The Back Corner Fade
Note: Mike Kane is a Notre Dame fan and IrishSportsDaily.com member writing a column from a fan’s perspective.
When Steve Addazio looks back at the film of this past weekend’s game, he’s going to have a very sick feeling in his stomach. Sure, after the game he mentioned that it was just a small portion of the game that his team fell apart. That reminds me of the old saying “So other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?” His Fightin’ Fredo’s were beaten and beaten soundly. Bottom line, Coach, your team isn’t in the same league as Notre Dame. Even on a day where the Irish offense tripped all over themselves in the first half, they defeated BC by 33 points. If they played a complete game, we’re talking high 50’s.
Reality is what it is: you were worked by a good, not great, Notre Dame team, you’re a bottom feeder in a bad league, and you’re Page 5 in the Boston sports section. You’re Fredo and you just got Carlo’d. Best of luck against Pitt this week to get bowl eligible for the right to go to a game with tires or .com in the name of the affair.
What did we learn this week? Not much, really. As I mentioned last week, this was going to be a snoozer. We’ll get through this quick….
“Noooooooo!!!!” That was the cry coming from Larry Scott in the Pac-12 offices late Saturday as what small hope he had for a school in his conference to go to the Playoffs evaporated as Herm Edwards Sun Devils (they obviously played to win the game) showed up and took out Oregon. The Quackers have a nice team this season, that can’t be denied, but they would get dismantled in an LSU-OSU-Clemson scenario. Class of the PAC-10? Well, it’s them or Utah and either of which would get smoked.
Well, well, well, nice to see OSU got to play a game four quarters for the first time this season now that we’re at the end of November. I have to give James Franklin and his pesky band of Nitts credit for hanging in there to the end against the Bucks. They played so inspired, I can’t see them slipping more than one spot in the polls because well, they’re the 3rd best team in the Big 10 by golly and that just means something.
Let’s get to the Thanksgiving weekend feast of games that we can eat our left-over turkey sandwiches to…
Virginia Tech heads to Virginia with plenty on the line. Yep, the winner of this might just be heading to the Orange Bowl to take on the Florida Gators. Hmm, what team beat both of them and would bring a much better fan base than either of these two and set up a much more appealing game?
Friday also has a really good “under-the-radar” game as Cincinnati and Memphis hook up in the Liberty Bowl with AAC Title implications on the line. If you’ve watched UC this year, they play very good defense. The offense, under old pal Mike Dembrock is, well, not that great. To beat Memphis, you better have your scoring shoes on and on the road, I don’t think Cincinnati has the horses to do it. Should be a fun watch though.
Ohio State heads to the Big House for the annual showdown with the Wolverines. If you haven’t heard, this is THE greatest rivalry in all of sports fueled by the memory of two dead blowhard coaches that lived for this one day a year. Seriously, nobody outside of the two states, and pizza delivery guys from Ohio that moved out to find their place in this world care about this game in the least. Ohio State has the better team, and have Harbaugh’s number. I do believe that Michigan will at least put up a fight.-something they’ve failed to do since Mr. Sweetchuck got there. OSU wins, and the players get more gold pants to sell, but it’s a 10-14 point game.
Clemson heads to South Carolina for what could be the death blow for Will Muschamp. Yes, he did beat Georgia this season, but he hasn’t done anything else since he got to Columbia. Clemson will be fresh and ready to go after the X-amount of weeks of scrimmages they’ve had since the UNC game and I expect another beat down. No reason with the talent in the Southeast that S. Carolina should be this bad. Maybe they’ll finally get smart and hire a young and up and coming coach instead of ones off the scrap heap (Lou excluded.)
This could be the weekend that Minnesota has been waiting for since 1960…..a chance to play for a conference title as they play host to Wisconsin. Tickets are currently going for $237 a pop on Stub Hub so you know it’s going to be a wild atmosphere. When has the game for the Golden Ax, Ox, Pig…..whatever the hell they play, meant this much? I’m actually really looking forward to this one.
Clay Helton still has a job as of 5:00 on Monday. Stay tuned.
Iron Bowl time down on the Plaines as a Tua-less Alabama squad tries to keep their Playoff dreams alive against Auburn. If you haven’t watched Auburn this season, they play very, very good defense. They are really fast and are going to force Bama to beat them through the air. Same is going to hold true when Auburn has the ball. While I’m a big fan in Bo Nix, he’s not a great passer yet (how many true freshman are?) and that’s going to make it awfully hard to beat a defense like the Tide has. I believe this is going to be a low scoring affair, and somehow, Nick Saban, the greatest coach ever, just ask ESPN, will get out of town with a 3 point win.
It’s that time ND fans! Time to smoke some Tree! Out of all the teams on our schedule that we play on a consistent basis, I think I dislike these guys the most. Just looking at David Shaw and his head that looks like the WKU mascot makes my skin crawl. I never thought I could hate a band more than USC playing their funeral dirges after every 3 yard gain, than the Stanford Band. I look at those guys and can see future beer snobs. You know, guys that ask 30 questions about the local porter to some bartender just there working to pay rent and a second degree since that art history thing hasn’t worked out. Most of all, for whatever reason, we can’t win out there. It’s a small stadium, their fans suck, and it’s not at all intimidating. Just strange.
The good news is this year’s Stanford product just isn’t very good. Fresh off a loss in the Jerry Garcia Bowl against Cal, they come into this one actually playing a game the week before ND. Neat concept. They’ve been beat to hell all season and not having a week to mend sure doesn’t help their cause. While I don’t think they’re BC or Duke bad, if we protect the ball, don’t have a lot of penalties (I’m considering changing the name of this article to the “First Down Flinch”) and run just enough to set up the pass, I believe we win this one in the 17-21 point range. They don’t have an offense that can beat ND unless they give them short fields to work with. Stanford is playing with nothing to lose and that’s always a scary proposition, but this ND team looks like a different animal since that final drive against Virginia Tech and they’re getting that 10th win and hopefully a NYD6 invitation.
As I mentioned earlier in the article, this is a good Irish team, and not close to being great. They are resilient as hell, though, and they finish the season strong this weekend. ND 34-13
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your dear families!!
Beat Stanford.