Four Things Worth Reading: 9/18

1. Thanks for that. Topic 1-A in college football is no longer "why does Michigan suck" after their 38-0 shellacking of a Notre Dame team that put up about as much fight as Terri Schiavo. Instead it's "why does Notre Dame suck, and who can we blame this on?" Rumors and Rants excerpts some posts from Irish partisans at the Notre Dame Rivals site, and it's not pretty:

Prister then unloaded this gem, "Sure everyone knew the '07 season would be a titanic struggle. What no one knew is that it would develop into a Titanic-like struggle. Weis has lost his football team, and beating the crap out of them on the practice field offers no guarantees and runs the risk of losing them permanently." Well said.

Sampson is perhaps even more harsh. He refers to Weis has "Hurricane Hubris." He slams him for failing to read his team and their mood all the way back to spring practice, for the erosion of simple techniques and fundamentals he credits to Weis' arrogance. And he rips him for installing two offenses for two quarterback (one for Jimmy Clausen and one for Jones) rather than perfecting a basic off-tackle play.

R&R then goes off the reliability reservation with some juicy gossip that has "unreliable internets crap" written all over it:

Through some enterprising research, I also discovered that at a tailgate last season, the members of Notre Dame's 1966 team were telling anyone who would listen about the complete lack of respect they had for Weis and they way he had treated former players. This week players from the 1973 National Championship team said the same thing. As former players are not allowed to attend practices or even meet the players. And most of the "insiders" close to the program feel Weis has thrown his players under the bus, despite the fact that they obviously haven't been anywhere close to prepared for their first three games.

Veracity? Unknown? Awesomeness? Total.2. That's not an excuse. The most common excuse getting batted around is "but they're Ty's players!" This, specifically, is used to indict a young offensive line that has given up more sacks than anyone in the country by a huge margin. But the Fanhouse's own Bill Maloney takes a look at BC's offensive line, which did just fine against Georgia Tech (over 500 yards of offense), thank you very much, in comparison to Notre Dame's, which... uh... did not:

Cherilus has been a very good four year starter. Poles started last year, but was yo-yoed in and out of the games and has been very inconsistent prior to this year. His early play has been one of the bright spots of the season and new staff. Tennant, Ramsey, and Castonzo were all Midwest kids with MAC and/or lower BCS offers.

The Notre Dame line has had the same position and head coach for three seasons. The BC line has learned a new scheme, gone through two position coaches and a new head coach all in the last nine months.

Notre Dame's green line has a combined 61 starts (through Saturday) and averages three years in their program. BC's line, which handled the same Georgia Tech team that walloped ND's line, has 65 starts and averages 3.6 years in the program.

BC recruited all but one of ND's starters; ND did not so much as glance in the general direction of any of BC's. Talent only explains so much.

3. This isn't rocket science, dude. SMQB on the near-travesty at the UVA game, in which the two officials charged with determining whether a Cavalier field goal was good failed to, like, you know, look at the ball as it approached its destination. Only the eagle-eyed BC ball boys caught the snafu, and Al Groh listened to their pleas for a challenge.

4. This, like the floating 'Bama decal, isn't so much something to read as something to see, but Selwyn Lymon's been shot in the eye with a pellet gun, he's been stabbed at a nightclub, and now he's not going to take it anymore. Beware, DBs of the Big Ten! Selwyn Lymon is a goddamned ninja, and he's coming to kick you in the face.