The most intense winter storm to hit OC since 1995 is underway in Lake Forest, my baby and wife are snoozing, and it is time to continue the thrilling (and comment inspiring) Fighting Irish season preview. So far we're 7-2, and we have three games to go on the schedule.
11/13/10: This is a very interesting matchup, in my humble opinion. Utah brings their Mormon flavor into South Bend for a religious match up that will be one to enjoy. Utah went 10-3 last season, including an impressive 6-2 in the MWC conference and a #23 final record. I was going to write about impressive wins in their season, but scanning I fail to find very much. We see wins against Utah State, San Jose State (representing), Louisville, Colorado State, UNLV, Air Force, Wyoming, New Mexico, San Diego State, and UC Berkley. The bowl game win against the Golden Bears (37-27) is clearly the most impressive, but any other time the Utes played a quality team, they were an epic failure. Losses to Oregon, TCU, and BYU are pretty huge, despite only being three. Keep in mind, though, that Jordan Wynn was a freshman QB last season for Utah and took over in the Wyoming game to pilot his team to a 4-2 overall record under his lead. I don't know what my fellow Irish fans are going to think about me for this one, but I see Utah escaping Notre Dame stadium with a win over my boys.
11/20/10: Welcome to the much hyped game at Yankee Stadium between the Irish and the Black Knights. We don't want to spend to much time on this one. #1) It's a huge recruiting game for the Irish, even if it is just in New York and #2) Army really isn't in a position to win against the Irish in 2010. Army finished their season 5-7, playing zero ranked teams, and scoring just three points against rival Navy in their final game of the year (which we watched from Buffalo Wild Wings in Lake Forest...Blazin' challenge survivors...shh....). Notre Dame wins big.
11/27/10: The Irish are now 8-3 and on their way to rainy Southern California for the matchup of the year. The USC Trojans suffered a down year by their standards in 2009, going 9-4 including their surprise 24-13 bowl win against Boston College (a surprise to me at least). More importantly for USC haters, is to point out how the Trojans went 5-4 in the PAC 10 with losses to Washington, Oregon, Stanford, and Arizona. Now we have their world famously cool head coach leaving to lead the Seahawks to a subpar couple of seasons before returning to some lesser NCAA program by 2013 or earlier, and a hugely overrated and completely undeserving (arguably) new head coach who saved some recruits and made the blind USC Kool Aid drinkers happy for the moment. Last season Notre Dame lost to USC 27-34 (again, a Buffalo Wild Wings affair) in a close last second (actually, two last seconds) loss. It would have been the perfect revenge for the Bush Push game, but it wasn't. So, is this the year? 2001 was the last year that Notre Dame beat USC. That was the year that the Bob Davie coached squad made it to the 2001 Fiesta Bowl (our first BCS bowl event). We finished that with a sad bow out to Oregon State, but we finished #15. Good times. The question is: Can Notre Dame defeat USC with both teams having a new head coach, the Irish starting a brand new QB, and ND losing arguably their top receiver? I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but I will NEVER pick Notre Dame to lose to the Trojans. ND by 4.
So, after finishing the season 6-6 in the finale of the Weis era, I'm predicting a 9-3 start to the Kelly era. I tried to be as down the middle as possible (with the exception being the USC game), and I still ended up with a BCS berth after a solid season. All of this hinges on how Dayne Crist will play in 2010, his first season as a starter. With Armando Allen becoming one of the best college football has to offer, Michael Floyd getting a chance to be the #1 guy on the pitch (because I forgive him for getting busted for underaged drinking), and Duval Kamara ready to step it up in his possible final year with the Golden Domes, I think the pieces are there for Crist to show his stuff. He's a California boy without the stupidity of Clausen (at least seemingly). All of this, and hopefully a much improved defense under the care of Bob Diaco, and hopefully my dreams of a 9-3 start to Brian Kelly's career will come true.
It's raining even harder now than it was when I started.
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