Back on the Fiesta Highway?

Twelve hours ago it was very improbable. It's not easy yet, but boy it's a lot less hard. Louisville...DEAD! Auburn...DEAD! Cal...DEAD! Texas...DEAD! Southern Cal is up 35-10 in the 4th quarter, so that’s over. And Florida should have lost. Two blocked FGs and a missed PAT for South Carolina or the Ole' Ball Coach would have made our road much easier.

Oh yeah, the Irish played very well today. The defense, as usual, allowed big plays (two over 40 yards) and key penalties (3 drives extended with Pass Interference and two personal fouls). But the offense was definitely on, and the blocked field goal runback was key as well. Still haven't seen that on the highlight shows.

Don Criqui put it well near the end: “The game, in effect, was over after the first two plays.” And indeed it was. BQ to the Shark for 29, BQ to the Shark for 51 and a TD. Too cool. And my man DW went 15 carries for 152 yards. As I said earlier in the season, with a new QB next year, I really think Darius can get some Heisman attention. Of course, with Aldridge and Prince, he may not get enough carries, but that’s a situation I think we can all deal with.

If anyone sees that there will be a replay of the game on some obscure cable station, please let us all know. I’d love to tape it and watch with zipping/zapping remote in hand.

I totally expect the offense to continue its SC tuneup next week. Senior Day should be a good one for all involved on the Irish sidelines.

So now things get truly interesting. If you hadn’t noticed, we haven’t been loved by the BCS poll. We made it to 8th, then fell to 9th after a win and haven’t moved up even though teams ahead of us have lost. Example is Cal last week, who jumped from 10 to 8, even though we beat North Carolina convincingly. So will BCS voodoo do us in again? I don’t think so. I won’t pretend to be a BCSologist, but the next 4 teams behind us (West Virginia, Arkansas, LSU and Rutgers), who all won, seem to be very far behind us. Rutgers obviously has the most to gain, and if they vault over us, can we argue? Probably not. The others, though, I’d have a problem with. Although Arkansas looks really good. Their out of conference schedule, though, other than a big loss to USC, is Utah State, Southeast Missouri State and Louisiana-Monroe, which really hurts.

Here’s my prediction on this week’s BCS Top 10: Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Florida, Notre Dame, Rutgers, West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisville, Wisconsin. So yes I think we’ll be top 5. Rutgers might leapfrog us, but I don’t think so, based on this week’s BCS subtotals. Pretty interesting, eh? We don’t control Florida, but I think Arkansas will take them in the SEC championship game. What we need to root for is LSU beating them in two weeks. Arkansas would still go to the SEC championship game, but they’d have two losses.

And finally, root for Michigan to beat Ohio State soundly. If Michigan loses and we leapfrog them, it will be a sullied effort for us, invoking the 1993 FSU rule. We have to root for the rematch, and then it could be a wonderful redemption game, both for the September loss and, maybe more importantly, our very long bowl game losing streak. I like our odds with Charlie against Lloyd for a national championship.

That’s all for now. Please chime in. And who is ngoma83???

GO IRISH!!! BEAT ARMY!!!