Notre Dame/Too Much Complaining/New Commit

I've got ten minutes before I have to leave for the women's soccer game, so it's time to finally try and get in some comments about Notre Dame:

Obviously it's already been stated what a huge win this was for our program. To go down to South Bend and win--let alone as convincingly as they did--was bigger than Charlie Weis.

To me, the best part of the game was that last drive--before we ran back the fumble--when the defense just got after Quinn. In the past, they would have sat back, ND probably would've scored to cut it to 12, and though we probably still would have won, it would've been a little more nerve-racking than it needed to be. English let them pin their ears back, and Quinn paid the price.

The one big downer in the game was the drive right before halftime. The bend-don't-break returned and the Irish had plenty of time to drive down the field and score. Hopefully a lesson was learned and we don't see that again. They hadn't moved the ball on us the entire day to that point, no reason to make things easy on them by sitting back.

But if that's the biggest complaint I can come up with, you know we did good. Henne shook off a bad first throw to have one of the best games of his career, and with every ball that fell into Manningham's hands, you know Lloyd was over there saying "Got you, biiiitch!" to everyone who was freaking about us not throwing the ball down the field in the first two games.

I have to comment about the Notre Dame fans. In no place that I've been have I had the pleasure of attending a game with such a classy group of people. Sure there were one or two obnoxious people who were on the drunk side, but by and large their fanbase was nothing but class. Seriously, the meanest thing that anyone said to us the entire day was, "I love that helmet grill! Too bad it's for the wrong team!" At one point I turned to my dad and was wishing that someone would come along and say "F--- Michigan" just because I'm so used to it. It was almost weird how nice people were. The ushers would shake your hand on the way in and say "Welcome to Notre Dame", people were coming up to us after the game saying congratulations and drive home safely.

Perfect example of how cool they were down there, and how far out of our comfort zone were were based on past road game experiences (::cough:: Columbus ::cough::): My roommate snapped a photo. The usher came by and was like "Give me your camera". He hesitated, and was about to ask "What for?" before the guy continued "And I'll take a picture of your whole group." Another person in our group later said that he was about to grab my roommate's arm and be like, "NO DON'T GIVE IT TO HIM!". I guess South Bend isn't down with Franklin Counnnnnnty.

Other observations:
-Their student section puts ours to absolute shame. Not that I think we have a bad student section by any means. But theirs is just awesome. And if you need an example of why I say that, no one left the game early. By the end of the game, it was still as full as it was at the start. And not a sole left until after the band had played their postgame show. It was impressive.

-Plenty of mgoshirts walking around. The "Returning to Glory Since 1993" one never ceases to crack me up.

-Lastly, they may call Notre Dame Stadium the Little Big House, but we've got an edge in one very important way: All stadiums should be required to have bathrooms like Michigan Stadium's. A wall, a pipe shooting water down it, and a drain. That's all you need. Pick a spot on the wall and let it fly. Huge line? I'm in and out in 4 minutes. Notre Dame had a trough (which still gets bonus points because those are still faster than the usual urinal) for 6 people, 1 urinal, and 3 stalls in our section's restroom. It took forever. Give me a wall I can piss on anyday. Best. System. Ever.

On to other action around the country:
-Louisville appears to have inherited The Year of Infinite Pain from Michigan. How do you lose both of your Heisman candidates in a 3 week span? Ugh. Luckily the Big East suuuucks.

-Temple is the worst team ever. How do you lose 62-0 back to back weeks? That has to be a first.

-Oklahoma: STFU. Seriously. You lost. Yes it sucks. Yes you probably got jobbed. Are you the only team in history to have a game influenced by bad officiating? Uhhh no. Should the President of the university get involved and ask to have the game stricken from the record books? NO. Should you be threatening to cancel a game against Washington unless the conference changes their officiating procedure? NO.

At some point you just end up looking like whining little bitches. Don't give up 34 points next time and bad calls won't matter. Even most Michigan fans who complained about the 2001 screw-job in East Lansing at least acknowledged that Michigan screwed up enough in that game that it shouldn't have come to the point that Sparty Bob could blatantly cheat.

-USC: OMG Corso gave away your secret code. Like any coach worth a damn couldn't catch that one on film. It's not like he gave away the frequency of the QB's headset or anything.

Finally, Michigan hockey got a new commit, and they're getting younnnnger! This one is a 91 birthday. He was 9 when I graduated high school. That scares me. He's supposed to be gross. He's definitely big. He's committed to the NTDP after next year, which means he is good. And now he's playing with Kenny Ryan, so hopefully they'll strike up a friendship. Hopefully more on Chris Brown later, but I gotta go watch some soccer.