Christmas: Stay warm y'all!

I pray my wish will come true

For my child, and your child too... 

Dateline:  Flint Lake, IN

Everyone has their favorite Christmas story, don't they...   

The other evening, while supping with fellow Class of '79ers, the movie,"It's A Wonderful Life" came up in conversation - a fabulous film that's never disappoints despite its 76 year old age. 

I love that movie - but my favorite holiday story - perhaps because it fell on my birthday - involves the Castellini, Feifar and Corrigan couples, BBQ ribs, a great deal of wine and REO Speedwagon. 

The year?      2011.

The venue?   1155 N. Dearborn.

The cause?   Celebrating both the Feifar and Corrigan birthdays.

The vehicle?  The Champs Sports Bowl, Notre Dame vs. FSU.

The result?   Irrelevant.

"Did he say, REO?"

What was important was that, as the night went on the game ended, more wine got opened, Jerome expressed his desire in seeing REO at an upcoming Holiday Star Theatre, Merrillville IN concert and group reaction ensued. 

Judy's response - and I'm paraphrasing here, "No one's stopping you, Jerry."  (Implicitly, you're going alone.)

Well, one thing led to another as we extolled the virtues of 1970's Midwestern rock 'n roll and as the hour progressed toward midnight... when our host tells us, by the way, he's got a CNBC gig the next morning...

Wait. What?

...and as an homage to his beloved band, he's going to drop three Speedwagon references into his interview.

Hold on.  You're going to work tomorrow?  It's Friday before New Years. Why?

Fast forward 12 hours when a simple, cryptic is received, saying simply, "I made four."

Sure enough, the CNBC website video verified the achievement, although I did think it slightly inappropriate of Jerry to sign off the piece by telling the CNBC talking head, "I'm gonna keep on loving you."

Nonetheless, incredibly impressive.   Unless you think about the poor guy in Dennison, Iowa who's probably watching the segment and yelling, "Quick, Irma, grab a pen and write this down!  This Chicago finance expert is telling us that we've got to roll the changes and simply ride the storm out..."

No wonder we head into recessions.

Of course you could probably describe ND's 2022 season the same way.

Quote of the Week

The tragic irony being that Mr. Bourdain committed suicide.  Still, as another calendar year passes, words to take to heart - we're not getting any younger. And we can always be better.

Word of the Week

Used in a sentence paragraph:  Jerrence could feel it coming a mile away.  The disgust.  The revulsion.

The self-loathing.

Why did he bother to invest anything, emotionally, in the college football recruiting process?  He hated that he allowed himself to get caught up in the decision-making processes - or lack thereof - of basically children, most of whom have trouble choosing their cafeteria lunch line options much less a college destination.

Which led him to think about the interminable  recruitment of Peyton Bowen, the 5-star safety who had made a commitment to Notre Dame virtually a year ago, while spending almost every weekend thereafter visiting a competing college.  

Jerrence began to wonder, despite thinking he had a reasonably well developed vocabulary, perhaps he had a looser grasp on that word's meaning than he realized.

Nope.  Jerrence had the definition right. It would seem Peyton was the one a bit confused about what a 'commitment' demands.

So what, ultimately, do we make of young Bowen, acknowledging the possibility that the lad by himself, may not singularly be the singularly colossal narcissist that appears? 

 

Is he Naughtious Maximus or Biggus Dickus?

I know where I land. 

RE-PETE (A shameless, illegal lift of Pete Sampson's weekly mail-bag)

One more 2022 Pete Sampson 'steal' of an article. 

Well, at least a part of one. 

After all, he is far more well equipped to provide an accurate summary of the 'state of the program, Post-Early Signing Period / Pre-Bowl Game than I can...

Enjoy. 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Thoughts on Notre Dame’s 24-man recruiting class that finished 9th in the 247Sports Team Rankings at the end of the first day of the early signing period.

1. Marcus Freeman got the Brian Kelly treatment on Wednesday, navigating a signing day press conference focused as much on where ND failed in recruiting as where the program succeeded. But this is where this program wants to live, measuring its recruiting success against Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia. The Crimson Tide and Buckeyes were mentioned, unprompted, by OC Tommy Rees later when he talked about the WR culture the Irish want to build. If you’re going to take a shot at programs that sign 5-star talent in bulk, you have to be clear-eyed when you miss.

And although some criticism of Freeman might feel harsh considering this class was ranked #1 in the country when training camp opened in August, Wednesday’s reality check was healthy for ND football if it wants to really challenge for a title. To his credit, he didn’t exclusively wave pompoms, even though he’d earned the right to pat the program on the back. And that’s healthy, too, because there may be nothing more important for ND’s championship viability than perspective and context.

So let’s apply a little bit of both to Notre Dame’s 24-man recruiting class.

2. All these things can be true at once: Notre Dame hit a higher Blue-Chip Ratio (83.3 percent of Irish signees were at least four-star prospects) yesterday than at any point under the previous coach. Yet Kelly’s new program out-recruited his old one, which is one of the reasons he bolted ND in the first place. ND hit all its biggest needs, including a banner receiver haul despite the 2022 passing offense hardly serving as an effective billboard for the position. The Irish will have just one 5-star prospect on the roster next season. Alabama will have more than a dozen. Freeman has signed back-to-back top-10 classes, something Kelly basically conceded was impossible.

Notre Dame signed an excellent class that can return to the College Football Playoff.

Notre Dame had an all-time class slip through its fingers, a potentially title-contending haul that once may have included Keon Keeley, Peyton Bowen and Dante Moore.

Hey, college football is a complicated and conflicted sport to follow. College football recruiting is, too.

3. Before getting into what Notre Dame is doing in NIL and what it’s not, take a moment to acknowledge Freeman and his staff are recruiting into gale-force headwinds in that realm. There are no six-figure deals for Notre Dame prospects, although there can be six-figure deals for Notre Dame players once they’re on campus. That has forced Freeman to walk a public tightrope on which he both leans into NIL and pushes back against it.

Freeman: “If you’re coming here because of NIL, it’s probably not going to be the best place for you, and it’s not going to be the place you choose.”

Also Freeman: “We continue to let the recruits know that you’re going to be able to capitalize off name, image and likeness at Notre Dame as good or better than anywhere else you’re looking at. And we believe that and we’ll continue to sell that. And if that’s important to you, and that’s what attracts you to ND, then this is a place you choose.”

Neither quote is wrong. It’s that Freeman has to make both right at the same time.

4. Until Notre Dame changes its stance on NIL as a university, the best move for Freeman is to do a different kind of recruiting evaluation, figuring out which prospects will be most swayed by NIL and adjust accordingly. When Notre Dame hosted 4-star receiver Jaden Greathouse on a visit, the Texas product told the staff he didn’t need to hear more NIL pitches because that wasn’t why he liked the program. Other prospects Notre Dame recruited led with NIL questions on recruiting visits. Which type of player do you think is more likely to sign with Notre Dame?

This is a new level of scouting, and it’s a tough ask for Notre Dame to nail this in the first cycle where NIL led the recruiting discourse. The good news for ND is that Freeman acknowledged the staff has to scout a little differently moving forward. It’s not that they need to avoid all prospects interested in NIL, but they have to be prepared to have recruitments like those of Bowen, Moore and Keeley go sideways.

“I think every kid you’ve got to look at and say, ‘OK, why did we get him?’ Or, ‘Why didn’t we get them?’” Freeman said. “And that’s something we’ll do as a staff is say, ‘OK, every recruit that signed here, why did we get them? What was important? OK, the kids we didn’t get, why didn’t we get them? What was important? What could we have done differently? The ones that de-committed? Why did they de-commit? What can we have done differently?’ And some of them, we might have to say, ‘It wasn’t the right fit. It’s OK.’ And some, we’ve got to look and say, ‘We’ve got to evaluate the way we’re recruiting, what we’re selling, how we got to the point where they didn’t want to come here then de-committed.’”

5. Will Notre Dame change its stance on NIL as a university after the past week? Jack Swarbrick went on a podcast with the Golics and called Notre Dame a “champion” of NIL. That’s partially true. Notre Dame may be a proponent of NIL as a theory, but it hasn’t fully embraced NIL as a practice. That’s not saying ND needs to get into the same sandbox as Oregon, Miami and Texas A&M. But it would be a mistake for the school not to reevaluate its overall stance on NIL. It’s not going away.

Swarbrick has lobbied the federal government for a fix. That feels like the right approach to the legal issue facing the NCAA under new leadership. But it’s also on the wrong timeline, considering NIL will affect next year’s recruiting class even more than it altered this one.

6. As for the class ND did sign, it’s hard to remember a haul with this much balance that also hit the program’s biggest needs. Rees navigated a thorny QB recruiting landscape and found a four-star solution in Kenny Minchey, a player who might prove to be the best QB Notre Dame signs over a 4-year window. Chansi Stuckey took a WR room and overhauled it in one cycle, with four high school prospects, one graduate transfer and two guys named Kaleb Smith. Deland McCullough signed the highest-rated RB the Irish have landed in more than 10 years, despite a room that doesn’t offer automatic playing time. Overall, it’s the kind of class at the offensive skill positions that should let the Irish go into games against the likes of Ohio St. and USC without thinking about ball control and time of possession quite so much.

7. Credit Mike Mickens for keeping Notre Dame’s cornerback recruiting rolling, too. It’s a position where previous staffs had believed the Irish could not sign top-100 talent regularly. Instead, after getting Ben Morrison and Jaden Mickey last cycle, the Irish got Christian Gray and Micah Bell in this one. And that’s after losing Jayden Rhett to Georgia early in the process. Gray is the highest-rated corner to commit to Notre Dame in more than a decade. There was no settling at the position, just a push to maximize the talent on hand. If that leads to a few transfers because older players have been beaten out by younger ones, that would now be seen as healthy.

8. The most interesting prospect Notre Dame signed? 4-star athlete Brandyn Hillman, who was more of a 3-star recruit until the Irish got involved. Then again, he started his senior year with an offer from Norfolk St. The 6'1", 191-lb high school QB feels like more of a college safety, the kind of transition DC Al Golden welcomes.

Hillman isn’t Bowen. But like Rees landing Minchey at QB after missing on Moore, taking Hillman when Bowen waffled is good board management by Notre Dame’s recruiting staff. The Irish didn’t just fill a hole with Minchey and Hillman — they got athletes the staff believes can be potential starters.

Source:  The Athletic

December 22, 2022

Wager

The winners. Or in Survivor-speak, The Final Three. 

* Brunett

* Ward

* Garrett

Let the best man win.  And for those of you who wish to play along at home, you'll find the final tie-breaker questions below.

Also, for those of you who haven't ponied up - would appreciate it if you'd do so (if your name is highlighted, I think you've paid).   I could be wrong on either front, paid or not - just let me know. 

Pick the winners, with the spread, and the over/under.

Wins	Quote	Domer
12	"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few..."	Brian M., John P., JP, Blayney
11	"Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts..."	Lini, Theo, Sloane, Dave M., Peter
10	"Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions..."	Bob J., Gutsch,  Jerry P., Bill, Bob S., Mike C., Pat B., Jim B., Tim S.,  Feif, Mike G., Phillip S., George, Mike B.,  Shea
9	"Never, never give in..."	Jerrence, Raz, Mark, Bryan, Matt, Jerry C., Daryl, Graham, John  Jim T., Alex, Randy, Pat C., Gerard W.
8	"History is written by the victors..."	Albert, Garrett R. Brian W.
7	"When you get a thing the way you want it, leave it alone..."
6	"The best argument against democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter..."
5	"If I were married to you, Mr. Churchill, I'd put poison in your coffee. If we were married, I'd drink it..."
4	"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire..."
3	"If you're going through hell, keep going..."

Schadenfreude of the Week

Not a lot of options to pick from since the last time I posted.

Oh, wait.

The PAC-12 championship game.

Utah v. USC.

That'll do.

1) USC.   Just because the game occurred three weeks ago, doesn't make the Trojan's blowing their BCS Playoff chances - and getting crushed doing so - any less delicious.

Terry's Tools

This time of year, when one thinks of 'holiday tools', I'd like to believe we're envisioning more of the Christmas bar variety.

So many instruments. So varied.  All so singularly committed to making our lives a little cheerier as we celebrate surviving another year, with friends, family, loved ones.

Unfortunately, that's not what this section's all about.  Thus, I give you a different kind of holiday tool

The mood ring counter is all a-glow... 

1) JT Daniels.   Remember him... the NEXT GREAT USC QB?  

Transferring again.  Let's recap:

• 2018-19:   USC
• 2020-21:  Georgia
• 2021-22:  West Virginia
• 2023:        Rice?

Meanwhile, Cam McCormick says, "Hold my beer."

2) Deion Sanders.   Not for the reason (um, Dylan Edwards) you might think...   

Hey Coach Prime, just because it's a common (if typically under the radar) practice for new coaches to not honor existing recruiting commitments - or scholarships, doesn't make it any less of a completely douchey move. 

.

3) Xavier Babudar.   AKA The Wolf Fan.

Fellow fans were worried last week when he wasn't at the Chiefs - Texans game.

Turns out there was a good reason:  While traveling to Houston for the game, he got arrested for allegedly robbing a bank in Bixby, OK. 

Presumably he didn't pull a Marvin Barnes and wear his game day Chiefs outfit while pulling the job. 

Final Thought.

Stay safe this holiday season!

Week 12: Drew, We Hardly Knew Ye

Many rivers to cross

But I can't seem to find my way over... 

Dateline:  Flint Lake, IN

A friend of the blog - we'll call him Matt (because that's his name) - recently sent me this joke:

Q.  Why did the chicken cross the road?

 A.  To die alone in the rain. 

Matt, you're supposed to be Mr. Glass Half Full, not Nihilist Matt.  Leave that to the pathologically depressed, like the tools on my ND football message board.

That said, I loved it. 

But the underlying essence of how one reacts to Matt's joke is this:  everything is relative.  How one perceives something is deeply personal, whether it's a joke or a football player, a team, a specific game.  It's like the time I attended one of Gruley's book signings and he shared that his agent was of the opinion that, when coming up with marketable plot lines, "Pedophilia is always a winner."  

 I'm pretty sure the audience got his point - that there was a consistently fertile consumer appetite for stories that involve very dark behavior - that's not to say that some of the laughter resulting from Bryan's observation didn't have an uncomfortable undercurrent - should I really be laughing at that?  

So it is with Notre Dame football as we move to the final chapter of the 2022 book:  how should I be feeling about this year's product?

What part of "don't utter a sound" was unclear?

Did it leave you feeling good, bad, or indifferent?  

8-4.  Maybe 9-4.  

And what is the driver of that opinion - your views on the coach(es)?  the players?  the system?  the culture?

For me, 2022 had far more good than bad.  But then, I'm an optimist. I choose to believe the aforementioned chicken's backstory involved it doing something quite heroic - perhaps sheltering a bunch of chicks from some predator, only to be mortally wounded and/or die a solitary death. 

You know, in the classic movie hero tradition, like John Kasinski's dad figure in "A Quiet Place."  

Sorry, no sequel for you, John.

But, hey, to each his own.  What there is no difference of opinion on:  the continued excellence of the Stayer tailgate operation.   Thanks again, boys!

Quote of the Week

"Kids, don't buy drugs. 

Become a pop star and they give 'em to you for free!"

Billy Mack

Aging pop star, Love Actually

                                                                  

As my mum used to say, there's a time and a place for everything.  Unfortunately, ND had a few too many "that's not the time" occurrences (fumbles, missed reads, missed tackles, soft coverages) Saturday night.  And that, children, is how you lose a game.

Word of the Week

Used in a sentence paragraph:  Jerrence knew what he watched wasn't a fever dream - after all, he'd seen the USC - UCLA game the week before.  

Still, the performance of the Trojan QB was striking.  Caleb Williams was really, really good.  And Jerrence, typically not at a loss for words, was having trouble articulating just how vast was the difference in QB play between the two programs. 

At the risk of being too reductive, he also saw how fundamentally more important that position was than any other in the sport.  In this case, literally the difference between winning and losing. 

Jerrence's even more simple epiphany:  If a team does not have an elite QB, you're pretty much fucked.   

Game 12:  Thoughts

It's same old song... 

I, for one, am tired of being every USC QB's submission on their winning Heisman Trophy application.

Other than that, after 12 weeks, I'm pretty observationed out.   Okay, perhaps a few more:

* A Tale of Two Plays.  There were two plays early on that seemed to portend, at least on offense, the attitude each team was bringing to their offensive philosophy:

1) USC's 1st series:  3rd and 2 on their own 33, Riley uses play action and misdirection to a wide open TE that goes for 31 yards.  Five plays later, USC 7-0. 

2)  ND's 2nd series:  4th and a long 1 on SC's 27 yard line.  Rees sends in (for maybe the 8th time this year?) the Mitchell Evans sneak. Everyone knows it's coming, including USC. They overload the middle. Evans gets stuffed. SC marches down the field and before you know it, 10-o, and ND, not built to play catch up, can never quite recover.

* I don't think you can accuse Freeman of not having the players ready.  Not sure you could say the same thing about the two Coordinators.

• Rees clearly had zero trust in Pyne - until he had no choice.
• With two starting DB's out and facing Williams, Golden may have a little more of an excuse - where he felt he had to play five DB's and hope the running defense didn't get  exposed.  Wrong. 

*  At the risk of sounding like sour grapes, do we ever get reasonable officiating in The Coliseum?   I'm not convinced we win but it would've been nice to see a few of those blatant holding calls against USC be made.  Of course, I still have PTSD from our Senior Class Trip game... and Paul f*cking McDonald.

* The Off-Season's Going To Be Fascinating.    If there's any kind of silver lining to the SC loss, it should now be apparent to The ND Powers That Be that the college football 'rules of engagement' have changed forever.  Or at least until the NCAA or some governmental legislation brings some level of regulation to what is, effectively, The Wild West.  

If ND chooses to stick their heads in the sand on where this is going, the Stayer tailgates are going to be the only thing that's elite on Game Day Saturdays.

 

* Going Forward, Recruiting Now Means Recruiting Your Own.  

As an unabashed fan of the Early Signing Period, I find it gratifying that one is no longer put through 2+ months (December-to-February) of 18 year olds fucking with my emotions, as they decide where they want to play college football.  

Note that I didn't say 'where they want to go to school.'

Not that many of them don't genuinely agonize over the decision.  It's just there's also a ton that seem to love the attention sucking up and are more than susceptible to late season enticements, some more ethical than others.

Now throw the players already on your roster, especially the really good ones, into this equation. 

NIL + Transfer Portal = Unabated Free Agency (see Addison, Jordan).   One would like to think that the valued, star athlete that ND attracts probably isn't going to cut and run for another program (more likely to the NFL) but one has think mid-tier schools are going to get decimated by the elite programs being able to show their stars a path to success and riches.  

Buddy's Buddy

Have you ever noticed that there's a lot of variations on the concept of irony?

There's grim irony.

And tragic irony.

Even funny irony.  

I'm not sure how one labels this week's version but it feels inescapable that this week's Buddy ought to go to our much maligned QB, Drew Pyne, who had arguably the best game of his life - and no one outside of his family will remember it.

If you hadn't seen the game and looked up his stats on Sunday morning and saw this:

23-26, 318 yards, 3 TD's, 1 INT.

You'd say "ND won, probably big."  Actually, more likely the first thing you'd say was "Who dosed my coffee" but you get the point.

Yes, he had a self-inflicted fumble at THE MOST inopportune time - a mistake that almost surely will haunt him longer than it should - but by and large, he did more to keep ND even close than anyone else (looking at you, defensive front seven).  

And yes there were misreads that took some drive-continuing plays off the table (and I completely discount his INT, at end-of-game desperation time). 

And not that this changes anything long-term in coach Freeman's assessment... but let's give the kid his due for this week.  He played to a level that should have been good enough to beat USC.

He's not the reason ND lost. 

I played the fool 

I did just what you expected

P.S.    We understand your decision. 

RE-PETE (A shameless, illegal lift of Pete Sampson's weekly mail-bag)

On the whole, I hope we'd all agree that we've got a lot to be thankful for - even as some of us may be going through some legitimately very tough challenges.

But the fact is, the uneven performance of the 2022 Notre Dame football team ought to be on the bottom rung of anyone's list. 

The team remains something to be proud of, and as an excuse to hang with, well, most of you :) , it's been another terrific year.

If there’s an institutional takeaway from this season that is above Freeman’s pay grade, it’s figuring out the transfer portal. And program sources have indicated a willingness inside Notre Dame to rethink how much the football program can get involved with college football’s analog to free agency and how quickly the institution must move on potential Irish targets.

Notre Dame will always be a four-year institution built on developing high school talent over the long haul. That’s fine. That’s good. That’s the culture Freeman wants. A source indicated Freeman leaned into that message before the USC game, talking up Notre Dame’s ownership culture instead of USC’s rental outlook. That should be how Notre Dame builds its program moving forward.

But after losing to USC and Marshall, two programs with 20-plus transfers on the roster, there’s a chasm between where those programs are and where Notre Dame is in the market. There’s no reason taking four transfers (at the skill positions — all due respect to kicker Blake Grupe and punter Jon Sot) needs to undermine Notre Dame’s culture. Some inside the university are concerned a transfer who spends one year at Notre Dame gets the same degree as a student who spent four years here. And that’s fair, to an extent. But it’s not like Freeman wants to turn Notre Dame into a college football pit stop. He wants to “enhance” the roster where he can, when he can. 

The Irish didn’t need one Brandon Joseph this season; it needed three. Freeman needs help making that happen.

Source:  The Athletic

November 249 2022

Cocktail of the Week

Man, if ever a game harkened back to past times (and not particularly good ones at that). 

More like dystopian times where ND was always undermanned while SC was rolling out another elite QB (with seemingly a prestigious award also on the line).

It's never worked out too well for ND, historically.

What to do?  Drink up, Shriners.

Brave New Swirled

Brave New World  (1932)

By Aldous Huxley

Imagine a world dominated by antidepressants and governmental control over reproductive rights. 

Oh. Wait. 

Written in the 1930's, Brave New World could've been copy-and-pasted from today's headlines.

Huxley penned a dystopian world in which embryos are pre-programmed for certain behaviors and needs, and technology is so revered that "Oh my Ford" is a commonplace utterance.

While Huxley was an outspoken fan of psychedelic drugs, you can legally freeze your own brain with this swirly smoothie featuring a surprising aphrodisiac: watermelon.  

Hey, what you drink (and who you drink it with) ain't nobody's business but your own.

* 1 oz. vodka

* 1/4 oz. lemon juice

* 1/2 oz. melon liqueur

* 1/2 tspn. granulated sugar

1 cup seedless watermelon, chopped into course cubes

Add the vodka, lemon juice, sugar, watermelon and a handful of ice to a blender, running until smooth.   Pour into a cocktail glass and float the liqueur on top.

No matter your political leanings, one gulp of this and you'll be more than brave enough to fight The Man.

Source:  Tequila Mockingbird.

Cocktails with a Literary  Twist

by Tim Federle

2022 Schedule

September

 3                     @Ohio St.                 L

10                    Marshall                   L

15                    LINIPALOOZA XII

17                    Cal (Berkely)            W

24                   @UNC                     W

October

 1                     

 8                    @BYU (Las Vegas)     W

15                    Stanford                    L     

22                   UNLV                        W             

29                   @Syracuse                W

November

5                     Clemson                    W

12                  @Navy                        W              

19                  Boston College          W

26                  @USC                         L

  

Wager

How prescient that the Churchill quote chosen for the 8 Win group would be "history is written by the winners."

And I wonder how each of them would describe this year:

* Brunett?

* Ward?

* Rasmus the Younger?

In any event, good on you fellows for clearly recognizing the balance between the excitement of a new, charismatic coach and a healthy skepticism toward the challenges of any new coach transitioning into the Notre Dame Way.

Do I really believe that was your methodology?  Of course not.  But, as Winston said, it's your history to write. 

So, Team 8, time to start brushing up on your bowl game prognostication.  The Athletic's best guess as of this week:

And for those who care, they think ND is looking at a December 30th Gator Bowl contest against the 194th ranked* Mississippi State Bulldogs.  

* US News & World Report University ranking.

Wins	Quote	Domer
12	"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few..."	Brian M., John P., JP, Blayney
11	"Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts..."	Lini, Theo, Sloane, Dave M., Peter
10	"Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions..."	Bob J., Gutsch,  Jerry P., Bill, Bob S., Mike C., Pat B., Jim B., Tim S.,  Feif, Mike G., Phillip S., George, Mike B.,  Shea
9	"Never, never give in..."	Jerrence, Raz, Mark, Bryan, Matt, Jerry C., Daryl, Graham, John  Jim T., Alex, Randy, Pat C., Gerard W.
8	"History is written by the victors..."	Albert, Garrett R. Brian W.
7	"When you get a thing the way you want it, leave it alone..."
6	"The best argument against democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter..."
5	"If I were married to you, Mr. Churchill, I'd put poison in your coffee. If we were married, I'd drink it..."
4	"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire..."
3	"If you're going through hell, keep going..."

Schadenfreude of the Week

This being rivalry week - not to mention lots on the line regarding BCS Playoff positions - one would think the Schadenfreude candidates would be falling all over  themselves.

Actually, not as much as I'd hoped.   But that's probably because I so desperately wished to have USC headline the roll call. 

Disappointed but not dismayed.   There's always other losers out there.

1) tOSU.   In the annual Larry Corrigan "Root For a Tie with Lots of Injuries" Bowl, I honestly didn't see you as the Schadenfreude winner.   

But that's why they play the game, right?  

Plus bonus style points for the way you did it:  a) making JJ McCarthy look positively Heisman-esque and b) showing that renowned Buckeye mental fortitude and completely collapsing in the 4th quarter.

 

2)  LSU.   Nice job, Brian Kelly.   Your reward for gagging this week is getting Georgia next.  Don't take this in the wrong way but I hope they hang 50 on you.  But I'm sure the Tiger fam-uh-lee will provide the empathetic support you so richly deserve. 

3)  Clemson.  At this point, it really doesn't matter that this loss diminishes our own strength of schedule.  I just want misery for everyone.  

4) "ROI!  ROI!"  

Terry's Tools

So you know who's not a tool?  Drew Pyne. 

The kid did everything that was asked of him, to the best of his (fairly limited) ability.

Wish him well in his future endeavors. Hope he's getting his ND degree.

Unlike the other idiots cited below. 

I don't know you but I think I hate you

You're the reason for my misery

1) Caleb Williams.   Being a generational QB talent and a complete tool can be mutually exclusive. It can happen.  For example, I don't recall Trevor Lawrence being a bad guy. Quite the opposite, in fact.

But Caleb, hoo boy.  Despite being an east coast Washington D.C. product, you're looking more like pure SoCal douche. 

The passive taunting.  The profane fingernail polish. 

2) Chris Fowler.  I'd like to think I'm one of the last guys who gets caught up in the "ooh the announcers are terrible... they hate us" but Fowler... I gotta say, sharing your love for Anthony Davis as a young lad growing up?  

Both creepy and journalistically unprofessional. 

Could you at least pretend to be objective?  Yeesh.

As for you, Kirk Herbstreit...   I generally like you but man, try studying a little more before the game.

3) Antonio Brown.  Is it right to make of those who are clearly unwell? 

Probably not.  But I've never tried to hide my flaws.  

Okay, that's not entirely true. 

But to catch you up:  in the last 24-48 hrs., an arrest warrant has been issued for Brown in connection with a domestic abuse charge.

He's barricaded himself in his house -with guns - in a standoff with the police.  

You do you, Antonio. 

4)  Things that make you say, "hmmm." 

Maybe he's guilty, maybe he's not.  But taking seven weeks to come to a determination - where he stays eligible to play the entire time?!

Final Thought.

“Drummer seeks musicians to form band.”

46 years ago, 14 year old Larry Mullen posts an index card on a bulletin board of the Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, Ireland.  

Paul Hewson, Dave Evans and Adam Clayton sign up.

They called themselves 'Feedback', then 'Hype' and finally, U2.  And the rest is history.

It will be interesting to see if, with a year under his belt (and one would think some earned credibility), does Freeman post his own index card on the school bulletin board - looking for maybe a new member or two for his band?