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[Funkasaurus Rex]

Well Iowa finally did what we all knew it would do. I'm still hoping for an interesting/obscenely unlikely NC  Cincinnati - Georgia Tech? Oregon - Boise State II? Army - Navy?

[Vig]

Yes, because we all knew that Stanzi would get knocked out for the rest of the year on a stupid fucking offensive play-call.

Don't make this any tougher than it already is.

[Funkasaurus Rex]

Well we didn't know Stanzi would get knocked out, but we did know that Iowa wasn't all that great. Championship teams don't generally beat 1-AA teams by one point on last second blocked field goals.

[Johnny Roastbeef]

Holy crap.  The officiating is the worst I've ever seen, across the whole country.  Every college football ref should be fired at the end of the season.

[Captain Bravo]

Fuck you, Colorado. Aggies lose, 35-34. One fucking point, un-fucking-believable.

[The Iron Colonel]

Holy crap.  The officiating is the worst I've ever seen, across the whole country.  Every college football ref should be fired at the end of the season.

The really startling thing is that it's not just the officials on the field, but the replay guys are missing a lot of really, really obvious calls. Something needs to be done about this.

[DentonFreeman]

Another problem with replay officials is the leap of faith they seem to be making on some calls. The whole "indisputable evidence" thing about replay must not mean much to them, because I've seen several calls that should not have been overturned because there is no proof that the call on the field is wrong.

[MrTweek]

Sportscenter just played a clip of Charlie Weis's postgame press conference.  In a nutshell, he said that he wasn't going to change the way he coaches regardless of the outcome.  He's 35-23 in his ND coaching career.

23 losses over 5 years is not good when you're expected to compete for championships and bowl bids.  I'm not even close to being a fan of the Irish, but when a mediocre coach comes out and says that he's not going to change the way he coaches, doesn't that raise a red flag with fans and/or the school brass?  It seems to me that until you prove that you can compete for the national championship consistently, boasting that you're not going to change how you coach is kind of retarded.

[DentonFreeman]

The guy might be a dead man walking after today's game. There's really no excuse for losing to Navy (I mean, we beat them 43 years in a row) and he hasn't really competed for a championship in his five years at Notre Dame. I closed the book on him after the 3-9 season, for the most part, and haven't looked back since. For every problem he fixes, another breaks (offense goes from horrid to great, defense goes from pretty decent to one of the worst in the country). It doesn't help that Weis seems like more of a glorified offensive coordinator than an actual head coach. I was shocked when I found out he has no say in what the defense does from week to week and just trusts the defensive coaches to do their job (which they have failed miserably at this season).

It's unfortunate because they have quite a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, it just looks like Weis can't pull it all together. Hopefully the administration sees this and gets the ball rolling on finding a replacement head coach sometime soon. Who knows what they're thinking though, things have really changed in South Bend over the years.

[Wanderer]

I'm no college football expert, but things can't be going well when your quarterback looks like this:

[The Iron Colonel]

I think the biggest problem is his record against ranked teams: it sucks. In his tenure, he's 1-11 against ranked teams. For a program that's supposed to be a powerhouse, that's just terrible.

[Funkasaurus Rex]

I don't see what's so bad about losing to Navy. If they sidestep that landmine at Temple this team is 8-2 with it's only loses coming to top 15 teams. And Temple right now is...not...very good. But they're just invincible for reasons that defy all logic. Like Iowa through the first 9 games. I'd say both teams can play with anyone outside the top 15 and reasonably expect a win. I didn't watch the game though why the hell did Jimmy Clausen take a sack in the end zone with one minute left when the game is tied? How the hell was there even the opportunity for that to happen?   

Any OU fans out there? I'd love to gloat after 8 years of Oklahoma dominating that series but really I can't. That was a hideous, horrible game. And it was kind of a total fluke. Somehow the worst player on the defense managed to come up with 3 interceptions and 12 tackles... what the hell?

I'm going to put my vote in for Nebraska being the most frustrating team of the decade. It can't have both offense and defense it has to be one or the other. The last few years when the offense has been phenomenal the defense has been one of the worst in the nation. Think putting up 55 points against Colorado and still losing... by 10! Or it's been the other way around. When Frank Solich was head coach the defense was always great but the offense was piss poor. Then there was a year in the middle there where both offense and defense were completely terrible and we lost at home to Southern Miss. 

[Citizen Snips]

I don't see what's so bad about losing to Navy.

Because until two years ago, Notre Dame hadn't lost to Navy since 1963. That was the longest winning streak in college football history, and when it was snapped, it was embarrassing and painful. But it was also the 3-9 Notre Dame team, which was a perfect storm of zero depth at key positions and a serious lack of coaching experience across the board.

However, this year is Weis' fifth year. This team has Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate, two of the best skill players in the country. There was no fucking reason this game should have even been close, especially with Michael Floyd returning.

Notre Dame's brilliant defensive strategy wasn't assignment football, but instead was having their bigger and faster athletes outrun Navy's slower and smaller ones. That, obviously, didn't work. And it seemed that every time ND's offense put itself in position to score, they made stupid, costly mistakes. Bottom line: Notre Dame was completely unprepared and seemed bewildered as soon as the game started.

Note that I'm not trying to take anything away from Navy. They may not have a lot of talent in skill positions, but they played their fucking hearts out, as they do every year.

I didn't watch the game though why the hell did Jimmy Clausen take a sack in the end zone with one minute left when the game is tied? How the hell was there even the opportunity for that to happen?

Navy had a really good punt that put the Irish in a hole. On their first play, Clausen bombed it to Michael Floyd, but Floyd dropped it. I guess he was still rusty. The second play was a tipped pass to Golden Tate that went incomplete. On third down, the offensive line broke down and Navy sacked Clausen. The same thing happened on the next play, only in the end zone. Navy had a lot of momentum and it certainly helped them in a big way.

[Denieru]

There's no doubt this loss seals the deal on Weis. I mean, the schedule doesn't get easier from here. They still have the 8-1 Pittsburgh Panthers, a Connecticut Huskies squad that will play you hard any given week and a surprisingly 6-3 Standford Team that literally just dropped 51 Points on Oregon. Yes. That Oregon, the one that beat USC. I frankly don't see how Notre Dame makes it out of this year without being 7-5, at best.

[The Iron Colonel]

In all fairness, Navy is a hell of a lot better than people give them credit for (other than their inexplicable loss to Temple, they've been competitive with everyone they've played - including OSU and Pitt). Tenuta made the mistake of trying to blitz them repeatedly, and just got killed for it.

That being said, I cannot possibly fathom why Notre Dame couldn't score points on Navy. That one is a puzzler.

[CantCatchMe]

Every time I see Notre Dame on TV, the first image I see is of Charlie Weiss waddling up and down the sideline looking fat, confused, and angry that the other team is actually trying to win.

I imagine that his players, upon seeing that up close, are deeply affected by it.

[Citizen Snips]

Tenuta made the mistake of trying to blitz them repeatedly, and just got killed for it.

Welcome to my waking nightmare. This has been an issue all season. Blitzes are only effective if you catch the other team off guard with them. By choosing to blitz nearly every down, as Tenuta does, there's absolutely no element of surprise, and the offensive line almost always picks them up, leaving the secondary out to dry.

The only reason the Irish have four of their six wins this season is because Jimmy Clausen has been able to pull it out of the fire nearly every time he's been asked to. I understand that losing to Navy pretty much puts him out of the Heisman race, but as far as I'm concerned, he deserves that trophy tenfold just for having to put up with the shit he's gone through.

[MrTweek]

Three Tennessee Vols were arrested Thursday for attempted robbery.  Fantastic.

"I said, 'Sorry, we don't have anything to give you.' " Zickefoose said.

"We ain't got nothing but a cheeseburger," Smith added, "but they didn't take that."

[The Iron Colonel]

Amateurism indeed.

Corey Zickefoose: I think they should still be able to play football, regardless. Tennessee is my place. You know, it's my football team.
Reporter: Even after they put a gun in your face, you say let them play football?
Corey Zickefoose: Yeah. It's Tennessee. That's the way it is sometimes.

Er, what? Look, I live in a football crazed town. I work at a place that puts me in direct contact with 1A football players every single day. If one of them tried to rob me with a gun, you can be damn sure I wouldn't let me blind fandom keep me from pressing charges.

[Quagmar]

You know what?

TCU is really good.  Like, best team in the nation good.

Goddamn, we need a playoff system.