This and That | by Pat
A sampling of news from around the internet....
Jeff Samardzija, All-American
Sports Illustrated recently released their picks for their Midseason All-American Team and ND's own Jeff Samardzija was selected at wide receiver for his performance over the first 5 games. The caption notes that 8 of his 28 receptions have gone for touchdowns.
I'm not sure if most post-season award voters won't slide back to pre-season favorite Dwayne Jarrett, who has 9 TD's to Jeff's 8, but if Samardzija can keep making circus catches on a near weekly basis he just might stay ahead of the Trojan sophomore. Perhaps the performance of each player in Saturday's game, fairly or not, might give one the upper hand come post-season voting time. (Then again, Calvin Johnson of Georgia Tech and Derek Hagan of Arizona State aren't too shabby either.)
Don't Believe the Hype
In a recent cover story on espn.com, Pat Forde and Ivan Maisel had this back and forth.
Pat: So how about those overhyped, overlooked lads in South Bend?Well, far be it for us to argue that Notre Dame isn't routinely overhyped. Even the most passionate Irish fan should agree with that. However, the irony of the quote isn't lost on us either.
Ivan: Can you be overhyped and overlooked at the same time?
Pat: At Notre Dame, you can always be overhyped.
I mean, you have to find it a bit funny that a writer on espn.com -- in a front page story nonetheless -- calls the Irish overhyped. The same ESPN that is sending the widly popular ESPN Gameday back to the campus that started the whole Gameday craze 12 years ago. The same company that has sister station ESPN2 sending the widly unpopular morning show Cold Pizza to campus to do a show on Friday morning. Last but not least, ESPNEWS will be airing the Friday evening pep rally, live, from Notre Dame Stadium. That's Notre Dame coverage beamed directly into your living room on all three major ESPN networks. Yes Pat, ND can always be overhyped, thanks in large part to your employer.
Of course, there is no doubting that even by ND standards, this game is reaching epic levels of pre-game excitement.
Apparently Kirk Herbstreit agrees.
I was talking with ESPN College GameDay host Chris Fowler about Saturday's game between USC and Notre Dame. In the 10 years I have been on this show, I can't recall a regular-season GameDay with this much anticipation and hype.
Will History Repeat Itself?
The cover of this week's Sports Illustrated features an inset picture of the Trojan offense line with the caption "Can Anyone Beat USC?" As pointed out by Domer58 on ndnation, hopefully the Irish can answer that question the same way they responded to this Sports Illustrated cover that debuted a few days before the Irish ended Oklahoma's 47 game win streak back in 1957.
