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Notre Dame Fighting Irish Pantsed On National TV: Film At 11

by Christopher McIntosh
01/03/2007

I'll admit that this probably makes me a self-loathing Catholic, but where I come from Catholicism is a religion, not a culture.

Ironically enough, LSU is from French Creole country- probably one of the few places in the South where they actually see Catholics anyways.

LSU is going to see many of them. And pound the everliving snot out of them.

I won't go out on a limb and make ridiculous Namath-like guarantees about this game. I won't advocate betting on this game like a certain unnamed national championship game that took place last year. (It will soon become apparent what I think about this game, but LSU giving 8 or more points to a team who's only claim to fame is that they can score points screams, "Danger, Will Robinson").

I will, however, make this point.

I have been looking forward to this day since they announced the BCS Bowl schedule.

The SEC is overrated. Everyone thinks so. It's been a down year. They shouldn't even be in the national championship game.

Let's review.

9 teams out of 12 made bowl games.

UK, USC, and UGA all won. They squeaked in by barely being bowl eligible. UGA beat three straight ranked opponents after losing to UK and Vandy in back to back weeks. Auburn? Check. Georgia Tech? Check. Virginia Tech? Check. All ranked teams losing to a four loss SEC team.

Bama lost, true. By a last second field goal.

Auburn won - of course. And Arkansas lost (no offense Razorback fans), of course. Sorry, but that was inevitable. Playing a Big Ten team without the ability to pass doth not a strong strategy make.

Now LSU gets Notre Dame and Florida plays Ohio State.

I'll freely admit that OSU may send Florida home in a box, although after watching Michigan, poor, poor Michigan (who got screwed out of a place in the championship game despite their demonstrable inability to beat the Buckeyes) get utterly dismantled by USC, I think Florida may have more of a shot then the pundits are letting on.

Which brings me back to my original point (I didn't forget Tennessee, I just prefer to believe they don't exist).

The Fighting Irish versus LSU.

According to NFL scouts, LSU may be the best team in the country, talent-wise. And they have two losses. Two legit losses to legit teams.

Notre Dame has one loss to what may be a suspect Michigan team and wins over... um... wins over... um...

Stanford. The service academies. All three of them. They tried to schedule the Marine Corps but had to be told Marine officers come out of the Naval Academy.

If you discount these schools, I've been told that Brady Quinn's record is something like 17-18.

LSU played and beat the SEC champion Razorbacks and an eighth ranked Tennessee squad. They held Auburn to a single touchdown.

Why do I look forward to this game? I'll give you three reasons.

1. The end of the perpetuation of the lie that Notre Dame football is "back." If by "back" you mean front and center and getting an unreasonable amount of media coverage by sycophantic "journalists" who know that the Notre Dame diaspora is large and populates significant media markets, then yes, Notre Dame is back. If by "back" you mean a national powerhouse that teams should watch out for, then no, they are not back. They are nowhere in the same ZIP code as back and a mad, mean LSU team has been waiting for over a month listening to "experts" tell them that Charlie Weis and Brady Quinn are going to score points at will and that they come from a conference that is overrated. I guess that's because Southerners have such sway over the national media (sarcasm alert).

2. The collective look on the Notre Dame fans and players faces when they realize that the gold on their helmets don't mean a damned thing to the opposition. Tradition cuts both ways - LSU is decked out in the traditional colors of royalty, gold and purple. I think LSU won a national title in the recent past didn't they? I think they're coach was so desperate to get back to where he was after leaving for the NFL that he embarassed himself and publicly went back on his word just so he could coach in the same conference. Every college fan drinks the Kool-aid, but at some level, even the hardest core admit when they're beaten or a tad overrated. The Irish fans just get that glazed look in their eye when reality bites them in the ass and they just seem to ignore it. I've seen it. It's frightening.

And no, it has nothing to do with the Catholicism.

3. It's always fun to watch a good old-fashioned whuppin'.

Notre Dame is going to get pantsed on national TV tonight. You don't get that opportunity often. It'll be like watching the Yankees get whipped by the Tigers or OU going down to Boise State.

Except bloodier, meaner, and for me, a heck of a lot more satisfying.

Besides, I'm going to have to root for one SEC team this week and this Georgia fan, for one, sure as hell ain't rooting for Florida.

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