In the beginning of the season, all of us sports writers thought it was weird that ND wasn’t playing well enough to be ranked. They usually are, even if they are young. Now that I’ve finally gotten used to the team blowing every week, they turn around a win one. Weird, weird, weird. And against UCLA, a team that’s not all that bad.

The game started with an early injury of UCLA QB Ben Olson, which meant that freshman redshirt McLeod Bethel-Thompson was the it man for the Bruins. He’s never thrown the ball in a college game before, and I’m guessing that his nerves got the best of him. Paired with inexperience, those nerves cost UCLA a number of interceptions. The team had a total of 7 turnovers for the game. Notre Dame had a near-perfect game, with no turnovers and not nearly as many penalties as UCLA.

This win, in which Jimmy Clausen really showed that he is improving in the college football world, ends the 8-game losing streak for Notre Dame. The team was a 0-5 laughingstock this season, specially since Clausen made such a big deal of choosing Notre Dame as the top high school quarterback. It may be too early to say, but I think this game was just a shadow of what is to come with this kid and the Notre Dame offensive line. By his junior year, I think the team could have chances at the championship game.

Post from: EveryJoe

It’s Official. This is the Weirdest Year in College Football EVER.

You must be joking, right? Nope. USC just took it up the butt.

It what must have seemed like a bad dream to USC Coach Pete Carroll , the Stanford Cardinal rallied and to score 17 points in the fourth quarter, including the game-winning touchdown. USC QB John David Booty can actually be credited for that touchdown, having turned the ball over four times. I don’t totally blame Booty for the ass-raping, though. He was just the lube. The whole team bent over for this one, playing more like Notre Dame than a Bowl contender. The game was laughable with mistakes, and Stanford simply capitalized on those errors.

The Trojans have no hope of holding onto one of the top two spots this week. Ranked #2 going into this game, many questioned LSU’s positioning over them, voicing opinions that this week would show them back in the top dog spot. Oh, say it isn’t so…looks like Ohio State is going to move on up.

I guess this is a good “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” lesson. No one could have ever expected this upset! Last night, I compared South Florida’s near loss to Michigan’s loss in week one, but Stanford’s win blows that out of the water. Could we have a year where the top two teams both go into the bowl game with losses? It’s possible. College football this year is uber-screwy.

AP Photo/Matt Sayles

Post from: EveryJoe

USC takes it up the…well, you know