YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE...

Speaking of which, this thought came to me last night: Was Joanne Worley the original Woo! girl?

********************

Rothstein notes that Kyle McCarthy, first-year starter at safety for the Irish as a senior, has a team-high 96 tackles. He needs just three more to break Chinedum Ndukwe's single-season record for tackles by a member of the Irish secondary. Ndukwe is now with the Cincinnati Bengals. It's a testament to McCarthy's contribution this season, and he'll likely apply for a fifth year. On the other hand, is it a good thing for the Irish defensively that the two best single-season total tackles marks by a defensive back have taken place in the past three seasons?

*******************

 This video by Hair Nation high priests Poison may best express the sentiments of Notre Dame fans heading into Saturday night's contest at USC. Reasons for concern:

1) The absence of Michael Floyd.

2) A rushing attack that in five of eleven games has failed to surpass 90 yards going up against the nation's No. 6 rushing defense.  .

3) A quarterback who has been relatively ineffective ever since Jim Harbaugh brushed past him following the Stanford victory (a Harbaugh curse?).

4) Loss margins of 31, 31, 31, 20 and 38 in five of the past six years.

5) The infinitessimal possibility of the Trojans coming out flat for this game.

The odds, most certainly, are stacked against the Irish on Saturday. A victory might fall short of miraculous, but not by much. And so Charlie Weis must sell his young team on the opportunity this evening presents. Not only does a victory guarantee the Irish a winning season--something that seemed so assured entering the bye week--but it also chastens all of us, media and fans alike, who have wondered aloud about the leadership ability of this head coach and the heart of his players.

Win Saturday, Notre Dame, and we all owe you an apology. Win Saturday, and you'll have that moment for the rest of your lives. The first great Notre Dame moment of your careers. The first great Notre Dame moment since the 2000 victory at Texas, when the Irish beat the No. 6 Longhorns 27-24 on the game's final play.

Notre Dame has actually beaten a top ten team seven times since the defeat of No. 1 Florida State back in 1993, though that does often seem like the most recent high-water mark in the program's history. And perhaps it is. But a win at the Coliseum versus No. 5 USC would not only be a memorable high-water mark for the program in the post-Holtz era, it would also end a five-year losing streak to the Trojans, the longest in series history.

*******************

Worth noting from the above item: Ty Willingham, in his final season, led the Irish to two wins against top-ten ranked teams. The vanquished were No. 8 Michigan (overrated) and No. 9 Tennessee. The last time Notre Dame achieved that feat was in '93, when they defeated three top ten teams: No. 3 Michigan, No. 1 FSU and No. 7 Texas A&M.

****************

Just a little curious item. In the second game of the 2006 season, Brady Quinn threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Darius Walker to put the Irish up 41-3 on No. 19 Penn State early in the fourth quarter. Joe Paterno appeared to be overmatched and ready for retirement and the Irish would ascend to No. 2 in the AP poll within 24 hours.

Since that moment? Penn State stuck in an inexperienced sophomore QB named Daryll Clark who led the Nittany Lions on a pair of impressive touchdown drives (an visitor scoring a pair of TDs in the fourth quarter in Notre Dame Stadium? The very idea...). Then, in the games since, the Nittany Lions have gone 28-8.

With that victory the Irish moved to 11-3 under Weis. Since that day Notre Dame's record is 17-17 and they have not beaten a ranked team.

Part of the point is that game represents the last truly dominant win (factoring in the strength of the opponent as well as the margin of victory) for the Irish, but the other point is that the sport is cyclical. Clark, along with teammates such as Evan Royster and Derrick Williams, was just an inexperienced but talented college player at the time. Today? Well, today it was announced that a school-record ten Penn State players made first team All-Big Ten.

These are obviously dark days for the Notre Dame football program. But a year or two from now, well, it'll be interesting to see what people are saying about Floyd and Golden Tate and Kyle Rudolph and the Smiths, Brian and Harrison, and Robert Blanton and Darius Fleming. Maybe even Jimmy Clausen will receive a pat on the back.

Remember: Penn State, down 41-3 two years ago. Notched ten players on the first-team All-Big Ten squad today.

 Notre Dame. Up 41-3 two years ago. Just 17-17 since, but with a depth chart heading into Saturday's game that features, when everyone is healthy, as many as ten freshman and sophomore starters.

*********************

Best line from the True Blood season finale: "So, who's good to eat around here?"

I do love that show--and this from someone who has never seen an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (I know, my loss). What elevates this Alan Ball creation (I like to think of it as "Six Feet Under...Until Sundown") beyond the Gothic soap opera genre is both its wit ("Fangbangers") and its allegorical value. Vampires, as an oppressed minority in the rural Deep South, remind you of whom exactly (go back and note the title of the show)? And vampire blood, a hallucinogen for mortals, is a substitute for what?

Outstanding stuff. 

**********************************

As for Entourage, Turtle has outkicked his coverage and landed Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Fine. I'm willing to go along with that as long as they give us a scene in which he begs her to tell him what the final scene in The Sopranos was all about.

*********************************

This coming February marks the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth and this Thursday we'll celebrate the holiday that he is responsible for officially designating a federal holiday. So I'm reading up on the 16th prez and from time to time will drop in actual bits of tid regarding his life and legacy. I'm not making these up; these are actual facts.

The first: Lincoln parted his hair from left to right but for some reason, on a day that he was photographed for a presidential portrait, he decided to part it the opposite way. His son said that it was the only day he could remember his dad parting his hair right to left. That portrait would be used as the image for the likeness we have of Lincoln on the $5 bill. So the Abraham Lincoln coif you see on the five is the one that on most days he saw when he looked in the mirror, but one that those who knew him never did.