This may very well be my favorite college football quote of 2009:
“I wanted to run on the field and jump up and down, but I was kind of tired,” said linebacker Ram Vela, who had an interception and fumble recovery. “We’d done it before and we went into this game not really placing as much emphasis or too much importance on it. We just treated it like another game.”
That makes three losses for the Irish, including one to a 5-5 Michigan squad with its own problems now. With road games left against Pittsburgh and Stanford, it’s looking likely that the once BCS-bound (ha!) team will struggle mightily to avoid a fourth loss.
Darn shame, I say.
********************************************************************
UPDATE: Angst is blinding this blogger. “Because there is not a COACH IN THE WORLD worse for ND than Urban Meyer. NOT ONE. Not Weis. Not anyone.” (h/t Doc Saturday)
Get The Picture 
They will pay Meyer $10 million a year.
I do not know how he will be able to turn it down this time.
LikeLike
The real shame is we had to, as late as this week, be concerned that a team this lousy could, once again, come in and steal a chunk of the BCS pie. I wonder if the BCS were being formed today, would the founders give the farm away again just to get Notre Dame? They have been irrelevant so long now that perhaps they would have been forced to join a conference and earn their way in. Nah, makes too much sense.
Congrats to Navy, they had to have 99% of all Americans cheering for them yesterday.
LikeLike
If he wins another natty this year, I don’t know why he wouldn’t go. Tebow is the “straw that stirs the drink” in UFs offense. He will be gone. If Strong isn’t gone at the end of the year,I will be extremely surprised. I really don’t want for him to leave though. We will eventually right the ship against them and I want hisarrogant butt to be on the sidelines.
LikeLike
Said it before, the perfect coach for ND is Paul Johnson. With ND’s actual tough athlete admission standards(as opposed to Tech’s perceived), someone that plays a completely different game makes sense for them. I’d back up the Brinks truck in ATL if I were ND.
LikeLike
I’m with you man, I’d rather have Paul Johnson go to ND than Urban Meyer
LikeLike
Well, I’m not so much trying to get rid of him as I just think it would be a good fit. Tech had the right idea, and since ND actually faces the disadvantages Tech claims too, it would be an even better fit. But….ND is too proud and would never do it. They’re going to swing for the fences with the next hire.
LikeLike
I have NO idea what ND will actually do, but besides academics, there are other reasons for them to hunt down PJ: 1) His offensive style is oddly reminiscent of the ‘four horsemen’ from back when ND was good, and 2) PJ kind of looks like a leprechaun. Jes’ sayin’. 🙂
LikeLike
I don’t know what you are talking about. ND lets some serious mental midgets go there if they can play foobaw.
LikeLike
That LB sounds like a Georgia player.
This means I will (sadly) be pulling for UF to win a NC in hopes CUM will ride off into the sunset heading for the slums of northern Indiana.
LikeLike
I hear ya’…..I said that last year and I guess I’ll say it again……see ya’ CUM!
go!…. CUM!… go!
LikeLike
Charlie Weis is like Ray Goff, except that he’s an ###hole, Ray Goff on the other hand was a real peach of a guy.
LikeLike
Then why did Ray Goff and Jackie Sherrill always rate as the coach other coaches would least like to see their son play for?
LikeLike
Never heard that before Hogbody, interesting, but if my son had any football talent I wouldn’t want him playing for Goff either, I mean the fact that Terrell Davis rode the pine at Georgia for most of his career is one of the most enduring monuments to the fact that a coach didn’t know what he was doing that I have ever seen. So I definitely wouldn’t want my son to play for a guy like that either, however Goff did always seem like a pretty nice guy, at least he never projected arrogance on television like Weis does. I guess what I’m saying is that if your bad at what you do at least don’t be cocky about it.
LikeLike
I’m not defending Goff, but Terrell Davis didn’t get much playing time because he suffered from Migraines. That’s well documented…
LikeLike
Also, Hearst was there most of the time and in the midst of a Heisman campaign during his last season. Davis was injured much of the next season once Hearst had left.
LikeLike
I’m pretty sure Hearst’s last season was 92′, and TD’s was 95′
LikeLike
TD’s was 94′, point is TD didn’t sit most of his career because he was behind Hearst.
LikeLike
It’s also pretty well known Goff didn’t like him, if I was Goff I’d play up the Migraines thing too, I’d feel like a moron if I didn’t play a guy who went on to have the NFL career Davis did, he also kept Robert Edwards at DB way too long, I was probably being a bit harsh to compare Weis’s coaching skills to Goff’s. Goff was as bad as it gets.
LikeLike
I really can’t stand Meyer, but part of me does not want to see him go. Part of me wants Meyer to stay. That way, when the DAWGS figure out the riddle that is playing-like-they’re-supposed-to-in-Jacksonville, the victories will be all the more enjoyable. There’s something just not right about wishing your nemesis away rather than seeking and attaining success against them instead. However, given my disdain for Notre Dame, Meyer in South Bend could be my personal perfection when it comes to swinging the HATE stick.
LikeLike
There really is no “riddle.” UGA was beating FLA almost every year (certainly every time something was at stake) until Steve Spurrier showed up. Spurrier, still smarting from the ass-kicking the Dawgs put on his Gators when Spurrier was a senior, which cost the Gators an SEC Championship and a chance at the National Championship, vowed to make beating UGA the centerpiece of his coaching tenure in Gainesville. He got his AD to have the SEC change the schedule so that FLA would have the week off before its game with UGA whereas UGA would not. (So much for the myth that the AD has no control over SEC scheduling.) As the game was being played in Jacksonville already, it was, essentially, an away game for UGA but a home game for FLA. (FLA playing in Jacksonville is as much a home game for them as BAMA playing in Birmingham– a 90 minute bus ride versus the other team having to fly on a plane and stay in a hotel.) It took the crowd in Athens 15 years to figure out what the effect of Spurrier’s moves was. Finally wising up (at least partially) after the loss in 2005, His Imperial Highness Michael Adams instructed his servant AD to change things. They moved the UK game so UGA would have an extra week to prepare for FLA. That has helped. UGA won in 2007. The other problem remains, however. UGA is the only team in the SEC that, year after year, plays 3 home SEC games and 5 road SEC games. So the “riddle” has been solved but the final solution yet to be implemented.
LikeLike
P.S. Happy folks in Gainesville are laughing their asses off at those stupid Georgia rednecks for renewing the contract that keeps the Gators in a position of advantage to win the WLOCP just because the rednecks want an excuse to take a fall trip to the beach. Maybe when the UGA Administration and fan base decide that winning is more important than having a good time we will start winning the game again. Why do we lose? Because we do not have the commitment to win.
LikeLike
So Mayor, two things here
1.) UGA had the week off this year and Florida did not. How did that work out for them?
2.) If Jacksonville is such an advantage for Florida, then please explain how UGA was able to dominate the series in the 70s and 80s, after Florida won most of the games in the 50s and the 60s?
The fact of the matter is this; Florida has had three consecutive coaches that have winning records against Georgia. Georgia has had three consecutive coaches with losing records against Florida. Location and having a week off does not explain that overwhelming advantage for Florida. But one thing does explain that advantage; coaching
LikeLike
I actually agree with you, Mike. The decision about rigging the SEC schedule was made by Spurrier–it was a coaching decision and part of his overall plan to dominate UGA. The reason why the Dawgs dominated in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s was that the programs were not on a par with one another. FLA had never even won a single SEC Championship. That changed with Spurrier. Finally, the extra week off thing doesn’t always work. For example, UGA beat FLA in the second year of the Donnan tenure even though FLA had 2 weeks to get ready and UGA did not.
LikeLike
I am going to quibble with you just a bit. Georgia most certainly DID NOT dominate the series in the 60s. Florida was 6-3-1 against Georgia in the 60s.
For those scoring at home;
In the 50s Florida was 6-4 against UGA
In the 60s Florida was 6-3-1 against UGA
In the 70s UGA was 7-3 against Florida
In the 80s UGA was 8-2 against Florida
In the 90s Florida was 9-1 against UGA
In the 00s Florida was 8-2 against UGA
In addition, Florida has wiped out the Dooley years in terms of the impact it has on the series. Dooley was 17-7-1 against Florida when he retired in 1989. Since then, Florida has dominated to the tune of 17-4.
LikeLike
My apologies. I forgot about the Johnny Griffith years in the first part of that decade.
LikeLike
Blutarsky, it’s never too soon to crank up the Urban Meyer to South Bend rumors. Just making him deny it takes his time.
LikeLike
How funny would it be if Tech would lose Johnson after just 2 years. He isn’t going to stay there anyway and how much better of a job is ND than Tech.
LikeLike
I dunno. Ask George O’Leary how good a job it is.
LikeLike
Good enough to tell lies in order to get hired, apparently.
LikeLike
LOL.
LikeLike
With Stanford and Pitt left on the schedule, more losses loom ahead.
Weis probably has to win all three games to keep his job.
Would Corch Myers bolt for South Bend? I’m not seeing it.
LikeLike
Charlies seems to be growing weary of the job. This sounds like a “please just fire me” kind of quote:
It’s the type of loss that will no doubt fire up the critics of Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis.
“That comes with the territory. The sad part of that is that’s this job every week,” said Weis, who is 35-24 in five season at Notre Dame. “It’s a week to week deal.”
LikeLike
Actually, I suspect that feelers are going out from ND to Brian Kelly’s representatives as I type this.
LikeLike
I’m with you Senator wishing for CPJ or CUM to go away is not gong to help our problems.
LikeLike
i doubt VERY seriously that CUM is going anywhere. Why would he want to make his life more difficult? Brian Kelly or Paul Johnson will be a better fit. Urban’s kids are in school and want to finsih there so there will be at least 4 or 5 more years of him in Gainesville. He doesn’t want to coach in the pro’s as he has watched too many college coaches, note SOS and Saben, go down in flames and he is not having it. Also, do not be surprised that if and when he retires, your boy Mullen won’t be back.
I really believe Strong is an amazing coordinator, but he will not make a good head coach.
LikeLike
Gator, if he goes it would be because Notre Dame offers him money he can’t refuse.
LikeLike
sometimes all the money in the world is not worth the headaches …
LikeLike
Wishing that our rivals’ coaches would leave doesn’t help us one bit. They’ll get a new coach and we’ll still have the same incompetent staff. I hope those coaches stay and we right the ship with some new coaches. I want CUM on the sidelines when we wax the Gators next. I hope it’s not 20 years from now too.
LikeLike
Big Tuna Charlie (Mrs. Doubtfire) loses two out of three to Navy right under the watchful and disapproving eyes of TD Jesus.
Pre-Charlie, the Fightin’ Irises had not lost to Navy since Christ was a midshipman. Now some in the diocese are pointing fingers at one another, rapping each other across the knuckles with their respective hard wooden rulers and saying among other things, did this guy not already have gut reduction surgery and if so good golly miss molly think how big his midsection would be if he hadn’t.
They are really beginning to doubt if they made the right decision to give the Charlie the constant annually renewing ten year running contract. The secret vote is taken and leprechaun green smoke is coming out of the campus incinerator chimney…
That signifies that none of the honchos in charge doubt the upcoming soon to be firing of the Charlie and the seeking of the Urban Legend (Keith Moon) in his own mind as a substitute…
LikeLike
Mrs. Doubtfire…that’s good.
LikeLike
I think Urban Meyer gives it a 1- or 2-year run after Tebow leaves. But once it’s confirmed that Tebow is the glue holding all of that talent together, he’ll bolt. If the Notre Dame position is open, he might take it. But he may be looking to the NFL.
If Notre Dame goes looking for a new coach in 2010, though, it could very well be Paul Johnson. (Although, I think they’d be better off with someone like Brian Kelly.)
I think it’d be kinda interesting to see Charlie Strong get offered the job.
LikeLike
Guys, Tebow, while a great athlete is a ball hog, if you have not noticed. Our offense will be more dynamic next year for sure. Thank God, as each week we are watching a train wreck!
LikeLike
Turd, I hope you are right but I am afraid the Gators will be just as good or better with Brantley at QB. The guy came out of HS with credentials as good as Tebow and he is a much better passer of the football. As it is now, the Gators really have no down field passing attack. Brantley gives them that. Most of the rest of their team comes back, too. Exhibit “A” is the UK-FLA came when Tebow got hurt. With Tebow out of the game, FLA scored 10 points in little more than a quarter with Brantley at QB.
LikeLike
As much as I’d like to see Meyer go, I’ve loved watching Navy beat the Irish the last few times. One of the highlights of the past few seasons.
As much as I hate Florida as a UGA fan, as an American I hate Notre Dame and the pass they get from the media as Holtz and the NBC “analysts” trumpet their virtues each pre-season. The mere fact that Jimmy Clausen has been part of the Heisman conversation should tell you everything you need to know (as little as that award has come to mean).
I’d love to see Weis stay for a few more years so I can see Niumatalololololololo and the Midshipmen wear them out a few more times.
LikeLike
You are a very ignornant individual. And you judge with your A__. Clausen is the best throwing quarterback that has ever played a ND. He is also an excellent defensive reader. If his winning’s were up he would definitely be in the running. I am not an ND fan but I have watched them play and I am extremely impressed with his accuracy. So forget you dude.
LikeLike
Better than Joe Montana? How about Joe Theisman? Okay, you like Jimmy Clausen. We get that. But try not to go off half-cocked with your analogies, Sabremaker.
LikeLike
“UPDATE: Angst is blinding this blogger. “Because there is not a COACH IN THE WORLD worse for ND than Urban Meyer. NOT ONE. Not Weis. Not anyone.”
Some blind Aubies with angst said the same thing, but for different reasons, about Gene Chizik too and now Auburn has been bowl eligible since Halloween!
LikeLike