Posted: Tuesday, September 29, 2009, 7:51 PM | 4 comments |
 

Clausen has his Montana moment
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He always had the stats and the hype.
He came to Notre Dame with the Southern Cal hair and the Tom Cruise swagger, delivered onto campus on Day One in a limousine that had the Golden Domers seething.
Even when he put up staggering numbers the last game last year in Hawaii and the first three games this year, he got no cred outside South Bend. Big numbers in shootout games. So what.
Forget that each ball was a laser beam and and half his incompletions were drops.
That ended in West Lafayette, Indiana last Saturday, courtesy of Purdue.
He turned into Joe Montana, circa Houston in the Cotton Bowl.
He became John Elway.
Even Tate Fourcier.
Down by four, he drove the Irish 72 yards with three minutes left without his starting halfback and all-World wideout.
He hit his Pro Bowl tight end, Kyle Rudolph, with 24 seconds left to win the game, 24-21.
He did it with an injured turf toe that had him miss large portions of the game allowing sophomore QB  Dayne Crist to do his best Coley O'Brien imitation. And Golden Tate did his best 2008 Golden Tate imitation and didn't drop any balls.
Clausen is the fourth-ranked QB in the nation in passing efficiency, ahead of all the big names.
He earned his stripes and now must wait for Matt Barkley to come to South Bend to get his due.
He may have also saved Charlie Weis' job.
I'll give Weis credit for this much. He hinted before the Hawaii game that the QB job would be open this year.
Then Clausen turned Hawaii into lava but Weis may have kept Crist from transferring, and that paid off big time.
And Robbie Paris turned into Robin Weber (google Tom Clements, Alabama, and Sugar Bowl). ...(better yet YouTube it) ...

Notre Dame is 3-1, and deserves to be in the top 25. Penn State is 3-1 and will be lucky to face the Irish in a bowl game. And Daryll Clark's Heisman is sitting next to Jevan Snead's. The only big horse standing is Colt McCoy at Texas. (As an aside, if Urban Meyer gets to watch HBO's Real Sports' segment on concussions, Tim Tebow won't be back until the Alabama game).

This week, Weis gets to coach against Washington, a bunch of players recruited by Ty Willingham, instead of coaching a bunch of players recruited by Ty Willingham. Weis gets to coach against Steve Sarkisian, who has shredded the Irish the past three years as offensive coordinator at USC.

Buckle your seat belts, and buy your ticket to the Downtown Athletic Club in December.

Jimmy Clausen put Rick Mirer in the rearview mirror. The drive was stuff of legends.

Now it's time for the rest of the country to get on board.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 
Posted by John Quinn @ 7:51 PM  Permalink | 4 comments
4
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:16 PM, 09/29/2009
    Wow ! you are really delusional, even for an abnoxious domer. It was Purdue. Clausen has yet to face a good defense so far and he still has a loss. He looks good but you are getting way ahead of yourself. I also really like the needless put down of two other college quarterbacks. Clark and Snead both have had guady numbers versus weak competition(sound familiar), the only difference between those two and Claussen at this point is that they both played horrendously when they faced a very good defense. Clausen still has not faced a good defense so the comparison falls short. Lastly, I can only laugh at your Penn State comment. Check out who Notre Dame has beat - Nevada (0-3) Michigan State (1-3) and Purdue(1-3). Yep - a grand total of 2 wins for the competition! Penn State is not that good this year (top 20) but they are still a superior team to Notre Dame. The Irish are moving in the right direction, but much like the last 6 times they were supposed to "wake up the echoes" they are not there yet.
    — danF
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:55 AM, 09/30/2009
    Wow John Quinn pass that thing on b/c that is some good stuff you got there! ND in a below average team. They played one good team so far and lost. John Quinn - yet another reason people stopped buying local newspapers.
    — spj108
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:49 AM, 09/30/2009
    Hilarious! This is high comedy. After losing to Michigan (anybody see that Indiana game last week?), squeaking past Mich. St. (needed that 33-yd TD pass with 5 minutes left, huh?), and nosing out Big Bad Purdue (owners of a close win over Toledo!) with 25 seconds left, Johnny wants to hype Clausen's "Montana Moment"? Hahahahahahaha! The "stuff of legends"? Baw-hahahahhahaahhahhahahhahaha! Too much!
    — PhillyRocco
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:11 PM, 09/30/2009
    This guy is an idiot. They will get beat by USC in October. Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Lsu, Alabama, Ole Miss, USC, and VA Tech are leap years ahead of ND. Notre Dame beating 2 Big 10 schools isn't impressive, because the Big 10 stinks.
    — Phils2Repeat


4 comments
About John Quinn
John Quinn, 57, is sports editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a third generation member of the Subway Alumni.

His grandfather used to listen to the radio and yell out to his son playing on the hardscrabble streets of Corona, Queens: “Bill Shakespeare just threw another touchdown pass!”
His father used to listen to the transistor radio and yell out to his son playing for Stony Brook on Long Island: “Joe Montana just threw another touchdown pass!”
He listens to the radio and yells out to his son watching Phineas and Ferb on a 46-inch HDTV: “Dayne Crist just threw another touchdown pass!” Meanwhile, Jack, 9, will not be a fourth generation member of the Subway Alumni.
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