Rockne's Roundtable

mskorup. you are absolutley correct. Herbie is a, a%^*&&^ hole. I,ve listened to him on a columbus radio statio along with Spillman, and they are always ragging on the Irish. it kills them to say anything good about ND. get him out of the booth an go help Myer coach the suckeyes.

Musberger was calling Manti, Montee, and Rees, Reeze (or something like that). They were terrible. Notre Dame outplayed them in the second half during which Luck was mediocre at best. In their effort to continue to promote Luck for Heisman consideration they made almost no negative commentary about him when he was not playing well. Finally, it is amazing to me that they would almost go out of their way to be biased against the vast majority of people likely watching that game--Notre Dame fans. Lastly, it amazes me how shallow and lacking in real insight the vast majority of these professional analysts are. As frustrated as I was watching that game, I think we are basically even with that team overall (better at some positions, not at others, but overall pretty even) except at one very important position. I don't know why they don't see that, or if they do, why they would not say that except due to prejudice against Notre Dame.

Herbie knows football and the truth is that Notre Dame has been a middle of the pack football program the past ~15 years.

I listen with the volume off. I don't need play-by-play commentators when I'm at a game, and I don't need them when I watch it on TV. Their opinions are irrelevant. As for what he said, it was obvious who was the better team last night. Going forward is another matter. That was Harbaugh's team, and they played like a Harbaugh team. That influence will dissipate yearly. Whether the new guy can leave a strong imprint remains to be seen, but regardless, there's only one Harbaugh. As for Kelly, whether he can get the program to turn the corner, remains to be seen. But, Herbstreit's crystal ball has no clearer focus than any of the other yammering heads. We'd all be better off listening to much less ESPN commentary. There are very few clear-headed analysts out there. Actually, a few of them write primarily about Notre Dame.

I pay attention to what happens in the games, not the filler noise. I watch most sports on mute as it is.

I consider myself better for it.

Agree with most of your post but the problem with the Irish fan base is that they have grown accustomed to biased ND media members painting cute picture of this mediocre football program. Herbie knows his football is usually accurate with the majority of his assessments. I didn't have a problem with anything Kirk said last night, now Musberger (sp) is senile and gets names wrong ~75% of the time.

Rees is in fact "terrible"

Agreed with Jim Lafrance and GeorgeKrebs as well!

Musburger needs to retire to Montana--and soon. He's having a harder and harder time keeping up with the game and the names.

Herbstreit uses a common tactic in announcing (ESPN crew does it as well) where they create a narrative and stubbornly stick to that narrative. I don't read him as quite the anti-ND guy some do (remember Keith Jackson? ass-hole), but last night was all about pumping Luck for Heismann. He was more complimentary during the second half, especially about Toma and Hendrix.

Lets face it as well--they dont' have our bias. That's another way of looking at it. Until they see consistent evidence of better team speed (because for 10 years we WERE slower than most better teams), better O-Line play (we WERE dominated last night), and more consistent play, nobody is going to be consistently supportive of ND football on TV.

As GeorgeKrebs said--we'll have to earn it. We'll have to do it for a full season as well.

As for the folks that say Stanford will drop off without Luck, I disagree completely. They seem stronger at most positions than we are. Stanford has a rich talent pool from which to recruit, and they are ending up a top 5 team. We're ending up unranked--again. They'll continue to recruit well.

Face it folks--we need to keep getting better faster because teams like Michigan (told you Hoke was a winner) will continue to improve. Ditto for MSU.

We have our work cut out for us!

Agree. If we start complaining about the announcers because we have either of an inferior team or one that plays inferior to the elite we will start sounding like Michigan fans. That is why AA stands for arrogant a__'s.

Fair enough.

You are a smart man my friend. I appreciate your presence here