WWW - Wow, We Won

What a finish to that game yesterday. As usual the ND faithful were generally quiet during most of the game but I have to say that the noise after that final touchdown and throughout the final 25 seconds was deafening. Of course the Irish finally gave us something to cheer about! We were in section 113 around the south goal line so had a good view of Samardjia's final score. Really thought he was going down 3 different times the way he was wobbling around. Amazing play. The only thing that could have made the day better was if Texas and Tennessee had lost although we already lead Tenn in the BCS.

The Colonel, newspapers and NBC.com can give you good analyses so I will focus on some on-site observations. Watch Charlie's post-game press conference if you can, some very good insights there. Statistically we did okay yesterday, though the five sacks and relentless pressure from UCLA definitely messed up Brady. Felt like we were getting beat most of the day while at the same time I had this feeling we were just on the edge of breaking through. Donny was right about UCLA, they came ready to play but I have to compliment our defense on a solid performance against what turned out to be a good UCLA "2nd-string" quarterback. We got burned on two long plays again but the defense really kicked it up a notch in the second half and gave us a chance to win (which we did!).

The guy behind us in the stands predicted EXACTLY how the game would play out with about 10 minutes left. Absolutely amazing though he was guessing and hoping like most of us. Best line from him during our chat: "Joe Montana used to need 30 seconds to score, Brady Quinn is half as good as Montana, so Brady should score in 60 seconds". WRONG, Brady only needed about 30 seconds also! We also had a guy with a bagpipe in the stands with us, and yes he played the Victory March after the first touchdown. He also got yelled at by the ushers.

Be sure to watch the halftime show on NBC.com when it becomes available. Two fine performances by the bands. ND dusted off the MSU show and has a terrific arrangement of Africa by Toto. We produce so much sound and good balance I think. UCLA band has a nice sound, march about 200+, very intricate marching on the field. Their band members raised funds for this trip because of its special nature. For you boys, the UCLA cheerleaders are USC-caliber hotties but the band is much classier than USC (like they don't play on every down!). UCLA brought a big crowd and they were very good fans. There were the usual bunch of opposing fans sprinkled through the seats (thanks to greedy ND fans) but absolutely the biggest visiting crowd in opposing team seats I can recall; great turnout by them. This was a big deal to them and they had to really be bummed at the end. Weather turned out to be spectacular though we expected cold and rain. How the heck did that happen?

One final note. I never thought I would say or write these two words together: "band juggler". Yes, UCLA has a band juggler and he was featured in one of the halftime numbers. Believe it.

Go Irish, Beat Middies!