First off, apologies for the delay here…
travel to NYC, short work week, children arriving home, Thanksgiving food coma
and here I am.
The week in between the big Utah win and
the Army game, I was looking for signs to guide my thinking – do I go the
optimistic route of steady, sustained improvement or the more pessimistic, it’s
November-here-we-go-again direction of ‘Navy Debacle: The Sequel’?
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| "I got bad news for Boise State..." |
I considered voodoo but then I remembered
Lisa Bonet’s star turn in the über-scary Angel Heart* and quickly opted out. As
much as I love great Cajun rituals (including, but not limited to, the whole
‘show us your ___’ in the French Quarter at Mardi Gras), self-stimulation with
a dead chicken broke too many personal hygiene guidelines for moi...
* not only did Robert DeNiro as The Devil
make fast work of her in the film but Bill Cosby forever disowned her for her
lack of Cosby Family Values.
Thus, I would look externally for signs to
tell me how this game was to play out.
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Portent #1:
Bristol Palin Makes ‘Dancing With The Stars’ finals.
Clear evidence that a) the Life Is Not Fair
axiom was alive and well, b) God has added a 5th Horseman of the Apocalypse
(Famine, Pestilence, War, Death and Bristol), c) The Tea Party is made up of
bad dancing white guys who don’t watch TV or d) all of the above.
In any event color me troubled.
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| "Whaddya gonna do, bleed on me?" |
Portent #2:
We’re Playing The Black Knights?
A good sign: with a nickname like that, how
hard can this game be?
Portent #3:
Elvis Has Entered the Building
The Brothers Corrigan are at a well known
jazz club in Greenwich Village Friday night, having a cocktail, waiting to
order dinner… when this guy walks in –
alone – and sits down at a table next to us. I lean over to my brother and
quietly say, “Hey, check out the Elvis wannabe…”
My nephew responds, “Uh, uncle Terry, I’m
pretty sure that really is Elvis Costello…”
OMG. OMG. OMG. Terry immediately turns into a 14 yr. old
girl but otherwise remains cool as the other side of the pillow...
And I take this to be a particularly good
sign.
Word
of the Week.
Absolutely nothing seems to come easy this
season. In a week when you have a solid,
reassuring win comes the report of a sexual assault by one of the players early
in the school year – of a young woman who ultimately committed suicide.
Wow. Talk
about a lose-lose. Not only a life is senselessly lost – and I always find
myself wondering how one gets to a state where the world is completely devoid
of any hope – but there is no chance for closure on this. Only speculation and 2nd guessing (perhaps
justified) about what happened, did the university handle it correctly and was
there a connection between the two incidents.
Rather like the Declan Sullivan situation. Kelly must wonder ‘what else
can possibly happen this year?’ Let’s
hope very little.
Ar•du•ous
/ɑr dʒu əs or, especially Brit., ˈɑr dyu-/ Show Spelled[ahr-joo-uh s or, especially
Brit., ahr-dyoo-] Show IPA
–adjective
1. requiring
great exertion; laborious; difficult: an arduous undertaking.
2. requiring
or using much energy and vigor; strenuous: making an arduous effort.
3. hard
to climb; steep: an arduous path up the hill.
4. hard
to endure; full of hardships; severe: an arduous winter.
Origin:
1530–40; < L arduus erect, steep, laborious; see -ous
—Synonyms
1.
hard, toilsome, onerous, wearisome, burdensome, exhausting.
Game
Commentary.
Pre-game
Not exactly ‘A Lot’ but not
bad.
The ND Class of ’11 show up, including
daughter Ryan, the soon-to-be Purdue grad. The thought occurs to me "does she
realize she doesn’t attend ND?" Well I'm
not gonna ruin her day – she’s with her buddies, her uncles and her dad’s
friends. And loving every minute of it. I must say, the whole history of ‘no women
allowed’ at the bar was strangely…intriguing.
Kinda like the He-man Woman Hater’s Club:
I, Tom Feifar, Member in good standing of
the He-man Woman Haters Club
Do solemnly swear to be a he-man and hate
women and not play with them or talk to them unless I have to.
And especially: never fall in love.
And if I do, may I die slowly and painfully
and suffer for hours or until I scream bloody murder.
 |
 |
 |
The
Game
ü Yankee Stadium! A GREAT
venue… for baseball. $175 and these
seats are… not good. Oh well, live and
learn. And thank God for the Jumbotron.
ü ND 1st drive: bad Tommy Rees interception and I'm reminded of what
my brothers used to say about me, “He may be a fool but he’s our fool.” Brother Kevin says, not for the last time,
“He will be running the scout team a year from now.”
ü More about Tommy: yes I know he’s a mere freshman, starting in his
2dn game, in one of the highest profile stages in the country.
ü Debate: That blank look on
young Tom’s face… is that preternatural maturity or a pilot light that really
hasn’t flamed on?
ü Army 1st drive: defense gets shredded but finally stiffens. Rut roh.
 |
| "Should I stay or should I go?" |
ü Michael Floyd catches a few balls but one wonders whether he looks
at his senior year QB options and thinks he’ll have a year that’ll enhance his
draft status.
 |
| "Herr Rees vill haf problems if he tries to throw zat type of ball on square outs..." |
- 99 Luft-balloons. With all due respect to Nena, New German Wave singer of the 1980’s, Tommy throws a deep ball that stays in the air for a lonnnggg time. Charitably, one can say he has terrific touch – which he legitimately seems to – or you can cringe at the thought of playing against any secondary with closing speed. But hey, two TD passes later and we've got a comfortable half-time lead.
Half-time: The Bat light goes on. Terry meets Cincotta and Jim Splendore for a
half time libation, subsequently missing pretty much all of the 3rd Quarter. Hey, it
was worth it, we were fighting crime.
 |
| "Coach Longo, you sure this'll make us play better in November?" |
The
defense has definitely looked great the past few week. Maybe the off season
regimen is starting to pay off?
 |
| "Can Tim come out and play? But I'd settle for his dad..." |
“Attack
of the 50 Foot… Lini.” Imagine my
surprise – and alarm – when late in the game, victory well in hand, the
Jumbo-tron camera has turned its lens on exultant Domers… and who in the first
row, repeatedly on-screen, is none other than Tim Castellini! He of the Shrinking Violet Castellini’s.
Bowl Eligible!
Okay, it’s not BCS but if ever a team
needed 15 extra practices – especially with all the youngsters – it’s this
team. So say hello to Orlando… or Detroit or some godforsaken place. But hey
Song
of the Week.
The game’s location being New York, the
song has to have some roots here… a brilliant evening, spectacular venue, solid
‘O’ play and a surprisingly dominant ‘D’ play.
It may not last but for one night, it was pretty sweet. Thus I give you
Joey Ramone’s cover of “What A Wonderful World”.
"I see skies of blue and clouds of white,
Bright sunny days, dark sacred nights.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world..."
Terry’s
Tool Time.
Bo Pelini. Head coach, Nebraska. How
big of a tool do you have to be when you get reprimanded by your university
president. A university in Nebraska?
Apparently while leading their team to a humiliating loss to the Texas
A&M Aggies, coach Bo – a moniker that just screams ‘cave dweller’ – gets
captured on national TV berating the officials for having the audacity to call
16 penalties on his ‘Huskers. Then he turns his frustration on his injured star
QB and reams him, presumably for getting hurt. You're a class act, coach.
Schadenfreude
Winner of the Week.
This week the theme was “Return to
Tradition::
> Michigan. The Rich Rodriguez ‘dead
man walking’ watch begins. For ND fans,
not sure this is a good thing (see below).
> USC. Thumped by Oregon State.
And Matt Barkley gets hurt! This must
be what they mean by the expression
“adding insult to injury…” somewhere in heaven, my dad is smiling.
Recruiting
Buzz.
 |
| "Billy, you sure this isn't an NCAA violation?" |
Another week of weirdness. Supposedly a number of the elite east coast
recruits were supposed to be at the game but ended up not coming, allegedly
watching the game on TV. Probably not a huge loss since under NCAA regulations,
the team can't have contact with them any way – rather like a prison visit
without being able to pick up the phone.
And what would be a Recruiting week without
a de-commitment? This time from the
Michigan RB with the way cool name of Justice Hayes. Lots of intrigue about this in as much as two
weeks ago at the Utah game he was singing the school’s praises after his visit.
To top it off, he de-commits – saying he wants to re-think the decision but ND
definitely wasn’t out of it – then two days later, commits to Michigan, a program
that’s almost surely going to fire its coach.
For everyone on this email with teenage children, you’ll recognizes the
use of solid, linear logic immediately.
Supposedly there are other RB’s now in the
mix and whatever assurances the kid wanted, he didn’t get. Score one for the adults.
At this point, I give up even bothering to
wonder about this stuff. Whomever called
this part of recruiting the ‘silly season’ was entirely correct.
Should I Stay or Should I Go: Part II
The Jim Harbaugh to _____________ Watch has
officially started. If one is a UM fan, you know they’ll be
burning up the discreet lines of communication, trying to a) gauge interest and
b) lock him down fast.
Normally, I think he’ll garner a ton of NFL
interest, not the least of which because a) his brother’s been successful, b)
he’s coaching the likely #1 pick in the draft and c) he’s made overtures to go
pro in the past. One apparently huge mitigating factor is this: with a likely NFL lock out happening in
March, any new coach won't get access to his team until the Collective
Bargaining Agreement is finalized – which could realistically be late
summer. What owner is going to want to
break in a newbie without the benefit of any off season?
So that would seem to leave three routes
for coach Jim:
1. Stay
at Stanford until the NFL settles itself… he’s building a nice program and will
likely be just as attractive of a Pro candidate one year from now.
2. Go
to Michigan. Realistically, there’s not
going to be a better college job open up in maybe a few years. And the fit would seem to be perfect.
3. Go
after a pro job and convince an owner to take the long term view. There could be some pretty attractive jobs
there for the taking. Here’s three possibilities:
o San
Francisco – Mike Singletary is a loon and he wouldn’t even have to move.
o San
Diego – chronic under achievers, he went to HS there and the team is built to
win now.
o Carolina
– they're almost certain to have the 1st pick in the draft and he could bring
his QB with him.
The Wager.
Just two weeks ago, who’d a thunk there’d
be any suspense to this damn thing… but the improbable good fortune of the
Albert Villains lives on. Actually the pool has to be legitimately entertained.
USC is still USC – long on talent, short on character – but ND would seem to
have a real shot.
Shout Out
1. Women’s
soccer team. Now in the Final 4 after
giving top ranked North Carolina their worst beat down (4-1) ever. Not sure whether much was expected of this
team – they always seem to be pretty darn good – but it’d be fitting if they
could bring home the gold this year.
2. Men’s
hockey – last time I looked they were 11th ranked with 12 freshmen on their
team.
Finally, Happy Thanksgiving to all. As much
of a colossal buzzkill as this football season has been, it was that superb
from a social, class of ’79 standpoint… for someone who lives a mere 40 miles
from campus, I’m especially appreciative of a) our esteemed tailgating
entrepreneurs (Messrs. Flaherty-Castellini-Rasmus-Behrens-Belknap) and b) all
those who came great distances to hang out and revel in the pre-game
festivities. Not only were those affairs
longer than the actual game, the talent was far superior and the entertainment
was consistently (and predictably) excellent.
Let’s see if we can close out the regular
season with a win.
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