Weekend rewind: Notre Dame’s first win could be months away
And that headline, folks — that headline is no joke.
The first two-thirds of Notre Dame’s schedule is brutal — it would be brutal for a good team. And Notre Dame is not a good team.
The opener, at home, against Georgia Tech, was supposed to be one if the easiest games — maybe THE easiest — of their September. Instead it was 33-3.
So what’s coming for the Irish?
This week: at No. 17 Penn State (wipeout)
Next week: at Michigan (worse than App State but better than Notre Dame, possible wipeout).
Then: Michigan State (which has beaten far better Irish teams than this one)
Then: Purdue (experienced and underrated)
Then: at No. 14 UCLA (possible wipeout)
Then: Boston College (always wins in South Bend, and a good team)
Then: No. 1 USC (massive wipeout)
At this point, the Irish would be fortunate to escape that eight-game gauntlet with two wins, but I could also see 1-7 or even 0-8.
Once they get through USC, though, the schedule softens considerably: Navy, Air Force, Duke, Stanford.
Notre Dame should win all four but could stumble once (Navy? Stanford?), which would mean 5-7 is about the best Charlie Weis can do this season.
And a 5-7 record would make Weis’ three-year mark in South Bend 24-13, which would be only slightly better than Tyrone Willingham’s. Hmmmmm.
Now, for the winners and (other) losers from Week One…
***Winners
Appalachian State: Does the unthinkable. Now good luck scheduling BCS-conference teams in the future.
App State II: In truth, Mountaineers would be a decent lower-level I-A team, really good in the Sun Belt, pretty good in the MAC.
John Tenuta, Georgia Tech’s defensive coordinator: With two offseasons to prepare, Charlie Weis managed all of 17 points against Tenuta in 120 minutes.
Louisville QB Brian Brohm: Throws 4 TDs and plays like the No. 1 pick in the draft. How would he look in Silver and Black?
Oklahoma, rolls up 79 on North Texas: An esteemed colleague of mine suggested that Stoops’ motto for the season should be: “Vacate this.”
JoePa: Healthy and Happy in the Valley after 59-0 win. He just might have the best team in the Big Ten.
Alabama: In Nick Saban’s debut, Tide rolls up the most points (52) in a season opener since it beat Cal 66-0 in 1973.
Dennis Erickson: Has Arizona State in midseason form, or was San Jose State in preseason form?
Nebraska, thumps Nevada: Huskers rush for 413 yards, throw for 212 — something’s amiss with Callahan’s attack.
LSU, shuts out Mississippi State: The Tigers’ defensive line could play in the NFL, as is, right now.
***Losers
Michigan: Will (and should) be treated 10 times worse than the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16.
Michigan II: In case you hadn’t realized, Wolverines are 0-3 since Bo died and haven’t played a lick of defense.
UM Coach Lloyd Carr: Was thinking about retiring after the season. Not much “thinking” left, only retiring.
Florida State, loses to Clemson: Maybe the ‘Noles terminated one Bowden too few.
LSU Coach Les Miles: Cal’s victory over Tennessee undermines his anti-Pac-10 argument, but don’t expect him to stop yapping.
Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen: No one expected him to be terrific from Game One, but the fact that he couldn’t beat out Evan Sharpley should concern Irish fans.
ESPN studio show: Mark May and Lou Holtz are as bad as the Michigan defense. Can someone see if Johnny Miller’s booked for the next 12 Saturday’s?
Regarding Jimmy Clausen, he was thoroughly outplayed by Cardinal Newman’s Ryan Lingle in the state championship game. Clausen was surrounded by amazing talent, yet was only marginally effective. Lingle showed heart and nearly won the game all by himself for Newman, broken leg and all. Perhaps all that Clausen hype was nothing more than good marketing.
We tennessee fans have one thing to smile about this weekend. Jimmy Clausen bombed. After enduring his two brothers in Rocky Top to be shunned by the “Good Clausen” was too much. Good Luck in South Bend Jimmy!
Clausen will be fine, Tenn. still stinks.
Notre Dame will rise from the ashes.
ND 24, Penn St. 7….book it.
Rise from the ashes?
Notre Dame will combust with a flame the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Charlie’s surgery proof gut and the wicking effect will feed those flames until there is nothing left but smoking wreckage….and domer delusion.
Dennis Erickson: Has Arizona State in midseason form, or was San Jose State in preseason form?
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I must concede it was the former, we got manhandled.
This is an inheritance from Dirk Koetter Bowl team though, not sure how much credit I would give to Erickson. Remember Jon Gruden inherited TB and won the Super Bowl, done nothing since. I hope Jeff Garcia does good this year, we’re pulling for you Jeff!
You may be right about us, (SJS), being a better team this year and lose more games.
The heat DID play a major factor as well. The report for gametime temp on the field was 101 degrees, but Tempe, AZ. just broke a record for most consecutive days ABOVE 110 degrees-32 days. Either way we got scorched like the headlines say and in every way.
It was one of those quicksand games, the harder you struggled the deeper you sank.
We had about 2 seconds before ASU defense was in the backfield. That’s about 1 second short of being able to actually do anything. (I counted)
Our Defensive line seemed to be swallowed by ASU O Line. Not sure about this one though, thought would be considered holding but don’t want to make excuse.
Next week at KSU could be brutal if we have no gameplan other than what we saw in spring practice drills. I only saw one pass attempt beyond 20 yards late in the game.
One thing is clear we’re going to need more speed..
~mws
one more thing we need that is clear, tackling and catching fundamentals…
That just about covers it..
What exactly DO we have?
Not sure yet..
OMG
~mws
SevenTrees is right. We might have hyped ourselves too much this off-season. Long term (next year and on) we will be okay, but this year will be a struggle and I hate to say it but the Stanford game will define both schools seasons this year. Whoever wins it will actually have a chance to become respectable. I know Tomey doesn’t say that, but really the Stanford game jump started us the rest of last year. Here is to hoping that no one gets hurt at KSU, because KSU was brutal at Auburn and they could really put the hurt to us.
BTW here is to hoping ND gets only 2 wins all season. Maybe everything might be all right with the world after all!
Jon - Any predictions of which team might be the next one to get caught with their pants down (ala Michigan)?
Jon -
OVERALL:
Does a team scoring 70+ points impress the voters? I’d say 30+ points is “dominant”, but 70? that is just a waste of everyone’s time and should reflect negatively on a teams rankings.
MICHIGAN:
I’m ‘just’ a Pac10 guy, but if Michgan has a Heisman-candidate QB and WR, as well as an NFL-caliber Left Tackle in Long, Do you agree that it was an awful call to run to the right on the 2-point conversion play?
NEBRASKA:
Are they better/worse/same as you’d expected? And does this performance make them look like they can challenge USC?
7trees/MostWanted -
Never read too much into the 1st game of the season(see Cal ‘06). SJSU can still do well in the WAC, but if they do end up in the top half and if ASU ends up in the lower half of the Pac10, the Spartans have seriously affected Hawaii’s and Boise’s chances to go to a BCS bowl given the strength of schedule calculation.
Notre Dame is dead. Fat Chucky is soon to follow.