Learning About Your Team

You learn a lot about your team when things are going worst. Case in point: Both of my favorite schools' games that were played on Saturday.

Notre Dame at Michigan State

The Irish ran on their first six offensive plays. They got seven yards. That's about how it went the rest of the game. ND's 2-0 start wasn't quite a mirage, but it certainly was not a sign that the struggles of 2007 were gone forever. When almost your entire starting lineup is freshmen or sophomores, crap happens. Jimmy Clausen throws dumb picks. Duval Kamara allows balls to be wrestled away from him in the end zone. Michael Floyd flat-out drops the ball in the MSU red zone. Armando Allen runs with a lack of vision that is almost shocking at times. Underclassman linebackers bounce off MSU's Javon Ringer like a bowling ball. The Irish lost 23-7 but were never legitimately in the game.

We learned: that Jimmy still hasn't made the leap. That for all the potential and talent that Michael Floyd has, the only legitimately unstoppable playmaker on the ND offense is Golden Tate. That Tate is going to be a legitimate national star very soon - that 3rd and 17 effort play to squeeze out of tackles 10 yards short of the first and get it anyway was unreal. That ND's offensive line still is not very good. That the Irish might not have a single running back that can truly get the job done.

The other one was a little happier.

Ball State at Indiana

This 'worst' was a little more serious than mere football issues. Dante Love took an inadvertent helmet to helmet shot early in the 2nd quarter, lost the ball, and had it returned for a score by IU that cut the Ball State lead 14-13. But things soon turned somber when Love didn't move. For a long time. He was immobilized and finally carted off the field. Turns out he suffered a cervical spine fracture and underwent a 5-hour surgery to correct it. He does have feeling in all his limbs and all indications are that he will not suffer any lasting damage from the hit. But he's done playing football.

The play surely put Ball State in a daze for a while. But barely two minutes later, Nate Davis - who is legitimately among the top dozen or so quarterbacks in the nation, any class, anywhere - rolled out under pressure from Indiana's defensive line. Heading for the sideline, he chucked a long ball - 45 yards in the air, that is - to Myles Trempe, the guy who replaced Love. It was right on the money. It was one of the most incredible throws I've ever seen anyone make. Davis makes it seem routine anymore. Touchdown Ball State. The Cardinals pretty much cruised from there, 42-20.

They showed guts and heart. They showed incredible talent. They showed a strong front four defensively and a stronger front five offensively, paving the way for MiQuale Lewis to crack 166 yards and 4 scores and bust into the Cingular All-America player of the week balloting. And they showed incredible poise. Ball State can go 12-0. They may not - but last night proved that they can.

You learn a lot about your team when things are going worst. Some are good, and some are bad. But you learn.

Just So We're Clear...

USC is NOT a shoo-in for the title game - even if they go undefeated.

This depends on some other circumstances, but if you click on my Dan Shanoff link in the blogroll you'll see. Basically, if an SEC and a Big 12 team go unbeaten...why should USC get in?

The Trojans are great, but as of now it looks like even an unbeaten USC team wouldn't have a win better than Ohio State - and there's no evidence thus far to suggest they're really that special. In fact, the way things are going, the only other ranked team USC might face - and they'd have to keep winning, obviously - would be Notre Dame. Now, an ND fan myself speaking, the Irish might well be good. We don't know yet. But they sure don't have a shot in hell of beating USC and they're probably not good enough for a title contender to be touting them as their second-best win.

This weekend is back to the September norm for college football - a lot of mismatches and not a lot of hotly anticipated games. Notre Dame/MSU, Georgia/Arizona State, and yes, Ball State/Indiana are among the games that should be pretty good this weekend. Check 'em out. College football is the greatest sport in the world - even on mediocre slates like this one. It demands your attention.

College Football Thoughts So Far

East Carolina. Not much else to say. First you Beamerball Frank Beamer and beat Virginia Tech at a semineutral site, then you simply own West Virginia and hold Pat White and Co. to 3 points. The Pirates are currently ranked 14th in the nation after those victories, which is - without doing any research whatsoever - probably the highest they've ever been ranked. They have no one left on their schedule that should take them down if they play their best, meaning there may be more than one BCS-busting possibility. Speaking of...

Ball State. Yes sir, the old alma mater is 2-0 for the first time since 1995 after beating Navy 35-23 on national TV (ESPN) last Friday night. There are two legitimately scary games left - @Indiana, because the Cards have never beaten a BCS conference opponent, and @Central Michigan, because Dan LeFevour owns us. Of course, between the aforementioned Pirates and the already-ranked BYU, it seems spectacularly unlikely that Ball State would get into the big prize even if they went 12-0, especially considering their schedule. But BSU is setting themselves up nicely.

Ohio State. Color me unimpressed. The Buckeyes handled I-AA Youngstown State well enough, but trailed after 3 quarters against MAC nonentity Ohio and needed the Bobcats to fumble a punt and then foul up coverage horribly defending another to get their 26-14 win. They'll go to top-ranked USC next week. Good luck with that.

Notre Dame. Had to be mentioned. The Irish also trailed an inferior opponent entering the final quarter, down 13-7 to San Diego State before scoring 14 straight and outgaining SDSU 146-5 the rest of the game. This one was nearly really embarrassing since the Aztecs fell at home to I-AA Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo the previous week, but ND escaped with their lives. They'll host equally unimpressive Michigan (lost to Utah then edged Miami of Ohio) on Saturday. As an ND fan, I feel obligated to tell you I'm not that worried unless the Irish struggle again this week. Until then they're just one of many teams that had first-week issues, albeit magnified because they're ND and because they're coming off 2007.

Not much uncertainty. Other than ECU, the thrilling UCLA/Tennessee upset and the odd Akron-over-Syracuse style game in the first two weeks, things are more or less going according to script. I have a feeling by the end of the week of 9/20 we'll have a really good idea of what's going on around the country, but for now, all we know is USC is looking much better than everybody else, the ACC still blows, and the SEC is still awesome.

College Football Is Better Than Pro

Is it a popular sentiment? Probably more so than you might think, but it really isn't. But the fact is, in my mind, college football is just better than the pros. Pro football has become increasingly about Brett Favre or the Madden Curse. Pro football has exorbitant fines if your uniform isn't exactly right (to paraphrase Peter Gibbons, the Nazis made the Jews wear uniforms, too). Pro football has free agency, veterans being cut left and right, and Daunte Culpepper not being able to find a job.

College football for the most part has few team changes. The games don't fit into some insane bit of history. There is no Spygate. Whereas the NFL has Spygate, college football has supposed offensive genius Charlie Weis guiding the nation's worst offense in 2007. The college game is about what happens on the field, not what happens on the sidelines.

The college game has multiple threats like Percy Harvin or Terrelle Pryor. In the NFL, one guy becomes a multiple threat (Hester) and everyone thinks it's the greatest thing ever.

I have disjointed thoughts about this, and part of it is assuredly that in college, I root for one of the most talked-about and legendary programs ever (Notre Dame), and in the pros, I root for one of the most completely irrelevant and mediocre franchises (Carolina Panthers). But here's the simple truth: I will watch college football day to night, no matter whether ND is involved or not. I cannot stand to watch NFL football in the same fashion. College football is different from the NFL, and in my mind, different is better.

Much better.

Befuddlement

Baseball makes no sense. No one can deny this. But try to make sense of Randy Wolf getting shredded by Cubs bats on May 12, then tossing a shutout at Wrigley on September 3rd, and you really are going to have a thinker on your hands.

You would think jet-setting to 85-50, the best record the Cubs had had since 1945, would have been enough to take the sting out of losses like the ones in the last five games. It doesn't. It makes them worse. When Lou Piniella inexplicably goes to Bob Howry after Carlos Zambrano leaves the game after five (don't get me started on him) and Bob immediately puts the game out of reach. Or so you think, until the Cubs launch one of their famous comebacks, capped by Jimmy Edmonds finally going deep again to tie it. Then Geoff Freaking Blum caps a banner day of Gold Glove plays by hitting the game-winning two run homer in the 11th.

And then there was tonight's debacle, in which the only time the Cubs got a runner to third, it was on his way home to get thrown out at the plate. At 85-55, with a Baseball Prospectus-calculated 99.5 percent odds of making the playoffs thanks to a 10-game cushion on the wild card runner up right now, we shouldn't care. But we care more than ever.

Then there's Zambrano. Left injured after five. Claims to be hurt. Goes to the doctor today, skips the MRI portion of his check-up, then doesn't show up to the game. You'd think the Cubs would take better care of their 90 million dollar investment. You'd think Zambrano would have outgrown this ridiculousness by now. And you'd think that of former reliever Ryan Dempster, walking injury report Rich Harden, and Zambrano, that Z was the least likely to go down.

That's baseball.