TIM TEBOW, GOLDEN DOMER
Pete Fiutak of College Football News always says something worth reading, and today's column is no different. Fiutak makes the argument that Notre Dame needs to hire the man whom it let get away four years ago, Florida head coach Urban Meyer.
Whether or not you agree, what intrigues me is this: What if Meyer had come to Notre Dame after Ty Willingham was let go, and what if he had been able to land Tim Tebow after his first season? Can you imagine how much more famous Tebow would be had he wound up in South Bend? I mean, the Notre Dame quarterback devoting his spring breaks to doing missionary work in the Third World? Tebow in a golden helmet just might have been able to win a Beano Cook supply of Heismans.
Then again, had Tebow ended up in South Bend, he might have had fewer photo ops such as this or this. And, besides, with he and BQQB sharing a locker room even for just a year, there definitely would have been some Derek Zoolander-Blue Steel vibes going on.
As for the fate of Charlie Weis: first, take no credence in what any Irish fan says before Saturday evening regarding whether he should remain in South Bend or be fired. The result at USC is going to be very influential, even if people insist otherwise.
If the Irish give the Trojans a fight--and by that I mean lose by fewer than two touchdowns--it will be perceived as this team having played hard for its coach. Recall that it was only three Saturday nights ago that they were thoroughly embarrassed by an offensively limited Boston College squad.
However, if the Irish trail by four or more touchdowns entering the fourth quarter, then how do you imagine ESPN commentators Mike Patrick and Todd Blackledge are going to be spending that final half hour or so of air time?
They sure as shootin' aren't going to be discussing the defensive adjustments Corwin Brown (or is it Jon Tenuta?) needs to make. They'll be forced to opine on Weis' future as a montage of scenes (the 58-7 loss at Miami in '85, the 41-10 loss here at USC four years earlier) are shown, as a shot of a perturbed and helpless-looking Weis is broadcast to the nation.
That's why everything prior to Saturday night--from stories on Weis' future to possible candidates to every last person's opinion on whether Weis should stay or go--is moot. What happens at the Coliseum is pivotal--even if they say it ain't.
By the way, Stewart Mandel had a trenchant and very accurate riff on SI.com regarding the amorphous reportage and pronouncements that drown all these type of stories in utter ridiculousness. I laughed when I read it because less than half an hour earlier someone had told me what their source inside the Notre Dame athletic department had told them Tuesday morning.
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Strange Saturday in the Big Ten, and only now am I getting around to discussing it. In Columbus you had defensive players from Michigan getting up in their coaches' grills on the sideline during the 42-7 loss. Can you dot the exclamation point on a horrible season? That might have done it.
Meanwhile, in West Lafayette, Purdue head coach Joe Tiller closed out the most successful career in Boilermaker history with a 62-10 Wabashing of rival Indiana. Up 41-3 at halftime, Purdue attempted a few bombs and even a double-reverse in the second half.
Up in Madison, the Badgers barely held on against Cal-Poly in overtime, 36-35. That's the same Cal-Poly that opened the season with a win against San Diego State, who nearly beat Notre Dame, who nearly beat Syracuse. The Mustangs might have won had their kicker, Andrew Gardner, not missed three extra points. How do you ever shake that off?
But nothing was more bizarre than what happened in Minneapolis, where Minnesota's final game in the Metrodome, a 55-0 loss to Iowa, was overshadowed by a couple being arrested for, in football terms, a spread offense in a bathroom stall (What is it with that state and bathroom stalls?). Don't be so quick to judge: the score was 55-0, after all.
The entire incident might not have been so humiliating for the woman involved if her partner in crime had actually been her partner in real life. He wasn't. Her husband was in the stands watching the game at the time. I wonder if the gang at Deadspin are still accepting SHOTY nominees.
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What do you get when you cross the greatest guitar riff of my senior year of high school, a one-armed drummer and the hottest female singer on the planet at the moment not named Beyonce? You get this. In case you're wondering, he's 49, she's 18. Billy Joel approves.
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You figure this out. Last Friday night Notre Dame took on winless Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles and their three-point sniper, Kyle McAlarney, ended up scoreless. Earlier tonight the Irish played No. 1-ranked North Carolina and McAlarney scored a career-high 39.
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In the next week or so I'll be doing a Best Songs of 2008 list (entitled, "Now That's What I Call Billy, 2008", in honor of my friend who generously makes me, like, twenty mix CDs each year and he's not even gay). Feel free to send along suggestions, but here's a teaser for you, a song that made the list.
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Clip-n-save quote from Tuesday's Weis presser: "That awe factor, if your team has an awe factor of the team they're going against, then you have no chance. I'll be shocked this week if our team goes in there with an awe factor."
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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. And Happy Thanksgiving back at ya', Charlie.
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