The Back Corner Fade

So how was your Thanksgiving weekend? Pretty typical year for me: eat way too much, watch the Lions and Cowboys, listen to relatives argue about things that happened in the Eisenhower administration, and then Saturday watch Notre Dame fall flat on their face again yet again. It’s become a Thanksgiving tradition under Brian Kelly: whether it’s USC on even years or Stanford on odd years, Kelly and Co. never fails to disappoint in California. The 2010 and 2012 wins at SC are a distant memory, sadly. 

What really stings is that I doubt anybody reading this is actually surprised in the least…….and that’s a problem.

We’ll get back to the current situation in South Bend a bit later. I might have a thought or two. In the meantime, let’s get into what was one wild, wild weekend in college football.

• Ohio State overcame an early 14 point deficit to defeat Michigan yet again. Adding to the ho-hum game it really was, Urban Meyer wants an investigation into a possible Ann Arbor Tune-Up from a member of the Harbaugh Family on J.T. Barrett (who played in his 12th and final OSU/UM game.) C’mon Urb, do you really think Harbaugh would send out a couple of goons to give J.T. the Nancy Kerrigan treatment? Also, I’m guessing a Nikon wouldn’t be the weapon of choice.
• Auburn is officially the best team in the country at this time. Two weeks ago the destroyed Georgia who was #1 and last Saturday they flat out took it to Alabama. The game really wasn’t as even as the 12pt score would indicate. Auburn simply kicked their tales. 
• Miami reverted back to a Randy Shannon coached Miami team as they went up to the frozen tundra (it was actually in the mid 40’s) of Heinz Field and were soundly beaten by Pitt and a freshman QB making his first start. Obviously, ND fans are worried about our team after the past three weeks but Miami hasn’t exactly set the world on fire. Two weeks ago it was a struggle against Virginia and now this. 
• Yeah, things have gone from bad to worse in Knoxville. Not only did the Vols go winless in the SEC for the first time in their history, they also had all sorts of egg on their face Sunday bowing to public pressure and not hiring Greg Schiano. It truly has been scary to see the slow death these guys have gone through since they parted ways with Phil Fulmer. This is probably the best example you could get for the term “dumpster fire.”

Championship Week is upon us and there are some fantastic matchup’s to check out. Let’s take a look

• Stanford and USC meet up again in the PAC-12 Championship game and I think you’re going to see a similar result to what happened back in September when USC flat out rolled them. USC has played tremendous football since getting carved up by the once really good ND team and Stanford is simply a very average football team. I think SC wins by 14-17 points and cruises into a NYD 6 bowl birth
• Miami and Clemson get together to settle the ACC Title and once again, I don’t believe this will be that close. Miami has played poorly since the ND game, and it would take that kind of effort we saw that night to take down the Tigers. I just don’t see that happening. I like Clemson by two touchdowns.
• Auburn and Georgia meet again to determine the SEC just three weeks removed from the Tigers mauling Georgia at home. I think Georgia can win this game. Yes they were worked the first go around, but it is awfully tough for any team to get up for the third time in four weeks and that is what Auburn is facing. Bottom line is Georgia has to run the ball to have a chance……something they simply couldn’t do on the Plains a few weeks back. I like Auburn in the end, but I believe this one will be less than 10 points.
• Do you like offense? Sure you do. If you want to see a lot of points being scored, tune-in to the AAC Championship game with Memphis and UCF. Both these teams can make sweet love to opposing defenses and I don’t see this one being any different. I also believe that this will be the swan song game for both of these coaches who both should be off to greener pastures. I’ll say UCF by 4 and a combined 78 points.
• Baker Mayfield, top candidate for the Heisman and the new John Manzeil College Football’s Biggest Tool award, and his Sooners have a rematch with TCU. Honestly, I could care less. OU is a very good team and if they win this weekend, deserve to be in the Final Four. I just can’t stomach Mayfield. I’ll just go out and say OU by 17.
• Last but not least, Wisconsin enters December and finally will play a good football team when they meet up with OSU for the Delaney Cup in Indy. Let’s say that again, this is the first good team they’ve played, and it’s December. I really have no clue how good the Badgers are. I mean they run the ball well, they play good defense, but it’s really hard to gauge against the bottom of the Big 10 and out of conference tomato cans. I like OSU in this one by at least 10.

I wish I could put a more positive spin on the last three weeks of the season, I really do. There just isn’t anyway to sell that lime-green Pinto…..it was just ugly, ugly football across the board. That team that we saw a little more than a month ago devour USC seems like it was two years ago and we long for those days of old when all was right with world. Instead, we’re applauding the fact that we held Navy to under 300 yards rushing. Yikes!

I’m not going to fire at will on Brian Kelly nor will I make any apologies for him. What’s the point at the present time? He will be the head football coach at Notre Dame next year (unless he heads to FSU, I say this tongue and cheek) and we have to live with it no matter what your feelings are towards him. In the end, there were some outstanding things that happened this season. The Josh Adams of the first two months was simply terrific. The development of the defense under Mike Elko was heads and tails better than we thought it could be. For the most part, this team played very, very hard. It’s tough to remember that at present when we’re scratching our heads and asking ourselves “what went wrong?” I look at it like breaking up with a girlfriend back in high school or college. Sure, you were probably angry at the situation and hurting a bit. Years later you may think about that relationship with fine memories. Yeah, it didn’t work out, but you had some great times together. At the time, you only remember the bitter end. Just like now, we’re angry, confused as to why, and can’t let it go.

No, I don’t believe that the 2017 team totally wiped the taste of the last season but it was a positive step. That being said, 9-3 just would have looked so much better if they started 1-2 and not finished that way. This team has the potential (there’s that word again!) to be very good next year, there also is no denying that (obviously a great deal of that falls on the QB position) Brandon has to get better. There’s just no way around it. If the quarterback play doesn’t improve, ND is going to struggle moving the ball and ultimately win ball games.

All indications are that Wimbush is a terrific young man and is beloved by his teammates. You root for guys like him to do well. If he does improve, this team has the fire power on both sides to be really, really good. This year should have given these kids a taste of how good they can be. It also showed them that the margin from being in the penthouse to the outhouse is awfully slim. 9-3 got Kelly the pass this year after the train wreck that was the 2016 season. With who they have back and knowing how good this unit can be when locked in (minus Q and Big Mike) there simply are no excuses. This team should be winning at a high level.

9-3 in 2018 isn’t going to be good enough.

Go Irish! Beat Finals!