The Back Corner Fade
NOTE: Mike Kane is a Notre Dame fan writing his column from a fan's perspective and is not a member of the IrishSportsDaily.com staff. Our readers love the fan perspective, and Mike tries to find the humor in our obsession every week. Enjoy!
Last Saturday night was just flat out fun. Fun to see the seniors ride off in their last home game winners. Fun to watch Brandon Wimbush play (for the most part) well in likely his last action as a starter. And what really was the most fun was to see ND just lay the wood to Florida St.
Obviously, this isn’t a good FSU football team, and that’s probably being nice. That being said, they still wear garnet and gold, still do the “Chop,” and still come out of Tallahassee. If you remember the last time we played these guys a questionable call (to say the very least) started a year and a half slide for the Irish. Sure, they beat on a bad team, but I believe they also exorcised some demons in the process.
So many times, Senior Day has ended up being a lot harder than it should be. This one was never in doubt. Considering the rebuild this Senior class have been such a big part of, they deserve to step out of the Stadium in style the way they did.
What did we learn last week? Really, not a whole heck of a lot. Not many upsets to mention and little in the way of marquee games. As I mentioned last week, you knew it was going to be bad when Game Day had to go to Boston College and drop anchor for that snooze fest. The good news for the Eagle “Super Fans” is they’ll be able to hang a “Game Day was here” sign next to their Tangerine Bowl banner or whatever 3rd rate bowl win they might have had from days past. Congrats, guys.
Bobby Petrino……back and to the left. Back and to the left.
Why do I get such pleasure out of watching a Dave Doreen team get beat? It’s NC State after all and well, who cares. Seeing him pout off the field, make excuses, and essentially act like a 5 year old that didn’t get his after dinner cookie is just simply fun to watch. You couldn’t score 30 on a Wake defense that would have a hard time keeping Mater Dei in the 20’s, Dave. Sleep well.
I’ve never been big into comparing scores and really margin of victory for that matter, but if UCF wants to actually be taken seriously, beating the worst Navy team in the last 15 years at home by 11 is not going to impress the masses. You have to beat Navy by at least 22 to impress this fella.
How do you think Ohio St. guy is feeling this week? Once again, they looked exceptionally pedestrian against a blah MSU team and then they look up to see the very same Purdue team that boat raced them last month lose by 31 to a winless-in-conference Minnesota team. Gives me a headache just thinking about it.
Bob Davie’s Mexican Wolves are having a really bad year. This time losing their 5th game in a row to Air Force. Part of me hopes they can close out with a few more wins so he can keep his job. Nothing would be finer than to see him come back to South Bend and see the boys put a 50 piece on him.
I posted on the Forums last weekend that I thought Pat Narduzzi should be recognized for the great job that he’s done this second half of the season, and for the most part, the general consensus agreed upon that. This is the same team that lost 51-6 at home to Penn State and now they’re in position to win their half of the ACC. Nobody is ever going to confuse Nard Dog with Johnny Majors, but this has been a hell of a coaching job.
If you thought last week was bad, wait until you get a load of some of the doozies that are on tap for this weekend. Let’s see if we can put a shine on this one.
Iowa St. travels to Texas to play the ‘Horns in the Big 12 game of the week. Very quietly, ISU has worked their way back to be in position to get back to a decent bowl game and put Matt Campbell on the radar of some of the bigger head coaching jobs that will be open both in the collegiate ranks as well as the pro’s (his name has been tossed around for the Browns.) Iowa State has been trending up, while the Horns have been just average since beating Oklahoma. I like the Cyclones in the upset.
The “Game of the Year” in the AAC takes place this weekend as Cincinnati heads to Orlando to take on UCF. It’s going to be a prime time game and both Luke Fickell and Josh Huepel will have their coaching talents on display for larger programs looking for someone to take over their downtrodden programs. Fickell has done an exceptional job since taking over Tommy Tuberville’s retirement gig and has done it in a pretty short amount of time. I can’t see UCF losing just like I can’t see either of these coaches being at their respective schools much longer than this season.
It’s that time, ladies and gents! Time for the SEC to bring a bunch of sucks in to get players healthy the week before rivalry games. Games where tickets will be given away for just being the 5th caller on “Mike and Mandy’s Morning Zoo” or for the low man on the totem pole at work who’s boss can’t find anyone else to take the seats.
I mean who doesn’t want to see The Citadel go in to Tuscaloosa to take a few swings at the Tide? Maybe you’d rather see Idaho head to The Swamp. Auburn thought it’d be swell to get Jerry Falwell’s Liberty boys a pay day. Rice gets to experience Death Valley at night and UT-Chattanooga heads to Columbia to take on USC. I’m sure the executives at the SEC Network just love having to spice these heartstoppers. So pathetic.
Let’s get to a game that won’t reek as Syracuse and Notre Dame both head to the South Bronx to clash in Yankee Stadium for the Savvy Jack Shamrock Classic sponsored by Under Armour. All kidding aside (sort of) this is going to be a huge test for the Irish. This will be heads and tails the best offense they’ve played all year and Syracuse plays just enough defense to cause some issues when the good guys have the ball.
The Orange have tall receivers, a tough, veteran QB, and a formidable running game are more than enough to keep Clark Lea and his staff up well into the small hours of the morning. Syracuse can pile up points, and fast. If ND doesn’t play sound defensive football, they’re in for a long afternoon.
Even as dangerous as SU is, I just have a very hard time seeing them beating Notre Dame if the Irish play with limited mistakes. While Dino Babers has done a good job with this program, they still don’t have the horses that ND has in stable and ND will have to ultimately beat themselves for Syracuse to win. That hasn’t happened so far this season, and I’d be shocked if this team would let it start now.
I think Syracuse will score some points and keep ND fans nervous well into the second half. In the end though, the Pin-stripped Paddy’s will just have too much depth and have Orange fans thinking about the 2-3 zone and Final Four dreams. ND 42-27
Beat Syracuse.