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UCLA at Notre Dame 2006 college football matchup
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It was a glorious fall day on October 21st in South Bend. The foliage was in full autumnal colors. And the UCLA Bruins were heading into Notre Dame Stadium for the first meeting in the 21st century with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. I had my ticket with a picture of Paul Hornung, the Irish Heisman trophy winner. Paul was to be honored at halftime. According to the radio talk shows, Paul ended up dropping his trousers accidentally at the pre-game rally. He did keep his pants on at halftime though.
I watched the Rudy Movie (a 27 on the Group29 scale) to better prepare myself.
Two sportswriters have already done a better job than I could of describing the game day atmosphere and the outcome of the game.
Doug Ward: Golden Dome Pilgrimage (ESPN)
Jason Feder: Notre Dame worth the trip (Daily Bruin, the UCLA student newspaper)
The Autumn Spectacle web site has some great writeups of college football venues.
I highly recommend this article to get the full picture of what it means to attend a college football game in South Bend. While not about the UCLA game specifically, most everything holds true for all Notre Dame fall games.
Here Come the Irish - Trip Captain’s two part series on a Notre Dame trip
Suffice it to say, the UCLA fans got a taste of greatness for most of the game. Darius Walker was smothered, and only managed 53 yards on 21 carries. The UCLA defense carried the day. However, another story was added to the Irish football lore:
Quinn, under pressure all day by a relentless UCLA defense, completed three straight passes in the final 62 seconds, capped by a 45-yard TD pass to Samardzija, to lead the Irish to a 20-17 come-from-behind victory.
Karl Dorrell could have pulled a Denny Green and said: "The Irish are who we thought they were, and we let em off the hook." But he did not.
As it turns out, UCLA and Penn State were the only foes of significance at Notre Dame this year. The souvenir T-shirt read "Big Game Hunting?"
Notre Dame faces the biggest obstacle at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Thanksgiving weekend against USC.
I really only have two issues with the whole trip
1. Notre Dame stadium is not designed for six-foot tall people. When it was built, the average height must have been five foot 10 inches. You are basically mashing your knees into the backs of the people in front of you. They are mashing their knees into the people in front of them. A fan had snuck some beer cans into the stadium. He was immediately spotted by the users when he cheered with the can raised high. Alcohol is prohibited in on-campus NCAA venues. I would be the first to turn someone in for that violation at Notre Dame, and not because of my tendency towards temperance. A violation gets the perpetrator ejected, making more room for the rest of us. Three young teenagers behind me got up to get nachos. When they returned, the people on either side had gravitated into the empty space. When they all sat down, it was like watching the Three Stooges. They got halfway down and then stuck there! University of Minnesota fans bemoan the loss of their precious Memorial Stadium or "brickhouse", which was the same vintage as Notre Dame Stadium. I can tell you that the Metrodome was a huge improvement over the old stadium. If Notre Dame did not keep winning the way they did, the stadium would have been demolished years ago. But there is a lot of history there and you can really feel it.
2. NBC drags the game out for four hours. The television timeouts are interminable. I would guess that they are making a cool 10 to 20 million dollars per game overall for the broadcast.
NBC does do a great job of coverage and they have a number of free video and podcasts of the game.
This includes video of the marching bands, which too often these days are pre-empted by advertisements for footballs being thrown through tire swings to demonstrate the efficacy of the latest impotency treatment.
An interesting article with the rest of the story concerning Notre Dame and the end of the basketball 88 game winning streak for UCLA.
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Posted on Wednesday, November 15, 2006 @ 10:47:33 UTC by BB
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| "UCLA at Notre Dame 2006 college football matchup" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment |
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Charlie Weis (Score: 1)
by BB on Thursday, January 04, 2007 @ 08:27:48 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com | After all was said and done, and USC and LSU both beat Notre Dame, it would seem that the Irish fans do have a legitimate gripe. At the UCLA game, the Notre Dame band struck up the chorus to the 1812 Overture. The fans usually respond by making a "W" with their fingers and waving them back and forth in time with the band. Near the end of the UCLA game, very few of the 80,000 fans in attendance actually waved along. Most of the fans had plenty to gripe about with Charlie Weis. I have two words for them: "Gerry Faust."
Does it seem like no one appreciates their college coach? Or is it just that the radio talk shows and blogs have a few vocal cranks that make life miserable for everyone?
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