Notre Dame <r>Terry,<br/> <br/> Please don't get me wrong because I really want to win all the rest of our games by 20 or more points!! <br/> <br/> You know me well enough after all these years posting on the boards here and back to the Prodigy days, that when it comes to Notre Dame there really is hardly anything else in my life that I have as much passion for. It's been that way since I was about 18yrs old. It still hurts me deeply when they lose and I could really honestly say there isn't any other college football team that I really care about except the Irish. I watch other teams play only if they could effect the Irish in some way or maybe it's a team on the upcoming schedule. O.K., I confess, I do watch some of our biggest rivals play if I think they might lose <E></E> and yes I do get happy when that happens but there isn't any other team I care about. <br/> <br/> Anyway, I guess I'm saying that over the past several or maybe I should say many years I been disappointed a lot. So much that now I find that I just don't want to let myself be let down again. This season thus far has turned out to be almost everything I hoped it would be after all the changes Kelly made. But even I, who you know wanted Kelly from the beginning was ready to let him go before last season was over. As much as I wanted to believe it somewhere in my mind I kept hearing it's not going to make a difference. Surprise!! Yes it has, man has it! I couldn't believe what I was seeing in the USC game and then again last saturday against NCst, but there it was, we beat those teams soundly! <br/> <br/> I'm 65yrs old now and I want another NC before I die please!! So let this be true, let us win all the rest of our games by 20 or more and end up in the final 4 and then on to the NC!!! Oh hell yes! But I still won't be unhappy about finishing with 9 or more wins and feeling we are on the right track again at the end of the season. We haven't seen the Irish play like this in a long, long time and I LIKE IT!!! <E></E></r>
I hear you Tim, after last year and all the changes and unknowns going into the season, not to mention Kelly being castigated daily on many ND fan sites. If you had told me that we'd be 9-3 or 10-2 this year, I'd have taken that in a heart beat! I thought our offense would be good, I thought our defense would not be good...I hoped for adequate. Hey some good news, Sam Mustipher has said he's going to return for his 5th year. He looks at McGlinchy and says he needs the same thing, another year to develop before he heads off to the NFL. He'll be the anchor on next years OL.
For you Hockey fans...Irish travel to Columbus for a Big 10 matchup with the Buckeyes....that just sounds weird. :?
Womens Hoops got some good news when the NCAA approved the eligibility of Neb Transfer Jessica Sheppard. With the loss of Briana Turner in last years NCAA tournament to an ACL tear that will keep her out of the 2017-18 season, Sheppard is a much needed addittion to the Irish front line. She had a very good Big10 career at Neb. To tell you the truth I am clueless as to why the NCAA granted her this exception. I guess who ever recruiter her to Neb got into some sort of trouble and was fired and I don't know how that impacted her but there have been other situations where coaching changes have lead to transfers that the player didn't have to sit out. KState had a guard from Spain leave during some coaching turmoil there and she was immediately eligible at FSU where she transfered. But never the less a great addition to this years Irish squad.
News flash!!!! Since Pat Summitt left the team, lady Vols basketball has fell so far down that the men's team can now hold their own against them.
Article about what ND football does for the South Bend economy at ESPN. I'm sure that there are similar stories at other big time football schools. Keep in mind that ND alums are mostly from states other than Indiana and so many fans just can't make it a day trip to games. http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/21261792/notre-dame-fighting-irish-economy-weekend-south-bend-college-football
Losing one of the greatest coaches in basketball history, it's hard not to have the program take a step back. But the good news is that the Lady Vols had the top recruiting class for 2017
Irish get their first win ever as a member of the Big 10 Conference. Beating Ohio State at Columbus 4-1 in Hockey. They play again Sat night. Irish Men beat Bethel tonight 88-59 in their 2nd Exhibition game. Irish Women beat Indiana U of Pennsylvania 108-40 in an Exhibition game.
Wake has had some key injuries, one to their leading reciever who is a freshman but having a terrific season. I think they had another key injury on defense. If we come out and play like we are capable I think the game could be over at halftime. But then it wasn't too long ago that a mediocre BC team hung close for a half. So who knows. Anybody buy the 33 Truckin' Hat? I love Josh Adams and the proceeds go to a good cause....but I don't really like Trucker Hats!
Notre Dame <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> Me either but I sure hope Adams keeps putting up Heisman numbers.</r>
Notre Dame <r>Cover the spread? That will teach me to open my mouth!<br/> <br/> That's not how the #3 team in the nation should play. <E</E></r>
We played 3 quarters without our Heisman candidate. We played more than a quarter without our starting QB. We never were in danger of losing this game after the first quarter. Who anywhere near us can say that?
What will save us, I think, from trading places with Clemson is that they struggled with the same team we clobbered last week. But giving up 600 yards and 37 points to Wake Forest is not the way to impress the bowl committee. On the plus side Ian Book looked very good.
The game was never in doubt. All we need to do is be the best team in the stadium for each of the next 3 Saturdays.
Good game Irish, hope we can make life exciting for you next week, as I've said earlier, you are playing great ball at the moment. Nothing but respect from this Cane fan...
That was a weird game in a lot of ways. We rushed for almost 400 yds without our best RB. It didn't really feel like it, but that's the stats. We did leave some points out there, Claypool dropped a sure TD and then Dexter broke out and a healthy Dexter takes it to the House but he looked like he was running in Mud. Kelly said after the game he's still not able to fire like they want him. I guess that means he's not 100%. The offense did make a lot of good plays though, Wimbush had almost 300yds passing, and if Claypool doesn't drop that and he had some good throws downfield that were close but no cigar. Flutie said he was holding the ball a little to long allowing the DB to catch up and make the play. Durham Smythe is quietly having a very good year, he made some excellent plays. I was maybe a little surprised that we threw the ball so much, we threw it 38 times. Wimbush still doesn't look crisp making his throws, not like that Wake QB. That guy was quick, sharp, and decisive throwing the ball. But 48 points, 700 yds, yeah hard to not like that and I do think that the WF defense played very well even given what we did to them. They just couldn't keep us from making the big play. Defense, stunk today. I'm going to give some credit though to WF. They have a well designed offense, that QB played about as good as any QB we have faced this year, and his receivers ran good routes, made good plays on the ball. They were able to run on us esp up the middle. All of these were strengths the last 2 weeks. Last week our DB's jumped all those short routes by NCState, this week they got beat on pretty much all of them. We got no pressure to speak of on the WF QB, but even when we did he got rid of the ball quickly and when chased he made plays. If they hadn't pulled him late, I'd say there's a good chance they would have scored again to make it a 4 point game and a onside kick to come. I'm really surprised they put in the backup when they did. I'm going to give the defense a pass they played very well in 2 big emotional wins in back to back weeks. So coming out with the game they had today is not surprising. 31-10 at the half I was thinking we'd beat them 51-something....but given what happened to Ohio State, Penn State I'm going to go with it's a win and we move on! Wake is a pretty darn good football team, well coached and they came to play today, they never quit. I'd say we'll still be in the top 4, Clemson had a narrow win over a team we spanked and OU was in a no defense offensive shootout. So I won't be surprised if the top 5 stays the same, Miami jumps TCU to #6 and TCU moves up to #7 and Wisconsin #8, Washington if they win tonight to #9. Huge, Big, game next week in Miami. Biggest Miami/ND game at Miami since we went to the old Orange Bowl undefeated in 1989 and came away with the loss ending our 23 game winning streak. Miami went on to win the Nat'l Title that year. It really pissed of Lou in later years when the voters said it was head to head that counted as to why we were denied the Nat'l Title when we beat undefeated #1 ranked Colorado. In '93 we defeated FSU and won our bowl as did they, and the voters said well yeah head to head counts but not like it did in 1989 and gave the title to FSU. All went back to Lou being told head to head trumps all in 1989. Oh well, bring on the new no taunting, no rappin', no thuggery intimidation tactics, kinder gentler Hurricanes!! Go Irish!
Notre Dame <t>I'm like you Terry. I know we racked up a lot of offensive stats even without our best RB and with our QB only playing 3 QTRs but it just doesn't feel all that good. I didn't think we would give up 37 pt to anyone this year but WF had other ideas. Their QB could really get the ball out of his hands fast. <br/> <br/> Suddenly Miami seems to have a real home crowd which will make it more difficult to pull out a win next week. I think it's all on the defense. I'm pretty sure we can put up a fair amount of points on them but the D has to hold them to 20 or under. They can but not if they play like today. Go Irish!</t>
When it comes to November, just win. The rest takes care of itself. Ask Penn State or Ohio State or (insert team who went down today here) if they'd take an ugly win today. Also, Georgia and Alabama both won ugly as well. The only team that seemed to be awesome this week was Miami.