THE BOWLS DAILY REPORT : FIESTA: COLORADO vs. NOTRE DAME, Monday : 6-4-1 Irish Getting Some Respect Here

Unranked Notre Dame’s 6-4-1 record going into Monday’s game against fourth-ranked and 10-1 Colorado at Tempe, Ariz., has created new license to needle Lou Holtz and the Fighting Irish. Wrote Joseph Tybor in the Chicago Tribune, quoting an anonymous waiter: “What’s the difference between Notre Dame and Cheerios? Cheerios belongs in a bowl.”

Such high humor, not to mention the implication that Holtz and his 1994 underachievers should have stayed home, has made the Notre Dame coach a bit thin-skinned this week.

“Let me get this straight,” he said. “We are playing a team you will concede is one of the four best teams in the country, right? Will you concede they are going to be at an emotional peak? They’ve got the Heisman winner, they’ve got Bill McCartney retiring and (assistant coach) Bob Simmons leaving. We’re playing them in their section of the country. Then I would assume we’re, what, a 30- to 35-point underdog? Is that what we are? Oh, you mean to tell me, with all those things going on, we’re only a seven-point underdog? I guess somebody thinks we belong here.”

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McCartney, who will step down after 13 years as Colorado’s coach and give way to assistant Rick Neuheisel, didn’t like the intensity of his team during Wednesday’s practice, so he put the Buffaloes on an 11 p.m. curfew. Holtz, perhaps not liking the depth of his players’ culture, took them to a ballet.