All Things Notre Dame - The Clashmore Mike Memorial Thread

[hack]

I'll send you an invoice.

[Pasadena Blue]

the ND-Bama game went pretty much like our game with Bama ... maybe not that surprising given that we were pretty even with ND in our matchup.

ND had a great season and a lot to be proud of. I think their biggest win of the season really was probably the Stanford game, since USC, Okie, and M all turned out to be pretty middling teams.

Irish will be tough again next year with a QB with more experience, Nix returning, and phenomenal recruits. I was upset to see ND roll off the schedule in two years, but it might be better we not face them.

[lineygoblue]

This is not a rip on ND, but its just a fact that Alabama is the best team in college football right now. Fans of Texas A&M can say "yeah, but we beat them".. but it means nothing. A&M would have fared no better tonight.

I don't like how the SEC/Alabama/Saban builds teams. I believe the way they do it is shady, and if ever investigated thoroughly, would probably be found to be cheating. But as things stand today, Alabama is the best in college football.

I can't razz ND fans too much. I felt what they are feeling in Game 1 this year.

[Clashmore Mike]

I don't like how the SEC/Alabama/Saban builds teams. I believe the way they do it is shady, and if ever investigated thoroughly, would probably be found to be cheating. But as things stand today, Alabama is the best in college football.

Although I agree with alot of this, it would just be too self-serving for me to discuss it right now. This along with some of the officiating are making the ND boards utterly untenable right now...we just got stomped.

I know there is a golden lining in this season...don't at all feel like this is the same situation as either of Weis' drubbings in the '05 / '06 BCS games. It's just a bit hard to feel good about things after that.

[Rocky Bleier]

I'm not one who likes to punish success, but the NCAA should do something about Alabama. Three championships in four years, and they are at the top of the recruiting heap every year. That would be okay if it were done legitimately, but no one believes that Saban is clean. Seven straight championships for the SEC, and everyone on television acts as if there's nothing suspicious about it. How many SEC schools would be on probation if the NCAA would just look for some violations? Not sure it would matter, though. USC and osu both got sanctioned, but it hasn't hurt their recruting. Cheaters win.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Brian Kelley, during a pre-game interview he did, said, ND is not close to where he wants it to be but he states he feels like ND has a good foundation going forward.

His team was simply overwhelmed last night. I don't think ND's performance agaisnt Bama says anything good about ND's talent and coaching going forward. While Kelley recognized the importance of the first two minutes of the game, third quarter and the last two minutes of the game, his team got stomped by a better prepared, more talented and clearly a better coached team in the first two portions of the game he mentioned, while the last was irrelevant because the score was not even close.

M wasn't much better against Bama so, not tooting M's horn at all. In fact, the score and appearance of the games were eerily similar. But ND would be no better than second or third in the BIG, probably among the top tier but no better in any significant way.

After all the ridiculous and unwarranted ND hype leading up to this game, ND was on the receiving end of an old fashioned ass-kicking demonstrating well that they still remain on the outside looking in. This is good for the ND nation who, this morning, are red faced indeed with their team relegated to the also ran category they so richly deserve to be in.

Enjoy this week, Clash.

[iam416]

Not sure it would matter, though. USC and osu both got sanctioned, but it hasn't hurt their recruting.

It's going to hurt USC. They're in position to sign a great class, but the numbers area really low. They aren't going to have the depth you need to compete with the SEC.

Ohio State isn't anywhere near as bad off, but they're still forced into passing on a few kids that they would have taken. Odds are most of them wouldn't work out, but it's nice to have that depth.

That's what Alabama (and the SEC) does with "oversigning". And WRT USC, at least, those sanctions will really have an impact.

[Optimus Prime]

Best quote of evening, pre-game prediction, AssClown Urban Meyer....."ND by a field goal."

[hack]

This is good for the ND nation who, this morning, are red faced indeed with their team relegated to the also ran category they so richly deserve to be in.

Are you suggesting that Alabama, conversely, ``richly deserves'' to be the national champion?

I guess for me if the categories are ``also rans'' and ``cheaters'', my sympathies lie with the also rans.

[hack]

I'm not one who likes to punish success, but the NCAA should do something about Alabama. Three championships in four years, and they are at the top of the recruiting heap every year. That would be okay if it were done legitimately, but no one believes that Saban is clean. Seven straight championships for the SEC, and everyone on television acts as if there's nothing suspicious about it. How many SEC schools would be on probation if the NCAA would just look for some violations? Not sure it would matter, though. USC and osu both got sanctioned, but it hasn't hurt their recruting. Cheaters win.

I think at this point the NCAA is fighting for its life given all the conference realignment stuff ongoing. The big boys want to opt out, and given that, the NCAA won't give the cheaters among them additional motivation to do so. This is going to get worse before it gets better. Given that, there's reason to actually look forward to the future of superconferences and pretending to care about rivalries with Rutgers, as it may usher in some other system that might work better. Or at least might appear to work better for a while until good loopholes are discovered.

[Optimus Prime]

Yes, it means paying the student athletes of revenue-generating sports to attend and play college football/hockey/basketball.

The sooner it's brought aboveboard, the greater chance of parity and true competitiveness again. This bell can't be unrung.

[iam416]

Yeah, that's going to be the solution. Stipend. Whether it's enough to change things, I dunno.

[entropy]

rocky... teams go on streaks. UNL did it, USC did it, Miami did it, OU did it.. Bama did it in the past..

it happens. Get a really good core class or 2 and they can compete and win multiple NC.

BUT.. when a conference is doing it, one has to suspect other factors are at play.

[Rocky Bleier]

rocky... teams go on streaks. UNL did it, USC did it, Miami did it, OU did it.. Bama did it in the past..

it happens. Get a really good core class or 2 and they can compete and win multiple NC.

BUT.. when a conference is doing it, one has to suspect other factors are at play.

I don't see and end to Alabama's reign until Saban leaves. They never have a down year in recruiting. We're all playing for second place. Even Urban seemed to know that last night.

[entropy]

Here's an article from MSN:


MSN Story

AJ McCarron played the game of his life to help Alabama crush Notre Dame 42-14 to win its second straight national championship and third in four years, but somehow it was his girlfriend, Katherine Webb, who stole the show on Monday night.

The Internet was first introduced to Webb around Christmas when she tweeted a photo of herself and McCarron together for the holiday. The photo sparked speculation that the two were dating. McCarron later confirmed to the media that Webb was his girlfriend, and it wasn’t long before we found out a few details about the young lady.

Webb graduated from rival school Auburn in 2011. She was crowned Miss Alabama USA a year later.

Webb headed to Miami to support her boyfriend during the BCS National Championship Game, but she had no clue what awaited her on Monday night.

With just over four minutes left in the first quarterand Alabama up 14-0, ESPN flashed to a shot of Webb in the stands along with McCarron’s mother, Dee Dee Bonner. All it took was 30 seconds on camera for Webb’s life to permanently change.

ESPN announcers Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit began drooling over the beauty queen:


The shot of Webb sent thousands of people scrambling to the Internet to find out more about her. Athletes and regular fans began tweeting at her, her Twitter followers started to explode, and ESPN realized it had a golden commodity on its hands. The network began flashing to Webb more regularly during the game realizing it was a way to keep viewers interested during a blowout. That only fueled the interest in Webb, whose popularity soared.

Prior to the game, Webb had an estimated 550 Twitter followers. She added over 10,000 followers after the first time she was shown in the stands, and she was up to well over 100,000 followers after the game. The tweets at her were coming from all angles.

Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman Darnell Dockett tried hitting on her. Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray tried to get her to switch allegiances. Webb even got a Twitter follow from LeBron James, who later unfollowed her.

Upon being informed after the game that King James had followed his girlfriend on Twitter, McCarron had a funny response.

“Seriously?! I’m going to tweet him and I’m going to get a follow. That’s messed up,” he said, according to Clay Travis.

McCarron was pretty incredulous to find out that his girlfriend, in a matter of hours, had surpassed him in Twitter followers (he had over 87,000 at the time of this publishing). Yes, his girlfriend surpassed him in Twitter followers even though he threw for 264 yards and four touchdowns. Things usually don’t work out that way.

The good news is McCarron says he’s not jealous of the celebrity status Webb received during the game.

“I’m not the jealous type. I know she’s good looking. … I’m the one who’s blessed,” he said per Andy Staples.

Webb added well over 100,000 Twitter followers in a few hours, and she became one of the hottest search topics on the Internet. Check out this visual representation of how search traffic for her exploded on Monday (via Darren Rovell):