The Dollar

So here we are are, celebration has brought us together. Just as two kids pretending to live the dream in backyards across the USA. Here in the dorm of all dorms, at the college of all colleges, we come bearing gifts of spirit, joy, and happiness. Notre Dame and the vision of the Four Horsemen in an October Sky, against another overrated opponent. Wisconsin, and Barry's coming-of-age legacy against the Ghost-of-Christmas past and Joe Paterno. The weekend has simply already defined itself full of a tradition without equal. Five kids, from five different walks-of-life trying to chase the dream, with the hopes of one day finding the answer to the do's and don'ts of things.
Charlie and his boys, equipped with $40 million security chasing the dream of a Golden Dome and another National Title. Barry and his band of tricks, track champions and athletes equipped with a spirit section as large as Charlie's waistline along State Street trying to capture that dream for one last time. Ron Dayne came and went, but now, one man named Calhoun is vying at his own Cadillac Dream. The dream of NFL riches and fat contracts can wait, but for one man, the hope of Barry's last dance in State College water down the dream.
Campus' with lakes, Mendota and St. Mary's, coming together like a wave on a Fall Day to form the covalent bond leading to greener pastures and championships. The wait is over, the time is now for Charlie's opening act and Barry's last dance to come together and set the tone for the next generation of kids playing ball on Main Street.
A weekend in South Bend we will all never forget. To dry streaks, student sections, and fat rings, lets chase the dollar blowing in the wind along Main Street.

Opposing Viewpoints

So here's the flip side to that little piece of journalism that Broadway posted. Jason Whitlock is an idiot. He's a fat idiot who flips the race card like a light switch, and a sensationalist who takes small pieces of mistruth, mixes and matches them with skewed facts and revisionist history, and writes a hot-button story that gets people talking, but really has no basis in truth or fact. He's like a good action movie. A couple of car chases, a quick flash of tits, some cool guns, a bad ass actor, and saving the day at the end. It's fun to follow, but it'll never be mistaken for great cinema.

The way I see it, Whitlock made a few mistakes. Comparing 8-0 to 5-2 is stupid if you don't compare the way that they got there. No offensive touchdowns until game 3, smoke and mirrors, and some stellar defensive play. I'll be the first to admit I was on the Ty bandwagon, and also was extremely upset when they fired him, but you don't offer extensions for past work, you offer them for what you see future value to be. Let's not be so quick to dismiss the failures of the Weis regime. Being down 17 and coming back to tie it. Taking it to the No.1 rated team until there's 7 seconds left. And let's slow down before we go blow Buddy Tevens for an alledgedly close game versus Stanford. Leinart was out all night banging the Palo Alto chapter of the Matt Leinart fan club, and Reggie Bush had his eyes on some Asian hottie from Stanford all game. Also, let's not look at the schedule now and see it as some cakewalk, that's revisionist propoganda. The same people who say this are the ones who saw ND going 1-5 or 0-6 to start the season. It's interesting to note that after ND beat teams, they plummeted. If you provide a blueprint (see Purdue, Michigan, and Pitt) for beating teams, it's simple to replicated a proven formula.

Finally, the biggest difference in Ty and Charlie is the regime they are saddled with at ND. Long gone is Monk Malloy, a man who never understood PR or the value of positive buzz. He guided the ND ship through the Kim Dunbar fiasco without saying a word. He let Joe Moore's age discrimination suit be handled in the media's glaring light, and he even threw his own school under the bus after they removed Ty after three years. Mind you, we could've used a little positive spin back in the day. Is it such a big deal that a 25 year-old townie wanted to bang a couple black guys on the football team? But because she dropped 20 bucks to go to a luncheon to scope out her men, she became a booster. Why didn't we hear that back then? Because Monk is a douche.
So in walks Father Jenkins and we find a man who's actually heard of the internet, someone who occasionally smiles, and a person who doesn't have the personality of a planters wart and the public persona of clymidia. And what happens when a story is produced (fabricated actually, by a Michigan grad, posing as a reporter for the NFL network)? Why Notre Dame makes the biggest college football news of the week, without playing a minute that week. Gone are the days of waiting around and getting kicked in the media. Gone are the days where we let coaches and recruiters paint the picture they want because ND sits idly and says nothing. So they extend Charlie, give him the money that perceives him as the best coach in the country, and create a news story better than any rumor can start.

But as for Whitlock, he's still a big fat bitch who writes about as well as Bob Sansevere on the girls high school hockey tournament.

Finally Someone Said It....

Excerpt from Jason Whitlock, 11/1 per ESPN.com :
"Notre Dame has beaten a mediocre Michigan team, a Dave Wannstedt-coached Pittsburgh team that is .500 only because the Big East is terrible, the third- or fourth-best team in the Mountain West Conference (BYU), a bad Purdue squad, and a Washington club with one victory (vs. Idaho). Please don't tell the CIA I told you this -- this information is classified top secret -- but the combined record of Weis' victims is 17-24. I know, I know. You turn on the TV, pick up the newspaper or click on the Internet, and you're led to believe that Notre Dame, under the ingenious direction of the "Great Weis Hope," is undefeated, having hammered USC, Texas and Virginia Tech all in the same weekend. Sadly, it's not true. Weis' greatest accomplishment so far is that he led Notre Dame to a close loss against USC. Buddy Teevens (Stanford) and Karl Dorrell (UCLA) put the same thing on their résumés last year. But they're still waiting on their 10-year, $30 million-$40 million contracts. In case you've forgotten, in 2002, Tyrone ran up an 8-0 record against Maryland, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Stanford, Pittsburgh, Air Force and Florida State. Six of those teams -- all but Stanford and Michigan State -- played in bowl games that year. The combined record, including bowl games, for those eight clubs was 60-43."

I'll admit I've been the leader of the Charlie Weis bandwagon many of times this year, most notably last night when I heralded him as St. Charlie mainly in a sly attempt to lock up some horny Notre Dame chick for the weekend (To be discussed later). However, I think what Jason Whitlock did is respectable considering that no one has ever questioned Charlie Weis once this year. I think he's doing a remarkable job, but the circus he is creating is not worth the 5-2 record that comes along with it. Look at the numbers, the preseason Top 25 that had Michigan, Tennessee and the Charlie Strong, Spread-Option Gators in BCS bowls are long gone. In comes traditional, but not our generational powers like Penn St., Alabama, and ND. With all due respect to these teams, part of me wants to believe that there emergence has to deal with them fufilling expectations and many other traditional powers failing to do so. Florida St.-loss to Virginia. Michigan-started 3-3 while its cross-state rival was busy banging up ND in Charlie's first show in South Bend. Tennessee lost to Spurrier and SC w/ Lou Holtz's players (scary thought how good they'll be w/ real ones). Continuing, Oklahoma- try UCLA, TCU, the list goes on. Florida- Bama', LSU. Iowa-lost to Iowa St. Alright, Penn State did their job vs. Ohio St., Bama' did it vs. the hated Gators, but ND has one close one on their resume that they might have gotten too much credit for. Think of this, UCLA and Stanford both took USC the distance last year despite better numbers out of Leinart and a more balanced USC team. ND did it in green jerseys, half-way across the continent, on national TV, with Leinart throwing two picks and crying like a bitch. Also, remember their is four unbeatens sitting atop the BCS standings. I find it hard to believe no one has ever argued that Virginia Tech, Texas, and USC have created a stockpile atop the rankings and a scrurry for the remaining at-large bids among a handful of talented teams.

I will say it again that I am a firm believer in the circus that is the Notre Dame Football Team, a team that has garnered more media attention since October than the conflict in Iraq. Depsite my calls for a Brady Quinn 2006 Heisman, next year's national championship and Touchdown Charlie next to Touchdown Jesus, I am reminded by my Wisconsin counterparts to not get to ahead of myself. Remember ND still Aesop Schwap'd Michigan St.- twice-the-loser in the Big Ten, and actually moved up in the polls after wins at Purdue, Pitt, and BYU. 5-2 is respectable, 9-2 would be even better. But it could Bowl Season until Notre Dame truly has another chance to prove themselves. So, for now, I think it is alright for someone like Jason Whitlock to question the Charlie surge and his $30+ million payoff because it is going to take a BCS win for Notre Dame to prove that this isn't just another long holiday, like 2002, in South Bend.