T1B

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:When does the Barwis effect take over?

2009 and beyond.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:When does the Barwis effect take over?

I don't know if it is his area of concern but someone needs to teach those boys how to hang onto the football.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:When does the Barwis effect take over?

about the time 3/4 of mcguffie gets tackled going forward without losing his hamstring and left nut. i give credit to barwis.

notre dame won an s.a.t. game today. all they did was show up, sign their name, and were given 21 points. they did not look good at all, but it's hard to call a win scabdick when the other team fumbles the ball seven times. jesusfuckingchrist, especially since that's the first time michigan's moved the ball at all this year.

i don't know if nd's defense isn't that good, but i'll pretend it's adequate so i can take solace in threet's improvement. he made some good reads and finally demonstrated some accuracy. it'd be nice if our receivers had any hands. i'm going to pretend dickrod's white flag was sheridan. i'd love to know what goes on in practices that makes him think sheridan shouldn't be left at home for road games.

that poor defense. they were expected to carry the team while the offense learned how to put on their pads, but defending 15-yard fields is difficult, especially when stevie brown's roaming the backfield. learn to tackle, wanker.

Mich did more to lose this one than ND did to win it, keep putting the rock on the turf like that and it's going to be a long-ass season. Turnovers = losing football. At least McGuffie looks like the real deal and the O showed signs of life when it wasn't handing the rock over.

Youth football is interfering with my ND-watching this year big time. I caught only the final two minutes of this game, when the outcome had long since been determined.

From what I read about the game, you can't call this a scabdick win. Turnovers are part of the game, and for my money, they're the one stat that corresponds most closely to winning and losing (other than the final score, for those smartalecks who want to chime in). Last season ND was on the receiving end of a turnover deficit against Michigan, IIRC. And it's also somewhat promising that ND is converting short fields into scores. I seem to recall ND being unable to do that in the '05 Fiesta Bowl relatively early on against tOSU. A score in that situation might have changed the complexion of that game entirely.

I'm not ready to drink the Kool-Aid just yet, but it looks like the team has made some improvement since last season. At least the offense isn't completely stuck in neutral this year, and Clausen has at least a little bit of time to make a throw. If anything, the schedule looks even weaker than it did at the beginning of the season. Excluding Michigan, ND's opponents last week were 3-6, with two teams (Fredo and Pitt) having byes. Of the three winners, two (USC and North Carolina) beat teams that look to be considerably weaker than the "experts" thought they would, and the third (Michigan State) looked less than awe-inspiring against a team from the weakest conference in 1-A. Before the season started, I predicted a 8-4 season. That looks to be pretty close to the money right now, perhaps a bit pessimistic if anything.

Lots of PSU folks think we could beat UM this year. I won't believe it until I see it, though. It should be admitted, things are setting up nicely for us.

Terry, how do you feel about next Saturday's game? Unfortunately, I'll be tuned in on XM since I'll be on long car ride during the game. I think MSU will have a productive day running and passing, my biggest concern is the pass rush. They have not been able to get pressure on anybody this year and I think Clausen will be throwing early and often. This could be a shoot out.

i said it's pretty hard to call a win scabdick when you turn the ball over that many times. i'm just saying notre dame did nothing at all to win aside from show up and wait for michigan to piss all over themselves. i think realistically the best notre dame can expect right now is 6-6. clausen did looked a bit improved, though.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:Terry, how do you feel about next Saturday's game? Unfortunately, I'll be tuned in on XM since I'll be on long car ride during the game. I think MSU will have a productive day running and passing, my biggest concern is the pass rush. They have not been able to get pressure on anybody this year and I think Clausen will be throwing early and often. This could be a shoot out.

Right now I have to give the edge to Michigan State. ND hasn't yet done enough to merit me picking them to win this game. I do think that this game is perhaps the best barometer on our schedule this year for where the program is right now.

I also think it would be a blessing in disguise for ND to lose this game. Given the rest of our schedule, if we were to win this game, we'd have a good chance (not a guarantee, mind you, but a good chance) of going into the USC game 11-0. In all likelihood, that would mean a BCS bid even if we lose to USC, which in turn probably means being on the wrong end of yet another bowl game ass-kicking, unless we somehow fall to the Orange Bowl against the ACC champ (unlikely, given that the Orange Bowl gets the last pick among the BCS games this year).

If you're looking for a prediction from me: Michigan State 31, ND 21.

M Club wrote:I think realistically the best notre dame can expect right now is 6-6.

I'll go out on a limb and posit a guess that you didn't look at our schedule before you posted that. Some of the remaining high- (or perhaps it should be low-) lights:

O04 STANFORD 2:30pm NBC I'll go ahead and assume that Stanford is improved this year, given the season-opening win over Oregon State, but this should be a win regardless.
O25 @ Washington 8pm ABC In Washington's defense, I'll point out that they've played a very tough schedule so far. But Ty is still on the hot seat there. And with Weis having used up his good will last season, he can ill afford to lose to the guy he replaced.
N01 PITTSBURGH 2:30pm NBC Wannstedt is the problem there. As was said in the post I lifted from ND Nation, he's Gerry Faust without the personality -- a great recruiter who's horribly overmatched on game day.
N15 @ Navy (Baltimore) Noon CBS Navy lost Johnson to Georgia Tech, and this year's edition is considerably worse than last year's was (they just lost to Duke). They won't beat us twice in a row.
N22 SYRACUSE 2:30pm NBC Do I really need to elaborate on this one?

That's five games right there that we should win, even in a worst case scenario. But let's go ahead and assume that ND screws the pooch and manages to lose one of these games. That's four wins on top of the two we already have -- a 6-6 record. That's the worst-case scenario, not the best.

i did check the schedule and figured

msu
purdue
carolina
pitt
bc
usc

as losses. of course, i think they'll pull a win or two out of there, but i also think they might drop one of the games they should win. i should probably revise to 7-5, though a weak 7-5.

If Notre Dame beats Michigan State on Saturday, I believe they have a very good shot at a BCS bowl. We all know a 10-2 record makes them a lock for the BCS. A win on Saturday puts them at 3-0 and that means 7-2 the rest of the way gets them to the BCS.

Looking at the schedule, I don't think a 7-2 finish is all that unrealistic. That schedule is just as weak as Iowa's. USC is an automatic loss. But the rest of the teams are quite shitty. The only other games I could see them losing is North Carolina and maybe BC or Purdue. But even those games they have a good chance to win in. I'd say Stanford, U-Dub, Pitt, Navy, and Syracuse are wins. So if they beat Sparty on Saturday, they will just need to go 2-1 against UNC, BC, and Purdue to get to the BCS.

That said, Sparty beats them by 14 on Saturday.

Terry in Crapchester wrote:Given the rest of our schedule, if we were to win this game, we'd have a good chance (not a guarantee, mind you, but a good chance) of going into the USC game 11-0.

I first read this a half hour ago. I'm still chuckling.

Goober McTuber wrote:

Terry in Crapchester wrote:Given the rest of our schedule, if we were to win this game, we'd have a good chance (not a guarantee, mind you, but a good chance) of going into the USC game 11-0.

I first read this a half hour ago. I'm still chuckling.

Glad to see how easily amused you are.

Note a few things.

First, I prefaced this on the assumption that we beat Michigan State, which I honestly don't expect to happen.

Then, you look at the rest of the schedule before USC, and every team on the schedule appears beatable:

S27 PURDUE 3:30pm NBC
O04 STANFORD 2:30pm NBC
O11 @ North Carolina TBA
O25 @ Washington 8pm ABC
N01 PITTSBURGH 2:30pm NBC
N08 @ Boston College TBA
N15 @ Navy (Baltimore) Noon CBS
N22 SYRACUSE 2:30pm NBC

All of those games are winnable, at least potentially. Not saying that I would expect to win them all, but that's certainly a possibility.

So yeah, we could be 11-0 heading into USC if we beat Michigan State. Biggest potential roadblocks are North Carolina (a potential trap game, on the road, against an improving program) and BC (lost a ton to graduation, but it's on the road, they've had our number in recent years, and this game is their Super Bowl).

Notre Dame's next 9 games make Iowa's schedule look brutal. I understand schedules are made years in advance, but that schedule would never be difficult.

USC is always good, BC is usually pretty solid. Michigan is almost always very good. But the rest of the teams are traditionally average or shitty.

What, JON, no love for Pitt? I thought they were your #2 "team on the rise?"

North Carolina will not be easy for ND.

That schedule is going to be pretty challenging. Not because it's a great schedule but because ND isn't nearly as improved as some people might think.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:What, JON, no love for Pitt? I thought they were your #2 "team on the rise?"

Let it go man, I can't be right on them all! I fell for Wannstedt's stache one last time!

This is definitely the weakest sched I can remember ND playing, should at-least finish with a winning record.

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but here are my thoughts on the game:

Yes, Michigan turned the ball over a ton. So did ND against UofM in 2006, including two gift wrapped TD's and another with a 10 yard field. Either way, bad teams turn the ball over. ND may not have forced the turnovers (except the fumble by Grady), but hustle and speed recoverd those balls. There were one or two other fumbles that ND caused that Michigan recovered. The biggest thing was what ND did with those turnovers. They didn't give them back or kick field goals, they scored TD's.

Yes, Michigan dominated most of the offensive stats. That happens when three of your touchdown drives are shorter than 20 yards and the other is aided by a pass interference. ND had a short field to work with all day and they used that to their advantage. Like Lou Holtz said after the '88 USC game, "I thought we were playing for points, not first downs. If you want to replay the game and play for first downs, I'll gladly do it."

Honestly, I think if the rain hadn't of come it would have been a blowout. ND was forced to go away from what they do well (pass) and play the second half trying to kill the clock and do something they have struggled with for over a year (run). Yet in the second half when UofM knew ND was going to run the ball, they still did it effectively in spots and kept the chains moving on some key drives. Had the rain held up, I think you would have seen more over the top passes to Floyd and Tate, and more big plays that would have led to more scores.

The one thing I did see is that people can laugh all they want at this ND/UofM game. Yes it was between two unranked teams, and yes, it was a very poorly played game. But all of the key players for both teams are soph's and younger. All of the TD's scored by ND were by Soph's. McGuffie is going to be every bit effective as Steve Slaton in this offense. Threet is capable of running this offense if he is allowed to pass. Stonum, Odoms, Matthews and Hemmingway are all good receivers for UofM.

When this game comes back to ND in 2010, it will be between two top 15 programs, if not top 10.

This year is going to suck Wolverine fan. Chalk it up for what it is, a 12 game scrimmage for next year. Watch the development of players like McGuffie, Shaw, Odoms, etc. and know that in RR's offense, they will be stars.