Michigan Game Is Tomorrow! Get Pumped!

Alright Irish fans, there’s just one more day until the Notre Dame football team gets it on versus one of their main, if not their most hated rivals, the Michigan Wolverines. There’s lots to ponder. Here are a few links to check out if you’re in the mood to get pumped.

If you want the game preview, you can go here, to Rivals.com, which has all of the major football games previewed. You’ll see that the game ought to be a good one, with both teams coming out strong in their opening games.

The Michigan football team needed to make a few adjustments to their offense. One of their top running backs ought to be back for the game, but one of their best receivers will likely sit it out.

Finally, if you’re interested in being more abstract and want to look at the game from a wider perspective, we suggest you check out this Stewart Mandel article about why college football fans still persist with the hatred of the Fighting Irish. This column is actually a good motivator if you think about it. Well, get some rest tonight Irish fans and have a great time watching the game tomorrow!

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on September 11, 2009 - Post a comment

Jeff Samardzija Glad He Chose Baseball; Michigan News

 Jeff Samardzija, who you probably remember was one of the best wide receivers in Notre Dame history and one of the best elements of the Brady Quinn offense just a few year back, is now playing in Major League Baseball with the Chicago Cubs. This year he was moved up from a reliever to at starter, and although the transition has been rough, he reports that he’s glad he chose to go with baseball, rather than enter the NFL Draft after his college days were over, as he had the option of both. Things seem to have worked out for Jeff- he’s making $10 million a year and not getting lit up over the middle by 300-pound linebackers.

In other news, football fans might want to take a look at Michigan in preparation for the game next weekend. The Wolverines had no problem with Western Michigan in their opening game of the 2009 season, beating the Broncos 31-7. One good thing for Notre Dame fans is the fact that Michigan gave up some big passing yardage, including a late-game 73-yard TD pass. Will Jimmy Clausen have another field day in the pocket? Knock on wood!

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on September 10, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Moves to No. 18 in AP; Aldridge Out, Hughes In

 The Notre Dame Fighting Irish moved into the No. 18 spot of the latest AP Top 25 Poll this week. The week one rankings can be found here, at SportsIllustrated.com. Previously the Irish were ranked No. 23 in the country, and they seemed to impress the voters this week. Nice job, Irish!

In other Irish news, the Notre Dame backfield is getting a bit of a shakeup. James Aldridge, the starting fullback this season, is having a nagging shoulder problem and won’t be starting this weekend against Michigan. Instead, Robert Hughes will be the lead fullback. The Irish have had a few injuries and shakeups in the backfield, but they still have a number of key contributors in the mix, and they ought to rely on their running backs and full backs a little more versus the Wolverines than they did against the Nevada Wolfpack last week.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on September 9, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Comes Out on Fire! 35-0 Win Over Nevada in Home Opener

 Notre Dame appears to have kept the momentum going from last season’s big-time bowl game victory. The Fighting Irish came out swinging and landed a huge victory in the opening game of the season, a 35-0 shutout, blowout rout of the Nevada Wolfpack.

Jimmy Clausen was the star of the show and one of the best players in the opening weekend of college football. He went 15-18 to gain a total of 314 yards, with four touchdown passes and no interceptions. Clausen hooked up with Michael Floyd for some huge gains, including a 70-yard touchdown pass that will go down as the third longest tin Notre Dame history.

The defense was also much improved from last year. The Domers will enter their second game of the season against Michigan on the road, with a total of 0 points against them. The Irish gave up only 307 total yards, and didn’t give up hardly any huge, game changing plays. Overall, this is a very auspicious start for Notre Dame. ND fans ought to be pumped!

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on September 8, 2009 - Post a comment

The Billboard… Plus, Big Game Tomorrow!

If you’ve been reading up on the Irish blogs lately you’ve no doubt heard about The Billboard. You know, The Billboard, the billboard that read “Best wishes to Charlie Weis in the fifth year of his college coaching internship - The Linebacker,” and was posted in a prominent position in South Bend. Well, it was taken down the other day, and replaced with a Marine Corps advertisement. The guy who bought the billboard, Tom Reynolds, is upset that they took down the sign. Reynolds is a former Notre Dame reserve linebacker who now lives in Wyoming, but has season tickets to the games this year.  

Why would an obvious fan of the team go ahead and make such an insulting sign? Why would he pay for season tickets and then turn around and insult the coach like that?  It doesn’t seem to make much sense. But then again, Irish fans have more important things to ponder. The first game of the season is tomorrow! Get your tailgating gear set, make sure the grill has enough propane and the fridge is stocked with some cool beverages! This could be the beginning of a beautiful season! Go Notre Dame! We’ll see you back here on Monday.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on September 4, 2009 - Post a comment

The South Bend Blarney’s Predictions

The South Bend Blarney blog has ten Fighting Irish predictions for the upcoming football season. Here’s the link. Usually here at the Notre Dame Blog we come across lots of predictions for the next season that are weak, predictable, filled with caveats and as obvious as the sunrise. So we appreciate a good, solid, bold prediction, one with a chance of falling flat on its face. SBB’s firs prediction is that Jimmy Clausen will break Brady Quinn’s passing records this season. Whoa. That’s going to be hard to accomplish. He’s talking 38 touchdowns, and about 4,000 yards. That would be a huge improvement for Clausen. Last season he racked up 3,172 yards and 25 touchdowns.  

SBB’s blog has big predictions for the Irish individually- he says Armando Allen will break 1,000 yards and Michael Floyd will get 12 TD catches. But he also thinks the Irish will finish 9-3, which is a pretty conservative position. He says the Irish will lose to Michigan State, USC and Stanford. Let’s hope that the Irish go undefeated to prove all the predictions and the nay-sayers wrong!

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on September 3, 2009 - Post a comment

Speaking of Nevada…

Notre Dame’s defensive players have been thinking about Nevada for a long, long time.  The coaching personnel has probably drilled every bit of information about the Nevada offense into their heads. The Irish know what to look out for and what to expect. So should you, the Notre Dame fan and blog reader. Here are a few of the key points.

Colin Kaepernick. Get to know that name. He was last year’s WAC Offensive Player of the Year. He had a QB rating of 132.10, threw for 2,849 yards on 208 completions of 232 attempts (54.3%) and threw 22 touchdowns, while only giving up seven interceptions. So while the completion percentage is low, he doesn’t give  up too many picks. The guy is a good runner, too, so the linebackers will have to be careful not to commit to the run too bad, because this Colin guy is 6-6, 215 and can move.

Via Taua should get most of the carries from the backfield. He’s 5-10, 220, and was, according to the ESPN profile on him, recently arrested on an outstanding warrant for not providing proof of registration. Last season he averaged 6.4 yards per carry for 1,521 yards total, scored 15 touchdowns and caught 30 passes, so he’s going to be an integral part of the show.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on September 2, 2009 - Post a comment

Nevada Game Preview at ESPN

The football season starts in less than a week, people! Get pumped! Nevada is the first game on the schedule, a home game set for Saturday the 5th. We hope you have tickets, but if not, there are still seats available at StubHub (even starting as low as $78… but we digress). You should check out the game preview at ESPN if you’re planning on attending the game, or even if you’re planning on just watching it from home.

The ESPN preview goes over some of the basic elements of the game that you probably know about already, especially those concerning the Fighting Irish. It goes into the usual diatribe about how Coach Weis is on the hot seat, about how the team has been down in recent years, but has a chance to do good things this season. The most interesting part, from our perspective, is the end, when they finally talk about Nevada. Notre Dame will have its hands full with their QB, Colin Kaepernick, who won last season’s WAC offensive player of the year award. There’s also Vai Taua and Luke Lippincott, who are dangerous weapons in the Nevada arsenal.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on September 1, 2009 - Post a comment

Check Out IrishBuzzTap at Twitter.com!

Notre Dame sports fans are always interested in getting the latest and greatest from the world of Notre Dame, so they should be plenty happy about IrishBuzzTap, the Twitter page for all the buzz about Notre Dame.

As far as Twitter pages go, this is just one of many based around Notre Dame sports. This one is updated very, very often, so if you like to get a lot of links and a lot of information sent your way, try to get in on IrishBuzzTap. Or, if you just want to stop in from time to time to get a huge buzz off the Irish, that might work as well. One of the things they link to the most is South Bend Blarney, a site about having a good time and watching the Irish with a cool brew in your hand. Isn’t that a great idea for a blog. We love the logo. Keep up the good work, South Bend Blarney!

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on August 31, 2009 - Post a comment

USC Will Start Freshman Matt Barkley- Irish Licking Their Chops

On the Notre Dame schedule there’s one big, big big-time challenge awaiting, the October 17th matchups with the University of Southern California. The Irish are pumped that the game will be at home, and they have a good looking ranking (No. 23) and a bunch of returning starters coming back to help get one over on the Trojans, who are ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP Poll. But one more thing just helped to give the Irish a little more confidence in the upcoming game- the fact that when they play USC, they will go up against a freshman quarterback.

Matt Barkley was named the starting quarterback of the USC Trojans football team this past week, and opponents of the Trojans from the West coast to the Midwest are licking their chops. While the QB position at USC has been strength for the Trojans for a while now (with Matt Leinart and Mark Sanchez starting for the past few years), this year is that much more of a wild card. Will the Irish focus on disrupting the passing game when they face the Trojans in October?  Get tickets to find out!

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on August 28, 2009 - Post a comment


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