USC/Notre Dame Game Tomorrow

[skimask]

Tomorrow, one of the biggest games of this years collegiate football season will be played between the undefeated Trojans from USC and the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. What do my fellow FReepers think about this game?

[rockthecasbah]

Best game of the year and one of the best finishes of all time, anywhere, any place in NCAA football. Leinhart made a rolling twisting leap to score the go ahead winning touchdown at 3 seconds left that ripped the hearts out of 80,000 onlooking Irish fans. The lead up to this play was surreal as the Irish fans began pouring on the field as though they had won. The officials cleared the field and reset the clock with 7 seconds left. The rest is history. These two teams proved why they are the best rivalry in college football.

[GOPyouth]

I do have 2 questions about the end of this game.

1. When Leinhart fumbled the ball at the goal, the ball flew backwards at least to the 3 or 4 yard line, going out of bounds. Why was the ball re-spotted at the goal?

2. When one of the USC coaches called for a time-out after the fumble, when they did not have any, why was the team not penalized?

[A CA Guy]

Hardly anyone has caught on to how Bush won the game in the last play for USC.

Leinart in the last play was trapped straight up, back to the end zone with not where to go. Leinart was stopped and going nowhere fast.
Bush from behind Leinart pushes him over the defenders and into the end zone for the touch down!

Anyone see this, there was only one camera angle that showed Bush did this and was responsible for the last play being successful.

[A CA Guy]

#1 The ball was popped out of the hands of Leinart by the helmet of a ND defender a single yard from the line out of bounds which also stopped the clock.
Had the ND defense not popped it, Leinart might have scored.

#2 Any time out is of no issue because the clock was stopped when the helmet of ND popped the ball out off the field. That was the clock stopper and if the USC coaches ask for a time out or dinner didn't mean anything at that point.

[GOPyouth]

I understand that the ball was popped out, but that ball flew backwards before going out of bounds. Unless another angle proves me wrong, I firmly believe that ball was at least to the 3 yard line before in went out of bounds, which is where the ball should have been spotted.

As for the "time-out" issue, if a team does not have a time-out, and calls for one, they are to be penalized. The clock had not stopped at that point, which is why ND ran on the field. Yes, the clock was reset, but even if the clock had stopped, the coach cannot run out calling for a team time-out if they do not have any.

[A CA Guy]

You missed on both issues.

#1 the helmet spiking the ball happened almost directly on the sideline and was hit toward the sideline, not inbounds backwards. It left the field in the first inches after the hit, it most certainly did not travel in bounds 7 feet backwards before exiting out of bounds, so you have no issue there.

#2 Again, there was an automatic time out when it was spiked out, so there is no issue.
IMO they were just letting the refs know the ball was out of bounds and that a time out should be happening at that time...which it was.
They did want to make sure the refs didn't call the game over when it wasn't.
How do you call a time out when one is already happening? That makes no sense to me.

Both points are dead in the water.
Even ND didn't complain about that.
It was cute though that ND didn't cut the grass for over a week and wet it the night before. :-)
That is kind of dirty stuff and backfired IMO, they lost two players with bad knees from that piece of stupidity.

[A CA Guy]

With two loses, the other amazing thing will be that Notre Dame will probably still be near or in the top ten.

[MichiganCheese]

You were right, it was one of the best games of the season. It just went the wrong way for ND. They should actually move up in the polls after that loss, but we know they won't.

[D Rider]

AP - ND 9th (4-2)

USA Today - ND 12th (4-2)

You were right, they stayed the same or lost ground. But after that showing, they should have gone up. Its the first loss that is knocking the wind out of them, (if they were 5-1 after that game they would be either 3rd or 4th.

[D Rider]

As a further note, only ND could lose to Michigan St. and still be 10 points ahead of them in the polls. It's good to be ND.

[Xphantasos]

You mean this sequence, right?

[rockthecasbah]

I'm not an NCAA referee and found it difficult to breakdown the final play amidst the chaos in the final seconds. With those qualifiers, here is my college try.
1. The Fumble occurred at the one yard line, and though the ball flew out backwards out of bounds at the 3 or 4 yard line, the play was marked (by the officials) at the point of fumble.

2. I didn't know the USC coaches called for a TO. I thought they argued that the clock should have stopped when the ball went out of bounds.