USC Looks Rejuvenated Under New Coach

With both Notre Dame and USC both having very mediocre starts to their seasons. Their upcoming game had seemed to lost a little luster, at least nationally. Even in the games they won neither team really looked that impressive. Then Notre Dame suffered a bad loss to Oklahoma and later that same night USC gave up 62 points to Arizona State. That loss got Lane Kiffin fired.

Just when it seemed that neither team was going to do much this season. Notre Dame travels to Dallas and shocks Arizona State. That seemed to rejuvenate the Irish heading into a bye to prepare for USC. Being that the Trojans lost to the Sun Devils the week before, you would think that Notre Dame would have the momentum going into the game.

While Notre Dame has good reason to be confident, they cannot assume victory against USC. The Trojans had their first game on Thursday under Interim Coach Ed Orgeron.  Let's just say that they just flat out looked like a different team. Granted it was against an Arizona team that doesn't appear to be very good, but don't forget that this USC team lost to PAC 12 doormat Washington State and barely beat Utah State and Hawaii under Kiffin.

Sophomore  quarterback Cody Kessler had his best game throwing for 297 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He did it without Marqise Lee too who will likely play against Notre Dame. Nelson Agholor filled in nicely in Lee's absence with 7 catches for 161yards including a long 62 yard touchdown. Having him opposite of Lee can be scary.  Also Senior runner Silas Redd was able to play for the first time all year and he gained 80 yards in limited duty. Tre Madden has been solid all year in Redd's absence. To make it short, this team is getting healthy for the first time all year and will be another big challenge for our improving defense.

USC did look a little sloppy on defense in the second half and allowed the Wildcats to get back in it by giving up three second half touchdowns. However, the game was basically over when the Wildcats made their late run.

Now this game next week suddenly has a different feel to it. While Notre Dame-USC will always matter regardless of record, this game suddenly has regained a little national appeal. With both teams at 4-2 and looking rejuvenated after their best games of the year, the winner sets itself up for a possible BCS run or run at the PAC 12 South title.

Ed Orgeron to Debut Thursday as Rival USC Head Coach

It is not often that a college football team fires a coach during the middle of the season, but after giving up 62 points that is exactly what Pat Haden did to Lane Kiffin. For a school like USC, that is unacceptable. That was really the final straw for a coach who really had his program underachieve.They were ranked #1 in the preseason last season and ended up losing in the Sun Bowl to an average Georgia Tech team. Their performance in that bowl game was so embarrassing that star receiver Robert Woods declared for the NFL draft minutes after it was done.

Kiffin didn't help himself in the off season by not being able to choose between Cody Kessler and Max Wittek as starting quarterback. That frustrated many of the players and most vocal was All American Marqise Lee. The team struggled against Hawaii who has not won a game and then lost to Washington State before having an unimpressive win against Utah State. That of course all led up to the Arizona State game which was the end for Kiffin.

The coach for the rest of this season is long time Kiffin assistant Ed Orgeron. Whether or not Orgeron coaches the Trojans beyond this season remains to be seen. It will be interesting to see how the team responds as they play Arizona on Thursday night. You just never know how a team will respond to an interim coach. Orgeron will likely be without Lee who was injured in the Arizona State game.

Notre Dame players, coaches, and fans will be watching this game with great interest. It is a bye week for the Irish and they will definitely want to scout their next opponent. That is especially true when you don't know what kind of changes, if any, the new coach will make to the offense and defense.

My Advice For Marqise Lee

Lost in all the hype about Lane Kiffin getting fired was the fact that All American receiver Marqise Lee suffered a really bad knee injury in the loss to Arizona State. I watched that game and the way he came down on it looked really bad. It is looking like Lee will miss the game this week against Arizona. His status for Notre Dame and beyond is unclear.

Although he is a Trojan, I do respect him as a player because he is one of the most exciting players in the country. He literally has millions of dollars and an NFL contract waiting for him. That is why he really needs to think long and hard if continuing to play for USC is in his best interests. I understand the competitor in an athlete wants to be out there on the field. But this is his last year at USC in all likelihood and the team is quite frankly not very good.

So based on that, if I were him I would seriously consider shutting it down this season. I know that a football player wants to be there for his teammates, but I really think they would understand here. He is risking way too much by playing. He has given USC all he has and he owes them nothing.

Another player who has had injury problems but apparently is going to play this Thursday is Silas Redd. He is also risking a lot and should consider just taking a medical redshirt. And no I am not saying this because they are playing Notre Dame in two weeks. I would prefer to beat them at their best. But Lee and Redd really need to think about what is best for their own future's. Is playing for a team that is going nowhere and will be lucky to get any bowl this year, in their best interests? Anybody with any sense will scratch their head on this one.

As Crazy As It May Seem, Fighting Irish Can Still Make A BCS Bowl

It is amazing how the outlook of a season can change after a huge win over a ranked opponent. After early season disappointing losses and underwhelming victories, Notre Dame played it's best game against an Arizona State team that may be the best in the PAC 12 South. And while a return to the BCS Title game seems like a pipe dream, a trip to a BCS Bowl is surprisingly not of the question.

Notre Dame is 4-2 meaning that it can finish 10-2. I think a 10-2 Notre Dame team makes it to the BCS. It would make us look good if Oklahoma wins the Big 12 and if Arizona State can at least go to the PAC 12 title game. The Sooners do seem to be the team to beat in the Big 12, but the Sun Devils will fight it out with UCLA for their division. Winning the conference altogether would be even better for the Irish but I am not sure the Sun Devils can beat Oregon.

If one of the two Michigan teams can make it to the Big 10 Championship, that would help too.

But what those other teams do is irrelevant if Notre Dame does not win out. While that may seem hard, the tough part of the Irish schedule is done up until Stanford. After the bye Notre Dame has a series of teams it should beat heading into Stanford.

USC

 While this is the arch-rival and we never want to take them lightly, this is not a good USC team. They opened the season by struggling against Hawaii who has not won a game yet. Then they lose to perennial PAC 12 doormat Washington State. USC was better against Boston College but we all know they are very mediocre. Then they barely beat Utah State from the Mountain West before giving up 62 points to the team we just beat. Not only did their coach get fired but Marqise Lee suffered a knee injury and his status for the future is still uncertain. I, like all Irish fans, will be very curious to see how they react to everything on Thursday against Arizona. Regardless, this is a game Notre Dame should win.

Air Force

Next up is a trip to Air Force and Notre Dame has absolutely no excuse for not dominating this one. Not only are the Falcons a 1-5 team but they play a level of competition in the Mountain West that is clearly inferior to Notre Dame's competition.

Navy 

The Fighting Irish then come back home to face another long standing traditional rival in Navy. Although Navy is 3-1, they have not and do not play the same level of competition Notre Dame does. This should be an easy win.

Pittsburgh

Next is a trip to Pittsburgh. It seems that no matter what Pittsburgh record is, they always give Notre Dame a hard time. This year should be no exception. The Panthers started this season in a rough fashion by getting blown out to Florida State. Since they responded with three straight wins. However, it was against New Mexico, Duke, and Virginia (not exactly top competition). I am curious to see how they play against Virginia Tech this weekend. We will have a better idea of how good they are. Having said that, if Notre plays like it did against ASU, this is a victory.

BYU

Next is Senior Day against BYU. Talk about a hard team to figure out. The Cougars start the year by losing to a very mediocre team only to blow out Texas the next week. The week after they lost to Utah. Talk about inconsistency. The Cougars then got two wins over mid majot opponents Middle Tennessee and  Utah State. You never know what team will show up but you can assume they bring their best to South Bend. Having said that, this will be the last time going under the tunnel for the Irish Seniors. They want to make it memorable.

These games all lead up to this. 

Stanford

This is where the BCS dream could end. While 10-2 will certainly get them in to the BCS, I doubt 9-3 would. In order for Notre Dame to win this one, they will have to play the game of  lives. They have to be better than they were against the Sun Devils. A long winning streak could give them that confidence. However, none of this matters if the Fighting Irish lose to even one of those other opponents. The fact is Stanford is a long way away as is the BCS. It is attainable looking ahead, but the only way is to take it one game at a time.

 

 

There Is Just Something About Notre Dame in The Shamrock Series

While Charlie Weis did not live up to the expectations when he was head coach, he did do some good things for Notre Dame. One of them was starting the tradition of the Shamrock Series. It started in San Antonio at the Alamo Dome. Then an old tradition was renewed for a year when the Fighting Irish played Army at Yankee Stadium. It has since traveled to Fed Ex Field in the nation's capital, Soldier Field in Chicago, and finally to AT & T Stadium aka The house that Jerry built in Arlington, Texas.

In these games, Notre Dame just seems to bring their best every time. What is it that pumps Notre Dame up for this game? Is it the special uniforms? Is it the trip to a historic stadium? Whatever it is the Irish are always at their best for this game.

No disrespect to Washington State, Army, Maryland, or last year's Miami, but Arizona State was Notre Dame's toughest challenge for this annual event. Here is a team that was coming off scoring 62 points against USC and they also had a huge, yet a little controversial,win over Wisconsin. Not to mention that Dallas is actually a lot closer to Tempe than it is to South Bend meaning at times it seemed as though the Sun Devils had the home field advantage. Also none of the experts were giving the Fighting Irish much of a chance and even Irish fans including me had serious doubts that they could pull this off.

I had two major concerns going into this game. The first was that this defense has not looked anything like it did last year after losing Manti Te'o among others. They struggled against mediocre offenses so how would they stop this team that has put up 122 points this season against legitimate FBS opponents. But low and behold the defense looked a lot like last season's defense. They were all over Taylor Kelly and sacked him four times. Three of them were by Prince Shembo who has not performed like he did last year. The Pressure also caused three turnovers including a late pick six by Dan Fox to seal it.

The defense did give up three passing touchdowns which would ordinarily not be a good game, but against this offense it is pretty damn good. That is especially true since one of those scores was a meaningless score with 11 seconds left. Hopefully, this is a confidence boost for this defense the rest of the season.

The other concern I had was how confident Tommy Rees would be after two bad games and lots of nasty tweets and lack of support from the fan base. But Rees played a great game. He had 279 passing yards and three touchdowns. He really only had one bad mistake but it was a pick six that could have turned the game around. But he rallied after that and put together two more scoring drives.

Rees got a lot of  help from TJ Jones who had a career game with 8 catches for 135 yards and a touchdown. Jones has really become the go to guy on offense. DaVaris  Daniels also chipped in with 4 catches for 67 yards. That was good to see after Daniels did nothing the last two weeks. Cam McDaniel was the best runner with 82 yards on 15 carries. This Texas boy showed Texas toughness in his home state with these yards. He fought for every inch he got.

Hopefully, this is also a confidence boost for Rees and the offense the rest of the way. Being fair to Rees, Michigan State has a defense that really looks a lot like last year's Irish defense and Oklahoma looks like they are clearly the best team in the Big 12. So it is not like he struggles against scrubs. He also has all new players around him other than Jones and Daniels. So even though he is a senior, most of the rest of the key players are young.

In closing, I thought Brian Kelly had a great game plan by really working the clock and having an early time of possession advantage. That kept the powerful Arizona State offense off the field and the Irish defense fresh. Going into the bye, Notre Dame has two weeks to prepare for USC who has an interim coach. Notre Dame will certainly be favored and then they have a series of winnable games starting with the service academies heading into the showdown at the end of the season with Stanford. The outlook on the season definitely looks a lot better after a big win like this.

Go Irish!!!!!

How Good Is Arizona State?

Generally when a team puts up 62 points against USC and gets their coach fired, you would think they are a really good team. However, the Trojans are a shell of the program they used to be. Earlier they lost to Washington State who has been the worst team in the PAC 12 for about a decade. So we can't really tell how good they are based on that game.

So we have to look at the rest of their schedule. They started against FCS Sacramento State and beat them 55-0. That tells us nothing about them though. But like Notre Dame, the Sun Devils then opened up a tough stretch in their schedule. It started with a showdown with Wisconsin. That game ended in a controversial fashion. Wisconsin was in position to kick a makeable game winning field goal but the referees allowed too much time to tick off the clock and the Badgers never got a chance. So the Sun Devils got a very tainted victory on that one. Wisconsin also just lost to Ohio State quite convincingly too, so we don't really know how good they are.

Next up, the Sun Devils got blown out by Stanford. They did score three 4th quarter touchdowns, but that only made it look close on the scoreboard. The Cardinal dominated them.

Finally, they had that great performance against USC. But even in that game, they gave up 41 points to an offense that has been struggling.

So based on a 3-1 record, it is still hard to tell how good they are because one of their wins was tainted and the other two were not against good teams. Their one loss was a really bad one.

What we do know is that they have a very powerful offense led by Taylor Kelly. With their spread attack they have put up 122 points this season against FBS opponents. Kelly has thrown for 1370 yards and 11 touchdowns and just 4 interceptions. It is safe to say that the defense will have it's hands full. The guys really under the microscope are Kevare Russell and Bennett Jackson as they have to cover Jaelen Strong.

While the defense will have it's hands full this weekend, Tommy Rees and the offense will have a chance to regain it's early season form. They will be facing a defense that has given up 111 points the past three weeks. I just hope they can keep pace with the Sun Devils. Hopefully, our defense can slow them up enough.

Remember These Guys?

After last weekend's bad loss to Oklahoma, I watched Arizona State blow out USC to the point to where Lane Kiffin got fired. My interest in the game was due to that these are our next two opponents. In that game I watched Sun Devil quarterback Taylor Kelly throw into traffic all night. But he had great receivers Jaelen Strong and D.J. Foster make great plays for him.

That reminded me of the two guys above. I remember possibly the most overrated quarterback in Notre Dame history Jimmy Clausen throwing into double or even triple coverage but Golden Tate and Michael Floyd would consistently make a great catch and nobody would notice. Tommy Rees even got away with that with Floyd his early years.

The point is that I look at the receivers we have now led by TJ Jones and DaVaris Daniels and while they are really good when is the last time we saw them go up and take a ball from the defenders? I tried real hard and I just couldn't remember. Understand that this is not making excuses for Rees but just saying that the receivers won't be wide open all the time and the great ones make plays even when they are covered. It is time for Jones and Daniels start helping their quarterback out if the ball is not thrown perfectly.