…is still a pig. Trust me, I’m from Iowa. I know.
15-12. Didn’t feel much
like a win*, did it?
*except for the
10 win prognosticators.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, so as I was watching
yesterday’s game and we kept self-destructing (fumbles, interceptions, drive
stalling penalties, drive enabling penalties) and two thoughts raced across my
mind:
1.
Again? This is
surreal.
2.
I’m not enjoying
this.
Actually, there was a 3rd
thought (“there ‘s got to be something I can be doing better with my
time”). Nonetheless, my mind wandered to a book read long ago, “Marabou
Stork Nightmares”. Written by the Scottish author Irvine Welsh, whose
earlier book ‘Trainspotting ‘ was made into a film of some relative cult
popularity. Mr. Welch writes in the Scottish dialect (making it a bitch
to read) and almost exclusively about the drug addled dregs of Edinburgh
society. This book is no different – the entire book is written from the
perspective of a protagonist in the midst of a two year coma.
For this poor loser, everything in the external world is a hellish unending
series of dysfunction and disappointment. But Life ‘internally’ for Coma
Boy is, however, quite… idyllic. I won’t give away anything
more about the book - I can see most this group racing to buy or download
- but the parallels to my relationship to Notre Dame Football 2011 are
inescapable
Another interesting LIFE MEETS
ART occurrence happened this week: a heretofore unknown cinematic effort
from Alfred Hitchcock was discovered in… where else… New Zealand, a 1924 silent
film called “The White Shadow” (not to be confused with the 2nd
Greatest TV Show Ever*, starring Ken Howard as a former NBA star who chooses to
coach at an inner city LA high school and all sorts of life lessons are
learned, including but not limited to racial / cultural empathy, while winning
basketball games and ultimately scoring college scholarships.)
But I digress.
 |
| "Evil twins? Those are my favorite kind!" |
Hitchcock. The White
Shadow involves two sisters, one ‘angelic’ and one ‘without a soul’. The plot
has been charitably described as improbable with soul migration back and forth
and all kinds of ridiculous meetings. Unfortunately – or maybe not – only
half the film was unearthed, leaving the effort frustratingly incomplete and
unsatisfying… see where I’m going with this?
*#1 being, of
course, St. Elsewhere.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Word of the Week
Torpor
tor·por noun \ˈtȯr-pər\
1 a state of mental and
motor inactivity with partial or total insensibility b: a state of lowered
physiological activity typically characterized by reduced metabolism, heart
rate, respiration, and body temperature that occurs in varying degrees especially
in hibernating and estivating animals
2 apathy, dullness
After an entire game of
turnovers, penalties and poor execution, Terry could only greet the victory
with a resigned fatalism that barely lifted him from the 3 ½ hour torpor.
Origin of TORPOR
v
Middle English, from
Latin, from torpēre
v
First Known Use:
13th century
Synonyms:
apathy, casualness,
complacence, disinterestedness, disregard, incuriosity, incuriousness,
insouciance, nonchalance, indifference, unconcern
Antonyms:
concern, interest, regard
Observations from The Game
 |
| "Mr. Rees, I know Aaron Rodgers. And you're no Aaron Rodgers!" |
v
My patience w Rees
has reached its tipping point. Yes, he’s a sophomore but spare me the Brady
Quinn, Jimmy Clausen INT comparisons – he’s not getting better. And we
have, now, nine games worth of data points? He’s the son of a
coach, as if that’s supposed to imbue him with some preternatural on-field
intelligence. But he looked easily confused yesterday, locks on receivers and
throws constantly into coverage. When he’s forced outside the pocket, the probability
of success drops by 80%. Conservatively, he could’ve been picked at least
an additional 3x yesterday – remember that was the 2nd worst passing
defense, statistically, in the country. His arm is not as strong as he
apparently thinks it is.
v
Q1 highlight was the
All-State commercial. Mayhem: “I’m a ref being chased out of town – you
forget one down and the whole stadium turns on you…”
v Wonder if the ad agency s working on its Tommy Rees
version yet?
v
Pitt brings in a
freshman walk on QB, at their own 12 yard line. Huh? What, are we a
charity now?
v
Terry really misses
the pre-game tailgate. This game should not be watched sober.
v
Turk contributes
through an excellent acting job on that roughing the kicker call. I’ll
take it. I’m not proud.
v
Our running game is
legitimate. And Jonas has some wheels. So far, a pretty nice story
for him of personal redemption after the year’s disastrous start.
v
Beyond the obvious
reason, Floyd’s going high in the draft next year because the guy is a beast as
a blocker. He obliterated that guy on Gray’s TD run.
v
Even when Gary Gray
gets jobbed (and his pass interference was a bad call), it was a weak effort.
What happened to that guy? He was good last year.
v
Our defense is not
bad. But it’s also not dominant. Rarely out of position (that’s
good coaching isn’t it?) but just imagine how good they’d be if they
consistently tackled.
v
Dan Fox is a waste
of space at ILB. And Carlo isn’t a helluva lot better.
v
4th &
20 on their own 10 yd. line; it leads, ultimately to a TD. What happens
when the surreal becomes the commonplace?
v
Pitt has given
everyone the blueprint for how to beat ND:
v Double Floyd.
v Pressure the bejesus out of Rees
v Throw jump balls at Gray all day long.
v
That said, the way
you beat that, I think, is burning them w other players.
v
The announcers –
dull but accurate. With the notable exception of Chris Spielman saying
during a Pitt 3rd and long, “I think Notre Dame likes it’s DB match
ups w Pitt’s WR’s…”
Uh,
Chris, are you watching the same game I am?!
If Saturday’s Game was a
movie poster, it’d be… The Terminator
"The Thing That Won't Die In The Nightmare That Won't End."
 |
Up to you what The Thing is but
I’m pretty sure the nightmare isn’t anywhere near ending.
Ø Week IV Buddy Award.
.JPG)
Up until half way through the 4th
Quarter, there wasn’t going to be a Buddy award winner – I won’t cheapen his
memory with a gratuitous honoree (sorry, Jonas, but one long run, especially
when it’s not a game winner, does not a Buddy Award winner make).
But
then, Tyler Eifert stepped up. It took Tommy two quarters to look his way much
but he became the go-to guy on seemingly every important throw, even when he
was surrounded, and held on. TD! 2 pts! Woo hoo! Nicely
done, Mimicking fellow Hoosier Jeff Samardzija in hair and clutch performance,
the stud TE heritage at ND continues.
Schadenfreude of the Week.
·
Florida State. You’re kind of the Florida state equivalent of
Notre Dame (great recruiting classes, epic disappointments whenever they play
anyone of reasonable competence) so I should probably choose my words carefully
but… you got shredded by a freshman QB and once again, came up short.
 |
| "How owdinarwy..." |
·
USC. Lost badly, never really challenged and in
doing so, looked as Lili von Shtupp might say...
·
Maryland. The Terps aren’t really an appropriate candidate, though
one could argue their uniforms do represent a Crime Against Humanity, but I
wanted an excuse to give a shout out to the Temple Owls! Woo hoo – well
done! That match against ND in a few years begins to loom ever larger.
And when that time comes, I’ll be the first one to whine about Notre
Dame’s inability to schedule proper patsies. (Maybe Swarbrick thought he was
scheduling actual owls, like PSU.)
Terry’s Tool Time.
· Big East
officials. I suspect the
University of Toledo Rockets don’t have many opportunities for season (or maybe
program) defining victories. And Saturday should’ve been a candidate.
Except when the Big East game officials blew a missed PAT call by the
opponent’s (Syracuse) kicker. Replays show it wasn’t even particularly
close. The game goes into OT and the Rockets lose. Ouch.
 |
| "FedEx, really?! Dude, Jerome said he absolutely, positively had to have it..." |
· Jerome Simpson. Tool or Fool? This Cincinnati Bengal WR was
arrested this week after he had shipped to his house 2 ½ lbs. of
weed. Unfortunately, the police were there to help Jerome sign for
the package. Once that little legal door was open, the authorities found
another 6 lbs. of Columbia’s finest in his house. There is no truth to
the rumor that Jerome showed a medical marijuana card as justification…
· Penn State. You played and apparently beat convincingly,
EMU. Emu, isn’t that an Australian bird? JoePa, I know you’re
teetering on the brink of full-on senility but if you’re going to go the animal
route, couldn’t you at least pick something more familiar with American
football?
Song of the Week
As many of you may have seen,
the prototypical indie, college 80’s band, R.E.M., called it quits this week,
after 31 years and earnings well north of $100MM. Before they started
celebrating shiny, happy people, they were awfully good. And their parallels
with Notre Dame football are weirdly similar: iconic with their
consistently best days ending somewhere around the late ‘80s /early ‘90s.
Give a listen to “Begin The
Begin”, a 1986 rocker from their “Life’s Rich Pageant” album that, in equal
parts is full of earnest emotion and unfathomable meaning. Again, just like the
Irish.
“Answer me a question I can't
itemize
I can't think clearly, look
to me for reason
It's not there, I can't even
rhyme here in the begin…”
Non Sequitur of the Week
Don’t ask me why I thought of
this… my mind as seeking any refuge during that game. Notre Dame Classes
That Changed My Life:
Freshman: Calculus. Terry meets Spittler and learns all pre-med majors
aren’t total tools. If it wasn’t for Bob (and an really nice TA named
Joanne), I don’t survive a 1st semester freshmen curriculum that
couldn’t have been more poorly suited for me.
Sophomore: Art History.
Terry discovers the seating in the Library auditorium is amazing comfortable
(and conducive for napping when the lights dim and the slide shows begin).
Junior: Robinson’s Creative Writing. Castellini and a class full of
senior ND women who took themselves waaaay too seriously. Can you say
‘combustible’?
Senior: Personal Finance (at SMC). As if a semester w Splendore in the
class wasn’t notable enough, studying for the final at The Linebacker, then
bringing a support group with me to the actual exam. It seemed like a
good idea at the time. My last test at ND. For good reason.
Final observations
This team will go as the QB
goes. That isn’t meant to be a comforting statement. Every week
that passes with up and down mediocrity, I’m more convinced Tommy is not The
Answer. But Kelly is surely in a bind. He clearly has no confidence
in Dayne and the other guys apparently aren’t ready. When do you make a
change? An injury? Another loss?
I’m not optimistic. Unless
something (or someone) changes, 8-4 is looking to me like best case.
2011
Schedule.
|
September
|
October
|
November
|
|
3 South
Florida L
10 @ Michigan (NIGHT) L
17 MSU LINIPALOOZA!!
W
24 @
Pitt W
|
1 @
Purdue (NIGHT)
8 Air
Force
15 OPEN
22 USC (NIGHT)
29 Navy
|
5 @ Wake Forest
12 @ Maryland
(D.C.)
19 Boston
College
26 @ Stanford
(NIGHT)
|
|
|
|
|
2011
Wager status
 |
| Behrens, Volk, Wills |
The Ten's: staying alive...
No comments:
Post a Comment