For College Football Junkies
Posts tagged Notre Dame
4th and inches …
Aug 23rd
Circle Sept 3 on your calendar for LSU at Oregon … A Duck win and it’s clear sailing to the national title game with only a Nov 12 road trip to Stanford blocking their path. No team in the Pac-12 South can match up with the Quackers in the inaugural conference championship. Conversely, a win by LSU means a lot, but they’ll still need to get past West Virginia on the road and then the SEC’s three A’s – Alabama, Auburn and Arkansas.
2011 Key Regular Season Showdowns By Conference …
SEC: LSU at Alabama, Nov 5 and South Carolina at Arkansas, Nov 5
Big Ten: Nebraska at Wisconsin, Oct 1 and Iowa at Nebraska, Nov 25
Pac-12: Arizona State at Oregon, Oct 15 and Oregon at Stanford, Nov 12
Big XII: Oklahoma State at Texas A&M, Sept 24 and Oklahoma at Oklahoma State, Dec 3
ACC: Miami at Florida State, Nov 5 and North Carolina at Virginia Tech, Nov 17
Big East: Pitt at West Virginia, Nov 25
Independents: USC at Notre Dame, Oct 22; ND at Stanford, Nov 26; BYU at Texas, Sept 10; BYU at TCU, Oct 28
MWC: TCU at Boise State, Nov 12 and Boise State at San Diego State, Nov 19
WAC: Fresno State at Hawaii, Nov 19
CUSA: UCF at East Carolina, Nov 19 and Houston at Tulsa, Nov 26
MAC: Northern Illinois at Toledo, Nov 1 and Miami (Ohio) at Temple, Nov 9
Sun Belt: Troy at Florida International, Oct 25
2011 – Week One Game Picks
Sep 1st
Most of the match-ups this week are pretty clearcut. I’m going out on a limb and picking Maryland at home over a demoralized Miami squad. I’m also breaking from the crowd and picking Army to upset Northern Illinois in DeKalb. If Dan Persa was healthy enough to play at full speed – he is doubtful this week – I would pick Northwestern over Boston College and their thin secondary without any hesitation. As it is, I am doubting my decision to call for a Wildcat win.
Week 1
Picks |
Todd Erickson College Gridiron 365.com | Gerry Ahern Yahoo College Sports | Tom Dienhart Rivals.com
|
Mike Huguenin Rivals.com |
Season | (0-0) | (0-0) | (0-0) | (0-0) |
2010 Regular Season | 188-82 | 186-84 | 189-81 | 182-88 |
Bowl Games | 23-12 | 19-16 | 23-12 | 22-13 |
TCU at Baylor | TCU | TCU | TCU | TCU |
Miami (OH) at Missouri | Missouri | Missouri | Missouri | Missouri |
Northwesternat Boston College | Northwestern | Boston College | Boston College | Boston College |
Minnesota at USC | USC | USC | USC | USC |
UCLA at Houston | Houston | Houston | Houston | Houston |
W. Michigan at Michigan | Michigan | Michigan | Michigan | Michigan |
So. Florida at Notre Dame | Notre Dame | Notre Dame | Notre Dame | Notre Dame |
BYU at Mississippi | Mississippi | Mississippi | Mississippi | Mississippi |
Fresno State at California | Cal | Cal | Cal | Cal |
Colorado at Hawaii | Hawaii | Hawaii | Hawaii | Colorado |
Army at No. Illinois | Army | NIU | NIU | NIU |
Tulsa at Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Oklahoma |
East Carolina at S. Carolina | So. Carolina | So. Carolina | So. Carolina | So. Carolina |
Oregon at LSU | Oregon | Oregon | LSU | LSU |
Rice at Texas | Texas | Texas | Texas | Texas |
Boise State at Georgia | Boise State | Georgia | Georgia | Boise State |
Louisiana Tech at So. Miss | So. Miss | So. Miss | So. Miss | So. Miss |
Marshall at West Virginia | WVU | WVU | WVU | WVU |
SMU at Texas A&M | TAMU | TAMU | TAMU | TAMU |
Miami at Maryland | Maryland | Miami | Miami | Maryland |
Week 3 Game Picks
Sep 15th
This week we all agree on an unprecedented 16 of 20 games, with Huguenin breaking from the pack on the other four games. If you like picking teams against the grain, Mike’s going with West Virginia over Maryland, Miami (OH) over Minnesota, Utah over BYU, and Ohio State over Miami. Good luck! More >
4th and inches … Quick Slants
Nov 4th
Should #1 and #2 be allowed to play each other again in the BCS national championship game? No, of course not. Regardless of whether they’re the two best teams in the country at the end of the year, it would be pointless to allow a rematch in the national title game. That would be like allowing the Yankees and Red Sox to replay each other in the World Series after the historical 2004 American League Championship that Boston won in 7 games. They were clearly the two best teams in the majors that year, but that’s the way it goes in sports. We could go back over the past 20-30 years and find dozens of examples where the best teams didn’t play for the national or world championship in any sport, college or pro.
BYU has more in common with Notre Dame besides independence. Both programs had lofty expectations for this season. Both have three losses. And both could easily be undefeated at this point in the season, were it not for turnovers. Notre Dame had 13 giveaways in their three losses (5 vs. USF, 5 vs. Michigan, 3 vs. USC) and BYU had 12 (2 vs. Texas, 7 vs. Utah, 3 vs. TCU) and those stats aren’t totally reliable for the Cougars because they had 2 other botched punts against Texas Christian which were essentially turnovers that gave the Horned Frogs possession inside the red zone on one and on the BYU 37-yard line on the other.
With Pat Forde’s recent defection to Yahoo! Sports from ESPN.com and Bruce Feldman’s departure earlier this fall from ESPN to CBS College Sports, ESPN doesn’t even rank in the top 3 for online college football analysis. The top three online college football writing staffs are now at Yahoo!/Rivals (Forde, Ahern, Buchanan, Huguenin, Dienhart), SI.com (Mandel and Staples) and CBS (Feldman and Dennis Dodd).
You’ll note I left Graham Watson and Dan Wetzel off the Yahoo! Sports lineup and that’s because they’re not college football experts or analysts. A recent example of Watson’s shoddy and opinionated reporting refers to Mike Leach as having a “sordid past” while covering his interest in the Arizona head coaching position. Seriously. Leach hasn’t done anything to warrant describing his past as “sordid” (which is defined as morally ignoble, base, vile, dirty, filthy). Adam James even admitted under oath that he got into the electrical closet and videotaped himself as a joke.
Speaking of James … the biggest joke among college football awards is the new “Pony Express Award” which is intended to honor the memory of former SMU running tandem of Craig James and Eric Dickerson as it searches for college football’s best tandem each season. Considering that the former Mustang tandem helped usher in the death penalty at Southern Methodist, and the fact that James misused his position at ESPN to lie and blackball Mike Leach at Texas Tech, this award has a load of baggage on its saddle already before its even been handed out for the first year.
Best potential trap game this weekend … #6 Oregon at Washington (with road game at #4 Stanford next week).
Toughest final four regular season games … #13 Michigan (at currently 5-3 Iowa, at currently 6-3 Illinois, #9 Nebraska, #29 Ohio State) – tied with – #3 Oklahoma State (#17 Kansas State, at currently 5-3 Texas Tech, at currently 4-4 Iowa State, #7 Oklahoma).