bartshan-83

Mark, Rich...believe me guys....I know how bad that MSU loss looks. I still shake my head at what happened that day. All I can gather is that the Spartans were a drastically different team the first month of the season. Something happened, ala Tennessee and they have totally shut down. Doesn't exuse anything, but I'm grasping for answers. As far as Oregon goes, I don't give them the nod over either ND or OSU because I strongly believe that both the Irish and Buckeyes are better teams. I know that ND would beat Oregon if they played, and I bet OSU would do that same. That is why I think both teams should get in first. One loss or not...I'm looking for the best matchup. I mean as you said, Rich, Oregon's only loss is to the #1 team in the country. PSU's only loss is to a 4-loss team. Do you think Oregon should be ranked higher than Penn St.? I don't see many Penn St. fans (or anyone for that matter) complaining that Oregon is so low in the BCS rankings for their 1-loss season. Same with LSU....their SOS (according to that site) is #71...twenty spots lower than Oregon. And their only loss is to a SIX-loss team. Should Oregon be ranked higher than them? Do you think Oregon is better than them? I know that if I wasn't an ND fan/alum I would look at it more objectively. But I still think Notre Dame is better than any of the 1 and 2 loss teams that may be left out of the BCS. And that is why they should get in. my opinion...

my fault...wasn't my argument anyway. Just hate it when people complain about others not going through and finding their posts before they make their own. Especially when those posts are weeks old (and older). I don't care how many posts you have...I just brought it up sarcastically as point of reference for what I should be reviewing before posting. If you had 10,000...I would have said 10,000.

I'm sure you have all seen the BCS for this week...but to recap: 1. USC 2. Texas 3. Penn State 4. LSU 5. Virginia Tech 6. Ohio State 7. Oregon 8. Notre Dame 9. Miami 10. Auburn 11. West Virginia 12. UCLA What I think will happen: USC v. Texas PSU v. LSU V. Tech v. West Virginia (wouldn't mind seeing this re-match. I think another SEC team should get in before ANY Big East team but thats what happens with auto-bids from sh-- conferences). ND v. OSU What I want: USC v. Texas (I'd take USC basically playing at home). ND vs. 1. PSU 2. Miami 3. OSU (Would love any of these teams and I think we can take all 3). LSU v. VT (Would be nice to see Vick try to take down LSU's D) OSU v. W. Virginia (Bucks def. deserve a BCS....and even their fans are kidding themselves if they think ND will draw the Big East winner. Unless ND/OSU is in the cards then I fear they will get stuck with this one). As a ND fan, I would love to get PSU, but I chose the other schools because I think Penn St. deserves to play someone ranked higher. LSU would be a great matchup I think. So would VT. Who would you have?

its a good thing I re-read all 15 of your posts before I think of typing anything. Wouldn't want to 'steal' anything from you.... what were you thinking dev/null?

Who ran up the score?

classy

SC admits to 10 NCAA violations C'mon Lou...Not again! Say it ain't so! Could slow down Spurrier's resurrection plans.

I am nuts, or did it seem like at least one member of Navy's offensive line was moving before the snap on almost every play?? I'd never seen anything like it. I saw both tackles move obviously at least 5 times and the center kept doing this thing where he would rock forward before he snapped the ball. It was very bizarre. And they only called like 3 penalties in the entire game. Anyone else catch this?

Fair enough. 1. USC 2. Texas 3. Alabama 4. Miami 5. PSU 6. VT 7. ND 8. Georgia 9. LSU 10. OSU

BCS - Week 4 Highlights: USC and UT are far and away #1 and #2 as expected. Alabama is baaaarely holding off Miami. (Scores are .8814 to .8805 ) Penn St. comfortably in 5th Georgia and Oregon in a pretty tight race (9th and 10th respectively).

Amidst all the "what if" talk among the 1-loss teams, I was thinking about Notre Dame's what if scenario as well. Some of you may dismiss this as being biased, but hear me out: If Notre Dame had beaten USC, they would most likely be #2 in both polls and left out of the Rose Bowl. My explanation: At the time of that game, we were ranked #9 in both polls. The rankings (and I'll just use AP to save time) looked like this: 1. USC 5-0 2. UT 5-0 3. VT 6-0 4. FSU 5-0 5. Georgia 5-0 6. Bams 5-0 7. Miami 4-1 8. PSU 6-0 9. ND 4-1 10. LSU 3-1 Seeing how Miami jumped over Alabama by beating VT, I have no doubt that we would have gone to at least 4th, behind UT, VT and FSU. They would obviously have put USC behind us somewhere. Now since then, VT and FSU have lost. That puts us at #2 behind Texas and above Alabama. It might look something like this: 1. UT 9-0 2. ND 7-1 3. Bama 9-0 4. USC 8-1 5. Miami 7-1 6. LSU 7-1 7. PSU 9-1 8. VT 8-1 9. Georgia 7-1 10. OSU 7-2 Here's the sad part. Since the BCS has been released, we have been ranked at least 4 spots behind our AP ranking: (Week 1: 12/16 Week 2: 10/15 Week 3: 9/14 Week 4: 7/11) So I have little doubt that we would be right in the 4-6 range in the BCS right now. So we would probably be counting on a loss by one or more of: USC, Bama, Miami, PSU or Texas. We would probably need at least 2 of them to lose...which while possible, is unlikely. So thats my "what if" story. And while losing that terrible game to USC was gut-wrenching, it pales in comparison to being left out of the big game. Not saying that I wouldn't still have rather beaten USC. I would have loved to smash them all over the field...for many reasons. Just saying the loss doesn't hurt as bad right now.

Very true about timing. If Urban Meyer did not include Notre Dame in his "out" clause from Utah, Tyrone Willingham would still be the coach. They ditched him under massive pressue from alumni (who paid for the buyout of his contact, BTW) because they thought they had their man. Period.

Quinn isn't going anywhere. He will be in South Bend next year, he'd be a fool to leave. He has already progressed so much under Weis and will enter next season as possibly the Heisman favorite. He has too much to gain by staying with Weis and this team as long as he can. And I'd love a BCS matchup between us two. If it is a possiblity, and I'm very certain is will be, the committee will make it happen. ND v. PSU would be a huge draw and would also be a very good game.

I'll give you a pass on ND because I can imagine if I wasn't as fan, I could see that argument. I don't quite understand Florida. How can you give them the same #7 and leave ND out on the same basis? WHO has Florida beaten besides Georgia w/o their QB? No one. They have lost their only tough games. C'mon man, your USC argument is getting a little silly. This season alone they have beaten TWO very good football teams. First they trounced Oregon AT Oregon and handed them their only loss. And they beat Notre Dame South Bend. They have beaten the #7 and #11 teams AWAY. And what about last year? Does beating the #2 team in the country, Oklahoma, 55-19 in the NATL champ game not count? Wins over Cal, AZ St. and Michigan not count? Give them their due. Mine would look like this: 1. USC 2. Texas 3. Alabama 4. Miami 5. VT 6. PSU 7. ND 8. Georgia 9. LSU 10. OSU

You're gonna have to get through us. I'm hearing a possible Fiesta Bowl matchup. Crossing my fingers.

Miami (5) at VT (3): VT. I was not impressed with the Hokies when the season started and thought they were pretenders. But it's getting really hard to argue with what they've done. Wisconsin (14) at PSU (10): Penn St. Big 10 up for grabs....I hope state takes it. I think Happy Valley gives them the edge here. Cal (23) at Oregon (15): Cal. I'm pullin for the Bears so ND can start moving up this clusterfvck BCS that has us at 14 for some reason. Haven't really seen much of Oregon though. Tenn at ND (8): Irish. Well maybe this is a stretch but it sure was looking like a great matchup a month ago. The Vols are drowning, but I wouldn't take them lightly. I think we come away with it. a few others: A&M @ Tech...Could be interesting. Mizzou @ CU....Colorado trying to tame the mighty Big 12 North.... Stanford @ USC....being hyped up but I see the trojans thumping them. Who ya got? GO IRISH!!!!

Well that sure didn't take long. Jason Whitlock, a Page 2 writer for ESPN.com has called the Weis extension racist. RACIST His argument, as has been discussed here is that Ty should have gotten a huge extension after his 8-0 start and because Weis did after a 'not as good' start, ND is being racist and arrogant. Let me start my rant by saying how disappointed I am in how Notre Dame was treated in the media for being racist regarding it's firing of Ty. Notre Dame will never be remembered as the big time college program who hired a black coach, but instead the one that unfairly threw him on out on his ass. With all the talk about how black men are vastly under-represented in coaching and ownership in College and Pro football (with which I agree), there was no where near the amount of positive press for ND giving a black coach a shot as there was negative when we 'classlessly and racistly' fired him. If anything, I think this has hurt the movement to increase the amount of black coaches in football. I think programs are weary of the backlash they will receive in the media if they have to make a tough decision with the coach. I'm glad this fear did not stop Notre Dame because I know if we had kept Ty, we would be on our way to another 6-5 or 7-4 season (maybe) with a couple of serious ass-kicking at the hands of USC, MSU and Tenn. along the way. Having said that... I am even more disappointed in the new call of racism against Notre Dame. To say that the situations are similar is so assinine, it borderlines on insanity. Forget trying to compare the impressiveness of the two coaches' starts. This whole thing is about the coach, not the record. The media has slobbered over Weis this entire season with a ball washing worthy of Tedy the Great. There has been talk about how great Weis is and how he will be heavily courted by every NFL team that needs a coach this off-season. With the amount of screw ups Kevin White has put on his resume that last years, it's no wonder he sh*t his pants and gave Weis the extension. There was no way in hell that ND was going to allow even the smallest of possibilities that we would lose him to anybody to exist. We can't afford another embarassment. THAT is why Charlie got the extension. We never feared we would lose Tyrone. And as much as Whitlock wants to downplay the NFL card, it is absolutely relevant. There is probably a 99% chance that Weis would have stuck to his word at the end of this year and stayed loyal. But allowing that 1% to exist would have been a mistake. Fear drove this extension, not merit. Yes, Weis has done a great job, but a 10 year extension to make a coach the highest paid in the middle of his first year is not sound business practice. White knows he is taking another risk handling it this early. But, what a lot of people seem to be missing, is that NOT doing this was the far greater risk.

First off, MSU was playing amazing football early in the season. They have since stumbled. Second, if you consider a 44-41 OT loss as "getting tossed around" then what would you consider a 22-16 loss? That was the score the only time a Willingham coached team played MSU at South Bend. Ty has never been, and never will be a big time coach. Plain and simple.

The biggest difference between Charlie's hot start and Ty's is the way we have won. I don't know how many of you remember our 8-0 start that year, but it was the shakiest 8-0 ever. Our offense was godawful...there were games where our defense would outscore them. We got all the breaks, all the bounces and just seemed to have the "luck of the irish." Then when BC finally nipped us, it opened up the floodgate. We were exposed. USC thumped the sh-- out of us in the game which gift-wrapped the Heisman for Carson Palmer. It was just apparent that we weren't as good as we played in the beginning. Not saying that I wasn't optimistic, everyone was. It just wasn't as convincing as it appeared. With Weis, it's a whole new ball game. He promised that we would never get blown out again...and he has delivered. We have lost 2 heart breaking games and bounced back stronger than ever each time. We have a very good chance to run the table and get into the BCS...something even Ty couldn't do with the big start. Weis is no fluke. He is a winner and locking him up was the smartest thing Kevin White has done in a long time.

I just think too many things can go wrong when you call the pass there. And something did. Yeah Josh shouldn't have dropped it, but he's dropped his share. If McGahee gets stuffed, so be it. But I'd take my chances with a Top 5 back.

4th Quarter....Up 10-7...3rd and 2 at the Patriot's 17. We are pounding the ball all game, our RB is pumpin, we are in the redzone....and we decide the best play on a 3rd and 2 is a pass to Josh Reed. Just so indicative of the decisions made by this staff. They get too cute...try to outsmart everyone. That drive was really a statement as it started on the 3 yd. line and McGahee already had 5 carries for 27 on the drive alone. A 97 yd. drive to take a 10 pt. lead would have been a shot in the mouth. But as if Kevin Gilbride was conjured up, the 3rd and short pass screwed us again. I don't know if we even would have converted, let alone scored, but it was just the decision that really bothered me. I just don't understand it sometimes.

Good move. I was very, very sure that Weis would never leave (his son comment and a few others guided my thinking here), but it's nice to get a guarantee. He will have his ups and downs no doubt...I mean by now 3/4 of the Irish fanbase are probably already expecting a National Championship next year.....but it is very obvious what he has brought to this team. As for spending tuition money, if Notre Dame football is doing well, every dollar spent was worth it. The football team brings in an obscene amount of money and every success on the field just compounds that. Just look at Ty's first year when we won the first 7 games, those green shirts took off. A student designed t-shirt became a national story because we won 7 games in a row. Locking up Charlie is one of the few correct moves Kevin White et al. have made in the fast 5 years.

Agreed. And I'll even take it one step further....what makes the NFL tie-breakers so much more fair? Who decided that conference record should be more important than point differential, etc.? What if you happened to play in a sh------- division and then played all the sh------- teams in your conference? Why should you get a playoff spot over a team that may have played a much harder schedule but lost one more game? I'm not really arguing for one side or another, I'm simply saying that tie-breaker rules are just as arbitrary and subjective as rankings or BCS formulas. Human beings manipulate them, therefore there are subject to critcism. Just because they seem more concrete in one case doesn't make it so. I agree. You lose once, nothing is given to you.

Totally agree. Sometimes, less is more. (Always in the case of TBD). Of course if ND is left out of the BCS, I might get a little cranky.