Week 10: Who Are You?

Blame it on Cain

Don't blame it on me

It's nobody's fault

But we need somebody to burn... 

Dateline:  Flint Lake, IN

Grandpa, this is why your brothers watch the game on tape delay, isn't it?

So there I was watching the game Saturday afternoon, start of the 4th quarter and The Granddaughter is looking at me with an irritated "You call this rubbish I'm seeing 'quality bonding time?'" 

...when what should appear on the TV but the new John Wick: Chapter 4 trailer.

Thank God - a diversion.

I, of course, launch into a thorough yet digestible summary of the franchise's brilliance for consistently delivering a sharp metaphor for a rapacious global consumer society that feeds off of planned obsolescence, essentially eating its own and in doing so destroying the myth of The Loner archetype, that iconoclast who in fact could be Society's savior.

Feeling awfully self-satisfied, it turns out Sloane found grandpa's take... lacking.  Her words - paraphrasing here -  "OK, Boomer, that analysis is both simplistic and derivative, and more than a little lazy… relying on worn out, hackneyed tropes and suggesting “you've been talking to Jerry Perez again, haven't you - BTW, whose latest screenplay was totally deserving of the recognition it received in the Austin competition - but honestly grandpa, at least TRY to have an original thought once in awhile."

Ouch. 

She continued.  "No, gramps, let me tell you what the John Wick oeuvre is really about:  a rallying cry against an increasingly intrusive Techno-Military-Industrial complex whose libertarian hero represents a  brave, silent majority, a segment often considered 'outsiders' and ostracized by a knuckle-dragging patriarchy who categorize those they don't understand with stereotypical-if-uncomfortably accurate labels like "psychotic" and "disturbed" or "armed and dangerous."  Decent people who otherwise just want to be left alone with their emotional support dog..."

Excuse me?  You're 19 months old.   And frankly, I'm not sure I like your condescending attitude. 

OK, agree to disagree. That both of us should end up in a highly confused and fatigued state - naps were taken by both parties immediately thereafter - only proves one can still find common ground on even the most complex and volatile of subjects...  John Wick, Notre Dame football. 

Quote of the Week

"Wise men say 'Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza.'"

Michelangelo

Ninja Turtle 

                                                                   

Saturday took me a while to process. As in "what the hell WAS THAT?!"

Not good.  Like, biblically not good.  And yet, I think you file it under 'the 2022 roller coaster ride ain't over yet' and ask yourself, what were your realistic expectations for this year?

If it was BCS Playoff berth, I've got nothing for you and respectfully suggest you consider counseling.

If it was more like, "We're playing the long game here, with a high potential - but admittedly neophyte - new head coach and there's likely to be some 2-steps-forward-1-step-backward moments"... 

Then maybe Saturday's epic 2nd half no-show will ultimately register as another in a series of learning opportunities for coach Freeman that we wish we didn't have to be subjected to. 

But we are. 

I, for one, will be extremely interested in seeing what the off season brings.

Word of the Week

Used in a sentence paragraph:  Jerrence looked at his granddaughter and knew precisely what she was thinking. 

True, he felt compelled to tell her, this wasn't the team's finest performance.  If you'd only stayed up last week and saw how the Irish dominated Clemson...

Still, he understood the infant's incredulity.  The recrudescence  of Notre Dame's inept form in the 2nd half - hello, Marshall!  hello, Stanford! - had Jerrence similarly baffled.  Where was the team that put up 35 pts without a hint of ever having to punt?

How can this same O-line not be able to run AT ALL against this defense?  And how does this same defense get shredded by a 3rd string QB that runs an option-oriented offense?  

Honestly, the team's inexplicable disappeance drove one to drink.  And while his younger companion was pounding diluted cranberry juice pretty hard, Jerrence treated himself to something... more medicinal. 

Game 10:  Thoughts

Nothin' to do, nowhere to go home

I wanna be sedated...

Truth be told, there have been times in the past where I’ve thought “why not just re-post an old blog?” - there’s more than 230 of these now, I can’t even remember what I wrote last week.  Given that these posts have all of the intellectual nutrition of a Twinkie, I'm sure my loyal readership doesn’t retain the content either… plus, I was far more clever back in the day.  

So when the same sh*t on the field keeps happening, why not?

The Navy game - and our inability to put them away - represents one of Life’s great mysteries, (up there with 'why aren’t hot dogs sold in the same multiples as the buns', 'how the hell do you fold a fitted sheet' or 'how did Gallagher (RIP) ever make a viable career out of just destroying a watermelon?'

Some things are simply beyond the ken of this blogger's simple mind.  So with that, let's review the 'Occam's Razor' hypotheses - where the simplest answer is (probably) the correct one:

* Let down. After the Clemson win, totally understandable.  Just doesn’t quite explain a very good 1st half and then have the team pull a complete no show in the 2nd. 

* "It's f*cking Navy."  Their offense is weird, they've got a “no quit” attitude which, while laudable in the context of defending our country against enemies foreign AND domestic, is super annoying football-wise and their 'assignment sure' focus compensates for their lack of actual athleticism and skill while throwing into sharp relief ND's ability to be similarly disciplined.  

So why does no other team in the country seem to struggle with them like we do?

* “It’s the QB, stupid.” Look, it gives me no pleasure to dump on Pyne. And after the 1st half, he looked like a 1st ballot Buddy Award winner (spoiler: he's not). 

But it’s painful watching him process, at glacial speed, what the defense is doing, or going to do. Or subsequently, what his options will be. 

* Coordinators.  This game, particularly, deserves to point the finger at both guys.  I believe I read that Golden has never had a good track record against option teams - did Freeman not challenge his plan last week?  And Rees (who I actually like and wonder whether he often thinks, 'WHAT IF I HAD AN ACTUAL D-1 QB?')… he had to see immediately that Navy was going to sell out the entire 2nd half.  And yet, no seeming adjustments.  Hmmm.

Other thoughts

- Can we talk about DJ Brown? 4 PI’s or Holding in the last two games, half of which kept opponent TD drives alive.  Not good.

- Inexperienced LB’s.  My guess is that Golden’s options were fairly limited but playing freshman LB’s against an offense they’ve never seen - ever - where even experienced defenders struggle - in hindsight seems a tad questionable.

Giving new meaning to the concept of the 'reach around.'

- Braden Lenzy.  One might have noticed on his Catch of the Year, that he had the Navy DB smoked by a comfortable 5 yards. 

And Pyne couldn't get it there.   

The kid has taken a lot of grief for being a disappointment for much of his time at ND but has never complained.  

Would love to see him get his due as his career ends.  

But I wouldn't hold my breath.

Buddy's Buddy

If last week's award choice represented quite a challenge, what does that say about this week?

Do you give it to the QB who has a career game in one half but then completely falls apart (and not alone) in the 2nd?

One sure doesn't have to worry about putting forward a O-line nomination.

And how many weeks, Jerrence, are we going to overlook the special teams - who've gotten to the point where one is disappointed when they don't block a punt? 

Still, in a game where consistency by anyone wasn't a hallmark, The Committee wishes to respectfully call out the WR group:  much maligned (and probably deservedly so), they might be the one area that ND consistently dominated - even if the opportunities never came to fruition as often as they should've.

*  Who had Jayden Thomas as #1 WR on their scorecards?  Not me.

*  Let's talk (again) about Braden Lenzy.  If one went back and watched the season's tape that the coaching staff gets (i.e., not the TV telecasts), how often would we have found him open deep?  Quite a lot, one suspects.    

*  Even Lorenzo Styles caught a few passes. (I, for one, haven't given up on him but someone please take him to a sports psychologist - or a Haitian voodoo priest - ASAP.)

Will this group matter in the last 3 games?  I hope so.  They sure seem to be showing up at the right time.

As you walk on by

Will you call my name?

RE-PETE (A shameless, illegal lift of Pete Sampson's weekly mail-bag)

Time for another peak outside the echo chamber of the Notre Dame beat reporter.

Which is another way of saying that I don't think Pete Sampson is submitting a mailbag this week.

But The Athletic's Stewart Mandel is and, of course (because there always is), there's a Notre Dame question being posed.

And not an irrelevant one: how ya feeling about Freeman's first year?

Obviously, the Marshall and Stanford home losses are what most of America will remember about Notre Dame this season, but objectively, how should Irish fans feel if they win out (including another top-10 win over USC) to finish 9-3 in the first year of the Marcus Freeman era? — Lauren, Atlanta

I think you answered your own question. If you told a Notre Dame fan in the hours after the Marshall or Stanford losses that this team would wind up beating USC and perhaps even finish 10-3 with a win in a decent bowl (Gator, Cheez-It or Holiday), they’d have been overjoyed, right? It’s still a step back from where they were during Brian Kelly’s last five seasons, but it would be a Top 25 season with an extremely encouraging back half — and a potentially season-ruining win over your archrival.

Notre Dame is a good defensive team, but Caleb Williams, Jordan Addison, et al., are going to get theirs. You have to outscore USC to beat USC, and that’s not how Notre Dame is built. The Trojans’ defense is fairly awful — I expect them to give up 45-plus points to UCLA this week, win or lose. But you’ve got to have a quarterback who can take advantage. Utah’s Cam Rising and Cal’s Jack Plummer both threw for 400-plus yards on the Trojans; Arizona’s Jayden de Laura went for 380. Drew Pyne’s season-high to this point is 289 against UNC.

So the better question might be: How should Notre Dame fans view the season if the Irish go 9-4, without beating USC, but with impressive wins over ACC title game participants Clemson and North Carolina and against two teams, BYU and Syracuse, that were ranked at the time? It’d be disappointing, given the Irish started the season ranked in the top 10. But I’d say their improvement is still encouraging. Marcus Freeman wound up having more first-year head coach growing pains than anticipated, but the season did not deteriorate into a disaster as initially feared.

Source:  The Athletic

November 16, 2022

Cocktail of the Week

You'd think I'd be a big fan of William Faulkner - he's apparently the record holder for the longest grammatically correct sentence in literary history - something north of 1200 words. (Eat your heart out, James Joyce.)

And I even took a class at ND entirely devoted to the author.  I believe I came out of the semester even more confused than when I went in.   

In that respect, Faulkner is the perfect proxy for a book / cocktail for a Navy game recap:  I didn't understand what I witnessed there either.

Absolut, Absolut! 

Absalom, Absalom!  (1936)

By William Faulkner

Why tell a simple story if you can make it complicated? No worries - haters gonna hate (and Faulkner's gonna Faulkner).  A truly exasperating exploration of life in the author's beloved, fictional Yoknapatawpha County, MS - at least this story includes a 'map' of the area.  

If out-of-order flashbacks and a Civil War backstory don't sound like your idea of a good time, keep in mind that Faulkner won no less than the Nobel, in part for his efforts here.

This Southern sip is guaranteed to make you ramble incoherently. 

* 1/2 oz. Absolut vodka

* 1/2 oz. Absolute Citron

* 1/2 oz. Absolut Lime

* 1/2 oz. Absolut Vanilla

* 1/2 oz. Absolut Peach

* 5 oz. lemonade

* Club soda, to fill

* Lemon wheel and maraschino cherry, for garnish

Combine all the ingredients, except for the club soda and the garnishes, in a shaker with ice and shake for 5 seconds. Strain into a Collins glass over feesh ice and top with club soda.  Garnish with a lemon wheel and a cherry, and just try to form a complete sentence.

Source:  Are You There, God?  It's Me, Margarita.

More Cocktails with a Literary  Twist

by Tim Federle

2022 Schedule

September

 3                     @Ohio St.                 L

10                    Marshall                   L

15                    LINIPALOOZA XII

17                    Cal (Berkely)            W

24                   @UNC                     W

October

 1                     

 8                    @BYU (Las Vegas)     W

15                    Stanford                    L     

22                   UNLV                        W             

29                   @Syracuse                W

November

5                     Clemson                    W

12                  @Navy                        W              

19                  Boston College  

26                  @USC 

  

Wager

I believe the expression is, "They don't ask how, they ask how many."

For the still viable Wager players, it's 'survive and advance' time - even if we may not have the same assured swagger that we carried out of ND Stadium ~ 2 weeks ago.

On to BC, the last in a series of underwhelming home opponents that have proven to be ND's kryptonite this year.  (As if the Superman analogy even applies this year.)

Worse, the latest spread has ND giving 21 pts.  And we know how well ND performs as double digit favorites at home so far this year.

So perhaps we won't have a Wager winner...

It takes a leap of faith 

You gotta show some guts...

Wins	Quote	Domer
12	"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few..."	Brian M., John P., JP, Blayney
11	"Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts..."	Lini, Theo, Sloane, Dave M., Peter
10	"Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions..."	Bob J., Gutsch,  Jerry P., Bill, Bob S., Mike C., Pat B., Jim B., Tim S.,  Feif, Mike G., Phillip S., George, Mike B.,  Shea
9	"Never, never give in..."	Jerrence, Raz, Mark, Bryan, Matt, Jerry C., Daryl, Graham, John  Jim T., Alex, Randy, Pat C., Gerard W.
8	"History is written by the victors..."	Albert, Garrett R., Brian W.
7	"When you get a thing the way you want it, leave it alone..."
6	"The best argument against democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter..."
5	"If I were married to you, Mr. Churchill, I'd put poison in your coffee. If we were married, I'd drink it..."
4	"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire..."
3	"If you're going through hell, keep going..."

Schadenfreude of the Week

On almost any metric, last week was something of le grande dumpster fire, oui?

Nowhere was that more evident than in college football where no less than #6, #11, #12, #16, #17, #18, #21 and #24 lost.

Which would seem to explain how ND could look so dubious and still improve in the polls.  

But as the philosopher The Grinch once said, "One man's toxic sludge is another man's pot pourri..."  And that, my friends, is the true schadenfreude spirit.

1) Texas A&M and Oklahoma.   Let's call Notre Dame this week's winner of the Peyton Bowen Bowl, considering these two teams seem to be the options our 5-star safety commit is flirting with the most. 

Now with a combined record of 8-12, if the kid bails on ND, it isn't gonna be because of the quality of the play on the field. 

 

3)  Oregon / UCLA.  Take your pick. Or both. In any event, not a great weekend for the PAC 12.  Ever being the optimist, both these teams have USC as season making (or redeeming) games in the next three weeks.

4)  Kentucky.  I don't really have anything against you - this was just a convenient forum for congratulating Clark Lea on his first SEC victory.

5)  Mike Corrigan.  Someone bet their Philadephia brother on the Padres - Phillies series last month.  The wager?   I believe it was three martinis. 

Terry's Tools

If one judges by the interesting array of tools this week, one might think that this was Halloween week, such is the eclectic-bordering-on-the-bizarre nature of the representatives.

None of which are even remotely Dillon Hall caliber.

So I'd consider this a down week.

1) Pat Narduzzi.   Call this the equivalent of a recruiting Crystal Ball that I'm proactively placing on coach Narduzzi spontaneously combusting should 3/4 star QB Kenny Minchey commit to ND after having been a Pitt commit since August.  

A long time hater of ND for a variety of perceived reasons including a 'why won't they join the ACC' gripe, the potential to send him over the edge is strong.

Film at 11, as they say.

2) Elizabeth Holmes.  News flash:  This is sentencing week and Ms. Holmes doesn't think she should go to prison - but she's willing to accept, maybe, house arrest.  But it's gonna have to be a nice house, like, a really nice house.  

Naturally, with a chef, an acupuncturist, a personal trainer and her astrologist, Chardonnay.  

Basically, can you please just be nice to me, Mr. judge?

3)  Elon.  Given that Twitter is so commonly described as a dystopian hellscape, one supposes that giving Jesus the verified 'blue check' - and for a mere $8 / month - represents true value-added.   Well done, Mr. Musk.

Final Thought

Every November.  Final home game.   The Few, The Proud... 

We'll miss you this week, Tim. 

Week 9: Book of Revelations

Will it be like I hope?

Just a matter of time... 

Dateline:  Flint Lake, IN

What the hell am I gonna write about this week...

Truth be told, in the run up to this game - spent in Mexico playing golf with daughter Ryan and sucking down a lot of tequila... 

"Please try our property's signature cocktail, made with the region's finest agave."

It's 10am in the morning.  

But okay.  Sure. 

Our tee time isn't until 3pm.

...Jerrence was anticipating writing a somewhat darker-themed post. 

Even after a convincing win against the 16th ranked Syracuse the prior week, he had no confidence in anything other than the Stayer tailgate. ND had already proven this year that the notion of 'home field advantage' was an oxymoron along the lines of military intelligence,  jumbo shrimp, Italian war hero...

Why should this week be any different?

Quote of the Week

"This was an ass-kicking. Period."

Dabo Swinney 

                                                                    

Dabo has always been one of those coaches most people liked, until Clemson became dominant.  Then not so much. Tiresome.  Irritating.  

No one likes a consistent winner, Dabo.  Give the other children a chance.  

But to my recollection, he's consistently been one of the most post-game honest coaches in the country.  And Saturday night, he didn't disappoint.  Well done, coach.

Word of the Week

Used in a sentence paragraph:  Jerrence stared at the beer he'd been nursing for the better part of the entire 2nd half - he knew he still had to make the hour drive back to Valpo.

But he was cognizant that this was one of the few times this football season that he was actually happy that he wasn't heavily anesthetized.

Synapses firing, Jerrence watched ND act with a 'step on their opponent's neck' aggression throughout the 4th quarter.  My God, they actually threw on a 2nd and short to a wide open Mayer.  TD!

Who are these guys? 

A wave of emotions quickly came over him, both cathartic and revelatory, as he watched the crowd pour onto the field.  This was the team that Jerrence and his pals thought they were getting this year.  Finally.  

As despondent Clemson fans trickled into the Morris Inn bar, Jerrence felt something else, empathy.  How many times 'been there, done that?'  So filled with post-victory gemütlichkeit, he began to reach out to the garishly clad elderly couple next to him, only to glance at his phone and see a text:

                                 

                               

Game 9:  Thoughts

These are the days of miracle and wonder

This is the long distance call...

What a difference a week two weeks make... heretofore, what occrred to me watching the game from the comfortable confines of Rohr's:

1)  Brian Mason.   Is The Man!  The block was fabulous but even more impressive was how freaked out the Clemson punter was on almost every ensuing punt.

Punt block.  The gift that keeps on giving. 

2)  RB's.  The O-line is receiving, justifiably, a ton of accolades for the way they owned Clemson's vaunted defensive front.  But that doesn't quite give the RB's their due - Diggs and Estime are really good - and much of their downfield yardage was due to their ability.  

They may not be true 'take it to the house' home run hitters but they're damn good.

3)  Pyne. Really isn't good.  At the risk of beating this dead horse, it doesn't seem to be a coincidence that his completions come only when he has a very clear passing lane (e.g., sideline passes, short throws off bootlegs and the occasional lofted pass off play action). 

But he is what he is.  Nice kid.  Good teammate. And it would appear that Rees and the team have learned to adjust the offense to accommodate.  

Long may that last.  Just hope we never need an "80 yard, 2 minute, no time outs" drive to win... 'cause that ain't happening. 

4)  Recruiting.  Saturday was obviously part of a very big, and presumably very successful, recruiting weekend. 

One would like to think our wavering 5-star DB recruit from Texas witnessed Ben Morrison's performance and saw himself doing the same in a year.  

That said,  I wonder what the dialogue was with any of the WR's?  Tough to say that game was a showcase for them.

Brief Interlude.  If you only have 4 minutes, spend it on this... 

5)  Clemson fans.   As far as I'm concerned, they can come back anytime.  Nice before the game and nice afterwards.  That said, if my 'word of the week' is cathartic, their's would've been another 'c' word:

6) November Stayer tailgates.  Exceptional. Like I said two weeks ago, coming out strong. 

Thanks, as always, Stayer hosts Jay - Bob - Jerry - Tim - Jim - Peter and special guest collaborator, Mo (Sullivan) Borkowski!

Buddy's Buddy

This week, The Nomination Committee faced a bit of a quandary:  in games such as we witnessed Saturday night, does one reward The Big Play or Sustained Excellence?

Why not both?  (It's not like this award has any real rules - more like guidelines - associated to its criteria.)

If ever there was a game for a 2-fer, the Clemson game would be the one.

So... 

How do you not call out the O-line for pulling off the most unlikely of dominant performances against a collective 5-star front seven (hell, Clemson's back up's were 5-stars)?  And it wasn't like Pyne was giving them anything to otherwise be concerned about.  Brilliant. 

Bravi a tutti! 

And yet, 21 of the 35 points came directly as a result of either special teams (7 pts.) or the defense (14 pts.).  Which brings us to Benjamin Morrison. 

Clearly, Clemson's game plan was to throw at him early and often.  Pick on the freshman.  

Made sense.

And if he had done nothing else, his tackling, alone, would've separated him from ND's typical performance. 

But wait, there's more!  Those two INT's (perhaps you can show Lorenzo Styles how to catch?) that represented genuine game changing plays.  Huge. 

And bonus points, young Morrison, for the post-game interview.  You're more articulate at 18 than certianly this blogger, and virtually all of his readership, is now.

And... you put the load right on me.

Indeed both the O-line and Mr. Morrison did. 

RE-PETE (A shameless, illegal lift of Pete Sampson's weekly mail-bag)

This week's Sampson mailbag had more than a few provocative questions that would've been worthy of stealing sharing, including a "what the hell is going on with Lorenzo Styles" query (Answer: Pete, along with the rest of us, has no idea).

But one can only pick one of these each week and continuing with this week's new (and perhaps semi-delusional) "the future is so bright we all gonna need sunglasses" attitude, I give you this: 

Imagine a world where Notre Dame wins out to finish the regular season at 9-3. How would we evaluate this season compared to a 9-3 where the losses were to Ohio State, Clemson and USC? If anything, the current timeline seems more encouraging to me. Curious to hear your thoughts.

Michael M.

Completely agree. This was a would-you-rather thought experiment I ran over the summer, but it was for a 10-2 season. Basically, would you rather beat two from the Ohio State/Clemson/USC group but lose a shocker? Or would you rather win every game Notre Dame should win but lose two of the games from the Ohio State / Clemson/USC group? The sentiment was with the first option, although in that moment the “shock loss” was more like North Carolina or BYU.

In some ways, the losses to Marshall and Stanford make this feeling of potential progress more acute. You’re traveling further in terms of perception from where the Irish were walking off the field against Marshall to where they might be walking off the field against USC. Sure, some of the upgrade is probably recency bias. It’s good to feel good right now. But beating Clemson and USC would provide a signal that Marcus Freeman may do what Jack Swarbrick gambled he could do when he hired him: push the ceiling of Notre Dame football higher.

There was a question from Nadeem A. about whether one win can be proof of concept, and it’s a fair pumping of the brakes. But the entire Freeman experiment is about reimagining what Notre Dame football can be. And Freeman sort of already has made progress to that end.

Obviously, Freeman can’t keep losing to Sun Belt teams or woeful Pac-12 opponents. But the idea Notre Dame can blow out a top-10 team? That’s new territory. Closing the regular season with six consecutive wins should shore up the 2023 recruiting class and give the Irish some new momentum next cycle. It may even change how Freeman views what his next staff looks like.

Source:  The Athletic

November 11, 2022

Cocktail of the Week

Given that it took until early this past week to fully purge all of the tequila / mezcal out of my system, this week's book / cocktail seemed like the only route to go. 

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margarita

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret  (1970)

By Judy Blume

Move over, wizards.  Make room, vampires.  For many of us, Margaret was the original YA superstar, even if her epic battles were of the religion-and puberty kind.  

(Actually, especially because of that.)

The point is, Margaret showed us all how to face all of life's big 'ol quandaries, from God to boys to bra size.  $100 says when Maggie got to college, she faced an even headier question:  how the hell do you make a margarita without a blender?  (Hint:  on the rocks, kid.)  

Don't worry, Madges of the world, we've got your back.  We'll even hold your hair when you've had one too many.

* Coarse salt, for cocktail rim

* 1 1/2 oz. tequila

* 1 oz. lime juice

* 1/2 oz. triple sec

* 1 lime wedge, for garnish

Rim a Solo cup in coarse salt and set aside.  Dump all your feelings - er, ingredients - into a shaker with ice.  Shake well and strain over fresh ice into the salted Solo cup. Or, if you're feeling classy, strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lime wedge.

This is in Judy Blume's honor, after all.  

Source:  Tequila Mockingbird

Cocktails with a Literary  Twist

by Tim Federle

2022 Schedule

September

 3                     @Ohio St.                 L

10                    Marshall                   L

15                    LINIPALOOZA XII

17                    Cal (Berkely)            W

24                   @UNC                     W

October

 1                     

 8                    @BYU (Las Vegas)     W

15                    Stanford                    L     

22                   UNLV                        W             

29                   @Syracuse                W

November

5                     Clemson                    W

12                  @Navy                     

19                  Boston College  

26                  @USC 

  

Wager

So we're all aligned here, right?  

• 10-3
• New Year's Day bowl victory
• Top 10 ranking
• Top 5 recruiting class

Too soon?  Probably.  Let's try and get by Navy (and with a minimal-to-no injuries). 

Well, at least it looks like The Wager this year may have a winner.  

And wouldn't be great if it all came down to the USC game to determine 9-3 or 8-4?

Oooohhhh, I'm still alive...

Wins	Quote	Domer
12	"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few..."	Brian M., John P., JP, Blayney
11	"Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts..."	Lini, Theo, Sloane, Dave M., Peter
10	"Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions..."	Bob J., Gutsch,  Jerry P., Bill, Bob S., Mike C., Pat B., Jim B., Tim S.,  Feif, Mike G., Phillip S., George, Mike B.,  Shea
9	"Never, never give in..."	Jerrence, Raz, Mark, Bryan, Matt, Jerry C., Daryl, Graham, John  Jim T., Alex, Randy, Pat C., Gerard W.
8	"History is written by the victors..."	Albert, Garrett R., Brian W.
7	"When you get a thing the way you want it, leave it alone..."
6	"The best argument against democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter..."
5	"If I were married to you, Mr. Churchill, I'd put poison in your coffee. If we were married, I'd drink it..."
4	"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire..."
3	"If you're going through hell, keep going..."

Schadenfreude of the Week

Special SEC Edition!

If I wasn't already so content with my music selections, I'd be throwing in here The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."

          And all the people were singing

         They went 'na na la, na na la...'

1) Texas A&M.   You know how crowds like to chant "MVP!  MVP!" for their star player when they do something outstanding and want the world to known their partisanship? 

I live for the day when A&M is getting pasted - again - and the opposing crowd breaks into "ROI!  ROI!"  

2)  Bama.  Heavy is the head that wears the crown.  Truth be told, the Tide's lost two games by a total of 4 points so enjoy this while it lasts. 

 

3)  Tennessee.  Apparently not entirely Ready For Prime Time. 

Terry's Tools

Who remembers Marvin Barnes? The Providence College basketball star of the early 1970's...

Nicknamed (appropriately) "Bad News", Marvin was never confused with any Mensa candidates and for reasons that escape me, I was reminded of a Marvin anecdote - potentially apocryphal but totally on Brand:

Simply put, the story goes that in those days, pre-NIL, Marvin was hurting for money and decided he was going to address it by robbing a local 7-11.  So he throws on a ski mask and off he goes.  Unfortunately, he also throws on his basketball letter jacket with Marvin nicely stitched on the front breast.  So when a 6'8" black man in a ski mask, comes in and demands all your money - and it's a reasonably small college town... well, you know how it's going to end.

 

1) ACC Refs.   I am loathe to be that conspiracy theory guy but when you see normally composed Marcus Freeman lose his sh*t... for the 2nd consecutive week... it just seemed awfully suspicious that once ND got up big, 28-0, the flags started coming out against the Irish. 

And after last week where, apparently, offensive holding on Syracuse wasn't ever a permissible call.

Can't say this is a new phenomenon but still, very disappointing.

2) Dan Snyder.  Never considered to be one of the NFL's most popular owners - quite the opposite, it would seem he's lowered that bar even further.  

Already under fire for a toxic work environment involving systemic sexual harassment, this week Snyder's legal counsel decides to drag one of his players - who had gotten shot! - into the argument and put the blame on the D.C. Attorney General, suggesting the action against the Commanders was politically motivated.  

In which case, the aforementioned player's attorney screamed, "Keep us the F*CK out of your battle with the government, Snyder!"  

Oh Dan, no one will ever accuse you of being subtle. 

3)  KFC.  Giving new (or perhaps old) meaning to the definition of target audience. 

And who celebrates Kristallnacht to begin with?  (That's a rhetorical question - I do NOT really want to know.)

Final Thought

Because I have nothing to say about Navy week (other than 'watch your knees, D-linemen') and I've always loved Monty Python's brand of silly absurdity...