Lets Just Say I'm Confident About This Weekend

I'm not going to go into long winded reasons this weekend why or how Notre Dame will win or loss, but I will say one thing: I am so confident about tomorrow that I made a bet with a Purdue alum in my section at law school that Notre Dame will win and I'm giving him 21.5 points. Notre Dame 49 Purdue 21

You Jackin It?

A while back, I did a couple of posts here and here of a moustached Ohio State fan who got caught masterbating in a library and was then confronted about it by investigative reporter Carl Monday. Well the Daily Show decided to do a little piece on Carl Monday and hilarity ensued. Enjoy!

WARNING: The Following Post Contains Visually Disturbing Images, Reader Discretion is Advised

We've seen many celebrity sex tapes leaked over the years such as Colin Farrell, Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton to name a few. So who would you think would be the next celebrity to have a sex tape released? Britney Spears? Nope. Christina Aguliera? Try again. Eva Longoria? Guess again. Jessica Alba? I wish. How about Screech Powers, aka Dustin Diamond? Not only am I not kidding, but apparently Screech is into some kinky stuff according to the New York Daily News:

Everyone who remembers Diamond as a lovable putz is in for a shock once they see a 40-minute video in which he engages in a kinky three-way with two women, sources tell us.

We can't get too graphic here, but word is that the action includes some bodily functions and an act known as a "Dirty Sanchez."

Excuse me while I go throw up.

This is Funny

Random Thoughts About the Michigan State

• Bob Davie questioning Charlie Weis about time management is like Saddam Hussein questioning the compassion of a priest.
• So yeah, Bob, Michigan State is awfully tough to beat at home at night.
  
• Best commentary from the game, "There's a reason why they're Michigan State."
• Best Picture from the game:
  

• Yes, that is a picture of the Michigan State players guarding the 50 yard line after the game to prevent Notre Dame planting their own flag. Little did John L. Smith know that Notre Dame is not a bunch of classless thugs like his team.
  
• Is it just me or does John L. Smith look like Ernest

• Thank god Michigan State is coached by John L. Smith. As one blogger put it, "If they only had to play the first half, John L. Smith would be goddamn Knute Rockne." Michigan State's play calling in the second half was mind blogging.
• It was nice for once that the refs actually called holding on someone other than Notre Dame.
  
• It would be nice if someone outside of Ryan Harris and Sam Young stepped up and provided some running lanes for Darius Walker.
• Despite Brady Quinn's strong second half play, he still seems a little off and is not making the throws he was making last year.
• Mitchell Thomas is completely worthless at linebacker.
• It was nice to see Jeff Smardzija not going through the motions and making some big time plays.
• The 1st quarter was quite possible the worst quarter I have ever witnessed as a Notre Dame fan.
  
• A Ty Willingham coached team does not make that 4th quarter comeback.
• Lambert's second interception was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen.
  
• Barring some unforeseen hiccup, Notre Dame should be playing in a BCS game.
• I still have no idea how Notre Dame won that game.
  

Michigan State Prediction

Let's see if I can get my predictions on track. I've been off the past couple of weeks (though one prediction I was glad to be off on). Saturday night's game against Michigan State will show all of the media assclowns of the world that Charlie Weis is not Ty Willingham. Notre Dame is going to come out sharp offensively and defensively looking to avenge for last year's loss and last week's embarrassing performance. I expect big games from Brady Quinn, Darius Walker, Rhema McKnight and Jeff Smardzija. If Notre Dame does not put up at least 40 points, I will be very surprised.

Michigan State always plays this game as their Super Bowl, so this game should remain close for a while, but Notre Dame's talent and conditioning will take over in the 4th quarter and Notre Dame pulls away. Notre Dame 41 Michigan State 28

Sweet

With another strong season under way, and proving yet again why it is the best show on television, I was delight to see this bit of news today: HBO Renews The Wire, Acclaimed Drama Series From David Simon, For Its Fifth Season.

Moving On

I've been neglecting to offer any analysis on the Michigan game for a few reasons. One, I was too busy drowning my sorrows with Miller High Life and shots of Jager to offer any immediate analysis on Saturday. Two, law school has been keeping my attention the past few days. And three, there isn't that much to say about the game. No one except Geoff Price played well on Saturday. The execution by both sides of the ball was pitiful and Charlie Weis deserves a good amount of the blame. Saturday's game reminded me of some of the crap I watched my senior year at Notre Dame when the Ty Willingham era was in full swing.

But that leads me to my next point, anyone comparing Charlie Weis to Ty Willingham in the words of the Irish Roundtable should be punched in the throat. Charlie Weis is not anywhere close to Ty Willingham. He actually recruits on consistent basis, as he got another 5 star recruit on Monday in the form of cornerback Gary Gray despite the blowout. He doesn't speak on such platitudes that no one has any idea what he is saying. He doesn't spend his free time on lowering his handicap instead of figuring out how to make this football team better. He doesn't rely on smokes and mirrors to win games like Ty's first Notre Dame team. But what Irish fans need to realize is that while Notre Dame had a chance to win a national championship this season, their margin of error was razor thin. They have zero depth on both sides of ball due to neglect from the Willingham era. And that was so evident on Saturday. If the Irish had any depth this past Saturday, players like Smardzija or McKnight or Lambert or Mitchell Thomas would have been riding the pine later in the game for their craptacular play.

It's going to get worse before it's gets better, especially when you consider next year, Notre Dame will have only 9 seniors on the team and they have early season games at Penn State and at Michigan. I don't think Notre Dame will be competing for a national championship until 2008 when Weis will have three full classes under him and his first full class will be juniors.

But getting back to this year, yes Saturday was horrible, but let's avoid these chicken little proclamations that Notre Dame sucks and will be lucky to be playing in the Continental Tire Bowl. This team still has a great chance to make it to a BCS game. After this Saturday's game against Michigan State, the only serious tests left for the Irish are Stanford and USC. And if they can return to the level of play that was exhibited in the Penn State game, there's no reason why Notre Dame shouldn't finish the season 11-1 or 10-2.

In Honor of Michigan Week

I give you the following picture which I posted last year during Michigan week.

Immediate Penn State Reactions

As I begin to type this, there is still five minutes left in the game, but barring the most incredible comeback ever, Notre Dame should be heading into the Michigan game 2-0. Here are my immediate thoughts about the game.

• I need to pick against Notre Dame more often because whenever I do it, it seems like Notre Dame takes that team behind the woodshed for a beat down.
• The Penn State coaches deserve a F- for their performance today. I was beginning to wonder if Bill Dedrick and Kent Baer had secretly taken over as the coordinators. Seriously, they could not have picked a much worse game plan on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Let's see Notre Dame can't stop the run and we get 5-6 yards every time we run the ball. I know let's throw the ball 40 times. Or Georgia Tech and Ohio State had a lot of success blitzing Notre Dame. I know let's just rush three every time so Brady Quinn can pick our defense apart. Ayeayeaye. These are the kind of games that get coaches fired.
• Speaking of the run defense, yikes. Other than the kicking game, this is my biggest concern about Notre Dame right now. Notre Dame might have gotten lucky this week that Penn State's offensive coordinator did not have clue on how to attack Notre Dame's weakness. Notre Dame will not be so lucky next week when they play Michigan. Man boobs is notorious for getting conservative in big games, which means Michael Hart will probably get at least 25 carries next week. The linebackers must do a much better job tackling and getting off their blocks otherwise it could be a long afternoon for the Notre Dame defense next week.
• But let me give some praise to the Notre Dame defense. The amount of improvement by the pass defense has been phenomenal. They still need to generate more pressure from their front four, but they are getting very solid play from their secondary and they're not giving up as many big plays via the passing game as they did last year and Minter doesn't seem afraid this year to use the blitz, which has led to more pressure on the quarterback.
• Good to see the old Brady Quinn back. He still made a few shaky throws, but for the most part, a vintage Quinn performance, 25-36, 287 yards and three touchdowns.
• Speaking of seeing the old Brady Quinn, it was good to see the old offense back. 41 points and nearly 400 yards of total offense and the totals would have be higher had it not been 41-3 in the fourth quarter.
  
• Hey Carl Goia doesn't totally suck. I still find myself closing my eyes and praying whenever Notre Dame kicks a field goal, but it's good to know that kicking a field goal will not be a totally hopeless proposition.
• Enough about this game, bring on Michigan!!
  

Fearless Notre Dame Prediction

I'm going to keep this brief because I'm about to go out for my birthday dinner with my parents. Back during my Notre Dame season prediction a few weeks back, I predicted that Notre Dame's only loss would come at the hands of Penn State. Despite Penn State's lackluster play last week against Akron, I'm going to stick to my guns. Why you may ask? I think this game could come down to the kicking game and if that's the case, Notre Dame will lose this game because I'm not sure Notre Dame has a kicker right now that can make anything outside of an extra point. I think the combination of the strong linebacker play of Penn State and my concerns about the Notre Dame pass rush and the linebacker play should keep this game close enough where this comes down to a crucial field goal make or miss. But hopefully, I horribly wrong like I was last year about my Purdue prediction. Penn State 24 Notre Dame 21

5 Days...

While I was anxiously awaiting the start of the Notre Dame football season, there are now two new things that I am anxiously awaiting, both of which occur on September 10th. Those two things are my birthday and the return of The Wire. I know what you're all thinking, "I can understand why you're excited about your birthday, but what the hell is The Wire? I've never heard of it." The Wire is a little show on HBO that no one watches, but those who do watch it recognize it as the best show on television, and I think it might the be finest television show ever. I don't make such statements lightly. There have been a lot of great shows on television such as Law and Order, 24, Miami Vice, ER, the Sopranos just to name a few. But I think The Wire beats them all. What makes The Wire so special, I'll let the Sports Guy explain:

Readers kept telling me to watch this show. They implored me. They kept e-mailing me. They badgered me. I didn't listen. As I've described multiple times in this space, I hate being told that I should watch a show; I like discovering them at my own speed. And if it made me three or four years late for the party with classics like "The Sopranos" and "24," so be it. It's just that I can't willingly jump onto a show; it needs to happen organically.

For instance, here's what happened with "The Wire:" On a Tuesday night in mid-August, the Sports Gal and I were home with nothing to watch and ending up stumbling onto "The Wire Re-Up" button on HBO On Demand. I'd been avoiding this show for four years because the Baltimore drug scene didn't appeal to me unless Raffie Palmeiro and Miggy Tejada were involved. But the Sports Gal was the one who said, "Let's watch the first show of 'The Wire' and see if we like it."

Within 10 minutes, we were hooked. We ended up banging out three episodes the first night and another three the second night. Then our cable system switched to a new provider ... and all the Season 1 episodes disappeared into thin air. Now we were scrambling. None of the video stores around us had Season 1 in stock. I ended up ordering Season 1 online (two-day delivery courtesy of Amazon Prime), but we were so hooked on the show that when someone returned Season 1 to our video store, we rented the last three discs that same night. We banged out the last seven episodes in two nights before the DVD was even delivered. That's how hooked we were.

I'll go this far: I'd put Season 1 of "The Wire" against anything. The first three seasons of "The Sopranos." Seasons 1 or 2 of "24." The first seasons of "NYPD Blue," "ER" or "Miami Vice." You name it. I have never seen a show like it. Season 2 wasn't as good (if Season 1 was an A-plus-plus-plus, then Season 2 was a B-plus), and we're just about to dive into Season 3, so I don't have an opinion on that yet. Everyone seems to agree that they outdid themselves with Season 4 and that it's a legitimate masterpiece. Just know that you can absolutely start watching Season 4 without having seen the other three seasons. It's not an ideal way to break into the show, but you can do it.

Without giving too much away, four more things you need to know:

A. Before I started watching "The Wire," my four favorite TV/movie detectives of all-time were Sonny Crockett ("Miami Vice"); Jack Cates ("48 Hrs."); Johnny Kelly ("NYPD Blue"); and Nick Curran (Michael Douglas' character in "Basic Instinct"), who couldn't break away from Sharon Stone even though he knew that every time she climbed on top during sex, there was a 50 percent chance she might ram an ice pick into his chest. But Jimmy McNulty in "The Wire" (played by Dominic West) ... he might end up beating them all before everything's said and done. He might have even moved to No. 1 during the scene in Season 2 when they raid a brothel and he ends up in a threesome before the rest of the cops arrive. Not even Sonny Crockett would have done that.

B. I love any show with a slew of mostly no-name actors that bang their roles out of the park, although it was weird to see one of the leads from "Remember the Titans" playing drug lord Avon Barksdale. With that said, Alonzo Mourning gives an inspired performance as Stringer Bell (Avon's manipulative consigliere). Maybe the best athlete/Hollywood crossover since Kareem in "Airplane." (Wait, that's not Alonzo Mourning? Are we positive?)

C. In an attempt to be gritty, they didn't cast any of those Angie Harmon/Jill Hennessey types who always seem unrealistically cute for a drug/crime show set in a place like Baltimore. And since the actresses on the show are average-looking down the line, guess what happens? It's like the Lambeau parking lot, any press box or any NESCAC keg party ... the females who do appear on this show end up seeming disproportionately hot by about the fifth episode. Absolutely bizarre. I love when this happens.

D. Omar might be my favorite HBO villain since Adebici. And that's saying something. Anyway, I can't believe I didn't watch this show sooner. It enrages me. I'm not doing the "YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS SHOW OR YOUR WHOLE LIFE WILL BE INCOMPLETE!" routine, because that might scare you away. Just know that it's one of the five greatest shows I've ever seen. And I hope you stumble across it some day.

Organically, of course.

Instant Reaction to Notre Dame's First Step Towards a National Championship

The Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game just ended and whew, Notre Dame survived 14-10. Here are my 8 rapid fire reactions to the game. Why 8? Because I could only think of 8.

1. Bob Davie is INTOLERABLE to listen to!
2. Charlie Weis has HUGE balls! I don't know too many coaches who will run a quarterback draw with 16 seconds left in the half or go for it on 4 and 1, up 4 at midfield with a minute left in the game.
3. Chan Gailey, I think, is missing testicles. Georgia Tech lost this game in the third quarter when they had a fourth and one around midfield and they decided to punt. You ain't going to upset the number two team in the country with conservative playing calling like that.
   
4. Carl Goia, thanks for playing, now please go find a seat on the bench. I can't imagine Ryan Burkhart could be much worse. Today's game reaffirmed one of my fears of the season which is that the kicking game could keep Notre Dame playing for a national championship.
5. Darius Walker, thank you for saving us from an embarrassing opening game loss and eight hundred Sportscenter bits on whether Notre Dame is overrated. He was without question the player of the game.
6. Notre Dame was uncharacteristically sloppy today. 11 penalties, a few of which cost Notre Dame big plays. Notre Dame might be able to get away with slop like this against Georgia Tech, but they commit 11 penalties against Michigan or USC, Notre Dame will lose. I'm sure Charlie Weis will be dealing with this penalty issue at practice all this week.
7. Brady Quinn looked a little shaky at times, as he missed some open receivers and made a few awful throws. Luckily, none of those awful throws ended up in Georgia Tech's hands. It seems to me, based on the success that Ohio State and now Georgia Tech has had in making Quinn uncomfortable, Notre Dame is going to see more teams bring the house in order to slow down Brady Quinn and the Notre Dame offense.
8. Last but not least, let me give some praise to the defense. The defense has been maligned for the past eight months now and they came out and played a very solid game, holding Georgia Tech to only 258 yards of total offense. They contained Calvin Johnson and Reggie Ball. They held Tashard Choice to 55 yards rushing. They put pressure on Reggie Ball. I'm little concerned about the tackling and the linebackers' ability to take on blocks, but hopefully those will be issues that will work themselves out as the season roles on.
   

Prediction

I've been neglecting to make my Notre Dame-GA Tech prediction, so here we go. One of two things will happen tonight. GA Tech plays Notre Dame really tough and Notre Dame pulls it out with a late field goal or touchdown or Notre Dame blows out GA Tech and this game is over at halftime. I think the latter happens tonight. I think people will be really surprised as to the improvement of the defense. I really think GA Tech is going to struggle to move the ball with an inconsistent quarterback and a banged up offensive line and for all the criticism Notre Dame's defense got last year, they showed last year that if a team only has one good receiver, they can contain him, and I'm not really sure who else Reggie Ball is going to throw to other than Calvin Johnson. Brady Quinn will pick apart the blitzing scheme of the Yellow Jackets and make his first strong case for the Heisman trophy. NOTRE DAME 35 GA TECH 13

Wow

Kevin Federline has a music video out for his first single "Lose Control", and to give you a sense of how bad this video is, there's a point in the video where Federline starts playing an air guitar. Watch at your risk. Risks include losing the will to live.