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SIDELINE ARCHIVE Unnecessary Hits To The Pocket / Upset: BYU October 17, 2008 Romo's Pause / Seattle Seahawks October 15, 2008 Weekend Prep: Red River and More October 10, 2008 College Football's 'Crossroads' Weekend October 9, 2008 Gramatical Error October 7, 2008 Turning The Page September 30, 2008 So Cal 'Quizzed — But Who Will Answer? September 26, 2008 3rd Tuesday Panic Button / Forté Yard Dash September 23, 2008 Two and Oh; Oh and Two September 22, 2008 No More NCAAffeine September 11, 2008 Week 1 College Football September 6, 2008 How To Spell Heisman / Chad Ocho Cinco September 1, 2008 Why the Favre story STILL won't go away August 18, 2008 Olympic Notes / Ricky's Still Relevant August 14, 2008 Committee Meetings August 9, 2008 Let the QB Battles Begin August 8, 2008 Slinging The Slinger — More Favre August 6, 2008 Welcome to the 2008 season July 28, 2008 Plus One May 27, 2008 Draft: The Morning After April 28, 2008 Draft: Thinking the Unthinkable April 25, 2008 Draft: Ready For The Long Haul April 23, 2008 Sofa–bound Sport April 16, 2008 Post–Winter Wonderland April 11, 2008 Six Impossible Things February 4, 2008 Brady's Misdirection Play February 3, 2008 Colorful Language January 23, 2008 Let the Romo–bashing begin: Dallas lost January 14, 2008 Bowl Bites: The Wrap January 10, 2008 All About The Coaches January 1, 2008 Bowl Bites 3 and A Communication Breakdown December 29, 2007 Bowl Bites 2 December 27, 2007 Bowl Bites 1 December 23, 2007 The Empty Chair - Coach Situations Vacant December 22, 2007 For Some, The Playoffs Are Now December 15, 2007 A Certain Lack Of Welcome December 13, 2007 Unrelated Notes November 29, 2007 Two Thanksgiving thoughts November 22, 2007 Halftime: NFC November 9, 2007 Halftime: AFC November 8, 2007 London, Part 2 / A Tale of Two Chads / A Game of Intimidation November 4, 2007 Damp Squib / Other London Notes October 29, 2007 Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em / Dolphins – The Aftermath October 23, 2007 The Dolphins Did What? October 18, 2007 Notes on the Defenses October 13, 2007 Habits to be Broken October 12, 2007 Overtime October 13, 2007 This Week's Starters October 6, 2007: USF: Covering The Spread / Fantastic Football September 27, 2007: Grossman: The Final Act? / McNabb, the Epilogue September 24, 2007: Eagles QB in Slight Controversy September 21, 2007: Leftwich's Parting Gift to Jacksonville? / Boos cruise September 18, 2007: Notre Dame M.I.A. September 16, 2007: Looking Beyond NFL Wk. 1 September 12, 2007: Best Hope For Heisman September 10, 2007: Coaching Hot Seats / AP Poll Feeling ’Appy September 7, 2007: The NFL’s Prime Cuts September 5, 2007: Michigan Falls to Killer Apps September 3, 2007: Look Out Couch / The Taint's On You, Bud September 1, 2007: |
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SPORTS SIDELINE 
Observations, Opinion & Occasional Silliness by Richard L Gale NOTRE DAME: M.I.A. With Michigan v Notre Dame the only live college football game on NASN’s saturday night coverage, I made the two–hour trip to Guildford instead to catch the British Basketball League’s Cup–winners Cup. The Guildford Heat eked out a 93–91 win over the Plymouth Raiders to claim the first silverware of the season, and a very entertaining battle it was too. (If you haven’t seen British Basketball, go to www.bbl.org.uk and track down your nearest team). Returning home, I skimmed the Notre Dame game. Even on fast@–forward, it was sometimes hard to spot the Fighting Irish moving. Going into the game, ND had the worst offense in 1–A (sorry – ’FBS’), so at least they didn’t disappoint in that respect. Total yards: 79, including 33 rushes for a net of –6. Including 7 penalties for –51 yards, it took them 62 snaps to move the ball a total of 28 yards. Above all, they looked awful. Going into their fourth game of the season, they will still be looking for their first offensive touchdown, and the quarterback who started for them in week 1, Demetrius Jones, reportedly just enrolled at Northern Illinois instead. During the spring, QB Zach Frazer transferred to Connecticut. Head coach Charlie Weis is contracted to be with Notre Dame until 2015, but by 20:15 Saturday night, more than a few Notre Dame fans were probably observing how well things were going for former coach Tyrone Willingham over at Washington. A down year was expected for the Irish, but not this down. ND have now lost 5 straight games, and have lost 9 straight bowl games. The last time they won one was during Lou Holtz’ tenure. Since then they have been through Bob Davie (5 years), George O’Leary (5 days), Tyrone Willingham (3 years), and Kent Baer (one game interim) before signing Weis. The question now becomes whether extending Weis’ contract during his first season at Notre Dame was just desperation for stability. Well, they’re stable now. Stable ...as in ‘not moving’. The theory was that Weis is an offensive genius, the coordinator responsible for the superbowl successes enjoyed by the New England Patriots. The Patriots, however, are still enjoying offensive success, and now that the players Tyrone Willingham recruited to Notre Dame have moved on, the spotlight is falling on Weis. "We’re really not getting good at anything" said Weis after this week’s 38–0 drubbing by Michigan. Wow. If he’d said "We’re not executing well", it would have been an accurate if understated assessment. If he’d said "We have a lot to work on", that wouldn’t have nailed it, but the media would have reported it all the same. But what he said was "We’re really not GETTING good at ANYTHING" (my capitals). That sounds to me like Coach Weis thinks this could go on a long while. The statement had the air of a profits warning. Looking down the schedule, there’s not only the chance of an 0–8 start, as some people were saying two weeks ago, but the possibility of much worse. After the nasty stretch of traveling to UCLA before hosting impressive Boston College and indomitable USC, it was thought that the Irish could lick their wounds and build momentum against their final four opponents: Navy, Air Force, Duke and Stanford. But Air Force is 3–0, with upsets of Utah and TCU in back–to–back weeks. Duke just beat Northwestern. Stanford just blanked San Jose State, 37–0. Notre Dame needn’t think these teams are just going to roll over for them. If Notre Dame finishes with 4 straight wins, Weis may just be able to shrug this off as a difficult year, and take a more experienced offense into a new year. But if Navy were to provide the only win in a 1–11 campaign, with three losses to finish, the dissatisfaction of the Willingham era may seem like polite coughs of disapproval. Significant Upset of the Week: UCLA were spanked by Utah, failing to score a touchdown for the first time in four years. Utah had started the season 0–2, before taking No.11 UCLA 44–6. If you’re not making the connection here, Notre Dame play UCLA October 6th, one week before the Bruins are due to play Pac–10 rivals Cal. Despite the speculation above, I think I smell another upset down the road. And probably a very ugly game. |
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