ESPN released their Pre-Spring power ratings today and not surprisingly, Notre Dame is not in their top 25. What might surprise some, however, is the geniuses over in Bristol have BYU, Fresno State, Boise State, Utah, Central Florida, and Tulsa all ranked ahead of Notre Dame in their Non-BCS Power Rankings.
Here’s what they had to say:
What we know: The linebackers and secondary look decent, and the defensive coaching staff adds veteran Jon Tenuta.
What we don’t know: How the offense changes with Michael Haywood as the playcaller and whether the line and backs can bounce back from a miserable season.
How the Fighting Irish can reach a decent bowl game: Establish the run game early and capitalize on a more favorable schedule.
Also note that for every other team on this list, ESPN’s last point for each was either “How can X win their conference” or “How can X reach a BCS Bowl.” For us they wrote “How the Fighting Irish can reach a decent bowl game.” So, a team that’s been to a BCS game twice in the last three years can only hope for a decent bowl game while two teams who haven’t even sniffed the BCS have a better chance?
At least we can all rest well knowing that we are ranked ahead of Central Michigan, Florida Atlantic, Hawaii, and TCU.
Maybe it’s about time that Notre Dame stop being as friendly with ESPN as they have in the past because ESPN takes every possible chance it gets to bash Notre Dame when we’re down and every chance they get to pimp us out when we’re not. Like maybe next time USC comes to town and ESPN wants to hype to no end like they did in 2005, Notre Dame should just say, thanks but no thanks.
I know some of you will say that ESPN just does this for ratings and that is definitely true, but come on UCF? Tulsa? Utah? That is a bit excessive.
One more thing about the 3-9.
With the schedule CW has, will 8-4 let CW keep his job?
After all, he has top-5 recruiting classes the past two years.
You guys are targeting ESPN for choosing UTAH over the Fighting Irish.
Baylor was added after LSU begged Notre Dame for home and home.
If Notre Dame wants to be taken seriously in the CW era, they have to play the real deal opponents.
Baylor stinks. Baylor would be the underdog against the substitute LSU came up with from AA, Appalachan State.
Winningham was fired after a good season. Are you Notre Dame guys going to ask for CW’s head if he is 8-4 this year? Why is 8-4 acceptable after recent great recruiting classes?
Gregg- If you will kindly take one more look at what I wrote, you will see that I only mentioned one WR that hasn’t caught a pass. What kind of world are you living in that you can’t believe a player like Michael Floyd will elevate the status of any WR core in the country? Are you even a ND fan? Have you seen the 90’s depth charts?! We were lucky to have one good receiver with a 3star surrounding cast until guys like samardzija, stovall and mcknight came around. The WRs numbers were limited this season because of what I mentioned in my last post.. a terrible OL. Once that is rectified we will get to watch a great offense in action. We all saw Duvall Kamara get exponentially better by the game last year. Golden Tates numbers were low but did you see his game against Purdue? Robby Parris looks to have a shark like tenure at ND. David Grimes and West will also contribute while sinking to the bottom of the depth chart. Ive seen the stats on these kids and all of them have caught more than one football. As for the newcomers, I’ll go ahead and agree with ND, Florida, Ohio State, Michigan and USC that M. Floyd is going to be a big time player that will prove to boost this ND WR core to the best we’ve seen here since the days of Ismail. Deion Walker and John Goodman are just gravy on the potatoes Gregg. If they turn out as good as Weis thinks they will then hold on to your paddy hat cause the Irish are gonna slam that golden dome back on top of the AP poll. ESPN dosen’t slam the Irish Gregg, Mark May does.. He’ll come around just about the same time our OL does.
Either Fresno State or Boise State will be the WAC champs this year. BYU and Utah seem to be the top dawgs of the Mountain West. UCF (this is questionable without Kevin Smith) and Tulsa are the top dawgs in Conference USA. These teams have the talent and experience to compete with anybody in the nation…at least on paper.
These aren’t teams from powerhouse conferences, but they are not non-conference weaklings either. We’ll see how well Michigan does in their season opener against Utah. Utah’s spread offense is WAY better than Appalachian State’s.
This is about as much fun as Jury Duty. Is September here yet? GO Irish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ND is supposed to be subjected to harsh critisim.
Beeme, how can you say this is the best WR corp we’ve seen in years, when half of them haven’t even caught one football? What world do fans like you live in? And you wonder why ESPN is always slamming the Irish.
We might have beaten Fresno in that group but that’s it. Quit pissin’ and moanin’ about what “they” say about ND football – it so happens at the moment that “they” are right. It’s embarrassing and moot to argue about whether or not those teams would have won more than 3 games against our schedule last year. We played it, they didn’t, we got our arses handed to us. Done and next.
To paraphrase Weis when he came to town, “You’re a 3-9 team so quit making excuses; if you remain a 3-9 team we’ll all be gone.”
Unfortunately for ND, this was a ranking of teams, not recruiting classes. The six teams you mention that are ahead of ND would have all beaten ND last year. As we all know, ND was absolutely pathetic last year. Until ND shows that it can beat a decent team (heck, until we can get to .500), there’s no beef here with ESPN’s rankings.
…just one more thing…Mark May is an idiot and also REALLY sarcastic to Coach Holtz a lot of the time. He needs to show a lot more respect to Lou!
I too agree with BeerMe. The last couple of years have been terrible for the offensive line. The pitiful thing is that they really didn’t show much improvement over the season. Not only did they allow sack after sack, but bonehead penalties costing big yards flew left and right. Discipline! That’s what the O-line needs (just like you said, LOU HOLTZ style!!!).
Regardless of what the record implies, you HAVE to have seen some pretty encouraging improvement by receivers, Jimmy, and the front 7 last year. These are things to build on in the off season. The recruitment class will fill the gaps and hopefully bring in some more star defensive players. I also agree. Jimmy better keep an eye on his rear-view mirrow. As much as I like the kid, Dayne Crist is coming for that starting job!
BEERME, you have hit the nail on the head! The offensive line is really the only thing we are waiting for. If the offensive line could mature and start dominiating and putting people on their backs then this offense with more pop than it’s had in years would start rolling over teams like the Holtz days. As Lou once said, “lets not play patty cake, lets play pound cake!” GO IRISH!!! I predict a bowl game next year and a 10 win season
The ESPN bias is clear for anyone to see, ND lovers and haters alike. Bottomline however, regardless of schedule comparison – the Irish played less than half rate last year on both sides of the ball. Based on that, the argument by ESPN in itself is fair I think. The 07′ Irish couldn’t even claim any improvement in any facets of the game throughout the year. It is what it is and these comparisons will simply continue until ND begins to start playing football again.
I am hopeful Haywood siezes the moment along with Tenuta and grabs some momentum from these opportunites. That is the kind of new energy that can help overcome last years very pathetic season and perhaps motivate these kids to step up now – providing Weis learns how to develope the talent that is supposed to be there.
ND will not win until the offense line is established and filled with guys who dont like laying on their backs for four quarters. Thats the one thing that HAS to happen. Everything else is in place. A stable of RB’s, both power (Hughes, Aldridge) and speed (Allen, Gray). The best WR core we’ve seen in years at ND. With the addition of Michael Floyd, who will attract Randy Moss type coverage, the other guys will surely see greener pastures. The Brown/Tenuta combo, along with the best defensive recruiting class in the country, will surely provide the nasty, hard hitting blitz defense we were promised when Weis was hired. I predict 9 wins this season and a national championship in 2010. Go Irish!! p.s. Dayne Crist will surpass JC.
Frankie, excellent point on those teams with a weaker schedule ahead of ND. If we put those teams on our schedule would we hear about it? Having said that, the empirical 2007 assessment by ESPN it difficult to repudiate at this time. So, we are officially 0-0, + a two game win streak. The past is in the past and there is new dynamic for 2008. Therefore, I would agree we have to prove our worth on the field. And I believe we will!
Well we couldnt beat the powerhouses Navy and Air Force, both of which were at home, and we really took Stanford behind the woodshed, didn’t we? So we mightve had a better record, but then again we might not have. I think everything they said was right on target and you need to quit whining about some perceived bias. We were 3-9 last year, or did you forget?
I agree with both Domeer and Frankie. We did go 3-9 last year and were awful on offense. ESPN does take its shots at us all the time. It could be the the (+ or -) direction. It all depends how our season goes. Mark Mays makes me want to vomit everytime I hear him spew out that garbage on ESPN. We know you hate ND and LOVE USC just say. Be dont with it and move on. Just like with “cool” Nascar, they pay Espn and now Nascar is like a sport on that channel. I appologize to Nascar fans but just saying I am not a fan and def dont consider it a sport. Sorry off topic. Point being whatever or whomever is paying ESPN thats what they are going continually report until we blow. ND has a favorable schedule this year to win 7-8 games. I believe they will and go to a “decent” bowl. Hmmmm if we get to 8 dont we get to go to the Gator through the BE ties? Also, I like Espn because I love sports but obviously we get no love. Look at the BBall team. They are a very good team. Have POY with Gody and they dont get love except from Digger. All we can do this season is WIN and prove the Haters and the evil gremlin Mark Mays that we are a winning program and move on up those good “Power Rankings” posted by ESPN.
domer89 I couldn’t agree more it’s time to put up or shut up. They have done a great job recruiting and now it is time to show it on the field. By the way who cares what Mark May has to say he hates ND because he was to stupid to attend the University and be a true student athlete. I think with a young team you have to start slow every other team in america does it. It might help this young team start to believe in itself.
Those are all valid points, but would we have been 3-9 against the type of competition all of those supposed “better” teams played against?
My point is that ESPN simply uses ND when its bad by overstating it and then overpraises us when we’re good.
hey,
I am not surprised. Don’t blame ESPN. We were 3-9 last year.
This team was terrible, and would have to improve EVERYWHERE in order to be 6-6, much less be good.
I am getting really tired of our side carrying on about ESPN, Mark May, complaining about changes in the schedule adding teams “below” us like Baylor etc and all sorts of other stuff.
We are 3-9 and have not won a bowl game in a thousand years. W must deal with it: we suck until we prove otherwise.