Columns

Homesick Irish Return to Face Northwestern

Notre Dame hopes to bounce back from its desert drubbing as the Fighting Irish return home for the first time in five weeks to battle the Northwestern Wildcats on Saturday afternoon. This is the 48th meeting between these programs but the first since 1995. Notre Dame holds a 37-8-2 advantage in the series, and four…

Full Notre Dame Column

Desert Meltdown Dooms Irish

Arizona State converted three Notre Dame turnovers into 21 first half points in a four minute span and spanked the error-prone Irish by 55-31 on Saturday afternoon under the hot desert sun. A blitzing defense pressured quarterback Everett Golson into an avalanche of sacks and errant passes while Notre Dame’s depleted defense could not contain…

Full Notre Dame Column

Wonder, Think & Know: Kitchen Vacating Edition

Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: Some things you wonder, some things you think, and some things you just know. Maybe John Greenlief Whittier would have liked Mike Royko’s writing too. At least he actually said part of that. On the long list of things I don’t want to…

Full Notre Dame Column

IBG: Dry Heat Edition

The desert heat is the perfect thing to help fight a cold, so I’m regretting even more the fact I can’t go. But I soldier on with the Irish Blogger Gathering, muscling through the Nyquil fog and sharing my opinions with the masses. My fellow participants asked their usual questions of me, and their answers…

Full Notre Dame Column

Conference Greed Runs the Playoff Show

In listening to Arkansas AD Jeff  Long (Long has worked in 4 of the 5 power conferences) describe his rationale for rankings it becomes  clear that the committee has no consistent and objective criteria in place. Two weeks ago Long talked about “best wins” in order to justify Michigan State’s ranking (best wins is not…

Full Notre Dame Column