I disagree. The schedule was/ is / and will be difficult until 2009. It's the schedule and it was also the coaching. We have the horses, why else would we beat Michigan, a Tennessee, a Florida State then lose to a "on paper" inferior team the next week. Louisville has a weaker schedule than Notre Dame and they let one get away against Miami. You're telling me that Louisville has outrecruited ND in the past several years?
The South Bend Tribune floated the idea of Notre Dame scheduling a patsy team or two every season in the future to help them pad the record a little bit. I have no idea if that idea would actually have any traction with the alums, boosters, or more rabid students (I'm a student, but as a grad student not rabid).
I tend to side with the rabid fans. If its not losses, its something else. If Notre Dame can get 9 wins, there is no arguing they deserve a BCS bowl game. (Its in the BCS regulations actually...) I only wish BYU had such a schedule.
Actually BYU's entire offense was 4 50-yard bombs = 16 points. But you know, he had three f'n years to fix the secondary and didn't do it. Not like, you know, he went to BC and hated ND anyways or anything like that... Why - so all the media can cream themselves when ND goes 5-6? He wasn't going to get it done. NO Freshman QBS on the schedule to upset. Sub25 recruiting class AGAIN. In various order - True - people forget this. Hell, those ND guys started two fights in the tunnel in '88. Tony Rice was the first Prop 48 guy to be taken by ND. THen Malloy came in as President and really clamped down hard. HARD. He's gone next year, as is the AD Kevin White (note the Board went over his head to fire Ty.). My guess is the new guy will relax admissions a little bit. I disagree - you can have high academic standards and win. Ty did get a Rose Bowl berth - under a Pac-10 comparable to the Big Least this year. THe fact is his record at ND and Stanford are very similar. and I disagree here too. No reason to do so. When NBC finally decides to pull the plug - and I don't know if that happens in my lifetime - then they;ll go. ND is a national school, to join a conference would hurt that. And they would have to join the right conference. Miami and FSU both did. Penn State did not - it was ALWAYS and "Eastern" school, and has paid dearly in both football and basketball.
When Kevin White gave Bob Davie the contract extension, it doomed the next coach to a very short leash. Just because ND was dumb enough to give five years to two incompetent bastards doesn't mean that they should have given another two years to Ty so he can go 11-11. and yeah, I think Urban's ability had something to do with it, and I think the fact that the president is leaving had something to do with it (look for AD Kevin White to be gone by the end of this school year)
Careful now, of the 2 BC alums on Sports Reporters, Lupica is the more vocal one and he likes taking shots at ND. Ryan rarely writes anything BC related anyway for the Boston Globe, if he does, it's usually a semi-negative column. Gary Barnett at NW. They have high standards, no? And they won the Big-10 that year. It is very difficult to win with high academic standards, but it not impossible.
Ummm, Plan B? http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/7956954 This does not confirm anything, yet. Let's hope the Domerz have more than one guy lined up just like last time. If you do get him, nice. If not, !
Re: Ummm, Plan B? I first heard about this on Rome, which airs live here, and did some Googling: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/football/ncaa/12/03/urban.meyer/
Re: Ummm, Plan B? First off - it's funny, that Florida report came in, and EVERYONE RAN WITH IT as official even when the paper merely said UF was confident he was going. Just aying about the media NOw obviously he is right,. and now ND joins the ranks of BC rather than the ranks of Oklahoma and USC. No coach wants to come to ND. It' s over. I really think it's over. I honestly thought ND's admin was smarter than this. They weren't. Word is Walt Harris is next - even though both Franchoine and the HAwkins(Boise States) said they;d take the job. Over and dunn very much the wrong day to have a liquid lunch.
Re: Ummm, Plan B? It's solid journalism. From the perspective of CBS SportsLine and other sports news outlets, the fact that a respected newspaper like the Florida Times-Union prints a story that Meyer is expected to accept the Florida job is a story in and of itself. Notice all of the early articles attributed the quotes and the story to the Times-Union and the Palm Beach Post.
Re: Ummm, Plan B? You poor thing. You may now call your alma mater, Boston College-South Bend campus. You can have Tom O'Brien. His record at South Bend isn't bad at all.
I don't think all is lost in this panic mode. There is still one guy out there they need to hire and I think would do a fantastic job. Charlie Weis.
The Sky is falling! They Sky is falling! Right Ivan? Save the Drama for your Mama Ivan. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=1938204 I hate Skip Bayless........... but he's got it right this time. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=bayless/041203
It's a good article, but the shot about South Bend being "in the middle of nowhere" is unnecessary and IMO inaccurate. It's a fairly large metropolitan area in its own right and we're less than two hours from Chicago with easy highway access and regular train service on the weekends. The only disadvantage I see us having geographically is weather.
Two hours away from a major city is the middle of nowhere. But that's a dumb argument in regard to the article. Gainesville ain't exactly cosmopolitan.
Well, my main point was that the South Bend metro area is big enough that South Bend is itself somewhere, so I don't really think "middle of nowhere" is an apt description.
Where would you find these 30 people? Maybe if you were a Yale or Harvard alum. That's one of the reasons I dislike ND (really, the big one) - its a school with good academics, but Cal has 10 wins this year. (A better school.) Cal! And before you make the obvious retort - I didn't apply.