Notre Dame 2007 vs. Penn State 2003

Coming off a New Year's Day bowl, losing a ton of talent and leadership, and high expectations summed up the preseason attitude of the 2003 Nittany Lions and the 2007 Fighting Irish.

Penn State had just finished up its season of redemption, earning a Capital One Bowl berth after two, very un-Penn-State-like, consecutive losing seasons. The Lions lost to an Auburn team featuring young stars like Ronnie Brown, Carnel "Cadillac" Williams and Jason Campbell, 13-9 under the Florida sun. But the spark seemed to be back in the Penn State fan base. Looking at the 2003 schedule, even the pessimists predicted nothing less than 7-5.

Then, it started. The opening win against Temple was hardly impressive, and the following week against Boston College was an utter disaster. Fans soon began to worry, as Penn State let Nebraska avenge the previous year with an 18-10 victory in Lincoln, in which the Huskers rumbled for more than 300 rushing yards. "We'll pull it together, we have to" said most, but it never happened. Penn State finished with a 3-9 record--beating hapless Kent State (5-7) and Indiana (3-9)--complete with a 41-10 whipping by a Michigan State team lead by pothead Jeff Smoker.

The offense never seemed to work when it had to, and the defense couldn't get their act together against the run. The young stars never broke out, and the veteran leaders couldn't live up to their past accomplishments. To put it plainly, Penn State was a bad team in 2003.

Now take a look at Notre Dame during 2007. Charlie Weis' boys were coming off two BCS berths. The program lost stars on both sides of the football, but most fans felt a respectable record was possible. But then, after starting 0-6, the Irish offense ranked dead last IN THE NATION and the defense didn't show up until they faced the service academies and Duke. If there's one statistic that best sums up the 2007 Notre Dame football team, it's this: 58 sacks allowed. Yes, that number is correct--the Notre Dame quarterbacks were sacked 58 times. Notre Dame crawled its way to 3-9, with its first lost to Navy in 42 years and two of those wins coming against Air Force and Duke.

But these teams weren't all that alike. Notre Dame was a virtual clinic on how not-to-block. Frequently, once the Irish fell behind, things just snowballed and got worse as the game wore on. Penn State just seemed to die a slow, painful death as the game wore on. Often opponents would get up early on the Lions--Penn State had plenty of early, and costly turnovers--but not score much the rest of the game. Of course, that had a lot to do with the fact that opponents averaged 209 rushing yards against the 2003 Lions.

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-calibur 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.*

What does this all mean? I really don't know. I was really bored today, and there's not much else to write about. I love history, and love comparing past teams to each other. This was originally supposed to be a story about how Notre Dame had no excuse for going 3-9 last season, but I didn't want to put in the effort of backing up that claim.

*On third down, Ohio State "completed" a pass which lead to the go-ahead score. The ball clearly hit the ground before skipping up into the receiver's hands. (I saw this in person from the West sideline) The refs said it was a good catch. Bullshit, Bullshit, Bullshit! To this day, it's pure--did I say this already?--Bullshit!!!