Thoughts on yesterday's football

Well, now that I've had time to eliminate the remaining alcohol from last night's drinking, it's time to gather a review:

1. ND fans, or at least the subset thereof over at ND Nation are a strange bunch. Last week, ND trounced Purdue pretty good, holding a 3 TD lead most of the time after the mid-2nd quarter. This led to people screaming for defensive coordinator Rick Minter's head(granted, there were almost 500 yards for Purdue, but the game was over well before halftime). After yesterday's Stanford game, there was all sorts of handwringing about how we were going to get screwed in the polls because we "only" won by 21. Never mind that Stanford never threatened to score other than that first quarter field goal and the TD they got by suckering in Ndukwe with a sucker play.
   
2. Sadly, we seem to be succeptible to sucker plays, as that was pretty much the same thing that happened early agaisnt Michigan State- everyone chased after the ball after a handoff, forgetting that he was still allowed to throw.
   
3. The John L. Smith death march is going to come to an ugly end. I'm thinking this could be a potentially winless Big Ten season for the Spartans. Mr. Smith, from now on, I suggest you concentrate on next week's opponent, and not some perceived slight from a week and a half ago, hell, you were still talking about ND at your post-Illinois press conference.
   
4. Michigan looks pretty good.
5. Go Tiggers!(ok, so that's baseball, but hey, the Yankees are out, so all is well in the world)
6. UGa- you stink.
7. Auburn- You too. Mr. Tuberville, shut the hell up about these playoffs, because you wouldn't make it into a playoff most years anyway, so you're not getting screwed. Also, it might help if once in a while, you played an actual team that isn't in your conference.
8. I said it several weeks back, and I'll say it again: I don't think anyone's particularly good this year. The Big Ten(sic) is awful outside UM/tOSU, so those two should run the table. Outside of that, I see no real contenders to finish undefeated in the BCS (I figure Rutgers, WVU, and Loiusville will go 1-1 against each other, and Florida will choke one away to someone. USC doesn't look like they have the stuff to win out). So there's going to be about 12 1-loss teams and the winner of UM-tOSU, and a whole lot of whining about getting screwed come the end of the season. This is going to be a fun two months.
9. As a final note on ND, someone noted that 19 freshmen made the field against Stanford. That seems like a lot. Maybe it's because we have no sophomores or juniors on the team, and Weis figures he has to get these guys some time now, because next year, they're going to be on the field all game, every game, all year(high school seniors, take notice- this means there's a lot of space for you to work your way in early). At least most of these guys look pretty good.
10. I'm normally not one to take potshots at Ty, as now that he's at UW, he's not our problem anymore. But yesterday was the first time this season his incompetence really showed through. When the referees spend 20, 30 seconds getting ready to spot the ball, your play should be in, the players lined up, and the QB under center before the whistle is blown, and the ball should be snapped at the whistle. I've seen it done a hundred times. Yet your team let the final seconds tick off without so much as even an ugly clusterfuck of a miscommunicated playcall, and the game ends with your team standing around doing nothing, while having possession of the ball and down less than a TD. Good going.