If this guy is right....and I believe he isn't far from the truth....then the Irish will be stuck with Chollie for quite some time because I just don't think the schedule can prevent what should be a pretty decent ND team from getting to the BCS promised land of big bucks. And we know how that pleases the Fathers in S Bend..... http://cfn.scout.com/2/865030.html
I think most ND fans would be just fine with Charlie coaching the 10 years he said he wanted to coach and I don't think many ND coaches even the greats have lasted more than 10 years give or take. If he makes it to 10 it'll be because he's got the program back to being one of the best. That review is pretty much what you are going to read about the Irish this year, we have talent for the Pro Style/New England offense fatboy prefers and the defense should be good (not great). The only thing that sticks out is that the writer describes Mich State as potentially the best team in the B10. They have a good coach so I'm sure they'll be good but they are replacing some important players so while I could go for them saying MSU could be one of the top 4 teams in the B10 yeah...but the best...that would be suprising. Terry
I have a few beefs with the article (what's new?) 1. How is Charlie supposed to recruit top flight talent to a school while telling everyone, "we're gonna stink for the next 2 yrs?" That's stupid and would have been ineffective. Charlie took the optimistic approach and recruited well. The writer is off base. Then I take offense to his comment that ND was "obliterated" in their 2 BCS bowl games. I was at the Fiesta Bowl against OSU. It was a pretty competitive game. OSU won by 14. ND trailed by only 7 late in the game. They had a pick 6 called back which really effected the outcome. This "obliterated" lie is a popular myth. Both their opponents in the BCS games would play for the NC the following year.
That Fiesta Bowl game was close on the scoreboard, but if you look at the Stats I believe OSU gained over 600 yards against the Irish. That's what allows people to call it a blowout or whatever. I think Tressels conservative nature, kept the game closer than it really was, but we did have life esp after that pick 6. What did they have something like 3 TD plays over 60 yds?
CW <t>If CW and ND win 10 games this year I'll be more than happy to be "STUCK" with him for the next 10. If he recruits the way he has after the last 2 forgetable seasons imagine how he will do with a little success on the field behind him! We'll see, we'll see.</t>
Well I guess that Tex. obliterated SC in the championship game then. They gained over 600 yds. too. (you just never hear the game reported that way.)
Without checking I am assuming from a fuzzy memory that OSU totally outgained ND in that game whereas USC stayed right with Texas in their NC game. If the game were truly close I doubt many ND fans would have questioned where their team was at going forward.
But the Stat chart was OSU 617 total yds to ND 348 yds. They had 275 yds rushing to our 62. Where as in the Rose Bowl USC had 574 yd to Texas 556. So the stat charts for those 2 games are not similar. One shows the scoreboard reflected how close the game was, the other makes you wonder how we held them to 34 points.
I think if you laid out all the yards we gave up in those two BCS bowls end to end it was roughly the distance between Key West and Bangor, Maine. 8)
That's the way football is sometimes, in the end the final score is all that counts. If your team ran up and down the field all day on the the other team but failed to take advantage of your opportunities, and the other team just hung in their by their fingernails and gets lucky late and wins the game that happens every weekend. The best team (stats) doesn't always win. The Irish hung in that game, and at the end of the game I thought..damn we have a shot...then Pittman rips off that big run and it's over. But the Buckeyes let us hang around in no small part due to our gritty young lads, so we did have a shot at the end.
Some other strange things about that Fiesta Bowl. First of all almost half of OSU's yardage came on 4 plays all on 3rd and long situations. Second, the game would have been even closer if a runback by Zibby wasn't called back in the 4th qtr.
You've blocked out the game getting close at 27-20 and facing 3rd and 5 and the prospect of a possible punt to the Irish Offense? You forgot the TD that the refs called back (probably not correctly)?
I don't have a dog in this scrap but I think the prevailing memory....fuzzy as it is....is that OSU pretty much ran up and down the field that night while ND was more average at moving the ball. Sorta like remembering a game like UM-Fla in the CapOne Bowl and instead of remembering the game was tied with just a few minutes left my memory is mostly of Chad Henne and those receivers having their way with a young Florida secondary....but hey.....those UF defenders grew up and played pretty well the next season.
That's the deal, they were dominant in the stats but still the Irish had a chance inspite of that. OSU WR fumbled the ball and ND recovered, that was reversed by the refs (rightly or wrongly) and they scored on that and the Irish were down 27-20 had them deep in their won territory and just had to hold them on 3rd down to get the ball back in good field position...but they didn't and they lost. Had the Irish held, scored and beaten them Buckeye fans would have lamented how they dominated us in the stats yet still lost. But they don't have to they way it turned out. They got the W to go with the Stats domination.