Pictures from the Notre Dame Party at the Godfather's

​3 out of 4 pictures are of Larry.  Enjoy!

Game page is here in case you want to to relive the day in all its glory.​

ND Takes Their Ball and Goes Home

Sometimes it takes a little while to really digest what you've seen on a Saturday afternoon in the fall​, to remove the bitter taste left after a loss.  Feel free to fill in any other not-so-relevant shit-sandwich-eating metaphors here.  

Tasty​

Bottom line, that sucked.  It was historic sucking.  You will discuss this game in the future and refer to it as "that game that sucked."  The Borges hybrid gameplan was pages and pages of plays that when held at arms length, had the receiver's routes looking like shafts, the blocking schemes looking like balls and the defensive counterparts were mouths and teeth.  On paper, a diagram of suck.  That's suck to its very core.  

Telestrator Dong​

And yes Denard sucked.  The happyfeet, backfooted version of Denard is unable to throw with any type of accuracy.  Any.  At all.  If we had a serviceable backup and didn't have this Jiminy Cricket sitting on our shoulder telling us that we can't bench this poor fella because "he's got a great smile" and "he stuck with us after RichRod" and "he's a great leader" and "did you see what he did to Notre Dame last year?"...we would have had someone else start the second half.  But we don't have that option.  

​This type of shit typically angers touchdown Jesus

Denard deserves better, or at least something different.  And we deserve better, or at least something different.  We are handcuffed, and because we are, and because we are not adjusting smoothly from small and fast and read-option to big and strong and pocket-passing...it's time to blame a coordinator.  So great.  Now I hate Al Borges.  Fire Al Borges.  It's just like old times.  Hey, I think Michigan really is back!!

Anyway, I am sure it looked just as horrid on television, but that was near the top of a increasingly long list of shitty games I have attended, most of which have been over the last five years.  If Notre Dame is hanging its hat on that victory as a return to glory, or any of its three victories over Big Ten foes for that matter, they will soon find, as we have, that they are not ready for prime time.

But I think (and have thought for some time) that these two teams are somewhat headed in the right direction.  Perhaps in a few years this game will really mean something...  

Wait, what?  ND is cancelling the series?  Super.  I'm sure we'll get a great home-at-home to replace it.  We are so good at scheduling interesting home-at-homes.

Staff Predictions for Notre Dame

Tuba Says:​

This is a quintessential Michigan v Notre Dame matchup (of the last 20 years). Two completely unproven teams in the midst of yet another rebuilding year of the program. But thankfully each University seems to be comfortable in the direction they're heading. There is no controversy surrounding this matchup or the teams heading into Saturday. ND has a spread quarterback to run their offense, Michigan has a dynamic quarterback to run theirs. Neither are ideal situations, ND would love Gholston to be a senior and Michigan, despite all his dilithium would love Denard to be a senior Shane Morris but the teams are on the right track, especially at that position. By 2015 this is going to be a monster matchup. Of course question marks of greater significance exist on both sides of the ball and unfortunately for Michigan, on both sides of their lines.

Much has been made about the weak Irish secondary and as much as I fight to keep the ghosts of Lloyd out of my head for this prediction, I remember being in South Bend when a soccer player returned a Michigan interception for a touchdown, I'm still taking Michigan to win. But THAT is South Bend everyone. It is the old Yankee Stadium of college football. There are ghosts in that place and we have averted their ire in recent years. The question on Saturday won't be which team is better, it will be which team can play mistake free. ND is HOT after their assertive victory over a very mediocre Spartan team. And while we're on MSU, they're so mediocre, that, on opening night against Boise St, I texted the webmaster asking if we could play the Green and White tomorrow (meaning before we got pasted by Alabama). But MSU apparently has a good defense and it didn't prevent ND from scoring so what does that mean for our defense that can't prevent anyone from scoring? It means we're going to have to smoke 'em out. It's still September and it's an election year so why not foster the type of rhetoric that worked for so many years for GDub? You're either with us or against us.

Michigan 38 - Notre Dame 35 (we're gonna have to make a field goal at some point if we want to win this one).

​The Webmaster Says:

The more time passes, the more I'm convinced that we can't win this game.  The formula to defeat us is readily available for download from the internet.  The revenge factor will play a role as well...Under the Lights: The Reckoning.  Add in the stupid magic shit that happens in that graveyard, and you have a recipe for disaster.

The antidote is a completion percentage over 50% to soften the line that made MSU look like, well, like us against Alabama.​  Denard will need to open things up for his legs by doing it with his arm, and if that doesn't work, I'd like to think we're going to have him run anyway.  Also, ND will not want this to be close.  If we're within 10 when the 4th quarter starts, expect the buttholes to pucker a bit on the Irish sideline.

But I'm pretty sure we won't be.

​Irish 35 - Michigan 20

Returning to the Glory of Two-Face from the Dark Night

Thank God this isn't where we are.  But you can start weeping now at the fact that this is no doubt where we are going.

View fullsize

adidas and the University of Notre Dame today unveiled new TECHFIT football uniforms that the Irish will wear Oct. 6 when they host the Miami Hurricanes at Soldier Field in Chicago for this year's Shamrock Series. This marquee contest is Notre Dame's second annual Shamrock Series, an off-campus home game, and will kickoff at 7:30pm ET on NBC.

Holy

Notre Dame Stadium is not all that big.  Their press box isn't very impressive, and the scoreboards remind me of the pixelated version from early-90's Crisler Arena that used to blink "BIG NOOK" when Juwan Howard was introduced.  The "open bowl" setup lends itself to having the noise escape a la the pre-suite Big House.  The student section is small, as is the school in general, about 1/4 the size of the University of Michigan.  In short, on paper, Notre Dame is not all that intimidating of a place to play.  The reality however, is that the second you enter the stadium, you can literally feel the tradition, like you're in a museum, or a hall of fame.  The pageantry of the Notre Dame marching band, the boisterous student section's male and female portioned cheers, the gold helmets, and there's like a garden with shrubbery and ivy, green as Ireland, behind both the benches.  Seriously, it's beautiful.  And while I've never actually met a Notre Dame fan that actually attended Notre Dame, they are still very passionate, and enjoy looking down their noses at you.

But there's something about the place.  Something is different there.  It's hard to describe.  Sometimes called "luck" or "magic," and often playfully given religious metaphors.  This power, this certain something, this twelfth man that Notre Dame possesses for each and every home game...it's real.  I've seen it.  And I'm not talking about touchdown Jesus, though after staring into his eyes for the better part of 4 hours on Saturday,  I know that each time I looked to the heavens for help with my team, he scrambled the signal.

That's why I was never comfortable.  A 14-point lead is nothing against the power of that place.  Even referees are unable to resist the mystique.

Early on, we knocked Notre Dame quarterback Dane Crist silly, whose last name is an h short of being the messiah, and they brought in Joe Montana's son.  Seriously...Joe Montana's son.  He rode in to the stadium on a unicorn.  He had on his dad's NFL number.  And he had giant calves from wearing shape-ups.

With just under 4 minutes to go in the game, the sky, which had been thick overcast, parted, and sun hit the field for the first time all day.  And a rainbow in the distance hooked around and landed on the 50-yard line.  Ten seconds later, Crist, back in the game for the second half after guzzling holy water, threw a 95-yard touchdown pass to a tight end to give ND their first lead since the first quarter.  The PA announcer actually said "95-yard touchdown pass from Dane Crist to Kyle Rudolph, and a rainbow on the 50-yard line."

I'm not making this shit up...except for maybe the unicorn.

But there was Denard.  And Denard is something that the football gods, or the gods, or god Himself may have not been prepared for.  Notre Dame, despite seeing the films from the previous week, certainly was not.  Denard broke the rules of tradition.  Denard broke records.  He now holds the mark for the longest run in the history of Notre Dame stadium.  He is also the first person to use the Heisman pose out of necessity since the guy they modeled the statue after did it in 1934.  Denard doesn't know or care who Knute Rockne is, and he doesn't know or care about his own stats.  He only cares about the team.

And this is a team my friends.  Coach Rodriguez is building his own family here.  He's creating his own Michigan men.  Don't kid yourself, he created the phenomenon that is known by many as "shoelace."  He took a sprinter and made him a football player.  Rich Rodriguez created Denard Robinson to take everything that is wrong with these Wolverines, from the placekicking to the punting to the defense's inexperience, and eliminate them from the equation of football completely. 

They say special teams wins games, and defense wins championships.  We have very little of either, yet we have a chance to win both.