official Tostitos ND/THE Ohio State University

[Sluss]

Well, I'm done.

I could try stats. I could try and say that their head coach is one of the best gameplanners in all of football. A theory I thought was pretty widely accepted.

I forget that this is college football where everyone thinks their team is the best. You can quote stats, you can quote widely accepted notions about the teams and coaches. None of this matters.

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So did USC have a bad day, or was it ND defense? It's funny. If USC has a bad day against ND(@ND), it's ND being underrated and a testiment to just how good they are. If ND has a bad day against say, Stanford or Michigan St., well, then it just was a bad day for ND and on any other day they'd have beaten them or been more convincing.

What a great double standard.


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I don't ever remember saying Notre Dame had a bad game against MSU. I still don't think they did. I think they played a very inspired, very good Michigan State team that later in the season started to falter and couldn't figure out whether up was down.

I will say Notre Dame had a bad game against Stanford. Because they thought they could blow them out of the water by just showing up.

If USC thought that about going to South Bend and against the team they had seen on tape that week, then maybe they shouldn't be the #1 team in the nation. Hey, they could have had a bad game. Of course, every USC player that I have seen interviewed has said that that was the best team they played all year.

I also don't base my opinion on that game. I don't even think that was their best game. They toned down their offense to try and hold onto the ball longer. They stayed away from using Walker because they wanted to slow things down with the bigger back and thought they could tire out USC's D-line better.

I cringe everytime I hear that Notre Dame is good because Weis is god and they were just a Reggie Bush push away from beating USC. USC was a much more talented team that they took to the wire. I was disapointed in the result, but happy because it proved to me that given an extra week Weis could out coach the other guy. Which gave me confidence that as the recruiting got better and they developed more and more talent they could have better an better seasons.

I understand it's college football. I understand that "my team is the greatest" is the common theme. So I'll just say I think ND wins this game 38-30 and while I'm being flamed I'll just readthis and this one

[bernie]

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I could try and say that their head coach is one of the best gameplanners in all of football. A theory I thought was pretty widely accepted.


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It's his first year. We'll see in a few years how good he is. You can't really go by first year record. Otherwise you can consider Neuheisel a genius also.(see his first seasons with both Colorado and Washington) Although, extra credit can be given if they've rebuilt the team through junior college and such. This also isn't a situation where he took a garbage team and turned them around.(See Erickson and Spurrier and Pat Hill for that matter) He may very well be one of the coaching greats. Unfortunately, I'm not going to hang that tag on him based on his first season with a decent team that someone else built playing a not so tough schedule.

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I understand it's college football. I understand that "my team is the greatest" is the common theme.

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USC is about as far from 'my' team as you can get. They are my 3rd most hated team.

b

[MyTurn2Raise]

I believe Willingham was a genius when he started 8-0 and took ND to the BCS

[bernie]

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I believe Willingham was a genius when he started 8-0 and took ND to the BCS

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One difference was it wasn't Willinghams first season as a college football coach. He also did pretty well at Stanford prior to going to ND.

b

[Dudd]

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I believe Willingham was a genius when he started 8-0 and took ND to the BCS

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One difference was it wasn't Willinghams first season as a college football coach. He also did pretty well at Stanford prior to going to ND.

b

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Two things. One, Willingham didn't take ND to a BCS bowl, he took them to the Gator Bowl. Second, he didn't do great at Stanford, hell, Davie had a better winning percentage at ND than Willingham had at Stanford. There is no evidence to support the fact that Willingham is or ever has been anything other than an average to mediocre coach.

[bernie]

Link

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Second, he didn't do great at Stanford, hell, Davie had a better winning percentage at ND than Willingham had at Stanford.

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ND is also more of a football school than Stanford so you can't really compare the 2.

How about at ND?

Willingham went 21-15 in 3 years .583
Davie went 35-25 in 5 years .583

b

[MyTurn2Raise]

you're right...Davie was still coach of similarly overrated Fiesta bowl participant.

Boy, That game story brings back fond memories, as it is always fun to see overrated ND teams go down in flames.

I have two random lasting memories of that game. First was Chad Johnson streaking down the sideline for a 74 TD, but dropping the ball in celebration somewhere around the 3 yard line, however the refs didn't notice this and he was given a touchdown.

The second was that this overrated ND team were led by a freshman QB named Matt LoVecchio that the announcers said was certain to be in Heisman contention the next year...I remember rolling laughing so hard from that one.

[bernie]

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you're right...Davie was still coach of similarly overrated Fiesta bowl participant.

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I thoroughly enjoyed that game. Especially the deer in the headlights look on ND's AD in the 3rd 1/4. "This is an eye opening experience" he said while in shock.

Nebraska got screwed that year.

b

[Victor]

lol. just read in the cleveland plain dealer that aj hawk is boning brady quinns sister.