It's Saturday and Notre Dame is coming to the Rose Bowl to play our Bruins.  Could there be any less hype??  Talk about anti-climactic, this game should be a headliner and it's barely recording a blip locally.  Given the highlight status last year's game in South Bend got for some over-rated over-hyped QB and his coach, and given the storied history of Notre Dame AND the Rose Bowl combined, this game should be front page news everywhere.  And yet, it won't be shown in maybe 85% of the country. 

Morgan Center has been pimping this game since last Spring, forcing those interested in seeing the game to buy multi-game packages or season tickets just to get decent seats.  And it worked.  We have record season ticket sales.  The PR about the game early in the season was that it was sold out … then suddenly there were a few tickets remaining, just a few so get them quickly.  Then even this week, somehow, Morgan Center found a few thousand more.  Too late, so many tickets have been hitting the ticket brokers that asking prices were sinking below stub price.  All over the internets you see "Notre Dame tix for sale (4)."   This game has become somewhat meaningless for both teams and their fans, and the media and sports fans at large.

Obviously Notre Dame's season is long since shot.  At 0-5 they are playing next year's preseason right now.  Which is a good way to look at it.  Without the burden of expectations, Weiss can play his freshman and sophomores, his true recruits, instead of the horrible barren senior class Willingham left him with, and the junior class they somewhat share responsibility for.  Notre Dame bloggers mentioned on The Bruin Show earlier this week that somewhere near 11 freshman get significant playing time.  They figure next year this team will be decent.  And the following year they will have so many 3 year starters, plus some good recruiting classes behind them, that making this year the preseason for it all will be viewed as genius, not the disaster that it currently is.

As for UCLA, the faithful have lost their interest in Dorrell and the vibe you see on the boards is one of uneasy inevitability.  There is no faith in Dorrell and we all know we haven't yet played the tough teams.  All the promise of this once-in-a-decade season was buried in Utah, along with the fraud of the Karl Dorrell era.  All that remains is the disappointing but expected truth - this team's destiny is largely determined already by the incompetence of its coach.  And we are just waiting to see the train wreck as it happens.

But not today. Today, our Bruins will dominate one of the worst teams in the history of Notre Dame, the worst team perhaps in the country.  We get them at the Rose Bowl where even Karl Dorrell has a hard time losing.  That's saying a lot.  There is no Irish luck or Touchdown Jesus to save the Domers in Pasadena.  It will be exactly what everyone thinks it will be, a blow out.  21 point favorites and chances are good we will cover.  The prediction we gave on The Bruin Show was UCLA 28 Notre Dame 17.  We will modify that a bit … UCLA 28 Notre Dame 10.  We didn't pick UCLA to cover but it won't be close.  Be prepared for all the hyperbole after the game … forget Pac-10 titles, there will be talk of a national championship.  And Dorrell's press conference should be a thriller.  Still, enjoy the game … and the win.  Go Bruins!!!

Gameday Notes

• Steve Lavin visits SuC football practice.  Steve Lavin needs some help with his image.  When he uninvited his wedding guests via email with some contrived excuse he got plenty ripped in the press and the internets.  Now he decides to hang out with SuC's football team.  WTF?!?  From the Press Enterprise UCLA blog: "Former UCLA basketball coach Steve Lavin, now an ESPN basketball analyst, watched USC football practice from the sidelines Wednesday. 'The Marin (County) constituency is here,' USC's Pete Carroll kidded of the two suburban San Francisco natives. 'I was thinking about asking him to turn around and not to watch,' Carroll said with a smile, 'then I realized he might not be on too close terms with UCLA anyway.'"  Carroll, The Comedian.  But he speaks the truth here. Lavin is such a tool.
• Brian Dohn highlights Dorrell's notorious letdowns.  As we have mentioned many times, Vegas oddsmakers and bettors have been burned by Dorrell so many times it's odd that we are favored by 3 touchdowns today. Brian Dohn lays it out: "Dorrell's record is 33-22, but half of those losses came when UCLA was favored, and the 44-6 loss at Utah is not an isolated incident … The common theme in many of those losses was that they followed a strong effort, and the Bruins are coming off a 40-14 win at Oregon State."
• Leno on UCLA-Notre Dame. Jay Leno turned his sarcastic wit on Notre Dame, and kept UCLA out of his sights for a change.  From Bruinzone poster UCLA 78: "And, the UCLA Football team is OFF this week…they're playing Notre Dame." There was a huge burst of laughter, and then Jay had a little give-and-take with a small group of recent ND graduates: "[You guys just made it out of there] under the wire. The Fighting Ir-more like the Fighting French. What's going on with, uh, what's happening with your team???!!!"
• Brian Dohn jokes about Dorrell's WCO. From Brian Dohn's blog Q&A: "'Have you ever talked to Coach Dorrell or Coach Norvell about the WCO? Do you know why they think they can be successful with the WCO?'  I have spoken to both of them at length about it, and many times. In a nutshell, they like the west coast offense because, in their minds, if it is run correctly, it is unstoppable. (Feel free to insert a joke of your own here)."  That's just crazy.

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