Well, I didn't expect to beat LSU. It was a good win. If you look at my last post (and the comment I added), I went through coaches with a better winning percentage than Kelly's winning percentage at Notre Dame. I assumed a loss yesterday, but the win puts Kelly at .692 at Notre Dame, which keeps him ahead of Paul Johnson and Kevin Sumlin. It was the best game Kelly has coached since Florida State. The offensive game plan was excellent. We ran the ball well and I think that helped us make some plays in the passing game when we needed to. We gave up two very big plays on defense and a kick return for a touchdown, but the offensive game plan kept the defense off the field. It was nice to beat an SEC team for the first time since I was a student (Tennessee in 2005). We've only played two SEC teams since I finished as a student in December 2006 (LSU in the Sugar Bowl that season and Alabama in the Championship Game two years ago), but we got blown out by both. I was skeptical about musical quarterbacks, but it worked. Zaire was very good. Golson was shaky early, but he made some plays to help us win also. I thought he wasn't coming back in the game at the end and he might not have if not for Zaire's helmet coming off, but he made a couple of plays at the end. And Kyle Bridza had a bad year, but he had been a good player for us in the past. He kicked five field goals against USC in 2012 to help us get to the Championship Game. I was happy that he got to finish his college career with a game-winning kick. It's still a disappointing season, but it's our best bowl win in 20 years. That's not saying much. We've only beaten Hawaii, Miami, and Rutgers in bowl games before beating LSU. We beat Hawaii and Rutgers because those games were a mismatch of talent. We beat Miami because their players didn't want to play because their coach had been fired and it was too cold for them. We were evenly matched with LSU in terms of talent and we just beat them. So I'll take it. Let's hope next year is much better.
The College Football Playoff Era is beginning and I'm really excited about it. I meant to post yesterday about the New Year's Six, but that post went on long enough anyway. Let's take a look at the bowl games played on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day last year.
New Year's Eve: AdvoCare V100 Bowl (Arizona vs. Boston College), Sun Bowl (UCLA vs. Virginia Tech), Liberty Bowl (Mississippi State vs. Rice), and Chick-fil-A Bowl (Texas A&M vs. Duke)
New Year's Day: Gator Bowl (Nebraska vs. Georgia), Heart of Dallas Bowl (North Texas vs. UNLV), Capital One Bowl (South Carolina vs. Wisconsin), Outback Bowl (LSU vs. Iowa), Rose Bowl (Michigan State vs. Stanford), and Fiesta Bowl (UCF vs. Baylor)
Now there were some good games in there (you also had North Texas vs. UNLV in there), but you had the Sugar Bowl (Oklahoma vs. Alabama) on January 2, Orange Bowl (Clemson vs. Ohio State) and Cotton Bowl (Missouri vs. Oklahoma State), and of course the only bowl that really mattered was on January 6 (Florida State vs. Auburn in the Championship Game).
New Year's Eve and New Year's Day will be much better this year.
New Year's Eve: Peach Bowl (Ole Miss vs. TCU), Fiesta Bowl (Arizona vs. Boise State), and Orange Bowl (Mississippi State vs. Georgia Tech)
New Year's Day: Outback Bowl (Auburn vs. Wisconsin), Cotton Bowl (Michigan State vs. Baylor), Citrus Bowl (Missouri vs. Minnesota), Rose Bowl (Oregon vs. Florida State), and Sugar Bowl (Alabama vs. Ohio State).
So we've sacrificed two games over those two days compared to last year, but the games are so much better and more meaningful (and their names have improved also). So I'm a big fan of the College Football Playoff. But I think they did something that doesn't really make sense. The playoff rotation doesn't make sense when you consider the bowl tie-ins.
Here are the bowl tie-ins when the games aren't playoff games:
Rose Bowl- Big Ten vs. Pac-12
Sugar Bowl- SEC vs. Big 12
Orange Bowl- ACC vs. SEC/Big Ten/Notre Dame
Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl- displaced conference champions (the Big 12 champion this year), the top-ranked champion from a non-contract conference (Boise State this year), and at-large teams (the second Big 12 team, Ole Miss, Arizona, and Michigan State this year)
So you got four at-large teams this year. At most, you could have had five if a Big 12 team had made the playoff and Florida State hadn't because then no conference champion would have been displaced.
But now let's think about what next season will look like. The Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl will be the playoff games. We know what conferences will be playing in the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl. That leaves the Peach Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl for other teams. One of those spots goes to the top-ranked champion from a non-contract conference. So that leaves three spots at most for at-large teams (if there are no displaced teams).
The season after that gets worse. The Peach Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl will be the playoff games. We know what conferences will be playing in the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Orange Bowl. That leaves the Cotton Bowl. One spot in that game will go to the top-ranked champion from a non-contract conference. The other will be an at-large team (nobody can be displaced since the playoff games don't have tie-ins).
So we go from having possibly five at-large teams the first year of the rotation to possibly three at-large teams the second year of the rotation to one at-large team the third year of the rotation. Here's what the New Year's Six would have looked like if the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl were the playoff games:
Orange Bowl- Alabama vs. Ohio State
Cotton Bowl- Oregon vs. Florida State
Rose Bowl- Michigan State vs. Arizona
Sugar Bowl- Mississippi State vs. Baylor
Fiesta Bowl- Boise State vs. TCU
Peach Bowl- Ole Miss vs. Kansas State
If the Peach Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl were the playoff games, it would look like this:
Peach Bowl- Alabama vs. Ohio State
Fiesta Bowl- Oregon vs. Florida State
Rose Bowl- Michigan State vs. Arizona
Sugar Bowl- Mississippi State vs. Baylor
Orange Bowl- Georgia Tech vs. Ole Miss
Cotton Bowl- Boise State vs. TCU
So you end up with not a whole lot of difference in the teams, but the games would be different. Of the twelve teams in the six games, only one would change in year two (none in year three). I actually just did the same exercise for based on last year's rankings (just using the BCS rankings). You end up with the same result (Clemson gets a spot two out of the three years, Oklahoma gets that spot the other year). So perhaps this isn't as much of a problem as I thought it would be, but I would still change the semifinal rotation to this:
Year 1- Rose Bowl and Peach Bowl
Year 2- Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl
Year 3- Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl
That way, you could always have up to three at-large teams. I'm biased. Notre Dame is an independent so I don't really like the idea of having one at-large spot. It would be nice if we could just make it to the playoff or Orange Bowl and not have to worry about that.
And there's one other problem I have with the College Football Playoff. This is not a huge deal to me, but I would still change it. This year, you have the semifinal games on January 1. The other two years of the rotation they will be on December 31. I would always have them on January 1 (except when it's a Sunday). I think the problem is the Rose Bowl. They want to be on January 1 and it's on the west coast. And the playoff wants to be the late games. So you could play the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl on January 1 next season, but one of them would have to be before the Rose Bowl (you're not going to have the Rose Bowl at 9:30 in the morning local time). That's not going to happen so you have the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl as semifinals on December 31 next season. People work on December 31 (I don't, but people do). One game will be starting at 5:00 or 5:30. Even if you live on the east coast, you're not getting home from work before the game starts. On the other hand, I always like being off the day after a big game. People are always off on January 1, but not always on January 2. I'm off on January 2 if it's a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. So the only way I'll have to work the day after the semifinal games is if those games are the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl and they're on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. It looks like for the 2017 season, the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl will be the semifinals and they're on a Monday. That's really the worst case scenario. As of right now, this College Football Playoff setup is contracted for 12 seasons. Assuming the format doesn't change during that time (might not be a safe assumption, but still), it looks like I'll have to work the day after the semifinal games twice out of those 12 seasons. Not too bad.
Enjoy the football.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Lots of Football Thoughts
Notre Dame plays today in the Music City Bowl. There's a lot of apathy among Notre Dame fans about this game. I would be very surprised if we won and it's been a disaster of a season, but I probably care more about this game than most fans. My favorite sport is baseball and I love the Dodgers, but I care about Notre Dame football more than anything else in sports. There are 365 days in a year and at most Notre Dame plays 14 times in a year (hopefully next season). After today, Notre Dame doesn't play again until September 5. So yeah, I'm going to enjoy today's game as much as I possibly can (which might not be very much).
As far as next season goes, it might be the first year that I don't make it back to campus for a game. It really is a hassle to get there. Flying to South Bend this year was nice, but even with that, I had to stay 50 miles from campus. Here are the teams we play at home next year: Texas, Georgia Tech, UMass, Navy, USC, and Wake Forest. I have no interest in paying to watch us play UMass or Wake Forest (especially considering the Wake Forest game is in November). This year for the first time I started trying to avoid games in October for the baseball playoffs, with the exception of the Stanford game, which was in early October, when I felt I could miss a couple of playoff games (that game was awesome and things looked great at that point, but sadly it was the last time we played defense this season). Our October games next year are Navy and USC. I've seen us play Navy more than any other opponent (2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014). I don't need to miss playoff games to see us play them again next year. I've seen us play USC a bunch too (every home game against them going back to 2005 except for 2007). If we hadn't beaten them in 2013, I'd be planning on going to this game next year. That leaves Texas and Georgia Tech in September. If anything, I'd go to the Texas game. But if not, I'd be okay with not going to a home game next year. In 2016, home game possibilities would be Michigan State in September and Miami in late October (I'd want to check on the World Series schedule before I decide on that one). But even if I don't get back to campus next year, I'd like to get to at least two football games. We play at Virginia, Clemson, Temple (at Lincoln Financial Field), Pittsburgh, Boston College (Fenway Park in the Shamrock Series), and Stanford. The two that I most want to go to are Boston College (we'll see about getting tickets for that one, but I might have an in) and Clemson (I'd grant them the early October exception). I love Fenway Park and football would be the third sport I've seen played there. And getting to the Clemson game would allow me to cross South Carolina off my list of states to get to (I might have gone down there to see us play them in basketball this season if it was a weekend game, but it's on a Tuesday). Perhaps I can get Dennis to go to that game also since he lives within driving distance. Temple is close by so that's also a possibility, but do I really want to pay to watch us play Temple? Maybe if some of my friends are going. Virginia would also be a possibility since they have an awesome campus (I visited when I was junior in high school).
There's a lot of angst among Notre Dame fans about Brian Kelly as coach and I understand it. Michigan just hired a top tier coach and Ohio State has Urban Meyer, so it looks like we have the third best coach in the area (maybe even fourth best if you put Mark Dantonio ahead of Kelly). This season was a disaster. If you look at Kelly's time at Notre Dame, 2012 definitely looks like an outlier. He'll have one top 20 finish and two top 25 finishes in five years which definitely isn't good enough. Here's the problem: Could we get anybody better? I'm not sure that we could. If we could get Urban Meyer (and keep high academic standards), then send Kelly packing. But how many coaches would do better than Kelly at Notre Dame? Bob Stoops was mentioned as one of the three dream coaches when Weis was fired (Saban, Meyer, Stoops). Stoops has absolutely no academic standards to worry about at Oklahoma. Would he be better than Kelly at Notre Dame? I'm not convinced. Here are all the active college coaches with better winning percentages than Brian Kelly: Mark Helfrich, Chris Petersen, Jimbo Fisher, Urban Meyer, Rod Carey, Chuck Martin, Bob Stoops, David Shaw, Gus Malzahn, Nick Saban, Gary Patterson, Mark Richt, and Bobby Petrino. How many of those guys am I convinced would do better than Kelly and are guys that I would want at Notre Dame? Since I have no interest in Jimbo Fisher or Bobby Petrino coaching Notre Dame, I would say Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Gary Patterson, and Mark Richt. Second question: Can you get any of those guys? You probably can't get Meyer or Saban and you might not be able to get Patterson or Richt either (worth finding out though). So the point is that I don't love Kelly, but I'm not convinced that we'd replace him with somebody better.
Here's something to consider though. What do Southeastern Louisiana, SMU, Kansas, and Iowa State have in common? Those were the only four teams that TCU beat last year. Gary Patterson went 4-8 with all of the wins coming against pretty terrible teams. This year they were very close to making the playoff. Notre Dame loses very little and gets some suspended players back next year. The fact that this year was a very big disappointment does not mean that we can't be good next year. If next year is another disappointing season, then it's probably time to make a change.
Anyway, it's playoff time. With Notre Dame and the Jets not in the playoffs, I have to decide who to root for. Let's start with college. There are plenty of reasons to root against these teams (I really wanted TCU or Baylor to make it so that I'd be able to root for them):
1. Alabama- they've become college football's evil empire, they're an SEC school
2. Oregon- really terrible uniforms (they do very rarely break out some really nice looking uniforms, but I'm not optimistic for the bowl game)
3. Florida State- Jameis Winston, Jimbo Fisher, their history of criminal behavior that goes back before those two
4. Ohio State- Urban Meyer (I'd want him at Notre Dame, but until that happens I'm rooting against him most of the time) and they're a Big Ten school
Really terrible uniforms is the least of all evils here. I'm all in on Oregon, but I'm not optimistic about them.
Now for the NFL:
Obviously, I can't root for the Patriots as a Jets fan and the Seahawks are out for being coached by Pete Carroll. That's my nightmare Super Bowl. It would kind of be like Lakers-Knicks in the NBA Finals, but not really because I'd easily root for the Knicks in that situation because I hate them but not nearly as much as I hate the Lakers. My sports hatred for the Patriots and Seahawks is almost equal. The next thing to consider is how many Notre Dame players are in the playoffs. According to my count, there are 16 Notre Dame players in the playoffs. Every team except for the Seahawks and Packers have at least one (another reason not to root for the Seahawks). I probably would root for the Packers if they had at least one Notre Dame player, but they're out. The Bengals only have Tyler Eifert, but he's injured and they wear really ugly uniforms so they're out. The Cowboys only have Zack Martin. I do love Zack Martin, but they're the Cowboys so they're out. The Steelers only have Stephon Tuitt and he didn't graduate so they're out. The Panthers' only Notre Dame player is a long snapper and they were only 7-8-1 (more on that in a bit), so they're out. The Colts only have Sergio Brown and I don't want to root for Andrew the Giant (Stanford), so they're out. The Ravens have Kapron Lewis-Moore (one of my favorite Notre Dame players ever, so important on that 2012 team), but that's all they have and they wear ugly uniforms, so they're out. The Lions have three of my favorites (Golden Tate, Theo Riddick, and T.J. Jones), but I don't think T.J. Jones played at all, they have Reggie Bush, and they play in the crappiest city in the US, so they're out. I would like to see Peyton Manning win another Super Bowl, but they only have David Bruton, so they're out. That leaves us with the Arizona Cardinals. They have John Carlson (who lived in St. Ed's when I did), Michael Floyd, Robert Hughes (I'll always fondly remember his game-winning touchdown against USC in 2010, the whole drive was beautiful actually), and Troy Niklas. Niklas didn't graduate, but that's not enough to outweigh everybody else, so I'm rooting for the Cardinals. So here are my rankings of the playoff teams:
1. Cardinals
2. Broncos- entirely because of Peyton Manning
3. Lions
4. Ravens- no more Ray Lewis and Ed Reed really helps this ranking
5. Packers- no Notre Dame players, but beautiful uniforms and the best stadium in the NFL
6. Colts- really good uniforms and we could have a revival of the Patriots-Colts rivalry
7. Bengals
8. Panthers
9. Cowboys- might be the best hope of beating the Seahawks in the NFC
10. Steelers
11. Seahawks
12. Patriots
Of course, the Cardinals are probably winning one playoff game at most with their quarterback situation. In that case, I'm rooting for Peyton Manning.
And finally, we have two problems that I'm here to fix. The first is the Panthers getting into the playoffs with a losing record. This isn't the NBA. In the NBA, 53.33333% of teams make it to the playoffs. In the NFL, it's 37.5%. If you can't win half of your games, you don't belong in the playoffs. So here's my solution, if you win your division with a losing record, you forfeit your spot in the playoffs if the team that would be the 7th seed has a winning record. So this year the Eagles would get in at 10-6 over the Panthers and Cardinals and Lions would get bumped up to the 4 and 5 seeds. But if the Eagles were only 8-8, then the Panthers hold on to their spot. You have to finish above .500 to take a spot from a division winner with a below .500 record.
And the last problem is college football's National Championship Game. I absolutely hate that it's on a Monday night. It's been that way for some time now. And it starts late. I hate going to work the day after the Super Bowl, but at least I was off that day and the game ends at a reasonable hour. To solve this problem, I either have to break ESPN's bowl monopoly or use it to help us. The National Championship Game should be part of a triple header of football with two NFL playoff games on a Saturday. So this year it would be on January 10 instead of January 12. To make this happen, the NFL games need to start at 1:00 and 4:30 instead of 4:35 and 8:15. The only way that's going to happen is if one network has all three games or they make some kind of arrangement that is good for them all. So ESPN either needs to expand their NFL playoff coverage (believe me, I don't want to give ESPN more power, but it would help in this situation) or another network needs to get in on the college games. (Why don't the other networks spend money to get in on these college games? You're going to get ratings.) You could even have a rotating situation between two or three of NBC, CBS, and Fox. If you rotated it among the three, they just rotate the two NFL games and the college game. If it was only two, you rotate between the 1:00 NFL game one year and then the 4:30 NFL game plus the National Championship Game at 8:00 the next year. One of my favorite things about college football is being able to watch and not go to work the next day. But for the most important game of the year, it's at 8:30 on a Monday night. That needs to be fixed.
As far as next season goes, it might be the first year that I don't make it back to campus for a game. It really is a hassle to get there. Flying to South Bend this year was nice, but even with that, I had to stay 50 miles from campus. Here are the teams we play at home next year: Texas, Georgia Tech, UMass, Navy, USC, and Wake Forest. I have no interest in paying to watch us play UMass or Wake Forest (especially considering the Wake Forest game is in November). This year for the first time I started trying to avoid games in October for the baseball playoffs, with the exception of the Stanford game, which was in early October, when I felt I could miss a couple of playoff games (that game was awesome and things looked great at that point, but sadly it was the last time we played defense this season). Our October games next year are Navy and USC. I've seen us play Navy more than any other opponent (2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014). I don't need to miss playoff games to see us play them again next year. I've seen us play USC a bunch too (every home game against them going back to 2005 except for 2007). If we hadn't beaten them in 2013, I'd be planning on going to this game next year. That leaves Texas and Georgia Tech in September. If anything, I'd go to the Texas game. But if not, I'd be okay with not going to a home game next year. In 2016, home game possibilities would be Michigan State in September and Miami in late October (I'd want to check on the World Series schedule before I decide on that one). But even if I don't get back to campus next year, I'd like to get to at least two football games. We play at Virginia, Clemson, Temple (at Lincoln Financial Field), Pittsburgh, Boston College (Fenway Park in the Shamrock Series), and Stanford. The two that I most want to go to are Boston College (we'll see about getting tickets for that one, but I might have an in) and Clemson (I'd grant them the early October exception). I love Fenway Park and football would be the third sport I've seen played there. And getting to the Clemson game would allow me to cross South Carolina off my list of states to get to (I might have gone down there to see us play them in basketball this season if it was a weekend game, but it's on a Tuesday). Perhaps I can get Dennis to go to that game also since he lives within driving distance. Temple is close by so that's also a possibility, but do I really want to pay to watch us play Temple? Maybe if some of my friends are going. Virginia would also be a possibility since they have an awesome campus (I visited when I was junior in high school).
There's a lot of angst among Notre Dame fans about Brian Kelly as coach and I understand it. Michigan just hired a top tier coach and Ohio State has Urban Meyer, so it looks like we have the third best coach in the area (maybe even fourth best if you put Mark Dantonio ahead of Kelly). This season was a disaster. If you look at Kelly's time at Notre Dame, 2012 definitely looks like an outlier. He'll have one top 20 finish and two top 25 finishes in five years which definitely isn't good enough. Here's the problem: Could we get anybody better? I'm not sure that we could. If we could get Urban Meyer (and keep high academic standards), then send Kelly packing. But how many coaches would do better than Kelly at Notre Dame? Bob Stoops was mentioned as one of the three dream coaches when Weis was fired (Saban, Meyer, Stoops). Stoops has absolutely no academic standards to worry about at Oklahoma. Would he be better than Kelly at Notre Dame? I'm not convinced. Here are all the active college coaches with better winning percentages than Brian Kelly: Mark Helfrich, Chris Petersen, Jimbo Fisher, Urban Meyer, Rod Carey, Chuck Martin, Bob Stoops, David Shaw, Gus Malzahn, Nick Saban, Gary Patterson, Mark Richt, and Bobby Petrino. How many of those guys am I convinced would do better than Kelly and are guys that I would want at Notre Dame? Since I have no interest in Jimbo Fisher or Bobby Petrino coaching Notre Dame, I would say Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Gary Patterson, and Mark Richt. Second question: Can you get any of those guys? You probably can't get Meyer or Saban and you might not be able to get Patterson or Richt either (worth finding out though). So the point is that I don't love Kelly, but I'm not convinced that we'd replace him with somebody better.
Here's something to consider though. What do Southeastern Louisiana, SMU, Kansas, and Iowa State have in common? Those were the only four teams that TCU beat last year. Gary Patterson went 4-8 with all of the wins coming against pretty terrible teams. This year they were very close to making the playoff. Notre Dame loses very little and gets some suspended players back next year. The fact that this year was a very big disappointment does not mean that we can't be good next year. If next year is another disappointing season, then it's probably time to make a change.
Anyway, it's playoff time. With Notre Dame and the Jets not in the playoffs, I have to decide who to root for. Let's start with college. There are plenty of reasons to root against these teams (I really wanted TCU or Baylor to make it so that I'd be able to root for them):
1. Alabama- they've become college football's evil empire, they're an SEC school
2. Oregon- really terrible uniforms (they do very rarely break out some really nice looking uniforms, but I'm not optimistic for the bowl game)
3. Florida State- Jameis Winston, Jimbo Fisher, their history of criminal behavior that goes back before those two
4. Ohio State- Urban Meyer (I'd want him at Notre Dame, but until that happens I'm rooting against him most of the time) and they're a Big Ten school
Really terrible uniforms is the least of all evils here. I'm all in on Oregon, but I'm not optimistic about them.
Now for the NFL:
Obviously, I can't root for the Patriots as a Jets fan and the Seahawks are out for being coached by Pete Carroll. That's my nightmare Super Bowl. It would kind of be like Lakers-Knicks in the NBA Finals, but not really because I'd easily root for the Knicks in that situation because I hate them but not nearly as much as I hate the Lakers. My sports hatred for the Patriots and Seahawks is almost equal. The next thing to consider is how many Notre Dame players are in the playoffs. According to my count, there are 16 Notre Dame players in the playoffs. Every team except for the Seahawks and Packers have at least one (another reason not to root for the Seahawks). I probably would root for the Packers if they had at least one Notre Dame player, but they're out. The Bengals only have Tyler Eifert, but he's injured and they wear really ugly uniforms so they're out. The Cowboys only have Zack Martin. I do love Zack Martin, but they're the Cowboys so they're out. The Steelers only have Stephon Tuitt and he didn't graduate so they're out. The Panthers' only Notre Dame player is a long snapper and they were only 7-8-1 (more on that in a bit), so they're out. The Colts only have Sergio Brown and I don't want to root for Andrew the Giant (Stanford), so they're out. The Ravens have Kapron Lewis-Moore (one of my favorite Notre Dame players ever, so important on that 2012 team), but that's all they have and they wear ugly uniforms, so they're out. The Lions have three of my favorites (Golden Tate, Theo Riddick, and T.J. Jones), but I don't think T.J. Jones played at all, they have Reggie Bush, and they play in the crappiest city in the US, so they're out. I would like to see Peyton Manning win another Super Bowl, but they only have David Bruton, so they're out. That leaves us with the Arizona Cardinals. They have John Carlson (who lived in St. Ed's when I did), Michael Floyd, Robert Hughes (I'll always fondly remember his game-winning touchdown against USC in 2010, the whole drive was beautiful actually), and Troy Niklas. Niklas didn't graduate, but that's not enough to outweigh everybody else, so I'm rooting for the Cardinals. So here are my rankings of the playoff teams:
1. Cardinals
2. Broncos- entirely because of Peyton Manning
3. Lions
4. Ravens- no more Ray Lewis and Ed Reed really helps this ranking
5. Packers- no Notre Dame players, but beautiful uniforms and the best stadium in the NFL
6. Colts- really good uniforms and we could have a revival of the Patriots-Colts rivalry
7. Bengals
8. Panthers
9. Cowboys- might be the best hope of beating the Seahawks in the NFC
10. Steelers
11. Seahawks
12. Patriots
Of course, the Cardinals are probably winning one playoff game at most with their quarterback situation. In that case, I'm rooting for Peyton Manning.
And finally, we have two problems that I'm here to fix. The first is the Panthers getting into the playoffs with a losing record. This isn't the NBA. In the NBA, 53.33333% of teams make it to the playoffs. In the NFL, it's 37.5%. If you can't win half of your games, you don't belong in the playoffs. So here's my solution, if you win your division with a losing record, you forfeit your spot in the playoffs if the team that would be the 7th seed has a winning record. So this year the Eagles would get in at 10-6 over the Panthers and Cardinals and Lions would get bumped up to the 4 and 5 seeds. But if the Eagles were only 8-8, then the Panthers hold on to their spot. You have to finish above .500 to take a spot from a division winner with a below .500 record.
And the last problem is college football's National Championship Game. I absolutely hate that it's on a Monday night. It's been that way for some time now. And it starts late. I hate going to work the day after the Super Bowl, but at least I was off that day and the game ends at a reasonable hour. To solve this problem, I either have to break ESPN's bowl monopoly or use it to help us. The National Championship Game should be part of a triple header of football with two NFL playoff games on a Saturday. So this year it would be on January 10 instead of January 12. To make this happen, the NFL games need to start at 1:00 and 4:30 instead of 4:35 and 8:15. The only way that's going to happen is if one network has all three games or they make some kind of arrangement that is good for them all. So ESPN either needs to expand their NFL playoff coverage (believe me, I don't want to give ESPN more power, but it would help in this situation) or another network needs to get in on the college games. (Why don't the other networks spend money to get in on these college games? You're going to get ratings.) You could even have a rotating situation between two or three of NBC, CBS, and Fox. If you rotated it among the three, they just rotate the two NFL games and the college game. If it was only two, you rotate between the 1:00 NFL game one year and then the 4:30 NFL game plus the National Championship Game at 8:00 the next year. One of my favorite things about college football is being able to watch and not go to work the next day. But for the most important game of the year, it's at 8:30 on a Monday night. That needs to be fixed.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Happy Festivus!
I have so many grievances I could air with Brian Kelly. My last post was about the ridiculous pass interference call that cost us the game against Florida State. I went to the game against Navy two weeks after the Florida State game (after a bye week). I never got around to doing a post about it and then our last four games destroyed my will to blog about Notre Dame football. So here are some quick thoughts about the Navy game:
1. My brother Sean and I tailgated for a little bit with Jon and his family. That's always fun.
2. It was cold, but not as cold as the Stanford game.
3. The cold weather and the fact that it was a night game probably made it the lowest attendance of any college game I've ever been to. There were 36,807 fans there. There were almost that many Americans in Dublin for the Navy game two years ago (and when you count the Irish fans there, it was easily a bigger crowd than this game). Six of the ten baseball games I went to this past season had bigger crowds.
4. We were sitting up high pretty much right on the 50 yard line. That's as good of a view as I've had for a football game.
5. We should have won easily, but Navy actually took a lead in the third quarter.
6. It wasn't an impressive performance, but we won.
As unimpressive as it was, I never expected that it would be our last win of the regular season. Arizona State and USC were disasters. I was surprised we showed as much fight as we did against Louisville after falling behind early. Kyle Brindza was once a good kicker, but he's not anymore. He missed the game-tying kick against Louisville, but even if he made it, there's no guarantee that we win the game in overtime. And Northwestern has to be one of Kelly's worst losses. Going for two to try to make it a 13 point lead instead of a 12 point lead made absolutely no sense (I said it at the time). Still, you should be able to hold an 11 point lead with 10:34 left. So we now find ourselves in the Music City Bowl against LSU. I don't have high hopes for this one. If we do win, am I supposed to be happy? I wouldn't change the bowl system because football is better than no football, but it really is silly.
Our basketball team is off to a good start. No grievances with them so far. Our schedule hasn't been all that difficult, but we've taken care of business against the decent teams we've played except for a one point loss against Providence. If we win our last non-conference game against Hartford, going .500 in the ACC should get us enough wins to get into the tournament. The team does look very good so I'm definitely hoping for better than .500 in the conference, but we were 6-13 last year in the ACC so let's wait and see.
The Dodgers and Celtics both traded big names in the last week. Matt Kemp should have been the MVP in 2011 (I will air my grievance with that cheater Ryan Braun every Festivus). In the second half of this past season, he was hitting like it was 2011 again. But Joc Pederson needs to play and Matt Kemp can't field anymore, so he had to be traded. I'm disappointed that the Dodgers traded for a cheater (Yasmani Grandal), but he's not a cheater on the level of Roger Clemens, Barroid, A-Roid, or Ryan Braun (there are a lot of cheaters in baseball's last 25 years, but most don't rise to that level). So anyway, I hope Kemp hits lots of home runs against the Giants, Diamondbacks, and Rockies. As for Rajon Rondo, it was another move that had to be made. Rondo helped the Celtics win the championship in 2008 (21 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds, and 6 steals against the Lakers in Game 6 in 2008) and he was the last guy left from that team. He also outplayed LeBron James when the Celtics beat the Cavaliers in the second round in 2010. But Rondo might not ever be the same player as he was before his knee injury and he wasn't going to resign with the Celtics anyway. So I have no grievances with Danny Ainge for now. He's stockpiling assets. He has to find a way to use those assets to turn the Celtics into a contender again. You need a superstar in the NBA and the Celtics obviously don't have one right now. Ainge has to draft one or trade for one with all those draft picks or sign one or whatever. The Celtics are in better shape than most bad teams with all their draft picks, but that doesn't mean anything if they don't do anything good with them.
One last grievance: The Gator Bowl is now the TaxSlayer Bowl. They took a good name and made it into a terrible name. Since it's bowl season, let's update my bowl name rankings:
38. TaxSlayer Bowl- You could make an argument that it's better than a few other names (the "Slayer" part of the name is strong). But I'm penalizing it for taking a really good name and giving it a really bad name.
37. Belk Bowl- Last year I had it as the worst name.
36. Quick Lane Bowl- It was the Pizza Bowl last year. Let's just stop kidding ourselves and call it the Urban Blight Bowl.
35. GoDaddy Bowl
34. Foster Farms Bowl- It was the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. I still say it should be the Golden Gate Bowl even if it's played in Santa Clara now.
33. Russell Athletic Bowl
32. Outback Bowl- You could make an argument for this one ahead of the next few, but my rule is that games that only have a corporate sponsor for their name rank at the bottom.
31. Boca Raton Bowl- This is a new one this year. I'd like it better if it was the Del Boca Vista Bowl. It ranks behind the next two because they improved their names from last year.
30. St. Petersburg Bowl- Last year it was the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl so this is a slight improvement.
29. Birmingham Bowl- Same thing as the St. Petersburg Bowl. It went from the BBVA Compass Bowl to the Birmingham Bowl
28. Las Vegas Bowl
27. Texas Bowl
26. Heart of Dallas Bowl
25. New Mexico Bowl
24. New Orleans Bowl
23. Bahamas Bowl- It's new this year. I generally don't like bowls named after their location, but I can't really argue with it when it's out of the country.
22. Hawaii Bowl- Or not on the mainland United States
21. Miami Beach Bowl- This is a new bowl. The inclusion of the word "Beach" really helps the name (I'm totally serious, that puts it ahead of the other bowls just named for places).
20. Fiesta Bowl
19. Music City Bowl
18. Holiday Bowl
17. Camellia Bowl- This is new this year. It has to rank behind the other bowls with flower names.
16. Military Bowl
15. Armed Forces Bowl
14. Pinstripe Bowl
13. Poinsettia Bowl
12. Independence Bowl- Last year it was the AdvoCare V100 Bowl. Such a good change. But it's played in Shreveport, Louisiana. If it was played in Philadelphia, it would be a top 5 name (same for the Liberty Bowl).
11. Liberty Bowl
10. Sun Bowl
9. Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
8. Citrus Bowl- Much better than the Capital One Bowl that it had been recently.
7. Peach Bowl- The Gator Bowl needs to follow the Citrus Bowl and Peach Bowl's lead and go back to its real name.
6. Cactus Bowl- The former Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. I called for this name in my post last season.
5. Cotton Bowl
4. Alamo Bowl
3. Sugar Bowl
2. Rose Bowl
1. Orange Bowl
1. My brother Sean and I tailgated for a little bit with Jon and his family. That's always fun.
2. It was cold, but not as cold as the Stanford game.
3. The cold weather and the fact that it was a night game probably made it the lowest attendance of any college game I've ever been to. There were 36,807 fans there. There were almost that many Americans in Dublin for the Navy game two years ago (and when you count the Irish fans there, it was easily a bigger crowd than this game). Six of the ten baseball games I went to this past season had bigger crowds.
4. We were sitting up high pretty much right on the 50 yard line. That's as good of a view as I've had for a football game.
5. We should have won easily, but Navy actually took a lead in the third quarter.
6. It wasn't an impressive performance, but we won.
 |
| Opening kickoff. |
As unimpressive as it was, I never expected that it would be our last win of the regular season. Arizona State and USC were disasters. I was surprised we showed as much fight as we did against Louisville after falling behind early. Kyle Brindza was once a good kicker, but he's not anymore. He missed the game-tying kick against Louisville, but even if he made it, there's no guarantee that we win the game in overtime. And Northwestern has to be one of Kelly's worst losses. Going for two to try to make it a 13 point lead instead of a 12 point lead made absolutely no sense (I said it at the time). Still, you should be able to hold an 11 point lead with 10:34 left. So we now find ourselves in the Music City Bowl against LSU. I don't have high hopes for this one. If we do win, am I supposed to be happy? I wouldn't change the bowl system because football is better than no football, but it really is silly.
Our basketball team is off to a good start. No grievances with them so far. Our schedule hasn't been all that difficult, but we've taken care of business against the decent teams we've played except for a one point loss against Providence. If we win our last non-conference game against Hartford, going .500 in the ACC should get us enough wins to get into the tournament. The team does look very good so I'm definitely hoping for better than .500 in the conference, but we were 6-13 last year in the ACC so let's wait and see.
The Dodgers and Celtics both traded big names in the last week. Matt Kemp should have been the MVP in 2011 (I will air my grievance with that cheater Ryan Braun every Festivus). In the second half of this past season, he was hitting like it was 2011 again. But Joc Pederson needs to play and Matt Kemp can't field anymore, so he had to be traded. I'm disappointed that the Dodgers traded for a cheater (Yasmani Grandal), but he's not a cheater on the level of Roger Clemens, Barroid, A-Roid, or Ryan Braun (there are a lot of cheaters in baseball's last 25 years, but most don't rise to that level). So anyway, I hope Kemp hits lots of home runs against the Giants, Diamondbacks, and Rockies. As for Rajon Rondo, it was another move that had to be made. Rondo helped the Celtics win the championship in 2008 (21 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds, and 6 steals against the Lakers in Game 6 in 2008) and he was the last guy left from that team. He also outplayed LeBron James when the Celtics beat the Cavaliers in the second round in 2010. But Rondo might not ever be the same player as he was before his knee injury and he wasn't going to resign with the Celtics anyway. So I have no grievances with Danny Ainge for now. He's stockpiling assets. He has to find a way to use those assets to turn the Celtics into a contender again. You need a superstar in the NBA and the Celtics obviously don't have one right now. Ainge has to draft one or trade for one with all those draft picks or sign one or whatever. The Celtics are in better shape than most bad teams with all their draft picks, but that doesn't mean anything if they don't do anything good with them.
One last grievance: The Gator Bowl is now the TaxSlayer Bowl. They took a good name and made it into a terrible name. Since it's bowl season, let's update my bowl name rankings:
38. TaxSlayer Bowl- You could make an argument that it's better than a few other names (the "Slayer" part of the name is strong). But I'm penalizing it for taking a really good name and giving it a really bad name.
37. Belk Bowl- Last year I had it as the worst name.
36. Quick Lane Bowl- It was the Pizza Bowl last year. Let's just stop kidding ourselves and call it the Urban Blight Bowl.
35. GoDaddy Bowl
34. Foster Farms Bowl- It was the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. I still say it should be the Golden Gate Bowl even if it's played in Santa Clara now.
33. Russell Athletic Bowl
32. Outback Bowl- You could make an argument for this one ahead of the next few, but my rule is that games that only have a corporate sponsor for their name rank at the bottom.
31. Boca Raton Bowl- This is a new one this year. I'd like it better if it was the Del Boca Vista Bowl. It ranks behind the next two because they improved their names from last year.
30. St. Petersburg Bowl- Last year it was the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl so this is a slight improvement.
29. Birmingham Bowl- Same thing as the St. Petersburg Bowl. It went from the BBVA Compass Bowl to the Birmingham Bowl
28. Las Vegas Bowl
27. Texas Bowl
26. Heart of Dallas Bowl
25. New Mexico Bowl
24. New Orleans Bowl
23. Bahamas Bowl- It's new this year. I generally don't like bowls named after their location, but I can't really argue with it when it's out of the country.
22. Hawaii Bowl- Or not on the mainland United States
21. Miami Beach Bowl- This is a new bowl. The inclusion of the word "Beach" really helps the name (I'm totally serious, that puts it ahead of the other bowls just named for places).
20. Fiesta Bowl
19. Music City Bowl
18. Holiday Bowl
17. Camellia Bowl- This is new this year. It has to rank behind the other bowls with flower names.
16. Military Bowl
15. Armed Forces Bowl
14. Pinstripe Bowl
13. Poinsettia Bowl
12. Independence Bowl- Last year it was the AdvoCare V100 Bowl. Such a good change. But it's played in Shreveport, Louisiana. If it was played in Philadelphia, it would be a top 5 name (same for the Liberty Bowl).
11. Liberty Bowl
10. Sun Bowl
9. Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
8. Citrus Bowl- Much better than the Capital One Bowl that it had been recently.
7. Peach Bowl- The Gator Bowl needs to follow the Citrus Bowl and Peach Bowl's lead and go back to its real name.
6. Cactus Bowl- The former Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. I called for this name in my post last season.
5. Cotton Bowl
4. Alamo Bowl
3. Sugar Bowl
2. Rose Bowl
1. Orange Bowl
Monday, October 20, 2014
An Offensive Pass Interference
Yes, the call was offensive.
The prevailing wisdom on ESPN (insert joke here) is that the call was right. My initial reaction was that the call was right. I was wrong. There are a number of problems with the call.
1. We ran a very similar play earlier in the game (Kelly says it was a different play, but there was very similar action). No flag was thrown and Corey Robinson scored a touchdown. If it's not a penalty then, it can't be a penalty with 13 seconds left in the game.
2. The official standing right there on the goal line signaled touchdown. The official on the same side in the back corner didn't throw a flag either. An official away from the play that didn't have nearly as good of a look is the one who threw the flag.
3. There is a quite obvious penalty on Florida State. After the play, number 26 takes off his helmet. You can see it clearly at the 0:52 mark of that video. I'm not sure how the enforcement would have worked. Some people seem to think the penalties would offset and they'd replay the down. I've also read that both penalties would be enforced because pass interference was during the play, but taking the helmet off was a dead ball foul. In that case, we would have had a new set of downs. We would have moved back 15 yards on the pass interference, but then it would have been half the distance from there. So the net result would have been that we'd be around the 8 or 9 yard line, but we'd have a chance for two or three plays. I'm not sure which scenario is right, but they obviously just missed an indisputable penalty on Florida State.
4. I've written about this before, but having officials work for a conference makes absolutely no sense. Which result is better for the ACC, Notre Dame winning or Florida State winning? Obviously, Florida State winning is better for the ACC (Florida State is probably their only hope for a playoff team). Is there any reason to believe that people who work for the ACC will be completely impartial? Would that call have been made against Florida State if the roles were reversed?
5. Now, I'm not an expert on the rule book, but what I do know is that part of the standard for defensive pass interference is that the contact has to be consequential. If a ball is uncatchable, you can't have defensive pass interference. Also, you can't have pass interference away from the play. If the ball is thrown to Corey Robinson, you can't have pass interference called on the guy covering Will Fuller. It doesn't matter what he does to Fuller since it would have no effect on the play. Now maybe the standard for offensive pass interference is different. But if that's the case, there's a problem with the rule. Whoever was allegedly interfered with (hold on, I'll get there) had no chance of preventing the pass from being completed or preventing Robinson from scoring. Florida State was playing man to man coverage. Whichever guy was allegedly interfered with was not covering Corey Robinson. The guy that was supposed to be covering Robinson was totally lost (the other way to look at it is that they guy who should have adjusted to try to defend Robinson never did). On defense, it's no harm no foul. It should be that way on offense too.
6. I don't know if the call was on C.J. Procise or Will Fuller. It was announced by the referee as number 7 (Fuller), but some people seem to think it was Procise. Let's go through both possibilities.
If it was on Procise, he was grabbed as soon as the ball was snapped by the defender (you can see that in the first second of the video linked above). How can Procise interfere when the defender was the one who initiated the contact?
If it was on Fuller, it's just as bad of a call (maybe worse). The claim on ESPN was that the receivers were just blocking and made no effort to run a route. This video shows that claim is completely untrue in the case of Fuller. Fuller takes a step to the outside and the corner goes with him (go to 1:38 of the video). Then Fuller cuts inside and the defender goes with him. The defender is running away from where Corey Robinson is going at that point. He had no chance to make a play. And like with Procise, the defender initiates contact.
7. The defenders were mad. Why? Because they knew they blew the coverage. Usually when there's pass interference, the players will complain to the officials right away. The only thing the defenders were upset with was each other because they blew it.
Perhaps according the rule book, the call was right. Again, if it was, there's a problem with the rule. This play was the equivalent of wiping off a game winning shot in basketball because of a moving screen that had absolutely nothing to do with getting the shooter open. And there's no defense for missing a penalty on Florida State after the play (there's no debate about whether or not taking the helmet off is a penalty).
I'm not one to complain about officials. I didn't complain about the Bush Push because that call never would have been made against Notre Dame in that situation (I did complain after the fact about USC using a professional football player in a college football game). You don't make that call. And you don't make this call either. Notre Dame had other opportunities to make plays that could have won the game. But when they did make the play to win the game, one of the officials took it away from them.
The good news is that we should control our own destiny for the playoff. At most, there will be two undefeated teams from the power conferences. If you want to put an SEC team with one loss ahead of us, I can live with that. But Oregon and Michigan State and whoever else do not deserve to be ahead of us (Oregon lost at home to Arizona by seven and Michigan State lost by 19 against Oregon). I'm not sure that we'll finish 11-1, but we should go to the playoff if we do.
And I've changed my name on here to Jim Slice. Because Jimbo Fisher is a scumbag. Him talking about the class and dignity of Florida State and Jameis Winston after the game was just as offensive as the pass interference call on Will Fuller. Or C.J. Procise. Or whoever.
What happened on Saturday night was wrong. Let's take this out on the rest of the schedule. The rest of these games don't need to be close. Let's finish 13-1 and National Champions. Go Irish!
The prevailing wisdom on ESPN (insert joke here) is that the call was right. My initial reaction was that the call was right. I was wrong. There are a number of problems with the call.
1. We ran a very similar play earlier in the game (Kelly says it was a different play, but there was very similar action). No flag was thrown and Corey Robinson scored a touchdown. If it's not a penalty then, it can't be a penalty with 13 seconds left in the game.
2. The official standing right there on the goal line signaled touchdown. The official on the same side in the back corner didn't throw a flag either. An official away from the play that didn't have nearly as good of a look is the one who threw the flag.
3. There is a quite obvious penalty on Florida State. After the play, number 26 takes off his helmet. You can see it clearly at the 0:52 mark of that video. I'm not sure how the enforcement would have worked. Some people seem to think the penalties would offset and they'd replay the down. I've also read that both penalties would be enforced because pass interference was during the play, but taking the helmet off was a dead ball foul. In that case, we would have had a new set of downs. We would have moved back 15 yards on the pass interference, but then it would have been half the distance from there. So the net result would have been that we'd be around the 8 or 9 yard line, but we'd have a chance for two or three plays. I'm not sure which scenario is right, but they obviously just missed an indisputable penalty on Florida State.
4. I've written about this before, but having officials work for a conference makes absolutely no sense. Which result is better for the ACC, Notre Dame winning or Florida State winning? Obviously, Florida State winning is better for the ACC (Florida State is probably their only hope for a playoff team). Is there any reason to believe that people who work for the ACC will be completely impartial? Would that call have been made against Florida State if the roles were reversed?
5. Now, I'm not an expert on the rule book, but what I do know is that part of the standard for defensive pass interference is that the contact has to be consequential. If a ball is uncatchable, you can't have defensive pass interference. Also, you can't have pass interference away from the play. If the ball is thrown to Corey Robinson, you can't have pass interference called on the guy covering Will Fuller. It doesn't matter what he does to Fuller since it would have no effect on the play. Now maybe the standard for offensive pass interference is different. But if that's the case, there's a problem with the rule. Whoever was allegedly interfered with (hold on, I'll get there) had no chance of preventing the pass from being completed or preventing Robinson from scoring. Florida State was playing man to man coverage. Whichever guy was allegedly interfered with was not covering Corey Robinson. The guy that was supposed to be covering Robinson was totally lost (the other way to look at it is that they guy who should have adjusted to try to defend Robinson never did). On defense, it's no harm no foul. It should be that way on offense too.
6. I don't know if the call was on C.J. Procise or Will Fuller. It was announced by the referee as number 7 (Fuller), but some people seem to think it was Procise. Let's go through both possibilities.
If it was on Procise, he was grabbed as soon as the ball was snapped by the defender (you can see that in the first second of the video linked above). How can Procise interfere when the defender was the one who initiated the contact?
If it was on Fuller, it's just as bad of a call (maybe worse). The claim on ESPN was that the receivers were just blocking and made no effort to run a route. This video shows that claim is completely untrue in the case of Fuller. Fuller takes a step to the outside and the corner goes with him (go to 1:38 of the video). Then Fuller cuts inside and the defender goes with him. The defender is running away from where Corey Robinson is going at that point. He had no chance to make a play. And like with Procise, the defender initiates contact.
7. The defenders were mad. Why? Because they knew they blew the coverage. Usually when there's pass interference, the players will complain to the officials right away. The only thing the defenders were upset with was each other because they blew it.
Perhaps according the rule book, the call was right. Again, if it was, there's a problem with the rule. This play was the equivalent of wiping off a game winning shot in basketball because of a moving screen that had absolutely nothing to do with getting the shooter open. And there's no defense for missing a penalty on Florida State after the play (there's no debate about whether or not taking the helmet off is a penalty).
I'm not one to complain about officials. I didn't complain about the Bush Push because that call never would have been made against Notre Dame in that situation (I did complain after the fact about USC using a professional football player in a college football game). You don't make that call. And you don't make this call either. Notre Dame had other opportunities to make plays that could have won the game. But when they did make the play to win the game, one of the officials took it away from them.
The good news is that we should control our own destiny for the playoff. At most, there will be two undefeated teams from the power conferences. If you want to put an SEC team with one loss ahead of us, I can live with that. But Oregon and Michigan State and whoever else do not deserve to be ahead of us (Oregon lost at home to Arizona by seven and Michigan State lost by 19 against Oregon). I'm not sure that we'll finish 11-1, but we should go to the playoff if we do.
And I've changed my name on here to Jim Slice. Because Jimbo Fisher is a scumbag. Him talking about the class and dignity of Florida State and Jameis Winston after the game was just as offensive as the pass interference call on Will Fuller. Or C.J. Procise. Or whoever.
What happened on Saturday night was wrong. Let's take this out on the rest of the schedule. The rest of these games don't need to be close. Let's finish 13-1 and National Champions. Go Irish!
Saturday, October 18, 2014
My Favorite College Football Games
I went to the Notre Dame-Stanford game two weeks ago. The forecast kept getting worse and worse as I checked the week before the game. It ended up being 41 degrees and it rained throughout the entire game. A check of the und.com archives showed that it was the second coldest game I've ever been to. Despite that, it was one of my favorite Notre Dame football experiences. Let's get to a quick recap of the day:
I planned to get to campus around 11:00. Probably because of the weather, I wasn't motivated enough to get there that early. I ended up parking at St. Mary's a little after noon. It's a good place to park for a Notre Dame game. You walk from there to campus and you come to the Grotto. From there, I walked past the dome and my old home, St. Edward's Hall. Apparently St. Ed's was just renovated, but I didn't go in to check it out. After that, I walked over to the Joyce Center, which was set up for volleyball. My favorite student plays volleyball. I keep telling her that she's going to play volleyball at Notre Dame someday. Then I walked over to the Compton Family Ice Arena. It was built as our new hockey arena after I graduated so I've never been inside. I've heard that it's really nice. I figured it would be open like the Joyce Center is before football games. I reached the doors and tried to go in, but the doors were locked and the signs on the doors said that the building hours were like 10:00-1:00 and the doors locked at 12:50. I checked my watch and it was 12:51. Nuts.
From there, I met up with Wilhelm and Courtney for some tailgating. At that point, it wasn't too cold (the rain hadn't started yet). I went over five years without seeing Wilhelm. Since then, I've seen him for the Championship Game, three games last season (Oklahoma, Arizona State, and Navy), and this year's Stanford game. I hope to make it back to Texas for the 2015 season to see a Rangers game so maybe I'll see him then also. It sounds like the next time I see Courtney will be next year at the Courtney-Dennis wedding in St. Paul. Tailgating was fun, but it started to rain maybe around 2:00 and it started to get cold.
Wilhelm and I ended up sitting together for the game. It was a sloppy game and it was really cold. I was getting texts from my brother and Jon and Kyle. It was too cold and wet to answer them, but they did provide good information about replays and and the backup holder warming up and stuff like that. At halftime, I made the adjustment to putting my arms under my poncho. That was a good move.
We took our first lead at 10-7 in the fourth quarter. With the way our defense was playing, I felt pretty confident. But Stanford marched right down the field and took the lead. I felt like it was setting up for a great finish. On the plane the night before, I had read the chapters in Lou Holtz's autobiography about his first three seasons at Notre Dame. If there's anybody who believes in Notre Dame more than me, it's Lou Holtz. As Lou has said, "If you've been here, no explanation is necessary. If you haven't been, no explanation will suffice." Notre Dame is a special place and this was going to be a special win. I was completely confident that we were going to win. And then it was fourth and 11. I was praying the Hail Mary over and over again, but I was still confident that we'd win. And then the ball was snapped and I didn't see anybody open. But then Everett Golson threw the ball to Ben Koyack who was wide open. The ball got there before the defender could get there and it was awesome. I took the arms out from under the poncho to high five Wilhelm for that play.
We still needed to stop them on defense. Stanford didn't have a lot of time, but they still had a chance. On the last play, we brought the blitz and forced an intentional grounding. There were six seconds left on the clock, but I knew we were going to get a ten-second run off on the penalty and the game would be over. It was over and it was awesome. I wouldn't change anything about the day. The weather was all part of the experience.
So let's go through my favorite Notre Dame games ever, starting with ones I didn't go to:
11. Florida State 1993- This probably should rank higher, but the fact that we were cheated out of a National Championship that year puts it behind the next three games on the list.
10. West Virginia 1989 Fiesta Bowl- This win secured the 1988 National Championship.
9. USC 1988- 1 vs. 2 on the road against our biggest rival. We won to finish the 1988 regular season undefeated.
8. Miami 1988- Catholics vs. Convicts. 4 vs. 1. "Save Jimmy Johnson's ass for me!" 31-30. It was also the same day that Kirk Gibson hit a pinch hit home run to win Game 1 of the World Series. If I had any memory of any of this, it would probably be the greatest day of my life.
7. USC 2010- Not nearly as awesome as the games I've mentioned so far, but I actually watched this game. It wasn't a great season, but it felt great to finally beat USC for the first time since 2001.
6. Michigan State 2006- It was a great comeback to win. This was one of the better moments of the Charlie Weis Era.
5. Wake Forest 2012- Easy win against a bad opponent. It's on the list because we got to number 1 that day.
4. Oklahoma 2012- The win that showed people we were for real in 2012
3. Michigan 2014- I despise Michigan with a passion. Beating them 31-0 in the last game of the series was perfect.
2. Stanford 2012- The goal line stand in overtime in the rain. It was awesome.
1. USC 2012- We beat our biggest rival to clinch a spot in the National Championship Game.
And now my favorite games that I attended:
12. Arizona State 2013- Shamrock Series game in Dallas with my brother Sean and Wilhelm. Wilhelm and I didn't have high hopes going into this game, but we won and Sean and I had a good time in Dallas.
11. Army 2010- The first football game at the new Yankee Stadium. There's nothing significant about this game other than that, but I was pretending it was Notre Dame and Army playing at Yankee Stadium in 1943.
10. BYU 2005- Brady Quinn threw six touchdown passes and it was the first win I ever saw at Notre Dame Stadium.
9. Navy 2012- The game was in Dublin. So many Notre Dame fans having a good time in Ireland and a great start to a great regular season.
8. USC 2013- It was a really ugly game, but I needed to see us beat USC in person.
7. Georgia Tech 2006- Jon, Wilhelm, Dennis, Chris and I made the road trip to Atlanta. Not a great performance, but we got the win to start the season.
6. Penn State 2006- We pounded Penn State to start the home schedule and we thought we were on our way to a great season.
5. Army 2006- My last home game as a student. We were happy late in the game when we fumbled trying to run out the clock because it gave Kyle an opportunity to get on the field and become a Notre Dame football legend.
4. UCLA 2006- I remember saying before the game that this game was the last one that I might attend as a student that could be competitive. And we nearly lost. Quinn to Samardzija for 45 yards to win was amazing.
3. Pittsburgh 2005- Jorge, Mike, Dane and I made the road trip to Pittsburgh for the first game of the 2005. It was the first game I ever attended and it was awesome. We won easily and had a great time celebrating the victory with other Notre Dame fans in Pittsburgh afterwards.
2. Michigan 2012- It wasn't pretty, but again, I really hate Michigan. That was the game where I started to believe in 2012.
1. Stanford 2014- I hate Stanford, but not as much as I hate Michigan. But the fact that we scored the game winning touchdown on fourth and 11 late in the game gives it the top spot. It was a special win. And the weather is just part of a great story.
Let's add another game to my list of favorite games I didn't attend tonight. Go Irish!
I planned to get to campus around 11:00. Probably because of the weather, I wasn't motivated enough to get there that early. I ended up parking at St. Mary's a little after noon. It's a good place to park for a Notre Dame game. You walk from there to campus and you come to the Grotto. From there, I walked past the dome and my old home, St. Edward's Hall. Apparently St. Ed's was just renovated, but I didn't go in to check it out. After that, I walked over to the Joyce Center, which was set up for volleyball. My favorite student plays volleyball. I keep telling her that she's going to play volleyball at Notre Dame someday. Then I walked over to the Compton Family Ice Arena. It was built as our new hockey arena after I graduated so I've never been inside. I've heard that it's really nice. I figured it would be open like the Joyce Center is before football games. I reached the doors and tried to go in, but the doors were locked and the signs on the doors said that the building hours were like 10:00-1:00 and the doors locked at 12:50. I checked my watch and it was 12:51. Nuts.
From there, I met up with Wilhelm and Courtney for some tailgating. At that point, it wasn't too cold (the rain hadn't started yet). I went over five years without seeing Wilhelm. Since then, I've seen him for the Championship Game, three games last season (Oklahoma, Arizona State, and Navy), and this year's Stanford game. I hope to make it back to Texas for the 2015 season to see a Rangers game so maybe I'll see him then also. It sounds like the next time I see Courtney will be next year at the Courtney-Dennis wedding in St. Paul. Tailgating was fun, but it started to rain maybe around 2:00 and it started to get cold.
Wilhelm and I ended up sitting together for the game. It was a sloppy game and it was really cold. I was getting texts from my brother and Jon and Kyle. It was too cold and wet to answer them, but they did provide good information about replays and and the backup holder warming up and stuff like that. At halftime, I made the adjustment to putting my arms under my poncho. That was a good move.
We took our first lead at 10-7 in the fourth quarter. With the way our defense was playing, I felt pretty confident. But Stanford marched right down the field and took the lead. I felt like it was setting up for a great finish. On the plane the night before, I had read the chapters in Lou Holtz's autobiography about his first three seasons at Notre Dame. If there's anybody who believes in Notre Dame more than me, it's Lou Holtz. As Lou has said, "If you've been here, no explanation is necessary. If you haven't been, no explanation will suffice." Notre Dame is a special place and this was going to be a special win. I was completely confident that we were going to win. And then it was fourth and 11. I was praying the Hail Mary over and over again, but I was still confident that we'd win. And then the ball was snapped and I didn't see anybody open. But then Everett Golson threw the ball to Ben Koyack who was wide open. The ball got there before the defender could get there and it was awesome. I took the arms out from under the poncho to high five Wilhelm for that play.
 |
| I think I took this picture on the game-winning drive. It was too cold and wet for me to take pictures before the fourth quarter. |
We still needed to stop them on defense. Stanford didn't have a lot of time, but they still had a chance. On the last play, we brought the blitz and forced an intentional grounding. There were six seconds left on the clock, but I knew we were going to get a ten-second run off on the penalty and the game would be over. It was over and it was awesome. I wouldn't change anything about the day. The weather was all part of the experience.
 |
| Me, Wilhelm, and the finger of the girl that took our picture after the game. |
So let's go through my favorite Notre Dame games ever, starting with ones I didn't go to:
11. Florida State 1993- This probably should rank higher, but the fact that we were cheated out of a National Championship that year puts it behind the next three games on the list.
10. West Virginia 1989 Fiesta Bowl- This win secured the 1988 National Championship.
9. USC 1988- 1 vs. 2 on the road against our biggest rival. We won to finish the 1988 regular season undefeated.
8. Miami 1988- Catholics vs. Convicts. 4 vs. 1. "Save Jimmy Johnson's ass for me!" 31-30. It was also the same day that Kirk Gibson hit a pinch hit home run to win Game 1 of the World Series. If I had any memory of any of this, it would probably be the greatest day of my life.
7. USC 2010- Not nearly as awesome as the games I've mentioned so far, but I actually watched this game. It wasn't a great season, but it felt great to finally beat USC for the first time since 2001.
6. Michigan State 2006- It was a great comeback to win. This was one of the better moments of the Charlie Weis Era.
5. Wake Forest 2012- Easy win against a bad opponent. It's on the list because we got to number 1 that day.
4. Oklahoma 2012- The win that showed people we were for real in 2012
3. Michigan 2014- I despise Michigan with a passion. Beating them 31-0 in the last game of the series was perfect.
2. Stanford 2012- The goal line stand in overtime in the rain. It was awesome.
1. USC 2012- We beat our biggest rival to clinch a spot in the National Championship Game.
And now my favorite games that I attended:
12. Arizona State 2013- Shamrock Series game in Dallas with my brother Sean and Wilhelm. Wilhelm and I didn't have high hopes going into this game, but we won and Sean and I had a good time in Dallas.
11. Army 2010- The first football game at the new Yankee Stadium. There's nothing significant about this game other than that, but I was pretending it was Notre Dame and Army playing at Yankee Stadium in 1943.
10. BYU 2005- Brady Quinn threw six touchdown passes and it was the first win I ever saw at Notre Dame Stadium.
9. Navy 2012- The game was in Dublin. So many Notre Dame fans having a good time in Ireland and a great start to a great regular season.
8. USC 2013- It was a really ugly game, but I needed to see us beat USC in person.
7. Georgia Tech 2006- Jon, Wilhelm, Dennis, Chris and I made the road trip to Atlanta. Not a great performance, but we got the win to start the season.
6. Penn State 2006- We pounded Penn State to start the home schedule and we thought we were on our way to a great season.
5. Army 2006- My last home game as a student. We were happy late in the game when we fumbled trying to run out the clock because it gave Kyle an opportunity to get on the field and become a Notre Dame football legend.
4. UCLA 2006- I remember saying before the game that this game was the last one that I might attend as a student that could be competitive. And we nearly lost. Quinn to Samardzija for 45 yards to win was amazing.
3. Pittsburgh 2005- Jorge, Mike, Dane and I made the road trip to Pittsburgh for the first game of the 2005. It was the first game I ever attended and it was awesome. We won easily and had a great time celebrating the victory with other Notre Dame fans in Pittsburgh afterwards.
2. Michigan 2012- It wasn't pretty, but again, I really hate Michigan. That was the game where I started to believe in 2012.
1. Stanford 2014- I hate Stanford, but not as much as I hate Michigan. But the fact that we scored the game winning touchdown on fourth and 11 late in the game gives it the top spot. It was a special win. And the weather is just part of a great story.
 |
| So wet. So cold. So awesome. |
Let's add another game to my list of favorite games I didn't attend tonight. Go Irish!
Saturday, October 11, 2014
A Disappointing Finish
It was a fun season for the Dodgers, but a disappointing finish. They lost for three reasons:
1. Their best pitcher (and the best pitcher in the world) didn't get the job done.
2. Their bullpen stunk.
3. They only scored six runs the last three games of the series.
Everybody knows how much I love Clayton Kershaw. I heard a podcast talking about how Kershaw's numbers against the Cardinals aren't that bad. Except for ERA. The rest of his numbers are slightly worse than his numbers against the rest of the league. And you would expect that because the Cardinals are a consistently good team. But this is where statistics can be used to prove anything. The Cardinals being able to hit Kershaw is a thing until he proves that it isn't. I don't care what fielding independent pitching and all these other crazy statistics say, he hasn't gotten the job done against the Cardinals in the playoffs the last two years. Of course, if all 30 teams redrafted the entire league, Kershaw is the first pitcher taken. And deservedly so. I'm looking forward to another great year from Kershaw in 2015. Hopefully the Dodgers can avoid the Cardinals in the playoffs next year.
I wrote before about how the Dodgers weren't that good without Kershaw pitching this year. In the regular season, they went 23-4 with Kershaw on the mound and they were slightly over .500 with anybody else. Well, in the playoffs, they were 0-2 with Kershaw on the mound and 1-1 with anybody else. That wasn't good enough. Their bullpen stunk. I don't think there's an easy fix for that. Great relievers become closers and aren't available during the offseason. Other relievers might be really good one year and not so good the next year. You need to develop good young arms. Chris Withrow looked like he might be one of those guys for the Dodgers early this year, but then he needed Tommy John surgery. So I don't know how to fix it, but I have to believe that the Dodgers' bullpen will be at least a little better next year.
As for the hitting, it wasn't good for the last three games, but I'm not too concerned. They were hitting really well at the end of the season. You just have to give the Cardinals credit. A.J. Ellis was outstanding in the playoffs (one of the few Dodgers that was), but they need more production from the catcher position in the regular season. I'd love to have Ellis as a backup catcher who caught Kershaw (he loves Ellis) and maybe one other game every two times through the rotation. I would probably let Hanley Ramirez go in free agency. He can't play shortstop anymore (although he actually did make a couple of nice plays in the field in the playoffs). That would definitely mean losing something at the plate, but I'd be willing to trade Ramirez's hitting and high salary for a guy that will field better and not cost as much. And they have to figure out what to do with the outfield. I think they should be willing to move anybody other than Yasiel Puig. I love Andre Ethier, but if anybody wants to give him a starting job, the Dodgers have to make that move. Carl Crawford was great late in the season, but I don't think anybody will want to pay him. There might be some teams interested in Scott Van Slyke. I like him and he doesn't have a big salary, but if the Dodgers can get something for him, they should. Matt Kemp was great in the second half. It's a good thing they didn't trade him before the trade deadline. Now that he has some value again, I think I'd try to sell high on Kemp. Joc Pederson has done everything there is to do in the minors. He should either be playing for the Dodgers next year or they should trade him.
I love baseball and the Dodgers. It really hurt this year losing so quickly. Last year, the season ended the night I flew to Chicago for the USC game. The good thing was that instead of going to work the next day, I got to watch Notre Dame beat USC. I was not happy to go to work on Wednesday after the Dodgers were eliminated.
I'm already thinking about what games I'll go to next season. The Dodgers play in Cincinnati in late August and I still have to get there, so that's a possibility. I have to get to Anaheim also, so I'd like to figure out how to combine that with another trip to Dodger Stadium. And they're in New York for a four-game series starting on my dad's birthday, so I'll probably go to at least one of those games.
I'm definitely rooting for the Royals now. They're a great story and I really like their stadium. And they wear the same colors as the Dodgers. As for the National League, I'm now haunted by Part 8 of Why I Love Baseball. I still respect the Cardinals, but I really hate them now. If I rewrote my Sports Hate Power Rankings, they'd be in the top 10. But they're playing the number 3 team on that list. So let's go Cardinals! I'm not happy about rooting for them, but I have no choice.
1. Their best pitcher (and the best pitcher in the world) didn't get the job done.
2. Their bullpen stunk.
3. They only scored six runs the last three games of the series.
Everybody knows how much I love Clayton Kershaw. I heard a podcast talking about how Kershaw's numbers against the Cardinals aren't that bad. Except for ERA. The rest of his numbers are slightly worse than his numbers against the rest of the league. And you would expect that because the Cardinals are a consistently good team. But this is where statistics can be used to prove anything. The Cardinals being able to hit Kershaw is a thing until he proves that it isn't. I don't care what fielding independent pitching and all these other crazy statistics say, he hasn't gotten the job done against the Cardinals in the playoffs the last two years. Of course, if all 30 teams redrafted the entire league, Kershaw is the first pitcher taken. And deservedly so. I'm looking forward to another great year from Kershaw in 2015. Hopefully the Dodgers can avoid the Cardinals in the playoffs next year.
I wrote before about how the Dodgers weren't that good without Kershaw pitching this year. In the regular season, they went 23-4 with Kershaw on the mound and they were slightly over .500 with anybody else. Well, in the playoffs, they were 0-2 with Kershaw on the mound and 1-1 with anybody else. That wasn't good enough. Their bullpen stunk. I don't think there's an easy fix for that. Great relievers become closers and aren't available during the offseason. Other relievers might be really good one year and not so good the next year. You need to develop good young arms. Chris Withrow looked like he might be one of those guys for the Dodgers early this year, but then he needed Tommy John surgery. So I don't know how to fix it, but I have to believe that the Dodgers' bullpen will be at least a little better next year.
As for the hitting, it wasn't good for the last three games, but I'm not too concerned. They were hitting really well at the end of the season. You just have to give the Cardinals credit. A.J. Ellis was outstanding in the playoffs (one of the few Dodgers that was), but they need more production from the catcher position in the regular season. I'd love to have Ellis as a backup catcher who caught Kershaw (he loves Ellis) and maybe one other game every two times through the rotation. I would probably let Hanley Ramirez go in free agency. He can't play shortstop anymore (although he actually did make a couple of nice plays in the field in the playoffs). That would definitely mean losing something at the plate, but I'd be willing to trade Ramirez's hitting and high salary for a guy that will field better and not cost as much. And they have to figure out what to do with the outfield. I think they should be willing to move anybody other than Yasiel Puig. I love Andre Ethier, but if anybody wants to give him a starting job, the Dodgers have to make that move. Carl Crawford was great late in the season, but I don't think anybody will want to pay him. There might be some teams interested in Scott Van Slyke. I like him and he doesn't have a big salary, but if the Dodgers can get something for him, they should. Matt Kemp was great in the second half. It's a good thing they didn't trade him before the trade deadline. Now that he has some value again, I think I'd try to sell high on Kemp. Joc Pederson has done everything there is to do in the minors. He should either be playing for the Dodgers next year or they should trade him.
I love baseball and the Dodgers. It really hurt this year losing so quickly. Last year, the season ended the night I flew to Chicago for the USC game. The good thing was that instead of going to work the next day, I got to watch Notre Dame beat USC. I was not happy to go to work on Wednesday after the Dodgers were eliminated.
I'm already thinking about what games I'll go to next season. The Dodgers play in Cincinnati in late August and I still have to get there, so that's a possibility. I have to get to Anaheim also, so I'd like to figure out how to combine that with another trip to Dodger Stadium. And they're in New York for a four-game series starting on my dad's birthday, so I'll probably go to at least one of those games.
I'm definitely rooting for the Royals now. They're a great story and I really like their stadium. And they wear the same colors as the Dodgers. As for the National League, I'm now haunted by Part 8 of Why I Love Baseball. I still respect the Cardinals, but I really hate them now. If I rewrote my Sports Hate Power Rankings, they'd be in the top 10. But they're playing the number 3 team on that list. So let's go Cardinals! I'm not happy about rooting for them, but I have no choice.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
The Most Necessary Bar Rescue Ever
I have few rules in life, but one of them is this: any time Jon Taffer is rescuing my former favorite bar for his TV show, I have to keep a running diary. I started watching early on my phone before the first airing on TV on Sunday night, but it stopped working about halfway through the episode. You'll notice the times from the beginning of the episode are from when I started watching on Wednesday or Thursday night, but I finished when the episode aired on TV on Sunday night. If you haven't seen the episode yet, don't read this if you plan on watching.
I will never forget the summer of 2005. I had turned 21 and three of my friends were working at the Artful Dodger in Huntington. John bartended on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Vin and Sean worked as bar backs on Saturdays. I went every night that they worked there. Many of those nights I was driving so I didn't drink a lot, but I at least made an appearance. Then there were the nights I wasn't driving. Those were fun. John rarely charged me for my drinks. So many good times there that summer. Other summers were fun, but it's hard to top being 21 and having three of my friends working at a bar. I remember when I found out that the Dodger had been sold. I had just gotten back to my dorm after the Bush Push game and I saw on people's away messages that it was the last night of the Dodger. I was coming home for fall break the next morning. We had just lost a heartbreaking game and I was going to miss the last night of the Dodger by one day. It was a rough day. I went back to the Dodger a handful of times after that, but its steady decline had begun.
Here was my Yelp review from 2010:
"Back in the day, the Artful Dodger was my favorite bar. Much like Moe on the Simpsons once did, they made the mistake of getting rid of the dank (actually it was a new owner, but that doesn't work with my analogy). Now I go there and the bouncer rejects me without even checking my ID because I'm not dressed properly. No thanks. I'll go to Katie Mc's."
I've only written four Yelp reviews ever. It's the only bad review I've ever given (one star). Anyway, let's get to the show:
7:07- According to the introduction, the owner bought the bar in 2006. I thought it had changed hands more than once. It also claims that the bar did well for the first five years. I question that claim.
7:08- The name changed to Radio in 2011. I didn't even know. When we did 12 Bars of Christmas in 2012, I never even considered going to the Artful Dodger or whatever it was called by then.
7:10- They're talking about the underage crowd. The last time I tried to go there, I couldn't get in because I wasn't wearing long pants. Or something stupid like that. But now it seems like they'd let any scumbag in.
7:10- Jon Taffer doesn't embrace excuses; he embraces solutions.
7:11- Phil Wills is Jon's bartender tonight. Jon compares its outside appearance to an autobody shop. He's going somewhere with that.
7:12- Teen night was Thursday. How dumb was that idea?
7:13- The name was Radio, but it still said Artful Dodger on the outside. So dumb.
7:14- Jon's going to check out some other bars. He wants to steal some customers for recon. This is different.
7:14- Jon is impressed by Christopher's. Sure it's better than Artful Dodger, but that's a low bar to clear (pun intended). I hate Christopher's, but I'm willing to go there, which is more than I would say about whatever the Artful Dodger became.
7:16- Jon's sending in a bunch of people from other bars. Artful Dodger bartender Jen needs some work.
7:17- One of the customers suspects a rat was chewing on the furniture. Entirely possible. They also have fruit flies.
7:18- You're not going to believe this, but Jon Taffer is getting angry. He's storming in.
7:19- Bugs in a bottle. The crowd is getting angry.
7:26- Jon shuts the bar down.
7:27- Jon had his crew work all night to clean and sanitize the bar.
7:28- They had mosquitoes in the drain. Jon talks about the dangers of mosquitoes. Ned Flanders might disagree.
7:29- We get an explanation of the life cycle of fruit flies.
7:30- My phone is not cooperating right now.
7:37- We're back. The owner Mike is in debt over $100,000.
7:38- There's friction between the owner and the manager.
7:39- Phil and Jesse Barnes are brought in to start training the staff. By the way, the bar looks totally different than it did the last time I ever went to the Dodger. I miss that bar. It was so much fun.
7:41- Jen says she's never going to make a drink the way Phil does. Jon says, "The more you speak, the more of a fool you look like." Jen starts crying.
7:47- More phone issues.
7:56- We're finally back on my phone and so is Jen.
8:01- More phone issues. Baseball is starting soon so I'm going to put the diary on hold for now.
9:30- I'm back and they're training Jen.
9:31- Jon is doing an 18 and over night for the stress test. He says he would never do this himself, but he's going to let them do what they do.
9:32- Two black X's on the hands for people under 21 and pink wristbands for somebody over 21. Jon sends in somebody over 21 who is posing as an 18 year old. She wipes off the X's pretty easily.
9:33- Ten Bud Lights sold to a customer. They have no idea who's getting those drinks.
9:34- Jon's mole has had a drink for over 20 minutes and nobody notices.
9:35- We have some bad bartending going on.
9:36- Jon finally lets the owner know that his mole had been drinking as an allegedly underage girl. And we have some real underage people fighting and being crazy. There's a good reason I hadn't been there in a long time.
9:41- The Royals are up 7-2, but the Angels are threatening. A Royals-Orioles ALCS would be a lot of fun. A Giants-Cardinals NLCS would be miserable. The Dodgers need to win a game or two in St. Louis.
9:42- Jon has them shut down the bar. Jon calls the stress test "a dismal failure." Jon goes through the Huntington demographics with his experts. Jon tells them about his speakeasy idea.
9:44- Jon makes the owner and manager promise that they won't allow anybody under 21 in the bar ever again. When I was going to the Dodger, there definitely were under 21 people there, but they were my friends and they didn't act like morons. And they weren't there when the bar was busy.
9:46- Phil is teaching the bartenders some cocktails. I'm a beer guy. One drawback of the Dodger in its glory days was the beer selection. They only have a few beers on tap.
9:48- Jon unveils the new bar to the owners (which we will see after the commercial). How does this work? Don't they see it before Jon counts to three and has them turn around? Or are they led there blindfolded?
9:49- The Royals got out of the jam. They still lead by five in the bottom of the fifth.
9:52- The Bengals are down 14-3 against the Patriots. People love the Bengals right now. Yeah, I'm not convinced.
9:54- We get the first look at P's & Q's Autobody. "You weren't very good at the bar business so I built you an autobody shop." P's & Q's is a reference to pints and quarts. You drink beer in pints, but you don't drink anything in quarts. I'm confused.
9:55- Jon shows them the secret door. My brother and I went there a month and a half ago. The secret door was pretty cool.
9:57- Once the bar is redone, it's the least interesting part of the show for me. I love watching the bar be terrible and Jon getting angry. But the new bar is open for business.
9:59- Jon says goodbye to the owner and manager.
10:00- Sales are supposedly up 30% six weeks after the relaunch. I'll finish with my review of my visit back in August:
As big Bar Rescue fans and former fans of the Artful Dodger, my brother Sean and I had to check out P's & Q's Autobody. As I already said, the secret door was pretty cool. They really do up the speakeasy theme. We were there early on a Saturday night and it was not very crowded. They're definitely going to have to attract an older, wealthier crowd. Mixed drinks were expensive ($12.50 each). My brother had two and liked them. This is not going to be a place where college kids go when they come home. It's not a place that I'll go to very often. I had a beer on tap. There wasn't a wide selection, but it was fine (I think it was $7). I was interested to see if they'd do anything about food. The Dodger never had food, but Jon is always very big on having food at the bar on the show. It was interesting that there was no mention of food at all. I don't really know if there was anything he could have done. Like I said, I won't go there often, but I would go there for 12 Bars of Christmas if we brought that back for 2014. So I guess that's an improvement.
I will never forget the summer of 2005. I had turned 21 and three of my friends were working at the Artful Dodger in Huntington. John bartended on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Vin and Sean worked as bar backs on Saturdays. I went every night that they worked there. Many of those nights I was driving so I didn't drink a lot, but I at least made an appearance. Then there were the nights I wasn't driving. Those were fun. John rarely charged me for my drinks. So many good times there that summer. Other summers were fun, but it's hard to top being 21 and having three of my friends working at a bar. I remember when I found out that the Dodger had been sold. I had just gotten back to my dorm after the Bush Push game and I saw on people's away messages that it was the last night of the Dodger. I was coming home for fall break the next morning. We had just lost a heartbreaking game and I was going to miss the last night of the Dodger by one day. It was a rough day. I went back to the Dodger a handful of times after that, but its steady decline had begun.
Here was my Yelp review from 2010:
"Back in the day, the Artful Dodger was my favorite bar. Much like Moe on the Simpsons once did, they made the mistake of getting rid of the dank (actually it was a new owner, but that doesn't work with my analogy). Now I go there and the bouncer rejects me without even checking my ID because I'm not dressed properly. No thanks. I'll go to Katie Mc's."
I've only written four Yelp reviews ever. It's the only bad review I've ever given (one star). Anyway, let's get to the show:
7:07- According to the introduction, the owner bought the bar in 2006. I thought it had changed hands more than once. It also claims that the bar did well for the first five years. I question that claim.
7:08- The name changed to Radio in 2011. I didn't even know. When we did 12 Bars of Christmas in 2012, I never even considered going to the Artful Dodger or whatever it was called by then.
7:10- They're talking about the underage crowd. The last time I tried to go there, I couldn't get in because I wasn't wearing long pants. Or something stupid like that. But now it seems like they'd let any scumbag in.
7:10- Jon Taffer doesn't embrace excuses; he embraces solutions.
7:11- Phil Wills is Jon's bartender tonight. Jon compares its outside appearance to an autobody shop. He's going somewhere with that.
7:12- Teen night was Thursday. How dumb was that idea?
7:13- The name was Radio, but it still said Artful Dodger on the outside. So dumb.
7:14- Jon's going to check out some other bars. He wants to steal some customers for recon. This is different.
7:14- Jon is impressed by Christopher's. Sure it's better than Artful Dodger, but that's a low bar to clear (pun intended). I hate Christopher's, but I'm willing to go there, which is more than I would say about whatever the Artful Dodger became.
7:16- Jon's sending in a bunch of people from other bars. Artful Dodger bartender Jen needs some work.
7:17- One of the customers suspects a rat was chewing on the furniture. Entirely possible. They also have fruit flies.
7:18- You're not going to believe this, but Jon Taffer is getting angry. He's storming in.
7:19- Bugs in a bottle. The crowd is getting angry.
7:26- Jon shuts the bar down.
7:27- Jon had his crew work all night to clean and sanitize the bar.
7:28- They had mosquitoes in the drain. Jon talks about the dangers of mosquitoes. Ned Flanders might disagree.
7:29- We get an explanation of the life cycle of fruit flies.
7:30- My phone is not cooperating right now.
7:37- We're back. The owner Mike is in debt over $100,000.
7:38- There's friction between the owner and the manager.
7:39- Phil and Jesse Barnes are brought in to start training the staff. By the way, the bar looks totally different than it did the last time I ever went to the Dodger. I miss that bar. It was so much fun.
7:41- Jen says she's never going to make a drink the way Phil does. Jon says, "The more you speak, the more of a fool you look like." Jen starts crying.
7:47- More phone issues.
7:56- We're finally back on my phone and so is Jen.
8:01- More phone issues. Baseball is starting soon so I'm going to put the diary on hold for now.
9:30- I'm back and they're training Jen.
9:31- Jon is doing an 18 and over night for the stress test. He says he would never do this himself, but he's going to let them do what they do.
9:32- Two black X's on the hands for people under 21 and pink wristbands for somebody over 21. Jon sends in somebody over 21 who is posing as an 18 year old. She wipes off the X's pretty easily.
9:33- Ten Bud Lights sold to a customer. They have no idea who's getting those drinks.
9:34- Jon's mole has had a drink for over 20 minutes and nobody notices.
9:35- We have some bad bartending going on.
9:36- Jon finally lets the owner know that his mole had been drinking as an allegedly underage girl. And we have some real underage people fighting and being crazy. There's a good reason I hadn't been there in a long time.
9:41- The Royals are up 7-2, but the Angels are threatening. A Royals-Orioles ALCS would be a lot of fun. A Giants-Cardinals NLCS would be miserable. The Dodgers need to win a game or two in St. Louis.
9:42- Jon has them shut down the bar. Jon calls the stress test "a dismal failure." Jon goes through the Huntington demographics with his experts. Jon tells them about his speakeasy idea.
9:44- Jon makes the owner and manager promise that they won't allow anybody under 21 in the bar ever again. When I was going to the Dodger, there definitely were under 21 people there, but they were my friends and they didn't act like morons. And they weren't there when the bar was busy.
9:46- Phil is teaching the bartenders some cocktails. I'm a beer guy. One drawback of the Dodger in its glory days was the beer selection. They only have a few beers on tap.
9:48- Jon unveils the new bar to the owners (which we will see after the commercial). How does this work? Don't they see it before Jon counts to three and has them turn around? Or are they led there blindfolded?
9:49- The Royals got out of the jam. They still lead by five in the bottom of the fifth.
9:52- The Bengals are down 14-3 against the Patriots. People love the Bengals right now. Yeah, I'm not convinced.
9:54- We get the first look at P's & Q's Autobody. "You weren't very good at the bar business so I built you an autobody shop." P's & Q's is a reference to pints and quarts. You drink beer in pints, but you don't drink anything in quarts. I'm confused.
9:55- Jon shows them the secret door. My brother and I went there a month and a half ago. The secret door was pretty cool.
9:57- Once the bar is redone, it's the least interesting part of the show for me. I love watching the bar be terrible and Jon getting angry. But the new bar is open for business.
9:59- Jon says goodbye to the owner and manager.
10:00- Sales are supposedly up 30% six weeks after the relaunch. I'll finish with my review of my visit back in August:
As big Bar Rescue fans and former fans of the Artful Dodger, my brother Sean and I had to check out P's & Q's Autobody. As I already said, the secret door was pretty cool. They really do up the speakeasy theme. We were there early on a Saturday night and it was not very crowded. They're definitely going to have to attract an older, wealthier crowd. Mixed drinks were expensive ($12.50 each). My brother had two and liked them. This is not going to be a place where college kids go when they come home. It's not a place that I'll go to very often. I had a beer on tap. There wasn't a wide selection, but it was fine (I think it was $7). I was interested to see if they'd do anything about food. The Dodger never had food, but Jon is always very big on having food at the bar on the show. It was interesting that there was no mention of food at all. I don't really know if there was anything he could have done. Like I said, I won't go there often, but I would go there for 12 Bars of Christmas if we brought that back for 2014. So I guess that's an improvement.
Monday, September 29, 2014
A Football Game at a Football Stadium in New Jersey
Notre Dame played Syracuse on Saturday night at the Meadowlands. Not thinking about Notre Dame's disastrous first game at MetLife Stadium back in 2010, I bought tickets back in November of last year. I was there in 2010. Tailgating before the game was fun. The game itself, not so much. That was a miserable day. I drank away my sorrows at my friend John's engagement party that night. I also didn't think of the last Notre Dame-Syracuse game I went to back in 2008. We lost 24-23 to a bad Syracuse team and it was 27 degrees at kickoff. Let us never speak of those two games ever again.
Anyway, this year's game was a night game. I really hate having so many night games. It's not the worst thing in the world when you're watching at home. I like being able to go to mass before the game and then not have to worry about it on Sunday morning. But my favorite thing is watching us win in the afternoon and then just relaxing, drinking some good beer, and watching the other games at night. All of our road games this year are probably going to end up being night games. Fortunately, the rest of our home games are day games. So my dad and I went to mass at 4:30 and then drove to the Meadowlands. It took about an hour and 45 minutes to get to the stadium, but we were there with plenty of time before kickoff.
Our seats were up high, right in the middle of the end zone. They were the cheapest tickets I've gotten for a football game in a long time (maybe since I was a student). But it actually wasn't that bad of a view. If you're sitting behind the endzone, I'd rather be up high so that you can tell what's going on when the ball is on the other side of the field (although I definitely would have taken a little bit lower in this case). I've sat down low by the end zone and that's great when the ball is close to you, but terrible when it's far away. I'm going to the game against Stanford this coming weekend and I have seats down low behind the south end zone. Hopefully Notre Dame will score a few touchdowns on that side of the field.
My friends Jon and Notre Dame football legend Kyle were at the game. They came over to our section at halftime. It was good to see them, but it was too bad I only saw them for about ten minutes. I should see them both again before the season is over though.
It was a weird game. We were minus 4 in turnovers and we won by 16. That shouldn't happen. Everett Golson turned the ball over four times, but tied or came one short of the NCAA record for consecutive completions (I saw different things on that and I don't feel like doing the research to see if he actually tied the record or not). He also had four touchdown passes. The defense played really well. Syracuse's offensive statistics were skewed by a fake punt and some late yards. We won fairly easily, but we should have won by a lot more than 16. We'll have to play better to beat Stanford. I thought it was a well coached game. Brian Kelly called a ton of wide receiver screens, a lot more than I can remember us running in one game. And Syracuse never stopped them. We also broke out some formations that I've never seen us run. People complain about our running game, but I thought it was pretty good in this game. It certainly wasn't spectacular, but our three running backs had a total of 131 yards and they all averaged at least four yards per carry. I felt like we were able to get the tough yards on the ground when we needed them with the two tight end formations we were running. The only thing that kept the game from being a blowout was us giving the ball away.
The game reminded me a little bit of the Big East Tournament, my favorite meaningless sporting event. I love the Big East Tournament, but the atmosphere isn't great until Friday night or so. For the earlier nights, you have a decent crowd for the early game and then the crowd clears out. This game was a little bit like that. Fans were looking for a reason to leave early. It never felt like Syracuse was going to win, but lots of fans had cleared out before the game was decided. As for the makeup of the crowd, I was a little surprised. If we played Syracuse in basketball at Madison Square Garden, that would be pretty close to a Syracuse home game. Obviously that's their sport and football is our sport, but I was still expecting more Syracuse fans considering it was technically a Syracuse home game. It definitely seemed like we outnumbered them. I wasn't sitting in a section that had been allotted to Notre Dame fans (I got my tickets through Ticketmaster rather than Notre Dame) and there were definitely more Notre Dame fans in my section.
So it was a football game. Not a great atmosphere and not a great game. We didn't play very well, but we won and it was never in much doubt. MetLife Stadium is one of my least favorite sports venues that I've been to. It's just a football stadium in New Jersey. I once heard somebody describe it as sterile. I think that's a good description. We play Syracuse in the Meadowlands again in two years. I feel like I'd rather watch it on TV than go to the game, but there's a decent chance that my friends will be there, in which case I'd probably go.
We've played four bad teams so far and we're 4-0. This week we get our first real test. I'm hoping we beat Stanford a little easier than we beat them in 2012. Go Irish!
Anyway, this year's game was a night game. I really hate having so many night games. It's not the worst thing in the world when you're watching at home. I like being able to go to mass before the game and then not have to worry about it on Sunday morning. But my favorite thing is watching us win in the afternoon and then just relaxing, drinking some good beer, and watching the other games at night. All of our road games this year are probably going to end up being night games. Fortunately, the rest of our home games are day games. So my dad and I went to mass at 4:30 and then drove to the Meadowlands. It took about an hour and 45 minutes to get to the stadium, but we were there with plenty of time before kickoff.
Our seats were up high, right in the middle of the end zone. They were the cheapest tickets I've gotten for a football game in a long time (maybe since I was a student). But it actually wasn't that bad of a view. If you're sitting behind the endzone, I'd rather be up high so that you can tell what's going on when the ball is on the other side of the field (although I definitely would have taken a little bit lower in this case). I've sat down low by the end zone and that's great when the ball is close to you, but terrible when it's far away. I'm going to the game against Stanford this coming weekend and I have seats down low behind the south end zone. Hopefully Notre Dame will score a few touchdowns on that side of the field.
My friends Jon and Notre Dame football legend Kyle were at the game. They came over to our section at halftime. It was good to see them, but it was too bad I only saw them for about ten minutes. I should see them both again before the season is over though.
It was a weird game. We were minus 4 in turnovers and we won by 16. That shouldn't happen. Everett Golson turned the ball over four times, but tied or came one short of the NCAA record for consecutive completions (I saw different things on that and I don't feel like doing the research to see if he actually tied the record or not). He also had four touchdown passes. The defense played really well. Syracuse's offensive statistics were skewed by a fake punt and some late yards. We won fairly easily, but we should have won by a lot more than 16. We'll have to play better to beat Stanford. I thought it was a well coached game. Brian Kelly called a ton of wide receiver screens, a lot more than I can remember us running in one game. And Syracuse never stopped them. We also broke out some formations that I've never seen us run. People complain about our running game, but I thought it was pretty good in this game. It certainly wasn't spectacular, but our three running backs had a total of 131 yards and they all averaged at least four yards per carry. I felt like we were able to get the tough yards on the ground when we needed them with the two tight end formations we were running. The only thing that kept the game from being a blowout was us giving the ball away.
The game reminded me a little bit of the Big East Tournament, my favorite meaningless sporting event. I love the Big East Tournament, but the atmosphere isn't great until Friday night or so. For the earlier nights, you have a decent crowd for the early game and then the crowd clears out. This game was a little bit like that. Fans were looking for a reason to leave early. It never felt like Syracuse was going to win, but lots of fans had cleared out before the game was decided. As for the makeup of the crowd, I was a little surprised. If we played Syracuse in basketball at Madison Square Garden, that would be pretty close to a Syracuse home game. Obviously that's their sport and football is our sport, but I was still expecting more Syracuse fans considering it was technically a Syracuse home game. It definitely seemed like we outnumbered them. I wasn't sitting in a section that had been allotted to Notre Dame fans (I got my tickets through Ticketmaster rather than Notre Dame) and there were definitely more Notre Dame fans in my section.
 |
| My view for the opening kickoff. |
So it was a football game. Not a great atmosphere and not a great game. We didn't play very well, but we won and it was never in much doubt. MetLife Stadium is one of my least favorite sports venues that I've been to. It's just a football stadium in New Jersey. I once heard somebody describe it as sterile. I think that's a good description. We play Syracuse in the Meadowlands again in two years. I feel like I'd rather watch it on TV than go to the game, but there's a decent chance that my friends will be there, in which case I'd probably go.
We've played four bad teams so far and we're 4-0. This week we get our first real test. I'm hoping we beat Stanford a little easier than we beat them in 2012. Go Irish!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)