I am happy that the post launched a long and healthy discussion on here: it struck the correct nerve.
I will say it again: there will be tons of empty seats from ND fans and Alumni at the Notre Dame - Southern Cal game.. And I can think of nothing worse to say about the program. This is a game, THE game, that ND fans and Alumni used to fight to attend. And please don’t say that USC is down, 3-3, SC fans aren’t excited, blah blah blah. That’s not the reason. If ND fans thought they would see a crisp well-coached Irish team beat SC by a score of 51-0, the seats would be stuffed And it would be a glorious must-see, and a game that fans would talk about years later…
Similar to what Bonger says, my roommate in Chicago doesn’t want to go to this 8pm game and get back home to Chicago at 2am-3am and have his Sunday completely ruined. This game should be played no later than 4:30pm or so, the way it used to be forever. Whatever marginal gains (maybe a loss?) that NBC and Jack think they’ll get in ratings or ad dollars being in Prime-Time is countered by the apathy the game is being viewed in. Even at this late juncture, if I thought we’d show up crisply and lay a beating on SC, I’d book a flight right now. I’m not going to feel the extra expense of a last-minute ticket; I’d be staying at my buddy’s in Chicago, and both of us would be delighted to be there…in spite of the brutal ‘Tron, the relegation of what was the best-band in the land to an undercard in favor of Ozzy and Flo-Rida and whatever the fuck else is pumped in to make our stadium sound exactly like everybody else’s. We’ve joined the crowd, dumbed down the house that Rockne built with plastic grass, and ruined what many of us feel was sacred and special about Gameday. Thank you Jack: now go fuck yourself.
We’re 6 games into a season with 3 QB’s playing. As coaches always say, if you’re playing two QB’s (genius BK thinks three is even better) that means you don’t actually have a QB. Pretty basic shit, and the head FB Coach at the most historic program in history can’t figure this out…whilst an awful lot of us feel the 3rd stringer should be starting. Pyne has the proverbial “it” whatever that is; he’s got it in spades. The ball comes ripping out of his right hand; and I don’t care if he’s 5’9” or whatever, he is a gamer and a winner. One of my favorite plays so far this season is this young man taking off on a broken play inside the Red Zone versus Wisconsin (maybe the 25, I dunno?). He lowered his shoulder and knocked over a couple of much larger defenders for a roughly 10 yd gain out of nothing. Pyne comes from my home state of CT, played in the FCIAC (hardly a league which sends players to FBS programs anymore)…and he was offered by Saban. I’ll trust Nick’s eyes on this one much more than Kelly’s. Having said this, Coan had the balls to come back into a game in which he was benched for poor performance…and led the team down for a late-game tying TD , and a necessary 2pt conversion on a play where he ran for his life and simply made a play. I don’t care who or what he was throwing to; he made the play. He grew up an ND fan; and he came late to the party but he is an ND Man in my book. I want him on my team; but he should not be starting any longer.
I am not good with X’s and O’s and I don’t fucking need to be. I leave that stuff to any one of the great posters on here like JT and others who can call plays before the ball is hiked; who point out how badly situated we are versus so-and-so in real time as we’re simply in the wrong defense or formation or whatever.
I watch ND games with emotion and feel and heart. But I know enough to know when I am watching a crisply executing ND team. We are incompetent on the OL (often with guys who go to the NFL and have long careers). Instead of firing off the ball and punching the DL backwards, we sort of hold and dance and engage in a running scheme which can be timed on a sun dial. I’ll take Williams and Tyree any season, as good as anybody elses’ backs, and simply stuck behind an incompetent scheme and OL. Good Lord, someone linked on here the other day to a Davie coached team who looked crisp, powerful, and well-coached in the running game. A Bob David team! Holy cow. One of my favorite memories of an SC game (I’ve been to roughly 16, both home and away) is one year (either ‘98 or ‘00) where a David coached team (Lovecchio at QB and Setta at PK - both paisans. Lol) literally pummeled an SC team to death with a roughly 10 or 11 minute drive late in the game consisting of all running plays. I was there. We basically ran the same play over and over and over, and SC was absolutely helpless to stop it. And when the game was over, there were no SC fans in the stands. That my friends is Notre Dame football. We used to coach better than our opponents, we used to execute better than our opponents, and teams used to often talk about how they were physically beat up after having played us. When was the last time we could say that? Our OL is a team of ball-room dancers; and our entire defense tackles as if we play flag-football in practice.
I’ve taken heat from various people, some old fans and some “happy wine and cheese 10-2 is good enough” new fans for the post. What I will say in my defense is that I am part-owner of this fucking program since the moment I set foot on campus in August of 1987. I have been part-owner for 35 years now; and I watch every game Live (or try to), and if I don’t catch the game Live, I will catch up on DVR or watch it later. There is some blood from (and a lot of hard-earned money made by) my Blue-Collar Italian-immigrant parents in the bricks on campus, and a pride in having succeeded enough in America to send their son to Notre Dame; and there is a lot of my blood and money in the bricks too. I worked hard to get in; and I made it out with my degree. Anyone who wants to criticize me as a fan…or shoot the messenger…or deny me my right to speak freely about what many of us feel is the obvious truth concerning this program can (as Bonger says) go get fucked.