See ya Charlie

[Killian]

As a coach, fuck you sideways with a rusty spoon.

More when I get into work. ND didn't win, MSU lost. Floyd is an NFL reicever, but has been snake bitten.

[King Crimson]

Dan Hawkins has an "out" in his contract for Notre Dame. He's a Catholic.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Great game, Killian. Typical MSU-ND. The same can be said for your guys though. The refs screwed the Irish on that TD, Dantonio friggin starts Nichol on the 1st series in the 2nd half killing the momentum they had, and Narduzzi (d coordinator) still hasn't shown any propensity to make adjustments. Still, if Rucker makes that INT or Cousins hits Caper in the endzone there, ballgame. What ifs, should haves, etc. It's so frustrating, though I've built up an immunity to this shit. Alcohol, denial, and repression. Thank god for college basketball.

[BlindRef]

What is Charlie's buyout?

[TheJON]

What is Charlie's buyout?

[Terry in Crapchester]

What is Charlie's buyout?

Allegedly (per someone on ND Nation) was $20 million last year, I suspect it's a little less than that this year.

[Nolesy]

The stench of Obama is all over ND. They should never have let that shyster on campus-bad karma.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Narduzzi (d coordinator) still hasn't shown any propensity to make adjustments.

the game plan is playing like shit for the first 20 min of each half, then come back. The 2nd half plan didn't work out as hoped.

The game plan is letting the opposition name their score, then hoping your sophomore qb can win the game by himself. It's working great so far.

Oh well, they'll still finish better than Iowa in the Big Ten.

[Degenerate]

Weis might be on the way out. Keep me in the loop, mkay?

Sin,

Nick Saban
Bobby Petrino
Houston Nutt

[War Wagon]

....the Faux News herd

Politics in the CFB forum? shudder

I didn't realize you were one of them, Froz.

[Killian]

I didn't get to watch the game live on Saturday, so I didn't get to see anything until last night. My thoughts:

-I know I've had this conversation with Lefty before, and he has stated that the Big 10 officials are highly regarded, but they were awful on Saturday. The Floyd catch/non-catch sounds like it was a miscommunication between the on field ref and the one in the press box. If so, inexcusable. That was the second week in a row where a replay went against ND and it shouldn't have.

-Michael Floyd is a stud, and will be very, very hard to replace. ND struggled last year when he couldn't play, so it will be interesting to see how they react to him being out for the year.

-Thank you, Frank Verducci and Tony Alford. The O-line playes with fire, and Armando Allen looks like a different running back.

-After the first two possesions, it looked like ND would blow out MSU. Then Weis got too cute, Clausen got hurt and the defense started to suck ass.

-Speaking of the defense, anytime Jon Tenuta wants to start acting like a good DC would be great with me. I have no idea why he has his CB's play such soft zones. Also, MSU did a great job to get Mark Dell matched up to ND's slowest LB on that 58 yard catch and run.

-ND DB's dropped at least 3 picks, two of which would have been touchdowns. One was a good play by the receiver. If Ray Herring makes the pick on the final drive, there is no over throw in the endzone and pick at the end.

-Kyle McCarthy is ND's best defender. Clutch player, and twice the DB Zbikowski ever thought of being.

-MSU fought back well and took ND's early attempt at a knock out and turned it right back around into a half time lead for them.

-That blocked extra point was a huge play in the game. If that doesn't happen, MSU can sit on the ball and kick a game winning field goal.

-ND special teams continue to suck.

-It's nice to finally have this monkey off of ND's back.

-Clausen is turning into one of the best quarterbacks in the country. He played through pain, was still deadly accurate and has 11 or 12 TD's to 0 interceptions. He is making great decisions with the ball, feeling preasure much better and running when it is given to him. This is what Quinn did so well in 2005.

Bottom line, Weis is a great offensive mind who called a very good game. But I am convinced he doesn't have what it takes to win a championship. The defense played poorly for the second straight week, but this team still leaves way too many points on the field. He can't afford to do that with the way the defense is playing. I think Jack Swarbrick should be getting a list together and start vetting candidates. Weis is a good man, but a below average head coach.

Good game Mgo. Sorry you guys came up on the short end of the stick, but the breaks were bound to fall ND's way in one of these home games against MSU.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

-ND DB's dropped at least 3 picks, two of which would have been touchdowns.

Yeah, but none were as bad as the ball that sailed clear through Rucker's hands. He was all by himself out there, I couldn't believe that shit. That play, along with Cousins' overthrow of Caper in the endzone have been replaying in my head over and over.

The improvement of Clausen is unreal, btw. That bomb he threw to Floyd? who caught it in stride in the corner of the endzone, that was a thing of beauty. I actually felt MSU's coverage was pretty decent, he was just threading the needle.

[Terry in Crapchester]

The improvement of Clausen is unreal, btw.

It shouldn't have been unexpected, though -- at least, not to anyone who has followed ND football in recent years. Quinn made a similar quantum leap improvement in his junior year. Of course, there are still some holes in his game, e.g., the play clock management against Michigan in the second half that forced us to burn two timeouts early. Not entirely his fault (the play wasn't relayed to him until relatively late), but still . . .

Of course, as Killian alluded, it's much easier for a QB to look great when he has Michael Floyd available as a target. The real test for Clausen will come now that he's out for the season. ND has pretty significant depth at the WR position, but not another Floyd.

As for Weis, as Killian said, he's a great offensive mind. He's also pretty good at developing QB's who have a little experience under their belts. If ND had hired even an average HC in '04, and that coach managed to bring Weis along as his OC, we'd probably be sitting pretty right now. Of course, Weis was OC at the Patriots when he came to ND, and probably would've looked at ND's OC job as a lateral-to-downward move, so it wasn't gonna happen. But after a decade and a half of frustration, not to mention the better part of a decade of frustration preceding the last glory days, I think I've earned the right to play "what if."