Notre Dame is confused - FSU didn't get rewarded, Notre Dame got punished

“Destroy the seed of evil, or it will grow up to be your ruin” – Aesop

Seems like there is a whole lot of confusion going on at Notre Dame lately. This is what happens when you sell your soul to the devil. You should know better and lead better. Shame on Notre Dame!!!

DUDE!!! I saw the play live and I said to myself, "Dang, TWO guys blocking / setting picks down field. Easy call." and I don't even officiate football. Kelly is freaking delusional. But he fits in well with the current culture down there at South Bend. 

from Bleacher Report:

Kelly: FSU's Blown Coverage 'Rewarded'

				Kelly: FSU's Blown Coverage 'Rewarded' Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly was livid after a controversial offensive pass interference call wiped out the Irish's potential game-winning touchdown i...
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Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly was livid after a controversial offensive pass interference call wiped out the Irish's potential game-winning touchdown in their 31-27 loss Saturday to Florida State. With a day to ruminate and further clarification provided by the officiating crew, reporters asked if he better understood the call Sunday.

Nope.    

Per Matt Fortuna of ESPN.com, Kelly said:

Actually I have less clarity. I guess it was actually called on Will Fuller, not C.J. (Prosise). So [it] just adds more uncertainty as to the final play. But again, the play itself, in terms of what we ask our kids to do, it was pretty clear what happened on the play: Florida State blew the coverage and they got rewarded for it. It's unfortunate.

However, ACC coordinator of football officials Doug Rhoads defended the crew's call Sunday. Rhoads specifically cites the wide receivers blocking downfield on a forward pass as a violation, noting that neither player attempted to run a route.

"Offensive players on passing plays are restricted from going downfield and blocking anytime from the snap," Rhoads said, per Zach Barnett of College Football Talk. "If the ball is first touched behind the line of scrimmage then that would be legal and it's okay, but if it's touched beyond the line then it's offensive pass interference."

But this is an institution that has been selling out for quit a while now, so why should anybody be surprised. I liked them better when they at least gave the impressions that they stood for something. They have not just lowered their standards lately as many in the "win at all costs crowd" clamored for, they have pile driven their standards into the ground. Shame on Notre Dame!!!

from canonlawblog.com

Notre Dame is confused

				Notre Dame is confused The University of Notre Dame has decided "to extend benefits to all legally married persons, including same-sex spouses…." Renowned Notre Dame law pro...
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Renowned Notre Dame law professor Gerry Bradley has set out the civil law options Notre Dame could have pursued and Bp. Kevin Rhoades has put the university on notice that their decision does not seem commensurate with the duties Catholic institutions owe to Catholic (not to mention natural law) truths.

Manti Te'o, Notre Dame football star: hoaxed or hoaxster?

from YouTube - NMW World Edition: 

Manti Te'o, Notre Dame football star: hoaxed or hoaxster?

Now this story is starting to make sense. Because reading the English sub-titles on the ESPN crawl last night, it didn't make a lick of sense. I feel much better. Hey, who hasn't been played like this, OR WORSE?!? 

In hindsight, I think all of us have had an ex-girlfriend or two that we wish had never existed. It's a part of growing up. Personally, I think you got off pretty easy. So buck up little soldier and move on to the NFL where you can screw up your life like a real man (and presumably with real women).


 from YouTube - NMW World Edition: 

Published on Jan 17, 2013

Notre Dame football player Manti Te'o claims he is the victim of a cruel hoax after Deadspin ran a story proving the cancer victim Te'o spoke openly of dating when she died this season never existed.

If Te'o is to be believed, this means he communicated via telephone and Twitter for a year or more with a false Internet persona created by a male family friend. Either that, or he participated in an elaborate lie that fooled the likes of CBS, ESP, AP and the New York Times for an entire football season.

The heartbreaking tale of Te'o's long-distance relationship with "former Stanford student Lennay Kekua" had been the inspirational story of the college football season. Kekua was supposedly recovering from a car accident when she was diagnosed with leukemia. She allegedly died right after Te'o's grandmother died on Sept. 11. In his next game Te'o had 12 tackles in leading Notre Dame to a 20-3 upset against Michigan State.

Te'o informed informed his coaches at Notre Dame of the hoax on Dec. 26. Te'o, however, did not mention the hoax to the media when asked about Kekua at a press conference before the BCS national championship game against Alabama on Jan. 7. Deadspin broke the story on Jan. 16. Both Te'o and Notre Dame maintain that Te'o was the victim, and not involved in the hoax.

Giants Draft Notre Dame WR Golden Tate

I LIKED THIS GOLDEN TATE, A LOT!!!

The wrong Giants, I really would have liked for the FOOTBALL GIANTS to pick Tate, but this has been my luck lately. Pretty much Bass-ackwards.


FROM BLEACHER REPORT BLOG:

http://bleacherreport.com/tb/b4vaS

With their last pick, the Giants selected Golden Tate, a former Notre Dame wide receiver who was drafted in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks.

Tate did not play baseball this season for the Fighting Irish, but started in 54 of Notre Dame's 59 games in 2009, batting .329 with four triples and 13 stolen bases. Tate was drafted out of high school by Arizona in the 42nd round of the 2007 Draft but opted to go to Notre Dame. Although it appears Tate will continue to focus on football, Barr said Tate's tools were too good to pass up.

"We felt he was one of the best athletes in the Draft. We felt like we took a great athlete at the top [No. 24 overall pick Gary Brown] and were still taking great athletes at the end of the Draft," Barr said. "Our scout in Indiana wrote him up as a prospect and said this guy could play the game and he pictured him as a guy with the ability and tools to play. Does he have football as an option? Sure, but it also gives us the opportunity to be able to talk to him or, if he changes his mind, then he can come to the Giants and we can give him the opportunity."

WHO KNEW ABOUT THIS GOLDEN TATE??

Another high-profile player, at least in baseball circles, was San Francisco's 48th-round pick, Devin Harris. Harris, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound right fielder out of South Carolina, was drafted in the eighth round of the 2009 Draft by Baltimore.

As a junior, Harris hit .344 with 14 home runs, 48 RBIs and 13 stolen bases. This season, he hit .324 with 13 home runs and 53 RBIs, and Barr said Harris didn't fall because of ability, but signability.

Barr said the Giants would monitor Harris in the Cape Cod League this summer and try to work on a contract agreement later in the summer.

Another late pick with some potential.

FROM MLB.COM

Giants pick #588 overall Austin Southall, 6-2,CF B-L, T-R from University HS (LA)

Comments: Southall didn't face the best competition this spring, so it made it a little difficult to evaluate him. He did hold his own at the East Coast Showcase last summer, a sign that he can rise to the level of better players. He has a strong arm from the outfield and has worked hard to get his body into better shape. At the plate, he has some raw power to the pull side. It might take him a while to get there, but he has the chance to be a decent big-leaguer some day.

Not a bad draft by John Barr, the Giants Scouting Director, and his staff. They have done a lot of the heavy lifting in bringing the Giants back to respectability.

The Black Eye of Notre Dame continues

NOTRE DAME'S BLACK EYE

Here's the quandary Notre Dame finds itself in as far as the football program. The decision is not about bringing in another football coach to turn around the football fortunes.

According to current Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick

“it is critical to this program and to its place in this University and college football that we compete at the highest level, that we compete for National Championships.”

However, the elite academic standards and the image of Notre Dame as one of the last bastions of the "true" student-athlete formula in collegiate athletics is one of the albatrosses around any Notre Dame football coach's neck.

Charlie Weis succeeded in spades in one of those key areas but failed in another.

Swarbrick has lauded Weis for his love of the University and his players as well as his ability to bring in elite student athletes. He has acknowledged that Weis did win a national championship at Notre Dame because the Irish finished first in graduation success rate this year.

So which objective is most important Notre Dame? Actions speak louder than words.

I'm not sure they can continue to cling tightly to both objectives and succeed at both in the current environment. My fear is that they will end up like Indiana post-Bobby Knight. That program clung to its "we run a clean program, our basketball players go to class, graduate and don't embarrass the program". And that was fine as long as Knight was competing for national championships as well. Once the Hoosiers were no longer a Top 25 team, other issues arose and the emphasis was placed on winning. This begat Kelvin Sampson and the rest as they say is history. The Hoosiers no longer have their "clean program" mantra to cling to anymore.


The list of desirable potential candidates to replace Charlie Weis gets smaller every day. I'm not sure that this is one of the most "coveted" jobs in college football anymore. It is losing luster, just as the Indiana basketball job did recently.

The list of candidates:

John Gruden - he would rather stay in the booth, thanks.
Urban Meyer - no thanks, Florida works for me.
Bob Stoops - why would he leave Okalahoma?
TCU coach Gary Patterson - just signed an extension, thanks.
Boise State's Chris Peterson - seems very comfortable on the smurf turf, maybe he sees what happened to his predecessors leap for the greener pastures.

All the other NFL long shots including Tony Dungy, Bill Cowher and Brian Billick have given the golden domers the cold shoulder.

That leaves Cincinnati's Brian Kelly, UNC's Butch Davis and Stanford's Jim Harbaugh as the remaining names deemed worthy enough to take over. But are any of these guys better coaches than Weis or Willingham or even Bob Davie for that matter?

Certainly one of these guys could be playing coy publicly and footsie privately, no doubt. But given the recent history of the last three coaches at Notre Dame spanning the last twelve years, I'm not sure what we are seeing is more the exodus you see coming from a burning building than effective contract negotiations.

Let's review:

Ty Willingham came in to save the program after the George O'Leary debacle with credentials forged at Stanford. It was thought that he could succeed under ND's academic environment because he succeeded at Stanford. After a fast start, he faded to a 5-7 and 6-5 record and was ousted. Did he get a quick hook? Absolutely. Was it about race? Doubtful, more likely about color. The color of money. They were concerned about falling ratings and the loss of their exclusive contract. By the way, Willingham has not exactly been a rousing success at Washington (a combined 11-37 in four years since leaving Notre Dame with an 0-12 2008 record).

Ty was 21-15 at Notre Dame, a .583 winning percentage. About the same as his predecessor Bob Davie (35-25 for the same .583 percentage)

The Notre Dame wanderlust for a big name like Urban Meyer and then Charlie Weis may have had as much to do with Willingham's quick hook as anything. Meyer is the guy they have been salivating over since he burst onto the national scene at Utah. Once he settled at Florida instead of coming to Notre Dame, the administration was caught with a coach twisting in the wind in Willingham.

It's interesting to note that Weis combined record of 35-27, a .565 winning percentage is comparable to both Willingham and Davie. This indicates to me that unfortunately for both Notre Dame and maybe college football as well, the obvious conclusion is "you are what your record says you are."

This is over a decade of results from the Davie era through Weis and the chase to be #1 in the polls continues. Three different coaches, all successful coaches prior to coming to Notre Dame, and the results are about the same. How does that definition of insanity go...doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

I'm not sure why any high profile candidate would want to risk the damage to his resume that a stint at Notre Dame might bring.

It's romantic to cling to the projected Notre Dame image as being a place where winning on the field is no more important than the integrity off it. But the administration has spent lots of time talking that image talk, they need to demonstrate that they can walk the walk.

Which quality will Notre Dame cling to and which will be set aside -- FAME or INTEGRITY?

The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out. - Proverbs 10:9 INTEGRITY

Maybe Touchdown Jesus can save them.

Hi, Beemer. ~;::::::;( )">

The Black Eye and The Eye Black

LOOK IN THE MIRROR NOTRE DAME

THE BLACK EYE:

How ironic the two top stories in college football this week--maybe in some respects this season--were epitomized in the eyes of both schools high profile QB's.

Venerable Notre Dame, struggling with what to do about head coach Charlie Weis, is led onto the field by Jimmie Clausen sporting a black eye, no doubt put there by a classy ND fan disappointed at the unreal expectations and their wanton greed, lust and gluttony. Speculation on my part to be sure, but does anyone, ANYONE believe that Clausen gets "sucker-punched" by a ND fan on his own turf--in the shadows of touchdown Jesus--if the Golden Domers are 11-1 or 10-2, like they thought they would be coming into this season? I DON'T.

This is a train wreck that has been years in the making. Frustrated alumni and administrators, blinded with keeping their exclusive TV contract and getting back to the top, have driven this program into forgetting who they are and what they represent.

It goes back to how they handled Bob Davie, Ty Willingham and now Charlie Weis. Do these two groups of jack-asses (ND alumni and administrators) honestly believe they are going to get a coach more qualified than Charlie Weis? Do they still believe that they can compete at the highest levels of college football today and maintain their high academic and graduation standards? You play schools like Stanford and Navy for a reason. They are your academic peers and your football peers as well. If you want to step up and compete with Oklahoma and USC and the other football factories, changes other than the head coach will have to be made.

And those changes will result in a definitive change in who the university IS and what they REPRESENT. This university is going to make a statement above and beyond a head coaching change by this decision. I hope if they decide to sell their soul, they get proper recompense. Good Luck.

If they do decide to make the change, I find it ironic that the guy who would be the best fit for the program is never mentioned as a candidate--Buffalo's head coach Turner Gill. I have not heard his name mentioned even as a long shot candidate. The candidates I have heard mentioned are an early indication as to WHY Gill doesn't make the list. The winds of change are blowing around South Bend. And it is an ill wind indeed.

It is perhaps a bit of irony mixed with proper symbolism that Clausen represents the university sporting a black eye. Notre Dame may be looking at giving itself a self-inflicted black eye later this week.

THE EYE BLACK:

While all this is going on, balance is provided in the eye black of Tim Tebow.



PROVERBS 3:5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Has there been a better college football player rolled up into a finer human being than Tim Tebow? If there is a "character" clause attached to the Heismann voting, then I am not sure how Tebow doesn't win his second trophy this year.

Somehow, I don't think he would be as bothered as I would be if he is not selected. Nor do I think the "Tebow as NFL prospect" detractors bother him as much as they bother me. All the kid does is win. Similar knocks came against Steve Young and they had similar games coming out of college. Last time I checked Steve Young is in the NFL Hall of Fame. Now he could end up more like Danny Weurfell than Steve Young, but that's fine. In a sense, Tebow's gifts would be somewhat under-utilized in the NFL as opposed to where his future lies after football.

The kid is truly inspirational not only to his teammates--a tough crowd to influence with the message Tim delivers--but to coaches and fans alike. He's made being self-less cool to an age group that is normally considered more remarkable for their aloofness and self-centeredness.



If we are to believe the Google trends feature, his messages in eye black have inspired more Bible research than a Fellowship of Christians Athletes bible study class. His verses are at the top of the Google search list after each new listing is perched under his eyes.

FROM THE BLOG TEBOW'S EYE BLACK
http://www.tebowseyeblack.com/

Tebow's Eye black represents how something small can make a big impact in a world full of noise. It is amazing that a college football player's eye black can generate 94 million searches on Google.

He wears his Christianity openly and remarkably in a culture that has drifted toward stifling such speech as if it were proselytising or some other form of "hate speech".



TEBOW ON HIS FAITH:

"People are never going to believe it if it's something that you're telling them and it's something that you're beating them over the head with," Tebow said. "That's not going to influence anyone. It's not. How you're going to influence someone is if they see something in you that seems different or seems special or they see something in you and think, 'Wow, that's really cool. I want to look into that.'
"It's not because I'm forcing anything on anyone or not because I'm trying to push it. I don't do that at all. I try to make it part of my life, just like it is, and I'd never deny it or force it. But I'll always have it part of my life. That's just me. I hope that people can see how it affects my life and how I'm so passionate about it and what it does in my life."

And he does it the way he leads--by example.



How cool is it that 1st Timothy 1:5 says?:

The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith

Tebow may not hear his name called in the draft exactly where he may like and some may say unkind things about his football play, but I have every confidence that he will hear those most precious of words said about him, "Well done, good and faithful servant" and he will not be kept waiting for his eternal reward.