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wPride Of The Fall |
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If Baseball is America's Pastime, Football is its Heartbeat.
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w9.18.2002 |
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Holiday, Celebration
One of the few things that Bob Davie did right during his tenure at Notre Dame was recruiting QB Carlyle Holiday from San Antonio Roosevelt HS in 1999, overcoming the recruiting awe of Nebraska in order to secure his arrival. Holiday's athletic talent figures prominently in the golden domers' 3-0 start under new headman Ty Willingham. The win over pretender Maryland was a given, and the victory over Purdue was predictable given the Boilermakers' inferiority complex vis-a-vis UND. The win over erstwhile #7 Michigan both exposed the Wolverines' evidently overrated status and increased Holiday's profile as the leader for the Fighting Irish. Even though Holiday is an option quarterback, he has the athletic skills necessary to successfully adapt to the West Coast offense Willingham brought in from Stanford. Notre Dame is in a position to go 4-0 after this Saturday's game against Michigan State. State was possibly even more overrated than its rival in Ann Arbor after getting pasted by Cal last week. However, Florida State, BC, and Stanford lie in waiting for the Irish.
Blackblueshirts
A team that is really in trouble is Nebraska. Headman Frank Solich has been terrible in away games -- losing in 1998 to Texas A&M in College Station and Kansas State in Manhattan, 1999 losing to Texas in Austin, 2000 losing to K-State and OU in Manhattan and Norman, and then infamously falling to Colorado 62-36 in Boulder in 2001. Saturday's 40-7 debacle against Penn State in Happy Valley, PA exposed Nebraska's traditional weaknesses -- an inability to throw the ball, and an inability to play hard against serious nonconference opponents. Nebraska's remaining schedule includes away games at Texas A&M, K-State, and the fiesty Iowa State Cyclones, and home games against Texas and Colorado. The Cornuskers' defense must get some help from the bewildered O, led by highly touted Jamall Lord. If Solich loses more than 3 games this year, I predict that he will get fired.
I See Maroon
On the day of Maroon Madness, Virginia Tech is a legit national threat coming into Saturday's tilt against Texas A&M. The key matchup in College Station will be A&M's Wrecking Crew Defense against VA Tech's superb running attack led by sophomore Kevin Jones and senior Lee Suggs, who is looking smashing after last season's torn ACL injury kept him out for 11 games in 2001. The Aggie LB corps, led by Jarrod Penright and Brian "Take A" Gamble, must couple their traditional pass-rushing role with sturdy hole plugging at the line of scrimmage. A&M's offense must play minimally well in order to get the job done. Freshman QB Reggie McNeil could get some serious action if Dustin Long "Gone" and Mark "Interception!" Farris falter at the outset.
And a Griese Shall Lead Them?
Broncos Correspondent Livy Keithley (C'98) talks about the surprising 2-0 start, keyed by the efficient play of Brian Griese "Lightning". The 24-7 win over San Francisco shows that Week 1's triumph over the St. Louis Rams was no joke.
"BroncoBeat, Week 2
Rockin' the Casbah...
One of the sports reporters on the local stations
put it directly on-point tonight, saying, "Before
the season began, the two best teams in the NFC were
supposed to be the Rams and the 49ers; the Broncos
have beat them both." Although play was quite
sophomoric at times, the final score of 24-14 says it
all.
The Broncos defense is DEFINITELY one of the top,
if not THE top, in the league. The offense...well,
let's just say we have yet to see their true
brilliant colors, and we're still 2-0. Griese is just
now coming into his own - its been 3+ years since the
Broncos had so many serious air targets, and so
many versatile ground weapons, all healthy and ready
to play. Even when the 49ers were cheating by
"interfering" with the Broncos' radio signals, we still
held them to only 7 points in the first half.
Its kind of like watching the first couple rounds
of the US Open...you see the Andy Roddicks and Pete
Samprasas and Andre Agassis win, and only smile,
because you know their best tennis is yet to come..."
Unstealthy Jets
Jets Correspondent Sean Mullaney (B'00) pops off on the J-e-t-s Jets, Jets, Jets' 44-7 dismemberment at the hands of reigining Super Bowl champion New England:
"Zo, I'm in a really bad mood. Pulling stuff from the NY newspapers on the Jets game really got me going. Do you remember Jim Mora's last game as Saints coach back in '96? To quote him, "We didn't do diddy poo..." and on with the tirade. Homer Simpson might say that the Jets were the suckiest suckers that ever sucked."
Sean was nice enough to plug us a link describing the coaching genius of P-Men leader Bill Belichick, he who developed the base defensive package that grounded the Rams' 100 yards of circus offense in the Super Bowl back in January.
posted by
Lorenzo at 9/18/2002 11:40:00 PM
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