This has me almost in tears this morning...
From Ivan Maisel's "3-Point Stance" this morning...
1. On the day before 10-year-old Montana Mazurkiewicz, named for Joe, died of brain cancer Friday, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis visited him and let him call the first play vs. Washington. Even from the Irish 1, Weis sent in Montana's pass. Brady Quinn completed it. Yesterday, Montana's family got a game ball. God bless Charlie Weis.
A few half-time stats:
Irish lead 12-3.
First downs: ND leads 17-9
Turnovers: Wash leads 2-0
Total Offense: ND leads 246-231
Time of Possession: Irish 17:39, Wash 12:21
Quinn: 15-21, 146 yards.
Walker: 11 rushes, for 73 yards.
Samardzija: 5 catches for 62 yards
Fasano: 3 catches for 33 yards
Well, it only took me until about the end of the 1st quarter to find WLS-AM radio out of Chicago for a live stream of the game broadcast. Listening to it now through iTunes.
About 10 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. ND and Washington are tied, 3-3.
Quinn is 10-14 with 87 yards.
Walker has 44 yards on 7 attempts.
Bummer... looks like the game isn't on TV locally.. so we'll be treated instead to VA Tech vs. GA Tech. Lovely. According the ABC's coverage map, it looks like everyone from San Diego to the northern tip of Maine will be watching the ND game.. while we in the southeast corner of the country will get our regional game.
In past years, I think the local ABC affiliate has been so overrun with phone calls that they've decided to change the feed. Maybe that'll happen again. But I won't hold my breath.
So instead, I guess I'll be listening to the streaming radio broadcast, if I can find it.
Pretty mellow this morning. Was up late last night watching BattleStar Galactica (Oh my! "Pegasus" might be the best episode so far!).. and Bryce was pretty restless during the night. So forgive me if I'm not my exuberant self for gameday today.
Still reeling from yesterday's loss... I couldn't believe my eyes when Teague when scampering into the end-zone in Overtime...
Then again, I couldn't believe that the Irish came back from a 3-touchdown deficit to tie the game in the 4th quarter.
Makes the loss all the more heartbreaking.
Quinn threw for close to 500 yards and five touchdowns...
And Samardzija caught three touchdowns..
But, as Weis said after the game,
"I'm not a stat guy. I play the game to win. We didn't win and that's the bottom line."
But about Samardzija, it does my heart good to see him making those catches this year. After seeing a guy like Samardzija be so under-utilized last year-- then see him catch three touchdowns yesterday, five on the year...I don't know how Bryce does it.
Up all night. Up all day.
Up until 1:00am last night.. then up at 7:17am this morning, and still going.
As I write this, he's furiously climbing all over the Kangaroo climber we've setup (after a 2-year hiatus) again downstairs.
Amazing.
I'll have what he's having...
It looks like a beautiful morning in South Bend!
And South Quad is, as always, the place to be. I'm sure they've been grilling outside the KofC hall since early this morning...
And O'Shaughnessy Hall, my old haunt, is awash in people.. I'm sure they're not there to get Seamus Deane's autograph.
Go00000000 Irish! Beeeeaaaat Spartans!
#10 Notre Dame welcomes unranked Michigan State to Notre Dame Stadium...
Like many Irish fans, I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to go into the Michigan State game without a sense of dread. For a seeming eternity now, the Irish have appeared to be completely unraveled by Michigan State in the closing quarter. No matter the score at half-time, you can trust the Spartans will be within a touchdown of the Irish by the 4th quarter...
...and that's about the time the Irish Defense forgets how to defend against the pass over the middle... and Smoker slings the ball to a slanting receiver cutting across the middle and goes for 50..60..70 yards and a game-winning touchdown...
oh, sorry.. having a flashback there...
So here we are. with the Spartans coming to South Bend.. and that sense of dread comes with them.
Then again.. Weis seems to have changed the whole equation. The defense, a big weakness in many minds this year, has been a pleasant surprise. Linebackers Brandon Hoyte and Corey Mays -- we might have expected good things from them.. But Ambrose Wooden, and Tommy Zbikowski are off to great starts, as well ("Crazy" Zbikowski has been all over the papers this week) and it's clear that this defense is just better coached than any Irish squad in recent memory.
What a difference a coach can make?
What a difference 5 coaches can make!
Hiring Weis got the buzz going...
but when people saw the assistants he brought on board in the months that followed... that's when everyone really started to believe, I think.
And who could have guessed that that great collection of coaches could have such an impact so quickly? So where are they now? The pundits who insisted that Notre Dame's talent was inferior? That the University would, as Paul Hornung infamously (and wrongly) asserted on camera last year, have to reduce admission requirements to bring in 'difference makers.'
And let's be honest-- when you hear people talking about 'difference makers' in college football.. you know they're not talking about kids that look like Jeff Samardzija.
This assumption-- and it's an assumption made by college athletics top to bottom, from the NCAA on down-- that a kid can't be smart, athletic, and black is most troubling. It gets more troubling when you consider how much MONEY the NCAA and these universities make on the backs of kids brought in on athletic scholarship-- kids with little or no preparation for post-secondary academics who will almost certainly fail out of school (as soon as the football coach allows them to fail out, that is)...
NCAA makes its money.
College makes its money.
But where's the kid left? Without a pro football contract. And without an education.
A lot of pundits make hay, talking about how athletes in revenue sports should be given a portion of that revenue the University takes in.
What's wrong with making sure those athletes receive that education first?
You know, you can't exactly call yourself surprised when a pro athlete who's been in the league for 25 years retires...
But, all the same, it took the wind out of my sails a little bit yesterday when I heard that Mark Messier-- the Mess-iah; the Jaw; the toughest man in hockey; most importantly (to me at least) the man who brought a Stanley Cup to the New York Rangers-- has retired.
I grew up a casual hockey fan-- but even I knew, watching those Edmonton teams in the 80's, when everyone was talking about Gretzky (and why wouldn't they?), Messier stood out as the tough, gritty skater who just always seemed to be in the right place at the right time-- whether it was to deliver the puck, or to deliver a hit.
When he came to the Rangers in 1991-- he'd already won 5 Stanley Cups in Edmonton-- his hometown, no less-- so you'd think winning one more would be an anti-climax. But Messier seemed to flourish in New York. When he came to town, he guaranteed a Cup. And New York became his adopted hometown. But he never seemed to relish the limelight-- even when he fulfilled that guarantee in 1994. He led by example. He gave gracious interviews. And he always attributed the success of the team to his teammates. And then he hung up his skates and went home.
Rangers fans everywhere wept the day he signed with Vancouver-- and, strangely, even he never seemed happy to go. It was like a short, bad dream. And then he was back in uniform with the Rangers. And we could hope that all would be well with hockey again.
But Mess was slowly starting to give into injuries and his time on the ice was more and more limited... you knew in the back of your mind that this day would come
But what a leader. Toughness through and through. Hardly seems possible he's Canadian!
Two straight light-sleeping nights from Bryce... So when we all got up at 7:00 this morning (a scant 5 1/2 hours after I got to bed), I brewed up some good stiff Gold Coast for breakfast..
Then again, I was up too late reading college football websites last night...
What's Bryce's deal? I don't know. He's got some allergies maybe.. been having trouble with some snottiness (sorry.. there's just no better way to say that).. so he just hasn't been sleeping very deeply.
And with the pterodactyl scream he's developed over the last few weeks, when he doesn't sleep well, none of the rest of us sleep well. That's for sure.
Zbikowski's interception in the 3rd Quarter has to be the play of the game.
Michigan was driving for its first touchdown.. with plenty of time left to tie it up..
And Zbikowski makes a key interception at the goal-line...
Key play at a key moment..
Trevor Laws and the Irish celebrate their first victory in 'The Big House' since 1993.
Just watched Lloyd Carr's press conference on ESPNNews... and all I can say is.. wuh.. huh..
Oh, sorry, I dozed off there..
The guy just puts you to sleep.
No wonder he can't get his players fired up.
And then there came the double-talk:"…we have no excuses here. We've never made excuses and we never will, but have been a very unlucky football team from an injury standpoint right from beginning of this fall training camp."
| Team Stat Comparison | ||
 |  | |
| 1st Downs | 19 | 15 |
3rd down efficiency | 4-15 | 5-18 |
4th down efficiency | 0-0 | 2-4 |
| Total Yards | 247 | 335 |
| Passing | 140 | 224 |
Comp-Att | 19-30 | 19-44 |
Yards per pass | 4.7 | 5.1 |
| Rushing | 107 | 111 |
Rushing Attempts | 44 | 28 |
Yards per rush | 2.4 | 4.0 |
| Penalties | 4-20 | 4-27 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 2 |
Fumbles lost | 1 | 1 |
Interceptions thrown | 0 | 1 |
Irish win it!
They're 2-0...
but only 47 total yards in the 2nd half. They got very very conservative.. plus the Michigan Defense really stood up..
But Quinn just didn't look as sharp this week...
Weis, in his post game remarks to Lyn Swann said:
"Defense played great; Special Teams played great; Offense played well enough."
Ndukwe makes such a heads-up play grabbing a fumbled ball on the goal-line!
Of course, the officials on the ground make the wrong call.. and the Review box has to call down with the proper call and give the Irish the ball on the touchback!
And the Michigan fans start throwing junk on the field... classy!
Go Irish!
Irish go three and out..
Then Zbikowski gets away with touching Manningham, the Michigan receiver, when he gets beat on a deep route...
These officials really are bad.
What is this prevent defense.. Irish let Michigan into the end-zone for the first time all day..
Irish up 17-10.
