They Aren’t All They Could Be, but Irish Have Had Worse Days

Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe writing on Boston College’s 30-11 upset of Notre Dame last Saturday:

“That’s two in a row now. Notre Dame hasn’t been so humiliated since those back-to-back shutouts at the hands of the Chicago Physicians & Surgeons back in ’96 (4-0) and ’99 (5-0).”

Hey, Bob, you forgot about Army routing Notre Dame, 59-0, and 48-0, in 1944 and 1945.

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Add Notre Dame: Irish Coach Lou Holtz discounted any notion that Notre Dame now has a rivalry with Boston College.

“We don’t have a rivalry with anyone except Southern Cal,” he said. “Southern Cal is the only game we look forward to in the sense that it’s a continuous rivalry.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the UCLA record for the longest run from scrimmage?

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Buddy’s coach: Jimmy Johnson, former Dallas Cowboy coach, writing in the Dallas Morning News on Buddy Ryan:

“I should have accepted his invitation to mini-camp and schooled him on the handling of quarterbacks.”

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Shark safe: Steve Woodward in USA Today: “In case you wondered, there was little threat of tragedy when Fox (television) sent analyst Johnson on a scuba-diving adventure to open Sunday’s show.

“Diluted in water, hair spray and conditioner become industrial-strength shark repellent.”

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The real genius: Woody Woodburn in the Ventura Star-Free Press: “Watching Stanford, it’s looking more and more like Joe Montana made Bill Walsh seem like a genius in San Francisco.”

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Cheapskates: Steve Rosenbloom in the Chicago Sun Times:

“More cost-cutting from NHL Ice-atollah Gary Bettman: When Detroit’s Sergei Federov recently received his Hart Trophy as MVP, the league enclosed a bill for $105 for shipping and handling.”

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Wait a minute: Kansas State is ranked No. 1 in the New York Times computer poll, whereas Florida, which is top-ranked in the Associated Press and USA Today-CNN college football polls, is rated only seventh.

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Idle thought: If the teams were scheduled to play, Florida would be a prohibitive favorite. Garbage man: Steve Schoenfeld of the Arizona Republic recalled that Don Coryell, former San Diego Charger coach, was so focused on game day that he once drove to the stadium in San Diego with trash cans sticking out of his car trunk.

“His wife asked him to put the trash in the trunk and take it down the driveway to the curb on his way to the game,” Schoenfeld writes.

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Hooray: Peter Leo in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on a benefit of the baseball strike: “The incidence of grown men spitting and grabbing their crotches on live television has gone down significantly.”

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Trivia answer: Chuck Chesire, 93 yards against Montana in 1934.

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Quotebook: Mike Monroe in the Denver Post: “Giving Oliver Miller a contract without weight clauses? You might say the (Detroit) Pistons gave him a ‘license to fill.’ ”