The #14 Oklahoma Sooners beat #22 Notre Dame handily enough that the Fighting Irish will almost certainly be dismissed from the national college football polls tomorrow. The Sooners won decisively, and there’s no shame in that for ND. The Irish were competitive for a little while, against a good looking team in Oklahoma.
However, the loss proves that the Irish indeed, once again, were quite overrated to start the year.
Notre Dame, just like Michigan and Ohio State, are overrated almost every season. And Michigan has looked horrible so far. The Wolverines are definitely the worst 4-0 team that I can remember. So that loss for the Irish definitely hurts; and make the ND resume look bad. Now I haven’t brought up ND being overrated at all this season until now. I felt, hey, they went to the national title game last year. They deserve it.
I felt they deserved a decent ranking because they went 12-0 and earned the right to get obliterated by Alabama. Even when they kicked Everett Golson out of school at midnight on the Saturday before Memorial Day, when very few people were working (And those few in the region that were working were at a Blackhawks Stanley Cup playoff game), I felt Tomm Rees was good enough to get the Irish to 8-4.
And he still might.
Despite how awful the Sooners made him look. Rees stat line today was hot garbage. The last ND quarterback to throw three interceptions in a first half was a decade ago.
Don’t forget Tommy Rees was the best player ND had the first three weeks of the season. He had an “off day” (read: bad game, against a very good Michigan State defense) I still think he gets too much heat. Even though the Sooners defense made him look like a “top 12 ACC quarterback,” he still gets more flak than he deserves.
So while Rees is underrated, the Irish are overrated- until the polls come out tomorrow.
The Temple win was sort of impressive. Until you remember, it’s TEMPLE! Barely escaping against Purdue is alarming. You saw today that Purdue set records for putting in the worst ever performance by a Big Ten school versus a MAC squad. The Michigan game we covered, and getting back to MSU- that was a couple phantom pass interference calls from a W becoming a L. So when you add it all up, it’s not a very impressive 3-2.
So if you’re a ND hater, thank the Sooners today.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan and 1620 The Zone, he also writes for Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and Facebook