Sid I'd rather play any of those teams on your list than W. Michigan. I have said before I'm not for playing Army any more, was against the deal to play them in Yankee stadium. I'm good with playing Navy who has been a very good team for quite awhile now. I'm ok with playing teams from the Mtn West, Utah, BYU, Air Force bring them on, the Mtn West is as good as the Big East. I know that UM and Ohio State play MAC teams, and that's fine for them. Heck UM has gone to scheduling 1AA teams that's fine I don't care what they do. But I am really not eager to have a schedule of almost 1/2 non-bcs conference teams. Navy pluse 1 from Mtn West every year is fine, maybe occassionally 2 besides Navy. I don't want to play Army any more, although Army is seemingly doing better this year, maybe they are turning a corner and will be competitive with Air Force ( Regularily one of the top 3 or 4 Mtn West Teams) and Navy. Terry
Terry, I know it is the pros but the Miami Dolphins rung the wildcat a lot, with Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams both in the backfield.
Part of the problem is the insane scheduling that took place during the Holtz era. A lot of things had to change for that to take place and a lot of cards had to fall the right way but these things are a bit of a crap shoot. I would posit, strongly I might add, that Ara played some very weak schedules overall. Teams such as Miami (Fl) were a flat out joke for decades on end. Who could possibly have known all those years ago that Miami would eventually turn into the game's most dominant program beginning in the 1980s? With the passage of the scholarship restrictions, the game has slowly been changing and the mid level teams are not as bad as they once were. The MAC has absolutely given the Big10 fits in recent years. I'd say there have been more than one year in which the Mountain West (which is stronger than the MAC IMHO) has been better than the Pac10. The WAC is always up and down since there seems to be 3 to 4 teams that can be anywhere from good to great and then the rest are just kind of there. CUSA has pulled off their share of upsets. Really only the Sun Belt is trailing in the upset department and even they have some big wins over SEC teams (Alabama, to name one) and a few others over ACC foes. It's only this retarded notion of "BCS conference vs non-BCS conference" that creates this caste system and it is just wrong. Don't tell me the BCS conferences are better because there are two words you won't ever be able to defend. Big East.
Absolutely. It helps to know history. Corey, I would add to your analysis of the way the game has changed even from the early 90s, i.e., the reduced scholarships, the tremendous impact of TV. My son and I were talking about this, and he told me that his neighbor/friend, who played at Cornell, could purchase a cable package which would allow him to see every Cornell football game. Imagine that. Not that long ago, there were only two networks, CBS and ABC, that showed any games, and there were relatively very few teams that would be televised. Then along came ESPN, and more teams got exposure. Today, a kid could go almost anywhere and know that he will be on TV several times during his college career. It's been a somewhat subtle evolution over decades, but if there were studies from 25-30 years ago to today of the top 300 HS recruits each year and where they went to college, I'd bet that you would see a strong concentration among 25 or so major programs in the past and around 40 or more programs today. That's a heck of a dilution of talent over time. In short, the playing field has leveled.
Sid, Very good points. I just don't see the value in say.. playing Vanderbilt (fresh off of their loss to Army) simply because they play in the SEC. The fact is that no one just lines up and plays the top 25. You couldn't even do it if you tried. Especially since some of the other major powers have gone away from the home and home series against marquis teams, you have to grab the games you can get. Until the NCAA begins penalizing teams for scheduling IAA teams, this will only get worse. I know you saw that great article Vic posted in another section. Rather than blaming ND, why not blame those who are currently ducking out of playing bowl subdivision teams? It's not like we're afraid of Wake Forest.
True enough....I can never remember us playing a non-conf game after the start of conference play.....ever. I'm not sure I like it either.....but then they didn't ask me! :wink:
Well there is no doubt that the landscape has changed and that teams that never would have set foot inside the stadiums at ND, Texas, UM, Ohio State now are opponents. That doesn't mean that I have to like it. But it wasn't that long ago that one of the things that the Gators were being jumped on for was their schedule being so limited to the Southeast. Now ND will be playing 7 or 8 home games, leaving the midwest only for USC, Stanford, Navy (which is usually NJ/Philly). We used to play all over the country in single season. Now we're mainly a midwestern team. Sounds like prelude to B10 membership.
Slugfest in the first half 13-9 Irish. So far our defense has done a great job on the BC RB who ran for 260yds last week. But it has given up some really big pass plays, the BC TD was to a wide open reciever. Also just like against USC we've given up some very big 3rd pass plays. Jimmy looks pretty good as usual, BC defense doing everything possible to take away the deep ball and force him to throw underneath. Armando is running the ball well, Robert Hughes so far hasn't gotten untracked. Like Charlie I'm happy for the lead at halftime though.
Sitting here with my buddies watching this...I practically yelled at Charley..."You gotta kick this...you just gotta"...hope you come back and prove me wrong...I normally support playing to win but I do not understand this.
Well I'm going go for it but what the F$$k is Robt Hughes doing in the Wildcat, He should've had Armando back there. Of course the theory is always that you leave the other team at the 1/2 yard line and stop them get the ball back and score. Which is how it worked out, but of course it frequently doesn't work out that way! :shock: I'm pretty spent, having run through the gamut of emotions from oh crap we're going to lose to these guys again, to oh crap great play Brian Smith...We WIN!!
My thoughts on the game: 1. Our run defense has been getting better each week. 2. I liked the position tweeks that Tenuta made to the lineup. 3. Teo is the best linebacker to take the field in an ND game this year. 4. Will someone please introduce Harrison Smith to the guy he's suppose to cover. If they shook hands after the game, it was the only time all night Hayseed touched him. Smith spent all day early in the BC backfield until BC (smartly) began to line up the slot WR over him and make him cover. 5. BC does (as I wrote in my preview for another site) exactly what SC does. They sit back and make Charlie (and Clausen) play it 4 to 5 yards at a time. The one time they bit and went for the pick, they got burned for a TD by Golden Tate. 6. When people do this to us, we need to run vertically and utilize the draw. The edge/ perimeter rush attack does not work against this defense.
My thoughts: 1. H. Smith needs to sit 2. Defense against the run is definitely getting better 3. Tighter coverage is better than the ten yard cushion 4. Teo is far and away the best LB we have trotted out this year 5. Thank God for Nick Tausch 6. Shaq Evans is in the doghouse for something 7. Charlie continues to make decisions that defy logic.
BC Game <t>First of all I'll take any win with this bunch.<br/> <br/> 1. Yes Harrison Smith should sit and play special teams only.<br/> 2. Run defense well lets see how we do when Dion Lewis lines up across from us in a couple of weeks. For those that haven't seen him get ready.<br/> 3. In spite of the last pick another fresman QB riddled this poor secondary and I actually feel sorry for Gary Gray he is so out of his level of competition.<br/> 4. It took five years but CW finally found a FG kicker and lets be happy this kid took the offer first instead of another good one that does all the kicking for Fla. St. Both Texas kids by the way. As for our punter put an SOS out to the student body.<br/> 5. Golden Tate continues to amaze me each week just as Paul Duncan and the big lug at right tackle continue to disappoint me with penalties and zero quckness versus speed rushers.<br/> 6. Robert Hughes in the wildcat. That speaks for the head man so no comment.<br/> 7. Manti is coming on to the point lets all start praing he doesn't go mission on us somehow. I pray somehow we can get him and Chris Martin on the field together next year.<br/> 8. I was reminded again last night why I dread the Stanford game and his name is Andrew Luck.<br/> 9. Two teams I am slap happy aren't on this years schedule are Ga Tech and Houston.<br/> 10. Great job Clemson and the ATM for total surprises yesterday.</t>
Well first and foremost I'm glad for the win. I keep hoping this team will go out and dominate a team and get some style points but other than Nevada that hasn't happened. Something always gets in the way, whether its the refs, the injury to Floyd, the USC defense, our porous pass defense or something. But I'm glad for the win. I think we have a very good shot at winning out, Pitt seems to be excellent this year and will be a huge game. Charlie has commented in both the post game and todays wrapup about the defense. He said that in the BC game they essentially sold out to stop the run, didn't give the DB's a pass for all the big plays BC made in the passing game but feels like we are making some progress. The move of Harrison Smith to LB is permanent. There are some positives, Kyle McCarthy is a tough hardnosed player. He's not an AA and not got a future in the NFL but he's a good college SS. Manti Te'o is going to be a great MLB. He has a nose for the ball and he hits like a ton of bricks. Our DL is improving, I credit Randy Hart and Bryant Young, they are improving every week. There is a lot of criticism of Tenuta and Corwin Brown, which is understandable. Tenuata has dialed back the blitzing and I think that's a good thing, we just don't get to them and it leaves us vulnerable. We still don't tackle very well and that is on Corwin Brown. Some have said that Corwin is a future headcoach, I'm not sure why as he hasn't really done much as a Asst Coach. He is a great recruiter, but you have to be a little more than that. We'll see if Corwin has opportunities after the season. On offense it was frustrating not being able to throw down the field but Charlie said he was not going to get into that with BC this year, run the ball and dink and dunk. That's what we did. It worked, not esp well in terms of points on the board and we had a couple of 3 and outs to keep giving the ball back to BC late in the 4th qtr. We are better running the ball for sure, but not great. I have to wonder if Armando Allen who is clearly our best runner is physically up to the task, he's left a lot of games with injuries. Robt Hughes, I keep waiting for him to be consistently good, but he seems to be good then the next play just look weak running the ball. Jonas Gray seems to be lost this year, I assume because of fumbling problems. I wonder if we'll see Theo Riddick next weekend in San Antonio. This is the time of the year that freshman running backs usually stop being liabilities in the blitz pickup and can get on the field more often. Riddick seems to have something, I'd like to see him get some reps. Anyway I'm glad for the win as I said. We aren't a great football team but we are a good football team, if we win the rest we'll be a very good football team still not in the mix with Texas/UF/Bama/USC. On to the Battle of the Alamo!! The most encouraging stat about that game is that Wazzu is 118th in pass defense. Jimmy and Charlie are slobbering as I type!