Notre Dame came into tonight's matchup against #5 USC at the L.A. Coliseum with nothing to lose. While nobody was bold enough to predict an Irish upset, plenty were predicting that Charlie Weis's team would show some fight against Pete Carroll's Trojans. And they were right -- at least as far as the pregame festivities went.In a scene worthy of You Got Served (or perhaps Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo), Notre Dame took the field with the zeal you'd expect from a team who's beaten the likes of Washington, San Diego State and Navy, hellbent on showing Southern California who's the man.
The Irish proceeded to interrupt the Trojans' pregame warmups, and the most evenly-matched showdown of the night ensued. Verbal barbs were traded, punches were thrown (but from the looks of things, mostly not landed) and coaches -- and eventually police officers -- had to step in and restrain players on both sides. Fighting extended all the way to midfield, where players from both sides were still trying to get at each other as authorities attempted to separate the two warring factions.
As for the game action, well, through the first half it's fallen vastly short of the pregame festivities. Through two quarters USC leads Notre Dame 24-0.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-29-2008 @ 11:13PM
Curt said...
The Irish are a long ways from being good..but I hate USC...can you say overrated? All the talent you need yet they cant go a season without more then one close game and an upset loss to somebody. At least the Irish clan can hold up a sign boasting they are smarter lol. Quite diff. admissions standads there....maybe part of the problem.
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11-29-2008 @ 11:27PM
pot calling kettle said...
"standads"
uh, right....haha
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11-29-2008 @ 11:32PM
Wayne said...
That's a load of crap, Curt. Notre Dame significantly relaxes its admission standards for athletes. As a ND professor wrote:
"Though ESPN and popular press reports often make similarly mistaken assertions, the fact is Notre Dame still eagerly recruits and regularly admits football players with GPAs and SAT scores far lower than their classmates - 300 or more points below the Notre Dame average SAT score and nearly a full grade point below in GPA is not at all uncommon. Notre Dame's assistant provost and admissions director, Dan Saracino, has given several high-profile (eg, Sports Illustrated) interviews clarifying Notre Dame's admission policies relevant to this issue. Saracino has consistently noted on the record there has been no change in our approach to admissions for football players.
"By one measure our admissions standards are somewhat demanding - we require a few more high school core courses than some competing schools. This supposedly helps demonstrate an interest in and capacity for college level academic work. By another measure our admissions standards are quite relaxed - few schools admit football players with test scores so far below the average of the student population. Whether one is in favor of keeping our policy the same or chaning it in either direction, we should all agree no blame for our football misfortunes is due to a change in our enrollment policies.
"Fritz Warfield, Associate Professor of Philosophy"
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11-29-2008 @ 11:37PM
CJ said...
It gives me great pleasure seeing Notre Dame crash and burn. Charlie Weis was supposed to be the right man for the job. I sincerely hope that the slide continues into the abyss of college football.
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11-30-2008 @ 1:40AM
Bobby Dodd said...
The Notre Dame myth has finally been exposed for what it has been for the last 20 years.......a full and total myth.
Gotta love it.
Tampax/Geritol Bowl, here we come!!
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11-30-2008 @ 12:17AM
Mr. Smith said...
Q: When did the downhill slide start at Notre Dame start?
A: When Notre Dame let Lou Holtz go. . . .
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11-30-2008 @ 3:03PM
Don said...
You're blog is more than fair in its message, however I would like to point out that ND didn't interrupt USC's warm ups. It was USC players standing at the tunnel entrance jawing at the ND players as they were coming out to warm up.and the ND players didn't let it go. The rest of the 2 teams came running toward the altercation to back up their teammate.
You make it sound like ND went out of their way to start a fight which isn't the way it went down. Oh well, like I said your blog's message is extremely fair.
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