Notre Dame came in with a lot of hype this year. A lot of the "experts" picked the G-Tech game as a potential upset. After all, they had a lot of returning players, we're playing at home, had recently beaten both Auburn and Miami on the road and had a Def. coordinator who was considered one of the best. Vegas made the Irish a scant 3.5 point pick. The game was close. G-Tech played inspired football. The Irish squeaked out a four point win, covering the spread. It was a road win against a good opponent in a season opener. What's wrong with that? Now, all of a sudden, ND is over rated. The "experts" are already hedging their offseason predictions. ND, once again, is called "lucky". Wait a minute. Look at the stats. Except for the scoreboard, the Irish enjoyed a large lead in every statistical category. The defense, particulary the much maligned D-Backs, completely shut Calvin Johnson down in the second half. Quinn, by his standards, had an average game but made no turnovers and scored the big TD before half. The Irish had one TD called back and missed two FGs. Penalties? All we hear about is the one involving Quinn yet the Irish were penalized almost three times as much yardage in the game. The future will answer all the questions but bashing the Irish continues to be a favorite tactic of the press. We'll see...
Who cares? We'll know a lot more over the next three weeks. With some exceptions, the majority of the top teams defer their most challenging games to their conference matchups and play a less challenging pre-conference schedule. Nothing wrong with that. Our schedule this year is heavily front-end loaded. Those in the media who want to see us fail are sniffing an early demise via PSU, Michigan or Michigan State. Thus, they are hopping on the bashing bandwagon early. We will have a very good season. Whether or not it can be an excellent season will be determined very, very soon.
If ND is overrated it's the same "experts" who are bitching who made the rating!!! If ND is overrated, THEY screwed up.
Would you prefer to go back about 3 years to when nobody really cared? I'd gladly trade places with you fellows!
Everybody's always so worried about rankings... I figure the schedules and records pretty much speak for themselves (until you get down to the end and there are three one-loss teams trying to get into the NC game.) You win all your games, you're gonna put separation between you and most everybody else. If your schedule is too difficult and you can't beat 'em all, well duh! If your schedule is too light and you can't command respect, well duh! See...it's easy! :wink: