Notre Dud

2008-09-10T11:52:30-04:00

2008-09-06T20:40:04-04:00

2008-09-10T06:38:24-04:00

2008-09-09T13:13:46-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/916/77/thumb/Rockne.jpg 11 AZ

Noahawk

Tucson 91977

Mandel is right on the money. I am a huge ND fan and I am not only disappointed by this team but I feel taken by all the hype about this being a "breakout year". I think it is simply a matter of this team lacking talent. You only go as far as the talent will take you and despite all the over hyped "star recruits" there are not playmakers on this team. The reason ND looked like the 2007 Irish is because it is basically the same players on offense. They are just not athletic enough to compete with good Div I teams, much less elite teams. I hope they prove me wrong, but I am not expecting much at this point. 2701442

2008-09-09T04:41:52-04:00

jm0205

Belle Vernon 495816

jg- "Why doesn't Mandel take the same potshots against OSU" as he takes @ Notre Dame. Let me start by saying I'm not a biased OSU fan.. I'm actually a Penn St. fan. But maybe Mandel taking "potshots" @ Notre Dame has something to do with Ohio St. dominating the Big 10 the past few years & playing in two National Championship games, while ND struggles to finish 3-9, including a loss against Navy. You make yourself sound like a complete fool when writing posts like that. 2697372

2008-09-09T01:04:59-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/484/216/thumb/ND_Play.bmp 30 WA

Comefierros

Richland 484656

Let's start by remembering that College football has cycles. Have all of you forgot those Trojans teams of the 80's-90's who lost 13 consecutive games to ND? ND is going through the same process as those Trojans and it is not quite evident yet if Weis would be the ideal Coach to take ND back to a National Championship. And I say not yet because it does not matter how wholeheartedly you would love for ND to have a sensational season, it simply results impossible. It is my understanding that teams are built around the Senior and Junior classes so we have to be realistic (I AM A ND FAN) and understand that a team as dismal as last year ND team cannot get any higher than maybe 6-6 or, if lucky 7-5 under the leadership of last year Juniors and sophomores. Whatever the outcome ends up being, the team has learned to win the "ugly wins" and, based on this year schedule, will leave ND at least 6-6. If they get bowl elegible, I just hope they decline as will be painful to lose 11 bowls in a row. 2696886

2008-09-08T22:15:01-04:00

E-Dog

St. Marys 117319

Stewart wrote an article that is accurate based on the way ND played. I suffered through the whole game and watched in dismay as the players kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. They were struggling against a less talented team and I believe thoughts of "Here we go again" crept into their minds. But to their credit the game turned after the fumble on the goal line. Clausen looked solid in the second half, especially on the two scoring drives. Love him or hate him, he's the starting QB and let's be honest, his arm looks much stronger this year. ND should use the pass to set up the run instead of vise-versa. Clausen was very effective on the scoring drives and the defense played well. Consider the fact they were playing a pass first and run second team and still blitzed as much as they did, 13 points isn't all that bad. If you to be hard on someone, look at my alma mater Pitt and start whailing on Wanstedt. 2696247

2008-09-08T19:50:21-04:00

rdf2Diego

Houston 98920

jg is the typical delusional Notre Dame fan. As an unbiased observer of the game (I'm Catholic but my football allegiance falls to LSU thus neither for nor against ND), the Irish looked atrocious. Personally, I think that the hasty firing of Tyrone Willingham and the coronation of Charlie Weis were both mistakes (notice that the Patriots have actually gotten better on offense since he left... at least til Brady got hurt). San Diego State is so bad, there are some neighboring high schools that could take them down. The amazing strip on the 1" line to save a touchdown was a big play and woke up both the crowd and the offense; the problem is that it shouldn't have been necessary. No team with expectations to even go 6-6 should have been at risk of going down 2 scores to the Aztecs. And it's not that we are hating on Notre Dame. It's that when a team is put on national TV regardless of quality and hyped to be better than they actually are year after year (and this is one of those years because most people considered them a lock for a bowl), that we just have to point out the obvious. Not to rain on your parade, but please adjust your expectations. You'll be happier in the end if you do. Take it from a life-long LSU fan; when you come to terms that your team sucks like LSU did a decade ago, you will appreciate the season when you get back to 6&6. And any return to glory beyond that will be even sweeter. Don't rush it, just deal with it in the mean time. 2695130

2008-09-08T19:40:11-04:00

Actualinsight5374

East Lansing 518565

Stewart, you and Mark May are just ND haters who love the sound of your own voices...Don't try to sound all intelligent by trying to make ND look like a sub-par team after they WON. If they had lost, you might have a point. But they won, unlike your 0-2 sleeper pick Oregon State...they lost to the powerhouse Stanford (who ND even managed to beat last year), and got smashed by Penn State. You, and Mark May have no idea what you're talking about. Look at some real sleepers this year: Colorado, ECU, and UCLA...not you and May's Oregon St, Clemson, and Pitt. I can't believe you two have been elevated this high in your careers with terrible insights and no accountability for your picks. Why don't you bring up that Oregon St is 0-2, and you made a terrible sleeper pick, because you don't have to...your ego wouldn't be satisfied by being a man and owning up to your pick, instead you bring your personal bias into your article by trying to make ND look bad. I sincerely hope you and Mark May lose your jobs and never recover. 2695122

2008-09-08T19:38:22-04:00

Actualinsight5374

East Lansing 518565

2008-09-08T18:07:16-04:00

Shanonalex

Osmond 105571

He was not taking shots at ND. He was being honest and un biased, something most journalist and all ND fans can not do. I am a huge Nebraska fan and I know we are in for a rough season when we are only beating SJSU by 2 points in the begining of the 4th. Wake up ND fans 2694603

2008-09-08T14:30:27-04:00

GatorHaterNole

Glen Allen 518277

NRoy, objective writing doesn't work well in opinion pieces. This is an opinion piece. Here's a bit of advice for everybody: The media is not biased. They write about the stories that are there, you just happen to notice it more when it's about your team and it's bad. Was the media biased against ND when Weiss was hired or when Claussen was recruited? To those of you that compalain that Mandel is taking undue notice of ND you might want to look at Mandel's other article where he takes shots at WVA, the Big East, and Mark May. I know nobody is going to take my advice and that's fine becasue I really enjoy reading the inane comments that occur. 2692029

2008-09-08T12:42:06-04:00

Mugsy

Astoria 347385

Because Mandel writes a mediocre column and idiots like you and me read it... because he has a Mark May ND bashing skit. That's why Mandel bashes after game 1. He even admits not watching the whole game. Nd gave up 20-28 points on redzone/goaline bonehead turnovers. Mandel missed that watching Oklahoma-Cincy because he's too cheap to pay for the 89.99 CFB on demand for theseason...even though its his job. Without the turnovers/mistakes its th eblowout we expected. Hopefully its a "first game" excuse. If not ...its a long season listening to hacks like Stewie. 2690612

<img style="width: 425px; height: 289px; float: right;" title="AP" src="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/images/09/06/t1_kamara.jpg" border="1" alt="AP" width="425" height="289" align="top" /> NEW YORK -- So much for Waking up the Echoes. So much for that "easy" schedule. So much for Lou Holtz's 11-win prediction. As much as I enjoyed <a href="/blogs/post/246796">hanging out with my new Cincinnati friends</a> (we did find a better viewing spot, the East Side Blondie's), there came a time in the third quarter when Oklahoma began pulling away that I had no choice but to slosh through the rain to return home and turn my attention to the potential train wreck playing out on NBC. All summer long, I questioned the ultra-optimistic predictions regarding Notre Dame's improvement in 2008 -- but I certainly expected better than this. In their first game since completing the worst season in school history, the Irish spent three quarters playing like ... the same, horrendous nine-loss team. In the end, Charlie Weis' team erased a 13-7 fourth-quarter deficit to <a href="/football/ncaa/recaps/2008/09/06/37887_recap.html">survive mighty San Diego State, 21-13</a>. A close loss to a respectable, BCS-conference foe would have been a big leap from last year. Even a close win over a decent mid-major would have been more encouraging. But to eek out a home win over San Diego State? Are you kidding me? The Aztecs could not have improved that much from last week's hard-fought defeat to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Facing a defense that got trampled by a I-AA foe last week, QB Jimmy Clausen spent most of the first three quarters throwing to non-existent receivers and/or Aztecs defenders. And unlike a year ago, he was not under heavy duress. It's hard to say whether ND's offensive line is all that improved, however -- because Notre Dame couldn't run the ball, either. Finally, in the fourth quarter, Clausen sprung to life. Fortunate to be down only 13-7 after San Diego State fumbled away a touchdown into the Irish end zone, the sophomore led the Notre Dame 80 yards in six plays, capped by a 38-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate, then tacked on another TD to put it away. But let's not kid ourselves: The Irish were barely good enough to beat what may be one of the worst teams in Division I-A. Does that mean Notre Dame is going to go 3-9 again? Not necessarily. It took 10 games last year for the Irish to show any semblance of life on offense; perhaps Clausen's fourth-quarter "heroics" will serve as a confidence builder. But to all the delusionists who envisioned the Irish leaping from 3-9 to 9-3 based on a blind belief that Weis' ballyhooed recruits would improve exponentially with a year's experience -- sorry to burst your bubble. Barring rapid, dramatic improvement, ND is going to have a hard time beating most of the decent foes on its schedule. · As for Oklahoma, the Sooners also looked very much like their 2007 edition in a 52-26 blowout -- and that's both a good and bad thing. The good: Sam Bradford (29-of-38, 392 yards, five TDs) had no problem tearing apart a respectable Cincinnati defense. OU's offense is once again locked and loaded, with freshman WR Ryan Broyles (seven catches, 181 yards) the latest weapon in their arsenal. Defensively, my one concern is that I saw several instances of a problem that marked last season's losses to Texas Tech and West Virginia: blown tackles. Cincinnati produced most of its offense on a handful of big plays (including a 97-yard kick return touchdown) where a ball-carrier simply broke into the open field. OU's secondary remains its one area of suspicion. 1226 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/940/61/thumb/mandel_stewart.jpg 2 NY

Stewart Mandel

New York 94361