A Decided Schematic Advantage

It’s been a while since I ranted a bit about Fat Charlie and his Pathetic Irish, but after reading Senator Blutarsky's take on this, I figured it was time to pull one together. The one sentence that should incent any college football fan is this:

If Notre Dame beats Navy and Syracuse and loses, as expected, to USC on the road, the Irish will finish 7-5. That should be good enough for them to earn an invitation to the Cotton Bowl, Gator Bowl or Sun Bowl…

First of all, no way the Cotton Bowl selects a 7-5 Notre Dame team over LSU or Ole Miss or any other SEC team. The point is most likely moot as the Gator Bowl would surely jump at the chance to bring Fat Charlie to Jacksonville.

Secondly, I just don't get why people are still obsessed with Notre Dame. They haven’t won a bowl game since 1993. They haven’t been competitive in a bowl game since 1998. They're a whopping 5-4 this season playing almost exclusively with the players Weis has brought in, though I'm sure it's somehow still Tyrone Willingham's fault the Irish suck again this season. Despite all that, the Irish are on TV every weekend, and actually have special exceptions written into some bowl contracts, including the BCS games.

In his tenure at Notre Dame, he has exactly one win that you can look back and point at and say, “Nice win there coach” and that’s the 41-17 beatdown of Penn State in 2006 when the Nittany Lions finished 9-4. Other than a win over a 7-5 Michigan in 2005, there’s hardly a win worth mentioning. To put a little more perspective on it, Pat Forde has this to say in his latest Forde Yard Dash:

After once again playing piñata for mighty Boston College, Weis is now 1-16 in his past 17 games against teams that finished the season .500 or better -- or, in the case of 2008 opponents, currently are .500 or better. That lone point of pride in those 17 games: a seven-point win last month over Stanford, which presently is 5-5 but easily could end up 5-7 and wipe that victory off the books.

Greg Couch of the Chicago Sun-Times references that same PSU victory in 2006 as Weis' only accomplishment at Notre Dame and also offers these gems:

...the most-hyped coach in college football history has been one big failure. Never has so much hope and hype been built from hot air. But when you sell yourself on spec, as Weis did, sooner or later, the finished product comes in.

Under Weis, Notre Dame has never beaten a good team.

In the Sagarin computer national rankings, Notre Dame is ranked behind James Madison.

Let’s take a closer look at Notre Dame’s offensive numbers from last year, the 3rd year that the Fighting Irish had their Decided Schematic Advantage over everyone they played:

2007 Notre Dame:
Scoring Offense: 16.4 ppg
Total Offense: 242.3 ypg
Passing Offense: 167.0 ypg
Rushing Yards: 75.25 ypg

For those of you struggling to grasp how pathetic those numbers, here’s how they compare to the 2008 Tennessee team:

2008 Tennessee:
Scoring Offense: 16.0 ppg
Total Offense: 267.1 ypg
Passing Offense: 162.8 ypg
Rushing Yards: 104.3 ypg

So, the offensive genius designed an offense that managed 25 less yards per game than the Vols are averaging this year. The Irish aerial attack last year did manage to put up nearly 5 more passing yards per game than the current Jonathan Crompton/Nick Stephens debacle in Knoxville this season. And the Vols are doing this against (mostly) SEC defenses, while the Irish played the Service Academies and mid-tier Big 10 teams.

***Update: Another stellar column from Jason Whitlock***

For those of you who are interested in joining the millions of "Huge Notre Dame Fans" out there, please refer to the following flow chart:

Jason Whitlock calls out Tuberville

I've mentioned my respect for columnist Jason Whitlock before in an earlier post. He doesn't pull any punches with any player, organization, or team. He pretty much calls it like it is.

Here's an excerpt from his latest column on Fox Sports regarding Auburn's Chaz Ramsey's chop block on LSU's Glenn Dorsey. I'm on record as saying I thought the league should and would suspend Ramsey for the chop block on Dorsey, but apparently they're not going to. Whitlock brings the blame a little closer to home, calling out Auburn HC Tommy Tuberville for not delegating discipline of his own.

Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville is an absolute coward and fraud for not suspending the freshman lineman who chop-blocked LSU's Glenn Dorsey in the back of the knees.

I've watched the highlight over and over and what transpired is completely unjustifiable. Tuberville claims all the linemen were supposed to cut block. You don't cut block a defensive linemen moving toward you on the back of his knees.

Not only was the block illegal, but it was as immoral as LSU coach Les Miles claimed. Plus, it's damaging to college football. Dorsey returned to LSU for his senior season. He could've turned pro after last season. Now every NFL agent is going to show every third-year defensive lineman the tape of the block that could've cost Dorsey millions of dollars.

The NCAA needs to step in here and suspend the freshman guard. No one is saying the kid is a bad kid. But the sport needs to send a strong message that those type plays will not be tolerated, even accidentally.

I seriously doubt that Ramsey had any intention of actually hurting Dorsey when he chop blocked him. I know that Tuberville and his staff didn't plan for that to happen. But it did. Ramsey wasn't blocked or pushed into Dorsey. He turned, saw Dorsey engaged with another lineman, and dove at his knees.

That sort of chop block was made illegal because of the severe damage it can do to the defender. The league or - as Whitlock points out, Tuberville - needs to step in and make sure Ramsey has learned his lesson. Anything less is sending the wrong message.

Jason Whitlock gets it

Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star is probably my favorite sports columnist around. I would actually watch the Sports Reporters on ESPN and listen to Mike Lupica whine and Bob Ryan drool on himself and John Saunders make himself out to be a martyr just to hear what Whitlock had to say. When ESPN ran him off, I gave up on that show and lost even more respect for the network as whole.

Anyway, Jason Whitlock wrote a column this week about the whole Mike Gundy/Jenni Carlson event last weekend. He's the first media member I've seen actually defend Gundy and his actions.

Read the column if you get a chance. It's well worth the time.