Notre Dame’s White Field North

Subway Alumni Tailgating UM Game 2010

Unless you are a Notre Dame student, faculty member, big shot season ticket holder with a parking tag or a ‘beautiful ND person’, if you want to tailgate then it is the White Field North Parking lot for you. Those fortunate enough to possess one of the above titles or $$ can get pretty close to the stadium to park and participate in tailgating activities. Not only are they close to the action, they do not have to put up with moronic, obnoxious Skunkbear fans. (More later) In addition, it is a lot easier and closer to haul loot back from the Bookstore.

For the Subway Alumni Fan at the bottom basement price of $25, you can park your car/pickup and catch a free shuttle bus to the main campus from White Field. For $120, you can park your RV there but no over-nighters! Years ago, you could park your RV right in the JACC lot, but thanks to some fans dumping their ‘holding tanks’ that got nixed for good. We always suspected it was disgruntled Skunkbear fans back in the Lou Holtz Era.

For $40, you can park on the Burke golf course (weather permitting) but no shuttle service. It is a little closer to campus, especially the bookstore. If you get bored you can always practice your putting.

They start taking your $25 parking fee at 8:00 a.m. game day; we showed up about 8:30 and got two spots in the second row. These were great slots with the port-a-potties close and the first shuttle stop just one row up. They are pretty liberal with the spaces too, which allows for setting up camp and games. There is plenty of room to throw the pigskin around or play Corn Hole. Most of the paved lots on campus for the privileged are pretty stingy with real estate, of course it's location, location, location.

Here is what White Field looks like relatively empty. Note the RV’s way in the back.

Been to many Notre Dame Football games but this was my first tailgate experience. Was extremely blessed to have my two sons with me plus one of my boy’s old high school friends. We no sooner got the tent up and fired up the grill than it started to rain. A cold, constant rain, one that when you looked to the West where it was coming from and all you could see was gray. Therefore, it became a matter of sitting under the tent, talking football and drinking beer at 9:00 a.m.

Who sets up behind us but a vanload of rowdy Skunkbears. They pull out a noisy generator and commenced being loud and stupid. The women were ugly and the music they played sounded like something only Bo, Mo, Lloyd, or Rich would find entertaining. All we could do was consume more brats and drink additional beer. Down near the port-a-potties two more carloads of the enemy showed up and they pulled out a flat screen TV and started playing last years (2009) ND-UM Game. Damn them!  A good time to head to the Bookstore and see what new buildings were being thrown up on campus.

By the time we got back, it was still raining of course, White Field looked like this.  Please note ememy encampment.

The Field was beginning to reach rain saturation point as well. What do you want for $25 bucks? Thankfully Rudy, Touchdown Jesus, or the Weatherman thought we’d had enough because it stopped raining just before kickoff.

Ate more brats but backed off the beer, the port-a-potty lines were getting pretty long by then and we did not want to have to go to the restroom in the stadium until halftime. (Who can hold it for 4+ hours worth of NBC timeouts?)

Great game, we came up short of course. It was interesting that 80,000+ fans were trying to text or call and find out what happened to Dayne Crist. It became more frantic when Rees, then Montana threw picks. The circuits were completely overloaded.

When Kyle Rudolph caught that touchdown pass, we went crazy. I never hugged so many total strangers in my life. That soon ended when the IRISH defense could not stop Denard Robinson for the final score.

After the game, we trudged back to White Field, the heck with the shuttle.  The lines were long and nobody wanted to sit on a bus with stinky Skunkbears. The Notre Dame fans next to us had left and completely trashed their space with beer cans, liquor bottles and miscellaneous junk. The obnoxious Skunkbear fans with the flat screen TV and fight song were ringed by about half a dozen campus gendarmerie. I guess they were expecting trouble. The Skunkbears soon packed it up and went back to Ann Arbor. It was getting dark but we could still pick out the UM fans, they were the ones laying on there horns as they drove off. Talk about rubbing our noses in it.

We sat around, cried in our beer and commiserated about what could have been with a healthy Dayne Crist or if Kelly should have went for a field goal just before halftime (well it could have been some much needed Mo).

Despite the bitter loss, crappy weather, goofy UM fans, we had a simply grand time. We agreed to come back in 2011.

Good ole White Field.

Editors Note: Apparently 6-8 members of Subway Alumni Station will be attending the ND-MSU Game on September 17th. Tailgating of course.  More info to follow in September if you want to tailgate and meet some of the Staff.

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A Window Of Opportunity To Enhance Notre Dame Football

Things are real slow down here on the Blog front. Just about every topic imaginable concerning Notre Dame Football and the upcoming Blue-Gold Game has been digested and reported by someone. Quarterback controversy, injuries, lack of running backs, early enrollee impacts (or lack thereof), Michael Floyd, Spring Practice, prospects for the fall and foes added to the out-year schedule. They have all been taken.  If you scroll down, you can see where Subway Alumni Station jumped right in with a number of those topics as well. Unfortunately the staff here at SAS prides itself in leading the pack in opinions, controversy, hard analysis, and holding persons accountable. After all we are Loyal Subway Alumni of Notre Dame. It is interesting to note that one major sports website periodically takes one of our topics and expands upon it and juices it up a bit. We have also been informed from an unnamed reliable source that certain persons associated with Notre Dame even take a peek at this Blog.

Anyway.

While riding in on the Red Line this morning I read where Mike Mayock has been picked to do color commentary for Thursday Night NFL Football. Dang, does that mean he won’t be working the booth for NBC and Notre Dame Football on Saturdays? Man, he was a breath of knowledge and insight compared to Tom Hammond’s vanilla play-by-play! He offered a lot more than Pat Haden did, even though Pat played at USC and in the NFL.


So can Mayock give justice to the NFL Thursday night and still cover the Irish Saturday afternoon? This may be a moot point considering the greed being engaged in by the NFL owners and players even as we speak. Who knows, Notre Dame may be playing on Sunday, right after the televised Mass in the Sacred Heart Basilica.

We called The Peacock to get a reading on this question and see if Mayock would be available to sit in the booth high above Notre Dame Stadium this fall. If not, then who? After explaining to the receptionist that I was from Subway Alumni Station she would not put me through to NBC Sports. Go figure.

Anyway.

This is a golden (blatant pun) opportunity for NBC and Notre Dame to bring in a whole new broadcast team. This is in keeping with the shrewd makeover that Notre Dame is undertaking to market the football program. See: The Subtle New Marketing of Notre Dame Football.

This would entail jettisoning perennial announcer Tom Hammond. Oh my, Tom is pretty much an institution around NBC. A regular jack-of-all-trades type announcer and part time commentator. Tom has done or does for NBC; the Olympics, NFL Football, The Triple Crown, track and field, gymnastics, SEC basketball, The NBA and probably some sports and events we couldn’t remember.

Don’t get us wrong, we like Tom we really do. It’s just like Bert Parks and the Miss America Pageant; he’s outlived his usefulness and relevancy. Of course you have to be careful what you ask for; we could end up with Kathy Lee Gifford’s husband.

Anyway, what do you think? Replace Tom? Vote on the right side. Vote early and vote often, just like we do in West Virginia.

Last Of The Mohicans

Now there are three. Notre Dame, Southern California and UCLA. These are the three remaining FBS schools that have never scheduled/played a FCS school in football. Washington State was number four but this fall they will dip down into the cupcake ranks to secure an easy victory over Idaho State. Of course Michigan may beg to differ on that “easy victory” account. Appalachian State University in 2007 defeated the then number 5 ranked Skunkbears, 34-32. Until surpassed, this game is considered one of the greatest upsets in all of sports.

The NCAA changed the rule in 2005, allowing a FBS school to count a victory over a cupcake, oops, excuse me, a FCS school each year. This opened the door for FBS schools to make/save some money and pretty much guarantee an easy win. Last year, FBS schools won 88% of the time against FCS opponents.

Remember a FCS school is only allowed 63 scholarships compared to 85 for a FBS school.

The reasons are also economic. A FBS school usually has to pay a minimum of $900,000 to $1,000,000 to schedule another FBS opponent. Not so with a FCS little guy, they will settle for as little as $400,000.

Scheduling cupcakes is big victories and easy money for the likes of the Mighty SEC. In 2011 all 12 member schools will play FCS opponents.

When will USC and UCLA succumb to the temptation?

Cameron Roberson Injury - When Will He Be Back?

So when can we expect Cameron Roberson back on the field?  Lot questions only a few answers.  We have called upon our resident Physical Therapist (PT) Alex Brenner to give us a run-down on what a PT would expect once he gets his hands on a patient such as Roberson from an orthopedic surgeon.

Brenner writes:

Kelly announced that his suspicions were correct about Cameron Roberson’s knee injury. It appears he has a torn lateral collateral ligament (LCL) and a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). At this time I have very limited information on this injury and can at best give an educated guess on his recovery time. It would be nice to know if this was a contact or a non-contact mechanism of injury.

Quick Anatomy Lesson

The lateral collateral ligament (LCL) is a very strong ligament that runs on the outside of the knee and connects the thigh bone (femur) to the lower leg bone (fibula) while simultaneously providing lateral side-to-side support of the knee. It is what helps keep the knee to articulate as a hinge and plays a very important role in the lateral stability of the knee.

The ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) is the ligament in the knee that most people have heard of and is probably the most commonly torn ligament in the knee. It runs from the underside of femur to the tibia and crosses over the PCL. It also plays an important role in stability of the knee, especially in the anterior to posterior direction. On a side note (with Easter in mind), cruciate means “arranged in forming a cross” and comes from the latin word of “crux” which means cross. You can see above the two ligaments (ACL and PCL) forming that cross.

Injury

The ACL is most commonly torn during a non-contact event, meaning the player was running and made a cut to avoid a tackler and goes down without even being touched by a defender. A good example of this caught on tape was Dayne Crist from the 2009 season against Washington State. Other ways to tear the ACL include blunt trauma from a tackler that forces the knee into hyperextension. The lateral collateral ligament is most commonly torn from a direct contact blow to the outside portion of the knee. The blunt force causes the knee to be forced inward resulting in the tear. As an educated guess, Roberson sustained a lateral blow to the knee such that the LCL was completely torn and the ACL was partially torn.

Recovery

The big question here is whether or not Roberson will need surgery. Again, without examining this patient it is difficult to ascertain from a brief MRI report what his recovery might entail. Partially torn ACL ligaments are very common and are not typically repaired surgically unless it is hanging by a thread of tissue. It is very common for athletes even with 50-75% of the ACL torn to return to competitive play without having a surgical repair. The prognosis for an isolated partially torn ACL is very good and in fact, these do not need surgery and can recovery can be as quick as 2-3 months. Unfortunately, it appears that Roberson has a complete torn LCL. This makes the situation a bit more precarious. A completely torn LCL will most likely require surgery to repair because if there are no fibers of the LCL intact it will need to be sewed together by a surgeon. A partially torn LCL and ACL could heal on its own without surgery. I am certain the Ortho surgery team is currently contemplating these same questions and time is of the essence.

If he undergoes surgery they will most likely only repair the LCL and leave the ACL alone assuming he has at least 25% of the ACL fibers intact. Recovery for just the LCL repair is 4-6 months, best case scenario, start to finish. If no surgery is needed then we can assume the LCL and ACL are both only partially torn. Rehab for that scenario is more like 3-4 months.

Lastly, with a blunt force knee injury the meniscus (cups of cartilage between the thigh bone and leg bone) are almost always injured. I have not heard them mention that the meniscus is torn but if it turns out that he has torn meniscus on top of a LCL and partial ACL then the rehab time could be a few months longer.

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Why Notre Dame’s Dayne Crist Will Start Against South Florida

There is no quarterback controversy, no competition for number one, or questions as to who will be under center come September 3rd. This along with Coach Brian Kelly’s and various beat reporters who are baiting opponents concerning the mobility and option threat abilities of Andrew Hendrix and Everett Golson make for excellent wailing and grinding of teeth by 12 opponents. Rest assured, Dayne Crist with start.

** Dayne Crist is one tough Hombre.  He has recovered and rehabilitated from TWO major injuries.

**  He is now healthy, fleet afoot and throwing exceedingly well.

**  Dayne is a senior. He is a proven leader.

**  He has the experience and total digestion of the play book.

**  He and Brian Kelly have a mind meld thing.  They are comfortable with each other.

**  If not injured in the Michigan and Tulsa games he would have been the quarterback for all of 2010.

**  He is leading the first team offense in Spring 2011 and will do so in the Blue – Gold Game.

It is expected that he will again invite his receivers to his home in California to continue to stay sharp and fine tune routes, patterns and timing.

Tommy Rees is nowhere in this equation as long as Dayne Crist remains healthy.

Michael Floyd Punishment Poll

Michael has a May court date in South Bend to determine the public justice in his DWI case. The talk has been that The Resident Life Board would act after that outcome in May. Apparently according to Coach Brian Kelly, Res Life is meeting next week with Michael. It is assumed and expected that his fate will be decided/handed down at that time. Yes, no sense in letting anyone twist in the wind any longer than necessary. We suspect Coach Kelly has asked for early resolution.

Becky from our advertisement department suggested a Poll to see where loyal readers of Subway Alumni Station (SAS) stand on the issue and outcome. Most of us here at SAS know that our Polls have received rather dismal attention. Unfortunately Becky is the first one in the office in the morning. She makes the coffee and often brings in ‘Fat Boy Pills" or bagels. Thus she gets her way. The Michael Floyd Punishment Poll is posted on the right side of the Blog. Vote and voice your opinion on Michael's punishment below this post.

Editors Note:  An article on Marketing Notre Dame Football was posted yesterday (see below) and a Dayne Crist starting quarterback article will be posted shortly.

The Subtle New Marketing of Notre Dame Football

It started with the much maligned former athletic director Kevin White. Yearly “Home Games” scheduled at neutral sites. The Irish versus Washington State in San Antonia Texas in 2009 although White’s brainchild, it came under current Athletic directors Jack Swarbricks watch. It worked out quite well, it filling the stadium for a prime time night game. While Notre Dame handled WSU quite handily, 40-14, Dayne Crist went down with a season ending leg injury and the game is remembered more for that than the marketing tool it introduced.

In 2010 a few new wrinkles were added. In addition to the first college football game played in new Yankee Stadium. It too played during evening prime time versus old rival Army but with the Irish wearing the Kelly Green jerseys. Throw in the Bronx, the original subway alumni and some very well produced NBC programming throughout the game, it was a great hit. The media and fans loved it. Of course it helped that Notre Dame won 27-3.

So what’s in store this year as a marketing ploy to promote the national fan base of the Irish?

The Blue-Gold game will be televised live by The Versus Channel on April 16th. This is a first and highly anticipated by loyal Notre Dame fans across the country that cannot trek to South Bend.

Michigan has added lights to the Big House and Notre Dame will play them in the first night game on September 10th. To provide additional fuel to the marketing fire, Notre Dame and Michigan will wear throwback uniforms. While this is not a new concept, it is for the two rivals. Here is a pretty good idea what the Irish will look like coming out of the tunnel, shamrocks and all. We’re hoping for the Kelly Green Jerseys instead of the White traveling uniform.

The University is not finished in 2011. The Southern California game will be played under the lights at Notre Dame. This is the first night game in 21 years for the Irish on October 22nd. NBC has to be pleased; after all they paid for the lights when the stadium was renovated. USC fans have to be pleased since the game does not start in the morning for them.

Down the road the schedule looks like this:

2011 Maryland at FedEx Filed MD

2012 Navy at Dublin Ireland

2012 Miami at Soldiers Field Chicago IL

2013 Arizona St. at Dallas TX

2014 Syracuse at New Meadowlands NJ

When the Notre Dame - Miami series and first game at Soldiers Field was announced it got the rivalry juices flowing. Unfortunately they were somewhat reduced by the 2011 Sun Bowl where Notre Dame dismantled Miami 33-17.

Conventional wisdom tells us Notre Dame is gearing up for the negotiations and rights to televise Irish Football in the future. The current NBC contract expires after the 2015 season. Where is Notre Dame headed? Continue with NBC or go with another Channel like Fox? Collaborate with a national network to provide a total Notre Dame Sports package. Hmmmm. The way marketing is going, anything is possible. $$$$.

Is this the start of how the University is going to combat the BCS, conference realeignments, Super Conferences and protect independence?

We hope so.

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