Notre Dame AD Stands Behind Weis

ESPN is reporting that Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick has verbally confirmed that he is not currently evaluating Fighting Irish football coach Charlie Weis, who has been under criticism for his miserable campaign last season, and a record this season that many feel should be better at this point. As you probably know, the Irish were shut out by Boston College last weekend.

Whenever there’s bad news, the rumors start to fly about Weis’ future with the team, but according the new AD, his job should be secure. Swarbrick added his thoughts on the future of Notre Dame football:

  • “We have the facilities and we can bring the highest level of student-athlete to Notre Dame. With reduced scholarships and other factors, I don’t think anybody can repeat the success Notre Dame and Oklahoma did years ago. But I also see no reason we can’t win a national championship.”
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Permalink - Posted in General on November 12, 2008 - Post a comment

Boston College Wins Holy War

Boston College defeated Notre Dame this past Saturday at Alumni Stadium on the BC campus. The 17-0 beating was the sixth straight that the Irish have suffered at the hands of the Eagles. Notre Dames is now 5-4, while Boston College has improved to 6-3.

For Notre Dame, the shutout loss was especially bad because they are still one win short of the six needed to compete for a bowl game bid at the end of the season. Although it’s likely that they will indeed enter a bowl this year, it still makes fans a little anxious when the Irish wait this long to meet the requirements.

Jimmy Clausen had a bad day at the hands of the BC defense. He threw four interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown. He also failed to lead a scoring drive. However, the running game didn’t fare any better, as the Irish totaled only 66 rushing yards on the night. While this is a pretty disappointing finish, the Irish can take solace in knowing that they play Navy and Syracuse, two highly winnable games, in the next two weekends.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 10, 2008 - Post a comment

Quinn Mighty in Browns Debut; Irish-Boston College Pregame

Notre Dame football fans surely don’t forget Brady Quinn, the first rounder quarterback who led the Irish to a couple of successful seasons a few years back. Last year, his rookie season, he sat on the bench behind Derek Anderson, the starting quarterback in Cleveland, as Anderson was one of the best play callers in the league. However, this season has not been the same for Derek, so the Browns tested Brady Quinn last night. He was awesome. He threw for 239 yards on 23-35 passes, with two TD throws and no interceptions. Even though the Browns lost, and Quinn was overshadowed by the amazing comeback performance of Jay Cutler, it’s still a wonderful way to kick off your NFL career. Congrats to Quinn from the Notre Dame Blog.

In other news, the Fighting Irish football team is set to play the Boston College Eagles this weekend, and there’s another brilliant pregame article about the matchup to be found at UND.com, the official athletic site for Notre Dame Sports. Like usual, the guys at UND.com have all the stats and historical significance of the game down pat. Check it out, and then check out the Domers this Saturday.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 7, 2008 - Post a comment

The Holy War!

Notre Dame vs. Boston College. Some call it the Holy War. Others call it the Jesuit Invitational, others still the Celtic Bowl. But no matter what you call it, you have to recognize that the BC-ND game is one of the most highly anticipated football games in the season for many college sports fans because it pits the only two Catholic universities who field Division I, BCS football teams against each other. They’ve been playing one another since the mid 1970s, but nowadays the series is only semi annual. Here at Wikipedia you can see the year-by-year breakdown of results. Boston College has won the last five straight games, including last year, when BC beat the Irish 27-14 in South Bend.

This time around the Irish will travel to Boston for the Holy War. BC is coming off two straight losses entering the game, having been creamed by North Carolina two weeks ago, and narrowly losing to Clemson last weekend. BC is unranked in the AP or other polls, but most of the sports media outlets who rank teams past 25 put Boston College within the top 50. Notre Dame will have their work cut out for them, and most everyone expects that this will be a great game.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 6, 2008 - Post a comment

How Does the Election Affect Notre Dame Football?

As you Notre Dame Blog fans might have already heard, there was a pretty big election yesterday. Perhaps you heard about it. Hopefully you participated, but even if you only care about college football, there’s still some way you can link the election to the Fighting Irish. How do they connect? In an interview on Monday Night Football on the eve of the election, sportscaster Chris Berman asked both John McCain and Barack Obama what they would do, if they could do one thing, to improve sports in this country. McCain said he’s crack down on steroid use. Obama said he’d get a college football playoff system going. Said Obama:

“I think it is about time that we had playoffs in college football. I’m fed up with these computer rankings and this and that and the other. Get eight teams — the top eight teams right at the end. You got a playoff. Decide on a national champion.”

What does this have to do with Notre Dame? Well, suppose that Obama somehow uses his presidential powers to input a playoff system in college football, teams with more clout like Notre Dame might suffer because they are less likely to play postseason games, given that teams like Notre Dame have, historically, benefited greatly from being nearly guaranteed a birth in a postseason bowl game, based on their fan support and popularity. But is there a way to include the good elements of the college football bowl game system, while giving fans a clear national champion through a playoff format? Perhaps President-elect Barack Obama can lead a bi-partisan effort to compromise on this important Notre Dame issue.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 5, 2008 - Post a comment

As Team Tries to Forget Pitt, BC Looms

Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis is trying to get his players to forget all about Pittsburgh and Notre Dame’s four-overtime loss at home. Thinking about it can become a bit deflating at times. Pittsburgh remains in the AP Top 25 (at No. 25), but a Notre Dame win could have meant that they got into the prestigious numbers club. The Irish are 0-3 this year against ranked teams, Michigan State, North Carolina and Pittsburgh. According to the Sports Xchange, Charlie Weis had this to say about keeping his team focused on the future:

“Right now you’re not worrying about closing out the game. You’re worrying about the psyche of the team. You got to bounce right back. Get treatment (Sunday), and Monday morning come in and watch the tape, move on to Boston College. I think more than closing the game, I’m just worried about getting their psyche right for this week.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 4, 2008 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Falls to Pitt in Fourth Overtime

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost to Pittsburgh 33-36 this past Saturday in quadruple overtime. The Irish didn’t play badly, and lost to a very good team, but the game will still appearing the L column, and the Irish drop to an overall record of 5-3, and miss out on an opportunity to secure bowl game eligibility with a sixth win this year.

Notre Dame actually was winning the game by halftime, up by two touchdowns. However, they struggled to get any offense going in the second half, especially the third quarter, in which they only gained a total of seven yards. When the game went to overtime, the two teams traded field goals, but the Notre Dame kicker, Brandon Walker, missed on his last attempt of the night, leaving the door open for the usually dead-on Pitt kicker, Connor Lee, to win the game in the fourth overtime. A bummer of a loss, but at least it wasn’t a bad one, and the Irish proved they could play with a good team, if nothing else.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 3, 2008 - Post a comment


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