He also said God played a big role in making his choice to attend ND in the first place, and God helped him make the choice to stay next year and earn his degree, so he will have something to fall back on when football is over.

Very level headed kid. He isn't coming back just to have sex with SC song girls and take a joke of a "class."
AJ | Email | Homepage | 12.29.05 - 6:30 pm | #

Unrelated to this post, but with last night's Michigan loss, I believe ND will regain the all-time best winning percentage with a win over Ohio State. Quite a comeback in jsut 1 season.
Matt Angry Matt | Email | Homepage | 12.29.05 - 6:41 pm | #

Not that there is anything wrong with having sex with SC song girls.
Daniel | Email | Homepage | 12.29.05 - 7:08 pm | #

2006 is the Year of the Irish.

I positively shudder at the thought of what we'd be talking about right now if Willingham was still the coach.
Joe | Email | Homepage | 12.29.05 - 7:54 pm | #

Good for Brady. Good for Notre Dame. Good for the incoming freshman QBs. Bad for our opponents.
dbldomer7375 | Email | Homepage | 12.29.05 - 8:58 pm | #

Six freakin' points away from playing for the National Championship THIS season... I just realized I'm not over the USC game yet.
Dozier | Email | Homepage | 12.29.05 - 10:28 pm | #

every time the worldwide leader shows clips of that game, i cant help but watch over and over. i keep hoping wooden's arm will be a fraction of an inch over and deflect the ball. pushgate is another story, but that pass was well defended enough to be knocked away 99 out of 100 times. 1 inch between the fiesta and the rose against texas. i am now going to gouge my eyes out with my tivo remote.
Mike | Email | Homepage | 12.29.05 - 10:44 pm | #

Hey, Oregon, did you really think you deserved the Fiesta Bowl? After losing to a 7-4 Oklahoma team tonight, it sounds like John Jenkins was wise in passing you over. As Hawk Harrelson would say, "Grab some bench!"
Dad the Domer | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 12:05 am | #

DtD, please...spare us the BCS 20-20 hindsight. What would you have to say if the Ducks had prevailed 41-9?

I'd like to think we're above that sort of convenient criticism. Really...I would like to.
c-stone | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 12:35 am | #

if the ducks had won, then they would have had legitimate beef in being left out of the BCS. but they had to validate their complaints with a bowl win. if they had won, people would be saying that they might have deserved the bid. but the ducks lost. it's totally kosher to make fun of the ducks for whining about not getting a BCS bid, and then proving that they didn't deserve it in the first place. [chuckles]
tedwick | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 12:59 am | #

completely agreed tedwick.

cheers to all those who are tempe bound in the next few days...

..and all those who aren't too :-)
Tommy O | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 2:56 am | #

This is great news.

It is a win-win for both Quinn and ND.

I cannot think of a better coach for any qb than Weis. Ask Tom Brady.
bob drake | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 3:07 am | #

Somehow the Quinn thread got hijacked. Happy Quinn is back.

About the BCS, no one got snubbed. Read the contract, which all member schools/conferences signed.
SeanH | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 7:40 am | #

Re: Quinn to return in 2006

Maybe this will get all of the New York Jets fans off my back when they constantly ask me, "do ya think Brady will go pro this year? Our team really needs a quarterback."
The Contrarian | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 8:55 am | #

That first quote just says it all. Imagine...players wanting to stay on our team because they'll get better coaching at ND than in the NFL. Happy New Year to me!!
KC | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 9:39 am | #

As to the sub-thread regarding Oregon, this is all I have to say...when you schedule easy-ass teams, and you lose to the only two tough teams you play all year, you are not a great team. Just a mildly good one which needs tougher competition to become great.
Brad | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 10:00 am | #

Note: A mildly good team with 78 uniforms and high fashion.
Brad | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 10:03 am | #

How about the sub-thread on sex with SC song girls? What happened to that?
Fitzwater | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 10:10 am | #

Can someone 'splain to me how 1 class, be it ballroom dancing or whatever, can make on eligible to play a varsity athletic sport? Doesn't one have to be a "full-time" student? Minimum 9 credit hours worth of classes or something? Is there not a law, Ty Law, or by law against this?
snark | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 10:29 am | #

Snark, I believe Leinart already had his degree.....thus all he had to do as a graduate student was enroll in one class of his choice.....and if I recall correctly all you have to do is show up on the first day.....a la Deion Sanders back in the day at FSU. I didn't research before typing this though, so my apologies if I'm mistaken.
Tony Spilotro | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 11:00 am | #

As for Leinart, it was my belief that he had to complete his ballroom dancing as his final elective for his bachelor's.

As to Oregon, you should hear the talk radio hosts here in the Pac NW this morning. One of them was making the argument that the loss to Oklahoma wasn't that bad because, get this, Oklahoma was a "top ten level program" and would "beat almost any team playing in a BCS game this year". It would be absolutely hilarious if they weren't dead serious about it. They then went on to say how the Ducks would be better next year despite the fact that they lose almost every starter on both sides of the ball.
JohnWA | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 11:45 am | #

Tony,

Actually, I think that this completes his degree. That is the loophole. If it was not completing his degree he would have to take 9 credit hours.
Jeremy | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 11:57 am | #

If its anything like ND's rules, you're considered a full time student as long as you're taking the courses you need to graduate, no matter how few that might be. In other words, you could take one class for three credits, pay part-time student rates, but be considered a full-time student for all activities since you are taking a "full" course load to graduate.

I looked into this my senior year...
ND Alum | Email | Homepage | 12.30.05 - 1:42 pm | #

In my last semester (Spring 05) I only needed 3 credits to graduate. Since it was my last semester, I was able to enroll as a part-time student at part-time rates and remain athletically eligible (track & field). However, the final semester is the only semester at ND in which a student-athlete can take fewer than 12 credits and remain athletically eligible. During my sophomore year I was a study partner w/ a FB player in a class b/c he was switching his major but if he dropped the call he would have become ineligible. I don't know if that's an NCAA rule but that's how it worked for us.

Go Irish, beat Buckeyes.
Michael | Email | Homepage | 12.31.05 - 7:07 pm | #