Washington shot up the UHND Opponent Poll this week with their upset of USC, but the Trojans still occupied the top spot in all but one ballot.
2009 UHND Opponent Poll | ||||||
| Opponent | Record | Last Week | Next | Comments | ||
| 1. |  | #4 Southern Cal Trojans | 2-1 | 1 | vs. Washington State | USC escaped Columbus with a W two weeks ago, but couldn’t do the same from Seattle. USC’s offense sputtered under Aaron Corp. |
| 2. |  | Michigan Wolverines | 3-0 | 2 | vs. Indiana | Michigan ran for 380 yards against Eastern Michigan and looks like they’ll be 4-0 after next weekend. |
| 3. |  | Washington Huskies | 2-1 | 7 | @ Stanford | Jake Locker led the Huskies on the biggest upset of the college football season so far. Despite their win over USC, the Trojans still pose the bigger threat for Notre Dame, but its safe to say the Washington game is looking much, much tougher than it did a month ago. |
| 4. |  | Pitt Panthers | 3-0 | 3 | @ North Carolina St. | Pitt took care of Navy and looks to be pretty solid again this year. Their running game was stalled by Navy though. |
| 5. |  | Michigan State Spartans | 1-2 | 6 | @ Wisconsin | Michigan State gave Notre Dame all it could handle, but sits at 1-2 after back to back losses. They have a tough task again this weekend with a trip to Madison. |
| 6. |  | Stanford Cardinal | 2-1 | 9 | vs. #24 Washington | Stanford took care of San Jose State this past weekend, but is going to have a tough time handling Locker and Washington this coming weekend. |
| 7. |  | Navy Midshipmen | 1-2 | 4 | vs. Western Kentucky | Navy did a good job bottling up Pitt’s Dion Lewis, but couldn’t get their ground going either. |
| 8. |  | Boston College Eagles | 2-1 | 4 | vs. Wake Forest | Boston College’s offense was downright anemic against Clemson. |
| 9. |  | UConn Huskies | 2-1 | 10 | vs. Rhode Island | UConn is a couple plays way from being undefeated right now. |
| 10. |  | Purdue Boilermakers | 1-2 | 8 | vs. Notre Dame | Purdue lost an ugly game to Northern Illinois. The Boilermakers gave up 250 yards rushing. Mr. Allen, get ready for a bunch of carries this weekend. |
| 11. |  | Nevada Wolf Pack | 0-2 | 11 | vs. Missouri | Nevada is starring a 0-3 start to their season in the face with Missouri coming to town this weekend. |
| 12. |  | Washington State Cougars | 1-2 | 12 | @ #12 USC | Washington State got their first win of the season, but their offense still sputtered and they needed two defensive touchdowns to force overtime. |
UHND Opponent Poll Voters
- Frank Vitovitch, Kyle Flavin, & Jeff Felix – UHND.com
- OC Domer – OC Domer Blog
- Jimmy Irish – Domewire.com
I have to say that I hope MSU kicks the crap out of Michigan in two weeks. MSU played their hearts out and I have a lot more respect for QB’s aiming to be doctors and dentists than being groomed only to play football. Tate Forcier = Todd Morinovich II.
Go Spartans in two weeks.
But Go Irish the rest of the way!!
I realize that UW beat USC over the weekend but they went 0-12 last year. We beat the snot out of them. It’s a home game also.
Chris,
Kudos on the defense diatribe, it’s a shocker on how poor the defense is.
If the defense doesn’t show up soon, I agree we are going nowhere fast.
Yeah, Pat Hayden….the peoples choice….the womens delight! Just ask him. David, I thought I was the only one sick of Hayden and NBC.
The NBC announcers are so bored of covering just Notre Dame and you can tell.
Does it bother anyone else that NBC’s coverage of the ND game includes a former USC player
Who would’ve thought having Washington and USC back to back would be such a scary thing.
I will also be the first to admit that I was WAY off – I honestly thought the D would be the surprize element this year. I am shocked – stunned and sickenly saddened by the lack of a solid D this year. I am so sick of the maybe next year mindset!
i just got done watching the game again. if anyone else happens to watch it, take notice how well our defense does when we DO NOT blitz. when we leave our lb’s in position, and not coming off the edge right into max protect blocking. tenuta really needs to learn from this. all teams have to do is max protect the insane amount of blitzes we run and run 5-10 yard routes, esp. over the middle where are lb’s have left vacant, with the cushions our db’s are forced to play. it’s not rocket science tenuta! adjust!
I saw the exact same thing. Why can’t they accomplish the same thign with simple stunts. What good is sending so many when nothing happens? At least at GATech, Tenuta created real pressure. But others have already posted how he got burned in key games. That’s a high risk defense and not proven as a scheme. You know your corners are fast and your linebackers can hit. In between are the safeties. So let the corners cover and go for the ball and teach the linebackers and safeties to play to hit if the reciever catches the ball. Faster safeties will get a pick or two. But either way, most college recievers are going to have that slight hesitation to catch the ball and get drilled the next time.
Mix that up with a little pressure on the QB and you are dictating terms to your opponent’s offense. Something Weis promised they’d be doing. I haven’t seen it with the defense in 5 years.
With the way the Irish defense – if you can call them that – has played I say all bets are off! I NEVER – NEVER would have thunk the D could play this consistantly bad. Never in my memory did I remember a GT defense playing this awful for Tenuta…..I see many more losses on the schedule now than I did before the season started. I also keep wondering if we do in fact have more talent…something is really amiss here….
Chris, the numbers don’t lie.
ND Ranks 96th nationally in team defence. They are giving up an average of 398 yards per game. (scary considering the first game agianst Nevada was a shutout).
On the good side they are a plus 2 in turnovers. It’s only 3 games into the season. And Brown and Tenuta have shown in the past the ability to improve team D.
But 96 out of 119 divison 1A Teams. That’s just not going to cut it. They better turn it around starting this Saturday night, agianst Purdue.
Speaking of someone’s job being in danger!
Speaking if pundits. I’ve decided ESPN, Fox, CBS, and even NBC are about as useful to college footbal as cheerleaders. Sometimes fun to look at, once in a great while useful, but mostly fun to throw snowballs at.
Do any of them really have any insight into the game? NO!
Yep, Michigan could be a top tem team going into Ohio State. MSU could also end up ranked in the top 30. Washington may maintain their ranking.
Pitt will be in the top 30. USC, of course. Teams that could well have winning records, Navy, Stanford, UCOnn, Nevada, and maybe BC. That leaves Purdue and Washington St as the only bottom feeders. Someone tell me that isn’t enough to get the pundits to shut up.
What everybody thought was an easy schedule is starting to look a lot tougher week by week. Many of those teams will be ranked opponents when the Irish play them.