Jones to Cincinnati

Demetrius Jones has made his intention to transfer to Cincinnati clear. He announced to the Bearcats coach, Brian Kelly, that he intends to enroll at the University of Cincinnati. He will have to pay his own way there, as Cincinnati has no scholarships to offer for the fall semester. It would be assumed that he could get a scholarship for the spring semester and the remainder of his time spent at Cincinnati. Jones was a Parade All-American his senior year of high school, and even started the first game of the year for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Said coach Kelly of Jones, “He’s athletic. He can run it and he can throw it. In this day and age, we see that position requires more than a guy who can just drop back [and throw]. He has to be able to do things with his feet.”

But Jones is already old news. Now is the time to focus on the future, and the future is Perdue. It looks like a tough match up all around, and nothing will come easy for the Golden Domers. Perdue will be the overwhelming favorites in this battle, but we just know that the Irish have a really good game in them set to come out really soon.

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Permalink - Posted in General on September 28, 2007 - Post a comment

Perdue’s Scary Offense

One of the most frightening things about the upcoming game for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is the Perdue Boilermakers’ potent offense. So far this season they have managed to score 45 points or more in every game. Although they have been getting it done both on the ground and through the air, the biggest source of worry for the Irish might be the Boilermakers’ running game. As you might already know, Notre Dame ranks last in the nation in rush defense. As with the previous four games, the run has always been established against Notre Dame before the opposing team sets up effective play-action passes. Hopefully, the Irish can contain Perdue’s Kory Sheets and Jaycen Taylor. They cannot be allowed to be as elusive as the reasoning behind their oddly spelled first names. I sure hope we don’t have to hear much from Cory and Jason.

Versus the Minnesota Golden Gophers, probably the hardest team that Perdue has played so far, Kory Sheets went for 111 yards rushing on 21 attempts, while catching seven passes for 60 yards. He has been their most consistent weapon, so stopping Sheets will probably be the number one objective for Notre Dame this weekend.

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Permalink - Posted in General on September 27, 2007 - Post a comment

Take a Look at Perdue

Just like Charlie Weis, Jimmy Clausen and the rest of the Notre Dame football program, we will be taking a look at our upcoming opponent, the Perdue Boilermakers. You will at first notice that there is a big difference between the Boilermakers and the Fighting Irish in terms of their records coming into Saturday’s game. The Irish are 0-4 and Perdue is 4-0. Though they are not currently ranked in the AP Top 25, they have been getting a lot of votes, and they are, in fact, the No. 25 team in the Coaches Poll. Right now they are one of only three Big Ten teams with a perfect record, the other two being Ohio State and Wisconsin. You might think that Perdue should be a natural pick for a Top 25 team, but they have had a pretty easy schedule so far. They have beaten Toledo, Eastern Illinois, Central Michigan and Minnesota. Minnesota is having a bad year, and you probably didn’t even know that those other schools have football teams. Even if Perdue beats Notre Dame, their opponents’ combined record would be 4-15.

Basically, Perdue has a perfect record, but it’s misleading. If Notre Dame had been as cowardly with their schedule as Perdue, Notre Dame fans might be eating gravy straight from the ladle. Call me crazy, but I have a good feeling about this next game.

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Permalink - Posted in General on September 26, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Getting Some Respect

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are finally getting a little respect after four weeks of football. In ESPN’s The Bottom Ten, Notre Dame has moved up (or rather, down) a few spots to the No. 3 slot. They had spent a few weeks at the No. 1 slot, but earned a little jump in the poll due to the fact that they have shown improvement. They scored two offensive touchdowns this past game versus the Michigan State Spartans, and even had a close game going at halftime.

The magic word on everybody’s lips seems to be “improvement.” Don’t mistake yourselves; the Irish’s fans are plenty disappointed with an 0-4 start and the dismal statistics that Notre Dame has put together. However, there were definitely things in this past game that you could point to that showed that things were changing around for the better. Even if the ship has not turned to the right course, the steering wheel is turning, and that’s the first step. We can’t expect miracles, even though Touchdown Jesus overlooks our home games. We have to be realistic and take things one game, one drive, one play at a time. The Irish will get back to their glory days, we have to be patient, though.

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Permalink - Posted in General on September 25, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Loses to Michigan State

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost their Saturday game with the Michigan State Spartans by a score of 31-14. They were man-handled like all of their games this season, but there were marked differences as well. The Irish showed signs of life, and even scored two offensive touchdowns. Prior to Saturday, the Irish had not had an offensive touchdown all year, and were in last place in the NCAA in many aspects of the game, including rushing yards.

The Irish even found themselves leading the game after they converted a fumble on the five yard line into their first touchdown. However, the game was soon taken over by a superior Michigan State team, and the Irish continued to struggle against both the run and the pass. Perhaps the most positive thing to come out of the game was an 80-yard touchdown drive in the closing minutes of the second quarter, which put the score at Michigan State 17, Notre Dame 14 at halftime. A loss is always disappointing, but at least this time the Irish were competitive, and there were some definite areas where improvement was evident.

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Permalink - Posted in General on September 24, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame will Release Jones Afterall

Yet another blog must be made about the Demetrious Jones drama, to which this blogger has decided to award a title. I have a couple of ideas floating around in my head, one of which is to call it Jonesin’ for a Switch, or in the ever-popular tradition of using the suffix “gate,” Demetriousgate… Anyways, the news is that the University of Notre Dame has decided to allow Jones to transfer to another school, despite the fact that they said only yesterday that they would not. Somebody call Sean Hannity; we have ourselves a flip-flopper!

The only problem is that they will not let him go to his obvious choice, Northern Illinois, as the Irish are set to play them next year. I am certain of one thing. This will be complicated.
But more importantly the Irish are set to play Michigan State tomorrow! This is a big opportunity for the Irish to turn the season around. Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope that this time EVERY player touches the “Play Like A Champion” sign this time. If everybody can do that, I think we got this one. Because I have picked the Irish to win all of their last three games, I will refuse to give a prediction this week for good luck… of the Irish.

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Permalink - Posted in General on September 21, 2007 - Post a comment

More Jones Drama

Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis made it to the front page of the college football section at ESPN.com today, talking about the mood on campus. Apparently South Bend is “somber” because of the three Notre Dame losses. All of the losses have been bad, with not much in the way of progress getting made or flashes of potential on any front. Weis explains to his players that they are the only ones who believe in the team, that everybody else has written them off. Could their backs finally be pressed far enough against the wall?

In other news, the drama with Demetrious Jones continues. Apparently Notre Dame is not going to release him from his scholarship to the school. Jones has enrolled at Northern Illinois, but will have to pay for the school year, and won’t be eligible for a scholarship as per NCAA regulations. Notre Dame University is probably not doing so in an attempt to force Jones to stay, or to punish him for an insulting departure from the team. Either way, this situation is nothing but drama. Hopefully this does not get any bigger than it already is.

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Permalink - Posted in General on September 20, 2007 - Post a comment

D. Jones Leaves South Bend

With the whole sports world coming down hard on the Irish from all angles, their fans in dismay and everybody pointing fingers or trying to remain calm, a story got lost in the fray. A few weeks ago this would have been a lot bigger news, but now that Jimmy Clausen has partially made a place for himself as the starting quarterback, it might matter slightly less. The news is that Demetrius Jones has decided to transfer to Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. This first came to light Friday night, after Jones failed to show up for the bus trip to the Michigan game.

A statement by Jones over the weekend make it clear that he was upset about Coach Charlie Weis’ handling of the starting quarterback situation. He is hoping that he will earn a starting job with the Salukis next year. As per NCAA rules, he cannot play the year that he transfers schools. The Irish are now down to just two QBs, Clausen and Evan Sharpley, as Jones and Evan Frazer have left for other programs in order to become starting QBs at lesser known schools. What makes the situation more interesting is the fact that Charlie Weis has stated that all positions are up for grabs after the loss to Michigan. Are Jones and Frazer regretting not having another shot at the job?

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Permalink - Posted in General on September 19, 2007 - Post a comment

Blame Ty

If you’re like me then you wait every week for the Pat Forde article to come out. This week he talks about he Notre Dame Fighting Irish right off the bat, addressing the latest trend in the home of the Dome, blaming Ty Willingham for the horrible season. Actually, I haven’t seen much in the way of actual sports writers passing the blame onto the former coach, but there has been a lot of arguments against that assessment among the actual commentators at the sports news websites. Blaming Ty for all of this mess is usually something that you will hear in a post by somebody names MrsQuinn2008.

The theory goes that Willingham knew he was going to get let go from the Notre Dame job after his contract was up so he did a half-hearted effort in recruiting. Without doing a lot of research, the claim sounds pretty fishy at first. It reminds me of one of my favorite Bush apologists’ assertions: that 9/11 was Bill Clinton’s fault. Never mind the fact that it actually happened on Bush’s watch. I can see the ABC docudrama now. They’ll call it “The Path to 1-11.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on September 18, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Loses to Michigan

Another loss for Notre Dame came this past Saturday, this time at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines. The Fighting Irish are now 0-3 for the year and not looking good at all. I really wish I could paint a rosier picture, but nothing is going right for the Golden Domers. People knew that this season was going to be a struggle, but many fans of Notre Dame football are wondering when the Irish will start struggling- until now there hasn’t even been any fight in these Irish.

All that being said, Charlie Weis has started to get drastic. He has instituted a new back-to-the-drawing-board policy on his team, saying that all positions are up for grabs, that things will be like they were at the beginning of training camp. Will this new approach work? I suppose that will be found out rather quickly, as the Irish are set to take on the Michigan State Spartans next Saturday. The positive spin on things could just be that many people feel the Irish are at rock bottom. They might be feeling scared and desperate, both motivating mind sets that could potentially rescue a season. We as fans should follow suit. Forget about Michigan. Forget about no offensive touchdowns so far. Pop in your Rudy VHS and maybe some highlight films this week. I have a feeling that this cornered beast will come up with something crazy next week versus the Spartans, and I would want to be there to see the Irish finally break out of their funk, berserker-style.

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Permalink - Posted in General on September 17, 2007 - Post a comment


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