The Back Corner Fade

You know what’s been a great deal of fun so far this season? Having only one game where the issue is still in doubt in the 4th quarter. How many times in last, I don’t know, say 20 years have you yelled up to your significant other: “yes honey, I know my dinner is going to get cold but ND is in a dog fight with (enter mediocre team here.) I’ll be up in a minute.”

This hasn’t been the case so far this season. Talk about drilling teams! I have to admit, I, like many of you, thought this was going to be a classic BK let down game having to mess around with the starters in until the early fourth quarter against a team that we should knock the hell out of. I’m so happy to admit I was dead wrong. Even though BC was close early in the third, that thing was well over by the start of the 4th. Bottom line, this team has the ability to turn you over, and knock you out very quickly. Yes, I realize Miami is not a good team but I do believe they have a chance to get to the MAC title game (the MAC East is all sorts of awful.) The Irish never gave them the chance to think they had a shot like they have in years past. This was a TKO in the first.

What did we happen to learn this week in the world of college football?:

• Anyone else sick of hearing about the dominance of the SEC? Besides Alabama and Georgia is there a team in that league that should even be in the conversation of top 15 teams (please don’t say Auburn. The played one team and scored 6 points.) How pedestrian is the league? Well, consider that Kentucky beat Eastern Michigan by 4 points. I realize UK isn’t one of the conference heavy weights, but 4 points against a middle of the run MAC team?!? Then take a look at what happened down in Meth Valley this past Saturday evening…….
• Coach O hasn’t even made it out of September and the Tiger faithful are having serious buyer’s remorse. Losing to Troy at home. Not good. So far, they’ve beat BYU (who couldn’t score against air,) Chattanooga, and a bad Syracuse team. Let’s look at the genius that is LSU: they fired the most successful coach in school history for a guy that was a failure at another SEC school (besides selling a lot of Hummers. If you’ve never seen the video, You Tube “Orgeron Hummer Commercial. You’re welcome.) Coach O is what he is: the fun/crazy uncle that would get drunk and toss kids in the pool (sometimes with water in it) at family reunions, challenge Uncle Dave to a fight at Christmas Eve dinner for saying he could run faster than him when he was 13, and maybe cold-cock a 16 year old umpire at the Little League game for “squeezing ma boy!” I also bet he wears copious amounts of Old Spice.
• 9 TD passes and 7 interceptions. No, that’s not the stat line of the QB at Kansas, that would be what Sam Darnold has done so far this season. Amazing talent, going to be a 1st round pick, and I have little doubt will play his tail off on the 21st, but please, this kid is not the second coming of Carson Palmer. Heck, he looks more like Paul McDonald with those numbers.
  

  Gary A. Vasquez - USA Today Sports

  Sam Darnold

   

• USU, FAU, BYU, and NW…….no, those are not trade unions, that’s who the #10 ranked Wisconsin Badgers have played so far. This truly is pathetic in so many ways. Looking ahead on their schedule, they have Michigan (who I still think is just ok) at home, Iowa at home, and Minnesota on the road to end the season (they also dodge OSU.) I’ll go ahead and say it now, this team is going undefeated heading into December…..yet shouldn’t be anywhere remotely near the Top 10 in the BCS rankings. 

Unlike last week, there are some real good match-up’s to check out. Here’s what’s ahead:

• Michigan plays host to MSU for the first time since THE blocked punt 2 years ago. The only real interest in this is how well Sparty does against another ranked team. This one just screams 20-14, 15 punts combined, and just bad offense in general. Then we’ll get to hear the tired spin: “That was just classic Big 10 Football. Somewhere, Bo and Duffy are smiling.” Yeah, boring and unwatchable. You nailed it.
• Any one notice that UCF is pretty friggin good? The last two weeks they beat up on Maryland and then just knocked the hell out of an above average Memphis squad. This week they head to BK’s old stomping grounds at Cincinnati to carve up the Bearcats. I have little doubt that the “Scott Frost going home to Lincoln” rumors will be running ramped soon enough.
• BC plays host to Virginia Tech this weekend. Why is this even remotely important? It isn’t other than the fact that if you live in the Boston area, you can see this game cheap....as low as $5 a Vivid Seats. 
• Louisville travels to NC State this weekend and I’m really interested to see what the Pack does against an actual good offense. Yes, I know they held FSU in check…..that really doesn’t say much. The other two power five offenses they played scored 35 (USC) and 25 (Syracuse.) I know, I know, great front seven, I get it. Let’s just see how good they really are.
• #23 ranked West Virginia (with huge wins against Delaware St, ECU, and Kansas) head down to Ft. Worth to play TCU. Gary Paterson vs “Buffalo Bill.” Yeah, go ahead and pencil me in on the spot sheet taking TCU. The next time Dana Holgorsen wins a big game will be his first. C’mon Coach, give the WVU co-ed’s a reason to flambeau a few couches. Wins against Delaware St are simply unworthy of furniture arson.
• Arkansas and South Carolina hook up in a battle of two coaches under some heat. We discussed the spot Bielema is getting himself into, but not much has been said about Will Muschamp and the bang up job he’s done at USC. This, in some ways, reminds me of what LSU did hiring The Ogre. Failed coach within the league, and hired without an impressive 2nd chance at a lesser program before getting called back up from Triple A to The Show.

Finally, the Irish head on down to Chapel Hill and take on the M.A.S.H. unit that is the UNC Tar Heels. I mentioned earlier in this article that you could get BC tickets for $5 bucks at Vivid Seats. This game will run you a little higher ($45) for a ticket……but there are over 2200 available as of Monday evening. Needless to say, the UNC faithful have checked out and are preparing for basketball season (and also praying that Roy’s boys name doesn’t come up in the latest CBB/FBI scandal.)

This is another game that ND really should put up impressive numbers on offense and have this well in hand by the middle of the 3rd quarter. Chaz Surratt is a mobile QB that can make plays with his legs and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets loose on a couple long runs, but in the end they simply don’t have enough on offense and certainly not enough on defense to beat the Irish. I think we’d all love to see Brandon Wimbush continue to grow in the passing game and have a better outing then he did against Miami. He doesn’t need to light the place up for 300 yards, but do enough to make Carolina play the safety back and further open up the running game and more important, gain some much needed confidence throwing the ball. We’re going to need that come October 21st and beyond.

But, for this week, and another 3:30 start, you should be more than able to sit down, enjoy dinner with the family, record the 4th quarter and watch Ian Book play later.

Beat Carolina.