Well, here in Spartyland we’re getting pumped for the Notre Dame game. MSU hasn’t lost in South Bend since 1993. Big question: If the Irish lose Saturday, will this be the beginning of the end for coach Jackie Gleason- I mean Charlie Weiss? They gave away a winnable game in Ann Arbor by mismanaging the clock, will Irish fans and alums sit by and watch Charlie continue to run the team into the ground?
Given the billboard in South Bend referring to Weiss’ 5 year apprenticeship…I’d say there’s some grumbling going on amongst the faithful. Conventional wisdom was that ND had such a manageable schedule this year, they could stumble into a BCS bowl. Any more losses and that’s out the window (and you have to think there’s no way they beat USC).
How long have Mich State and ND been playing each other?
The series has been pretty regular:
1897-99, 1902-03, 1905-06, 1909-10, 1916-21, 1948-52, 1954-57, 1959-94, 1997-2009. There will be another two year break again, then another long stretch of playing each other.
Someone better go check and see what is in the water in Conn and Mass. .
Everybody else has already forgotten Liam Coen ,whoever that was.
There’s an entire world of football outside the BCS, my friend.
It was funny as hell to see him fawned over for doing about as well with Tyrone Willingham’s recruits as Willingham had. With his own guys? Not so much. But Weis, well, “fits the Notre Dame image” better, knowhamean?
With his own guys, Weis went 7-6 last year and won ND’s first bowl game since 1993. With the final remnants of Ty’s final class (which contained zero offensive linemen), he was stuck at 3-9. This year, he should go at least 9-3. That’s well below the Irish faithful’s standards, but it’s a whole hell of a lot better than Tyrone Willingham did on his own. Add in Ty’s complete and total inability to recruit a full football team, and your subtle charges of racism on Notre Dame’s part are utter crap.
Is there any truth to the rumor of NBC having a special celebrity edition of its flagship reality series “The Biggest Loser” with special guest contestant Charlie Weis?
I still think Willingham was a good coach. I was really hoping MSU would have hired him after he left ND.
Irish 9-3? Maybe. But I don’t think they’ll roll by MSU, Purdue may give them fits, Stanford may beat them and USC will. This team could go 9-3, it could go 7-5.
Willingham is arguably the worst DI college football coach in the last 15 years. His record at Washington speaks for itself. It’s going to take a while for that program to recover from his tenure. He’s a wonderful guy (when he’s not throwing his own players under the bus), and brings a lot of class whereever he goes (usually the golf course), but he can’t coach. Or recruit. Or manage the clock. Or putt (but he works hard at it).
The MSU game is going to be tough, because it always is. I didn’t watch that Central Michigan game - how did they lose that? Was it a fluke? Because the Hoosiers beat them last week…
In other news, the rest of the Big East officiating team agreed that they never should have reversed that first quarter Irish TD. Doesn’t make up for a shite job of clock management and ignoring your dominating running game when you need to burn the clock, but it still stings.
Willingham went 10-3 in his first season with a team consisting of Bob Davies’ recruits, then faded. Weis went 9-3 in his first season, with a team consisting of Willingham’s recruits, then faded.
I find it hard to draw any significant conclusions either way. Both coaches appear to be capable (intermittently) of recruiting; both seem capable (intermittently) of winning. Whether either can re-build a program remains to be seen – Willingham certainly couldn’t do it at UW, and Weis hasn’t done it (quite, yet…) at ND.
Anyone believe that 29 point spread with Florida beating Tennessee? I don’t. Sure, Lane Kiffin has been a jerk. But, Florida isn’t going to want to have starters out on the field just to run up the score on Tennessee early in the season.
On another note, I though about asking a mod to close this thread at the end of September and then having monthly college football threads for October and November. December can have a conference championship and bowl game thread. Any objections?
I think Florida can beat the spread without tiring out their starters.
And no objections to having a monthly thread.
Monthly thread good, weekly thread better.
Right now, I don’t see Florida beating Tennessee by 29 points.
I don’t believe it, but all the people (SI, ESPN) who put USC on upset alert against the Huskies may have known something. Not over by a long shot, of course, and I still think SC just has the talent to wear UW down.
My Bears looked pretty, uh, inconsistent? against the Gophers; special teams were just godawful and let Minn hang around. But hey, they beat the spread, and 5 TDs for a Heisman candidate is always good.
Well Michigan is guaranteed to not have a worse season than last year. 
It’s starting to look good for a decent bowl game, but my fellow Blue fans talking BCS need some sence of perspective.
And Pete Carroll’s team throws away another National champ shot early in the season.
Rats. So much for that winning streak in South Bend.
That was just a brutal interception. You just can’t do that. The tie was 99% guaranteed as long as MSU doesn’t turn the ball over. All you have to do is not throw an interception. And then he basically gives ND the ball. I mean, come on…across your body down the middle of the field. That’s intercepted 4 times out of 5. Immensely frustrating.