Brian Kelly confident Notre Dame’s Everett Golson can come through in the clutch

Everett Golson

Coach Brian Kelly has no doubt that Everett Golson will rise to the occasion in Miami in he BCS bowl game.

"The kid started three or four games that were on national television and in pretty hostile environments," Kelly said, reports the Times Free Press. "He started at USC, at Oklahoma and at Michigan State, so he's got enough seasoning. I would be very, very surprised if he can't handle the moment."

"Once he gets into the flow of the game and you start seeing him smile a little bit, I think everyone who watches him knows that's when he plays his best."

"I think once he knew after the Oklahoma game that he was the guy, the confidence level and the trust builds and builds and builds," Kelly said. "I think that's why I'm confident that the moment won't be too big for him, because he knows that we've got 100 percent confidence and trust in him that he can go in and win us a national championship."

Alabama think they can take away the running game and force Golson to throw.

"We want to take away the run and make them one-dimensional," Crimson Tide safety Robert Lester said. "If we can take away the run and force them to put the ball in the air, it gives us more chances to make plays on the ball and gives more chances for them to make mistakes."

Kelly agreed they will have to throw the football: "We're going to have to throw the football. We're going to have to find some big-chunk plays. He is going to have to be integral in that. He knows that, we know that, and I think Alabama knows that, too."

"This season has been the definition of a growing process," Golson said. "To come in inexperienced and having to go through the trials and that adversity -- at the end of the day, if you're tried like that, that's what makes great players great. You have to be tried."

"I think once he knew after the Oklahoma game that he was the guy, the confidence level and the trust builds and builds and builds," Kelly said. "I think that's why I'm confident that the moment won't be too big for him, because he knows that we've got 100 percent confidence and trust in him that he can go in and win us a national championship."

"I think I'm very confident with myself and my teammates," Golson said. "We've always kind of been the underdogs, but we've worked our way up from the bottom and have shown great resilience."

Notre Dame actually played a tougher schedule than Alabama -- More reason to believe an upset is on the cards in Miami

Contrary to popular belief Notre Dame had a tougher schedule than Alabama which makes them an even better prospect to beat the spread on January 8th in Florida.

And they went unbeaten unlike the Tide who lost to Texas A&M.

In an excellent article in CSN Chicago J.J. Stankevitz notes that the Irish schedule was definitely tougher as they played fewer patsies, only Boston College and Wake Forest ranked 122nd and 117th respectively.(Wow how BC have fallen)

Alabama on the other hand beat up on Western Kentucky (No. 80), Florida Atlantic (No. 131), Western Carolina (No. 199) and  Auburn (No. 83). Alabama played four top-20 opponents in Texas A&M (No. 6, and a loss), Georgia (No. 7), at LSU (No. 11) and Michigan (No. 20).

On the other hand Notre Dame beat No. 8 Stanford, No. 34 BYU, and No. 9 Oklahoma to give them an edge considering Alabama lost to A&M.

Little wonder then that Jeff Sagarin's strength of schedule rankings placed  Notre Dame at No. 31 and Alabama at No. 34.

All of which points to a greater potential of an Irish upset of the Tide when the sides meet in Miami
Now that would be cool!

Could the Dropkick Murphys be the real reason for Notre Dame winning season?

Dropkick Murphys

Might the Dropkick Murphys, the legendary Boston Irish rock band, be the reason for the Notre Dame resurgence this season?

Could be. Junior Matthew Cunningham, head of the Leprechaun Legion, believes it is so.

The legion acts as a go-between between students and the athletic department.

For years there have been complaints that the noise is not loud enough at home games, fans not properly hyped up.

Cunningham got permission to change all that.

His mission was to get music played in the stadium.

He surveyed 900 students and they all agreed.

“Let's make some noise!”

Finally, the Dropkick Murphys' "Shipping Up to Boston" has blared from the speakers for the home games.

Cunningham, said the student section was "as rowdy as I can remember."

Music is now played before kick offs, after key third downs and at the end of timeouts.

Result is an unbeaten season.

Go figure.

Rex Ryan must go and take his New York Jets dog and pony show with him

New York Jets' Rex Ryan

The New York Jets need to fire Rex Ryan and soon if they are to have any chance of a successful franchise in the future.

Ryan has created a media circus with his dog and pony show in New York.

The last straw was the abysmal performance of his team losing to Tennessee last night in possibly the worst game of football ever played.

Ryan ruined the Jets from the start this season with his massive ego and media neediness overshadowing everything else about the team.

The Tim Tebow show was great for the peanut gallery but terrible for a team that desperately needed to settle down after last year’s terrible performance.

Ryan shook the confidence that was fragile to begin with of Mark Sanchez and Sanchez has come apart this season.

Against Tennessee he was plain dreadful and his future in the NFL, despite his contract, must be in severe doubt.

Ryan was successful the first two years at the Jets but he has very few new tricks after that and teams soon had his measure.

The Jets need to start over and owner Woody Johnson is a big time loser too. He spent most of this year campaigning for Mitt Romney and that didn’t work out too good either.

The Jets need new blood. It is the same old Jets under Ryan, the same old franchise that never gets it right.

Time for a fresh start.

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Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly polishes Notre Dame helmets -- Lost bet over USC game and forced to clean helmets of Irish players

Sports Illustrated top columnist Rick Reilly patching up Notre Dame helmets

Legendary Sports Illustrated top columnist Rick Reilly was forced to admit he has been wrong about Notre Dame football all year-- and he has the polished helmets to prove it.

Reilly told his twitter feed that he would polish every helmet at Notre Dame if they defeated USC in their final game.

They did; 22-13.

So last week Reilly was forced to fly to South Bend and polish, or rather patch as it is these days, every helmet in the place.

Before the season started Reilly had said Notre Dame had no chance of competing.

Reilly admitted that the USC prediction was not the only reason he had to eat humble pie.

“It was a column I'd written just before the season insisting Notre Dame's reputation far outkicked its performance ("it hasn't been a factor in almost 20 years,") and how Notre Dame gets far more hype and perks than it deserves ("Somebody needs to stick a pin in the still-inflated Golden Dome") and how Notre Dame should save itself the weekly NBC embarrassment ("Do the right thing and don't renew").

Oops.

They wound up 12-0, No. 1 in the nation, and will now play Alabama in the BCS title game Jan. 7 in Miami.”

When he got to Notre Dame’s equipment room a bunch of players were waiting, chanting "EXTRA SHINY!"

For the next three hours Reilly patched the helmets carefully.

“Turns out they don't polish the helmets at Notre Dame anymore. They patch them. They switched last October to a new kind of textured graphic helmet that's so shiny they look like miniature Golden Domes.
When they get a gouge in them, you don't paint them, you apply a sticky gold bandage over it, the way you would on the skinned knee of a Trump,” he wrote.

He said in the end it was a honor. “This team will never be forgotten at Notre Dame, and saying that at a school with 11 national championships is a mouthful. Imagine: They went from unranked to No. 1 and finished up beating USC, a team that went from No. 1 to unranked.”

Wonder what he will have to do when they beat Alabama?

Johnny Football got the Heisman and Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o got the shaft -- How on earth did Heisman voters pick Manziel over Notre Dame legend?

Johnny Manziel

So Johnny Football got the Heisman and Manti Te’o got the shaft.

That is the upshot of the most tarnished Heisman Trophy award in some time.

We have a kid arrested for a fight bordering on a racial incident against a kid who reflects the best values that America holds dear.

We had a kid who had a brilliant but possible flash in the pan season against a kid who has exemplified for years what it means to be a great college football player and human being.

We have a kid with a flashy nickname, Johnny Football, against a kid who just put his head down and worked hard and proved an inspiration after losing two of the people closest to him.

We had a kid who led a team of no hopers to a national championship battle against a kid who had one big victory over Alabama all season.

So here is why Johnny Manziel won the Heisman, his highlight reel looked better and he had a cute nickname.

Memo to voters ---highlight reels always look better when you are a quarterback as against a linebacker. And cute nicknames only go so far.

Unfortunately, in the flash and glitter and twitter world we live in a solid performance, inspiration and teamwork counts for little when you can watch a guy with a cute nickname avoid the sack against  big ‘ol ‘Bama.

Coach Kelly of Notre Dame is right, the Heisman is a joke after picking Manziel as against Te’o.

What will be fascinating to watch is how this plays out over time. Te’o will be a first round pick and a linebacker legend.

Manziel will leave for the pros next year and what then? I predict a Matt Leinart-tye stellar career once they figure out how to contain him ...

So let’s hear it for those Heisman voters.

Stupid is as stupid does and they just showed what dumb jock strap sniffers they really are.

Greg McElroy may save Jets Rex Ryan's job after dumping Sanchez

Greg McElroy

 Jets coach Rex Ryan finally used some brain cells and pulled his franchise quarterback Mark Sanchez who had begun to resemble Bozo the clown.

It sometimes feels like Ryan has shed brain cells as well as pounds this season given his knuckleheaded devotion to Sanchez who is quite simply out of his league.

Ryan finally figured his future was zero with the Jets with a zero at quarterback and he called on McElroy the former Alabama starter.

Irish American McElroy got the nod after Tim Tebow failed to suit up because of a rib injury. It was Tebow’s bad karma to be injured when his opportunity struck and McElroy’s good luck

McElroy finally gave the excitement-starved Jets fan something to cheer for when he led a scoring drive half the length of the field.

When McElroy trotted on the field it was the end of the Sanchez era bar the shouting, the hopes of the Franchise ending in typical Jets style with another failure.

Not since Joe Namath have the Jets had a great quarterback, hell they have hardly had a decent quarterback since.

We had the Tim Tebow dog and pony show this year just to distract the Jets further.

But now comes McElroy and indeed the victory for the Jets makes him the automatic starter unless Ryan really wants to commit professional suicide.

The Jets have finally lost the albatross called Sanchez. Maybe now they can fly with McElroy.

Why Notre Dame can defeat Alabama in BCS Bowl

Notre Dame need not fear the Alabama team we saw eke out victory over Georgia on Saturday night.

This was an Alabama team that will play into Notre Dame's biggest strength-- stopping the run. Sure Lacey ran for 200 yards or close to, but I cannot imagine a defense that handled Denard Robinson and Le'Veon Bell and other hotshots this year, failing to stop him.

On the other side of the ball, Alabama looked vulnerable to a mobile deep threat quarterback -- step up Mr. Golson.

Golson is certainly as good if not a better quarterback than Georgia's Murray who literally threw the game away in the final seconds with as rushed a pass as you will see.
Notre Dame receivers and players out of the backfield are also lethal and one can imagine a lot of swing passes and quick routes.

The hurry-up offense was stymied by Georgia early in the first half and Alabama's big gun at quarterback A.J. McCarron looked pretty ordinary throwing two first half
 interceptions.

What will most stand to Notre Dame is that Alabama are no colossus or unbeatable team. Georgia should have done it Texas A&M did it.

Notre Dame can do it to. Brian Kelly will convince them it is so.

The fact that they are 9.5 points underdogs will suit them just fine as well.