I just want to say before hand that those Cheatin' B10 Refs will either attempt to steal the game from us or will actually be able to do it! Bastards! Go Irish.. ps.. just kiddin'
Do the Irish have any ref crews from a conference they may consider friendly or or is it always Big 10 refs?
Much discussion on this, most don't trust any BCS conference refs. Most seem to think for some reason that MAC officals would be fair to ND. The ideal is a "neutral national" crew that is maintained by somebody (NCAA) for independents and intersectional games.
Regarding "shootout"...I suspect that Brady, Darius, Jeff Samardzija, and company will come out ready to play and will have a big day. Sparty's only hope lies in the refs. :wink:
Hey Stu The B10 refs have one more opportunity to call a holding penalty on an ND opponent this year. Although there's an old saying that "holding occurs on every pley" ND's opponents have managed to avoid a holding penalty in 3 straight games. What odds do you think you could get from Vegas on such a streak? (assuming that Vegas would ever book anything dependant on B10 refs.)
I think the real solution lies in ND men everywhere starting to ref. I know it will take awhile as you have to start out at the bottom, but if enough do then eventually we'll have a lot of ND guys on ref crews throughout the country. Terry
Seriously this is about as big a game as Charlie has had to play. The Nat'l media is breathing down hard on his back, it's been pointed out by a number of writers that he and Willingham have the same record after 15 games. If the Irish are beaten in East Lansing, things will really get tough for Charlie. Michigan State of course has beaten us 7 out of the last 9 times we have played us. It always seems to come down to one big play late in the game, as it did last year. We all remember some of those long pass plays that they killed us with in the past, painfully. Well this Sat we are going to find out about our defense, they actually didn't play badly against UM. They gave up less than 350 yds total and 23 points. So I have hope that they can play well this saturday and if they can hold MSU 20 -25 points I really like our chances to win. MSU has no where near the quality of defense that UM has, so Brady Quinn should be able to get back on track and put up some points. But no more slow starts, these guys need to have a sense of urgency and get some points up on the first drive and never look back. Key to the whole thing is the OL needs to get a push and get Darius Walker going. If MSU doesn't have to respect the run then it makes it tough on the offense. Key to defense is containing Drew Stanton. Terry
Seems like only yesterday that I and 31 other students were relaying a football up to MSU from ND. That was for the '66 "Game of the Century." Saturday's game might be the most important MSU-ND game since then. Ah those were the days.
Mike how long did it take you guys to make the trip, how did you do the relay? Did you guys ever think about recreating the relay this year as part of the commeneration? Terry
This is from another board, the topic was "Should the B-11 cut-off ND?" Which I'm always amazed that so many B10/11 people want to do, what do they think it will accomplish?
Terry, Only reason I wouldn't want to play you this yr. is 'cause I'm afraid yer gonna clean our clocks. :lol: I really do think the ref thing is, for the most part (emphasis on "for the most part") bogus.
Terry It took us about 20 hrs. We had a school bus and a few cars. We had a few track team members who proved to be quite handy. We'd each run the ball for a mile. The bus would drive ahead a mile and then the next guy would get out and wait for the ball. We pulled into a town called Eaton Rapids at about 5:30 in the morning. There was a little diner in town with about 4 or 5 small tables. As luck would have it, it was the opening day of dear hunting and the diner had about a dozen hunters in having breakfast. All of a sudden 2 dozen guys show up in ND football jerseys. While some of us were eating in the diner the rest were playing touch football outside on main street. (Meanwhile those track guys were handling the load by themselves.) Only half of us had tickets. Johnny Dee the ND basketball coach got Biggie Munn to let the rest of the guys in for standing room. I've got an old picture of the group. I'll send it to you.