Nerd TV

Don't miss Robert Cringely's latest venture-- an online 'TV' interview program called Nerd TV.
One-hour, wall to wall interviews with some of the seminal figures in the history of IT.

This week, episode 1, is Andy Hertzfeld, the first Mac programmer.. ever.

Two weeks from today, Bill Joy! Co-Founder of Sun, father of Berkeley Unix.. and all around big-brain.

Tom Brady in an ND Cap?

From today's South Bend Tribune:

That's not to say Brady doesn't have a rooting interest and something on the line other than pride for Saturday's clash between the 20th-ranked Irish and No. 3 Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.

"Oh we have a friendly agreement," Weis said. "Well I'm not going to tell you what I would owe him, but I can tell you (that) if he loses, he's going to be wearing a Notre Dame football hat to his next press conference."

Another Shot..

.. of the Samardzija catch..

The catch...

Here's a shot of that fantastic Jeff Samardzija catch

We Torched Them...

Clip from The Rock 9/4:

Turns out that it doesn't take three years to install an offense. You can win a night game. Notre Dame players do have talent. In-game adjustments are vitally important. And winning on the field doesn't mean you have to cut corners. You just have to coach them; nice game Ambrose...

It was by no means perfection. Brady still has some accuracy issues; his interception was a puzzler. Our defensive line pressure was almost non-existent in the first half. Our deep safety help was suspect as was our overall pass defense. Our punting was abysmal, though we were fortunate to get a few lucky rolls. Ten penalties are far too much....

We hit hard. We gang tackled. We were aggressive.

Most of all, the Irish finally looked like a well-coached, talented, motivated, football team. How much of a difference does coaching make? These were essentially the same teams that played last year, but with new coaches.

Except the challenge last night was greater. The intangibles were against us Saturday: we played on the road, at night, against a higher ranked team... and we torched them.

"Better than they thought they were..."

From Gene Wojciechowski's column (on the front page of ESPN.com) this morning:

You could see Weis' smudge marks all over this Notre Dame team, especially on offense. The Irish led 35-13 at halftime, scoring more points in two quarters than the Irish scored in 10 different games last year. So Patriot-like was the offensive efficiency that a Boston Globe writer, here to cover Weis's first game, couldn't help himself after the Irish scored their fourth touchdown.

"I saw this in January," said the writer, referring to New England's 41-27 win against the Steelers in this same stadium.

Even Weis was willing to admit that the Irish occasionally flirted with perfection in those first 30 minutes.

"I think by halftime the players started to realize they're better than they thought they were," he said.

It will take more than the Patriots' playbook and this stomping of Pitt to revitalize Notre Dame football. After all, the Irish haven't been in a BCS bowl since the 2000 season, haven't won a bowl game since 1993, and haven't won a national championship since 1988. That's when Lou Holtz still referred to one of the service academies as, "The University of Navy." But Saturday night's game is a pleasant start, though it's probably wise to remember that Tyrone Willingham won his first eight games as Notre Dame's coach, and look what happened to him: canned last season with three years remaining on his contract.

Final stats

a few notes from the Game Stats page:
ND had 503 total yards offense.
228 yards passing/275 rushing.
10 penalties-- I think 5 or 6 of them in the 2nd half.
Quinn went 18 for 27 with 2 TDs

Meanwhile, the Irish Defense held Pitt to 105 yards rushing.. and 219 passing.
Not great.. but not bad, considering what happened last year.

It's a ballgame...

It's official
The Irish win, 42-21.
And Charlie Weis has his first win as a head coach, his first win for the Irish...

The Panthers tacked on a late touchdown on a nice pass from Tyler Palko.

The Irish defense looked better after that lousy 1st quarter.
But the second half was pretty sloppy in general-- a number of penalties and a few mental errors.

But overall, I have to say-- this looked like the best-coached Irish team I've seen in years and years.. maybe the best I've ever seen. Then again, maybe I'm just still giddy with the excitement of witnessing it...

And it does look like Weis is going to be able to turn Brady Quinn into a star.
Last year, Quinn couldn't seem to throw a hard, accurate pass to save his life.
Tonight, he was zinging the ball in their and hitting his receivers beautifully.
10 for 10 for 100 yards, just in the second quarter.

And thank the Lord the coaches appear to have recognized that Jeff Samardzija can catch the ball!

Wake up the echoes! Shake down the thunder!

USC crushes Hawaii 63-17

Is it really any surprise that #1 USC (The University of Spoiled Children, as my old roommate used to call them) destroyed Hawaii today?
May as well pull a Spurrier and call it a 'pre-season' game...

ND is up 42-13, 3rd quarter.

ND-Pitt Half-time Stats

The Irish are dominating with 319 total yards on offense (to 154 from Pitt)..
198 yards passing!
and 19 first downs...
and (here's the biggie) only one turnover...

Fingers crossed! that the second-half can live up to the first!

Willingham's first game in WA...

Oh yeah, and then there's this little piece of news:

Air Force beats Willingham's Huskies

0-6?

Where's Corso? Where's Reece Witherspoon, (or whatever his name is..)?
Wonder what the guys at Gameday will be saying now that ND is up 35-13...
against the first of 5 ranked opponents the Irish play this year...

Rashon Powers-Neale rumbled in for the latest touchdown a few minutes ago.

I know it's a long game.. and the Irish could well give this one up in the 2nd half-- we'll see what the Panthers do in the lockerroom to adjust.
But I'm overjoyed with what I'm seeing out of the Irish offense.
Defense still needs some work-- though they have responded since the first quarter..

Weis is reported to have told them, after the first terrible defensive series, that they'd "better play better or [Weis] will put in the 2nd string."

Go Irish!

What a beautiful layout catch by Samardzija.
I've got to try to get a picture of that...

Go Irish!!

2nd Quarter and ND is up 21-10 now.
Three pretty convincing offensive drives-- courtesy of our man Weis.
And man, is Darius Walker having an impressive half!

And it is soooo nice to see an actual Notre Dame offense on the field!
Then again, this Pitt defense is not exactly top calibre.
I still worry how the Irish will fare against the likes of Michigan or USC later in the season...

Irish kick off was just fumbled by Pitt-- ND Ball!
and Brady Quinn passes to Jeff Samardijzaijaihaiah, TOUCHDOWN!
28-10.

Go Irish!

Just an hour away!

In just about an hour, Notre Dame takes the field against Pittsburgh and the Charlie Weis era begins.
I'm not going to pretend to be some kind of college football pundit.. but I am a fan... and I'm guardedly optimistic, as I am every year at this time. We'll see how it goes.
I'm hopeful that Weis is able to put together a decent offense this year- something we haven't seen at ND in several years. There were glimpses of creativity under Willingham-- backs shifting around, sets moving to give the Defense something to think about... but none of it ever seemed to come together.
With Weis' reknown as an offensive mind, and his talent for making in-game adjustments (something else ND has been TERRIBLE at for many years).. I hope he's at least able to keep it interesting and keep the real pundits (especially those guys at ESPN) off his back.

Even MORE good news!

Word from the coast is that everyone's houses survived!
Some damage, of course, but even Grandma's house in Long Beach-- in an area that the reporters down there indicated was totally destroyed-- is still standing.

Amazing!

Still standing

If you can believe it, Ruth and Jackie's house is still standing.

Amazingly, they were on the opposite side of one of the levees that gave way.
As Ruth's brother David put it, "they were spared."

They went to a local hotel (I think) to weather the storm, afraid that their little trailer would be turned over in the winds. But it wasn't. And it isn't flooded either.
Unbelievable when you look at where they are on the map of New Orleans...

So now, they have a bathtub full of water and canned goods.. but not much else.
No word yet on whether they'll be required to evacuate. Not sure if Metairie is under the same orders as the residents of downtown New Orleans.

Good News!

Just a moment ago, the phone rang with news that Ruth and Jackie, Amanda's cousins down in Metairie are ALIVE!

Amanda's still on the phone, so more details will be forthcoming!

Must-read

For a must-read account of how it all happened down there, take a look at this blog called Eye of the Storm.

It's amazing stuff.

Two local news reporters down on the MS coast, hunkered down with some beef jerky and beer-- they start out cracking jokes and having fun... and now they're giving some of the best reports of damage, with pictures, neighborhood by neighborhood, that we've read anywhere...

Update on our Family in Mississippi...

Since we've been getting a lot of emails from all over asking about Amanda's family, let me take a quick minute to give an update:
The family in Long Beach and Biloxi-- Grandma, Aunt Martha, cousins Melinda and Adam and family are all reported to be safe, though we're afraid that, like so many down there, they have lost everything.

Still no word, however, on her Great Cousins Ruth and Jackie in Metairie, outside New Orleans. Given their age and what happened to Metairie, we can only hope that they made it to shelter in time. But there's not much hope of getting word from that area for quite some time...

Needless to say, we've been praying for all of them up here non-stop since last weekend..