The Back Corner Fade
Note: Mike Kane is a Notre Dame fan writing a weekly column from a fan’s perspective. He’s not an ISD staff member, but a fan writing about the lighter side of college football.
For the first time in over a month, it was just nice to kick back and watch the Irish drill someone and didn’t have a worry in the world after about the 10-minute mark of the 3rd quarter. Even during the second half of the SC game there was that nagging feeling that the Trojans were going to make a run and the game was going to be in doubt heading into the wee hours of the affair. That certainly wasn’t the case this past Saturday.
ND terrorized the Pitt offense from the onset and after their third possession it was abundantly clear that there was no way they were going to do anything against Al Golden’s defense. Yes, the Irish offense was just “ok” the first half, but anyone could see that it would just be a matter of time before the Pitt defense wore down simply from being on the field as much as they were.
“Nards Week” has come and gone again for another few seasons. Who knows if he’ll be there the next time the Irish and Panthers get together. Peace out, Pat.
What did we learn this past week?
For starters, OU is the latest school to fall to the wayside in the race to the playoffs after falling on the road at Kansas. I wrote last week that the conditions were favorable for an upset and that I thought KU had a puncher’s chance but didn’t think they would win it. Lance Leipold continues to climb the ranks of “hot coaches,” and maybe even has taken over the “it” guy after Elko has lost the last two games. He’s certainly done an excellent job in building the KU program.
Georgia keeps humming along blasting rival Florida in the “World’s Largest Natty Light Party” down in Gainesville. Carson Beck continues to get better with every passing week, and even without Brock Bowers, the Dawgs methodically destroyed the Gators. They have a tough three-game stretch with Missouri, Ole Miss, and UT coming up, and we’ll get to see how good they really are, but I certainly wouldn’t bet against them……on a money line. I mean, giving points is something totally different.
Anybody else notice that Air Force is undefeated? I mean it’s awfully easy to do with the meat grinder schedule they’ve played with the likes of Robert Morris, Sam Houston State and the bottom half of the MWC, but 8-0 is 8-0 after taking care of Colorado State this past weekend. Their season will probably come down to back-to-back tests against UNLV and on the road at Boise, but to this point it’s been an awfully impressive first two months of the season for the Zoomies.
What do we have to look forward to this weekend?
Some really good games on paper as we head to Week 10 of the season starting deep in the heart of Texas.
Texas welcomes in Kansas State at noon (ND fans won’t be watching this other than at commercials) and Kansas State has quietly got to 6-2 behind the legs of DJ Giddens, and I think they have more than a shot to get the Horns. Maalik Murphy has been forced into the starting QB role at UT with the injury to Quinn Ewers and was fine the first start last week against BYU while not being asked to do much. This one is going to be a little different facing a Wildcat team that has given up 3 points total in the last two weeks. I’m going to go with an upset here in Austin. K-State: 24-21.
We touched on Georgia earlier, but they have potentially their biggest test of the year as 14th ranked Missouri comes to town looking to knock off the Dawgs. If you haven’t had a chance to watch Mizzou this season, they were just a couple plays away from beating LSU in their only loss ,and have an absolute stud in WR Luther Burden III. This kid would play anywhere in the country, right now. QB Brady Cook has also been very good after being booed by his own fans earlier in the year and has a 15/3 TD/INT ratio. All of that is awesome! The bad news: they’re not beating Georgia on the road even though I do believe they’ll keep this interesting for some time. UGA 38-24.
The “Big Game” of the week features the LSU Tigers heading up to Alabama for a key SEC West showdown between the Tigers and Tide. I’ll be interested to see what Tommy Rees does to scheme up the Tide offense against his old master. I’m sure this one means a little more than most games for him. I’m also interested to see if the Tiger defense has truly improved since being dreadful in the early part of the season. Sorry, but seeing them hold a bad Auburn team to 18 points and shutting out Army isn’t a fair sampling. I just have a feeling Bama flexes it’s guns for the first time all year and gets redemption from last year’s loss in Baton Rouge. If you want to win in the SEC, especially on the road, you better have a defense. I’m just not sold LSU does. Tide 34-31.
Not going to break down SC hosting Washington because I’m sick of talking about those jamokes. I will present this question though: Could Michael Penix throw for 600 yards against SC?
Finally, the Irish head to Death Valley to take on the Clemson Tigers. The Tigers are in the midst of the season from hell and limp back home 4-4 after losing this past weekend to a bad NC State team. Tiger head coach and carnival barker, Eli Gemstone, I mean Dabo Swinney (all credit to ISD O.G., Irishdane20 for that great nickname) is bumfuzzled and if you’ve heard his past few press conferences, sounds like he’s at a complete loss. He hasn’t been in this situation in a long time and doesn’t look he has any answers on how to get out of it. Anyone else feel bad for him? Didn’t think so.
As for the game, if anyone doesn’t believe this one is going to be tough, they might be in for a rude awakening. For as truly pathetic as the Tiger offense has been, they still have a damn good defense, and last I checked, the Irish offense isn’t exactly the 2019 LSU Tigers. It’s going to be a struggle to put up points against Clemson’s defense.
I think the best-case scenario would be to jump them early if possible. The longer they keep Clemson and their fans in the game the more they believe they can win. They hit these guys 14-0 in the 1st quarter with their offense, I could see an early tap-out from the team and their myopic fan base. Clemson Football is truly trending down and very quickly. No rubbing the “magic rock,” or intensified shampoo is going to help in this one.
In the end, I think ND wins by creating turnovers and playing with short fields. Clemson’s bad offense (especially with potentially not having Will Shipley this week) and propensity to turn the ball over at the wrong time will be the difference. It’s going to be ugly, but a win, nonetheless.
Offensive Pick to Click: Audric Estime. 22 carries for 120 and 2 TD’s
Defensive Beast of the Week: Howard Cross. He’s coming for you Cade.
Irish 20-13.
Beat Clemson.