Football practices will be starting up again in South Bend just two weeks from tomorrow. This is very exciting.
With the season just around the corner, the college football world is starting to heat up with plenty of news, and not all of it is Penn State related. Thank God.
As usual, we will start in places that aren't South Bend and then end in a place that is.
The most bizarre news of the week comes from the B1G, whose supposed solution to its football coaches having too much power (a la Penn State) is to give the conference too much power by allowing Jim Delany to fire coaches that "embarrass" the conference. There are very few ideas that are worse than this one, giving the conference commissioner the power of 12 athletic directors, and Dr. Saturday at Yahoo! Sports is less than amused.
I should probably get the Penn State stuff out of the way. Everyone is really hung up about the "will they or won't they" game that Penn State is playing with their statue of Joseph Vincent Paterno. The sculpter wants us all to wait, these two idiot students want it to stay, Gregg Doyle wants it to go and this intrepid pilot agrees with him (who is "we" anyway?). Hey, if they want to keep a symbol of their decade-plus long cover up of child rape on their campus, who are "we" to stop them? The Board of Trustees will get back to us eventually on that.
For whatever reason, a couple of SEC coaches wanted to chime in on this Penn State situation, because only good can come from that. Just ask Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel, who for some reason thought it was a good idea to stick up for Paterno. It wasn't, according to a Missouri state representative with the nerve to stand up for children instead of a football coach that chose not to.
In this crazy mixed up world of ours, Dennis Dodd feels as though Nick Saban (yes, that Nick Saban) stands out amongst all coaches as worthy of our respect and admiration. Disclaimer: that is a very weird article to read. Saban, in his own right, suggested that Penn State be taxed extra on ticket sales in order to benefit a children's organization, and then wisely sort of "aww shucks"-ed his way out of the rest of the whole Penn State topic of conversation.
There is no shortage of other SEC media days coverage, but I haven't paid much attention to it other than Pinkel's idiotic attempt to defend the indefensible.
Pat Forde does not want us to forget about what would be the worst scandal in college sports if it weren't for Penn State. The University of North Carolina football team had an insane amount of audacity to commit countless violations of academic fraud and agent relations, and then committed more clear academic violations during an NCAA investigation of previous misdeeds. A local North Carolina newspaper has been all over this scandal, and you should go here if you want to learn more. It's absurd and even more absurd if they thought they would actually get away with it.
One of ND's football opponents booted one its best players this week, as Miami dismissed safety Ray Ray Armstrong from the team. There were rumors that starting tackle (and former number one recruit) Seantral Henderson was on his way out as well, but he is on very thin ice if he's not gone already.
Every Day Should Be Saturday had this amusing simulation of Arizona State head coach Todd Graham's first (and last) season with the school on NCAA 2013. They have him moving on the BC after the season. It's pretty funny.
The new college football playoff obviously needs a TV home, and it predictably looks like ESPN could be the winning bidders when it's all said and done. Hey, it's probably better than Fox.
On to the Irish, more and more guys have been included on these ridiculous preseason award watch lists, including TJ Jones on the Biletnikoff list, which raised my eyebrows a little. Here's hoping!
Jack Swarbrick agreed to do a Google+ hangout with some people that cover Notre Dame on the Internets, including esteemed OFD journalist Eric Murtaugh. This is obviously an exciting announcement and should be a very entertaining and informative discussion. Please join in Tuesday, July 31st at 7:30pm EST to watch the discussion.
ND also announced that it will be hosting the Bulls and Pacers in a NBA preseason game this October at the Purcell Pavilion. This idea certainly has potential; let's hope they get a good turnout!
The Elite 11 quarterback camp is going on right now, and Notre Dame commit Malik Zaire has impressed early on according to multiple analysts despite his lack of height.
You should really follow OFD on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with everything going on with the site and because everyone else is doing it. You wanna be cool, right?
Here is the comment of the week from first time commenter Cricker24, who had good things to say about us and I am really just trying to coerce into participating here more. Have a great weekend everyone.
LONG time OFD reader, first time commenter
First I have to say how much I love everything about One Foot Down!! I’ve been a fan even before you were on SB Nation. I check OFD several times every day and I’m always impressed with the articles and discussions. I haven’t been able to join in on the conversation because I was having trouble making an account on SB Nation.
Anyway, I’ve been a Notre Dame football fan for more than 25 years and living in Pennsylvania, that made me a "black sheep" since I didn’t cheer for Penn State. So I remember all of the games between the Irish and Nittany Lions, in particular the 1992 match-up written about in this post. I watched that game with a Penn State fan and I have to admit, I was getting pretty nervous as the time wound down in the 4th quarter with the Irish trailing. When Meier found Bettis, who was and still is my all-time favorite Notre Dame player, for the touchdown to pull within 1-point, I nearly fell out of my wheelchair with excitement!! Then, when Reggie Brooks made that incredible leaping catch for the 2-point conversion, giving ND the thrilling victory, well, let’s just say that it’s a good thing I have to use a ventilator to help me breathe because I probably would have passed out if I didn’t!! :)
...
Well, I’ve written more than enough. Again, I love OFD and I hope you all don’t mind me jumping in on the conversations here and there. GO IRISH!!!! :)
by Cricker24 on Jul 19, 2012 3:16 PM EDT reply actions