Irish Blogger Gathering: You Suck! No, You Suck!

Welcome back to the weekly Irish Blogger Gathering. Her Loyal Sons has the duty of hosting this weeks gig- and how fitting. HLS are some of the most widely known Michigan haters on the planet- nay, the universe. God bless domer.mq and the Biscuit.

On to the post...

1) Being that you're a ND blogger, and thus follow a Catholic university's football team religiously and/or are Catholic yourself, you're probably very familiar with the notion that bad things happen to good people. For a concrete example of that, look to every Irish player, coach, and fan who had to suffer through the last 2 seasons. But never forget that bad things can happen to really rotten people too. For a really fun example of that, look to Rich Rod going 3-9 in his big debut season in Ann Arbor. Now let's mess with your heads a bit: Give me one very good reason why great things might happen to very bad people by explaining to me A) How and why Michigan (sucks!) might beat ND this weekend and B) How Michigan (sucks!) will compete for a BCS berth in 2009.

A. Michigan sucks because they have 110,000 people at their home games, and it is as quiet as a golf course.
Michigan Sucks because they have piss stains on their helmets.
Michigan sucks... oh... I didn't read the rest of the question. Damn. Better start over...

A. Michigan beats ND if the Irish cough up the ball. In most wins in this series, it is turnovers that ultimately decide, or at least a big contributor to, the winner. 1 INT and a fumble could seal the deal.

B. The Big Integer is in a down year top to bottom in a period of being down top to bottom anyways. If the skunkbears can steal the game Saturday, I think they have a shot at the conference title. Which means they show up in the Rose Bowl to get waxed by U$C once again. Can Satan really have 2 teams?

2) After week 1, just as in 2008, the leading tacklers for the Notre Dame fighting Irish are both safeties: Kyle McCarthy with 7 and Harrison Smith with 5. DE Kerry Neal isn't even on the stat sheet, Brian Smith, while making 2 very big plays, didn't make a single other tackle, and Ethan Johnson had 1 tackle all game. Convince me that Michigan (sucks!) wont just run a "9 yards and a cloud of dust" offense against ND all freaking game.

I really can't. The more I watched the Nevada game- the more frustrated I got. The goal of the defensive line this year (as with most years) is to keep blockers off of the blitzing linebackers, and allow those non blitzers and safeties to come up and make the tackle. The keyword here is "up". The running back is getting 2-3 yards before an attempt is even near. I hope change is in the wind.

3) We've now got the concrete data of 1 game to bat around. Aside from any answers involving T'eo, tell me what position changes/depth chart engineering you hope to see the staff at least tinker with during the Michigan (sucks!) game.

I actually think that Weis played more players during the course of the Nevada game than what we will really see against a tough opponent, most notably in the secondary. I hope to see a little less of this while the game is still up for grabs. With that said, I do want more Burger.

4) The state of Michigan has decided that they've ripped off the Rudy soundtrack long enough and need a new advertising scheme to attract people to their state and support tourism. "Pure Michigan (sucks!)" is so two-thousand-and-late. Give me the new hotness. Give me your best new tourism slogans for Michigan (sucks!).

I will steal a favorite slogan from my Ohio brethren: "Michigan. Canada's Alabama."

5) Navy took tOSU down to the wire, Washington actually looked like a team that's coached to play football games, WSU put up some fight. After Week 1, do you now feel like the Irish '09 schedule is tougher or easier than you felt heading into last week? Why?

Actually, I will reserve all judgement until week 3. It was week 1, and week 1 can be a bitch- and a little weird. With that said, it does help the perception of the schedule by the pundits, which could help in the polls.

GO IRISH!!!!!!!!