Well, as Notre Dame continues their Big Ten Football tour, they now face off against the Purdue Boilermakers, who is traveling to South Bend for their first road game of the year. Even though the campuses are actually less than two hours apart from each other, playing in front of Touchdown Jesus will be totally different for the Boilers than what they’ve experienced playing at Ross-Ade.

Why? Because Notre Dame fans are rabid about their football (duh) and this year’s team has given them more hope than in the last few (ok, several) years. Even though they lost to Michigan State after Javon Ringer literally barreled them over and they totally ran out of gas in the second half, this team is still looking at this game as redemption time to get back on track. Read the rest of this entry »

In a world of redundancies, isn’t the mascot “Fighting Irish” one of those? Sorry, just had to say something about that and get it off my chest. Ahhh, much better now. Let’s get down to business.  Notre Dame and Michigan State, while not rivals per se, have had quite the storied history over the past several years. Besides last year’s game which the Spartans thoroughly dispatched a horrid Notre Dame team, for the past seven meetings had been decided by seven points or less, including a total meltdown by MSU a couple of years ago in squandering a huge lead to the Irish in the second half.

This year is quite different than last: for those of you paying attention (WAKE UP!), from the end of last year until this–that’s 4 W’s in a row for Charlie Weis‘ crew. Jimmy Clausen seems to have really settled into his skin at the quarterback position, and the team–while still a shell of powerhouse Notre Dame teams–definitely looks like a team that has a bit of swagger back in South Bend. Sure, they could have choked against San Diego State, and yes, they really didn’t look absolutely amazing against Michigan, but the difference is that this year’s team fights with a ton more will than last year’s teams who would have wilted like a flower in August.

Michigan State, on the other hand, after losing a coulda-woulda-shoulda-didn’t game to Cal in the opener on the road, has had two feeble opponents that they’ve blasted. Javon Ringer is leading the conference in carries and scoring, and that’s no surprise–but what is a surprise is that QB Brian Hoyer has, for all intents and purposes, struggled. He’s averaging 186 passing ypg, has only thrown 1 TD, and has only completed 44% of his passes. Ouch. If the Spartans are going to be successful, it will need to be because Hoyer steps up and plays like he is capable of doing.

Defensively, both teams are not pushovers, but they are not dominant either. The jury is still out on Michigan State, who gave up 38 to Cal but have only given up 10 over their past two games–against much weaker opponents. Notre Dame’s is so-so as well, giving up almost 370 yards per game defensively (they’re 2-0??).

With this game being played in East Lansing, the edge has to go to Michigan State. The bookmakers have the line at 9 points in favor of Michigan State, but I think that’s because people still aren’t sold on the Fighting Irish quite yet. But make no mistake–just like years prior, this will be a great game and come down to a couple of key plays. Ringer is just too much for this defense and will be the difference in the end. The tally: Michigan State 31, Notre Dame 24

I think in order to make things more streamlined and formative, I am going to start doing some frequent posting that encapsulates different items on certain days in order for fluidity to the site. That being said, here is what my schedule will be going forward per conference:

Monday-Big Ten

Tuesday-Pac 10

Wednesday-ACC

Thursday-Big East

Friday-Big 12

Saturday-SEC

Sunday-All others

In these daily capsules, I will have different posts discussing the previous week’s events, news, and future discussions about the teams and conferences themselves (not limiting to specific sports). I will also post on news events as they transpire with my two, or three cents, maybe even a dollar’s worth. For those of you out there that would like to have a discussion on a certain topic, shoot an email my way and I’ll be happy to give it a shot.

Thanks for your support of the site and I look forward to getting started on this!

Tim AKA “The Athletic Supporter”

Football. The game of men. Where mud flies, bones crack, and the meek dare not enter the field. The grunts, the growls, and the intimidation factor was extremely high at the…wait a second..the POINSETTIA Bowl?

The essence of man?? 

What’s next, the Kotex Challenge? The Victoria’s Secret Bowl?

Since when did we start playing in bowls named after FLOWERS, for cripes’ sake??

Anyways, back to the game…Utah, a largely favored team against the upstart Navy Midshipmen, eeeeeeeeeeeeked by the hair of their chinny-chin-chin past the Naval Academy by 35-32. While the first half was boring as hell, if you went to the bathroom for any extended time in the second half, you probably missed points being scored, as the two teams combined for 50–yes, you read that right–50 points in the second half.

Knute Rockne, eat your heart out.

The win was the seventh in a row for Utah in bowl games (this is over a span of 9 years). Of course, when you are playing in bowls named after flowers, winning seven in a row is kind of like winning the Powerball the day after it already was won.  It also ruined the debut of Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo after their head coach bolted (seems to be a trend,ya think?).

Nonetheless, it turned out to be a great game, and congrats to the Utes…Here’s your trophy: everyone gets Poinsettias. YEY!