I'm curious why? With Swoops... that offense is still going to be a train-wreck against decent defenses. Do they really think the off field stuff is going to destroy the whole Irish team? I doubt it.
ND <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> Maybe they don't realize that only one of the 6 was a starter and 4 of them will suit up for the game.</r>
A bunch of the ESPN guys picked Texas, they think the new up tempo offense will be too much for the Irish. Also Kelly's road record is less than stellar.
I was listening to XM College Sports and they said the trendy pick for Texas was mainly Phil Steele, he picked Texas and people have sort of followed his lead.
ND <r>I've found Steele to be wrong just about as many times as he is right. <br/> <br/> I'm stickin with Vegas! <E></E></r>
Enjoying Austin so far but all could change tonight. Hate waiting all day for a night game. Glad we're playing golf today.
Played Barton Creek Canyons Friday, it was in great shape. Went to pep rally last night, pretty lame to tell you the truth. No band, no team, no Kelly. Mike Rosenthal spoke, he looks in great shape but certainly doesn't look like he ever played OL. Bobby Taylor spoke, and so did Reggie Brooks. The mayor of Austin was there and declared Sat ND appreciation day. But overall underwhelming. Had nice dinner downtown and went home.
As I've said other places, the Longhorns are the trendy pick to upset Notre Dame. Not sure why though. They have a true freshman QB or a Sr QB who so far has been mediocre at best. What they do have is a new OCoord and he had the offense moving well in the Spring game. So new system, new freshman QB, not sure why everybody thinks this will click in the 1st game though. They talk about the Tex WR's, and Texas has some good ones, John Burt has a lot of talent and speed. But they don't have a ton of success to build on since QB play has been so bad. Texas does have an extremely talented LB in Malik Jefferson who I'm sure will play well tonight, and they have a lot of young guys who have potential on defense. Irish fans look at our OL and think we are young but also good. McGlinchy and Q.Nelson are frequently mentioned as 1st round draft choices. The other guys are talented as well. We should have a very good OL We do have good QB's and RB's our receivers are young and talented so they will need to show that tonight. It just seems like there are more questions on Texas than on ND. One area though that is a huge potential problem is of course safety. We'll just have to see if Texas can exploit that. I certainly don't expect to beat them like we did last year, I do think we should win if we play to our potential. We'll see.
ND <r>The more I think and hear about it...it makes sense to me to try to run and run some more if we are getting any success at it at all. Also, start Malik and again run. I could be wrong and have been many times, but our Oline should be able to dominate their Dline. Just a thought <E>8)</E> <br/> <br/> RUN!!! <E></E></r>
I think Texas is gonna come out pretty jacked up and the faithful will be foaming at the mouth. I think if the Irish withstand the early emotional outburst, we should be okay.
Terry, over the years I've been to several pep rallies for away games, and I also found them boring. They can't possibly match the campus rallies because, a) the team and coaches - and in most cases, the band - aren't there, and b) let's face it, it's not the ND campus. The exception was the pep rally prior to the Dublin Navy game. That was a super experience.
Didn't see the first half... been watching the second. Apparently targeting doesn't exist any more, because there was no call on the hit put on #16 in the endzone. Direct shot to the head of a defenseless player. Pretty much covered every possible way to NOT hit, and no flag.