See below for game notes.
Photo credit: Mo Bannon/Breitbart Sports
20. With Alabama leading 35-14, McCarron and his center Barrett Jones shoved each other on the field after both attempted to override the other’s play call. Reporters on twitter joked that that was the hardest anyone had shoved McCarron tonight. McCarron and Jones, who has gone on relief efforts to places like Haiti during his vacations, are roommates.
19. Breitbart Sports in Miami: After A.J. McCarron found Amari Cooper for a touchdown to put Alabama up 42-7, nearly 1/3 of the stadium started filtering out.
18. Breaking: Notre Dame scores when QB Everett Golson keeps the ball on the option. 35-7, Alabama. Notre Dame accomplished what LSU could not against Alabama last year, when Alabama shut out LSU in the national title game.
17. Play-action from McCarron to Cooper. 35-0, Alabama.
16. Breitbart Sports from the Stadium:
Breitbart Sports reports: Notre Dame fams filling into the concession area to start drinking heavily… stadium silent.
The question being asked is could this smackdown actually set the program back signficantly–long time fans remeber Bob Davie riding into Phoenix to play the Fiesta bowl against Oregon State. Two years after getting blown out, Davie was gone and he now coaches perennial doormat New Mexico. Could be that type of psychological crush.
15. Breitbart Sports’ Cole Muzio’s take:
There really isn’t much that can be said here. It’s a good ole fashioned whoopin’! If Alabama won the matchup of OL v. Notre Dame Front 7, and T.J. Yeldon had a better game than Cierre Wood, AND the ball bounced Alabama’s way, there was no way Notre Dame was going to be competitive. This is like watching a youth football game where the other teams’ fans start cheering for the team getting creamed when they simply get a first down. Will Alabama top 1901 Michigan 49 point beatdown over Stanford for the all-time championship game point margin rrecord? If not, can they best the 36 point margin (second all-time) USC enjoyed over Oklahoma in their 2004 vacated victory? Those are the only questions left in this game, and the only reason to keep watching.
14. Notre Dame Needs to Rally from 28-0 or College Football Could Becoming Regionalized
By John Pudner
Five years ago in the Sugar Bowl Notre Dame held close for a half against LSU before falling 41-14.
Tonight they need to at least make the game closer than the 28-0 halftime score. College football needs Notre Dame to at least look like the belong on the same field after being outgained 309 to 124 yards including Alabama averaging almost 9 yards a play through three quick drives that made it 21-0 to open the game.
Notre Dame’s vaunted front 7 lasted for one play against Alabama’s offense. The equation for the Irish had to be the front 7 keeps the score reasonable, and then Everett Golson scambling for some yards on the ground and through the air.
Notre Dame stuffed the kickoff return, and then the front 7 stormed Alabama’s backfield on the first play and it was all Eddie Lacy could do to gain a yard.
For a moment there was hope in college football land that the sport may move away from becoming a regional sport. While football will always be the biggest college revenue sport, this is the sport whose national championship was viewed by 85% of residents in the Birmingham market and 6% in the New York market two years ago. Notre Dame gave hope this year that in a year in which the New York Giants were disappointing and the Jets were awful, sets might switch over to “that college Superbowl they play.”
However, the sell out to stop the run was seen, and on the next play AJ MCarron fired down the left sideline to Kevin Norwood for 29 yards, and the one way track meet was on.
That one pass let Notre Dame know they couldn’t stack the line, and the Alabama line started opening gaping holes.
After three drives, Alabama was averaging almost nine yards a play for 112 yards passing and 91 yards rushing and the sport took another step closer to being a heavily regionalized sport that is just an amusement the day before the NFL plays each week for most of the country.
Everett Golson has had some decent throws, trying to go left through the air on the first four offensive plays of the game before pitching right for a run. He later completed one long pass but they could not convert on fourth down. However, Alabama employed a spotter that was waiting when Golson started up the field once. Normally the Tide assigns a player to every receiver and the run, but the spotter was there to make sure Golson did not pick up yards on the ground – the Achilles Heel in the Tide’s few losses in the past four seasons.
Notre Dame can remember Cam Newton rallying from 24-0 down to beat Alabama, but even if coming back to win is not realistic, they need to come back and look like they belong on the same field for the sake of college football.
If not, the chants of “SEC” might be tempered by the fact that other regions just stop caring if they are.
13. Halftime: Alabama 28, Notre Dame 0.
Eddie Lacy scores on a touchdown pass. Notre Dame is not in Alabama’s league. Head Coach Brian Kelly seems to have conceded defeat in an interview with Heather Cox.
12. Notre Dame fans dejected in the stadium.
11. Not on par with Robert Griffin III, but A.J. McCarron also hurt his knee when Alabama played at Missouri. He seems to have re-aggravated the injury, but is coming back on the field to play in front of his mother and girlfriend, the former Auburn grad who is Miss Alabama, both of whom are in the stands.
10.
Notre Dame Needs to Rally from 21-0 or College Football Could Becoming Regionalized
By John Pudner
In a game that college football needed to be much closer, Notre Dame’s vaunted front 7 lasted for one play against Alabama’s offense. The equation for the Irish had to be the front 7 keeps the score reasonable, and then Everett Golson scambles for some yards on the ground and through the air.
Notre Dame stuffed the kickoff return, and then the front 7 stormed Alabama’s backfield on the first play and it was all Eddie Lacy could do to gain a yard.
There was hope in college football land that the sport may move away from becoming a regional sport. While football will always be the biggest college revenue sport, this is the sport whose national championship view 85% of viewers in the Birmingham market and 6% in the New York market. Notre Dame gave hope this year that in a year in which the New York Giants were disappointing and the Jets were awful, sets might switch over to “that college Superbowl they play.”
However, the sell out to stop the run was seen, and on the next play AJ MCarron fired down the left sideline to Kevin Norwood for 29 yards, and the one way track meet was on.
That one pass let Notre Dame know they couldn’t stack the line, and the Alabama line started opening gaping holes.
After three drives, Alabama was averaging almost nine yards a play for 112 yards passing and 91 yards rushing and the sport took another step closer to being a heavily regionalized sport that is just an amusement the day before the NFL plays each week for most of the country.
Everett Golson has had some decent throws, trying to go left through the air on the first four offensive plays of the game before pitching right for a run. He later completed one long pass but they could not convert on fourth down.
Notre Dame can remember Cam Newton rallying from 24-0down to beat Alabama, but even if coming back to win is not realistic, they need to come back and look like they belong on the same field for the sake of college football.
If not, the chants of “SEC” might be tempered by the fact that other regions just stop caring if they are.
9. Alabama 21, Notre Dame 0.
T.J. Yeldon splashes into the endzone for a 1-yd touchdown run. Alabama gets the ball back after Notre Dame fails to convert on its subsequent position.
8. Take by Breitbart Sports’ Cole Muzio:
So far, so lucky, so good for Alabama. Less than four minutes into the game, Alabama had proven they can run the ball on Notre Dame and was able to get a quick score. So good. Making matters worse for the Irish, the luck seems to be with Alabama as two TERRIBLE calls resulted in an incomplete pass to Eifert to force Notre Dame to punt and then a penalty instead of a fumble on that punt. Replay officials were either incompetent, uninterested, or too busy yelling “Roll Tide” to review the plays. Following those poor calls, Alabama marched for another touchdown. Could be a LONG night for the Irish.
7. Alabama again drive down the field at will against Notre Dame, capping it off with a play-action touchdown pass to tight end Michael Williams. Alabama had brought in nose tackle Jesse Williams as a fullback in the power formation, which made Notre Dame think Alabama would run the ball, selling them even more on the play-action pass.
6. A questionable call against Notre Dame.
Erratic Alabama punt returner Christian Jones appeared to fumble a punt, which was recovered by Notre Dame but was bailed out due to an interference penalty against Notre Dame.
5. Alabama 7, Notre Dame 0.
Alabama rams through the Notre Dame defense. They do not throw on first down. They gave running Eddie Lacy a break after a couple of tough runs. Notre Dame contingent seems silent after a dominant drive against one of the nation’s top run defenses.
4. Johnny Heisman (Johnny Manziel), of Texas A&M, who gave Alabama its only loss, is on the Alabama sidelines tonight. Actor Vince Vaughn on Notre Dame sideline.
3. Could Irish have a home-field advantage in Miami? There seems to be more green than red in the stadium.
2. Thousands (maybe up to 10k) from Notre Dame tailgated outside “joe robbie” with NO tickets … as game time approached, scalpers were still looking for $1k for nose-bleed seats. Corporate boxes on the 50-yard line went for $75,000.
1. Breitbart Sports reports Notre Dame fans have filled the stadium faster than Alabama fans. There is at least 5x as many Notre Dame fans currently in the stadium. They booed the Alabama’s band, the million dollar marching band.
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