Nurse the Hate: Hate Notre Dame

It's easy to hate Notre Dame.  Who places themselves into four more years of Catholic education after escaping whatever nightmarish private Catholic high school they just came from?  Why would anyone willingly go to South Bend Indiana, perhaps America's most boring town?  A self important strut cannot hide the fact that they are really just a second rate Midwestern football school that hasn't been good since Joe Montana was skulking around St Mary's Girls Academy next door.  I also must confess a personal dislike for the school from a visit in my junior year of college that found me kicked out of a party because they didn't like the way I looked (which I will now admit was "poorly dressed" at best and "dodgy" at worst).  Jimmy Jazz and I did get some payback when we rigged the stereo of the dorm room we stayed at to play Ted Nugent's "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang" at a volume of roughly a F-14 at take off as we slunk out the back stairs.  I do have a vision of "Touchdown Jesus" with fall leaves crunching underfoot as I heard The Nuge rattle the windows of that dorm at 7:45 am.  That, to me, is Notre Dame.

This week Notre Dame takes on Michigan, as two schools that have been coasting on their reputations mix it up.  Notre Dame is trying to make a case that they are a legit 10-2 type team.  I have no idea if they are, so I am going to focus on the fact that Michigan definitely is not a legit top tier team.  I already am feeling some regret as I commit to Notre Dame -5, as this is a rivalry game that usually comes down to a field goal.  Still, Michigan really blows.  The question is how much of a Hollywood set is Notre Dame?  I guess we'll find out today, won't we.  Notre Dame -5.  (I already know this wager is a loser and I will hate Notre Dame even more this time tomorrow.)

Last week Tennessee failed to beat Florida for something like the 137th time in a row.  They couldn't beat Florida when they had Peyton Manning and Jamal Lewis, so why would last week have been any different?  The good news for them is that Akron is rolling into town.  I love betting against Akron football.  The Akron football team is probably a little bit worse than you think they are.  Even if you are thinking, "I bet it's a bunch of kids that got no other offers that are running around in an undisciplined fashion that may or may not have a basic understanding of how to play football", you may have oversold them.  When you see an athletic program hire on a previously disgraced son of a big name coach, you know that the school said "Well, I dunno.  What if we hire Terry Bowden?  I've heard of him!  We can probably get him cheap too!  Maybe that will turn things around..."

I think that Tennessee is looking forward to kicking the fuck out of the Zips as payback to their soul crushing loss at home vs Florida last week.  If the local newspapers really wanted to give you the straight news, they would have printed "kicking the fuck" in the preview story to this game.  Why pussyfoot around?  The headline should have been "Outmanned Zips Looking Forward to Getting The Fuck Kicked Out of Them in Knoxville".  Yes it's a shitload of points, but who cares?  Akron's not stopping anybody.  Tennessee -32.

Current Record vs Spread 2-0