DAILY DOMER: 4-2: More than just a record, it's two prepositions
In honor of DJ Charlie and his penchant for blaring the tunes of bon vivant Bon Jovi during Thursday practices, we hereby present our "Whoa-oh, We're Halfway There!" midseason awards. Feel free to comment, offer your own, or discuss whether Nancy Grace should start seeking out erstwhile blogstalker G.A.
Most Valuable Player: Jimmy Clausen...has surpassed his career-high in passing yardage each of the last three games. Will likely break Brady Quinn's sophomore season TD passes record (17) in Notre Dame's next game (has 14)
Most Valuable Play: Kyle McCarthy/David Bruton cause San Diego State fumble at the goal line with the Irish trailing 13-7 in the 4th quarter of their season-opener. Would Irish have been able to claw back from a 20-7 deficit that day?
Most Vicious Hit: John Ryan takes out Charlie Weis. Runner-up: The shot Armando Allen took in the 3rd quarter versus San Diego State.
Best Stump Speech: Pat Kuntz before the Stanford game
Best Run: Robert Blanton's 47-yard interception return for a TD versus Purdue
Most Ridiculously Athletic Play: Golden Tate!'s catch-and-run on 3rd-and-17 at Michigan State where he eluded two tacklers and got the first down.
MVF (Most Valuable Frosh): Tight end Kyle Rudolph. Has played every down of the last three games as a true freshman. Doing so while receiving less backup than William Wallace did in the Battle of Falkirk.
Most Pleasant Surprise, Defense: Kyle McCarthy. Long Zibby's understudy, this first-year senior starter (who, ahem, still has a year of eligibility remaining after this) leads the Irish in tackles and took away a touchdown in both the San Diego State and Purdue games.
Most Pleasant Surprise, Offense: The line. Michael Turkovich, Eric Olsen, Dan Wenger, Chris Stewart and Sam Young have come a long way since last season. Last in the nation in sacks allowed in '07, the Irish are 43rd now, allowing just 1.5 per game even though they pass more than most teams. And, it sure seems as if they've cut down on holding penalties as well.
Biggest Disappointment: Brandon Walker, 2-8 on field goals.
Special Special Teamer: There should be an Anello-cam on every Irish kickoff (if only I had some pull with the network that televises most Irish football games). Mike Anello is a freak.
Most Conspicuous New Trend: "Crank Me Up!"
Greatest Hope that all Irish football players will not resemble automatons: Golden Tate! After scoring on a 60-yard bomb in the Michigan game, Tate ran over to Weis and announced, "I CANNOT BE STOPPED!"
Best Potential Pro, Next Year: Senior safety David Bruton
Best Potential Pro, Overall: Freshman wide receiver Michael Floyd.
Best Quote: Sophomore linebacker Brian Smith, asked if the Irish would use the North Carolina loss as motivation to go unbeaten the rest of the way: "I'm not Jesus, so I don't know."
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Irish women's soccer still undefeated and ranked first in D-I. Unlike Charlie's guys, they played North Carolina at Chapel Hill earlier this year and won. Tell that to your buddy Crothers, who is Boswell to Anson Dorrance's errr, forget it.
Erstwhile? Rumors of my lack of comments have been greatly exaggerated. Was off in Hawaii for nine days, came back disappointed in N-B-C's blog archiving system -- once it's more than a few posts old, it gets lumped in with Curran and the gang in one mass archive. Still catching up on last week's offerings ...