ND <r><SIZE size="200"><s></s>Are We relevant now?<e></e></SIZE><br/> <br/> Relevant or not, we are going to the BCS National Championship Game!<br/> <br/> We went to LA, slapped them around, took all their goodies and left them crying! <br/> <br/> <SIZE size="200"><s></s>We're 12-0! Like it or not, We're back<e></e></SIZE></r>
ND <r>Sorry Motorcity Gator....<br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> We'll take it from here!!!!<br/> <br/> It's great to be an Irish Fan today!</r>
ND <r>Rick Reilly tweet before the game:<br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> have a nice time in South Bend Rick! You idiot!!!</r>
Congratulations guys for an amazing season. Running the table with the schedule the Irish faced is incredible.
Well now......what have we here? The Fighting Irish have waded through entire armies of pissants to go undefeated, 12-0, in 2012 and head for the National Championship game! Thank God that I have lived to see this day. The special bottle of whiskey that I saved for this occasion had a wee bit of dust on it, but it tastes just fine... This morning's LA Times stayed true to form as they have all week...all but guaranteeing a Trojan victory... http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/usc/la-sp-1124-plaschke-max-wittek-20121124,0,2321247.column For the Terrible Trogs, this is the winter of their discontent; an unending nightmare of tears, recriminations and agony that will continue for the next 12 months. In a single season, they managed to get wangdoodled by the three schools that they hate the most: 1. UCLA 2. Notre Dame 3. Stanford. It was the season of settling old scores and the Boys of Troy have been pounded from pillory to post. Nothing further need be done to them by the Irish or the Cardinal; I'm sure the UCLA Bruin fans have something special prepared in addition to what will certainly be 12 months of unrelenting cyber-character assassination by the followers of the baby bears in Westwood and all over this part of the state... Just close your eyes and imagine their upcoming Holiday Season! While they're stuck in El Paso, or the Weed-Eater Bowl or some other God-forsaken place, Stanford or UCLA will be in the Rose Bowl, with the loser in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego: Happy Effing New Year! In January they can watch Notre Dame and the other programs that didn't cheat compete for a National Title! Hoo ha! BTW- where did they say they stuck that sword? Better clean it off; you don't know where it's been...
I watched this game with my eldest son who was baptized into the Irish football faith at the age of six in 1986. By midnight the two of us looked as if we had played in the game ourselves. On the ride home from his house int he middle of the night I thought back to the 1988 championship game that he and I watched together. As the Irish were finishing off West Virginia he was cheering wildly as he did last night. Of course, as an 8 year old he thought this was something of a regular ritual for Notre Dame. Ironically, as a 35 year old at the time, I felt pretty much the same as he did. After BC knocked us out of contention at the end of the 1993 season my then 13 year old son asked forlornly if the Irish would ever win the NC again. It was then that I blurted out this oath.... " if they do, you and I will get matching tattoos to mark the occasion"! Not ever having a tattoo ( and still don't ), I screamed this vow out not only to shock my wife but to steel our resolve at that moment of utter and complete despair. Last night my soon to be 32 year old son looked at me as the final seconds ticked down and we laughed at the possibility that within the next six weeks we may be sitting side by side in tattoo parlor.
George, I had already pictured you with tattoos up and down both arms. Hey I was rooting for USC for one reason, the Gators would very possibly have been in the Championship game if they had won. However I am happy for my Notre Dame friends here on Skybox. So enjoy the ride.
"Would have" is the operative word. The Irish deserve to be where they are.... they persevered in every game ( even though a little luck of the Irish was necessary vs. Pitt ) ND and Florida both are similar teams this season... suffocating defense.... good special teams and enough offense especially rushing to get it done in the biggest games. That formula would have worked well for UF in the SEC title Game and I expect it to work well for Notre Dame in what I think will be a hotly contested BCS Final that I think could go either way.
ND <r>O.K. ND guys. Here's the Irish Connection SC Gameday video. Great stuff!!<br/> <br/> <URL url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THh55bPVBUI&feature=youtube_gdata_player"><LINK_TEXT text="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THh55bPV ... ata_player">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THh55bPVBUI&feature=youtube_gdata_player</LINK_TEXT></URL></r>
On the game, this was a lot like the OU game IMHO. OU had a big strong arm QB with a couple of fleet WR's and there were questions how ND's back end would hold up. The USC WR's would get behind our guys no doubt and the big play would allow them to win. Well they covered the USC WR's deep extremely well, one pick and one great acrobatic catch by Lee that lead to the Goal line stand. Other than that, just like OU they had to be satisfied with short quick passes in front of the Irish DB's and LB's. And just like OU they eventually made a mistake and #5 made them pay, and just like OU who seemed to run the ball well early but not as the game wore on, USC ran the ball well early but couldn't sustain it. And the QB and the RB's were just so solid, no mistakes pounded the ball, Theo Riddick was the heart of this offense. Not Cierre Wood who everybody kept expecting to show why he should be the starter, and Golson who just kept getting a little better, and the WR's who are unhearlded but keep making plays and Tyler Eifert who just does what is necessary. Can you imagine what this team would have been like if Kelly could have fixed the Red Zone offense? USC would have lost by 30 points. Kelly mentioned post game that we can still get better, that's why I'm optomistic about beating who ever the SEC sends. We have not peaked, Golson and Kelly with 44 days to work on the red zone offense, we could be much better by BCS Champ game time. I don't know if our defense is the best in the country or if it's better than any SEC defense but I do know we are a very solid defense that just makes it damn hard for you to score. USC got 1 Touchdown! OU got 1 touchdown, Michigan didn't get a touchdown, Stanford offense didn't get a touchdown, Miami didn't get a touchdown, Michigan State didn't get a touchdown. Just an amazing season on defense. And remember this is a defense that didn't get a lot of points from it's offense and had to keep us in the games.