Holy shit, holy shit!!! What a wonderful Hangover to have this week! Friends, Notre Dame’s 20-16 victory over Southern Cal was a culmination of a reckoning, one year in the making. Pay no attention to the national media, as they have already returned the favor with minimal commentary on the game in Los Angeles, but read and listen very closely to those outlets that have followed Notre Dame as closely as you have throughout the years. The blogs, local newspapers, local radio and television stations, and the major Internet sites (ISD, IE, II), will all declare that a massive step has just been climbed on the way to getting back to the top of the College Football world.
Notre Dame is not there yet, and it would be silly and just plain dumb to think that we should be considered in that category- yet. Notre Dame is a team on the rise. The improvements are there, and they are very, very visible. Those that don’t believe this, are ignorant agenda hounds, and they are, basically, doing their job as dictated by their bosses.
Certainly this is not a Southern Cal team of the same caliber as the previous 8 Trojan teams that the Irish have lost to over the years, but do not let anyone undersell the importance of this game. Almost every pundit in the country was calling this game for USC, although most said that it would probably be a close game. But to say that Notre Dame doesn’t have the talent to compete against teams like Southern Cal, well… that’s fucking absurd.
So what if Matt Barkley was out of the game. Boo-fucking-hoo. Notre Dame was also missing their starting quarterback, as well as starters at running back, tight end, and nose tackle, as well as having a couple of wide receivers back- but not up to speed at all (Riddick and Jones). Dropped passes, because of the rain? Well, I’m pretty sure both teams had to play in the elements on Saturday night. It’s called football. If you don’t like it, basketball season has just started.
On to your Hangover…
The streak is finally over, and it had to end this year.For 8 straight years, the irish faithful have had to endure a lot of pain that came in the shape of the game against Southern Cal. The last victory, was a great and mighty comeback against the Trojans in South Bend in 2001. It was Pete Carrolls first year, and the last of Bob Davie’s.
After that, we watched 3 Willingham teams get destroyed by USC, and thena man named Charlie came to town. It is still joked around, that Charlie Weis’s “signature win” was his 2005 loss to Southern Cal via The Bush Push, and he came oh so fucking close to making that a legit win. Then, just as his predecessor had done, the Irish lost to USC in blowouts for the next 3 years. Last year, the Irish was nearly able to upset the Trojans, but fate had other plans.
This is another step towards Notre Dame’s development. Ending streaks that should have been dead already. While this season had its fair share of, “what the fuck” moments,” stopping the skid to Southern Cal was the Desitin applied to my butt rash. So cool… so fresh.
Notre Dame is slow, blah, blah, blah… Notre Dame doesn’t have the talent, blah, blah, blah. I know I have already blasted the pundits, but I have to point out a couple of things. First, none of those guys that don’t have direct ties to Notre Dame, want to talk about Notre Dame. They are forced to talk about Notre Dame because of the national fanbase and the ratings that come from it. If someone is going to force you to do something, and you just have to do it, with no real consequences coming from your work- than you would probably give a half-ass effort and would have something fucked up in the process.
That is the national media in a nutshell when it comes to the Irish. If it sounds like they are a unified broken record, it is because they are a unified broken record. Pay no mind, and worry not. Ignorance is bliss, and we as Irish fans should know that first-hand.
Brian Smith, I thought I already thanked you for your service?What a magnificent end to a careerthat Brian Smithis having for the Fighting Irish. I will save you the details from the previous 2 games that Smith played before USC, because you already know he was tearing shit up. It’s like a massive switch was flicked for the senior as the end of the tunnel approached.
Against the Trojans, the defense played like an elite unit all the way around, but there were a couple of players that stood out from the rest. Brian Smith was one of them, by far. Smith only accounted for 5 tackles, but one of those was for a loss and he also had 2 pass breakups. The thing is, is that most of his plays came at key moments in the game, and disrupted or ended Trojan drives.
All of this started after Carlo Calabrese got injured and Smith was pushed back into the middle of the defense. Calabrese is healed, but instead of going back to being a “starter” Calabresehad to back up Brian Smith. Why? Because he had the hot hand. He was making plays, and making the defense better.
Remember that Bob Diaco parody? You know, the one I thought was hilarious and posted it on Subway Domer. Yeah. Bob Diaco saw that and immediately ate two unicorn fetuses while simultaneously smearing minatour blood all over his body. He was that fucking serious about proving everyone wrong after the Navy game.
Good for him. He took massive amounts of shit, and piled it up to throw into the faces of our enemies. Notre Dame’s defense allowed an average of 233 yards and an average of 7.3 points allowed in its’s last 3 games. It only allowed 2 TD’s in the final four games- and the one that USC scored was on a 2 yard drive, and it took 4 plays to do it.
Nobody puts baby into a corner.Otherwise Patrick Swayze (AKA Sean Cwynar) will kick your fucking teeth in. That’s what it felt like on Saturday night. Notre Dame’s defense played the part of a 1980’s hero- even as one as masculine as Swayze. All night long the offense was putting the defense in piss-poor positions. If the Irish were stalling out quickly deep in their own territory, they were turning the ball over.
Four turnovers by the Irish, on the road, and Southern Cal was only able to tally up a total of 16 points. Of those 16 points, only 1 touchdown was scored, and that was on a 2 yard drive that took the Trojans 4 plays to finally get it into the endzone- and even that looked somewhat debatable.
We have been celebrating this defense’s play a lot in the previous two weeks, but you know, in the back of your mind, you were waiting for the game against Southern Cal for them to show their real colors. In fact, they did show those colors loudly, andit was the color of death and destruction. They dominated the game. If you played with your back againstthe wall for some of the game, you could be successful, but doing it for an entire game puts those chances right around those of the “longshot” nature.
Notre Dame manned up and bailed out their offense. For years, the offense has been the unit that has had to carry this team, but for the final 3rd of the season, and especially Saturday night, the defense returned the favor in spectacular fashion. How in the world did they do that with all of those slow over-rated defensive players? How?!
Someone once said that you win games with solid defense and a good running game.Since then, the plagiarism has been far-reaching. Notre dame finally dipped into that Skoal can this last 3rd of the season. We talked about the defense, and even though the offense was putting them into some bad spots- it still had to score points to win the game.
Since the injury to Dayne Crist, the gameplan for the offense has been a steady diet of run plays, with more use of the physical pass routes. By physical pass routes, I actually mean less of the dink shit to the “Z” receiver (Toma has actually ran deeper routes than Riddick). In the last three games of the season, Notre Dame went from being a finesse spread team, to a power spread team- mainly in terms of attempts.
Against Southern Cal, it was a balance of the two. The Irish ran the ball 32 times for 147 yards, and they threw the ball 34 times for 149 yards. You really can’t get more balanced than that. It was obvious that Rees was having a lot of trouble with the pressure that SC was bringing, so that use of the sprint draw (which never really worked all season), helped move the chains. This type of gameplan was implemented for Rees, because, let’s face it, he’s a freshman. It allowed more chances of success for the ND offense, and it did just enough to get the win.
Someone in the pressbox was either a complete homer, or drunk, or stoned, or sleeping, or a sweet combination of the bunch.That is the only way to explain the way the scoreboard/clock guy kept fucking up by having the clock continue to run when it should have been stopped late in the 1st half. This happened all on one drive! The first time it happened was on the change of possession, andit was 25 seconds. The second time it happened was after a first down ws made on the 1 yard line, and they added 6 seconds (Although, I’m not sure if they should have since Notre Dame snapped and spiked the ball- before the time was noticed to be put back on). The drive ultimately ended in a Duval Kamara touchdown and we all rejoiced… but what the hell was up with that guy?
And while I am on the topic of shady shit, the spots that the refs were giving us were just awful. I’m talking about a yard or a yard and a half on several occasions. Divine Mandate people, divine mandate.
I know we have already touched base on the running game, but I have to reserve a throne of glory for Cierre Wood and Robert Hughes.Together, they rushed the ball 26 times for 158 yards and 1 TD. (Wood: 15/89…Hughes: 11/69/1). They had an average of over 6 yards a carry. That’s incredible. No one is going to mistake these two for a “Thunder & Lightning” duo, but for what the Irish have been used to this season, it was a work of art.
Most impressive, were the Hughes runs that looked more like FEATS OF STRENGHTH from Festivustime, rather than rushing attempts. To my knowledge, no one has pinned Hughes to the ground- SO FESTIVUS CONTINUES ON!!!!!!!!
The defensive MVP?In the Anti-Preview, I designated Harrison Smithas the predicted MVP of the game. Now, while that award could/should go to Brian Smith, You really can’t argue withit too much given his performance. Harrison Smith had 6 tackles, 2 pass break-ups and1 glorious interception. Of course, had Ronald Johnson caught that pass when Smith slipped and fell- he would be getting crucified on every Irish message board from here to Sri Lanka.
As per the usual this year, Harrison Smith played a very, very good game. Not only has his play improved this year, but he has took a very big leadership role this season. Consider this nugget of wisdom: Harrison Smith has been the gameday captain 4 times this year, and three of those times have come in the last three games of the season. Only Michael Floyd has been a captain more times this year with 5 appearances, with 4 of his 5 coming in the last 4 games of the season.
What do we do with Tommy Rees?Rees has stepped into his role at quarterback, about as well as any freshman is going to in the country. After two consecutive games where the Irish offensive gameplan netted 20 passing attempts, Kelly kicked it up a notch against USC with 32 pass attempts. Rees was able to connect on 20 (62.5%)of those for 149 yards and 2 touchdowns. However, he was responsible for 3 interceptions and a fumble. (OK, so the fumble wasn’t really his fault). Four turnovers can kill you, and it normally would.
Maybe that’s why I laughed out loud when I watched the locker room celebration video, and I saw Rees hug and thank Bob Diaco. Rees knew exactly who bailed him out, and it was one of those cool moments you normally don’t see. It was awesome. I bet that feeling was awesome for both Tommy and Bobby as they bonded the team together like a vicious Mexican street gang in Juarez.
Still though, I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me to tell me that Tommy Rees should be our starter next year. I err on the side of caution when talking about this subject. I’ll save you my argumentative details for right now, as i need something to write about in the upcoming offseason, but I will say that this will be an interesting spring, and an even more interesting fall camp in 2011. Personally, I think Crist should be and will be the starter in 2011, but like I said… I’ll let you in on the details later.
Instead of calling Michael Floyd a, “beast” I will now refer to him as a, “Fire-breathing Puma King.”Do we even understand how good Michael Floyd truly is? If Robert Hughes carried us on that final touchdown drive, what did Floyd do during the rest of the game? Well, Floyd caught 11 passes for 86 yards and a touchdown. That’s nice and all, but did you see just how physical he played? For all the hype that AJ Green, Julio Jones, and Justin Blackmon get (and most of it is well deserved) none of them are as complete of a wide receiver as Floyd. None of them are nearly as physical as The Puma King.
Floyd’s 11 catch performance was the second time he has caught that many ball in a game this season (Tulsa was the other) and it ties himself, Golden, Seymor, and Kelly for 5th all-time for receptions in a game. The touchdown catch tied Golden Tate for 2ndall-time for career TD catches at Notre Dame (26) andonly one behind the all-time leader, Jeff Samardzija. Floyd is only 63 yards behind Tim Brown for 4th on the all-time receiving yardage record, and he is now 3rd in receptions for his career.
Yep. The Fire-breathing Puma King is a honest to goodness pimp-beast. Pray he comes back in 2011- pray hard.
Brian Kelly is only making himself look smarter than we thought he was after Tulsa. Seriously, 75% (or more) of the Irish fanbase was ready to run Kelly out of town. Morons. Never mind the fact that it is his first year withnew systems on both sides of the ball. That would require thought. No, a lot of fans were equating Kelly to a skinnier version of Charlie Weis.
If losing to Tulsa meant beating Southern Cal, then I’ll take that every year. (Probably not the other 4 losses- but you get my point, right?). Brian Kelly took a team that would have normally nose-dived into the 6th level of hell, and he lifted them up into the heavens of glory. These last 3 games have been an unbelievable stretch of vintage Irish football. They ran the football, and played as good of a brand of defensive football as anyone in the country.
Notre Dame ended with basically the record that most people outside of the Irish media and fanbase had thought that they would get, 7-5. The way they got to 7-5 was in a way that no one saw coming, and maybe it was all for the best. Brian Kelly has put more than just hope into this team and ND Nation, he has instilled a confidence that I, personally, have not felt in forfuckingever. Thank you Brian Kelly.
Break, Bowl, & Beyond.With that, I will end this hangover. The Irish will take a small break, and later today they will have a team meeting to determine their bowl schedule. The bowl game won’t be announced until either later this week, or early next week. As obvious as a bid in the Champs Sports Bowl was directly after the USC game, it has been learned that Notre Dame is also looking at possible other options with the Holiday Bowl and the Sun Bowl. We will just have to wait and see.
Go Irish!!!
