The Chess Mind

And it wasn't even that close!

Season Record: 6-2
Next Victim: Navy

On NBC, for those lucky enough to get to see it. Go Irish!

Moving up in the world!

We just can't do anything the easy way, but the important thing is that we're (generally) winning.

Season record to date: 5-2.
Next victim: Washington State.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will beat up the Boston College Beagles starting in about 3 hours (at 3:30 p.m. ET); the carnage can be seen on NBC.

Meanwhile, to whet the appetite, pre-game materials are available here.

Sooooooo close! The receiver slipped on the last play, which would have sent it into overtime. Ouch!

Season record: 4-2
Next week's victim: Boston College

The carnage will start in 30 minutes or so on NBC. Pre-game materials, to get you in the proper mood, are here.

Go Irish!

For the third straight week, Notre Dame's offense bailed out their porous defense - though their defense gets credit for a great goal line stand in the OT. Phew!

Season record: 4-1

(That's the University of Washington.) The proceedings begin at about 3:30 p.m. ET, and can be watched in the U.S. on NBC. For some pre-game materials, have a look here.

Go Irish!

Ha, ha, ha!

Big thanks to Purdue's coach, for several monumentally stupid decisions (e.g. twice forgoing reasonable field goal opportunities, and then calling time out on the penultimate play of Notre Dame's final, game-winning drive). We probably couldn't have done it without you.

Notre Dame season record: 3-1
Next victim: Washington (at home, 3:30 ET next Saturday)

And now, time for some celebratory post-game music:

The carnage begins in about 40 minutes on ESPN; pre-game materials are here. For your further pleasure, here's a video with slightly overbearing music commemorating ND's victory over the Boilermakers in 2006:



Go Irish!

It wasn't easy, and for quite a while it looked like a replay of last week's game - right down to the dishonest/incompetent referees taking away an obvious ND touchdown. Fortunately, the Michigan State QB choked on two consecutive plays and Notre Dame escaped. (That's possibly a mixed blessing. On the one hand, ND won, and that's good. On the other hand, a loss would have guaranteed that Charlie Weis's unemployment, and in the long run that might be even better for the team.)

Dessert: USC had its yearly choke to an inferior team, somehow contriving to lose to UW 16-13.

ND record: 2-1.
Next victim: Purdon't.

Lots of pre-game goodies here. Enjoy them, then tune in to NBC at 3:42 p.m. ET to watch the Fighting Irish demolish the Michigan State Spartans.

Go Irish!

Some of the worst zebras I've seen in my life - if they weren't bribed, then they either need seeing eye dogs or to go back to Pop Warner. The other guys' QB deserves lots of credit, though.

Season record: 1-1.
Next victim: Michigan State.

U.S. fans of the greatest college football team in history ought to turn on ABC now, to watch Notre Dame dismember Michigan. Post-game gloating will begin in approximately three hours; meanwhile, here's a little music to get into the right mood:

One down, eleven to go.

Next victim: Michigan.

Go Irish!

And it wasn't even as close as the score. (Notre Dame should have played the last 25 minutes; then they could have won by 60 or 70.) We'll see if this is a portent of things to come next year, or if it only means that Hawaii has a talented high school team.

On ESPN, the greatest football program in history (though perhaps experiencing a slight hiccup or two of late) is playing Hawaii in the Hawaii bowl (gee, that's convenient...though given the weather here, the Irish probably don't mind a bit). So far it's 7-0, Notre Dame, and it's only going to get better.

It's a team we can compete with, so there's at least a chance Notre Dame will end the winless drought in bowl games going back to the 90s. The opponent is Hawaii (how convenient for them!), in the Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu; the game takes place the night before Christmas at 8 p.m. ET. (Fortunately, it's not 8 p.m. local time!)

Go Irish!

And now we wait to see if Weis gets fired.