Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Ugh, powder blue

By Brendan Loy

Clinton and Obama wore (nearly) matching outfits at their Unity event this afternoon: her pantsuit and his tie were both, according to Politico's color-spectrum analysis, powder blue.

Powder blue, of course, used to be a UCLA school color, back when I was at USC. But the Bruins switched in 2003 to a different shade of blue, so I guess I can forgive the Dems for their use of what I've always considered a rather distasteful shade of an otherwise fine color. Still... for future reference, I'd recommend either Notre Dame blue or Newington blue. :)

Anyway, here are some more photos from the Obama-Clinton rally in Unity.

About that Kevin White thing...

By Brendan Loy

I realize I'm incredibly slow in blogging about this story, but just in case you've been living under a rock and haven't heard, Kevin White is no longer Notre Dame's athletic director.

Kevin White was hired as Duke's athletic director Saturday, leaving Notre Dame for a school with an elite basketball team and a football team that has had 13 straight losing seasons and has not been to a bowl since 1994.

Notre Dame appointed Missy Conboy as its interim athletic director. The school said there is no timetable for a permanent replacement.

White will replace Joe Alleva, who was hired as LSU's athletic director in April after a decade of leading the Blue Devils' 26 sports programs.

"Kevin White is in the first rank of athletics directors nationally and will make a perfect fit at Duke," university president Richard Brodhead said.

White had been at Notre Dame since 2000. He hired football coaches Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis, and hired former Duke assistant Mike Brey as the men's basketball coach. ...

White helped Notre Dame plan a $26 million renovation of the basketball arena and expand the school's nonrevenue sports. He and his wife were made honorary alumni three days before switching jobs.

But White was widely criticized by Irish fans because the football team hasn't won a national championship since 1988 — the longest stretch in school history — and some fans place much of the blame on White.

He gave Bob Davie a contract extension in 2000, then fired him after the next season. White replaced Davie with George O'Leary, who resigned after less than a week on the job after he admitted he had lied about his academic and athletic past. White's next hire was Willingham, who lasted just three years.

In all, the Irish football team had four winning seasons, three losing campaigns and one .500 finish during White's tenure.

Her Loyal Sons and Rakes of Mallow have complete coverage of White's departure and the search for a possible replacement.

I apologize for not blogging this sooner. My parents were in town this past weekend, visiting us and the baby, so my free time for blogging was limited. Even so, as I mentioned in comments on another post, I actually drafted a whole post about this on Saturday, only to have my computer crash before I'd saved it. I then intended to post something Monday or Tuesday, but got totally consumed with blogging about the rapidly changing Hillary Clinton-related developments, and never got around to it.

Anyway. Yeah. Kevin White, gone. I can't say I'm shedding any tears over it. What do y'all think?

P.S. Duke sucks.

Shark sighting!

By Brendan Loy

As I mentioned earlier, my parents are in town this weekend, and tonight my dad and I went to a Tennessee Smokies game. I had totally forgotten that Notre Dame's Jeff Samardzija is a Smokie (er, a Smoky?), but he is, and there he was, standing in the dugout right in front of us:

I couldn't resist saying something, so I walked up to the edge of the dugout and yelled "Hey, Jeff!" a couple of times until he heard me and looked over. I then said, "Go Irish!" He responded with a sort of half-smile and quasi-acknowledgment that suggested he gets that all the time from Notre Dame fans who feel so passionately about the Irish that they figure it's perfectly reasonable to treat famous ND alums like long-lost buddies and thus randomly say "Go Irish" at them. Heh.

Alas, Samardzija wasn't pitching tonight, but it was cool to see him anyway. He's got a blog, by the way.

Anyway, the Smokies won the game, 8-3, and we had a good time. Here are a few more pictures:

A thought on West Virginia

By Brendan Loy

There have been a lot of articles published in recent days with man-on-the-street quotes from West Virginia along the lines of, "I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife's an atheist."

Now, I'm not denying that this sort of sentiment is a problem for Obama, nor am I necessarily denying that it's a particularly severe problem in West Virginia. But can we please take this reporting with a little grain of salt, at least? I'm not sure whether these sorts of quotes tell us all that much about the electoral dynamic in West Virginia, as opposed to the psyche of the reporters writing the stories.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that, if you're a reporter, and you conduct enough man-on-the-street interviews, you can find some idiot to say "Obama's a Muslim" -- or even "Obama's a n***er" -- anywhere. You can find racists and xenophobes and conspiratorial crazies in California, New York, Texas, Illinois; you can find 'em all over the damn country.

Can you find them more easily in West Virginia? Perhaps. But you're also much more likely to publish their quotes in a story about West Virginia, because it fits the storyline perfectly. Indeed, such a quote is precisely what these reporters are looking for when they start conducting the interviews in West Virginia. Whereas in California or New York, they'd probably ignore the random racist quote, in West Virginia they go out, they turn on the yokel-detecting radar, they hold up a microphone to the redneckiest-lookin' redneck they can find, and -- voila! -- journalistic magic happens.

Again: I'm not denying the real, genuine significance of racism as a factor in Obama's problems, nor am I suggesting that Appalachia is devoid of racists. But please, let's not jump to the conclusion that, when Hillary wins tomorrow's primary by a margin of 70% to 30%, it means that 70 percent of West Virginia Democrats are racists, just because we read a handful of cherrypicked quotes that seem to validate that preconceived notion.

Hillary Clinton's supporters prefer her to Obama for a whole bunch of reasons, some of them cultural, some of them political, some of them overtly racial, some of them subconsciously racial, and some of them falling into various other categories. While I disagree with their choice (and I strongly disagree with Hillary's conscious or reckless exploitation of the prejudices that do exist), it's an insult to those voters to paint them all with a broad brush and assume the only reason they've voting for Hillary is because they hate black people, or people with the middle name "Hussein," or whatever.

It's possible to condemn prejudice without engaging in it, and that's what's called for here. Some people in West Virginia (and elsewhere) are voting on the basis of racism, and that sucks. Most others aren't, and we shouldn't assume that they are. And that's all I have to say about that.

UPDATE: Poblano writes:

I do want to write a little bit more about the notion that West Virginians are racist. ... [T]he short version is: yes, there are racist voters in West Virginia, but there are racist voters in every state. The primary determinant of the extent to which racism tends to be more manifest is education levels, and so the effects may be more noticeable in West Virgnia, a state with poor academic achievement. But there is no reason to believe that West Virgnians are particularly racist, relative to their education levels.

That seems right to me.

NDLS 2L wins Long Island Marathon

By Brendan Loy

Remember Dan McGrath, the Notre Dame law student who finished 33rd in the New York City marathon during his 1L year? Well, now he's a 2L, and on Sunday he won the Long Island Marathon, then flew back to South Bend in time for a Monday-morning Jurisprudence final. As a result of his exploits, he's featured on the sports mega-blog Deadspin, under the headline "Annoying Superhuman Lawyer-To-Be Makes Life More Difficult For The Rest Of Us." Heh. Congrats, Dan!

Trustee donates $15 million to NDLS

By Brendan Loy

More good news from Notre Dame Law School:

Robert F. Biolchini, a member of the University of Notre Dame Board of Trustees and partner in the Tulsa, Okla., law firm Stuart, Biolchini & Turner, and his wife, Frances, have made a $15 million gift to the University to help underwrite the renovation of the current Notre Dame Law School building. ...

After a comprehensive renovation of the existing law school building, which will be renamed Biolchini Hall, it will house an expanded Kresge Law Library. The renovation in Biolchini Hall also will include two 50-seat classrooms, new space for Notre Dame Law Review, and new offices and work space for admissions and career services. The exterior of the building, including masonry, windows and roofing, will be restored where necessary.

A covered archway will link Biolchini Hall to the adjacent Eck Hall of Law, a three-story, 85,000-square-foot building that is under construction on the site of the former campus post office. Eck Hall will be composed primarily of a new moot courtroom, classrooms and faculty offices. When it is completed in January 2009, law school operations will be moved out of the existing building and renovation work will begin.

“The combination of Biolchini and Eck Halls will give Notre Dame one of the outstanding law school facilities in the country,” said Patricia A. O’Hara, Joseph A. Matson Dean of Notre Dame Law School. “On behalf of all law school faculty, students and alumni, I want to offer my deepest thanks to Bob, Fran and their family.”

Hmm... Biolchini Hall and Eck Hall, connected by a covered archway. Hey, how much does it cost to build a covered archway? We should put together a blog fundraising campaign, and get it named the "Irish Trojan Archway." ;)

And a Trojan shall lead them

By Brendan Loy

Fellow "Irish Trojan" Katherine Kirkpatrick, who, like me, attended USC for undergrad (she's even a Daily Trojan alum), and who is now a rising 3L at Notre Dame, was elected NDLS's new SBA president in a runoff election last week. She will be inaugurated on Sunday.

A Trojan at the helm of the Notre Dame Law School student body: I love it!! Finally, Operation: Trojan Horse can proceed as planned! ;) Just kidding. Seriously, congratulations, Katherine!

In addition, an anonymous tipster informed me that A.J. Bellia and Lloyd Mayer -- the latter being my former Election Law professor and adviser for my Electoral College paper, the former being one half of the school's recent professorial retention coup -- finished tied in the initial balloting for NDLS Professor of the Year. That led to a run-off, which Professor Bellia narrowly won. Congrats to him, and to Professor Mayer for his close second-place finish; they're both great professors, and well deserving of the recognition.

So which team are you going to root for now, Brendan??

By David K.

The Connecticut legislature reached a compromise with UConn that will allow the university's football team to schedule a six-year series against Notre Dame, even though none of the games will be played in Connecticut. The Irish balked at playing at the Huskies' 40,000-seat home stadium, Rentschler Field in East Hartford, insisting instead that UConn's "home" games played in larger stadiums elsewhere, most likely in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and/or New York. However, Connecticut lawmakers were unimpressed with the idea of UConn outsourcing its home games to other states. In the words of State Rep. Michael Christ, D-East Hartford, who proposed an earlier bill that would have required UConn to play all its home games at Rentschler, "Many of us felt we already had a beautiful facility in Connecticut and it was built for UConn."

The newly announced deal requires UConn to play six home games at Rentschler Field each year, "as long as the NCAA rules permit a 12-game season and permits a team to use one Football Championship Subdivision win per season as a bowl-eligible win." It also reduces the length of the series between UConn and Notre Dame from ten years to six. "I believe we have crafted a reasonable solution," said Christ, who added that he hopes UConn can persuade the Irish to play at Rentschler Field in the future. (Ha! Fat chance.)

The series will start in the 2011 season and go through 2017.  The three home games for the Irish will, of course, be played at Notre Dame Stadium.  The deal still needs to be approved by Notre Dame and venue officials.  Connecticut and Notre Dame already have a separate deal to play next season in South Bend.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN:  Rep. Christ wrote a scathing op-ed about this topic last week in the Hartford Courant. My dad suggested the headline, "Christ to Notre Dame: Screw you." Heh.

Anyway, here's an excerpt:

Loyal Husky fans flock with family and friends to Rentschler for every home game, rain or shine, in support of their beloved team. There are hundreds of stadium workers who depend on a game day payday from parking cars, working concessions and post-game clean-up. Many local school bands and clubs as well as charities also use games to bolster fundraising. Should all those benefits move to Massachusetts? I say no!

If Rentschler Field is too confining for the Leprechaun army the Fighting Irish deploy each week, how come the similar capacity stadium of the Boston College Eagles (formerly of the Big East) is not too small? That series alternates between South Bend and Chestnut Hill, Mass. ...

There is no question Notre Dame will remain the "Wal-Mart" of college football as long as it is able to keep its national television network deal. However, UConn officials can come out of this looking like heroes both here in Connecticut and nationally by saying "no thanks." They could brag that no one, not even the legendary Notre Dame, can tell Connecticut where to play its home games. Even if the Fighting Leprechauns, after a few more years of two-win seasons, do eventually find their television revenue dried up and are forced to finally join a conference, it is very possible that the Irish will abandon their pseudo Big East affiliation and join the Big 10 anyway.

Ahem. It was a three-win season, thank you very much.

Incidentally, to answer the question posed by the title, I will, of course, root for Notre Dame, my alma mater. But as I said in comments, "if I had to pick one game (other than USC) for ND to lose, it would be the UConn game. Imagine what a huge win that would be for the Huskies program."

That said: Gooooo Irish! Beeeeeat Huskies! :)

The Shirt

By Brendan Loy

The Shirt 2008 is out. It was unveiled yesterday. (Hat tip: Lisa.) The money quote is "NOTRE DAME WILL RISE AGAIN," which seems appropriate.

Domersphere reactions? Her Loyal Sons hates it. Rakes of Mallow likes it, although he wishes it was green. Blue-Gray Sky thinks it's "pretty good." Of course, it features the famous quote about "the blue, gray October sky" that BGS is named after, so they would like it. ;)

Hillary at the bar

By Brendan Loy

John McCain did "Hardball" at Villanova today, and a student -- in reference to the recent photos of Hillary Clinton doing (or possibly sipping) a whiskey shot at Bronko's restaurant in Crown Point, Indiana -- asked him, "I was wondering if you think that she's finally resorted to hitting the sauce just because of some unfavorable polling. And I was also wondering if you would care to join me for a shot after this?"

Heh.

That reminds me: I have a proposal for Hillary Clinton. As you all know, I've soured on her rather severely in recent months, and at this point, I'd be pretty hard-pressed to vote for her under any circumstances. However, there is one thing that might make me change my tune. Hilldog, if you'll go to The Backer, order one of their terrible yet potent Long Islands, and get yourself photographed and videotaped singing the "God Bless the USA" followed by the Notre Dame Victory March (yes, this would mean staying until -- ahem -- 3:00 AM), I might consider switching my allegiance. :)

P.S. Possible campaign ad: "It's 3:00 AM, and your children are safe and asleep. But Hillary Clinton is wide awake, if slightly tipsy, singing patriotic music while swaying back and forth in a circle of townies* in South Bend, Indiana. Suddenly, a cell phone rings -- the cab is here. Who do you want answering that phone? The elitist snob Barack Obama, who will jump in the cab at the earliest opportunity to get away from the 'bitter' townsfolk, and miss the Victory March? Or Hillary Clinton, the woman who respects your traditions, who'll tell the cabbie to wait ten minutes so she can stay right through to the end of 'Oh What A Night'? Make the right choice: Vote for Hillary Clinton on May 6. [slurred Hillary voiceover: 'I'm Hilllary Clinton and I (hiccup) approve this message.']"

*Why townies, you ask? Because the Domers are too "elitist," of course! ;)

Only 334 days till Selection Sunday!

By Brendan Loy

Joe Lunardi has published his initial, ridiculously early, meaningless yet fun, pre-pre-season 2009 Bracketology projections. (Hat tip: BK.) His #1 seeds are North Carolina, Duke, Texas and Pittsburgh. 2007 finalists Kansas and Memphis drop to #2 and #3, respectively, and UCLA plummets to a #7. w00t! :)

More importantly, Notre Dame is a #2 seed (without Gene Cross? Hmm...), Gonzaga is a #5, and USC is a #9. Frankly, those all seem high to me, but maybe I'm just a pessimist about my own teams. (Although, if so, it didn't prevent my irrational Zag-xuberance last year.)

Tennessee falls all the way to #9... where they're matched up in a brutal first-round game against #8 Davidson. (Stephen Curry FTW!) This year's mid-major superpower that almost beat UT, Butler, is on the bubble but out, as are the Washington Huskies. The UConn Huskies, though, are sitting pretty as a #2 seed. Oh, and the University of Hartford Hawks, after falling one game short in 2008, make their NCAA Tournament debut in 2009 as a #16 seed. Hurrah!

Yeah, so, we have a college football season to start -- and finish -- before I'll get really excited about any of this, but it's fun to look ahead. :)

Notre Dame loses in hockey title game

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame's magical, unexpected run through ice hockey's NCAA Tournament ended one step short of a national title, as Boston College beat the Irish 4-1 last night.

I neglected to post about this last night (sorry!), but on a different post, several commenters complained that the Irish got screwed by a wrongly disallowed goal that totally changed the momentum of the game. *sigh*

Regardless, and despite the loss, an amazing run for the Irish.

Toledo hires ND assistant coach

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame's men's basketball assistant coach Gene Cross, credited by some with turning Mike Brey's team around over the last two years, has been hired by Toledo as their new head coach. (Hat tip: Chris A.)

Whenever I've eaten crow and praised Brey -- whose first name, for blog purposes, used to be "Fire" -- over the last two years, Becky has countered that "he has an awesome assistant coach," choosing to credit Cross rather than Brey for the Irish's improvement. I guess now we'll find out who's right.

(Well, maybe. There is, of course, a third person whose arrival between the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons was also rather a big deal: Luke Harangody.)

ND, Michigan battle in Frozen Four

By Brendan Loy

The Frozen Four is underway, and Notre Dame leads Michigan 3-2 with 10:44 left in the second period. It was 3-0, but Michigan just scored two rapid-fire goals to get back in it.

Liveblogs here and here. The game is being televised live on ESPN2. Winner gets Boston College in the national championship game Saturday. GO IRISH!!! BEAT SKUNKBEARS!!!

UPDATE: Michigan tied it at 3-3... then Notre Dame just took a 4-3 lead with less than 9 minutes left.

UPDATE 2: Tie game 4-4, with 5:21 left. Ugh.

UPDATE 3: Overtime. And, alas, I have to go to bed. Go Irish.

UPDATE 4: IRISH WIN!!!! (Okay, so I didn't actually go to bed...) WOOOHOOO!!!

UPDATE 5: The Associated Press is mean. Check out their lede:

Michigan has Notre Dame's number on the football field. Not so the ice.

Jeez! Is that really necessary? The Irish hockey team makes it to the national championship game for the first time ever -- upsetting the #1-ranked team in the country, and becoming the first #4 seed ever to advance this far -- and the first sentence of the AP article takes an irrelevant shot at the football team? WTF?! Is Brian Cook working ghost-writing for the AP or something?

Moreover, it's inaccurate. Yes, Michigan beat Notre Dame -- badly -- in 2007 and 2006, but the Irish won easily in 2005 (when Michigan was ranked #3 in the country, the Irish just #20) and in 2004 (when ND was unranked and Michigan was #7). Michigan won in '03; Notre Dame won in '02. That makes them 3-3 in their most recent series. (They didn't play from 1998 to 2001.)

If you want to go back further, the Irish are 12-11-1 against the Skunkbears since the series was renewed in 1978 after a 35-year hiatus. Michigan leads the overall series 20-14-1, but somehow I don't think the Wolverines' 9-2 record between 1884 and 1943 was what the AP reporter had in mind.

In any event, 20-14 is hardly a massive advantage, and 11-12 isn't an advantage at all, nor is 3-3. However you look at it, you simply cannot construct an accurate historical reality in which "Michigan has Notre Dame's number on the football field," unless you're looking only at the last two years, which is rather myopic and hardly a sufficiently representative sample to make such a sweeping statement. Neither team has the other's number; they've been very even in recent years.

Maybe the AP's hockey writers should stick to talking about hockey. How about that.

Anyway, here's a better ESPN article about Notre Dame's amazing run to the national championship game. In hockey.

P.S. Now, if you want to say that USC currently has Notre Dame's number in football, thanks to six straight wins -- five of them blowouts -- that would be accurate. :) Likewise, it would have been accurate to say that the Irish had the Trojans' number back during their 13-year undefeated streak in the '80s and '90s. But no way does either ND or UM have the other's number right now.

A good omen?

By Brendan Loy

Last night, Kansas won its first national championship since 1988. You know, it occurs to me, there's another storied national powerhouse that won its last national championship in 1988. Hmm... could the Jayhawks' return to glory be a good omen for the Irish?

Not a joke: Tom Crean to Indiana

By Brendan Loy

Even as I was engaging in some April Foolishness, claiming that ESPN's Andy Katz was reporting that Indiana would hire Mike Brey, Andy Katz was actually reporting that Indiana would hire Marquette's Tom Crean -- and that has now been confirmed.

Meanwhile, "El Kabong" at ND Nation has taken some heat for his Brey-to-Indiana April Fool's joke, which he now admits was a joke. (Money quote: "Part of me thinks the only thing I should be embarrassed about is the joke is so hackneyed a twit like Brendan Loy apparently thought of it too." Heh.)

Mike Brey reportedly Indiana-bound

By Brendan Loy

Breaking news: ESPN's Andy Katz is reporting that Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey, the back-to-back Big East Coach of the Year who used to be such a frequent subject of Irish Trojan criticism that you'd have thought his first name was "Fire," will be introduced tomorrow morning as the new head coach at Indiana.

The last time rumors cropped up of Brey's possible departure (for N.C. State, in that case), I said they were "too good to be true." Now I actually think this might be a big loss for the Irish. I just hope Brey won't take assistant coach Gene Cross with him to Hoosierland!

Anyway, I'll have more on this after work, but Katz has more details.

Bellias reject Virginia offer, stay at NDLS

By Brendan Loy

Big, and good, news for Notre Dame Law School: Professors A.J. and Patricia Bellia have turned down tenured offers from the University of Virginia Law School, which is ranked in the U.S. News Top 10, and will stay at NDLS. Brian Leiter calls this a "major retention coup for Notre Dame."

My impression is that it's almost an article of faith among some NDLS critics, skeptics and detractors that the school's young superstar professors, such as the Bellias, will inevitably be "poached" by other, higher-ranking law schools in due course. This development appears to contradict that belief, which is a very good thing.

As Leiter says, "Notre Dame has long had a strong reputation among practitioners ... but the school has also noticeably strengthened its faculty from a scholarly point of view in the last decade." Indeed, during last year's unfortunate "Paulinogate" incident, one thing that became crystal clear was that pretty much everyone, even those who strongly criticize the law school for various things, totally disagreed with Jimmy's criticisms of the faculty: there was almost universal agreement among Irish Trojan commenters that the NDLS faculty rocks. And the Bellias are a big part of that, so it's great that they're staying put. Indeed, I daresay this is a much bigger deal than last week's news that NDLS had climbed back to #22 in those flawed U.S. News rankings. Those numbers may vary from year to year, but if profs like the Bellias are staying put, the law school will be just fine.

Chalk rides again

By Brendan Loy

If you think the men's tournament is Chalk City, check out the women's bracket: the Elite Eight consists of four #1 seeds and four #2s. (Admittedly, chalkiness is more common on the women's side, where parity is less pronounced than among the men. But still.) #1-seed Tennessee sealed the deal last night with a 74-64 win over #5 Notre Dame, which is now 0-16 all-time against UT.

The Irish gave the Lady Vols a much better game than they did in an 87-63 loss back in January at the Joyce Center. In this one, ND led at halftime, 33-31. But between about the 18-minute mark and the 13-minute mark of the second half, Tennessee went on a 17-1 run, and Candace Parker wound up with a career-high-tying 34 points. That was just too much for the Irish to overcome.

In my 11th annual women's pool, six contestants correctly predicted the "all chalk" Elite Eight: Ken Stern, Kevin Pilz, Tom Caputi, Carol LaPlante, Joseph Hiegel and Lisa Velte.

Stern currently leads the pool with 316 out of a possible 352 points. He took first place from Chuck Wessell when #3 Texas A&M beat #2 Duke last night. Wessell, who had picked the Blue Devils, is now second with 313. Pilz is third with 311. Those three contestants are the only ones ahead of the "all favorites bracket," which would have 309 points. Complete standings here and after the jump. Information on who's still alive to win the pool -- 21 contestants in all -- here.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention this before, but in the men's pool (presented by the UCLA Bruins, blah blah blah), 28 contestants got the "all-chalk" Final Four right. Their names are listed after the jump.

GOOO IRISH, BEEEAT LADY VOLS!!!

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame and Tennessee are about to get underway in a Sweet Sixteen showdown. The #5-seed Fighting Irish are the last chance to prevent an "all chalk" Elite Eight in the women's NCAA Tournament; so far, all the #1 and #2 seeds have won.

Incidentally, the women's pool standings and scenarios are updated through seven Elite Eight games. Ken Stern currently has the lead. The standings are after the jump as well.

Notre Dame advances to Frozen Four!

By Brendan Loy

One year after rising to the #1 ranking in the country only to be stunned by Michigan State in the NCAA regional final, the #12-ranked Fighting Irish of Notre Dame got their revenge tonight, beating the Spartans 3-1 (after previously upsetting the top seed, New Hampshire) to advance to their first Frozen Four in school history! WOOHOO!! (Hat tip: NDLauren.)

The Irish will play the hated Skunkbears of Michigan, whose football team lost to Appalachian State last year, in a national semifinal in Denver on April 10. Michigan is ranked #1 in the land.

[UPDATE: Folks in the South Bend area are encouraged to assemble at the Joyce Center around 4:30 AM to greet the team upon its return. (Hat tip: John.)]

Now... can the Fighting Irish women's basketball team pull off an even more monumental upset tomorrow by upsetting #1-seed Tennessee in the Sweet 16? The Irish are 0-15 all-time against the Lady Vols. How does two milestones in 24 hours sound? GO IRISH!!!

P.S. Speaking of women's basketball, the ladies are now halfway to the Elite Eight after another quartet of non-upsets. In my pool, Chuck Wessell continues to have the lead. Complete standings here and after the jump. Information on who's still mathematically alive to win the pool here.

Dean O'Hara to step down in 2009

By Brendan Loy

Above The Law has confirmed the legitimacy of the leaked U.S. News law-school rankings, which I blogged last night. As I mentioned in that post, they show Notre Dame Law School erasing last year's decline and returning to #22.

Meanwhile, there is breaking news at NDLS. Less than an hour ago, Dean Patty O'Hara wrote an e-mail to the student body, announcing that she is stepping down at the end of next year. The e-mail was forwarded to me, and it's printed in full after the jump.

ND beats OU in OT; Tennessee next

By Brendan Loy

#5-seed Notre Dame and #4-seed Oklahoma -- playing in West Lafayette, Indiana -- are tied 72-72 in overtime in the second round of the women's tournament. Winner gets Tennessee in the Sweet Sixteen. GO IRISH!!

UPDATE: IRISH WIN!! Notre Dame is Sweet 16-bound!! Wooo!! GOOOO IRISH, BEEEEAT LADY VOLS!!

I'll update the pools in the morning.

NDLS back in Top 25?

By Brendan Loy

U.S. News and World Report's 2009 law-school rankings aren't due to be officially released until Friday, but there are scattered reports of leaks. (Hat tip: yea.) Specifically, law blog The Shark has published a PDF scan of an apparently Xeroxed copy of the alleged list (purportedly found at an unspecified "newsstand"); Xoxohth poster "Gerbil21" claims he saw the magazine on display early at a local Barnes & Noble and wrote the rankings down by hand; and poster "m1" on Law School Discussion took a digital picture of the alleged new rankings page.

If the leaked list is accurate -- a big "if" -- it would mean Notre Dame Law School has recovered from last year's drop from #22 to #28, climbing back into a tie for #22. However, I can't vouch for the accuracy of these purported leaks in any way, shape or form. I'm just passing on the links. You can consider them sort of like the early unweighted exit polls on election nights: lend them whatever credence you feel is appropriate, with "none" being a perfectly valid answer. We report, you decide.

Oh, and insert your own rankings-don't-matter disclaimer here. :)

P.S. For example.

Catholics beat Methodists

By Brendan Loy

The Notre Dame men were eliminated by Washington State yesterday, but the Notre Dame women are still alive, headed for a Tuesday second-round matchup with Oklahoma after beating #12-seed Southern Methodist this afternoon. Go Irish!!

In my women's pool, there's a five-way tie for the lead among Kay Torg, Ken Stern, Tom Caputi, Chuck Wessell and F.X. McGahee -- and, in a tournament that has seen only two upsets in 24 games, those co-eaders are also tied with the "all favorites bracket." Complete standings here and after the jump.

Argh.

By Brendan Loy

Wazzu 61, Notre Dame 41, final.

You don't win too many games scoring 41 points, least of all in the NCAA Tournament.

So all three of "my teams" are gone within the tournament's first three days. All four if you count UConn. Harumph. I guess now I'm rooting for... Davidson? The Butler-Tennessee winner? And of course, whoever's playing UCLA. :)

Meanwhile, we've got a thriller in overtime between Marquette and Stanford. Go Pac-10!! GO DRUNKEN TREES!!!

UPDATE: Stanford wins!! Brook Lopez hit the game-winner with 1.3 seconds left. One of the best games of the tournament for sure. And the Trees won despite losing their coach in the first half.

P.S. Incidentally, Notre Dame's loss knocked Khalil Aboukhaled out of sole possession of first place in the pool, back into a four-way tie with Liz Janelle, Alex Whitfield and Ryan Morgan. That's still the situation after Stanford's win, which all four of the co-leaders predicted. Full update coming after the Kansas-UNLV game ends.

Fire Mike Brey?

By Brendan Loy

I kid, I kid! :) But Notre Dame clearly isn't playing too well, down 32-19 at the half. Though we missed almost the entire first half because Purdue-Xavier took so long to finish. Speaking of which,
Khalil Aboukhaled (a.k.a. fezafou) now leads the pool.

UPDATE: Harumph. With the Irish trailing 38-28 with 14:08 left, CBS has switched us over to the closer Stanford-Marquette game. Off to MMOD I go.

Notre Dame 68, George Mason 50, final

By Brendan Loy

George Mason will not be this year's George Mason. Or even this year's Winthrop, for that matter. :) Hurrah! Admire Mike Brey!

Don't fret, Coach! You won!

Up next: Wazzu, Saturday at 6:40. GO IRISH!!

Well, hey, my bracket may be shot, and I may be tied for 242nd out of 245 in my pool, and I may have seen all my major predicted upsets come and go without happening... but at least one of my alma maters won today!

Goooo Irish, Beeeeat Patriots!

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame and George Mason are underway. Go Irish! I want my alma maters to at least go 1-for-2 today...

P.S. Also: Go Fullerton!! The #14-seed Titans are about to tip off against #3 Wisconsin. After all this carnage in my bracket, is it too much to ask that I get my one totally absurd upset pick right? :)

UPDATE: Good news: Notre Dame has jumped out to a 23-7 lead over George Mason. Bad news: CBS has deemed the game a blowout, and sent us out to a different game. Good news: The game they sent us out to is Wisconsin-Fullerton; the Titans lead by 3!

UPDATE 2: 33-21 Irish at the half.

UPDATE 3: And 30-28 Wisconsin. Go Fullerton!!

UPDATE 4: Damn. The Badgers are on a 15-3 run, and just like that, it's 45-34 Wisconsin with 12:19 left.

A question for sports fans

By Brendan Loy

On this NCAA Tournament Eve, here's a question I've been meaning to pose to my blog audience -- or, more specifically, to the sports fans within that audience. What's the most devastating loss you've ever suffered as a sports fan?

After the jump, my answer to this question. But I'm really curious about your answers.

Arrrrrgh.

By Brendan Loy

The good news is, the Notre Dame-George Mason game will be the primary ~9:30 game on the Knoxville CBS affiliate Thursday night. Sweet!

The bad news is, contrary to what I guessed last night, USC-Kansas State won't be the primary ~7:00 game. I guess they think Belmont, a Nashville university with 4,700 students, has a large enough following in East Tennessee that it makes sense to prioritize #2 Duke vs. #15 Belmont over the super-frosh showdown of Mayo vs. Beasley. Ugh.

I just hope our Comcast connection can handle MMOD. (Speaking of which, if you want a "VIP pass," you'd better sign up now -- they're 86% full!)

Spring has sprung!

By Brendan Loy

Knoxville's Krutch Park in bloom. ... Meanwhile, I just got a text message from Kristin in South Bend -- where I'm guessing it's decidedly less springlike -- reporting that Notre Dame Law School has been evacuated due to a fire alarm. Hmm.

UPDATE: Our intrepid NDLS correspondent reports: "All ok, incident involved a microwave, a sandwich wrapped in tin foil, & a styrofoam plate." Heh.

Goooo Irish!

By Brendan Loy

Beeeeat Eagles!

Winner gets Pitt tomorrow at 9:30.

UPDATE: Marquette wins, 89-79.

Cal beats UW; Bruins next

By Brendan Loy

Cal will get a rematch tomorrow of its controversial season regular-finale against UCLA.

That'll be at 5:30 PM on FSN, right after the 3:00 game between USC and Arizona State. I'm hoping to get to work early tomorrow, and to work through lunch, so I can come home for at least the second half of that one. :)

If the Trojans and Bruins both win, then my bet with Mike will be decided Friday night. If, on the other hand, either team loses tomorrow, the season series remains split 1-1 and the bet's a wash.

Also tomorrow, at 9:30 PM on ESPN: Notre Dame vs. Marquette or Seton Hall. All in all, it's going to be a big day in Irish Trojan land...

Brey, Harangody win Big East honors

By Brendan Loy

Luke Harangody, as expected, is the Big East Player of the Year -- and Mike Brey is the conference's Coach of the Year for the second straight season. (Hat tip: JohnMac.)

Brey was apparently unsatisfied by the crow I ate last year, and decided to continue coaching like a champion, thus making me look like even more of an idiot for my endlessly repeated demands back in 2005, 2006 and 2007 that he be fired. :)

Seriously: Great job, Coach Brey! Fire Brendan Loy! Go Irish!

Revisiting the South Bend scenario

By Brendan Loy

Back in January, when I wrote about how the major candidates for president were campaigning "in or near practically every single place I used to live...as well as a place I may someday live...but NOT the place I currently live" -- a phenomenon which I referred to as "a vast left/right-wing conspiracy to piss me off" -- I noted that the only former Brendan Loy domicile they hadn't visited was South Bend. Then, as an afterthought, I added:

And come to think of it, if the Dem race really does drag on, there's an excellent chance they'll eventually hit South Bend! Between Pennsylvania (April 22) and West Virginia (May 13), the only primaries are in Indiana and North Carolina, both on May 6. So there's a two-week window for campaigning in just those two states. If Hillary and Barack are still going at it by then (probably unlikely, I admit, but certainly not impossible), they'll have more than enough time to travel up and down the entirety of the great state of Indiana trolling for votes, stopping in every major and minor city along the way. So they'd certainly make it to South Bend, which is [one of the] biggest cit[ies] in northern Indiana. Heck, forget South Bend, I bet they'd end up coming to Notre Dame itself, perhaps for a rally (or rallies) at the Joyce Center (as President Bush did on his Social Security Unplugged tour back in 2005).

Again I say, harumph.

Well, here we are, just over five weeks later, and that "unlikely...but certainly not impossible" scenario looks, well, likely. Unless Hillary loses Pennsylvania, you have to think the campaign will continue into May. And you also have to think Hillary, fresh off victories in Ohio and Pennsylvania, will focus heavily on the next logical target in her tour of economically depressed "rust belt" areas: northern Indiana. Forget visiting South Bend, she might practically move in. :) Obama, for his part, will presumably spend most of his time in large population centers with reasonably large black populations -- which would put South Bend high on his list, as well.

So basically, it looks like every single place I've ever lived except East Tennessee (Greater Hartford, NYC, Phoenix, L.A., South Bend), plus my possible future home (Denver), will have played host to one or more major candidate visit by the time this campaign is over. Jealousy, thy name is Brendan Loy.

P.S. With my luck, we'll probably end up moving from Tennessee to Colorado sometime in between the Democratic National Convention in Denver (August 25-28) and the presidential debate in Nashville (October 7), thus missing both events. ;)

Irish tie for second in Big East

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame edged South Florida on Saturday to finish tied for second place in the Big East -- ND's best finish ever. The Irish went 24-6 overall, 14-4 in conference. Woohoo!

Black & Green writes: "Coach Brey is third behind only Jim Calhoun and Jim Boeheim in all time Big East victories. There's a good trivia question for your next party. A guy who was on the hot seat two years ago is now going back to a top seed in the Big East tournament and could win his second straight Coach of the Year award."

Next comes the always-exciting Big East Tournament, starting on Thursday. Notre Dame will be the #3 seed, and will play the winner of Wednesday's 6-11 game between Marquette and Seton Hall (or Cincinnati?). Go Irish!

Zags, Irish win; Trojans lose

By Brendan Loy

I'd be remiss in my basketball-blogging duties if I didn't point out that Gonzaga beat St. Mary's yesterday to take the WCC lead and probably wrap up an NCAA at-large bid, if they need it. As long as the Zags beat 6-7 Santa Clara tomorrow night, they'll win yet another regular-season conference title.

Also, Notre Dame eked out a win over DePaul. Joe Lunardi currently projects the Irish as a #4 seed, Gonzaga as a #6, and USC as a #7. (But that was before 'SC lost to Arizona State yesterday.)

GOOOO IRISH!!!

By Brendan Loy

BEEEEAT CARDINALS!!!

That is all.

UPDATE: Um, so yeah, it's not going too well. Louisville 42, Notre Dame 27 at halftime.

UPDATE 2: Louisville won, 90-85. They were way ahead for most of the game, but Notre Dame mounted a valiant comeback late, with five three-pointers in the last minute-and-a-half -- three of them by Luke Harangody, who hadn't hit a three all season! Harangody ended up with 40 points.

UPDATE 3: USC-Arizona is now underway on ESPN. The Trojans lead early, 26-14.

UPDATE 4: Trojans pick up a huge road win, 70-58. Sweet!

D'oh!

By Brendan Loy

The orange blazer had no magic last night, as #1 Tennessee lost to Vanderbilt.

So, who'll be #1 in the polls next week? Does Memphis take it back? Or perhaps North Carolina? More importantly, is Tennessee still a #1 seed? I'd think that, if they win out (including the SEC Tournament), they'd have to be.

Now, enough of this Go Big Orange business. :) It's time to start getting excited about tomorrow night's Notre Dame-Louisville game. GO IRISH!

#1 Tennessee visits Vandy tonight

By Brendan Loy

Barack Obama isn't the only frontrunner who will be on national TV tonight trying to defend his recently acquired top-dog status against a rival's onslaught. At 9:00 PM EST -- the same time as the Democratic debate on MSNBC -- the #1-ranked Tennessee men's basketball team will face #18 Vanderbilt on the Commodores' home floor. The game will be on ESPN, and Bruce Pearl will be in his orange blazer.

Go Vols & Go Barack!

P.S. I'm looking ahead a bit now, but take a gander at the Big East standings, and then ponder for a moment Thursday night's big game: Notre Dame at Louisville, 7:00 PM on ESPN. Holy cow. Mike Brey's boys playing, maybe, for a Big East regular-season championship? I love it! Oh, and did I mention it's part of an Irish Trojan doubleheader? USC visits Arizona at 9:00 PM Thursday, also on ESPN. Sweet.

Protest disrupts Kelley event at Berkeley

By Brendan Loy

Bill Kelley, former deputy counsel to President Bush and current Notre Dame Law School professor, got a taste of life at a slightly more liberal university when protesters disrupted an event he was participating in last week at UC-Berkeley. There's a photo:

He looks somewhat perturbed. The Daily Californian article doesn't say, however, whether Professor Kelley was branded a "war criminal" by the protesters. (The event's moderator, Professor John Yoo, was.)

As usual with such protesters, they were very interested in free speech, so long as they were the ones speaking. "As the panelist discussion progressed, protestors continuously shouted at Yoo," according the Daily Cal.

And their shouts weren't even relevant to the topic at hand -- while the protesters were rambling about torture and executive power, the panelists (who included USC professor Susan Estrich, another noted war criminal*) tried to have a discussion about why voters should carefully consider potential Supreme Court nominations in making election decisions this fall, something you'd think the protesters would agree with. But, you know, heaven forbid scholars get together to talk about such things. They must be shouted down! They're war criminals! They're evil fascists!! Bush=Hitler!!! *sigh*

Said Ethan Rarick, director of the Center on Politics at the Institute of Governmental Studies: "We're fine with people coming to express their opinions, even on the panelists and participants, but it should not disrupt the event."

*...and by "war criminal," I mean "antiwar liberal feminist."

BracketBusters / UT-Memphis open thread

By Brendan Loy

I'm expecting a busy afternoon and evening, and thus probably won't be able to watch as much basketball as I'd like. But there's plenty to talk about, with the day's biggest games being Drake @ Butler at 5:00 PM on ESPN2 (the BracketBusters marquee game) and, of course, Tennessee @ Memphis at 9:00 PM on ESPN2. Although, don't sleep on Kent State @ St. Mary's at midnight on the Deuce, which Kyle Whelliston says is potentially the most consequential 'Busters game of them all, bubble-wise.

Anyway, here's the scoreboard. If you're watching the games and you feel like commenting, fire away.

P.S. Nice wins for USC and Notre Dame on Thursday night, eh?

P.P.S. Check out 4th through 9th place in the Pac-10 standings. Wow. Is that conference balanced or what?

UPDATE: Tennessee wins, 66-62! Come Monday morning, the Vols will be #1 in the nation for the first time in school history. (Er, on the men's side, that is.)

And so ends Memphis's bid for an undefeated season. The Tigers were 8-for-17 from the free-throw line, and they didn't hit a single three-pointer after their white-hot start in the game's first 12 minutes.

Oh, and Drake beat Butler in another very exciting game.

More on Tim Aher

By Brendan Loy

Here is the obituary of Notre Dame 2L Timothy Aher, who died in London over the weekend. News articles about his sad and untimely passing have also been published in the Notre Dame newspaper and in the local Connecticut newspaper of the area where he grew up. A memorial mass was held at the Basilica on Tuesday (video here) for Tim and Connor McGrath, the Notre Dame sophomore who also died over the weekend.

There's much more, including a photo from the CT paper, in the Tim Aher & Connor McGrath memorial post, which I've updated several times. (There's a fair amount of search-engine traffic coming to that page, so I'm trying to keep everything related to the tragedies consolidated there.) You can also find more photos of Tim at this Photobucket page. According to Chicago radio station WHPK, "friends from law school have started [it] to compile a photo album to give to Tim's family."

Also, from the obituary: "In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to Connecticut Legal Services, Inc., 62 Washington St., Middletown, CT 06457, in Tim's name."

R.I.P., Tim Aher & Connor McGrath

By Brendan Loy

The university has released the name of the Notre Dame student who died in London over the weekend. As I feared, it was a law student: 2L Timothy Aher.

In addition to being a Domer, Tim was also a Nutmegger, a resident of Brookfield, Connecticut. He was 25. The university says he "died tragically and unexpectedly Sunday (Feb. 17) in Ilford, England, a suburb of London."

He's the second Notre Dame Law School student to die in just over 10 months. On April 7 of last year, 3L Ryan Rudd died of cancer, less than a month-and-a-half before he would have graduated. He was awarded his J.D. posthumously; his mother received it in a very emotional moment at commencement.

I imagine the Class of 2009 will be torn up about Tim's death in much the same way that ours was about Ryan's. What a tragedy.

Anyway, in the same press release, the university also released more details about the unrelated death of Notre Dame sophomore Connor McGrath, a 20-year-old who intended to major in business:

A resident of Siegfried Hall, he had spent the night in the room of a friend in Dillon Hall, where he previously had resided. His body was discovered by friends at approximately 1:40 p.m. ... Investigators from the unit and the county’s deputy coroner made a preliminary evaluation, pending an autopsy today, that the death appeared to be from natural causes, possibly related to McGrath’s history of diabetes.

A memorial Mass for both students will be held Tuesday at 10 p.m. at the Basilica.

May they both rest in peace. And I know we'll all be keeping their family and friends in our thoughts and prayers. I think particularly of the parents, as I sit here with Loyette sleeping peacefully in my lap; I can't imagine the wrenching pain of losing a child just as they're becoming an adult. May they find some source of comfort in the terribly sad days, indeed years, ahead.

UPDATE, 2/19: Here's a Tim Aher remembrance, with a photo, from blogger Mark Solotroff. Solotroff is in a band, and last November, he and his bandmates were hosted by Tim while in London on tour. A couple of earlier blog posts about their adventures can be found here and here.

Also, another blogger remembers Connor, with several photos. And a Facebook group has been created in his honor.

The Notre Dame Observer has separate articles today about Tim's death and about Connor's death. An excerpt from the article about Tim:

Aher, 25, was a music lover with eccentric interests and a warm personality, his friends said.

"He was a beautiful and rare and amazing person," [Adam] Zayed said.

A memorial Mass was celebrated Monday afternoon in the Alumni Hall chapel. Father John Coughlin, a law professor, presided. Approximately 100 people, mostly students and faculty from the Law School, attended the Mass.

"People from all walks and cliques in the Law School were there today," [Artie] Merschat said. "He brought the Law School together."

Read the whole thing, including an amusing anecdote about Tim's "hipster subjugation of death metal culture."

UPDATE, 2/20: Here's an article about Tim's death from the Danbury News-Times in Connecticut. It includes a photo, of which I've added a scaled-down version to the top of this post (along with a photo of Connor from his Facebook group).

UPDATE, 2/21: Here's Tim's obituary.

In addition, via Chicago radio station WHPK -- where I guess Tim used to work -- I learn that "friends from law school have started to compile a photo album to give to Tim's family." It has 45 photos and counting. And there's also a Tim Aher blog.

The memorial mass for Tim and Connor was held at the Basilica on Tuesday. Here's the Observer article about it, and here's a WNDU article, with video.

Also from the Observer: a letter to the editor praising the campus for coming together in unity at the memorial mass, and an op-ed by Father Lou DelFra titled, "Tragedy: a time of God's absence or presence?"

Funeral arrangements in Connecticut are as follows: "The family will receive friends at the Valley Presbyterian Church, 21 West Whisconier Rd., Brookfield, CT between the hours of 3:00pm and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 23, 2008. A memorial service will be held at the church at 5:30 p.m."

Also: "In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to Connecticut Legal Services, Inc., 62 Washington St., Middletown, CT 06457, in Tim's name."

P.S. Out of respect for the families, please let's not speculate on anything that hasn't been made public, and/or widely reported by a reputable source, with regard to the individual circumstances of either student's death. Thanks.

P.P.S. Also, please let's keep any arguments about side-issues from the previous post confined there, rather than allowing them to spill over to this thread, which should really be for memorialization and mourning.

Dual tragedy at Notre Dame

By Brendan Loy

Two Notre Dame students died over the weekend in "separate and unrelated incidents" -- one of them at Dillon Hall, the other reportedly while "studying abroad in London." (Hat tip: Sergio.)

I have no idea whether the latter student was in the NDLS London program, or some other London program. All additional information is being withheld for now, including the students' names. Regardless, both deaths are obviously terrible tragedies, and my heart goes out to the families and friends of these students, whoever they may be.

UPDATE: The Observer reports:

One of the students, Connor McGrath, was a sophomore who moved to Siegfried Hall in January. He died Sunday morning or early afternoon, Siegfried rector Father John Conley told students gathered at the dorm's Mass Sunday night. ...

No name has been released in the second death, but a number of dorm rectors said the student was not an undergraduate.

The South Bend Tribune is quoting the St. Joseph County deputy coroner as saying that McGrath "may have had some health problems." There's no word at all on the what killed the London grad/law student.

If, as expected, the university releases more information later today, presumably it will be posted here.

UPDATE 2: The student who died in London has been identified as law student Timothy Aher. Details in a new post above.

NOTE: I've bumped this post's timestamp back to 11:17 PM, the original time it was posted. I had bumped it up to the top of the homepage because it was clearly the "top story" overnight and into the morning, but now that the new post supercedes it, I've restored its original timestamp.

Saturday night's all right for voting

By Brendan Loy

Mark Halperin has the rundown of this weekend's primaries and caucuses. Today's first results could come in shortly after 5:00 PM EST, from Kansas (GOP only) and Washington (both parties). Later, the mighty Virgin Islands (Dem only), Nebraska (Dem only) and Louisiana (both) will report in. And tomorrow, the Dems vote in Maine.

Predictions? I'm going to say, in an effort to stem the tide of my own irrational exuberance, that Hillary pulls a narrow upset in Washington (though I hope I'm wrong), Obama wins big elsewhere, and Huck takes Kansas but loses Louisiana by a hair and is blown out in Washington, notwithstanding my previous ruminations to the contrary. :)

On an unrelated note, it's Notre Dame 63, Marquette 52 almost midway through the second half. The Irish look impressive.

UPDATE: Notre Dame wins, 86-83, surviving a late Marquette run thanks to clutch free-throw shooting. That'll help them in March, if they keep it up.

UPDATE 2: Huckabee romps McCain in Kansas, 66% to 22% (with 11% for Ron Paul). Wow! (That's with 76% of the precincts reporting.) Maybe I was too Huck-a-bearish in my predictions...

UPDATE, 8:26 PM: With 35 percent of the precincts reporting in Washington state, it's 67% to 32% Obama. (Official results here.) Hooray for yet another faulty Brendan Loy prediction! :) Nothing yet on the GOP side.

So far, indications are good for Obama in Nebraska, too.

UPDATE, 8:32 PM: CNN is now projecting that Obama will win Nebraska. And it's another huge win: 69% to 31% with 73 percent reporting.

In Louisiana, meanwhile, the Obama campaign is complaining of voter irregularities.

UPDATE, 9:25 PM: With 17% of the Washington GOP precincts reporting, it's McCain 27%, Huckabee 26%, Paul 21%, Romney 17%, Uncommitted 9%. Did they miss the memo that Romney dropped out? And that Paul is nuts? ;)

Meanwhile, the Louisiana results are just beginning to trickle in. ABC News "does not have enough information to project the winner of the Louisiana Democratic primary, but Obama is leading New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, based on exit poll estimates. There is not enough information to project whether Arizona Sen. John McCain or former Gov. Mike Huckabee will win in Louisiana on the Republican side."

P.S. Commenter "CD" gives a first-hand report on the Washington Democratic caucuses. She also reported on last night's Obama rally.

Big games tomorrow for USC, ND

By Brendan Loy

I've been so focused on politics during my limited, non-baby-consumed free time over the last month that I haven't been able to pay much attention to college basketball -- and when I have, my attention has usually been focused on USC or Gonzaga. But Notre Dame has been doing really well, building a 7-2 Big East record, with two of those wins (along with both losses) on the road. The Irish are currently alone in second place in the conference standings, and ranked #21 or #22 in the country, depending on which poll you believe. Admire Mike Brey!

Anyway, tomorrow at noon in a nationally televised ESPN game, they'll look to avenge one of their road losses -- their worst loss of the season, in fact -- against #16 Marquette. That's always a fun game at the Joyce Center, with a boisterous visiting crowd. Hopefully the Leprechaun Legion will be up to the challenge. Go Irish, Beat Golden Eagles!

Also tomorrow: USC vs. Wazzu. The Trojans have improbably rallied from their 0-3 conference start to take sole possession of third place in the Pac-10 with a 6-4 record -- and five of their remaining eight games are at home. Tomorrow is one of the three road games, against struggling Washington State (the Cougars have lost 4 of 5 after starting 16-1 overall and 4-1 in conference). Big-time game for 'SC, though alas, the ABC telecast at 3:30 PM is regional; we get Texas-Iowa State instead. Harumph. Regardless: Fight on Trojans, Beat the Cougs!

NDLS construction webcam

By Brendan Loy

Via e-mail, Derek points out that there's a webcam showing the progress of construction on the new Notre Dame Law School building. Cool!

Notre Dame finally beats USC in football

By Brendan Loy

Well, in football recruiting, anyway. Today was National Signing Day, and the Irish recruiting class is ranked #2 by both Rivals and Scout. USC is #10 and #13, respectively, their lowest rankings since 2002 (and behind UCLA, according to Scout... ugh!).

Trojans top Ducks in OT

By Brendan Loy

USC 95, Oregon 86 in overtime. Sweet! That's a huge road win for 'SC, which is now 4-3 in the Pac-10 after starting 0-3.

'Twas a good day on the road for both the Irish and the Trojans.

Um, go Zags?

By Brendan Loy

Gonzaga and Memphis are underway, and so far, it's not looking promising for the Bulldogs, as the fast-breaking Tigers have jumped out to an early 10-0 lead.

UPDATE: Well, that's better. After trailing 25-13, the Zags have rallied to take a 32-30 lead! Two minutes left in the first half.

UPDATE 2: Aaaand the Zags lose all their momentum in the final minute, as Memphis goes up 35-32 on a thunderous dunk at the buzzer.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame leads #18 Villanova -- on the road -- 35-29 late in the first half.

UPDATE 3: Memphis wins, 81-73.

Gurule backs Romney; Kucinich bows out

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame Law School Professor Jimmy Gurule has signed on as a member of Lawyers for Romney.

In other news, Dennis Kucinich has dropped out of the race. Also, recently-departed Duncan Hunter has endorsed Mike Huckabee, causing Michelle Malkin's head to explode.

P.S. Another NDLS professor, Gerard Bradley, has endorsed McCain.

NDLS launches new & improved website

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame Law School has a new, completely revamped website. "It's amazing," writes Derek, who tipped me off to the redesign. I haven't had the chance yet to look around very much, but I thought I'd pass the news along.

Irish, Zags win; Trojans lose

By Brendan Loy

Kyle McAlarney scored a career-high 32 points as Notre Dame beat UConn to improve to 2-0 in the Big East and 12-2 overall. Nice! (Hat tip: JohnMac.)

The news was not as good for USC, which fell to 0-2 in the Pac-10 and 9-5 overall (albeit against a much tougher non-conference schedule than the Irish) with a 52-46 loss to #24 Stanford. The Trojans were ranked #22 before their consecutive road losses to Cal and Stanford, but will undoubtedly fall out of the poll next week. It doesn't get any easier for 'SC in the loaded Pac-10, as they host #4 Washington State and a Washington team that almost beat Wazzu yesterday, then travel to Westwood for a showdown with Kevin Love and #5 UCLA.

Gonzaga, meanwhile, finished up its pre-WCC schedule with a 75-67 win in the Battle of the Bulldogs against Georgia.

Quinn takes first NFL snaps

By Brendan Loy

Brady Quinn made his NFL debut today. (Hat tip: Scott F.)

Now Quinn's Cleveland Browns, who beat the 49ers 20-7, are waiting and hoping the Colts beat the Titans, thus securing the Browns a playoff berth in place of Vince Young and LenDale White's Titans.

Frank Eck dies

By Brendan Loy

Frank Eck, one of Notre Dame's most generous benefactors and the man for whom the new law school building will be named, died yesterday at age 84. Here is Dean O'Hara's statement on his passing.

NDLS construction: a retraction

By Brendan Loy

I received a phone call this afternoon from a member of the Notre Dame Law School administration, in response to the e-mail that I sent to the deans about the construction situation discussed in Lisa's post yesterday. The administrator with whom I spoke asked that I not reveal his or her identity (for reasons that I consider valid, and not damaging to the person's credibility), but I can assure you that this person knows what he/she is talking about, and I have full confidence that he/she was being sincere and forthright during our conversation. Based on what we discussed, I now believe that the administration is being far more reasonable and accommodating than it first appeared to me.

(Continued after the jump. Don't miss my abject admission of wrong-headedness at the end of the post!)

Irish, Trojans in NCAA semifinals

By Brendan Loy

...in women's soccer, that is. On ESPN2 right now, Notre Dame is playing Florida State in the first semifinal -- and with just over 22 minutes left in the second half, it's tied 2-2.

Up next? USC vs. UCLA, in the second national semifinal. Alas, that game is on ESPNU, not ESPN2.

Go Irish! Go Trojans!

UPDATE: Seminoles win, 3-2. So there will be no USC-Notre Dame title game. :(

UPDATE 2: USC stuns top-ranked fUCLA!! Woohoo!!!

The win broke a nine-game USC losing streak against the Bruins. Nice timing, ladies!! It also ended UCLA's overall 17-game winning streak, which dated back to mid-September.

So the tournament of surprises will end with a most unlikely pairing: the USC Trojans Women of Troy, ranked #9 in the final regular-season coaches poll, against the #14-ranked Florida State Seminoles in the national championship game, Sunday at 2:00 PM on ESPN2.

Fight on!! Stop the chop!!

The media's obsession with race is hurting black coaches

By Brendan Loy

Quick, everybody get out your race cards! Apparently the reason Nebraska hired LSU's Bo Pelini instead of Buffalo's Turner Gill is because Gill is black. Yup, there's no other possible explanation. Cornhusker Nation is a bunch of dirty racists!! [rolls eyes]

Look, it sucks that there are only five black head coaches in Division I-A college football. (Based on percentage of the population, there should be 15.) But it truly boggles my mind that the race-obsessed media doesn't grasp the degree to which they're making the situation worse by focusing so heavily on race, to the exclusion of other relevant issues, whenever a black coach is hired, fired or considered for a coaching job.

Anybody wanna buy a bar?

By Lisa Velte

I heard that the (in)famous Club 23 was going up for sale.  I never really thought about how one goes about selling a bar, but I never imagined that it would be done through Craigslist.  I also wonder about that studio apartment that's mentioned.  I certainly never knew it was there, and it makes me wonder who on earth would want to live above Club 23.

Irish Trojan doubleheader on ESPN

By Brendan Loy

ESPN's Irish Trojan doubleheader at Madison Square Garden, a.k.a. the Jimmy V Classic, is going well for the good guys so far. Notre Dame leads Kansas State, 59-53, with four minutes left. Luke Harangody is more than holding his own against the Wildcats' much-hyped Michael Beasley, with 19 points and 14 rebounds to Beasley's 17 and 11.

After ND and KSU finish up, it's USC vs. #2 Memphis and O.J. Mayo against Derrick Rose.

UPDATE: Irish win, 68-59! Kyle McAlarney finished with 18 points, including a clutch three-pointer from the top of the key with a couple of minutes left that essentially sealed the win.

UPDATE 2: At halftime, it's 29-24 Trojans. Nice!

UPDATE 3: OVERTIME! Daniel Hackett missed a free throw that would have put USC up 1 with 5.9 seconds left... and Taj Gibson has fouled out, so overtime may not be in our favor here.

UPDATE 4: Memphis survives, 62-58 in OT. It was a sloppy game all around, but with a lot of good defense. Nice effort by the Trojans, who lose their second down-to-the-wire decision against a Top 4 opponent in the last 72 hours. If only Hackett had hit that foul shot...

Sullivan, Lopez battle for USC pool win

By Brendan Loy

As some of you have doubtless noticed, I haven't actually gotten around to posting an official update on the USC and Notre Dame prediction contests... all season long. Um, yeah, sorry about that!

Luckily, commenter and contestant Ken Stern has posted several unofficial updates, most recently on November 11... and if that update was correct (and I have no reason to believe otherwise, indeed my spot-checking confirms his calculations), two contestants -- Sean Sullivan and Vicki Lopez -- remain alive to win the USC pool, with the outcome to be decided by tomorrow's USC-UCLA game.

Sullivan and Lopez are among 13 contestants with 9-2 prediction records, but they have the lowest "point differentials" of the bunch, meaning they have come the closest to picking USC's margin of victory or defeat in each game. Lopez is a total of 104 points off to date, while Sullivan is a total of 106 points off. Sullivan picked USC to beat UCLA by 17; Lopez picked the Trojans to win by 27. That means Sullivan will win if USC either loses or wins by 20 points or less; Lopez will win if the Trojans win by 22 or more. If USC wins by exactly 21 points, they would finish tied, with identical point differentials of 110 and no further tiebreakers to separate them.

Interestingly enough, with the point spread set at 20 by most oddsmakers, the prediction contest almost literally comes down to a question of whether the Trojans cover. If they don't, Sullivan wins. If they do, Lopez wins, unless they win by exactly 20 (Sullivan still wins) or by 21 (it's a tie).

Anyway, the big question is, can Lopez (a.k.a. "Vicki from NJ") finally win a BrendanLoy.com contest? Three times -- in the 2005 and 2006 Oscar pools and the 2006 women's NCAA pool -- she has been in position to win heading into the final event of a contest, only to lose at the wire. Can the Trojans win big, and break the "Lopez Curse" tomorrow? :)

In the Notre Dame pool, by the way, Sandy Underpants won, clinching early and never looking back even as he went 1-3 through the last four games of the season. He correctly predicted that the Irish would go 3-9, but he managed to get four games wrong along the way (he thought they'd lose to UCLA and Stanford, but beat Navy and Air Force) to finish with an 8-4 prediction record. That was better than anyone else, though. Andrew Long and Ken Stern, who both thought the Irish would 6-6, tied for second with 7-5 prediction records (both missed the Michigan State, Purdue, UCLA, Navy and Air Force games); Stern finished second on the basis of a lower point differential (183 to 197). No one else got fewer than six games wrong.

I'll try to post full, official standings of both pools at some point. Maybe by the time the baby starts kindergarten. :)

In women's soccer, a very Brendan Loy bracket

By Brendan Loy

The women's soccer NCAA Tournament has reached the Elite Eight, and an astounding number of schools that I care about are still competing for the championship. Both of my alma maters, USC and Notre Dame, are still alive, as is my original home-state team, UConn. And my two least-favorite universities, UCLA and Duke, are still alive as well. The only thing that could have made the bracket any more Loy-o-riffic would be if my current hometown team, Tennessee, had beaten Portland in the Sweet Sixteen to set up a date with the hated Bruins.

As things stand, it's Portland that must visit UCLA, while USC travels to West Virginia, Notre Dame hosts Duke, and UConn visits Florida State, all on Friday evening. Potentially, we could have a USC-UCLA semifinal on one side of the bracket and a UConn-Notre Dame semifinal on the other. Will the Women of Troy need to beat both of their school's archrivals to win the championship? Heh!

For what it's worth, in the final regular-season coaches' poll, UCLA was #1, Portland #3, USC #9, Notre Dame #11, West Virginia #12, Florida State #14, UConn #24, and Duke unranked. So I guess that means both the Irish and the Trojans will be favored on Friday. Go ND and 'SC, beat Duke and WVU!

More college basketball upsets

By Brendan Loy

Xavier 80, #8 Indiana 65.

#16 Texas 97, #7 Tennessee 78.

And, in progress now, a potential huge upset: BYU 59, #1 North Carolina 58 with 7:54 left. It's on ESPN2. Go Mormons Cougars! BYU won the Holy War in football earlier today, so this would be quite a double-whammy, if they can pull it off.

Meanwhile, in non-upsets, Gonzaga beat Virginia Tech and North Dame beat Youngstown State.

UPDATE: UNC survived the score from BYU.

Terrail Lambert decapitates Tavita Pritchard

By Brendan Loy

Horrible. Another illegal helmet-to-helmet hit against a quarterback goes uncalled. What the f*** is wrong with these referees? And with college-football referees generally? Good grief.

P.S. Um, but anyway, Go Irish, Beat Farm. It's 14-14, late in the third. Speaking of refs, apparently there was an awful call that robbed ND of a touchdown earlier, though I missed it.

UPDATE: Irish win!

So it's 3-9. Remember "9-3 is not good enough"? ... Still, it could have been worse. Like 2-10.

Ah, well. Next year.

UPDATE 2: Reading this over, I realized it sorta sounds like I'm saying, sarcastically, "Ah, well. Maybe the Irish will got 2-10 next year." That wasn't my intention. I meant "Next year hopefully they'll be better."

Go Irish, Beat the Farm!

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame has a 7-0 lead over Stanford early. BEAT THE DRUNKEN TREES!!!

Meanwhile, in Morgantown, UConn took an early 7-0 lead over West Virginia, but the Mountaineers have rallied and are up 14-7 with 4:14 left in the first quarter. WVU's second touchdown came after a devastating UConn fumble on a punt return deep in their own territory. The Huskies' success this season has been based largely on an excellent turnover margin, and now is definitely not the time to stop taking care of the football, with a BCS berth on the line.

Incidentally, the biggest UConn fans in the country right now are in Columbus, Ohio, as a West Virginia loss would send Ohio State to the national championship game (unless a two-loss SEC champion could leapfrog one-loss Ohio State). In addition, a UConn victory would mean that Hawaii, if they get BCS-eligible, would probably go to the Fiesta Bowl rather than the Sugar Bowl. (The Sugar Bowl picks last, the Fiesta Bowl second-to-last, and I imagine the folks in Glendale would prefer Hawaii to UConn if those were their only two options.)

P.S. Tennessee is beating Kentucky, 31-14. Win, and the Vols clinch the SEC East -- and eliminate Georgia from the SEC race, and hurt the slim national-title hopes of both LSU and Georgia, but virtually guarantee Georgia a BCS at-large berth (if the Bulldogs beat Georgia Tech).

Also, Oklahoma is up 14-7 over Oklahoma State at the end of the first. A Sooner victory would largely eliminate the various truly wild BCS title-game scenarios, since the Big 12 would be guaranteed to produce a highly ranked champion. A hypothetical two-loss, Big 12 champion Oklahoma would represent the "floor" for BCS scenarios; anyone who can't finish the season ranked ahead of them would be eliminated. (Whether that would totally eliminate USC, I'm not entirely sure. The computers don't much like Oklahoma.)

Notre Dame ranked #1 in football!

By Brendan Loy

Well, sort of. (Hat tip: BK.)

P.S. Heh.

College football: around the country

By Brendan Loy

First things first: Notre Dame 28, Duke 7, final. WOOO!!!! Finally, a home win for the Irish!!!

Meanwhile, here in Knoxville, the Tennessee Volunteers rallied from 15 points down in the fourth quarter to edge in-state rival Vanderbilt, 25-24, and retain control of the SEC East. If the Vols win at Kentucky next week, they'll take on LSU in Atlanta for the SEC championship. If Kentucky wins, the title game will be LSU vs. Georgia instead. (Georgia beat Kentucky today, 24-13.) No offense to the Vols, but given the way the Bulldogs have been playing, I think the Tigers (who beat Ole Miss 41-24 to defend their #1 ranking) will be rooting for Tennessee next week.

In the Big East, UConn's 30-7 romp of Syracuse, combined with Rutgers's 20-16 win over Pitt, guaranteed that next week's West Virginia-UConn game will decide the conference title. The only question remaining is who it'll be deciding between. If West Virginia beats Cincinnati tonight, the Mountaineers and Huskies will play a de facto championship game, with the winner going to the BCS. It would be the second straight year WVU has hosted such a game (they beat Rutgers last year). [CORRECTION: The previous sentence is wrong. WVU did host Rutgers in last year's finale, but by winning, the Mountaineers delivered the Big East championship to Louisville.] If, on the other hand, Cincy pulls the upset tonight, West Virginia will be the Bearcats' proxy warrior next week; a WVU win in that circumstance would mean a Cincinnati title. Either way, UConn is one road win away from an utterly improbable trip to either the Orange or Sugar Bowl. Unfortunately, the Huskies haven't won a road game of any significance all year.

Out in the Big 12, Kansas and Missouri survived the upset bug that has bitten many teams before "showdown" games this year -- think Florida the week before the LSU game, Texas and Oklahoma the week before the Red River Shootout, Ohio State and Michigan last week -- as both won easily today, 45-7 over Iowa State and 49-32 over Kansas State, respectively. So now the archrival Jayhawks and Tigers, neither of whom have won a Big 12 North title in football before, will meet next Saturday for all the marbles. Winner gets Oklahoma in the conference title game a week later, assuming Oklahoma takes care of business in the mean time. (The Sooners can clinch the Big 12 South with a win at Texas Tech tonight. But watch out -- Oklahoma isn't technically ranked #2 yet, but they know they'll be #2 in the new rankings if they win, so that might be enough for the #2 curse to strike!)

As for the Big Ten, Ohio State is once again the champion after beating Michigan 14-3. The Buckeyes will go to the Rose Bowl barring a series of upsets that lands them in the championship game, which could happen -- though I think Arizona State is probably ahead of them in the pecking order, and so, I suspect, is Georgia, despite the Bulldogs' two losses, if Tennessee loses next week, Georgia wins, and then beats LSU for the SEC title. ... Also in the Big Ten, Illinois won over Northwestern, staking their claim on a possible BCS at-large bid. If there are enough upsets above them, the Illini may be able to sneak into the Top 14 by season's end.

Nothing of any significance is happening today in the Pac-10, in terms of the conference race, with Oregon having lost on Thursday night and both USC and ASU idle in anticipation of their Thanksgiving showdown. However, Cal's slide into oblivion continues as Washington picked up its second conference win at the Bears' expense, 37-23. It's a shame the Huskies weren't able to pull out either of their recent close losses (against Arizona or Oregon State), because if they had, they'd be heading into next week's Apple Cup with a shot at bowl-eligibility still alive (though they'd then have had to upset Hawaii in Hawaii the following week).

Last but not least (okay, maybe least), in the ACC, Clemson plays Boston College tonight for the Atlantic Division title. Who will be their ACC title-game opponent? That will be decided by next week's Virginia-Virginia Tech game. Which means that, if West Virginia beats Cincy tonight, next week will feature three head-to-head, BCS conference- or division-deciding games. (UConn-WVU, Kansas-Missouri, and Virginia-Virginia Tech.) Four if you count Boise State-Hawaii, which is now officially all set after Boise crushed Idaho, 58-14.

Are you ready for some football?

By Brendan Loy

Specifically, some #95 vs. #103, 1-9 vs. 1-9, worst-nationally-televised-game-in-history football? It's the Duke Super Bowl, and it's a half-hour away. GOOOO IRISH!!!! BEEEEAT DUKE!!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, BEAT DUKE!

UPDATE: "Let's be honest, this is some bad football." --NBC announcer. It's 0-0, late in the second quarter.

UPDATE 2: Notre Dame scored two late touchdowns off Duke fumbles, and it's 14-0 Irish at halftime.

High hopes for Gonzaga

By Brendan Loy

No pun intended. :) Anyway, Seth Davis has a nice article about the Zags and their thoroughly admirable head coach, Mark Few, as well as the team's prospects for this upcoming basketball season.

I really think Gonzaga could do some special things this year. In fact, of my three teams -- USC, Notre Dame and Gonzaga -- I have the highest hopes for the Zags, despite the hype surrounding the Trojans' O.J. Mayo and the return of Kyle McAlarney to an Irish team helmed by the reigning Big East Coach of the Year (ahem). If Gabe Pruitt and Nick Young had stuck around at USC, I'd have more faith in the Trojans to live up to the hype, but as it is, I'm not so sure. As for the Irish, well, I just don't sense that this is a team ready to show off some heretofore unseen greatness; I think last year was pretty much their high water mark, and against a tougher Big East schedule this season, I expect them to suffer a return to mediocrity. I hope I'm wrong, of course. But anyway, Gonzaga... with Josh Heytvelt back, Jeremy Pargo taking over point guard duties full-time, and Micah Downs injury-free and in the lineup for a full season, I really think they could make some serious noise. I'm particularly excited about the ascendancy of Pargo, who is a freakin' stud (or "Grown Ass Man," as La Rev likes to say). Derek Raivio was very talented, but inconsistent to the point of being a liability his junior and senior years, IMHO. Pargo, I think, can succeed where Raivio failed: leading his team to achieve greater things than anyone expects of them. Well, if Heytvelt can stay healthy and away from the 'shrooms, that is.

The Zags are ranked #14 in both preseason polls. That ranking will be tested early, given that they have games against Texas Tech (probably), #28 Butler or Michigan or Virginia Tech (possibly), #10 Wazzu, #32 UConn, Oklahoma, #7 Tennessee (in Seattle, alas) and Georgia, all before 2008 is a week old -- and a visit to #3 Memphis on January 26, to boot. (If I wasn't going to be the father of a one-month-old at that point, I'd totally be trying to get tickets and planning a road trip.) I almost hope the Zags do well, but not too well, against that early schedule. Not that I'll be rooting against them in any particular game, mind, but generally they seem to do better when they come into the NCAA Tournament with low expectations (last year notwithstanding), so an early record that's better than last year's 9-6 start, but also not insanely good, would probably be ideal.

Ah, screw it, I hope they start 15-0 en route to an undefeated national championship. :) Go Zags!

ND's offense: Bad? Yes. Worst ever? Maybe not.

By Brendan Loy

There's been a lot of schadenfreude-ian talk in recent weeks about how Notre Dame's offense might be the worst in college football history.  One Florida blogger has devoted a special category just to tracking the alleged statistical evidence of this dubious distinction. And the talk hasn't just been coming from the Domer-haters. Even the venerable Fighting Irish blog Blue-Gray Sky conceded last month that ND's offense "could go down in history as one of the worst ever produced, if not THE worst."

Now, I'm not going to sit here and defend Notre Dame's offense. It's been terrible. Awful. Bloody abysmal. But to claim, on the basis of nothing more precise or meaningful than an absolute, context-free measure of yards per game, that it might be the OMG WORST OFFENSE EVER!!!, is an indictment of lies, damn lies, and statistics, more than it's an indictment of Notre Dame's putrid offense (which is bad enough without being indicted for crimes it didn't commit, for heaven's sake).

Navy cancels classes to celebrate win

By Brendan Loy

Uh-oh. Now we're going to lose the war, and it's all Charlie Weis's fault:

The Naval Academy canceled classes Monday, giving the 4,400 midshipmen another day to celebrate the football team's first victory over Notre Dame in 44 tries.

Charlie Weis: Giving our brave men & women in uniform an excuse to slack off, and thus helping the terrorists win, since 2007. Way to go, Coach.

;) Just kidding, of course.

UCLA sucks

By Brendan Loy

As an Irish Trojan, I don't subscribe to the notion of the "perfect day" -- a day when USC wins and both UCLA and Notre Dame lose -- but for those more typical Trojans who do, this has to be one of the sweetest "perfect days" in recent memory. USC avenged last year's loss to Oregon State, UCLA got embarrassed by lowly Arizona, and Notre Dame lost to Navy. Man.

As for me, all I can say is Beat the Bears, and Beeeeat Falcons!

Anchors Aweigh

By Brendan Loy

I didn't explicitly say it before, so I just want to echo BGS and say: Congrats to Navy.

They played well, and hard -- as exemplified by this play. They earned this win. They deserve it. Well done, men.

Navy 46, Notre Dame 44, final in 3 OTs

By Brendan Loy

Let the explosion of anti-Irish schadenfreude begin. From sea to shining sea, every college-football fan who doesn't root for Notre Dame is loving this one. It's Navy's first win over ND in 44 years, ending an NCAA-record 43-game losing streak against a single opponent... and the Irish are now 1-8 this season, 1-10 in their last eleven games. Over at ND Nation, their heads asplode.

Fire Mike Brey Charlie Weis?

P.S. Here's the game story. Linked page also contains a clip of Lou Holtz's ESPN pep talk... for Navy. I guess it worked.

UPDATE: Dylan at the Blue-Gray Sky writes: "Ask not for whom the bell tolls, Charlie. It tolls for thee. Great recruiter. Great coordinator. Not a very good head coach."

ND-Navy close so far; Buffalo up early

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame and Navy are tied at 7 early in the second quarter, as Notre Dame attempts to improve to 2-10 in its last 12 games, while Navy attempts to improve to 1-43 in the last 44 years against the Irish. ND is only a 3-point favorite at home over the Midshipmen. [UPDATE: While I was writing this, Notre Dame scored, and now it's 14-7. GOOOO IRISH! BEEEEAT NAVY!]

Meanwhile, in a game that could determine the MAC East championship, Buffalo -- a 7-point underdog on the road -- is up 7-3 over Miami of Ohio in the first quarter.

But the score of the afternoon right now is this one: Kansas 69, Nebraska 31... with three minutes left in the third quarter.

UPDATE: It's 21-14 Irish at halftime, and 17-7 Miami over Buffalo late in the second quarter. Meanwhile, the final score in Lawrence was Kansas 76, Nebraska 39. Ouch!

UPDATE 2: Buffalo has rallied to tie the game at halftime. Go Bulls!

UPDATE 3: Are we about to witness history? Navy has taken a 28-21 lead with just over 10 minutes left in the game. Sharpley fumbled the ball deep in Irish territory, and a Midshipmen defender rumbled in for a touchdown. ND Nation is in full meltdown mode.

Meanwhile, Buffalo trails 31-20 late in the third quarter.

UPDATE 4: Tie game, 28-28, 3:17 left. Navy ball.

UPDATE 5: The Irish got the ball back, and had a 4th and 8 on the Navy 28, needing only a field goal to win... but instead of trying the 42-yard attempt, they went for it, Sharpley got sacked, and we're going to overtime.

An ND Nation poster writes: "I just don't have any energy left to support Chuck. His playcalling today has been at least as bad as Wild Bill's [Callahan, I think]. His choice to not even attempt that FG was almost as bad as Ty punting from BC's 30. Time to start the coaching search." Lots of other comments along the same lines (though some disagree).

UPDATE 6: Buffalo lost, 31-28. :(

UPDATE 7: Phew! Notre Dame survives overtime #2, managing to hold Navy to a field goal after only getting a FG themselves, and we're going to a triple overtime. 38-38.

UPDATE 8: Navy's quarterback gets his sixth and seventh completed passes of the entire game for a 25-yard touchdown and two-point conversion to open the third overtime. Amazing. 46-38 Navy. Irish ball.

UPDATE 9: Navy wins.

To be honest, I'm glad they got the two-point conversion on the second try, because the interference call on the first try was ridiculous. He went for the ball, and that's exactly what he got. The only thing he "interfered" with was the football, and I'm pretty sure that's allowed. It would have been a travesty if Navy had lost because of that call.

Brady Quinn, USC Trojan

By Brendan Loy

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA:

There you have it: the photo evidence of Brady Quinn's lost bet with Rodney Peete on last Saturday's USC-Notre Dame game.

But it gets even better. There's video evidence, too:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

(NOTE: The video clip has changed since I originally uploaded it Thursday night. Among other things, I've added a little musical coda at the end that my Trojan readers will enjoy...)

Thanks to the anonymous commenter who pointed me to the photo. And thanks to Brady-Quinn.org, a fan site, for linking to the video clips on the Browns site and YouTube that allowed me to mash up the above clip.

Of course, even as I glory in it, I can sympathize with Brady's plight. As can Mike Tran. Sometimes friendly bets are a b**ch. :) But kudos to Brady for upholding his end of the deal.

Now then... BEAT THE DUCKS!!!

Free fallin'

By Brendan Loy

The Blue-Gray Sky has an awesome aerial photo of the Army parachuters beginning their jump down to Notre Dame Stadium before Saturday's game against USC. Definitely check it out.

Brady Quinn loses bet, wears USC jersey

By Brendan Loy

Heh:

Browns rookie quarterback Brady Quinn reached into the back of his locker, pulled out the cardinal-and-gold No. 10 jersey and gritted his teeth.

"This," he said, "is going to hurt."

Quinn, the former Notre Dame star, then slipped the Southern California jersey over his head and felt his skin crawl.

"That's why I've got extra layers on," he said. "So it doesn't actually touch any part of my body."

Quinn had to wear USC's colors on Wednesday after losing a bet with former Trojans quarterback Rodney Peete over last week's game between Notre Dame and Southern Cal. ...

Surely, Quinn got some points in the wager. After all, Notre Dame is 1-7 and USC is 6-1.

"It's a pride bet," Quinn said. "C'mon now. You don't bet points. I got faith in my guys." ...

When he finished with his interview, Quinn quickly ripped off the jersey and slam dunked it into a nearby garbage can.

Mike Tran should sent Brady a sympathy card. :)

(Hat tip: Scott Wolf.)

Scalia at NDLS: now with photos!

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame has finally posted something on the Web about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's visit to the Law School on Friday:

United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia joined several of the nation’s most prominent legal scholars for a conference Oct. 19 at Notre Dame Law School. Titled “Separation of Powers as a Safeguard of Federalism,” the conference was sponsored by A.J. Bellia, professor of law, and the Notre Dame Law Review.

Scalia delivered the opening lecture, “The Importance of Structure in Constitutional Interpretation,” during which he discussed the unique function of the judiciary in American government and analyzed several cases that have gone before the court. After his talk, Scalia allowed time for student questions. During a lunchtime reception, Scalia spent more than an hour mingling and talking with students in the student lounge.

The Law School has also posted some photos, including these:

See also here and here. And here's the updated schedule; Scalia's name has been retroactively added. (I was wrong in surmising that he gave the introductory lecture which Professor A.J. Bellia was scheduled to give. Bellia still gave that lecture. Scalia spoke second, after an introduction from Dean O'Hara.)

(Hat tip: Derek and ajb.)

I still want to know if he went to the USC game...

You stay classy, Irish fans

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame fans tend to pride themselves on being "classier" than other fans. And in some cases, it's true. But not in this case:

As USC coach Pete Carroll departed the field, the Notre Dame fans chanted, "F--- Pete Carroll."

Well, that's one way to handle the pain of a 38-point loss. It is not, however, the classy way. And if USC fans did something like that, we'd be hearing all about how it proves that Trojans are classless.

(More after the jump.)

Just in case anyone was wondering...

By Brendan Loy

...the grass looks normal length:

:)

Victory

By Brendan Loy

So... who starts at QB for the Trojans next week at Oregon?

And, um, will Navy beat Notre Dame?

P.S. Brian Grummell echoes my thoughts:

I have to be frank here: USC just isn't a very good football team right now. In fact, many of their problems all year manifested themselves in the first half against Notre Dame today. Fortunately for the Trojans, Notre Dame is that much worse of a football team that at one point in the third quarter USC had as many touchdowns as the Irish had first downs. ...

The fact that a shaky USC was able to so easily dismantle a Notre Dame team that was competitive against a highly ranked Boston College team just last week has me concerned about the Eagles. Maybe they are the next to suffer the fate of #2 that slayed USF Thursday night.

Coincidentally enough, BC next week, like USF this week, is on the road... on Thursday night... on ESPN... against a quality opponent (Virginia Tech). I foresee a Hokies "upset."

38-0

By Brendan Loy

USC 38, Notre Dame 0, final.

It's the first Trojan shutout in Notre Dame Stadium since 1933. Notre Dame's worst home shutout since losing 40-0 to Oklahoma in 1956. The first time since 1960 that the Irish have been shut out twice in the same season. The largest Trojan margin of victory in the history of the series. The first time USC has ever won three straight at Notre Dame Stadium. Oh, and Irish punter Jeff Price is Notre Dame's player of the game.

Fight on.

But damn, it sucks that Notre Dame sucks this much.

Go Trojans!!!

By Brendan Loy

Just rebutting Kristin's post. :)

Anyway, so far, so good. 17-0 at the half.

UPDATE: Now 24-0. The Irish offense is just looking totally inept and overmatched. As Texasyank says, "Notre Dame makes Stanford look like the freaking Patriots."

UPDATE 2: 31-0! w00t Vidal Hazelton!

The biggest USC margin ever against Notre Dame is 31 points -- which they achieved during all three years of Ty's tenure. ... There are 10 minutes left in the third quarter. Just saying.

P.S. Right now, a bunch of Domers in the student section are thinking, "I delayed my fall break for this?"

UPDATE 3: Meanwhile, in Syracuse, Buffalo trails 17-3 in the third quarter. D'oh!

UPDATE 4: "You can't lose your job to injury"? Tell that to T.C. Ostrander!

UPDATE 5: Before anyone starts saying "Pete Carroll is running up the score" by going for it on 4th and 2 up 31-0 ... Pete Carroll always goes for it on 4th-and-short in that no-man's-land portion of the field. Always. Doesn't matter the game situation.

I suppose nobody will complain, though, since the Irish stopped 'em. See, Pete was actually being charitable! ;)

UPDATE 6: Exchange between NBC announcers, talking about Kentucky's schedule:

Announcer #1: "That's a real tough assignment in back-to-back weeks, LSU and Florida."
Announcer #2: "It's like that every week in the SEC."

Um, NO IT'S NOT! The SEC is a tough conference, but it is NOT like playing LSU and Florida every week! You also get to play Ole Miss and Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, etc. And yes, those teams can pull off upsets (as Vanderbilt did today against the "other" USC) when you don't show up to play. So what? So can Stanford and Oregon State and Arizona, etc. So would you say that "every week in the Pac-10" is like playing USC and Oregon in back-to-back weeks? Ugh. I hate SEC homerism.

P.S. Oh yeah, and in the Pac-10, every team plays every other team. So whereas, for example, Tennessee doesn't play LSU or Auburn this season, USC has to play Cal and Oregon and ASU and every other team in the league. That counts for something, too. If you're in the SEC, you don't actually get to claim credit, schedule-wise, for the fact that "our league has X number of ranked teams" because odds are, you don't play them all. Not so in the Pac-10.

UPDATE 7: TOUCHDOWN MCKNIGHT! 38-0 Trojans with 10:57 to go.

UPDATE 8: Some Domer despair here.

Dear NBC,

By Brendan Loy

It's not SAHN-chez.

It's not San-CHEZ.

It's SAN-chez.

Get it right.

Sincerely,

A USC fan

P.S. Actually, yes, turning the ball over at your own 10 yard line is a "bad play."

GOOOO TROJANS, BEEEEAT IRISH

By Brendan Loy

Wake up the echoes, fellas. No, not those echoes. These echoes:

Fight on!

UPDATE: Who is this "Mark SAHN-chez" the NBC sideline reporter speaks of?

UPDATE 2: USC wasted two timeouts on its opening drive. WTF, Sanchez?

P.S. Man, those jerseys are ugly. :)

The wrath of Weis

By Brendan Loy

TrojanWire provides a helpful illustration of Thursday's terrifying Trojan flight in the skies over South Bend:

Heh.

In heaven there is no beer

By Brendan Loy

Arguably the best blogs in the Domersphere and the Trojansphere, respectively -- The Blue-Gray Sky and Conquest Chronicles -- are both previewing tomorrow's game with an extensive series of questions & answers for one another.

Here are BGS's answers to CC's questions. And here are CC's answers to BGS's questions.

Meanwhile, the Blue-Gray Sky also has a lengthy discussion of the 1977-vintage green jerseys that the Irish will be wearing tomorrow. (In case you forgot, this was announced back in June.) Among other things, Charlie Weis is quoted as saying: "These uniforms are ugly (laughter), but what the players like about them is that they're throwbacks." Specifically, throwbacks to the era of a certain Number 3 (pictured at right).

The good news for the Trojans is that, whatever the jerseys might looks like, certain immutable truths remain. Dan Quayle is no Jack Kennedy, Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan, and Evan Sharpley is no Joe Montana.

Or is he? Come to think of it, I actually compared Sharpley to Montana in comments a few days ago, albeit in the context of saying that, heck, we don't really know whether Sharpley might rise to the occasion now that he's finally going to be handed the reigns for real. I doubt he'll do anything spectacular, but the fact that it's his first start is, in an odd way, making me more nervous than usual... because who knows? Anyway, here's the relevant portion of that comment:

Notwithstanding my joke about beating the spread, which I felt obligated to do for the sake of Notre Dame Week trash-talking, I am actually a bit worried about this game, too. I think USC will win, but I'm not nearly as confident as I was last year -- which is odd, because Notre Dame is far worse this year than last. But USC is worse, too. Last year, I felt absolutely certain the Trojan offense would expose the Irish defense, which had been playing at an extremely mediocre level against weak competition ever since the Michigan game, but had been repeatedly bailed out by Brady Quinn & co. Hence my prediction that USC would win by three touchdowns, even though the spread was just 7. Last year, I knew ND was overrated, and I was right. This year, I don't have the same confidence because I just don't know how well USC will play; they've been so inconsistent, and more often bad than good. I also don't know what ND will look like with Sharpley at the helm all game long. Who knows, maybe he'll turn into the second coming of Brady Quinn (or Joe Montana) out there. More likely, though, I think ND's best chance is a low-scoring game with a lot of 3-and-outs, and just hanging in there till the fourth quarter, when the crowd (and the "echoes" and so forth) will again become a huge factor in a close game. Given the injuries on USC's O-line, this is entirely possible -- Carroll may not feel confident airing it out with Sanchez making his first road start, and if ND's defense plays at a halfway decent level, USC might not be able to establish the run because the entire O-line is injured. Now, of course, Notre Dame's offense won't be able to do much against USC's defense (barring the "Sharpley is suddenly God" scenario), but if it's a low-scoring, grind-'em-out game, you never know. Weird things could happen... turnovers, special teams flukes... and all of a sudden, '07 Notre Dame is the second-worst team to beat USC in the Pete Carroll era (behind '07 Stanford). It could happen. Will it? I doubt it. But am I worried? Yes, a little. More than last year, and I didn't expect to be saying that three weeks ago.

What do y'all think?

Oh... and I'd be remiss if I didn't conclude, courtesy of Scott Schmidt a.k.a. Boi From Troy, with this clip of the Trojan Marching Band playing their version of the Notre Dame Victory March during the USC pep rally at Chicago's Navy Pier:

Heh.

GOOO TROJANS! BEEEAT IRISH!

Justice Scalia visits NDLS

By Brendan Loy

On Monday, a little birdie informed me that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would be appearing at Notre Dame Law School on Friday (i.e., today). I was asked, however, not to blog about it, as it was "hush-hush." I don't know why, but I assume because of security. Anyway, the cat's out of the bag now, thanks to a comment on the post below -- and besides, I can't imagine what harm it could do to blog about it now that it's already happened, and presumably Scalia, like Elvis, has left the building.

I don't know much about Scalia's appearance at NDLS, but I gather that it was part of this conference (although Scalia is not listed as one of the participants, presumably because of that whole "hush-hush" issue again). In fact, I believe that Scalia is the person who actually gave the introductory lecture, titled "Separation of Powers as a Safeguard of Federalism: The Thesis and Its Implications," that the official Schedule of Panels said Professor Anthony Bellia would be giving. Professor Bellia served as a ringer for the justice he used to clerk for! Heh. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong about that.)

I honestly don't know how many NDLS readers I have these days, but: did anyone else attend? Any thoughts? How was it? Has there been controversy surrounding it? Can anyone shed light on why it was so "hush-hush," and whether the university is ever planning on publicizing the fact that it happened? Inquiring minds want to know!

P.S. Oh, and this inquiring mind wants to know another thing, too: is he going to the game tomorrow??

Shake down the thunder from the sky: Trojan terror over South Bend!

By Brendan Loy

The entire USC football team had a near-death experience on their chartered plane in the skies over South Bend last night:

USC players, coaches and supporters aboard the team's charter flight from Los Angeles endured a harrowing arrival in South Bend, Ind., on Thursday night.

Several players, administrative staff and coaches' spouses said passengers were hurled out of their seats and hit their heads on the ceiling when the plane dropped while making an approach through a lightning storm. The pilot aborted the approach and circled before landing without incident, said Dennis Slutak, USC's director of football operations. ...

"There was a moment there when I was thinking, 'This is it,' " Slutak said.

Said sophomore safety Taylor Mays: "I was screaming." ...

"That was terrifying," freshman fullback Stanley Havili said. "I thought I was going to die."

Good lord! According to the AP, "about 125 people, including 82 players, coach Pete Carroll and most of the coaching staff" were on board the plane. (Hat tip: BK.)

In all seriousness, let's all, Trojan and Domer alike, say a little prayer of thanks that USC didn't suffer a Marshall moment here. That would have been just awful, whoever you root for. Thank goodness everyone's all right.

(Er, well, everyone except senior defensive end Lawrence Jackson, who "said he was going to see the team trainer because a popsicle stick had pierced the inside of his mouth during the drop." Sounds like he'll live, though. Heh.)

Hopefully this isn't a sign that the gods are conspiring for another echoes-awakening afternoon and evening at Notre Dame Stadium. I thought we were safe because, unlike last time, it isn't a full moon. But with Mother Nature "shaking down the thunder from the sky," literally, the Irish may have reason to hope that supernatural forces are once again conspiring in their favor. Touchdown Jesus is an angrier (son of) god than we thought!

Anyway, the forecast for tomorrow night is clear skies, temperatures in the low 70s dropping into the 60s during the game, with winds out of the south at 10-15 mph. (The south end zone, if you're wondering, is where the "Bush Push" occurred.)

FIGHT ON TROJANS!!! BEAT THE IRISH & ASSORTED FORCES OF NATURE!!!

UPDATE: An AOL FanHouse commenter who claims to be USC radio announcer Peter Arbogast says he was on the plane, and "this story is blown waaaaaaay out of proportion":

it was a routine flight into a stormy area, we encountered some light turbulence. for ONE second, we took about a 100 foot drop. some players who had been warned to wear their seatbelts but did not listen, were made to be weightless. Everyone on board whooped, more like the initial drop of a very mini roller coaster, then there was the usual chatter. this is totally ridiculous. Experienced flyers went right back to watching the movie or reading. some talk turned to people who have had scary things happen on a plane trip. this wasn't even in my top ten. It reminded me of how people will talk aobut their earthquake experiences if a little earthquake hits while you are at dinner. sheesh. no one was hurt, no one hit the ceiling of the plane, a few guys got freaked out cuz they've seldom ever flown in a plane with turbulence before.

5-7 is good enough!

By Brendan Loy

Okay, I'm treading on dangerous territory here -- but, whatever, I'm allowed to be kinda mean to Notre Dame this week -- so: everybody remember these?

Well, uh, check out Rakes of Mallow's prediction for the remainder of Notre Dame's season:

I think we're going to be competitive at least for a while against Southern Cal, losing in the two to three touchdown range when everything is settled, which is when the real fun begins.  Everyone will be on watch for Navy to end the streak, then for Air Force, Duke and Stanford to get their chances to embarrass us.  I can imagine losing in Palo Alto Thanksgiving weekend, but we'll take care of business against the Midshipmen, Falcons and Blue Devils for sure.  5-7 finish, which after the woeful, embarrassing start, is not so bad.

Heh. Ah, the soft bigotry of low expectations.

(By the way, a 5-7 finish would actually require the Irish to not lose in Palo Alto on Thanksgiving weekend. Just saying.)

P.S. Pity the International Bowl. They're desperately hoping Notre Dame wins six games, so that the 6-6, bowl-eligible Irish would be available to be chosen -- in place of some stupid Big East team that would beat ND by three touchdowns -- to play a MAC team in Toronto on January 5. What MAC team, you ask? Oh, I don't know, maybe... Buffalo?? Notre Dame vs. UB at the SkyDome?!? The Canadians would love it, as would the Buffalonians. (Domers? Not so much, methinks. Playing Buffalo in a bowl game would be a lose-lose proposition: win, and nobody cares, because it was against Buffalo; lose, and you just lost your tenth straight bowl game... to Buffalo.) But alas, Notre Dame would need to win tomorrow for that to happen, and then win out. Not. Gonna. Happen. Particularly the "win tomorrow" part.

FIGHT ON, TROJANS!! BEAT THE IRISH!!

Any ND-USC livebloggers?

By Brendan Loy

Is there anybody out there who will be attending tomorrow's USC-Notre Dame game, who would be interested in liveblogging a few posts via cell phone for the Irish Trojan's Blog? If you've got a camera phone, I can set things up so that you can post photos directly to the blog, and if you've got any kind of cell phone, I can give you a phone number to call to leave audio posts.

I've got a liveblogger lined up for the Buffalo-Syracuse game, but considering this blog is called the Irish Trojan, I figured I should probably try to get a USC-ND liveblogger too... :) Anyway, if anybody's interested, shoot me an e-mail at irishtrojan [at] gmail.com.

Catholics vs. Buddhists?

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame may have Touchdown Jesus on its side, but USC has the Dalai Lama!

But wait: does that mean we're tarred via guilt-by-association with President Bush? D'oh!

More Irish-Trojan humor

By Brendan Loy

From comments yesterday (modified slightly for family-friendliness):

Did you hear the one about the guy who has this dog, and he says, "My dog Max is the biggest USC Trojan football fan of any damn dog in the country. Every year when USC plays Notre Dame, he gets so excited! Every time 'SC scores a touchdown, he jumps up and down and barks, and when USC wins the game, he does back-flips and cartwheels."

So the guy's buddy says, "Well, what's he do when Notre Dame beats USC?"

The guy says, "I don't know. He's only 6 years old."

Heh. Also, here are a couple of Irish-mocking video clips that I've been sent recently. And before you non-Trojan Domers get all "you're not a real fan" on me, both of these were actually sent to me by 100% loyal Irish fans who will be rooting for ND on Saturday. So they're legit! :)

Of polls and computers

By Brendan Loy

In this week's Mailbag, SI.com's Stewart Mandel has an great discussion of the differences -- good and bad -- between the computer rankings and the human polls. So many people dismiss the computers out-of-hand, while some others treat them as gospel truth and diss the polls whenever they disagree with the computers. The reality is that both systems are flawed, and Mandel does an excellent job of explaining why:

1) Silly intangibles like prestige and recent history play no factor. It's no surprise that USF is held in higher regard by the computers (where the Bulls are No. 1 in five of the six, No. 2 in the other) than they are by humans (where they're No. 3 in both the coaches and Harris polls). To the computers, "USF" is just another set of data, not some unfamiliar, 11-year-old Big East program. And that's a good thing, because apparently such biases are still alive and well. Harris Poll voter Eddie Crowder, Colorado's coach from 1963-73, told CBSSports.com this week that, "I haven't even seen a brief highlight of [USF]," and that he couldn't name a single Bulls player. If his final No. 2 vote came down to deciding between USF or LSU, Crowder said he'd likely side with the Tigers because, "They're better stabilized ... They've been there, done that for 100 years."

Are you kidding me? Did I just walk into some sort of time warp where it's 1963 again and there's only one game on television all week? All but one of the Bulls' games so far have been available to anyone with basic cable. And what on earth do the last 100 years have to do with the 2007 season? The sad thing is, Crowder is probably par for the course among the Harris panel, which consists of heavily of retired coaches and ADs. So in this regard ... advantage: computers.

2) There is no arbitrary starting point for the teams. Some of the computer pollsters do put out preseason editions, but they become meaningless once the games begin. In the computers, Ohio State and Arizona State are currently tied for fifth, which makes sense because they have nearly identical credentials. Both are 7-0. The Buckeyes' wins have come against opponents with a combined 15-18 record (Division I-A games only), while the Sun Devils' foes are a combined 16-20. In the human polls, however, OSU sits 12 spots ahead of ASU, the single biggest reason being that the Buckeyes started the season 10th in the coaches poll while the Devils were unranked. Again, advantage: computers.

3) Margin of victory is not a factor. As you may recall, prior to the 2002 season, the BCS honchos asked its participating computer gurus to remove any margin-of-victory component from their formulas. While their intention was to dissuade coaches from running up the score (and for the most part, they've succeeded), in doing so, they kind of made a mockery of the whole rankings concept. In the computers' eyes, USF's 64-12 victory over UCF last week is no more or less impressive than Texas' 35-32 escape against the Golden Knights earlier in the season.

That doesn't make much sense to me, nor did it to several of the mathematicians, a couple of whom refused to comply and walked out. Another, Jeff Sagarin, did make the adjustment but posts both those results and his true rankings every week. How different are they? In the BCS version, Oklahoma checks in at 12th (and has an average of 11). In the original Sagarin version, the Sooners are No. 1. Advantage: humans.

4) Early season ratings aren't necessarily accurate. Like with any statistics, the more data that's made available, the more accurate they become. Which is why the computers have always included a disclaimer that their ratings in say, Week 6, may skew drastically from those at the end of the season. Basically, you're not getting a complete picture, hence such "wacky" anomalies as Michigan checking in seven spots higher than Oregon -- the same team the Wolverines lost to 39-7 -- in Billingsley's computer while barely registering in some of the others. In other words, there's no "common sense" override. Advantage: humans.

I've talked about issue #3 at length in prior seasons here on the blog. I think the computers' exclusion of margin of victory is especially ludicrous because they so heavily weigh strength of schedule, which means that teams with weak schedules are put at an insurmountable disadvantage -- they are penalized for playing a weak schedule (which is generally not their fault, especially when we're talking about in-conference games) and are unable to make up the ground they thus lose. Because margin of victory doesn't count, they can't make up ground, as they logically should be able to, by blowing out the weak teams they play (i.e., by doing what good teams are supposed to do against weak teams: "taking care of business," if you will). So they're stuck; they're screwed. To use a bit of legalese, the wrong-headed BCS ban on MOV over-emphasizes SOS to the point that a weak schedule creates an irrebuttable presumption of overall weakness.

Notre Dame, as I've pointed out before, has recently been an interesting case study in the inherent absurdity of ranking teams without any margin-of-victory component. In 2005, the Irish were consistently ranked lower in the computers than in the polls. Why? Say what you will about bias and hype and kool-aid, but the main reason was a flaw in the computers, not the polls: the computers were unable to comprehend that both of ND's regular-season losses were extremely close affairs, including the 3-point loss to #1 USC, while all of their wins (until the Stanford game at season's end) were blowouts. ND was thus penalized for playing a relatively weak schedule (because a whole bunch of their regular opponents were having uncharacteristic down years), even though they'd "taken care of business" against that schedule, and had proven their worth in a close loss to the best team in the land.

Then in 2006, the exact opposite happened: the Irish were consistently ranked higher in the computers than in the polls, because the computers were unable to comprehend what the pollsters could see with their eyes: that the Irish's losses to Michigan and USC were not actually "good losses," even though the opponents were strong teams, because the Irish got absolutely blown away by both of 'em. Similarly, the computers did not know that Notre Dame had barely escaped with victories against weakish UCLA and Michigan State teams, nor that they had failed to truly dominate some of the even weaker opponents on their schedule (e.g., Purdue, Air Force) to the degree that one would like to see an elite team do. The pollsters saw all that and, once the kool-aid had finally worn off, ranked the Irish accordingly; the computers didn't. All the computers knew is that the Irish had gone 10-2 against a pretty strong schedule. The details of the individual games, which entirely discredited the Irish's claim to be a truly elite team, were totally lost on the computers, because of the lack of a margin-of-victory component.

All that said, if only the BCS would allow the computers to include a rational margin-of-victory component -- and I'm convinced that some formula could be devised that would lessen the impact of "running up the score" while acknowledging the inherent difference between, say, Notre Dame's 3-point loss to USC in 2005 and Arkansas's 53-point loss to the same Trojans -- I think the computers would be better than the polls, precisely because of those "prestige and recent history" and "arbitrary starting point" problems that Mandel talks about. It's a shame the BCS has crippled its own ranking system by arbitrarily imposing a statistically unsound requirement for the sake of political correctness.

Irish-Trojan humor

By Brendan Loy

The "NDCHOOCHOO" blog offers some funny "story lines" for the USC-Notre Dame game:

The Streak: USC last lost to Notre Dame in 2001. That loss will not be forgotten by USC, however, as 9th Year Senior Chauncey Washington was just a 3rd year sophomore back then, and will recount his expereinces with the team, after his Geritol.

Snooping Around: Yes, USC supporter and mascot, Snoop Dogg will make the trip out the Notre Dame for the game. Apparently, Desmond Reed told him that there was some really "funky grass" at Notre Dame, and Snooop wanted to check it out for himself. ...

The Fall of Troy: USC is no longer in contention for the National Championship. In fact, they are only in third place in their own conference. To make matters worse, as it stands now, with UCLA's win last season, USC is only the second best team in their own city. In stark contrast, Notre Dame enters the game atop the South Bend polls.

Heh.

He also refers to USC's injured quarterback as "John David Steven Morris Upton Booty." Again, heh.

Ty and the second half don't get along

By Brendan Loy

Playing really, really well in the second half has been such a hallmark of the USC Trojans in recent years (though not so much this year) that I often refer to the phenomenon by the all-capitalized, faux-trademarked phrase "Pete Carroll Second-Half Magic^TM."

Sadly for Washington Huskies fans, as recent events have suggested and as this handy chart confirms, there is no such thing as Ty Willingham Second-Half Magic, except perhaps for Willingham's teams' opponents -- which, come to think of it, always include USC, so these phenomena may not be entirely unrelated. (Hat tip: EDSBS.)

Some Domers will doubtless want to seize on this trend as proof that firing Willingham was justified (which for some reason we're still debating, three years later - only at ND!), but oddly enough, the school at which Ty enjoyed the greatest second-half success was... Notre Dame. Hmm. Also, as the linked post points out, the statistical trend is not actually all that drastic in percentage terms. (I wonder, though, what the numbers would look like if you eliminated "garbage time" scores, where Ty's teams were either so far ahead or so far behind that it didn't matter. My guess, based on subjective impressions and imperfect memories, is that doing that would make the numbers look worse for Ty, but I could certainly be wrong about that.)

Anyway, I just thought that this was kinda interesting, and that posting it would be about 95% certain to set off a nice juicy blog comment-war, which would certainly liven up a "hump day" afternoon. So there you go. Talk amongst yourselves. Ty sucks! Ty is awesome! Notre Dame is racist! No they're not! AAAAHH!!!!

An early look at hoops rankings

By Brendan Loy

Sick of football yet? Well, SI's Luke Winn has posted his first preseason rankings of the college-basketball season! North Carolina is #1, UCLA #2, Tennessee #3 and Memphis #4 -- so it promises to be a heck of a hoops season here in the Volunteer State, especially for our resident Voluntiger, Jay.

USC is ranked #12... and maybe if the Trojans' players can refrain from attacking each other, they can actually live up to that ranking.

Notre Dame, meanwhile, is among Winn's teams "on the cusp." Kyle McAlarney is back, and the Irish seem to have adopted the attitude "Remember the Maine Pearl Harbor 9/11 Winthrop" as they seek to build on last year's relative success.

Speaking of star players returning from drug arrests, the Gonzaga Bulldogs aren't on Winn's radar, but with Josh Heytvelt returning to the team after his brush with psychedelia last year, and Jeremy Pargo continuing to be a beast, the Zags could make some noise.

USC-ND quarterback update

By Brendan Loy

It's official: Evan Sharpley will start at quarterback for Notre Dame against USC on Saturday. "I think Evan this week gives us the best chance of winning," Charlie Weis said. "Or at least beating the spread." No, no, I made that last part up. (Though it would be a bit more realistic...)

Meanwhile, USC may have a burgeoning quarterback controversy of its own. Injured ex-starter John David Booty hopes to be back in the lineup in time for Saturday's game. He will test his broken finger at practice today. "If I can throw effectively, I want to play," he said, but added, "It's the coach's decision, not mine." Indeed it is, and Pete Carroll doesn't sound so sure yet: "We're going to go with Mark [Sanchez] as the starter going into practice ... It's Mark's day [Tuesday]. Then we'll see what happens with John. We'll just wait, watch, see what he feels like afterward."

October 15

By Brendan Loy

It's Irish-Trojan Week here at the Irish Trojan's Blog, and what better way to kick it off than by noting that today is the second anniversary of the greatest day in college football history?

I'll never forget October 15, 2005 -- and, specifically, the USC-Notre Dame epic that was the centerpiece of that madcap day of football mayhem -- as long as I live. If I ever go senile, it'll probably be one of the last things I remember: I might forget my own name, what year it is, and where the hell I am, but you can be sure the employees at the nursing home will know all about Leinart-to-Jarrett and the Bush Push.

More imminently, you can bet that eighteen years from today, our teenage daughter will roll her eyes as her 43-year-old dad starts waxing nostalgic again about the Greatest Game He Ever Saw, 20 years ago that very day: the hype and build-up; the pep rally with Joe Montana and Rudy (but not, alas, Bon Jovi); the green jerseys; the nail-biting first three quarters; the full moon rising over Notre Dame Stadium in the fourth quarter; the surreal, larger-than-life, echoes-awakened atmosphere of those final minutes, like something out of a movie and yet so much better than any movie; the flash bulbs popping from one end of the stadium to the other; the impossibly loud, ear-shattering screams of eighty thousand Irish fans when Brady Quinn scored the go-ahead TD; the insanity of 4th and 9; the delirious, premature field-rushing; our jubilation and the crushing heartbreak all around us moments later; how we stayed put and let the stadium clear out before we left, and then steered clear of Turtle Creek on our walk home, lest our USC sweatshirts provoke drunken Domers like a matador's cape provokes an angry bull; and so on, and so forth. I know, Dad, I know. You've told me all about it a million times. Can I borrow the car?

As I wrote last year on this day:

The game was tense throughout, a real back-and-forth affair, and man, was I nervous. Never in my life had I been so emotionally invested in a sporting event. For weeks leading up to the game, I had repeatedly joked that if USC lost, I would “have to drop out of law school” because I’d never hear the end of it. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but the fact is, I’m the unabashed, unrepentant Trojan at Notre Dame, so my friends would have ripped on me something fierce if the Irish had won, and rightfully so. As a result, I felt like my personal pride was at stake on that field. Besides which, all personal considerations aside, I just really, really, really wanted the Trojans to win.

A funny thing happened in the final minutes of the game, though. As intense as it was, I went from being a nervous wreck to being remarkably sanguine about the game’s outcome. I know that’s counterintuitive, given how incredibly close and exciting the final minutes were, but the closer we got to the end — especially after Brady Quinn scored the go-ahead touchdown and the entire crowd went so unbelievably crazy that I was literally hearing static because it was too loud for my ears to really process the level of sound — the more I realized, you know what, no matter who ends up winning this game, it is just so freakin’ cool that I am here.

As I watched the full moon rise over the eastern side of the stadium, and listened to the crowd scream its collective lungs out, all the while witnessing a truly epic battle unfolding on the field below, I realized that I would literally someday tell my grandkids that I had been at this game.

And then it got better.

Read the whole thing. Also, here are my photos of the game (and of the events that preceded it).

Anyway... with the Irish a historically awful 1-6 and the Trojans an uncharacteristically uninspiring 5-1, this year's showdown in South Bend doesn't have 0.01% of the hype or build-up that the last one did. Still, I'll have plenty to say about it in due course. But for now, let's look back on the events of two years ago today, as seen from my unique vantage point: a Trojan in the midst of the Irish student section.

And, from a somewhat more expansive vantage point, a clip showing some more of the events of that incredible Saturday in October:

What a day. What a damn day.

Sanchez vs. Sharpley?

By Brendan Loy

It sounds like Mark Sanchez will get the start for the Trojans against Notre Dame.

But who will start for the Irish? It might be Evan Sharpley instead of Jimmy Clausen, as Sharpley once again looked like the better QB yesterday.

Who would have thought, back in August, that this year's USC-Notre Dame game could potentially feature Mark Sanchez against Evan Sharpley?

UPDATE: More on Notre Dame's QB decision here.

Meanwhile, USC fan Jonathan Tu -- who is currently in the midst of living the dream, doing a season-long whirlwind college-football odyssey that will see him attend 22 games in 14 weeks, including the one in South Bend next Saturday -- riffs on what it feels like to be human again:

[When the final score of the Arizona game was announced,] I didn’t think about mistakes, injuries, what-ifs, polls, ramifications, anything, really, except one thing: how good it feels to win.

It’s been so long since USC’s had a realistic chance of losing to anyone except one of the traditional powerhouses of college football (Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan). This is what it felt like in 2002, but, more specifically, this is what it felt like pre-2002: anything can happen, anything will happen, and, yes, even a 7 point win over a hapless Arizona team is a miracle, a godsend, a blessing, a wonder, something worth celebrating in of itself. This was not the case with some of the wins over the past several years. I was spoiled; we all were.

I’m a fan, so naturally I have ideas about what needs to happen for USC to be in New Orleans. (Hah!). But for the first time in a long time I’m only thinking about the next game and the stated goal: to make sure Notre Dame’s only win is over UCLA, which is thoroughly acceptable to a USC fan. Whether that win’s by 3 or 30, I’ll take it.

Read the whole thing.

Week 7

By Brendan Loy

Let the games begin!

GOOOO IRISH!! BEEEEAT EAGLES!!

FIGHT ON TROJANS!! BEAT THE WILDCATS!!

And, special BrendanLoy.com bonus bandwagon games: GO HUSKIES!! BEAT THE CAVS!! GO BUFFALO!! BEAT TOLEDO!!

George Gipp, 9/11 mastermind

By Brendan Loy

Some of you may have heard already that the Gipp family recently exhumed George Gipp's body for some undisclosed reason involving "testing." Naturally, there is all sorts of speculation about this. Some people think it's an evil plot by Charlie Weis to help the Irish beat Boston College, perhaps by cloning a new team. But personally, I think the PostGame has discovered The Truth:

Follow this impeccable logic: Gipp inspired Rockne’s famous line from his deathbed, which was later reenacted by Ronald Reagan in a movie which made a star of the young Reagan, whose popularity as an actor was the main reason Americans elected him as governor of California in 1966 and president of the U.S. in 1980, whose administration later supplied financing, weapons, and training to Afghani opposition groups called the mujahedeen after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, which enabled another financier named Osama Bin Laden to grow in power and also resulted in many of these trained rebels joining the extremist group Taliban, who are connected with the al-Qaeda organization (both run by Bin Laden), who were responsible for the terrorist attacks of Septemer 11, 2001.

Did you get all that? Unquestionably, George Gipp is responsible for 9/11! Obviously, he planned all of this from his deathbed. His family just made the connections and are exhuming his body for clues to his extremist Muslim sympathies.

Heh.

P.S. GOOOO IRISH!!! BEEEEAT FREDO!!!!

I own Mike Tran

By Brendan Loy

It figures that the one time I actually win a bet against Mike Tran, I can't really enjoy it because Notre Dame's triumph over UCLA coincided with USC's debacle against Stanford. Nevertheless, I did win the bet, which means Mike had to change his Facebook status for the day...

...and I get to re-post these lovely images from last year:

Heh heh. UCLA sucks.

Football update

By Brendan Loy

Will South Florida's dream season end at the hands of... Florida Atlantic?!? What is it with these unheralded Big East teams choking as soon as they make it into the Top 10?

Another unbeaten in trouble: Arizona State, facing a surprisingly stiff challenge from Wazzu.

Meanwhile, out in L.A., USC and Stanford are about to get underway. BEAT THE DRUNKEN TREES!!!

P.S. Texas sucks.

UPDATE: USF and ASU won.

In the USC-Stanford game, it's 3-0 'SC early, but the Trojan receivers have contracted a severe case of butterfingers. Penalties are so last week; dropped passes are the new hotness!

On the bright side, Texas still sucks.

Oh, and...

GOOOO IRISH!!! BEEEEAT F****CK BRUINS!!!

You can do it, Irish. You will do it. While packing up my suitcase just now, I set aside my 2006 "The Shirt" to wear on tomorrow's plane ride home. I fully expect to be wearing it in triumph, not shame. Don't let me down, Charlie & co.

Cutest onesie ever

By Brendan Loy

I'm at the airport waiting for my flight to take off, and Becky just e-mailed me from home with this cell-phone photo of a baby gift that she just opened. It's from Lisa:

LOL! Awww.

Notre Dame will beat UCLA

By Brendan Loy

I have an announcement to make.

I have made a decision. I have decided I'm going to be optimistic about Saturday's Notre Dame-UCLA game.

Yeah, the Irish are 0-5, they've looked like the worst team in football for most of the season, and much of their "improvement" in the second half of the Purdue game was due to the Boilermakers puckering and playing prevent defense. Yeah, UCLA has looked pretty good outside of the Utah game, and they usually only have one Karl Dorrell Special^TM "lay an egg" game per season (Arizona 2005, Florida State 2006, Utah 2007). Yeah, UCLA wants revenge from last year, and yeah, Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija won't be there to bail out the Irish this time, and yeah, the game is at the Rose Bowl. So what? Who ever said college football is rational? Auburn won at Florida. Syracuse won at Louisville. Appalachian State won at Michigan. This is the season of road upsets. And it's Notre Dame's turn. Good God Almighty, for the love of all that's holy, it's got to be Notre Dame's turn.

Dammit, I have hope. I believe. As Jean-Luc Picard says, "Living is making choices," and I am choosing to believe.

I am an Irish Trojan, for Pete (Carroll)'s sake. I love Notre Dame, and I hate UCLA with the heat of a thousand suns. If anyone on this earth should have faith in Notre Dame this weekend, it's me.

UCLA is favored by 20.5 points, you say? Pfft. Whatever. Louisville was favored by 37 against Syracuse. F*** it. F*** the Bruins. That's all there is to say about it. F*** 'em.

You will not hear another pessimistic peep from me about this game between now and Saturday evening. I am optimistic. I am confident. I am irrationally exuberant! You know why? Because UCLA sucks, that's why. UCLA sucks so much, their suckiness defies the laws of physics. But that's impossible! you say. The laws of physics can never be defied! Clearly, young padawan, you do not understand the extent of UCLA's suckitude.

My logic is inescapable: UCLA sucks. Notre Dame is awesome. Therefore Notre Dame will win.

GO IRISH. BEAT BRUINS. So let it be written. So let it be done.

1-5, baby. 1-5. I have spoken.

Suddenly it's a ballgame!

By Brendan Loy

It's Purdue 26, Notre Dame 19 with 7:58 to go. Evan Sharpley, replacing the injured Jimmy Clausen, is looking Brady Quinn-esque all of a sudden; Tennessee's own Golden Tate is looking Jeff Samardzija-esque; and Purdue is looking Michigan State-esque, circa 2006, as they "pucker pucker pucker" away a big lead. And of course, that lead could have been bigger (like, 42-19) if they had more of a red-zone offense. On the other hand, it could have been smaller (like, 26-24) if Notre Dame could kick a freakin' field goal or extra point. Apropos of which, apparently Charlie Weis plans to go for 2 and the win if the Irish score again. Seems sensible to me, given that the kicker is 1-for-3 on PAT attempts that counted, 2-for-5 when you include the ones that were nullified by penalties. First, though, we need to stop Purdue on this drive.

GOOOO IRISH!!! BEEEEAT BOILERS!!!

UPDATE: Can someone explain to me how the F*** that was a touchdown?? His ass was on the ground!! WTF??? Why do we even have replay, if they aren't going to take extra time to look at a play like that??

Regardless, 33-19 Purdue, 5:33 left. So much for that.

UPDATE 2: Aaaand an interception in the end zone effectively ends the game.

0-8.

UPDATE 3: 33-19, final.

So, was this a "moral victory" for the Irish? Certainly, they played better in the second half than they have all year. On the other hand, Purdue was definitely puckering. From what the announcers were saying, the Boilermakers have made a habit of playing lazy in the second half this season, and they continued that habit against the Irish today. No way do the next three teams on Notre Dame's schedule let them back into the game like Purdue did. (Well, UCLA might, but only if they're having one of their Karl Dorrell Special^TM "lay an egg" games.)

On the other other hand, the Notre Dame team that took the field two weeks ago against Michigan wouldn't have taken advantage of the opportunities Purdue gave them. So yes, there's improvement. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. I agree with AlGoldenDomer that "the 1st half may have been our worst of the year" -- well, maybe not worst, but certainly worse than anything except the Michigan game -- and that matters too. I think Camarillo Brillo puts it best:

We did show some heart. Sharpley played well. Tate and Kamara came on big, and they deserve more PT. Defense stepped it up a bit in the 2nd half.

However....

We were getting our asses kicked in the first half. [Defensive coordinator] Corwin Brown's scheme for the Purdue offense was for s**t. We sat back in a passive base defense, like Minter and let Purdue shove the ball down our throat. We got very little pass rush on Painter. The wide-outs on Purdue were abusing our secondary.

Our special teams are beyond bad. Two missed PATs a missed FG, numerous poor squibs that gave Purdue great field position, terrible blocking on punt returns and kick returns.

Weis made some bad decisions. Where was Robert Hughes? Okay, he got stuffed on 4th and 1, who hasn't? Bronco F***ing Nagurski couldn't pick up 4th and 1 with this line. Tate was all over the field making great catches. Why put him on the bench? Why put Brian Smith on the field after that stupid personal foul? (two fouls if you count the uncalled one before that)?

It was a nice comeback but on the main this team is an undisciplined mess.

I'll say it again. Charlie, you are the head coach. You are the man who swaggered into South Bend and proclaimed that when it came down to Xs and Os you would not get beat very often. Charlie, it's about alot more than X's and O's right now. It's about managing the game, preparation, making smart substitutions and keeping your players in line. The reality is, Charlie, you are 0-5. That has never happened before in the history of Notre Dame. Your contract was extended after 7 games in your first season. You are getting paid millions of dollars. This is your team, these are your recruits. Fix the problem, Coach Weis.

It's now or November: let's get a win, boys

By Brendan Loy

[Well, I suppose I can let the blasphemy below stand, but I'm going to bump this post above it, at least. :) -ed.]

*    *    *

With apologies to the Neudorffs...

GOOOOO IRISH!!! BEEEEEAT BOILERS!!!

UPDATE: We've got Erin Andrews! w00t! And apparently she's been looking deeply into Charlie Weis's eyes.

UPDATE 2: If you look deeply into Charlie Weis's eyes right now, you'd probably see... panic. It's 10-0 Purdue already, with 5:49 left in the first quarter, and the defense looks like s**t. Boilermakers moving the ball at will.

On the bright side, here's one of the many reasons I love Becky: for the last three Saturdays in a row, she's made some sort of a yummy dip for us to eat while watching football:

Mmm... vegetables.

UPDATE 3: What the hell was that? Darrin Walls just gave up on that tackle. It was like he just sort of assumed Greg Orton would go out of bounds... and as a result, Orton got loose for an extra 10 yards. Completely pathetic.

UPDATE 4: A sampling of commentary from ND Nation:

how f'n embarrassing

It cannot get worse than this.

HOLY F**K

F**k this. Good thing I have a kid's soccer game to get to.

this is just bloody awful.

Unf**kingreal.

We Are TOAST

USC will beat us by 80

UPDATE 5: I wrote earlier this week that "I feel like some of my fellow Irish fans aren't fully grappling with the enormity of the team's suckiness." Well, over on ND Nation, I think the "grappling" process is beginning. There are several comments along the lines of, "This is the worst team I have ever seen," and there's this post, which I agree with 100 percent:

We are inexplicably bad...in EVERY facet of the game. I can understand rebuilding. There is no excuse to be this bad, across the board. Yes, it's Ty's fault. But this is Weis' fault primarily. This team should be competitive by this point, and they're not even close.

The combination of our "improvement" against a very mediocre Michigan State team and our "brutal" early schedule (whose already clearly overrated "brutality" is looking even less fierce at the moment, with Penn State losing to Illinois, and Michigan -- whose big "quality win" is over Penn State -- losing to Northwestern) allowed some Domers to fool themselves into thinking that we'd be doing much better if we were playing weaker teams. Now, they're saying things like this: "The sad thing is PU isn't even good. That's how bad we are." "Nope. They're a .500 Big 11 team."

It's 23-0 with 2:50 left in the first half. Two touchdowns and three field goals. If Purdue had any kind of a red-zone offense -- if, say, we were playing USC or Boston College today -- it'd be 35-0 right now. We're lucky to be "only" behind 23-0.

Beat the drum

By Brendan Loy

Jay at The Blue-Gray Sky has a Top 10 list of superstitious rituals that might help break Notre Dame's six-game losing streak. I particularly like #4:

Collect the poison of a Yellow Jacket, the tooth of a Nittany Lion, the hair of a Wolverine, and the sweat of a Spartan. Mix together in a large pot and boil for 24 hours, chanting the ancient Celtic Rite of Purification. Pour mixture in the trash and immediately shotgun 12 Keystone Lights.

Heh. #6 is good, too: "Zahm Hall shall remain celibate until the first win. Zahm is delighted to finally have an excuse."

Whatever it takes, I hope the Irish can find some way to pull out a win tomorrow against Purdue. If they don't, there's an excellent chance the November 3 home game against Navy will become a "something's gotta give" matchup, and not in a good way. I can hear the pregame commentary already in my mind's ear: Which streak will end today? Navy's 43-year string of futility against the Irish, or Notre Dame's 10-game losing streak? Somebody's gotta win! ... Yeah, that wouldn't be fun. Not fun at all. Blech.

Go Irish. Beat Boilers.

Jones to Cincy

By Brendan Loy

Demetrius Jones, who disastrously started Notre Dame's season opener at QB and then notoriously quit the team right before the Michigan game without telling anybody his plans, is going to Cincinnati instead of Northern Illinois. (Hat tip: Patrick.)

The sad thing is, that's a step up at this point. The Bearcats are 4-0 and ranked for the first time since 1976. Notre Dame... eh, you all know how Notre Dame is doing. In any event, I wish him well.

On an unrelated note, I'm really, really going to try to make time tomorrow evening to finally get the pick 'em contest online. Considering the regular season is basically one-third over, I figure it's time. :) Also coming tomorrow, hopefully: an update on the Terrific Twenty-Three (i.e., the remaining undefeated teams), and who they play this weekend. If I have time, I'll do the Egregious Eleven as well (the winless teams).

UPDATE BY DAVID K.: The South Bend Tribune is reporting that Notre Dame sophomore lineman Chris Stewart has traveled home to Texas to spend time with his family, and is considering leaving the school and the team. If he leaves, Stewart would be the third player to leave the team in the past two weeks and the 17th to leave since Charlie Weis took over the program.

(Hat tip: Timugen in comments.)

How did Notre Dame get so bad, so fast?

By Brendan Loy

As noted previously here and here, I've been planning for some time -- since the Michigan game, in fact -- to write a serious post about Notre Dame's struggles this season. I've been working on it mentally for almost two weeks, and I actually started typing it up shortly before the Michigan State game. I was hoping that game would render the post moot, but alas, no. So, here goes.

Admittedly, against the Spartans, the Irish showed some improvement over the previous week's performance -- going "from total ineptitude to just sucking" -- to the point where it's now at least possible to envision them beating the likes of Navy and Duke. But make no mistake, they're still horrible. In terms of quality of play, the Irish have got to be in the bottom 25% of Division I-A right now, and probably the bottom 10%. And so the question must be asked: Why? How? What the hell has happened?

I realize Notre Dame graduated a lot of good players last year. I realize there's inexperience at key positions. I realize the talent and depth are thin on the offensive line, among other places. I realize Jimmy Clausen is young, green, and getting pushed around like nobody's business. I accept all that. And believe me, I didn't expect the Irish to be good this year. But I still don't understand how they got this bad, this quickly. It simply boggles my mind.

Perhaps the boggling of my mind is not too surprising in itself. I'm not a terribly good football analysisist when it comes to the actual nuts and bolts of the game; I've never claimed to be. (I can explain to you all about the BCS, though. I'm better with the nerdy stuff than with the actual game.) But when I read the analyses from people who do know what they're talking about... I still don't get it. None of the explanations for the Irish's sudden and calamitous fall from grace seem adequate. Many seem, if I can be uncharitable for a moment, more like apologias than analyses.

I feel like some of my fellow Irish fans aren't fully grappling with the enormity of the team's suckiness. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's the feeling I get -- and as a result, their explanations ring hollow and inadequate, and leave me feeling continually confused over what the heck is going on in South Bend.

Aw, kitties

By Brendan Loy

After the humiliation of losing to Appalachian State, the Michigan fanatics at MGoBlog turned to kittens to dull the pain of it all. Perhaps it'll work for my fellow Domers reeling from the Irish's unprecedented 0-4 start (and the prospect of coming into the Navy game 0-8)? Let's see:

No? Oh well, it was worth a try.

Goooo Irish, Beeeeeat Boilers. (Please?)

P.S. Perhaps, instead of kittens, we'll feel better if we think back on happier times? Like, for example...

...and...

"What the hell are you doing in the shotgun in a monsoon? You’re asking Drew Stanton to run the option in Hurricane Katrina!"

Ah, those were the days.

And, scene

By Brendan Loy

Michigan State 31, Notre Dame 14 with 2:45 left in the third quarter. The Spartans just scored the killer TD on a 4th-and-2 play from the 30 that started with a fumbled snap and ended with a wide-open receiver running into the end zone after a perfect pass. Ugh. As noted on ND Nation, "0-8 is lookin more likely," if not "damn near inevitable."

P.S. Of course, Notre Dame has rallied from 17-point fourth-quarter deficits against the Spartans before. But somehow I don't think it's going to happen again, unless Brady Quinn flies in from Cleveland and suits up. And perhaps brings the Browns' offensive line with him.

UPDATE: Michigan State 31, Notre Dame 14, final.

The Irish are 0-4 for the first time ever, and F***in' Sparty has won six straight games at Notre Dame Stadium. (The first time any visiting team has just done that.) They've also lost six straight games by 17+ points.

ND looked inconsistent, but with flashes of brilliance competence, in the first half. The second half was horrible. Overall, though, I think Four Leaf Domer put it best: "[T]his was actually a major step forward today. We went from total ineptitude to just sucking."

That said, I don't agree with him that "it took us a long time to get this bad." It seemed to happen pretty much overnight. Last season, good. This season, godawful. I've yet to see any successful attempt to adequately explain it.

Here's a debate on whether Irish fans should be jumping off the Weis bandwagon at this point.

Speaking of which, did the NBC sideline reporter just call Weis "Ty"?

UPDATE 2: Also on ND Nation, mkovac asks, "How much of this 0-4 season is on Charlie?" and says, "in my mind, he's lost me, just like Willingham lost me when SC beat ND so badly in the Coliseum in 2002, followed by a bowl loss and a 38-0 drubbing at the hands of Michigan in Ann Arbor." He proceeds to lambaste the Irish for "incompetent play" and then wonder aloud if Notre Dame has "so successfully downgraded its program" that it "has turned itself into an Ivy League team."

GOOOO IRISH

By Brendan Loy

BEEEEAT SPARTY!!!

UPDATE: Whose idea was it to run a Reggie Bush commercial during a Notre Dame game? Is Adidas trying to convince Domers to wear Nikes?

UPDATE 2: Spartan fumble! First and goal from the 9! If they don't score a touchdown here...

UPDATE 3: TOUCHDOWN! Travis Thomas.

Really, that shouldn't count as an "offensive touchdown." The defense (with the help of the special teams) gave them the ball inside the 10, for heaven's sake. But still: finally! 7-0 Notre Dame.

UPDATE 4: Aaaaaand Michigan State scores two touchdowns. 14-7 Spartans. They're already giving up over on ND Nation. I feel much the same way -- this feels like the Tulsa-Oklahoma game yesterday, when the Golden Hurricane took an early lead, but you could very quickly tell from watching the teams play that it ultimately wasn't going to be close; Oklahoma was clearly better, and was going to pull away. Barring a whole bunch of lucky breaks (e.g., MSU fumbles, big special-teams runs for the Irish, etc.), this is going to be an other ugly result for ND.

UPDATE 5: Hey, there you go! Notre Dame just scored a legitimate offensive touchdown! An 80-yard drive! Nice! 17-14 Spartans, with 10:41 left in the half.

In other news, Florida held on against Ole Miss, and Nebraska barely held on against Ball State, but Syracuse stunned Louisville. Also, Duke, after snapping its long losing streak last week, almost started a winning streak... but Navy outscored them 14-0 in the fourth quarter to win 46-43.

Now, Air Force -- one of the two remaining undefeated non-BCS teams, and a future Notre Dame opponent -- is struggling. They trail BYU 17-0 at halftime.

UPDATE 6: And a good defensive sequence! Hey, maybe the Irish have a prayer after all!

UPDATE 7: 17-14 MSU at halftime.

Let the record show that ND Nation's football board has not been "nuked," as it was last week. So apparently that was an act of censorship, not a routine action designed to divert traffic over to the gameday board, as a commenter suggested.

BYU's lead over AFA is 24-6 near the end of the third quarter. Also late in the third, Wofford is beating Appalachian State, 28-17! Upset special!

Sparty sucks

By Brendan Loy

I hate Sparty.

Hate.

Go Irish.

[Bumped. -ed.]

Waving the white flag

By Brendan Loy

Call me crazy, but I don't think this is the best idea.

On being an Irish fan

By Brendan Loy

A classmate with unimpeachable Domer credentials sent me this blog post, which he thinks is pretty funny, and I agree. Excerpt:

SOUTH BEND, IND (AP)–Notre Dame Athletic Director Kevin White announced the signing of a contract extension to head football coach Charlie Weis this morning, inking the third year head coach to an unprecedented three hundred year contract extension worth an estimated 1.4 billion dollars in salary and benefits.

Heh. Read the whole thing. Mer-people are mentioned.

This comment by Stewart Mandel, written in the form of an open letter to White, is also rather amusing: "I'm sure when you handed over that Fort Knox-sized contract extension to Charlie Weis a couple years ago, you were expecting a slightly bigger return on your investment than, say, zero offensive touchdowns through three games. It's too bad you didn't structure the deal so that he'd be paid per rushing yard. That way, he'd owe you money right now." Heh.

Apropos of which: it has been suggested that I'm taking Notre Dame's horrendous start a little too lightly, and that my light-hearted attitude demonstrates, once and for all, that I'm not a real Irish fan.  That's a contention that some of my Domer detractors have been trying to prove for over three years now, but this particular incarnation of the argument is, on its face, better than most of the ones that have been raised before -- and this time, some of the people raising it are actually doing so in good faith. So I thought it deserved a more complete answer than "shut up, you Trojan-hating idiots."

Here's the thing. As some of my regular readers surely have noticed, I take a light-hearted attitude toward almost everything. Even when it comes to stuff I feel strongly about, I'll still joke around mercilessly. (My jokes aren't always funny, but that's a separate issue.) I have practically no sacred cows. I'll make fun of whomever, for whatever reason. For instance, I think global warming is real and a very important issue that we need to address, yet I routinely make fun of Al Gore and his fellow crusaders. I very strongly believe in gay rights, yet I crack jokes about gay issues all the time. Perhaps most relevantly, I'm a big Gonzaga fan, and that loss to UCLA two years ago was one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever seen, but I'll totally make fun of Adam Morrison for crying on the basketball court, because dammit, it's funny.

The same goes for Notre Dame. Am I happy that they're 0-3? Do I enjoy watching the utter meltdown that has occurred in South Bend? Of course not. I'd be much happier if they were unexpectedly 3-0, and we were building up for another colossal clash of titans between the Irish and Trojans. I'd be much happier if this season was like the last two, when I would routinely spend my Saturdays watching consecutive resounding victories by "my" teams. But that's not the reality. The reality is, the Irish suck right now, and they suck so badly that's it's, objectively, rather funny. I mean, c'mon: snapping the ball over the player's head on the first play of the Michigan game? That's worthy of the '62 Mets! Notre Dame -- Notre Freakin' Dame -- being ranked last in every offensive category? The irony alone is comedy gold! And for heaven's sakes, no offensive touchdowns in three games? WTF??

If USC was this bad, I'd laugh at them too.  Really, I would.  It's a big part of how I deal with disappointment, at least when we're talking about topics that are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, like sports.  Of course, I can't prove to you, based on the archives of this blog, that I'd laugh at USC too if the Trojans were comically bad, because the Trojans have never been comically bad -- they've never been bad, period -- since I started this blog!  But if I dig through my old photos (and I'm of no mind to do that right now), I believe I'd find a picture from the fall of 1999 of my dorm-room whiteboard after a USC-Oregon contest in which Paul Hackett's Trojans set a new Pac-10 record for penalties in a game.  My reaction wasn't to wail and scream and gnash my teeth and wring my hands; I don't do teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing; it's not my thing.  Instead, my reaction was mockery.  I don't remember exactly what the whiteboard said, but it was something along the lines of congratulating the Trojans for their glorious Pac-10 record.  Mockery is always, or nearly always, my first resort in such situations.

Two lunchtime polls

By Brendan Loy

Vizu.com - Opinion Polls & Market Research

The good, the bad & the ugly

By Brendan Loy

The good: USC 49, Nebraska 31.

The bad: Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0.

The ugly: Utah 44, UCLA 6.

A reader poll

By Brendan Loy

Vizu.com - Opinion Polls & Market Research

Comedy of errors

By Brendan Loy

It's been a nightmare beginning for Notre Dame. They got the ball first, and their first offensive play was a horrible snap that almost led to a safety, and ultimately allowed Michigan to get the ball back around the Irish 40. After the Domer defense held the Skunkbears to a field goal, QB Jimmy Clausen fumbled the ball away inside the 25, and Michigan scored a quick touchdown to make it 10-0. The offense's third time on the field, there was another botched snap and another fumble (albeit one the Irish recovered), and Michigan got it back again. They didn't score, though, and Tom Zbikowski returned the punt into Michigan territory -- only to have it called back on a clipping penalty. A couple of plays later, the Irish again fumbled it away inside their own territory... and Armando Allen was injured on the play. So, pretty much a worst-case scenario so far.

UPDATE: 17-0. And the Irish have "gained" a total of -19 yards so far.

Meanwhile, Florida leads Tennessee 14-3 and Ohio State is up 3-0 over Washington.

UPDATE 2: And Clausen throws an interception. Michigan again gets the ball in Irish territory.

"I don't see how they could possibly be playing any worse. ... This is shockingly appalling." --Becky

UPDATE 3: 24-0, with 11:28 left in the first half. Over at Blue-Gray Sky, their heads are exploding. There is talk of a 140-0 USC margin, and of losing to Navy. Can we still depend on beating Duke?

UPDATE 4: Washington just scored a touchdown with three seconds left in the second quarter!! Huskies lead Ohio State 7-3 at halftime.

Meanwhile, a few choice comments from BGS:

"Dejavu. After I had lunch today I made a deposit in the toilet that looked just like the ND offense."

"0-12 is not a fantasy... we're well on our way, y'all."

"days like this are difficult since i quit drinking. maybe i'll get some heroin."

"I've decided to just listen to the game on the radio. In my car. In my garage. With the engine running. And the windows down. It's better like this."

"I'm turning Protestant after this game"

UPDATE 5: 31-0 Michigan, with less than a minute left in the first half.

I daresay I'll be watching a lot more of the second half of UW-tOSU than of ND-UM.

Oh, and it's 28-6 Florida over Tennessee. So yeah: Huskies-Buckeyes it is. Go Dawgs! Go Pac-10!

UPDATE 6: Things have gotten bad enough that ND Nation has apparently shut down its football message board. Also, while the general-interest board The Back Room is still open, football-related posts are apparently being deleted from it. [UPDATE: Confirmed. There was a response to this post saying, "He was running from the Michigan defense." It has disappeared.]

The folks who run ND Nation get all censorious like this occasionally, when they deem that people are getting too angry and disloyal to Notre Dame in their furious comments. They did it when the Irish lost Urban Meyer to Florida, and they're doing it now. I think it's quite lame.

UPDATE 7: After a 96-yard interception return for a Tennessee touchdown, the Vols are within 28-20 of Florida. ...

... But, literally just as I was typing that sentence, Eric Ainge "pulled a Clausen," fumbling the ball deep in his own territory, and a Florida player picked it up and ran it in for a TD. So, 35-20 Gators. Damn.

UPDATE 8: One of the announcers on ABC just said something about Penn State's "impressive victory over Buffalo" earlier today. Huh? Is it possible for a Top 25 team to have an "impressive victory over Buffalo"? And even if it is, would a 45-24 win count?

UPDATE 9: Sharpley's in. Clausen was 11-of-17 for 74 yards... and was sacked eight times.

UPDATE 10: Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0, final.

Ohio State and Florida are both going to win, too. So all of the teams I was rooting for in this afternoon's "big three" games, lost.

Now I'm watching Central Florida vs. Texas on ESPN2. George O'Leary's team is threatening to stun the Longhorns... and Texas losing always makes me happy. Go Knights!

UPDATE 11: ND Nation's football board has reopened... and a quick glance at the posts makes clear that, if Charlie Weis's honeymoon with Irish fans wasn't definitively over after the first two weeks, it is now.

UPDATE 12: According to a commenter, I'm wrong about ND Nation:

Brendan and others, FYI: NDNation has a policy all this season of closing the football boards during games. This is to concentrate play-by-play discussion on the Game Day boards. They do this for all nationally televised games in any ND sport on its respective board.

However, nothing appears on the Game Day board from prior to 6:43 PM, which is around the same time they re-opened the regular football boards. So unless they routinely delete everything that's posted there immediately after the game, I still think they were being censorious because of the nature of today's loss. Especially considering that, over on the Back Room, they were threatening to ban anyone who commented about football.

Goooo Irish, Beeeeat Skunkbears

By Brendan Loy

A symbolic representation of the uphill battle that both Notre Dame and Michigan face this afternoon:

I stand by my prediction: Notre Dame 6, Michigan 5. :) The Curse of Bo Schemblechler strikes again.

Demetrius, we hardly knew ye

By Brendan Loy

Demetrius Jones, who started at quarterback in Notre Dame's season opener against Georgia Tech with disastrous results, didn't make the trip to Michigan with his teammates, and will apparently transfer to another school -- specifically, Northern Illinois. (Hat tip: kcatnd and BGS.) He'll be the second of the four Irish QBs from last spring's Blue-Gold Game to transfer. Zach Fraser went to UConn.

A cheater at the helm of the Golden Dome?

By Andrew Long

[Andrew guestblogging.]

Whether they realize it or not, Notre Dame's season just got a little uglier -- and they haven't even lost to Michigan yet.  As part of the unfolding scandal now surrounding Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, Paul Zimmerman reports an interesting nugget rife with implications:

Marinelli was the defensive line coach in Tampa Bay when the Bucs beat the Patriots in the 2000 regular season opener and did a good job controlling New England's offense. After the game the Patriots' offensive coach, Charlie Weis, was overheard congratulating the Bucs' defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin.

"We knew all your calls, and you still stopped us," Weis said. "I can't believe it."

He couldn't believe it because the Patriots had videotaped all of the defensive signals in their last preseason game, which was against the Bucs.

Now, I'm not suggesting Charlie Weis still participates in such blatant attempts at cheating (all bitterness of Weis' poor gamesmanship ruining Desmond Reed's career aside), however, it does lead to a few questions:

• Did Charlie Weis earn his "offensive genius" tag from Domer homers and media sycophants at least partially on the basis of Patriots' game plans developed with illicitly obtained information?
• Is not the entire Belichick era at New England, and ergo Weis' success as an offensive coordinator there, now tainted with the same kind of doubt and suspicion that hangs over baseball players Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds as a result of their alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs?

I think the answers to the above two questions are terribly obvious, and this must be disconcerting for Domers.  The evidence mounts that not only is Weis not the great coach he was cracked up to be, he also isn't the most ethical role model for Notre Dame.

Obviously Urban Meyer was Notre Dame's real target when the Golden alumni turned on Ty Willingham after the 2003 season and sabotaged his recruiting efforts with over-the-top threats, demands, and innuendo, but even though Domers congratulated themselves on getting the "genius" Weis after whiffing on Meyer, did they shoot themselves in the foot even worse than even their biggest detractors imagined?

There's no way Domers will admit how badly they treated Ty after the rough transition year in 2003, when Davie's option system and personnel were finally being flushed out for brand-new personnel for the still-emerging West Coast Offense and a bunch of new starters on defense.  And without a doubt, the ten-year, $40 million contract Weis has means the current coach will not be expeditiously run out of town like Ty was.  But we can hope that Ty's current success -- and the latest revelations about Weis and Belichick -- will once again teach Notre Dame to put personal integrity, morals, and academic commitment above greed and the yearning to return to the glory days when Notre Dame could rely on its built-in advantages (money, media exposure, and religion) to win national titles.  There is still time before the Golden Dome is tarnished much further.

Hot hot hot! Appalachian is #33

By Brendan Loy

Following up on my previous post about the Associated Press allowing Division I-AA teams into its poll for the first time ever this week: Appalachian State -- victor over the victors valiant, conqueror of the conquering heroes -- is, alas, not ranked. They are, however, in the "others receiving votes" category, right between Auburn and Cincinnati. If you count back from #25, they are effectively ranked #33 in the country. (For the record, Sagarin puts them at #53... just behind #52 UConn, well ahead of both #63 Notre Dame and #69 Michigan.)

And hey, if those hot, hot, hot Mountaineers can keep winning -- they've got Northern Arizona next on the schedule, followed by trips to Wofford and Elon -- maybe they can work their way up into the Top 25 through attrition.

Speaking of which, Rece Davis says that LSU and Oklahoma should be #1 and #2, ahead of USC: "If you're a pollster and those aren't your top two, what you're saying is that your preseason prediction is more important than what you've seen on the field. Unfortunately, too many people seem unable to break that habit."

Anyway, back to Notre Dame and Michigan. They're both in ESPN's Bottom 10 for the second straight week. What an honor! Alas, someone will almost have to ascend out of the rankings this Saturday... and Mike Hart guarantees it'll be the Skunkbears. (Though he may not have used that particular term.)

If the Irish don't improve these offensive statistics, then I'm afraid Hart will be right. However, I'm betting on the Curse of Bo Schembechler to pull us through. Official Fearless BrendanLoy.com Prediction: Notre Dame 6, Michigan 5! (You know our offensive line is totally capable of giving up a safety.)

By the way, the post with the statistics also contains another detailed discussion -- with, you know, facts and stuff -- about the whole "Ty vs. Charlie" debate. Not like that topic isn't already consuming 95% of the (virtual) oxygen in the comment section. :)

The Blue-Gray Sky has a good post, too, about ND's current predicament.

Finally, speaking of predicaments: D'oh! USC has suffered its first season-ending injury, to defensive back Josh Pinkard.

Phone-a-Loy

By Brendan Loy

My fellow Nutmegger and lifelong friend Diane Krause, formerly Diane Huffman (she got married over the summer), will be in New York City tomorrow for a taping of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? -- and she's asked me to be one of her phone-a-friends! I guess they don't do the "fastest finger" thing anymore, so Diane will definitely be on the "hot seat" at some point between 11:00 AM and 7:30 PM tomorrow. From my perspective, the only question is whether she'll call me or one of her other two phone-a-friends. It'll depend on the topic of the question. Anyway, the show will air sometime in January.

Oh, and speaking of Millionaire, NDLS 1L Jaclyn Sexton will be on it this Friday and next Monday. (Hat tip: Lee Ann McGinnis.)

In other NDLS-related news, the late Ryan Rudd gets a mention in this article about an American Cancer Society benefit concert, Cure-A-Palooza.

Blame Charlie? Blame Ty? Blame Canada?

By Brendan Loy

Her Loyal Sons on the Irish offensive line's, well, offensiveness -- and who's to blame for it:

Obviously, the crackling, eroding foundation to all of our offensive problems is the offensive line play. That’s just about all that ND fans can agree upon right now. The cause, however, seems to be dividing ND fans into two camps: Those who blame Charlie and those who blame Willingham. They’re both right. They’re both wrong. I do know one thing, if you argue “in 3 seasons, Charlie has never had a good offensive line,” and then think that, in and of itself, shows that Weis and Company can’t coach an offensive line, you’re failing to look at the cause of our symptoms. The previous 2 years, we had almost no depth at offensive line thanks to Willingham’s mistaken belief that offensive linemen don’t need recruiting. Good luck coaching that up. Rumors abound about how “entrenched” a few offensive linemen felt last year. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that every ND player gives a “Rudy effort,” every day in practice. It just doesn’t happen. Now, this year, we’ve got some real talent at OL, not just with the starters, but with the back-ups. But the starters are all very inexperienced, and the backups are even more inexperienced, not to mention even younger. So our offensive line traded one set of big problems for a new set of big problems. I expected Charlie to do a better job of overcoming this new set of problems. To be sure, I’ve been very disappointed, but I also think I understand it. Mental errors will happen with this squad. I can sort of live with that. What I can’t live with is guys on the OLine not making hustle plays, not going out and hitting someone in the mouth when they do know which guy they’re supposed to hit. Still, even that may play into a tentativeness resulting from lack of experience. Still, there are 2 guys on that offensive line with more than a dozen starts and a lot of talent. They, at least, need to start looking like it. And that plays into the coaching we have today. I expect this coaching staff to take that set of big problems and overcome them with a few bumps and scratches. Thus far, however, there’s been almost no overcoming of anything.

The really funny thing about problematic offensive line play is that it often involves really big guys making small mistakes that add up to huge problems. And that’s what we’ve seen a lot of in these first 2 games. Things like picking up a double team when you should be picking up a blitzer, or failing to realize that the DE on the TE side is going to use a speed technique if the TE releases without challenging the DE, or just failing to have your head on a swivel. Those are correctable, but it’s about time for this coaching staff to correct it or bench someone.

Toilet Bowl at the Big House: ND vs. Michigan

By Brendan Loy

Between the baby shower last Saturday and the Tennessee game today, I haven't had the "pleasure" of watching very much Notre Dame football so far this season -- but based on the beef's comment and some text messages I received from BK [UPDATE: and this post on ND Nation, and this one and this one and this one and this one], I have a feeling that today's debacle in Happy Valley represents the moment when your average ND fan starts to turn on Charlie Weis. Whether that trend continues depends on how things go, of course, but it's awfully hard to see where on the schedule the Irish are going to pick up a win between now and November. Against Michigan State? At Purdue? Maybe. But the offense is going to need to start scoring touchdowns if we're going to have a chance against anyone.

Anyway, Michigan and Notre Dame are both 0-2, the first time that's ever happened. And they play each other next week! And Chad Henne is injured! Man, talk about a game that has lost all its luster in just two weeks. The two winningest programs in college football history meet, and they come into the game with a combined record of 0-4. Who'd have thunk it? Indeed, as texasyank points out, they've now lost a combined eight consecutive games... and most of them haven't been close. (The only close ones were the OSU-Michigan game and... heh... the Michigan-Appalachian State game.) It's a good thing Notre Dame has an NBC contract, otherwise this game might not even be televised. So, what will happen? Will the curse of Bo Schembechler continue? Will Notre Dame finally score an offensive touchdown? Will the game end in a 0-0 tie? What do you think?

Opinion Polls & Market Research

So far, so not good

By Brendan Loy

Georgia Tech 16, Notre Dame 0, halftime.

UPDATE: Georgia Tech 33, Notre Dame 3, final. Ugh.

Understatement of the day: "We all have work to do between now and going to Penn State." --Charlie Weis.

That would be the same Penn State that won 59-0 today. Granted, it was against awful Florida International, but still. 59-0! And then the Irish get to travel to the Big House to play a very angry Michigan team. Yippee.

Time for a poll...

Opinion Polls & Market Research

An Irish fan's great debate

By Brendan Loy

Over at the Blue-Gray Sky, Pete is having a debate with the pessimistic voice inside his head about how Notre Dame's season will go. Who gets the better of the argument? We blockquote, you decide:

[PESSIMISTIC PETE] Here's how I see it: the Georgia Tech game is a loss. It should be a win, but the fact that there is zero warmup time for the team means they lose a close one. Penn State: second game, on the road in a stadium that's been prepping for us all year, and a relatively experienced team? Don't like our odds there. Michigan: their stadium, offense that torched us last year still intact, gimme another L. Michigan State? We should beat them, but stranger things have happened against them. Purdue? Same. UCLA? Once again, on the road, experienced team against our young'uns. Are you noticing a pattern here? BC: Perfectly located on the schedule (for them), sandwiched between a West Coast jaunt against a good team and the biggest game of the year. Oh, and they're experienced, with one of the better quarterbacks out there this year. Perfect upset fodder. USC? Best we're hoping for is competitive. The rest are jokes. The way I see it, a .500 record would exceed expectations.

[OPTIMISTIC PETE] It's tough, but I don't think it's THAT tough. Georgia Tech: lost the best wide receiver in the country last year, breaking in a new quarterback too, we're more talented and at home. Penn State: we smoked them last year, Corwin's defense baffles Morelli, and we win going away to shock everyone. Michigan: remember the last time an underrated ND team went to the Big House? I smell deja vu. Michigan State: New coach + no Stanton = win. Purdue: Weis's dominance of PU continues. UCLA: I think they're overrated, and by now, this inexperienced team has some great games under its belt. A toss-up, but ND's got a good chance. Boston College? New coach, new offense, we're better, it's at home. Win. USC? I'm going to say we win, because you always gotta believe we can beat those guys, you gotta. And the rest are jokes, in a good sense. At worst we go 8-4, but, and even I think I'm crazy for thinking this, but it's not impossible that we could do some very special things this year.

In about two hours, we'll get the first inkling of who might be right. Win, and the expectations (and hype) for Notre Dame's season will improve immensely; lose, and they'll be favored to start 0-3.

(Full disclosure: I actually wrote this post last night, and timed it to post shortly before game time. In real-time, I'm at Becky's baby shower right now, suffocated by the estrogen all around me and unable to get anywhere near a computer or a TV on the first Saturday afternoon of football season. Oh, the indignity.)

NDLS gossip withdrawal

By Brendan Loy

One of my former law-school professors e-mailed me yesterday, "I don’t know if any current students have picked up your blogging duties, so I’m afraid I don’t have any idea what’s going on around the NDLS world. =-)" Heh. I, too, feel sadly disconnected from the always-entertaining world of Notre Dame Law School gossip. Have the 2Ls discovered any new petition-worthy grievances? Has anyone been offended yet by a sign on the wall, or an SBA newsletter, or whatever? Are people still b**ching about the Dean? Are the 1L girls cute? Inquiring minds want to know!

But, hey, here's something, albeit not NDLS-specific: the South Bend City Council is considering an anti-party ordinance, and Becca makes a convincing case that it's unnecessarily burdensome if its goals are taken at face value, which leads one to believe that its real goal is to target, harass, and discriminate against students. Not like that's at all surprising, of course.

More NDLS blogging from Kristin, Becca, Becca again, Bagel, 2LG and Ryan. Dunno if there are any others; those are the ones I'm aware of.

It's Brendan, with an A

By Brendan Loy

Last fall, a company called Bombo Sports & Entertainment contacted me about a documentary they were making on the 2006 Notre Dame football season. They wanted to know if I had any suggestions about things like fan rituals and gathering places for them to film, and they also wanted to interview me, to include the perspective of the "Irish Trojan" in their movie. (I'm sure this will go over very well with the ND Nation crowd. ... In fact, I warned them that some die-hard Domers would hate them for including me. But they wanted to anyway.) They ended up interviewing me several times, and micing me up during the North Carolina game...

...and filming me, and the people around me in the student section, from afar. I thought the whole thing was a little silly, frankly -- I'm hardly the best representative of your typical ND fan, if that's what they were looking for -- but I didn't see any compelling reason not to go along with what they wanted to do, so I did.

Well, the movie is out. It's called "Tradition Never Graduates: A Season Inside Notre Dame Football." Bombo contacted me last week to get my address so they can send me a copy. I haven't seen it yet, but one of my NDLS professors e-mailed me this afternoon to tell me that someone had sent her a copy, and it lists me as one of the DVD's "bonus features" ... but the description spelled my name in MSNBC style: "The Irish Trojan: Brandon Loy explains what it's like to be on both sides of the Notre Dame vs. USC rivalry." [UPDATE: Confirmed here.]

Between the numerous e-mails we exchanged and the fact that my website's primary domain name is BrendanLoy.com, you'd think they'd have been able to get the spelling right. In fact, the e-mail they sent me was addressed to "Brendan." But I guess whichever department does the printing missed that memo. Oh, well.

In other ND/USC news: staying in South Bend for the ND-USC game in October is a wee bit expensive:

In South Bend, the nightly rates at the Marriott hotel — normally in the $169 to $189 range — run up to $649 the night before a game. When top-ranked Southern California visits Oct. 20, guests must stay a minimum of three nights. The story is similar at other hotels.

(Hat tip: Andrew Leyden.)

It's that time of year again...

By Brendan Loy

...time for the Irish Trojan's 3rd annual Notre Dame and USC college football pick 'em contests to begin!

Just like the previous two years, the goal is not merely to predict each team's final record correctly, but to predict each game correctly, and that's how the contests will be scored. Final record and margin of victory will be used as tiebreakers.

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment with your name* (or a psuedonym that will adequately identify you to Irish Trojan readers) and your predicted margin of victory for each USC and Notre Dame game. (They're separate contests, so you can choose to enter one or the other if you wish; you don't have to enter both, though of course it's encouraged.) Positive numbers mean you're predicting a win by the Trojans/Irish; negative numbers mean you're predicting a loss.

USC's schedule is here; Notre Dame's schedule is here. I'll put a simple text list of all the games at the top of comments, so you can copy & paste that, and then fill in the relevant numbers, if you wish.

The deadline to enter is 3:00 PM EDT on Saturday. The prize, as usual, is good old fashioned bloggy bragging rights.

Good luck! Beat the Vandals! Beeeeat Jackets!

*First and last names preferred, not required. But please, if you have a particularly common name, at least give a last initial or something. I don't want three "Davids" and four "Andrews" with no last names. :)