The year was 2002 and the head coach was Tyrone Willingham. That is the last time Notre Dame was 3-0. The year was 2006 and Brady Quinn was the quarterback. That is the last time Notre Dame was ranked as high as No. 11. Who even remembers the last time Notre Dame ranked higher than Michigan, Michigan State and USC at the same time?
This was the biggest week for Notre Dame in a long time. It all started with the announcement that it will be joining the ACC in all sports except football. However, the football team will still play plenty of ACC teams. Then they traveled to East Lansing and defeated No. 10 Michigan State. They hadn't beaten a team in the top ten in ten years.
The best part of it was that most of the media did not give the Irish a chance. The talk was that Michigan State had too tough of a defense that young Everett Golson would not be able to handle, and a great running game featuring Le'Veon Bell that would be too much for the Irish defense. Michigan State was going to carry the banner for a Big Ten conference that had suffered disappointing losses early.
Notre Dame's offense struggled against Purdue's defense and the Spartans' defense was better.
After listening to all that, I kept thinking, "Doesn't Notre Dame also have a great defense and a strong running game?" Manti Te'o will probably be the first linebacker drafted and he is complimented nicely with players such as Prince Shembo, Louis Nix and Kapron Lewis-Moore.
I also thought that with Cierre Wood returning to go along with Theo Riddick and George Atkinson, Notre Dame also has a strong running game. Also, I kept thinking, "Hasn't Golson shown a lot more to this point than Andrew Maxwell has?"
I laughed at many of the analysts this week because I knew that Michigan State was facing the exact same factors that Notre Dame was, and they were doing it with a quarterback that has shown way less that what Golson has. Therefore, the result of this game did not surprise me at all.
Notre Dame always will have it's haters who try to diminish everything they do like they did with the win over Purdue. My thought after that game, and is now, that in a conference that has not impressed, the Boilermakers have quietly been very impressive. I would not be surprised at all if Purdue won the Leaders' Division in the Big Ten.
After this win though, it is very hard for the haters to deny Notre Dame. It is not only that they won, but how the defense really dominated the line of scrimmage. Mr. Bell really had nowhere to run. One stat that really stood out was that at half time, he had one yard after contact. The Irish defense held him to 77 yards.
They forced many third and longs, which eliminated Bell from the equation and forced Maxwell to beat them. He proved to not be ready. With a big fourth quarter lead, Bell was no longer even a factor as Michigan State needed to come back. Again the passing game was ineffective.
On the other side of the ball, Golson didn't have a great game statistically (14-32, 178 yards, 1 TD). However, he did make big plays unlike Maxwell. Golson put to rest any talk of a quarterback controversy. Although he still has a lot to improve on in terms of game management, we all know that Tommy Rees would have never made that throw to John Goodman.
As much as I like Rees, he also never would have even evaded the rush to be in position to make that throw. The good thing is that Rees is still there to come in game management situations like he did against both Purdue and Michigan State.
Notre Dame's trio of runners also found it tough to get yards early on. The difference is though, that as the game went on, they started to produce, to the tune of 136 yards on the ground. That is pretty good against an aggressive defense.
Other than their miserable 1-for-10 on third downs, it was a really nice game for Notre Dame. It is one where nobody can deny the No. 11 team in the country.
Kevin Garnett Ray allen kendrick Perkins Rajon Rondo Glen Davis Nate Robinson
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