Diaries

I had every tab on ND Nation open at the same time so I thought I'd be productive with it. Feel free to use this as message board ammunition in perpetuity.

This might be a little defensive but if it is… well, okay. One of the internet* Notre Dame fan's favorite rhetorical gambits—other than putting (sucks) after Michigan, which how clever 35-year old cubemonkey, how clever—is to declare that Michigan fans are paranoid nutters about the refereeing, whiners that "never actually lose a game." This is not surprising, since the internet Notre Dame fan's primary MO is to attack in others what he hates in himself. During the brief period when Lloyd Carr and Charlie Weis were both coaching the schools in question, this sort of person would refer to Carr as "man boobs" without irony. QED.

Here's a brief survey of ND Nation in the aftermath of Michigan's 38-34 win this weekend that should—but won't—forever put this meme to rest.

One:

The overturn of Allen's TD was the difference in the game---literally. And there is no way anyone can possibly justify overturning it. If it was anything it was inconclusive. Worst overturn of a call I've ever seen.

The other calls were horseshit, but there is manslaughter and there is premeditated murder. That pile of crap had several minutes to view what everyone else saw and he still overturned it. There had to be bias in his decision.

Two:

Those refs did their part to keep Michigan in that game. We could have overcome it and should have, but the referees tilted that game severely, especially in the first half.

Three:

Swarbrick needs to fix this officiating mess. …

The Ref's farted as they ran by Charlie.

They were heard cackling down the tunnel as Charlie begged for one more second.
Pathetic. …

We should have won this game - no doubt (our ineptitude vs. their talent).
But, the officials screwed us on a number of occassions.
Do you think they call the Sam Young call at ND? Do you think they might call a personal foul on UM when they punch Floyd in the face at ND? What about one of the numerous holding calls on Tate?
Despite the buttplugging by the refs, we still should have won this game, but that does not excuse the officiating. Never forget!!!

Four:

To confirm: they were Big 10 refs?

reply: Did you watch the game? That should have been enough.

reply: Big 10. Head ref Bill Lemonnier's home address: Ann Arbor *

Five:

And when you are playing with Big 10 refs, you had darned well better win big, because every call will go the other way.

Six, on the Allen unsportsmanlike conduct:

Absurd
by BIG MAC (2009-09-12 21:10:49) Delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Especially given the no flag on Michigan after their TD. Even Rodriguez was worried about a flag on his team, but he really shouldn't have. I am usually not one to complain about refs but there were some blatant inequities today.

reply: horseshit call, eerily reminiscent of the penalty against Bobby Brown in 99.

Seven:

ND had a 70/30 chance to connect on that play. Unfortunately the other 20% that Weis accounted for didn't come into play as the refs decided to allow Warren to interfere with Tate by grabbing him by the waist before the ball arrived. At worst that should have been a PI and a new set of downs which would have ended the game.

Eight:

He rallied from 2 score deficits twice despite egregious referree calls

reply: I blame this loss squarely on the B10 officiating.

Nine:

Besides, allowing a kick return and getting jobbed eight ways from Tuesday by the goddamned Big n refs had a lot to do with this loss too.

reply: Here are just a few of the huge ways in which the refs affected the outcome (please add the ones I'm forgetting):
1. Incorrect overturn of Allen TD.
2. Horrendous holding call on Rudolph's 72 yard gain.
3. Unsportsmanlike call on Allen on 2-point conversion for doing nothing but putting his index finger up to his mouth (count how many times you see that over the course of this season - if it results in a penalty more than 1% of the time, I'd be shocked), which gave UM amazing field position when they needed it most.
4. This probably didn't matter because we only would've had one more play from out own 46, but the ball clearly hit out of bounds by the yellow secondary line with 1 second still remaining on the clock (which is funny because the ex post facto justification being presented on the ESPN Scoreboard show is that the ball didn't hit anything out of bounds before the clock hit zero.

Ten:

The officials set the tone
by RJD (2009-09-12 22:41:42) cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

There is still still no proof Allen was o.t.b.

reply:

The Big 10 investigated their gambling Refs in 2008
by Hipster (2009-09-12 22:57:19) cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

So anyone who says its just sour grapes to wonder about this game are suckers. I'm not saying they were crooked today. I am saying that there has been enough evidence of fishy behavior to warrant recent investigations.

Eleven:

Yes, we got a lot of bad calls against us today. But that's par for the course. You have to play through those.

reply: We should have won despite this, but our men were not perfect, and played against an extra adversary. The emotion at the beginning of the game would have had no effect but for the poor replay decision to overturn Allen's touchdown, and that taunting call was pure BS.

reply: "We wanted it. Michigan wanted it more." Should be followed by:the refs wanted it the most.

Twelve:

I would not play Michigan anymore
by RJD (2009-09-12 20:23:55)

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The officials are rubes. Can anyone explain the reversal of the Allen TD?

*(I specify "internet" because most of the Notre Dame fan's I've met in real life are perfectly fine, far more than any other fanbase I've come across. It's just the wackos who are seriously wacko.)

Thirteen:

if we were a member of the big 10/11 we would have won today *
by jutaw22mu (2009-09-12 20:28:41)

reply to guy's reply to him:

The officiating was blatantly corrupt.
by jutaw22mu (2009-09-12 20:42:59) Delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Michigan had no questionable calls against them. How is it possible that our experienced OL gets all of those holding penalties while Michigan's does not? Allen had a TD in the first half...that was a momentum-changing play (we get a FG and on the next play UM takes it to the house). What about the 72 yard gain by Rudolph that was nullified by a 'holding' penalty? The very last play of the game was icing on the cake...there were really 11 seconds, not 9 and the timeout was called by Weis with 1 sec to go.
Just to be clear, I am not advocating that we join the Big 10/11, however it's time to get NCAA refs to do interleague games. The Big 10 told those officials Michigan was going to win before the game and that is what happened.

Fourteen pulls a Rosenberg:

I am not one to blame bad calls on costing a team a loss. In football, bad calls are made. God knows I've seen my share.

But, I can't help but feeling like ND was screwed by completely inconsistent application of the rules.

Golden Tate gets his arm(on one play, body grabbed on the other long pass) hooked on one long play, no call. Forcier toss the lob over Sergio Brown, same contact, penalty.

Brown gets called for defensive holding on one series. Floyd gets bumped and held, and we hear "uncatchable ball".

It is the degree of the inconsistency of the calls that makes me feel it was home cooking ref job.

Maybe I am just bitter.

Fifteen:

There should have been 11 seconds on the clock when ND got the ball. The refs allowed it to run down to 9. After Tate's reception there should have been 1 second on the clock and the refs made off like the great escape.

Granted a hail mary probably doesn't work but to me those calls just capped what we saw all afternoon. And you know I could even overlook that if there had been some balance shown by the refs instead all I Michigan being allowed to get away with murder while teh refs literally invented calls, or closed their eyes, to infractions committed by the home team.

reply:

Llloyd was famous for that move.
by irishrock (2009-09-12 20:15:21) Delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Run to the sideline to shake hands when time is still on the clock because the pussy Big 10 refs would never make him go back to the sideline.

Sixteen:

Any independent observer saw the refs screw ND several times. -- Why did they run off the field at the end of the game? [Editor's note: probably because it was over.]

Seventeen:

It just hurts, and it feels like something beautiful just
by 1NDGal (2009-09-12 19:56:50)

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died, and nothing will take away this loss. Calling each other names won't help, and dissing individual players is wrong-headed. We just have to acknowledge that we lost a game we should have won, regardless of crooked refs, and something is just wrong. Michigan won this game because we lost, but nonetheless we lost.

Eighteen, on Allen taunting to the crowd, a move that gets called 100% of the time:

Big 10 officials, A total Disgrace *

reply:

Bullshit call, just like in 1999.
by ND_Rumpus (2009-09-12 19:58:16) Delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Big Ten suckjob out there. I am amazed we agree to big ten refs for the series.
That and overturning the first TD with the phantom foot out of bounds by allen on the screen play.... ridiculous.

Nineteen:

There is no God. *
by theTwerp (2009-09-12 19:48:59)

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God helps those who help themselves. *
by 1NDGal (2009-09-12 19:50:01) cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

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And B10 refs help the rest*
by TMurph (2009-09-12 19:52:01) Delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

*

Twenty:

KW [Kevin White] is the one who "negotiated" the buyout and the one who "negotatiated" a contract that used B11 officials. While this game should've been won, the utterly bogus replay reversal was, in and of itself, decisive. Add in the double standards on PI, holding, etc, and you get the point.

Aaaaaand the grand finale:

We just witnessed a rape

by RJD (2009-09-12 19:32:42)

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Young pancaked guys but was called for holding.
The Allen screen TD replay had no evidence to overturn.
The TD did not deserve a penalty.

Point made at laborious length, right? I've got a dozen more tabs open from one Notre Dame message board over the course of two hours.

"Like a prayer, I'll take you there.  It's like a dream to me." 

That was outstanding.  I can not remember a more satisfying win at least since the Penn St. Henne to Manningham and this probably trumps that too.  This team has something very special about it.  Something that makes me feel like even the raised expectations of this and every other fan won't feel like a crushing weight to them.  With your true freshman QB cool as a cucumber, how can this team really feel the pressure?  We can take much from this performance.  Here are...

Five Things:

1. Recruiting tons of wide receivers is a vital component for success for this system.  Mathews came up big in this game and we are lucky that he stuck around.  He has the skills to play in the NFL IME and could have gone elsewhere to showcase his skills.  We have all wondered at the shear number of wide receivers being recruited but I see now why we can never have enough.  Being able to insert viable options when others are injured is vital for making this offense move.
2. Can we all feel good now about Rich Rod's coaching ability?  Good game plan going in?  Check.  Solid half time adjustments?  Check.  Great clock management and play-calling in crunch time?  Check.  The man is the Wizard of Offense.
3. That may be the most potent offense that we face this season.  It really showed how the deep passing game can open up the running lanes and make ND's somewhat ponderous running backs look like world beaters.  I think our defense held together just enough here and should have easier sledding going forward.  I was especially impressed with GERG's adjustments at half time shutting down ND's offense in the 3rd Qtr.
4. Brandon Minor is our best running option.  No surprise there but still nice to confirm it.
5. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Looking Ahead:

Michigan's schedule lines up nicely for the next few weeks.  Two more home games in a row should help this team gel even further.  The progression in opponent quality is nice as well with Eastern probably being improved but still Eastern (helps with the possible letdown game), then Indiana a slight step up leading to our first road test at Sparty.  This could be the best set up we have ever had for a long winning streak.  So what we all must tell ourselves is:  He is a freshman.  He will make mistakes that cost us games we should win. 

Still I am thinking 8-4, possibly 9-3 and playing on New Years Day at this point.

I hope that everyone was able to enjoy this game and that everyone made it home safe and sound.  Have a great week.

I just spoke to Aramide Olaniyan again (for those concerned, he's off campus now). The win seemed to push Michigan over the edge for Olaniyan. I'm not interested in writing a whole piece, so here's some quotes from our discussion.

- "This was way more amazing than I thought it would be. The fans were crazy, I couldn't believe it. This was the first place I've been that fans recognized me."

- "There's definitely some things I need to consider now. I don't want to say too much, but I need to sit down and discuss some things with my parents. I'm taking an official visit in December, and my parents will be there with me, so I want them to see what I just saw."

- "I actually got to talk to coach Robinson, and some other coaches. I also got to see how I would be used in the defense (the quick, or OLB). I love the defensive scheme. I think they played well today."

- "I've never seen anything like that before. I went to a couple games last year, and this was crazy."

- "I love Michigan, and that definitely exceeded my expectations."

- "I talked to Austin White, Dior Mathis, and Devin Gardner. They were all cool guys, I got along with them really well."

It seems like we've pushed ahead to the forefront. As expected, I don't think he'll make a decision until after his parents see it for themselves in December. I was supposed to talk to Josh Furman today, too, but that might not be for a couple days now.

This weekend is a big home weekend for many of the Michigan sports. Volleyball is hosting their first game as this diary is being posted, field hockey hosts a pair of teams, and men's soccer also plays host to a pair of opponents. Golf also opens this weekend on the road, while women's soccer and cross country also hit the road. Paul is also looking to make a few appearances to games this weekend. Hopefully we'll get another solid post from him.

Volleyball

#7 ranking, 6-0 record

Games:
• Friday 12:30p vs Fairfield,
• Friday 7:30p vs Morehead State,
• Saturday 12:30 vs VCU,
• Saturday 7:30p vs Missouri

Volleyball is hosting the Michigan Challenge this weekend (full schedule here), and there will be games starting from 10am to 7:30p both today Friday and tomorrow Saturday. Michigan faces off with the above mentioned teams, none of which are ranked.

Michigan played a bit sloppy against EMU earlier in the week, playing down to the Eagles level. Michigan did allow the subs to finally get in some quality PT during the match, and did well to fight back when behind. That said, they should never have let EMU get ahead. Photo on the right by Eastern Michigan Athletics

Men's Soccer

#26 ranking (also receiving votes section), 2-1-0 record

Games:
• Friday 7:30p vs Lipscomb Wright State
• Sunday 2:30p vs Wright State Lipscomb

Michigan soccer is also hosting an invitational this weekend. Neither opponent is expected to give Michigan many problems.

Field Hockey

#20 ranking, 1-3 record

Games:
• Saturday 12p vs #5 Connecticut
• Sunday 1p vs Ball State

Connecticut will be a tough game for Michigan, but it is the home opener, so hopefully Michigan can use a bump from the home football crowd who may show up a bit early and give some extra home field advantage (hint hint). Connecticut is coming off a weekend where they defeated #11 Penn State in State College. They will be tough. Ball State is 2-2 with a loss to #30 Villanova.

Women's Soccer

Unranked, 3-3-0 record

Games
• Friday 5p (ET) at Cal State-Fullerton
• Sunday 3p (ET) at Southern California

Cal State-Fullerton is winless thus far in the season (0-4) but will be an interesting road test for Michigan. USC also hasn't been that strong this season, posting a 1-3-0 record, with that one win coming over Cal State-Fullerton.

X-Country

Both rankings not yet released.

Meets:
• Men's: Friday 5:30p @ State College, Pa

Michigan is sending 10 runners for the 5.2 mile race. This race is being hosted by Penn State, and the course will approximate the the Nov. 1st BigTen Conference Championship course. Picture on right by Mark Vloet, posted at MGoBlue.

Golf

Tournaments:
• Women's: Saturday/Sunday @ East Lansing, MI
• Men's: Saturday/Sunday @ Zionsville, IN

The women are facing a par 72 and 6,237 yards on the Forest Akers West Golf Course. The match is 54 holes, 36 on day one, 18 on day two. Five players per team will play, with the lowest four scores per round counting. This will be the first tournament for Coach Cheryl Stacy, who was promoted from assistant coach to head coach this year.

The #21 ranked men's team also faces a par 72, but at 7,465 yards at the Wolf Run Country Club. They too face 54 holes, 36 on day one and 18 on day two. Michigan has had success at Wolf Run, winning the team title last year, and having a now-alumnus medaling as an individual two years ago.

Updates

Friday 1:45p: Volleyball Won 3-0, 25-9(!), 25-17, 25-16. Subs and freshmen made it into this game as it was all Michigan, all game. Zimmerman (.727 hitting percentage! on 11 attempts) and Paz each had 8 kills to lead the team. Hunt had plenty of attempts, but just wasn't landing the points. We held Fairfield to a .066 hitting percentage, which is just absolutely ridiculous. They were definitely overmatched.

Friday 11:30p: Everything is done for the night, and the only game Michigan lost was in women's soccer. Michigan lost 0-2 to Cal State-Fullerton, but the game was closer than what it appeared. Michigan put two balls into net, one being called back by an off sides call and another by a foul call.

The game was particularly rough (21 total fouls), leading to a pair of red cards (one per team) and a pair of penalty kicks (also one per team). Amanda Bowery was the red card for Michigan, as she and a CSF player were both ejected at the same time, making me guess there was a women's soccer fight.

Men's soccer went much better with a 3-0 win over Lipscomb Wright State. Mauro Fettuzi doubled his goal total tonight from 2 to 4 with a pair of set play goals. He converted a penalty kick and a free kick for goals. Freshman Kofi Opare had the game winner.

Men's cross country also saw a Michigan victory in less than favorable conditions of mud and wetness. Michigan came in with a final score of 25, with the next closest teams coming in at 40, 81 and 126 (just for perspective). Michigan had five players finish in the top ten, including Bobby Aprill in second place with a time of 26 minutes, 27 seconds.

Correction: I had the men's soccer schedule backwards. It has been corrected there and in the Friday 11:30p update.

Saturday 5:30p: Volleyball won 3-0 over VCU in the early afternoon. Michigan won by scores of 25-11, 25-17, and 26-24. Juliana Paz had a ridiculous 8 service aces. She and Alex Hunt shared the lead with 14 kills a piece. The VCU coach received a yellow card for being a bit too animated.

Field hockey was last seen being down 5-1 with Bryn Bain netting the only goal. Christi Barwick saw some time in goal after Paige Pickett gave up 4 goals on 4 shots on goal against in just the first 28 minutes of play. Barwick only had 2 shots on goal against her, but she also gave up a goal.

.
last week on these very pages, THE KNOWLEDGE predicted that M will easily beat WMU 31-17
.
yes
.
some people emailed THE KNOWLEDGE and said there is no way M will win that easily, and some gave negative points for THE KNOWLEDGE
.
where are those people now?
.
yes
.
THE KNOWLEDGE has basked in glory the last week, getting the prediction correct as usual - even down to M's exact score
.
yes
.
this, week THE KNOWLEDGE shall predict the outcome of the ND game. THE KNOWLEDGE shall not post again in the next couple of weeks because EMU and Indiana are not worth posting about
.
but, THE KNOWLEDGE shall return before the MSU game
.
yes
.
after last week's performance, THE KNOWLEDGE is somewhat worried about his original season prediction of 12-1 (with a Rose Bowl win over an overmatched USC
.
but, THE KNOWLEDGE shall not go back on his word
.
you see, THE KNOWLEDGE has more integrity in his finger nail than Rosenberg and Snyder have put together
.
yes
.
onto this week's prediction
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M will handily defeat the domers 34-21
.
yes
.
the doubters may doubt, but after today's game
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THE KNOWLEDGE shall be proven right once again
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THE KNOWLEDGE shall soar and bask in glory again
.
yes
.

I was curious to see what kind of teams (statistically) beat Jimmy Clausen's Irish generation, so I went to the NCAA Football Statistics database to find out. Since Notre Dame's offense is essentially one-dimensional, it was obvious which statistic would be extremely telling: the opponent's Pass Efficiency Defense (PED). I wanted to see how the Irish had performed against teams with a minimal level of ability in defending the pass. I defined this as teams in the top 2/3 of PED at the end of the year (top 78 of 119 teams). "Club Decent": if you're not incompetent at PED, you're in.

In 2007 and 2008, Notre Dame played 15 of such teams and went 2-13 (13%) against them: 1-8 and 1-5 in each respective year. Contrast this with an 8-2 (80%) record against teams in the bottom third of PED. Free advice, ND: you might consider scheduling less "Club Decent" teams in the future.

Almost no victories come against "Club Decent" teams.
The Irish had 10 wins combined the last 2 seasons. In 2007, 2/3 of those wins were against bad PED teams (#32, #101, and #84), and 6/7 were last year (#112, #79, #33, #83, #115, #103, and #87). This means opponents in Irish wins in the past 2 years average out to #83 in PED -- worse than 70% of all teams.

What do you call an exception that's not really an exception?
The only wins against decent pass defenses (#32, #33) in the past two years came against two below average teams: UCLA (6-7) in 2007 and Purdue (4-8) in 2008. Due to injury, UCLA had to play a third-string freshman walk-on qb, and were also without their starting RB. The turnover differential ended up +7 for the Irish. This sounds familiar for Michigan fans. The victory against a very poor, 4-8 Purdue team was in South Bend, where the Boilermakers rarely win (1-15 in their last 16 games). The turnover differential was +1 for the Irish, with the only turnover coming as a pick 6.

What did we learn from Nevada? We don't yet know where Nevada will stack up in PED for 2009, but we do know that last year they were #85, and an oft-cited #119/119 in pass defense, crushing #118 by 25 yards/game. I wouldn't expect that unit sans 1 free safety to be much better. Statistically, even the 3-9 2007 team would very likely have beaten Nevada.

So trendy.
Will Notre Dame break the trend this year and be able to beat "Club Decent" teams? I'm not sure how optimistic I would be as an Irish fan. While 2008 seemed to be an improvement over 2007, how much of that was the schedule? Their record was no better against the "Club"; they simply played fewer teams. 3 wins (2007) - 4 "Club Decent" opponents = 7 wins (2008). Yes, they have another year of experience, and Jon Tenuta is calling the shots on D now, but is that enough to significantly buck a trend that went seemingly unchanged from year 1 to year 2?

Is Michigan a "Club Decent" team this year?
Michigan was a poor PED team (#79) last year, suggesting that ND would beat them -- and they did. Is there reason to believe the Wolverines will change that this year, thus suggesting a different result? There are many positive signs. New DC Greg Robinson has brought a new, attacking defensive scheme, which is designed to put constant pressure on the QB. This was very effective against a large (very similar in size to ND), veteran line for WMU. Stevie Brown's move to SLB should also help, bringing his speed and athleticism up in pass coverage instead of a larger, slower LB attempting to guard receivers in space.