Well while we wait to see what bowl the Irish end up playing in this year might as well chat about other stuff. Watched the last 5 minutes of the ND/Iowa basketball game and it was a good game, Iowa is a ranked team and we're not but we hung in there with them. Just based on the last 5 minutes, we don't play very good defense or Iowa is awesome on offense because pretty much they scored or got fouled every trip down the court and we could never catch up. I haven't seen the ND Ladies basketball team but we're #4 and should have a very good team again this year. Skylar will be missed of course but there is a lot of talent on the team and more on the way as Coach McGraw seems to have hit her stride as a recruiter. I guess it's the old success breeds success. Irish Mens Soccer is in the NCAA Quarterfinals and they play Mich State at Alumni Field this Saturday. If they win it's on to the Final Four. On the football front, coaches are out recruiting around the country. Hopefully we get some good players as we close. Doesn't look like we are going to get a RB in this years class but maybe we'll pick up a couple of ILB in the Morgan and Sykes kids from Illinois. I hope we don't have anybody flip on us but that's always a possibility in today's recruiting world. A lot of kids of course are going to announce at the Army AA Bowl or the ESPN All-Star event. So early Jan will be big. I see that Kelly has named Mike Denbrock as the OCoord for the bowl game. I would now make him the odds on favorite to be the next OCoord. He and Kelly go back a way and it seems to me that Kelly puts a lot of value in that, I can't imagine him bringing in some hot shot OCoord who would want to change the offense. Hockey seems to be struggling a little, have had some good wins like one recently vs Wisconsin but we've lost a couple of Hockey East games. Hopefully we'll get it turned around.
I see the women beat Penn State last night in basketball. PSU is coached by Coquise Washington a former ND player and coach. Muffet gave her high praise after the game, calling her the best young coach in the NCAA. She also has a law degree from ND. I don't see Coach McGraw stepping down anytime soon, things are going very well for her right now. She's only 58 and while she's been coaching for 32 years, I could easily see her coaching another 10 years baring health issues that of course can always come up. Here's a good article on Chuck Martin to Miami (OH). Chuck Martin
Re: women. Taya Reimer, a 6'3" freshman from Hamilton SE HS here in Fishers (same school as Gary Harris, MSU, and Zak Irvin, Michigan) is getting double-doubles in scoring and rebounding almost every game. This year's team seems to have more depth than last year's, due, I'm sure, to Muffet's recruiting, as Terry has pointed out.
Sid for some reason you are always right in the middle of ND talent!! I don't think it's a coincidence! Irish Bowl prospects seem to be down to the Hawaii Bowl or the Poinsetta Bowl in San Diego...opponent would be Boise State. We have 2 common opponents, Air Force and BYU. Boise lost to BYU and beat Air Force. I have seen Boise play a couple of times this year, they aren't nearly as good as those Boise teams who played in BCS bowls. I think they don't have the QB they need this year. They are 8-4 like us, losing to Wash, Fresno State and San Diego State in addition to BYU. I'd like to see us in the San Diego Bowl myself.
If there is such a thing as bowl hell, this is it. December in the Bronx while all of New York is gearing up for New Years Eve. They are suggesting it be against either Rutgers or Houston. Neither offer much in the form of bragging rights with a win. I don't think Rutgers can beat us under any circumstances but Houston runs a wide open spread which means they can. For the record, Houston played Rutgers in NJ this year and beat the hell out of them. Let it be untrue.....
I was hoping for the Poinsettia Bowl myself. It's a straight freeway drive from my new house...and Boise State's coach just took the UDub job...
Apparently last nights loss by NIU affected ND's bowl options. If Baylor beats Texas and OSU beats Oklahoma then the B12 will most likely get 2 BCS bowls and leave open the Heart of Dallas Bowl, ND could end up there now.
ND <t>Terry,<br/> From what I read in appeared that ND had already committed to the Pinstripe bowl and wouldn't be looking elsewhere. Sounds good to me though and I'm sure the players would rather play in some warmer weather.</t>
2015 OL Tristen Hoge from Idaho, his dad was a NFL player for the 'Boys...which I won't hold against him! Commited to the Irish today. Along with Louisiana OL Jerry Tillery we've got a great start on another top OL class. Harry Heistand is showing us that he can recruit as well as coach. That was a great hire for Kelly.
ND <t>Tristen Hoge appears to be not only the top center in the 2015 class but one of the top 50 players in the country for 2015.</t>
ND <r>And the answer is.......<br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> All I can say is it should be an easy win and hopefully puts a positive early spin on the 2014 season. No much more to be gained out of it.</r>
There are no easy wins for us this year. They better come ready to play or we'll lose. We aren't good enough to take anybody lightly.
With MSU's win tonight, I just looked back on the season and felt we pissed away 2 games, Mich. and Pitt. We gave Ok. their margin of victory in the first 2 1/2 min. of the game and couldn't hang with Stanford with all the injuries we had. We should have been at worst 10-2. Not a good season.
ND <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> Well you're probably right on that Terry but...Rutgers really isn't very good....really. If you take the worst game ND played this year that would still be good enough to be these guys. I'm just sayin. <br/> <br/> But, you know they will show up fired up to play the Irish and I've seen worse team give ND fits.</r>
Compared to expectations, maybe, but how realistic were the expectations? It wasn't a bad season, but it wasn't the season we wanted.....10-2 or better. Upon reflection, we've come a long way in the past 4 years. I would suggest that we try to avoid the short memory syndrome and remember that it wasn't long ago that we were absorbing 30 point trouncings by slightly above average teams. It wasn't that long ago that we would have been thrilled with a 8-4 season. The bar has been raised by the outstanding performance of the 2012 team. Going forward, we should never again be satisfied with an 8-4 record. We've come a long way and we have a long way to go. Returning to elite status year after year is a tough road, but we are moving forward steadily despite the bumps and ruts. We can point to correctable problems in 3 of our 4 losses, which is something we couldn't do under Weis , Willingham, and Davie. I look forward to seeing those problems corrected and a return to the days when we expect to win every single time we take the field.