which means a lot more to him than it does to you. Good for you little fella - nice game.

One of my favorite posts from last season was the Purdue preview post. It was a fun and lightly informative look at the match ups between the Purdue Band (and its auxiliaries) and the band, cheerleaders and mascots of the Fighting Irish. I won't repeat it here, but I encourage you to check it out if you're looking for a little diversion. (Interesting side note on last year's Purdue preview post. It is one of the most frequent OC Domer posts to get direct hits from the google search engine. The search term that brings 'em in is "twirlers" or some variants thereon, and the hits come from Muslim countries all around the world. I often chuckle because I doubt that they get what they're looking for when they get a look at the Golden Girl, the Girl in Black, and the Silver Twins.)

The Purdue game was a significant turning point in the 2007 season. As I wrote after the game:

The Fighting Irish actually had some fight in them at Purdue, and for the first time this season found themselves in a football game that they still had a chance of winning in the fourth quarter. To get there, Notre Dame showed tremendous grit in climbing out of 23-0 half-time hole behind back-up quarterback Evan Sharpley to get within one score (26-19) with 7:58 remaining in the game. For one brief, shining moment the Irish faithful across the land, and the Purdue fans in Ross Ade stadium, could feel that Notre Dame might actually win a football game.

And:

The more you look at the numbers, the more disappointing it is that Notre Dame lost this game. We had more passing yards (377 to 252) and more total yards (426 to 371). Purdue had six more first downs than Notre Dame (27 to 21), but six of their first downs came via Irish penalty. Although it seemed at the time as though Kory Sheets was gashing us, he only averaged 5.2 yards per carry (that isn't good, it's just not as bad as it seemed), and Purdue as a team averaged only 2.8 yards per rush. Had the Irish cut down on the penalties, performed better on special teams, and not committed three turnovers we likely win that game. That sounds somewhat stupid because of course we did commit too many penalties, we did turn the ball over, and we did play poorly on special teams. The point is not that we should have won the game - we didn't play well enough to win. The point is how close we are getting to playing winning football. Purdue was a Top 25 team (barely), and we matched them in touchdowns and bested them in total yards. When you compare Saturday's performance to the previous four games you cannot help but be very encouraged by the progress this team is making week to week. We've gone from "can't block, can't tackle, can't score, blown out" to "penalties and turnovers cost Irish surprisingly close game."

And of course the progress continued the following week as the Irish flew out to the Rose Bowl and got their first win of the season against the UCLA Bruins.

This year's game in Notre Dame Stadium features two very closely matched teams. Each team is 2-1. The betting line has the Irish favored by a mere one point (usually the home field advantage is worth about three points on the betting line, which means that if this game were being played in West Lafayette or on a neutral field Purdue would likely be favored). The Jeff Sagarin rankings (which are beginning to produce some mildly interesting data three or four games into the season) has Purdue ranked #57 and Notre Dame ranked #58, although Sagarin has Notre Dame's schedule ranked #42 in toughness compared to Purdue's #122.

The Purdue offense has been modestly more successful than the Irish "O", particularly in the running game where the Boilers have been "mediocre" compared to ND's "pathetic". While Purdue is averaging a few more passing yards per game, the yards-per-attempt and yards-per-completion for these two teams are almost identical.

The defenses have had similar statistics year-to-date, with the edge to Purdue, but I believe that edge is more than offset by the fact that Notre Dame has played two games against BCS-conference opponents, while PU has played two games against non-BCS teams (Northern Colorado and Central Michigan).

Given the apparent parity between these two teams coming into the game, it will be decided by the factors that normally decide close games: Field position, turnovers, and special teams. Notre Dame has generally been performing much better in all those categories this season, and if that trend continues the Irish should win this game. While I would love to see Notre Dame pound Purdue with the running game, I am not holding my breath for it. The Irish couldn't run the ball against the Boilers last year, and they couldn't run it last week against MSU. What the Irish do seem to be able to do is throw the ball, and that's what I expect to see on Saturday.

In addition to the normal OC Domer obsession with winning the field position battle I want to add a couple points of emphasis for this week: First, no turnovers in the Red Zone. Second, convert at least 66% of our field goal attempts, including all attempts inside 40 yards.

I'm trying to find a way to articulate how important this game is for the Irish. But really, they're all critically important. A win tomorrow equals the win total for all of 2007, puts the Irish at 3-1 and constitutes another big stride back towards respectability. A loss, even a close loss, puts the Irish at 2-2 and leaves them mired in mediocrity for at least another week. The importance of this game is to show significant improvement since last year and to begin to re-establish the habit of winning at Notre Dame. Before we can return to the national stage and play in truly big games, we have to develop the habit of winning. We have to routinely win the games we're supposed to win. The Irish failed that test last week. They get another crack at it against Purdue.

Go Irish! Pummel Purdue!

Let's put Sparty and his weird hat to bed

Did anyone else notice that Sparty was wearing some sort of flamenco dancer outfit last Saturday? Am I the only one who was disturbed by this? I'd put a picture up if I had one, but fortunately for all of you, I haven't been able to find one on the web.

My performance on last week's predictions was a mixed bag. My analysis of the match-up between the MSU offense and the Irish defense was pretty accurate, but my expectation that Notre Dame would be able to control the game with its rushing attack was woefully off the mark. I was right however about my key to the game:

[T]he key to the game will be taking care of the football, and winning the field position game. Crucial to that battle will be the ability of the Notre Dame offense to consistently move the chains and keep possession of the ball. I don't expect Sparty to turn the ball over six times. For the Irish to score, we'll need to sustain drives and finish them when we get the chance. If we have a bunch of 3-and-outs tomorrow, or if we're kicking field goals in the red zone instead of PATs, we're in trouble.

So how did the Irish do with respect to the above goals? We lost the turnover battle, throwing two interceptions and losing one fumble, versus MSU's single lost fumble. And we were awful at sustaining and finishing drives. While Sparty was a very impressive 4 for 4 in the Red Zone (two touchdowns and two field goals), the Irish were 0 for 2.

Notre Dame had 12 offensive possessions. Here were the results of Notre Dame's best four drives (in diminishing order of success):

• 75 yards on 8 plays: Touchdown. (Whoo-hoo!)
• 57 yards on 10 plays: Missed FG attempt.
• 56 yards on 6 plays: INT.
• 51 yards on 7 plays: Fumble.

The other Irish drives when we weren't having the above "success" went as follows:

• 3 plays for minus-8 yards (punt)
  
• 3 plays for 3 yards (punt)
  
• 6 plays for 10 yards (punt)
• 6 plays for 34 yards (missed FG attempt)
  
• 2 plays for 0 yards (INT)
  
• 7 plays for 19 yards (punt)
  
• 3 plays for minus-13 yards (punt)
  
• 4 plays for 7 yards (turned over on downs)

You can parse those numbers all you want, but the bottom line is the Irish offense was mostly unable to control the ball and move the chains, which meant the Irish defense spent too much time on the field trying to stop MSU's very effective running game, and eventually was worn down by Javon Ringer & Co. Just like I knew they would if the Irish "O" couldn't keep the MSU "O" off the field. Mix in some turnovers, missed field goal attempts, and Red Zone futility, and you have the perfect recipe for a very unsatisfying defeat.

I am a big Charlie Weis defender. I really believe that as a Notre Dame alumnus he "gets" Notre Dame like few others, and I think that is important. I think he's a good NFL coach who is learning the college coaching ropes and has been hampered by a Ty Willingham talent deficiency that he has been working very effectively to address. I think he's the right man for the job.

But I don't get, I don't get, I don't get, I don't get, I don't get, I don't get, I don't get WHY THE FIGHTING IRISH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME STILL CAN'T RUN THE FOOTBALL!!!!!?????? I just don't understand it. I'm not going to analyze match-ups and videotape and break down the X's and O's of why. That shouldn't be necessary because I hold it as an article of faith that NOTRE DAME SHOULD BE ABLE TO RUN THE FOOTBALL!! We should be able to recruit talented, large, smart football players and teach them to consistently push around the smaller, less talented, less smart players from other schools. That our offensive linemen can't consistently win the battle at the point of attack is a FAILURE.

And this is not new for 2007 and 2008. Even when the Irish were having great offensive success and winning a lot of games in 2005 and 2006, they could not consistently run the ball. I've been saying since the Brady Quinn era that if your best short yardage play is the quarterback sneak you have a real problem. Even when Darius Walker was putting up decent numbers, he wasn't doing it via the power run game. It was mostly draw plays, and it was mostly on his own after dodging defenders in the backfield.

I don't know if it's Coach Weis' system, or offensive line coach John Latina's ineffectiveness, or the players we've brought into the program - but Notre Dame football will not be a credible Top-10 team until we can line up and reliably run the ball for 3 or 4 yards even when the opposition and everyone in the stadium knows it's coming.

But I digress. The loss to Michigan State was very disappointing. In 2007 MSU beat Notre Dame by 17 points. Last Saturday they beat us by 16 points. That's not quite the progress I was looking for. The defense actually did a fine job of mostly containing Javon Ringer until he broke off a long run late in the game against a tired defense. Jimmy Clausen and the passing game is getting better and better - but Jimmy has to quit with the interceptions. NOW. They are drive killers and momentum changers no matter where on the field they occur. The MSU game was typical in that Notre Dame had just 12 possessions. You have to make the most of your chances and throwing the ball to the other team does not maximize return on investment.

For what it's worth, Notre Dame lost the field position battle against MSU. Average starting field position for the Irish was the 29 yard line. ASFP for Sparty was the 32. Coincidence? I think not.

OSU stuns the Trojans. No, not that OSU.

Well, once again a Pete Carroll Trojan team billed as the "Best Ever in the History of Football (Pro or College!)" loses to an unranked Pac-10 foe, probably because they started to believe the hype written about them in the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Trojan.

Notre Dame fans are, of course, devastated by the USC loss. Faced with a schedule that is much weaker than that of previous seasons, the Irish were counting on the significant boost in "strength of schedule" rating that a November win over an undefeated USC would have provided. Crunching the numbers, the staff here at OC Domer have concluded that the USC loss to Oregon State probably puts Notre Dame's chances of playing in the National Championship game mathematically out of reach.

As for the Trojans, they fell pray to the same malady that besets many great, or near great, teams. Coming out of the gate 2-0, winning a huge game on the national stage in week 2, teams are vulnerable to both complacency (over-confidence) and the natural let-down that follows an emotional high. Being the best coach in the history of college football (ever!), you would have expected USC Coach Pete Carroll to see this coming, especially after watching the same phenomenon topple the Irish against Michigan State last Saturday. But it seems that Pete and the Trojans are as human as Charlie Weis and the Irish, so both teams after three games sit at 2-1.

A couple of additional thoughts:

1. Mark Sanchez for Heisman! Not. Sanchez plays well within the USC system, just like Matt Leinart and J.D. Booty did. But that system only requires the QB to take the snap, drop back in the pocket, eat a brown-bag lunch, read the sports section of the L.A. Times, and then heave the ball down the field to receivers running wide-freaking-open in the secondary. But the system breaks down when the quarterback actually comes under a little pressure, or when an opponent actually covers the USC receivers as they run their routes. We saw with Leinart, Booty, and now Sanchez that they are still good QBs, but they are very human when they have to deal with tight coverage and pressure like other quarterbacks who have mere mortals as teammates.

2. After USC annihilated that other OSU, Buckeye fans were left muttering about how the game would have been different if Beanie Wells had played. They were generally shouted down by experts (i.e., the idiots on ESPN) who assured us that Beanie is good, but that the game wouldn't have been much different with him in it. Watching freshman Beaver running back Jacquizz Rodgers gash and befuddle the USC defense to the tune of 186 yards and two touchdowns, I now wonder if Beanie might have made a bigger difference in the most recent Game of the Century.