Not So Fast Irish...

Shake down the thund...ooops

Notre Dame fans were so full of themselves Saturday. In the 4th Quarter of the epic game vs USC. Matt Leinart gets sacked at the 15 and NBC cuts to the shot of Charlie Weis whom Golden Domers were about to apply sainthood status, celebrating. Notre Damers were talking noise en masse at that point.

"We're back!"

"National Championship comes through South Bend like it should be."

"We're going to a BCS bowl, if not play for a national championship this year."

"We beat #1 teams all the time."

"Its our destiny."

And as USC faced a 4th and 9 from its own 27. Matt Leinart flipped the script, boldly audibilzing and going to his roommate Dwayne Jarrett with a on point fade pass that Jarrett scampered 61 yards to the Irish 10, but the drama wasn't done two plays later and with 14 ticks on the clock, Leinart rolled out of the pocket under pressure and tried to get to the end zone. He dived and it seemed that the Irish had held up and kept him out of the end zone. Some jubilant Irish fans stormed the field and Charlie Weis looked as if he thought the game was over, nevermind the refs frantically waving their arms over their heads beacuse a Notre Dame player had hit Leinart and he fumbled the ball out of bounds . A clear sign that the clock should be stopped. When order was restored, the Trojans had the ball at the 1 and Pete Carroll went balls to the wall by having Leinart make the choice. Spike the ball and get the field goal unit out for a chip shot to go to OT or run a play with the high risk of it getting stopped. Lineart asked his running back Reggie Bush if they should go for it, he said yes and after Lineart wormed into the end zone for the winning score (And for all those haters that ragged on Leinart about the ballroom dnacing class that he is taking, maybe it is good for something) and was asked if Bush had said to not go for it what he would have done Leinart cooly said he would have went for it anyway. What a game The Irish did what they needed to do, controlling the clock with a punishing running game and Brady Quinn is a beast at QB. But USC is on a different level and they showed why they are still the team to measure up against. For all the talk saying "Oh USC isn't that good, they can be beat." Notre Dame didn't do it Saturday. Close don't count.

Saturday was full of down to the wire games. I was switching back and forth between the USC-Notre Dame epic and the thriller in Ann Arbor where Michigan rallied to beat heretofore unbeaten Penn State. Chad Henne's TD pass with no time remaining gave the Wolverines a badly needed win. They may not win the Big 10 this year, but they will have something to say about who does. Minnesota should hang their heads in shame after blowing a 10 point lead with less than 2 minutes to play against Wisconsin. The Badger scored, and a personal foul added 15 yards to the kickoff. The Badgers failed in the onside kick attempt but forced the Gophers to 3 and out. The punter botches the snap and up three should have run out of the end zone as the Gophers were on their 10. He tried to kick instead it got blocked, The Badgers pounced on the loose ball in the end zone and what should have been a win for the Gophers turned into a loss and a miracle for the Badgers...shameful

Quiet is kept, but the so-callled too young to compete in the Big East Cincinnati Bearcats are ahead of supposedly superior Louisville who took their 2nd Big East loss to West Virginia (That is gonna be a doozy of a rivalry) The Cards come to Cincy and a repeat of the 70-7 laugher from last year on better UC squad might happen again in front of a sullen Nippert Stadium crowd to a much poorer football team. Too bad. The Vikings are a joke and will not be further mentioned in this space until Mike Milquetoast Tice is removed as head coach.

The White Sox (I still think they Suck) are going to their 1st World Series since 1959. They won the ALCS with 4 complete games in a row. That is obscene. Some teams dont put up 4 complete games in a season. The Sox did it in a weeks time. If they face off against the Astros who are looking to get into the franchise's first World Series and are up 3-1 on the suddenly punchless Cardinals. This will mark the 4th time that Tony LaRussa has guided a team to 100+ victories and he has zero World Series titles and even worse only one game win in those seasons. I wrote a few weeks ago how overrated LaRussa was and how he boo-booed on himself at crunch time. Ill add this caveat, He has managed three teams and have had 95+ wins with each of these teams, (99 with the '83 White Sox, 104 in '88, 99 in '89, 103 in '90, and 95 in '92 with the A's and 95 in 2000, 97 in 2002, 105 last year and 100 this year with the Cards.) With 1 World Series win to show for it Say it with me...O-ver-rat-ed!!! College Power 5 comes tommorrow...wanna take a guess on who's still on top???