2013 Discover BCS National Championship Preview

Date: January 7, 2013 8:00 PM ET
Stadium: Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Florida
Payout: $18,000,000 per team
Played: 2007-present
Former Names: N/A
Broadcasters: Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit
Sideline Reporter: Heather Cox, Tom Rinaldi

Alabama: The Crimson Tide finished the season 2nd in scoring defense (10.7 points per game), 1st in rush defense (79.8 yards per game), and 6th in pass defense (166.2 yards per game). The Tide are offensively superior to the Irish, scoring 38.5 points per game while their opponent averages 26.8 points per game. The Crimson Tide are looking to win their third BCS National Championship in the last four seasons.

Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish are gunning for the school's first national championship since 1988. Notre Dame's defense allowed just 10.3 points per game, the fewest in the nation, led by arguably the best front seven in the country. In its four victories over four ranked opponents, Notre Dame has surrendered just 35 total points.

	Alabama			Notre Dame
Overall Record	12-1		Overall Record	12-0
Conference Record	7-1		Conference Record	N/A
Bowl Record	34-22-3		Bowl Record	15-16
Last Bowl Win	2012 BCS Championship		Last Bowl Win	2010 Sun

All Time Series: 5-1 Notre Dame
Line: Alabama by 9.5

2011 Champs Sports Bowl Preview

Date: December 29, 2011 5:30 PM ET

Stadium: Citrus Bowl, Orlando, Florida

Payout: $2,325,000

Played: 1990-present

Former Names: Blockbuster Bowl (1990-1993), Carquest Bowl (1994-1997), MicronPC Bowl (1998), MicronPC.com Bowl (1999-2000), Tangerine Bowl (2001-2003)

Broadcasters: Joe Tessitore, Rod Gilmore

Sideline Reporter: Holly Rowe

All Time Series: 4-2 Florida State

Line: Florida State by 3.5

	Florida State			Notre Dame
Overall Record	8-4		Overall Record	8-4
Conference Record	5-3		Conference Record	N/A
Bowl Record	23-14-2		Bowl Record	15-15
Last Bowl Win	2010 Chick-fil-A		Last Bowl Win	2010 Sun

Helmet Stickers: Week 9

ACC—Georgia Tech gave No. 5 Clemson its first loss of the year with a 31-17 defeat. Yellow Jackets quarterback Tevin Washington led the charge, rushing for 176 yards and a score. Never before has a Georgia Tech quarterback rushed for more than 151 yards in a game. The triple-option offense racked up 383 rushing yards and controlled the ball for 39 minutes in the game. The Yellow Jackets defense recovered two Clemson fumbles and picked off Tajh Boyd twice in the game. Georgia Tech ended a two-game losing streak and ended Clemson’s national title hopes.

Big 10—Minnesota upset Iowa 22-21 at TCF Bank Field to get the Golden Gophers their first conference win of the season. Minnesota lost its first three conference games by an average margin of 38 points. Minnesota quarterback Marqueis Gray passed for 193 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 62 yards and the winning touchdown. Marqueis Gray rushed for the right pylon on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line with 2:48 left in the game. Golden Gopher fans stormed the field when time expired. The win allows Minnesota to retain the Floyd of Rosedale Trophy for another year. Minnesota last defeated Iowa in consecutive years in 1999 and 2000.

Big 12—Iowa State upset a No. 19 Texas Tech team that had defeated Oklahoma the week before. Texas Tech was embarrassed 41-7 at home. Iowa State redshirt freshman quarterback Jared Barnett passed for 144 yards and rushed for 92 yards in his first start. The Cyclones rushed for 368 yards and controlled the ball for 40:09. Iowa State had not rushed for over 300 yards in a game since 2001. Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege accounted for all three of the Red Raiders turnovers. He threw two interceptions and fumbled once. Iowa State’s defense held the Red Raiders to their fewest points at home since a 56-3 Nebraska thumping in 2000.

Big East—Louisville got consecutive Big East wins for the first time since 2006 as it overpowered Syracuse 27-10. Louisville’s defense held the Orange to just 246 yards, their lowest output this season. The Orange only got past Louisville’s 35-yard line twice the whole game. Louisville freshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was 17 for 24 with 198 yards and two touchdowns in his fifth start. Louisville tailback Victor Anderson rushed for 93 yards and a score. The Cardinals moved to 2-1 in the Big East and 4-4 overall.

C-USA—On Thursday night, No. 17 Houston thrashed cross-town rival Rice 73-36. Case Keenum threw nine touchdown passes in the game. His fifth touchdown pass broke the all-time FBS record for career touchdown passes, which was 134, set by Graham Harrell in 2008. Houston’s offense racked up 656 yards, 534 of which were threw the air. Wide receiver Patrick Edwards caught five touchdowns and had 318 yards receiving. Wide receiver Tyron Carrier returned the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown, the seventh kickoff he has taken in for a touchdown in his career. Houston is undefeated at 8-0.

MAC—Western Michigan beat Ball State 45-35 to move within one game of bowl eligibility and stay undefeated at Waldo Stadium. The second quarter of the game had seven touchdowns: four consecutive touchdowns for Western Michigan and three touchdowns for Ball State. The Broncos had 610 yards in the game with 465 of them coming through the air. Wide receiver Jordan White caught 9 passes for 172 yards and became Western’s all-time receptions leader. Two other wide receivers had over 100 yards receiving: Chleb Ravenell had 9 catches for 157 yards, while Robert Arnheim had 104 yards on 8 catches.

MWC—Wyoming went into Qualcomm Stadium and defeated San Diego State 30-27 on Saturday night. The Cowboys scored all of their points before halftime, where they led 30-13, and held on in the second half after allowing SDSU to score two more touchdowns. Wyoming freshman quarterback Brett Smith threw two touchdowns and rushed for two touchdowns. Wyoming had no turnovers. The Cowboys forced one turnover; cornerback Tashaun Gipson came up with an interception on the Wyoming 5-yard line, denying the Aztecs from entering the red zone mid-way through the third quarter. The Cowboys are now 2-0 in the Mountain West.

Pac-12—No. 6 Stanford survived No. 20 USC. With a tie game late in the fourth quarter, USC cornerback Nickell Robey intercepted Andrew Luck at the Stanford 33-yard line and ran 33 yards for a pick six. The Trojans led by 7 with 3:08 left in the game. Stanford regrouped and drove 76 yards to tie the game with 38 seconds left. Each team scored a touchdown and a PAT in both the first and second overtime. In triple overtime, Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor rushed for a score, and a two point conversion was made to tight end Coby Fleener. The Trojans tried to answer. A 21-yard pass to freshman wide out Marqise Lee got them to the Stanford 4-yard line. On the next play, USC tailback Curtis McNeal fumbled when Stanford’s Terrence Stephens knocked the ball loose, and Stanford’s A.J. Tarpley recovered the ball in the end zone to get the Cardinal the 56-48 win. The Cardinal have now beat the Trojans three years in a row and are 8-0 for the first time since 1951.

SEC—No. 22 Georgia took down Florida 24-20 in the game dubbed the World’s Largest Cocktail Party. Georgia has now won six straight games, and Florida had lost four straight games for the first time since 1988. The Georgia defense held Florida to just 226 net yards and -19 yards on the ground. The Bulldogs defense only allowed 32 yards and one first down in the second half. Georgia outside linebacker Jarvis Jones had four of the Bulldogs’ six sacks in the game. After leading 17-3, Florida turned the ball over on two fumbles that gave Georgia short fields of 25 and 18 yards that the Bulldogs capitalized on with touchdowns. Georgia’s offense was 3 for 3 on fourth downs.

Sun Belt—The Red Wolves beat the Mean Green 37-14 in Jonesboro Saturday to go 6-2 on the season. Arkansas State has its best record in eight games since 1986. The Red Wolves raced out to 31-0 by halftime. Arkansas State nearly doubled North Texas’s offensive output, 540 yards to 283 yards. In the second quarter, punter and placekick holder Neely Sullivent rushed for a 14-yard touchdown on a fake field goal attempt. Red Wolves quarterback Ryan Aplin passed for 322 yards and was also the team’s leading rusher in the game with 69 yards. The Red Wolves are undefeated in Sun Belt games and are bowl eligible.

WAC—Louisiana Tech beat San Jose State by ten in Ruston Saturday. After losing 14-10 halfway through the second quarter, the Bulldogs rattled off 28 straight points. Wide receiver Quinton Patton had two touchdown catches in the game on Colby Cameron passes, one of which was a 90-yard bomb. Senior running back Lennon Creer added another touchdown and led the team with 112 yards on the ground, including a 15-yard scamper. Louisiana Tech’s defense picked off the Spartans’ Matt Faulkner four times. Linebacker Jay Dudley returned one of those interceptions 36 yards for a score.

Independents—Notre Dame beat Navy 56-14 in the Irish’s best performance of the season. Notre Dame rushed for seven touchdowns in the game and only punted the ball away once. The Fighting Irish’s defense held Navy to its lowest offensive output of the year at 229 yards. Notre Dame has now beat Navy for the second time in 5 years after winning 43 straight games against the Midshipmen from 1964 to 2006. The Fighting Irish move to 5-3.

2010 Hyundai Sun Bowl Preview

December 31, 2010 2:00 PM ET

Stadium: Sun Bowl, El Paso, Texas

Payout: $1,900,000

Played: 1935-present

Once known as: N/A

Broadcasters: Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson

Sideline Reporter: Tracy Wolfson

Storyline: Miami and Notre Dame once had a high-profile rivalry in the 1980’s, but twenty years after their last meeting, both come stumbling into the Sun Bowl broken teams. Notre Dame was sitting at 4-5 after losing to Tulsa October 30^th, but was able to regroup and win three straight over Utah, Army, and USC. The Notre Dame football program has been a hotbed of controversy with the death of a student videographer and the suicide of a student assaulted by a football player. Meanwhile, Miami finished the season with an overtime loss to South Florida and subsequently fired Randy Shannon who was never able to get the Hurricane program to the ACC title game or a bowl win. Interim head coach Jeff Stoutland will lead the team. Notre Dame needs to win the Sun Bowl to generate some good publicity for the program. Miami is looking to get its first bowl win in four years. Miami’s last bowl win came on December 31^st, 2006—a 21-20 win over Nevada in the MPC Computers Bowl.

All-time Series: 15-7-1 Notre Dame

Line: Miami by 2.5

	Notre Dame			Miami
Overall Record	7-5		Overall Record	7-5
Conference Record	N/A		Conference Record	5-3
Bowl Record	14-15		Bowl Record	18-15
Last Bowl Win	2008 Hawaii		Last Bowl Win	2006 MPC Computers

Independents Home Attendance Figures

	Army			Navy
Michie Stadium			Navy Memorial Stadium
S11 Hawaii	30,042		S11 Georgia Southern	33,391
S18 North Texas	24,689		O16 SMU	33,924
O2 Temple	33,065		O30 Duke	34,117
O30 VMI	32,410		N13 Central Michigan	34,333
N6 Air Force	38,128		N20 Arkansas State	27,501
AVERAGE	31,667		AVERAGE	32,653
	Notre Dame
Notre Dame Stadium
S4 Purdue	80,795
S11 Michigan	80,795
S25 Stanford	80,795
O9 Pittsburgh	80,795
O16 Western Michigan	80,795
O30 Tulsa	80,795
N13 Utah	80,795
AVERAGE	80,795

AVERAGE ATTENDANCE BY SCHOOL

Army	31,667
Navy	32,653
Notre Dame	80,795

There Are Too Many Bowl Games

The 2010-2011 bowl season has been expanded from last seasons's 34 games to 35 postseason matchups. That means 70 of 120 FBS teams will be rewarded with a postseason game. This begs the question of whether there will be 70 teams bowl eligible by the end of the regular season each year. Take into account that last year 68 of the 71 bowl eligible teams went to bowls. Notre Dame (declined to play) and Sun Belt teams Louisiana-Lafayette (6-6) and Louisiana-Monroe (6-6) were the three teams that got left out. With 70 postseason slots, it is almost guaranteed every .500 team in the FBS gets to go bowling and almost none will by turned away. Should programs be rewarded for average fall campaigns? Keep in mind many of these programs get one of their wins by scheduling an FCS team every year.

Between the 2009-2010 bowl season and the current college football season, one bowl disappeared and two new ones were selected from the four new proposals. The International Bowl, held for four years in Toronto was doomed to fail: American citizens needed to get passports to attend the game, and Toronto is just not a sexy destination for early January. Local interest in the game was low considering Canadian football is quite different than American football. Of the four proposed bowls, the TicketCity Bowl and the Pinstripe Bowl got selected as the two new additions to the college football postseason. The TicketCity Bowl will be played at the Cotton Bowl since the Cotton Bowl Classic decided to move to Cowboys Stadium. It sure makes a whole lot of sense to not play the Cotton Bowl at the Cotton Bowl. The New York Yankees-sponsored Pinstripe Bowl will be played inside of Yankee Stadium. Will anybody other than diehard fans want to watch the Big East #4 team play the Big 12 #7 team December 30th in frigid conditions?

A common theme brought up and addressed during the lower profile college bowl games is: why does this game matter? The ESPN announcers would rebut by saying that to the players playing in the lower tier bowls, it means everything. Sure that is true, but it does still not address why a postseason matchup between the MAC #4 team and the C-USA #6 team matters in the greater scheme of things. The truth of the matter is that ESPN now holds the television rights to almost every single bowl game. They will hype anything just to get good Nielson ratings.

Also keep in mind that hosting a bowl game is a very profitable venture, even when the game doesn’t fill a stadium or half of a stadium. The organizations that stage bowl games profit well between selling sponsorships, merchandise licensing, promotions, forcing universities to buy up tickets, and generating big influxes to local economies. Out of 34 bowl games last year, only 8 had capacity crowds. The Alamo Bowl was about 240 short of capacity, so we could be generous and say 9 bowls had capacity crowds. But still, 9 out of 34 is 26.4%. Also note that three of those capacity crowds were BCS games. That’s right; two BCS games were partially empty. Fans are not likely to travel long and far with the current state of the economy.

Don’t get me wrong, I love college football and will probably end up watching every bowl game. I just disagree with rewarding mediocrity and allowing money and power to spoil the pageantry of college football.

Bowling By Conference

After twelve weeks of football:

-64 teams are eligible to play in bowls

-36 teams are ineligible to play in bowls

-20 teams are on the bubble

Bowl tie-ins by conference:

ACC: 8 (9 eligible)

Big East: 6 (5 eligible)

Big Ten: 8 (8 eligible)

Big 12: 8 (8 eligible)

C-USA: 6 (6 eligible)

MAC: 3 (5 eligible)

MWC: 5 (5 eligible)

Pac-10: 6 (3 eligible)

SEC: 9 (8 eligible)

Sun Belt: 2 (0 eligible)

WAC: 4 (4 eligible)

Navy: Poinsettia Bowl (eligible)

Army: At-large (eligible)

Notre Dame: At-large (eligible)

See how everything pans out here.

Notre Dame has gotten its act together the past two weeks with wins over Utah and Arm y to become bowl eligible. After reviewing fine print, I’ve seen that Notre Dame can only go to the Champs Sports Bowl if they are 7-5, which means they will have to beat USC next week. If they finish 6-6, they will go to wherever there is an at-large spot available. The Pac-10 may end up with four teams if California can put away Washington next weekend. The nine-game round robin schedule in the Pac-10 definitely hurts the conference’s ability to get its teams into bowl games. Six of the eight Big East teams and four of the nine Sun Belt teams still have two games left to play. Both conferences should fill their tie-ins after two more weeks of play. The Big Ten, Mountain West, and Atlantic Coast Conferences do not have any teams left on the bubble. Who is bowl-eligible and who is not bowl-eligible has been thoroughly decided in those conferences.

Down The Stretch

After eleven weeks of football:

-54 teams are eligible to play in bowls

-27 teams are ineligible to play in bowls

-39 teams are on the bubble

Bowl tie-ins by conference:

ACC: 8 (6 eligible)

Big East: 6 (3 eligible)

Big Ten: 8 (7 eligible)

Big 12: 8 (7 eligible)

C-USA: 6 (5 eligible)

MAC: 3 (5 eligible)

MWC: 5 (4 eligible)

Pac-10: 6 (3 eligible)

SEC: 9 (8 eligible)

Sun Belt: 2 (0 eligible)

WAC: 4 (4 eligible)

Navy: Poinsettia Bowl (eligible)

Army: At-large (eligible)

See how everything stacks up here.

With Army’s win over Kent State, they have secured they’re sixth win and will go bowling for the first time in fourteen seasons. The Pac-10 doesn’t have much going for it outside of Oregon, Stanford, and Arizona. California may snag a bowl slot if it can win one of its last two games, and UCLA can potentially creep in there by winning two of its last three games. Don’t expect to see any more than five Pac-10 teams though. There will be plenty of at-large selections for MAC and Sun Belt teams that make it to .500. Most Big East and Sun Belt teams still have three games left to play. Those conferences should meet their quotas. If Notre Dame can pull out a win against either Army or USC, the Irish will take the Big East’s spot in the Champs Sports Bowl.

Helmet Stickers: Week 11

ACC—The Hurricanes gave the Yellow Jackets their third consecutive loss in a game between two backup quarterbacks. Freshman quarterback Stephen Morris passed for 230 yards and a touchdown. He completed 10 of 18 attempts. Four different Hurricanes ran for touchdowns—Lamar Miller, Damien Berry, Mike James, and Graig Cooper—in the triumph.

Big 12—Just days after head coach Dan Hawkins gets fired, the Buffaloes rebound and paste the Cyclones 34-14 at Folsom Field under interim coach Brian Cabral, who has been a coach at Colorado since 1989. Colorado’s bowl hopes are still alive, if just barely. The Colorado defense played with intensity, picking up eight sacks and holding the Cyclones to -6 rushing yards. Colorado safety Patrick Mahnke sacked Iowa State’s Austen Arnaud in the fourth quarter, knocking Arnaud out of the game.

Big East—South Florida is bowl-eligible after an overtime win over Louisville on Saturday. Louisville tied the game at 21 apiece with 1:21 left. Louisville drove to the 4 yard line in overtime. On fourth and inches on the Bulls’ 4 yard line, the Cardinals tried a quarterback sneak instead of going for a field goal. The South Florida defense held and the sneak came up short. The Bulls ran the ball to the Cardinals’ 20 yard line and kicked a 37-yard field goal for the 24-21 win. South Florida wide receiver Lindsey Lamar returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown just before the half.

Big Ten—Northwestern defeated No. 13 Iowa by a score of 21-17 on a rainy Saturday in Evanston. The Wildcats entered the fourth quarter down 17-7. After Jeremy Ebert caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Dan Persa with 6:21 left to close the deficit to 3 points, Dan Persa connected with Demetrius Fields on a 20-yard touchdown pass with just 1:22 left in the game to take the lead. Northwestern safety Brian Peters intercepted Iowa’s Ricky Stanzi early in the fourth quarter to launch the rally. Northwestern has beaten Iowa in five of their last six meetings.

C-USA—Southern Mississippi dealt Central Florida its first conference loss in a 31-21 contest at BH Networks Stadium in Orlando. The Golden Eagles went 11 for 16 on third downs. Southern Miss quarterback Austin Davis threw for 264 yards and four touchdowns. The Golden Eagle defense contained the Knights’ dual threat quarterback Jeff Godfrey by only allowing him to rush for 6 net yards on 12 rushing attempts. Southern Miss prevented UCF from scoring between 5:40 in the first quarter through 4:21 in the fourth quarter—a stretch of over forty-six minutes.

MAC—Western Michigan defeated Eastern Michigan at Waldo Stadium in a game that featured 1,009 yards of offense. Broncos quarterback Carder threw for 349 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions, going 17 for 21. Broncos running back Brian Fields rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns and caught a third touchdown. Receivers Jordan White and Juan Nunez each had over 100 yards receiving. The former caught one touchdown pass, while the latter had two touchdowns in the 45-30 cross-state rivalry.

MWC—UNLV gets a helmet sticker this week, routing Wyoming 42-16. The Rebels ended a five-game skid and got their second win of the season. Rebels quarterback Omar Clayton threw for 163 yards and three touchdowns. Freshman running back Tim Cornett caught one of those touchdown passes and rushed for an additional three scores. UNLV cornerback Will Chandler picked off Austyn Carta-Samuels in the fourth quarter.

Pac-10—Washington State got its first FBS win of the season! The Cougars snapped a sixteen-game Pac-10 losing streak dating back to the 2008 Apple Cup by defeating Oregon State in Corvallis on Saturday. It was the first time Washington State held a team scoreless in the first half since outscoring Stanford 10-0 in 2007. Cougars quarterback Jeff Tuel completed 10 of 15 throws for 157 yards. Tuel also rushed 18 times for 79 yards.

SEC—South Carolina clinched the SEC East with its 36-14 win over Florida. Gamecocks running back Marcus Lattimore ran for a career-high 212 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterback Stephen Garcia threw for 156 yards, ran for 28 yards, and accounted for no turnovers. The Florida Gators were dealt their first three-game home losing streak since 1989. South Carolina got only its second win over Florida since 1939.

Sun Belt—Florida International set a school record for rushing with 448 yards in its 52-35 win over perennial Sun Belt powerhouse Troy. Running back Darriet Perry rushed for 186 yards. Wide receiver T.Y. Hilton rushed for 158 yards. Running back Darrian Mallary rushed for 118 yards. It was the first home loss for Troy since 2007 and puts the Trojans in jeopardy of not getting at least a share of the Sun Belt conference title for the first season since 2005. The Golden Panthers moved into first place in the Sun Belt standings with the win.

WAC—The Wolf Pack got by the Bulldogs 35-34 in a back-and-forth game with seven lead changes. Colin Kaepernick threw for 171 yards and ran for 153 yards. Wolf Pack running back Vai Taua rushed for 89 yards and three touchdowns, including the go-ahead score with 4:51 left in the game. The victory marked the first time since 1945-49 that Nevada has won three straight games against Fresno State. Nevada is now 9-1 and can capture the WAC title with a win over Boise State on November 26.

                                 

Independents—After losses to Navy and Tulsa and a bye week, Notre Dame destroyed No. 14 Utah 28-3. The Fighting Irish held the Utes to a season-low three points and ended an 11-game losing streak against Top 25 teams. It was the Fighting Irish’s first victory over a ranked opponent since beating Penn State in 2006. In his first start, Tommy Rees looked much improved, throwing three touchdown passes and no interceptions. The Irish defense held the Utes’ offense to a season-low 265 yards. In the battle between Catholics and Mormons, the Catholics dominated. Notre Dame students stormed the field at the end of the game.

Notre Dame, A Program In Decline

THE PAST: In the last decade, the Notre Dame football program has fallen off of a cliff. It’s had losing seasons in 2001, 2003, and 2007. It’s had .500 seasons in 2004 and 2009. Other than getting spanked in a couple BCS bowl games mid-decade, the program has not been relevant nationally. Notre Dame has been impotent against its rivals: Notre Dame has lost three of the last four meetings with Navy. Notre Dame has lost ten of the last fourteen meetings with the Spartans. The Irish have only won one of their last five meetings with the Wolverines. Boston College won six straight against the Irish from 2001 through 2008. USC has beaten the Irish the past eight meetings for the Jeweled Shillelagh. The Irish would be winless in bowl games between January 1, 1994 and the present if it wasn’t for Notre Dame beating up on an inferior 7-6 Hawaii team in the 2008 Hawaii Bowl.

Notre Dame, year-in and year-out, recruits some of the best talent. From 2002 through 2010, Notre Dame has consistently recruited top talent. Over the last nine years, Notre Dame has averaged a #15 class. Three of those nine years, the Irish have landed Top 5 classes: #5-2003, #5-2006, #2-2008. With blue chip recruits coming to your school every year, why are the Fighting Irish losing to the one-star talent of the Naval Academy?

THE PRESENT: Notre Dame decides to practice outside during a sixty mph wind storm. Why not use your indoor practice facility in these types of conditions? You can’t even kick or pass in that kind of turbulence. They send a student videographer up fifty feet in a scissor lift in one of the windiest days the Midwest has seen in the last decade, only to have him fall to his death.

Now fast forward to the October 30th football game against Tulsa. With 2nd and 8 on the Tulsa 19, the Irish pass for the end zone and get intercepted. All the Irish had to do was hit a 36-yard field goal to win the game. One thing the Irish do have going for them is an excellent kicker, David Ruffer, who is 13/13 on field goals. This was poor play calling.

THE FUTURE: With a 4-5 record, the Irish will most likely be left out of the postseason. Their remaining games are: Utah at home, Army at home, and USC on the road. Notre Dame could very well finish the season 4-8. Utah is currently 8-0, Army is a much-improved program under second-year Rich Ellerson, and the Trojans always get up for a game against the Irish. Notre Dame won’t reach a bowl, so it must regroup and start thinking about how it can win games next year.

For 2011, Notre Dame has the nation’s #7 class, although that is bound to fluctuate between now and signing day. There will be no excuse for losing next year as the program’s best recruiting class of the past decade (#2-2003) will be in their senior year. Brian Kelly is a good coach, but he needs to get his head out of his ass if he doesn’t want to be the fourth consecutive head coach fired from Notre Dame. Notre Dame fans need to get their heads out of their asses and stop living in 1988. Being an independent with a storied history doesn’t entitle you to anything in the current landscape of college football.