Domers react to "PSU vs. ND 2003"

First, before I get into this, I'd like to thank those over in the land of Rocknefor reading ZN. I personally love when outsiders venture into enemy territory. But when they dedicate a whole thread to it on a Notre Dame message board, I'm more thrilled than a pig in poop. Let me just run down what the Irish fans had to say:

Original Thread by "Frankie V"...

"Pretty laughable read from a PSU blog about how their 3-9 season in '03 was way better than ours....

Here's my favorite part...

"More than any other factor leading to the demise of these two teams, was the presence, or lack of leadership from the top down. The 2007 Irish had virtually no guidance from its head coach, with players defecting and speaking out against their former coaches--mainly against Weis. In its biggest game of 2007--hosting USC--Notre Dame was shutout, in what could barely be described as a college football game. Penn State, however, met defending national champs, No. 6 Ohio State at home in 2003. The Lions played the Buckeyes down to the wire, looking more like two BCS-caliber squads sparring toe-to-toe, rather than Goliath pounding David. Penn State lost by one point, after Ohio State scored a touchdown with just more than a minute left."

Yeah, Penn State was 3-9 in 2003, but it was a good 3-9 ya know?"

Then, amazingly enough, McSweeney chimed it with this nugget. I was actually caught off guard by his honesty and rationality...

"What's laughable is the fact PSU averaged a 5-7 record from 2000 through 2004

These guys are trying to make a case that not all 3-9 records are created equal. Well, technically, they're correct. ND's 3-9 came after two back-to-back BCS bowls. PSU's 3-9 record came during a stretch in which they failed to break .500 four times in five seasons.

In fact, PSU's amazing 2005 run was amazing more for the fact PSU has been anywhere from mediocre to awful for going on a decade now. Consider Weis lost three games in each of his first two seasons at ND, while 2005 is the only season since 1999 that JoePa has lost less than four games."

And there's my point. I originally wanted to add that to the original post, but never got around to it. Fortunately, Irish fans just couldn't leave this one alone, and in turn made my point for me. Notre Dame had NO excuse for going 3-9 in 2007. Charlie Weis had a pretty damn good recruiting class in 2005 (even if he only had a few months to work at it) and an awesome one in 2006. Follow that up by getting guys like Jimmy Clausen and Anthony Aldridge in 2007, and you should at least break .500. In 2003, Penn State didn't absolutely implode the way Notre Dame did in 2007. Penn State was on a steady decline since going 5-7 in 2000. The Irish played in two consecutive BCS bowls in 2005 and 2006. Penn State's decline was like setting off a stick of dynamite every day over a few years. Notre Dame's collapse was more along the lines of dropping a hydrogen bomb.

But before I end this, here's what poster "IanY77" said to Frankie V's thread...

"Does the "Zombie" in "Zombienationpsu" refer to Paterno?

I know, I know, I'm being lazy and going for the easy joke. But if they put that out there, they're just asking for the joke to be made. They opened the door, I just walked through it."

Yes, Ian, I'm sure that if you asked a random person what they thought of when they saw the name of this blog, they'd think of that. Or, it could be that you sat there for 10 minutes trying to think of something clever to say on the forum. And that brings me to my final thought on this. Isn't it interesting that the only place Notre Dame fans were willing to discuss and argue against my postwas in the friendly confines of an Irish message board? I'm now extending an official invitation to fans of all teams to visit ZN and leave their comments whenever they please. I welcome criticism, as long as it's (figuratively) to my face. Man up, Domers.