Watch for the new standings from the BCS!!  The Irish are in the same position as Silky Sullivan and must come from way back in order to make it into one of the big games!

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They came into the large dining room at Hannah’s (note the delicious juxtaposition against Charlie’s precious daughter and his foundation!) we had reserved for the post-game dinner.  By this time I would have thought that Mark, Mike and Brian would have been wearing different expressions, but they all looked like they had just lost their closest brothers in life!!  So, what else to do, but help to hold them up and support them, even though the ache inside me was still palpable and nearly crippling?

As we walked away from the Stadium, many conflicting thoughts and feelings went through our minds:

·        When you know in your heart of hearts that you have just seen sports history

·        When you have just seen your team play their hearts out against one of the best football teams in history, not just a team created by sportswriters’ empty claims as in the 1993 Seminoles, but a team that is on an all-world four year roll

·        When you know that your guys just outplayed this four year phenomenal team that had overwhelmed your guys by 93 points over the past three years

·        When you saw your boys lose on the last play of the game, after you had been celebrating a soon to vanish ephemeral victory in just 20 seconds

You have to feel proud down to the depths of your soul, and moreover, you know that you have just seen your boys walk through the portals of college football history, forever banishing the naysayers who had written them off, the naysayers who had written Our Lady’s School off, while at the same time beginning to build the stair steps back to their rightful place of glory in the pantheon of the football gods, you cannot be depressed and are naturally hopeful and at the same time oddly ecstatic about what the future holds.

Yes, the Fighting Irish outplayed the Trojans on the 17^th anniversary of defeating a so-called superior Miami team!!  Not by much, but the Fighting Irish outplayed them nonetheless!!  The Irish drive to win was better football than the brand the Trojans displayed on that magnificently anguished day.  The Irish drive was brilliantly coached and executed, whereas the Trojan drive to win was fluky, desperate and lucky.

And it was made possible by an explicitly illegal push by Bush, which in their “infinite wisdom” the zebras have elected not to enforce!!!! 

When can you remember your team losing because the other guys fumbled on the goal line?  You cannot remember such an event, because it never happens!! 

This Trojan team is simply the best offensive juggernaut that the college game has ever seen.  If you want to debate this assertion, then you must at least admit that they are in the top five of all time.  They were supposed to be faster, bigger, better and more skilled than the Irish, and yet, the impossible almost happened.  Actually, the impossible did happen!!!  The impossible is that the Irish outplayed them by a hair and deserved to win.

How do I know?

First, I saw with my own eyes. 

Second, at least fifteen people have spontaneously mentioned to me in the past two weeks that the Irish got screwed or that they played better or some such variation of the same message. 

The entire country saw this game, the ratings rivaling any game in 15 years.  The impact of this game is incredible.  Fans all over the country are now for the Irish because they are the underdogs!!  Wow!!  We are back to our base, back to the days of Knute!!  The common man has rediscovered the Irish, which of course is the root, the very DNA of the Notre Dame brand.

Quite simply, this one game, this bittersweet defeat, has put Notre Dame back on the map for at least ten years.  (I wrote these lines prior to hearing of the Charlie contract re-write!):

·        Just imagine the impact on the recruits!! 

·        Just imagine the impact on the recruiting coordinators at the few schools who now remain true competitors of the Irish for the best talent. 

·        Just imagine the impact on the moms, the secret behind the scenes influencers. 

·        Just imagine how Charlie and Crew have struck fear into the hearts of the coaches in Division 1A? 

It is a really great opportunity for most of these recruiting coordinators who have just had their “lives” ruined, to follow the inspiration of Rudy Reuttiger and seek out positions in their local park commissions, for their prospects for recruiting the best talent to their schools now all of a sudden look very bleak!!

Make no mistake, the Irish are back on the national stage in a way that they have not been since late 1993—that is half a generation—and that alone says how significant this game is in the history of the Irish program.  It is the single most important game in the program since 1988 and arguably, along with the Miami game in that year, one of the two most important games in the post-war history of the Irish.

Why?

It is so important because this game has banished for a generation the absurd notion that the Irish cannot compete at the top level for the national championship. 

You were there or you saw the game on TV!! 

·        Do you realize what the crowd did in this game? 

·        Do you realize that the crowd nearly won the game? 

·        Do you realize that the crowd prevented USC from hearing the cadence for the entire game? 

For the first time since the Florida State game in 1993, the fans could leave the Stadium knowing that they had actually helped the Irish.  Taking the cue from Charlie’s instructions at the pep rally, the fans screamed their bloody lungs out on every single one of the Trojans’ offensive plays.  We have not been able to find a confirmation in print, but it is obvious that the newly rediscovered fan-atacism contributed to the Trojans’ struggle with their passing game.  At the noise level, Matt Leinart could not possibly have checked off at the line of scrimmage confident that his players would hear him.  Hence, the repeated pressure from the Irish D line and even the linebackers in some cases.

I have been to nearly 100 games in Notre Dame Stadium and have never heard anything like what I heard on Saturday afternoon against the Trojans!!!  Just imagine the impact on the recruits who were making an official or unofficial visit!!!

Now we shift to the BYU extravaganza!

Pictures are worth a thousand words!!

Ok, so this is the S Cal game, but it is the coolest picture we have!!!!

There may be no game in Irish history when so many records were tied and/or broken!

The biggest takeaway from this game is that most of the touchdown passes looked easy—that is right, EASY!

When has this ever been the case?  Never!!

Here is a great quote from Charlie, targeted at those of you who are complaining that the Irish could not run the ball against the Mormons:

"Obviously we didn't run the ball very many times, and the risk you take when you do that is if the quarterback has a bad day, you lose," Weis said. "That's the calculated risk you have to take, but I have no problem putting the game in (Quinn's) hands."

Commentary from the publications:

Saturday, due to Weis' quick-strike offensive game plan, the defense ended up on the field more than usual. The BYU game marked the first time this season that ND didn't control time of possession with its offense (33:39 to 26:21) and the first time this season that the opposition ran more offensive plays (79 to 64).

The Achilles Heel of this year’s edition of the Fighting Irish is that they slip into a negative zone and lose their focus when they are ahead.  Charlie will have to solve for this weakness, if not this year, certainly if the Irish are to contend for the BCS. 

Now we move to the upcoming game against the Volunteers!  And to set the tone we look at the typical Vol fan setting out to the game, starting on or about September the 17^th in order to move on up the Mississippi and on through to the Great Lakes and thence on southward through the St. Joe passage into the rapids of the river and into the South Bend of the river.

From a major publication: The reason Tennessee was a preseason Top 5 team and still remains in the Top 25 (No. 23 AP) is its defense. The Volunteers will be the best defense by far (13th in total defense) the Irish face during the regular season. And Tennessee is good across the board -- against the run, against the pass, scoring defense and even when its offense puts it in horrible field-position situations.

Strategy: Look for Irish defensive coordinator Rick Minter to play conservatively against the Vols. Stop the run, give the receivers plenty of cushion and don't let them get behind you. Count on the offense to win the turnover and field-position battles. Even if the offense has an off-day, the defense won't likely have to win this game.

There is no question that the defensive line made the difference in the team leaping to a new level against the dangerous Trojans.  For the first time this year the D line pressured the quarterback for much of the game.  Overall, the D held last year’s Heisman winner to his least productive outing of the season. 

Against BYU the D line made more tackles, it seems, than they did collectively in the first five games.  Clearly, the D line had been struggling, with many Irish fans longing for the ghosts of Kevin Hardy, Ross Browner and Walt Patulski.  But what we saw last Saturday was a revelation as the D line accounted for 27 tackles and 5 sacks.  Compare such emergent productivity to a total of 7 sacks in the first six games.

Have any of you started to wonder who is playing now on the D line?  Of course you are, as most fans are needing a scorecard to follow the personnel changes.  Brian Biedatsch, number 90, a workman-like draft horse on the D line, replaced the increasingly impactful Derek Landri during the time in the STRUGGLE FOR THE ONE TRUE RELIGION AGAINST THE MORMON HORDE, when he, Landri, disappeared into the locker room and then surprised even Charlie Weis by his return.  Ron Talley, number 99, who played a lot against Southern Cal and is in most of the pictures of the chaotic sideline play during which the zebras botched the point at which the ball FLEW out of bounds, when they spotted it for the gift TD they gave to the Trojans, has replaced Chris Frome.

What did you think of Coach Mendenhall’s mysterious call in the BYU game with seven and a half minutes left, effectively surrendering the game in order to preserve his troops for another battle, only 12 minutes after being in the game with five minutes to go in the third quarter and only a five point deficit?  Why did he give up?

Last Saturday Ron Talley played a full game while replacing the injured Chris Frome and in his first start racked up 7 tackles, enough to enshrine him as a special stalwart of D line bone-crushing, if not for all time, at least for this year. 

Yet there is much to learn and yards to go before they sleep!  Notre Dame sorely misses Justin Tuck.  His presence and leadership would have made a very large difference this year.  Victor Abiamiri has improved, and is now putting more pressure on the passer, but he has still not figured out how to use his world class athletic skills.  Does he have the intestinal fortitude to take it all to the next level?   With Chris Frome out for the season, he finds himself the most seasoned defensive end on the team.   Ron Talley, despite his 7 tackles and his off and on showing of brilliance, is far from consistent enough, and has not yet to mature physically.

Looking ahead, Rick Minter and Company will need the D line to continue to improve for the Irish to have a chance at the 10 and 2 season that every Irish fan now dreams about. 

And beyond, to contend for the big prize, in 2006, which now seems like it will be an inevitable run, the D line will have to as they say, take it to another level.

Tennessee always has a potentially devastating running game and they love to run down their opponents’ throats deep into the fourth quarter.  If Clausen performs as he has all year, the Irish will be able to contain the Volunteers’ passing game, with the concomitant result that the Vaunted Vol Rushing Attack will be much less dangerous.  If, however, he suddenly finds a new spirit within him, as Kyle Orton did last year for the hated Spoilermakers, the Notre Dame Eleven will have all it can handle. 

This is a deeply wounded Vol team.  They are not up to traditional Vol snuff.  But, they are still dangerous!!  And so, the Irish must be wary, cagey and above all, prepared. 

(After their crushing heartbreaking loss by three at the gun to the Elephant Herd from Tuscaloosa, much depends on how the Vol team rebounds this week against the Gamecocks.  If they are in recovery mode, they will dispatch this ordinary at best team, despite its new General, with authority, but if the Vols struggle, that would suggest that they are in free fall and in the process of going down the drain for the season.)

The above was authored prior to the Vol disaster against the Spurrier Eleven.

On ESPN, Friday we have rumors about Pete Carroll going to the NFL.  So, when the rumor is that the USC coach is going to the NFL, is it attributed to jealous coaches trying to undermine USC, just as when it is rumored that Charlie is going back to the NFL????

On the same Kornheiser/Wilbon joke show, the excoriate ND for lying about why they are canceling the BC contract after 2011!  Evidently, ND says it is because of the way that the Eagles tore up the turf at ND in 2004.  These bozos say that since we are replacing them with Rutgers, that it is a lie and the real reason is to get a guaranteed W.  Irish Musings does not pretend to know, but we can say that Knute said never to play another Catholic school and he was right.  After stupid coaching decisions, one of the biggest mistakes our black friars have made in the sports arena is scheduling this team.  Why?  Because playing them splits the base of ND support.  And, because if we lost to them just once in twenty years, it would be a disaster.  There is no way that Notre Dame can win in this series.

Now at press time we have the great news that Charlie is going to be with us for another ten years, which is what he told all of us in a heartfelt way.  Now he will have the security, the fans will and most importantly the recruits will have the security of knowing that WE IS IRISH, AND IT WILL LAST FOR A DECADE.

Next year's schedule has several fascinating features.  Two teams we have not played in a very long time return, Penn State and UCLA and what timing, eh?  As they are both undergoing a huge Renaissance!  Fortunately, we have byes before the UCLANS and the Trojans.  It looks like it could be much tougher than this year, and perhaps the toughest schedule in the country.  Look at North Carolina.  My goodness, they are good now too.

Parking by sbendtrib

"This is just chaos," said Putrich, of Shelby, Mich., who left the game with about five minutes to go. "The shuttle buses did a great job of getting people back to this lot, but then it all broke down because there is no authority figure (directing traffic within White Field). I came to the Purdue game last year and I didn't have to wait nearly this long. It's never been this bad."