Mute, please

The Army All-American Bowl, with all relevant discussion about the game removed:

Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Irish Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Irish Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Irish Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Irish Irish Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Irish Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Irish Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Irish Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame.


NBC: All Notre Dame, all the time.

Bold Predictions

Ohio State will beat LSU in January.

How confident am I in that? Well - not very. But I think it'll happen. I just can't, with a sound mind, pick LSU. I think LSU has the better athletes; the better team; it's in Louisiana; they played a tougher schedule; they'll be healthy. Everything seems to stack up in LSU's favor.

There are too many things, though, that make me think otherwise.

For one, with this much time off, most bowl games come down to coaching. See: Ohio St. vs. Florida. See: USC vs. Michigan. See: Urban Meyer in any bowl game.

LSU has coaching problems that are bigger than Les Miles. Bo Pelini, underachiever extraordinaire, is leaving to Nebraska, but has decided to coach the National Championship game. This always ends badly. See: Mark Richt at FSU in 2000 (leaving for UGA). See: Mike Stoops at Oklahoma in 2003 (leaving for Arizona).

Bo Pelini will be standing on the sidelines, daydreaming of cornfields and blackshirts. LSU's defense has chronically underachieved this year. With Pelini distracted, I really except LSU's defense to be sluggish and confused.

LSU has a haphazard offense. Ohio State has a pretty good defense. Even with OSU's abysmal record against SEC opponents in bowls, I imagine Tressel and DC Jim Heacock can find a way to scheme against LSU (that doesn't involve playing soft zone and letting a team dip-and-dunk up and down the field all day for 41 points).

The 0-8 leads me to think OSU could finally get it right this time. Also - speaking of trends - the underdog in the BCS game has won an inordinate amount of times. See: 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006. I think it's like 6 of 8 BCS champions were underdogs). The last time Ohio State was an underdog - 2002 against Miami. With last year's debacle, I imagine Tressel will handle this off-season much better.

Plus, Les Miles is supposedly a "Michigan man." Everyone knows how well Tressel does against Michigan. See: Lloyd Carr.

I think this will end up being a close, defensive match (see: 2003 LSU vs. OU) in which Ohio State will ultimately get the better of LSU (possibly due to bonehead coaching decisions by Les Miles; see: 07 Auburn, 07 Kentucky, 05 Tennessee). It'll be ugly, but Ohio State will finally get their first SEC bowl victory.

The Gold Standard

While out Christmas shopping today, I found the most awesome combination of gifts this holiday season:


Charlie Weis and Notre Dame's Rise to Glory

But wait, there's more!


What every fan needs: the painful reminder of the false hopes of the 2007 season.

Perhaps the best part of this is the Costumer Reviews of the Gold Standard's Amazon page:

"This is one of the best works of fiction in the twenty-first century."

"Title ranks up there with 'Dewey Defeats Truman.' Amazon should pair this book with Bob Hill's 'Basketball: Coaching for Success'."

But of course, we're missing the ultimate stocking-stuffer; the Irish Trifecta:


Ty Willingham's Amazing First Season at Notre Dame.

Sadly, the sequels - Ty's Sub-Par Second Season and Ty, Get the Fuck Outta Here, didn't sell quite as well.

One and Done

Soooo, Bobby Petrino is now coaching at Arkansas. The good news is, by the time we play them in 2009, he'll be off coaching the St. Louis Rams.

Heisman

Weekend Thoughts

Arkansas @ LSU: Apparently Les Miles spent too much time planning for Ar-Kansas instead of Arkansas.

Ole Miss @ Miss St.:

Croom'd

Florida State @ Florida: Tebow beat FSU single-handedly. Also - we could have scored again at the end of the game. You got off easy, Noles.

Tennessee @ Kentucky: God dammit, son of a bitch, fucking hell.

Alabama @ Auburn: If losing to Louisiana-Monroe was the equivalent of Pearl Harbor or September 11, does that make going 6-6 the Apocalypse? Also - more proof that higher salaries do not equate to more wins. See also: Kirk Ferentz.

Blind Rage

I hate Florida State. So much that I can barely get through writing out the school's name. I would rather see the entire school disband and Tallahassee be swallowed by a sink hole, if it weren't for the fake that I wouldn't get the satisfaction of beating them once a year.

I hate Chris Rix, Geno Hayes, Sebastian Janikowski, Thad Busby, Mickey Andrews, Jack Childress, PK Sam, Lorenzo Booker, DeCody Fagg, Peter Warrick, "The Choke at Doak," jump passes, flare passes to the RB, Samari Rolle, Chief Osceola, his dumb flaming spear, the FSU flag boy, Chris Weinke, Leon Washington, "the echo of the whistle," Darnell Docket, Greg Carr, and especially you, Bobby Bowden.

I hate that they changed their foundation date so they can "beat out" us. I hate that they count 31-31 a win, I hate that they altered the record books to count a 21-19 "win," I hate the Swindle in the Swamp, I hate that they give free rides to Seminole Indians to prevent being sued. I hate the Warchant, I hate the website Warchant, I hate everyone who posts there, I hate Dot, and all their delusionole (ha!) fans. I hate that they talk "band smack."

I hate that they make me root for Miami once a year, and that they made me root for Tennessee and Georgia. I hate that Tallahassee is the capitol of this state. I hate that FSU is so crappy that we get downgraded to noon ESPN2 games (like last year).

You know Navy's losing streak to Notre Dame? I want that against Florida State...only 40 years from now, I want to still be beating them.

I hope our second string never goes in, I hope we run up the score so bad that they envy FAU. I hope after Tebow's eleventh touchdown, Meyer says "We still have time to score" and does an onsides kick.

I hope Tim Tebow is running out of bounds, then sees Hayes out of the corner of his eye, turns around, lays Hayes out, then runs out of bounds.

More than anything, I want to beat FSU this year. If we do, they will have an entire graduating class that has NEVER beaten us. If we beat them next year, any redshirt seniors will have never beaten us. I want to be able to do this every year. I want to hear "Another graduating class that hasn't beaten the Gators" every year in ESPN's recap of the game.

This is my favorite weekend of the year, and hopefully the Gators crush the Noles. Hopefully Tebow wraps up the Heisman with this game.

No score will satisfy me enough (I'm still bitter that we didn't shut them out in 2005), but I'll take a 59-20 whopping any day.

...and then there was One.

Tim Tebow for Heisman.

2007 = 2001?

I'm thinking the 2007 season is going to play out similar to the 2001 season: you got a sophomore Heisman-worthy QB who probably won't win the Heisman because of losses and the fact he's a soph; missing out on the SEC Championship because of a last-second FG by Auburn; losing to a rival; high-powered offense and sub-par defense; yet, possibly making a BCS Bowl (Orange? Sugar?) as an at-large team, and crushing some poor ACC team (Boston College?).

There's a decent shot that this is how the rest of UF's season will play out. And quite honestly - I don't necessarily have a problem with that.

Please

Please please please let UConn and Kansas play for the national championship.