Oh, the hating!

[johnnd05]

I'm not going to link to either article, but get ahold of these gems.

First, here are two of Mark Schlabach's predictions for the '07 season:

8. Notre Dame will lose at Penn State and Michigan: The Fighting Irish will be much better than I initially expected, but they'll lose early road games in State College and Ann Arbor. Notre Dame will finish 7-5, beating the teams it's supposed to beat (Georgia Tech, Michigan State, Purdue, Navy, Air Force, Duke and Stanford) and losing to the teams it's not supposed to beat (Penn State, Michigan, UCLA, Boston College and USC). The Irish will play Miami in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

9. Jimmy Clausen won't win the Heisman Trophy (this year, anyway): The freshman quarterback will start the Fighting Irish's opener against Georgia Tech. After Clausen throws for 300 yards and two touchdowns against the Yellow Jackets, new Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Ron Powlus will predict that his protege will win a pair of Heisman Trophies before he's done.​

That's right, folks: we're SUPPOSED to lose to BC and Penn State ...

And then there's this, from Don Banks at SI:

Whisenhunt has an interesting take on the Brady Quinn stock-dropping angle that has been building in recent weeks: It's the letdown factor at work, and it's more of a reflection on Notre Dame underachieving last season than Quinn.

"I don't think it's his game,'' Whisenhunt said. "You know how they say quarterbacks always get too much credit and too much of the blame? I think maybe he's suffering from Notre Dame not doing as well as everybody thought Notre Dame would do. People were talking about them winning the national championship in the preseason.

"Maybe he didn't play his best in big games, but you know what? He's still a good player. He's played in a lot of big games, and he was in a system that had a pro-style offense; so his transition to this league will not be as hard as some other guys.''​

An "interesting take"? Makes it sound like some sort of crack-pot theory, but it seems simply OBVIOUS that something like this sort of "let-down factor" is at work.

Just fanning the flames, to keep the blood boiling nice and high 'til September ...

 

[irishX25]

this preseason stuff means nothing. hell, most of what SI and ESPN write means nothing during the season. they have to say something to get paid though

 

[leppycole]

This guy is a tool!! ESPN is a TABLOID Network -ND will never get respect so long as it has a contract with ABC's Rival NBC

I mean really what prompts a Network to constantly bash 1 school consistently - I challenge anyone to find one positive article about ND covered by ESPN all year.

Schlaballs Bio:

Schlabach graduated from the University of Georgia. He spent nine years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, covering University of Georgia, the Southeastern Conference, the NFL, and NASCAR. Later, Schlabach spent two years at the Washington Post covering college football, college basketball, and boxing. I also heard he covered the gay night club circuit in Atlana.

 

[Freeman Ara]

While you guys might not like what the guy from ESPN has to say, all those games are going to be very tough to win. I think PSU is going to be vastly improved and we have to go to Happy Valley this year with Morelli being in his second full year as a starter. Plus, add in the aspect that we kicked there ass in SB last year and they will be highly motivated.

Michigan in the big house, all thos returning starters on offense...nough said. UCLa on the road after basically choking the game away at our place last year, is going to be a tough win. BC always gives us problems and they were one of the better teams in the
ACC last year, and we all know how much BC likes to show that there is more then one Catholic university with a football team in the country. And USC, if this game was at trhe end if the year I would say it could be interesting, but even though its at home, its relatively early in the year so we could still be experiencing some growing pains.

I know most of you are going to think all this sounds crazy, but we need the defense to be much improved this year because I don't think we can just out score people again, if the defense only marginally improves we go 7-5,8-4. If it vastly improved we probably get to 9-3. If we make a BCS game this year, Weis deserves every coach of the year award there is.

 

[tgolden]

I agree that those will all be tough games. For him to think we might lose to PSU doesn't seem that outrageous. However, if we lose to BC next year......... I may go postal or something like that. I'm gonna predict now that we do not lose to BC.

 

[PADOMERNUT]

I would put BC into the win category, which would put them at 8-4. Then if we can steal a win or 2 from the other category, it will be a successful season. For all the critics of Weis, remember this, while they havent performed well in big games for one reason or another, he absolutely does not lose games he is supposed to win. The only exception was msu in 05, but they were a pretty good team early that year.

 

[phillyirishfan]

Everybody loves to hate Notre Dame. I can live with losing to Michigan on the road. But because of my hometown and the fact that I dont think Penn State is that good. I predict the Irish will pull of the upset in Happy Valley.

 

[TexasNDFan]

I don't think this guy is hating at all, he didn't have to say that he thought the Irish would be better than he initially thought. The season could very well turn out they way he predicts, the Irish will have a very young team. Penn State is on the road and BC was a good solid team, so losing to them would be no surprise. All that said, I think we will have a very well coached team and the overall play should be better than the years past, just that the lack of experience will hurt us in more than a few games especially early on.

So if people want to say that a guy is hating, because he makes predictions that they don't want to hear then go ahead, just don't get mad when they come true. The way I see Schlabach made a safe and reasonable prediction, and covered himself by saying that ND would be better than initially thought.


As for Jimmy Clausen, I would love to have him throw for 300 yds and 2 touchdowns in his first collegiate start.

Quinn will go alot higher than the so call experts predict. The combine overall is more about finding a players faults than anything else. There are a few who do use it to elevate their draft status, but it's only if they have surprising numbers. Besides if you were a team who really wanted Quinn, would you be letting everyone know by talking him up. The Bears this mistake with McNabb and they ended up having to settle for McNown.

 

[SillyIrish]

I don't think the guy predicting losses at Michigan and Penn State is really going out on a limb. Other than the BC game I agree with him and see ND going 8-4 with and then capping it off finally with a bowl win.

 

[phillyirishfan]

We have to admit its a safe prediction

 

[onenybrother]

I don't think the guy predicting losses at Michigan and Penn State is really going out on a limb. Other than the BC game I agree with him and see ND going 8-4 with and then capping it off finally with a bowl win.

I will love a season like that, with us being so inexperience and all. But 0-3 in bowl games isn't gonna look good on Charlie resume.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

I don't see hating at all in his prediction. I think ND wins 7 next year. 8 is a stretch. Hopefully we win at least 7 and then get a bowl game we win.

 

[TexasNDFan]

I will love a season like that, with us being so inexperience and all. But 0-3 in bowl games isn't gonna look good on Charlie resume.

Well I think this scenerio would perfect in that the Irish would goto a lower tier bowl, which should be easier to win. If they can get the win out of the way in 2007, it will be a nonfactor in 2008, when they should make it back to a BCS games

 

[Irishman10]

I dont see anything wrong with either article...Plenty of negative stuff said about ND in the press without looking for it where it doesnt really exist.

 

[johnnd05]

I don't have a problem with thinking we're going to go 7-5 -- what I was objecting to was labelling the PSU, UCLA, and BC games as games we're "supposed" to lose ... this after refusing to count our '06 win over PSU (then only one year removed from a great season, not two years like they will be in '07) as a "quality" win, and after UCLA lost to fricking Florida State in their bowl game, and BC nearly loses to Navy and then has their coach jump ship. Obviously we could lose all three of those games -- we could lose to GT, Purdue, or Navy for that matter -- but I think you're clearly not giving the team enough credit if you chalk those up as games where we're a clear underdog.

The Clausen prediction obviously wasn't an instance of being anti-ND; I just put it in there for a chuckle.

But as to the Banks article: what gets me is that so few people at SI, ESPN, or even NFL.com are willing even to MENTION that this sort of "let-down effect" is a possibility. All we get is criticism of Quinn for refusing to throw at the combine, etc., stories of how he didn't show up in his big games, and so on -- SI even ran an article describing Quinn as a Hollywood kid who was obsessively campaigning to be the #1 pick, while Russell was just a down-home country boy who couldn't care less, a picture that was just absurd if you actually went on to read the quotes from both of them. I'd really like to see one, just ONE article from one of the major sites defending Quinn and saying that he doesn't deserve all the criticism that's been heaped on him -- but in everything I seem to have read, the balance of commentary is much more negative than positive.

 

[johnnd05]

But enough on negativity -- anyone who hasn't read this article by Eric Hanson at MSNBC (just a pro-Irish tool, of course) should do it: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17366886/.

 

[BestBIrish47]

Mark Schlabach has a blow up UGGA doll (anotomically correct for his own personal interest) and was president of the "Put the lotion in the basket club" at Georgia too...Quite a resume!

 

[goirish#1]

I agree he and Mark May must be friends. The only guy who likes ND on ESPN is Lou Holtz. We will just have to prove them wrong again. I'm looking forward to watching those guys eat their words.

 

[nshope]

I agree he and Mark May must be friends. The only guy who likes ND on ESPN is Lou Holtz. We will just have to prove them wrong again. I'm looking forward to watching those guys eat their words.

I agree...I want everyone to think ND is going to have a down year. Predict we'll have 5-6-7 losses and that way, if and when we overachieve, none of them can take credit for backing ND.