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Robert Smith, the congenial graduate of an institution that finds it necessary to employ 8 full-time compliance people to make sure they're following the rules and recently had a multimillion dollar lawsuit ruling upheld against them, paid BG a nice little backhanded compliment on SportsCenter this morning.

In discussing whether Notre Dame will score an offensive touchdown against Michigan State, he snarkily said (paraphrasing) "Well, if Bowling Green and UAB each scored a touchdown against Michigan State, Notre Dame should be able to."

I'd expect this garbage from someone who doesn't keep up with college football and automatically assumes that anything labeled 'Notre Dame' is superior to everything and everyone else. For someone who is paid to analyze college football for a living, it's simply absurd.

How many current Notre Dame offensive starters could start for BG right now? I've watched both teams and would be hard pressed to name more than one or two at the very most. They're averaging 4 points per game with negative total rushing yards and a true freshmen quarterback. Meanwhile, BG has moved up and down the field against two Big Ten schools while UAB had Florida State on the ropes at their place last week. How truly shocking that these little-engine-that-could schools might actually have an offense better than the gallant warriors who wear the shiny gold helmets!

SportsCenter should just stick to their usual pallet of boring baseball highlights from teams nobody cares about and leave college football to those who actually follow the sport and care.

Yeah I heard that last night. They should ask me those questions.. Bowling Green would beat Notre Dame if they were to play tomorrow. FACT!

I saw Notre Dame firtshand at the Big HOuse last Saturday...they're EASILY the worst major college team I have ever seen. Given the national footprint they have, Charlei Weis has done a disgraceful job there...even with the academic restraints.

Whatever. BCS snobbery raises its ugly head again. If BG played ND tomorrow, I'd take the Falcons -21 on any field in the country. ND is absolutely horrible. They'll be lucky to win 2 games this year.

That is why I don't even watch Sports Center or any of those type shows on ESPN. Their so called "experts" routinely make stupid comments.

Their on air personalities care more about creating stupid catch phrases than actually knowing the sport they cover.

Far to often you hear sports fans who only know what ESPN and other "experts" tell them.
I love ND, dont know why, just have since I was a kid...maybe it was the media and that they and a few others were the only game on tv. Anyway. I can say I agree if BG was onthe field with ND team that has played these first games we would crush them. That ND team has had no chemestry. From my persective I would like to say the O is simply to complex and they dont get and are making error after error after error. i had heard that ND practices were filled with many moments where that was brought up. It could be that after hearing they just dont get the O...that the¥ now believe it.
As far as Nd players on BG's team...I have to honest and if you are you will say you take a vast majority of them. there is a reason these guys were in the group of the most heavily recruited players in the country folks. But right now they dont get their system and its got be said...its the coaching. not that CW is a bad coach or any of his team of coaches. they are just asking these kids to obviously do understand and do what they cant. CW needs to simplyify his O, get back to basics and build from there. He needs to coach to his lowest comon denominator right now and build confidence. Break some I, wishbone, proset the basics all the kids know and have some success with it, this year they just need to build and call it that.

Now if CW has gone back to the basics and recognized his complex o is just working right now they have a shot to win some "biger" games. but something tells me hes not planing on doing that....I think it HC syndrome where by making the right choices are over looked.

I actually agree with MACMAN on this one.

ND is not a good college team, but I think Weiss is still an NFL coach posing as a college guy. He had success the first couple years because he had an NFL quality QB who could pick up his offense and run it like a well oiled machine. Now he's trying to get a bunch of youngsters to understand the machinations of an NFL offense, and that isn't that easy to do. There are tons of kids who Excel in college and never learn the intricacies of an NFL offense. Weiss is trying to get that level of understanding from a bunch of underclassmen while being led by a true freshman QB.

ND's struggles really make me happy as a Browns fan. I thought last year that Brady Quinn was the glue that held that offense together, and this year's struggles make me further believe that.



As for matching up with BG? We'd put 40 up on that defense, and I'm still not sure if ND could score an offensive TD. If you cannot score on UM, who can you score on?

Doesn't surprise me to hear the idiots at the "Worldwide Leader" throwing jabs at the mid-majors. In fact, I think it's pretty comical considering the on-air college football personalities have good relations with mid-majors. Holtz went to Kent State, Corso coached in the MAC, and a bulk of their weekday games in November are mid-major games.

I agree with MACMAN as well, Weis' system is much too complex for these players to grasp. You can see it in lack of execution in blocking, passing and receiving. To them right now it's a foreign language, and with a young QB running things, it makes it that much more difficult for things to run smoothly. I think Clausen & Co. will be fine after this year, but Weis has got to realize that if he wants to compete this year, he needs to dumb things down a lot more.

I love ND and they are how I became a BG fan and are still a close #2 in my heart of teams that I love. But I'll be the 1st to admit that flat out stink this year and yes it is because of Charlie Weis.

They don't even go 2 deep on the OL or DL. 4 of the back-ups are splitting time in practice learning an OL & DL spot. I'm sorry but you can't win any level of football game without some quality depth on your lines. These kids need to be learning either OL or DL, there isn't enough practice time for these student athletes to learn both. We've already seen less & less of the DB's playing WR in todays game, but could you imagine playing on both sides of the line? You'd be disoriented & pooped by the end of the 1st quarter.

His second problem is he's not recruiting as well as everyone thinks. I listened to my grandpa brag about the class he pulled in this past year and I was pumped. Then he popped in the recruiting highlight film that broke down each player and spent at least a good 15min talking about them. Other than Clausen & Allen, THEY ALL LOOKED LIKE CRAP! No joke, the highlights were very unimpressive (coming from a BG fan here). Then when they broke them down, it was like "well he was a 2nd team all LB his last 2 years of HS, but Weis might be looking to switch him over to TE." Then the next guy they would be looking to switch him too. It was like he was taking the best recruit available, as opposed to getting a guy who could solidfy himself in one position on the team. But the thing was, they didn't even look all the impressive as athletes who could play multiple positions!

Another tid bit on recruiting.. of the 25 scholarships he had to give, he only used 19. How in the Sam Hell can you not get at least SOME kid to come play football at Notre Dame on a full-ride scholarship? Doesn't seem like you'd have to do a whole lot of coaxing!


Next point, he has that smart ass NFL ATTITUDE that he needs to wipe off his face. This isn't the NFL were you can be like "ah this guy sucks, lets get someone else" NO CHARLIE, you recruited these kids, and there are no picking up free agents or trading. So quit beating them down, and actually learn how to BE A TEACHER. You aren't the next Bill Parcells.

Which brings me to my next point of BE A DAMN TEACHER! What has he taught these kids? He just wants to use everything he knows about X's & O's to plug and play. Well that doesn't work in college Charlie. A lot of these kids were studs in HS and thought they knew it all. But guess what they don't have a clue, and they need you to teach them and give some POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT every once in awhile. Especially when you are changing their positons more often then your meal plan!

And now my last point. ND should have never fired Tyrone Leon Willingham. He was doing a fine job considering he was trying to run the West Coast offense with all of GAG Bob Davie's option style recruits. The biggest knock on Ty was his inablitity to win or blow out the weaker teams because of the poor offense. BUT LOOK AT WHO HE THEN RECRUITED ON OFFENSE! 1. Brady Quinn. 2. Jeff Smarzdja 3. Maurice Stovall 4. Rhema McKnight 5. John Sullivan 6. John Carlson 7. Darius Walker... need I go on? So Charlie took advantage of this high power O and cruised to some bowl games where he got smacked. Sure looks like Ty has Washington just about turned around ALREADY, after the mess they had out there. Oh and is that a Freshman QB starting for Washington? Hmm doesn't look to shabby scoring TOUCHDOWNS to me!

I should have never ordered those tickets back in March for $175, because now I might have to witness the most embarassing loss in ND history.. to Duke, Nov. 17th, 2007.

hammb wrote:I actually agree with MACMAN on this one.

My God, what's next? Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

...And the Lion and the Lamb will lay down together, but only one of them is getting any sleep.

What happened to Robert Smith's med school plans?

bgbill wrote:What happened to Robert Smith's med school plans?

He was smart enough to realize he could make far more in the NFL, then smart enough to get out of it before he was physically destroyed.

The guy is really bright, but it's blatantly obvious when you hear him talk football that he has no respect for anyone outside of the major college powers, and has now knowledge of their games either.

hammb wrote:

bgbill wrote:What happened to Robert Smith's med school plans?

He was smart enough to realize he could make far more in the NFL, then smart enough to get out of it before he was physically destroyed.

The guy is really bright, but it's blatantly obvious when you hear him talk football that he has no respect for anyone outside of the major college powers, and has now knowledge of their games either.

Agreed. He's just another BCS blowhard that considers any conferences outside the BCS leagues as bush league. Thank goodness there is a mute button on the remote.

"Wich brings me to my next point of BE A DAMN TEACHER! "
Hell ya!!!! But the bottom line here is...simplification.



"And now my last point. ND should have never fired Tyrone Leon Willingham. "

Ah bull crap. Tye is /was not very good at being a a HC. I believe that in hiring any organization should hire the best candidate period. TYE and Romeo are the same..the only difference is about 250lbs. My steelers on the hand are doing all right
but seriously TYE was not a good for ND as a HC Just as I have these same feelings about GB here at BG.