The Back Corner Fade

Note:  Mike Kane is a Notre Dame fan writing a column for IrishSportsDaily.com from a fan’s perspective.  

Three in a row against the Boys from South Central. Back in 2007, I sat there in the stadium and watched Pete Carroll’s team lay a 38-0 beat down on the Irish, and frankly, he could have named the score. I sat there wondering if we’d ever win one more against them, let alone three in a row. Fast forward 12 seasons and I’m sure there might be some fans of the Spoiled Children that might be wondering the same thing many of us were feeling back then. I feel bad…..actually no I don’t. Enjoy the agony and “Fight On.”

I will say this:  Kedon Slovis is going to be a royal pain in the posterior the next three seasons. It certainly helps to have three future NFL receivers to toss it around to, but the kid has tremendous poise. J.T. Daniels and his sweet 80’s NASCAR lip lettuce might want to explore other options. I think they have their quarterback in place.

One last thought on the game: Tony Jones, you are so money and you don’t even know it! I posted on the board after the game that this kid has been the unsung hero of this offense and really should be talked about more. Where would we be without him toting the mail. No, he’s never going to remind anyone of Barry Sanders, but I’ll take a John Riggins any day. Modern day version of “The Diesel?” I’ll take some of that.

Well, what in the world did we learn this past week:

I have to admit, I have a man-crush on the Wisconsin Badgers and the way they play. There simply is nothing fancy about them. They just line up with their massive line and 220lb hammer in the backfield and physically beat the hell out of people. This past week’s victim was Michigan St, 38 to love. You look at the stats and there’s nothing fancy. 46 carries for 222 yards. Probably more impressive is the fact that they gave up 149 yards total. If anyone is going to beat OSU, it’s going to be Bucky. That one can’t get here soon enough.

The Temple Owls are a quiet 5-1. This past weekend they took down No. 23rd ranked Memphis and continue to roll right along. The 17 Temple fans out there have to be happy that Mario Cantone decided it was better to deal with Uncle Luke, the 7th Floor Crew, and Nevin Shapiro then coach on the north side of Philly. Rod Carey did a fine job at Northern Illinois, and he’s off to a nice start as the guy they “settled for.”

Jim Delaney truly saw the future when he brought Maryland and Rutgers into the Big 10. I mean the prestige that these two garbage programs have brought the conference has been nothing short of amazing. This past weekend, RU gets shut out, 35-0, to a cruddy Indiana team, and Maryland gets beat by 26 to a Purdue team that has taken as many loses to their roster than the Marines at Tarawa. Please Lord and Baby Jesus, if there ever comes a day that ND is forced to join a conference, please don’t let it be the Big 10.

48, 45, 52, 62, 44, 69…..those are the numbers of points the UMass Minutemen have given up in their 6 loses this year. I’ll add these guys on the list of teams that should strongly consider saying “the hell with it” and going back to FCS and join the CAA where they can take just slightly less beatings to the likes of James Madison and William and Mary. Those numbers!!! I mean those are in BVG territory……..but wait.

Congrats to the Bowling Green Falcons as they only gave up 7 points, and beat arch-rival Toledo this past Saturday. Did the BG defense just pull a Cerrano in “Major League” and say “F-you Jobu, you know help me now, I do it myself” and completely ignore the calls BVG sent in, or did their d-boys turn in to astrophysicists over night and were actually able to understand the methods to his madness/idiocy? In any event, congrats to the Falcons and helping ND’s strength of schedule.

This week is going a tough one to get fired up about. The Irish don’t play, and frankly, there’s just not that many good games. Let’s see what we have….

Michigan travels to Happy Valley to take on Penn St in a crucial game in terms of who gets to go to the Capital One Bowl to play an uninspired SEC team. It will be a “White Out” and they’ll have the “Seven Nations Army” chant going loud and strong. Incidentally, can that go the way of the Dodo Bird and the The Wave, please? It’s tired and was never cool to begin with. Oh, the game. I just can’t see Michigan having enough offense to beat the Lions, but I do believe their defense will keep them in it. This will just be week one of Mr. Sweetchuck’s very long two weeks. PSU 21-10 in a snooze fest.

Clemson travels to Louisville for a date with the Cardinals. The last time these two played at “the ‘Ville,” Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson had a “ok, top this” battle for the ages. While this won’t be nearly as exciting, I’m interested to see how the Cards look against another Top 10 team. Ok, I couldn’t care less about that. I want to see what Clemson looks like against a common opponent. While I think this is a very good Clemson team, it’s nowhere near what we saw last December. Clemson will win the game, but I have a hard time believing it’ll be over by halftime. CU 35-17.

Virginia finally gets a home game after two rough road trips to Miami and ND and gets Coach Cutt and his better than expected Blue Devils. Watching UVA last Friday night was painful. The offensive line is truly awful and then they lost their best receiver. Duke’s offense is better than Miami’s (ok, that’s just awesome to say) and they better figure some things out quickly or their staring at 3-3 and for the love of God hurting our strength of schedule!! Duke 24-13.

I hate bye weeks. The one after the first week stunk because we didn’t play well and all we had to look forward to was a game against a hideous New Mexico team. This one sucks because we just got done beating our rival for the 3rd year in a row and we have another hate match coming up with Michigan. I want more and I want it now!!!

This, of course, is coming from the fan’s prospective. I’m sure the players themselves are elated to have this time off. These kids have been going hard since early August on the practice field. They’ve had six games under their belts, and actually are probably up late in the evening studying material that doesn’t involve doing the cha-cha, when to put a comma, or multiple choice questions asking who the 16th President was with two of the possible answers being Walter Payton or Jesse Ventura like some of the kids at other schools around the country. The kids need to get away from it, recharge the batteries, and get ready for the stretch run. Doesn’t mean we have to like it….

Enjoy the bye week. Hit ‘em long and hit ‘em straight.