I like Dantonio and found myself rooting for Michigan State even though MSU beat us and Michigan did not.
Grady | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 8:54 pm | #

Tate's reverse is another rush for loss (minus 10) imho.
whoami | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 8:56 pm | #

I absolutely was rooting for MSU. They deserve to win, especially after the refs handed UM points. I'm afraid officiating isn't always about the rules - I had hoped that bias towards big-market teams would stay in the pro leagues but it seems it's creeping into the college ranks.

Statistically it's interesting that M Floyd is greater than/equal to all of UW's offense.

Now let's take care of business against the 'stache.
piyachi | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 9:00 pm | #

I think it's actually a new Sparty. Every time I turn around, they're showing composure. Damn it.
Joe Subway | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 9:32 pm | #

I think Clausen misfired on a couple of passes, but there were a few that should have been caught. Floyd dropped a sure TD pass, the pass to Tate in the endzone, which should have been interference, Rudolph could have caught the pass that ultimately got intercepted. Clausen is very accurate and the majority of the time he gives the receivers a chance to make a play.
Doug | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 9:37 pm | #

Great game by the Irish.

Dantonio is the real deal. I work at MSU and I've met him several times (a couple of times at Mass at St. John's Student Parish). He's a good guy with a discipline first attitude. It's tough to say whether Sparty will be dramatically improved under his continued tenure, but I expect the little things that killed Jonell's teams to go away. It remains to be seen whether he can continue to bring high caliber recruits to East Lansing, but wins against Michigan at Michigan certainly help.

So it'll be an interesting couple of years against MSU with ND getting back in the swing of things.
doug mckenna | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 9:50 pm | #

Also, Arcade Fire's "Neon Bible" is a great album.
doug mckenna | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 9:51 pm | #

Second paragraph:

"1.1 yards per rush and 3.9 yards per attempt"

Prolly should specify 3.9 yards per PASS attempt. Otherwise, they both seem like rushing stats, which appear to disagree with eachother.
Brad | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 9:54 pm | #

Bye bye, Ty.
Anonymous | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 9:55 pm | #

I too found myself rooting for MSU. Maybe even because they beat us. It is almost some sort of validation.

Plus, if we're going to be beat, I'd rather it be by a semi-classy team that works hard instead of any group of people lead by DickRod.

Jimmy looked rusty. The fact that we can say that about a win in his sophomore year also shows how high he can/will go.
yak | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 10:24 pm | #

WOW! A picture is worth a thousand words, I did not realize that the Irish dominated them THAT badly!

Jesse W.
http://www.churchofcowherd.com
Jesse W | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 10:26 pm | #

Washington has announced that Ty is 'stepping down' after the season. Ty, when asked whether it was his decision, only said "No".

To be honest, I really kinda feel for the guy. Everyone knew he was going to be fired after the season, but for it to come right after losing to ND has got to really twist the knife.

Good Luck to Ty in whatever he does from here on. I hope the guy lands in a good place.
Brad | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 10:34 pm | #

I don't think we intentionally took our foot off the gas. I think the bigger factor was that Clausen was just a little bit off -- there were a lot of plays to be made but he misfired more than usual.
rays15 | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 11:19 pm | #

This never gets old for me.
Truly Notre Dame and it's uniqueness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F...h? v=F4PL5sWFc0k
jim masterson | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 11:32 pm | #

Respect the titles
phils | Email | Homepage | 10.27.08 - 11:57 pm | #

My subway alum father, a cantakerous ol' sage, said weekly during the season..."Root for ND's opponents every Saturday except the one they play us."
Jim '72 | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 7:36 am | #

"Root for ND's opponents every Saturday except the one they play us."

Except for Michigan. They are the one team whose losses bring me as much joy as our victories. Strength of schedule be damned, I pray they finish 2-10 and lose by at least 20 to tO$U.
scott | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 8:01 am | #

Has anybody else noticed the emergency of Jonas Gray ? wow the kid can run. By the way it is really fun to watch Golden Tate. Go Irish
Jean | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 8:09 am | #

Nice Post
Mexican Irish | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 8:11 am | #

Not that I normally see the black helicopters, but did anyone else notice that a couple of times when ND was running the no-huddle and seemed to be also in "hurry-up" mode too, pressing an offensive advantage, that the officials took their sweet time setting the ball for the first down, and one time held up ND for a good 15 seconds with all of ND's guys standing in formation, after the ball was set. UW even made a defensive switch then.

My dad claimed that it was just to get the first down markers into position, and I'll admit I didn't look for them, but this was after the Tate catch where he was interefered with, so all those linemen had to move down the field and get into position. You'd think that a chain crew wouldn't need more than a few seconds beyond that.

Someone who is more high tech than me and has it taped could confirm this, or condemn me to tin-foil hats. Conspire away!
E-Man | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 8:46 am | #

I would take Golden Tates comments with much concern. First of it seems that they are more cocky than confidence. As stated coming off a 3-9 season no team should be taken lightly. Ahead 14-0 and you are worried about showing up a team? You have to be kidding me. While this was a very solid win that I was very worried about going into the game, ND should have won by 50 points. As they say a win is a win. Now let's give Pitt an little taste of running the ball on a consistent basis and move to 6-2.
azjimbo | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 9:22 am | #

Looking for an opinion from all. Does the Irish offense seems to run smoother with David Grimes playing? Would like to hear your opinions.
azjimbo | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 9:28 am | #

I realize that Charlie's always been about not embarrassing the other team when we're clearly dominating, but do you think he didn't run the score up out of respect to Willingham, because he was the former ND coach and everyone knew Ty's fate? Just a thought.
Matt J. | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 10:16 am | #

Matt J.-

That's exactly what I was thinking. If ND were up 14-0 on, say, Washington State instead of Washington, there's no way ND would have taken their proverbial foot off the pedal.
kmf | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 10:26 am | #

If there ever were a case for "empathy" for ND haters, it is my view towards Michigan.

I wish they could go to a BCS bowl THIS YEAR just to see them get waxed.

Pretty sure the lions share of Michigan fans are ND haters. So you are getting a "two 'fer" when you watch them lose.
Dana Payne | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 10:38 am | #

I think I'm OK with not running up the score- and following the lead of such morally upright guys as Pete Carroll and Urban Meyer. I understand this can be debated from both sides, but I'd like to think that ND is unique enough to win big without having to embarrass. But it is a fine line as I too don't necessarily like a 14-0 lead followed by Tate's comments. So for sure we'll need to keep the foot on the gas but I'm OK with a 33-7 win.
Go Irish- stop the run this week!
Pickel | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 10:38 am | #

Matt J and KMF, I would be more likely to say that CW's NFL (and maybe some ND spirit) background is more to 'blame' for not wanting to run up the score. In the NFL it doesn't matter how much you win by so long as you win. I have noticed a few times this season where the team gets really conservative in the 4th quarter - and it has lead to some late trouble.
Lowayne | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 10:48 am | #

Heck, Charlie ran a fake punt with the score 27-0. So I don't think he took the pedal off the gas. I take what Golden Tate says with a grain of salt, maybe a couple. Typical 19-year-old braggadacio, we could've named the score etc.
rays15 | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 10:59 am | #

It's like Mike said, if we're up 28-0, then we can slow down and consider not embarassing them, but 14-0 is not the time to slow down.

I wish Ty the best in anything other than coaching. May your golf score remain as low as your football scores for many years to come.

I was also glad to see a new Sparty. For the most part, they were always together enough to give us a tough game and then imploded later in the season. I would rather them finish the season the way they play us so that we don't lose to a 5-7 Sparty team who happened to be 3-0 when they played us.
JM | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 11:03 am | #

A good reason to cheer for Michigan losses is that each of their losses brings ND closer to reclaiming its rightful #1 position in the all-time college football winning percentage ranking.

Does anyone know how many games we are behind Michigan?
Colonel Klink | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 11:04 am | #

...maybe I am looking at thee glass "half-full"...but our success against UWillingham was due more to a TERRIBLE UW team than an ND team that will still have trouble running the ball...and cornerbacks that can't cover...
jim/redondo beach | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 11:07 am | #

I don't know how far behind Michigan we are for percent, but Texas is dangerously close to our hold on 2nd place in all-time wins. They might even be 1 game behind us.

It's a combination of a decade of average performance on our part and a decade of 10+ wins on their part.
NDdallas | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 11:08 am | #

Thanks for pointing out the outrageous-ness of that UM-MSU call. It can't be over-stated - the fact that they OVER-TURNED the correct, simple call in favor of getting the RULES WRONG just astounds me. I'm still not over it. And of course, the UM player who caught the ball (out of bounds) on the play and was inexplicably awarded a TD [despite the fact that there was NOT a catch, aka: "completion," something that's obviously required for a touchdown CATCH], just went around nodding his head like it was his God-given right to be illegally awarded points for coming up short/landing out of bounds. I rooted for MSU so hard after that & was so glad they pulled out the W. Hope they keep it together for the remainder of the season - even though they're a bit of a rival, I gotta say I do respect Dantonio's style. Under him, I don't think MSU will ever be the kind to plant flags again. Here's hoping...
baIrish | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 11:12 am | #

Haha, you're definitely not looking at the glass "Half Full" Jim. More like 3/4 empty.

I hope Tate was speaking on behalf of him self, because it's easier to fix one player's attitude than a coach's philosophy. Troubling, but hopefully we're just blowing it out of proportion.

Am glad to see that our running game had such good success. Sure it's Washington, but we haven't run that well against anyone recently.

I was worried about Fauria's redshirt as well at first, but listening to Charlie's press conference it makes total sense. Get the guy some reps in case we need him this year, and the experience will only help for next year.

Wish I'd been able to watch the whole game. Was battling my father-in-law for control of the remote. He wanted to watch PSU-OSU and we were at his house so I was losing the battle. Would have like to see such a fine defensive demonstration. Wish they could have gotten the shutout, but glad that the walk-ons got osme time.
Erik '04 | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 11:15 am | #

Does anyone have a link to the video of the Michigan MSU call? Somehow I missed it.
Matty | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 11:28 am | #

"The University of Washington is a great job," Kiffin said. "And it's one I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in."

A person familiar with Washington's plans told ESPN's Joe Schad that Kiffin would be among the coaches considered and added the program will begin its search immediately.

Is anyone home in Seattle? My god, think of the children.
indy | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 11:37 am | #

rays15 - my thoughts exactly re: taking the foot off the pedal. faking a punt isn't very indicative of letting up on a team. though I was wondering, now with two fake punts under our belt, maybe we're just setting up future more formidable opponents for when we we have similar field position--maybe make them think more, which could conceivably yield results by way of less focused returns from the opponent. just wild thoughts of mine. speaking of wild thoughts, i was at the game on saturday, and i have to say washington has the smokingest cheerleaders ever.
red | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 11:42 am | #

I think Tate's comment was a bit of a liberal use of the 'Royal We.' I'll explain.

Based strictly on the play-calling, I don't believe for a second that Charlie & Haywood took the foot off the gas, especially after only 14-0 (the score Tate mentioned). There were plenty of aggressive calls after 14-0, especially in the rest of the first half. Clearly, Charlie & Haywood wanted to punch it in several more times as quickly as possible.

However, I think the players probably took their feet off the gas. They might have played with a bit less urgency after notching two quick scores. I think this is what Tate is describing, even though he makes it sound like it was a team decision to not run it up. There were some misfires and mistakes in subsequent drives that you could chalk up to losing a bit of focus, but the calls remained aggressive.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 11:49 am | #

Col K:

I think we're four games behind UM on all-time winning percentage - i.e. four more ND wins and four more UM losses puts us ahead. May not happen this year, but it's a great year to make up some ground. NDDallas, I think we may have fallen behind Texas already for second all-time wins by one game this year. I'm basing this on data at Stassen's Historical link on the BGS page.

Trying to "run up the score" is OU passing to the end zone leading 55-28 with seconds to go in the first half. The phrase should never even come into play at 14-0. Besides, Clausen was still throwing bombs after 14-0, just a bit off target.

Would love to see a breakdown of who got playing time, and how much, in the second half.
Mike81 | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 12:24 pm | #

Jean:
Glad to see your comments. I remember that we agreed on a couple of issues last year as well.
I thought Jonas Gray was spectacular. This is the rumour that we were hearing all summer and fall and he sure looked like it. If my recollection is correct, he got two first downs on 3rd and 4-5 when they knew were going to run a sweep. How long has it been when we made 5 yds when the D knew it was coming? I also presume some 2nd team Oline guys were in, so good job by them as well.
One of the passes that was close was Tate's attempt to one hand it while fighting off the Dback with the other!
I am feeling pretty cocky as I called Tate as our best threat and thought he should be running back kicks and punts before Charlie put him back. I predict he will take one all the way one of these next two weeks.
canuck 75 | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 12:52 pm | #

I think we all need to hold the phone here. It was Washington. If we didn't get these numbers I'd be dissappointed, but the fact is they are horrible. These numbers don't mean anything. We play a legit team and get these numbers, then I'll be impressed. Until then, lets not overreact here. Secondly, I believe Weis should be starting Jonas Gray, that guy has got more speed and power than all the other backs combined. He is the answer to our running back questions...mark my words.
Mike | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 1:22 pm | #

Arcade Fire
The Clash
The Pixies

What are the other three?
Jonathan Domer | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 3:41 pm | #

I find an interesting dichotomy there, Mike. "Don't get excited, it's Washington, they're terrible", then almost immediately "Jonas Gray should start".

Gray looked good and all, but remember- he was playing against Washington, who is terrible, and not only that, he didn't play until the 4th quarter when they had been getting whipped for the last several hours and were both tired and hopeless.
gozer | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 3:47 pm | #

Dave Witvoet lives in Ann Arbor.

O by the way, Michigan has benefited numerous times in games in which he is the referee. This cannot be a coincidence. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I just watch a lot of Big 10 FB.
everloyal | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 5:45 pm | #

Re: Rooting for ND's opponents every other week of the year.

Almost to a fault, I follow this rule. Of course, when it comes to the BigTeleven teams, so many of them play each other in the year that we can't possibly have all of our opponents go 11-1 for the season.

That said, the exception is UM (sucks!). Every loss by them brings us closer to regaining the all-time-winning percentage title. Strength of schedule be damned.
Marc | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 7:45 pm | #

Jonathan Domer:

Stereolab
Led Zeppelin
Heatmiser
Mike | Email | Homepage | 10.28.08 - 11:37 pm | #

Washington was definitely a game not to get too worked up about. Hopefully, this week will tell if the running game is continuing to evolve, or the yards gained were the result of playing Washington. Hear some of you calling for Jonas Gray, but I like how Armando Allen is running.

I hope that the defensive play was not too much of an illusion either. If nothing else, Corwin Brown and Weis are trying to get Ethan Johnson and Darius Fleming on the field more. This upgrade in athleticism could give the defense a "shot in the arm" these last 5 games. I guess we'll see.
www.southbendblarney.com | Email | Homepage | 10.29.08 - 12:34 am | #

from forde:

Willingham's successor, Charlie Weis (29), was handed a new 10-year contract worth more than $30 million during his first season in South Bend -- which remains indefensible.

Weis has compiled a 27-17 record with the Irish by doing one thing well: he's consistently beaten the bad teams on the schedule. Against opponents that ended the season with losing records or, in the case of 2008, currently own losing records, Weis is 18-1. Against opponents that ended the season with records of .500 or better or currently own .marks of 500 or better, Weis is 9-16.

In his past 14 games against .500 or better competition, Weis is 1-13. And the lone exception -- the 28-21 victory over Stanford earlier this month -- could wind up going the other way by season's end. The Cardinal are 4-4 with games remaining against USC, Oregon and California.
belocki | Email | Homepage | 10.29.08 - 8:28 am | #

Mike,
Thanks. Love the mix of music and footbawl.
Jonathan Domer | Email | Homepage | 10.29.08 - 10:57 am | #

Matty

Here's a snippet showing the touchdown and the call overturned. It's the only one I could find, I smell tinfoil hats.

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=D6...h? v=D6Q2qvbzDZM
Burbank Steve | Email | Homepage | 10.29.08 - 5:31 pm | #