DJ TO DEEJAY IRISH OFFENSE?

My editor phoned me in a blather this morning. He always does, but this was an even frothier blather than usual. As you may already know, the Chicago Tribune has a story this morning with the headline "Blogs report Jones as QB starter."

According to the story, AOL Sports and (though not mentioned by name) the Irish fan site "Rakes of Mallow" have found are saying that Demetrius Jones will start at QB on Saturday (ending our long national nightmare of mystery). The reasoning? "Rakes of Mallow" blogger CW writes that he checked out Jones' Facebook wall and he then posts comments of encouragement that D.J. received, such as:

"glad u got the startin nod how many td's u gonna throw?'

and

"I hear your gonna be the starter. good luck, ill be in the stands"

And my reactions to these comments?

1. Maybe I still could get in to Notre Dame today, if the above grammar is any indication (then again, I'm part of the pre-texting generation)

2. It could very well be true. But then, Jones has been the favorite among the media covering the Irish for most of the past week. He's been the smart pick for nearly a week now.

3. For what it's worth, when the Irish held a practice open to the students earlier this week, it was Jimmy Clausen who took most of the snaps.

4. Who cares? Robot Genius is going to be relying on Travis Thomas/James Aldridge/Armando Allen to be his offensive juggernaut this Saturday.

5. It's August. The first week of school. And you've got a campus full of smart-alecks. In my senior year, during this week, we got our jollies by phoning the hottest (relative term, I know) female R.A.s we knew after midnight and pretending that we were freshmen who were still in her dorm after parietals (for the uninitiated, ND has single-sex dorms and you cannot be in a female dorm after midnight on weeknights, 2 a.m. on weekends; if you get caught, you're out for at least a semester. It lent a fun air of danger to undergrad life). So, maybe if we'd had exams upcoming or if the weather was inclement, we wouldn't have been so cheeky. But I can imagine a group of ND students seeing how far they can pull a prank on the internet. I'd almost be disappointed if they didn't.
By the way, Nanette Lafond: We're sorry about the late-night calls.

6. Before you base too much import in predictions, let me remind you that before the 1990 Orange Bowl between Notre Dame and Colorado, prognosticator Danny Sheridan came out in print and predicted, "Lou Holtz will leave Notre Dame before or after the Orange Bowl." Well, six years later Sheridan was correct.
Which is to say, if Rakes of Mallow (and Robot Charlie, another ND student site purporting to know the truth on this issue) is correct, then bully for them. But if they're wrong, what are the odds that they'll post a blog reminding us that they got it wrong?