THE APOLOGY BET GOES TO...

Holy shit, that photo of “Tommy” makes me laugh.

Orson, what’s the money line on ND straight up? +300ish?

Hells yes. Orson, you will not be disappointed.

Out of respek, I too will make a devious wager. If my math is correct, the Irish have not scored a touchdown on USC in 9 quarters now. Therefore, every time ND scores a touchdown tomorrow (if applicable), I will take a double shot. This is, of course, in addition to normal sorrow-drowning activities. Any suggestions?

SOMETHING THAT COSTS THIRTY DOLLARS.

Good bet. Remember: the Clausen family never… rarely… lets anyone down.

@ 2

My bookie is giving me +320 or -400.

I’ll paraphrase the movie “Vegas Vacation” here: instead of betting the money why don’t you give the money to me, we can walk outside and I’ll kick you in the nuts and we’ll call it even. Think of how many crown and coke’s you just forfeited.

If I see Tommy at any point tomorrow he has a bourbon-fueled cockpunch coming his way.

The gingers are giving us all a bad name. As per usual.

It’ll be jungle-length grass, but at least it’ll be wet and cold too. Weis is watering it right now while it snows. And he’s replacing all the air in SoCal’s footballs with ozone. No idea why other than it’ll probably piss off the SoCal tree hugging hippies.

Heading for the Tall Grass Dept:

$30 bucks, straight-up, on ND? (Vegas has USC as 10 point favorites.)

Will not happen, even if Charlie does not cut the grass, or excessively waters the grass before the game, or makes up another lie (USC hat in office with: “We own ND”) to motivate his boys, blah, blah, blah….

….this bet just tells me that OS has money to burn…congrats….

I’d bet a bottle of Cazadores reposado (Trader Joe’s, $29.99) that the domers lose by 30, Clausen doesn’t make it past the 3rd quarter and Touchdown Jesus weaps blood out of shame.

money to burn, or a fat per diem!

Memo to Charlie Weis Dept:

Two suggestions:

1. Hankey Pankey: Charly…spend a few bucks on a hankey and wipe the snot off regularly throughout the game.

2. Belt Abuse: Chazz, instead of giving the college footbaw world the image of a belt being abused, go to the game dressed as Knute Rockne…with a suit, long coat and Porkpie hat. (For more color, see Big E. Smalls picture, but would need to add cigar to complete this outfit.)

+1 Tommy for getting ready to launch at the CFB hall of fame before they pack up.

+1 to Orson for going straight up which is what upset really means. Betcha Ginger’s only betting the spread.

Urban Meyer is not walking through that door.

domer.mq at 9,

You’ve wrongly identified the Trojans as tree hugging hippies from the Los Angeles area. The hippies to which you refer reside in Westwood, wear UN blue and yellow, and call themselves bRuins. USC alumni and students make up the entire GOP base in Los Angeles county. Yes, all of it. Furthermore, the campus resides right in the middle of our smog filled metropolis and our players are quite used to high levels of ozone. So, fill those footballs with ozone if you must… it will just make our Trojans feel more at home.

Fight On! Beat the Irish!

Orson, Was the ND dolphin killed by careless tuna fishermen?

That’s a penance bet if I ever saw one. For what it’s worth, it made me laugh that you went straight up.

If the Domers do win, I want to hear Tommy’s guilt-ridden account of making it to third base with his girlfriend on Saturday night.

LOL @ byubngl – if anyone needed a reason to hope ND wins, the prospects of reading “Tommy’s guilt-ridden account of making it to third base with his girlfriend” should do the trick.

GO IRISH

Life savings on USC -10

Wait, wait, wait, socalbryan @16,

Are you telling me that the Southern Cal campus is filled with a student population that’s vastly different from their main-campus Cal counterparts? Interesting.

Is the Southern Cal campus more of a commuter school, thus the urban setting?

Orson should have bet $30 she breaks up with Tommy for only betting the spread.

Cal and USC Dept:

#20: NO!, Cal (UC Berkeley) is NOT the main campus counterpart to USC. You are confusing USC with ucla. (I know, I know…it is a put-down gag post, but I am correcting this for the record, just in case some braniac from the sticks gets wrong ideas.)

Second Clarification: Bye the way, the student body at Cal is way more conservative than the local-yocal-tree-huggers. Many students at Cal cringe like most everyone else when the locals go nuts (literally) over a tree.

Make fun of LA all you want, but right now it is 90 degrees and sunny over here. While it is 45 degrees, or whatever, in the sticks of South bend, indiana. Ha! Ha! Ha!!!!!

man, $30 means nothing to a money-makin’ sports blogger like yourself, does it Orson?

might as well have spent it on a T-shirt that says " ’09 UGA Dawgs – SEC East Champs!" ….at least you could wipe up spills or wash your car with that

domer.mg – don’t mock socalbryan, it’s true. I became a citizen while I was at SC and when it emerged that I hadn’t registered Republican, it was made clear that I needed to put some distance between me and the campus.

I’ve been in eastern exile ever since, counting trees and saving up enough money to buy a supercharged Suburban 3/4 ton with a custom 5.10 axle to burn as much dinosaur extract as possible. (Hope springs eternal).

dc trojan, you don’t comment enough anymore.

Orson,

In the Washington game (no Floyd or Allen) “Decided Schematic Advantage” took your 2005 advice.

“a gigantic white wide receiver busting through arm tackles. Frankly, this should be the solution to any situation in life” ND’s 6"6" white TE lined up as the "whiteout.

“Notre Dame can’t run. We saw it in person.” -> ND’s 5’11 black WR ran their “lepracat” when he wasn’t flying 360 for an extra 5.

You’re plunking down that $30 on the #1 leaders in possession. That buys ya a lot of creativity on offense AND a defense highly efficient at getting to their next coffee break. One way or the other Hilarity will ensure.

(make that 2006 advice)

dc…great truck…that 36 gallon tank costs 15 minutes worth of billable hours to fill…and it gets 12 mpg whether or not you’re pullin’.

Second That Dept:

#25: Yes, I agree that more DC input would be great. I sometimes catch his excellent writing in Conquest Chronicles. Actually, if you count DC, OCPhil and…

… me :-)

…you have the best group of commentators from a school – USC – outside Gator land…

SKLM, More like Buddy to their Mr. Incredible and Frozone.

Here we go – this is it.

Stacey Keibler – I don’t think I would be laughing about the temperatures since your boy Barkley has never played in a game where it wasn’t at least 75 degrees in his entire life.

USC 2005 > USC 2009 – ND 2009 > ND 2005
No Bush Push this year.

10 is way too many, especially when we win by 7.

USC 20 ND 27

Let me get this straight Orson….Pete Carroll is a double digit favorite, against a team he’s absolutely owned the better part of the decade, and all the while it’s common knowledge USC always loses the small games and dominates the “big” games; Stefan Johnson, slip and slides, etc……. and you’re betting the Irish? Did we have too many yard long margs today?

Aw shucks.

seeyouinhellwillingham – Stoops owned Texas for the better part of this decade, where’s that one now?

The next “streak” ends tomorrow:

Winless in bowls since 1993 – Ended
Winless last 7 vs. USC – Ends Tomorrow
Winless vs. BC in last 6 – Ends 10/24

No Heisman since 1987 – Ends in January.

(Delusion is a requirement upon graduation)

seeyouinhellwillingham,

slips and slides. see nemesis.

atlantadomer says:

“USC 2005 > USC 2009 – ND 2009 > ND 2005”

Wait, so you’re saying that

USC 2005 + ND 2009 > USC 2009 > ND 2005 + ND 2009

Therefore,

USC 2009 > ND 2005 + ND 2009

Does not bode well for you.

“Matt Barkley will be lost to the Trojans for three weeks…until he is found by the grounds crew somewhere around the 30 yard line”.

$30 they find him hiding in a box in the attic. When the Great Humanitarian asks why he didn’t come out he’ll say it was for a practice stunt.

@ 13

Rockne was more of a Homburg guy, although I like your suggestion. Were Weis to dress like him, I’d hope he would go all-out and appear as phlebitis-stricken Rockne. This has the obvious appeal of allowing him to coach from an Old Man Potter-style wheelchair.

I just want to confirm what SLKM and socalbryan said, USC students, for the most part are the opposite of the tree-hugging hippie stereotype. Think of Ronald Regan/Richard Nixon type Californians. SC was probably good for me, in that it brought me back towards the center.

I ran into a lot of misconceptions about CA when I went to graduate school in the midwest. No you can’t just walk down the street smoking a joint and not worry about busted and no the schools are not all free. Especially USC.

I think it would be an interesting bet to take Ronald Johnson against Notre Dame. I could see RoJo breaking off one or two long touchdowns against that secondary himself while Notre Dame again fails to score a touchdown. Clauson didn’t throw one in either of his first two games against SC.

Yeah, I know that’s the kind of hubris that brings an upset, You’re welcome domers.

USC 30-17. ND will make a few plays early, SC will have some trouble scoring touchdowns, but the O and D-lines will dominate in the second half. I know, my prediction is about as interesting as a Charlie Weis press conference.

oc phil,

Last 2 times Clausen wasn’t a #1 rated QB leading a one loss team rated #1 in possession.

As for nemesis It won’t be pretty if USC’s 11 best fall behind ND’s best 11.

Orson’s got a chance. The apology might have been his subconscious finding a way to bet on a team that can run Allen and Tate out of the backfield and send Rudolph as a 6’6 “whiteout”. Or maybe it was just his liver separating him from some cocktails.

Of course if Orson wins he’ll be so flush he can readily drop a tenner* on whoever his readers pick for a straight upset the rest of the season (no repeat picks).

• Look for Hamiton on the back not that other Gipper.

Pain Dept:

There will be a lot of pain in South Bend….USC will easily win by double digits.

Clauson has been effective when buying extra time by dancing around and finding an open receiver after the called play breaks down. This has happened against…let’s just say…not a top tier defenses. (Clauson will be fortunate to last the game after the USC defense tees off on him when ND gets behind early.)

USC has not allowed a passing touchdown this season (only USC’s “D” that can claim this in the country. Plus, they have just allowed three (3) rushing TD’s all season too. How in the world can ND compete with that?

On the other hand, ND’s defense ranks 100 or so. These guys are not exactly Horseman material. Barks will not even need to be the hero this time and will have a good game. A green Sanchez had an easy time with ND a few seasons ago.

Prediction: USC 31, ND 3 (ND will take a late field goal to save face…again.)

Hangin’ Curveball Dept:

Thanks to all for not taking too many easy whacks at the hangin’ curveball left in Comment No. 29. Hope everyone has a good weekend….

#43, You’re welcome, bud.

@22

Clearly you underestimate the moral superiority one gets from shitty weather. The satisfaction from having a
legitimate reason to bitch and moan is, well, satisfying.

Hey SKLM, how about a little bet on the game?

ND covers, and you have to refrain from making fat jokes and misspelling “Weis” and “Clausen” for the rest of the year.

SC covers and . . . . . . .

What do you think?

Jebus, and they say ND fans don’t have a sense of humor. What’s the point of a fun, old, stand-by joke about SoCal being the southern annex commuter campus to Cal coupled with an inaccurate comment about their love of socialism if everyone’s going to go about patiently correcting the very premise of the joke with facts?

This is just proof that Pete Carroll’s temperament is all an act and inside he’s just a guy with a stick up his rear, wondering when all the single moms in the world will stop sucking his paycheck dry.

Canuck.

I’m not impressed by Clausen’s “#1 rating” when he hasn’t beaten a team with a winning record yet. I give him some credit for playing well against Washington and MSU, but Nevada and Purdue are pretty pathetic teams this year.

I see USC’s pass rush getting to Clausen early and often, especially with the newly fortified DL. On the other side of the ball I see Tenuda’s blitz happy ways continuing but USC’s OL will be strong enough to give Barkley time he needs in passing situations. I’d also expect ND to stack the box frequently but now that Barkley has two top WR’s healthy, they will make the ND secondary pay dearly.

Actually a close win would help USC more than a blowout. If a team wins one of these big games by too much then the prevailing wisdom becomes that the loser was overrated and sux, which devalues the game for the winner. Last year’s examples of this pattern would be USC-tOSU and Oklahoma-Texas Tech.

I’ll confess to disliking Weis quite a bit, but I have genuine respect for the University and the team in general. And it is one of the greatest rivalries in the sport.

@atlantadomer: I dunno about USC 2005 > USC 2009. On offense, no doubt. But I think USC 2008 and 2009 defenses are way ahead of USC 2005. I think ND 2009 hasn’t shown that it is better than the Brady Quinn led 2005 team yet either.

But it is all guesses until they actually play the game. And in rivalry games anything can happen.

Despite my general dislike for SC, I think they roll today and I actually will be secretly encouraging said rolling. Cheering? Nay, but seeing pizza the hut go down in flames is pure gold.

Like Orson said when he visited South Bend a 6"6" whiteout in the end zone SHOULD have been the solution to any situation in life. But only his knees were in bounds by the time he scooped up the jump ball. I guess the clock reset was karma calling for Hughes to be pushed into the end zone again, but alas one more throw.

Don’t mind the drop from the top 25. If they win the next 2 they’ll be top 25 going into the Pitt game (likewise for Pitt).

Domer Guy, SKLM didn’t pick up you bet, but he’s to clausy to continue with those typos. ;)

Canadian Bacon Dept:

@ 51: Canuck: Good post, very clever.

By the way, last Friday, I had said my ‘goodbyes’ earlier in the day and was not expecting to be in front of a computer for a while. And that is why I did not get a chance to answer Domer Guy, regarding his wager.

Most likely, I would have jumped all over it and would have probably asked Domer Guy, if USC covered the 10 pt spread, that he had to write daily on the Blue Gray Sky blog (after every ND loss) the following:

" The loss to _ was Ty Willingham’s fault."

That would have been funny. Too bad it did not happen. Maybe next time. Ha, maybe we can do this on the BC game.