The uniforms are also nice for those who have eyes.
And wow. The Michigan game is giving me a heart attack.
Yesssss!!
although those were the two worst pass coverage defenses in the history of football on nearly back to back plays for each team.
I’m happy with the season so far. Vandy 2-0, Notre Dame 0-2.
Michigan looks terrible.
Michigan looks good.
Michigan looks terrible.
Michigan looks good.
Good/bad, terrible good, Aggghhhh. I don’t know. But they beat ND.
So far, I haven’t changed my mind about FSU. We’re not quite there yet. The defense is much improved over last year. The offense…not so much. EJ is still struggling with his accuracy, the receiving corps is talented, but young, and the running game is inconsistent. We’re going to need incredible luck to beat Oklahoma last week, but as long as we keep it close I can live with the loss. That needs to be the only one this season though (although realistically we’ll probably take a stupid loss somewhere down the road - just please not to UM or UF).
The Michigan/Notre Dame game are why I LOVE College Football, and dislike it at the same time. To borrow a phase from the Wide World of Sports, it was the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” In the span of Five minutes. The Big House was rocking last night and I just don’t see that kind of atmosphere in the NFL. I didn’t care which team won, in fact I hope both teams lose the rest of their games, but it was just a great game with huge passion on both sides.
It was not really a good weekend for the Big 10. Minnesota, Indiana, Purdue, Iowa all lost to not very good teams. Penn St lost. Ohio St and Nebraska struggled to win against inferior opponents.
The Orange are 2-0, but haven’t looked good in doing it. A furious comeback and win in OT over Wake Forest and a 21-14 win over FCS Rhode Island isn’t going to get it done.
Traveling to SoCal for a game at the Coliseum (which may be older and in worse shape than the one in Rome) against U$C. Ugh.
Hey, my not very good (we’re use to it) Rice Owls resent that. Last second blocked FGs aren’t all that common, even if Purdue pulled that off against Middle Tennessee just the previous week.
Nebraska’s a very lackluster 2-0. Somehow we’re #10, perhaps a benefit of the legendary Big Ten bias. On the bright side, aside from Wisconsin and Michigan State, we seem to fit in fine with the rest of the Big Ten.
I’m still trying to figure out this team, and how we’ll play against our new conference foes.
I’m disappointed with Michigan State. How on earth could they allow a team like Florida Atlantic to rack up 48 yards of offense and one first down? Seriously, after a lackluster effort vs Youngstown State, it looks like adjustments have been made. The dbs looked a lot quicker against FAU than they did against YSU. The ND game will be quite interesting, I think MSU’s secondary will be a bit tougher than UM’s for ND to exploit. Defensively, ND will have to worry about more than one player this week. After ND, one more breather (Central Michigan), before embarking on the Stretch From Hell (Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska).
Someone told me yesterday that ND is a 5 point favorite over MSU. I can’t believe that to possibly be true. The Irish can move the ball on offense, but they turn it over way, way to much. Special teams and clock management have also been pretty horrible. They look like a very poorly coached team right now. I think they’re capable of beating MSU, but they would have to eliminate mistakes. That’s asking too much of this ND team.
That is why I think the Big 10 should employ the SEC schedule methodology of scheduling earlier conference games. A couple of reasons: it will give Big 10 teams a chance to schedule a homecoming type game in “mid season” and it will give the Big 10 to have a must see conference game nearly every weekend. the SEC has already played a couple of great conference games.
It would give the Big 10 to spotlight more conference games. As it is with six conference games every week, a couple of them go on the back burner. It would be good for the teams and good for the conference.
Ohio State sports radio talking heads were whining just yesterday about the possibility of having to play a conference game to start off the season. “But we have a tradition of playing an in-state school to open the season.” A tradition that dates all the way back to what…2005? Ohio State wouldn’t be well on their way to a MAC championship if they had to play actual NCAA teams to start the season.
There may be some merit to this and I don’t disagree. However, I’m leery of a conference game in the first two weeks since that’s the time you want to work out whatever needs attention before the real games begin. I wouldn’t be opposed to starting some conference games in week 3. You can’t put the cupcakes too late in the schedule since the weather might work against you. People may come out and watch you whip good old Drano Tech in September, but when it gets to be a chilly November afternoon, they might just pass.
Wow, I thought you had to be mistaken, but I just checked and it’s currently ND -4.5. That makes no sense to me at all–MSU is a significantly better team on both sides of the ball. Road games are tough, but that line is crazy.
Smells like easy money to me. Even if they pull it off, I can’t see the margin being more than a field goal.
Why on earth doesn’t NCAA football just have a preseason game? Just one. And much to the delight of university presidents, they would probably make money. Just schedule a DII team or a semi-pro team or something.
Remember Points spreads are not a prediction of the result of the game. They are in place so that an equal amount of money is wagered on both sides of the football. The line setters are factoring in that ND faithful will bet on their team no matter what the line is… if there is a lot of money being wagered on Michigan St, the line will move down.
and remember ND should have won the game Sat Night. in hostile territory. Michigan States wins are against unimpressive teams (YSU is Div I-AA and FAU only won 4 games last year).
The line appears reasonable to me, and I would probably pick ND.
Notre Dame lines are never reasonable. They are popular enough as a team that enough people bet on them regardless, that pushes the line every single week in ND’s favor.
That said, I expect them to win this week. But if you bet against ND every week, you usually end up ahead of the game at the end of the season.
ETA - and somehow I didn’t notice you said a pretty similar thing at the start of your post.
I’m cautiously optimistic about MSU’s chances. Their defense is a bit better than Michigan’s, and the offense has a lot more weapons at its disposal. Cousins is getting to be a very good quarterback and the receiving corps is excellent. Let’s not forget Edwin Baker The Touchdown Maker, either. If I’m a defensive coordinator, I’ll take a game against U-M vs MSU any day. You’ve got to wonder if ND will be flat after giving two games away. Perhaps they’ll have better luck hanging on to the football and they do have some talented players, so I wouldn’t be surprised at ND going 8-2 or 5-5 the rest of the way.