Volunteers wanted | by Jay

Boy, when things go south, they really go south.

First, the Volunteers lost all-SEC running back and leading rusher Gerald Riggs to an ankle injury last week. Then on Saturday they were pecked to death by Spurrier's Gamecocks, dropping out of the top 25 for the first time in three years (this, after being ranked no. 3 preseason).

Now, offensive coordinator Randy Sanders has stepped down, relinquishing the playcalling reins for the Vols' 99th-ranked offense (although he'll remain with the team through the season as the quarterbacks coach). Rumors on some Vol boards have Phat Phil taking over the offense this weekend, and even a possible return to Knoxville by David Cutcliffe at some point.

It's a mess. Even Lulu and Junior have got to be worried.

Happy Halloween | by Pat

Charlie Weis: Head Coach | by Pat

Just a great article by Jeff Carroll in yesterday's South Bend Tribune that covers the one year Coach Weis spent as the head coach of Franklin Township High School in New Jersey before he took the job with the New York Giants. There have been untold numbers of background stories and puff pieces done on Coach Weis already, but this story really does a great job of highlighting a stop on Charlie's resume that's been mostly overlooked.

Carroll covers how Weis, an assistant in South Carolina, made the move to head coach in New Jersey, and what he did once he had the job. As much as we mention how Weis learned at the feet of Parcells and Belichick, the similarities between what Charlie was doing with his high school team in his pre-NFL period and what he's doing now at ND are interesting. Highly recommended reading.

"The best team he ever had."

Charlie talks about the new contract | by Jay

Mike Frank of Irish Eyes has made available this free video of Charlie's press conference today. Great stuff -- check it out.

"Anytime people put out stories that are unsubstantiated...they have to be addressed sooner or later. And I think the best thing to do was to make it sooner rather than later, and get it out of the way. We no longer have to worry about that being a distraction...

"When I took this job, this isn't just any job for me -- this is my alma mater. The thought of people thinking that I was here for a short-term fix, those types of things affect me. I think it's very important for me to be loyal to this University. They stepped up and hired me, and I thought that I should reciprocate."

DeFilippo = doofus | by Jay

Heisler responded yesterday to the Boston College AD Gene DeFilippo's charge that the reason the Irish dropped BC from the schedule was because we still had a bug up our ass about the vandalism to our locker room three years ago. Sure, Gene.

As we speculated, the actual reason is much more mundane.

A Notre Dame official last night denied a Herald story that stated the Fighting Irish had pulled out of the final three years of their football agreement with Boston College because of field and locker room incidents in South Bend three years ago.

John Heisler, associate athletic director at Notre Dame, said the Irish pulled out of the final three years of the agreement with BC because the school has decided, starting in 2011, to play three Big East schools a season. While still an independent in football, Notre Dame is a Big East member in most other sports.

“It’s part of a complete reworking of our scheduling,” Heisler said. “We aren’t able to start that until 2011 because we had too many commitments. It was born out of a conversation we had with (Big East commissioner) Mike Tranghese. . . . Mike basically came to us and asked if we’d be willing to make a more specific commitment (in football). The commitment we made to the Big East was just part of being a good partner.”

With ND’s long-running relationships with the Pac-10, Big Ten and Navy, that forced the school to make some changes, said Heisler.

the fine print | by Jay

Two articles with two different takes on the contract news. Check out the different ledes.

Hansen, in the SBT:

It was fitting really, that while the sports world was busy trying to measure Charlie Weis' loyalty to Notre Dame this past week, Weis was carrying on with business as usual. His actions spoke louder than any careless NFL.com article or any verbal response he could have made to end speculation that he would bolt for the NFL as early as the end of this season.

And Mariotti in the Chicago Sun-Times:

You think Charlie Weis drew up devilish strategy against a spooked USC, a dizzy Dave Wannstedt and the rest of a dazed college football world? Consider the game he just won against Notre Dame's power brokers, big-city lawyers and campus priests. The other day, reports [wink-wink] began to surface that Weis, the most creative offensive mind in football today, could be headed to NFL riches if the Domers weren't careful.

Well, one of these articles is worth reading, anyway.

This, literally, just in | by Jay

Head Coach Charlie Weis Signs Contract Extension
Weis inks a new deal to continue as coach through the 2015 season

(Link to UND.com press release)

Oct. 29, 2005

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - University of Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis has signed a new, 10-year contract to continue as coach of the Fighting Irish program through the 2015 campaign.

Weis, who is in his first season at the Irish helm in 2005, signed an original six-year contract (that took him through the 2010 season) when he was hired on Dec. 12, 2004, as Notre Dame's 28th head football coach. This new agreement - that takes effect with the 2006 season -- adds an additional five years to that commitment.

Said Weis, "Since the first day I arrived at Notre Dame as head football coach, one of my primary goals was to be able to see this job through to the time my son, Charlie, would graduate from the University of Notre Dame and to stay in this position until I retire. By restructuring this contract, adding an additional five years, this allows me to accomplish that goal. Maura, Charlie, Hannah and I are very happy to become a permanent fixture in the Notre Dame community."

---

Pat here, chiming in with my 2 cents.

First off, I'm truly surprised that Notre Dame reacted this quickly and strongly to the Weis-NFL internet rumors. I'll cop to seeing "Kirk Herbstreit reports Notre Dame..." scrolling along the ESPN ticker and freezing, expecting some gut-punch news about Quinn's arm or Weis' new job with the Vikings. But then the words "...agrees to a 10 year contract extension with Charlie Weis" appeared, and I exhaled. And smiled.

Coach Weis made it very clear during his first few public appearances that he considered Notre Dame a destination, and not a stepping stone. But that still didn't stop the rumors. Given that he and the staff were out recruiting the past few days, I'm sure he got asked one too many questions about all the NFL rumors, and decided to put the speculation to rest.

He probably considered that the best way to answer the question was to cement his commitment to Notre Dame, and Notre Dame's commitment to him. Some may think the timing's a coincidence, but there haven't been too many coincidences with Weis thus far. (I also think that giving the scoop to Kirk Herbstreit, the one major TV analyst who publicly bought into ND and Weis before the Pitt game, was a calculated move.)

This new contract really is a credit to the new administration, specifically president Fr. John Jenkins and executive vice president John Affleck-Graves, for not only their incredibly strong vote of confidence in Weis, but also the boldness to go ahead with an extension that will undoubtedly raise an eyebrow or two.

I'm sure somewhere out there someone's already writing a "but Ty started 7-0 and didn't get an extension" article. And yes, this new contract I'm sure includes a buyout clause, and performance clauses, and all the other goodies that every single coaching contract in America contains. I'm sure someone will discover the new buyout clause price, but that's really not the point of the contract.

It's not about making sure that ND gets a better payday if Weis bolts for the NFL. Simply put, it's Charlie reminding everyone that he's here to stay.

Put Down the Turf, and Slowly Back Away | by Jay

From this morning's Boston Herald:

ND gets Irish up, will sack BC
By Steve Conroy

BLACKSBURG, Va. – According to a source close to Boston College, Notre Dame has decided not to continue its deal to play BC after the 2010 season because of damage the jubilant Eagles did to the field and locker room at Notre Dame Stadium after their defeat of the Irish in South Bend, Ind., three years ago.

Notre Dame has substituted Rutgers on its schedule after 2010 to fill the BC void, the source said.

BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo would not comment directly on Notre Dame's decision to discontinue its football relationship with BC. The Eagles and Irish were originally scheduled to play through 2013, but Notre Dame informed DeFilippo in the spring it only wanted to go until 2010. The Eagles have beaten Notre Dame three consecutive seasons, including two meetings in South Bend.

"We had an incident that's already been talked about, it's already been played out and it's not nearly as bad as it was made out to be, believe me,'' DeFilippo said of the Eagles' 14-7 victory in 2002. "Whatever they want to say or whatever reasons they want to give (for dropping BC), I'm certainly not going to comment on that. We think Notre Dame is a great, great institution. We've had a terrific relationship with them through the years. We would love to play Notre Dame every year in football, we'd like to play them in basketball, we'd like to play them in other sports.

"If they choose not to play. . . . I realize that scheduling only happens when it's mutually beneficial and if it's not beneficial to them, then that's up to them and they don't have to play. I really, really doubt that those are the reasons. If so, why are we playing in '07, '08, '09, '10?''

DeFilippo said BC will have no problem filling its schedule.

"There's plenty of other teams that want to play us,'' DeFilippo said. "We're talking to Texas, we're talking to Syracuse, Georgia's called and they want to play. There are just so many people who've called. Minnesota's called and they want to play. There's plenty of teams for us to play after 2010.

"Personally, I would like to see the Notre Dame series going, but as I've said, if it's not mutually beneficial for them, then we'll just go our way. There are no hard feelings on my part or anybody's part. I'd hate to have innuendos coming out about something that occurred two or three years ago. And believe me, it was not nearly what some people made it out to be.''

I'd like to see some corroboration from White's office before ascribing the discontinuation of the series to the locker room incident of three years ago. As the article stands, we're made out to appear fairly petulant and vindictive ("And believe me, it was not nearly what some people made it out to be"). I'd like to hear our side of the story.

The truth is, we add and drop teams all the time while arranging our future schedules. This is nothing out of the ordinary. Conspiracy theories aside, the reason we moved away from BC is probably because of our other game commitments (notably our pledge to the Big East to play three per year starting in 2011).

Or maybe, we'd just rather play some better competition than Boston College.

Cougar postscript | by Jay

A couple of odds and ends we enjoyed from the BYU game.

• "I won't lie to you, Notre Dame is such a fun place to play. I loved every minute of it, uh, except for when we weren't making plays." -- Cougar linebacker Cameron Jensen in the SLC Trib.

• "I don't know which finger, but about three-quarters of the nail and up is gone. They closed that and sewed it together after the game."

• Remember that warm-up taunt/cheer the BYU players did right before the game, that sort of looked like a cross between a Mexican hat dance and the Ickey Shuffle? Well, it turns out it's much cooler than that.

It was actually a New Zealand Maori tribal ritual called the Haka Dance. You might remember it from the movie Whalerider (unless you're a Maori tribesman, in which case you remember it from growing up.)

Haka is the generic name for all Māori dance. Today, haka is defined as that part of the Māori dance repertoire where the men are to the fore with the women lending vocal support in the rear. Most haka seen today are haka taparahi (haka without weapons).

For most non-Māori New Zealanders today their knowledge of Haka is perhaps limited to that most performed of Haka called "Ka mate, Ka mate". Many sports teams and individuals travelling from New Zealand overseas tend to have the haka "Ka mate" as part of their programme. The sports team that has given the haka the greatest exposure overseas has been the All Blacks, who perform it before their matches. It has become a distinctive feature of the New Zealand All Blacks.

More than any aspect of Māori culture, this complex dance is an expression of the passion, vigour and identity of the race. Haka is not merely a past time of the Māori but was also a custom of high social importance in the welcoming and entertainment of visitors. Tribal reputation rose and fell on their ability to perform the haka (Hamana Mahuika).

The Haka was brought to the Cougars by BYU wide receiver Bryce Mahuika, whose grandfather was a chief of the Ngati Porou tribe, and whose father helped keep alive the family's Maori culture after they moved to Hawaii. Mahuika's father passed away last spring, and after the funeral, Bryce had an idea of how to help build the Cougars' team spirit, as well as preserve his father's legacy. Total Blue Sports has the story:

Following his father’s funeral, Bryce returned to Provo to join his teammates. During a team meeting in April, Coach Mendenhall asked each of his players to address the team with a personal request.

“When I had gotten back here, Coach Mendenhall asked the team, what it would take to win this year, and he wanted people to come up and tell the team what it is going to take.” said Mahuika. “I had just gotten back from my dad’s funeral, so I just wanted to go up and thank the team for all the support they gave me through the whole thing. So I went up there with that intent.”

With a heart full of gratitude for the support he received during his time of trial, Bryce Mahuika was simply going to thank the team for their support, but while addressing the team he received a flash of inspiration that would meet the requirements Coach Mendenhall gave to his players.

“When I got up there it just kind of hit me that doing the Haka would help our team out and get us ready before the games. There were times last year where I thought we kind of came out flat and not as focused as we should have been. So I brought it up because I thought it would help, and basically just told the team what it was and what the Maori people used to do it for, and I just said that I would love to lead you guys in a Haka before the game if you guys were up for it.”

Coach Mendenhall and the team accepted Mahuika’s request and war dance practices began soon thereafter.

“It makes me feel good because I know my dad was such a big fan, and honestly I wish he could have been there to have seen it, but just to know that we are doing it is a really good feeling,” Mahuika said. ”It’s in somewhat of dedication to him, at least the first one I feel was in dedication to him, but really there are a ton of purposes for doing this. For one, to bring the team together, for another in dedication to my dad, it gets us fired up before the game and it gets the crowd going it early. I think it will be a new tradition as long as I’m here and the coaches want to do it, I don’t think any of that will ever be a problem.”

For a video of the Cougars doing the Haka Dance, click here.

Sixto Pix-cano | by Jay

Pick Six Standings updated based on this week's BCS rankings.

TheseAreMyDadsShoes retains the lead with 101 points.

In the BlogPollers' division of the Pick Six, Army blogger KingMouse still commands the high ground.

Ranked games this week: Michigan vs Northwestern, Va Tech vs Boston College, and of course, the Cocktail Party.

Schefter-riffic | by Jay

Just picked this one up off the wire.

Michigan Football Faces Allegations?
by Myron Brabble
special to BGS

At least one college team has found out that it might be the subject of NCAA penalties this off-season.

The University of Michigan has been under scrutiny from the NCAA before, most notably for a recruiting scandal involving the basketball team. This time, it might involve football. "I wouldn't...be...[surprised]", said one high-ranking official. Michigan is one of the premiere football programs in the country, and a scandal, if it transpires, would be disastrous.

If any severe allegations are proven true, Michigan would get the death penalty from the NCAA for up to ten years. Alabama, an elite program just like Michigan, once received the death penalty from the NCAA, so there is precedent.

As it is now, the NCAA has been quietly investigating several teams behind the scenes, possibly including Michigan. This doesn't mean that Michigan has committed violations; it just means it might be under consideration. But this is a developing situation sure to get lots of attention in the weeks to come.

On average, there are numerous NCAA violations each year in college football. And Michigan might be linked to some -- guaranteed.

Let's get something straight | by Jay

Charlie Weis isn't going to the NFL.

Earlier in the week, professional moron Adam Schefter floated this rancid air biscuit, claiming that Charlie has designs on the NFL. The article was thick with innuendo: "Developing situation"..."though Weis could be leaving"..."under consideration..."

Rock-solid journalism, backed by multiple sources and plenty of on-the-record testimony? Hardly. Turns out, Schefter's a one-man source, raking muck and stirring the pot.

No, Schefter didn't talk to Charlie. Didn't talk to Charlie's agent, Bob Lamonte, who said to the Boston Globe yesterday, "Charlie has his dream job...he's on top of the world right now." Didn't look back at what Charlie said when he took the job at ND. Didn't base the article anything more substantial than the presence of a buyout clause in Charlie's contract, which is standard in coaching contracts throughout sports.

The SBT rebutted Schefter's rumor-mongering. As did Bill from the always-solid baredown blog. NDN's the Rock column slapped him silly.

Why would he do this? Well, surprise, surprise...Schefter's a notorious Michigan homer. (Check this out, direct from the annals of Wolverine nostalgia.) Schefter's "developing story" was nothing more than buckshot from Ann Arbor, aimed not only at Irish fans who are feeling pretty good about their coach, but also directly targeting recruits who are considering the Irish. ("Despite the fact that he has one of the country's most heralded recruiting classes coming in next season, Weis has positioned himself to leave Notre Dame after this season for the NFL...") What better way to shake the foundation of an up-and-comer than insinuating he's not long for college ball.

Let's put this to rest, once and for all. Take a look at what Charlie himself said on the subject:

Opening presser:

And when I come here, I don't come here to leave and take a job in the NFL in three years. This is not a stepping stone. This is an end-all for our family. We come to Notre Dame, it's with the intent of retiring here. That's why we're coming here. We don't come here to bounce somewhere else. If that's what I was going to be doing, I would not be taking this job and I would be waiting till the season ended in the NFL and try to get one of those jobs. I'm here because I want to be here.

And this, from Charlie's first day on the job, when he spoke to the students at a 6am warmup in the JACC:

[My wife] knew from our conversations that there were only a couple of jobs in the country that I ever coveted. In the NFL, the only job I ever coveted was the Giants, because I grew up in New Jersey, and I grew up a diehard Giants fan. Ironically, last year the Giants job opened and I was one of the few finalists for the job, and it came down to them hiring the guy with head coaching experience. And that kind of crushed me at the time, because I'd never interviewed for a job in my life and not gotten it.

This isn't like I wouldn't have had options in the NFL. There were a couple of teams -- and I don't want to go into it, but there were a couple of teams. And they can't offer you a job until your season's over.

So when Notre Dame came open, I said, this is it honey, this is one we're going to go get. And I intereviewed for the job, and went through the process, and here I am.

I intend to be here for a long time. I'm not three-and-out. I'm not taking this job to go get a job in the NFL, because I had one waiting for me this year, if I wanted it. I had people calling me the night I was taking the Notre Dame job saying, "Just don't take it", and there was a job sitting there waiting. But I wanted to be here. I have a kid who's going to be in the seventh grade next year, and I'm definitely going to be here until he graduates from here. So I intend to be here for at least ten years. I don't need to go get an NFL job, because I can already do that.

A lot of college coaches hear, "Well, he's going to be the next head coach there [in the NFL]". Wellington Mara, owner of the Giants, called me up on Friday, and I said, "You had your chance." Because this is where I am, and it's good to be here.

No, Charlie isn't going anywhere, and that's a frightening thought to the Wolverines. Schefter's fabrication is one more piece of evidence that the fat and happy CFB establishment is scared shitless of a rejuvenated Notre Dame.

Five Wide, and Yards After the Catch | by Jay

From week to week, it often seems like there's a brand-new theme to Charlie's offensive gameplan, tailored specifically to that opponent. Something that's more than just a new wrinkle, but a entirely different approach...something that defines the way we're going to move the ball that day, and when you recognize it, sort of gives you a glimpse into the war room: "Gentlemen, on Saturday, we're going to do this. This will be our identity this week."

Against Michigan State, we threw long quite a bit -- something we hadn't seen that much to date. Against Washington, the toss-sweep was run about ten times. For USC, it was the presence of Travis Thomas getting equal billing in the backfield, splitting carries with Darius and giving our running game a brand-new dimension.

And against BYU, the defining theme was no-huddle, five-wide.

On Saturday, we came out in the no-huddle, five-wide, empty backfield, threw the ball nine times, never once ran it, and drove the length of the field (finally scoring on a pass to Stovall out of a three-wide, 1-RB set). We kept returning to the five-wide for long stretches against BYU, mixing in a few tight ends here and there. As far as I can recall, the only time we've seen that set was for a few drives against Michigan. Against BYU, it defined the offense.

And it worked like a charm. Coach Mendenhall, after the game:

"There weren't many surprise, but I was a little surprised early by the number of empty formations and quick throws. We never really took that away from them. Either way, they were attacking us through the air and that is where we were the most vulnerable and that is where they were most successful today."

One thing about putting five wide receivers and no running backs on the field: you can't run the ball very much. After last year's dismal rushing output, I'm sure many of us thought we'd rectify that deficiency this year. Even the team considered last year's rushing attack woefully inadequate. Before the game:

"Everybody knows that we had 11 yards rushing last game. That's just unacceptable," offensive tackle Ryan Harris said. "That's nowhere near where we want to be as an offensive line. We've come a long way."

Talk about sandbagging. When the game was over, we had 23 rushes on the day, but a few of those were sacks or QB hurries, and eleven of those carries came during the fourth quarter while holding at least a 19-point lead. As a matter of fact, we had only two actual running plays (not including sacks and sideline laterals) in the entire first half of the game, if you can believe that. From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette:

A year after the embarrassment of being held to a mere 11 yards rushing - their worst rushing game in 39 years - the No. 9-ranked Fighting Irish didn't even try to run the ball in a 49-23 victory over Brigham Young until they were trying to run out the clock.

With BYU blitzing and stunting, Irish coach Charlie Weis was only too happy to keep passing. He talked after the game how he was amused at halftime when he was asked by an NBC sideline reporter if the Irish planned to run the ball in the second half, and replied: "Not if they keep blitzing."

"They look at me as if I'm stupid," Weis said. "I'm looking at them like they're stupid, too. I don't know who's right and who's wrong, but football doesn't have to be as complicated as people make it out to be sometimes."

Weis made it look simple on Saturday, putting the ball in the hands of Brady Quinn, who threw for 467 yards and a school-record six touchdowns. In the first half, the Irish ran the ball eight times for a total of 1-yard lost, while Quinn set a school record for passing yards in a half with 287.

"Obviously we didn't run the ball very many times," Weis said. "The risk you take when you do that is if your quarterback has a bad day, you lose. That's a calculated risk you have to take. But I have no problem putting the ball in his hands."

Weis tipped his hand in the opening drive, going with an empty backfield most of the drive. He didn't put tailback Darius Walker into the game until on third-and-6 from the BYU 10, and then he was in as a blocker when Quinn threw a TD pass to Maurice Stovall, who had four TD catches.

"When you see a mismatch with any team, you want to throw it there and that's what we did this game," Stovall said. "We knew in order to be productive we had to be productive in the passing game."

That's what makes Notre Dame (5-2) so difficult to prepare for this season. They depend on the run in some games, like in the opening game victory against Pittsburgh, go more balanced in some games, like the victory against Michigan, or depend on the pass, like the victory over Purdue.

So, the BYU box score says we hardly ran at all on Saturday. Or did we?

COACH WEIS: Overall I'm not as upset when you look at the stats and say, well, you rushed for 1.9 per carry, but all those look passes and swing passes that we threw out there when they're bringing the house, and we throw those balls to those receivers at the line of scrimmage, to me they're like outside runs. You'd be adding another couple hundred yards to your running game. If anyone took a couple hundred yards added to the running game, I don't think anyone would be complaining too much about the yardage there.

Now, maybe that's stretching the definition of run a bit. After all, it's not like a long handoff, or a pitch -- it's actually a pass that gets the play started.

However, it is a remarkably high-percentage pass, and when you've got a strong-armed QB like Quinn slinging it, the ball gets out there in a hurry. Whatever you call it, it's better than running up the middle against a 7- or 8-man front. Why try and pound it, when a short cornerback is single-covering Stovall, and all you have to do is chuck it out to him and let him ramble in for a touchdown from 24 yards out?

(Or, alternately, pump-fake the quick sideliner and throw it over the top for an easy score. "Wasn't that a thing of beauty?" said Charlie. Yes. Yes it was.)

Interestingly, running the ball was sometimes actually part of the original play-call from the sidelines; BQ oftentimes has a run-pass option on the play. Charlie explains:

"There were a lot of runs in there that were run-pass checks, and the quarterback was close to flawless on his decision-making. When you bring that many guys on every play, obviously, the quarterback and the receivers have to make some plays, but you leave yourself very vulnerable. I was kind of hoping that was the way it was going to go."

"Q: Is [Quinn] actually checking off a run to a pass?"

"It's built-in in the play. When I call a play it's a play where he doesn't have to say anything -- we're set and ready to go."

This is similar to what was employed against Purdue -- that quick pass as a second-option on what might have been a running play. Charlie commented after Purdue that there were a few more runs on the call sheet that ended up being passes:

''Brady played exceptional [against Purdue],'' Weis said. ''He checked off runs into passes and just picked 'em apart. He's playing liked the leader I expected him to be.''

So, you must remember this...a pass is just a pass. Except when it isn't.

Anyway, how did all that passing -- I mean running -- break down into positive yardage against BYU?

• We had 467 yards passing in the game.

• By my count, we had 177 yards after the catch. (I don't know how this compares to other games; unfortunately UND.com doesn't keep track of YAC). That's 38% YAC.

• About 133 yards of the YAC were from passes complete around the line of scrimmage: zero-yard passes that were almost all YAC. Specifically:

Five sideline passes to Stovall for 55 yards
Four sideline passes to Samardzija for 36 yards
One screen to Darius for 37 yards
One screen to Fasano for 5 yards

• In addition, we also had a couple of pass interference calls that would have boosted our offensive stats even further.

To put it succinctly, we were Yac-tacular.

Finally, a postscript on last year's BYU game and some interesting statistical oddities.

• Time of possession was almost exactly equal this year compared to last year (26:28 to 26:21, a seven-second difference).
• We threw more passes last year, believe it or not (47 to 45).
• We had almost the exact same rushing yardage (if you discount the garbage time rushes in this year's game).
• We actually won the turnover battle last year (+1). This year we broke even.

So, to recap: same time of posession, same passing attempts, same rushing yardage, worse turnover ratio. That translates to...

2004: Three-point loss.
2005: Twenty-six point blowout.

What a difference a year makes.

Week 7 in a Nutshell | by Dylan

Another week, another astounding display, and I'm not talking about Mark May's shirt/tie combo (kudos to Mark for restraining himself and not basing his wardrobe every week on Notre Dame's opponent's colors). At least, that's what I heard, as the NBC affiliate in Santa Barbara pre-empted the game in favor of the Cal Poly- San Luis Obispo / Montana grudge match. Good gravy. Thank God for internet radio. Given the choice between Tony Roberts and Tom Hammonds, I may never watch the NBC telecast ever again.

Weis and the Irish easily dispatched the Cougars with an aerial assault that irritated the Neo-Holtzians on the ND Nation Game Day board to the point of self-immolation, the cries of "Why aren't we running the ball?!?" burning in their throats as Brady Quinn threw for his fifth touchdown. It's astounding that, with seven games of impressive football submitted into evidence, including a fluky loss to the best team of the past three years, people on message boards think they have a better handle on the game than Charlie. It's like watching high school sophomores critiquing Chaucer, and it ain't pretty.

Tennessee and Alabama set the cause of civilized football back a couple of centuries in their 6-3 tilt, the likes of which hasn't been seen since the epic contests between the Colts and Jets in the early nineties. This was the ugliest battle to come out of the South in 140 years. All that was missing from this game was a letter from Sullivan Ballou.

Dearest Sarah,

We have crossed our 35 yard line, but have found the enemy determined and our will shaken. Our bellies are as empty as our barrels, yet we endeavor to persevere, despite the oppressive weight of the sheer averageness of our quarterbacks. I fear that, should our eyes lock once more in the depthless gaze of the infinite, I will have been exposed as a poor craftsman and shall have let you down once again. Oh, and Fulmer ate at least fifteen apple fritters at breakfast. I swear to freakin' God...

I'm not sure I can remember a season with so much, to overuse a made-up word, averageness. Which conference is down? All of 'em. Every week, a team confirms their "Not Ready for Prime Time" status. This week, the honors went to Texas Tech, who had spent the first seven weeks of their season staddling the pastry cart in the Lubbock Perkins squeezing Hershey's syrup directly into their gaping maws. That high-flyin' offense came crashing to earth in Austin. However, given the overall craptacular state of the Big 12, they'll likely finish in the top 15 this year having beaten no one. This year's Big 6 conferences in inverse order of their goodness:

1. The Big East
2. The Big 12
3. The Pac-10
4. The Big 1?
5. The ACC
6. The SEC

Four of those conferences have one or more very good teams. Four of them have one or no very good teams. What the hell is going on?

Michigan State, not to be outdone by Purdue in the “Good Start Wasted” contest, was humiliated on their home field by Northwestern. Television viewers got the chance to witness John L. Smith flip his lid after his team attempted a field goal sans blockers. It was awesome. If either AD has half a brain, the upcoming MSU-PU “Most Disappointing Bowl” will feature a halftime cage match between Smith and Joe Tiller.

North Carolina beat Virginia 7-5 behind 8 solid innings by Matt Baker, who scattered 6 hits and four earned runs.

UCLA’s offensive juggernaut rolled over Oregon State (remember them? Whatever happened to those guys?), scoring 51 points. Quarterback Drew (1 of 2) Olsen matched Brady Quinn with six touchdowns. The Bruins also got a lift from their dual-threat Heisman candidate, Eddie Gaedel.

The truth about Week 7, however, is that I didn’t really care. It was like a week of Colorado States versus New Mexicos. For the first time in my life, I have a rooting interest in the World Series. Go White Sox.

MOV'in on up | by Jeff

Notre Dame's stellar performance against BYU further improved the Margin of Victory of the 2005 Irish from last year's squad: replacing a 3-point loss on the road with a 26-point home win extends the margin of victory gap from +11.8 to +14.3 (or +13.8 to +15.1 when adjusted for home field advantage).

Maintaining this against Tennessee will be tough, however. To stay two touchdowns ahead of last year, the Irish will have to beat the Vols by 24 (4pts + 14pt MOV + 6pts home field adjustment).

Looking at the season to date:

Category vs Common Opponents	2004	2005	+/-
Record	0.429	0.714	+67%
PPG	25.4	37.9	+49%
PPG allowed	27.1	25.3	+7%
MOV	-1.7	+12.6	+14.3

Opponent	2004 MOV	2005 MOV	Home Adj	Change
Pittsburgh	-3	+21	+6	+30
Michigan	+8	+7	+6	+5
Michigan St.	+7	-3	-6	-16
Washington	+35	+19	+6	-10
Purdue	-25	+21	+6	+52
Southern Cal	-31	-3	-6	+22
Brigham Young	-3	+26	-6	+23
Average				+15.1

The strength of schedule gap also improved, despite Irish opponents going .500 last week and adding 3-4 BYU to the slate. Excluding games vs ND, our first seven opponents are .545 this season vs .579 last season, a 6% drop off.

Odds & Sods, 3.2% Edition | by Mike

The new workout plan. Maurice Stovall arrived at Notre Dame with the highest of accolades. He was a first-team USA Today All-American and played in the U.S. Army All American Bowl as a 16-year-old high school senior. Within a few months of his arrival at Notre Dame, he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, catching a touchdown. Yet over the past three years, Stovall had not exactly lived up to expectations. When Charlie Weis arrived, he recognized both Stovall's talent and one of the things holding Stovall back. Weis instructed Stovall to lose fifteen pounds, and Stovall did his part. The result? A school record 14 receptions for 207 yards and a school record four touchdown receptions. As with Quinn's "duck squat," Weis immediately identified a problem (and the solution to that problem) that had eluded the previous staff.

Feels like the first time. D.J. Hord made his first appearance for the Irish Saturday, joining fellow freshman David Grimes as a kick returner. Out of the 15-member freshman class, Hord is the eleventh to see game action. Due to the five-wide formation on Notre Dame's opening possession, Grimes earned his first collegiate start. Sophomore Ronald Talley, making his first start in place of the injured Chris Frome, notched his first sack.

Do the collapse. With 12:50 left in the third quarter, Notre Dame allowed BYU to travel 75 yards in 10 plays to close the score to 28-17. Miscommunication between kick returners Hord and Grimes left the Irish at their own 13-yard-line to start the following possession. A false start and three straight incomplete passes set up a D.J. Fitzpatrick punt, which BYU returned 22 yards to the Notre Dame 33. From there, BYU punched in a touchdown to close the gap to 28-23. Notre Dame had collapsed in every phase of the game - defense, kick returns, offense, punt coverage, and defense again. However, the Irish kept their cool. Zbikowski intercepted BYU's two-point conversion attempt, and within 51 seconds Notre Dame scored another touchdown on a 36-yard toss from Quinn to Stovall. While one hopes Notre Dame gets to the point where such collapses don't occur in the first place, Notre Dame has shown a resilience in such situations (see also the MSU game) that had been sorely lacking in recent years. The attitude - particularly, the confidence - of the head coach has been permeated through this team.

Hands down. By now, you're probably quite familiar with Quinn's superhuman numbers - 32 of 41 for 467 yards and a school record 6 touchdowns with no interceptions. However, Quinn came quite close to having one picked off early in the game. Quinn's first incompletion came when a pass off a quick drop was deflected at the line of scrimmage. The tackle failed to get the defensive end's hands down on this play, as he must do. It was a similar failure against Purdue that led to Rob Ninkovich's interception. Overall, our tackle play has been excellent this year, and given the number of passes Quinn has attempted this year, one cannot expect perfect blocking every time. However, with the best defensive line Notre Dame will face all year arriving November 5, this is a problem that may deserve closer attention during the bye week.

Hurt. While there have been some significant injuries, Notre Dame has not lost an unduly large number of players to the injury bug this season. However, the defensive line may be showing signs of wear. Chris Frome is out for the season, and Derek Landri missed about one quarter of the BYU game before returning to the field with his forearm wrapped. While Ronald Talley, Justin Brown, and Brian Beidatsch have performed capably in their opportunities (indeed, Talley has more tackles than Frome), an already thin defensive line cannot afford much more in the way of injuries. Nonetheless, I'm pleased to get by Purdue and BYU (two teams with reputations for questionable o-line play) without any major d-line injuries.

Live and learn. Since the agreements Kevin White negotiates usually call for the referees to be supplied by the opposing team's conference, Notre Dame gets to see how the game is called all over the country. While the NCAA rules are the same for every team, it is a curious fact that the enforcement of these rules varies across conferences. To use one of the more well-known examples, Pac-10 officials tend to tolerate more in the way of holding than other conference officials. This can also result in the Irish finding themselves called for violating rules they are not accustomed to being enforced. Saturday, this took the form of the Mountain West officials flagging John Sullivan for an illegal snap, which reminded many Irish fans of the Pac-10 crew that negated a Vontez Duff punt-return touchdown on a roughing the center penalty. This is not meant to blame the refs. Rather, it's to point out that entrusting officiating to conferences reduces uniform application of the NCAA rules, which is not a place for federalism. In other words, I agree with what Weis said in his Tuesday press conference:

I just wish the rules were standardized week in and week out, regardless of who you're playing. This week it's BYU's officials. Last week it was USC's officials. It all depends on where you are, who's playing and who has them.

I have no problem with officiating crews. I really have more of a problem with the big picture that there's different rules at different places, not what's off sides. I'm talking about things like replay.

Out of time. Saturday marked the first time all year that Notre Dame lost the time of possession battle. BYU held the ball for 33:39 to Notre Dame's 26:21.

Big Game Hunters | by Jay

...whippin' up some Cougar stew.

"Brady and Mo put up some crazy numbers. They were scoring touchdowns left and right." -- Jeff Samardzija, after the game

Injuries, Awards, and Trophies | by Pat

Injuries. Notre Dame lost two players for the year as Weis offically announced that both Rhema McKnight and Chris Frome will miss the rest of the 2005 season with injury. McKnight has been sitting out since wrenching his knee during the Michigan game while Frome twisted his knee during the game against Southern Cal while jumping over a teammate.

Both will be able to return next year and play as 5th year seniors. McKnight is quick to point out the positives of that situation.

"I get another year in this system and hopefully it pays off for me," McKnight said."If Brady (Quinn, Notre Dame's quarterback) and myself as well as the other receivers have another year in this type of offense, it's going to be fantastic," he added.

McKnight also added on the educational benefits of a 5th year at Notre Dame.

McKnight is on track to graduate in December, so he'll start work on his master's degree in January.

What, no ballroom dancing classes, a la USC's quarterback Matt Leinart?

"Nah," he said, "although it would be nice to be more cultured."

Before the 2005 season, the 2006 wide receiver depth chart looked like a potentially veteran-laden team's biggest question mark, but now is looking like it will be able to provide proven production to go along with potential. McKnight and now Samardzija are proven players that will be much needed mentors for the rest of the young and inexperienced (Grimes, Hord, Anastacio, Gallup, Parris, West) receiving corp.

As for Frome, he will return to a line that returns everyone from the 2-deep except one (Beidatsch) and possibly could be bolstered with the return of Travis Leitko. In the meantime, Ronald Talley -- my pick for this season's surprise player thusfar-- will get the start at defensive end and be backed up by Justin Brown.

"I know Coach (Jappy) Oliver talked to them extensively (Monday) and said, 'This is your time,' because now they're not just in the background, they're in the mix," Weis said of Talley and Brown. "They're going to be out there and they're going to be playing and they're going to be playing a lot. We need for them to step up and make a bunch of plays."

As with the McKnight injury, Coach Weis has made it a point not to dwell too much on the fact the team is minus another starter.

“It pushed (Brown and Talley) up a spot. That’s what it does. That’s the way we think around here. One guy goes out, the next guy goes in. That’s the way it is.”

---

Awards. One of the pre-season award lists that actually did include a Notre Dame player has narrowed down its list and Brandon Hoyte did not make the semi-finalist cut for the Butkus Award. Hopefully this means that Hoyte isn't forever barred from coaching high school football on ESPN or high school basketball on Teen NBC.

The semi-finalists who did make the cut include Chad Greenway (Iowa), Aaron Harris (Texas), Spencer Havner (UCLA), AJ Hawk (Ohio State), D'Qwell Jackson (Maryland), Tim McGarigle (Northwestern), AJ Nicholson (FSU), Paul Posluszny (Penn State), DeMeco Ryans (Alabama), and Ernie Sims (FSU).

Let's take a look at how Hoyte matches up statistically. The first two columns are per game averages.

Player	Tackles	TFL	FF/INT
Brandon Hoyte	8.17	1.75	2
Chad Greenway	13.29	1.0	0
Aaron Harris	8.33	1.33	3
Spencer Havner	8.83	1.5	1
AJ Hawk	11.33	1.33	2
D'Qwell Jackson	14.11	0.42	1
Tim McGarigle	13.17	1.08	1
AJ Nicholson	8.50	0.75	2
Paul Posluszny	11.71	0.93	0
DeMeco Ryans	6.83	1.25	1
Ernie Sims	4.33	0.75	1

Plenty of great linebackers on this list. But I would certainly hope that Hoyte was close to making the semi-finalist cut because statistically he's right there with most of these players. Ernie Sims seems a bit lacking in the stats department, but there is more to being a good linebacker than just numbers. And, I suppose it's fair to say that there is sometimes more to making semi-finalists lists like this than just being a good linebacker.

Interestingly, it appears that Texas likes to give its players a bit of a statsitical bonus. Usually on assisted tackles for loss, a player gets credit for 0.5 tackle, just like for a sack. That's how the NCAA and pretty much every other school records it. Texas however on their official site gives the player credit for a whole tackle. So the NCAA site says Aaron Harris has 8.0 TFL (7 solo, 2 assisted) while the Texas site credits him with 9.0 (7 solo, 2 assisted). Nothing to complain about too much, but it is interesting and something that should be kept in mind.

---

Trophies. Notre Dame is moving ahead with the plan to add "themes" to each gate of Notre Dame Stadium with the dedication of the "Heisman Gate" at what is also known on your ticket stub as Gate B. The display includes large banners of each Notre Dame Heisman winner displayed inside the concourse along with a larger-than-life replica of the Heisman Trophy attached to the wall. Next time you head to a home game, swing over and check it out. Und.com posted a photo gallery of the new design including a profile shot that gives a good look at the Heisman replicas.

Along with this new pro-tradition campaign in and around the Stadium and photos like this one of ND's National Championship rings that recently popped up on und.com, I do enjoy the fact that Notre Dame is being more outgoing about the proud history of the football program.

While the University can sometimes get a bit too cheesy with their football promotions, I think the new banners are very well done. If the other gates are completed in a similar manner as this one I'll consider the whole thing a success.

Hard-Fought Yards | by Jay

One thing I noticed in looking at the NCAA offensive rankings is the way we're grinding out the yards this year. Despite having the 12th-best offense in the country, we rank only 36th in yards per play (5.77).

How does that happen? Well, seeing as we're #2 in the country in plays run per game, it sort of makes sense.

Plays Per Game, best 20 teams

O-Rank	Team	Games	Plays	Plays/Gm	Yds	Avg	Yds/Gm
14	Missouri	6	516	86.00	2858	5.54	476.33
12	Notre Dame	6	509	84.83	2938	5.77	489.67
4	Northwestern	6	496	82.67	3172	6.40	528.67
28	Oregon St.	6	490	81.67	2572	5.25	428.67
38	Indiana	6	490	81.67	2464	5.03	410.67
13	Oregon	7	555	79.29	3411	6.15	487.29
15	Houston	6	474	79.00	2843	6.00	473.83
17	Purdue	6	469	78.17	2747	5.86	457.83
5	Arizona St.	6	468	78.00	3112	6.65	518.67
29	Nevada	6	468	78.00	2566	5.48	427.67
11	Minnesota	7	545	77.86	3432	6.30	490.29
25	Boise St.	6	467	77.83	2597	5.56	432.83
85	Tulane	5	387	77.40	1671	4.32	334.20
70	Georgia Tech	6	464	77.33	2159	4.65	359.83
2	Texas Tech	6	463	77.17	3437	7.42	572.83
31	Boston College	7	538	76.86	2964	5.51	423.43
1	Southern Cal	6	458	76.33	3678	8.03	613.00
50	Western Mich.	6	458	76.33	2353	5.14	392.17
60	Illinois	6	458	76.33	2254	4.92	375.67
3	Michigan St.	6	457	76.17	3288	7.19	548.00

In comparison, check out USC: best offense in the country, and also the best yards-per-play average. Reggie Bush will do that for you. We, on the other hand, have no gamebreakers at running back; as Pat mentioned below, our longest run of the season is backup QB David Wolke's 22-yard scamper.

We're not a quick-strike offense, and I think a lot of that is by design. Occasionally we'll hit on a long pass, but mainly, we just grind it out, control the clock, move the chains, and punch it in the end zone when we get down close. We're a yardage- and time-eating machine.

BYU Preview | by Mike

After the drama of the USC game, it's been hard for fans to turn their attention to BYU. Fortunately, Charlie Weis's "second season" concept appears to have done the trick in focusing the team's attention on BYU.

"If I told you we were opening up this week against BYU at home," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis asked defensive captain and starting linebacker Brandon Hoyte, "how fired up would you be?"

Hoyte's response: "Pretty fired up."

That this week also happens to be fall break has further helped the team adopt a season-opening, fall camp attitude.

Here at BGS, we're not the beneficiaries of Weis's attitude management. We've had a hard time shaking the USC game. In fact, until Jay's posts today detailing the BYU offense and defense, we'd largely neglected this Saturday's game. We're not even sure what BYU stands for. Many maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago, but at least one scholar has uncovered evidence indicating BYU is an abbreviation for "Buddy, you're unfortunate."

However, we can direct your attention to some BYU-related pieces we prepared before the USC malaise set in.

First is Michael's profile of BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall. Included are discussions of the coaching staff, offensive philosophy, and defensive philosophy.

Next you can turn to Pat's position previews and familiarize yourself with BYU's personnel. If you compare Pat's previews to an updated BYU depth chart (page 12), you'll get a sense for how injury-depleted the Cougars are.

Last there are our comments in our overall season preview. We were unanimous in expecting a win. I predicted we would surpass last year's rushing total against BYU on our first drive, and Mark revealed his nonchalant attitude towards men named Bronco. Dylan's comment reveals that the USC hangover may not be the only reason we have been so delinquent in preparing BYU previews this week:

From this day forward, as it once was, there should be no analysis wasted on the BYU game. It was a "W" when they signed the contract.

Cougar Chicanery, par deux | by Jay

Here's some reading on the "Air Raid" offense, which BYU offensive coordinator and Mike Leach disciple Robert Anae brought with him from Texas Tech. Leach was a protege of Hal Mumme, and ironically, Mumme first got the idea for the scheme from the old Lavell Edwards BYU offenses. Leach developed an offshoot for Texas Tech, and now the system's come full circle back to Provo with Anae.

The Air Raid typically features multiple receivers flooding zones and a quarterback who can make quick progression reads. In other words, airing it out -- a lot. Texas Tech, for example, throws the ball 50+ times per game, rain or shine.

BYU, on the other hand, isn't afraid to mix it up -- they're using TT's offense, but aren't married to it. They'll run it if they think they can move the ball that way, and unlike other WAC teams, their OL is actually big enough to run it (they average 325 lbs across the front).

The Cougars' play mix thus far looks like this:

Run   16  32  39  19  30  52
Pass  60  41  51  49  44  18

That last game was against Colorado State, which has the 103rd-worst run defense in football.

One worry Charlie mentioned in his presser are the extraordinarily large splits the BYU offensive line takes:

You'll notice this team (BYU) takes very, very large splits, so you have to be very careful on how you play inside with your inside players because they almost bait you into just taking the gaps. As they bait you into taking these extremely large splits that they're taking, a lot of times, if you don't play the fundamentals and techniques, you find yourself out of position.

The leading rusher is Curtis Brown (#6), who's got 504 yards and 5 touchdowns. They also throw to Brown quite a bit out of the backfield, and he ties the tight end Johnny Harline (#89) as the leading receiver on the team. They do spread it around in the passing game, though: five guys already have 20 or more receptions this year. Quarterback John Beck isn't much of a runner, but he's savvy and smart, completing 65% of his passes.

But it's Brown who really makes the 26th-ranked offense in the country go.

"Curtis, in terms of touches, accounts for about 60 percent of our offense," Mendenhall said. "For our offense to succeed, (Brown) has to have the ball in his hands either having it handed to him or throwing it to him."

I'm not sure Bronco's breakdown is exactly correct, but it is true they'd like to feature their top playmaker more and more.

Prediction for the D? I'm guessing we'll play a very conservative game on defense, bend-but-don't-break stuff, preventing the big play while stopping the run. The five-yard hitch -- we'll give 'em that. If they want to chew up the clock, that's fine with Charlie & Rick...because we should be putting the ball in the end zone on every one of our drives.

---

A few more fun BYU facts, courtesy of the South Bend Tribune:

• BYU has an 11-game losing streak against ranked teams.

• The Cougars are tied for last in the nation in interceptions. BYU's defense has picked off one pass.

• Thirty BYU players are married. Six of them have pregnant wives.

Cougar Chicanery | by Jay

The 3-3-5 defense is as unusual as it is enigmatic. The three down linemen, three linebackers, two cornerbacks and free safety all line up close to where they would in more traditional defenses. But where the 3-3-5 differs is in the presence of two special "roving" safeties, whose makeup can be described as part outside linebacker and part strong safety.

These "KAT" safeties (as they are called in the BYU version of the 3-3-5) can rush the quarterback, drop back into coverage or even defend against the run if needed. The result is a defense that is very flexible, capable of rushing between three and eight players at any time, and blitzing from various angles.

From this article in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette:

For offenses, Weis said the defense leaves the possibility for big plays, but it also could end up with a lot of linebackers sprinting around the opponent’s backfield.

“If you hit it right, you have an opportunity for plays,” Weis said. “But the other thing is in terms of hitting it wrong, you could have a lot of people free.”

Part of recognizing it, Weis said, comes from junior quarterback Brady Quinn. He needs to be able to pick up the different defensive fronts BYU will throw at the No. 9 Irish.

Otherwise, it could be a long day.

Another way the players might prepare, besides the tape they’ll watch this week, is through video games.

While Walker hadn’t thought of it, “NCAA Football ’06” does have a 3-3-5 defensive scheme among its defensive packages and other coaches have said in the past that video games will occasionally help players pick things up quicker.

While fellow running back Travis Thomas scoffed at the suggestion, Walker seemed to think about it.

“Yeah, that might not be a bad idea,” Walker said. “See how it works.”

Bob Morton talked a little bit about it:

“It really demands that extra focus,” Irish center Bob Morton said. “So it really has been easy to get our nose back in the books, watch the film and try and perfect things as much as we can.”

Morton added that the offense usually focuses only on its own problems and goals. But this week players have been forced to master BYU’s “exotic” defense, which relies heavily on blitzing.

“Run or pass, their blitzes are designed to pose problems,” Morton said. “Their coach (Bronco Mendenhall) has them everywhere and has done so for a few years. We really have to make sure we’re gap responsible.”

Here's an example of one of the hazards of the 3-3-5 if you're not prepared for it. Stills are from last year's opening-game debacle.

In the first frame, that's the pre-snap defensive look.
In the second frame, you can see that the DB over Stovall has moved down and is now giving a blitz look. So now you have possibly three guys rushing the passer on the weak side.
In the third frame, see how the three rushers on the left side outnumbered the two OL, and meanwhile, you have your RB in blitz pick-up to the right and an extra OL blocking no one. Quinn didn't get sacked here but he got hit as he threw it, and we never had a shot.

This is a great example of how ill-prepared we were for our first game last year. I'm not sure who was at fault. It's Diedrick's system so some fault should lie on his shoulders, but at the same time, I think the RB Wilson got confused. As you can see, we had six blockers get beaten by five pass rushers. That should never happen, especially when you have the talent advantage that Notre Dame has.

The good news for tomorrow? We're fairly familiar with the scheme. South Carolina used it when Weis was an assistant there, and Latina mentioned the other day he went up against it once or twice a year in the SEC. And despite the exotic nature of their scheme, the Cougs aren't exactly world-beaters on defense, ranking 53rd in scoring (25 ppg) and 79th against the pass (241.3 ypg).

Last year, we didn't scheme against the 3-3-5 very well at all -- only 285 yards, and a scant 11 yards rushing on 21 carries. (This, against a team that ended up being ranked 59th nationally against the run, and gave up an average of 377 yards overall). Tomorrow, I think we can expect much better.

Lastly, I was doing a little googling on the BYU defense, and this popped up. Check out book #6. I couldn't figure out why the 3-3-5 would show up in a list like that, but then it hit me: since it's so risky, if you screw up the 3-3-5, you might as well gouge your eyes out.

Computer Love | by Jeff

If you haven't looked at the BCS numbers yet, be ready for an ugly picture. In short: the computers hate ND. Despite being ranked #9 in the AP (which is no longer in the BCS) and 11th and 12th in the Harris and USA Today polls, the computers think the Irish are the 25th best team in the country -- behind such powerhouses as Texas Christian (not Texas Tech, mind you) and West Virginia.

A good argument can be made that ND is stronger than plenty of other teams which have better computer rankings: Minnesota, Florida, Nebraska, Oregon, and Boston College, to name a few.

But, I believe these things have a way of working themselves out as the season progresses. And, if it's any consolation, Sagarin's real ratings (which he defines as the "best single predictor of future games") have us at #4, and only two one-hundredth's of a point worse than Virginia Tech, essentially meaning we'd be a push on a neutral field.

What the Typical Notre Dame Fan Worries About... | by Mark

2004: Will Brady Quinn ever live up to his potential?
2005: Will Brady Quinn leave early for the draft?

2004: Can ND sign anyone that maybe, someday, could play cornerback?
2005: Can the #1 cornerback recruit come in and play nickel or dime right away?

2004: Can the offense maybe break 35 points in a game?
2005: Can the offense break 50 points this week?

2004: Will ND sign a Top 25 class?
2005: Will ND sign a Top 5 class?

2004: How many times do you think we'll run the bubble screen this week?
2005: How many brand-new plays and formations do you think we'll see this week?

2004: Can ND sign one recruit rated in the Top 100?
2005: Can ND land the #1 CB, TE, OT, and DT?

2004: Can we not embarrass ourselves against USC again?
2005: Can we actually beat USC?

2004: Can we find someone to take Ty?
2005: Can we keep Charlie healthy?

Margin of Victory | by Jeff

Despite a couple of close losses, this season's improvement over last year has been dramatic and measurable. For the second year in a row, ND has started 4-2, but looking solely at record is a poor metric for evaluating a team's improvement. For instance, the Irish were 3-3 against the same six opponents last year. Perhaps the best indicator of improvement by a squad is not a change in record, but rather in margin of victory (MOV).

Historically, the improvements created by Coach Weis are substantial. Only three other Irish coaches have improved a team's margin of victory against common opponents in their first year. Weis joins this list at #2 behind Ara's +24.9 point improvement per game and ahead of Lou (+7.1) and Elmer Layden (+13.1). In all cases, the coaches and teams they replaced were sub-par by ND standards: Hunk Anderson's 1933 squad which went 3-5-1, Hugh Devore's '64 team which went 2-7, Gerry Faust's 5-6 '85 squad, and Willingham's .500 team from last year.

Category	2004	2005	Change
Record vs common opponents	0.500	0.667	+33%
PPG vs common opponents	26.8	36.0	+34%
PPG allowed vs common opponents	28.3	25.7	+10%
MOV vs common opponents	-1.5	+10.3	+11.8

Here's MOV compared to last year:

Opponent	2004 MOV	2005 MOV	Home field Adj	Change
Pittsburgh	-3	+21	+6	+30
Michigan	+8	+7	+6	+5
Michigan St.	+7	-3	-6	-16
Washington	+35	+19	+6	-10
Purdue	-25	+21	+6	+52
Southern Cal	-31	-3	-6	+22
Average				+13.8

There is an argument to be made that the quality of competition is less this year. Certainly Pitt, Michigan, and Purdue seem to have dropped off. But looking at actual results, the schedule doesn't seem to have slipped that much.

Opponent's record (excluding games vs ND)

Opponent	2004	2005
Pittsburgh	7-4	3-3
Michigan	9-2	4-2
Michigan State	5-6	3-2
Washington	1-9	1-4
Purdue	6-5	2-3
Southern Cal	12-0	5-0
Total	40-26	18-14
Winning %	.606	.563

That's only about 7% worse than last year thus far.

On a somewhat twisted side note, part of me is now glad that we lost to Michigan State. I would hate for Saturday's game to be our only loss of the season.

Statistically speaking | by Pat

Hitting the proverbial halfway point...

• First the bad news. With the loss to Southern Cal, Notre Dame has now dropped four straight home games, which ties the record for longest home losing streak. Despite what Chris Fowler told John Walters, it is the third time in history the Irish have "accomplished" this feat. Over the 1933-34 seasons, Hunk Anderson (a.k.a the first ND head coach to be fired after only three seasons) and Elmer Layden combined to lose four straight at home losing to Pittsburgh (14-0), Purdue (19-0), Southern Cal (19-0), and Texas (7-6). Also, in 1960, Coach Joe Kuharich managed to lose four in a row to the likes of Purdue (51-19), Michigan State (21-0), Pittsburgh (20-13), and Iowa (28-0). The current streak differs only in that all four games were extremely close contests that came down to the final minute. The excellent game notes on und.com highlights the end of each game.

Oct. 23, 2004 - Boston College 24, Notre Dame 23

A 30-yard touchdown pass from BC's Paul Peterson to Tony Gonzalez with 0:54 remaining tied the score and Ryan Ohliger's PAT provides the winning margin for the Eagles.

Nov. 13, 2004 - Pittsburgh 41, Notre Dame 38

The Panthers win a see-saw battle when Josh Cummings drills a 32-yard field goal with just one second remaining. The final drive featured two pass interference calls on the Irish, one of which nullified a game-clinching interception in the end zone.

Sept. 17, 2005 - Michigan State 44, Notre Dame 41

A furious Notre Dame comeback from a 21-point deficit ends in an overtime loss to the Spartans. Jason Teague's 19-yard run on the game's final play provides the winning point total for MSU.

Oct. 15, 2005 - USC 34, Notre Dame 31

After a clutch fourth-down conversion and a wild out-of-bounds fumble on the Irish goal line, Matt Leinart sneaks in from one yard out with three seconds remaining to hand Notre Dame its fourth-consecutive loss in Notre Dame Stadium.

• Let's talk conversion rates. Overall, Notre Dame has allowed opponents to complete 25 of 80 third down attempts. That 31% conversion rate is good for 23rd place in the country. But what's really impressive is that in the 4th quarter, Notre Dame opponents are 3 of 23 when it comes to converting third down chances.

Moving on to 4th down, ND defense has allowed 50% of opponents 4th down tries to be converted. Perhaps taking a page from Weis' aggressive play-calling, opponents have gone for it on 4th down against the Irish 16 times. That is tied with Rutgers and Wyoming for the most in the country. The stat by itself isn't very indicative of anything, but I found it interesting.

• Even the mighty Trojans couldn't slow down Quinn's assualt on the ND record book. He now owns the ND record for consecutive games with a TD pass with 11. He's also currently one good game (225 yards, 1 touchdown) away from moving into 2nd place for career yardage and touchdown passes. He's also still on pace to break nearly every ND single-season record. Perhaps the most impressive feat to me is that not only is he looking to break the single-season records for yardage and passing attempts, but he's also on pace to break the single-season pass completion percentage record currently held Kevin McDougal.

• The primary beneficiary of Quinn's throws, Samardzija not only tied a Notre Dame record (Malcolm Johnson - 1998) by catching a touchdown pass in his sixth consecutive game, he also tied Jack Snow for the 2nd most number of touchdown receptions in a single season with 9. Derrick Mayes still has a tenuous hold on the record with 11 TD receptions.

• Darius Walker's 20 yard run late in the 4th quarter was not only one of the most exciting runs of the game, it was also his longest rush of the season. To date, the longest run from scrimmage still belongs to backup quarterback David Wolke who notched 22 yards on a scamper in the 4th quarter against Pittsburgh.

• NBC is no doubt smiling as the clash with the Trojans produced the highest ratings of the past 11 years. The game scored a 7.9 rating and 17 share, which is the highest since the ND/Michigan game in 1994 that scored a 8.4 rating and 21 share. The peak rating was during the final few minutes of the game when the ratings hit a 14.2 share and 27 share.

• Breaking the season in halves, let's take a look at the average statistical ranking for our opponents in the following offensive and defensive categories.

Season	Run Off.	Pass Off.	Total Off.	Run Def.	Pass Def.	Total Def.
First 6 Opp	40.8	33.5	35.7	55.2	75.5	68.0
Last 5 Opp.	71.2	70.4	70.0	66.0	54.8	56.0

To be clear, the numbers for the opponents we've already played do have the ND stats factored in. It might have been more insightful to take out the Irish numbers, but it also would have been a lot more work. As for analysis, I think we can identify obvious numbers, like the fact that it appears we will be facing weaker offenses, but other than that I wouldn't try to read too much into the other numbers. For example, Navy's 15th ranked pass defense definitely helps the average for the second half opponents pass defense ranking. But are we really going to have a hard time passing against the Midshipmen?

• This one is jumping the gun a lot, but we might as well get it out in the open. If heavy favorites Reggie Bush or Matt Leinart win the Heisman Trophy, that will give Southern Cal seven Heisman Trophy winners, which will tie them with Notre Dame for the most in college football. Notre Dame has been able to claim the title of "Most Heisman Trophy Winners" since 1949 when Leon Hart made ND home to three winners and nudged the Irish past two-time winners Yale (1936,1937) and Army(1945,1946).

Who knows, on top of the memory of this year's game, maybe next year's ND/Southern Cal battle will also be a chance for Brady Quinn to nail down the 2006 Heisman and take back the title for Notre Dame. How's that for overhype and premature prognostication? Beano Cook, eat your heart out.


Season-long Running Averages

Offense

Category	Pitt	UM	MSU	UW	PU	USC	2005	2004
Yards per rush	5.5	2.4	2.8	5.0	3.1	2.9	3.6	3.32
Avg yards per PA	8.4	4.7	8.1	8.8	12.0	7.5	8.4	7.2
Avg yards per PC	11.0	11.7	14.8	13.1	15.6	13.9	13.3	13.4
Pass comp. %	67%	63%	55%	68%	77%	54%	63%	54%
3rd downs conv.	10/15 (67%)	4/15 (27%)	6/18 (33%)	6/13 (46%)	10/16 (63%)	10/19 (53%)	46/96 (48%)	68/183 (37%)
Rushing yd avg	275.0	104.0	107.0	233.0	153.0	153.0	170.8 (34th)	127.4 (85th)
Passing yd avg	227.0	140.0	487.0	327.0	468.0	264.0	318.8 (9th)	218.1 (54th)
Total offense	502.0	244.0	594.0	560.0	621.0	417.0	489.7 (12th)	345.5 (81st)
Time of Possession	32:45	30:55	35:49	36:56	36:03	38:40	35:12	30:50
Red Zone TDs	5/6 (83%)	2/2 (100%)	4/5 (80%)	3/5 (60%)	5/5 (100%)	2/4 (50%)	21/27 (78%)	25/36 (69%)

Defense

Category	Pitt	UM	MSU	UW	PU	USC	2005	2004
Yards/rush given up	3.3	2.4	4.5	1.9	6.8	5.6	4.4	2.7
Avg yards per PA	6.3	5.1	12.1	10.2	6.0	9.1	7.7	7.9
Avg yards per PC	11.0	11.7	20.4	21.5	10.6	17.7	14.8	13.6
Pass completion %	57%	43%	59%	48%	57%	52%	52%	58%
Quarterback sacks	5	2	1	3	0	2	13	30
Rushing yd against	103.0	114.0	161.0	41.0	164.0	175.0	126.3 (46th)	88.2 (4th)
Passing yd against	220.0	223.0	327.0	408.0	350.0	301.0	304.8 (114th)	281.2 (116th)
Total offense against	323.0	337.0	488.0	449.0	514.0	476.0	431.2 (101st)	369.4 (54th)

Turnovers

Category	Pitt	UM	MSU	UW	PU	USC	2005	2004
Interceptions by ND	1	1	1	1	1	2	7	9
Fumbles Forced / Recovered	2/1	3/1	4/2	2/2	1/1	0/0	12/7	27/12
Turnovers gained	2	2	3	3	2	2	14	21
Had Intercepted	1	0	1	0	2	1	5	10
Fumbles / Lost	1/0	3/1	1/1	2/0	0/0	2/1	9/3	15/6
Turnovers lost	1	1	2	0	2	2	8	16
Turnover Margin	+1	+1	+1	+3	0	0	+6	+5

Special Teams

Category	Pitt	UM	MSU	UW	PU	USC	2005	2004
Kickoff return average	17.5	24.0	21.5	31.0	31.0	9.8	19.8	18.7
Kickoff return average allowed	16.0	18.0	20.8	16.0	25.2	17.6	19.1	19.9
Punt return average	23.0	19.0	11.0	15.5	0.0	21.8	16.5	10.8
Punt return average allowed	0.0	5.2	2.0	10.0	9.0	4.3	5.2	8.2

_

Fun Stat O' the Day: With Zibby's punt return for a TD -- the first since Willingham's first game at ND in 2002 -- the Irish now rank 8th in the country in punt return average. Odd stat of the day: Even with Reggie Bush, Southern Cal ranks 107th. That is to say, one spot behind Navy.

P6: BCS edition | by Jay

Pick Six Standings updated based on the release of the first BCS rankings, so everything's topsy-turvy.

TheseAreMyDadsShoes jumps into the lead with 101 points.

In the BlogPollers' division of the Pick Six, we've got a new leader with University of the Army blogger KingMouse.

A couple of ranked battles to keep an eye on this week: #6 LSU vs #18 Auburn, #7 (!) Texas Tech at #2 Texas, and #19 Tennessee at #5 Alabama.

BCS BS | by Jay

First official BCS standings came out yesterday. Here's how the standings work.

• How the Harris Poll "works".
  

• USA Today / Coaches Poll.
  

• How the computers work.

Long story short, we're #16.

		Harris			USA Today			Computers			BCS Avg
1	Southern Cal	1	2806	0.9933	1	1540	0.9935	1	990	0.99	0.9923
2	Texas	2	2725	0.9646	2	1492	0.9626	2	950	0.95	0.9591
3	Virginia Tech	3	2596	0.9189	3	1428	0.9213	4	880	0.88	0.9067
4	Georgia	4	2491	0.8818	4	1361	0.8781	3	920	0.92	0.8933
5	Alabama	5	2278	0.8064	5	1255	0.8097	5	850	0.85	0.822
6	LSU	7	2031	0.7189	7	1154	0.7445	T-9	660	0.66	0.7078
7	Texas Tech	9	1876	0.6641	8	1079	0.6961	7	750	0.75	0.7034
8	Miami (Fla)	6	2239	0.7926	6	1218	0.7858	T-13	500	0.5	0.6928
9	UCLA	8	1958	0.6931	9	1053	0.6794	11	630	0.63	0.6675
10	Penn State	12	1496	0.5296	14	726	0.4684	6	760	0.76	0.586
11	Florida State	10	1701	0.6021	10	934	0.6026	T-13	500	0.5	0.5682
12	Boston College	13	1440	0.5097	11	859	0.5542	15	470	0.47	0.5113
13	Oregon	16	1108	0.3922	16	588	0.3794	T-9	660	0.66	0.4772
14	Wisconsin	17	954	0.3377	17	553	0.3568	8	700	0.7	0.4648
15	Ohio State	14	1325	0.469	13	742	0.4787	16	330	0.33	0.4259
16	Notre Dame	11	1694	0.5996	12	846	0.5458	25	50	0.05	0.3985
17	West Virginia	20	670	0.2372	20	405	0.2613	12	570	0.57	0.3562
18	Auburn	15	1188	0.4205	15	655	0.4226	23	120	0.12	0.321
19	Tennessee	18	794	0.2811	18	543	0.3503	21	240	0.24	0.2905
20	Florida	19	761	0.2694	19	450	0.2903	T-18	280	0.28	0.2799
21	TCU	22	393	0.1391	21	221	0.1426	17	310	0.31	0.1972
22	Minnesota	25	207	0.0733	25	90	0.0581	T-18	280	0.28	0.1371
23	Nebraska	24	235	0.0832	29	55	0.0355	20	270	0.27	0.1296
24	Michigan State	21	477	0.1688	22	190	0.1226	NR	0	0	0.0971
25	California	23	377	0.1335	23	175	0.1129	NR	0	0	0.0821

Questions? Yeah, we got 'em too. Let's start with, oh, I don't know...SIXTEEN? What the hell?

Pat Forde of ESPN asks the same thing:

The Fighting Irish are three spots behind Oregon, which is a morsel of microchip madness that defies belief.

Please, somebody ask USC which team it would rather play.

You think the Trojans would choose the Ducks, who lost 45-13 to USC in Eugene? Or would it choose the Irish, who took the Trojans into the final seconds and had them all but beaten until a providential fumble and a solid push from Reggie Bush allowed the two-time defending champs to escape?

The Colley Matrix, Anderson & Hester and the other computer wizards can't factor in how close Notre Dame came to winning that game. The pollsters could and should.

The AP voters did, keeping the Irish in the top 10. But the two polls that count from a BCS perspective -- the Harris poll and the USA Today coaches' poll -- dropped Notre Dame three spots each. The Irish went from ninth to 12th with the coaches and from eighth to 11th in the Old Folks Poll.

Seriously: If Notre Dame was a top 10 team before playing USC, what happened Saturday that convinced voters it was no longer a top 10 team afterward? To justify dropping the Irish, you'd have to reason that USC isn't very good either and drop the Trojans two or three spots. You'd have to say that the game really wasn't that great after all.

Which, of course, no one is saying.

But as dumb as the polls are, it's the computer rankings that kill Notre Dame. The microchips rank it 25th.

That's because the Irish's three victories over ranked teams -- Pittsburgh, Michigan and Purdue -- have all lost their luster as those teams have fallen apart. But maybe, just maybe, Notre Dame had something to do with those collapses. All three looked legit until Charlie Weis' team skewered them on their own home fields.

And that's the other part of the equation that doesn't add up. Unlike so many teams in front of Notre Dame in the BCS Standings, the Irish have done their work on the road. Of the 15 teams in front of them in the standings, only USC has played four of its first six games away from home.

Texas Tech has played one road game, and needed a fumbled interception in the final minute to get a victory. Ohio State has played one road game, and lost. Penn State has played two of seven games on the road, losing one and barely escaping Northwestern in the other. Alabama is 2-0 on the road, but needed a field goal on the final play Saturday to beat 2-4 Mississippi.

Bottom line: In August, none of the 15 teams in front of Notre Dame would have accepted playing the Irish's opening schedule without pitching a screaming hissy fit (or, more likely, dropping at least one of those opponents in favor of a home date with Louisiana-Lafayette). Put that in your computer rankings, boys.

Yep, the computers are killing us. A computer (apart from the Robot Genius, that is), can't look at the game on Saturday and see the relative excellence of Notre Dame, because it doesn't look at margin of victory and just how well a team played in a loss (or a win, for that matter). Any computer ranking that doesn't take into account margin of victory (perhaps with a cap to prevent Spurrieresque run-ups) is fatally flawed.

The good news is that if we win the rest of our games, we should be right there in a BCS bowl.

Bet Settled | by Jay

As per the terms, let's settle up with Boi from Troy. He sends this note, along with the picture...

Thank you to Blue-Gray Sky and your readers for the opportunity to share my thoughts on the USC-Notre Dame Game—and to share your thoughts with my readers.

Despite all the hype about the GAME OF THE YEAR, I don’t think any of us could have imagined exactly what transpired on Saturday.

Notre Dame has a damn good team, and you should be proud of them—and of Coach Charlie Weis. Coach Weis says that a loss is a loss and there is no moral victory in it, but I disagree—during those brief moments when the Irish rushed the field, even I felt that ending the streak, against that Notre Dame team, on that field, under those circumstances, would have been the best way for the streak to end.

In my preview, I said that Zbikowski and Samardzija were the two players who scared me most—and boy did they put the fear of god into this Trojan whenever they got near the ball on Friday. Now if they could just change their names to something I could spell.

So the bet between BGS and BFT was that the winner would get to post a picture of their choosing on the other site. I didn’t want to taunt anyone or anything with my picture selection, so I chose this picture of Brady Quinn which is popular with my readership because, after Saturday, I recommend that he no longer wear any green jerseys.

Brady Quinn and "friends" spring breaking on the shores of St. Joe lake

Thanks for the bet, and congrats on the big win. Here's to next year, an Irish victory, and a picture of a shirtless Ed Orgeron appearing on the BfT site...

Sights and Sounds from the latest Game of the Century | by Pat

A few things from outside the white lines...

The Pope Needs Two

The NBC cameras caught famous football alumni like Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott and John Robinson was rumored to be catching his first game in ND Stadium as a fan, but that wasn't the end of the VIP visiting list.

Just in case you missed the gravity of this game, here's a short list of the reported attendees: Eagles coach Andy Reid, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, actor Martin Short, ambassador to the Vatican Francis Rooney.

Oh, and Jay says he saw Nick Lachey, which is nice.

Growing it long

Much was made before the game of the length of the grass on the field. Personally, I didn't see anything wrong with it.

Wearing O' the Green

I was surprised as anyone when the Irish emerged from the tunnel clad in green jerseys. And one of my first reactions was, well, if you're going to do it, at least you did it right. In his presser, Coach Weis credits Henry Scroope. Nice to know someone understands what green should look like, and when it should be used.


View from the Student Section

Southern Cal fan Brendon Loy managed to record parts of the game from his seat in the ND student section. The posted video is of the final, painful few seconds of the game, but gives a unique perspective as students rush the field as the clock hits 00:00 (the first time).

(Quick note: shaking your keys as a noisemaker is never a good idea. Yell, scream, clap your hands, but keep your keys in your pocket. Thanks for your cooperation.)

Always teaching

I wanted to say hats off to Coach Weis for stopping in the Trojan locker room after a crushing defeat.

After the game Bush was standing outside the Trojans' locker room and was greeted by Weis, still in his game-day attire. Weis congratulated him on a great game and asked to see Pete Carroll, who was in a press conference. With Carroll gone, Bush walked into the Trojans' locker room and said Weis was outside. As players began to hush each other, Weis walked in and congratulated the team. "Hey fellas, I just want to wish you luck. That was a...hard fought battle and I hope you win out."

As it turns out, Weis was also using the post-game congrats as a parenting lesson for his son Charlie.

I was only in there for about 30 seconds. It wasn't like I wanted to be there. I just felt it was the right thing to do....I went back, to be honest with you, and sat down with Charlie and explained to him the difference between how it's easy to be nice when you've won versus how tough it is to be nice when you've lost. I thought it was a good lesson for my son.

This...is the only song we know...

Kudos to the Notre Dame Band. After absorbing the same gut punch as the rest of us, they still marched out to midfield (once the celebrating Trojans finally left) and immediately launched into a renedition of "Fight On" as the customary sign of respect to the opposing team. I can't imagine that such a simple song has ever been so hard to play.

Sorry for being a jackass

It seems that the emotion and energy spent during the game left Reggie Bush a little chastened, as his post-game reaction to his in-game celebrations attest.

It takes arrogance to do what Bush did during that same drive: bolting through the line, sprinting into the open field, grandly gesturing with one hand as he neared the end zone, and then slowing down just as he crossed the goal line. That's when Notre Dame safety Tom Zbikowski, who never gave up on the play, popped Bush with a hit the USC tailback so richly deserved.

"That was my fault," said a contrite Bush. "That was my way of showing off. Completely bad leadership on my behalf."

From the Mailbag...

Reader Patrick chimes in.

As what should be the starting point for all true fans of the Irish, I would ask that you consider posting this note. Many of us went into the weekend with full faith and confidence in the Irish. For some that faith and confidence may had led individual's to place wagers amongst friends, associates, perhaps a local individual or a larger gaming establishment. An irrelevent sidebar to Saturday's effort was that many of those wagers were considered "won" by virtue of the point spread. Receipt of said blood money will undoubtedly stain one's soul. Such money should be donated to truly needy and deserving causes. The three links below are Notre Dame associated charities that would put the money to good use.

Ara's website "The Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation, a volunteer, nonprofit corporation, funds research projects that will lead to a treatment and cure for Niemann-Pick Type C disease."
http://www.parseghian.org/apmrfweb/

Hannah and Friends run by Maura Weis Hannah & Friends is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to providing a better quality of life for children and young adults affected by Autism and Global Delays."
http://www.hannahandfriends.org/

Chris Zorich's foundation "Our credo is 'One Purpose, One Goal,' which is to provide assistance and opportunities to disadvantaged Chicagoans, while striving to foster a sense of caring and fellowship, which crosses race, religious, economic, and social boundaries."
http://www.chriszorich.org/

Good point, Patrick. A loss is a loss, and a gambling win doesn't make it any sweeter -- you can bet on that. So put that filthy lucre towards a good cause.

Two Tampa | by Jay

As a faithful disciple of the Charlie Weis Guide to Coping With a Loss ("no goddam silver linings!"), I was loathe to take consolation in anything walking out of the stadium Saturday night. After all, we had them, and it took a perfect throw and a couple of flukey bounces for the Trojans to pull off their improbable victory.

That said, if you're going to lose a ball game, Saturday was about the best loss you could hope for: to the number one team in the country with a streak on the line, with just about every sports fan in America tuned in to watch, at home, in front of eighty thousand fans screaming their heads off, right down to the wire, and down to seven seconds left on the clock.

Bill Simmons did a piece a while back called the Thirteen Levels of Losing, where he ranks memorable defeats on a scale from least painful to most painful (you can probably guess what Simmons' Level I is). I originally thought Saturday was a Level II Stomach Punch, "a roller-coaster game that ends with an opponent making a pivotal (sometimes improbable) play, and usually ends with fans filing out after the game in stunned disbelief, if they can even move at all." In the immediate aftermath of a loss, I can honestly say I've never felt worse. (BC '93 was more dire, but this was more emotional, or maybe just fresher in my mind). I stuck around for the alma mater mainly because I literally could not move. We'd climbed Everest, only to fall off the edge, and I sat there in a daze with Ambrose Wooden's wiper-blade arms swishing back and forth in my mind, still trying to swat the ball away from a streaking Dwayne Jarrett.

After the EMTs brought out the crash cart to revive me, and after I'd downed enough beer to inebriate a small country, and after I'd eaten breakfast at 6:30am at Bob Evans by myself because I just couldn't sleep, and after we'd packed the car and headed back to Chicago, and after I'd watched my other team lose yet another playoff game and fall behind 3-1 in the series, I began to get a little perspective. The game began to look less like a Stomach Punch and more like some combination of a Level XIII Princeton Principle ("When a Cinderella team hangs tough against a heavy favorite, but the favorite somehow prevails in the end...this one stings because you had low expectations, but those gritty underdogs raised your hopes") and a Level XI Alpha Dog ("It might have been a devastating loss, but at least you could take solace that a superior player [Bush] made the difference in the end").

Coming into Saturday, we didn't have anything to lose. History was against us (31-point losses three years running), we were out-manned (two or three Heisman candidates on the other team), and we were up against one of the best teams of all-time, to hear the pundits describe it. Apart from all the rah-rah intangibles and miracles and legends and Touchdown Jesus -- and when it comes to talent versus talent, who counts those, really? -- we were expected to lose. And yet, it was Southern Cal who needed a miracle, a couple of them, actually, to continue their streak and bring home the win.

So what did we gain from this? What did we learn? Three things, at least:

1. We're a good team. It wasn't a fluke that the game was so close.

2. Our coaching is excellent, maybe the best in the country.

3. We're a couple of players (or a couple of plays) away from a national championship.

Mike Coffey said he'd rather feel agony than ennui, and he's exactly right. We're pissed that we lost, but not despondent. I don't really feel that much better today than I did at at Bob Evans early Sunday morning over a breakfast skillet, but at least now I've got some distance and some perspective. We went toe-to-toe with the best team in the country and came within a fourth-and-nine and seven seconds of knocking them off. Charlie says there's no such thing as a good loss, but in the grand balance of things, I think we came out ahead. In some strange way that ache we all feel is the best feeling...because when's the last time you felt that way?

That's the surest sign that Notre Dame football is back.

If Anybody Can Do It, It's Notre Dame | by Pete

It’s coming. The day we’ve fretted over for months is finally at our doorstep. We’ve thought about this game ever since Charlie took over the reigns, and we’ve had an extra two weeks to think about nothing but it. I believe I speak for many of us when I say that we’re damn near insane at this point. We’ve examined statistics, prognostications, and ruminations. Every possible avenue for discussion has been traveled down, and then doubled over. All that’s left now is to play the damn football game.

Yesterday, I headed over to campus to take my last midterm before fall break officially began. I got over early to look over my notes, and found myself with about 20 minutes to spare before I could head to class. I decided that, what with me living off campus, I really needed to see parts of campus I haven’t frequented this year, and take in the atmosphere that’s been brewing all week. As I rode around on my ramshackle bicycle, I saw a sight that, with this weekend in mind, sent chills down my spine and put a lump in my throat. But these sights weren’t Touchdown Jesus, or the House that Rock Built. It wasn’t the metal beams of College Gameday serving as an affirmation that we all aren’t nuts, this really is a big deal. It wasn’t even the brilliance of the rejuvenated Dome, shining down on all of campus, as if to say “It’s Back To How It Should Be.”

The sights that got to me came in strollers, and Brady Quinn football jerseys, and ancient crew neck Notre Dame sweatshirts. As I rode around campus, from South Quad to North, around Hesburgh and past LaFortune, I saw people of all sorts walking through campus, taking in Notre Dame. I saw a couple with their barely ambulatory toddler, showing her the magic of Notre Dame before she could verbalize it. I saw a family with a teenage son, wearing a football jersey of his favorite player, someone he wants to be just like, and parents that know that his idol is one worth looking up to. I saw an older man, pushing eighty years old, walking around with his head up in the air, drinking in all the buildings of campus. I wondered if this was the first time he’d set foot on campus, despite decades of support, finally able to see the images projected onto his TV every fall with his own two eyes. Everywhere I looked, I saw people who traveled hours upon hours, walking around campus and being here simply because they love this school. We always refer to the Notre Dame Family, and this weekend looks to be quite the reunion.

Sure they’ve got a Heisman Trophy winner, but we’ve got a quarterback who’s as good as any and with something to prove. Yes, they’ve got the most dangerous man in football, but we’ve got a running back who has never stopped giving every ounce he had. Most people say they’ve got a great coach, I say we have a better one. One can point countless places to indicate where Southern Cal has an edge. The past three games, a 27 game win streak, two shiny crystal balls back home all say that these guys are the best, and nobody can beat them. But we’ve got something they don’t, something that’s worth more than any amount of crystal. We’ve got that young family, raising that child to love Notre Dame, and we’ve got that young kid, dreaming of stepping onto that field someday. We’ve got that older man, one who may have loved this University with every bone in his body, despite the fact that he couldn’t tell you what the marching band outside the Dome before a football game sounded like until now. We’ve got all these people, dedicated whole-heartedly to supporting a school that we all believe is special, is a cut above the rest.

And it’s not just them. We’ve got thousands of students here, many of whom are living the dream of attending this school that they’ve had their entire lives (I know I am). We’ve got the most dedicated alumni, subway included, on the planet, traveling countless hours by any means necessary, just to be part of what they know is so magical. This weekend, there will be tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people here supporting a school they believe in, and there will be millions across the world cheering on the Irish to do what looks to be unthinkable.

All this support, all this energy given by countless people in support of a football team, it’s what people like to call the “intangibles.” I can tell that this weekend, those intangibles couldn’t get more tangible. You’ll be able to hear it in the marching band traipsing around the quad early Saturday morning, and in the yells of kids throwing the football around, pretending to be Brady Quinn, Darius Walker, or Jeff Samardizja. You’ll be able to smell it in the smoke from grills, and taste it by chomping down into a juicy steak sandwich. Most of all, you’ll be able to see that spirit in the face of every person on campus, young or old, student or subway. This weekend, you can look into the face of every person on campus, and they all understand. We’re part of something special at this school, and we’re going to show it this weekend.

I’ve looked at all the numbers like you have; I’ve examined all the key match-ups. And with all that information, all the breakdowns and strategies, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t have the faintest idea how the game is going to turn out. Sure, USC should win this football game, but Notre Dame definitely could. And that’s what makes Notre Dame special, the belief that Notre Dame was always a place that thought the unthinkable and did the impossible.
I believe in this football team. I believe that they’ve worked their asses off in preparation for this game, and I believe the coaching staff has worked their asses off to give us the best opportunity to win this game. And I know I’m not alone. I know that every person on this campus, and every person reading this, is toying with the notion that Notre Dame could pull it off, that Notre Dame could beat the guys that can’t be beaten.

In the midst of pass completion percentages, red zone efficiency percentages, and winning percentages, there’s one percentage that we can all count on: 100%. I know that this football team will give everything they have in efforts to win this football game, and I know that myself, along with every student on this campus, along with every person who traveled to be here, along with everyone person watching the game across the globe is ready and willing to give everything they have to help this team succeed.

We’re all in this together, young and old, alumni and subway, player and fan, and we’re all focused on the same goal. I’m not sure what’s going to happen come Saturday afternoon, but I do have one official prediction.

My Official Prediction: You’ll never be prouder to be a Notre Dame fan.

Bet with the Boi | by Jay

(We huddled with the esteemed Southern Cal blog BoiFromTroy this week for a little pre-game warmup. Here, the Boi talks about the Trojan juggernaut and answers five of our burning questions. And, be sure to check out Boi's site for our own responses. )

Hi, BGS! Here's the skinny:

When USC has the ball… Even if you don’t believe the hype about USC having the OMG Greatest. Offense. Ever. Notre Dame fans should be cautioned to buy in to it. Statistics don’t lie…and if you want to know more, check out this from Heismanpundit.

USC has just about the most balanced and prolific offensive attack I can remember seeing. They’ve been racking up 350 yards per game through the air and more than 200 yards per game on the ground—and their bench is as deep as the Marianas Trench.

I really do not need to sing the virtues of Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush or Lendale White—because each of them is a playmaker who can easily turn into a game breaker in a matter of seconds. But be warned that the USC offense is more than just this three-headed beast. In the Orange Bowl last January, Oklahoma shifted two and sometimes three players to cover Reggie Bush whenever he went into motion—leaving Steve Smith, Dwayne Jarrett and DavidKirtman open at their own peril.

But not everything is rosy in the post-Norm Chow era.

It has been years since the USC team has shown up and played four full quarters of football. Either the game is functionally over by the third quarter or the team does not show up mentally in the first quarter and they have to play catch-up the rest of the game. In fact, the last four-full-quarters game I can remember was USC-Notre Dame 2002 when Carson Palmer made his definitive Heisman Trophy Statement…and if I recall correctly, the Trojans won that one by 31.

Another worry many Trojans are beginning to have about the new offensive coordinators is that they are too eager to go for the long-ball before setting it up with shorter plays first. Under Norm Chow, USC would often go for 2- and 3-yard passes, run up the middle for a few yards, draw defenses in closer before going for the 40-yard strike. Somehow, Kiffin and Sarkasian think they can just throw it long without doing the dirty work. As we’ve seen against Oregon and Arizona State, that dog don’t hunt every week.

When Notre Dame Has the Ball… The USC team under Pete Carroll has been renowned for its defenses—leading the nation in scoring defense and rushing defense. But 2005 has been not so good for the Men of Troy. The off-season saw the Trojans losing four defensive starters to the NFL (Cody, Patterson, Tatupu, Grootegood), and September saw them lose key starters Darnell Bing and Dallas Sartz.

Against Arkansas and Hawaii, the USC Defense looked suspect, but when the Trojans’ backs were against the wall in Eugene and Tempe, it was the Trojan D that kept them in the game until the offense got clicking. Kellen Clemens and Sam Keller each entered their games against USC as the nation’stop-rated quarterbacks and neither got more than 200 yards passing against the Trojans.

The statistics can be a bit misleading…USC has given up 246 yards a game passing on 11 yards per catch—so you’d think Brady Quinn might have a good day. But not so fast! USC has a bend-but-don’t break defense that might let you run wild between the 20’s before shutting down opponents in the redzone…

USC Special Teams. For the past two years, the National Champions’ woes were on field goals and extra points—one of which was the difference against Cal two years ago in the Trojan’s only loss since September 2002. This year, Mario Danelo is 36-36 on PATs, but Pete Carroll does not trust him to kick a field goal, and would prefer going for it on 4th-and-7 instead of going for 3…

Some people think this may be a fatal flaw. However, even worse is the punting situation. Although Tom Malone has not been asked to punt much this year, that is probably a good thing. While he was capable of a 70-yard punt last year, Tom “The Bomb” Malone is continuing to recover from a hip injury and has been inconsistent at best so far…but not as bad as…

The Trojan kickoff coverage! Freshman K Troy Van Blarcom is about 5 yards short of being able to put the ball in the end zone—and the team’s coverage this year reminds me of 2002 when Pete Carroll at one point opted to just kick the ball out of bounds so the opponent would get the ball at the 35. Don’t be surprised if this tactic isn’t seriously considered. With the exception of Reggie Bush and Desmond Reed on return duties, let’s just call this squad the “Special Needs Team” for USC.

Now to your questions...

1. Who do you think is the USC MVP so far... Leinart, Bush, or White?

Since Leinart, White and Bush are each having their best seasons ever, it is hard to tell. The argument for LenDale White is that he has been the clutch player in road games against Oregon and Arizona State who has performed when needed. Leinart and Bush have racked up alot of their gaudy numbers when they were not needed. Nonetheless, Leinart is steering the ship and has to distribute the ball among 5 players who could be considered Heisman candidates in any other program--and for keeping the boat afloat, Matt gets my vote.

2. What unheralded USC player (i.e. not named Leinart, Bush, White, orJarrett) do you think will have the biggest impact on the game on Saturday?

I think Darnell Bing will have the greatest impact on Saturday, and he isprobably the most under-rated on the USC squad (which is saying something given as heralded as he is!) Bing made the play against Hawaii which kept USC from going down early and had a string of four consecutive plays against Oregon where he broke up passes to prevent a comeback bid. Count on Bing to be the counterweight to Jeff Samardzija and to take advantage of any Chad Henne-like errant passes Brady Quinn might throw.

3. Is the rap on the SC corners/secondary warrented in your opinion, or are the final yardage totals a bit deceiving due to yards gained in garbage time?

I have said since September 3 that the USC defense, as a whole, is suspect. When a team has 80 yards in front of them, USC too often gives them 60--but in the Red Zone, the Men of Troy consistently step up. Brady Quinn is the third heralded signal caller the Trojans face this year. Oregon's Kellen Clemens came into the USC game leading the nation in passing yards and got less than 200 through the air. Arizona State's Sam Keller was one of the nation's best in passing efficiency and gave up 5 INTs to USC.

4. What worries you about this Irish team? Anything?

#83 and #9 worry me...but I cannot spell 83's name and don't know #9's. Jeff What's-his-face is a big guy who will be tough to defend for anyone but Darnell Bing...and #9 has been a playmaker and should be able to eliminate at least one option for Leinart regularly.

5. What will the Trojan Nation do if the Irish somehow win the game?

Become fans of Texas Tech, Miami, and Auburn.

(Thanks to BoiFromTroy for the exchange. And, we've got a little wager going: loser has to post a picture of the winner's choosing come Monday morning. Cheer, Cheer and Fight On!)

Bye Week Flashback | by Jay

(Our good buddy Dan was a walk-on wide receiver under Holtz and Davie. Here, Dan regales us with some stories from '93 about the bye week preparations leading up to the eventual upset of #1 Florida State.)

The historical success of the University of Notre Dame football team after having a bye week is impressive: our post-bye week record currently stands at 59-13-2 (.811) since 1900. But that success is not merely a result of an extra week of rest, or an extra week of film study, or an extra week to heal injuries... although all of these components certainly provide an advantage. Rather, post-bye week success is a direct result of how the head coach, and his football team, are able to effectively balance the myriad psychological benefits of having an additional seven days to prepare... and there was no better psychological manipulator than former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz.

As a walk-on, I had the opportunity to witness firsthand a master craftsman who balanced history and hype with strategy and execution to carve out another moment in the storied tradition of Notre Dame football. This is an inside account of what transpired the two weeks leading up to “The Game of the Century” in 1993 - #1 Florida St. vs. #2 Notre Dame.

After having just defeated Navy for the 30th consecutive year, we had two weeks to prep for the showdown with the top ranked Florida State Seminoles. The personality of our football team could not have been more different than that of Florida State. We were an extremely gifted team, with future NFL greats such as Bryant Young, Jeff Burris, Bobby Taylor, Aaron Taylor, Tim Ruddy, and Derrick Mayes, as well as exceptional leaders such as Greg Lane, Anthony Peterson, Brian Hamilton, Shawn Wooden, Kevin McDougal and Lake Dawson...but we were still a team with a modest, blue-collar approach to the game. On the other end of the spectrum was Florida State: Charlie Ward, Warrick Dunn, Tamarick Vanover and Peter Boulware – a team with swagger that intimidated opponents with speed, strength and showmanship. The press thoroughly enjoyed this clash of personalities and played to the differences in style. And the more we thought about the differences, the more we agreed with the comparison – and this turned out to be the main building block for how Coach Holtz intended to deliver a “W” on game day. Holtz believed that it was our approach that made us better -– a focus on fundamentals and toughness, rather than speed and swagger -- and it ultimately would lead to our success.

The beginning of the bye week was different than most weeks during the season, in that the game plan was not yet finalized. As such, we did not practice on Mondays. Rather, we spent the afternoon in film sessions, getting treatment and working on conditioning. In total, it was a rather light day – this set the tone for the rest of the week. Although we returned to a normal practice schedule on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we were working more on fundamentals of the game, footwork, balance, positioning, and accurate reads, rather than focusing on our upcoming opponent. If it wasn’t for the media (and a few of our teammates) there would have been no mention of Florida State.

In hindsight, this was one of the most powerful tactics that Coach Holtz, and the rest of the coaching staff, employed to prepare us for the game – it was a matter of pacing ourselves for the emotion that would undoubtedly build in week two. In week one, there was no hype – it was back to basics, Football 101.

However, as the bye week came to a close his strategy began to unfold. Coach Holtz normally played to the media, giving them the sob story of how every team has a legitimate chance at beating us each week; in internal discussions, however, he was always adamantly clear that we would win without a shadow of a doubt. Strangely, as the game with Florida State approached, the message to the media and the team was fairly similar – Florida State was faster and more athletic than we were. We wondered why he felt the need to remind us of this fact so frequently. But as we continued through our daily practice schedule it slowly became clear that it was Florida State’s speed and athleticism that would eventually be their downfall. The new offensive schemes for FSU were based on misdirection and cutbacks – “let their whole team swarm to the ball and over pursue, then we’ll go the other way.” Our offensive linemen had dark visors added to their helmets to give them an advantage on eyeing angles and gaps without being noticed – even the slightest advantage would equate to a magnitude of success. Slowly we began to see the total picture of the plan – and we now believed we could win.

As week two began the media circus and the buzz on campus was at full swing. Local and national media wanted any angle they could get, even to the point where they interviewed walk-ons, like me. (I had never been asked my opinion before, and come to think of it, have never been asked my opinion since.) Dorms were holding their own pep rallies and the parking lots were already filled with campers and RVs. Tickets were in high demand and everyone on the team had lots of new "friends" calling them. The hype was at a fever pitch. Inside the walls we continued to focus on execution of the script – angles, cutbacks, misdirection – and trying to keep our emotions in check. Until Wednesday, that is...

Coach Holtz often repeated the phrase “games are won on Monday through Friday, not on Saturday.” He was an avid believer that "you practice like you play." He demanded focus and perfection every day, on every play. Unfortunately, the Wednesday before the Florida State game was a practice that, if translated into game execution, would have resulted in an embarrassing loss to the Seminoles. For some reason our timing was off – the execution of the new strategy was simply not there. Coaches were frustrated and the confidence that we were beginning to build was turning into doubt.

Suddenly, the legendary offensive line coach, Joe Moore -- as old-school and rugged a football coach as there ever was -- lost his cool. He had had enough of misdirection and cutbacks – he was tired of the thought of playing Florida State football in order to beat Florida State. Yes, there would be the time and place to employ this strategy in order to keep them off-balance, but he believed that the best way to beat Florida State football was to play Notre Dame football. In the middle of practice Coach Moore huddled with Coach Holtz...and then exploded. “Get me the managers! Get these f*cking visors off these f*cking helmets! We don’t need this bullsh*t! We’re going to look them right in the eye, tell them where we’re running the ball, and kick their f*cking asses all over the f*cking field!”

We beat Florida State on that Wednesday – the rest was just for show!

The hype kept building as over 25,000 people tried to attend the Friday night pep rally at the JACC (capacity 11,500). I nearly missed the pep rally due to the fact that security locked the doors and I couldn’t convince them that I actually was on the team. Had it not been for one of the coaches randomly walking past the door, I would have missed the pep rally and most likely not been allowed to dress for the game for violating team rules (that would have been a terrible end to the story!) This pep rally was like no other: it was deafening inside and the enthusiasm was electric.

The team went through the usual post-rally schedule: returning to the Loftus Center for a team meeting and then into our relaxation routine. Our team meetings on Friday night were more administrative than anything, covering logistics for the weekend and so forth. Additionally, we would always watch a short film comprised of highlights from the previous week’s game and highlights from the previous year’s game vs. the upcoming opponent. However, with no game over the bye week and having not played Florida State in several years, there really wasn't anything to show. At least that’s what we thought.

Instead of a game film, Coach Holtz had arranged to show highlights of the 1988 Miami game. As music pumped through the speakers and highlights of Zorich, Stonebreaker, Rice and Rocket filled the screen, we began cheering for the players whose performance influenced us to join ND in the first place. We started to think about the magnitude of the event at hand. We began to realize that we were about to write another chapter in the history books. Then, the music stopped, the screen went blank, and a picture of the 1988 National Championship Ring went up... and the team went crazy! The sounds of the pep rally were silent compared to the uproar that filled the meeting room at Loftus – it was literally an out-of-body experience.

On Saturday morning it was all business. We attended the team mass at 7:00 AM and then proceeded to the team breakfast at the North Dining Hall. After breakfast we all walked to the stadium. Despite the chaos, the thousands of fans that formed a human tunnel from the Basilica to the Dining Hall and from the Dining Hall to the stadium, there were very few words said amongst the players. Occasionally you would hear a whisper or two, but mostly it was quiet. The team went through normal pre-game activities, stretching, position drills, and the like, and it remained all-business.

But then the Seminoles ran out the tunnel -- and right through our warm-up drills. It was a sign of disrespect – only adding fuel to the emotional fire and dramatically breaking the silence of every man on the team. Returning to the locker room we were in a rage. Nobody disrespects us on our own field – nobody - and the coaches struggled to contain our emotion. Coach Holtz tried to keep the team in check. He patiently waited to give his pre-game talk and awaited word that Florida State had taken the field. Unfortunately, the Seminoles refused to leave their locker room until after we took the field, forcing us, by rule, to take the field so as to not delay the start of the game. Holtz was in a fury about this second show of disrespect as he began his pre-game speech.

As was designed, the game would be about execution, Holtz said. Florida State could not win if we executed the game plan. It was simple: hit them in the mouth and get them on their heels, then we’ll work misdirection, and they will be lost. Holtz then talked about what the media believes, what the critics believe -- and how none of that matters. Inside these walls and inside your hearts was a belief that victory was imminent. Then he said: “Let there be no doubt... this sucker doesn’t have to be close!” And with that, we stormed out of the locker room.

The third and final sign of disrespect was Florida State’s decision to meet us in our own tunnel, rather than wait in their locker room. I had the fortunate (or unfortunate) experience of being in the front lines of the ensuing melee. Had it not been for the Indiana State Police and some very courageous assistant coaches, the game would have never been played.

Well, we all know what happened on that unseasonably warm November Saturday. It was a great game against two pretty evenly-matched, albeit very different teams. This “Game of the Century” definitely delivered on the hype. The game, though, was not won simply on Saturday. The foundation had been laid by Coach Holtz over the previous two weeks: a skillful balance of gameplanning and emotional management that made us believe we could beat the #1 team in the country. Notre Dame catapulted to the top of the college football world on that Saturday, but the game had been won long before kickoff.

Northern Indiana Welcomes Southern California | by Jay

(We're pleased to have this contribution from BGS reader John, who fills us in on the rich history of the Trojans' roadtrips to South Bend over the years. Enjoy.)

Saturday marks the 77th meeting between Notre Dame and Southern Cal, and the Trojans’ 35th visit to Notre Dame Stadium. Much has been written about how the series was inspired by the affection Knute Rockne’s wife, Bonnie, had for Southern California. But it was also a watershed for USC, which was growing into a national power but had never ventured east of the Rockies.

Notre Dame’s first two home games against Southern Cal were at Chicago’s cavernous Soldier Field in 1927 and 1929. The Irish eked out one-point victories both seasons before crowds of well over 100,000.

Southern Cal’s first appearance in the House that Rock Built was on November 21, 1931. In front of the first-ever sellout crowd at Notre Dame Stadium, the Fighting Irish suffered their first defeat in their two-year-old home, 16-14, on a last-minute field goal. The upset thwarted Notre Dame’s hopes for an unprecedented third-straight national championship. The Trojans took the title for themselves, and were greeted by a ticker-tape victory parade upon their return to Los Angeles. Southern Cal went on to win three of their first five games at Notre Dame Stadium.

Frank Leahy’s 1941 arrival in South Bend marked the beginning of two-and-a-half decades of dominance for the Fighting Irish over their arch-rivals from the Left Coast. Notre Dame won 10 straight home games over Southern Cal, clinching national championships with lop-sided wins in 1946 and 1949, and spoiling the second-ranked Trojans’ title hopes in 1952, 9-0. Even after Leahy retired in 1953, the less-heralded trio of Terry Brennan, Joe Kuharich and Hugh Devore kept the Irish home streak alive.

During this period, a majority of games in the series were played in Los Angeles – including seven out of 10 meetings between 1947 and 1956. Apparently, Southern California was growing weary of late November trips to Northern Indiana, which usually featured brutish weather and Trojan defeats.

Beginning in 1961, the schools agreed to move Notre Dame’s home games in the series to mid-October. Although the weather was somewhat milder, the Fighting Irish home-field supremacy over the Trojans continued. In 1963, Notre Dame won only two games – at home versus Southern Cal and UCLA, in consecutive weeks. Ara Parseghian resurrected Notre Dame football the following year, and in 1965 led the Irish to a 28-7 rout of the Trojans to avenge a heartbreaking and controversial loss at the Coliseum in 1964.

Southern Cal finally broke its 28-year dry spell in South Bend in 1967, as O.J. Simpson led the Trojans to a 24-7 win which propelled them to a national championship and their only extended run of dominance over Notre Dame. The Irish would collect only two wins and one tie in their next eight home games against Southern Cal, but both wins – in 1973 under Parseghian and the "Green Jersey" game of 1977 under Dan Devine – paved the way for Notre Dame national championships.

In 1983 and 1985, Gerry Faust continued an improbable tradition of failed Notre Dame coaches winning at home over Southern Cal. Despite promising his teams would always "have blue in the uniform," Faust’s Irish took the field in green jerseys for the 1983 game. Faust later explained that those jerseys had thin madonna-blue stripes on the sleeves. Whatever, Gerry. Even more peculiar was Faust’s ploy to have his team change from blue to green jerseys at halftime of the 1985 game. It looked like Faust was rubbing it in, since the Fighting Irish had a 27-0 lead at intermission. Notre Dame went on to a 37-3 rout – the most lop-sided game in the series in South Bend. But Faust apparently squandered whatever luck remained in those jerseys: with the exception of the '92 Sugar Bowl, green-clad Irish teams are 0-3 over the last 20 years.

The undisputed master of the Notre Dame-Southern Cal rivalry is Lou Holtz, who went 9-1-1 against the Trojans – including 5-0 at home. The most memorable of the home wins were over eventual Rose Bowl champions in 1989, when No. 1 Notre Dame rallied for a 28-24 victory, and 1995, when the Fighting Irish crushed the No. 5 Trojans, 38-10.

The teams have split the last four games in South Bend. Yet another failed Notre Dame coach, Bob Davie, won two out of three at home over Southern Cal. After the 2001 game, a 27-16 Irish victory, USC dropped to 2-5 and appeared doomed to perpetual mediocrity under yet another struggling first-year coach. That game remains the Trojans’ only double-digit loss under Pete Carroll. Since then, Southern Cal has been on an incredible 45-4 streak – including two A.P. national titles and a 45-14 win over Tyrone Willingham’s Irish in 2003, by far Southern Cal’s most one-sided victory ever in South Bend. Notre Dame hopes to bookend the Trojans’ most recent run of success by pulling the upset this Saturday, just as the Irish bookended a similar 42-3-3 streak 30 years ago with losses to the Trojans in 1971 and 1975.

Notre Dame still leads the overall series 42-29-5, and is 25-10-1 at home against the Trojans. This year’s game is the first since 1989, and only the sixth time ever, when both teams will enter Notre Dame Stadium ranked in the top 10. As has often been the case, Saturday’s game will probably either propel the winner to another national championship or dash the loser’s title dreams – or both.

-- John

Their Best Shot | by Mike

In their last three games, the Trojans have sleepwalked through the first half before exploding in the second half. At the half, the scores were:

USC 13, Oregon 10
Arizona State 21, USC 3
USC 14, Arizona 7

Irish fans would love for USC to open the game this Saturday with a similarly lackadaisical attitude. Unfortunately, this will not happen.

It’s tempting to believe otherwise. While USC’s worst loss of the Pete Carroll era came against Notre Dame in 2001 (an 11-point loss, despite Davie allowing USC to score a touchdown while his defense remained in the huddle), that was four years ago, and few Trojans from that team remain. Most of this year’s Trojans only know Notre Dame through their repeated humiliations of Tyrone Willingham-led Irish squads.

Given recent history, why should USC players approach the Notre Dame game any differently than their games against the Ducks, Sun Devils, and Wildcats? After all, the party line from the Trojan camp is that this game is no different than any other. For starters, there will be the crushing media hype of this week. Additionally, the circus-like atmosphere on the overcrowded sidelines of the last two ND-USC games in the Coliseum has probably given the USC players some sense of the importance of the game.

But these reasons alone would not lead one to expect a marked change from the first half nonchalance that has characterized the Trojans’ last three games. Instead, we should expect a fired-up USC team not because of what the game means to the players, but because of what it means to Pete Carroll.

For the past three years, Carroll has pranced along the USC sidelines while his teams dominated the competition. He rebuilt a program that was in shambles to what is currently the hottest program in the college football world. Yet for those who only follow pro football, Pete Carroll’s coaching acumen remains suspect. Consider this exchange between Bill Simmons and one of his readers:

Q: I agree with you that John Navarre should not be starting in the NFL. However, he is FAR from obscure. Very important question for you, Bill: Do you even watch college football?
--John T., Chicago

SG: Sorry, I refuse to watch any sport where Pete Carroll can be considered a genius. One of my rules in life.

For many in New England, Pete Carroll is still regarded as a coaching failure. His success at USC has not legitimized Carroll in their eyes; rather, it has delegitimized college football in their eyes. These are the people, after all, who gave him the nickname “The Poodle.”

Carroll’s perceived failings as the head man in New England are in large part due to the success of the coaching staffs that preceded and followed him. Weis, of course, was a member of both the Bill Parcells staff that brought the Patriots to Super Bowl XXXI the year before Carroll took over and the Bill Belichick staff that delivered three Super Bowl championships in the five years immediately following the Carroll era.

The arrival of Charlie Weis, one of the faces of the New England success that eluded Carroll, at Notre Dame gives Carroll the opportunity to exorcise some of his professional demons. On top of this, Carroll is likely to be motivated by Weis’s success against him in their head-to-head matchups in the NFL. In the games after Weis was promoted to Jets offensive coordinator – the games that pitted Weis’s offensive schemes against Carroll’s defensive schemes – Weis holds a 3-1 advantage:

1998
Jets 24-14
Jets 31-10

1999
Patriots 30-28
Jets 24-17

Hammering a Weis-led team could help mitigate the lingering black mark on Carroll’s resume, his time with the Patriots. And if you don’t think Carroll is concerned with his reputation, just look at how he’s been running up the score this year so that Southern Cal will end up with better offensive statistics than they had under Norm Chow.

USC Head Fluffer Coach Pete Carroll will make sure Matt Leinart has no trouble getting up for Saturday

Given what the game means to Carroll, we can expect him to find ways to fire up his charges. Carroll began preparing his team for Notre Dame last week, despite the Trojans’ game against Arizona last Saturday. Last Wednesday Carroll had crowd noise pumped into USC’s practice. Since USC’s game against Arizona was at the Coliseum, this wasn’t done for their game last week. It was done with an eye toward this week’s game against Notre Dame. Carroll continued to turn up the intensity this week, as he has upped the ante on special teams by adding starters to the kickoff coverage unit.

However, the most effective arrow in Carroll’s motivational quiver is likely to be the media disrespect one. Carroll will invoke the articles describing USC as listless and those questioning whether the Trojans are really the best team in the country. The spate of media figures talking up Notre Dame’s chances this week only provides Carroll with further ammunition. Carroll will have his team outraged at being the subject of insufficient adulation.

Carroll knows how to get his team fired up and playing with intensity when they really need it. And that is exactly what is happening now.

---

Some things I will be looking for during the game...

Notre Dame’s Pass Protection. The Irish offense appears to have put the mental breakdowns of the Michigan game behind them and become quite adept at blitz pickup. Purdue’s blitzes were repeatedly exploited. Furthermore, Purdue defensive end Ray Edwards, who appeared as if he might be able to get pressure in a four-man rush, was largely shut down. It will be interesting to see whether this trend will continue against USC, who should present two new challenges. First, I expect Pete Carroll to be more creative both in the timing of his blitzes and in the actual blitzes he uses than the defensive coordinators Notre Dame has faced thus far. Second, USC has a pair of defensive ends – particularly Frostee Rucker – good enough to generate pressure from a four-man rush. In the face of USC blitzes, Weis’s abilities as a teacher provide reason for optimism:

"Coach (Ron) Powlus turned to me and said, 'That was the simplest I think I've ever heard -- through college, NFL, everything -- going through hots and sight-adjusts and having someone explain it," Quinn said. "That's a great example of coach Weis as a teacher. He makes things so simple that can be complicated at times."

As for the USC defensive ends, it is up to the Irish tackles to win the one-on-one battles. They have been up to the challenge so far this season. Hopefully this continues against USC. If Quinn has time to sit in the pocket, he should be able to take advantage of USC's corners - the (relative) weakness of the SC defense.

LenDale White v. ND Front Seven. I suspect the Irish defense’s ability to contain LenDale White will be critical to Notre Dame’s chances this Saturday. Last year, Notre Dame’s defensive front seven did an admirable job of controlling USC’s ground attack. Consider last year’s rushing stats:

Rushing         No Gain Loss  Net TD Lg  Avg
--------------------------------------------
White, LenDale  14   52    1   51  0  9  3.6
Bush, Reggie     8   27    2   25  0 18  3.1
Leinart, Matt    3   10    3    7  0  7  2.3
Reed, Desmond    1    2    0    2  0  2  2.0

Of course, stopping USC’s ground game did not stop USC’s offense last year, as they gained enough yardage through the air to rack up a blowout win. Why then, would a repeat of these rushing numbers be a good sign? Because I believe the Irish pass defense has improved enough to slow USC down if we can get a similar effort from the front seven. While I don’t expect the defense to stop or shut down the USC passing attack, if they can slow it down, Quinn and the rest of the offense will have the opportunity to outscore the Trojans.

However, the Irish have lost some key members from last year’s front seven. Greg Pauly, Kyle Budinscak, Mike Goolsby, and Derek Curry have all departed. The loss of Pauly means that the quick but undersized Derek Landri will be matched up against Duce Lutui, who outweighs Landri by approximately one Song Girl. While the replacements for Goolsby and Curry appear to be upgrades in pass defense, it remains to be seen whether they can be as stout against the run. If the front seven are unable to contain White, expect Zbikowski and Ndukwe to cheat against the run and bite on play-action more than usual, opening up the USC passing game considerably.

Notre Dame Pass Rush. It is imperative that Notre Dame generate pressure on Leinart. He simply cannot be allowed to sit in the pocket and go through his progressions. I cannot help but look back to October 15, 1988, when Notre Dame took on the top-ranked Miami Hurricanes. Though Steve Walsh would pass for an opponent-record 424 yards, the relentless pressure – particularly by Frank Stams – led to six Miami turnovers and an Irish victory. Minter will need to devise a gameplan that involves drilling Leinart into the turf as often as the rules allow.

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Tomorrow I board my flight to South Bend to witness the greatest rivalry in college football firsthand. Travel will likely preclude me from posting any postgame thoughts in timely fashion.

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.)

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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?
Ivan: Can you be overhyped and overlooked at the same time?
Pat: At Notre Dame, you can always be overhyped.

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.

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.

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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.

Midnight Madness | by Pat

Lost in all of the football hype this week is the fact that a few hours before ND kicks off to Reggie Bush and the entire Notre Dame Stadium holds its breath, Notre Dame hoops season officially will begin.

This Saturday marks the start of regular season practices for college teams across the country even though a new NCAA ruling made it possible for the traditional Midnight Madness practice to follow the route of Midnight Mass and actually start at 7pm on Friday evening. Of course, that is around the same time as the pep rally for the football team, so the ND team will be holding their practice at 10:30am in the JACC on Saturday. The practice will be open to the public. In attendance as a part of his official visit will be 7'0" recruit Tom Herzog, who supposedly is down to Notre Dame and Michigan State with his choice coming soon after the ND visit.

Speaking of recruits, with the shot-blocking Herzog a definite possibility, Brey is on the verge of landing a second straight stellar recruiting class. One that provides excellent balance with the class of new freshman. The class is already solid with Luke Harangody and Tory Jackson, but the addition of Herzog would push it over the top to excellent. The past few years, ND would put together a quality class one year, only to follow it up with a class limited in number or national acclaim. According to RSCI, which takes the averages of multiple recruiting services, Brey has landed 4 Top 100 recruits (Zeller [34], Ayers [97], Harangody [66], Jackson [84]) in the past two years with Herzog [58] being a potential 5th. Of course, all ratings come with a grain of salt, but the ranking process in basketball has an advantage over football in that the best players all tend to play against each other in AAU tournaments and various shoe-company sponsored summer camps.

Getting back to the present though, Brey's work for the '05/06 season does appear to be cut out for him. Two straight NIT appearances haven't done much to sustain the good will earned during his first few seasons. And while I'm still very positive on Coach Brey, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed by the end of last season. This upcoming season will be a shakeup from the past few seasons though if only from the lack of Chris Thomas running the point, as he has for the past 4 years. Also new will be the addition of DePaul, Marquette, Louisville, South Florida and a Huggins-less Cincinnati to the new Big East. Here's a link to the 2005/2006 schedule. It does seem a bit light on quality out-of-conference opposition, so the onus will be on the team to win enough game to avoid the bubble if they want to stop the recent NIT streak. And, as Mike pointed out to me, for the 3rd year in a row, we get Syracuse at home over winter break when the students are gone.

We'll present a more complete preview a bit closer to the start of the season, but until then here are a few big questions we're wondering ourselves. Will Quinn, in addition to running the point, be able to the emotional on-the-floor leader of the team they appeared to lack at times last season? Will Torin Francis be able to mirror Maurice Stovall and have that stellar senior year that everyone has been waiting for? Which fresman will make the biggest impact? What is our starting frontcourt going to look like? Can anything possibly top the Dancing Grannies as half-time entertainment?

Weis v. Carroll | by Teds

Q. Charlie, four times you went head to head with Pete Carroll in 1998 and 1999 with you as the offensive coordinator. Do you recall those games? What do you recall about those games?

COACH WEIS: I just always remember feeling that they had a very good scheme and they were very well coached. And really it was going back and forth between the New England/Jet combinations and we were on flip sides. Sometimes, I was in New England, sometimes he was with the Jets; sometimes I was with the Jets and he was in New England. Okay. Pete knows me very well. He knows what I like to do. I like to think I know what he likes to do. It's just going to come down to us having to execute very well against what they do.

For all the pomp and circumstance surrounding this weekend's game between Notre Dame and Southern Cal, surprisingly little has been made of the shared history between the two coaches. Not only did they square off previously in the NFL, but Weis and Carroll are also in the unique position of having played musical chairs with coaching roles for New England and the New York Jets. The accumulated product of that past experience might portend that Carroll will arrive in South Bend later this week with more than his Trojans' undefeated record and #1 ranking to protect.

Here's a season-by-season review of the jockeying done by Carroll and Weis within the AFC East over the past decade:


• 1994: After serving as their defensive coordinator for four years, Carroll is in his first season as a first-time head coach of the New York Jets, while Weis is coaching tight ends under Bill Parcells in New England. Carroll starts his inaugural campaign by beating the reigning AFC champion Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos before losing three straight games. A 24-13 win over the Pats in week seven pushes New York back over .500 briefly, but the season eventually falls apart on Carroll. The Jets lose their final five games -- including a 24-13 loss to New England -- to finish 6-10, and Carroll is dismissed in the aftermath in favor of Rich Kotite (insert gratuitous cheap shot at Jets management here). Meanwhile, Parcells, Weis and the Patriots finish tied for the AFC East at 10-6. Although they lose the wild card game, the season represents a huge step forward from the 5-11 mark posted during the staff's first season in 1993 and a harbinger of positive developments to come.

• 1997: Riding the good vibes of an AFC East title and Super Bowl appearance in New England the previous season, Weis (now a coordinator) and Parcells have moved on to New York to refurbish the Jets, 1-15 in 1996 and entirely Kotite-d out. And after rehabilitating his reputation for two years as San Francisco's defensive coordinator, Carroll has now resurfaced as a head coach in, of all places, New England, replacing Parcells' staff. To reiterate, Carroll is inheriting a team in the Patriots that won 10 more games in the previous season than the crew Weis and Parcells are charged with leading. Carroll again gets out of the gate quickly, winning five of his first six games, including a 27-24 win over the Jets in week three. However, New York settles in and sends Carroll and the Patriots into a 1-4 tailspin with a 24-19 victory in week eight. Ultimately, Carroll leads New England to a successful defense of its AFC East crown, finishing 10-6 and beating Miami in the opening round of the playoffs before losing a 7-6 nailbiter to Pittsburgh. The Jets close the season just shy of the Patriots and a postseason berth at 9-7, but the difference between this team and the edition a year earlier is painfully clear. New York's point differential in 1996 was -175; in 1997 under Parcells, Weis and the rest of the new staff, it's +61.

• 1998: With the squalor of the previous regime now firmly in the rearview, New York goes 12-4 and wins the AFC East going away, sweeping Carroll's Patriots (24-14 and 31-10) in the process. The Jets win their playoff opener but lose in the AFC championship to Denver, who ultimately wins the Super Bowl. Due in large part to Weis' shocking rehabilitation of journeyman Vinny Testaverde (29 touchdown passes against 7 interceptions), his Jets offense finishes the season second in the AFC and fifth in the NFL in points scored. Two years prior, New York ranked 27th in the same category. The Patriots are still solid, 9-7 and a first-round playoff loser, but appear to be losing a bit of momentum from the their Super Bowl run of two seasons before.

• 1999: This proves to be a mediocre, 8-8 year for both the Jets and Patriots, as each team loses a critical offensive performer (Testaverde and running back Robert Edwards, respectively) for most or all of the campaign. Unfortunately for Carroll, the familiar and disappointing arc of his team's performance -- a 4-0 start marred by a 2-6 finish -- costs him his job. Without Testaverde for all but one game, the Jets offense finally settles into a groove with Ray Lucas under center and wins its final four regular season games to finish a respectable .500. For his efforts, Weis is hired away for OC duty on the staff of Bill Belichick, who just happens to have been tabbed to replace Carroll in New England.

• 2000-05: After a rocky opening season of 5-11, the Patriots' new leadership takes hold. The team wins three Super Bowls over the next four years and becomes universally recognized as a historic dynasty. Weis' work in cobbling a productive, yeoman offense out of mostly underwhelming material is integral to New England's success, including the development of former sixth-round draft pick Tom Brady into a two-time Super Bowl MVP and the heartbeat of a championship team. By the end of his tenure, Weis receives a deluge of positive media coverage for his contributions, generally focusing on his reputation as one of the most capable tactical minds in the NFL.

---

During the entirity of Pete Carroll's run as an NFL head coach, Weis has been there on the opposing sideline matching his offense against Carroll's defense every step of the way and finding more success at each stop. Weis helped rebuild the Patriots into a Super Bowl team, then jumped to the Jets and assisted in improving on what Carroll accomplished there in 1994 while, concurrently, Carroll failed to live up to the standard set by the previous regime in New England. And even while Carroll was reestablishing Southern Cal as a national power in college football starting in 2001, he had to look up the next rung of the ladder and watch Belichick and Weis make history in the same job that Carroll was fired from immediately prior to their arrival.

Considering Carroll's noted ego and understandable misgivings about unfinished business as an NFL coach, it's not much of a leap in logic to think that he harbors a bit of extra impetus to beat Weis' ND squad and beat them badly.

To take it a step further, the idea of Weis crashing the party by showing up on the college scene to coach Southern Cal's primary rival and potentially one-up his old sparring partner once more has to be a source of some consternation for Carroll, if not his worst nightmare. At this point, Carroll might begin considering the possibility that Charlie has it out for him, like some kind of robot genius sent back in time for the specific purpose of thwarting him. While it's probably not fitting to say that Carroll is "scared" of Weis, it is reasonable to think that there might be some bad vibes on his end, vibes that might manifest themselves in Carroll's approach to the ND game as well as his dialogue (witness the incendiary comments reportedly made about Weis and ND at a private luncheon with SC boosters earlier in the year).

Given the history between the two, I can't blame Pete for feeling a little less than secure about what the future might hold.

Matt Leinart, All-American Quarterback, Former Cross-Eyed Fat Kid | by Pete

Listen, I don't know if you've heard this yet, but Matt Leinart has decided to forgo the NFL draft to stay for one more year in college. Yea, it's true, not many people know that, it's only mentioned every time he takes a snap, throws a pass, and takes a breath. Well, that didn't stop the good people at the Esquire from writing a day-in-the-life piece on everybody's favorite Condom Boy Under Center. I've taken the opportunity to break down some of the choice pieces of the article, and hopefully these quotes will give you a greater insight into the down-home, college boy Matt Leinart really is. Hopefully these quotes will also give you the ability to fly.

Matt Leinart, the best player in college football, could be getting ready for his first season in the NFL. Instead, he's getting ready for another season as the best player in college football. Because he loves it. (Don't pinch him or he may wake up.)

OK, everybody all together now, Awwww...

MATT LEINART HAS FOUR DOLLARS in his back pocket, which is making it difficult for him to find just the right birthday present for his girlfriend, Brynn . . . Ducking through the doorway, he found himself in [Fred Segal] girly-girl heaven, a brightly lit place filled with the latest in high-end cotton knits.

I heard Manuel Wright recommended the girly-girl heaven. He claims to have found the cotton knits to "die for."

Sadly, Mr. Leinart cannot afford said cotton knits for said dreamy girlfriend. What's he think about that?

"If I had two grand in the bank, dude, I'd be totally set . . . I could get by on that till the end of the year." (By "the end of the year" he means January 4, 2006, when he hopes he'll be quarterbacking the University of Southern California Trojans to a third straight national title in a sold-out Rose Bowl.) "Or maybe I could go to Vegas and win, like, twenty grand. Oh my gosh, that would be so sweet. . . ."

What, Mr. Leinart doesn't plan on sticking out the spring semester? I thought he loved college, what an odd decision. Also, I did some research, and found out that Leinart is a sociology major. Funny, I could've sworn he would be an English major, or at least an English speaker, bro.

On the [Leinart's] dash, there's a picture of him and Brynn standing on the beach, the sand warm under their bare feet. They look good: tall, tanned, white teeth. Leinart has his football jersey on.

What? You don't wear your football jersey to the beach?

A photographer from an in-flight magazine, a hairstylist, a wardrobe consultant, and eight more drones hovered around a white backdrop, working to make a matinee idol out of this six-foot-five-inch goofball with size-15 feet.

Yessirree, Matt Leinart is a regular Joe Q. College. I can't tell you how many times I've had to squeezing in my in-flight magazine shoots between studying for midterms and doing keg stands.

He was also handed a football, which immediately betrayed the deepest, darkest secret of Leinart's success: The kid's fingers are long enough to conduct an orchestra.

I am biting my cheek until it bleeds to prevent myself from making a joke about Leinart's "successes" finding Brynn's deepest, darkest secrets. Oops.

Matt: "I was made fun of a lot when I was younger, mostly because I was cross-eyed."
Brynn: "I thought it was because you were fat."
Matt: "Yeah. That, too."

Yes, it's true, Matt Leinart was once fat and cross-eyed. I'm desperately hoping Brandon Hoyte finds a way to recross them.

When he was twelve, a second surgery finally fixed the [freaky crossed-eye] problem, but his eyes still get tired, the way they always have. He rubs them a lot. The weird thing is, after he pulls those great long fingers away from their work, more often than not his eyelids will have folded behind themselves, making it look as though he got too close to a campfire and his eyelashes were burned off. Leinart likes to demonstrate this talent for strangers, who usually react with horror. "It's pretty cool to see the looks on their faces," he says. He takes maybe a little too much pride in this.

Hey, it beats reading.

With every flashbulb pop, it was as if he'd been brought one step closer to larger than life. In time, she fell quiet, satisfied to snap away, pose after pose, understanding that she didn't need to tell him what to do anymore. He knew what she wanted. She wanted what everybody else wants from Matt Leinart: the strong-chinned hero, the kid with the golden arm, Johnny Quarterback, Everybody's All-American.

After the in-flight photoshoot, Leinart raced out of the studio, sprinted down 8 city blocks, and arrived just in time to catch a baby falling from a burning building. Good thing he heard it with his super-hearing. What, you dind't know that Johnny Quarterback had powers far beyond those of mortal men?

Like the first time Joe Namath put on a fur coat and shook out his shoulders, it's a part he's still learning to play.

Although, the wearing pantyhose thing? He's got that mastered.

THE FAT DORK in him most likes hiding out in his apartment beside the freeway, playing Halo with his roommate, or maybe just hanging out on the couch with Brynn. "I'm really boring," he says. "I don't really do anything."

Wait, class counts as "anything," right? Thought so.

Asked about his hobbies, Leinart gamely volunteers his love of napping.

Yes, come to USC, have a nap, or two. Hell, take eight, you need your rest, what with zero classes and all.

When he really was a fat dork, he'd sometimes wake up with his head at the foot of his bed, or having mysteriously transported himself onto the family couch or to the front lawn of their Santa Ana homestead. It was as if his dreams were trying to take him somewhere.

Yes, Leinart's fat, dorky, cross-eyed dreams of intimate moments with Cindy Crawford, a corndog, or some apalling combination of the two prophesized his ascent to the top of the college football world.

The sleepwalking, perhaps not coincidentally, stopped when he got thin and went to college and heard thousands of people chanting his name.

Four out of five doctors agree that getting thin, going to college, and hearing thousands of people chanting your name is a sure-fire home remedy to beat sleepwalking.

Before he went shopping at Fred Segal, he ate lunch there, at the fancy little restaurant tucked behind its ivy walls, and on the way in, a stranger patted him on the back and offered congratulations for the Heisman.

Apparently, Leinart ate lunch at the fancy little restaurant for zero dollars, considering he only had four to start with. Wait, how could he do that without violati-hey! Look over there!

They're also, conversely, part of the reason he's found comfort in a growing circle of celebrity friends. Out here, fame grants access to a kind of elephant ring, that sanctuary found in shared experience.

And that "elephant ring" is known as Paris Hilton's bedroom.

Leinart's Hollywood gatekeeper, and now one of his best friends, is a forty-year-old events planner and promoter named Josh Richman. They met because of Richman's love for USC football...

And Leinart's apparent love for inappropriate young man-old man friendships.

Richman is one of those wonderfully loopy characters who can find a home only here. (He carries a walking stick topped with an eight ball, and that's just for starters.)

I think this one speaks for itself. Leinart needs to work on his posse.

In May, at Mood, the popular nightclub where Richman plays host, he threw Matt a twenty-second-birthday bash that made all the papers. Nick Lachey, Jessica Simpson, Vince Vaughn, Lindsay Lohan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Fred Durst, and Alyssa Milano were on the guest list.

Yep yep yep, regular Joe Q. Undergraduate College Student, like the rest of us. When I turned 21, Rob Schneider gave me a back-rub.

"Every celebrity I know is the most normal person I've ever met," Leinart says.

Leinart went on to say that the only people he had met prior to celebrities were Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Kaczinski, a homeless person lying in his own human waste, and Ed Orgeron.

A parade of names and faces stopped by the table for fist bumps and backslaps . . . and finally the dude who filmed himself ass-pounding Paris Hilton in the dark.

Is this the film Pete Carroll spends hours dissecting?

One night he's throwing out the opening pitch at Dodger Stadium. Several weeks later, he pulls the same trick for the Los Angeles Angels. Governor Schwarzenegger asks him down to Seal Beach to welcome home the troops.

Naturally, the first thing a professional killing machine fresh from a war zone wants to see is a guy who throws a brown oblong ball next to the beach for a living. Sadly, Kellen Winslow was unavailable.

His Heisman is now on display in Heritage Hall, one of six that have made their way here; Matt's is the third in line, between O. J. Simpson's (1968) and Carson Palmer's (2002).

Nice company, a guy with a penchant for stabbing, and another guy with a penchant for getting styled at Supercuts.

He wouldn't be the first Heisman-winning quarterback to fail to make it for money. In fact, the wise bet is against success. Andre Ware never played more than five games in a season; Detmer was shuffled among six different teams; Gino Toretta passed for forty-one yards in his entire professional career; Danny Wuerffel and Chris Weinke flamed out. Eric Crouch tried to turn himself into a wide receiver, giving up the ghost after just a month; Charlie Ward ended up playing basketball instead. Only Vinny Testaverde and Doug Flutie lived up to their advance billing, and Flutie only belatedly.

When Vinny T and Flutie are the elites of your company, that's not a good thing. Gino Toretta is warming up a seat for Leinart on the Didn't Translate To The Pro Game Bus, but rooks have to sit with Weinke, that's just how it is.

His father, Bob, a gregarious man with Alan Alda's voice and a thing for loud shirts, is waiting in the otherwise empty stands. He's brought some stuff along for his son's apartment, the way parents always fit out their kids for another year away at college: a mirror, a couple of things for the kitchen. He's also holding a new insurance policy apparently more substantial than the one Matt already had last year with Lloyd's of London, which would have paid $1 million if he suffered a career-ending injury.

See? SEE? He's just a regular college guy, what with his dad bringing him stuff for his apartment. What's that? No, no, ignore the multi-million dollar insurance policy in his other hand.

After a few minutes [warming up] by himself, he summons two of his teammates downfield, a pair of receivers, including fellow Heisman finalist Reggie Bush.

"Reginald, Dwayne, bring thee forth to my presence. That's right, kiss the statue, eh eh EH, on the stiff-arm, that's right, and then run a hitch pattern for Matt Leinart."

It is so perfectly put together, it feels as if everybody were tied to one another with strings.

It also helps that Carroll is standing behind them, waving his hands like they're his marionettes and cackling fiendishly.

And on just such an afternoon, serene and beautiful, wrapped up in the oasis of campus and the cocoon of success, it's easy to understand why he wouldn't want to drop from the top of one world to the bottom of another, no matter how much he was paid to take the fall.

In fact, the day is just serene enough to make you forget about the surprise elbow surgery Leinart had immediately after declaring he wouldn’t be entering the NFL Draft. An elbow surgery that would raise a few eyebrows of NFL Scouts, and question his durability as a franchise, number 1 pick quarterback. Shut up, look at how serene it is.

He goes home to take a nap before he picks up Brynn.

In addition to napping, Matt Leinart also enjoys calling the library the "nerd factory."

He needs to take a single elective this fall to finish his degree, and even that he's taking with her: ballroom dancing.

This really isn't mentioned enough. Matt Leinart is taking a solitary one-credit class this semester, and it's BALLROOM DANCING. That's it. No cushy PE-department classes, no phony seminars, just BALLROOM DANCING. Apparently, Matt loves everything about college that doesn't entail that pesky little thing called "school."

They [Leinart and Brynn] met last year in study hall, not via satellite.

Study Hall at USC? Did it come between Home Ec and Recess?

They're driving down to the pier, because he has a big love of Ferris wheels, and he puts on Avril Lavigne and starts singing along unabashedly—"Did you think I was going to give it up for you?"—and she says that she likes his voice, even though his voice is the sort of thing that no one could possibly like.

Is it too short of notice to teach the entire student body the lyrics to this song to sing constantly every USC offensive possession?

Now look at them: still tall, still tanned, still with those white, white teeth. They seem so much like make-believe.

How sweet, an image straight out of Texas and Friday-night football, followed by a burger at the local greasy spoon.

They're supposed to go to Mood later tonight, hang out with Josh and Nick and Jessica and the gang, but suddenly, in the cool breeze, that seems like too much work.

A burger at the local greasy spoon, followed by a night out at Mood with your favorite TRL fodder. Going to a club is too much work? Oh, that's right, he's gotta cram for Ballroom Dancing Class.

"I have this philosophy about food," he [Leinart] says. "I have to eat it."

I'm appalled. He stole that from Nietzsche.

And he has begun drawing out his house. It will have a view, and a Chevy Tahoe in the driveway, and an infinity pool with a big water slide splashing into it—starting from his bedroom window.

A two-story water slide? That sounds like something a twelve-year old would come up with.

He stole that particular notion from a movie he likes. It's called Blank Check , a Disney flick about a bullied twelve-year-old boy who suddenly finds himself with $1 million stuffed in his backpack. He buys all of the things a bullied twelve-year-old boy with $1 million might buy, including a water slide starting from his bedroom window. It's the sort of fantasy that really catches hold in some kids. For them, it's not about the money. Sometimes just the idea of it is enough.

Oh, that explains it.

Hector's Heel | by Jay

Looking at the NCAA statistical rankings, the Trojans are pretty poor on special teams.

Special Teams	Avg Yds	Rank (of 117)
Punt Returns	5.0	103rd
Kickoff Returns	24.62	25th
Punt Return Allowed	17.00	111th
Net Punting Average	28.92	110th
Kickoff Return Allowed	26.55	110th

• Punting stats are a little skewed. The Trojans have only punted 8 times. Likewise, the Trojans have only returned 8 punts. (Reggie Bush must have some kind of magnetic repulsion that forces punts away from him.)

• That said, ASU's Terry Richardson took a punt 84 yards for a touchdown against the Trojans.

• Kickoff coverage is legitimately terrible. The Trojans have covered 29 kickoff returns (among the most in the nation), and their average of ~26 yards given up is 8th-worst in the country. Every team the Trojans have faced has broken off at least one long kickoff return:

Hawaii Andre Taylor, long 40 yards
Arkansas Felix Jones, averaged 36 yards over 4 returns, long of 67
Oregon Sherrod Davis, long 31 yards
Arizona State Terry Richardson, long 49 yards
Arizona Syndric Steptoe, averaged 32 yards over 5 returns, long of 76

• Carroll's on a mission to fix kickoff coverage, however, adding two starters to the kickoff coverage team this week:

This year, the Trojans' kickoff team is in shambles and Carroll wants to make immediate changes. He said starters he took off the kickoff team, like linebackers Oscar Lua and Thomas Williams, will probably return at the expense of reserves like Josh Pinkard, Fred Davis and Rey Maualuga. "In the past we've used more starters on kickoff teams, but we've been kind of thin this year," Carroll said. "`We've given the young guys a shot, but it's hard for them."

• The Trojan's kicker, Mario Danelo, is a sophomore walk-on, and he's 2 for 3 with a long of 36 yards. He missed from 42.

• On a side note, not only are the special teams terrible, but Southern Cal is also among the most penalized teams in the country, ranking 92nd in penalties accrued.

Penalties 42
Yards Penalized 351
Penalties per game 8.4
Yards per game 70.2

What kind of malfeasances are we talking about?

9 false starts 7 personal fouls 6 defensive offsides 5 offensive holding 4 unsportsmanlike conduct 2 roughing the passer

2 illegal blocks 2 delays of game 1 pass interference 1 ineligible receiver downfield 1 intentional grounding 1 illegal formation

And an illegal shift (in a pear tree.)

They tried to clean this up against 'Zona, and they were successful to some extent. USC had six penalties for 60 yards Saturday, nearly half of what it had in games against Arizona State and Oregon.

Trojan Grab-Bag | by Pat

Record-Breaking?

Over on Heismanpundit you can read a sobering post about how the Trojan offense is currently on pace to destroy just about every offensive record in the college record book. If you weren't already nervous about the thought of Matt Leinart facing our defense, this will cure you. The historical achievements within the Trojan crosshairs are quite impressive.

One thing that I did find interesting about this Southern Cal team is not how, but when they scored their points. Here's the breakdown by quarter:

Quarter	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Points	42	48	91	77

It's interesting that the Trojans scored so many points in the 4th quarter, given that by then they usually had their heel on the other team's windpipe. Is Pete Carroll trying to inflate his team's offensive output in hopes of removing the Norm Chow asterisk? Or is it just that the Trojan 3rd and 4th teams are still better than their out-manned opponents? It's debatable (and maybe a combination of both.)

As for the chances of breaking all of the offensive records, we'd like to think no. Not so much because of Notre Dame, but due to the fact that to date Southern Cal has played 5 games against teams that are a combined 12-13. The rest of the way out, the Trojans face opponents that are currently 23-11. That's not to say that Southern Cal won't be a big favorite to go undefeated the rest of the way, but it's definitely a backloaded schedule and the opposition is going to get quite a bit tougher, so the offensive fireworks might be a bit more muted in the second half.

Finally, here are some other categories where the Trojans are rated highly.

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Tale of the Tape

To say that Southern Cal is going to be the more talented team going into Saturday's matchup isn't a slap at the current Irish team, as much as it is an objective look at the two rosters. The Trojans have built upon their on-field success with some rather impressive recruiting hauls. Meanwhile, Irish fans have noted that recruiting faltered during the final two years of the Willingham era.

We wanted to find a way to compare the skill/talent levels of the two programs a la a pre-fight weigh-in, but it's not easy to find a metric that's thorough enough to be fair. So, we caved, and we'll use two different benchmarks, both from Phil Steele: the player's High School Recruiting Rank (HSR) and his 2005 Pre-Season Rank (PSR).

For the high school rankings, Steele doesn't actually do any evaluation himself, but rather takes all the major recruiting services (Parade Magazine, SuperPrep, Tom Lemming, G&W Recruiting Advisor, Prepstar, Max Emfinger, Rivals100) and averages together their results. For the pre-season rankings, Steele does do his own, so keep in mind the numbers only reflect one source (A source that wasn't very high on the Irish chances to get much above .500 this season).

A few quick notes before we get to the numbers. We couldn't find a HSR for Frostee Rucker, who was a low to mid-level recruit who attended Colorado State before transferring to Southern Cal. Even though his likely ranking would have pulled down the Southern Cal average, we decided to leave it out and only average the other 21 Trojan positions. For the junior college transfers (Latui, Ware) we counted their JUCO ranking rather than high school one, which again gives a bit of a boost to the Trojan rankings. Finally, if a player was not ranked (NR) in Phil Steele's 2005 pre-season position rankings, we gave that player the next highest ranking. For example, David Kirkman wasn't listed as a Top 25 fullback, so we gave him a ranking of 26. Both Southern Cal and ND had 6 players not ranked in the pre-season position preview.

Position	Southern Cal	HSR	PSR	Notre Dame	HSR	PSR
QB	M. Leinart	9	1	B. Quinn	12	21
RB	R. Bush	5	2	D. Walker	13	27
FB	D. Kirkman	82	NR (26)	R. Powers-Neal	36	4
WR	S. Smith	3	9	M. Stovall	4	10
WR	D. Jarrett	4	27	J. Samardzija	22	NR(67)
TE	D. Byrd	3	8	A. Fasano	8	11
LT	S. Baker	15	21	R. Harris	18	20
LG	T. Latui	4(JC)	22	D. Santucci	14	NR(61)
C	R. Kalil	34	21	J. Sullivan	3	9
RG	F. Matua	12	13	D. Stevenson	19	40
RT	W. Justice	3	14	M. LeVoir	4	24
DE	F. Rucker	NA	20	C. Frome	23	NR(61)
DT	L. Ramsey	122	NR(66)	D. Landri	5	49
DT	S. Ellis	8	NR(66)	T. Laws	13	61
DE	L. Jackson	6	16	V. Abiamiri	1	15
WLB	K. Rivers	2	31	B. Hoyte	29	44
MLB	O. Lua	66	49	C. Mays	22	25
SLB	T. Williams	8	NR(77)	M. Crum	80	NR(77)
CB	J. Wyatt	25	NR(67)	M. Richardson	128	NR(67)
SS	D. Bing	4	1	T. Zbikowski	9	15
FS	S. Ware	1 (JC)	6	C. Nduwke	32	NR(43)
CB	J. Walker	77	NR(67)	A. Wooden	8	58
	AVERAGE	23.5	28.6	AVERAGE	21.6	36.7

What to take from this chart? Well, for starters, it appears that despite the presence of high school superstars like Bush, Justice, Rivers and Bing, Notre Dame has its share of highly recruited players as well. In the 2005 PSR, again Notre Dame is closer than I would have guessed.

Granted the saying "lies, damned lies, and statistics" comes to mind when reading something like this, and we didn't take a look at the entire depth chart. But I also think it's a decent response to the claims that talent-wise, Southern Cal is in the stratosphere, and ND is in the mud. It's much closer than that.

---

The Enemy of our Enemy

(Here's a post off of ndnation by Nedhead checking out how Southern Cal's oppponents did in their other games this season.)

A look at the schedule of USC's opponents. Note that there aren't many good defensive performances - ASU's defense against an LSU offense and Northwestern's offense, and Oregon's defense against ASU stand out, but that's about it. Almost everyone has put up points, although not as many as USC has. USC's offense is excellent, but we've been watching them for the past few years go up against Pac 10 defenses.

Hawaii, 63-17 L 14-42 at MSU W 24-0 at Idaho L 41-44 vs. Boise St. L 14-46 at LA Tech	Arkansas, 70-17 W 49-17 vs. MO St. L 24-28 at Vandy L 13-24 at Bama W 44-15 vs. LA-Monroe	Oregon, 45-13: W 38-24 at Houston W 47-14 vs. Montana W 37-34 vs. Fresno W 44-20 at Stanford W 31-17 at ASU
Arizona St, 38-28 W 63-16 vs. Temple L 31-35 vs. LSU W 52-21 vs. Northwestern W 42-24 at Oregon St. L 17-31 vs. Oregon	Arizona, 42-21 L 24-27 at Utah W 31-12 vs. Northern AZ L 24-31 vs. Purdure L 0-28 at Cal

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The Line. Proceed with caution.

Caeser's/Hilton -12
Mirage -10.5

Poodle Time | by Jay

At about 4 or 5 months of age, puppies enter a period some experts call the "puppy crazies," the "zooms," or puppy "FRAPS".

FRAP stands for Frenetic Random Activity Period, a wild time in the pup's life when for no apparent reason he'll run like a demon possessed, through the house, over the furniture. He'll zoom back and forth, growling at imaginary beasts that exist only in his fuzzy little madpup head.

From the USC Scout.com site:

The main subject for the Monday Morning Quarterback meeting was to review the game against Arizona last Saturday. But, just like the team on Saturday, people seemed to be distracted by N.D. and the obvious attraction of that contest. Coach Pete Carroll was upbeat and on point for a full house luncheon crowd. But, for the first time this year, there was more conversation about the coming game than the last one.

Pete was positive about our performance against Arizona while at the same time; he talked about areas where we need work. The crowd wanted to hear a little Notre Dame week pep talk and, if you didn’t know it, Pete can talk a little smack with the best of them. Bulletin board type stuff. But you won't hear it from me. Before Pete arrived, they announced again that he was not to be quoted so I’ll continue to use Newspaper quotes when they reflect what he said today.

So a couple of days ago Petey says the game's no bigger than any other:

And don't expect Carroll to make a big deal out of the "greatest intersectional rivalry" in the country. "For the fans and media it's fun, but it has no bearing at all," Carroll said.

And yesterday he demands to be taken off the record for some trash talk with the booster club.

Treating this "like any other game"? Not on your life.

Intermission | by Dylan

What a difference a year makes. Were this year four of the Willingham era, the run-up to this past weekend would have been much different. Notre Dame alums and fans would have made plans to have fun with the family or to get some work done around the house, grateful for the respite from yet another atrocious performance by the team. Not so this year, as Irish fans generally paced restlessly around on Saturday murmuring "this sucks" and trying to catch a USC update, strangely urging the Men of Troy onward to victory in hopes of ensuring the Trojans' passage to South Bend under the mantle of the number one team in the land. Having a good team does weird things to our brain chemistry. Luckily for us, what should have been a pedestrian weekend was spiced up with a few interesting games and the eternal damnation of at least one soul, and you don't see that every day.

The damned soul, forfeited on the field at Boston College, belonged to Brad Butler of Virginia, cheap shot artist par excellence. There is nothing that can be said about this that EDSBS hasn't said already. All I have to add is "word."

Michigan, participating in the "holiday creep" that is marked by the pre-Halloween arrival of Christmas decorations in department stores, is graciously wrapping up, in golden foil with silky blue bow, the all-time winning percentage we lent them a while ago, apparently in an effort to get it back to us by Thanksgiving. I'm sure I speak for all Notre Dame fans when I say "thank you" to UM, although it is a bit of a "re-gift."

Minnesota ended the charade, finally, that was pre-season #4 Michigan by beating them (unfairly, I'm told) in Ann Arbor. Michigan sucks harder than a hole in a 747. The vaunted Henne-Hart-Breaston triumvirate propelled the Skunkbears to 249 total yards against the oh-so-average Gopher defense. "Three-loss" Lloyd may want to get on the horn to Norman and arrange a Florida scramble with Coach Stoops for the week after Thanksgiving, because they may be four months away from their next practice by then.

I want to apologize to all of you for giving bad information last week. Faithful readers know I predicted a 56-6 thumping of the Okies at the hands of Texas. In fact, the final score was a mere 45-12. I have dishonored you. I would grab my Hattori Hanso steel and make things right, but I have lent it to Mathias Kiwanuka of Boston College, a fellow Cathedral High School alum.

Georgia is inching its way out of the "enigma" list after their forced defenestration of Tennessee in Neyland Stadium, although the jury's still out as Tennessee was fool's g...uh, orange. I was actually pulling for the Vols in this game. I wanted the Dawgs to take a loss and for Tennessee to hit South Bend highly ranked. Alas, Tennessee sucks, and it's time for Vol fans to run up yonder into the holler and do tap hits off the still. Their schedule is brutal, with upcoming road tilts at Bama and ND. Fulmer is looking at 7-4, and I'm not talking about his circumference.

Joe Paterno's corpse was injected with a quart of nitro-glycerine on Saturday night, and he proceeded to spit the dust from his crumbling bones onto the collapsing carcass of Ohio State's '05 campaign. Is all that was old new again? Not exactly. While Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Penn State, Notre Dame, and LSU are all in the AP top ten this week, my money's on PSU for the team most likely to finish fifteen points lower than its current ranking. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. The next time Paterno kicks the bucket (he must be on his fourth life now), I hope he stays there. His ghost is tired. He needs sleep. He's tired of the living Joe haunting him.

Speaking of the polls, the AP, in its infinte lack of wisdom, has rewarded Louisville for needlessly running up the score against two awful teams by elevating them back into the top 20. I guess a huge blowout loss to South Florida isn't an abject humiliation after all. Look out BCS! If the Cards can navigate around the six-headed hydra of WVU, Cincinnati, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, and UConn, they could end up in the freaking Orange Bowl. Shameful.

At first, I couldn't figure out who was giving those few first-place votes to Texas. Now, I think Texas is better than USC. A lot better.

On to the biggest game in 12 years...

Go Irish.

Six Picks | by Jay

Pick Six Standings updated based on the latest USA Today/Coaches poll. Out of Group D (teams ranked 15-20 preseason), only Cal is still ranked; Boise State, Arizona State, Texas A&M, and Purdue have all dropped out. Alabama's making some of us look like geniuses. Too bad more people didn't gamble on Florida State or Georgia; picks in Group C went like this:

team/rank	# picks	pct.
louisville (19)	264	47%
florida (13)	148	26%
georgia (4)	73	13%
auburn (20)	38	7%
florida state (5)	36	6%

Wrigleyville jumps into the lead with 113 points.

In the BlogPollers' division of the Pick Six, I'm still the master of my domain.

A couple of ranked battles to keep an eye on this week: #17 Michigan State at #15 Ohio State, #23 Wisconsin at #22 Minnesota, #24 Colorado at #2 Texas, #13 Florida at #8 LSU...and one other one that I'm blanking on.

Just a reminder...the first BCS standings come out next week, on October 17th.

The Last Time | by Mike

The last time USC came to Notre Dame with an undefeated record...

Irish Trample USC Again, 38-10, Dash Trojans' Title Hopes
By MIKE NORBUT
Sports Editor
The Observer

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- As the final seconds ticked off the clock Saturday, Irish students symbolically flooded the rain-soaked field of Notre Dame Stadium.

And for good reason. They had just watched the flood gates open on Southern California in the second half, as Notre Dame rolled to a convincing 38-10 victory over the fifth-ranked Trojans.

"This is our biggest win since Florida State," offensive guard Ryan Leahy said. "USC is USC. It's the biggest rivalry in the country."

Notre Dame's 31-24 win over the Seminoles in 1993 marked the last time Irish students touched grass after a game. Boston College and Michigan fans had enjoyed that privilege the past two years.

"We knew coming in that this game is always a special one," Irish coach Lou Holtz said. "It was a complete team effort and it certainly was a great win. I know how down-hearted Southern Cal must feel, because this game means so much to both sides."

For the Irish, it means a distinct possibility, if not probability, that they will make an appearance in a major bowl game.

For the Trojans, the loss means a season down the drain. National championship hopes faded as fast as USC's 7-6 first quarter lead. Emotions ran as low as their 10-point total indicated.

"There's not much I can say," USC coach John Robinson said. "It was obvious. We played a very bad game and Notre Dame played a very good game."

It makes 13 straight years that the two teams have played without a Trojan victory. They tied 17-17 last season. USC's last win came in 1982 against a 6-4-1 Gerry Faust-led team.

"You can flip a coin thirteen times and get heads every time," Holtz said. "But the 14th time you flip it, you'll still have a 50-50 chance of it being tails."

But for the Irish, it came up heads, but not simply because of blind luck. A dominating performance by Notre Dame on both sides of the ball decided the outcome.

"They overwhelmed us, there's no question," Robinson said. "Ironically they only gained one more yard on offense than us. That's not indicative of how it was."

Four Trojan turnovers can probably tell the story a little better. Two fumbles inside the Irish 10-yard line and two interceptions gave the Irish offense the impetus it needed. But it was turnovers the other way that had the first chapter going USC's way.

A fumbled punt by Scott Sollmann midway through the second quarter was recovered by Jesse Davis at the Irish 17. Two plays later, Keyshawn Johnson caught a Kyle Wachholtz pass, slipped through an Allen Rossum tackle, and waltzed into the end zone to give the Trojans a 7-6 lead. Little did they know that it would be their only touchdown of the day.

"I felt like it was Ohio State all over again," Holtz said. "Here we are playing our hearts out and we're down in the second quarter."

It didn't stay that way, however. Notre Dame's next drive, a 13-play, 60-yard one, ended with a Marc Edwards scoring run from two yards out. The ensuing two-point play, a nifty Edwards-to-Powlus pass, gave the Irish a 14-7 lead. Then the Irish defense took control.

"There's no question, our defense won this ball game," said Edwards, who finished with three touchdowns, a two-point conversion run and the two-point pass. "They set us up on offense all game." Notre Dame stopped a USC drive on downs with 1:54 to play. The Irish capitalized with passes from Powlus to Pete Chryplewicz and Derrick Mayes, setting up Autry Denson's four-yard plunge.

"I thought the turning point of the game was when we stopped them on downs, drove down and scored, and then stopped them again right before the half," Holtz said. "That was a big change."

USC had the ball inside the Notre Dame five with :14 to play, but failed to connect on three straight passes. The half ended without a Trojan score.

"I was prepared to tell the team that happiness is having a poor memory," Holtz said. "Whether they scored or not, we still would have been up at halftime."

Powlus had his first pass of the second half intercepted by USC's Quincy Harrison, who brought the ball back to the Irish 30. But the Trojans were held to an R.J. Sansom field goal. "Our defense really saved the day," Holtz said. "I've always felt that we were a pretty good defensive football team if we didn't give up the big play."

Those came from the side of the Irish. They rattled off 17 fourth quarter points to clinch the lopsided win.

Scores off a safety by rush linebacker Kory Minor, a Powlus-to-Chryplewicz pass and an Edwards run left the Trojans crawling back to California with their plumes between their legs.

"The difference in the game was their ability to run at us," Robinson said. "They played an outstanding game on offense."

The thrashing on the field left USC defensive tackle Darrell Russell looking for an odd moral victory:

You have to understand that when it comes to quarterbacks, they can’t really trash-talk, because they know that the guy on the other side of the ball, no matter what the score is, wants to kick his ass on every play. But there are a few guys, like Jim Harbaugh and Ron Powlus, who can really talk. Powlus played for our bitter rival Notre Dame when I was at USC. We were 6-0 coming into a game at South Bend, and we’re getting killed, 38-10, and this fool Powlus is continuing to talk trash: “This is our house. This is our house!” I said, “Ron, don’t say another word to me. Just don’t!” Well, he kept yapping away, and the next play we hit him so hard we split his chin. He comes back on the field all bandaged up. He didn’t say another word all game.

October 15th | by Jay

Just received a missive from my cousin Pete, who's an Army Ranger in Iraq, and who also happens to be a USC grad (MBA). It starts like this:

Dear Jay -- Well, I must say that we are preparing for the big day on Saturday - it will decide the future and affect the lives of many. Both sides are preparing for the showdown and the outcome, which is uncertain at best.

The first-ever democratic vote on a Constitution in Iraq...are you kidding me? I'm talking about the ND-USC game. Hopefully I'll be around a TV, but it looks like it will be a busy night...

The Mighty Quinn | by Pat

Last week we mentioned Quinn's nomination for Cingular/ABC Sports All-America Player of the Week honors and apparently enough of you voted for him because he was ultimately selected as the fan's choice for Player of the Week.

The award is determined entirely by fan voting and Quinn ran away with 43% of the vote. Southern Cal's LenDale White came in 2nd with 20%, Nebraska's QB Zac Taylor notched 20% as well, and Michigan's Michael Hart placed 4th with 17% of the vote.

And while even "Joey" has won a people's choice award, the win for Quinn along with his selection by The Sporting News as the Player of the Week are the early signs that the Quinn bandwagon is picking up steam.

And that's the way we get bye | by Mike

How does one spend a fall Saturday when Notre Dame has a bye?

One can turn to playoff baseball, which offers several Notre Dame connections. During their final regular season series against the Cleveland Indians, the Chicago White Sox turned to Notre Dame for inspiration:

The Sox placed a blue and gold sign reading "Play Like A Champion Today" near the door leading from their Jacobs Field clubhouse to the field. The sign came from Notre Dame, whose equipment manager, Henry Scroope, is a friend of Sox equipment manager Vince Fresso and announcer Ed Farmer.

That is exactly how the Sox have played, as they have not lost a game since displaying the sign.

In the National League, the Houston Astros are led by star closer and former Irish pitcher Brad Lidge. Lidge was selected the 1998 Big East Pitcher of the Year while playing for Paul Mainieri's squad. This past February, Lidge returned to campus to speak at the baseball team's opening dinner and brought Roger Clemens with him.

The Atlanta Braves also feature a Notre Dame connection, as master pitching coach Leo Mazzone is a huge Notre Dame fan. Mazzone, of course, is the man responsible for such miracles as the Jaret Wright Reclamation Project. As Mazzone told the Chicago Tribune:

I love Notre Dame. Never went to college, but I love Notre Dame. I love them with a passion, not only because of their football program but for the other things they represent. Notre Dame shouldn't be a school that should have trouble getting great athletes in there. I hope they continue to play the same schedule they play because that's what makes them what they are.

The story I have heard is that on October 10, 1992, when the Braves were set to take on the Pirates that night in Game 4 of the NLCS, Mazzone slipped out during the day to catch Notre Dame's 52-21 pasting of the Panthers. Although Mazzone was late returning to Three Rivers, the Braves won the game that night.

Speaking of baseball, Paul Mainieri's squad just completed their series of fall intrasquad scrimmages. As seen to the left, former baseball Freshman All-American Jeff Samardzija stopped by. Samardzija, of course, was unable to participate as he is preoccupied pursuing All-America honors in another sport.

It's also Blue-Gold time for another Irish squad. New hockey coach Jeff Jackson will make his debut as Irish coach in a free scrimmage at the JACC tonight at 7:00. Jackson, who won two national championships while coaching at Lake Superior State, was named head coach in May. On a related note, Notre Dame alum and current Detroit Red Wing Brett Lebda scored a goal in his first NHL game this week.

Brandon Hoyte has been named a semi-finalist for the Draddy Trophy, college football's "academic Heisman." The award is named after the founder of Lacoste. Does this mean Hoyte may be hurt by the fact that he is more likely to pop a collarbone than a collar?

If you're still looking for a college football fix this Saturday, then turn to EveryDayShouldBeSaturday. Though the two are Gator fans, Orson Swindle and Stranko Montana do a masterful job of covering the entire college football landscape through equal parts pageantry, punditry, and parody. Plus, if you follow their links long enough, you'll come across such gems as this startling evidence of Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer adding insult to injury after defeating Louisiana's football team.

Watering the wine, making up the weight | by Jay

More Harris Poll nonsense. Here's a tidbit from Joe Schad I transcribed from his segment on Sportscenter this morning (also found in his weblog):

Traditional powers Notre Dame, Penn State and Alabama are all back in the polls. The bad news? This week, one Harris Poll voter wrote in the same team twice. Another didn't vote at all. Baffling BCS commissioners now is the revelation that the company monitoring the poll can add points for teams they believe were inappropriately left off ballots.

1977 | by Pat

From 1966 to 1982, Southern Cal was a force in the college football world, and during that period, Notre Dame only beat the Trojans three times. However, each time the Fighting Irish did triumph over the team from California -- in 1966, 1973, and 1977 -- ND went on to win the national championship. And among those games, the '77 matchup still remains as one of the most storied games in Irish history: the Green Jersey game.

According to Irish Legends, the origin of the idea went back to Devine's early days on campus:

Coach Devine had gotten the idea from a letter amidst the huge stack of mail waiting on his desk his first day at Notre Dame: a former student manager under Frank Leahy wanted to see the Irish wear green again. The new coach was intrigued by the notion and kept it in mind. Two-and-a-half years later he would use it with maximum possible effect.

Here's how Sports Illustrated described the scene on game day.

Observers could see it building all week. On Monday and Tuesday the Irish practiced with such vigor that the coaches had to ease up the drills to prevent mayhem. On Wednesday, after an excellent workout, the taciturn Devine became almost loquacious as he told his team, "I think we could grab ourselves a drink of Nutrament and play them under the lights right now and win."

Then on the day before the game the players found their tennis coach, Tom Fallon, in their dressing room - to sing a few Irish ballads. But definitely not lighthearted ditties like When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. Instead, he sang The Wearin' of' the Green, a song that laments, "They're hangin' men and women for the wearin'of the green."

Devine had only just begun. Unknown to all but a few intimates, he had ordered green jerseys for the wearin' on Saturday - the first time the Fighting Irish had donned such shirts since 1963. The players who warmed up in their conventional dark blue jerseys, didn't know of the ploy until they were handed their starting game shirts back in the locker room moments before the kickoff. When Notre Dame came onto the field, the crowd of 59,075 erupted into startled cheers and Southern Cal started checking to see if it was in the right stadium.

(click the pic for some videos of the game)

Notre Dame throttled the 5th-ranked Trojans 49-19, ended up winning the rest of their games, and then beat #1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl to claim the National Championship.

And that's the Green Jersey game. Accept no substitutes.

---

The game was notable in a couple of other important ways, too.

	Check out this photo of Joe Montana at the line of scrimmage.
	Now look a little closer. Who's that?

Yep, it's Charlie, who was a senior at the time. There he is, soaking in the game like a sponge, no doubt second-guessing Devine (along with every other Irish fan in the stands).


Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It

When the 1977 game against Southern Cal is mentioned, the green jerseys are always remembered as the best "surprise" of the game. There was another one, though: a giant Trojan Horse.

In the earlier video clip you could see how the Trojan Horse was wheeled around the north endzone before setting up against the tunnel.

Suddenly, the front burst open and the Fightin' Irish football team poured out onto the field, running down the tunnel and through the horse, ready to take their pound of flesh from the Trojans.

Attention current students: you've got to do this again. Who knows the next time we'll have a #1 Southern Cal invading our campus. Two years from now, Leinart and Bush will be in the NFL, and Pete Carroll will be going 3-13 as coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Now's the chance.

The game's only 8 days from now, so some enterprising students need to jump on this right away. Some of you engineers get going with the blueprints, marketing majors help spread the word, and get some Arts & Letters types to start penning some epic poems to commemorate the event. To help give the project a jumpstart, here's a preliminary blueprint you can use that we whipped up over a few beers last night. Hopefully it's not too technical.

Just imagine that behemoth appearing out of the tunnel in front of 80,000+ screaming Notre Dame fans. Slowly, it's wheeled around the field. Perhaps Pete Carroll will welcome the Horse as a gift to his coaching greatness and allow it to remain, despite Matt Laocoön's, I mean Leinart's, wariness. The preening Trojans, drunk on self-flattery and inflated egos, laugh and point, congratulating each other: yet another foe has fled the field before the battle's even begun.

Then, without warning, the trap is sprung: the ramp flies open, and what seems like a thousand wild Irishmen come pouring out. Lendale and Reggie bolt in fear; the Poodle soils himself. The rout of the mighty Trojans is on.

Students, let's make this happen.

Go Irish - Beat Trojans | by Jay

(Okay, enough statistical minutiae -- time to focus. The following Southern Cal warm-up comes from our friend Paul.)

For some of you younger fans out there, it may seem unfathomable that the Fighting Irish spent almost two decades dominating the series with the University of Southern California. Southern Cal fans might also have conveniently forgotten this fact (easy to do with three straight 31-point stompings and a championship-and-a-half fresh in their memories). But I have not; nor should you.

Here is how the series played out from 1983 to 2001:

Year	Loc.	Coach	W/L	Score	ND rank	SC rank
1983	Home	Faust	W	27-6	NR	NR
1984	Away	Faust	W	19-7	NR	14
1985	Home	Faust	W	37-3	NR	NR
1986	Away	Holtz	W	38-37	NR	17
1987	Home	Holtz	W	26-15	10	NR
1988	Away	Holtz	W	27-10	1	2
1989	Home	Holtz	W	28-24	1	9
1990	Away	Holtz	W	10-6	7	18
1991	Home	Holtz	W	24-20	5	NR
1992	Away	Holtz	W	31-23	5	19
1993	Home	Holtz	W	31-13	2	NR
1994	Away	Holtz	T	17-17	NR	17
1995	Home	Holtz	W	38-10	17	5
1996	Away	Holtz	L	20-27	10	NR
1997	Home	Davie	L	17-20	NR	NR
1998	Away	Davie	L	0-10	9	NR
1999	Home	Davie	W	25-24	NR	NR
2000	Away	Davie	W	38-21	11	NR
2001	Home	Davie	W	27-16	NR	NR

So, Notre Dame went 15-3-1 against the Trojans over that span...including a 12-0-1 stretch. Yes, the Notre Dame-USC series went thirteen years without a Trojan victory. Three in a row by this current batch of Trojans is nice for them, but the Irish had a string of 11 wins in a row in this great rivalry. I hope this serves as a good reminder for Irish fans that once-great programs can lay dormant for awhile, be dominated by their main rival and even be written off as has-beens, before rising once again to championship-level football.

For the purposes of bar-room argumentation, I've ranked the Top 5 Irish wins in the series over this time frame.

5. October 21, 1995
Marc Edwards and the Irish Defense Pound USC
#5 Southern California at #17 Notre Dame
38-10

USC came into South Bend with National Championship hopes. They left the rain-soaked field at Notre Dame Stadium with a devastating loss. Notre Dame’s defense, led by Paul Grasmanis, Shawn Wooden, and Kory Minor, gave up only one touchdown (a 17-yard Keyshawn Johnson reception), came up with four Trojan turnovers, and scored a safety. Ron Powlus went 18 for 29, 189 yards, with 1 TD, 1 INT, and a two-point conversion reception. Irish fullback Marc Edwards minced the Trojan defense for 82 yards and 3 TDs, plus a trick two-point conversion pass to Powlus. The Irish put up 17 fourth quarter points to close out the victory. USC coach John Robinson said, “They overwhelmed us, there’s no question….The difference in the game was their ability to run at us.”

4. October 21, 1989
Top-Ranked Irish Come Back to Win
#9 Southern California at #1 Notre Dame
28-24

As part of Notre Dame Stadium's 75th anniversary celebration this season, UND.com compiled a list of the greatest wins in Notre Dame Stadium history and asked Irish fans to vote on the most memorable victories. This one came in at number 8. The University’s athletic web site describes the game: “This game had everything -- a pre-game confrontation in the tunnel, a comeback victory by the Irish and a satisfying win over one of Notre Dame's biggest rivals. Trailing 24-21 with nine minutes remaining, Tony Rice leads the Irish on a 15-play, 80-yard drive culminated by his 15-yard touchdown run. The drive comes after Rice starts the contest just four of 15 in passing attempts and turns the ball over twice on a fumble and interception. D'Juan Francisco bats away Todd Marinovich's pass in the end zone with 1:40 to play to ensure the victory. Rice rushes for 99 yards and two touchdowns, while Rocket Ismail adds 33 yards rushing and 62 yards receiving. The Irish also rush for 266 yards as a team against the Junior Seau-led Trojan defense.”

3. October 16, 1999
Tubas Silenced: Great Comeback II
(Unranked) Southern California at (Unranked) Notre Dame
25-24

The day started as a beautiful, sunny, picture-perfect autumn afternoon. I attended this game at Notre Dame stadium, sitting in the first row of the seats in the southeast corner of the endzone, with the tubas of the USC band directly in my face. Those tubas played and played and played as the Trojans jumped out to a 24-3 early third quarter lead. But, as can happen in October in our beloved South Bend, the weather rapidly deteriorated. Southern Cal self-destructed in the sudden darkness, the rain, and the wind, and the Irish capitalized. With the bad weather at his back in the third quarter, Irish quarterback Jarious Jackson hit tight end Dan O’Leary on a seven-yard touchdown strike. When the teams switched sides to start the fourth quarter, the wind shifted with them, and remained in the face of the USC offense. After the game USC coach Paul Hackett, commenting on the miraculous wind shift, stated, “"It was remarkable. Someone elbowed me and said, 'Now they've changed the wind too.' That is what happens when you play at Notre Dame Stadium." Sheets of rain came down, and a blitzing Ron Israel forced a USC fumble…leading to a Tony Driver rushing touchdown (the Irish missed the extra point). The Irish later kicked a 33-yard field goal (with that wind). Notre Dame then completed the comeback when Jackson scrambled toward the end zone from the 18 yard line, was hit at the 1, and fumbled into the end zone…where tight end Jabari Holloway came up with the recovery and the touchdown. “It was a mad scramble for the ball,” Holloway said. “There was a lot of pushing, punching, kicking. But I fell on the ball and that was that.” A two-point conversion failed yet the Irish held on for Notre Dame’s biggest comeback victory since the 35-34 win over Houston in the 1979 Cotton Bowl, Joe Montana’s “chicken soup” game. And, thank God, those Trojan tubas were drenched and finally silent.

2. November 29, 1986
Brown, Beuerlein, and Carney: Great Comeback I
(Unranked) Notre Dame at #17 Southern California
38-37

Irish center Chuck Lanza called the victory “the springboard” to future success. “It showed the resiliency of our team,” Lanza stated, “when we were able to come back in the second half.” Irish halfback Mark Green called it “the real turning point” under first-year Coach Lou Holtz. Holtz brought his 4-6 Fighting Irish team to Los Angeles to play the #17 Trojans. With four minutes to play in the third quarter, the Irish were down 30-12. Notre Dame rallied behind quarterback Steve Beuerlein, who threw for four touchdown passes during the game. And future Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown returned a Trojan punt 56 yards late in the fourth quarter (Tom Pagna, on Westwood One Radio: “Everything green in this stadium is absolutely rockin’!”), setting up a John Carney 19-yard field goal as the clock ran out. Holtz would lead the Irish to 35 victories over the next 40 games.

1. November 26, 1988
Underdog #1 Irish Play like Champions
#1 Notre Dame at #2 Southern California
27-10

Before L. Tyrone Willingham and Kent Baer ensured USC quarterbacks two Heisman trophies, the Notre Dame defense under Lou Holtz once ruined a USC Heisman campaign (Rodney Peete would finish second to Barry Sanders in 1988) on the way to winning a National Championship for the Irish. Amidst controversy that Thanksgiving weekend, with Holtz suspending Tony Brooks and Ricky Watters for showing up late to a team meeting, the Fighting Irish jumped out to a 7-0 lead on quarterback Tony Rice’s 65-yard option keeper. Tony Roberts’s call is forever etched in my brain: “...and he out-legged the ENTIRE Southern Cal defense.” But it was the punishing Notre Dame defense that made play difficult for Peete and the Trojans. Frank Stams had two-and-a-half sacks, and buried Peete with a block on a key interception by Stan Smagala late in the first half. Smagala returned Peete’s errant throw 64 yards for the Irish touchdown and a 20-7 lead. The Irish capped the scoring with a Mark Green plunge and a 27-10 victory. Of course, Notre Dame would go on and defeat West Virginia in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl, and the Fighting Irish would again be National Champions.

-- Paul

Crystal Ball Gazing | by Jay

(This post is for entertainment purposes only.)

To date...

Team	PF avg	PA avg	PF vs ND	PA vs ND	PF diff	PA diff
Pittsburgh	21.5	15.0	21	42	-0.5	+27.0
Michigan	35.5	17.8	10	17	-25.5	-0.8
Michigan State	45.8	19.0	44	41	-1.8	+22.0
Washington	21.3	25.8	17	36	-4.3	+10.3
Purdue	38.3	30.0	28	49	-10.3	+19.0
ND's average					-7.1	+12.9

_PF = Points for, PA = Points against

PF and PA averages do not include each team's ND game (but they do include games against Division 1-AA opponents, because hey, Stanford actually lost to UC-Davis. The other 1-AA games are Pitt vs Youngstown State and BYU vs Eastern Illinois).

So, ND's roughly 13 points better on offense and about a touchdown better on defense, on average. Taking those averages and applying them to our future schedule...

Team	PF avg	PA avg	Projected ND Outcome
Southern Cal	54.0	18.8	L, 32-47
BYU	27.0	28.0	W, 41-20
Tennessee	20.3	15.8	W, 29-13
Navy	28.7	28.3	W, 41-22
Syracuse	19.0	20.0	W, 33-12
Stanford	26.0	34.0	W, 47-19

Statistically Speaking | by Pat

• So far this season, Notre Dame's kicked the ball off 34 times and has recorded 6 touchbacks. That's a touchback for every 5.67 kickoffs or, put another way, 18% of ND kickoffs end up as touchbacks. Opponents have kicked the ball off only 22 times, but have recorded 9 touchbacks. That's a touchback every 2.44 kickoffs or a 41% touchback percentage. While it appears that the kickoff distance is not exactly ideal, it hasn't really hurt Notre Dame in the field position battle. Taking returns into consideration, the average Notre Dame kickoff goes for 39.7 yards while opponents are putting up 39.8 yards per kick.

• Notre Dame's scored 185 points while giving up 120 points. There's been some criticism of the defense being too porous, especially through the air. Yet it would seem that many of the points are being scored in garbage time, which lessens the impact of the score. A look at the breakdown in opponent scoring shows this to be true.

Point Differential	Points Allowed
28+ (+)	36
21-27 (+)	14
14-20 (+)	10
7-13 (+)	3
1-6 (+)	12
TIED	31
1-6 (-)	0
7-13 (-)	7
14-20 (-)	7
21+ (-)	0
TOTAL	120

Two things jump out.

First, we give up most of our points when we lead by 28 more. In fact, 50 of our points given up, or 42%, came when we led by three touchdowns or more. That makes sense, as Weis has commented that he's not looking for blowout wins. As the Purdue game showed us, he'll gladly trade touchdowns with a team down by 28 points late in the second half if it means keeping the clock running.

Second, 31 points have been scored by the opponent when the game is tied. Yet, only 14 have been scored when the Irish were already losing. That suggests that the Irish are able to respond to giving up points by scoring some of their own. In fact, looking at the drive charts, Notre Dame has scored on the immediate drive following an opponent score 9 times out of 19. That's 47% and includes running out the clock against Washington and Purdue. If you only consider the first half, ND is 5 for 9 or 56%. I have no frame of reference on a stat like this, but it sounds awfully high to me.

• The pass defense numbers and rankings are still threatening obscenity laws; the Irish check in at 305.6 passing yards allowed per game which is good enough for 112th in the nation. That number looks about the same as the numbers for 2004 (281.25 yards, 116th place). However, the pass efficiency ranking, which is probably a better measure of the true worth of a pass defense, marks the Irish at 123.46 yards per game, which is 60th in the nation. To compare, in 2004 the numbers were 138.34 yards per game, good for 98th in the nation. So in that regard, it does seem that the defense is improving.

To be clear, the "pass defense" ranking only counts the total passing yards given up per game. The "pass efficieny defense" is calculated by considering the total passing yardage, pass completion percentages, interception totals, percentages of interceptions thrown, total touchdowns, touchdown rates, yards per pass attempt, and yards per pass completion (whew). So, while ND has been giving up plenty of yards through the air, those yards haven't been as effective for opponents as they were last year. That is to say, fewer yards per pass, fewer touchdowns, and more interceptions.

• The one offensive stat that really gives an assist to the defense (besides touchdowns) is time of possession. And right now no one is doing it better than ND: the Irish lead the nation in offensive TOP with an average of 34:30 minutes per game.

It's cliched, but it's true: opponents can't score if they aren't on the field.

• Brady Quinn New Record of the Week: With his performance against Purdue, Quinn not only passed Rick Mirer (5,997 yards) on the career passing list, but also became only the third Notre Dame quarterback in history to reach 6,000 career yards. Previously, no Notre Dame quarterback has ever thrown for 300 yards more than twice in a season. Quinn has accomplished this feat in three straight games.

As it currently stands, Quinn has 1,621 passing yards on the season and 6,038 yards for his career. He is averaging 324.2 passing yards per game this season. Not only is this destroying the record single-season average of 242.9 set in 1970 by Joe Theismann, but his completion percentage of 65.3 is currently comfortably ahead of the single season ND record of 61.6% set in 1993 by Kevin McDougal. If the passing averages hold and we only consider regular season games, Quinn will finish the season with 3,566 passing yards, which is 833 yards greater than Notre Dame's current record of 2,753 yards set by Jarious Jackson in 1999. It will also give Quinn 7,983 career passing yards, which will move him ahead of Ron Powlus (7,479 yards) for the all-time career passing title. Oh, and Quinn has another season of eligiblity left.

• This stat is jumping the gun a bit, but with only one road game remaining -- against a struggling Stanford team to boot -- I figured, why not.

The last time ND went undefeated on the road was in 1993. That year the Irish beat #3 Michigan, Purdue, Stanford, BYU, and Navy (at Veterans Stadium) on the road. That's more of a factoid than stat, but it's just another connection between this year's squad and some of the better units under Holtz. Of course, the road opponents this year haven't been as strong as advertised. As we head into the middle of conference play, they are a collective 8-14 with only one team (3-2 Michigan) in possession of a winning record. Home opponents on the other hand, who initially appeared to contain most of the weaker teams on the schedule, are currently a collective 14-11.

Season-long Running Averages

Offense

Category	Pitt	UM	MSU	UW	PU	2005	2004
Yards per rush	5.5	2.4	2.8	5.0	3.1	3.8	3.32
Avg yards per PA	8.4	4.7	8.1	8.8	12.0	8.5	7.2
Avg yards per PC	11.0	11.7	14.8	13.1	15.6	13.2	13.4
Pass completion %	67%	63%	55%	68%	77%	62%	54%
3rd downs conv.	10/15 (67%)	4/15 (27%)	6/18 (33%)	6/13 (46%)	10/16 (63%)	36/77 (47%)	68/183 (37%)
Rushing yd avg	275.0	104.0	107.0	233.0	153.0	174.4 (39th)	127.4 (85th)
Passing yd avg	227.0	140.0	487.0	327.0	468.0	329.8 (11th)