The week in news- Independence, Carolina Blues and Coach Kelly

The Herbie said that ND has the toughest first month of the season. Yet another baseless ND homer claim. BAMA for instance has Penn State, at Arkansas and hosts UF by Oct 4. I know that the murders row of home vs Purdue, Home vs dick rod and michigan, at Michigan State, home vs a gerhardless stanford and at BC is much tougher than what bama has going on but Penn State, Arkansas and UF are all BCS potential schools this year where Purdue is at best a CITRUS bowl player, Michigan WANTS LesS Miles as their coach, State will be oK if they dont suspend the team, Stanford has a lot of smart kids, and BCs best player is coming off some “ROUTINE CANCER”. WWL you need to be better than that.

Look at you getting all riled up by the WWL. I honestly haven’t watched College Football Live in months. It has actually been pretty nice. You should try it!

As for the 1st month gig I would wager that Arkansas is a wildcard with no D, and in a few months you will be the first to call out a BCS bound Big 10 champ a sham. That said the ND sked is like we have said on here before. It is tough in a very non-glamorous way. Those first 6 games are all against 8-4ish type bowl teams. While they should be winnable there are no cakewalks.

Well let’s be fair here Dimes. Herbie said the first month, which should be each team’s first four games. You can add the fifth game in there to make your argument look stronger, but that’s not what Herbie was talking about.

As it is, ND’s first month is harder in my opinion.

vs. Purdue
vs. UM
@ MSU
vs. Stanford

Put against…

vs. SJSU
vs. PSU
@ Duke
@ Arkansas

Sure, Purdue and Michigan won’t be anything better than 7-win teams, but there’s the rivalry aspect to factor into those games. MSU is an underrated team with the horses to finish in the top 3 in the Big Ten. And Stanford may be the most underrated team in the whole country. To the outsider they lost Gerhart so they should suck, but they’ve got a very strong O-line, two playmaking receivers, a couple nice tight ends, solid running backs, and maybe the best NFL prospect at QB. Their defense isn’t great, but with Harbaugh as coach, they will only continue to get better. They could win the Pac-10 this year.

In contrast, Bama has two free wins (SJSU & Duke) which automatically eliminates them from any “toughest schedule of the first month” talk. On paper, the PSU game looks great, but good will the Nittany Lions be this year? I guarantee they are a 7 or 8 win team (just like MSU will probably be) and they’ll get stomped 38-10 by the Tide.

And the Arkansas game…another paper tiger. I think Mallett’s a great QB and I bet they’ll put 25, maybe 30 on Bama, but there’s no way in hell they keep the Tide under 40. To most people Arkansas is better than Stanford…but are they really?

Arkansas lost every big game they played last year, save their victory over Auburn. And Auburn lost all of their big games save for wins over WVU and Ole Miss.

Meanwhile, Stanford beat Oregon, destroyed USC, and they beat ND. They almost beat Oklahoma without Luck in their bowl game too.

If Arkansas didn’t play in the SEC, they’d be treated more like Oklahoma State in recent past. Kind of like Ole Miss last year…couple nice weapons, but overall not that great, didn’t beat anybody except the floundering Miles-led LSU, but living off the reputation of the SEC.

And even if you want to include the Florida or South Carolina games in the comparison with Bama’s schedule, ND is still playing BC and Pitt in their fifth and six games.

Through six games, I’d say the schedules are pretty even, with it only being close because of UF’s strength as an elite team. But you can’t discount what those two “free” wins do for Bama in contrast to ND playing SIX STRAIGHT rivalries and no one nearly as bad as SJSU and Duke.

I think paper tiger is a little strong for Arkansas. I think that they would be favored against all of NDs first 5 opponents, and would probably come out 4-1 through that gauntlet. I agree that stanford is pretty good and but I would think that UM, mich state, purdue, and BC would all be close to the bottom in the SEC east and most of them would be at the bottom of the west. Do you really believe that any of those teams win 6 out of 10 against Mississippi State? Probably not. They are great names and some were awesome teams in the 80s, but not in 2010. Why is Purdue a rivalry? I dont consider Miss State to be a rivalry of UF and they are in the same conference. A rivalry is ND-USC or ND-BC, UF-FSU, UF-UGA, BAMA-Auburn, Oregon-Oregon State. Would any of those teams be less than a 2 TD dog vs. Bama? Probably not. Purdue is at best 5-7 in the SEC. Horrendous!

Thanks for the link, Whiskey. Good read!

Dimes, you were arguing that Bama’s early schedule was harder than Notre Dame’s, not that ND’s opponents couldn’t compete in the SEC.

As for Arkansas, I consider them relatively overrated at this point during the preseason. A No. 17 ranking seems a bit high. With Mallett I think the sky is the limit with their offense, but I would guarantee that they will not finish higher than where they are ranked heading into the season.

At some point, they have to show me something. I mean they went 3-5 in the SEC last year and beat Auburn, South Carolina and Mississippi State. Oh and they beat 6-7 A&M too. Right now they’re living off of Mallett and the offenses promise and the fact that they play in the SEC. Watch them go either 7-5 and 8-4.

As far as your comments about those ND opponents finishing in the bottom of the SEC…that’s not what we’re talking about, unless you want to talk about how SJSU and Duke would do in the SEC. But anyway, you really really have to be in love with the SEC to think that UM, MSU, Purdue and BC wouldn’t beat Miss State more often than not. That’s a pretty ridiculous statement.

Why are Purdue and Notre Dame rivals? Let’s see….

*They’ve played 78 times
*They are in-state opponents
*Their campus’ are 2 1/2 hours apart

What more do you need?

And I love how you come back to the SEC argument again. THE SEC IS THE BEST!!!

Who was arguing with you about that?? Of course all of those teams would be heavy underdogs to Bama and of course Purdue wouldn’t do very good in the SEC. Let’s stay on topic here!

Florida has played FIU a bunch of times and they are in state- NOT A RIVALRY GAME. There should be NO WAY that ND and Purdue should be on the same playing field. ND has great tradition, more money, more support, more TV, and there is no question what sport is king(at Purdue some might argue hoops). Is Indiana also a rivalry game?

I missed Dimes hanging around here and representing the SEC contingent. He’s always good for stirring the pot. Good stuff.

Biscuit no worries, we always enjoy your stuff.

Dimes, you have some crazy logic. Are you going to bust into the Purdue locker room and say,

“Hey guys, just because you’re in the same state as Notre Dame doesn’t mean you’re rivals!

Sure Notre Dame has played you more than Florida has played Kentucky, LSU, FSU, Miami, Alabama, Tennessee or every other team in the SEC except for Georgia and Auburn, but Florida plays FIU a lot and they aren’t rivals!

And you’ve only beaten the Irish five times since 1990, I’m sorry you’re not rivals! Sure Georgia has only beat Florida three times in that same time span, but my logic doesn’t apply to them because it’s the SEC!"

Seriously man, c’mon! Purdue and ND have played every year since 1946. They play for the Shillelagh Trophy every year. ND has a good edge in the series, but there have been a handful of classic games and upsets in the past. Someone could write a long ass book about this rivarlry and you’re telling us it’s not a rivarly because you don’t consider Miss State a rivalry of Florida and they “play in the same conference.”

That last part is key, because your obsession with the SEC and conferences put that ahead of all of the other elements that come into making a rivalry, you know, like being in the same state, campus’ near each other, playing every year, both fan bases not really liking each other.

Perhaps you don’t consider Miss State a rivalry of Florida because they’ve only played each other five times since 1993? To put that in perspective, Notre Dame has played Florida State and Tennessee each four times in the same time span.

So now we see how being in the same conference doesn’t really make teams rivals with each other, but that there are other criteria that make up a rivalry, of which ND and Purdue have nearly every bit you can have.

Dig it?

I wouldn’t brag that Purdue has beaten ND five times since 1990. Pathetic.

As an ND fan, I wouldn’t consider Purdue to be a rival. “Soul-crushingly boring in the hickest part of an awful state” is a better description. That said, Purdue does seem to consider ND to be a rivalry game.