Archives › 2009 › August
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Dr. Saturday, Yahoo! Sports’ Matt Hinton, takes his turn at the operating table as he dissects this season’s Fighting Irish. Doc’s preview is especially pragmatic, as he analyzes some of the talking points we’ve hit on a few times this week. Here are some of his thoughts on… BCS or bust: “Given just how dire…
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The South Bend Tribune wasn’t the only news organization to get a sit-down with Irish athletic director Jack Swarbrick. Here’s a small sampling of Brian Hamilton of the Chicago Tribune’s interview. What he thinks of this year’s Irish: “If you can find an AD who doesn’t go into the season optimistic, you’ve done a helluva…
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While we’ve done plenty of linking to optimistic predictions for the 2009 Fighting Irish, we thought it only fair to at least mention a few of the pessimistic viewpoints being written. Exhibit A comes from the Bleacher Report, where scribe Jonathan Slotter makes the case for a “7-5 Irish record, or 8-4 at best.” He…
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A familiar theme this preseason has been the softness of Notre Dame’s 2009 schedule. Scheduling for Notre Dame has always been somewhat of a double-edged sword. Schedule too many challenging games, and people will complain that you’re doing it to the detriment of the team. Schedule one too many cupcakes, and you’ll hear that the…
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(As game day approaches, Inside the Irish will be previewing each of the positions leading up to the big tilt with Nevada to open the season. The running backs preview is the first of many to come this week.) Many were thrilled when Armando Allen signed with the Irish in the 2007 recruiting class. Here…
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The Wall Street Journal previewed the upcoming college football season, and asked “which college football giant awakens next?” Using last year’s Alabama squad as an example (as the South Bend Tribune did the same a few weeks ago), WSJ broke down last season’s group of “fallen powers” into two divisions — last year’s mediocres and…
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News broke this morning in the Detroit Free-Press about potential NCAA violations under Rich Rodriguez and his Michigan Wolverines coaching staff. From the Free Press: The University of Michigan football team consistently has violated NCAA rules governing off-season workouts, in-season demands on players and mandatory summer activities under coach Rich Rodriguez, numerous players told the…
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…Had this headline sent to me by a Notre Dame fan who claimed to nearly have a heart attack after reading it. “SN100 DE settles on a new high school” By Brian McLaughlinSporting News Sporting News Top 100 defensive end Chris Martin has transferred to Grandview (Aurora, Colo.), the Denver Post reported. The 6-foot-5, 235-pound…
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The GameDay crew at ESPN decided to sit down and talk about the upcoming season for the Irish. Overall, some pretty level-headed discourse, but one of the biggest disappointments of it all was this: Where is Mark May? May has gotten under the skin of most hard-core Notre Dame fans with his good cop, bad…
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(Editor’s Note: “That’s What He Said,” is a new segment where we’ll break down comments from different members of the Irish and try to dig a little deeper into what he’s thinking. Think of it as our tribute to Dunder Mifflin’s Michael Scott, only about college football, not… well, you know.) Darrin Walls spent 2008…
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This time next week, a few hundred thousand people will be descending upon South Bend, and preparing to fill Notre Dame stadium to capacity for the opening of the 2009 football season. But this weekend, the Notre Dame football team will “go silent.” “The University of Notre Dame football team will ‘go silent’ over the…
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As Nevada game week approaches, and we get ready to spend some serious time next week covering the vaunted “Pistol” offense, I figured it’d be a good time for us to start talking about other offensive systems that get everybody fired up. Lately, no offense has captured the hearts and minds of football coaches more…
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You’ll have to cut me some slack, this blog wasn’t around when Lou Holtz made waves with his prediction for the BCS National Championship game. In case you were under a rock (or in web-development chaos all week as well), here’s what you missed: Lou Holtz, he of undying allegiance to the University of Notre…
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While head coach Charlie Weis won’t be making the depth chart for week one public until next Tuesday, he did give more than a few hints at what’s to come when it’s revealed. Here’s a link to the preseason depth chart, that both UND.com and the preseason media guide show. A few thoughts before analyzing…
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Matt Barkley named Trojans starter: Jon Tenuta licks his chops
Aug 27, 2009, 10:00 PM EST
News broke this afternoon that Pete Carroll had named true freshman quarterback Matt Barkley USC’s starter. “It’s clear to us as a staff that Matt Barkley is ready to be the starting quarterback at USC,” Carroll said. “He has exceeded all our expectations. He has all the physical ability, he has the mentality and temperament…
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As we get started here, I wanted to make known right off the bat that “Inside the Irish” is part of the Notre Dame blogging community. For the last few weeks as we’ve prepped for launch, I did some digging and reaching out to members of the Notre Dame writing community, because I truly value…
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Welcome to “Inside the Irish,” the new NBCSports.com blog that will bring you daily news, rumors, analysis, commentary, and just about everything you’d ever want to know about the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. As your fearless leader and the guy behind this bold new experiment, I thought it’d be as good a time as…
