lets look at the bright side

[mick2]

There is still more ball to be played, we have a season here (we could be michigan).

3 out of the next 4 are all very winnable games, and that last one just might be the chance for this team, this coaching staff and us fans to get that signature win we've all been waiting for.

5-3 with 3 winnable games left on the schedule, where were we this time last year?

We are a good team, that seems to be inches away from being something special, recruits will look at this game and say "wow, this team is playing hard, and they are just missing a piece or two, maybe i can be that piece that helps this team breakthrough that plateau." i believe that High school seniors are watching all of these freshman break records and it makes them want to come to ND to make a difference from year one.

Charlie is putting together a team that will be downright scary good in years to come, you've seen what a difference a few good recruits can do, and we have a couple more coming in next year, and then their will be a couple more after that. and so-on.

don't write this season off, there is still more ball to be played, We have a season!

 

[ACamp1900]

yep...

 

[ARALOU]

I concur. Despite the losses I have enjoyed watching them this year. I can remember a few of Lou's teams that could not stop anyone. They could not be stopped either (outscore the opponent). I still say we just need more attitude and killer instinct. We need to be nasty and not worry about running up the score in the second quarter. I cant believe Golden Tate said that, where was that found?

 

[mick2]

I concur. Despite the losses I have enjoyed watching them this year. I can remember a few of Lou's teams that could not stop anyone. They could not be stopped either (outscore the opponent). I still say we just need more attitude and killer instinct. We need to be nasty and not worry about running up the score in the second quarter. I cant believe Golden Tate said that, where was that found?

yes i saw it on espn.com, i don't like that either lets kill these teams everyone else does it and doesn't think twice about it.

 

[BeatSC]

I'm concerned about what RB's will be thinking about this pass first anemic run offense.

 

[PADOMERNUT]

mick, reps bro, great post. there is still plenty of football to be played. BEAT BC!!!!!


I didnt see what Golden Tate said. Can anyone shed some light?

 

[IrishGrizz]

There is still more ball to be played, we have a season here (we could be michigan).

3 out of the next 4 are all very winnable games, and that last one just might be the chance for this team, this coaching staff and us fans to get that signature win we've all been waiting for.

5-3 with 3 winnable games left on the schedule, where were we this time last year?

We are a good team, that seems to be inches away from being something special, recruits will look at this game and say "wow, this team is playing hard, and they are just missing a piece or two, maybe i can be that piece that helps this team breakthrough that plateau." i believe that High school seniors are watching all of these freshman break records and it makes them want to come to ND to make a difference from year one.

Charlie is putting together a team that will be downright scary good in years to come, you've seen what a difference a few good recruits can do, and we have a couple more coming in next year, and then their will be a couple more after that. and so-on.

don't write this season off, there is still more ball to be played, We have a season!

PA- I am with you. I guess its like alot of things- either you like it or you don't. I chose to look at the potential, look at where we are coming from (3 lost years of recruits) and how we are getting better and what we will be in the future. NDOM, Midwestguy, Iron Machine and TC 57 can leave what they see as a sinking ship. I for one would rather have their dead ass weight off the boat so I can help bail the water and resew the sails.

 

[NDOM]

PA- I am with you. I guess its like alot of things- either you like it or you don't. I chose to look at the potential, look at where we are coming from (3 lost years of recruits) and how we are getting better and what we will be in the future. NDOM, Midwestguy, Iron Machine and TC 57 can leave what they see as a sinking ship. I for one would rather have their dead ass weight off the boat so I can help bail the water and resew the sails.

I never said I'm jumping ship and WHO THE FUCK are you judging me? Are you Jesus Christ himself or what? This is a place (for the billionth time) where you can express your feelings about Notre Dame or anything for that matter and thats what I did. If you dont like what I have to say then........DONT READ IT! Duh. It's just that simple, but for you to judge me and say "I'm jumping ship" or "I'm a fairweather fan" is just plain wrong. I will always be a Notre Dame fan, I'm just simply stating 100% true facts.

 

[phork]

Nothing short of undefeated next year will make me happy at this point. The excuses are done with. I am very afraid that as bad as Michigan is this year, they will lap us on the way back to the top.

 

[SteveM]

You Can Have My Chump Opponents - I'm Not Hungry

You Can Have My Chump Opponents - I'm Not Hungry

There is still more ball to be played, we have a season here (we could be michigan).

3 out of the next 4 are all very winnable games...

I love you guys but let me point out the loser subtext (yes "loser") subtext that permeates this site.

And it starts with the schedule analysis that is so played. I.e., counting "winnable games." You guys who claim to be the authentic champions for ND rationalize your love by looking for chumps on the schedule.

"Oh, I love ND so much that it makes me happy to see us playing doormat teams to inflate our record! And then we (and Charlie too) can feel swell!"

"And then I hope we get invited to a rinky-dink bowl game so that our fragile egos don't get bruised. And to keep Mark May from laughing at us!" (The Big Bully!)

This thinking is the football equivalent of the soft racism of low expectations. Rationalize away mediocrity (too young, too pure, too this, too that...) and be thankful for speed-bump challenges.

I think that kinda stinks.

Mick, I'm not taking a shot at you personally. I'm asking you guys to forget the schedule and look at ND straight up. Is this a team that can make it happen? If it is, let it happen. If it's not, let's discuss after the season is over. But in the meantime put the low expectations of beating slug opponents away.

SteveM

P.S. Ya Wanna Be The Man...?

 

[midwestguy]

There is still more ball to be played, we have a season here (we could be michigan).

that last one just might be the chance for this team, this coaching staff and us fans to get that signature win we've all been waiting for.

If you think this team belongs on the same field as USC let alone has a chance to beat them - you are one self deluded soul.

BC will beat us, USC will crush us and we'll probably beat two horrible teams in Syracuse and Navy. Big deal. That's 7-5 against a schedule that is rated in the 60s.
If we played in the Big East or Big 10 we would be lucky to win 6 games. Tell me again please how this is all Ty's fault. I need a good laugh.

 

[phork]

I'm sorry to bring up Saban again, but his team is just as young as ours. While there is a lot of football to be played, Year2 8-0.

 

[mick2]

stevem, you make no sense bro, i never said i wanted a lesser bowl in any of my other posts. you can look them up.

look i dont care if you sit in front of your computer with a dictionary to help you write your posts to make yourself sound intelligently comical, thats your prerogative, but when you misread what i have said and turn it to something else thats when i get a little upset.

I simply stated that this team was not expected to win much of anything, remember gd93 posting that we would go 11-1, and pretty much everybody and there mothers cried wolf and gave him negative reps for being so positive about this team. because everybody including myself thought this would be a 8-4 7-5 middle of the road team.

guess what all of you were right, and so was i. were a 5-3 middle of the road team, but the only thing i cant understand is why there is such a backlash if they are right where you guys expected them to be, did you lose focus and think of NC aspirations when we were 4-1?

Its simply baffling to me i looked at this season as i have always looked at it, and i will continue to, unless charlie loses out i count this season as a successful stepping stone to a better 2009.

I am never happy about a loss but i always enjoy a win no matter if we are playing st marys school for the blind so i dont understand your argument of me or anybody being happy to beat doormat opponnents, who wouldn't be happy with a win????? at least all of the teams we have played are D1, no youngstown states, or portland states, or cal poly's.

And i dont care if you've heard it a million times, its the truth, we are too inexperienced and just too young, but these kids are way ahead of the curve as far as growing up. And for the last time alabama has a junior/senior QB that makes a ridiculous difference yes they are 8-0 but will not stay that way.

so go ahead keep saying we are a horrible team yada yada yada, the truth is this team has lived up to my expectations to date and actually exceeded them in some aspects.

 

[midwestguy]

stevem, you make no sense bro, i never said i wanted a lesser bowl in any of my other posts. you can look them up.

look i dont care if you sit in front of your computer with a dictionary to help you write your posts to make yourself sound intelligently comical, thats your prerogative, but when you misread what i have said and turn it to something else thats when i get a little upset.

I simply stated that this team was not expected to win much of anything, remember gd93 posting that we would go 11-1, and pretty much everybody and there mothers cried wolf and gave him negative reps for being so positive about this team. because everybody including myself thought this would be a 8-4 7-5 middle of the road team.

guess what all of you were right, and so was i. were a 5-3 middle of the road team, but the only thing i cant understand is why there is such a backlash if they are right where you guys expected them to be, did you lose focus and think of NC aspirations when we were 4-1?

Its simply baffling to me i looked at this season as i have always looked at it, and i will continue to, unless charlie loses out i count this season as a successful stepping stone to a better 2009.

I am never happy about a loss but i always enjoy a win no matter if we are playing st marys school for the blind so i dont understand your argument of me or anybody being happy to beat doormat opponnents, who wouldn't be happy with a win????? at least all of the teams we have played are D1, no youngstown states, or portland states, or cal poly's.

And i dont care if you've heard it a million times, its the truth, we are too inexperienced and just too young, but these kids are way ahead of the curve as far as growing up. And for the last time alabama has a junior/senior QB that makes a ridiculous difference yes they are 8-0 but will not stay that way.

so go ahead keep saying we are a horrible team yada yada yada, the truth is this team has lived up to my expectations to date and actually exceeded them in some aspects.

Are you Charlie Weis's son? Seriously. I don't even know where to begin here. Charlie said he expected 9 to 11 wins. Obviously that isn't going to happen. In Weis's 4th season, this team looks mediocre against a very, very easy schedule. We scheduled 4 doormats along wth the always average Purdue & Michigan State. By the way, San Diego State who we did schedule was BEATEN by Cal Poly.

 

[ACamp1900]

I am convinced 'SteveM' stands for Steve McQueen... good and bad

Painting those who insist we must win a bowl game at all costs as pansies is flat wrong... I could just as eaily spin your words into "'tis but a scratch" from holy grail or "That wall is in our way!!! So let's head butt our way through it baby, because we are men and men don't rationalize shit! We just beat bitches down or pass out from loss of blood in the process baby!! Now give me another testosterone injection, I'm starting to feel girly."

I admire your fire steve, AND understand where it comes from... but can you honestly not see the logic of coming to the conclusion that this is called 'rebuilding' and while doing so you have to take baby steps before you can beat top ten teams each and every week. Winning a bowl game would be one of those obvious steps, BCS or otherwise.

 

[mick2]

Are you Charlie Weis's son? Seriously. I don't even know where to begin here. Charlie said he expected 9 to 11 wins. Obviously that isn't going to happen. In Weis's 4th season, this team looks mediocre against a very, very easy schedule. We scheduled 4 doormats along wth the always average Purdue & Michigan State. By the way, San Diego State who we did schedule was BEATEN by Cal Poly.

Yeah every coach wants to go undefeated and he is not going to tell the media that he thinks this is a mediocre team, some of you seem like your never satisfied, did you honestly think that this team was going to magically win all of their games after scraping out just three wins a year earlier? a few plays go the other way and we're at 7-1 right now but unfortunately thats why we play the games because anyone can win on any given saturday.

i still believe this team will be great, and this is just the beginning of something special. so i ain't worried.

 

[SteveM]

No Time For Nuance

No Time For Nuance

I am convinced 'SteveM' stands for Steve McQueen... good and bad

Painting those who insist we must win a bowl game at all costs as pansies is flat wrong... I could just as eaily spin your words into "'tis but a scratch" from holy grail or "That wall is in our way!!! So let's head butt our way through it baby, because we are men and men don't rationalize shit! We just beat bitches down or pass out from loss of blood in the process baby!! Now give me another testosterone injection, I'm starting to feel girly."

I admire your fire steve, AND understand where it comes from... but can you honestly not see the logic of coming to the conclusion that this is called 'rebuilding' and while doing so you have to take baby steps before you can beat top ten teams each and every week. Winning a bowl game would be one of those obvious steps, BCS or otherwise.

Guys, I think we're talking past each other - mostly.

Mick, again my point was not directed at you. But rather at the idea that an 8 win season attainable because of a fortuitous weak schedule is a good thing. It's not that we have the Little Sisters of the Poor on the schedule. It's that you guys count on them to provide an illusion of respectibility.

All the weak schedule does for me is extend the period of ambiguity about whether Charlie Weis, et al. are for real. And if there's one thing I hate, it's ambiguity. Be either really good or really shitty so I know. But don't be half shitty and slide into the next season on a soft schedule.

BTW, we had 5 years of that 7-9 to 9-7 morass of mediocrity in DC with Norv Turner and that drove me crazy.

ACamp, rebuilding is one thing, but objectively crummy coaching is something else, the play calling, lack of fire, Jimmy's mechanics that I described. All of that exacts a price in game outcomes. And man, when I see a Georgia Tech score a big win under a first year coach, I ask myself, why can't we have a win like that?

And for an ND fan to have to fantasize about what used to be a regular outcome is almost phantasmagorical. The compare and constrast of a Paul Johnson team's real accomplishments versus our little scraps of hope based on a weak schedule are getting too much to take.

And back to my BC baseline that you guys consigned to the trash heap elsewhere. I like and admire BC. But BC's performance should be a floor under which ND should never fall. And now we're afraid of losing to BC! What does that say about the program?

Again, I'm not advocating anything right now. I stand by Charlie game by game. And I'll always stand by the players. (The booing and name calling of both players and coaches is way out of line.) However, itemizing and taking a factual inventory of what is not going right, not just by me, but by the other guys too, is a proper thing to do.

SteveM

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Great posts.

 

[ACamp1900]

ACamp, rebuilding is one thing, but objectively crummy coaching is something else, the play calling, lack of fire, Jimmy's mechanics that I described. All of that exacts a price in game outcomes. And man, when I see a Georgia Tech score a big win under a first year coach, I ask myself, why can't we have a win like that?

And for an ND fan to have to fantasize about what used to be a regular outcome is almost phantasmagorical. The compare and constrast of a Paul Johnson team's real accomplishments versus our little scraps of hope based on a weak schedule are getting too much to take.

And back to my BC baseline that you guys consigned to the trash heap elsewhere. I like and admire BC. But BC's performance should be a floor under which ND should never fall. And now we're afraid of losing to BC! What does that say about the program?

Again, I'm not advocating anything right now. I stand by Charlie game by game. And I'll always stand by the players. (The booing and name calling of both players and coaches is way out of line.) However, itemizing and taking a factual inventory of what is not going right, not just by me, but by the other guys too, is a proper thing to do.

SteveM

I agree totally... In fact never stated anything contrary. I have been on the win a bowl game no matter what bus for three years though and you're fake quotes caused my response. What can I say I'd rather win a small bowl game than lose another big one... which, just as you stated, is simply understanding what this team is right now, and more importantly what it is not...

I remember my high school football coach, total testosterone and F bombs guy... "We are running the 5-2 on D and the power I when we have the ball!! We ain't changing for for ANYBODY because that's what we do... we will beat everyone we play and do it playing our game !! we kick ass take names and we do it OUR way!! Screw what they are doing, we can beat anybody!!!"

Sounds good and all but my freshman year we played TJ Housmanzahdah's team and they were three and four wide all game, jumped out to an early lead and our coach wouldn't back down... 5-2 and establish the line with the Power I... he did this all the time, because "We won't back down from shit!!" That personally taught me that knowing and adjusting to your weakness is a good thing... don't ignore it with Bravado... so yeah, as un-football as it sounds... give me Navy, Syracuse and a lower teir bowl win to build on for the future of this team... believe me I am as frustrated with the past ten yearas as you are... but that's pretty much my whole point... I understand yours, just don't agree with it on that note alone

btw, you had a thread on BC go missing or someone bashed your thoughts??? clarity??

 

[NDinL.A.]

I'm sorry to bring up Saban again, but his team is just as young as ours. While there is a lot of football to be played, Year2 8-0.

You bring Bama up all the time, and I reply with the same response every time, and yet you never respond to my response. If I had energy I'd find my old replies and just cut and paste them.

I'll give you the gyst of it: apples and oranges. 'Bama can and does recruit guys that wouldn't even be allowed to enter the city of South Bend, much less attend the university and play football. JC transfers and high school thugs that are athletic as hell will make a program better in a heartbeat. Look at SC. Alabama had 5 (!!!) freshmen who were already kicked off the team and spent time in jail! Is that who you want representing ND?

I'm not arguing w/ anyone who is pissed about the performance. I don't blame you at all. We're all pissed. But Nick Satan and Alabama is a completely different situation. Just go read their article in S.I. at the beginning of the year, and you'll see how 'Bama got so good so fast...

 

[ARALOU]

You bring Bama up all the time, and I reply with the same response every time, and yet you never respond to my response. If I had energy I'd find my old replies and just cut and paste them.

I'll give you the gyst of it: apples and oranges. 'Bama can and does recruit guys that wouldn't even be allowed to enter the city of South Bend, much less attend the university and play football. JC transfers and high school thugs that are athletic as hell will make a program better in a heartbeat. Look at SC. Alabama had 5 (!!!) freshmen who were already kicked off the team and spent time in jail! Is that who you want representing ND?

I'm not arguing w/ anyone who is pissed about the performance. I don't blame you at all. We're all pissed. But Nick Satan and Alabama is a completely different situation. Just go read their article in S.I. at the beginning of the year, and you'll see how 'Bama got so good so fast...

Thanks for posting that. Alabama has tradition and I admire them for it. But they recruit a different type of player. They have 23 and 24 year old juniors with one year experience? QB is like 23, tailback 22 or 23, loads of JUCO guys. I bet the average age of their sophs is 21. That is not what it appears. Saban brought in some hired guns so to speak.

Also, if we get rid of CW who do we get? Remember when we hired him? How many passed on the job? I was beginning to wonder if anyone wanted the job. I am happy with the progress. He is an alum. He loves the school. He recruits great. They will get it together.

Maybe we can get Mark Richt cause he got rolled up by Florida. Maybe Texas will fire Mack Brown because TT moved the ball at will. Maybe Fulmer will take it when Tennessee runs him out of town. (with one of the nations highest winning percentages over the last 15 or so years) Maybe we can get Les Miles, they have two or three losses now, LSU will run him off for those kind of seasons? What about Joe Paterno? They had him all but gone a few years back. GEEZ guys give it some time. Give the fire CW crap a rest already.

 

[phork]

I didn't say fire Weis. I do however feel that Saban is a better coach than Weis is, which was pretty much the point of my reply.

 

[ARALOU]

Saban is a good coach. He has proven that. But as far as the "miraculous" resurrection of his program goes. He has guys that were in the system (or jucos) when we were playing Quinn and the Shark, Zb, Walker. The guys he has are more seasoned and phsyically more developed. He has done a good job and he is good coach but he has a different playing field.