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Conspiracy theory There's just no pleasing Notre Dame followersPosted: Thursday October 03, 2002 1:07 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Ivan Maisel will answer your college football questions every Thursday. Click here to send a question. The Irish fans are back, God love them. Somebody ought to. Is the SID department at Notre Dame paying beat writers to pump its program? I know the Irish are 4-0, but the four wins came against extremely suspect teams. Notre Dame beat Purdue by nearly the same margin that Wake Forest did. Notre Dame over Michigan State, 21-17 with a last-minute rally; California clobbered the Spartans 48-22 in East Lansing. Aside from a schedule that includes only two ranked teams the rest of the way, do you really believe the Irish are a viable national championship contender?
I think you're adding up 2 and 2 and getting 5, when, as everyone knows, 2 and 2 equals third-and-6. Just because we have all flogged the Notre Dame story to death doesn't mean we believe Notre Dame is a national championship team. I don't think I've read anything that characterizes the Irish as anything but the best story of the first month of the season. Why do you trash Notre Dame every week in your online column? You have repeatedly insinuated that the Irish aren't as good as their record, while doubting their ability to win more games in the future. Is there a point at which you acknowledge that the Irish have a good football team (regardless of whether they go to Tempe), an excellent coach, and a realistic shot at being 7-0 heading into Florida State? Or will you continue to doubt, only to be proven wrong over and over as you have so far this season? It's easy to pick a team to lose -- almost every team in college football does lose multiple games during the season --- but it's much harder to pick a team to continue winning. Considering that you're paid a significant amount of money to write about sports, why don't you choose to write about who you think is going to win (a more challenging endeavor) and not waste anymore negative ink on a team that has beaten three (if not four) very solid football programs. And are you serious that Stanford and Pittsburgh pose more of a threat than Michigan and Michigan State? I wait with great anticipation for the Irish to make simpleton naysayers like yourself look humbled in the weeks to come.
Adam, welcome back to civilization. It's good to see you subway alums come out of your caves, blinking at the sunlight after holing yourselves up since the 2001 Fiesta Bowl. You're wrong, by the way. Last week I found it quite easy to pick Florida State and Oregon State to continue winning. For the sake of discussion, I think your point is that I should branch out and pick against conventional wisdom. Perhaps you're right. You've converted me. I think Notre Dame will beat Stanford. However, I still think Pittsburgh and a road trip to unbeaten Air Force will be difficult for the Irish, especially if quarterback Carlyle Holiday's left shoulder limits him. (Memo to editors: Stop posting my "significant amount" of salary on this Web site.) I assume you must be a huge Notre Dame fan after reading your column. To call Notre Dame the surprise team of the 2002 season seems like a stretch to me and to many other average fans. Lucky and unproven would seem to fit better. So far in the eyes of the average fan (read: non-media), Notre Dame has successfully defeated four so-so teams with a strong defense and a poor offense.
Mike, do me a favor and e-mail Adam. Let me know how it comes out. You are such an A**HOLE. Why don't you give Notre Dame the credit it deserves for starting the season at 4-0? If I remember correctly, you had Notre Dame starting the season at 0-5, possibly 1-4. You, Mr. Maisel, are the reason I do not buy Sports Illustrated, because of your constant bashing of Notre Dame week in and week out.
Well, Denny, you don't remember correctly. I didn't make a prediction before the season. But don't let that stop you. I don't think I've ever been called an "A**HOLE" and referred to as "Mr." in the same breath. At least you've covered all the bases. FYI: Tyrone Willingham had a tuna sandwich for lunch today, as he does everyday.
That's what I love about you readers. I learn from you. What has happened to Florida State? The Seminoles' offensive line, labeled as possibly the best in the country, was pushed around all game against Louisville. Chris Rix still runs way too much, and it was as if they forgot about Greg Jones in the second half. The worst part was watching their secondary get torn up for the third game in a row. Has the game passed by defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews? I know Florida State doesn't have the same talent on the defensive side as in years past, but shouldn't the coaches be able to come up with something that plays to the defense's strength, the speedy linebackers? As an FSU fan and alum, I just don't see the same swagger anymore -- and that starts with the defense. What do you think? Have the Seminoles dropped down into the mix of "good" teams, thereby ending their run at the top of college football?
I was more stunned by the play of the Seminoles' offensive line than I was by anything else. In the end, I decided that everything I had heard about the power of Louisville's defense was true. I don't think the game has passed by Andrews. Last season all I heard was that Andrews played too much man coverage. Two days after the Louisville game, Cardinals quarterback Dave Ragone told me that he was surprised that the Seminoles never came out of their zone. So Andrews isn't fixated on one scheme. The weather presented problems. Ragone, a senior, adjusted well. Rix, a sophomore, did not. What are Kentucky QB Jared Lorenzen's chances of playing at the next level? We don't get many opportunities to see him on TV here in Canada, and I wonder if a man carrying that kind of weight can be a successful pro quarterback?
I haven't asked any scouts about Lorenzen, because I don't generally ask about juniors, unless it's obvious that they are coming out for the draft. I will say that the NFL is notoriously snobbish about size. Personnel men believe that their years of scouting dictate what players should look like. I would think Lorenzen will have trouble getting attention unless he drops some pounds. Pocket passers are not in style; maneuverability is in. I know, I know: Lorenzen is faster than most 295-pound men. Still, I'm not sure that qualifies him, at least in the eyes of NFL scouts. I know you guys get asked this a lot, but I'm still not clear on how writers really determine the Heisman Trophy winner. Is it the best player in the land, regardless of position, or is it just a popularity contest? If it's the former, then Charles Rogers should be everyone's guy. I'm a Notre Dame alum who watched him beat our secondary time and time again. He is truly amazing. Why don't guys like Rogers get the recognition that chumps like Gino Torretta got?
Don't bring up Torretta. Nice guy, but I still get annoyed that he won instead of, say, Marshall Faulk. The Heisman ballot asks for the most outstanding college football player in the United States. How you define that is up to you. I try to mix performance and value into the equation. I vote for the winner about half the time. I still say Tommie Frazier should have won in 1995, not Eddie George, and ditto for Peyton Manning over Charles Woodson in 1997. Why isn't Cody Pickett receiving more attention as a potential Heisman candidate? He's averaging over 375 yards passing and has cleared the 300-yard mark in all four of his games. He's fourth in the nation in passing yards despite having played fewer games than anyone ahead of him, and he's doing it for a team that should challenge for the Pac-10 title. What exactly is keeping guys like Jason Gesser, Rex Grossman and even Chris Simms on lists when none of them have put up anywhere near the numbers Pickett has?
No one is paying attention to Pickett because Washington hasn't played anyone who can challenge him since the Michigan game four weeks ago. Pickett will get attention if he puts up the same numbers against the USCs and Oregons that he did against the Idahos. Why is it that Division I-AA football gets little or no respect from the national media? If you took the top 10 I-AA teams, like Montana and McNeese State, they could beat most of the bottom 50 I-A schools on most given Saturdays. The only real difference between many I-A and I-AA schools is resources and money. Most I-AA teams who choose to be in I-AA do so for financial reasons. Look at Ohio's 30-0 loss to Northeastern, and you can see that many I-A teams simply pretend to be so-called big-time college football programs, when they're not. I would just like to see credit given where it is due, and not just to the same old BCS teams and Division I-A pretenders.
Darrell, I understand where you're coming from, Southland Conference-wise, but I wouldn't let the class distinction bother you. Even in basketball, where everyone is under the same umbrella of Division I, no one pays attention to your schools until the championship game of the conference tournament. Therein lies the charm of March Madness. Now, please don't write and explain to me that this is the perfect reason to have a football playoff. Did West Virginia make the right decision when it hired Rich Rodriguez over other coaches, including Terry Bowden, who had said he would take the job? We loved Rodriguez here at Tulane and were very upset he wasn't hired to lead the Green Wave. Yet he hasn't done well in Morgantown, going 3-8 last season with a home loss to Temple. Just curious on whether this once-hot coaching prospect with a great offensive mind is getting the job done in his first head-coaching stint. Don Nehlen, who has a lot of class, said there was no way WVU should have been 3-8 last year with the talent he left behind.
Did Nehlen really say that? That's a breach of coaching etiquette, although Nehlen never had much trouble saying what he thought. I was disappointed in West Virginia last season, too, but I think the team has made progress this year. The Mountaineers are 3-1, and tailback Avon Colbourne has remained healthy and shown he can carry the offense if needed. Do I think WVU will go 7-5 and get a bowl bid? Rodriguez won't be out of the woods until he's had time to get his own players into Morgantown (Colbourne is a Nehlen recruit). I was hoping to see Randy Walker and his crew make Northwestern a contender in the Big Ten. Now the Wildcats are having another awful, dismal season like last year. What gives? If Walker is the winningest coach in the history of Miami (Ohio), how come his success isn't translating to the Wildcats?
Didn't Walker's Wildcats win a share of the Big Ten title two years ago? Yeah, they're not very good right now, but if I'm not mistaken, Walker has already proven he can win at Northwestern. If Texas A&M makes a coaching change after the season, is there a chance, even a shot in the dark, that Terry Bowden would leave his comfy confines and return College Station to glory?
Terry Bowden may be interested. Then again, he's had his experience with football-crazy, land-grant, butt-of-jokes, chip-on-their-shoulder-about-the-liberal-arts-school-across-the-state alumni. Auburn ran him off. Why would either party be interested in the other? What have you heard about Jimmy Johnson visiting the Texas A&M campus last week? Are the boosters in College Station finally starting to tire of R.C. Slocum's close-but-no-cigar type of seasons, or is Jimmy just there to help out the new A&M athletics staff?
If you believe Internet rumors, Johnson and Slocum had lunch at a Mexican place near campus the other day. This was probably posted by the same guy who saw Johnson filling up his car with gas in Tuscaloosa on the day Mike DuBose was fired two years ago. In other words, it's all garbage. If I recall, the Brazos River couldn't handle Johnson's boat. Unless a canal has been dug from Galveston to College Station, I can't imagine that Jimmy would be interested. Evidently you are unaware that Wisconsin crushed Arizona two weeks ago, not "Southwestern Arizona." Will you retract some of the unkind words you tossed Wisconsin's way now that you have been relieved of a portion of your ignorance?
My apologies to Wisconsin and Arizona fans who took me seriously when I attempted to besmirch the Badgers' schedule. Let me spell it out for you: Arizona is not very good, and neither is anyone else Wisconsin played in the first five weeks of the season. Shouldn't Lou Holtz and Dennis Erickson be on your list of active coaches who have won a national championship?
Yes, they should, and I'm embarrassed I left them off. Sports Illustrated senior writer Ivan Maisel covers college football for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.
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