Super Bowl XLVI
Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Buried on the bench a little more than a week ago, the Knicks' Jeremy Lin is now the toast of New York.
Arc: After heartbreaking loss, Tyler Zeller and No. 5 North Carolina made an impressive statement with a 70-52 win over No. 19 Virginia.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Charlie Wi holds a three-shot lead at the midway point of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and Tiger Woods sits six back.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
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Once upon a time there was a Notre Dame student who loved football. The young man learned as much as he could about the game, but he was never talented enough to play varsity.
His physical limitations never compromised his ardor for the game, though. At a time when most young men surrender their dreams, he chose to pursue a career in coaching. And then one day, to the shock of so many of his former classmates, he landed a head coaching job at a big-time school. He even knocked off a top-10 opponent.
That Notre Dame graduate’s name is Skip Holtz.
The Fighting Irish defeated San Diego State this afternoon, 21-13. And while a win is a win — as well as a marked improvement over last season — it is quite remarkable, is it not, that unranked East Carolina, coached by Holtz (class of ’86), had a far easier time dismantling No. 8 West Virginia, 24-3, than the Irish did the Aztecs.
Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis is, like Holtz, a Notre Dame alum (’78) who this year begins his fourth season on the job at his current school. Weis never played football for the Fighting Irish and Holtz only did so because his father was the coach. Skip played one season for the Irish, as Dr. Lou put his oldest son in on a few special teams plays in 1986. That practice ended when a 15-yard personal foul call against Holtz versus USC nearly cost the Irish a victory. And that was Skip’s final collegiate play.
It is quite curious how the Pirates have now beaten a trio of top 25 teams in their last three games (No. 24 Boise State, No. 17 Virginia Tech and No. 8 West Virginia) while today the Irish needed a timely fumble and a come-from-behind effort to beat an Aztec team that only seven days earlier had lost at home to Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. The question may be unfair but I will pose it anyway: Is the best former Notre Dame intramural-level student-athlete in the collegiate coaching ranks coaching the Fighting Irish?
Sure, the Irish have also won three in a row and Weis has also knocked off a top-10 opponent (No. 3 Michigan, in his second game in 2005). Still, this afternoon in South Bend, in front of 80,795 fans chanting the latest in-style Irish cheer, “Crank me up!” the Irish were almost crank-yankers.
Notre Dame trailed 13-7 early in the fourth quarter when San Diego State tailback Brandon Sullivan burst through a hole on the right side on a first-and-goal from the 4 yard line. A little more than a yard away from paydirt, Sullivan was hit low by Irish safety Kyle McCarthy (“I just lowered my shoulder and did what I’ve been taught to do,” said the Irish-American Fighting Irish). Sullivan rolled over on to his back, on top of McCarthy, and as he did the ball squirted loose. The ball landed in the end zone where Notre Dame safety David Bruton recovered it.
This stadium has not seen a fumble that timely since Miami’s Cleveland Gary laid the ball down a yard shy of the goal line 20 years ago. On that day, Miami was No. 1 and the Irish No. 2. Today was a contest between two unranked teams, the visitor being the lone Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) school last weekend, out of 30 FBS schools, to have lost to a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) school. The Irish, then, by the time the fourth quarter arrived today, were not just battling San Diego State. Three-touchdown favorites heading into the game, they found themselves in a death tussle with the future of the Weis era here in South Bend had they lost today.
It took a while for the light bulb to go on, but when it did, Jonas Gray finally showed the talent many had expected from the blue-chip prospect from Detroit. In a recent interview, Gray, who is rehabbing an ACL injury to get ready for the NFL Scouting Combine, expressed the confidence and support he has for head coach Brian Kelly.
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 | Starting off right Paula Faris and John Walters with the highlights of Notre Dame's first win of the season 21-13 over San Diego State. |
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 | Notre Dame 2011 schedule See when all the big matchups will take place with Notre Dame's 2011 schedule. NBCSports.com |
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 | Tate wins Clausen's trust Alex Flanagan talks with Notre Dame wide receiver Golden Tate about gaining respect as a team and gaining trust. |
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 | Perfect protection Alex Flanagan talks with Notre Dame's Sam Young on keeping Jimmy Clausen's jersey clean with a good game. |
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The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
