Ready or not, gonna make it to the city
This is the night to go to the celebrity ball
Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the music!
Dateline: Flint Lake, IN
No, just quiet reflection on a really interesting football season, starting with this:
Q1. If someone had told you on Friday, September 6th, that at season end Notre Dame would be ranked #4 in the nation and virtually locked in for a 5th or 6th seed in the playoffs, would you take it?
A. In a heartbeat.
Q2. If someone had told you on Sunday, September 8th, that at season end Notre Dame would be ranked #4 in the nation and virtually locked in for a 5th or 6th seed in the playoffs, would you believe it?
A. Not a chance.
Q3. What's Jerrence's favorite aphorism?
A. "Crisis doesn't create character, it reveals it."
And that sums up Notre Dame football 2024. And the final chapter hasn't even been written yet.
Dare to dream.
Quote of the Week
Ryan Day
Minutes after the OSU-UM game
You tell me, coach. What I saw was an Ohio State team that played to their opponent's strengths.
Granted, not many others would have made that particular one. But you do you, Ryan.
And probably still at Ohio State. Or maybe somewhere else. Let's first see how the playoffs go for you.
Word of the Week
Used in a sentence paragraph: Jerrence thought, this is painful to watch.
Sophomore CB Christian Gray, who had been heretofore very dependable... solid... and undeniably a critical piece of possibly the best secondary in the country...
...was getting toasted. Repeatedly.
Weird. Particularly after having had a really good 1st quarter against the Trojans.
Shades of Clifford Jefferson! This was bad.
And yet, there was something strangely noteworthy about his demeanor: he manifested no evidence whatsoever of the tough day he was having. In a manner resiliently stolid, he carried himself in a workman-like fashion, right up to...
The Play.
After that, it was primal scream time.
Note: Precious few have talked about the remarkable balance Gray exhibited to make the catch, maintain his balance without touching the ground and then going 0-to-60 the other direction.
The INT, alone, would've been super clutch. The ensuing return was spectacular.
Game 11 Thoughts
Only fear breaks the silence
As we all kneel pray for guidance...
They say history is written by the winners so, over time, Saturday's 49-35 win will probably be viewed in a somewhat more comfortable, possibly even a "never in doubt" light.
'Cause with roughly 4 minutes left in the game, SC driving... down by 7... things didn't looks so in control. And at that point, if that game went into OT, who'd a felt good about ND's chances?
A rhetorical question. Who knows. The fact is, it didn't. All 60 minutes of the game matter and SC couldn't finish.
End of story. We win. Party time.
Yet more than a few thoughts are activated after watching that game, some more relevant than others:
1. "Go West Young Man."
- If you've spend even 5 minutes with me this football season, you've heard me pontificate on the issue (especially as it pertains to Big10 football) that the travel between west coast and midwest was going to be a strong factor in determining outcomes. As everyone on this blog knows, jet lag is a real thing.
- So ND traveling to LA on the day before a noon kickoff struck me as... flawed.
- And ND traveling to NYC the week before struck me, now, as... reckless.
- Against two teams with polar opposite offenses to plan around. Hmmm.
If you found yourself thinking these guys don't even look like they're playing the same defense, maybe they weren't. What they looked like (to me) was a group that was physically and mentally spent.
And yet, talk about 'digging deep' at the end.
2. Depth Has Its Limits.
- If one takes a cursory glance at the snap counts for the team, you'll see a lot of players played almost the entire game -- starting with the CB's who did play every single snap.
- Think they might've been gassed?
- And before one criticizes Golden (as an example), who else was he going to put in? He's already playing freshmen!
The fact is, it's remarkable the depth ND's already shown this year (and at hugely critical positions (e.g., LT, CB, Edge)). But at some point, it's gotta run out.
- More than few people grumbled after Leonard's bad INT -- showing just how fragile his bandwagon is -- but not me. And outside of that throw, I thought he played really well.
- Does Denbrock run him too much (Jay)? Maybe. Probably. But Saturday was a 'leave no bullets in the chamber' game and if that's what they needed to win, so be it.
- RB's or OL? Chicken or the egg? Who gets credit for the run game dominance? And why can't it be both?
- We know the RB's are really good. But there are some pretty big holes being opened by guys who've now strung a season of playing together. They may not be Joe Moore award-level caliber but they're pretty good.
4. Kicking.
- The definition of insanity -- doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result -- would seem to apply here.
- Here's the concerning thought: this now looks more like a mental, not a physical, issue for Jeter. Can three weeks of 'therapy' address it? We gotta hope so.
- Does misery really love company? Jeter wasn't even the worst kicker of the weekend:
- College: Ohio State's guy. Perhaps he's in Witness Protection by now.
- Pro: Justin Tucker. (Perhaps the best kicker in NFL history, currently can't hit the ocean from the beach.)
5. CFP Madness.
"The end is nigh..." or at least the final playoff seeding picture is near. (I think it's all determined Sunday afternoon.) Here's how it looks right now with the critical games seemingly:
- Oregon vs. Penn State (Go Ducks!)
- Georgia vs. Texas (Go Longhorns!)
- SMU vs. Clemson (unclear who we want...)
Buddy's Buddy
If one hangs around me enough in sports-related situations, you'll know that I am comically bad at prognostications.
If I predict something to happen, almost invariably the opposite occurs. And I'm pretty sports category agnostic: it could be a Majors golf tournament, a March Madness bracket... you name it, I'll probably get it wrong in an impressively polar opposite degree of magnitude.
If I went to Vegas, I'd be The Cooler.
Which brings us to Saturday.
As everyone surely witnessed, Jeremiyah Love was en route to a potentially historic game. Not a stretch to think he'd hit 200 yds and probably 3 TD's.
But as is Denbrock's (admittedly successful) pattern, he spells Love for a period, giving Jadarian Price some reps.
Early on, it did not go well. As tough as Love looked running, Price's proclivity to bounce everything outside looked like a bad idea against a fast, aggressive USC defense -- so much so I implored the football gods (and Denbrock) to consider, might this be the game to go with a more singular, more appropriate runner? Which is to say, leave Jeremiyah in the game.
Yet, Price stepped up and flourished: 12 carries, 111 yards, 1 TD -- which kept SC having to respect the run.
A reoccurring theme this entire year has been 'Next Man Up' and for my money, never was this back up's play more critical to the win than Price's.
On a final, hugely cynical note: With the transfer portal opening this week, I think Jadarian made himself a WHOLE LOT OF MONEY. I just hope it comes from a Notre Dame source. With a new QB next year, we're gonna need the 1-2 punch of Love & Price.
RE-PETE (A shameless, illegal lift of Pete Sampson's weekly mail-bag)
I'm a 'glass half full' kind of guy.
So, a disconcerting as Saturday's game might've been, especially on the defensive side (and I think there's a number of one-time reasons for that) one can still identify silver linings to take from the game.
And it would appear that Mr. Sampson thinks so too.
And given how much juice coach Freeman squeezed out of the NIU loss, one has to believe he can leverage a USC scare for a few more games.
-----------------------------------
This all feels like a bit of narrative engineering, but does Notre Dame benefit from playing with fire against USC?
Marcus Freeman said he wasn’t concerned the Irish haven’t been pushed in almost two months because of the roster’s maturity, focus and all those other intangible coaching points.
And maybe there’s some truth to that.
But a refresher on what it feels like to have your football life flash before your eyes has to at least be helpful, right? If Notre Dame still benefits from the disaster of Northern Illinois, can’t it also benefit from nearly skidding off the road in Los Angeles?
Source: The Athletic
December 3, 2024
Cocktail of the Month
Bear with me on this week's theme cocktail but it goes like this:
By the 4th quarter, Notre Dame was flatlining: the offense got super conservative and the defense -- when they weren't racing the length of the field with poorly thrown USC passes -- couldn't seem to stop anything. (That final, meaningless USC drive was especially disgraceful.)
So a cocktail called 'Corpse Reviver' seems more than apt. Had I known about it at the time, I probably could've used it after the game.
Natalie Clifford Barney & Renée Vivien's
Corpse Reviver #2
1876-1972 1877-1909
Among the beverages that she raised to her lips was a cloudy elixir in which floated a cherry harpooned on a toothpick. I laid a hand on her arm and cautioned her.
"Don't drink it."
"I've tasted it," I said, embarrassed. "It's... deadly. Be careful, it tastes like some kind of vitriol."
I dared not tell her that I suspected a practical joke. She laughed, flashing her white teeth.
"But these are my own cocktails, ma pethith Coletthe. They are excellent."
-- Colette on Renée Vivien, The Pure and the Impure, 1932
For over 60 years, American-born poet and fragment writer Natalie Clifford Barney welcomed artists, intellectuals, and writers into her Parisian home, establishing one of the great salons of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Though Barney never established great fame or acclaim as a writer in the United States, as an ex-pat she was a key figure in the intellectual and artistic movements that swept through Paris at the turn of the century and once more after World War I. She counted among her friends Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Ezra Pound, Virgil Thompson, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway and more.
An openly gay woman, Barney held court with several lesbian and bisexual writers, fostering the careers and social lives of Djuna Barnes, Colette, Sylvia Beach and Renée Vivien, the British imagist poet who would become one of Barney's lovers. Vivien in particular was known to enjoy frighteningly stiff cocktails.
* 1 oz. Lillet Blanc
* 1 oz. Cointreau
* 1 oz. lemon juice, freshly squeezed
* 1 splash absinthe
* Maraschino cherry for garnishing
-------------------
In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine gin, Lillet Blanc, Cointreau, lemon juice, and absinthe, and shake to combine.
Strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with the cherry.
Source: How To Drink Like A Writer
Writing by Margaret Kaplan
Schedule 2024
August
31 @Texas A&M W
September
7 Northern Illinois L
14 @Purdue W
21 Miami (OH) W
28 Louisville W
October
12 Stanford W
19 @Georgia Tech W
26 Navy W
November
9 Florida State W
16 Virginia W
23 @Army W
30 @USC W
December
20-21 1st round playoff game at ND Stadium -- see you at Stayer!
Wager 2024
Congratulations, Team 11! Way to persevere for 10 straight weeks.
Now on to the final Wager tie-breaker:
- The Good News: there likely won't be any cinema or literature trivia questions.
- The Bad News: with the impending playoffs dominating the new bowl seaosn, a March Madness-like "predict the bracket" is likely the way I'm gonna go to determine a winner.
Stay tuned for something next week as you'll have to complete it by the kickoff of the first game on the 20th.
Finally, all those whose names aren't highlighted below, I don't think I received the $25 entry fee. If you could send it to me sometime before January, I'd appreciate it.
Venmo is @Terry-Corrigan.
Wins | Director - ND Equivalence | Domer |
12  Christopher Nolan | The Nick Saban of the film world - Nolan is Mr. Swing For The Fences Big Idea Guy, even if every effort isn't always a home run. But they are undeniably ... epic. Just like a 12-0 season. |
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11  Martin McDonagh | Hello, he's Irish! Solidly predictable for always being really, really good. And as his reputation has been burnished, the star talent in his cast has followed. Sound familiar? | Jerrence, Daryl Jim S, Tim C. Jerry C, Mike C. Greg R., Bob S. George, Raz, Ted, Bob J. Peter, Tim S., Dave M |
10  David Fincher |
Pretty much a stud in both film and TV formats. Always interesting, albeit with palpably dark undertones... one is never sure how the story is going to end up. Much like a 10 win season will feel like. |
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9  Yorgos Lanthimos | Do I always understand what's going on his films? Nope. |
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8  Richard Linklater | Perhaps the product of recency bias - I quite liked 'Hit Man' - Linklater's films fall for this blogger into the "nice-fun-I see an interesting insight" category. They just don't feel especially memorable. Like we'd view an 8 win season. | |
7  Wes Anderson | When does quirky/idiosyncratic become tiresome? When you feel like you're watching - again - an inside joke that you're not included in. Anderson attracts an an all-star cast that no longer seems to add up to the sum of their parts. In a word, disappointing. | |
6  Lars Von Trier | Uncomfortable. Unpleasant. Disturbing. Often off the rails, his films might be 'art' but it's tough to call it many people's definition of entertainment. | |
Schadenfreude of the Week.
Have I beat the wine metaphor to death yet?
Oh, not even close.
Now we're to the point where guests are sitting at the table, they've been promised something good. And the host, we'll call him Jerry, has promised something very special.
Could it be a Napa choice? Maybe something Tuscan? Perhaps something from the Rhone valley... ooh.
A native Ohioan, who knew he could serve up such a special varietal, and from Columbus of all places, with savory notes of toasted buckeye.
------------------------------------
- On one hand, Michigan's season was already a disaster. Getting curb stomped by tOSU would've been humiliating but otherwise incrementally marginal in adding to the year's poor showing.
- Ohio State, however, the story was much different. Coached by -- if not the biggest douche in the country, certainly the whiniest -- had a cool $20M invested in this team being national championship caliber, with a class of seniors who'd never beaten Michigan...
- Guess what, they still haven't.
What could only make this loss better is if somehow they sneak into the playoffs and have to play @ Notre Dame in the 1st round.
 |
| Yeah, I'm looking at you mouthy mo-fo's... |
But it is Rivalry Week. And with this opponent, can piling on ever be considered excessive?
I think not.
Fun fact that one can share with your SC friends (although they are probably well aware of it): up to the ND game, going into the 4th quarter the Trojans led in every single game.
Perhaps they can pull a Greg Norman and find a league to join where you only have to play for three quarters.
"The Saudi's are on line 1, Athletic Director Cohen..."
Meanwhile, back in the SEC...
Terry's Tools.
 |
| The few, the proud... |
With Rivalry Week being a particularly volatile accelerant for bad behavior, it'd be difficult to call out all of the worthy individuals for, um, recognition.
Easier to award blanket commendations. Although one coach does seem to be worthy of stepping forward.
And unfortunately, Notre Dame is not immune from some constructive criticism on this front.
Let's call it a 'teachable moment.'
White pants? For the love of God, who is it that thinks the white pants are a good look?
Flag planters . The fact that the post-game flag planting bullsh*t seemed to have broken out at every rivalry game (except ND-USC) just proves how stupid virtually all college athletes are.
They are, as Defarge refers to our former son-in-law, toddlers. (I prefer the equally apropos descriptor, "dipsh*t" for both.)
Thank God we have responsible coaching staffs to rein them in.
And pepper spray. Lots and lots of pepper spray.
Ryan Day. "Ryan, We Hardly Knew Ye." And for most of Columbus, OH, they're wishing right now they never knew ye.
What was most telling re coach Day, Leader of Men, is when the melee at mid-field broke out, he did... nothing.
No matter how he tried he could not break free
And the worms ate into his brain...
Rylie Mills. So Rylie, team captain... role model...
...walk me through just what, exactly, were you thinking?
It's still early in the game -- so the outcome was yet to be determined -- and you risk getting tossed for that (which everyone in the world seemed to see except the refs).
How was that helping the team?
SEC Officiating. This is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, except if you're a Georgia Tech fan but... it's as simple as this: the Ramblin' Wreck got hosed on more than just one alleged penalty that allowed Georgia to stay competitive.
One is usually dismissive of the conspiracy theorists who say that the SEC needs the Georgia / Alabama brands in the playoffs (or maybe it's ESPN that's calling the shots). But something wasn't right about a few of those critical calls.
Which is a shame because the Tech QB was a baller. The kid (and the team) deserved better.
MLB. Runaway winner of the Stupidest Idea of the Week Month Year...
Name of the Week
Fun fact #1: this week's winner shares a birthday with Jerrence.
That's nice, albeit super random.
Fun fact #2: this week's winner received his nickname inspired by the central character from "Toy Story."
Even better (and equally random).
-- He was also one of the central characters for USC last week until he went down with a head injury.
-- Likely a nice kid and a very good player who will surely NEVER be known by his birth name.
Jo'quavious Marks
I'm still toying around with a move to J'errence. Or Je'rrence.
At any rate... upon further consideration, perhaps Jo'quavious being called 'Woody' is a win-win for everyone, yes?
Final Thought
Early buzz is suggesting a 12/20 Friday night game for ND's first round. Current weather forecast? Light snow, mid-teens wind chill.
Please God, make the opponent a southern team.
"Abandon hope all ye who enter here..."
