Finals suck

Every year we college students are subjected to the tyranny of final exams and shitty papers.  I understand it is a necessity to figure out what you have learned in the semester to make sure that you are deserving of the credit hours.  However, is it really necessary that we do it in a form that is not only boring, but in most situations difficult for the professor to grade?  Why not be more informal and make this something that doesn't feel like sitting in a dentist chair minus the novacaine?
I have a logical suggestion that could clear up this entire problem and make the process almost enjoyable for anyone without somesort of performance anxiety(Read: WE ALL KNOW THAT I DONT HAVE PERFORMANCE ANXIETY).  Why not have a classwide discussion on all topics that have been covered over the course with the professor being the moderator?  If the professor can't remember at the end of the discussion whether or not you contributed or what you contributed you fail, if you do okay then welcome to being average with a C, if you were an active participant with solid contributions that the professor can acknowledge then you got an A and clearly knew the material.  When a student can be a part of a coherent discussion and contribute worthy information or views than that student should be given an A whether or not they surgically attached their lips to the professors ass.
All subject matters obviously cannon be fit into that format because a discussion is often too formal for calculus or chemistry, but certainly anything in an arts degree area or classes on literature or religion could.(Read: shit that won't really help you get a job)

Sporting Recap

Yet another wonderful season has finished and now we have a funfilled matchup heavy bowl season upon us. Is it enough knowing that Notre Dame has the college football world by the balls..almost. Is it enough to know that Manti T'eo is the most decorated athlete to ever play college football..maybe.  The real finish will be upon us on January 7th when the Fighting Irish take on Alabama and the Crimson Tide. It is hard to believe that Nick Saban has time to be a college football coach with such a busy schedule of drowning puppies and virgin sacrifices, but that is neither here nor there..fact of the matter is I look forward to saluting the golden helmet when they pick up yet another national championship.
And now for a preview of some of the other premiere matchups.
On January 4th we will have what might be the most exciting of all the bowl games when the Aggies of Texas A&M fresh off their hot young quarterback Johnny Manziel's Heisman Trophy Award take on the Sooners of Oklahoma.  This matchup should favor those that like a shootout as both teams are in the top 25 for offense in the country.
January 3rd has the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl with a matchup of the two teams that just missed playing in the national championship.  Oregon State and their fast paced no huddle look to matchup well against what is a slow Kansas St. defense.  This one could get ugly in a hurry, unless heisman runner-up Collin Klein is able to put together his season's best performance.
Other than those matchups its all terrible

BCS National Championship

     The stage has been set and on January 7th the greatest game of the year and in my personal opinion the greatest college football game of the century will take place. In Miami Florida the Alabama Crimson Tide will battle the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame for the 2013 BCS National Championship. Even though Notre Dame has a better record being undefeated they are still the underdog of the game. This is because Alabama has enough first round NFL picks on there team to field a professional football team. Also because the Crimson Tide are in the SEC and that is the undisputed toughest conference in the nation not to mention the team that has won the SEC championship has also won the National Championship for like 8 years in a row or something like that. So vegas is predicting that Notre Dame will lose by 11 points last time i checked. If i were a gambling man i would definitely put a lot of money on the Irish but hey I'm no stock broker do what you want. There is no way Notre Dame will lose by more then eleven points and in my humble opinion i think they have a legitiment chance at even upsetting Alabama and winning out right.

Notre Dame's Perfect Season

     Notre Dame did it. Against all odds they ran the table and beat every team on their schedule this year. As fate would have it doing so lands them a spot playing for it all, on the biggest stage in college football, the BCS National Championship. The Irish were in close nail biting games all season. But yet still managed to do the un thinkable. The defensive phenom Manti Te'o has been the leader of the Irish all season and has played one of the best seasons physically possible without him the irish would have lost 5 games this season no doubt. But lets give credit where credit is due. Freshman QB Everett Golson I am purely amazed at his growth this season. He can run, he can throw, this guy can do it all. He may not have stole the spotlight this season but he surly was a major part of Notre Dames success. He was a game manager and when his team needed him to deliver on big plays he did. Now the question is how will the freshman handle the biggest stage in college football? Against the best team in the country. Time will tell i can't wait to watch what happens.

Manti Te'o season highlights (bottom). This guy is simply amazing

Alabama Beats Georgia Sending them to title game against Notre Dame

Alabama has been the college football powerhouse for almost a decade. Now with coach Nick Saben there it dosnt look like things are going to change anytime soon. Alabama did lose one game this season  but still had a good enough record to put them in the SEC championship game. This game was a must win or they were not going to play in Miami for the BCS national championship. They had no easy path though because who did they have to play in the SEC title game? Georgia. It was a great game from start to finish. Alabama was leading with 2 minutes to go in the game and Georgia got the ball back in there own territory which game them one last shot to beat the mighty Crimson Tide. The Bulldogs drove the length of the field but with time winding down made a costly error by not getting out of bounds and letting the clock tick to zero. This being so Alabama won and the bulldogs lost a heart breaker knowing they were only 5 yards away from winning. But can Alabama beat the undefeated Irish in Miami to win it all? We will just have to wait and see.

Video of Alabama Cheap shotting Georgia QB (bottom)

Manti Te'os struggle

      The struggles this player went through were really emotional and me writing about it could never begin to truly explain what happened. Thats why this video is necessary...

Notre Dame Linebacker Manti Te'o wins more awards then anyone in history

NOTRE DAME — Manti Te’o is officially the most decorated college football player in history.

The Notre Dame linebacker received the Maxwell Award, which recognizes the nation’s top player, on Thursday night, becoming the first college football player to ever win six national awards.

Earlier Thursday, Te’o notched his fifth win with the Chuck Bednarik Award for the nation’s top defensive player. Te’o has also won the Camp, Butkus, Lombardi and Nagurski awards this week.

Te’o is the first defensive recipient of the Maxwell Award since Pitt’s Hugh Green won it in 1980. Te’o also breaks a streak of nine consecutive quarterbacks who have won the award.

“I’m at a loss for words,” Te’o told ESPN when asked how it felt to win the award. “The last time I ever dreamt of winning that award was on a video game and now for it to happen is just mind- blowing to me.”

Te’o tops his award circuit loop with a final stop in New York City on Saturday for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Te’o beat out fellow Heisman candidates Johnny Manziel and Collin Klein for the Maxwell Award. - Etruth.com

Sadly Te'o did not win the Heisman award. Texas A@M QB Johnny Manziel won it and by doing so makes himself the first freshman to ever win the award. 

Notre Dame Spanks Oklahoma In Their Own Stadium

     Notre Dame heads to Norman, Oklahoma to blow out the Sooners in their own stadium. This a shock to the nation. No one would have ever expected Notre Dame to beat the Sooners let alone dominate Oklahoma at home. To give credit the Irish defense was once again a brick wall and could not be touched. Every time Oklahoma threw the ball Notre Dame swarmed like air traffic control. The entire game was not won by the defense. As good as they played the high powered Oklahoma offense still managed to put up 13 points. That only means in order to win Norte dame would have to get some offense going and score some points. Thats exactly what Irish Quarterback Everett Golson did. He led the Notre Dame to 30 points. He played with the poise and confidence of a 5th year senior. He displayed accuracy on his throws and a big arm when throwing the deep routes. Oklahoma had a solid defense themselves and yet the Irish still put up 215 rushing yards averaging 5.5 yards per carry. Cierre Wood had a rushing touchdown in the 4th quarter that put the game out of reach and really sealed the deal. Assuming that that Irish beat Boston college and Wake Forest there only challenge left this season is USC and quite a challenge that will be. USC quarterback Matt Barkley was a heisman hopeful at the beginning of the season and would be a front runner today had the Trojans not lost some key games. Even with the losses Barkley is having an amazing season and you almost feel bad for him. Almost...
If Notre Dame wins in Southern California some key things must happen in order for them to go to the National Title game. So with Brian Kelly calling the plays and Everett Golson throwing touchdown all we can do is wait and see.

Notre Dame vs BYU

     Notre Dame played Brigham Young University this week and it was much closer then it should have been. BYU scored the first points of the game and they came with around 8 minutes left in the second quarter. This was the first touchdown that the tough Notre Dame defense had allowed in 4 games. The Irish struggled passing the football on offense but I think this was due to the fact that they had to start second string quarterback Tommy Rees. Head coach Brian Kelly started Rees because last week during the Stanford Game Everett Golson who normally starts at quarterback suffered a concussion late in the 4th quarter. It was a game time decision and Kelly said he feels good about it because now he will have his starting quarterback playing at 100% next week for the Oklahoma game. Which is the Irish's toughest game of the season and a must win situation. Further more on the positive side the running game finally got going this season for Notre Dame. This is good because if they have any chance of beating Oklahoma next week the Fighting Irish will need to play their absolute best football. Notre Dame came back and won this week with a final score of 17-14. There star linebacker from Honolulu Hawaii Manti Te'o led the team yet again this week with 10 solo tackles and added another interception bringing his season total to 4. This ties him for the single season school record and I'm confident that he will break that record before the season ends. Another unique thing about Manti Te'o is that fact that he is in the Hiseman running. It is almost impossible for defensives players to win the hiseman trophy and Charles Woodson is the only player off hand that Im aware of who has. If Te'o wins the heisman it will be the icing on the cake for Notre Dames session assuming they beat Oklahoma and USC of course.

Notre Dame Squeaks By No 17 Stanford

     The game of the week in my opinion undefeated Notre Dame hosts a team ranked number 17 in the country Stanford. After losing NFL rookie sensation Andrew Luck Stanford is definitely in a rebuilding year but even that being said they will be the toughest team Notre Dame has seen all year. It well known that Notre Dame's defense is what holds the team together and that was proven true yet again this past saturday. For the 3rd week in a row the Irish defense did not give up a touchdown. However Stanford did score a defensive touchdown due to Irish quarterback Everett Golson fumbling in his own end zone which the Stanford defense recovered. Other then that Everett Golson looked good and made some ridiculous throws that were just simply inhuman. He looked like a young Mike Vick out there scrambling for big yards when the Fighting Irish needed them. He did get hurt in the 4th quarter which forced head coach Brian Kelly to put in second stringer Tommy Rees. Rees did not play bad and did throw the game winning touchdown pass. However that wouldn't have been necessary had Norte Dame not missed a field goal in the first half which left the door open for Stanford to tie the game up and send it to overtime. In overtime Stanford won the coin toss and then elected to go on defense first. That is when Tommy Rees deliver the eventual game winning touchdown pass to all american tight end Tyler Effeirt. Stanford did however have a chance to force a second overtime but came up short. Not once, not twice. but three times Notre Dame stopped them backed up into there own redone. Their backs were against the wall and once again the Notre Dame defense delivered. It was a nail biter to the bitter end but Notre Dame hung on to remain undefeated and push themselves to one of the top 5 teams in the country. They started the season ranked 24th and are now 5th this is simply amazing and I hope to god it continues. Now all they have to do is pull off the miracle victory against USC and they have national championship written all over them. I can't say I give them a prayer of winning once they get there but the fact that they make it if they do will be a blessing in itself.

Notre Dame Beats Down Michigan

     Notre Dame is still undefeated after beating Michigan in what most would say was a Denard Robinson disaster. Michigan's super star quarterback basically lost the game all on his own. Robinson threw 4 interceptions in the second quarter alone not mention fumbling in the first drive after half time. The all american linebacker of the Irish Manti Te'o was on the receiving end of two Robinson interceptions and is still the heartbeat of Notre Dames defense. Te'o leads the team defensively and for the second week in a row held opponents to scoring 0 touchdowns. Notre Dame's secondary is like air traffic control no one can throw the football against them and there run defense id say is top 5 in the country. Sadly even with five turnovers from Denard alone Michigan still managed to keep it a close game which had me nervous to the end. The only thing that keeps Notre Dame from winning a national championship this year if you ask me is there offense. If it doesn't step up and match the play of Notre Dame's defense the team could be in some trouble. Especially when they play Stanford and USC.  But on the upside if Notre Dame beats Stanford and USC I guarantee that Notre Dame will be playing in the national championship. Unless of course some fluke loss to BYU or some bizarre turn of events like that. But barring a setback on defense and if the offense continues to improve the fighting Irish should put themselves in position to have a good shot at beating USC and Stanford which would land them playing in the BCS National Championship. Everett Golson continues to struggle a little bit but thats to be expected considering he has never played a in a college game until this year.  He will continue to improve and I honestly think he will be a hiseman contender 3 years from now. But until then I will be happy with just beating Michigan for now.

Notre Dame Week 5

  Notre Dame won again this week at no surprise to myself but kind of a shock to the nation. You could have asked any sports analyst in the country 6 weeks ago if they thought they was any chance in the world  Norte Dame would be 5-0 going into week six and they would have said you were crazy. The only crazy person involved with anything Norte Dame does is head coach Brian Kelly in my opinion. His ridiculous coaching style using a bizare two quarterback system has been the reason for the Irish winning so far but will it continue to work? Never before have I seen this specific style of quarterback usage from a coach and it is kind of interesting but I personally do not think it is a formula that will win a national championship and lets face it that is every colleges goal to win the BCS National Championship. The thing I love about Notre Dame starting quarterback Everett Golson, is how safe he is with the football. He is averaging less then one turnover per game. As high as my hopes are for the young quarterback everyone who has watched Notre Dame play this year knows that the Defense is what holds this team together. Lead by the number one linebacker in the country Manti Te'o the Irish defense is literally similar to a brick wall. Almost virtually impenetrable. The Notre Dame defense leads the country in touchdowns given up with less then 3. I am however nervous for when the Fighting Irish play USC lead by the hisemen candidate Matt Barkley. With injures in the corner position I feel like Notre Dame's defense will be vulnerable to the pass. However the USC game will mean nothing unless Notre Dame is still undefeated when they play them. Accomplishing this  however will not be easy. On the Norte Dame schedule before they play USC is Oklahoma and Stanford both are top 20 teams with explosive offenses. They will be the true test for Notre Dame's defense and I'm excited to see what happens.

Notre Dame vs Michigan State

  Another truly spectacular performance from the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Not only was Notre Dame the underdog being ranked 20th in the country while Michigan State was over rated at number 10, the Fighting Irish were playing on the road all the way in East Lansing. With all the doubt in the world on there performance Notre Dame had something to prove and they did. Freshman Quaterback Everett Golson started strong and never looked back. The Irish would drew first blood scoring the first points of the game on a touchdown pass from Everett Golson. Michigan State's quarterback just couldn't do anything against Notre Dame's solid defense. This would be the first time in 7 years that Notre Dame beat a top ten team. Its a sign of things to come if you ask me and we will not see Michigan State beating Notre Dame for many years to come.

  I was at work during the game and 2 people in Michigan State shirts came in. I unfortunately like to gamble and immediately ask them if they want to bet on the game. They said no at first because they assumed I wanted to put my money on State. This assumption however couldn't have been further from the truth. Once i made it clear I would take Notre Dame they were beyond excited. So excited that I now feel the need to quote one of them "this is going to be the easiest $50 i have ever made" one of them said. I instantly started laughing and said ok we'll see. (I also bet the other Michigan State fan $50)
Now with a total of $150 on the game (I had another $50 bet with some one else who is unrelated to this event) I wouldn't mind Notre Dame winning at all. Thats exactly what Notre Dame did, they won. They won not only because they were good at it but because Michigan State is sub par in every way to the university of Notre Dame. The same way in which the University of Michigan is inferior to Notre Dame perhaps this is the only thing the Michigan State Spartans and the Michigan Wolverines have in common. So not only did I have to bring the customers more and more drinks as Norte Dame scored more and more points on there below average team I began to use extremely sarcastic remarks telling them the game isn't over yet and there could still be a miracle come back by there team. So by the end of the night they were not only poorer they were also mildly insulted. For everyone who reads this the moral of the story is never under any circumstances bet against Notre Dame. ( or maybe never bet against me is just as an important piece of information to have who knows? ) Also save yourself a lot of humiliation next week and don't be a Michigan fan.

Notre Dame Football Week 2

Notre Dame was a little shaky in there second game of the season narowly winning against Purdue 20-17. Due to the game winning field goal with seven seconds remaining in the game the Fighting Irish improve there record to 2-0. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly started a redshirt freshman at quaterback Saturday by the name of Everett Golson. I personally have high hopes for Golson and he started Strong for the Irish throwing for 289 yards with one touchdown pass while also adding a 3-yard rushing touchdown to his stats for the day. Even though having such a good performance in the game the Fighting Irish struggled to put points on the board. While leading 17-10 the young QB fumbled on his own 17 yard line which set up a Purdue touchdown tying the game at 17. With the game on the line coach Brian Kelly decided to pull Golson out of the game and put a more experienced Tommy Rees in the game at QB to run the 2 min offense. This worked out in the long run because Rees led a drive down the field completing important passes that led to the game winning field goal. Who will start for Notre Dame at QB next week is a mystery but as long as Notre Dame keeps on winning I'm sure Irish fans don't really care.  On a positive note star running back Cierre Wood will play next week coming off of a 2 game suspension for "breaking a school rule". Next week Notre Dame travels to east Lansing to battle the Spartans of Michigan state. This is with out question the hardest game the Irish will play yet this season. But hopefully with one game under his belt QB Everett Golson will be able to lead Notre Dame to another victory under head coach Brian Kelly. But with Michigan State having one of the top 15 defenses in the country it will be no easy task. So until next week "Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame!"