Last Call - Notre Dame Edition

In a final look back at all the USC-ND coverage, here are some of my favorites ...

Irish Eyes Are Crying

• Weis is no better than Willingham, statistically speaking.
• Brady Quinn lost a bet and had to wear a USC jersey.
• Notre Dame's ticket prices are falling.
• TV ratings are down, too.
• It's even bad for local business (the article is a couple of weeks old, but it's not getting any better).
• Headline of the week (USC Report): Irish stewed; Duck soup next?
• Deadspin couldn't resist a crack at the Irish uniforms: "It's Oakland Athletics Appreciation Day In South Bend"
• The full game is available online from NBC.

Say, didja' hear Mark Sanchez is Mexican?

There's a certain USC quarterback from Orange County with a million-dollar smile, floppy locks and charm oozing out of his ears -- but his name isn't Matt Leinart. Nope, Mark Sanchez is the new poster boy. A lot of attention is on his heritage. I remember over a year ago, when somebody posted on a message board and asked if Sanchez could be the first Mexican American starting quarterback at USC. The author of the message was attacked for being insensitive, and the general consensus was, "Aren't we past that sort of thing?" Based on recent media attention, apparently not ...

• Scott Schmidt (Boi from Troy) came up with the headline everybody wishes they thought of first: Mark Sanchez's Mexican Grill.
• Clay DeLeon (SC Playbook) drew a comparison to Fernandomania.
• Orson Swindle (EDSBS) quipped that Sanchez's mouthpiece is NAFTA-Approved.
• Todd McShay (ESPN) has Sanchez atop his Stock Up list (no heritage reference necessary).
• Jason King (Yahoo! Sports) had the best perspective of all, telling the story of Sanchez and his dad -- a firefighter currently battling the Southland blazes.

Sanchez seems to be taking it all in stride, and even made a joke about the marching band playing "Lean Like a Cholo." Elbows up -- but tuck that ball.

Eccentrics of the Week

USC is 7th in the Harris Poll, 8th in the USA Today Poll, and ranked 22nd by the computers to come out to 12th in the BCS. The AP poll has the Trojans 9th. Some of the dissenting opinions:

• The Billingsley Report (a component of the BCS computer rankings) has USC 4th.
• Jeff Sagarin (a component of the BCS computer rankings) has USC 29th.
• Of the 65 AP voters, USC topped out in 5th place on eight ballots. With so many bunched at the top, I'll just list their geographies: Idaho, Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The eighth was Chris Fowler (ESPN is national, unless you want to call it Connecticut). The Idaho voter (Mark Prater) was the only one to have USC at #5 last week.
• Stewart Mandel (SI.com) again has USC the lowest among AP voters at #16. Closely behind (ahead?) were Scott Wolf (Los Angeles Daily News) and Austin Ward (Casper Star-Tribune), who both had the Trojans at #14.

Other Notes

• There are at least four teams in the Pac-10 that are greater than LSU.
• Something Charlie Weis and Pete Carroll have in common? An appreciation of Bruce Springsteen.
• USCTrojans.com and USCRipsIt.com were leading the school's online PR charge for athletics, but now the rest of the school is partnering with YouTube.

Putting Out An APB For ...

I know, I know. I'm stealing a category from the Forde Yard Dash. But it's for a good reason.

Has anybody seen the video of the original Trojan-Irish game played in 1926 at the Coliseum? Dan Weber of the Riverside Press-Enterprise mentioned that he saw a link on one of the Irish message boards last week, but neither of us could find it this week. Apparently both teams are wearing dark jerseys, so it's hard to make out in black-and-white, but it still must be a great watch. (If SMQB can find this 1906 clip, 1926 should be easy.)

Dan also shed some light on this photo, but more information is welcome.

Photo from last year's USC-ND game. Maybe they should quit while they're ahead. Or at least not dead. Cue Digger.

Comments

[L.A.]

What about a run-down of the great headlines from last weekend's game?

[CDT]

I used to give Mark Sanchez rides to and from football practice when he and my son played for the youth team Mission Viejo Cowboys. Mark was a very outgoing and well behaved kid. He loved to listen to golden oldie music. His hispanic heritage is a zero issue to him, his family and it should be to anyone. Simply put they are football fanatics 1st and everything else comes in 50th.