Another Great Saturday

Notre Dame had another great win and I met my friend John's son.

After Notre Dame's win over Michigan, I thought about going out to Notre Dame for the Stanford game, but the airfare was going to be pretty ridiculous, so I decided against it.  It seems like everybody there except for me:  Matt Kemp, Vince Vaughn, Ed Hochuli, Kyle Charters.  It would have been a great game to attend in person with the weather and the result.  Notre Dame overcame their first deficit of the season to win 20-13 in overtime.  A few thoughts about the game and season:

Brian Kelly's play calling sometimes leaves me scratching my head (like the play calling that led to Stanford's only touchdown when Golson's fumble was recovered in the end zone), but the dude can coach.  He's done a great job of recruiting on the defensive side and that's the biggest reason that we're ranked number 5 right now.  It took until his third year, but he's got this team headed in the right direction.

Everett Golson wasn't particularly good yesterday, but is touchdown pass to Eifert on third and 18 was a ginormous play.  Without that touchdown, we probably lose.

Tommy Rees is probably the perfect backup quarterback.  He shouldn't be a starter, but he's got a lot of experience and knows what he's doing out there.  He's now helped us win three games in his role as a backup.  I'm really happy to see him contribute this year.

The defense continues to be amazing.  We haven't allowed a rushing touchdown all season.  It was beautiful to see us stuff Stanford on four straight running plays to end the game.  It was nice to see another hard-fought game featuring good defense.  I wish our offense was better, but it is enjoyable watching football where it's not just touchdown after touchdown.  Our pass defense looked like it was going to be very shaky because of the inexperience in the secondary and the way we played against Navy and Purdue, but it's turned out to be very good as well.

I absolutely detest college football's overtime format.  Football has kickoffs, punts, and a clock.  Why are all of these things taken out of the game in overtime?  You have to earn good field position, but now suddenly you get the ball at the other team's 25.  After two overtimes, you have to go for two if you score a touchdown.  These rules are as stupid as it would be if you started the 10th inning of a baseball game with runners on the corners and you only got two outs or something.  Why change a fantastic game so much?  Despite its stupidity, college overtime does create excitement.

The call on the review of the last play was correct.  The officials had blown the play dead.  An official runs in from the side to mark the ball and Te'o let up.  But even if they hadn't, there was no conclusive angle to say it was a touchdown.  You simply cannot tell if Taylor's elbow touched the ground before he crossed the goal line.  You can't see his elbow and the best shot wasn't right down the goal line anyway (making it impossible to tell exactly when the ball crossed the goal line).

This is the first year since 1988 that Notre Dame has beaten Michigan State, Michigan, Miami, and Stanford.  That was a pretty good year.

There's a lot of football to be played.  Oklahoma and USC will be very tough.  Next week, we take on the Mormons.  BYU could give us trouble if we're looking ahead, but I think Kelly will have the team focused.  And we have the best Mormon, so hopefully it will be another great Saturday.  It's been a lot of fun so far, but we're not done yet.

Manti Te'o deserves seven more wins.

The good news about not going to the game was that I got to see John, Liz, Vinny, and Tommy.  The last time I saw all of them, John and I ended up walking home from Huntington at 2 in the morning.  This was a much less eventful evening.

Tommy and I entertained John and Vinny with our discussion about how much we love Adam Richman.  Vinny theorized that we both wished we could be Adam Richman.  There's some truth in that, but I'd never want to do the spicy challenges.  I'd want to enjoy what I'm eating.

We watched the Yankee game.  The Yankees made an exciting comeback in the ninth, but lost 6-4 in extra innings.  Unfortunately, Derek Jeter's season came to an end with an injury.  I hope Jeter and Rivera come back strong.  The day is coming when Jeter and Rivera won't be around anymore.  I don't want that day to come.

The highlight of the night was meeting John's son, Jack.  Jack was born on September 5 so he lives in a world where Notre Dame has never lost a football game.  It was the first time that I got to see the baby of one of my friends.  I know he's only a little over a month old, but I was surprised by how tiny he was.  It was hard to believe that I was once that small.  I got to hold Jack for a few minutes.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of me holding him.  The first thing I said to Jack when John handed him to me:  "Can you say Rajon Rondo?"  John and his wife Liz live in Massachusetts and he's cool with Jack being a Celtics fan.  It was great to meet the little guy and to see John, Liz, Vinny, and Tommy.  It was another great Saturday.