Wake Up The Echoes-And Start Up The Plane

The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame this week announced the first of their off-site home games. It will be in the Alamo City of San Antonio, where they will face Washington State in 2009.

The Irish have been planning a traveling road show for a couple of years. They desire to play winnable games in large stadiums in areas where they can draw fans and recruit players. South Texas has a large Catholic population, providing for a lot of potential Notre Dame fans, at least for one game. The state of Texas is not hurting for talented high school players. The Irish gain some recruiting exposure in this state. By bringing in the Cougars from the Palouse, they deny a Texas school the spotlight that this game will offer.

I am surprised they are playing Washington State in the state of Texas. Couldn't they find a Texas team to play? I'm sure a school like Houston or SMU would love to play the Irish in a Texas stadium that is not their own. TCU would jump at the chance to play Notre Dame. Baylor would be an easy win for the Irish. I guess Wazzu is considered to be good for TV ratings. Notre Dame is arrogant enough to believe they can sell out a stadium 1300 miles from their campus on their own.

I'm no fan of Notre Dame. I think they're the most overrated, over-exposed program on earth. They are living on past glories of the black-and-white TV era. My dislike of Notre Dame has nothing to do with Catholicism. It is because they are seen as the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel, when they have been little more than ordinary for the last 15 years. The BCS era has brought this to light, as they are consistently drilled in BCS bowl games like they were by LSU in last season's Sugar Bowl. The Irish have lost their last nine bowl games in a row, most of which occurred in ugly mismatches.

I hope there are 20,000 empty seats at the Alamodome for this thing. I hope Wazzu beats the Irish to a pulp. I hope this road show blows up in their face.

If Notre Dame wants to be relevant in the world of big-time 21st-century college football, they need to join a conference. Traveling road shows against supposedly beatable opponents won't get them there.

Ugly Uniform of the Day

I apologize for the time between posts. It's been a crazy week.

I saw a picture of this uniform in the preview for Kent State in Phil Steele's College Football Preview. This is an alternate uniform, or perhaps something they wore two years ago, as they are wearing blue at home and white on the road on most occasions.

Those yellow-gold jerseys do not go with the blue helmets and blue pants. I can do without the lightning bolts on the pants, but that's not as bad as the gold jersey. Cal does the same thing, and it is not good. The gold jersey is ugly, especially this shade of gold with the blue helmet. The Golden Flashes were better off by going back to the blue home and white road uniforms.

Kent State is better off leaving these things in the closet. They should keep the blue and white jerseys.