Notre Dame 30 – Oklahoma 13. Yes, you read that right, yesterday the Fighting Irish went into Norman, one of the most hostile environments in College Football where the Sooners rarely lose and came away with a monumental win.
The Vegas bookies and just about every pundit except Lou Holtz, bless his cotton socks, tipped a win for the home side and it was hard to argue with the predictions.
The Sooners, under coach Bob Stoops, are 79-5 at home. They have been scoring over 50 points per game in the past month lead by future NFL first round quarterback Landry Jones.
They have explosive receivers and a strong running game. It was expected the excellent defences would more or less cancel each other out but the Sooners’ offence would be the difference.
While the Notre Dame defence was stellar as usual, what wasn’t expected was the offence being the difference lead by redshirt freshmen quarterback Everette Golson.
The kid stood up in the most unexpected fashion. He has been shaky this season, particularly at home, however on the road in Norman in front of a record crowd and national TV audience he delivered big time.
His stats weren’t mind blowing, however he didn’t turn the ball over, made some huge throws and ran for 64 yards and the go ahead score. He lead the team superbly.
Of course his running backs Wood and Riddick were a great support both scoring touchdowns as the Irish ran for over 200 yards. Kudos to the offensive line for a tremendous job, absolutely manhandling the Sooners.
Ditto for the defensive line for shutting down the Sooners running game. This game was won in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
What’s next? It is going to a challenge for Coach Brian Kelly to keep a lid on the excitement of this win and the subsequent hype.
In saying that both coach and players in the post game were already focusing on Pitt at home next weekend. They have Pitt, Boston and Wake Forest before finishing the season at USC.
If they keep their heads on and stay with the process they should win the next three games.
Under Kelly they have lost these kind of games which were both brutal and painful. They need to harness this pain and use it to there advantage.
Obviously they must win these games to stay in the Bowl Championship Series picture but they now must take it up a notch and go for the jugular and win convincingly with style points. Achieve that and they set up another huge road game in LA against bitter rivals USC.
The Trojans are out of the National Title race, however could still be in the Pac 12 equation. If, and it’s another big if, the Irish can beat USC it’s going to be awfully difficult to keep them out of the BCS Title game.
However if Alabama, Oregon and Kansas State also remain undefeated it’s going to be the Mother of all shan’t storms deciding who Bama will play in the decider. The Irish have beaten four ranked teams and have one of the toughest schedules which should be recognised.
If they win out and make it to Miami can they win it all?
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