Notre Dame starting to feel hate from non-Domers
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</TD><TD noWrap>Sep. 3, 2006
By Dennis Dodd
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
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</NOSCRIPT> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width=10> </TD><TD>[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]<TABLE style="MARGIN: 5px 0px 5px 5px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-LEFT: 8px; BORDER-LEFT: #cccccc 1px solid"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- T9635145 --><!-- Sesame Modified: 09/03/2006 04:10:55 --><!-- sversion: 5 $Updated: scjohnson$ -->ATLANTA -- For the record, it was a bottle of Dasani. No, Aquafina. Maybe.
Definitely something wet and plastic fell at the feet of Big Ten referee Don Capron Saturday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium. It might as well have been aimed at you, Notre Dame Nation. They hate you. They really, really hate you.
Georgia Tech linebacker Philip Wheeler had just stuck Brady Quinn in the earhole at the Yellow Jackets' 15 yard line in the third quarter. A classic helmet-to-helmet blow that is a no-no from here to Mishawaka.
That's not the way Wheeler and the crowd saw it, though. That's not even the way Charlie Weis saw it.
"To me, on the replay, it looked like a clean play," he said.
The penalty kept alive a drive that ended in the game-winning touchdown. A near TKO of Quinn followed by a Notre Dame knockout.
The protesters might have interpreted the flag as being for a hit out of bounds. Quinn was in bounds but when there is that much pent up emotion, someone is going to pay.
Capron almost did. The bottle thrown from the crowd of 57,000 bounced at his feet. It was one of three hurled from the stands in the second half. Call it the duck! of the Irish.
It's clear that Notre Dame is just beginning to feel the hate. With all the possibilities ahead, the sides are lining up against each other in classic battle stance again. There are the diehard Domers and there is Everyone Else.
We're talking everyone from bottle-throwing yahoos to college coordinators who have had a year now to dissect Charlie Weis' play calling.
They are closing in around Notre Dame and it's not even Labor Day. That leads us to a simple conclusion. This year ain't gonna be easy. Our point was made for us at 7:12 p.m. ET when Notre Dame took the field to warm up.
The first chants of "over-rated."
Judging by Notre Dame's 14-10 victory, maybe they were right. Whoever picked Notre Dame No. 1 should be taken out with a bottle of Perrier. It's glass and it hurts.
If he stays long enough, Weis is going to win multiple national championships in South Bend. Just not this year. Notre Dame is good, not great.
And that's OK. Everyone else has holes too. They look so much bigger, though, when they belong to Notre Dame.
"The easiest way to coach is after you've won a game, is constructive criticism ...," Weis said. "Tomorrow, I'll be a constructive criticizing machine."
Besides being fortunate enough to keep his head attached to his spine, Quinn was off for long stretches of Saturday night. Kicker Carl Gioia took the collar going oh-for-two from medium range. The defense is better but what did you expect facing a quarterback (Reggie Ball) who throws off his back leg with a 48.9 percent career completion percentage?
"They're good," Wheeler said. "We expected a perimeter team, they came at us physically and wore us down. But I don't know about No. 1."
None of us do. The Saturday summary: The defense is better. The offense struggled at times. We'll see you next week against Penn State.
Is it possible for Irish opponents to turn up the intensity even more than usual? Notre Dame was a curiosity last year. Now it is a top-five power. Frustration boils from wanting to beat the Irish so bad that the tactics can cross the line.
The play in question came with Georgia Tech ahead 10-7 midway through the third quarter. The game was up for grabs. On a third-and-10 from the Georgia Tech 18, Quinn scrambled to the near sideline where he met the (eighteen-)Wheeler.
"That was the turning point," the junior linebacker said.
Out came the flag, out came the rage at sold-out Bobby Dodd. First down at the Georgia Tech 8. As Capron turned on his mike to make the call, the bottle sailed toward him. He didn't flinch.
Georgia Tech did. Two plays later Darius Walker scored from 13 yards out.
"I didn't lead with my head," Wheeler said. "I do not think it should have been a penalty."
"He hit me pretty good ... " Quinn said. "It was head-to-head."
Up until that point, it took a while for Weis to figure out Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta's Snowflake Blitz. Snowflake? No two were alike.
"A good defense doesn't have to use surprise," guard Bob Morton said. "They just flat-out brought it."
Notre Dame eventually resorted to a strategy in 2006 that would have worked in 1936. The Five Horsemen of Atlanta (freshman Sam Young and seniors John Sullivan, Dan Santucci, Ryan Harris and Morton) pounded the Tech defense.
"It was a little too quiet in the locker room at halftime," safety Tom Zbikowski said. "We wanted to come out and silence the overrated chants in the stands as soon as possible."
Two long scoring drives took 14 plays each. There were a modest 138 rushing yards, but 108 came in the second half. Other than that, Notre Dame survived. Got by on guile. It didn't dominate. Quinn scored the first touchdown on a designed but questionable quarterback draw with 11 seconds left in the first half.
"It's a little different," Weis said, "when you're under duress."
Get used to it
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By Dennis Dodd
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
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Definitely something wet and plastic fell at the feet of Big Ten referee Don Capron Saturday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium. It might as well have been aimed at you, Notre Dame Nation. They hate you. They really, really hate you.
Georgia Tech linebacker Philip Wheeler had just stuck Brady Quinn in the earhole at the Yellow Jackets' 15 yard line in the third quarter. A classic helmet-to-helmet blow that is a no-no from here to Mishawaka.
That's not the way Wheeler and the crowd saw it, though. That's not even the way Charlie Weis saw it.
"To me, on the replay, it looked like a clean play," he said.
The penalty kept alive a drive that ended in the game-winning touchdown. A near TKO of Quinn followed by a Notre Dame knockout.
The protesters might have interpreted the flag as being for a hit out of bounds. Quinn was in bounds but when there is that much pent up emotion, someone is going to pay.
Capron almost did. The bottle thrown from the crowd of 57,000 bounced at his feet. It was one of three hurled from the stands in the second half. Call it the duck! of the Irish.
It's clear that Notre Dame is just beginning to feel the hate. With all the possibilities ahead, the sides are lining up against each other in classic battle stance again. There are the diehard Domers and there is Everyone Else.
We're talking everyone from bottle-throwing yahoos to college coordinators who have had a year now to dissect Charlie Weis' play calling.
They are closing in around Notre Dame and it's not even Labor Day. That leads us to a simple conclusion. This year ain't gonna be easy. Our point was made for us at 7:12 p.m. ET when Notre Dame took the field to warm up.
The first chants of "over-rated."
Judging by Notre Dame's 14-10 victory, maybe they were right. Whoever picked Notre Dame No. 1 should be taken out with a bottle of Perrier. It's glass and it hurts.
If he stays long enough, Weis is going to win multiple national championships in South Bend. Just not this year. Notre Dame is good, not great.
And that's OK. Everyone else has holes too. They look so much bigger, though, when they belong to Notre Dame.
"The easiest way to coach is after you've won a game, is constructive criticism ...," Weis said. "Tomorrow, I'll be a constructive criticizing machine."
Besides being fortunate enough to keep his head attached to his spine, Quinn was off for long stretches of Saturday night. Kicker Carl Gioia took the collar going oh-for-two from medium range. The defense is better but what did you expect facing a quarterback (Reggie Ball) who throws off his back leg with a 48.9 percent career completion percentage?
"They're good," Wheeler said. "We expected a perimeter team, they came at us physically and wore us down. But I don't know about No. 1."
None of us do. The Saturday summary: The defense is better. The offense struggled at times. We'll see you next week against Penn State.
Is it possible for Irish opponents to turn up the intensity even more than usual? Notre Dame was a curiosity last year. Now it is a top-five power. Frustration boils from wanting to beat the Irish so bad that the tactics can cross the line.
The play in question came with Georgia Tech ahead 10-7 midway through the third quarter. The game was up for grabs. On a third-and-10 from the Georgia Tech 18, Quinn scrambled to the near sideline where he met the (eighteen-)Wheeler.
"That was the turning point," the junior linebacker said.
Out came the flag, out came the rage at sold-out Bobby Dodd. First down at the Georgia Tech 8. As Capron turned on his mike to make the call, the bottle sailed toward him. He didn't flinch.
Georgia Tech did. Two plays later Darius Walker scored from 13 yards out.
"I didn't lead with my head," Wheeler said. "I do not think it should have been a penalty."
"He hit me pretty good ... " Quinn said. "It was head-to-head."
Up until that point, it took a while for Weis to figure out Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta's Snowflake Blitz. Snowflake? No two were alike.
"A good defense doesn't have to use surprise," guard Bob Morton said. "They just flat-out brought it."
Notre Dame eventually resorted to a strategy in 2006 that would have worked in 1936. The Five Horsemen of Atlanta (freshman Sam Young and seniors John Sullivan, Dan Santucci, Ryan Harris and Morton) pounded the Tech defense.
"It was a little too quiet in the locker room at halftime," safety Tom Zbikowski said. "We wanted to come out and silence the overrated chants in the stands as soon as possible."
Two long scoring drives took 14 plays each. There were a modest 138 rushing yards, but 108 came in the second half. Other than that, Notre Dame survived. Got by on guile. It didn't dominate. Quinn scored the first touchdown on a designed but questionable quarterback draw with 11 seconds left in the first half.
"It's a little different," Weis said, "when you're under duress."
Get used to it
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