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The Official 2010-2011 Notre Dame Fightin' Irish Sports Thread!!!
Gentlemen,
After lengthy negotiations with Pojo, my conscience, and a cadre of alumni focus groups, I've decided to run an official Notre Dame thread at BOTH Roth Army and DDLR.com. Besides the fact that someone said it was a TRAVESTY that a webbie at this fine site (RothArmy.com) would maintain an official thread at ANOTHER site, while leaving this site neglected, I will simply have to take on the responsibility I should have taken on prior to the start of the college football season, and run, for the time being, TWO official threads, one at each site. Consider it much like Miller Lite, one thread tastes great, and one is less filling. Considering the lower traffic volume at DDLR.com Sports Forum, I felt that blessing all the fine folks here with the daily/weekly Fightin' Irish (and as a bonus UNLV and San Diego franchise coverage as well) information and updates was the responsible, professional, admirable, charitable, and common sensical thing to do.
Thusly, and Ergoly, and finally.... I hereby christen thee The Official Notre Dame Fightin' Irish Sports Thread here at the Roth Army.
Now, just to get everyone up to speed on my affiliations and the Notre Dame football team, here is today's update:
The Fightin' Irish looked like a well-oiled machine in the first half against Washington, racking up 28 first-half points, and quarterback Brady Quinn throwing for 4 first half touchdowns and 4 for the game (the former breaking a previous record, the latter tying a previous record.... Montana and Theisman anyone?). However, in the second half, it looked as if Ty Willingham and Bill Deidrick (Off. Coord.) decided to go back to their usual ways of being more conservative and having Quinn throw incomplete passes. Notre Dame hasn't been able to put together a complete game since 2002. They started falling apart in the 4th quarter of their win against Florida State, and they haven't looked back since, putting up half-assed efforts in pretty much every game since, resulting in last year's 5-7 season record. A debacle by any self-respecting school's criteria.
At any rate, the Irish seem to have put together enough offense to school the state of Michigan (wins of UM and MSU) and they put the hurt on Washington as I've mentioned, after a lackluster and embarrassing start at BYU in which the Irish lost that game. Needless to say, they will have to bring their defensive A-game against Orton and Purdue, and they better have enough offense to put up 30+ again, because that's what it's going to take to beat Purdue this coming weekend.
Lastly, some folks are waiting for the Irish to return to the Top 25 rankings. I don't see it happening this week, simply because I'm not sure who will move out of the Top 25 to make room for the Irish. And besides, Washington isn't a good team, despite the Irish schooling them. So I fully expect a Top 25 ranking next week when the Irish take care of business against Purdue.
If the Irish can run the table (must get past Purdue, Stanford, Navy, and Boston College) up to the Tennessee game (at Tenn.), the Irish will be 7-1 and looking to make a big jump in the polls with a tough road-win against a formidable SEC opponent. Then it's just a matter of putting away Pitt, for a showdown at USC which, if ND is 9-1 and USC is 11-0 at that time, will have significant National Title implications. Of course, ND still has much to prove, but I'm confident that this year could be quite a pleasant surprise for the Irish faithful.
My own realistic expectations would be an 8-3 record and a Bowl win, since I can see the Irish beating Purdue, but stumbling against Tenn, and USC. And if BC plays ND like they always do, it's not out of the realm of possibility to think the Irish will go 7-4. Much better than last year, true. But damn haven't we fallen on hard times when a 7-4 record is considered "good" by many folks in the Irish camp. If Ty Willingham can't consistently produce at least 8-3/9-3 seasons (and that is simple job security) like that bore Lloyd Carr at UM, I don't see Ty coaching the Irish after his contract is up. Of course, we're talking about the same athletic director who hired Oleary, and the same institution that hired Faust, so I could be wrong.
GO IRISH!!!
GO UNLV!!!!
GO CHARGERS!!!
GO PADRES!!!
GO KINGS (Basketball and hockey if it ever comes back)
Icon.
After lengthy negotiations with Pojo, my conscience, and a cadre of alumni focus groups, I've decided to run an official Notre Dame thread at BOTH Roth Army and DDLR.com. Besides the fact that someone said it was a TRAVESTY that a webbie at this fine site (RothArmy.com) would maintain an official thread at ANOTHER site, while leaving this site neglected, I will simply have to take on the responsibility I should have taken on prior to the start of the college football season, and run, for the time being, TWO official threads, one at each site. Consider it much like Miller Lite, one thread tastes great, and one is less filling. Considering the lower traffic volume at DDLR.com Sports Forum, I felt that blessing all the fine folks here with the daily/weekly Fightin' Irish (and as a bonus UNLV and San Diego franchise coverage as well) information and updates was the responsible, professional, admirable, charitable, and common sensical thing to do.
Thusly, and Ergoly, and finally.... I hereby christen thee The Official Notre Dame Fightin' Irish Sports Thread here at the Roth Army.
Now, just to get everyone up to speed on my affiliations and the Notre Dame football team, here is today's update:
The Fightin' Irish looked like a well-oiled machine in the first half against Washington, racking up 28 first-half points, and quarterback Brady Quinn throwing for 4 first half touchdowns and 4 for the game (the former breaking a previous record, the latter tying a previous record.... Montana and Theisman anyone?). However, in the second half, it looked as if Ty Willingham and Bill Deidrick (Off. Coord.) decided to go back to their usual ways of being more conservative and having Quinn throw incomplete passes. Notre Dame hasn't been able to put together a complete game since 2002. They started falling apart in the 4th quarter of their win against Florida State, and they haven't looked back since, putting up half-assed efforts in pretty much every game since, resulting in last year's 5-7 season record. A debacle by any self-respecting school's criteria.
At any rate, the Irish seem to have put together enough offense to school the state of Michigan (wins of UM and MSU) and they put the hurt on Washington as I've mentioned, after a lackluster and embarrassing start at BYU in which the Irish lost that game. Needless to say, they will have to bring their defensive A-game against Orton and Purdue, and they better have enough offense to put up 30+ again, because that's what it's going to take to beat Purdue this coming weekend.
Lastly, some folks are waiting for the Irish to return to the Top 25 rankings. I don't see it happening this week, simply because I'm not sure who will move out of the Top 25 to make room for the Irish. And besides, Washington isn't a good team, despite the Irish schooling them. So I fully expect a Top 25 ranking next week when the Irish take care of business against Purdue.
If the Irish can run the table (must get past Purdue, Stanford, Navy, and Boston College) up to the Tennessee game (at Tenn.), the Irish will be 7-1 and looking to make a big jump in the polls with a tough road-win against a formidable SEC opponent. Then it's just a matter of putting away Pitt, for a showdown at USC which, if ND is 9-1 and USC is 11-0 at that time, will have significant National Title implications. Of course, ND still has much to prove, but I'm confident that this year could be quite a pleasant surprise for the Irish faithful.
My own realistic expectations would be an 8-3 record and a Bowl win, since I can see the Irish beating Purdue, but stumbling against Tenn, and USC. And if BC plays ND like they always do, it's not out of the realm of possibility to think the Irish will go 7-4. Much better than last year, true. But damn haven't we fallen on hard times when a 7-4 record is considered "good" by many folks in the Irish camp. If Ty Willingham can't consistently produce at least 8-3/9-3 seasons (and that is simple job security) like that bore Lloyd Carr at UM, I don't see Ty coaching the Irish after his contract is up. Of course, we're talking about the same athletic director who hired Oleary, and the same institution that hired Faust, so I could be wrong.
GO IRISH!!!
GO UNLV!!!!
GO CHARGERS!!!
GO PADRES!!!
GO KINGS (Basketball and hockey if it ever comes back)
Icon.
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