Nice work, Mike. I like these type of pieces where I pick up some bits that I hadn't thought about. Particularly like the "gummed to death" line - nice.

Like you, I was forced into a sports bar so that all 50,000 of the loyal Georgia Tech fans in town could watch their team get reamed. I literally had a guy in the bar with his Miami hat (backwards), Miami jersey (the clearly fake ones that look nothing like the real thing), and his Miami altar. Yes, altar - a Skull head dressed in a Miami helmet. It was pathetic.
irishvol | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 8:18 am | #

Yes, the 'going for it on 4th down' is perhaps what separates Weis' teams from previous teams.

On 4th down with Ty, ND would have had to call a time out to get their strategy straight, and then we would have gotten a 5 yard delay of game penalty thereafter.

On 4th down with Davie, ND would have thrown a pass two yards short of the yardage needed for a first down.

You are correct that part of the 4th down strategy by Weis is related to the kicker; it reminds me of high school ball where you are often too close to the end zone to punt but not close enough to kick a field goal, so you go for it.

The decision requires a 'winning attitude'...perhaps the singular bit that separates Weis from ty and Davie. He expects to win, expects to convert on 4th down. An attitude like that is contagious to a team, expecially in college.
John B. | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 10:05 am | #

The link on "expected value" might be the best link ever on BGS.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 10:09 am | #

yes i agree, the "expected value" link was awesome. too bad i don't have time 2 read 42 pages of science.

on another note: does an ND fan pull 4 msu or um this weekend? based on the ranking theory i would think um but, i can't root 4 um, can i?
damian | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 11:24 am | #

UM vs MSU? Just one of those weekends where you end up feeling dirty and want to take a shower after watching it.
ND Fan | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 11:28 am | #

By the way...related to the "expected value" link...one of the professors that I had at ND came up with a program that would predict what plays ND would call. It is based on an artificial neural network that was "taught" all the plays that Lou Holtz ran in his last two years and using this data, predicts what the play would be that ND would run in a particular situation. Not much relevance to today since we have a different coach that would presumably run different plays than Lou, but still pretty neat.

http://controls.ame.nd.edu/football/
ND Fan | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 11:40 am | #

I'm rooting for MSU. Yeah the whole flag thing...but I was 19 once, so I cut them some slack. If we didn't want them to plant the flag, we should've won that game. They beat us straight up in our stadium, and they deserve everything coming to them this season. Plus I enjoyed reading the mgo blog last week (Michigan fan) after they got beat by Wisconsin, so I wonder what will happen when they get blown out by Stanton. Maybe he'll just dissolve it.

Nice write up Mike.
Ken | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 11:45 am | #

Rock and a hard place, but I'm pulling for State. Here is my only reason:

UM - 0.74417
ND - 0.74302
Tom | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 12:37 pm | #

ND Fan, that is totally radical. My afternoon will surely be unproductive.
irishvol | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 1:18 pm | #

MSU for UM? In that one, I root for the Stadium to fall down. Everyone wins.
Tim | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 1:32 pm | #

ND Fan, great link. I remember seeing that a few years ago -- thanks for bringing it back up.

By the way, I'm willing to work on a Robot Charlie (all due respect to Marco, of course) if I can get some volunteers to help chart games.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 1:39 pm | #

I agree, nice writeup Mike.

I usually root for UM once per year (against the pricks from Columbus), but I'm rooting for them against the Spartans. MSU has surpassed Michigan on my hate-o-meter. While Michigan's coach and its fans are excuse makers, they are a helluva lot classier than MSU.

Case in point: As I mentioned in another post, I watched the Toledo-Fresno State game last night. At halftime, they had John L. Smith on. When asked if the flag stick or MSU throwing a TD pass on 4th and 3 against Illinois in the 4th quarter with the score 54-14 were evidence his team doesn't respect his opponents, he poo-pooed it arrogantly and made some comment about it being the defense's job to stop the offense; he basically admitted he was running up the score! I thought I was listening to Spurrier.

I'd love to see the Wolverines knock Sparty down a few pegs. I know Michigan sucks, but losing to MSU makes the ND win there pretty much meaningless.
Irish Rat | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 1:52 pm | #

Michigan State's conduct at ND forces me to root for Michigan twice this year. I was 19 too once, but I seriously doubt any of them were as drunk as I was when I did stupid things at that age. How can you have no respect for an opponent that you only beat by three points!
notrethomas | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 3:33 pm | #

That Adam Tibble reference is hilarious. Good work.
adam 01 | Email | Homepage | 09.28.05 - 10:22 pm | #