Stanford. Trees, Cardinal(s), whatever. I have never particularly disliked or even cared about them, so long as ND beat them in football. Now that I have reflected and researched the upcoming game this weekend, ND vs Stanford, at Notre Dame Stadium (1:30pm Central on NBC), I have two reasons for disliking Stanford, as of about 5 minutes ago:
1. They made Tyrone Willingham a good enough candidate to win our coaching job. He continued Davie's rotting of the program, and hopefully Weis can save us from what would have been certain death had we let Willingham stay any longer (ie. see the Washington program now and the next 5 years). I blame Stanford for building up his fake legend.
2. Trash talk from Offensive Lineman Chris Marinelli. Who is that? Exactly. No one has ever heard of the guy, yet he is talking trash this week in the press, about a team (ND) that easily beat his team last year at Stanford. Here are some snippets of what Yung Chris said (and I stress Yung):
"But on the same token it's going to go bad for them at one point and we are going to gash the (expletive) out of them, I promise you that. So keep bringing it, keep bringing it. They have one sack all year on 200 blitzes."
"They can keep bringing all the stuff they want", Marinelli added. "We can pick up blitzes. Our defense, blitzes more than anyone in the country, too. So we are ready for that. That's no big deal.
Marinelli is not impressed with the Notre Dame field and stadium. He saw action as a redshirt freshman late in the 2006 game that the Irish won 31-10 in South Bend.
"I hate it, playing up there," Marinelli said. "The field, excuse my language, the field sucks. The stadium sucks. I think the area sucks."
The 6'7, 297 pound tackle from Boston, Massachusetts didn't stop there.
"I grew up with a bunch of Irish and Italian Catholic people back home. And all the Irish Catholic people, all they talk about is Notre Dame this, Notre Dame that. And they've never even been there, ya know. So I hate those guys, I hate that school.
"We are going out there to mash them up and that's all there is to it."
Clown. Complete clown. Granted, Chris is from Boston, which means he speaks through exaggerations and talks without thinking, like most other TeaTowners. Seriously Chris Marinelli, I cannot wait to see you and the Tree MASH us up on our own shitty field, in our shitty stadium, and in our shitty town. I really hope you personally get picked on all game, and then your flight home gets delayed so you have more time to make excuses about how much everything sucks, all while having more time to visit our shitty airport.
Ok, I have vented and feel better. Stanford won 4 games last year, and lost 21-14 to the Irish at home, despite two touchdowns scored by the Irish being called back. I know that we should win this game by two touchdowns, but I am not sure if this young team can put together back to back solid efforts. Stanford is well coached, on the field at least (not with media relations, however). I expect a close game that the Irish win late with a big turnover or a big play. A scare, but a win.
Prediction #1 - Irish 27 Stanford 24
Prediction #2 - Irish have 3 sacks, with the final sack forcing a turnover late in the game that scores the winning touchdown, while trailing 24-20.
Prediction #3 - Chris Marinelli does not speak to the press the rest of the week, nor after the game.
Have a great weekend everyone. And GO IRISH!!
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BTW According to the recruiting sites, Notre Dame was one of his top four and the only one of his top four who never offered him. Yeah, I'm sure he really hated it there and all of its fans when he was looking at schools.
Later, he apologized:
"I would like to apologize to the University of Notre Dame and anybody else who I may have offended from the remarks I made in an interview earlier this week. I was caught up in the emotions of the game and should have been more thoughtful in my comments. The remarks were out of character for me and certainly aren't reflective of my teammates or anybody else affiliated with the Stanford program. I look forward to a competitive game on Saturday in one of the great environments in college football."
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