The one bad thing about USC week when the game is in Los Angeles is that most people step away from college football for things like... well, Thanksgiving. And while only 46 percent of the country may be able to see this game (it’ll likely go up as ABC realizes how dumb their original coverage map was), an unranked USC playing an unranked Notre Dame is still a game that most of this country wants to watch. (Like it or not, ESPN...)
ANYWAY...
Before we go full tilt with game coverage, let’s take a swing at the finale of the Irish Blogger Gathering, this time sponsored by OC Domer, a logical choice for a guy right down the 5 freeway from Heritage Hall.
Here’s what he had to say about the rivalry:
With that, I’ll do my best to answer (almost) all of the questions.
1. Notre Dame played perhaps its best game of the year in a win over the Utah Utes two weeks ago. Utah remains ranked at #23 in the Associated Press poll. Notre Dame likewise took Michigan State (AP #11) to overtime before losing on a fake field goal. Therefore the Irish should have no trouble with this unranked Trojan squad. Agree or disagree? Show your work.
Making sense of the polls is an exercise in futility and and both Michigan State and Utah might have two of the more fradulent rankings out there. If the Spartans make their way to Pasadena that’s a gross injustice and I expect whoever they play in a (god forbid) BCS game to absolutely destroy them. (Disclaimer: I have a very large Wisconsin Badgers bias at play here.) As for Utah, they almost exploited a similar situation, a cupcake schedule that allowed them to run out in front of the pack, but they needed to beat Notre Dame to pull off another “elite season.”
There might not be a point to that mini-rant, but if there is, it’s that there’s no mathematical equation that should have the Irish, minus their QB, RB, 2 WRs, TE, and DT, favored. (That doesn’t mean I don’t think they can win.)
2. It is almost time for the OC Domer Player of the Year to be named. This award is intended to recognize the Notre Dame football player or players who played the best when it mattered the most. Suffice it to say that the primary criterion is a consistently high level of play, with significant bonus points awarded for exceeding expectations. Injuries have taken many of the pre-season favorites for this prestigious award out of the running. Who is your nominee for this award, and why?
Is there a trophy involved with this? I think we need an Inside the Irish Player of the Year, and maybe a whole slew of postseason awards... (Filing this away for later.) Based on your criteria, I’ve got to give this award to Michael Floyd on offense and either Harrison Smith or Manti Te’o on defense. Floyd’s an easy offensive choice, even if his stats are down a bit this year. But Smith is that darkhorse candidate that I think deserves a ton of credit for holding together a patchwork secondary. Te’o might be an All-American caliber player, but Smith’s job was probably equally as important, and he deserves a ton of respect for what he did this year. (And hopefully continues to do for two more games...)
3. With a delicate flavor similar to beef, though slightly sweeter than other meats, horse meat can be used to replace beef, pork, mutton, and any other meat in virtually any recipe, though most aficionados prefer it in marinated or spicy dishes. Nutritionally, horse meat has around 40 percent fewer calories than the leanest beef, while supplying 50 percent more protein and as much as 30 percent more iron; and horse fat is considered an excellent health-conscious deep-frying alternative, especially for delicately-flavored foods that are easily overpowered by heavier oils. What is your favorite horse meat recipe?
I’d defer to Dwight Shrute for a recipe here, and it’d probably go well with beets.
(I’m guessing we’re picking horse recipes because of that annoying galloping steed that roams the Coliseum sidelines, right? Otherwise this is just plain wrong...)
4. Do you miss Pat Haden, who left the Notre Dame television broadcasts to become athletic director at USC?
I think Haden is in the absolute perfect place, cleaning up an institutional mess at USC, and doing a very good job of it. He was a very good broadcaster and a very nice man, but I don’t think the NBC telecasts have missed a beat with Mike Mayock, and I get a lot less email from people accusing NBC of hiring a biased commentator against Notre Dame, so that’s a plus as well.
5. USC is the Notre Dame rival I love to hate. What Notre Dame rival do you most despise, and why?
There’s nobody I despise, but being surrounded by USC people in the town I live in is pretty annoying as a guy who graduated from Notre Dame. Add in the fact that they all have well-coiffed hair, a nicer car than me, and spend dozens of hours a week in the gym fine-tuning their beach bodies, and by the end of a football season it gets pretty hard to stand, especially after USC boat-races the Irish.
Again, I don’t hate USC, and I’ve got plenty of friends that (somehow) cheer for the Trojans, but if I had to pick a rivalry that I’d REALLY want Notre Dame to flip the switch on, this would be it.
(Close second is Michigan, because their blogosphere enjoys Notre Dame’s suffering so thoroughly...)
6. Reggie Bush got a car, his parents a house. Cam Newton’s Dad was looking for $180,000 in straight cash homey. Can Notre Dame compete for athletic recruits in this environment? Or do you believe these incidents are the exceptions to an otherwise clean recruiting landscape?
They certainly aren’t exceptions, but as it gets harder and harder to get away with things, I see the programs that do things the right way having an actual advantage in the recruiting landscape.
Consider the “scandal” that’s plaguing Dillon Baxter, who took a free golf cart ride from some student that somehow got licensed by the NFLPA to be a football agent. The USC athletic department had to crack the whip on this just because they opened their gates freely to agents, runners, and just about everyone else during the past 10 years. Even if Cam Newton and his father somehow escape the toothless grasp of the NCAA, Auburn will need to step up their policing of a program that’s likely going to have all eyes on it, and the microscope could turn out to be stifling.
If you’re doing things the right way, there’s no reason to look over your shoulder. As the internet and information age makes it so difficult to get away with things, the people who aren’t constantly looking over their shoulder will have a chance to get ahead.