Now we can begin the month of conjecturing whether a month of preparation will enable ND to be more than ready or that it's too much time.

My two cents (why isn't there a cents symbol on keyboards anymore. Question mark): in the end it will be the 60 minutes of playing time that will determine whether we finish 10 - 2 or 9 -- 3.
Soapbox | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 2:21 pm | #

Keith Jackson needs to be taken out to pasture. He misses way too many calls in all the games he does, not just ND games.
Russell Wyborski | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 2:37 pm | #

When you really think about it, a 9-2 record with this team is quite remarkable. The problem with having a team with quality first line talent, but no overall depth, is that it becomes extremely difficult to win in November. Look at Ara's Northwestern teams - solid coaching - decent front line talent - no depth. Consequently, they played crappy in November.

This team is better off than the early 1960s Northwestern team, but 8 years of Davie and Willingham, have left Notre Dame with a serious lack of depth. This showed in the last 3 games.

In fact, had we played a real quality team after USC (Tennessee doesn't count - they suck this year), we would have lost.

The silver lining is that we didn't lose, and managed to do pretty well against BYU, Tennessee, Navy, Syracuse and Stanford. Now, we have one month to rest, regroup and heal. More importantly, Charlie has a month to scheme.

Unless I am very wrong, the Notre Dame team that takes the field in Tempe will look an awful lot like the one we saw in those green jerseys on October 15th.

Notre Dame 38 - Ohio State 21
Mack | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 2:42 pm | #

You failed to mention that the $14.5 million BCS pay-out paid off Charlie's new 10-year contract as of last night. That's about four weeks to net on the investment. Not a bad investment I'd say. How does one become a shareholder of ChuckWeis?
Yago | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 2:48 pm | #

just the sound of keith jackson's voice drives me nuts. thank god he doesn't venture east of the mississippi anymore
john | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 2:50 pm | #

Apparently he still gets east of the Mississippi once in a while since Jackson and Fouts were the announcers for the Pitt-ND game to start the year.

Is it just me or was anyone totally confused as to why Dan Fouts, a former pro quarterback, could not understand the wisdom of ND calling a timeout after Stanford's running play down in their end with 1:50 to go? That made perfect sense to me that we wouldn't want them to drain the clock since we would need it to get down the field for our last drive. Why did he say it was a "huge break" for Stanford?
Loretta | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 2:57 pm | #

loretta, I stand corrected with regard to the Fouts, Jackson duo in Pittsburgh. I think; however, that was a rare situation. I did comment on your observation of that idiot fouts in the previous comments section. Did this man not play pro football???
john | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 3:07 pm | #

I solved the Fouts-Jackson problem by watching most of the game on mute.
Scott | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 3:18 pm | #

While I agree w/ the comments re KJ...

Is anyone out there old enough to remember Chris Schenkel? I'm sure there are many athletic supporters for the late Mr Schenkel, but as far as I'm concerned he was WORSE than KJ and that's going a ways.
Soapbox | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 3:44 pm | #

The Tragic Voice of Keith Jackson

While we may all have suffered through the evening listening to the old man, I have to admit to feeling a sliver of sadness for him.

Last year, I caught a game on ESPN Classic from the seventies that was called by Jackson, and I could hear why he was considered so good - his distincive cadence and tone were on display, and his discriptions and word choice were top-notch. In an era before crisp TV signals or super slow-motion, his voice really added something to the game. I can see why people like him.

Now, he's a sloppy shadow of his former self, and only his accent and diction remain, not the emphatic cadence or the clever wordplay. Now, he simply enunciates every word in his classic radio style, and his voice just goes up halfway through a sentence, and then back down again (try it, you can sound like him, too). "and the quaterBACK....THROUghs a pass...incomplete.

It's sad, in a way, but not so much that I can't enjoy poking fun of him.
Alces | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 4:48 pm | #

Does anyone find it wrong that Ohio State passed ND in both the AP Poll and the USA Today Poll after ND played a game and Ohio State didn't?
ND Fan | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 4:52 pm | #

I don't think it's wrong that OSU passed us w/out playing. The fact is we've finished w/2 consecutive sloppy performances against far inferior talent, and only 1 of our losses was against a good team (spare me the talk of how good MSU was early on).

That said, I'd love nothing more than for us to lay a severe beatdown on tOSU and their obnoxious fans in the Fiesta!
Scott | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 5:26 pm | #

hear hear !!!!!
john | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 5:37 pm | #

i would love to know what john elway was thinking as brady quinn was DRIVING his team down the field.
john | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 8:11 pm | #

Elway was thinking "is this old guy going to ask me a question or just keep sitting here and staring at me?"
Pat | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 8:23 pm | #

I have gotten over Jackson's anti-ND bias, and now I really enjoy his brand of senility. It's kind of fun listening to him, waiting for the next "what did he just say?" comment. My favorite came in last week's Stanford-Cal game when he referred to Stanford's MLB, Schimmelmann - who happens to be from Marietta GA, as a "Georgia cracker". I had to rewind the TiVo twice to make sure I heard it correctly. Priceless.
Dan | Email | Homepage | 11.27.05 - 8:50 pm | #

Sorry for the ignorance, but how do they figure the NCAA quarterback rating? I had though it maxed out in the 150s. I am getting conflicting information by googling.

Thanks!
Ronald Cox | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 12:39 am | #

Oh, a ver wonderful blog - I appreciate your effort, talent and time!
Ronald Cox | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 12:40 am | #

NO. Keith Jackasson should NOT be put out to pasture, he should get the same treatment that old dogs and lame horses get. PUT DOWN. When he so gleefully and boldly stated after Stanford scored with 1:50 left, "THAT'S THE BALLGAME FOLKS"...I wanted to jump through the TV and strangle the BIG UGLY. Thankfully BQ made him eat a few helpings of leftover Thanksgiving crow. Also, he needs to get his cataracts worked on, as he mistook Matty Shelton for Shark a few times. Other than for their numbers, height and hair, I can see his point....Go Fishin' KJ, PLEASE.
Domer95 | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 1:10 am | #

did anyone else notice Walker doing those little jump moves? It seemed like everytime he needed 3 extra yards he would do this little hop and slice through a couple of defenders. This is the first game i've watched on TV for awhile so maybe it's something he always does...Anyway it seemed like Darius has shown a bit more "burst" lately.
Fung | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 1:23 am | #

Ronald - The formula is { (8.4 * yards) + (330 * touchdowns) - (200 * interceptions) + (100 * completions) } / attempts.
Pat | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 1:26 am | #

Whoa Nelly, Keith needs to hang it up. Why do the play by play guys stick around for so long? Harry Carey, Jackson, and Dick Enberg. All were or are past their prime. I'm sure they could get free tickets to the event on namesake alone.

I'm cool with Jackson being at the game, just give him a unplugged microphone, a $5.00 an hour highschool kid for a spotter, and let him call the game the way he wants.
Rome | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 1:39 am | #

I didn't know what game I was watching when KJ was giving the commentary. As the Shark caught a pass on the last drive, KJ was calling Shelton as the recipient. And, as for the pronunciation of the Shark's last name: Smartsha! You go Keith!
snark | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 10:29 am | #

My favorite line from Keith: when ND got the ball back with around am minute left in the first half, he said they only have time for a "jump ball situation" to one of the tall receivers. ND then proceeded to run 3 plays, punt, then Stanford ran another play before the half ended.
Brian | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 11:46 am | #

Lalalalalalalalalalala
Nation | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 12:22 pm | #

I love the music references in the titles--built to spill, hova and tribe called quest!
Mark | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 12:35 pm | #

Ppl here is NY always talk about "Long suffering Jets/Mets fans" and how tortured they are...

I say to them: "Try being a fan of Notre Dame the last 12 years"

By my count, if ND had lost Saturday, that would have been 16th crushing,heartbreaking, season changing defeat (BC in 93 and 02, Southern Cal in 96, 98, 02, and 05, Mich in 94,99, Nebraska in 00, MSU in 98,99,00,01,05, Air Force in 95 (?)) in the last 12 years, plus a SLEW of other terrible defeats they left you pissed off and muttering (NW in 95, BYU in 04, Pitt in 04, BC in 04, PU in 99, FSU in 94, FSU in 95, tOSU in 95, 96, AF in 96)...I mean, this is just torture folks...

And plus, that would have been the 5th season DESTORYED by a final game loss (93, 96, 98, 02)...Hopefully, this will all end...Please DEAR GOD!...I've had Enought of this "Excitement"
Bryan ND '02 | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 1:03 pm | #

Mark, I believe that you missed the song reference to 1994 ND graduate Ted Leo with his song "Walking to Do."

Oh, and while were on the topic of feet, did anyone notice that Brady Quinn leads the nation in punting?
The Contrarian | Email | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 2:45 pm | #

holy crap, i never knew ted leo went to ND...does that give us indie cred? a nice little tidbit to tell my friends
Mark | Email | Homepage | 11.29.05 - 6:03 pm | #

I'm sure there will be much speculation about can/how ND beat tOSU after these last two sub-par games. I certainly was a bit worried until I did a little check on the games where tOSU's opponents scored at least 20 points. These numbers should make you feel good:

Michigan (21 pts.): Chad Henne, 25-36, 223 yds, 1 TD
Minnesota (31 pts.): Bryan Cupito, 26-35, 396 yds, 1 TD
Michigan State (24 pts): Drew Stanton, 26-36, 340 yds, 1 TD
Texas (25 pts): Vince Young, 18-29, 270 yds, 2 TD, 2 INT

I feel pretty comfortable saying ND has a better QB and receiving corps than any of these teams. So my prediction is Quinn will throw for over 350 and 3 TDs vs the F*ckeyes. The only two teams that have any decent running back to speak of also ran well against tOSU:

MSU- Javon Ringer, 16-76
Minnesota- Laurence Maroney, 25-127

I also predict Darius Walker will have 25 carries for over 100 yards.

I'll be shocked if ND doesn't score at least 31 points. Whether ND can stop the F*ckeyes on defense, is another story.
Irish Rat | Email | Homepage | 11.30.05 - 6:22 pm | #